CHAPTER SEVEN
Veronica buried her face in Logan's pillow. It was late by the time she got Wallace settled at her dad's house and she considered just spending the night there, but in the end, she couldn't do it. She gave up her room to Wallace, packed a suitcase and returned to Dick's house. Staying there one night would've turned into two and before she knew it Logan would be home and she'd still be living with her dad. At least here she wouldn't be tempted to stay too long.
She abandoned the bed and any thoughts of further sleep. There were things to do today including her first prenatal visit and ultrasound. Somehow in the past two days she'd become resolute in her decision to tell Logan about the baby sooner rather than later. She worried about it distracting him, but there wasn't any other way. Three months more of phone conversations and emails and Skype sessions without her saying a word, would be three months of lying to him. Not a great way to rebuild their relationship and work on their communication skills.
Veronica showered and dressed, but Dick stopped her on her way out the front door. "What, no breakfast Ronnie?"
"I'm not really in the mood for ketchup packets and beer Dick."
"It's the breakfast of champions. No? Okay how about eggs and toast with fresh fruit and yogurt?" The loud grumble of her stomach gave her away. "I'll take that as a yes."
She followed him into the kitchen, "I wasn't aware you even knew what a supermarket was, let alone how to find one."
"That's what the help is for."
"And you haven't blown through your trust fund how exactly?" A plate with a perfectly cooked omelet waited for her along with a side plate of toast, a bowl of fresh cut fruit and a container of Greek yogurt. "Did you cook this?"
"I'm a man of many hidden talents. If you ever get tired of Logan I'll show you a few others."
Her first bite of omelet was amazing, he'd stuffed it with fresh spinach, mushrooms and gruyère and she was halfway through when she noticed he wasn't eating anything. "No breakfast for you?"
"You just ate my breakfast."
"I'm sorry, I thought…"
"Kidding, Ronnie. You need to learn to take a joke." He pulled another plate from the oven's warming drawer and leaned against the counter to eat. "So tonight you may want to amscray. I'm having an open house beach party and you know Dick can go all night."
"Are Frankie and Annette coming to Beach Blanket Bimbo?"
"Sure, it's an open house Ronnie anyone can come."
Veronica shook her head, "never mind Dick, I'll make myself scarce." She finished the last bite of omelet and a few mouthfuls of fruit, "uh, thanks for breakfast, it was delicious."
"Don't mention it," he tossed the words over his shoulder as he strolled from the kitchen. She rinsed off their dishes and placed them in the dishwasher.
It was a day ordered from central casting as "typical, Southern California" with a bright sun and cloudless sky. Her doctor's office wasn't far from the beach and there was a gourmet food shop between the two, which offered a bruschetta trio platter for lunch that was without comparison. Maybe she could picnic and work at the beach this afternoon. Veronica chuckled. She'd just finished breakfast and already she was salivating at the idea of blue crab and herb remoulade on crunchy French baguette.
She used her phone to email Logan from the waiting room. Skype date night? Email me with a date and time and I'll make sure I'm available- very available. Might even wear something sexy!
The visit was longer than the wait. One extensive health history Q&A, followed by a detailed (on her side) family medical history and an uncomfortable pelvic exam later they got to the good part. Veronica was transfixed by the image on the 3D ultrasound and she experienced a sharp stab of longing for Logan. "Can you print that for me?"
"Already done." Dr. Villella called it a Nuchal Translucency scan and said it didn't indicate any chromosomal abnormalities. She pointed out the nasal bone, and then found the heartbeat. After adjusting some knobs on the machine, the sound of the heartbeat filled the room. "I'll make a recording of this for you too."
When the image disappeared from the screen, she was disappointed. Veronica knew she could spend the entire day staring at the baby and she had a feeling the ultrasound picture was going to be slightly worn by the time she mailed it to Logan.
Dr. Villella made some notes in her chart and gave her a due date of April 6th. Then she gave her a prescription for prenatal vitamins, plus some pamphlets about eating well, foods to avoid and weight gain. There was also a list of symptoms she shouldn't ignore. Finally she had the nurse come in to take blood and collect a urine sample.
