She shifts uncomfortable in the bathroom, Logan glaring at her.
"I followed him into the cigar shop, he bought some cigars, and he left. Dad did say that it is a front for drug dealers, I'm not sure if that means anything or not."
"I'll be sure to remeber that when I'm looking at life in prison." he scoffs.
"Oh, it's jackass Logan. Must be a even-number day. I prefer the odd ones..you know when you're kissing my ass begging for my help." she snarls.
"You know what, you figure out why this dude is trying to get me sent away for killing Felix and it will always be an odd day, alright? Could this guy be selling prescription drugs. I know that how one of Aaron's many shrinks lost their license."
"It's easy to check." she says pulling her laptop out of her bag and turning it on. After a few moments and some searching she finds a site that will work.
"Got it." she says as Logan comes and stands next to her. "Well looks like Dr. Griffith was reprimanded for doing some inappropriate off-site practice...to a Danny Boyd." she tells him.
"Why does that name sound familiar?" Logan mutters.
She shrugs wondering the same thing.
"What's that mean?"
"If you want to know, we'll go find out." she tells him powering down her laptop.
He closes his phone, leaning against his bike, a little annoyed that his girl has to work but since he knows its to look into the so-called witness, he's not a mad as he thought he would be. Just wish she wasn't spending time with Echolls.
"Hey...you uh you got my stuff?" some 09er asks coming up to him. "Or do I need to take my business elsewhere?"
"What stuff?" he asks coldly standing up, glaring at the kid.
"I ordered an eight-ball." the 09er stammers under his glare.
"Coke? I never sold coke to you." he says grabbing the 09er by the shirt and ripping it open sure there was a wire.
"Hey...!" He lets him go. "Come on! Don't jerk me around. I paid one of you biker boys."
"Really? Describe him to me." he scoffs.
"Uhhh..he was...brown."
He shakes his head. "Leave." he snarls and the 09er scurries away from him.
Which one of my boys is selling coke..and for who.
"This is the place." she says to Logan looking at the house.
"This place is a dump. You sure the owner could afford plastic surgery?" he says turning off the Xterra.
"Who knows." she says getting out of the car. "Stay here." she tells him when she notices that he opens his door.
"Veronica." he says looking at her like she is nuts.
"This is going to take a certain skill that you don't have. If you need someone's face pounded in, I'll send up a smoke signal."
Logan sits in the car and watches as some redneck answers the door when she knocks.
"Danny Boyd?"
"Who's asking?" the guy asks with a grin.
"I'm Laurie." she says with a head tilt, trying to look innocent and not throw up all over the guy when he leers at her. Have sudden urge to shower worse than when I found out Dick kissed me.
"Oh." he says leering harder at her, "I don't need your name...you're eighteen, right?"
"Ummmm..."
"Like I care." he says trying to get closer.
It takes everything in her not to take a step back. She laughs, "The reason I'm here...I'm looking into Doctor Tom Griffith to do some surgery but I'm one of those types that needs to check my doctor out."
"The Doc. He's great but I would go too crazy. You don't need much done besides the obvious." he say pointing at her chest.
No punching the neanderthal. No punching the neanderthal. No punching...
"Yo're so sweet. Um, I noticed that he had a medical reprimand for doing a procedure on you and..."
"That got him into trouble?" he asks confused. "Follow me." He leads her around the back of the house, with one look at the Xterra she follows him into the back door of a building.
Wonderful...I just walked into the River Stix, home of the Fighting Fitzpatricks.
"Check it out." Danny says pointing at a stain on a pool table. "That's my blood."
"What happened?" she asks nervously.
"Barfight. Forty-five stitches." he says pulling up his wife-beater to show her the scar.
"Griffith did that?" she asks swallowing the bile in her mouth.
"Yeah, didn't need to look pretty. Just stop the bleeding...Liam!" he yells stopping in his explanation.
"Thanks for the info..I should get going." she turns only to be stopped by Liam Fitzpatrick himself.
"Liam...what would you call the doc, a friend of the family?"
"Who's this?" Liam asks ignoring Danny.
"Her name's Laurie..." Liam glares at him and he stops talking.
"Laurie?! What are you doing here?" the girl behind the counter asks.
"Molly? You know her?" Liam asks not taking her eyes off her.
"She goes to my school." Molly says watching Veronica Mars silently say 'Thank you' with her eyes for not revealing who she really was.
