Chapter Thirty-Four

In spite of getting very little, if any sleep, Logan and Veronica were early to arrive at the Mars apartment the next morning. Keith was up and offered them coffee, which they both accepted gratefully. Observing the pair carefully as he moved to take a seat himself, Keith wondered how he had never seen the way they calmed and complemented each other so well. Filing that tidbit of information in the back of his mind, he asked them after taking a sip of his own coffee, "Have any success yesterday?"

It took a minute for the younger two to realize he was talking about the case. Glancing at Logan guiltily, Veronica got it together enough to look back at her dad and answer, "We think we found a connection but we're not sure."

Before Keith could ask anything more, Wallace and Mac arrived, knocking on the screen door to announce their entrance before they appeared.

"Hey hey Mars household - and Logan - " Wallace grinned in greeting, "What's happening? Is it a beautiful day in the neighborhood?"

Mac giggled and Veronica groaned and chuckled while Logan got up to offer Wallace the 'cool dude' version of a handshake before giving Mac a sibling-like hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Glad to see you guys," Logan said as he sat back down and motioned toward the empty chairs and the coffee, "You two in need of a caffeine jolt as well?"

"Yeah, man, thanks," Wallace said as he squeezed Mac's shoulder and went to find them a couple mugs before preparing their java juice.

Bringing the scalding liquid to the table where Mac had taken a seat, Wallace placed one cup in front of her and the other on the table in front of the empty seat that he proceeded to occupy.

Keith watched all this with eyes like a hawk. He'd caught sight of Mac's ring the moment she'd walked in the door. Not to mention it was hard to miss the not so subtle change in how the second pair were treating each other. Eyeing the first couple as well, Keith couldn't help but make a comment that stated the obvious, "I see I missed a few pretty significant events in the last twelve to fourteen hours or so."

Mac grinned giddily and held her hand out across the table before exclaiming, "Wallace and I got engaged."

Smiling warmly, Keith said sincerely, "Congratulations," then turned to Wallace and said, "You'd better treat her right, Wallace Fennel. I know your mother and I'll sic her on you if you don't!"

Giving Keith a mocking salute, Wallace grinned as he said, "Yes, Sir, Mr. Mars. You can count on it!"

"They've been dating and didn't even bother to tell me about it," Veronica complained, even though she did so with a smile on her face that said she was over it. Then, in a self-derisive manner, she added rhetorically, "Why do I never see these things till they slap me in the face or punch me in the gut?"

Logan's eyes twinkled in amusement and he reached to squeeze her hand, saying in an affectionately taunting manner, "Because you're too busy sniffing out bad guys and seeking justice to pay attention to piddly things like relationships."

Veronica glared at him but it held humor and no heat, "Hey, I'm working on that!"

Leaning over to kiss her lightly on the lips, Logan's face hovered near hers an extra moment while he murmured in agreement, "Yes, you are," before leaning back to sit straight in his seat again.

"Ok," Mac demanded after seeing the saccharine-sweet exchange, "What's up with you two? Veronica was barely able to deal with our news last night and now this?"

"Yeah...sorry about that," Veronica apologized, looking and feeling ashamed of how she'd reacted to her two best friends announcing their engagement.

Knowing there was no way that Veronica was going to address Mac's actual question, Logan said cryptically, "We...dealt with a few things. Slayed a few ghosts, you could say." He looked at Veronica meaningfully and she nodded at him as if giving her approval of his simple yet vague explanation.

Seeing that no more explanations were going to be forthcoming from either couple, Keith said, "Now that we're all in the know on the personal front, what do you kids say we get down to business?"

They all murmured in agreement and Keith started by saying, "I got nothing. Complete dead ends as far as I can tell on the Helen and Dax fronts. Although, I will say that meeting Shepherd's fiancee answered a whole lot of questions I hadn't even thought to ask."

"What do you mean, Dad?" Veronica asked with furrowed brow.

Keith looked directly at Logan as he answered both dryly and pointedly, "Ms. Bell could be the non-existent twin for another petite blonde in our midst."

Logan looked sheepish as Veronica's eyes darted to his questioningly. He explained to her aloud with a guilty lilt to his voice, "I thought she was you in a drunken haze."

