A/N - This chapter is a bit more focused on the jewelry case, with a little bit of LoVe discussion at the beginning. It's not a super exciting chapter, but there has to be some stuff on the case she's working on too.

Please let me know what you think of it. Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed so far!

Disclaimer: Only borrowing these wonderful characters from Rob Thomas. I sadly own nothing, but wish I did.

Chapter 3 – Stolen Tiaras

After they took a shower together in the morning, a ritual they seemed to have started on most days during the last two weeks, Veronica stopped to look at the emerald necklace on her way to the closet to get dressed for the day. Logan stopped in the doorway from the bathroom and leaned against the frame watching her look at it. He had one towel wrapped around his waist and had a second one in his hand rubbing his hair dry as he stood there silently observing her.

"We really can keep it if you want," he said in a low voice after a few minutes of silence. He was still just leaning against the door frame, gazing at her lovingly, but had stopped messing with his hair and tossed the other towel back at the hamper.

She turned and smiled, and walked back over to him, placing her hands on his slightly damp chest. "It is beautiful, but I really don't think I'll have that many opportunities to wear it. I do appreciate the offer though." She leaned up on her tip toes and placed a tender kiss on his lips. When she stood back down, he brushed some of her wet strands of hair back away from her face and kissed her softly on the forehead.

"If you're sure, then I'll take it back to Sylvia today. We can always borrow something else for the next fancy event we go to." Logan replied with an adoring smile on his face. "But if there are any you fall in love with, promise me you'll let me know. Her pieces are very popular and tend to sell rather quickly, so if there's something you like there's no guarantee it would be there the next time we were to borrow one."

"They must be popular. I think several of the ones stolen were done by her actually." Veronica commented as she walked back toward the closet. "Definitely a higher percentage than some of the other jewelers on the list."

"Given how special her work is, I really do hope you catch the thief." Logan said as he also headed toward the closet to get dressed. Veronica nodded in agreement.

She tried not to ogle him as he was getting dressed in his business suit for the day. Even though she'd been living there for a little over two weeks, it still seemed surreal to her to watch him put on a suit every morning for work. She never imagined he'd end up with the type of career that he'd have to dress in a suit for. Of course his suits weren't the cheap kind, but it still wasn't something she had ever envisioned all those years ago.

"So have you ever thought about passing an ordinance that would make it so you didn't have to get all dressed up to be the Mayor?" She asked, mostly just joking as he headed back to the bathroom to fix his hair.

He gave her a quick puzzled look and cocked his head slightly to one side, "Are you trying to tell me you don't like my business look?"

She laughed a soft sultry laugh, "Well I do prefer you in nothing at all, but no, I do like your business look too. I just wondered if you actually do?"

He smiled back and nodded as he worked on his hair, "Yeah, I don't know. You know what they say, the clothes make the man or dress for success or whatever." He shrugged and continued, "It was sort of the same thing as the facial hair. I wanted people to take me seriously as the Mayor and dressing in anything other than an appropriate business suit just seemed unlikely for that to happen."

Veronica smiled proudly at him, "I really am impressed by how seriously you take your job."

His expression changed to be a bit embarrassed by her compliment and he ducked his head slightly, then looked back up at her with a shy grin. "Thanks, that means a lot to me." He walked closer to her and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead, and then held out his hand to lead her downstairs for breakfast.

On their way down the stairs he smiled deviously at her, "I'm more than happy to run around here naked though if that would make you happy." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. He chuckled softly, and then went into the kitchen to make them some breakfast.

A short while later, they were sitting at the counter eating the scrambled eggs, toast and bacon that they'd made for breakfast. As she stole another piece of bacon off his plate, Veronica could tell that there was something on his mind. He had that hesitant look, like he wanted to say something, but wasn't quite sure how to approach it. How much longer should I let him suffer before I finally just ask what he's afraid of saying? She took another bite of her scrambled eggs and tried to act natural, but his nervousness was starting to get to her a bit. 'Finally!' she cheered internally when at last he did open his mouth and words actually came out.

"We don't have to go to Growlers Saturday night." He said looking at her with a hint of trepidation.

