,(Keeping your head up - Birdy)

"Still no sign of our cocky Casanova?" Parker asked impatiently as they looked around the crowds gathered outside Amity Hall.

How hard could it be to spot Dick Casablancas?

The sex hair... the long kind perfect for a girl to thread her fingers throught while a guy... well you know... and the bonze chiseled surf-bod that slays panties… That smile and that dimple… God that fucking dimple!

She wasn't ashamed to admit that hot tanned surfers was definitely part of the appeal to choosing a college in sun-soaked Neptune. If her friend chose never to speak to Dick Casablancas again, her friends and family would probably applaud but Parker had to concede after having come face to face with Madison Sinclair… it was little wonder why the poor guys ideas of women and relationships was so warped. The bitch had almost projectiled her eyes right out of her head she'd rolled them so hard when Logan explained his father was back in town and that he was missing.

How would it have all turned out if he'd met Mac first?

Sliding doors.

"What would Dick be doing at a public courthouse?" Logan murmured looking at the list of firms leasing the building. How did he even know about this place?

"It's a little late for office hours," Parker commented looking at her wristwatch.

"It took us what… twenty minutes to get here?" Logan asked, sighing Parker nodded and shoved her hands into the pocket of her jacket.

"How far could Dick have gotten since we left Madison at that party?" she asked pulling out her copy of the Neptune city guide to see what was close by. The app had only said he was headed in this direction, it didn't mean that he had come here specifically.

"At this point, I think we need crystals and some hocus pocus," Logan quipped.

"Let's just stay grounded," Parker offered with a slight smile handing over the map and a sharpie.

"I wasn't aware I was levitating," Logan replied. The map in his hands looked like a city wide game of noughts and crosses. At this point he was wondering if Veronica had finished her master burglar routine, mentally squashing the image of her in a Black Widow style catsuit but he would definitely be circling back to that later, and seesawed back and forth with the idea of reporting Dick as an official missing persons or asking Sheriff Mars to put out an APB on his roommate.

"Mac never really told me about Cassidy," Parker commented quietly.

"Yeah… it's not something we ever bring up much," Logan replied solemnly.

But perhaps its something he should have been discussing with Dick… They'd both been so eager to power forwards into College life, they rarely acknowledged their demons were like a permanent weight they carried with them every step.

Maybe when they found him… he'd have a heart to heart with his best friend about them both seeking out some professional help to talk to rather than just keeping it in the dark.

Shadowboxing your own monsters could be exhausting and perhaps they were both guilty of not wanting to overburden one another with those ghosts.

Parker had her own nightmares too...

"If you ever need to talk... you know we are all here for you too," Logan said squeezing his companion on the shoulder.

"Thanks," she nodded taking the map back from him. "Uhm—if we go past the church tower we would be right next to the science building," Parker said raising her eyebrows.

How could they not have noticed they had been so close to the computer labs?

Thank God Mac's probably already at the Sea Sprite motel by now.

"You think he's going to see Mac?" Logan asked in alarm.

"It's late, the main buildings apart from the library would be almost closed up by now," she said a small crease furrowing her brow. Most of the extracurricular activities usually held in the canteen had been canceled for the next week or so due to the ongoing investigation into Weevils death.

"Wouldn't hurt to check," Logan said pulling out his car keys.

Climbing into the car she shook her head as Be Kind to Me by Longhorne Slim filled the silence.

"Piz really needs to change that playlist," she muttered clicking on her seat belt.

"Come on girl... be kind to me... can't you see? I'm in misery" Vinnie screeched along as he thumbed through the bills on the coffee table.

Veronica rolled her eyes, so much for not leaving trace evidence. He was getting fibers from that shag throw all over his jeans.

"Hey! I was listening to that" he complained as she turned off the radio.

"Inconspicuous and your caterwauling are incompatible," she quipped.

"Sometimes your straight and narrow by the book way of thinking can make this gig a bit tougher on you kid," Vinnie sighed and reached for the cigar tin on the table, picking out a cigar and sniffing it.

"By the book? I'm standing in a deceased suspect's house without a warrant," she challenged him and then huffed in disgust as he picked up the cigar box and slipped it into his leather jacket inner pocket.

"What? Cubans.." he shrugged standing up.

So far they'd found nothing of significance.

"Professor Landry is adamant that someone's trying to set him up," Veronica told him turning back to searching the bookshelves.

Steve Botando was Mindy Odells ex-husband and if Weevil's body hadn't been found then he would have been the most likely candidate to hide the evidence with, but Steve Botando was dead 72 hours before someone had killed her friend.

Had the killer been smart enough to remove anything they'd planted here already?

"Well there's nothing here," Vinnie told her as he poked through the music collection and pocketed some more random items.

"Do you have to do that?" Veronica scolded him took the next pile from his hands.

"What? In a few years its called archaeology" he said shaking his head.

"Is that why you showed up with a duffle bag?" Veronica asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"Fine... lets get this done. The computer is empty, there's no gun in the house or the deputies would have found it after Lamb's... the guy has no shirts worth taking. He had no pets, and from the mail, he's got zero social life and we know he was dead at the time when someone killed Prison Break... there's nothing interesting about this dead man" Vinnie listed. "So since we know whoever did this is connected to the Dean, Mindy and your Professor we can assume Weevil was in the wrong place at the right time. Since I'm sure you have turned the Dean's life apart... My money is on the wife... if it was chances are Botando and the Dean was bugged," Vinnie surmised his cool blue eyes flicking from playful idiocy to a fierce intelligence as he handed her the small device.

Most times the killer was known by the victim...

He hummed Blues Saraceno - Bad Man while he worked checking the likely spots for anything out of place and she searched for obviously feminine touches and looked for hidden cameras.

Veronica fired Wallace back a quick text when he sent her a quick picture of a dog walker taking notice of the car. They couldn't stay much longer.

They'd found Nothing. Would there be time to check out Landry's before his release?

"We have to go," Veronica told Vinnie while he fiddled with a light fixture.

"I'll pay a visit to the widow.. offer my services," Vinnie said with a lewd grin. "She's more likely to slip up if she thinks she can hire me to find anything to call off the hounds."

"Another dead end," she sighed in frustration. Picking up a pile of books and making sure the scene was as close to the way she'd found it.

Even if my new 'partner' is a klepto.

Any temptation to take him up on his offer to join his Detective Agency evaporated as she saw him slip the small bottles of scotch into his pocket.

She turned to see Vinnie trying to move back the cabinet where they'd checked the air vents behind it, placing her phone down to help him lift the other end when the dials on his small back device went cried out like something had stubbed its toes.

"Now that's some helicopter parenting" Vinnie chuckled. She had specifically used an older model which was harder to hack or keep electronic records of or trace than smartphones... she just hadn't considered it meant hers was easier to plant a bug in because you could access the battery. This wasn't paranoid Dad parenting... Nope, that tracker was in a small bracelet charm he'd given her the Christmas after Aaron Echolls tried killing them both.

"It wasn't my dad..." Veronica told him.

Picking up her phone she hurriedly popped the back casing off and found the small coin-shaped battery, identical to the one found in Landry's office phone.