It's venting time.

Disclaimer: Rob Thomas is lucky and gifted enough to own Veronica Mars. I, alas, am not.

X X X X X

I spoke first. "Hi, Dad."

"Not funny, Veronica," Meg said.

"Not meant to be, Meg," was my reply.

Jake ignored all of this byplay and went and stood directly next to Duncan. "What did your mother tell you?" he repeated quietly.

"She told me you and Lianne Mars were having an affair and that Veronica was the result."

He looked at me, then back at Duncan. "So that's why the two of you broke up." More angrily, "She had no right –"

"No right?" Duncan demanded. "No right to tell me I might be on the verge of incest?" Jake had no answer to that. There wasn't one. "Oh, no," he said scornfully. "Mom shouldn't have told me. Maybe then Veronica and I could have gotten married and produced little mutant babies."

Logan said, "Duncan, shut up. You don't get to claim the moral high ground on this one."

"Logan --" Duncan said.

"You knew it could be true and you slept. With. Her. Anyway. Without her even knowing --"

Logan never saw Duncan's fist coming. It caught him in the face and knocked him clear across the room, where he smashed into the wall. As Logan stood up, shakily, Duncan looked like he was going to continue the fight.

Enough was enough. I pulled out Mr. Taser and held it against Duncan's stomach. "I don't want to use this on you, Duncan," I said. "Don't make me."

Duncan stopped, looked down, looked across the room at Logan, and ran off towards the back of the house. As Meg moved to follow him, Jake said "Don't. He's not good company when he's like this." Meg stopped.

I put away the taser and went over to check on Logan. He was flexing his right elbow a bit – it had hit the wall first – but otherwise seemed okay.

"Since when is Duncan the Incredible Hulk?" he muttered as he stood up.

"Now that all of that's settled," Jake Kane said, "Would someone tell me what's going on here?"

Meg looked down at the ground. Logan looked at me.

Right, Veronica. Guess you're volunteered.

In my wildest dreams I never would have thought I'd be telling the story of my rape to Jake Kane. Especially before telling my father. But I did. Told him about the party, about what happened, and about how Logan and I decided to investigate.

I still didn't have the full story. For one thing, I still didn't know who'd spiked the drink with GHB. For another, I still had to find out why Beaver had lied to Logan and me. But Jake Kane wasn't going to find that out from me.

When I was done he said, "You're accusing my son –"

"Your son admitted it," Meg said unexpectedly. "But I don't think he was in control of himself at the time." She looked at me with the last one.

"I'm not going to be pressing any charges, if that's what you're worried about," I said. "Besides, it's not like Don Lamb would believe me this time any more than he did last time." Then, bitterly, "Been meaning to thank you for that, by the way."

"How is this my fault?"

"Simple," Logan said. "Sheriff Mars comes after you. You have him thrown out of office. Veronica gets raped. The guy you install laughs at her. Of course, given your track record of covering your family's ass, if Lamb had tried you'd probably have had him thrown out of office, too. If not summarily executed."

A range of emotions played across Jake Kane's face: Denial, anger, fear, and finally acceptance. It was like watching someone go through the stages of grieving in five seconds. "You're not going to take this any further?"

"My father doesn't even know," I said. I suspected I'd have to tell him eventually. But in a situation where he couldn't immediately tear off to the Sheriff's Office to rip Lamb into tiny pieces. Like, say, in a stalled elevator. In New York City.

"Well, then," he said, seeming to come to a decision. "Let's settle this once and for all, then." He grabbed my wrist.

Logan was there five seconds later bending his fingers back. "Easy there, Jakey boy," he said. "Touch Veronica again for any reason without her express written consent and the consent of Major League Baseball and I guarantee you plastic surgery will not fix what I'll do to you."

"I wasn't going to hurt her," he protested.

"No," I said venomously, "You have Clarence Weidman do that for you."

And then dead silence. Jake's expression was unreadable. Meg's ranged from anger to worry and back again. And Logan had that stoic expression he always has when he's in a really, really bad mood.

I wasn't about to let him off the hook. "Just like you have him do other things. Like -- I'll bet -- you had him cover up for the fact that you think Duncan killed Lilly in an epileptic rage." I was guessing here, but the way he reacted combined with how Clarence Weidman had acted when he confronted me and Logan confirmed my hunch. "Which, by the way, he didn't. Just like you had him drive my mother out of town." I took a step closer until we were practically nose to nose. "My mother drank herself into a coma because of you. Dad told me how you paid for a rush job on the brainscan. Don't think that earns you any points."

"Veronica," he said, "I didn't mean for that to happen."

