Chapter 10 – Sinking Boat
Logan pulled up to the Pi Sigma Sigma house at ten minutes to seven, relieved to finally be doing something to help Veronica. He'd considered calling her to get more information, but had ultimately decided that he didn't want to upset her if it amounted to nothing. He grabbed the bottles of Corona out of the trunk and made his way to the front door.
Logan had barely gotten over the threshold when Dick grabbed him and pulled him aside.
"Dude, I said to come before seven so we could go over the plan. The girls are already here so we gotta make this quick," Dick told him.
Logan glared at him. "Man, get yourself a watch. It is before seven. Wow, you're really fired up."
"Yeah, man! Fired up for some sleuthing! You're late." Dick rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
Logan gave his friend a sideways glance. "Okay. Well, I'm here now, so tell me the plan," Logan said, gearing himself up for an interesting evening.
"I thought you had the plan." Dick looked perplexed.
"No, Dick, you called me, man. I have no idea what's going on. I was supposed to come before seven bearing beer and looking hot…done and done." Logan swept his hand down his chest dramatically, showcasing his hotness.
"Dude, what is going on? How did you show up without a plan? We're supposed to be Starsky and Hutch. I'm Hutch, of course." Dick smiled, clearly amused with his own analogy.
"Does that make Veronica or Mac Huggy Bear?" Logan snarked, trying to follow along.
"Snoop Dog is Huggy Bear, why are you trying to confuse me? Who the fuck cares about that? You're Starsky, and Starsky always has the great plan."
"Dick," Logan said testily, "What are you talking about…who is here?"
"The girl from the party. The last person Ronnie remembers from Halloween night. I got her to come over. Her name's Claire and I told her you were interested. So you gotta flirt with her and figure out if she can remember anything about Ronnie from that night."
"I don't want to flirt with anyone else." Logan sighed dejectedly and scuffed his foot along the floor.
"Finally. Finally, man." Dick slapped him on the back. "You made a move, didn't you? Well, what happened?"
Not feeling ready to talk about the status of his and Veronica relationship, Logan merely shook his head and tried to bring Dick back on topic. "So Claire, right? Veronica asked you to do this? What do you know about that night?"
"No, dude, Mac asked. I only know that Ronnie wants to know who this chick is and so I got her here. That's why I thought you'd come early and brief me on the plan."
"I don't know how many times I can tell you this. I have no idea what plan you're talking about. You called me!" Logan took a deep breath and counted to five. "Ya know what? Whatever…we'll play it by ear." Logan set down the beer and tried to think on his feet. What the hell am I supposed to do? I knew that I should have called Veronica instead of doing this on my own.
By 11:00 p.m. Logan was exasperated. He had spent the entire evening flirting with a girl that he had absolutely zero interest in. Logan, Dick, Claire and her friend Hallie had gone through all of the beer, two pizzas and the entirety of The Princess Bride, and Logan still hadn't gotten any useful information out of Claire. Unless he counted knowing she liked his cologne, which Logan didn't.
The night was coming to a close, and despite bringing up Halloween and the Kappa party twice, nothing of value had come to light. Claire seemed genuinely nice. To make matters worse, Dick kept giving Logan 'the look' which he interpreted as "get in there and figure it out!"
"I'm trying!" Logan mouthed over Claire's head at his friend. Starsky and Hutch made detective work look so much easier.
Logan, hoping Claire didn't expect to end the evening's flirtation with a goodnight kiss, pulled her aside as they were gathering up their things, grasping for an idea on how to get information out of her.
"So, Claire, I had fun tonight," he began, sighing and running a hand through his hair.
"Me too," she replied flirtatiously, leaning in and reaching for him. Logan bent away from her to feign a coughing fit. Claire abruptly grabbed at his pants pocket and pulled out his phone. "I'm going to program my number in so you can call me later. Maybe we can get coffee or dinner sometime."
"Oh yeah, for sure," Logan smiled, trying to sound interested while hiding his relief. Claire was really sweet, but leading her on was part of the game. She gave him a brilliantly coy smile and turned her attention to his phone. But when Claire opened up his phone, her features immediately twisted into a deep frown. She shot him an annoyed glare.
"Who's that?" Claire asked, flashing him his phone where there was a picture of himself and Veronica on the background. "I should have known you were too nice to be single. There always is a catch with the cute ones," Claire hissed.
