There's one final piece of Mars Vs. Mars that needs to be taken care of. Since things have changed. Don't worry, that talk Logan and Veronica were planning to have is coming soon.
DIsclaimer: Rob Thomas owns everything. I would like everything but I'll settle for Charisma Carpenter.
I made arrangements to meet Vanessa at the office at 7 the next evening – Dad would be working on another case by that point. A simple "prove my wife is cheating scum" case, nothing challenging, but it paid the bills. It meant I'd have to bail on working on the Navigator that night, but Duncan didn't seem horribly upset when I apologized for my impending absence.
If I'd thought Carrie Bishop had been isolated before, the next day at school things were even worse. I still felt no sympathy; she'd lied and gotten an innocent man thrown out of his job for no reason I could see.
Which was odd. What was her reason? She wasn't suing him and she couldn't press criminal charges – I'd see to that. Hmm. Something to think about. Only the completely insane did something for no reason, and Carrie clearly wasn't delusional.
On my way to Mr. Rooks', I called Logan and explained what I thought we should do. It was a bit more complex than I usually get – I almost felt like I was on the set of some lame '80s sitcom – but every once in a while complex is good.
I got to Mr. Rooks' house and he invited me in.
"You didn't have to come here, Veronica," he said.
"Well, I wanted to apologize. For not being able to help you yesterday. Something else came up – something I couldn't get out of." Well, of course I could have gotten out of it. I just chose not to. For some reason.
"Thanks. I don't know what you could have done, though."
"I know she was lying," I said. I felt the coffee I'd had an hour previously begin to work its magic. "Could I use your bathroom?"
"Sure. Down the hall. Want anything to drink?"
I stepped inside. The house was quite fashionable, but I wasn't really there to do an Extreme Home Makeover. "Um – sure. Diet whatever."
I went up the hall as Mr. Rooks turned on the stereo. I stopped and frowned for a second. Was that Mick Jagger?
I looked through his bedroom doorway as I passed it. His bedsheets were black.
Damn. Carrie might not have been telling the truth, but she wasn't lying. She'd mentioned the Stones and the black bedsheets in one of our arguments. She might not have slept with Mr. Rooks, but someone had. And Carrie'd been willing to sacrifice her reputation to bring him down.
Suddenly I didn't need to use the bathroom as much any more. Not here. Not ever here. I made my excuses to Mr. Rooks and got out of there.
And now I knew my instincts had been right when I'd chosen to help Logan rather than Mr. Rooks.
I'd thought he was one of the good guys. Well, Veronica, Superman just split the take with Lex Luthor and Sir Lancelot let a dragon burn a village because he was making out with Guinevere. There are no good guys. Except for my dad.
X X X X X
Vanessa walked in. I was sitting at the receptionist desk and told her to come over and sit down. "I'm done," I said as she was getting comfortable.
"You have the proof?"
"No, actually, I don't. I'm sorry. I found the tapes exactly where you said they'd be -- it was a bitch and a half sneaking onto the estate -- but Lynn Echolls didn't appear in them."
"Huh," she said. "He must have had those parts erased." Sorry, Vanessa, I'm not buying the act any more.
"Must have," I said. "None of the other victims ever mentioned her -- except as Aaron Echolls' wife, of course. And while Mrs. Echolls did come back from her European vacation a day early, she denies having broken in on you." I held up a hand to stall her obvious objection. "Of course she would. But he-said she-said isn't going to get you much of anywhere. Especially with her public reputation as one of the victims in all of this."
She looked at me suspiciously. "You talked to her?"
I was ready for this one. "Logan Echolls hates my guts. The feeling's mutual." Well, I'd thought it was. "Lynn's always liked me, from way back when he and I were friends." Back when Lilly was alive and Duncan was my boyfriend. "I just showed up where she was staying and asked to see her."
"Where is that?" she asked. Nice try, Vanessa. I'm the only one in this room who can pull off innocent.
I shook my head. "I can't tell you that. That's part of a previous case and I'd be violating confidentiality if I told you."
"You're not really a private investigator," Vanessa said, "And you just said you hated him." Not really an investigator? That one's going to cost you.
"I do, believe me. That's why I'm helping you. But, really, if it got around that I'd just give casually give away my clients' secrets, how many people do you think would trust me?"
