Ruskie Business
"Querida, you are going to make yourself crazy." he says from her bed. "Koontz is dying that is the best clue but..."
"I know. I just..." she starts as she steps away from her laptop and looks over at him.
He is lounging on her water bed. He has only wearing a pair of jeans.
Damn, think I can be distracted for a few minutes.
She gets up and straddles him as she joins him on the bed.
"Hmmm, thought I was going to have to take drastic measures to get you over here." he whispers when she leans over him and kisses him softly.
"Sorry about being..."
"I understand, okay." he tells her brushing a stray hair behind her ear, "Koontz dying and Opie's mom are big things right now. Think she really is alive."
"I don't know. That video was upsetting but her cards are being used."
"Why would she have faked her death?"
"Because Aaron Echolls is an abusive asshole." she snarls as she gets off him to sit next to him.
"What? Explain that." he says sitting up.
"Very few know this okay." he can see he eyes start to water.
"Baby..."
"Logan doesn't even know that I know. A few months before Lilly..died, I started to notice things. Logan very rarely wore short sleeve shirts, when we would go swimming sometimes he would have a shirt on, he would have bruises that he had pathetic stories for. I was hanging out at his house one day with Lilly and Duncan, his parents weren't suppose to be home when they came home early. I think he had let your grandmother go home early, I was about a mile away when I realized that I had forgotten something. I went back to the house and let myself in. I heard..."
"V.."
"I need to get it out. I heard the sound of Aaron beating Logan. Have you ever head the sound of something other than fists hitting skin. I'll never forget it. The next day, Logan claimed that he had fallen off his surfboard that morning and hurt his back when I gave him a hug."
"Wait if you know that he beats him why the bong?"
"I thought Aaron was out of town and Lynn would be the parent that they got a hold of."
"Is that why you had me stop beating him."
"Yeah, he never would of said that he was sorry and what you were doing is nothing compared to what his dad has done."
"Why didn't you tell your dad?"
"Lilly, she knew that I knew and told me that Logan would deny deny deny if I told."
"Damn, guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree."
"Eli..."
"I know that Logan abused Lilly." he suddenly found himself back on his back with a pissed off girlfriend on top of him.
"Logan would never, never place his hands on Lilly."
"Baby, I saw the bruises and she told me that it was Logan."
"Did she tell you or did you see them and assume that was Logan and she agreed."
"I..shit. If not Logan than who?"
"It could have been Duncan. Duncan has form of epilepsy that can cause violent fits and blackouts. If she got too close during one of his fits..."
"He could have hurt her and have no memory of it. Do you think ..Duncan killed Lilly?"
"I don't know."
Shit time for distraction.
He pulls her down for a kiss and rolls so that he is on top.
"Eli.." she breaths as his hand curls at her waist, and slips his hand to stat undoing he jeans.
"Veronica you home!" her dad yells.
He drops his head, "Dammit."
"Sorry.. Yeah dad I'll be out in a minute."
"Eli, you staying for supper." he calls.
"No, sheriff. I got to get home." he says kissing quickly and grabs his shirt.
"I love you." she tells him sitting up.
"I love you too." he says getting off the bed, brushing a soft kiss on her neck, he elps he out of the bed.
She sits with Logan and talks to him about his mom's credit card use.
"Weevil, why is Blondie hanging out with Echolls." Felix asks sitting down.
All the PCHers have been watching their leader's woman and their friend talk with Logan and taking in the the fact that their leader seems okay with it.
"A job."
"What he lose the keys to his car or his surfboard?" Hector asks.
"No, he is trying to find his mom."
"Ummm, does he think Blondie can dag the river for her body?" Thumper says.
"He thinks she's alive and V found some proof that he might be right."
"Damn...Lynn Echolls still kicking." Felix says.
"I still hate the kid but..." he says. They all know how it feels to lose someone.
"As long as he keeps his eyes and hands to himself its all good, right." Hector says.
"What?" he says looking away from the two of them talking.
"Dude..." some of the boys look at Hector like he must have a death wish.
"I mean...he's looking at her like..." he stumbles.
"Hector, stop talking." Felix says as Weevil gets up and goes to join Blondie and Echolls.
Logan moves away from Ronnie when over her shoulder he sees that Weevil is coming over to them.
"Opie, quierida." he says as he sits down behind her and places his arm around her waist.
"Paco." he laughs to himself when he realizes that the biker is staking his claim. Like I would ever be interested in Ronnie. Don't worry Paco, I don't want your girl for anything than other than helping me find my mom.
