Chapter Nineteen

This time when her flight landed, no one had to force Veronica off the plane in handcuffs. No, this time she was confident and determined. She had a mission and she would not be deterred.

When she'd left the lawyers gaping at her and walked out of the firm, Veronica had immediately grabbed a cab back to the flat she'd shared with Piz and called both her dad and Wallace along the way. She filled them in on what was happening as far as she knew and they both agreed to do as much recon as they could and be there waiting when she landed.

True to their word, they were at baggage claim when she arrived. She walked directly into Keith's embrace before grinning at Wallace and giving him a warm squeeze as well. "Welcome home, Honey," Keith said affectionately as soon as she left his arms.

"Thanks," Veronica said sincerely as she started to watch for her luggage to come around on the conveyer belt. "It's good to be home. Now, when do we start kicking asses and taking names?" she asked with a dark gleam of anticipation in her eyes.

Wallace chuckled and Keith threw an arm around her, saying with a 'proud papa' smile, "That's my girl." He let go of her to scoop up the bags she pointed out to him and Wallace started filling her in on what they'd found out. "Well, your boy's in it deep but there's gotta be way more to it than the sheriff's department is letting on."

Veronica looked at him with concern as Keith came back with the luggage, motioning for them to head to the exit and toward his Crown Vic. Picking up where Wallace left off as they moved through the crowd, Keith glanced at his daughter with a troubled expression and said tentatively, "Sweetheart, Sheriff Lamb has accused and arrested Logan for Carrie Bishop, a.k.a. Bonnie De Ville's, murder."

"Murder?!" Veronica exclaimed, stopping mid-stride and nearly causing Wallace to run into her. She looked between them to see if she was the butt of some massive joke but there was definitely no punchline. She started moving again as she shook her head, "How many times does this make now? Three? Four? Why can't they just get it through their thick skulls already that Logan is NOT a murderer?!"

Keith opened the trunk of his car as they approached. Once the bags were secured and they'd all gotten situated with their seatbelts fastened, Veronica mulled things over before asking from the back seat, "So wait. Did I hear you right? There's another Sheriff Lamb?"

Turning to Wallace with a grim look, Keith said, "You explain. I'll drive."

"We got a new sheriff this last year," Wallace began, looking over his shoulder at her from the passenger side of the front seat. "Don Lamb's older brother," he said with a cringe of remorse.

"Don Lamb had an older brother?!" Veronica exclaimed, horrified by this revelation. "I take it from your expression that he's not any brighter than the younger Lamb was."

"Worse," Wallace lamented, looking to Keith for confirmation.

Keith nodded and glanced in his rearview mirror at Veronica, "It's bad, honey. Granted, it's been great for Mars Investigations but still. I'd much rather we had a competent sheriff for a change."

Wincing as she remembered exactly why her father wasn't the competent sheriff he wished for, Veronica found herself apologetic as she looked back at his image in the mirror, "I'm so sorry, Dad. If it weren't for me, you'd probably be sheriff right now."

Keith met her eyes when they stopped at a light and said firmly, "Honey, I knew exactly what I was doing and I'd do it again if I needed to. No public office is worth risking my daughter's future for."

It was kind of him to say, Veronica thought, but it didn't make her feel any less guilty. When it came right down to it, he wouldn't have had to break the law if she hadn't done so first. She wiped those thoughts from her mind, though, because dwelling on the past would in no way help Logan right now.

Coming back to the subject at hand, Veronica started laying out the pieces to the puzzle that they knew so far. "Where we're at then is that we know that Carrie is dead and we know that Logan is being blamed. Do we know how or where she died or why Lamb thinks Logan had any part in it?"

Wallace shook his head and Keith replied aloud, "We've both hit dead ends with trying to get that info. The only thing we know is that there was a press conference shortly after she was found. Lamb was waving around a newspaper as if it were the holy grail of evidence. We're pretty sure they arrested Logan either right before or right after but haven't been able to confirm."

Veronica mulled the information over and asked, "I don't suppose we know what that newspaper said, do we?"

"Nope," Wallace answered while Keith concentrated on the traffic.

"Then we'll start there," Veronica said decidedly. "Dad. Got any sources on that?"

"One or two," he responded casually.

"Good. Think this new Lamb will let me in to see Logan?" she asked next.

"Working on it," Keith responded, adding dryly "Apparently Lamb is being stubborn and Cliff is having to go to painstaking measures to explain the law to him."

"Maybe Cliffy and I can double-team him, then," Veronica considered thoughtfully as she watched them pull up to the parking lot of her dad's apartment.

"Don't think you're gonna be able to sweet talk him now, V," Wallace warned, "This one ain't about that."

"Maybe, maybe not," Veronica replied with a sly smile, "Either way, I'll at least get to see what we're up against from that angle. After all, knowing is half the battle, right?"

Wallace rolled his eyes and Keith deadpanned, "Knowing may be the whole battle in this case."

They all three exited the car. Each took a piece of Veronica's luggage from the trunk and headed to the apartment with it. Veronica was the last to enter. She looked around. It was so strange that she'd been here such a short time ago. Things were so different now. And she had a feeling that they'd never be the same again.