"Where is he? According to this, he should be right in front of us." They had made it to San Diego in record time, and were now driving across the curving bridge to Coronado Island.

In response, Duncan slowed his Mercedes to a crawl and turned on the brights. "I don't see anything," he said, peering out through the windshield.

Veronica, seeing the headlights momentarily glint off some object lying by the side of the road at the base of the guardrail, shouted for Duncan to stop.

"What is it?"

"I think I saw something," she answered, opening the door and running out. Putting on the SUV's emergency lights, Duncan followed his sister out onto the bridge. "Look," Veronica said, bending down to pick up two objects that had been left lying in the roadway: a silver flask and a cell-phone, both Logan's.

"Oh no, you don't think he left a note on his cell or something the way his mom left a note on her Blackberry?" Duncan asked.

"Weren't you so sure he wouldn't do it?"

"Just answer me."

"There's no note, as far as I can tell. And anyway, I doubt he walked here, so he must have driven off again, since that yellow monstrosity of his isn't here. What I can't figure out is why he would have left his—"

"Veronica, are you alright?" Duncan interrupted, pointing at the sleeve of her white waitress' blouse. Looking down, Veronica saw a red stain on the cuff of her right sleeve.

"It's not mine," she answered, crouching down again to touch her fingers to the asphalt where she had picked up the flask and the phone. "Duncan," she said, looking up at her brother, "there's blood on the asphalt."

"Do you think it's Logan's?"

"Seems likely. It's a good sign if it is."

"It's a good sign?"

"Well, he probably didn't jump, start bleeding from the fall, climb back up here, bleed for a little from his injuries, and then jump again."

"That does sound unlikely. But what did happen then?"

"Alright, we need to think," said Veronica, taking a step backward and putting her hand to her forehead. "Theories of the crime."

"Do we know there was a crime?"

"It's an expression. We just need to reconstruct what happened. Come on."

"Alright, let's start from the beginning: why did he come here? He's thinking about jumping, or…maybe just threatening to jump, to get attention or sympathy."

"The problem with that," replied Veronica, "is that it assumes an audience. There's no audience."

"Alright, so he was thinking about jumping for real then."

"Maybe not. Maybe…you remember how you said when you went out to the pool where Lilly died, you felt like she was still with you?"

"You think he came out here to be with his mother. It makes a kind of sense, I mean, he feels abandoned by his girlfriend, so maybe—"

"And I was the one who…comforted him when he finally realized she was gone."

"Comforted him?"

"At the hotel. He cried in my arms."

"Oh." Duncan paused for a moment, looking thoughtfully at his sister. "Alright, so he's here to be with his mother. He's drinking," he continued, gesturing at the flask still in Veronica's hand.

"I called him, right before I got in my car to leave your place, but I got his voicemail."

"Alright, so he checks the caller ID, he sees the call is from you, but he's—"

"Hurt and angry, so he throws the phone down in disgust, but then—"

"He gets angry at himself, and throws the flask down too."

"And then he just drives off?"

"It could have happened like that."

"Except how did the blood get here? And even if that is what happened, it doesn't tell us where he went."

"True. Okay, so let's try a different theory."

Veronica did not answer for almost half a minute before she said, "alright, let's consider the possibility that he was thinking about jumping."

"Okay, so he gets here, and he climbs up on the guardrail—"

"Only he's been drinking, and his balance isn't so great—"

"And he falls backward onto the asphalt—"

"Maybe he hits himself against the open door of his X-Terra."

"He's lying on the ground bleeding—"

"So he gets out his cell and calls an ambulance."

"While he's waiting, he passes out—"

"And drops the phone and the flask."

"The ambulance gets here and takes him too the hospital."

"Only," wondered Veronica, "what happened to the X-Terra?"

"Maybe the San Diego police came too and had it moved or something, so it wouldn't block the lane."

"Alright, so if an ambulance came, what hospital would they have taken him too?"

"Could we call information or something, find out where the nearest hospitals are?"

"Yes, but, wait, if he called an ambulance, that would be listed as his cell's last outgoing call, right?"

"Well, what does it say?"

"His last outgoing call was this afternoon, to me. Oh, Duncan, he needed my help."

"You did help him. You went looking for his note, and you proved he didn't do it. Now we just need to find him so you can tell him." Duncan patted his sister on the shoulder. He thought about giving her a hug, but reconsidered.

"Alright," answered Veronica through a sniffle, "if he didn't call 911, maybe a passing motorist did."

"Could be, but…."

"What?"

"This whole theory just doesn't add up to me. If the police were here—"

"There's no way they'd have left his flask just sitting here, or his cell-phone, probably."

"Exactly."

"Hmm, I'll make a detective out of you yet."

"We make a good team." The two of them stood in silence for a moment after that. "Okay," began Duncan again, "so what else might have happened?"

"Maybe we're overlooking the obvious."

"Like what?"

"There's blood. Maybe someone attacked him."

"Who? Carjackers?"

"No, because then he'd have called the police—"

"And we'd have the same problem with the flask. And the criminals would have taken the phone, right?"

"So if someone did attack him, it wasn't a random crime, it was personal."

"Someone he wouldn't just call the cops on."

"Weevil. How could I have been so stupid?"

"Weevil?"

"He overheard me telling my dad that Logan had lied about his alibi. He was pissed, he said 'these rich boys think they can get away with anything.'"

"You think he went after Logan?"

"He was in love with Lilly."

"I still can't believe all the secrets she kept from us….Alright, so Weevil shows up, he has his gang with him."

"They come upon Logan here, they beat him up."

"Did they take him somewhere?"

"They couldn't have."

"How do you know?"

"They're all on bikes, right?" answered Veronica. "So they'd have to leave Logan's car here, or leave one of the bikes here."

"So they beat him, and then leave?"

"Or they beat him, throw him over the side, and then leave."

"No, because then they'd have gotten rid of the phone and the flask too. Too much evidence. And they'd still have the problem of having to leave the X-Terra here, unless you think there were enough of them to throw an SUV over the side."

"There's one easy way to find out." Veronica took out her own cell. "Come on, come on….Weevil?" Even standing a few feet away, Duncan could hear the celebratory music coming from Veronica's phone. "What happened tonight? Were you on the Coronado Bridge? Did you see Logan? He didn't do it! That is right. Now what did you do to him? Do you swear? If I find out….We'll talk again."

"What happened?"

"They were here. They found Logan and beat him up, but Weevil swears Logan was alive and conscious, or semi-conscious, at least, when they left."

"Alright, so he's injured, or maybe he drops his flask and phone during the fight—"

"During the beating. There was no fight."

"Alright, so maybe he drops the flask and the phone, or maybe just the flask, and we were right before that he threw away the phone when he saw the last call was from you."

Veronica turned away, clenching her eyes shut, before turning back and motioning for him to continue. "Alright, so he picks himself up after they leave, and he drives off."

"Sounds good. There's just one problem: we still don't know where he went."

To be continued….