Vinnie was singing along to Kiss by Prince with his feet up on his desk and attempting to balance a pencil upright on his finger. He didn't look at her as she placed the small box of Devil's Food Cake onto the table beside him.

"Baby Mars! Unexpected… I would have thought you would be off in college someplace, girl gone wild" he smirked. Her presence here was not a surprise. He had demanded she bring him something from the bakery two streets over before he even entertained her questions.

Veronica clenched her teeth hard enough to crack a walnut as she handed over the evidence file her dad had 'not' given her before going home after their dinner.

"Would you like a shovel?" she quipped while he opened it and devoured a piece of the icing with his fingers.

Vinnie Van Lowe's office was a strange blend of citrus floor cleaner and the scent of Thai food drifting upwards from the streets downstairs, but nothing was as nauseating as the way his eyes roved over her body then flicked back to the tablet on his desk. Her shoulders went down in relief when he finally perused over the dates and names her father had asked her to follow up with him.

"Steve Botanda…" he murmured flicking through his illegible notes. The guy kept his case files written up in code, using an old football series playbook as a cypher. Even now she hadn't been able to crack it. He probably changed it for every other case.

"Botando" Veronica corrected.

"Meh… potato… tomahto" he shrugged, picking another bit of fruit from the cake and popping it inot his mouth.

If he asked her to get him coffee… God help him….

"I thought that famous Mars gut didn't go astray?" he said shaking his head as he looked at the small bug in his hand. The hunch obviously wasn't going to pay off.

"You've never seen this before?" she prompted, eager to wrap this up so she could go and see Logan. He'd called a few times during dinner with her dad, but she hadn't been able to answer. There were also several texts from Parker, and two missed calls from Wallace.

"Which lawyers asking?" Vinnie retorted quirking an eyebrow.

"None. Just trying to track down a possible lead," Veronica shrugged folding her arms across her chest.

"One woman operation now daddy's gone Pro?" he jested.

"Can you just stop wasting my time?" she asked impatiently, as fun as this little dance was between them, her tolerance was low after that visit tonight with her father to Letty Navarro's house. She wasn't holding up too well, and Weevil's niece and younger sister were possibly going to end up in foster care if their aunt couldn't take them in.

"Interesting, usually ladies love delayed gratification," he shrugged standing up and rounding his desk. She rolled her eyes at the double-meaning in his retort. "It's not one of mine." He told her finally. "Low tech" he commented hinting at the cupboard behind him.

"You really going to brag about the size of your toys?" Veronica asked wryly taking the small plastic evidence bag from him and sliding the file back into her bag.

No one had hired him to look into Dean Odells wife, or Professor Landry, though he had made several utterances that he wished they had.

"Blackmails good for business" he shrugged.

Vinnie hadn't been the one to bug Professor Landry's phone, and she doubted Hopkins or Landen would have gone to those kind of lengths. Hopkins mostly dealt with divorce cases, and Landen was more a bounty hunter than a P.I. neither really had the inclination to use these kind of invasive tools.

"Back to where I started," Veronica muttered.

"Then how about I join you. You can be the Starsky to my Hooch" he grinned. His reference was so off-base it worked in earning him a smile from her.

"With attention to details like that… I think I'm good" she said shaking her head.

"Oh come on… I'm between cases right now… and if it works out, I could be needing a new assistant" he countered.

He recognised talent when he saw it, the petite blond sleuth could be a real asset.

"Your mother is your assistant," Veronica reminded him.

"Yeah but she also tells me to watch my cholesterol," he said dismissively. "What do you say?" he said before breaking out into a rendition of My Girl by The Temptations. "I got all the riches baby… that any man can claim…." he caterwauled as she shook her head at his ridiculousness.

"Goodnight Vinnie," Veronica sighed turning to leave as he changed tracks and the butchered sounds of Bill Withers – Ain't No Sunshine followed her down the stairs into the cool night air.