A/N: I am slacking on my PM thank yous to those who have reviewed. Thank you, however, because with your comments comes the knowledge that people are waiting waiting waiting! Special thanks to Bondoloupos, without whom I would have writing disasters speckled through out the chapters.

Enjoy!

The only sign something was amiss at the apartment complex was one lone police cruiser parked out front. The vehicle's lights were not on and there were no gawking spectators or crime scene tape.

Dick parked the car haphazardly behind the cruiser and both he and Mac jumped out. He quickly came around to join her on the sidewalk before they both jogged over to and then up the stairs toward her apartment. The door stood wide open and as they rushed in they saw right away that Jake and Muldoon were talking in agitated undertones with Lamb while the other officer stood vigil near the door.

"What's going on here?" Mac asked loudly, interrupting the conversation. "What are you doing in my apartment?"

Lamb swung around to face both Mac and Dick. His expression was not schooled enough to hide his irritation at seeing them in the doorway. "We, ah, got a call about a suspicious noise coming from this apartment, and, ah, well, it seems that…"

Jake Kane stepped near them, his eyes fixed on Dick. "Is this your apartment?"

"What's it to you?" Dick asked gruffly.

Ignoring Dick's question, Mac gave Jake a reproving glance and said, "Yeah, I thought I just said so."

Jake nodded distractedly, his stare still fixed on Dick. "Seems I've seen a lot of you tonight, Richard."

Ignoring Jake's comment, Dick pressed, "What are you doing in my girlfriend's apartment?" His tone suggested that he already knew the answer. "You know, this is Veronica Mars' apartment as well. Drop by for a night cap, sir?"

Jake's stare turned cold. He was silent for a beat and then he smiled slowly. "No, uh, no…Sheriff Lamb and I were together when he got the call."

"Together?" Mac echoed. "Together how?"

Lamb held up a hand. "We don't need to go into those specifics. The point is, this man here," he said, gesturing to Muldoon, "broke into this apartment." Mac noted how Lamb wouldn't look directly at Aidan. "He attacked one of my men," Lamb gestured at the other officer, "We have charged him with assault. It's up to you if you want to press charges for breaking and entering. Unless," Lamb's voice turned a little hopeful, "you will admit that he was given permission to enter by either you or…Ms. Mars."

"You chicken shit."

The muttered expletive shot out of Muldoon's mouth. Everyone turned to look at him. After a moment of silence Mac said, "Excuse me?"

Muldoon didn't answer her; instead he glared at Lamb and then turned his withering look to Jake. "You chicken shit. How can you protect him and not me? This code we live by seems to have strings attached. I have just as much money as he does! Just as much money!"

Lamb turned to the officer and ordered, "Get him out of here. He's drunk and talking nonsense."

"No!" Muldoon yelled when the officer grabbed him by the arm. "You shoot me, and then you expect me to take the fall for this bullshit?!" He pushed away, wincing in obvious pain from the wound at his shoulder. His steps were uneven as he fought against the officer. He leered at Lamb. "And you! What kind of protection are you? You can't even take a simple order and follow through with it! What the fuck is going to happen to me?" The last question was said in slight desperation.

Mac watched Lamb closely for a reaction of Lamb. The sheriff took a step forward, leaned into Muldoon's face and sneered. "You're talking straight gibberish."

"Gibberish my ass!" yelled Muldoon, wincing at his own force. "You sniveling coward. You don't have any idea what hellfire you are about to unleash. How can you sit there and pretend that you aren't part of this?"

"Boy, you'd better shut your mouth." Lamb warned stiffly. His lips barely moved. "You need to just simmer down."

The feel of Dick's fingers skimming Mac's hand caused her to look at him questioningly. He motioned for her to look at Muldoon. When she followed Dick's gaze, she saw that Muldoon's eyes were fixated on both of them. Her heart stopped for a moment when she realized that Muldoon's mouth was opening and closing. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head. Slowly, Muldoon said, "I don't know you." Muldoon had suddenly realized that he didn't recognize her. Mac met his eyes head-on. She couldn't help but shudder when he connected that it had not been she with Veronica in his room earlier that night. He licked his lips. "Ah, hell."

