A/N – As always, thanks for all the support and for continuing to read along. Please let me know what you think with a review! I really do love to hear what people are thinking of the story. I know it gets a lot of reads, so please take a moment to drop me a little note. It makes me more excited to work on it when I get feedback from all of you.
I just realized the next update won't be out until the day after Christmas, so Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it!
Oh and there's a little mention in this chapter thanks to an idea from Manic Penguin! Thank you!
Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.
Chapter 16 – Mysterious Bedfellows
Kennedy lived in a condo that was located in a revitalized part of downtown Neptune, not very far from the Sheriff's Department. Veronica had done a quick background check before they left and found out that Kennedy was waitressing at one of the newer brewpubs that had opened in Neptune and given their hours, Veronica was hoping that she'd be at home. She didn't want to put her on alert right away and so they decided to stop by and see if they could catch her. On the drive over she debated about whether Kennedy might be more forthcoming if she went in to talk to her without Norris, but if she was the person who had actually attacked Alexis, that probably wasn't a wise idea. She decided she'd better let him come in with her just to be safe and not get Leo or Logan angry with her if something did go wrong. They agreed she'd do most of the talking though.
It took a few minutes for Kennedy to come to the door after they rang the bell. Her first reaction seemed to be surprise at seeing a uniformed Deputy and a petite blonde woman at here door. Veronica wasn't quite sure if she actually remembered her from their limited run-ins at Growlers. Kennedy seemed a bit nervous and looked back over her shoulder right after opening the door. She looked like she may have just rolled out of bed by the lack of make-up and mussed up hair. She was wearing a pair of yoga pants and a tank top that just barely covered all her curves. She turned back toward them and looked more closely at Veronica. After a moment a look of recognition passed over her face and she looked a bit more suspiciously at them.
"Can we talk to you for a few minutes Kennedy?" Veronica asked in as friendly of a voice as she could manage. She really didn't care for Kennedy at all after their first run in at Growlers. She reminded her of the bitchy stuck up girls that she had to endure at Neptune High School.
"About what?" Kennedy asked with the same suspicious look on her face. She was still standing in the door way and didn't seem eager to invite them in.
"Can we come in for a few minutes?" Veronica asked with a polite smile.
Kennedy sighed and looked over her shoulder one more time, then turned back to them with an annoyed expression on her face. "Fine," she said as she moved to the side and let them in. Kennedy pointed them to a couch and took a seat in a chair across from them. The condo was very nice inside and the furniture looked quite expensive. A door at the other end of the condo looked like it opened up to a bedroom, and Veronica could make out the edge of a bed and what looked like a leg under the sheet. Ah, that's why the hesitation to let us in. The furniture looked much nicer than what a waitress could afford, so Veronica wondered what else she might be up to.
"We're here to talk to you about Alexis Calloway." Veronica said as she turned her attention back to Kennedy.
Kennedy gave her an amused expression. "If you're here to ask if I'd like to press charges against her for hitting me Saturday…" She stopped as Veronica shook her head.
"No actually someone attacked her at her home last night and we're investigating that." Veronica explained, watching her reaction carefully. "You may have heard about that on the local news?"
Kennedy's eyes opened a bit wider before she spoke again. "Oh, I hadn't heard. I had a late shift last night at work and had just woken up when you rang the door bell." She pulled her legs up into the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees.
"Where were you yesterday between 4 and 5:30?" Veronica asked curiously since it seemed like Kennedy had gotten a bit nervous.
"Um…" Kennedy looked toward her kitchen for a moment then back at them. "I would have been here until 5:30 since my shift didn't start until 6 last night."
"Can someone corroborate that?" Veronica asked with her eyebrow raised.
"Maybe," Kennedy answered sounding even more nervous. "Why, am I a suspect?"
"Well you did threaten her at the club Saturday night." Veronica replied.
Kennedy laughed. "Yeah, after she punched me in the nose. But I didn't… I didn't go to her house and attack her for that." Her expression changed back to being more serious again.
"What did happen Saturday night?" Veronica asked next.
Kennedy shrugged. "You were there. You saw what happened."
Veronica looked at her suspiciously, "No I meant before that. I think you slipped something in Casey's drink to get him to fall all over you on the dance floor, but what I'm not sure about is why."
Kennedy gave her an innocent look. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Veronica narrowed her eyes more at her. "Well right now you look rather suspicious without a real alibi for yesterday and making a threat in public that you'd get even with her, which I personally overheard."
Kennedy let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head. "I didn't do anything to Alexis."
Veronica figured Kennedy didn't want to say anything about drugging Casey with Norris there, but she still wanted to find out what had been going on that night. "Do you have any idea who may have, because right now I'd put you at the top of our list?" Kennedy shrugged and shook her head looking more anxious than before. "Whose idea was it for you to dance with Casey Saturday night?" Veronica asked next.
Kennedy looked down at her toes for a moment before answering. "It was Tommy's idea. He hated that Alexis was spending so much time with Casey and was pissed that she was spending her birthday with Casey instead of him."
