Part 6

Logan Echolls slipped on his dark sunglasses as he walked into the dormitory. With a confident smirk on his face, he passed through the corridor and treated the young women whose avid gazes were tuned in to him to a flirtatious wave of his fingers.

"He's gorgeous," whispered one of the girls.

"God, to have those eyes turn to me."

"Ah." He turned around and spied the ladies talking about him. Logan slowly turned around and walked over to the two. The moment he saw them, Logan told himself not to bother coming up. They were obviously freshmen. If they were not here then, they would be unable to contribute anything to the investigation. The girls looked at him expectantly, then he shook his head. "Got a meeting with the admin," he said, feigned regret lacing his voice.

"You're going to live here?" the brunette asked in awe.

He smiled mysteriously, then walked away to the office. Logan rapped on the door and opened it without waiting for an answer. "Hey!" Logan greeted. His heart sank when a young man with black-rimmed eyeglasses looked up at him from behind the computer monitor. It would have been so easy if this was a girl. He would know exactly what to do. He was at a loss for any charm then. Instead, he switched off the grin and instead wore a panicked look. He did not grow up in a family of actors, and worked with actors the past few years, to not know the first thing about acting. The stray thought teased his subconscious, about how you had to learn how to act if you wanted to survive a relationship with Veronica Mars and seem unbroken, to face Duncan Kane without shattering on the outside. "Dude, I think there's a gas leak upstairs."

"That's impossible," the guy, Jason on the ID placard, claimed. "We don't allow stoves in here."

Logan shook his head. "Well tell that to the fire department when they call. I'm outta here!" He slammed the door shut and hid behind the column. He caught Duncan's eye, and held up his hand for patience. With an arrogant smirk, he counted with his fingers, "One. Two. Three."

The door of the admin office swung open, and Jason heaved a sigh of exasperation and left for the stairs. Duncan nodded, impressed. Logan merely shrugged and jerked his thumb towards the door. Duncan slipped away and stole into the room.

A few moments later, Logan saw Jason walking back towards him. He walked directly up to the young man.

"Thought you were out of here?"

"Well I wanted to check what you found." Logan put his arm around Jason's shoulders and said, "You were amazing. Brave."

Jason's gaze traveled up to the admiring gazes of a few people from the corridor. "It's my job."

Logan patted Jason on the back. "Just want you to know, man. I was ready to bolt. You made me feel safe." He felt a touch on his shoulder, and turned his head to see Duncan's back as he jogged away from the scene. Logan then said a quick goodbye to Jason and followed on Duncan's footsteps.

He met his friend in Duncan's car. Logan climbed in and waited for Duncan to hand the file over to him. Instead of the usual calmness that was expected, Duncan slammed the folder onto the dashboard. Logan's eyebrows arched and he took the file and flipped through the pages.

"What the hell?" he muttered, then turned to Duncan.

"Everything just stopped right after Veronica disappeared," Duncan said, verbalizing their discovery. "Now tell me that Wallace didn't have anything to do with this."

"That's impossible," Logan said. "Did you even understand how much that kid went out of his way for Veronica?"

"That's what you're looking into?" he asked in surprise. He had been running his hand down her bare arm as they lay on their sides, facing each other. It had been one of those weekends when Logan would beg off all of his commitments. On these weekends, which so happened when Duncan went home to Neptune for his regular visits to his parents—at which Veronica was not invited, despite the length of her relationship with Duncan—Logan would recapture his younger days when all that existed to him was Veronica. Logan squeezed her arm. "That's too dangerous."

She would not listen, of course. How many times had she investigated a big profile case without telling anyone? Duncan would often find out after the case closed, and she was reaping the rewards. Somehow, she could not keep the general idea from Logan though. He had his own ways of finding out. Despite how much he would find out though, Logan was certain it was just the tip of the iceberg. Veronica Mars was good enough to hide her tracks. "It's a favor to a friend. If I can't crack this, he's just going to be in danger."

"Veronica, there is no friend worth risking your neck out for."

She had simply shaken her head then, because she believed he would never understand. She had been partly right. He would not have gone that far from his friends.

Logan slammed out of the car and strode across the street.

"Hey Logan, where are you going?"

Duncan saw his friend run up the steps of the dorm they had left. He hurried after Logan. "I'm checking out Wallace's room again." Duncan looked around warily as he and Logan climbed the stairs. "The file said 24G." They stopped in front of a door labeled 24G and Logan twisted the knob. When it did not budge, he shook his head and chuckled. "Nothing can be too easy, huh? We need to get in."

Duncan sighed. Rolling up his sleeves, he started stepping as far away from the door as he could. When he moved to run towards the door, Logan caught his arm. He knocked on the door.

The door opened and out peered the occupant. "What do you want?" the tall shaggy-haired student demanded.

Logan did not leave too much time for introduction. He pushed his way into the room and went directly to the window. "I need to see if that bitch is cheating on me!" he exploded. "She lives right there in Woodberry Hall." Logan quickly looked at all angles of the window, trying to see which rooms one could see from this room.

"Ah shit, man. Which room is she in? My friend lives there. Might know the general direction."

"14B," Logan offered.

The occupant of the room scratched his head. "Must be 14D. That," he pointed to a room to the left, "is A. Next one is a storage room. Rest of it is from left to right, C until M."

"Bingo." Logan saw that directly across from what used to be Wallace Fennel's room was the storage area that must have been 14B."

"Stupid not to have a 14B when you have an all the letters from A-M."

"Not when 14B got busted for being the center of a drug ring," the guy said. "Now get out. I'm gonna be late for class."

Logan walked out of the room armed with the bits of information that the very helpful student imparted. Someone was going to have the gift of a fresh shirt the next day.

