A/N: I'm pretty sure that the model number on Logan's boat at the end of M.A.D. was 410, but I couldn't get a completely clear look, so I could have the dimensions wrong. Also, there's an extremely funny joke in the name of the Kanes' boat, only by funny, I mean obscure. It's so obscure, in fact, that I barely get it, and I wrote it. Thus, anyone who can explain it will win my undying admiration. That, and, what is it these days, $3.50, will get you a cup of coffee.

"Come on," Duncan said, heading back toward his SUV. "We know he didn't stay here, and he didn't ram through the divider, so he would have had to drive the rest of the way to Coronado before he could have turned back to San Diego." The two of them got back in the Mercedes and proceeded onward along the bridge.

"Do you think he might have headed home?" Veronica asked her brother.

"It's possible. We could try calling him there, but my guess would be that Trina's probably heard by now—"

"And wouldn't be too thrilled to talk to us—"

"If we could even get through."

"I doubt it matters," mused Veronica. "I don't think he'd just go home anyway."

"So where do you think—"

Duncan was interrupted by the ringing of Logan's cell-phone.

"Do you think that could be him?" Veronica asked, checking the caller ID. "I don't recognize the number, but—"

"You've reached Logan, and here's today's inspirational message: 'adversity is the diamond dust with which heaven polishes its jewels.'"

"Mr. Echolls," came a man's voice, "Danny Leemer, C! Celebrity News, do you have any comment on—"

Veronica switched off the phone. "Vultures. They'll be calling non-stop now that they've heard."

Just then Duncan's phone rang. "Wonderful."

"Hi, you've reached Duncan Kane. When you hear that beep, you'll know what to do."

"Mr. Kane, Sally Kirkland, ENN, do you have any comment—"

Duncan stopped the car and switched his cell phone off, while Veronica switched hers off as well.

"This can't be good."

"We need to find him fast."

"Okay, to find Logan, we need to think like Logan."

"You've got the flask, but I need to drive." By this point they had gotten to Coronado Island. Duncan made a U-turn and headed back toward San Diego.

Veronica took a swig from the flask, making a face as she swallowed. "I can't believe he drinks this stuff."

"Veronica, I was kidding."

"It was worth a shot."

"So did you have any inspiration?"

"'Fraid not. All right, seriously, we need to think. We're Logan. We're hurt because we feel betrayed because our girlfriend accused us of killing Lilly—"

"And sent her winged monkeys to beat us up." Veronica shot her brother a dirty look. "What? You know he probably saw it that way."

"I know," she answered.

"Anyway," Duncan continued, "we can worry about recriminations later. Where would he have gone if he's feeling lost and abandoned by you—"

"The marina!"

"Huh?"

"The Albacore Club. That's where he'd go."

Duncan hit the accelerator. "Why the marina?" he asked.

"For our first date, Logan asked me to go boating with him, but I sort of…stood him up."

"Oh." Duncan paused for a moment. "Well, I guess that was understandable, I mean, you had just started seeing each other, I can see why you'd get nervous about spending the whole day alone with him in the middle of nowhere."

"I stood him up because I found out he had brought GHB to Shelly Pomroy's party last year."

Duncan slammed on the brakes. "He did what? Veronica, is that why you didn't remember what had happened? Did he drug you? So he could do shots off—"

"No, Duncan calm down. He didn't drug me," Veronica paused. "I was drugged, but not by Logan."

"Who then?" Duncan had started forward again.

"It's a little complicated. Dick was going to drug Madison, but she was on Atkins and didn't want the regular soda he gave her, so she spit in it and passed it to me as a prank."

"Some prank. I'm going to kill Dick."

"Duncan, please just let it go."

"Let it go? How can you be so calm about this?"

"Please just trust me."

"I'll let it go for now, but this isn't over."

The marina was dark when they arrived, but Duncan took his membership card from his wallet and slid it into the card reader at the entrance, which opened the gate, admitting them to the mostly empty parking lot.

"Look," exclaimed Veronica, pointing, "there's his X-Terra."

"Believe me, I see it. Good thinking." Duncan parked, and the two of them ran over to the yellow Nissan, which Logan had managed to park in four spaces at once. "It doesn't look like he's inside though."

"Let's try his boat." The two of them ran for slip five.

"His boat's missing. Where would he have taken it?"

"He'll be heading for Catalina Island. That's where we were planning to go."

"Come on, we'll take our boat. It's moored just a few docks down."

Veronica and Duncan dashed down the docks as fast as safety allowed. As they hurried past it, Veronica could not help but notice the Sabre 386 in the slip next to the Kanes' boat. At thirty-eight feet and seven inches from bow to stern, the Vandegraffs' sailing yacht was not quite as large as the Echolls' Sea Ray Sundancer 410, which, at forty-five-and-a-half feet, was one of the largest ships in the marina.

Both, however, could have fit comfortably inside the Kanes' Sunseeker 140. At one-hundred-and-thirty-five feet long, with four decks, the ship dwarfed every other vessel in sight.

With her injured hands, Veronica was not much help in getting the ship unmoored, but Duncan managed to have it untied in record time, and they were soon underway. Standing to the side with her hands folded under her chin, Veronica smiled as she watched her brother steer the ship out into open water.

"What are you smiling about?" he asked.

"I'm just remembering the last time I was here."

The last time Veronica had been aboard the Vulpecula, almost two years ago, had been for the massive end-of-summer party that Lilly had thrown before the start of their sophomore year. All of '09erdom had been in attendance.

"I remember. Oh, do you remember how John Enbom threw up over the side?"

"Yeah, but I mostly remember the two of us dancing."

"We must have been up on the skydeck for hours."

"And, of course, Caz and Sabrina got into a huge fight, and we had to go down to calm them down."

"Oh, and do you remember how Dick and Madison were leaning over the side on the main deck, and Dick was trying to sweet-talk her, and all of sudden, Casey starts taking a leak off the upper deck, right onto Dick's head?" The two of them were laughing raucously by this point.

"And then, and then, when we finally did come back up to the skydeck," Veronica recalled between gales of laughter, "we found Logan and Lilly making out in the hot tub. You were so mortified."

"Hey, I didn't want to watch my sist—" As they realized what Duncan had just said, both their faces fell.

"The two of them had just gotten back together," Veronica said quietly. "I guess that must have been right after she ended things with Weevil."

"I still can't believe how much and how fast things fell apart."

"The center could not hold. The worst were full of passionate intensity."

"Veronica," he answered, looking her in the eye, "one of the best was too."

They were silent for a time after that, until Duncan looked up again and said "I've got something on the radar. I'm not sure, but it looks like it could be the right size to be Logan's boat."

"Is it moving?"

"No, why?"

"Assuming he's on board, which we are assuming, if he's looking at his own radar, he must know we're coming, and he must know it's us, because, let's face it, we're driving this whale. If he's not moving, it means he's not trying to get away from us."

"That's a lot of ifs. He could just not be looking at the radar, or…."

To be continued….