A/N Like always not my sandbox just playing in it building things up and tearing things down. I do not have a beta so any mistakes are my own. Thank you to Bindie on telling me my mistake, I dont know a lot of Spanish so THank You :)
The Quick and the Wed
23 weeks
As he has his morning coffee, he asks her again if she is sure that she saw explosives.
"Honey, are you absolutely sure what you saw in that hangar were explosives?"
"And detonators. Pretty sure. They were marked "C-4." Maybe Terrence has a legitimate use for them."
"Trout fishing?" he tries to joke.
Logan sits with Dick, Cassidy, Eli, Felix and Thumper in his suite.
They are taking a break from games when Dick changes the channel and accidentally turns on Tinseltown Diaries, doing a feature on Aaron. The show that Ronnie demanded that all of them make sure was not put on at all that night.
A litany of what Aaron was .. such as choir boy, mega-star, adulterer and murderer ...precedes the question, "Who is the real Aaron Echolls?" On screen, Aaron denies murder.
Felix grabs the controller out of Dick's hand and turns the game back on.
"Just so you know, I am so telling." they all hear Cassidy say quietly to Dick as Logan leaves the room.
Each of them have some slight enjoyment seeing Dick pale.
On screen, Aaron doubts the existence of the sex tapes, which cannot be produced, and claims that it is Duncan, with a history of violence and now wanted for kidnapping, who killed Lilly.
Holding a tray of coffees, she wishes to have the remote so she could turn the show off.
"Um, Veronica, are those our drinks?" Jane asks coming up to her.
"Yeah and you would like me to serve them instead of watching them get cold." she jokes bring the tray over to the table.
"So what are you doing tonight?" she asks as she places the drinks on the table.
"My sister Heidi's bachelorette party." Jane says pointing at the girl, who is doing a raunchy karaoke performance.
"Your sister is so lucky. The Manns are, like the oldest money in Neptune." one of the friends says.
She just smiles as Heidi joins the table.
"You know, next time hold the mic in your right hand. I think you might have blinded the audience with you rock." the same friend says grabbing Heidi's hand.
"Wow. Somebody parked a diamond Volkswagen on your finger." she says shocked by the size of the ring. "You know, we don't get a lot of bachelorette parties in here."
"This is just the first stop of the no-holds-barred bacchanalia." Heidi says with a grin.
"It's a bachelorette scavenger hunt." Jane says as she shows her the list.
"One: sing slutty song publicly. Two: talk a man out of his underwear." she says taking the list out of Jane's hand
"Done and done." Heidi says showing off a pair of boxers.
She just shakes her head and leaves them to their fun.
Keith watches behind a barricade as a bomb squad vehicle drives out of the hangar.
He notices a truck from Magic Touch, a detailing company, approach the hangar and be waved off.
"Hey, party-girl." she says as Jane comes up to her at her locker.
"I need your help." Jane says.
"What's up?" she asks.
Eli comes up beside her and takes her books out of her hands.
"My sister, she's kinda missing." Jane tells her.
She sits on a bench at one of the tables, leaning against Eli while she talks to Jane and Wallace.
"Here's the thing: my sister's great, but she's..." Jane starts.
"She's kind of a dingbat sometimes." Wallace states, earning him a glare from Jane. "What? The last time we all went to the beach, Heidi almost drowned herself trying to swim with the dolphins."
"Okay what happened?" she says trying not to laugh.
"Her friends dropped her off at her apartment early this morning. She missed a dress fitting this morning. The wedding is in three days."
"I'll see if my dad can help out." she says taking out her phone.
She calls her dad and he agrees to run Heidi's phone, credit card, and ATM activity.
"Sorry about Terrence." she says before she hangs up.
Eli pulls her into a hug. She moves in to kiss him softly but when she sees him frown she looks over her shoulder to see Logan and Hannah sitting intimately on one of the lunch tables.
"So you want me to come over after school?" Logan asks Hannah.
"The words out of your mouth are "come over," but all I hear you saying is "Let's have sex." Hannah jokes.
"Excuse me? All I heard you say is "Let's have sex." Logan says with a smile.
"Logan." Ronnie says as she and Weevil appear in front of him.
"Ronnie. Paco." he says with a grin.
Ronnie just crosses her arms under her boobs and glares at him.
"Hey, Logan's girlfriend that Logan has forgotten to introduce." Ronnie snarks turning toward Hannah.
"Ummmm." he says suddenly scared.
Hannah just laughs and smiles at Ronnie. "Hi, very scary best friend of my boyfriend that he hasn't introduced."
"Mama, I think you are scaring Opie." Weevil says with a grin as he wraps his arms around her.
She just smiles. "Bye, you two." she says as the two of them walk off.
He watches after her.
