Summary: Set near the end of A Trip to the Dentist. This is how the scene with the ceiling fan should have went down… LoVe style.
Disclaimer: I don't own Veronica Mars, lucky Mr. Rob Thomas does.
Author's Note: Hey all! I'm sure you hate me with a fiery passion at this point for taking so terribly long! I appologize profusely, and hope that you'll fogive me. Between the end of my freshman year in college and not being sure how I wanted this part of the story to go, it took me forever. But as a reward, I'm giving you TWO CHAPTERS! Yay! Aren't you excited? Now read on, you've been waiting long enough.
Veronica walked into the room quickly, moving to stand between the two of them. Logan was sitting on Lilly's bed and looked up at their entrance, but didn't move from his position.
Duncan saw Logan and a glare formed on his face, "What a pleasant surprise."
Logan rolled his eyes, "Look Duncan… I'm not exactly singing "if I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake" but… what's on these tapes is just a tad more important than what's going on between you and me."
Duncan didn't say anything in response, but his stance relaxed and he changed his focus to Veronica, "What's this all about?"
Veronica walked over to Logan and took the tapes out of his hands. "We found these in Lily's air vent. One of them is dated the day that she died," she gave him the information straight, getting to the point immediately in order to shorten the time the three of them had to spend together.
Duncan's face softened more at the mention of Lily, and his eyes were transfixed on the tapes as he took in the implications of what Veronica had just said.
When he remained silent, Veronica continued, "We were hoping you might have a video camera that we could play the tapes in."
Duncan nodded almost immediately, "Yeah, we can go hook it up to the T.V. in my room." He motioned with his head for them to follow and went back out into the hall.
At Duncan's departure Logan let out a held breath. Veronica walked over to him, took his hands and pulled him up to a standing position. She pinched his cheek teasingly, "I'm so proud of you." She said it in the most patronizing way she could muster.
Logan rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I do what I can. And get your hand off my face. You smell like cheese."
"Wow, Logan you really know how to make a girl feel special," she deadpanned, wiping her hand on her apron. "And so you know, the cheese smell is a part of any good caterer disguise."
"In other words, you were snacking on the hors d'ouevres you were supposed to be serving," he corrected, starting towards the door.
"Maybe so," she said following him, "But I figure, I'm pretty much a volunteer caterer, so the least they could do is pay me in cheese cubes."
Logan chuckled as they walked down the hall, "I like your logic, Mars." He slung his arm over her shoulder as they entered Duncan's room. Duncan had just finished setting up the video camera with the T.V.
Veronica walked over to him, "These two are dated within a few weeks of Lily's death, and this one is from the day she died." She handed them to him respectively.
"Should we watch the others, or just get straight to the important one?" Duncan asked staring at the tapes resting in his hands.
"Considering we have no idea what's on them, they all might be important. I think we should just watch them in order," Veronica reasoned.
Duncan nodded, swallowing as he carefully checked the date written on each tape before selecting the earliest one. The room was completely silent as he slipped the tape into the video camera and pushed play. The three stood in front of the television in anxious anticipation of what would appear before their eyes. The blue screen went fuzzy for a split second, proceeded by the tape beginning to play.
Veronica squinted at the screen not comprehending what she was seeing at first.
"Oh my God," she heard Logan say before violently turning away from the screen.
Veronica's eyes widened as she realized what Logan just had, that the tape had been recorded by the cameras placed in his pool house.
Why would Lily have these tapes?
Duncan got a disgusted look on his face when he saw Aaron Echolls' face on the screen and realized just what Aaron was doing. He quickly pushed the stop button and removed the tape. "What now?" he asked Veronica. Logan had moved to lean against the door frame facing away from the both of them.
Her eyebrows were wrinkled in confusion, "Put the last tape in. The one from the day she died." While Duncan switched the tape, Veronica spared a glance at Logan's still form. She took a couple steps toward him and put her hand on his shoulder.
He spoke to her without turning around. "I'm really scared of what's going to be on that tape Veronica."
"I know," she responded, not knowing what else to say. He turned to face her, and the two went to stand by Duncan, who had just pushed play. When the tape began playing, Aaron's face showed up again. Logan forced himself to watch, needing to know what significance this had.