"Huh?" Logan couldn't see past the fact that he was, in fact, using her. His mind was racing as he tried to figure out what on his phone had given him away.
"You have a girlfriend," she shot at him, holding up the picture of him and Veronica on his phone's wallpaper.
Technically, one kiss does not a girlfriend make, Logan. Say what you need to say to see this thing through. "Oh, her? She's not my girlfriend," Logan decided to steer away from semantics. "She's my best friend, Veronica. We grew up together; I've known her since we were like twelve or something." Dude, shut up. You're rambling.
"Oh! Sorry. I've met some real assholes at Hearst. You seemed…different, but I've been mislead before." Claire shook her head, obviously embarrassed. "Well good, because I didn't want to have to be the one to have to tell you that she's dating another guy."
Logan's eyes shot away from his phone and up to Claire's face. "Wait! You know her? She's not dating anyone." Yet.
"Well, I guess I don't know if they were dating or not, but she totally hooked up with Kurt at the Kappa Halloween Party. They must have gone together," Claire said matter-of-factly.
"Who is Kurt? And why do you think they were there together?" Logan asked leaning forward.
"Because they were dressed alike," she said, looking at Logan like he was an imbecile.
Confused, he asked, "Are you sure we're talking about the same person?"
Claire looked back down at the picture on Logan's phone. "Yeah, that's her. You know, they were Batman and Catwoman? She was totally out of it drunk or something. She was waiting with me for the bathroom but she left and went upstairs with that football player Kurt."
Now the tides had turned and Logan had to suppress the urge to kiss Claire. He looked over to where Dick was standing with Claire's friend and shot him an incredulous look. Dick motioned as if to say 'you got it?' and Logan nodded.
Before either of them could help it, Dick leapt closer to him, a huge grin on his face, and slapped his hand in high five. They both laughed until they realized that the girls were staring at them with an identical look of confusion.
"Sorry about that, Dick's…uh…just excited…we've… been trying to set our friend up with Kurt for months," Logan lied lamely as he turned to usher the ladies through the door and out to their car. By the time Logan said goodbye to the Claire and Hallie and made it back to the house, his moment of elation had been replaced by sadness when he realized how morose it all was. He'd just put a name to Batman. He could tell that Dick noticed his change in attitude.
"So what did you find out, man? I can't believe we did it."
"We, huh?" Logan smirked, but decided that Dick had found Claire in the first place. "Claire saw Veronica on my phone and said she saw her at the party. Apparently Veronica was pretty out of it and some guy named Kurt took her upstairs."
"Whoa, what? So I guess this is a bit more complicated than just a case of a tainted drink?" Dick's asked.
Logan nodded, unable to look his friend in the eye.
Dick was uncharacteristically silent for a moment. "Someone took her upstairs? She doesn't remember who?" The ferocity of Dick's voice made Logan look up at him.
"No, she doesn't. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you, but you pretty much figured it out on your own. Just don't tell anyone."
"Shit, dude. Is she okay? Are you okay? That's what's been going on? How are you so calm? If it was Mac I'd be ready to kill someone. Hell, someone would probably already be dead."
"I'm trying to hold it together for her. And the guy who did this has been lucky so far. Up until now, I didn't know who he was. If it's Kurt, I'm going to seriously fuck him up."
"I'll hold him down for you, Dude."
"Thanks, Dick. I wouldn't have it any other way. Now we need another plan, which is clearly not our strong suit," Logan huffed.
"I say let's call Mac in the morning. She can do all that voodoo crap on her computer," Dick offered.
"Good call. But let's call Mac right now—see if she can figure out where this Kurt guy lives. Maybe, we can get to the bottom of this without involving Veronica."
Just before nine the next morning, Logan and Dick pulled up to the house that Kurt rented off campus. As they approached Kurt's front door, they were again without a plan. It hadn't taken Mac long to find Kurt's full name and address, but by the time she got back to them it was nearly midnight, so the guys decided to wait until the morning to pay Kurt a visit. Mac told them that Batman came from money and that he lived alone. Both Logan and Dick were optimistic.
