One of the reviews mentions "innocent Veronica."
This is not 'innocent Veronica.' This is no Veronica you've ever met before. There's a specific word to describe what this Veronica is, and I'm deliberately not using it – but a special prize to the first person to use it in a review.
And this is about as far from fluffy as it gets.
Disclaimer: Rob Thomas created Veronica Mars. This is not his creation.
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They say that knowledge is power.
This is complete bullshit, of course. If knowledge really were power, Albert Einstein would have run the world.
What makes knowledge power is the guts to use it when you have to. It doesn't do you any good to – oh, let's take a complete hypothetical here – 'know' that Duncan Kane is prone to epileptic fits and violent rages if you're not prepared to use it. Like say, you care about him, or something.
Fortunately, I've never been blessed with an overabundance of actually caring about people. It's a good thing to be able to fake, and I can fake it well. For instance, when I came into school this morning, I saw that Weevil and his gang had duct-taped a new kid – black, not half-bad looking – to the flagpole.
He knows better than that – or he should. But no matter. Most of the time, I just let Weevil have his fun. He knows who really runs this school, so if he wants to torture a random new boy every once in a while, I'm not usually inclined to bitch.
But this was different. I'd seen this kid before – his name was Wallace, and he worked in the office. The school office was the one place I'd never really been able to penetrate. So I thought maybe he might prove useful. I looked around at everyone, said, "Back off, please –" everyone did – and cut him down.
He was grateful enough to want to be my friend. And I was smart enough to let him think he was – let him think that I "cared" about him. He even called me a "peach" at one point. I liked the analogy. You'll see why in a minute.
Anyway. If I hadn't had the guts to tell my father about Duncan's epilepsy – and the press, too, of course – then people wouldn't know about it – and wouldn't maybe be thinking Duncan was a viable candidate for having killed Lilly.
I dated Duncan for a while; he fell in love with me, or so he says. I've personally never actually believed in love; it's a way to sell movies and greeting cards. I believe in lust – I've certainly exploited other people's often enough – but not love. Still, if someone thinks they're in love with me, that gives me all the power I need. (He confided these seizures to me, at one point, as we lay there in the 'afterglow.' Afterglow, my ass. Duncan may have a dull kind of good looks, but as far as satisfying a woman goes, he's a hamster. Logan Echolls, on the other hand – but I'm getting ahead of myself again. Sorry about that.)
Anyway, lust is power. Sure, you'd never think to look at me that it was something I could use so readily, but that only proves how deceiving looks can be. Lust can be generated by sheer looks – and I don't exactly look like the mob worked me over, though I'm no sex bomb – but other things can generate it, too. Conversation. Flirtation. Charm. And charm, I'm an expert at.
I kind of picked that up from my Dad, though he probably wouldn't appreciate the uses I'm putting it to. He actually has a sense of ethics.
On the chance that evidence develops that clears Duncan – legitimate evidence – or if Dad's never able to develop enough proof to actually go to trial, I've got a couple of other people to throw into the line of fire. The rest of the Kane family. Jake found out who Lilly was sleeping with when she died. (Aaron Echolls, amazingly enough. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I wouldn't have thought Lilly would have liked them so . . . old.) Celeste thought she was embarrassing the family.
Aaron Echolls is also a possibility. So is Weevil Navarro – another one of Lilly's lovers -- though I'd hate to send someone to jail who's been so useful to me. For someone who was so self-righteous about who got to sleep with her boyfriends, Lilly sure got around, didn't she?
But you see, the point is, that I know these things, and that I'm willing to use them if I have to.
It's what got me to the position I'm in today, undisputed Queen Bee of Neptune High. Honestly, at times that's like being a great white in a tank full of salmon, but you take what you can get. I've got bigger plans, and they don't included being nailed for the murder of a whiny 17-year old.
Besides, she deserved what she got. She got in my way.
Oh, I'm sorry. Am I being too harsh for you? Am I not the Veronica you expected?
Do I seem kind of soft and sweet and cute and fuzzy on the outside, but if you look inside there's something poisonous and hard waiting for you?
Well, you know what they say. Veronica Mars: She's a peach.