Logan awoke the next morning to his father's fists on his shoulders. Aaron drug him out of the bed and threw him to the floor. Aaron's eyes blazed with fury, far gone beyond the point of a regular, ritualistic beating. Logan new Aaron wouldn't let up until he was striped with red and purple welts. Still, he at least had to know what he had done to provoke the beating.
"Where are they?" Aaron growled with a feral intensity as he backed Logan into a corner.
Logan was more confused than afraid. "What? Who?"
"Where are the tapes, dammit?" Aaron roared, advancing on his son. "What in the hell did you do with them?"
"The ones from last night? They were just some old ones Lilly had-"
Aaron struck Logan once more before pointing a finger towards the door. Logan walked past him silently. Aaron always whipped him in his own study downstairs. It was like some twisted tradition for them. Logan had to get a belt, take off his shirt, and kneel in front of Aaron as he beat him with it. Logan was still confused, but knew that there was nothing he could say or do to stop what his father was going to do to him anyway.
"Where is that whore of yours? Did she take them?" Aaron demanded after finishing off Logan's beating. By that time, Logan wasn't listening anyway; he was barely conscious for all the pain. He had tuned his father out, a trick he'd learned long ago to help cope with the beatings. Aaron finally relented and left him alone. Logan dragged himself over to the pool house to recuperate. He rarely went back to his own bedroom. The stairs were hard going and, besides, the physical distance from Aaron was mild salve on his wounds. He collapsed onto his belly on the bed and was just about to drift off to a black and dreamless sleep when his cell phone rang.
Veronica. Always perfect timing. Or not. He answered it nonetheless; he knew hearing her voice would make him feel better.
"We still on for lunch in an hour?" she asked brightly.
Logan tried to sound normal. "Uh, sorry I can't. Rain check?"
"Do you already have another girl on the side that you promised lunch to?" she joked.
"You should know you're the only one I want," he returned seriously. He could actually hear her smiling.
"Well, I'm at Wallace's now. He found the extra cable and I'm about to finally see what's on those tapes. You want to do something later?" There was a pause on the line before she added, sotto voce, "My dad's on a stake out all night tonight."
"I'm sorry, I can't. Rain check, though?"
She smiled a silent plea at Wallace. He rolled his eyes before standing up and walking off a bit so he couldn't hear. "Okay, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Logan. Did you hear me? Dad. Stakeout. Empty apartment all night? Empty bed all night?"
"Yeah, I just... this thing came up and-" he stammered weakly, knowing she'd see right through him.
"You just turned down sex. Something is wrong. Are you okay?"
God, I'm never going to be able to lie to her, am I? "I'm fine… I just had a bit of a run-in with my dad and-"
Her voice rose a little, but whether she was nervous or worried, Logan couldn't tell. "Did he hit you?"
Logan didn't know what to say to that. He'd hoped Veronica hadn't heard Trina the day she'd said all of those things about Aaron abusing him, but now it was obvious she had.
"Logan, I-" She let out a breath. "I'm coming to pick you up as soon as Wallace plays those tapes and I'm bringing you to the apartment."
Again Logan chose to remain silent. But, he was relieved inside. A small part of him had worried all along that if she'd known about his family… I won't go there. She's coming.
"I'll be there in an hour. Just stay where you are until then." She hung up the phone and walked back into the living room where Wallace was sitting on the couch waiting.
"It's all ready to go." He handed Veronica the remote and she pressed the play button.
xxxx
Aaron woke up on the couch that morning, hung over from all the previous night's scotch. He didn't remember much, as usual. He moved into the kitchen and heated the stovetop griddle in order to make himself some pancakes to help settle his ailing stomach. He stopped midway through mixing the Bisquick, remembering something about Veronica being at the house and Logan asking him something about a tape recorder. About some tapes of Lilly's. Tapes that were the same size as the ones that had been missing since the day he'd killed her. He pushed off his oven mitts, not particularly caring where they landed and headed to Logan's bedroom.
Logan was still asleep. That lazy little leech. He tore through everything he could find in his room, but he found nothing.
xxxx
Veronica tried Logan on his cell phone once again but instead of his voice, she only got the inspirational message on his voicemail. She was already terrified after what she'd seen on those tapes and found the missing piece in place to solve Lilly's murder, but the fact that Aaron had beaten Logan earlier only scared her more. What if he wasn't alright? What if his father had came back and hurt him more?
Whatever fears she had during the drive were nothing compared to the terror than consumed her when she found the house in flames. She was thankful that she had left the tapes with Wallace as she realized that Logan was probably inside and she had to go in for him. At least if something happened to her, Lilly's murderer would still be exposed. She pushed through the door, tossed her bag down, and began her search.
xxxx
After Aaron had gotten out of the house, he'd tried to help Logan which resulted in his own son hitting him. He watched Logan kneel on the grass over Veronica's still body. At least he'd managed to get rid of that bitch. She was worse than Lilly.
He approached Logan, sneering in disgust; his pathetic excuse for a son was probably crying. When he drew closer, he could see that Logan wasn't crying; his face was just… Aaron wasn't sure. He'd never seen Logan look so fierce. He put a careful hand on his shoulder.
"Son, I'm sorry."
Logan's head slowly turned away from Veronica and he locked his gaze on Aaron. "Sorry for killing her?"
Logan stood and threw a punch right that landed against Aaron's temple. Logan watched his father crumple to the ground, blood trickling from nose, eyes shut. Whether he was dead or just unconscious, Logan couldn't be sure. He didn't care one way or the other as it was.
He settled back on the ground beside Veronica, watching her for any sign of movement. He felt his father hitting him back had once on the back of his head, but he didn't care. It just meant that he hadn't hit the bastard hard enough after all. He kept his focus on Veronica.
Logan heard the ambulances coming. He stood and waved for them to come over before kneeling down to her. He laid his cheek close to her mouth to see if she was still breathing. Her breath had been shallow by the time they'd made it to the lawn, but now there was nothing. Suddenly panicked, he searched her wrist for a pulse. Nothing.
Two EMTs ran up and looked her over for less than a minute. One finally turned to Logan, his face grim. "I'm sorry, sir." He shook his head gently.
Logan stared down at Veronica's beautiful face through his tears.
Veronica was dead.