"Thanks Ronnie." he says getting up and heading away.
"You could have kept talking." he says placing a kiss on her neck.
"Don't think I don't know what that was." she mumbles.
"Blondie." Felix says as he sits down with them.
"Who put him in the "Mine" mode?" she asks.
"I wasn't..." he starts.
"Hector." Felix answers laughing.
"When did she become the leader?" Weevil glares at him.
"Dude, she has a pit bull and a taser." he says raising his hands up in surrender.
She just laughs, turns toward him and kisses him.
Is it bad that was a turn on.
Meg comes up to her when she sees her walking with Eli and Felix in the hall.
"Veronica, can I borrow you?" she asks from the doorway of the gym. Whee Duncan is setting up for the 80s dance.
"Girl talk. Excuse me."
"I need help."
"What's up?"
"I think I have a secret admirer."
"Hmm, interesting. Cool, I'll help."
"Thank you."
She's about to ask her about the admirer when her phone rings.
"Hello, hello. Oh hi nice breathing, keeps getting better."
"Does you admirer call you and do the heavy breathing thing."
"No."
"Lucky. Just me than."
"Who would be stupid enough to go after you? I mean, look at your boyfriend."
She just smiles.
Meg tells her about how she had gotten a text on the way home form a game and when she looked around only two guys were on their phones.
She walks into Mars Investigations, where her dad gives her an easy case since he is involved with a case that is taking up a lot of his time.
The woman, Katerina wants to find her ex-fiancee.
Katerina explains the situation that they met online, but they have lost touch, and she thinks that he is in Neptune.
She felt like she made a mistake and wants him back.
Just call me cupid.
She hangs out with Wallace.
"Where's Weevil tonight?" he asks.
"Poke with Felix and Hector. I am not allowed to play anymore."
"They hate losing to you don't they?"
"Yeah."
"Hey can I as a favor?"
"You're working again."
"It's for Meg. She's got a secret admirer. Can you check out a couple phones for me."
"Fine, but next time we hang out let's actually hang out."
The next day, Meg receives some flowers from her secret admirer and he asks he to be his date for the dance.
She takes photo of flowers.
She reports back to Katerina that they haven't found her fiancee, but Katerina agrees to pay more.
She gets more information to help her find him.
That he likes hokey and plays guitar.
She places a fake casting call to pinpoint Tom.
She going through the head shots when Wallace shows up to tell her that he is done trying to look through the phones.
She gets a text about Lynn's card.
She calls Logan to tell him about the charge for 12000 at the Sunset Regent.
She and Logan, pretending to be an engaged couple, attempt to enter the room in which they think his
mother is staying.
They are denied access, but Logan decides to stake out the place until the she comes down.
As she leaves she calls Felix.
"I know you hate him but I would feel better if someone was a least around in case this turns out to be someone that stole the card."
"Send me the address Blondie."
"Thanks Felix, I'll owe you."
"I'll collect."
She visits the flower shop, but the staff member is unhelpful, he has a bad memory.
Picking up the photo of Tom, Wallace makes a comment about the dog.
Thinking it might be rare she decides to track the dog down.
She contacts local animal hospitals and eventually finds one with a Catahoula Leopard Dog named Steve.
She pretends to want to breed "her dog" with Steve but the dog's owner refuses to speak to her.
Before she and Meg head to a party, with her one of the PCHers following, she visits Leo, who agrees to call the numbers that the vet called.
"Hmmm, he's cute." Meg says.
"Is he?" she looks over at him and doesn't see it.
"Well if I had Weevil, I guess I wouldn't notice others either."
"You think my man is hot, you should see him without his shirt."
"Veronica have the two of you?"
"No, not for lack of trying. We keep getting interrupted but the make out sessions.. oh the make out sessions. That boy can kiss."
"We so need to have an overnight soon."
"Okay." she laughs. Love my boys but every so often you need girl talk. "You, me and I'll invite my friend Mac."
"Soon."
They go to the party, but they find nothing in terms of Meg's secret admirer.
"Ronnie, do you know what's up with Logan?" Duncan asks her.
"What do you mean?"
"Why is he staked out at a hotel..."
"He's still there."
"I just got off the phone him."
"Can you excuse me for a minute?"
She grabs her phone as she heads to leave.
"Any clue?" Meg say stopping her at the door.
"Not yet, Meg are you okay by yourself for a bit, I need to do something."
