Chapter notes: Sick in bed with a cold means another chapter edited. Three cheers for NyQuil and grandparents who babysit!
*Warning: Discussion of underage sex. Depiction of murder.*
"Good morning, Ms. Mars," Kayte called out from her desk.
Veronica hung up her coat near the door and gave a tired smile. "Good morning, Kayte. Any messages for me?"
The young, red-headed receptionist smiled warmly. "A few. They're on your desk."
Veronica nodded and began to walk down the hallway towards her office.
"Thank you," she murmured, already feeling drained. One more week and she knew her energy would return for her second trimester. But today, that week seemed a long ways off.
Hearing voices, she slowed down as she neared Logan's office door, pausing just outside.
"What about his finances? Investments?" Logan said.
"What exactly are you looking for?" Mac said. "The name of the real murderer to magically pop up on the screen?"
Logan let out a loud sigh. "I don't know," he admitted, sounding defeated. "I just don't think he could kill anyone."
Veronica stepped into the doorway, her boots clicking on the hardwood floor announcing her presence. Logan leaned against his desk, his eyes cast downward. Mac sat in one of the chairs, her back to the door.
"Hey," Veronica said quietly.
"Hey," Logan replied, his sad eyes looking up at her.
"Whatcha doing?" she asked.
"Preliminaries on Dick's case," Mac answered. "I've already pulled credit card reports from that night and the few days leading up to it."
Veronica nodded to her friend. "I heard it on the radio, after I dropped off Jack."
Logan looked down at the floor again, staying silent.
"I found everything I could about it online," Mac stated. "The media sure love a sex scandal."
There was a deep silence as everyone in the room contemplated what they had found out from the news.
"So," Veronica began. "Do you think Dick knew the girls were 16 when he –"
Logan's hand shot up into the air, his palm spread. "Just, don't start in on it, alright?"
Veronica opened her mouth for a rebuttal when Mac sped past her, swiftly closing the office door behind her.
Turning her attention back to Logan, Veronica's eyes narrowed with anger.
"Kind of a legit question. Because the way the press is playing it, he had some wild threesome with these two underage girls before –"
"Just stop! Alright?" Logan bellowed, retreating behind his desk. "I know what they're saying and I know it can't be true!"
"What part of it don't you believe?" Veronica yelled back. "The fact that Dick would tie up and screw two teenagers or the fact that he would murder them in a drug-induced haze?"
Logan's hands ran through his hair, grasping it in frustration. "I don't know! I just know he isn't capable of what they are accusing him of!"
"Really? Really?" she spat. "The guy who drugged me and then offered me up to be raped by his brother, isn't capable of killing two girls in some kinky sex act gone wrong?"
Logan's jaw clamped shut, the muscles in his face twitching, his eyes narrowing in anger.
"People change," he said, his voice forced and low. "We've all changed since then. That was a long time ago."
Veronica closed her eyes momentarily against the blinding flash of memory. Her white dress. Limping towards the car. Her gun, pointed at Cassidy, screaming that he raped her. Cassidy stepping off the building.
"Yeah, well, in my head it's still yesterday," she replied through clenched teeth. "Dad will take care of the kids until we get back, but you still need to drop Jack off after preschool. I'll meet you at home after my meeting. We can go from there."
Before Logan could say any more, Veronica quickly left the room, leaving the office door open behind her.
As Veronica sat on their porch steps, finishing off her burger, Logan pulled up in the Range Rover.
"Let's get this over with," Veronica muttered to herself wiping her hands with a napkin. Hiding the empty bag behind a potted plant, she grabbed her drink and made her way down the steps.
Sliding into the passenger seat, Veronica dropped her drink into the cup holder and slammed the door.
Logan glanced from the jumbo drink cup to Veronica, a smirk playing on his lips. "Should I GPS all the bathrooms between here and San Diego?"
"Baby's not big enough to tap dance on my bladder yet. Should be good until we get there," Veronica said and rubbed her belly. "Plus, I went before I left home."
Logan chuckled. "Then you're one up on our kids. Three seconds after I get Jack in his car seat, he tells me he has to pee. So, back into preschool we marched."
"The parenting books seriously underestimated the number of times we would have to beg our children to do things like go to the bathroom," Veronica sighed. "Or bribe them with Skittles."
"Hey - if we're alone, is this considered a 'date'?" Logan said, glancing at her with a mischievous grin.
"Alas, no," Veronica said. "For it to qualify as a true 'date' there must be – A – a fancy meal of some sort and – B – the promise of sex without having to lock our bedroom door."
"Settle for a burger and a quickie in the car, at a roadside stop?" Logan said as he wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.
"As romantic as that sounds," Veronica said, rolling her eyes. "We aren't teenagers anymore."
Logan stretched his arm across the console, placing it gently on Veronica's knee. "No, we aren't.
An easy silence enveloped the car. Glancing at her partner, Veronica smiled. The deep laugh lines on his face began to show the year since the twins were born. After his last tour, when Lexie and Linc were two-years-old, grey flecks began to streak his receding hair and scruffy beard. But he kept in shape, running and working out, and she still got the same tingle, seeing him naked, as she did when they were younger.
Logan met her glance and smiled, thinking about her now, as his partner, and then, as his lover. How he loved every inch of her as she was right now; from the deep c-section scar across her stomach - that he watched the twin's emerged from in awe - to the silvery stretch marks he would follow and kiss along her belly and breasts. When they were teenagers, she still had the small figure of a girl. Now, he made love to a woman, with rolling hips, pillowy thighs, and supple breasts. And even day, he thanked every God on earth and in heaven that she came back to him.