"So what are we going to do, Man? Just barge in there and go all Ivan Drago on his ass? I'm not saying I'm not in, I just wanna know what I'm getting into," Dick asked, cracking his knuckles as they moved up the walk.
"Something like that I guess. I'm pretty ready to just let loose," Logan said, cracking his knuckles also before taking a deep breath and stepping up to Kurt's door.
"Yeah, I'm not letting him shut the door on us, so get ready. Look tough." Dick was bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Always," Logan replied, bouncing with pumping adrenaline.
Logan could hear movement in the house, so he knew that someone was home. With a nod toward Dick, Logan knocked loudly on the door, gearing himself up for the confrontation. He heard footsteps approaching and felt his hands curl into a fist. When the door opened Logan was surprised to see a woman on the other side.
"Hi. We're looking for Kurt Fenstermacher," Logan said, his eyes looking past her in the darkened hallway.
"Kurt isn't here."
"Will he be back soon? We can wait," Dick piped in.
"He's out of town. I'm just here to feed the cat. He should be back tomorrow, though. Can I help you with something?" she asked.
Logan managed to come up with a cover quickly. "Um, yeah, we met him at the Kappa Halloween Party a few weeks ago and he mentioned he might want to, uh…go surfing with us sometime. We decided to drop by on our way out today."
"You sure you've got the right guy? I don't remember you from the party; I was there with him. And Kurt doesn't do much surfing," she replied warily, starting to retreat back into the house.
"Oh, huh. Well we're sorry to bother you…uh..?" Logan inquired.
"Trish."
"Trish." Logan felt confused and slowly walked away from the door. Suddenly he rotated back and was again facing Trish. "Kurt was in the Batman costume, right?"
"Yeah, that was him. I'll let him know you came by," she said while closing the door.
Dick and Logan turned and left without giving their names. Neither of them spoke a word until they'd climbed back into Logan's Range Rover and had driven a few blocks away.
"So Batman, aka Kurt, has a girlfriend who was at the party with him. From the sound of it she stayed close to him the whole night. Somehow, I don't feel like he's our guy," Logan mused aloud.
"Didn't seem like it, did it?" Dick responded. "Good thing we didn't get to punch him out then, I guess."
"Maybe we should regroup with Veronica and let her decide what to do next. She won't be happy that we did this much without her anyway. We might as well go face the music and see if she has any better ideas," Logan said, not excited about facing the wrath of Mars when he admitted to her that he'd gone to Kurt's house without telling her.
"Logan, what do you want? It's late," Lilly grouchily yawned into the phone.
"Are you serious? Who are you? It's only like ten there."
"Yeah, well, ever since this thing with Veronica, I've been partying less. And there isn't much to do when you don't party, except to study. And studying makes me fall asleep early," Lilly moaned. She wanted to sleep and he was confusing her. "Why am I explaining this to you? What do you want?"
"Veronica is pissed at me."
"So, it's just your average day! What did you do this time?" Lilly rolled her eyes and settled herself in for a long explanation.
"I tried to help her. Dick tracked some girl down that V remembers from that night, and I spent all of last night getting information out of her. So we figure out that the guy Veronica was flirting with at the party is—"
"Batman? You know who Batman is?" Lilly perked up a little.
"Well, I thought I did. So Dick and I went over there to talk to him—"
"Kick his ass?" Lilly clarified.
"Well, right! But his girlfriend answered and now I'm not convinced he's the right guy. But V is all pissed off at me for going behind her back. Like I would let her go knock on this guy's door? He could be a damn rapist. Does she think I'd ever let her do that?"
"Why do I bother dispensing advice at all? You don't listen to me. I said to let her feel like she was in control...to let her take the lead. This isn't letting her take the lead Logan; you are just taking more choices away from her." Lilly leaned back against her bed and huffed in frustration.
"Of course you'd take her side. You'd just have me traipsing off to a rapist's house with the victim in tow just to appease V. Why not just hand her to him for a second go round?" Logan sounded livid.
Lilly sat back up and closed her eyes tightly at the thought of this 'Batman' getting to Veronica again. "I didn't say that." She exhaled harshly. "I said to keep her in the loop. If you had called her at any point during this process, she wouldn't feel like you were babying her. She doesn't actually have to be in control, bonehead. You know how she is."
"Yeah, I do. I'm wondering if you do. She's different now, Lil. She's…different," he repeated lamely.
