A/N – Thank you everyone for your reviews! Sorry about the lateness of the update. Classes have begun, and reading The Secret History took up a lot of my time. I'll be updating again soon. Enjoy!

X.

When Veronica asked Logan if he wanted to listen to the bug on Jake, she was a little surprised that he said no. Wallace was taking his place instead. Logan had something important he had to do.

He'd been standing at the front door for a couple of minutes, psyching himself up to ring the doorbell. But before he could the door was opened by a none-too-happy Duncan.

"You've got some balls to come here, Logan," he said as he walked out of the house and up to Logan.

"Look man, I'm not here to fight okay."

"Then you came to the wrong place." Duncan took another step closer.

"I'm only here for Veronica. Stop treating her like shit, she doesn't deserve it." Duncan smirked.

"Like you can talk. You made her life hell for a while there, and you're doing it again now."

"Me! She's still talking to me, man."

"And that's the problem. You want to play the hero? Then stay away from her." Logan contemplated Duncan's words. Sure, he could stay away from Veronica and let her and Duncan get their relationship back on track. He decided he wasn't going to be that noble.

"Hell, no. She made her choice and I'm not going to let her regret it. It's up to you to stop acting like a bastard." Anger filled Duncan and before Logan could see it coming, Duncan raised his fist and connected straight with Logan's eye. Logan staggered back a little but stood his ground.

"Fuck you, Duncan. I was trying to do you a favor, but I can see after that little movie-of-the-week moment that it was pretty hopeless."

"I don't want any favors from scum like you," Duncan gritted out. Logan sighed and turned to go.

"Whatever, I really don't need this and you're really going to regret it."

"Doubtful," Logan gave up and walked back to his car. Duncan remained glaring at him until he drove off.

oooooooooooooo

"You are going to owe me so big for this, woman," Wallace muttered as he and Veronica followed Jake Thompson to the copy shop where he worked.

They had been following Jake to two hours. He had gone shopping for erasers, bought a new air freshener for his car and then parked at Morpheus Comics for an hour and a half. Veronica and Wallace listened in as Jake and other unnamed persons debated at length the merits of the new Absolute Edition of the Watchmen.

After that non-stop action fest, Jake had then led them to his place of work. Since Veronica knew that he had a four hour shift, she decided it was time to give in and head home.

"That was a colossal waste of time," Veronica said exasperatingly. She had been working under the assumption that the shadowy guy would want his money way in advance. But now she wasn't so sure.

"Hey, it's not every day you get to compare and contrast Frank Miller's 'Daredevil' with Brian Michael Bendis'," Wallace replied sarcastically. "Logan doesn't know what he's missing out on."

"It's on tape, so we can share the joy with Logan later on. But it still pisses me off that we didn't find anything out today."

"You figured out that the pranks at school were being done by those weird-ass Tritons. That's something," Wallace suggested, but Veronica wasn't having any of it.

"Big deal. I'd already had a hunch on that one and believe me, the last thing I want to think about is anything connected to Duncan Kane." Veronica frowned as Wallace showed surprise.

"I thought the two of you were getting along pretty well now." Veronica remained silent as she waited for Wallace to click. "Oh, I get it. Logan."

"You got it, Penfold. It's a Time Cop paradox. I can't be friends with both of them at the same time."

"And you're surprised by that?" Wallace asked disbelievingly.

"Well, it's pretty obvious that you're not."

"For such a smart girl, you don't get people, do you?" Veronica kept staring at the road. "You don't think there might be some issues between Logan and Duncan."

"But it was Logan's father that..."

"At the moment I don't think that Duncan can separate the two of them. It's got to be hard for him, so just give him some time." Veronica sighed at Wallace's advice.

"I told Logan the same thing. 'Give him some time.' But I'm starting to lose faith in that theory," she confessed as she reached her apartment building and parked her car beside Logan's.

"Let's go tell Logan about our exciting day and how I solved the Triton's mystery," Veronica said as she hopped out of the car. By the abrupt change in subject, Wallace knew that she didn't want to discuss Duncan anymore, so he let it drop.

As they walked past the gate, Veronica saw Logan sitting outside of her apartment. She felt a wave of nausea hit her as she took in the painful looking swollen eye he was sporting. Logan stood up as Veronica left Wallace behind and ran up to him.

"What happened? Are you okay? Who did this to you?" Veronica rushed out as she reached up and tenderly touched the bruised area. Logan winced and grabbed her hand.

"I'm fine," he softly said to her with a small smile. He let go of her as Wallace reached them.

"Wow, man. That has gotta hurt."

