Drunk Logan
Chapter 18

A/N: Well, we hated Troy already, right? I've always felt that there is no reason to do things half way...so here we go.

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There were few words spoken between the two on the ride to The Vandergraff residence. Both of their minds were racing, thinking of the possibilities of what they would find.

Logan really didn't know what to think. Although he had thought that Troy's behavior had been odd for someone who was just using Veronica; he'd thought and hoped that his leaving had been the end of it. Now, though, the Sheriff wanted to show Keith something that he couldn't tell him about over the phone.

His stomach was doing flips and he continually pumped his fist against his nervously bouncing leg. His one calming thought was that maybe Lamb just wanted to see Keith for his professional expertise. 'Yeah, Logan, like he would ask Keith for help on anything.'

Keith was worried. Don Lamb would never ask him for help. The Sheriff had made a point of keeping Keith out of the details of any of the cases the Department was working. The thought that he was now voluntarily opening up and actually seeking Keith out regarding a case, did not sit well.

He had seen a lot of things in all of his years in law enforcement. The moments spent in the car ride to The Vandergraff's only served as time for him to ponder which of those things he would find when they arrived. He also kept trying to figure out what it had to do with Veronica.

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When they arrived at the house, Logan was a little surprised. He'd been expecting to drive up to police cars parked on the street everywhere, police tape all over the place and media being held back by blockades. He had no doubt that they'd be wading through officers milling around the crime scene taking pictures and collecting evidence.

When he saw the serene picture of the perfect house sitting unobstructed, he almost laughed. He would have thought that they were at the wrong house had he not seen the single unmarked police car in the driveway. 'So much for the Hollywood vision.'

Keith stepped out of the vehicle and Logan followed. They walked into the house and were met with another peaceful scene.

"Don?" Keith yelled out.

"Yeah, Keith. Up the stairs, 2nd door on the right." They heard the faint reply from the Sheriff.
Doing what they could to shorten the amount of time it took to reach Lamb and the answers they were waiting for; Keith and Logan took the stairs two at a time. They found the second room on the right and entered to find yet another quiet room.

It was a typical teenage boy's room. Well, a typical rich teenage boys room. It looked lived in, but clean. It was obviously kept up by the maids. It was furnished with a king-sized bed with matching night stands and armoire, a large cd/dvd rack and an entertainment system complete with two different gaming systems.

Logan sneered a little at Troy's choice of decor including sports paraphernalia and life-sized posters touting different music groups and athletes. 'And they think I'm immature? At least I've got better taste than this loser.'

As Logan and Keith were beginning to wonder where Lamb was, he emerged from the closet.

"Ah, finally!" Logan exclaimed. "You're coming out of the closet! Congratulations...way to be brave." Both men in the room turned on him with irritated expressions. Keith's also showed his dissatisfaction with the boy's behavior. 'Oh, yeah. That's why they think I'm immature. Way to go, Logan. Keith tells you not to say anything and you decide to be the first one to speak. Great, insulting Sheriff Dip Stick over there probably isn't the best way to keep myself involved here.'

"Sorry, that was uncalled for," Logan mumbled as he put his head down. Apologizing would have killed him, if he hadn't been willing to do anything for Veronica.

"Let's just remember why we're here, Logan, okay?" Any other time and Keith would have secretly loved that comment while scolding the young man about respect for authority or his elders or anything, really. Now, though, wasn't any other time.

"Yes, sir." Logan still hadn't lifted his head. He knew why they were here. For just a split second, when he saw Lamb step out of the closet, he couldn't stop himself from getting in a jab. It was second nature for Logan, but he need to quell that instinct if he was going to help Veronica.

"What's he doing here, Keith?" Lamb still did not look very pleased and Logan was afraid that he'd be sitting in the car inside 5 minutes.

"He was with me when I got your call and he's been taking care of Veronica while I was out of town." When he noticed that Don didn't look like he was going to allow the boy to stay, Keith added, "He could be some help. He knows both Veronica and Troy very well and may be able to provide information."

The Sheriff mulled over that thought for a moment before telling them, "Fine. But Keith, he's your responsibility. In here and after he leaves. None of this needs to be leaked to the press or around town. Am I understood?"