Of course, it would be an Alexis topic that was causing him to act so skittish. She gave him a compassionate expression. While she really didn't have a desire to spend any more time with Alexis than absolutely necessary, she knew it would be good for them to see how Vanessa was doing. She finished chewing and swallowed the piece of bacon she'd popped into her mouth right as he'd finally spoken. "I don't mind. I know you've been worried about Vanessa, so it will be good to see her, especially with Tyler. It's a big club, with lots of people and loud music. I'm not that worried about it," Veronica said in what she hoped sounded like a nonchalant tone before taking another drink of her coffee. There's no way in hell I'm bringing her a birthday present though, she thought dryly to herself.

Logan sighed and looked down at his almost empty plate, pushing around a few remaining pieces of eggs with his fork. "I just feel bad that you have to spend time around her again so soon, especially after her rude comment last night."

"Hey, it didn't really bother me," she said with a reassuring smile. She reached over and put her hand on his that had been absentmindedly moving around the eggs. He stopped moving his hand and looked up into her eyes searching to see if she was telling the truth or just trying to mollify him. I've dealt with much worse in high school, but given some of those things were your fault, I definitely don't want to go there. He didn't seem convinced, so she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I'm a bobcat remember, way tougher than I might look." She gave him a little wink and fierce little growl.

He chuckled when she growled. "Yes you are," he said lovingly as he returned the kiss with a gentle one on her lips. "My Bobcat."

She smiled lovingly in return and for a moment wished they could head back upstairs so she could show him just how frisky of a bobcat she could be. But unfortunately, they both needed to be responsible adults and go do the adult thing and actually show up for work on time. She knew he had a morning meeting that he needed to be at and she didn't want to cause him to be late for that. She had a bit more flexibility with her schedule at least, given she was just consulting for the Sheriff's Office and not a normal deputy with a set work shift. Her salary was set for the hours she worked on cases, similar to when she was a P.I., and she really appreciated that aspect of the job.

"So I take it Emily was one of the girls you dated that didn't stick around long after Alexis met her?" Veronica asked with a bit of curiousity in her voice.

His expression turned thoughtful for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so, maybe." He paused then continued on. "Though we mostly stopped seeing each other because she had to transfer to a hospital in San Diego, and we weren't serious enough to try to make a long distance thing work. I know San Diego isn't really that far though, but she didn't think it would be that great of an idea to keep seeing each other. Something about being too busy getting settled in a new city with a new job and that it was better if we just said good bye as friends." He shrugged before he continued with almost an embarrassed expression, "She was super sweet, which I guess has never really worked out for me."

"Hey, I'm super sweet," Veronica protested playfully.

"Yeah, you're a super sweet bobcat," he replied with a mischevious look on his face. His tone became very sarcastic as he added,"Spreading sunshine and rainbows where ever you go."

"Don't forget, plays well with others," she said in a sultry tone as she climbed out of her chair and squeezed between his knees. They were sitting at the breakfast counter on bar stools, so their height difference was balanced a bit more in their current position.

"I do like it when you play well with me," he said in a husky voice as he moved his mouth down toward her shoulder and started placing kisses along her neck. His hands went down to her hips and he pulled her even closer. She tipped her head to give him better access to her neck and moaned softly. She let out a frustrated little sigh as she heard his phone alarm go off. He also sighed for a moment and rested his head on her shoulder.

"You need to go, so you're not late," she said in a somewhat dissapointed tone. "Don't want the Mayor to get a bad rep now, do you? I'll take care of the breakfast dishes."

He lifted his head up and gave her one of his deep stares, and then leaned in and kissed her deeply. "I love you Veronica," he said in a low voice.

"I know you do," she said softly back, "I love you too." She gave him a wicked smile and changed her tone to be more bossy, "Now get that handsome ass out of here before I lure you back upstairs and get you in trouble with Felicia." He chuckled and gave her another quick kiss on the tip of her nose before heading toward the garage with a quick good bye.

When Veronica walked into the station later that morning, Norris was manning the front desk. "Good morning Veronica," he said as she walked in. "Leo wanted to talk to you when you got in."

Veronica thanked him and headed into Leo's office. "Good morning Sheriff," Veronica said in an almost teasing tone. Leo gave her a warm smile. She smiled warily back at him before she continued. "Hey, I'm sorry about last night." She flopped down in one of the two chairs across from his desk. "Alexis really doesn't like me and I'm sorry that you and Emily may have been caught in the cross fire a bit."