"I talked to Keith," was Duncan's announcement. "Even Mrs Fennel has no idea what happened to her son. There was no missing person's report filed for him. The only thing they knew is a little before he vanished, he got a girl pregnant. Baby's with Mrs Fennel. Keith is under the impression that this chick's family got Wallace killed."

"I can't believe that," Logan said. "Veronica made the nationwide news and no report was even filed for Wallace. They were from the same campus!" Then it dawned on him. "The press… it wasn't because of Veronica, was it? It was because she was your fiancé."

Duncan shook his head. "I don't know anything about Wallace's case. You think I'd have the chance to find out anything? I was out of my mind after the cliff."

"Well," Logan said, "I gathered there was a drug bust in 14B. You have to figure out if that was in any way connected to whoever killed Veronica."

"When you get here, I have a secret to tell you," she promised over the phone.

"Tell me now," he requested. "Make my flight interesting." He could almost see her shaking her head. Logan clutched the phone closer to his ear.

Veronica said instead, "It will knock your socks off. I promise."

"Will you tell me about your case too?"

"Which case?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

"The one that I've been asking you to drop."

She chuckled. "It's almost closed, Logan. You'll be very proud of my accomplishment on this assignment."

The two of them walked back to the car. Duncan started pulling out and shifting gears. Soon, they were racing out of campus. "Even from the grave, she confuses me," Duncan said. "She was always so hard to control. Did you know that she was part of this team that investigated the drug ring on campus? Pity she died before the case closed."

Logan's head whipped to Duncan. "A drug ring? By any chance, would this be the one that was located in Woodberry Hall?"

"Probably one of the satellites," Duncan offered.

Ever since Lilly died, Duncan had remained dry-eyed. His confrontation with his best friend, the person who would have undoubtedly been his best man, overwhelmed him so much emotion that Duncan doubted to keep his feelings in check.

The flight back from Logan's Hollywood plastic glamour of a home to his and Veronica's simple college apartment trembled with intensity. Duncan got off the cab and was surprised at that time of the night to see a man his age running out of his building. His heart slowed down. Duncan hurried to the elevator.

Even several yards away, Duncan already heart the shattering glass and the scream. He burst into a run and pounded on the door. After receiving no answer, he decided to slam his shoulder against the door. "Veronica!" Finally, he remembered the key that hung from his neck. He opened the door and stood shocked as he saw the mess.

She was on the floor, the broken figurine he had given her lay beside her head. The man had his hands around Veronica's throat. Veronica tried to pry open the man's fingers. Duncan yelled, "Get off!"

He pushed the man away from Veronica and threw his first punch. The lamp shattered on the floor.

Duncan reached out his hand and helped Veronica up. A sharp pain burst on the back of his head, and it was darkness.

"She was involved in the drug ring investigation," Duncan said. Slowly, he turned to Logan.

Logan nodded. "She told me she was doing it for a friend. Wallace is the closest friend that she does have, and he lived across from the drug headquarters." For the first time since convincing himself that Duncan likely did not kill Veronica, Logan had the sinking feeling that he knew what happened. "I think—" He took the phone from his pocket and said, "I have to consult Keith on this."

Duncan frowned at Logan's decision. "Did you find out something I didn't see?"

Logan held up his hand and spoke into the phone. "Keith, how can all paper trail end for someone? What's up with that?"

"Happens when a person dies, Logan. Veronica's paper trail ended with a death certificate." He paused. "Your mom's did too, if you remember."

Logan released a long held breath. "Then what if there's no death certificate?"

"Then there should be a missing person's file. You're on to something," Keith concluded.

"Maybe." Logan heard a woman's voice in the background, and then a crying child. "Am I disturbing you, Keith?"

"Oh. Just hold on a minute. Alicia's here with her granddaughter. I'll just let her in."

Logan waited on the other line as Keith put down the phone to open the door. Logan hit the mute button, then turned to Duncan. "Mrs. Fennel's younger son was about ten years younger than Wallace, right?"

Duncan turned to Logan, surprised at the question. "Didn't really hang around that family to know for sure."

"He was," Logan said decidedly. It was impossible for Alicia Fennel to have a grandchild through Travis. "Duncan, did you know that Wallace had a kid?"

Duncan shook his head. Logan held up his hand when he heard Keith take the phone again.

"Hey Keith, sounds like you're going to be busy for sometime. I'll call you later for developments. I would need something though. Can you text me the contact information of the attorney handling the public case against the drug ring syndicate of Woodberry Hall?"

Logan put down his phone and turned to Duncan. "I hope you're ready for a ride," he told his friend.

"I'm so afraid that I won't ever see you again," she whispered into the phone.

Logan clutched the phone to his ear. "Stay calm," he instructed over his pounding heart. He grabbed his jacket and wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve. Duncan was on his way back after releasing his anger on Logan. Logan would make sure he would be there before Duncan unleashed the same rage in front of Veronica.

"Logan, you don't understand!" she cried.

"Make me understand then, Veronica. What are you so afraid of?"

Logan heard the pounding like thunder. "Oh God," she murmured.

"Veronica, what is it? Who's at the door?" At the back of his mind, he asked himself if Duncan would have made it back in the three hours since Logan had seen him. The niggling thought continued to question whether or not Duncan would need to knock on the apartment door. "Veronica, don't answer the door."

The line went dead right when he got into his car.

His phone vibrated on the seat. When Logan read the message, he gave Duncan the address.

"This is a long shot," Logan said. "We're tailing the lawyer to see if he'll lead us to our missing link."

"What are you thinking?"

"Fell off the face of the earth with a kid left with his mother, no paper trail, no nothing after the case exploded, living right across the crime scene," Logan enumerated. "Our boy Wallace is hidden by federal power, Duncan. That's why he's not in any of the usual P.I. tools."

"Witness protection," Duncan said as it dawned on him.

tbc