"Hello Logan" Ms James said as she welcomed him into the guidance counsellors office and indicated that he should take his usual seat.
"Hey.." he said in a voice not much more than a whisper and she gave him a concerned glance, she'd known that the recent medical issues with the Mars girl had broken through that wall of anger that had been keeping him from fully processing Lilly Kane's murder but she hadn't expected a young man like him, a known silver-tongued trouble-maker, from a wealthy 09er family to become so dependent on her help. She worried about him; he was a really good student and a sweet boy underneath all his usual boisterous bravado.
"How have you been feeling lately?" she prompted.
"Useless?" he said in a hoarse whisper. "Veronica has lost another good friend… again… she was murdered… and all I can do is stand back and watch as she falls apart…. I can't fix it… I can't make it not hurt…" he said while his cinnamon-brown eyes focused on the small plant in the window.
"Is this about the girl from her father's office?" Ms James asked. She had heard news reports about the murder of a former student, Daisy Blossom, it had taken her most of the morning to realise that it had been the same girl her predecessor Mr Wu had mentored before her admission into Hearst College. The girl who had been dating another troubled student, Gustavio Toomes who had gone missing about 5 years ago under less than savoury circumstances during the schools last major problems with drugs on campus.
"Yeah" Logan confirmed. She didn't mention that she had been reading through the girls permanent file after the gossip in the teacher's lounge had started after the news had broken.
"What happened to Ms Blossom was not your fault Logan" Ms James assured him.
"I never said it was" Logan snapped defensively.
"I'm just saying… there's no way that anyone could have predicted what was going to happen… I know it's difficult to watch someone you love in pain, but all you can do is be there for her as best you can" she told him gently.
Logan sighed, he couldn't explain this to her. Veronica had been tearing herself apart for the last few days because she was certain that the files she had asked Daisy to collect from the Neptune Registry Office on Abel Koontz had been what had gotten her killed.
That he had been wrong about Lilly's murder this whole time… that he'd been the one to suggest to the Kane family about using his father's public relations agent Raj Sanju and press connections to call for the emergency recall election that had resulted in Keith Mars losing his job as Sheriff.
That he had been in Neptune the day Lilly had been murdered… that he still hadn't confessed that part to Veronica because he couldn't bear to see the horrified, disgusted look in her eyes when she'd eventually find out how badly he had failed the women that he loved?
"I know… I just… feel so helpless…" he admitted.
He loved Veronica so much… if she ever found out…. If he lost her….
This whole conspiracy theory… the implications that Duncan or his family could have had something to do with Lilly's murder… it was freaking him out… and what if she was right about those files… if Veronica kept digging and it put her on the killers radar?
"That's a natural reaction… you just have to assure her that you are there for her" Ms James told him.
Veronica stood in the small kitchen of the Mars Investigations Office and finished putting the used coffee pods into the trash and picked up the two coffees for her father's most recent client. Another robbery at the Neptune Grand Hotel, except this time someone had broken into the VIP lounge in the small restaurant and bar downstairs. Wordlessly she handed the beverages to the Neptune Grand Manager Gerard Quesnelle and her father.
"I am sure you can understand how an issue as delicate as this… needs to be handled discreetly?" Gerard told him, casting a worried glance at the presence of a teenage girl.
"I assure you Mr Quesnelle, here at Mars Investigations, we pride ourselves on discretion" her father replied.
Veronica smiled in agreement and turned, closing the door behind her, taking the seat at her desk. It felt wrong to be back here… like something important was missing.
Of course it was… most of her recent memories about this office were the ones where Daisy had been showing her the new filing system and mini-lessons in how to get through locked doors without leaving fingerprints or trace evidence, or simply just having an afternoon coffee with her friend. She glanced at the small leather book she had taken from her bedroom, the investigation into her missing boyfriend.
Daisy had been working on this case for almost five years with very little leads. It was peppered with legal terms, forensic lingo, and potential body dump sites. It looked like something that would have been compiled by the FBI or someone in the DA's office. So much detail… because even though her father was sure that the body was buried somewhere under the foundations of the Neptune Leisure and Spa complex which had been getting build about the time that Ciaran and Tyrone Fitzpatrick had been working there… the McCoy and Gleason Land Trust kept throwing appeals notices to block the excavation order. Daisy had been trying to get all this information together so she could get a judges court order to get permission to try and recover it so that the deeply religious Marissa Toomes could lay her eldest son to rest properly.
She had said as much in her recordings, Veronica had been listening to the small tape recorder over the last few days, even in the headphones that joie de vivre attitude could still be heard in her voice.
Why had she sent Daisy to get those files?
Why hadn't she considered the idea that the Kane's would have someone watching those records?
Determined to pull herself out of those thoughts she reached for the stack of unopened mail sitting by her desk and started to file it away under invoices to be sent out, returns information from the Border Patrol Office, the latest weekly Bounty Notices and checks to be lodged.
Then she found it… a small visitors notice and an invitation to visit San Quentin… for access to Abel Koontz.