"Huh," she said. "Not even if I cut you in?"
"Cut me in on what?" I asked innocently, as if I didn't know.
She looked at me as though I were the stupidest person on the planet. "On the money we'll get if we sell this. Look, Veronica. Everyone else has had maybe a photo or two. We have video, plus we have the place where Lynn Echolls is hiding out. We could make a lot." Wait, wasn't she already rich? Maybe Daddy Mencken was planning to disinherit her and she needed a nest egg of her own.
I acted like I was just figuring it out. "So, wait," I said. "I think I'm getting this. You were going to try to blackmail Logan Echolls with a phony story about his mother -- until I volunteered. Then, knowing my reputation --" no arrogance there, believe me, everyone at Neptune High knew my reputation -- "You figured that I could get the tapes where you couldn't. When I mentioned knowing where Lynn Echolls was holing up, you decided to try to toss that into the mix." I looked at her. "Am I getting it?"
"Exactly," she said. "I guessed that Echolls would pay a lot to protect his mother, even from a fake story like mine, given how he protected her from the reporters. So if you'll let me have the tapes --"
I shrugged and reached into the desk drawer, pulling them out.
Right then Logan stormed through the front door, lawyer in tow, and said, "Hold it!"
"Hold what?"
"Those tapes, Miss Mars," the lawyer said.
"What tapes?" I said, sticking them back in the drawer as Vanessa demanded to know what was going on.
"I'm not stupid, Veronica." Logan said. "Did you think we didn't have the place wired up with security cameras? By the way, Maria would like to thank you for the vacation she's getting in the unemployment line. I fired the stupid cook for letting you on the grounds. By the way, one of Weevil's gang members is her cousin. I doubt they'll like that. Look for a visit from the PCHers tomorrow."
"Wow, because we all know how well I respond to threats," I said.
"Cool down, Mr. Echolls," the lawyer said. "Miss Mars. If you give the tapes back I may -- and I stress that word, may -- be able to persuade my client to not press charges."
"Good luck on that," Logan muttered.
"You're not helping, Mr. Echolls. Well, Miss Mars?"
I reached back into the drawer when Vanessa said, "Hold on there, Echolls. If I don't have the tapes, I'll just tell everyone that story about your mother. Enough people will believe me."
"No, they won't," I said, reaching inside my desk for a tiny digital recorder. A quick rewind and "I guessed that Echolls would pay a lot to protect his mother, even from a fake story like mine," came from the speaker.
Vanessa looked first at me, then at Logan. "Son of a --"
"Now, now, Vanessa, no cursing. You're in the presence of a Machiavelli." He have me a patented Logan Echolls half-grin.
Before Vanessa exploded, the lawyer said "Mr. Echolls does have a proposition for you, though, Miss Mencken."
"What," she asked suspiciously, glaring equally at me and Logan.
"Simple. He gives you the tapes. You in turn sign," he pulled a sheet out of the attache case he was carrying, "This document."
Vanessa grabbed it from him and read over it. "You're kidding. This admits I tried to blackmail you by lying about your mother."
"If you'll check a little further down, extortionist mine," Logan said, "You'll notice that I can only make this public if you break the agreement first. Otherwise it can stay locked in the lawyer's files for all eternity for all I care."
"Look," I told Vanessa. "This way everyone wins. You get the tapes. Logan gets to protect his mother. The lawyer gets his fees. Everyone's happy."
She read over it again, signed, and said, "Now give me the damn tapes." After Logan and the lawyer signed -- the lawyer had to, as Logan wasn't yet of age -- I handed Vanessa the tapes. She went without another word, slamming the Mars Investigations front door as she left.
Logan and I looked at each other and started laughing.
And the lawyer said, "While I do appreciate the humor in all of this, I would like to point out that with the contract this actually does qualify as legal work."
"Hold on, Cliff," I said. "Logan, pay the man." Logan gave me a look and I said, "He was your attorney."
Cliff took the check, saluted, and said, "Always a pleasure, Veronica," as he turned around and left the office, whistling.
Logan and I started laughing again, and we didn't stop until he sat down. "So, he said," time for that talk we were discussing?"
"What the hell. I'm on a roll."