Dick pulled Mac into him. Melting into Dick's chest, she smiled feebly at Muldoon. "Hi, Archie."

Muldoon shook his head and chuckled. "I don't believe this." Then he met Dick's stare. "And you. The spitting-fucking-image of your slime-ball father. How do you do?" Muldoon spat out. "You certainly are no worse for the wear."

Dick pulled his arm off of Mac's shoulder to place his hands on his chest. He patted himself comically, looking at Muldoon with a faux-surprise as he did so. "Who, me?" With that, he then twisted his casted arm in front of him, his look turning hard. "Was this compliments of you?" He asked sarcastically. "I've so been waiting to thank you for it. It really has helped with the lady." He put his arm around Mac once again. "She really felt sorry for me." He leaned close into Muldoon and whispered, "So thanks." Muldoon's expression changed from one of shock look to rage as Dick pulled away from him. Muldoon jerked his head forward to head-butt Dick but he missed. Dick clucked. "Nice try, dude. As usual, one step behind."

The deputy pulled at Muldoon's restraints and began leading him out of the apartment. Muldoon was difficult, firmly planting his feet on the ground and grinding them down into the carpet to keep himself from being led out. "Kane you are a sniveling coward!" he yelled loudly. "Don't expect me to keep quiet forever!"

An unfamiliar voice came from outside, "We'll take it from here, thanks."

Mac and Dick looked at each other and then turned to look at the doorway. Agent Sanders, Deidre's partner, stood in front of the deputy and Muldoon, holding out his badge. "Go ahead and take him down to your station, and book him. But no one is allowed to see him. Do you understand?" The agent ordered. The deputy stuttered his understanding and led Muldoon away. Sanders pushed past them and entered the apartment.

Lamb puffed his chest out. "Now what is this all about? This is a Balboa County investigation." He put his thumbs in his belt loops and rolled back onto his heels, staring hard at Agent Sanders. "Who are you?"

"Agent Christopher Sanders, FBI." The agent answered while he pulled his badge out again to let Lamb inspect it carefully. "And this is not a Balboa County Investigation any longer. We have closely been monitoring Mr. Muldoon's actions for a while now, and the FBI is asking, no telling, you to hand over all information that you have on this break-in and then walk away."

Lamb's cackle of laughter was like nails scraping down a chalkboard. "You're gonna have to show me more than just a badge, sir."

Sanders didn't acknowledge Lamb's response. He ignored the sheriff and turned his attention to Kane He cleared his throat. "Mr. Jake Kane?"

Jake's pallor had turned even whiter during the exchange. His skin had an almost bluish tint to it now. "Yes?" His voice came out in a whisper, his terror obvious by the look in his eyes.

"I need you to come with me. We have some questions for you about the nature of your relationship with Mr. Aidan Muldoon."

"I swear that I hadn't meet him until tonight."

"That may be true, sir, but we still need you to take a formal statement."

"Do I need a lawyer?"

The agent paused. "If you believe you need a lawyer, it is within your rights to call one. I am not charging you at this moment in time, however. Keep that in mind."

"Now look here," Lamb blustered, "What in the world do you need with Jake Kane?"

"Sheriff," Agent Sanders told him, "Please don't question how I do my job. Jake Kane is not your concern. "

"But…but I came…I came with…with Sheriff Lamb…I was just out with La…Lamb…" Jake spluttered. "I know nothing about whatever is going on here…"

"Mr. Kane," Agent Sanders interrupted. "Don't make this more difficult on yourself. You might just want to keep your mouth shut at present. "

Lamb raised his hand in protest and stepped toward the FBI agent as if he thought he could stop him. "Now you just wait a moment. Whatever your reasons might be, I can assure you speaking with Jake Kane is unnecessary."

