Looking around, Veronica could tell that Logan had trained his people well. His security team had already set up a makeshift headquarters outside and it looked like they were pulling up security footage on laptops normally only used by military personnel. Front desk and concierge staff all had iPads and were moving from one group of stunned guests to another, recording down if everyone had made it out safely and answering any questions, including fulfilling guests' requests to be booked into other hotels. The maintenance, housekeeping, and kitchen staffs were all gathered and performing head-counts - once again using iPads which Veronica assumed had pulled up staff assignments.

"I don't even know if I have seen a sting op better organized than this." Veronica commented.

"My head of security is a former Seals Team Six. He keeps us on our toes," Logan nonchalantly replied. Without a problem, he walked past a man built like a tank and into the area that security had cordoned off. Veronica, who was following directly behind him, was stopped when the man stepped in front of her.

"I'm sorry, you can't go back there Ma'am."

Veronica gave a little smirk, "I'm with him." She pointed at Logan and took a small step forward thinking that would get her through. When the guy didn't budge, Veronica's smirk turned into a frown. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small wallet.

"Look, I hate flashing this thing," Veronica flipped the wallet open, revealing her FBI badge.

This time it was the security guard scoffing. "You could be the President of the United States and I wouldn't let you through until I got a verbal or written say so from my boss."

Logan was already by a computer and pointing out which video camera feeds he wanted to see, but there was no disguising the chuckle he was having at Veronica's expense.

"Yeah, very funny. Logan, can you help me out here?" Veronica called out.

At first, Logan pretended to not hear Veronica's request, forcing her to wait. Finally he smirked, "Let her through, Jackson. She's with me."

Jackson didn't move for a moment and eyed Veronica skeptically, "You're pretty small for an agent."

Before Veronica had a chance to answer, Logan had grabbed her elbow and was pulling her into the security area. As he did so he called back to Jackson, "You want to be careful around Veronica. Her bite is way worse than her bark."

Veronica rolled her eyes as he led her back to the main computer. "What happened to you wanting my help?"

"I never said I wanted it," Logan pointed out. "I'm only allowing it since I know I can't stop you. Besides, what can I say? Even in the face of disaster I find amusement in people trying to put you in your place," Logan shrugged off her comment.

"Well, I'm glad you find the humor in this, considering that it's your hotel that is burning down," Veronica muttered.

Logan stopped in front of the computer and looked down at her, "Do you want to watch this tape or do you want to banter back and forth on how I always manage to fuck things up?"

Veronica opened her mouth to protest but quickly changed her mind. "Just roll the tape."

Logan was reaching to press the play on the computer's touch screen when Jackson interrupted him, "Boss, the Sheriff's here."

Logan stood up and his eyes rolled toward the sky as he uttered a silent expletive. "Let him through," he finally said through gritted teeth.

Veronica turned toward Jackson to see who, other than herself, could possibly elicit such a reaction from Logan. Her mouth fell open when she saw the brown clad form of Vinnie Van Lowe coming toward her. His hair was grayer than she remembered and he had developed a bit of a belly paunch, but overall he still looked like a royal tool he always was.

"They re-elected him?" she exclaimed in horror. She had remained ignorant of the ins and outs of Neptune politics when Keith had stopped talking about them years before, citing it raised his blood pressure.

"Last Sheriff, Dan Lamb, was busted with a sixteen year old hooker in a prostitution sting and Vinnie got Jake's support in the special election. Turns out having a spike in crime the first time you're sheriff still beats a masters in forensics when the person with the masters may have stolen and sold the Aaron Echolls/Lily Kane sex tape." Logan said quietly. Veronica immediately realized that Logan was talking about Leo De'Amato and Veronica frowned at the thought of Vinnie beating Leo in an election.

"Lilly would be loving that her death is still determining Neptune politics more than a decade later," Logan muttered before turning to one of his security officers to issue some last minute instructions before the sheriff took over. This left Veronica alone to greet her former P.I. frienemy.

Vinnie stopped in front of Veronica and took a second too look her up and down. He then used his fists to rub his eyes as if something had flown in them. He finally brought his hands down and exclaimed unconvincingly, "I can't believe my eyes. Has little Ronnie Mars returned to Neptune?"

Veronica pasted on a fake smile and replied, "Hello, Vinnie. I see you traded your Members-Only jacket for something more...polyestery."

A frown quickly flashed across Vinnie's face before he gave Veronica a smile just as fake as hers. "Technically you should be addressing me as Sheriff Van Lowe," he said.

"Oh, well if we're going by titles, you can call me Agent Mars, FBI." Veronica paused for dramatic effect before adding snarkily, "Do you wanna see my badge?"

Vinnie's smiled disappeared for a second as he thought about what she had said before it broke out again and he started to laugh. "You're funny..." Vinnie chuckled, pointing at her.

Veronica wasn't sure if Vinnie was joking around, but she played along as if he was. "You know me, I'm a funny girl," Veronica exclaimed, following it with a fake laugh. This got Vinnie to utter a bigger fake laugh. After about 20 seconds of going along with the exaggerated laughing Veronica let out a deep sigh and settled her face into a serious look. Gradually Vinnie's laughter faded until he was just looking at Veronica uncomfortably.

Before the situation could get weirder, Logan came over and stood next to Veronica, "Well Sheriff Van Lowe, imagine seeing you here. What can I do you for?" he asked as if nothing was wrong.