"Leave." Liam says glaring at her.
"I'm gone." she says and quickly rushes out.
She doesn't once look back until she gets back into the Xterra.
"Get us out of here, NOW." she says leaning down to rest her head on her knees. Logan puts the car in gear and drives off.
"You okay?" he ask when she slowly breaks down.
"No." she takes a deep breath before looking at him. "Your witness is a friend of the Fitzpatrick family."
"Fuck." he mutters.
"Yeah." she scoffs and looks out the window.
Once she enters the office, she finally lets out the breath she seems to have been holding since she got into the Xterra.
"Honey?!" he dad calls out. "Did you know a Marcos Oliveras?"
"Ummm...it doesn't sound familiar."
"He was on the bus." he says coming out of his office.
"Oh." she says softly. "What about him?"
"His parents just hired me. They are in the process of suing the school district for negligence and since they filed the suit, they have been harasses."
"How?"
"Toy buses have been left in their house, they come home to it smelling like their son's cologne and messages from their son on their machine."
"Okay, what do you need me to do?" she asks.
"Could you ask around about the kid? If I knew more about him it might help me figure out who could be doing this. Cause this seems to personal for the school to be doing it."
"No problem." she says.
"Hey." she says softly answering her phone.
"So what's going on?" Weevil asks.
"The witness...he's a friend of the Fitzpatrick family."
"How the hell do you know that?" he growled into the phone.
"Seems the good doctor did some work on a Danny Boyd. I went to talk to him... get some information on the doctor. Griffith fixed him up after a bar fight at the River Stix, which Danny brought me into to show me the bloodstain on the pool table."
"SHIT! V..baby are you okay?"
"Yeah..Molly covered for me. They didn't know who I was. I got out as fast as I could."
"Why the hell would the Fitzpatricks be setting up Echolls for Felix's murder? Also why would Molly Fitzpatrick cover for you?" he asks annoyed.
"I don't know.." she says softly.
She heads to school with a copy of Marcos schedule that her dad gave her. Unfortunately no one is able to tell her anything about him.
"You're asking about Marcos Olveres?" a guy asks coming up to her after she leaves the last classroom.
"Yeah..Ryan, right?" she asks thinking the guy looks familiar from one of her other classes.
Ryan nods, "Marcos never really said anything to anyone. He just kind of goofed off and kept to himself." he tells her before walking off.
She sits in the office with a yearbook opened on her lap.
Marcos Oliveres...Not Pictured...
She closes the book and turns to her computer when a ping tells her that she has mail. The weird thing is she doesn't know who it is from and the subject line is blank. Debating with herself, she clicks it open.
"I heard you're doing an article about Marcos. I figure you probably didn't get much information, so I wanted to send a note so at least you had one thing to quote. Marcos was great. Kinda shy, but really interesting once you got to know him. Sorry not to sign this, but I've got a jealous boyfriend who knew I liked him..." she says softly reading the email out loud.
"Guess what I found?!" her dad says coming into the office.
"I give..what?"
"An mp3 player taped under Mrs. Oliveres' car that just happens to play a loop of her son's voice over the car radio.
"That's creepy and..cruel." she says taking it from her dad.
"The best part. It was paid for by the Neptune school district. You mind having a little chat with the man."
"No problem. I'll even bring this to my tech support." she says with a smile.
She talks to Clemmons who refers her to Principal Moorehead.
After getting the sense of a run around, she goes for the kill.
"Are you aware that an mp3 player registered to the school was found broadcasting Marcos Oliveres' voice in his mom's car."
Moorehead takes a business card out of his desk and hands it to her. "We know nothing of the sort. If you have any other questions do call our district's lawyers."
Smirking, she takes the card and leaves his office.
She heads right for computer class, "So if I wanted to is there any way to tell where or when a recording was made?" she asks Mac sitting down next to her. Mac holds out her hand with a smile, and she hands her the mp3. Mac plugs it in and starts the recording.
"I know who this is." Mac says after listening for a few minutes.
"It's Marcos Oliveres." she says looking at her in confusion.
"Maybe but it's also Cap'n Krunk."
"Cap'n Krunk? Wait..from that radio show you wanted me to listen too."
"Yeah. 'Ahoy, Mateys!' Cap'n Krunk and Imitation Crab."
"No one knows who Marcos is but...