Lilly looked at the time and sighed. "Listen, I gotta go. I have a test tomorrow, and for once I'm prepared, so I don't want to screw it up. Just talk to her, Logan. Say you're sorry. We both owe her that."
"Okay, I'll try if she answers the phone. I'm at her house and she's not home. I'll keep looking. Thanks," she heard Logan say before she hung up her phone and fell onto her pillow, exhausted.
Ten minutes later, just as she was falling back asleep, Lilly's phone rang again. She answered it without looking at the caller ID.
"Seriously? Just say you're sorry!" she begged into the phone.
"Um…sorry?" A familiar female voice said hesitantly from the other end.
"Veronica Mars! Why am I not surprised?" Lilly threw her arm over her eyes.
"You won't believe what your jackass of an ex did to me!"
"I love how when you're mad at him, he's my ex and when you're mooning over him, he's your best friend," Lilly giggled.
Veronica's only reply was a grunted 'hmpf'.
Willing to play along, Lilly just sighed, "Lemme guess. He did something overbearing and jackassy?"
"Yes!" Veronica huffed, "I asked Mac to figure out who the last girl was that I remember talking to at the party. It's a long story, but basically, I had her ask Dick to dig a little, purposely bypassing Logan. I knew that if he got involved, he would go all fight club on the guy. Of course, no one listens to me, and all of a sudden, Logan's with Dick messing everything up. How do I have no say in this?"
"He was just trying to help, V," Lilly yawned into the phone.
"How does Logan think he's helping by not letting me be a part of anything? I would know this guy."
"What?" Lilly squealed, suddenly interested. "You told me you don't remember anything. Did you tell Logan that you remember the guy?"
"I don't actually remember him but I know I would if I saw him," Veronica conceded. "I feel like I would, anyways." Her tone hardened and she sounded furious when she demanded, "How could they approach him without me?"
"Wake up! He went because he cares about you. Holy shit, I feel like your guys' relationship referee and you two aren't even together. Heaven help us if this ever actually goes anywhere," Lilly said, throwing her pillow at the wall in exasperation.
"Well, we did talk about us a little bit. Before all this happened, I mean."
Lilly popped up to sitting with a gasp of shock. "Are you serious?"
"And I might have kissed him. Briefly."
"Wait, what? Did you two hook up?" Lilly exclaimed. "He didn't tell me, the dirty dog. Is that why I am receiving so many late-night phone calls? Now we're getting somewhere!" Lilly couldn't contain her excitement.
"I should have known he would call you. Next time I'll get to you first. In my hurry to escape him and get to Mac's, he beat me to you. It won't happen again," Veronica sighed.
"So, spill already, Veronica Mars! Wow, I still can't believe he didn't tell me," Lilly screeched.
"No, nothing happened. Nothing much anyways. It was nice." Lilly heard Veronica hesitate.
"And then?" Lilly prompted.
"Well, the kissing happened a few nights ago. Right after I told him about Halloween. I had a mini meltdown the next morning, so that kinda ruined the mood. And then later I was complaining that no one wanted me and he said he did. I told him I dressed up for him on Halloween. And we kissed a little after that little confession. I think now he's afraid that I'll break if he makes another move. This is exactly why I didn't want him to know. He's probably already thinking I'm broken and that I'm too fragile to do anything on my own…and in the process, he's going to get himself killed in the name of vengeance. As if I don't feel shitty enough as it is."
"Logan can handle himself. He won't get killed, he's too stubborn. Don't let him walk all over you, though. I know he can be a little domineering. Trust me, I know! Give him some time to think about it and he will come around. Now, can we please end this counseling session and so that I can get back to sleep?"
"Sleep? Lilly, it's like barely ten-thirty there," Veronica's voice was full of skepticism.
"You and Logan really do belong together. It's like I'm having the same conversation twice. I have a test tomorrow and I actually studied. I don't want to be up all night playing yenta for you two. You can figure it out tomorrow. And remember, make up sex with Logan was always the best kind. You'll see."
"I don't think I will be having sex of any kind again for a while, Lilly. I need to get to the bottom of this. I feel like I need to in order to be…normal."
"Don't give yourself too much credit. Neither of you were ever normal. Luckily, you both love me, so you must have some sense. I am hanging up now. Love you!" Lilly told her. Despite her words she waited for Veronica to respond.