After all the poking and prodding, Veronica decided she deserved the work at the beach afternoon she envisioned. The gourmet food store was exactly where she remembered it. It was a short walk to the beach from the store so she left Logan's car in the lot. While she ate, she tried reading the information the doctor gave her, but her eyes kept wandering to the ultrasound pictures. It was still too early to know the sex of the baby and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Part of her wanted the big announcement in the delivery room and part of her wanted to know what color to paint the nursery.
She'd just polished off her bruschetta and stopped staring at the ultrasound picture, when Sheriff Lamb found her. "Veronica Mars."
"Do I have a tracking chip implanted in me?" She patted the top of her head, and then held up her arms to visually inspect for said chip. "How very MI6 of you."
"I need you to come with me."
She bit back her 'and I need to see your warrant' retort. He didn't start by arresting her, but if she pushed him he might. There was little doubt in her mind that he could get the District Attorney to issue a warrant by the time she reached her car. The D.A. was another elected puppet of the Board of Supervisors. It was probably better for her to play nice for the time being. Poor people arrested in Neptune went directly to jail, they did not collect two hundred dollars and they did not make bail on capital murder charges. "Should I follow you?"
His expression clearly said he didn't trust her to follow him anywhere. "You'll ride with me." Veronica let him lead her to his cruiser and put her in the back. He kept up a steady stream of 'I knew it was only a matter of time until I had this pleasure' type comments and she tuned him out. This interrogation was going to be interesting. It was a round two in her competition of matching wits with Dan Lamb, too bad he was still ill-equipped to play.
They went to his office. It was housed on a different floor than his brother's old office and it looked very different. Gone was the wood paneling and warm earth tones, replaced by cool greens and a better view. A battered bulletin board hanging by the door appeared to have weathered both Lambs. One of the exposed corners of paper looked like Duncan Kane's old wanted poster and a large map titled Incorporation of Neptune reminded her of Woody Goodman. Was this board an 'Ode to Past Failures?' If she flipped through the tacked pages would she also find a picture of Abel Koontz and Weevil's arrest record for credit card fraud?
"Did I forget to pay a parking ticket? Was there a special permit required to eat lunch at the beach?"
"Where were you Thursday between six and nine in the morning?"
"Why?"
"I have a witness says he saw you outside the apartment where your boyfriend got shot."
My car was outside and he's my ex-boyfriend. So, Charlie Gallagher, a/k/a Mr. Misanthrope already repeated his story to the Sheriff. Now one more time for the press and the Court and maybe he could get his money. Veronica remained silent and waited. Silence unsettled some people and they felt the need to fill it. She was hoping Lamb was in love with the sound of his own voice and would fill the silence with, what she liked to call, clues.
"We also have your prints and DNA in the apartment."
Dan Lamb, genius detective strikes again. She tapped her fingers against the arm of her chair. This was turning into a waste of her afternoon. She wasn't going to say anything without an attorney present. If there was one thing law school taught me, I'd rather look guilty at the mall than look innocent in prison, or did I learn that from Chris Rock?
"And here's something interesting." Veronica didn't give any indication that she heard him. She continued to feign bored and blasé. "Stosh Piznarski had a quarter of a million dollar life insurance policy with you as beneficiary." He sneered, "That's probably a lot more than you're making as a P.I., right?"
"I'd like to say this has been fun, but you know, it hasn't. Am I free to go now?" It was a push and she waited to see if he would shove back. If this was all the evidence he had so far, he would let her go. If there was something more, something big, he would move to make an arrest.
"Don't leave town."
Veronica tilted her head, "do you look up cop clichés online, or do they just come to you naturally?" She left without waiting for a response.
Logan's car was back at the beach. With Wallace at work and her dad still unable to drive, her options for getting there were limited to Dick, Mac, or a cab. She called Mac, "can you come pick me up?"
"Should I add chauffeur to my job description too?"
"If you want, you can put chief in front of it. Aren't you glad you left Kane Software? Now you're like the rest of America, overworked and underpaid."