Leo laughed lightly. "Yeah, I'd say Alexis tends to not like anyone Logan is dating... or had dated either." He paused a moment. "I didn't realize he'd dated Emily since that was before he and I became good friends. But it was a while ago, so it's not a big deal for me at least." He smiled a bit mischievously and added, "Plus I dated you before he did, so it's only fair for the tables to be turned." Veronica chuckled and nodded. Leo smiled then continued, "I actually wanted to see if it would be okay if I brought Emily to poker tomorrow night at Dick's. If that would be too awkward though, I understand."

Veronica laughed a bit louder, "When have I ever shied away from awkward?" He smiled knowingly back as she continued. "I'll give Logan a heads up too. Was that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

Leo shook his head, "Actually no. We got another jewelry theft call last night and I was going to send you and Deputy Clayton over to talk with the victim. We were short on staff last night due to a large accident on the PCH, so said we'd send a deputy out this morning since there wasn't an urgent reason to get over there. It sounds like exactly the same M.O. as the others."

A short while later Veronica and Norris were pulling up at an 09er residence that was only a few streets over from where the Kane's had lived when they were growing up. As they'd gotten closer, Veronica started to feel a bit of anxiety creep up. She breathed a silent sigh of relief as they turned before they reached the street that she used to consider her second home sometimes. The grounds at the Taylor's house were meticulously maintained and the walk from the driveway to the front door was along an intricate stone path.

Norris rang the doorbell and they stood waiting. Veronica expected the door to be opened by a maid or a butler given the neighborhood, so she was surprised when a woman in her early thirties opened the door and confirmed to them that she was Mrs. Jessica Taylor. She invited them inside once they introduced themselves and gestured to a living room located right off the foyer. As they sat down, a little blond boy ran in from the adjoining room and flopped his torso down on the couch next to Mrs. Taylor and with a disgruntled look on his face demanded to go to the park. Veronica estimated he was probably about five years old.

"I told you this morning at breakfast that Stephanie will be here later to take you and Julia to the park. Mommy needs to talk to these nice people from the Sheriff's office now, so please go back in the other room and play with your sister." Veronica found it interesting how she talked in a much different tone to her son than when she was talking to them. She'd often wondered if she'd do that as a mother as well, since she'd noticed other mom's doing it. She never noticed herself doing that though when she'd talked to Dillon's nieces and nephews. Although she had used so many various voices and accents through out the years, she could totally imagine herself talking in strange voices to her own kid, but not the overly sweet mommy talk.

The little boy scowled at Veronica and Norris, as if it was their fault he couldn't go to the park. He started to head back to the other room, and then must have noticed the gun on Norris's belt. His eyes grew big and he changed course to head toward Norris.

"Jacob!" Mrs. Taylor scolded. She could obviously see what had caught the little boy's attention. "Please go back to the other room."

He gave his mom a slightly angry glare, then turned and headed back to his designated room.

"Sorry about that," Mrs. Taylor said apologetically. Veronica and Norris smiled and assured her it was fine.

Veronica had asked if she had a picture of the stolen necklace and Mrs. Taylor handed her a folder from the table in front of the couch with the insurance paper work, including a picture of the necklace. The necklace was a combination of rubies and diamonds set in white gold.

"Do you have any idea when it may have been stolen?" Veronica asked as she looked through the file. No surprise, another Grant Whitman policy.

"I wore it last month when we went out for our anniversary dinner on the 10th, but after that I'm not sure when it may have gone missing. The case we keep it in was still in the safe so we didn't realize it was gone until I went to put it on last night to go to an art exhibit at Hearst."

Veronica gave her a curious look trying to remember if she'd seen her the night before at Hearst. "Did you enjoy the exhibit?" Veronica asked as she closed the insurance folder.

"Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the exhibit. My husband, James, is a doctor at Neptune Memorial, and he was called in at the last minute for an emergency, so we weren't able to go."

James, Jessica, Jacob and Julia, Veronica thought sarcastically to herself, at least if Logan and I have kids we don't have the same initials to start with.