Veronica wasn't sure if she should laugh or be angry until she heard her father say, "I wasn't drunk and I still couldn't have told them apart if I'd seen them together in a crowd."

"Seriously?!" Veronica asked in astonishment, her wide blue eyes now turned to her father in disbelief.

"Seriously, Sweetheart," Keith confirmed.

Wallace and Mac simply looked at each other with raised brows throughout the exchange and then shook their heads before Wallace asked of Veronica and Logan, "So what did you two find out from the other celebrities?"

"Well," Veronica began, now looking at Logan hesitantly, her manner distinctly displaying that she was all business at this point. "Besides confirming that James Franco is an ass, we found a surprising connection between him and Logan that doesn't seem to have anything to do with Carrie."

"What connection is that?" Keith asked while Wallace and Mac's eyes trained on Veronica as well.

Looking at Logan again, Veronica waited a beat to see if he wanted to be the one to share. He turned his eyes from her and announced to the group, "James Franco uses the same accountant my dad used," then explained with a touch of wryness, "I dropped him as soon as I could after dear old dad bit the bullet quite literally. He'd never done anything illegal so far as I could tell but he'd kept a few of Aaron's secrets. No way was I gonna stomach that."

Turning to Mac, Keith asked immediately, "Is there a way to find out if the other celebrities and their companies have the same accountant?" Before she could answer, he looked at Logan and said, "It may lead to nothing but it could also lead to something. Either way, it's a lead. We definitely need to follow it and find out where it goes."

Logan nodded as Mac answered, "Yeah, it'll take a bit more digging but I should be able to do that."

Cliff appeared at the door about then and, similarly to what Mac and Wallace had done, he knocked on the outer door and let himself in. "I see that both the paid and unpaid members of the Mars Investigations staff have convened earlier than normal this morning. Have I missed any of the good parts?"

"We'll fill you in later," Keith assured, "Bottom line right now is we have a lead. You get anything from forensics for us?"

"Negative," Cliff replied as he moved to lean against the counter to the right of the table, his travel mug from home already in his hand. "Results came back empty. Only DNA they found was from Logan and Carrie." He looked at Logan and said apologetically, "Someone really wanted to set you up, Kid."

"What about the apartment? Are we cleared to go check it out?" Keith asked next.

"Yeah," Cliff answered, "It took a bit of doing but the judge overruled Lamb's attempts to shut us out."

"That's great, Cliff," Keith said sincerely before turning his eyes to the four young people around the table. "Wallace, are you in today or do you have to go in to work?"

"I've got a project due the end of the day, unfortunately," Wallace said with a frown.

"No worries, Wallace," Veronica said with a reassuring smile, "We'll keep you up to date."

Wallace gave Veronica a half-smile, thankful she understood and was surprised when Logan said, "Yeah. Thanks, man. Just being here means more than you know."

"No problem," Wallace said with a shrug before adding, "Pretty sure you'd be there if it was me and we're not even that tight."

Now it was Logan's turn to give a half-smile and a shrug, "Any friend of Veronica's and all those other cliches, man."

"Right," Wallace grinned and shook his head. Never in a million years had he thought when he'd first met Logan Echolls that he'd ever consider him a loyal friend.

"Well that's swell," Cliff said in his deep and sardonic voice, "Now that we're all done singing Kumbaya, can we get back to the matters at hand, please?"

"He's right," Keith said, "We don't have much time till the preliminary hearing and avoiding a full on criminal trial is paramount when it comes to keeping the Casa open and functional without being tainted by all this."

Logan looked pained at the words but Veronica squeezed his hand and said confidently, "So we work with what we've got. Dad, I'm thinking it would make the most sense for you to hang with Mac while she works on pulling up whether or not Avi is a common thread among the celebrities. Help her tweak her searches and narrow down what we need to know if you start to find anything. If the link is there, you'll be handy to hit up Avi for some information. An interview with him, if needed, will need to be completed by an unknown to him anyway." Pausing, Veronica looked between Mac and her dad for a moment before she locked her eyes on Logan to ask, "You ready to take a trip down memory lane? See what we can scrounge up at Carrie's place that may save your ass?"

"Yeah," Logan confirmed with a nod, "I'm pretty attached to my ass. I'd definitely appreciate it being saved."