"Where are you?"
"The Sheriff's Department. Actually, forget coming to get me, I'll just take a cab, or I'll walk." Veronica started walking in the direction of the beach. It was another of those helpful pamphlets from the doctor, The Importance of Exercise during Your Pregnancy.
"I was only kidding, I will come get you."
"I know, but I have bigger more important things for you to do. First, is there a way for you to trace Piz's laptop with the voodoo that you do so well? Maybe if you can track it, we can find where he was staying?"
"Doubtful. First, I would need it to be on and the likelihood that he left it plugged in and running somewhere just so I could find him…moving on."
"Can you get his emails? Go back six months, incoming and outgoing. Oh and any private messages on Facebook. Plus can you see if he had a cloud account?"
"You want me to get the launch codes for the nuclear missiles and find out who really shot JFK too?"
"If you could throw that in, sure. And one last thing, apparently Piz took out a life insurance policy for himself and he named me the beneficiary to the tune of 250k. Could you be a peach and see what that's all about?"
Mac whistled, "Is that why you were at the Sheriff's? Did Lamb want to know about the policy?"
"One of the reasons." Veronica ended the call with Mac as she arrived at the beach. From her previous incarnation as a private investigator, she remembered the locations of plenty of sleazy short-stay motels, but they usually rented by the hour. Piz would've stayed in a place a little a more upscale. She used her phone to Google hotels in Neptune and got over 100 pages of results. She would be twelve years into her life sentence before she ever found Piz's hotel room.
She logged into her special super-sleuth search engine, which as far as she was concerned was a way better name than Accurint and looked up Parker Lee. There were multiple listings across the United States, but only two in California and one in Parker's hometown of Denver. Veronica compared the social security number for the Denver Parker against the two California listings and one was a match. She purchased the comprehensive report and read through the information until she reached the possible cell number. As soon as she logged off the site, she made herself dial Parker's phone number. Please let it be voice mail, please let it be voice mail.
"Hello?" It was still the same chipper, upbeat Parker.
"Parker? I don't know if you remember me, this is Veronica Mars from Hearst?" Please, how could she forget you Veronica? Miss-failed-to-stop-her-rape.
"I remember."
Veronica winced. "Are you busy this afternoon? Maybe we could meet for dinner?" A meal, Veronica? Do you really want to spend that long with Parker? "I could meet you in say an hour?"
"You call me out of the blue like we're friends and ask if I want to get dinner? What do you want Veronica Mars? You must want something, you always want something."
Ouch. "I wanted to talk to you about Piz. I met with Cara Murphy and she told me you recommended Piz for a job with her radio program?"
"I did."
"I didn't really want to have this conversation over the phone, are you sure we can't meet? I can come to you?"
"I'll meet you in the lounge at Trulucks in La Jolla in an hour."
Trulucks was a little pricier than she planned, but at least she knew where it was. Veronica pointed the car in the right direction and contemplated the best way to deal with Parker. There seemed to be way more animosity than she was expecting. Sure she didn't stop the rape in progress, but she did catch the rapist. Plus she and Parker had moved beyond that into a quasi-friendship right around the time Parker began dating Logan. In fact that was the last time she saw Parker before transferring out of Hearst, outside Logan's suite at the Neptune Grand. Veronica remembered that she was upset, but Veronica assumed she was upset with Logan, not her. Who wasn't upset with Logan that day? As much as she tried to figure the reason for the coldness, it eluded her.
She availed herself of the valet service at the restaurant and went in search of Parker in the Stone Crab Lounge. She almost didn't recognize her at first. Parker's former blonde locks were now a warm shade of auburn cut into a short sleek bob. Other than that she remained unchanged. The past nine years were very kind to her. There didn't appear to be any signs of aging at all. It was like walking back into her past, "hi Parker."
"Veronica."
She slid into the seat opposite Parker and a waiter appeared at her side as if conjured by a magic spell. He presented her two separate menus, one for drinks and the other for food, then waited while she perused the drink menu. Five star restaurants were like a foreign, exotic country. She passed the menu back to him, "ginger ale please."