"Cap'n Krunk was brutal. If you were on his bad side he'd tear you a new one." Mac says as she heads over to the 'Ahoy, Mateys!' website.
They sit there for a while and listen to some of the past airings.
"It's not all crotch-grabbing scatological man-humour." Mac tries to justify as she downloads a few episodes.
"What's with this gap?" she asks pointing to the screen.
"Oh, they went on a little sabbatical. However, when they returned Cap'n Krunk was gone. Imitation Crab by himself is too much even for me to take."
"Is there any way we can track the signal?" she asks as Mac looks at her in shock. "I listen when you talk..stop looking at me like that."
Mac laughs, "I would love to play Q to your Bond but need cash. Gonna need a few things from Radio Shack."
She nods and Mac hands over the mp3.
"Listen and love, Bond."
She plugs in her headphones and pushes play.
And here it comes, Imitation Crab. ~ Cap
Arrr!~Crab
The winner of this week's cock of the walk countdown. ~Cap
Don't leave 'em hanging, Cap'n. ~Crab
It's Logan Echolls!~Crap
She sits at a table and watches Logan with a group of 09ers.
That's forty weeks running. Rosemary's baby: the teen years. If I was his mother, I'd kill myself too. ~Cap
She listens as Marcos bagged on everyone. No one was safe.
What if someone figured out that Cap'n Krunk was Marcos...but what would harassing his parents gain?
Standing she heads to her locker, taking the earbuds out.
"So, any news on my witness?" Logan asks catching up to her.
"Think it's obvious. He's owned by the Fighting Fitzpatricks." she says getting to her locker.
"So, as far as I know I've done nothing to piss off the Irish."
"I'm working it, okay?" she says grabbing her books.
"Help me, Mars-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Logan calls after her after she slams her locker closed.
Dire need for boyfriend...who is currently not to be found...Maybe he'll have some luck talking to his boys cause I know he's going to.
She and Mac, on different streets, start looking for the signal.
He stands in the middle of his boys, who are standing around him.
"Now..I'm checkin'. Am I still in charge here?"
The boys look at each other and nod.
"That's funny, since a few days ago, some 09er comes up to me and wants to know where the coke he ordered is. Tells me some brown-skinned biker sold to him. And last night, I find out that the witness that came forward about Echolls was bought and paid for by the Fitzpatricks." He notices how all 'his' boys glance nervously at each other. "So this gets me wondering..did things change while I wasn't looking? Are we in business with those meat-heads and no one deemed it necessary to tell me? Is someone here trying to make extra cash?"
Not one of them answer him. He glares at each of them. "Get out of here." he snarls and the boys disperse quickly, all but Thumper.
"You really think one of us are workin' for those micks?" Thumper asks.
"The night Felix got killed. Did you see the guy that called the cops?" he asks.
"Nay."
"You were there."
"No...I wasn't." Thumper tells him.
"You told me that you saw it happen." he growls out.
"Hector and Bootsy were there. We needed as many guys as possible. One rich boy against two." Thumper said shrugging his shoulders.
"I am getting to the bottom of this one way or another." he snarls out.
She is walking on a sidewalk, her detector blinking. She meets with Mac, who sees that the signal is strongest where they are standing.
"It has to be coming from the house behind us." Mac states.
They decide to move in for the kill and go over to the front entrance. She knocks on the door and any plan she had goes out the window when Clemmons opens the door.
"Girls."
"Could we use your phone, our cells have died and my car is refusing to start." she says quickly.
Clemmons does not appear to be too impressed and begins closing the door on them when she shouts, "We're here to see Vincent."
Clemmons reacts positively.
"I told you that an excuse wasn't going to work." she says looking at Mac.
"Wait, what..no,no. noooo" Mac says looking from her to Clemmons.
"She has been going on and on about him." she says.
"Come in." he says moving out of the way so that they can come in.
He leads them to Vincents room. Behind his back, Mac slaps at her for the story and she pleads forgiveness as they walk. At the door, Clemmons knocks and calls out to his son. After a second knock Vincent answers that this is his private basement time. Both of them are desperately trying to keep a straight face.
Smiling at Mac, Clemmons calls out "Veronica Mars and a friend have come to visit you."
"Tell them that I'm not here." Vincent calls out.
"They are standing right here son."
Frustrated, Vincent opens the door a little, only to be pushed aside by her once Clemmons is out of view.