"G'night, Lilly. I love you, too," Veronica said and then hung up.
When Veronica arrived at Mac's dorm room later that evening, she found her friend waiting in the hallway, sitting on the floor beside her door looking annoyed.
"Ya know, I figured out the knocking thing. You could have waited in your room," Veronica snarked, reaching a hand out to help Mac up. "You ready for the movie, amiga? I know you love your boyfriend, but he and Logan went all Cagney and Lacey on me and took matters into their own hands and I'm pissed. Let's have some fun and get my mind off it."
"The tickets are in the room and the room is currently…ocupado…if you get my drift," Mac said, pointing over her shoulder and rolling her eyes.
"Well…frak. Gimme your key," Veronica said, holding her hand out expectantly. She took the key from Mac and unlocked the door. Shutting the door quietly behind her, Veronica slowly made her way across the room to the mirror where she could see the tickets stuck in the frame. Hastily, she removed them, trying hard to ignore the heavy breathing coming from Parker's bed.
"Don't mind me," Veronica whispered on her way back to the door. She ventured a glance over to Parker's bed. In the darkness she couldn't see much of anything, but she abruptly felt uncomfortable. Discomfort turned to panic and she hurried to the door, not caring anymore about how much noise she made.
It's just the smell of sex, Veronica. Everyone in college is having it except you. Well, not willingly at least.
Veronica's heart sank at the thought that her fears might stand in the way of her having normal a relationship with a guy, let alone with Logan. A fear of crowds she understood, but Parker getting it on shouldn't have had such a deep effect on her. She carefully pushed her unease aside and jumped out of the room and into the hallway.
"Got them!" Veronica said breathlessly, knowing she was flushed and probably looked uncomfortable.
"You okay?" Mac said, obviously trying to lighten her friend's mood.
"Yeah, you were right though. If college is a boy buffet, she's got two full plates and a purse full of boys wrapped in napkins," Veronica said, trying to laugh it off.
Three hours later, Mac and Veronica made their way back to Mac's dorm room after their night out.
"I think I'm too wired to sleep," Veronica said as Mac dug her key out of her purse. "We shouldn't have stopped by Java the Hut for a recharge."
"No one forced you to drink that second latte, my friend."
"I know, but they were so good. Now I'm too tired to stay up but too wired to sleep. It's kind of a lethal combination for me."
"You and everyone else, which is why I paced myself." Mac gave Veronica a playful shove toward the dorm room she shared with Parker. Dubiously, she commented, "She can't possibly still be going at it right?"
"Parker? No way! Even she has to come up for air sometime," Veronica hoped. She really didn't want to go home alone tonight, but Veronica had no interest in being stuck in a room with Mac's randy roommate. "Hopefully she hasn't just started in on round two."
"Well, it's late and you're staying here rather than go home to an empty house. I know your dad is working late," Mac said, ducking into her room. She turned back after a thorough scan. "And it appears that we are dude free, so the couch is all yours."
Veronica threw Mac a grateful look as she accepted the blanket and pillow that her friend handed her. "Thanks, Mac. I had fun," she told her as she settled onto the couch, tucking herself in.
It was light in the room when Veronica awoke to the sound of screaming. Instantly worried that it was she who was screaming due to another nightmare, Veronica sat straight up and looked around in alarm.
Across the room in her bed, Parker was sitting up, looking back at Veronica with a look of utter terror on her face. Veronica swung her gaze over to Mac, who was sitting up in her bed as well, gaping at her roommate with her mouth open.
Slowly, Veronica looked back to Parker. Her face, normally adorned with an animated smile and bordered with a curtain of golden locks, was streaked with tears. More alarming was that both her smile and hair were missing.
There were only three words that Veronica could process coming from the Parker's shrieking.
"I was raped!"
A/N: And we are officially half way through this story! I can't believe it! So much has happened and yet there is so much left to go. Thank you so much to you for sticking with me. As a brand new writer, it took me a few chapters to gain some confidence, and at least now I feel like I've gotten you to the point where I found my writing voice! I hope you continue to enjoy it!
Of course the real heroes of this piece are my extravaganzalorious betas LVFangirl and kmd0107. Thank you!