Keith looked over at Logan who was now watching to two men. Keith was questioning him with his eyes and Logan's response was a head nod showing that he would take this situation seriously.
"Absolutely, Don. Now, what is it that you have to show us?"

"It's this way," Lamb said as he pointed toward the large walk-in closet.

"In the closet?" Keith asked as they stepped through the door.

"Actually," Lamb said as he lead them through the closet and to another door that had been hidden by clothes prior to the Sheriff's Department removing them.

"In here." Don held the door open as the other two walked through it into what seemed to be a panic room. Only this wasn't your average panic room.

Both Keith and Logan stood there gawking at the "Veronica" covered walls of the room. There was a twin-sized bed and a computer desk in the room that was an exact replica of the ones in Veronica's actual room. The walls were covered with pictures of her and different mementoes. There were notebooks and binders filling a wall of shelves; some of which were laying open on the desk. The room also included a stack of cd's.

The two walked around the room studying all of the pictures and mementoes. Shock would not even begin to describe the state they were in.

Keith had seen a lot in all of his years in law enforcement. He'd seen murder scenes and evidences of premeditation. He'd seen the aftermath of horrific rapes that broadcasted the power play the perpetrator was acting out with his victim. This room, though, was more disturbing than any of what he'd seen before. It reminded him of a movie scene, but in reality, it was much worse. The room oozed an odd mixture of sinister darkness and devoted reverence. It gave Keith the chills.

"What is all of this?" Logan asked, having to clear his suddenly dry throat. Lamb shot him another dirty look letting him know that he was only here by a slim chance and that he needed to watch his step.

"It seems that the young Mr. Vandergraff has a bit of a fascination, for lack of a better word, with Veronica."

"I'd say that's an understatement," Keith added.

"You're absolutely right, Keith, but I was hoping to ease you into it. There is a lot here." Keith noticed that Don looked a little apprehensive about continuing and he wondered what he wasn't seeing. It had to be bad if it was worse than the pictures and replicated room that Keith was viewing.

"Go on, Don. I need to know everything." He didn't want to miss a detail. He needed as much information as possible if he was going to find Troy.

"First of all, as you can see, he's got hundreds of pictures of her. They seem to range from her at a very young age, maybe nine or ten to current. Since we know that he only moved here this year, we were unsure of how he could have even known about her for so long." He stopped when Keith interrupted him.
"Why do you say that he knew about her? Wouldn't it make sense that he's just started collecting these old pictures of her this year?" Keith didn't want to think about the implications of this boy being fixated on Veronica for the last six or seven years.

"Although I would normally agree, we've found other evidence to support a long-standing fixation. What we believe, just from what we've seen so far, is that Troy created a separate reality where he and Veronica met six or seven years ago and then started dating when they were 12."

Logan's mood had gone from shocked to seething. His stomach tightened and his jaw clenched as he continued to study all of the pictures while listening to the conversation.

"That's when she started dating Duncan." Logan said not even looking away from the walls.

"Yeah, that seems to be the connection." Lamb added.

"What do you mean? Duncan and Veronica dating is what set this off?" Keith wasn't getting the information as quickly as he wanted and he wished Lamb would just spit it out.

"Not exactly. We found letters and e-mails that date back approximately seven years. They are to Troy from Lilly and Duncan. From what we can surmise, Troy met them during the summer seven years ago, when the Vandergraff's bought a yacht and stored it in the slip next to the Kane's at the marina. At some point during the summer, he either saw or met Veronica briefly while she was with the Kane's at the marina."

"It seems that when Troy went back home after the summer, he and the Kane kids kept in contact through the letters and e-mails. On the copies Troy has, he's highlighted sections where Lilly or Duncan talk about Veronica. In some of them it is as simple as a mention. 'Veronica came to the beach with us and we had so much fun.' Others are more detailed about activities they were involved in with Veronica. In one, Lilly recounts in detail a funny story about a class she shared with Veronica in school. She quotes what she and Veronica said and what the teacher said in return."

"It looks like the real change comes after he received an e-mail from Duncan, wherein Duncan tells him about Veronica becoming his girlfriend. From that point, Troy creates a false dating relationship with Veronica and includes anything that Duncan and Lilly talk about doing with Veronica. He's created his own journals detailing what his life with her has been like and he adds details from experiences that Duncan and Lilly had with her. Troy has a journal entry that corresponds with the day Duncan wrote to tell Troy that he and Veronica kissed for the first time. Troy details his first kiss with her in that entry."