"I know that it's hard for you to deal with Dick," Logan began quietly. "But he was there for me, at a time when no one else was. And I'm not asking you to forgive him or forget what happened to you – I'm asking you to help me prove he's innocent."
Veronica covered her hand with his, rubbing the back of his hand, back and forth with her thumb. They talked about their time apart – nine years of radio silence – before the kids were born, and every time, she was plagued by nightmares of him, drifting out to sea on his surf board, attempting to take his own life. Part of why she let Dick anywhere near their children was the fact that he was there to care for Logan, when she was not. That, and the kids thought that 'Uncle Dick' was hilarious.
"Okay," she said. "For you."
Logan brought his hand up with hers, kissing her fingers gently.
"Thank you," he replied.
Veronica let out another deep sigh and closed her eyes. If she was going to deal with Dick, she was going to need a quick nap.
"I'm always amazed how you still manage to do that," Logan murmured to Veronica.
The couple sat at the table in the interrogation room, waiting for Leo to bring Dick in to talk to them.
"Do what?" Veronica asked innocently.
"Twist Leo around your little finger," he remarked. "Still. After all these years."
Veronica tossed her long, wavy blond hair over her shoulder. "Just talented, I guess."
Logan chuckled. "Remind me again…you were…what…17 when you dated Leo, and he was…what…25?"
"Dick is almost 40. And those girls were younger than 17." Veronica's eyes narrowed. "If that's where this conversation is going."
"No, no," Logan said, pretending no to know better. "Just waltzing down memory lane."
Veronica pointed her finger at him, ready for a rebuttal when the door opened. Dick, in handcuffs and a prison-issue jumpsuit, came through the door with Leo.
Dick's hair stuck out in every direction, deep bags were under his eyes, and his face covered in rough stubble. Without making eye contact, he slumped in the seat across from them.
"Five minutes," Leo said before closing the door.
As soon as the lock clicked, Logan leaned forward to interrogate their prisoner.
"What the hell happened?" Logan hissed at his best friend.
Dick looked up, his eyes bloodshot and glassy. "I don't know. One minute, we're having fun, the next minute, I'm being slapped awake and there are paramedics and police around me."
"Start from the beginning," Veronica said, her voice a professional monotone. "Where did you find the girls?"
"I didn't find them, they found me," Dick explained. "I was at the launch of Sean Freidrich's new club here in town. And they started hitting on me."
"Did you know they were 16?" Logan asked, pointedly. "Leo said they went to Neptune High, for Christ's sake!"
"I didn't know!" Dick replied. "They were drinking in a club! I just assumed they were 21."
"You couldn't tell?" Veronica countered.
"Not like counting rings on a tree, Ronnie," Dick shot back. "Hot young girls are all pretty much the same, naked. How was I supposed to know?"
Veronica rolled her head back, looking at the ceiling, trying to hold back from punching Dick in the face.
"Did you suggest the hotel or did they?" Logan continued, trying to ignore the anger radiating from Veronica.
"They did," Dick replied. "It's near the club."
"Who's idea was it to tie them up?" Logan asked.
"Theirs," Dick said. "We ordered champagne, did some drugs, and they got all kinky. Made me rip the sheets and tie them up."
"Did you tie the ones around their necks?" Veronica asked, moving on to some of the information Leo shared with them.
"No!" Dick said. "All I remember is having the time of my life with these two, and then the drugs kicked in and everything went blank."
"Who had the drugs? You? Or did Sean provide them yet again?" Logan said, a look of pain crossing his face at the memory of Carrie Bishop.
"No, man," Dick said. "These girls had good shit. That's another reason why I didn't question their age."
"What did you take?" Veronica asked.
"I started with some pot on the way over." Dick held up his fingers to count off the drugs. "Then Sean gave me some more pot at the club. Then these girls gave me some super wicked GHB, and back at the hotel, we did more of the GHB with the alcohol."
Bile rose in Veronica's throat, but this time, it wasn't from her pregnancy.
"So then, you could have done it, and just don't remember," Veronica spat.
"But I didn't!" Dick exclaimed. "I swear to God, I didn't kill them!"
Pushing her chair back with a screech, Veronica stood, grabbing her purse. "I'm done. He's all yours," she announced and bolted for the door.
Banging her hand on the glass, the guard opened the door for her and within seconds, she was out in the hallway, heaving her burger into the nearest trash can.
A hand came to rest on her back. "Are you okay?" Leo asked.
Veronica wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and rose. "I'm fine. Baby just rejected the burger I ate for lunch."
Leo let out a laugh, his hand still lingering on her back. "You're pregnant again?"
"What can I say, she keeps asking, and I keep providing," Logan interjected, walking up to the two. He leaned over and kissed Veronica's head as Leo dropped his hand.
"Thanks for letting us talk to him, Leo," Veronica said. "Can you keep us updated, if anything else comes to light?"
Leo nodded, stepping back towards the interrogation room. "I will. Let me know if you find anything too."
"We will," Logan muttered. "Thanks Leo."
The detective nodded and disappeared into the room. Wrapping her arms around Logan's waist, Veronica leaned her head against his chest.
"Let's go," she said quietly. "If we leave now, we can pick up the kids from soccer."
Logan nodded, his mind working overtime to process everything Dick told them. Together, they made their way out to the car in silence.
End notes:
And yes, Kayte76...the receptionist is named after you. I stole her original name for another story (Sandy) and yours was the first one that popped into my head. lol