Vinnie looked away from Veronica and directly at Logan, "We heard that you were having problems at the hotel."

"You mean this?" Logan said, pointing at the fire raging behind him. "Would you believe me if I told you we were just remodeling?" Logan waited only beat before responding to his own question, "Of course you wouldn't. Well Sheriff, the truth is that there was an explosion in Duncan Kane's suite. My security team is preparing a copy of the security footage for your investigation, and once the fire department has done their job and it's safe to go in- you and your merry band of deputies can investigate to your heart's content – I'm guessing that'll take all of about 5 minutes."

The Sheriff squinted at Logan. "How do you know it was an explosion? Were you close to it when it happened?"

Logan turned toward Veronica. "Would you say we were near the blast?" he asked, trying to sound earnest although his annoyance to the question was clear. They were both covered in sweat and soot and their clothes were torn in various places. The trail of blood that Logan had pointed out earlier to Veronica had begun to dry. It would be difficult to believe that they hadn't been near the blast.

"Pretty Close." Veronica said in a very unassuming way. "Maybe this far?" she added holding her hands out like she was talking about the size of something she caught fishing.

"Why don't we just watch the video and see," Logan said, and before anyone could protest he pushed the play button on the touch screen.

The computer screen was split in half, with one half showing feed from the camera that was facing the elevator and the other half showing feed from the camera that faced the door to Duncan's suite. Logan's security guy had the video cued for the 24 hours before the explosion but had the footage run at 16x speed. Hotel guests and housekeeping ran up and down the halls and in and out of rooms. At one point, a man tripped, spilling the contents of a coffee cup all over the ground - almost as if it was the tape speed that caused him to fall and not bad luck. Someone from housekeeping quickly came and wiped up that mess. At the 6:30pm mark, Logan's man slowed down the tape to 2x speed. Duncan was seen getting off the elevator, carrying a bag of carry-out and headed toward his suite. 15 minutes later, a teenage girl who Veronica assumed to be Duncan's daughter emerged from the elevator and went toward the Kane suite. Veronica heard Logan take a deep breath which confirmed her suspicion. She disappeared into the suite for only 5 minutes of the tape before she emerged again, carrying a duffle bag. Duncan said goodbye to her at the door, giving her a kiss on the top of the forehead before he disappeared again behind the suite's doors. No one appeared on the tape again until 7:02 pm, when the elevator doors opened to reveal Logan and Veronica's face off. The security man slowed down the tape so it was going at real-time speed.

"He's still in the room," Logan said under his breath.

At that moment, Veronica felt all the adrenaline that had been pumping through her body since the first explosion leave her. She didn't need to see the rest of the tape. Veronica turned around and took a few steps back so she wasn't surrounded by so many people and she began to take deep breaths. After a minute, she finally had to say to herself, "This is just another crime scene." With that, she took one last deep breath, stood up straight, and returned to the group.

"The second explosion must have knocked out the video feed, there's nothing but static after that point," she overheard the security guy say. She glanced at Logan and saw his eyes emptily focused on the computer screen. Everyone was quiet for a moment until Vinnie cleared his throat.

"I'm going to need a copy of that tape as soon as it's available. And, ummm, I'm going to need to cuff you two and bring you in," Vinnie said. He motioned with his head to his deputies to restrain Logan and Veronica.

Before they could protest, the officers had pulled their arms behind their backs and started cuffing Veronica and Logan. "Seriously Vinnie. You're arresting a Federal officer and the owner of the hotel on the basis of circumstantial evidence at best! The Federal DA is going to have a field day with this," Veronica huffed. Though vocal over her displeasure, she didn't physically try to resist arrest.

Like Veronica, Logan complied with the deputies who were placing the cuffs on his hands, but his body had gone rigid and his eyes looked like they could kill. "Call my lawyer," Logan instructed his employees before the Sheriff and his deputies led them away.

Veronica could feel the eyes of everyone on them as she and Logan were escorted to the waiting police cars, but she continued to look straight ahead. It wasn't until they got to the car and the officer was tilting Veronica's head so she could sit down in the back seat without bumping her head on the door frame that she met anybody's eyes. To her surprise that person was Weevil. He was the only one standing beyond the police tape who kept their entire focus on the cop cars and not alternating between the drama with the cops and the burning building. As the officer closed the door, Veronica saw Weevil pull the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and melt away into the crowd. Veronica quickly turned to look over her shoulder at Logan in the car behind hers. Logan's eyes were shut and he was facing straight ahead; it was very unlikely that he had seen Weevil in the crowd. Veronica settled back into the seat and made a note to herself to ask Wallace where she could find her favorite former PCHer.


Author's Note - You may have noticed some crude language (as my mother calls it) in this chapter. While I have limited my use of it, I have left some in the story (here and in some future chapters) because it fits the tone of the story. I am still keeping the rating at T. I figure if the movie can use these words sparingly and have a PG-13 rating, I can keep this story at a T rating.

Also thank you to everyone who has followed and submitted reviews since my last update. I try to personally answer all comments and reviews. If you have any questions you want to ask me, please feel free to leave them in the review section or PM me. I will try to answer without giving the story away. But I am reading and LOVING all your reviews.

Next update will be Thursday. Have a great week.