"The pictures are all of her when she was with Lilly, Duncan and I." Logan interjected. "He's just cut out Duncan's head and replaced it with his own. Any of the pictures that had Duncan and her cuddling, have been transformed to pictures of Troy and her cuddling."

"It seems he used trouble-making at his old schools as a way to manipulate his parents into moving here. He was always on his best behavior while vacationing here. So after he'd been kick out of school after school, he convinced them that he would adjust to this environment better than he had anywhere else."
"Then, the first day after moving here, he began weaving himself into her life. Apparently, he had been following her and knew that she would be expected in the administration office at school. So, he placed himself there as a way to introduce himself to her."

"The cd cases on the desk contain dvd's of her. Some of them are ones that were taken from the Kane's, but there are some that were taken from other locations when he was stalking her. There are pictures of her sitting at her computer, walking around her room in her night clothes, sleeping in her bed. He's even got articles of her clothing as mementoes." He pointed around the room at the clothing hanging off the wall. "Plus, some of the entries in his journals have very intricately spelled out, um...sexual scenes involving Veronica. Things that he had "done" with her in his sick little reality and the things that he planned on doing to her. Some of it is pretty twisted stuff, Keith. We're not talking missionary style, here." The Sheriff was trying to be as honest with him as possible, but still trying to soften the blow.

"We were also able to find his reason for attacking Veronica." The look he shot at Logan did not go unnoticed. "The last journal entry he'd written alluded to Logan trying to take her away from him and her being weak to his advances. By the end of the entry, he was in a rage-filled fit. The writing had become incoherent and gotten larger and sloppier. That was Tuesday morning before leaving for school and their run in at lunch."

"Keith, he's put a lot of effort into this, paid close attention to details and used a great deal of self-control and planning here," he said as he motioned around the room. Keith knew what Lamb was trying to say and he knew how serious the situation was.

Logan was sweating now and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He was dizzy and felt like he needed to vomit. The room was closing in on him and he was getting very claustrophobic. Listening to it all, the rage boiled over and Logan couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"Well then, by all means Sheriff, let's give him a medal, shall we? I mean, come on, you're praising him! We should give him an A for being such a thoroughly sick stalking SOB. Any other accolades you'd like to bestow upon him?" Logan smacked one of the picture-covered walls.

"That's it! I'm not putting up with your crap anymore, kid. You're out of here!" Lamb yelled as he started pushing Logan toward the door.

"No, wait, stop. I'm sorry. Stop...Mr. Mars, come on." Logan was fighting against the Sheriff's advances.

"Logan, remember what I said. Now you need to step out of the room and I'll be out in a minute."
Logan stopped fighting at the sound of Keith's words. He knew he'd screwed up and earned his own one-way ticket out of the "Den of Disturbance."

"Fine, but I'll be right out here," he stated and left in a huff.

"He's just worried about her. He's been with her, taking care of her through all of this. Try to cut him some slack." The Sheriff gave a small nod.
The truth was, Keith understood exactly what Logan was feeling.

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Meanwhile, Logan was pacing around Troy's room. He was mentally kicking himself for unleashing his temper on the one man who held all of the access to information at that point, even if he was a royal ass.

Finally, he flopped himself onto his back on Troy's bed and rubbed his hands roughly over his face in an attempt to clear his head and change his attitude. He inhaled deeply and blew the breath out through his mouth several times. When he was done, he removed his hands from his face and was looking at the ceiling.

'I guess Troy likes to fall asleep gazing at the stars,' Logan thought as he stared at the poster on the ceiling that portrayed a star-filled night sky. 'Well, isn't he just the most sensitive psychopath you've ever seen?' Logan rolled his eyes and then looking at the poster, noticed on oddity along one of the corners.

Logan stood on the bed to get a closer look. It was small, but he could see a sliver of something behind the poster. Logan un-tacked the poster to reveal another glued to the ceiling beneath it. This one was of a nude Veronica...or, at least, a nude body with Veronica's head photo-shopped in the place of the original head. It was very well done and he wouldn't have known it wasn't Veronica if he hadn't seen enough of her lately to know better.