"Sure, I'll talk to you tomorrow."
She finishes dialing.
"I need you." she says as she gets on Thumpers bike.
Logan continues to camp out in the hotel lobby.
The concierge tries to get him to leave so he takes out his card and has him book him a room.
"Opie." Weevil says sitting down on the table in front of him.
"I'm not leaving, I told you friend the same thing over an hour ago when he tried."
"I know, he and V called me. V is on her way, I was just closer."
Ronnie to the rescue.
"Logan." Ronnie says coming up to them.
"You know you can't sit here forever. Let's flush her out." she says dialing a number on her phone.
"Hi, I would like to report my car stolen. My name is Lynn Lester."
They barely wait an hour when someone comes down.
"Opie." Weevil says hitting him on the shoulder.
Logan sees his mom's clothes.
"Mom.." he whispers.
The woman turns around and it turns out to be Logan's sister, Trina.
"Hey Logan, did you just call me mom? You okay brother. You know moms gone right."
You're not suppose to be here."
She ignore him and looked behind him.
"Veronica, hey. Who's the muscle?"
"Hello Trina."
"So is the whole brat pack here. What is this like prom night? You guys get a room here for some after party. Oh..I've been out of the lope are the three of you..."
"Shut up, you're wearing mom's clothes."
"She was your mom, my step mom. The lady who liked to parade around in a string bikini when I had a boy over."
"To be far, when you didn't you have a boy over."
"Oh you." she goes to touch his arm.
"Dad could have used you there."
"So now you're worried about dad. I thought he was the big bad wolf, cigarette burns and broken noses. Oh the stories you use to tell."
"We should do this more often."
"Well you are in luck. I'm heading home now. Seems someone finally cancelled mom's cards."
"You know what let's get going." she says coming between them.
"Opie, let's go." Weevil say grabbing his arm.
"Veronica, look at you. All grown up. We should hang out while I'm in town."
After Trina leaves, Logan breaks down to the floor crying mumbling "She's gone".
She rub his back trying to keep herself from crying with him.
He stand over the two of them clenching his fist. He wants to go after Opie's sister and force her to see what her selfishness caused.
Veronica goes back to the flower shop, bringing a sketch artist to aid the owner's memory.
Leo gets back to her and mentions three names.
She checks each of the names. She gets lucky on the third name and is about to call Katerina with the news before her dad comes into the office and stops her.
It turns out that "Katerina" is actually Yelena Sukarenko, the wife of the criminal who is actually trying to track down Tom because he testified against her husband and has changed his identity through the Witness Protection Program.
Under her dad's instructions, she tells Yelena a fake address.
Meg comes over to get ready for the dance.
"What's all this?"
"We are going to the dance."
"Meg.."
"Come on, Veronica. It will be fun."
"Fine."
She receives the copy of the sketch of the secret admirer just as they are about to leave but doesn't give it to Meg.
The two of them go to the dance together.
She notices that Meg seems unsure about being there, so she gives her the corsage that was the clue for the admirer, who turns out to be Duncan.
"Where are you going?"
"My wok is done."
"But you'll miss your surprise."
She just smiles and walks off.
She heads to her car planning on leaving and going to interrupt boy night.
I'm in dire need of cuddling.
"Where you going, querida?" Eli says as she reaches her car.
"I thought this was beneath you." she says as he hands her a small bouquet of flowers.
"Maybe but you like it. Enjoy it querdia, cuz I doubt I will ever dress like this again." he tells her.
While she is taking in his outfit, he is doing the same with hers.
They go to the dance together.
"You look beautiful, querida." he says as they are slow dancing.
Logan crashes in, obviously drunk in only a dress shirt and briefs.
"Shit." they both say.
They take him out of the dance to a empty hallway.
"Give me your keys, Logan. Can you follow us?"
"Yeah."
"Logan." Trina says.
Logan goes off with Trina.
She kisses him.
"Meg called you."
"Yeah, you want to go back in."
"Hmmm, I think.." her sentance is cut off by her phone ringing.
"Hello..."
"You still getting hang ups."
"Yeah, give it to me." he takes the phone and hits *69. "Why you bothering my girl?"
SHe takes phone out of his hand.
"Why do you keep calling me."
"This is a payphone. You must be talking about the blond lady."
"Blond lady. Payphone, where?"
She & Eli go to where the guys tells him where the pay phone in Barstow and find her mom.
She tries to get her out of the bar before seeing Clarence Wiedman looking at them.