Veronica Mars
Disclaimer: I don't own VM or its characters
Lucky you all, two updates in one night…that means I expect double the reviews!
In a city where residents meet dramatic ends on a regular basis, it seems Wallace somehow ran out of luck in an entirely non-mysterious way. Perhaps that's what Veronica had the hardest time understanding. Murders, the bus crash, jumping off bridges, jumping off hotels, explosions on a plane…these are not pleasant endings, but ones where there is a culprit or catalyst and if Veronica is lucky, a mystery. A mystery means she can put off the grief, push aside feelings of desperation and pain and focus on solving a puzzle. A needed distraction for a girl who could no longer name the number of people she'd lost on one hand.
Wallace's death left no room for question…not that Veronica didn't try to find signs of foul play. She was dying for someone to blame, somewhere to place all the anger and guilt she was feeling. She was sure his death had something to do with her. Clearly she pissed someone off or over-stepped a boundary on a case, and someone went after Wallace in an attempt to destroy her. There is no way that an 18-year-old boy could just die out of the blue for no reason. Not a boy connected with Veronica Mars.
So immediately after receiving the news, after her few moments of shocked silence and intense shaking, she pushed past her concerned father and drove directly to the police station. She had to get answers and her father, who for the third time now delivered the news of a friend's death, was too adamant that it was basically, for lack of anything better, "bad luck." Sheriff Lamb was no better. Although in a more condescending tone, he assured Veronica that of course all steps would be taken to be 100 sure, but from the looks of it, Wallace's death was absolutely nobody's fault. Veronica left the police station in the same state she entered it. Frazzled and in a hurry, she knew better than to let hot clues cool off. She got right back into her car, ignored the falsely concerned remarks from Lamb that she wasn't in the right condition to be driving, and took off towards the hospital. Thirty minutes later, she was still trying to bargain with the people at the morgue to let her in.
It was no use, but an autopsy was pending. Then Veronica would be sure, and she knew she'd wipe that condescending smirk off Lamb's face, that her father would nod his head and say, "you were right, sweetheart." She knew she'd prove them all wrong and that Wallace's death would not have been "bad luck", but a mystery she could solve. She's not sure how this was going to help the situation in the long run, but it was a distraction.
As soon as Keith told her the news that Wallace had collapsed on a basketball court, Veronica knew it wasn't a "freak accident". She knew there was a reason for it; she knew it had been preplanned. So when the phone rang well into the evening, following the autopsy, she had already imagined the conversation she would have with Alicia Fennel, who had promised to call with the results. She was sure they would have found a poison or chemical in his body, which shouldn't have been there, she had already rehearsed the reaction she would give. Which is why when Alicia called and delivered the news, she handed the phone to her father in silence and decided it was time to call Logan.
"Veronica," Alicia started, obviously struggling to get through the conversation, "the hospital just called and they finished the autopsy. Wallace died of a heart attack" Alicia began crying, "apparently, he had a heart defect that hadn't been detected, and he died playing basketball."
As Veronica walked into her bedroom she found it more difficult to breathe. She pulled herself together the best she could and picked up her cell phone. This wasn't a mystery she could solve and she didn't know how to cope. It was time for Logan to come home.