"Wallace has a gift for stating the obvious. And don't think I haven't noticed that you didn't answer my questions. Who did this to you?" Veronica again asked worriedly as Logan rubbed the back of his neck.

"Let's just say that an afternoon probably wasn't enough time for Duncan."

"You went to see him?" Veronica asked back accusingly. Logan mistook the anger in her eyes for him. A wave of frustration ran through his body.

"It has nothing to do with you, Mars. Just forget about it. I'm fine and let's leave it at that." Veronica was surprised at the sudden attitude change in Logan, but decided to give him a little leeway. She knew that, emotionally, he probably wasn't up for another fight. Wallace watched the two of them in interest.

"Okay. Why don't we go inside? Wallace and I can fill you in on what we learned today." Both Logan and Wallace were a little surprised that Veronica had given in so quickly, but both decided to be thankful for small mercies.

ooooooooooooooo

Keith knocked again on the door of the house that was listed as the residence of one Jeremy Carter. He was just about to ring Veronica to tell her that he was back in town, when the door finally opened. A small lady who looked like she was in her late seventies stood looking at him.

"Good afternoon, ma'am. I'm looking for Jeremy Carter. My name is Keith Mars, I'm a private investigator." The lady was skeptical until he saw his card. She then became more animated and could have passed for at least sixty-nine.

"Hello, Mr. Mars. I'm Daisy Carter, Jeremy's mother. A private investigator, you say. How interesting. I've just finished the Raymond Chandler novels, and I've just began the Nero Wolfe books. Do you grow orchids too? It's all so exciting. Come in, come in. Have any mysterious women walked into your offices? How delightful that must be?" Keith waited until she inevitably had to take a breath and he took his chance to speak.

"Actually Ms. Carter, is Jeremy in? I really need to talk to him."

"Ooohh. Are you on a case right now? Jeremy's not here right now, but if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them for you."

"I don't know if you could help me. I need to talk to your son about his credit card problem." As Keith spoke, Daisy's eyes lit up.

"Oh, you must sit down. It was my credit card, you know." She led him over to a chaise lounge and he sat down. Daisy sat opposite him. Keith decided any information would be helpful.

"Well, if you don't mind I'd like to ask you some questions."

"The ladies in my reading group are not going to believe this. You must take a picture with me."

"Perhaps later, Ms. Carter. Do you know why your son offered a $15,000 reward to find the man who used your credit card?"

"Oh, you see my Jeremy has always looked after me. When I told him I noticed $3,000 missing from my card, he was livid, absolutely livid. He'd do anything for me, you see. That's him there." Keith looked as Daisy waved her hand at a picture of a boy about eight years old.

"He looks different now of course. I think that was taken in the summer of 1964. But look at those eyes. Oh, how the girls loved his eyes." Keith smiled as he tried to get the interview back on track.

"But, ma'am, why did he offer such a large reward?"

"He was sure that nobody would try and look for the man if the reward was too small. And as you can see $15,000 was a small amount to pay for my Jeremy." Keith looked around the room and had to admit that whatever Jeremy Carter did for a living, he certainly brought home a mean amount of bacon.

"I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Ms. Carter, but your son canceled the reward." Daisy nodded knowingly and her voice took on a conspiring tone.

"Yes, yes. I know all about that. Jeremy doesn't know I do, but I do. A man came around two days ago. You know the type. Like Clark Gable, all polished in a beautiful suit. He was very tanned, but he spoke with an accent. Jeremy took him in his study and closed the door. But an old lady like myself has little to entertain herself and I often eavesdrop on Jeremy. You won't tell him will you?" She began to look worried.

"Of course not. Private investigator privilege," he said hoping Daisy would believe him.

"Yes, wonderful. It's just that the Clark Gable man was very adamant on keeping the meeting secret, and Jeremy may get angry if he knew I told anyone." Keith was starting to feel lucky that he had gotten to speak to the mother rather than the son.

"It won't leave this room, Ms. Carter." Daisy smiled.

"Good, good. Well, 'Clark Gable' said that he was after the same man that stole money from me. But he wanted to handle it himself. He said that his mother was also a victim and he didn't want the police to mess anything up. He gave Jeremy $30,000 for the trouble and left." Keith was happy with the information he had gotten and realized it was time to leave.

"Well, thank you very much Ms. Carter. You've been a big help." He went to rise, but Daisy stopped him.

"Oh, you must wait. I'll just go get my camera. Have you got a badge or anything that you could hold up? The ladies would love that. Even handcuffs. Oh, yes. You could pretend to be arresting me. Wonderful."

ooooooooooooooo