Veronica gave her a sympathetic smile, "Can we take a look at the safe?"

Before Mrs. Taylor could answer, a scream came from the other room, followed by the sound of running footsteps as a little blond girl, who looked almost the same age as her brother, hurled herself at Mrs. Taylor's lap. "Mommy!" the little girl screamed, "Jacob took my tiara and won't give it back."

Mrs. Taylor let out a huge sigh and raised her voice slightly, "Jacob, please come in here." The little blond boy returned with his hands behind his back.

"What Mommy?" He asked with a look of pure innocence on his face. Veronica tried her best not to laugh.

"Where is Julia's tiara?" his mother asked, giving an apologetic look to Veronica and Norris.

"I think the jewelry thief must have taken it with your necklace." Jacob answered causally.

"Jacob?" Mrs. Taylor replied giving him a stern scowl, "Give your sister her tiara back, or you won't be going to the park this afternoon with Stephanie."

The little boy sighed and gave his sister a dirty look, and took the tiara out from behind his back. The little girl jumped off her mom's lap and ran toward her brother, taking her tiara back and disappearing back into the other room.

Veronica gave the little boy a suspicious look, "Hmm… maybe Jacob here is our jewelry thief? Maybe we should take him down to the station for questioning? What do you think Deputy Clayton?"

The little boy's eyes popped open wide as he shook his head and quickly ran back into the other room.

Norris tried to suppress a little chuckle, but couldn't silence it entirely. Veronica gave him a mischievous grin.

"I'm so sorry about that," Mrs. Taylor said as she stood from the couch. "Having twins can be exhausting some days. The safe is in the office, if you'd like to follow me."

Mrs. Taylor led them back to the foyer and down a hall to their home office. The safe was on the wall behind the desk, covered by a panel. It was a digital safe that took a combination of 6 numbers. Mrs. Taylor opened the safe after Veronica took a few pictures of it and inspected it for any apparent damage. The empty necklace case was already sitting on the desk, rather than in the safe, but there were other papers and a few other boxes in the safe. Norris pulled out a plastic bag and said they would have the case checked for finger prints or DNA, but so far they hadn't found anything with the other cases. He took that as an opportunity to ask for her prints with his mobile scanner, and said he could stop by the hospital later to get prints from her husband as well.

"Are you sure nothing else was taken?" Veronica asked as she looked carefully at the inside of the safe.

"Yes, we checked the other boxes and my husband is confident that only the necklace was taken."

Veronica thought for a moment about the tiara. "Do the kids know the combination to the safe? Could your daughter have taken it out to play with it and not put it back?"

Mrs. Taylor shook her head. "No the kids don't know the combination. Sometimes my husband keeps his pistol in there and is very strict that the kids not be able to access it. Of course it also has a safety lock, but he doesn't want them handling it at all. If his gun isn't in the safe, he keeps it in a locked case for days he's going to take it to the shooting range. He has it with him today."

Veronica asked her to make a list of anyone who might have access to their home on a regular basis. When Mrs. Taylor was finished, Veronica scanned the names to see if anything looked familiar to the other cases. There weren't many on her list. But she thought she recognized the cleaning service and the yard maintenance that they used as being on a few of the other lists. "How about your nanny? Stephanie was it?" Veronica asked when she didn't see a Stephanie on the list.

"Oh, she just comes to baby sit for us sometimes. There are a couple different high school girls that we use because they tend to book up or have other activities and aren't always available. I guess I wouldn't really think of them as who you were interested in given they are just high school girls."

It's amazing how much trouble high school kids can actually get into, Veronica thought to herself as she reflected back on all the cases she took back in high school. She smiled politely at Mrs. Taylor. "It wouldn't hurt to add them to the list." Mrs. Taylor nodded and took the list back and added four names, one being Stephanie Whitman and another being Stacey Davenport. Veronica wondered if Stephanie was related to Grant, and knew the Davenport name seemed familiar as well, but she couldn't immediately place it. Veronica asked if she could take the insurance folder with her and make copies and have them returned later, to which Mrs. Taylor agreed.

"Is Stephanie related to your insurance agent?" Veronica asked as she looked in the folder one more time.