"And I can assure you that you are mistaken, Sheriff Lamb," Agent Sanders enunciated deliberately, not giving an inch. "You might want to keep your opinions to yourself."

Lamb pursed his lips in displeasure and scowled.

Deidre stuffed Clinton into the back of the car and then pulled out her cell phone to call her superior for back up. Keith was crouched down petting the dog whom they had seemed to have just named Ammo. The look on Keith's face showed classic attachment. Veronica really hoped that no one would suddenly appear and claim the dog. Ammo already felt like of part of the Mars family already.

Veronica leaned against the wall of the building and checked her own phone. She had a long list of messages from Mac. She read the last of about twelve:

If you don't answer, too damn bad—Lamb's at the apartment. We're headed there.

"Deidre!" Veronica called out pulling away from the building. "Where is your partner? The local brass just showed up at the apartment, so Mac and Dick are on their way over." She checked the time stamp of the text. "Scratch that. They are probably already there."

Deidre nodded, putting her phone in her back pocket. "I just received a text from Sanders. He just went it. He says he was going to wait it out until he saw your friends barge into your apartment. They're all there." She opened the front passenger door. "Want to go for a ride?"

Lamb could only watch while Jake was led out of the apartment by Sanders. Mac tried to read what he was thinking, but this Lamb was different than his brother Don had been; Dan Lamb looked angry pretty much all of the time. His expression wasn't giving her a clue as to what he was feeling at all.

Jake looked back helplessyly one last time and held the sheriff's eye for a moment longer than necessary. Mac saw a barely perceivable nod of Dan Lamb's head. It was clearly a message of some type.

When the door closed she asked Lamb, "Can you tell me who made the call saying there was a break-in? We certainly didn't do it."

Lamb took a moment to answer. He stared at the closed door, blinked and then turned back to look at the two of them. "Uh…no, it was uh…the neighbor upstairs. He heard a yell or something. Some noises abnormal for the area. I need to go to take his statement." He waved a hand at Mac. "I would appreciate it if you would go through your things and see if there is anything missing."

"You can count on that." Dick answered for her. "What makes you think Jake Kane didn't have anything to do with this?"

"You heard him," Lamb replied.

"Yeah, but, I guess I'm asking you, aren't I?" Dick said coldly. The two men stared at each other. The tension was thick. Dick blinked and stood up straighter. "Sheriff, can I ask you about an incident that occurred last week, where my vehicle was misplaced by your men?"

Lamb's expression soured. "Excuse me?"

"Rumor has it that you purposely had your deputies take my Land Rover downtown where it got stripped and, let's say, 'redistributed' to parts unknown."

Lamb folded his arms and scowled. "I know nothing about that. But I will tell you this, if I did know, it would seem that I might have protected your reputation that night. Nothing happens without a reason, you know." He unfolded his arms and started toward the door. "Congratulations on your new facility, Mr. Casablancas. I always have had a soft spot for those who support abused kids. I can admit that Neptune needs a safe-place for scared kids to go. I wish there would have been somewhere safe when my brother, sister and I were younger." With that, Lamb opened the door and stomped out.

Deidre parked next to a squad car and the three of them exited, leaving Clinton cuffed in the back seat with Ammo next to him. Clinton begged weakly to not be left alone with the canine, but no one listened to his whining.

The three of them jogged together toward the complex. When Veronica saw Lamb come stomping out of her apartment door and start up the stairs to the next level she pulled at Deidre's arm to slow her down. The sheriff hadn't noticed their approach.

From ground level, they watched Lamb bang on an apartment door before being let in by a middle-aged man that Veronica knew as Grumpy Mike. The man hated any kind of disturbance, so seeing she was sure that Mike was the one who had called the cops. If Mike thought something was amiss, he would be the first to call law enforcement into the situation.

They took the steps two at a time and arrived at her apartment door almost as soon as Lamb entered Mike's apartment. Veronica opened the door to find Mac and Dick standing in the living room. The two of them were discussing something in low tones but turned to see Veronica motion her dad and Deidre into the apartment.