"What are you doing here?" he demands to know.
"Well... we came to bust a move but seems like the song is almost over." she says taking a small radio out of her pocket.
"You know, this is a bad time. I was painting my models and everything will be ruined if I let the paint dry."
"Hmmm, wonder why they haven't started a new song." she says looking at her radio.
"Get out. Now." he demands.
"Why so crabby?" she says with a smirk.
Vincent is momentarily distracted and is unable to prevent Mac from moving past him into the rear end of the room.
"Your blanket is blinking." Mac snarks. She moves froward and moves the blanket to reveal a small radio station. Busted, he turns off the red light.
"So does your dad know that you rag on his school is your spare time?" she snarks.
"My dad has no idea about his okay. What do you want?"
"Why did Marcos quit the show before he died?"
"He went away to some camp and when he came back he just up and quit. He completely changed."
She pretends to put some files away while eavesdropping on her dad explaining Marcos's secret hobby to his father. Who actually seems rather proud that his shy son has found something as enterprising as a radio show to express himself.
"It's possible that he offend the wrong person." her dad tells him.
"I doubt a student would take revege on grieving parents." he replies.
"Veronica mentioned that numerous people said that Marcos changed after going away to summer camp. Is it possible that something happened there with someone?"
Carlos brushes him off by stating that this isn't kids' stuff and has nothing to do with summer camp. He again insists that the school district caused the situation to prevent him and his wife from continuing their lawsuit.
They leave the office and her dad tells her that he will be doing a stakeout at the Oliveres' house while they are out. They instant, the door closes behind them she goes into her dad office for the file to find their credit card bill.
She finds out the name of the camp, SelfQuest, and researches it on the net.
She finds the website of a organisation claiming to be able to re-program teenagers who are struggling with their sexual identity.
Marcos was gay.
He sits on his bike waiting, when his phone starts ringing.
"It done?" he asks answering.
"Oh, it's just begun, Weevs. You have no clue what you have just gotten yourself into." Logan says before hanging up.
She sits down at Vincent's table.
"So..what can you tell me about Camp SelfQuest?" she asks.
"Could you graduate already." he snarks.
She smirks at him, waiting.
"Never heard of it." he says hoping that will get her to leave.
"Its the deprogramming camp that Marcos' parents sent him to. To help him un-gay."
"Marcos wasn't gay."
"You sure about that."
"He talked about chicks all the time. He was a playboy-loving booty hound not some..."
"Don't finish that sentence if you want to live." she says with a smile that promises retribution.
"Marcos talked about girls all the time. He nearly got his ass handed to him for it once." he says swallowing hard.
"By the girl?"
"No. Her jealous boyfriend."
"Okay." she says stealing a fry before she leaves.
She sends out a email to the one that she had received about Marcos.
It's about free concert tickets for doing a Radio Broadcast Alliance survey in concert promoting and whoever is interested should call a number to one of her burner cells immediately.
She sits in class writing with one hand and holding her cell phone in the other when it rings.
She answers it, pretending to be the Radio Broadcast Alliance, but the person on the other end has hung up immediately.
She looks at her phone knowingly.
She walks down the sidewalk, looking at houses. With Mac's help she was able to reverse phone book the call and now knew where Marcos admirer lives. She knocks on the door and a girl answers. She's about to ask her about the email when the girl leans out the door to call to her brother, "Ryan did you remember my milkshake?" who just pulled in the driveway.
Ryan notices her and quickly walks to hand his sister the food.
"We can talk later." he mentions to her.
"We will talk now." she says pulling him to his car as his sister disappears into the house.
They sit on the hood of his car.
"I use to listen to Ahoy Mateys religiously but didn't know Marcos. I keep track of the equipment for journalism. Butters and Marcos checked out a reverb mic. I heard it used on the show and knew it was them. I told them that I was a fan. That was the start of a beautiful friendship."
"Were the two of you a couple?"
"I was in love with him and am completely gay but he just wanted to be friends. He was on the fence about what he was. I pushed and I was giving him a back rub when his parents caught us. Next thing I know he's off to Camp 'Homophobe'."
"Than he died."
"After being forced to do normal teenage boy things. Like going on a field trip for baseball. He was trying to win back his parents approval. That's why he died."
"They lost their son. What you were doing hurt them."
"They were meant to."
She walks away leaving Ryan still sitting on the hood of his car.