Mrs. Taylor nodded, "Yes, Stephanie is Grant's oldest daughter. She's a wonderful young lady who the kids both adore. They aren't as fond of all their sitters unfortunately."

"And which jeweler did you purchase the necklace from?" Veronica asked since she didn't see it in the paperwork.

"Sylvia Monroe," Mrs. Taylor said with a sad sigh, "I hope she's able to make another one similar to it once we get the insurance all taken care of. Her designs are so spectacular."

Veronica gave her a kind smile and nodded. She promised they'd let her know if they found anything and would also send back an official copy of the police report so they could turn it in for the insurance claim.

Veronica and Norris stopped by the hospital on the way back to the Sheriff's office to get fingerprints from Dr. Taylor. He was one of the doctors that worked in the Emergency Room and the receptionist at the desk said he was currently busy with a patient but she'd let them know as soon as he was free. Veronica had walked around the corner to get a couple of coffees from a kiosk in the lobby when she saw Emily coming in from outside.

"Hi Emily," Veronica called out while she waved at the other woman.

"Veronica!" Emily replied in a cheerful voice. "I didn't expect to see you here today. What brings you down to Neptune General?"

"Deputy Norris and I were waiting to talk with one of the ER Doctors for a case I'm working on." Veronica answered with a friendly smile on her face.

"Our ER doctors are all so nice. I really love being back here. I never really felt quite as happy at the hospital in San Diego." She looked down at the watch on her wrist, "I really should be going since my shift starts soon. Hey, if you have any free time, you should stop by and spend some time with the kids too. I'm sure they'd love to have you read stories or do some arts and crafts with them. We are always looking for volunteers to come in to visit them. It's nice to give the parents a little break too, knowing someone else is there to spend some time with the kids so they can get away from the hospital for a little while. Then of course there are those sad cases, where there aren't any immediate family members to be there for the kids. Those always break my heart, and I'm so happy when we find someone nice to spend some time with them."

"I'll see if I can find some time to do that," Veronica replied with a sincere smile. "It was really nice running into you. Oh, and I apologized to Leo earlier, but also wanted to apologize to you about how Alexis acted last night."

Emily gave her a confused look, "I don't see how Alexis's behavior was really your fault at all." For a brief moment Veronica saw what looked like a flash of anger cross her face, but then it was replaced by a pleasant smile. "She's just not a very nice person. Thank goodness she doesn't come down to volunteer with the kids. Take care and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow night."

Veronica nodded and gave her a little wave before walking back to where Norris was still waiting by the ER. They didn't have to wait too much longer before they were escorted back to see Dr. Taylor. They took his fingerprints and Veronica asked if there was anything else he thought unusual that could help with the case. She also had him look over the list that Mrs. Taylor had given her and he added a few other names of some people she'd forgotten. Besides the additional names, there wasn't much else that Dr. Taylor knew that they hadn't already heard from his wife.

Veronica spent most of her afternoon looking over the jewelry case information again looking for a connection they'd missed before. She had a giant white board in her office, and had made a diagram of which cases had overlaps in possible suspects. She also wanted to figure out why "Davenport" had jumped out at her. She finally discovered that on one of the cases, the jeweler was a Bernard Davenport. She knew she'd seen it somewhere related to the burglaries, so was happy with herself when she finally found it again.

While the connection of the two sitters to other parties related to the case was interesting, she also hadn't seen their names listed in any of the other reports. She also realized that it probably wasn't much of a coincidence that you'd search out sitters from other people you already had relationships with. She still wasn't seeing an obvious connection between all the cases. Since she really only had the notes from the prior deputies' reports, she thought she may need to go back to visit the prior families to see what else she could find.

In addition to revisiting some of the other victims, she also thought it might be good to pay a visit to at least one of the jewelers to see what their thoughts on the robberies might be. Given she wasn't that familiar with expensive jewelry and priceless gems, she wondered if there was an angle she was missing. They'd been keeping an eye on the pawn shops in Neptune and nothing had turned up yet. Perhaps she should get a hold of that book that Logan mentioned with the super thief and see if there were any insights from a prior jewelry thief to help with her case. She finally decided it was getting late enough in the afternoon that she'd head home to do a few things there before getting ready to go to dinner with Heather.