He was ready to kill thinking about Troy, laying in bed gazing at a naked Veronica, staring back at him. Suddenly another thought came to mind and he jumped off of the bed. He began frantically ripping down each of the posters in Troy's room, revealing a new picture each time.

There were a variety of pictures and they were strategically placed. By the bathroom door, he'd placed an actual picture of her standing in a towel, using another towel to dry her hair. By his tv, he'd placed a picture of her standing in her tank top and sleeping shorts holding a remote like she's about to change the channel. By the door to his room, there was a picture of her fully dressed with her messenger bag slung over her shoulder like she was coming 'home' from a long day at school. Then, there was the picture of her holding up a dress still on the hanger, which was strategically placed next to his closet door.

With the exception of the naked picture over his bed, all of the pictures of her were real, and had been taken through windows or some other way Logan couldn't decipher. His head was spinning and he reached up to his face to feel tears that he hadn't known he was shedding. He heard some noise and turned to see Lamb and Keith walking out of the panic room and through the closet.

"What's going on in here, Logan. We heard a bunch of rip..." Keith stopped dead in his tracks as he and a dumbfounded Don Lamb took in the vision that Logan had uncovered. The Sheriff was the first to speak.

"Keith, do you want me to send an officer to the school to pick up Veronica?" Don knew that he needed to get protection on her, especially since they had no leads as to where Troy had gone. They'd assumed he'd left town, maybe fled to Mexico. With this disturbing discovery, though, it was hard to believe that he would just walk away from her after so many years of devotion.

"No, she's not at school today. She's still recovering at..." Keith looked at Logan with wide eyes, who was staring back at him in horror.

"Home," they both said, then took off in a mad dash to get to Keith's car.

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LoVeNaleyJamLiterati23: Ok, are there two of you out there, hmmm:-) Anyway, thank you so much and WELCOME!

vmloganluvr: Thank you!!! Hope you enjoyed this installment.

2honest4myowngood: Well, is that what you were thinking Lamb had found? This update was a little long in coming...sorry!

Sagebeth: Ah, lots of questions...means you have a bright mind. I'm so glad that you are on an emotional rollercoaster. It means I am doing my job! Thanks so much for the review!

Lorelei Candice Black: Whew! Did you figure it out? Were you bugged the whole time?

IluvVM: hahahahaha. Thank you, and hope you enjoyed this one.

LoVeElle: Yeah, I was just picturing that scene happening. Well, how was this chapter for fun?

09nerLoVer: I know what you mean. When I was writing it, I wanted the same thing. It's funny because I kept having to hold off thinking, no it's too early, no we have to get through this or that. BUT, no fear, I am a LoVe-shipper through and through! Lots more Keith/Logan stuff, too.

VMLoVeR87: lol. Ok, so it was NOT intentional for this update to take as long. Here it is, though!

ShmexyShmexyHinny: ROTFL. I know. What can I say?

Literati and naley forever: okay, have you been recruiting? Anyway, lots more LoVe to come.

RBDFAN: Yeah, there are points at which I can not stop the corniness. It must be allowed it's rightful place.

xosummerxo:ooh, ooh, ooh...I would so love to give you some answers to all of you great questions...but I can't. I know, I know. I'm a horrible person. But, it's great that you are so intrigued. Thank you so much for all of the effort you put in to your review!

AJzkitten69: Yeah, I'm sure because Logan is a manly man, he would have rather kept a piece of her lingerie or something, but he had to settle for the head band:-)

SaraLyleth: Oh, JD, totally. Have you heard about his casting in the new CBS show this fall? I can't remember the name of it. Honestly, the show itself doesn't excite me that much, but I am ABSOLUTELY going to follow JD there. Well, guess Troy's still in the story...to be continued.

vmloganluvr: Thank you! I hope you liked it.

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storynerd89: Well, how was this one? Was it anywhere in your subconscience? Kind of out there, huh?

Miss-Mars: Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this one!

jennaml2709: Thank you so much for your review. I'm glad I can provide a moment of peace for you. Thanks!

lagurlroks: THANK you so much for review and your efforts in getting through the whole thing, no matter what the time! Sorry I'm a chapter late! Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter.