The aftermath.

And a fair warning: Some of you have said you'll cry when it ends.

You may want to prepare to cry sometime soon. Not right away, though.

Disclaimer: 'tain't mine.

X X X X X

When I pulled clear of my father's grip, Logan handed him the rifle and came over and swept me up in a hug of his own. My father went over to Mac and whispered something in her ear, then handed her the rifle. With an expression born of long practice, she turned and aimed it in Trina's general direction.

When the hell did Mac learn how to hold a rifle?

In the meantime, Dad went over to examine the condition of Lynn Echolls, who was standing there with a stunned look on her face. I couldn't remember if she'd said anything since she had the gag removed. Fortunately, she didn't seem badly injured, apart from a few scrapes and cuts and one bump on the head. The entire time Dad looked her over, she didn't say anything.

Trina had a nosebleed from where I'd hit her, and the makings of a lovely black eye, but no one was making any effort to clean her up. Fortunately for her, she didn't say anything else. I was still ready to go over there and deck her again.

When Logan let me go, I had cried myself out. Then I looked up and saw the anger still in his eyes, and this time I hugged him.

"What was that for?" he murmured quietly.

"Because I'm not the only one who's gone through a whole lot today," I said.

He smiled when he looked down at me. "No, you're not," he said, "But it's not like there's any kind of competition."

"Go check on your mother," I said, and went over to Mac.

"Look at the action hero," I said.

"Shut up," was her response. But she was grinning as she said it.

"So, you. Rifles. New thing or is there just a part of you we know nothing about?"

"The benefits of growing up a MacKenzie. My parents insisted I know how to use one of these things."

"Your father's a hunter, too?"

She said, "Of course. But he knows how much I hate it, so he doesn't bring anything home and he doesn't go bragging about his kills in front of me." Grinning for a second, she said, "That doesn't mean we don't have long arguments about it, of course."

"Of course," I said.

And then Dad was done and came over and took the rifle away from Mac. Mac looked at me and said, "I guess this means a hug?"

"Damn right, hug. I hug people who save my life." And so I did. When we were done I said, "I can't believe you tackled her like that."

"You do what you have to, Veronica," she said. "If there'd been a way to knock the rifle out of her hands using only my laptop, I would have done it. But my options here were kind of limited." After a second, "I'm just glad Logan caught me before I came driving all the way up."

"Huh?" was my intelligent response.

"Logan. As I came up the road to the lodge, I saw him come running up to his parked X-Terra. He gave me a quick summary of what was going on and told me to get into his backseat."

"You were in the SUV when he drove up?"

"Yeah. That's why he parked where he did, so I could get out of the car without anyone inside noticing what was going on." For a second I couldn't believe that Logan hadn't found some way of letting me know; then I remembered that I hadn't been able to clue him in to the fact that Dad and the Sheriff's Department were on their way, either. Anyway, this explained why Logan hadn't been able to "reach" Mac; he hadn't needed to try.

"Well, you did great for your first foray into the exciting world of action-adventure."

"First and last, I hope," Mac said.

"Naaah," I said. "You've got a taste for it now."

She gave me a look of undisguised horror. "Don't make me sorry I did this, Mars."

I laughed and said, "I know when to back off. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make a couple of phone calls." Then I went inside where Trina had dropped our phones.

First I called Wallace. "Veronica!" he said. "Man, it's good to hear your voice."

"Thanks. And thanks for calling my Dad, too. He almost got here in time."

"Almost?" Yeah, I could have phrased that better.

"Sorry. He would have, but Mac got here first." And anyway, Trina hadn't actually been planning on killing anyone

"Mac saved you?"

"Much in the fashion of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Took Trina with a flying tackle that Ray Lewis would've envied."

"Go, her."

"Oh, yeah. Anyway. Good going, Wallace. I knew you were smart enough to figure it out."

"Just glad I could help."

"I owe you big-time."

"No, you don't."

"Yes. I do."

Next on my list: Duncan and Meg: "Veronica?" Meg said. "Logan said you were still looking. We're over here by –"

"Never mind, Meg," I said. "Logan was forced to do that because of the rifle pointed at him. Sorry we couldn't let you know what had happened."

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine. Mac and Dad got here in time; and anyway, Trina was simply suffering from a major case of dramaqueenism. She wanted to get caught."

"She wanted the publicity," Meg said.

"Exactly. But it's not like this is going to help her acting career any –"

Meg said, "She's not doing this for her acting career. She's doing this for her father."

"Say what?"

"Think about it, Veronica," Meg said. "Now she has a major public forum. She can get books written and movies made and all of that, all saying what a great guy Aaron Echolls was. Trina probably doesn't think there's any such thing as bad publicity. A big showy public trial, she pleads guilty at the end, and she gets to spout off about how Lynn's theories are such crap along the way."