"Just saw Lamb." Veronica stated. "Heading up to talk to Grumpy Mike."

Mac nodded. "Yeah, apparently someone called because they heard Jake and Muldoon in here. It must have been Mike that called."

"Where are Muldoon and Kane now?" Veronica asked with interest. "What's Lamb doing?"

"Agent Sanders sent Muldoon into custody with a deputy and then the agent took Jake somewhere," Mac answered at the same time that Deidre said, "Sanders is taking Jake to where we took you this evening."

"He thinks he's being questioned. He doesn't know yet that he's gonna get thrown in the slammer," Dick added. "Jake tried to pass it off like he was with Lamb the whole time like Lamb got the call and Jake just happened to be with him. Lamb's gonna go down with the ship."

"No, I don't think so," Mac disagreed quietly. "Lamb never affirmed that claim. He didn't deny it either though, but you know Lamb. He has his ways."

Veronica quit listening to their discussion. She walked to through the hallway and straight into her room. She shut the door behind her, leaning against the cool wood of the door. Opening her eyes, she took in the room, seeing it the way Jake would have seen it not even an hour before.

Before they had left with Deidre, Veronica had deviously staged her room knowing that it would be Jake who entered it. She had pulled out pictures from years ago and pinned them to her corkboard, and found the necklace that Lily had given her. She had staged the room appear almost shrine-like to the time in her life that would bother Jake the most.

She stepped to her computer. "Logan?" Veronica asked loudly. As she suspected, he was gone.

As mad as she was at Logan for going behind her back and having Dick keep him on the Skype call, Veronica was more upset that she hadn't known about it. She always needed to know how a situation was going to play out. It was the lack of control that made her the most upset.

She clicked a few buttons and tried to reconnect the Skype call. Not surprisingly, no one was on the other end to accept the call. Logan was always the one to Skype call her, never the other way around. She gave up. They would talk when they could.

THE NEXT DAY

Things were not going well for the Castle. The list had been exposed to the higher-ups in the FBI. Muldoon had been charged with forgery, fraud and multiple counts of sexual assault. That was just the beginning. Kane had been speechless when Agents Sanders and Krause-D'Amato presented irrefutable proof showing that he had willingly broken into Veronica's apartment and helped to plant false evidence. They had more than enough evidence to detain him and put him away for quite a while. Jake had immediately called his lawyer, and he was attempting to fight the charges against him.

Agent Clinton was in the most trouble. He had gone against the institution that he had vowed to be loyal to. It seemed that the first vow he had ever taken, to protect the members of the Castle, was the one he took most seriously. He had yet to talk. He was being detained in a holding cell next to Muldoon at the Balboa County Jailhouse.

Lamb sat in his office pissed off. He was unable to do anything but wait out the storm and see if he survived the investigation. As far as Veronica knew, the FBI didn't have much on Lamb, but she held hope that maybe she was wrong.

It was mid-morning now and Veronica sat at her desk, typing up a report for the Sinclairs. Mars Investigations was still working on the case that Mrs. Sinclair originally hired them for. Earlier that morning, her dad had caught a lead and left straight away for Las Vegas so that Veronica could take a much needed break in the investigation. She had promised to herself to only work that morning at the office and then head home to sleep the afternoon away. The evening was reserved for a hot date with a certain sailor.

She and Logan had yet to talk to each other. He didn't know about the dog, he didn't know about her hands, he didn't know anything. It wasn't for lack of trying to get a hold of each other; the Navy and their procedures made it nearly impossible for them to coordinate schedules most of time. It was nothing new. Veronica was frustrated about it but was also relieved she had a little more time to decide what exactly she was going to tell him.

Logan didn't really need to know about the confrontation on the sidewalk outside the Mars Investigations office. She hadn't been all that hurt; he would never see scars or evidence of it. But Ammo…she looked over to where the dog lay on a pad that Keith had immediately gone out and purchased that morning. The dog slept on his back with his legs straight up in the air. He looked right at home.