Parker tapped the rim of her martini glass, "I'll have another of these." Once the waiter was gone, Parker drained her glass. "I'm sorry I was short on the phone with you." She barked a short, mirthless laugh. "You think you're over something and then, bam, a reminder of it and you're back where you used to be. Not that I'm not over it, it was so long ago and it wasn't like we were going to get married and have babies, right? I mean I suppose we could have, it's not unrealistic to settle down and marry someone you meet in college. But we were both so young and well, you know."
The only thing Veronica knew was that Parker still rambled when she was nervous, or excited and quite possibly that she'd had one too many martinis. Otherwise, she was at a complete loss as to what Parker was going on about. Fortunately, the waiter arrived with their drinks buying Veronica time to think of her response.
No worry, because Parker picked up the conversation without missing a beat, "have you seen Logan? I heard after graduation he went to the Navy Aviation Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island? Is he stationed in San Diego?"
No frackin' way. Please tell me she's not still hung up on Logan. "He's a Navy pilot stationed in San Diego and right now he's on deployment." Veronica took a long sip of her ginger ale.
"I'm happy he turned his life around. You're the reason we broke up you know? He wasn't over you and well, I couldn't compete with that. Sometimes I don't think he ever actually saw me. He had this way of looking through me like I wasn't even there. He just wasn't completely present. I always felt there was a part of him missing. I guess that's the part that was with you. But anyway, when you called it dredged up all those old, hurt feelings and as soon as we hung up, I realized how childish and silly I was being."
"I'm glad you agreed to meet me."
"Me too." A brief pause, "What about Mac and Wallace do you keep in touch with them? I haven't heard from either of them in years. Mac and I stayed in touch for awhile, but then real life just got in the way. I moved back to Denver after college until just this past spring."
"What about you and Piz? You two stayed in touch?"
"We've been Facebook friends for years, exchanging emails, but I hadn't actually talked to him until he asked me about Cara. He remembered that Cara and I were friends so when he found out she was the content coordinator of this new radio show; he called me and asked if I could help him out. But don't you know all of this all ready? Aren't you two dating? I assumed that's why you were here in California, that you came back out here with Piz?"
"Not exactly." Roughly translated meant, no I know none of this. She had no idea that Piz was "friends" with Parker on Facebook or anywhere else. Did he mention it to her and she just didn't remember? Was that possible? Maybe my relationship with Piz was exactly what Parker just described about her relationship with Logan. Did she see Piz; was she completely present in their relationship? The honest answer to those questions was probably no. "Piz and I broke up. I came back to Neptune to help Logan with something."
"The Bonnie Deville murder, of course! I read about it as did most of the world. You were the investigator who helped clear him?"
"One and the same."
"Poor Piz. That must've broken his heart. He talked about you in his emails. Just generic stuff about your lives in New York and you finishing law school; so are you a lawyer now?"
"No I'm working as an investigator with my father, which brings me to the reason I called you. Piz was killed Parker, someone killed him."
The color drained from her face and for the first time since Veronica sat down, Parker remained silent. Their waiter chose this conversational lull to inquire about their food choices. Veronica wanted to order the warm goat cheese and peppadew salad, but for some reason goat cheese stood out in her mind as one of the "foods to avoid when pregnant." She settled for the smoked salmon flatbread and sweet potato fries. Parker chose the goat cheese.
"What happened?"
"I don't know yet; I was hoping you could help me. Have you spoken to Piz at all since he arrived in Neptune?"
"He called me after his interview with Cara, to thank me for setting it up. He was in California then."
"Do you remember where he was staying?"
She shook her head, "I don't think he told me. All he said was that he'd gotten the job on a trial basis. He was going back to New York to give notice at his job, and he'd be back in a couple of weeks to start work on his story. He wanted to take me out to dinner to thank me."
"Did he talk about the story at all?"
"You know, he did. He said it had something to do with a deputy that was killed. Max, maybe?"
"Sacks?"
"Yes, that was it."