"My god." Trina Echolls was, in her own way, as much of a monster as her father had ever been. She just showed it differently. She might not have been trying to kill anyone – I wasn't quite sure I believed her, there – but she'd been perfectly willing to hit me with a stray bullet. And, knowing Trina, she honestly meant it when she said she was sorry I'd been hit.

Welcome to Neptune. The town with maybe ten, twelve residents tops who didn't constantly redefine the word "twisted."

"It makes sense, right?"

"Right," I said. "Good thinking, Meg."

"Thanks!" I could practically hear her grin, "So, you don't need Duncan and me anymore?"

"Not at the moment. Thanks for all your help."

"Anytime, Ronniekins."

I winced but hung up.

And now for door number three . . .

"Weevil."

"V. What's going on?"

"What's going on is that the story I told you earlier was a lie to avoid being shot."

"Damn. Sorry I didn't pick up on it."

"No problem. I don't expect you to be a mindreader." After a second. "Anyway, there are bigger problems."

"Yeah? Like?"

"Like your boy Armando."

"What about him?'

"He decided playing both sides was a good way to get some extra spending money." I explained exactly what Armando had done."

"He better be on the way to Kansas City by now," Weevil said. "'cause if I catch him he's a dead man."

"Change dead to 'beaten within an inch of his life' and you'll get no argument from me," I said.

"Still lookin' out for me, V?"

"We look out for each other, Weevil."

He laughed. "Yeah, we do, don't we. Okay, you got a deal. No death. Maybe dismemberment."

"Dismemberment it is."

As I hung up, I heard Dad's voice saying, "Dismemberment for who?"

I briefly debated making something up, then decided just to tell him the truth. "Armando. One of Weevil's gang. Doublecrossed Logan and me by calling Trina and telling her we were coming."

"Veronica, if Eli's actually going to dismember him –"

"Dad," I said, "For all Armando knew when he called Trina she was going to kill us. He took a thousand dollars and sent us off to a crazy woman with a rifle. I honestly don't give a damn if Weevil ties him up, puts him in a sack and throws him into the Pacific Ocean, except that I don't want Weevil going to jail for it. I'm not going to do anything to protect him."

Something in my expression must have told Dad that this was something I wasn't going to argue about, because he said, "Fine. We'll talk about it later." Not unless you tie me to a chair or trap me in a stalled elevator.

"I also called Wallace, Meg and Duncan and thanked them," I said. "Meg thinks that not only did Trina do this just for the publicity, but so that she could get Aaron's story to a wider audience." I frowned. "Who's holding the gun on her?"

"Mac, again. Lynn still seems to be stunned, so Logan's comforting her." He shook his head. "You think you know some people. I would have sworn Trina Echolls was basically harmless."

I looked up at him. "You too, huh?"

We went outside and Dad relieved Mac. "You know," Trina said. "I'm really not going to go anywhere. I've already got what I wanted."

"Trina," my father said. "I believe my daughter told you to shut up."

"What are you going to do? Shoot me?"

In the coldest voice I'd ever heard him use, Dad said, "Don't tempt me."

Right then, the Balboa County Sheriff's Department came up. Lamb made a beeline for my father. If he said one thing –

He didn't. All he said was, "Keith. What the hell happened here?" Deputy Leo took the rifle from my father's hands while a paramedic went over to check on Lynn Echolls.

"Ask Veronica," Dad said.

Lamb looked at me. I braced myself for the usual disdain and was surprised to hear him say, "Okay, Veronica. What happened?" in a tone completely void of its usual contempt. Either something about this shook him badly, or Dad had threatened to dismember him if he said anything nasty to me.

Either way, it threw me for a second. "Do you want my reasoning or just what went on today?"

"What happened today will be good for now," he said. "We can get to your reasoning later." He pointed to Sacks, who was putting the rifle in an evidence bag, and Lynn Echolls. "If we need it."

"You might," I said. "Anyway . . ." and I went on to explain the events of the day, from the time I figured out it might be Trina until the time action hero Mac wrestled Trina to the ground. "You'll probably get more out of Lynn Echolls, though."

"We're waiting on her," Lamb said. "She seems to have had a rougher time of this than you have." In the background, Deputy Leo was handcuffing a still-smiling Trina. "But we're going to need your testimony, too," he said. "This one I'm going to get right." He laughed bitterly. "I'm tired of being so publicly wrong so often."

I'd been handed the straight line of a lifetime, and I couldn't take full advantage of it. "Don't worry. This time the Mars family agrees with you."

Lamb shot me an aggrieved look, but all he said was, "That should help." Then he walked off to talk to Logan and Mac about their role in the days' events.

"Look at her," I said. Fortunately, Dad knew what her I was referring to. "She's actually smiling. Somehow, in her head, this all worked out perfectly -- well, except for the part where Mac the 'computer geek' came to our rescue rather than you. But I'm sure in her head she's rewriting the script already."

"Well, it won't have a happy ending," Dad said.

"That's the problem, Dad," I said. "For her, it already has."