Logan would love the dog, but he would want to know the story as to how Ammo had come to be. The two of them had discussed getting a dog before Logan's deployment and she had decided against it. Logan would definitely want to know what had changed her mind.

The shrill ring of the phone on her desk interrupted Veronica's thoughts.. Absently, she picked the receiver up.

"Mars Investigations."

"Hi, honey," Keith's tired voice cut through the line. "Found her. Safe enough and sound."

"Safe…enough?" Veronica asked with caution. "What does that mean?"

Keith sighed. "It means that Madison…well, it's a long story, but the gist is that she has been working at a strip club as a pole dancer in Vegas. Her quote-unquote boss was a little reluctant to let her go, since she just started and he wants to recoup the money that he's shelled out to have an…" Keith cleared his throat, "Uh...older dancer on the scene. Apparently she tried to get hired on at a more notable establishment on the Strip, but…well…she's working the Cougar Town tour that goes around the seedier parts of town…"

"Madison's too old? She's…a cougar, huh?" Veronica felt the quiver of laughter bubbling up her throat. "I thought our term was Puma."

"Puma?" Keith's voice became disgusted. "Never mind. I really don't care to know. Please refrain from all talk of any type of cat/woman reference. I'm all about the clueless portion of fatherhood."

"Moving on. Have you actually seen her?"

"She's with me now. She was very glad to hear that everything seems to have settled down." There was a muffling of voices and then Keith was back. "Yeah, Madison was just crashing at an old motel and had one bag with her, so we're already on the road. We'll be there by late afternoon."

"I am so glad to hear that, Dad. I'm writing the report up now. Will you take her directly to the Sinclair's house or what?"

"That's the plan."

The day was over and as Veronica let herself into her apartment she was aware that this was the first of many days that there was no case to work on. She would be able to relax the whole rest of the night.

Ammo clicked in behind her. She reached down to absently ruffle the top of his head and then shut the door. It was quiet in here tonight. She set her bag on the kitchen table and then grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and took a long gulp.

Logan would Skype her in less than ten minutes. Her nerves were shot just thinking about how she was going to explain away the previous night. It was possible that they might end up in a huge argument. As usual.

Veronica made her way to her room. She powered up the computer and sat down. Go time.

The call connected and Logan was on the screen, his face anxious. He must not have been able to see her yet, and she noticed that he looked less reserved and more the way she remembered him from years ago. He looked young. She could tell the moment the camera clicked in on his end because a smile formed on Logan's face formed and his eyes softened.

"Hey."

Veronica wished that the mere sound of his voice didn't make her weak in the knees. She licked her lips. "Hi."

Logan took a breath and let it out slowly. "I…talked to Dick."

She felt a hint of worry as she realized that he already knew everything that had happened because of that comment. Veronica ignored it. "You did more than just talk to Dick. You talked him into letting you almost ruin the sting."

Logan sighed. He looked away for a moment before cocking his head to the side to look at her with exasperation. "Yeah, he told me you said I was an ass. That's nothing new. Next subject. How are your hands?"

Shit. "I'm guessing you're not asking if they're cold?"

"Veronica."

She waited a beat before raising her hands up and wiggling her fingers. "My hands are fine. My good friend Ammo was there to take out the bad guy before things got very bad."

"You shouldn't have been in a position where things had even the remote possibility of getting bad." Logan's tone was accusing. "Why do you insist on always doing things your way? Your way is almost always the worst way."

Veronica became defensive. "That's not true and you know it."

"Tell me what happened and let me decide that." Logan responded. "Because, yeah, actually, I think that's true."

Veronica stared down at the laptop and counted to ten. She breathed in and out, trying to control her irritation with him. She looked back up at the screen. "Logan. Things happen in the field that get…out of hand sometimes. Certainly you go through similar situations out there when you're flying, right?"

"What happens out here is life or death, Veronica. You know that. I can't always foresee what is about to happen and I have to act accordingly—"

"And that is exactly the same that happens on cases, Logan. You've seen how it works first hand. Nothing's changed that much in ten years that makes investigating any safer it was before. Some cases are just dangerous."