"I like her. She still makes me feel like I should be scared but I like her." Hannah says as she kisses his cheek and walks off.
She talks with the three friends that were with Heidi and Jane last night.
They describe Heidi as being impetuous, having once tattooed the name of Nick, a previous boyfriend, on her ass. Which she had to have removed before she would let Paul sleep with her.
They laugh that Paul thinks he's found the last good girl.
She asks if anything unusual happened the previous night.
One says she lost her cell phone. Heidi reported a guy who she thought was following her around and had him thrown out of one venue. None of the girls saw him but Heidi had a novelty camera and a lot of pictures were taken.
Need to find that camera.
Jane lets her into Heidi's apartment.
Jane lets her know that the place wasn't ransacked, its always that messy.
They don't find the camera.
She, Thumper and Wallace look around the parking lot.
Heidi made three maximum cash withdrawals at three different ATMs in an hour.
"Is it possible that someone forced her to do it?" Wallace asks.
"Let's not freak out until there's something concrete to freak out about."
"You mean like finding her car abandoned in the middle of nowhere?" Wallace says pointing out Heidi's car.
"Yeah, like that."
Knowing that the Sheriff department won't do anything, she has Thumper break into the car.
They find the camera.
Keith approaches the man who he saw approaching the hangar earlier.
He explains that he is working for Terrence and asks about his visit.
The detailer goes every month and uses the locker where the explosives were found.
He never saw them there.
He confirms that Terrence expected him there that day.
She has had the photos from the camera developed, without the novelty penis border.
"I had the printer forgo the penis. They can be so distracting." she jokes giving the photos to Jane.
"I don't know how helpful I'm gonna be; I didn't really get a good look at the guy. It was dark and loud and there were condom balloons hitting my head." she says as she looks through them.
"Seems your sister got two calls. Both were short, which means she had to take the calls. The first of the withdrawals were about twenty minutes later." she tells her.
Jane finds a photo of the man's torso.
She notes that he is wearing a bowling shirt.
Logan and Hannah are watching Easy Rider.
"What's wrong, you?" Hannah asks.
"What? Nothing." he says shaking his head.
"You lie. Easy Rider. Your choice, not mine. I should be the one sulking." Hannah says flirting and getting closer to him.
Hannah mother appears and ask to speak to her.
Logan attempts to be charming, mistakenly calls her Mrs. Griffith, and she sourly informs him that she goes by Ms. Denenberg.
He asks if he can use her computer to check some fantasy scores while they are in the kitchen, and she points him in the direction of the den.
Once there, he drafts an email to Dr. Griffith, from Hannah's mom saying that she found condoms in Hannah's room and that they have to talk.
He overhears Hannah and her mother fighting about him and walks into the kitchen to stall the fight.
She shows the picture of the bowling-shirted torso to an attendant and is directed to the One-Eyed Ducks, a team comprised of four players, only one of whom could be the man in the photo, Vinnie Van Lowe.
"Yes! What did I tell you? What did I tell you?" Vinnie exclaims, happy until he sees her and Eli.
The three of them move over to the bar.
He offers to buy them a drink.
"Vinnie, focus. What can you tell me about..." she starts showing him a photo of Heidi.
"Nothing." Vinnie says automatically.
"Of course, your Pavlovian response. Her name was Heidi Kuhne."
"Doesn't ring a bell."
"Let me jog your memory: you were thrown out of the Happy Horseshoe the other night for stalking her."
"If I had a dime for every time I was thrown out of H squared for stalking..." Vinnie snarks.
"What was it? A little prenup background check?"
"Well if you already know."
"She's missing."
"Are you suggesting I kidnapped her? 'Cause, I believe that's your racket."
"Who hired you? The fiancee? The parents?"
He claims P.I.-client privilege and returns to his bowling team.
Logan leaves the house.
"You heard what my mom said, didn't you?" Hannah asks chasing after him.
"Yeah, I got the gist." he says.
"Just ignore her. She's bitter about the divorce. She thinks all men are evil."
"Well, maybe she's right."
"What, about men?"
"About me."
"Yeah right. If she was right about you, I doubt that Weevil Navarro would let you within a mile of his girlfriend. I doubt that Veronica would be friends with you for as long as she has been. If my mom was right, you wouldn't be trying to leave."
He just looks at her and smiles with a soft laugh.
"Let's get out of here, go to your place." Hannah says grabbing his hand and leading him to his car.
"Well, I know the words coming out of your mouth are "go to your place," but all I hear is "Let's have sex.'"
Hannah smiles at him.
An FBLA meeting is in session.
Hannah passes the open door and blows Logan a kiss.
He glances over and see that Ronnie saw.
She just smirks at him and waves a finger at him.
"If you read this morning's paper, then you probably already know that tracking polls indicate there's fifty-seven percent support for Neptune's incorporation. Question: what's that gonna do to us here?" Mr. pope asks.