Veronica felt like throwing up as she watched the tape of Logan's dad having sex with some as of yet unknown girl. Just as she thought she couldn't take it anymore the couple rolled over allowing the girl to be seen.
Veronica's hand flew to her mouth as she gasped. Everything suddenly made sense in the worst imaginable way as she saw Lily and her long blonde hair smiling on the screen.
She was brought back to reality as she saw Logan falling to his knees beside her. Her hand automatically reached out to turn off the television. She turned quickly and knelt in front of him. He had his head down, looking at his hands which fell limply in his lap. Veronica grasped those hands in hers, not having any idea what must be going through his head. He slowly lifted his eyes to meet her gaze and her heart broke.
Tears were streaming down his cheeks silently, "How could she? How could he?"
Veronica shook her head slowly, choking back her own tears, "I don't know." She couldn't stand looking into his eyes any longer and gently pulled him towards her. He rested his head on her shoulder and grasped at her shirt with his hands, holding on for dear life.
Duncan, who had remained silent throughout, finally spoke, "What do these tapes mean?"
Veronica remained in relatively the same position, but turned her head to face him. She spoke hesitantly, "I think… I think it means that Aaron killed Lily."
Logan stiffened in her arms before pulling away. "Don't get the impression that I'm trying to defend him in anyway, but do you care sharing how you came to that extreme conclusion?" He wiped his tears away angrily, standing and backing away from her slightly.
Veronica took a deep breath, having been afraid that she would get this reaction from him. "Lily was wearing her cheerleading outfit in the video, which leads me to believe she was there after the carwash we put on that afternoon. The carwash was the last place anyone saw her, and she was killed only hours after she left. I think that Aaron was the big secret she told me she had, and that the day she died was the day she found out Aaron's secret. That he was taping them when they slept together." Veronica stopped and made eye contact with Logan, "She found the tapes just like I did, and she took them. Aaron came back, found her gone with the tapes, and realized what someone, especially Lily, could do with something like that. She came back here, hid the tapes, and got a visit from an enraged Aaron. She wouldn't give him the tapes… so he killed her."
Both of the guys took a moment to let all of that information sink in. Duncan spoke first, "That's… crazy." Veronica's head flipped to him. "But it makes perfect sense," he continued.
She looked back to Logan, who was still silent.
Please believe me. I know it's farfetched, but I also know it's what happened. Something in me just knows it.
As if he heard her thoughts, he raised his defeated eyes to meet hers. "What are we going to do about it?" he asked, his face taking on a look of disgust and fury.
Veronica was somewhat shocked at his sudden change in demeanor, but knew that he would go through a hundred different emotions in just the next few hours. "We need to get the tapes to the police," she said simply, switching from concerned girlfriend to detective.
"What about Aaron?" Duncan asked, while he watched Veronica collect the tapes.
"What about him?" she asked, slipping the tapes into her purse.
"He's here," he replied, simply.
"Oh… Right," she thought a second, "Well, you two just keep an eye on him while I get the tapes safely to the police station. He shouldn't be a problem. I'll call once I convince the good sheriff to come arrest him… which hopefully won't take more than an hour."
"One of us should come with you," Duncan said, amending her plan.
Veronica shook her head as she walked towards the door, "You've both been suspects in her murder. Either of you coming in with me, especially since Abel Koontz was set free, would seem a little suspicious if you ask me."
"Yeah, maybe… but-" Logan started, but Veronica silenced him with her finger.
"Just stay here with Duncan. I'll call soon. You can come stay with me tonight if you don't want to go home," she said moving her hand to brush his face.
"Yeah, sure," he replied softly, looking at his feet a long time before meeting her gaze.
"It's gonna be okay. We'll figure this out, and we'll have time to talk more later," she promised. Her hand moved down his arm to grasp his hand in hers and squeezed it reassuringly.
He nodded and then stared deep into her eyes, saying something that he felt needed to be said, "I trust you, Veronica."
He must, since I just accused his dad, who we already know to have slept with his girlfriend, of killing her as well.
Veronica smiled at him, "I'll call you in a few." She took his head in her hands and kissed his forehead, before turning and walking quickly down the hallway. "Don't let him, or Aaron, out of your sight," she whispered to Duncan as she passed him. The two watched her walk away before coming to stare at each other, both unsure of what to do or say.
Hope you liked it! The next chapter's waiting... Please review when you finish it!