"I wish you wouldn't take the dangerous cases."

"You told me to look after Dick, Logan. From your own mouth! I was going to walk away from it."

"You would have gotten entangled in it anyway, because of the Madison thing."

"Maybe, but still. A lot of this came down to how much we found out about Dick's attack."

Logan was quiet. "He told me Lamb made some weird comment about his facility."

Veronica nodded, relieved at the change of subject. "Dick told me about that, so I looked into it a little. Lamb has a sister on the county board that Dick made his pitch to last week. She must have told Lamb about the facility. That's the only way that Lamb would have known about it. Best I can guess is that the sister, Dinah, told Lamb that the board was going to approve it. The night of the attack, Muldoon called Lamb to have him take Dick to St. Mark's and then let the media cover it; but Lamb made the deputies on the scene send Dick to County and then get rid of anything tying Dick to the incident. I think Lamb wants the facility to open. Otherwise, when Muldoon called Lamb, Lamb wouldn't have gone through so much effort to 'help' out Dick. Dick would have been ruined for public intoxication and all that mumbo jumbo. If that had happened, the Muldoon's would have exacted revenge on the Casablancas family and the Castle would have never known that Muldoon used the association's name for a personal purpose. Aidan and Patrick Muldoon hated Dick because of what Dick Senior did to their dad way back in college. They used their power with the Castle to try and bully Lamb. I still can't believe that Lamb actually did the 'right' thing. He must not be bought and paid for from the Castle as much as I feared."

Logan bit his lip. "I am really glad this is over."

"You and Dick played quite the trick on everyone last night."

"Yeah, so? Kane needed a jolt."

"How can you get on me about putting myself in bad positions and then do that?"

"Yes, I know. Didn't we establish that I am an ass? What I want to know is if Jake will go for an insanity plea because of it."

"That'd be rich. I wouldn't be surprised if they did go with that defense." Veronica rolled her eyes. "Entitled millionaires get away with everything they do."

"To be fair, he always has gotten away with everything so far."

"Not this time, no way. You're a witness, you know that, right? You watched everything happen in real time. He came in here to plant evidence and you watched him do it."

"I can sign something. Anything you need. Now," he leaned toward the screen. "Tell me about your savior—this dog I heard a little about from Dick."

"Ammo." Veronica informed him. "He's a mutt of a dog, but he's so sweet. And he already responds to his name and commands."

"So did he chomp down on Clinton's balls like Back-up would have?"

Veronica smiled at the memory of Back-up. "We need to work on that one. I'm sure he'd gladly do it, though, if he'd known the command. "

"Sounds like I owe a lot to that dog." Logan searched her face. "Tell me that Dick didn't skim over everything that happened. You look exhausted. You aren't more hurt that he let on are you?"

"I'm not hurt at all, not really. My egos a bit bruised, but Clinton came out worse than I did."

"Veronica, you know it's not because I am controlling that I don't want you doing dangerous cases, right? It's because…it's because I love you."

His declaration startled her. She met his eyes. "I never question that anymore, Logan. And it's because I…because I love you that I let it go. Because I know that I worry about you on that ship just as much as you worry about me here in Neptune. It's going to naturally be that way forever."

"Forever." Logan repeated. "I like that word."

A/N: We have made it! The mystery is complete and now we get full-on fluff. I have the epilogue to write and it should be out within oh a week or so, depending. :D I will admit that as sad as I am that this adventure is over, I am overjoyed at how well this little story turned out and was received. The responses were beyond what I'd imagined and yes, before you ask, I will be writing again. I have begun a new story as we speak. My only condition with the next one is that I plan to take a little more time between postings, just to keep my sanity. I can not keep up with 2 postings a week or even 1 posting a week, as has been evident for the past little while here. My plan will be every 2 to 3 weeks a decent-sized posting. So if you would like to, watch for it and go along for the ride with me! Thank you again for the wonderful and amazing support.