Chapter Three
Logan stopped his car down the block from his house and removed his sunglasses to better ogle the spectacle before him. 'There must be dozens of them,' he thought in amazement. Hordes crawling all over each other - people with cameras and microphones, people with tape recorders and notebooks, news vans honking at each other along the road while vying for the best parking spots. He had purposely left the radio off on the way over, not wanting to deal with anymore information that he had to, but this was more than even he had imagined.
They reminded him of an ant farm he'd had when he was little. He had watched them for hours at a time, utterly fascinated. His little soldiers. Then Trina had pissed him off, he couldn't recall why now, and he'd sent his soldiers to do his bidding. He'd poured them out in her underwear drawer. He chuckled at the memory, then grimaced as he remembered what happened when Aaron found out. That particular beating had left him limping and unable to sit down for a week. He shook himself out of his reverie and stared again at his home.
"Fuck me," he said under his breath, wondering how he was going to get through to his driveway. A knock on his window startled him and he turned to see Sheriff Lamb standing outside. Logan mentally rolled his eyes and lowered the window, placing a hand to his chest and affecting a southern belle drawl. "Why, Sheriff Lamb, I do declare, are you trying to give a girl the vapors? Just look at my heaving busom." The sheriff just stared at him a moment befor replying.
"Mr. Echolls, where have you been all night?"
"With a friend."
"This friend have a name?"
"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," Logan told him solemnly. "Why? Did something happen last night you'd like to hold me accountable for?"
"No," Lamb admitted. "You hear about your dad?" Logan dropped his gaze, then gestured to the dashboard.
"It's all over the radio," he said, neatly avoiding the question altogether. Lamb didn't seem to notice though. Why, oh why did they run Veronica's dad out of office in favor of this numbskull?
"Think I could ask you some questions?"
"Think you could get me to my house?"
"I believe I could accomodate you."
"Well, ditto."
Sheriff Lamb came through as promised, flanking Logan's car with patrol vehicles, lights spinning and sirens intermittently wailing. They slowly made their way up to the Echolls driveway through the mass of people, though not without a good number of them throwing themselves on the hood of his car brandishing cameras and microphones. Logan schooled his features into careful neutrality and turned the volume up on his stereo, effectively drowning out whatever asinine questions they were asking. They made it through unscathed and after Logan parked and turned the engine off, he remained where he was to enjoy a few seconds of peace. Finally, he left the car and walked to the front door, Lamb following closely behind.
Once inside, Logan followed the sound of the television to the living room where Trina was busily flipping through the news channels and munching popcorn. He cleared his throat to get her attention and she almost choked on a kernel.
"Logan, where the hell have you been?" she demanded, throwing the remote on the coffee table and walking over to him. "Do you have any idea what's been going on? Dad's been arrested for murder! It's insane. The phone hasn't stopped ringing since before dawn, I finally had to -" Trina abruptly cut off her tirade as she noticed Sheriff Lamb enter the room. "What are you doing here?" she asked the sheriff. "I kicked you out last night and told you not to come back!"
"Logan here agreed to answer a few questions," Lamb responded. Trina looked from one to the other and chuckled.
"Oh no, no, no, no. See, Logan is seventeen which makes him a minor and therefore he will not be doing any such thing. So shoo." Lamb's lips compressed and he glanced at Logan, who shrugged innocently and batted his eyelashes. Lamb turned a not so attractive shade of red and left the house.
"Gosh, that was fun," Logan remarked, "it's so rare that one gets to mock local law enforcement and get away with it."
"Could you be serious for five seconds?"
"Sure, but that wouldn't be fun." At the expression on Trina's face, he decided to relent. "Sorry," he said, sighing, "what would you like me to be serious about?"
"Our father is in jail, we need to get him out."
"Why?" Logan asked, crossing his arms andsitting on the armest of the couch.
"What do you mean 'why'?" Trina asked incredulously. "Because he's innocent, that's why. These are bogus charges. Logan, they're saying he killed Lilly. How ridiculous is that?"
"Wouldn't be ridiculous if it was true . . . would it?" Logan asked, looking her in the eye. Trina slowly backed away from him.
"You think he did it," she stated in disbelief.
"I know he did it."
"How can you say that?" Logan sighed and shook his head. Trina had always been so naive where their father was concerned. Or maybe she wore a combination of blinders and rose colored glasses.
"Trina, you didn't grow up with him. You came for the summers and every other holiday. He put on a good show for you, but you don't know what he's really like." Anger replaced disbelief in Trina's eyes.
"Is this about your 'woe is me, my daddy beats me' crap? Aren't you a little old for those stories now?" Logan sighed again and looked out across the back patio to the pool house.
"Yeah, maybe so," he told her, standing and brushing past her to go upstairs.
"Hey, Dad has an arraignment this morning and we're going to be there to show our support."
"Whatever," Logan threw over his shoulder. "Can I get a shower first? Wouldn't wanna show up in public smelling like liquor and puke."
Veronica parked in the visitor's lot at the hospital and headed up to see her dad. As the elevator doors opened and she stepped out, she noticed a uniformed officer stationed outside her father's room. When she saw that it was Leo, she felt a twinge of guilt.
Leo had been nothing but gracious whenever they happened to cross paths after the breakup, which just made her feel all the more of a bitch. She sighed and stepped forward.