Interrupting him, I said, "I see where Duncan gets it from. It happened. You let it. You. Stood. Idly. By."

"I'm--"

"The next word out of your mouth had better not even remotely resemble the word 'sorry.' You don't have the right to say that."

After a second. "I guess I don't."

"No."

Meg said, "I'm going to go check on Duncan." I think I was the only one who noticed her leave.

"Look. I at least owe you an apology for grabbing your arm. All I meant was, 'Let's settle this issue of whether or not I'm your father.' That way we can set Duncan's mind at ease, at least."

"You're not my father," I said. "You will never be my father. The most you will ever be is a sperm donor."

"Fine. Biological father, then. But I'm not thinking of myself. I'm thinking of Duncan."

"If you think --" Logan said.

"No," I said. "That's probably the only thing he's said right in this discussion. We can take a load off Duncan's mind --"

"Or scar him for life," Logan said.

"Could he be any worse than he is now?"

Logan sighed. "I guess not."

"Good." I turned to Jake Kane. "You can get the testing started tonight?" He nodded. "Let's do this, then." I looked at Logan. "Come with?"

"Wild pterodactyls couldn't keep me away."

"Then let's make sure of Meg and Duncan --"

"I'll do it," Logan said.

"He tried to hit you."

Logan shrugged. "Male bonding." He left the room.

After a long period of silence, "You said that Duncan didn't kill Lilly."

I looked at him. "Father of the year you aren't."

He sighed. "What I meant to say, is that just faith in my son or do you know who did it?"

"Isn't it Abel Koontz?" I asked innocently. "I mean, he is on death row and all --"

"You know better than that, Veronica."

"Yes. I do. But I can't tell you."

"Why not? You wouldn't say this unless you had proof."

"You're probably right," I said. "But I can't tell you." As though I had a flash of inspiration, I said, "Why not ask Clarence? He seems to know everything else."

I knew I was taking a risk here. But I hadn't yet broken my word to Clarence Weidman and I got the impression he was one of those people who stuck by his bargains.

Before a frowning Jake Kane could answer, Logan, Meg and Duncan came back. He and Duncan seemed to have made up.

Duncan came over to me. "Veronica," he said.

"We're good," I said.

"But I --"

"We're good," I said. "I believe you. I understand why you did what you did. I just wish I'd known it a year ago."

"If I'd known --"

"I get that, now." And then. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I think so," he said.

"Try not to think about it. Let Meg help."

I went over to Meg. "Are you --"

"This has been eye-opening," she said. "First you accuse Duncan of rape, then he admits it, then you tear Jake Kane a new one, and then you forgive Duncan."

"I'm sorry you had to see it."

"I'm not," she said. "It taught me never, ever to get on your bad side."

"Do you hate me?" I asked.

She snorted. "No. But I understand a lot more about you now. Try not to divide my loyalty like that again."

I smiled for a second. "I think I'm through making accusations against Duncan for the time being."

Jake looked at Logan and me. "I assume we'll be taking separate cars?"

Logan smirked. "Good assumption. I can see now that finely tuned mind that made you the billionaire you are today."

Jake gave me the address and Logan and I went back outside.

When we got to the X-Terra, Logan gave me a long, long kiss. "Whew," I said when he was done. "What was that for?"

"You are awesome to watch," he said. "I mean it."

"Thanks. And thanks for backing me up in there." After a brief pause, "Are you and Duncan okay?"

"Yeah. We are. He hit me, I hit me, everything's good."

We drove to the address Jake Kane provided. Logan stayed with me in the waiting room while I heard Jake Kane promise massive lawsuits if anything remotely connected to this ever got out. The only thing I said to him was to call me with the results on the cell phone.

Then I went in, they took my blood, and I left.

X X X X X

After all of that, Logan still had to drive me back to school to pick up my car. He followed me back home.

On the way, Dad called me. He'd tracked down Abel Koontz's daughter -- whose name was Amelia Delongpre -- and was trying to convince her that her father was innocent. He hadn't gotten a yes, but he hadn't gotten a "bug off," either. He had a coffee scheduled with her the next morning to make his case in greater detail.

In the meantime, he'd also confirmed my hunch of earlier in the day. He'd taken his file of the Kane murder case with him and had noticed a cell phone call from Jake Kane to Clarence Weidman that had to have occurred AFTER they'd discovered Lilly's body. I'd been right. They were covering up for what they thought Duncan had done. I wished to hell I could tell Dad, but I was keeping my word to Clarence Weidman to the letter.

Logan and I both parked and headed for my front door.

A figure stepped out from behind a nearby SUV.

Clarence Weidman.

"Miss Mars," he said, "I have something for you."