"Ah, an actual police department." Cassidy says.
"Mm-hmm." Mr. Pope mumbles.
"Private beaches." Dick says.
"The rich get richer." she snarks.
As she leaves the class, she gets a call.
Seems Heidi has used her cell twice to call Paul Mann.
She calls Heidi's number. She gets a fax tone.
Jane again meets her to let her into the apartment.
"Does Heidi have a fax?" she asks.
"Yeah." Jane says moving things around to reveal one.
She realizes that the first call the night she disappeared was a fax and that Heidi switched the line over when she heard the tone. The second call was the fax, and the line has been on fax ever since.
She uses the memory function to print off the last fax.
It's a flyer with tour dates for the band XLR8, with a note that reads: "Babe, I need to see you. Nick."
"That's Heidi's ex's band." Jane says.
She and Eli approach a club bouncer, who directs them to the band's tour bus.
They finds Heidi with Nick on the bus.
"My family hired you to find me?" Heidi says amused.
"Jane did."
"You're pregnant."
"I know. I blame him." she says pointing at Eli, who just smirks.
"It doesn't matter. The wedding is off. Seems Paul ran off to his old flame anyway. According to Kim's text."
"Kim lost her phone. That text was from a P.I. named Vinnie Van Lowe." she tells her.
Nick admits that he didn't send any fax but that he was so pleased to see Heidi that he didn't deny it when she came in response.
Heidi looks confused.
She just smirks.
Paul Mann and a reverend wait inside a pagoda.
Jane, another girl and two older couples are standing in a semi-circle in front of the pagoda.
Everyone looks around uncomfortably as the reverend mentions he has another wedding.
Heidi runs to the pagoda in her wedding gown, ready to get married.
She follows to watch.
"Where have you been?" Paul asks.
"Oh, we have a whole lifetime for stories. Let's do this thing. Lay it on me, Preacher Man." Heidi says with a smile.
"No, I...I demand to know what you've been up to." Paul states.
"I didn't ask you what you were doing for your bachelor party. And after finding whipped cream in your underwear, I think I was entitled." Heidi says.
"You were entitled, you. The one who sexed up every wannabe rock star in southern California? You know, if I wanted to marry Tawny Kitaen, I would have got a nipple pierced." Paul says aggravated.
"How could you say that to me? Like I would ever sex up a drummer. Lead singers, yes, maybe the occasional guitar player." Heidi snarks.
She tries to cover her laugh.
"How do you expect me to love someone like you?" Paul asks coldly.
"Are you breaking it off?" Heidi asks shocked.
Paul says yes before his father can stop him.
"I guess that means I get to keep this?" Heidi says showing off the ring. "Since you were the one to end things. If you had manned up and come to me saying you wanted to end things I would have given this heirloom back but now I keep it as payment for the two years of trying to prove that I was worthy of you."
With that, Heidi takes Jane's arm and leaves.
Kendall is there trying to get money out of Logan, who isn't biting.
There is a knock on the door of the suite. Kendall asks to freshen up while he gets the door.
Logan opens the door to Dr. Griffith, "You've won." he says barging into the suite.
Kendall exits, leaving Griffith in no doubt as to her past relationship with Logan.
Griffith is disgusted as Kendall leaves the suite. Logan just smirks.
"You know one of these days that smirk is going to be wiped off your face."
"I don't think I will be taking a lecture from a coke-snorting liar about karma."
Griffith agrees that karma has caught up with him and that the evidence will go away.
"What about the Fitzpatricks?" he asks.
"I'll worry about them. You stay away from Hannah. We have a deal."
He just barely nods and Griffith exits.
She is finishing a shift at the Java Hut when Vinnie shows up.
"If it isn't the puppet master." she snarks.
"Hey, what a man does in the privacy of his own home, office, and, or car, is his business. You know, you cost me a five grand bonus." Vinnie says.
"You were gonna buy a new jacket?" she jokes.
"And give up the cheap women? Not likely."
"Give it." she says holding out her hand.
"What?"
"Kim's cellphone. I called you, left a threatening message." she says not moving her hand.
"You didn't get it from me." he says placing the phone in her hand.
"Exactly how many times have you had to say that in your life? You know what's really disturbing about you? Other than everything? You're a halfway decent private investigator." she says slightly serious.
"Stop, you're embarrassing me." he says.
"You can embarrass the shameless?"
Vinnie leaves with a grin.
She walks over to where Jane is sitting with Wallace and asks her to pass the phone to Kim.
Jane shows her a picture on her own phone of Heidi and Nick, back together after Heidi hocked the ring.
She's walking out to her car, Eli has his arm over her shoulder.
"Ronnie..." Logan says coming up to them, visible upset. "I think I did something horrible."