"Hey, Leo," she said in greeting, "what's up? My dad's not in trouble, is he?" she asked jokingly.
"No, nothing like that," Leo told her, smiling. "Some reporters have been caught nosing around, I'm posted as a courtesty."
"Sneaky little boogers, aren't they? Well, I'm gonna pop in and say hi." Leo nodded and opened the door for her. She thanked him and entered the room.
"Ah ha," said her father from his hospital bed. "I thought I heard your voice." Veronica smiled and kissed him on the forehead.
"Is Mrs. Fennel here?" she asked, looking around the room. Keith Mars laughed.
"I had to threaten, cajole, and beg her to go to work this morning. But only on the condition that she gets to come back for lunch." He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "She's smuggling in a hamburger." Veronica grinned and pulled a small container from her bag.
"Which should go very well with this assortment of artery clogging diabetic coma inducing pastries," she told him, putting it on the bedside table.
"Oh, I feel the love."
"Hey, who's my Daddy?" Since his hands were still bound, Veronica selected a cream filled donut and tore off a small piece to feed to him. "So how are you feeling?" she asked, taking a nibble of her own.
"I'm good," he told her, nodding, "they have really groovy pain medication here."
"Yeah, you invalids get all the good stuff," she complained, tearing another piece for him.
"How about you?"
"I'm fine," she replied, steadily avoiding his eyes as she picked at the donut.
"Veronica, you know I'm a detective, right?"
"Uh-huh," she replied after a hesitation. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I detect an untruth. Let's try again. How are you?" Veronica sighed and leveled her gaze at him.
"I really am okay," she assured him.
"But something's not," he guessed.
"I'm worried about Logan," she confessed. Her father nodded
"Yeah, the guy's had some tough breaks lately."
"Understatement of the century," she replied and proceeded to tell him the events of the night before and early this morning. "He's lost Lilly, his mom, his dad is . . . well, you know about that. His sister has her own agenda and leaves something to be desired. And also -" She hesitated.
"What, honey?" her dad encouraged.
"I think Aaron beats him." Her father's eyes widened in shock.
"Did he tell you that?" Veronica laughed without humor.
"No," she replied firmly. "And I suspect he never would. I overheard Trina say something about it when they were fighting. Sounds like it's been going on a long time. It explains some things I noticed when we used to be friends - bruises, black eyes, bloody noses. He always had an excuse and I was so gullible back then, I really didn't think anything of it. Just thought he was accident prone." Keith Mars looked troubled as he considered her words.
"You should go to the D.A.," he told her. Now it was Veronica's turn to be shocked.
"What?"
"Character background. If Aaron Echolls has been beating his child -" he broke off, disgusted just by saying the words. "If he's been doing something like that for this long, it'll help establish a pattern, a mind set. It could help the case."
"The case should be pretty cut and dry, don't you think? He murdered Lilly and tried to kill us." Her father sighed and shook his head.
"Unfortunately, no. I had a visitor before you - Anna Steadman from the D.A.'s office. All the video tapes prove is that Aaron was having sexual relations with an underage girl, not that he killed her. Even if they could go back and establish forensic evidence of his presence at the murder scene, he was a friend of the Kane's and frequented their home. And even if they could pin his presence down to the actual time of the murder, he could always claim it was an accident, unintentional." Veronica's mind reeled.
"Well, what about us? Our attempted murder?" Her father shrugged.
"Good old temporary insanity. And you have to remember that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution."
"I know," she responded dejectedly. She'd been part of a mock trial in government class the year before. Head prosecutor. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but working for the good guys was a bitch and a half. All work and little reward as far as convictions went. She sighed and shook her head. "It's not my place to reveal something like that. And it would just be heresay coming from me anyway." Her father nodded.
"That's why you have to get Logan to go forward with it himself." Veronica's jaw practically fell to the floor.
"Yeah, right, dream on cause that ain't never happenin'," she stated, wagging her finger.
"He'll listen to you. He trusts you."
"No, he won't and no, he doesn't. I thought he was a murderer, remember? I turned him into the police."
"And what did he do with his one phone call?"
"That was before he knew I was the one that tattled. And no one likes a tattletale, it's an established societal fact."
"But you're cute and funny, that makes up for a lot." Veronica grinned, despite herself and then frowned.
"Hey, how did you know about the phone call?"
"Sheriff Lamb was another visitor this morning."
"Well, aren't you the social butterfly today?" He shrugged modestly. Veronica caught a glimpse of the wall clock and stood.
"I'd better get going. Mrs. Steadman actually called me this morning and asked me to be at Aaron Echolls' arraignment hearing in case I need to make a statement or something."
"Okay, honey, good luck. And remember what I said about Logan." Veronica nodded and kissed him on the cheek.
"Thank you and I will take it under consideration. Get some rest, I'll be back later."
A/N: Phew, that got complicated fast. No, I don't really know much about the law profession, but I do watch a lot of 'Law & Order'. ;) Thank you to all who have left reviews, they give me a lot of encouragement and make my brain work faster. For those interested in Logan and Veronica music videos, I recommend the following: something-happens dot com and rejectingreality dot net.I find that they fill the lonely hours as I wait impatiently for September to roll around. Til the next chapter . . .