Veronica wasn't terribly surprised by that answer. "But why did you agree to help him?"
Kennedy shrugged again. "Because I don't like her and I thought ruining her birthday celebration sounded like a great idea. Of course I didn't expect to get punched in the face by her either. I never would have gone along with it if I'd known that was going to happen."
"Did you know that Tommy ended up going home with her that night?" Maybe Kennedy did it because she's in love with Tommy and then when he went home with Alexis instead of her, she decided to take Alexis out of the equation.
Kennedy shook her head, but didn't look all that surprised or angry. "I didn't really consider his entire plan all that well I suppose. I should have figured that Tommy was just doing it as a way to get back into her bed again."
"Again?" Veronica asked curiously.
Kennedy nodded. "They got into a fight I guess the prior weekend. Tommy made it sound like she said she didn't want to see him anymore. Something about him not being good enough for her or a bad influence or something." Maybe Dick's warning had gotten through to her after all, even if only temporarily. "He was pretty mad about it when I ran into him in the middle of the week. That's when he asked me if I wanted to help ruin her night on her birthday. I thought he was doing it to make her miserable, but apparently he was just trying to worm his way back into her life again."
"What's your relationship with Tommy?" Veronica still wasn't ready to give up on Kennedy doing it out of jealousy.
Kennedy looked between Veronica and Norris for a moment. "Well… We dated a while ago, but we're just friends now."
"You're not involved romantically with him currently?" Veronica asked and Kennedy shook her head. "That was an awfully big favor for you to do for him on Saturday night if you're just friends." Veronica glanced back at the bedroom, wondering who was actually waiting for her in her room. If I asked to use the bathroom would that look too suspicious?
Kennedy just shrugged. "Like I said, I really don't like her… but not enough to go to her house and attack her. Is she…" She trailed off and gave Veronica a worried look.
"She's in the hospital in a coma currently." Veronica answered.
Kennedy's eyes opened wide. "Oh that's… terrible."
"Thanks for talking with us. If we have any more questions we may contact you again. Please let us know if you think of anything that can help us figure out who may have done this." Veronica said as she stood up. Norris stood as well and gave Kennedy a curt nod before leading the way to the door.
Once they were back in the patrol car Veronica told him not to start the car yet. "There was a guy in her room, and I'm curious about who it may have been and if they're mixed up in any of this. I'm still not convinced it wasn't Tommy, regardless of what she said."
Norris nodded and looked back toward the door of the condo. "So what? You want to stake out her condo until he leaves?"
"Hmmm… stake outs are so boring." Veronica said with a smirk. She glanced around the area and then pulled out her cell phone.
"Hey Daddio," she said in a chipper voice as Keith answered her call.
"How's it going kiddo? You sound in better spirits than I expected after last night's call." Veronica cringed for a moment, getting so caught up in the case that she'd momentarily forgotten the ramifications of it all.
"Yeah… well… I'm working the case as we speak," She replied feeling a bit guilty all of a sudden.
"Ah… I see," Keith answered. Of course he knew better than anyone how she could throw herself into work to avoid dealing with difficult issues.
"Actually I was going to see if you had any good video devices that you could come down and place so I could try to figure out who's in someone's bedroom at the moment."
Keith chuckled lightly into the phone. "And will I get paid for this little operation? You know I have a consulting fee too."
Veronica laughed softly. "Oh come on! Isn't the satisfaction that you helped out your one and only daughter enough?"
Keith laughed again and asked for the address. Veronica said they'd stay until he arrived so they wouldn't accidentally miss the guy. There was a coffee stand a half a block away, so Norris said he'd grab them some drinks while she sat in the car watching things until her dad arrived. She smiled to herself as Keith pulled up and gave her a little nonchalant wave and started scoping out the best place to leave the small video recording device. She watched him finishing up as Norris got back into the car. "Thanks, she said as he handed her a cup. Poppa Mars is on the case so we're good to roll now."
Norris gave her an amused smile and nodded and started the car. "Where to now? Alexis's house, or did you want to try to track down Tommy?"
Veronica sighed, "Well if Tommy's the guy in Kennedy's bed, it won't do much good to go to his place looking for him. Given Kennedy sort of ratted him out in there, I sort of doubt it is him, although maybe she did it because I told her he ended up with Alexis again that night. Let's just start at Alexis's anyway and then we can track down Tommy later. Even if it's not him at Kennedy's and he is at home, I'd still like to get back into Alexis's house and look around for a while anyway."
"Alexis's it is then," Norris replied as he smiled at her and put the car in drive. "Do you think Kennedy could have been the one to attack Alexis?"
Veronica shook her head. "I don't think so, but I'm not completely ruling her out yet either."
Norris unlocked the door for her once they arrived at Alexis's house and let her enter first. The office was off to the right of the entry way and on the left was the living room and kitchen. There were several shelves with pictures and other knick knacks. She noticed that the pictures in the living room were mostly only of her and her family. Logan wasn't actually in any of those pictures. There were several large framed black and white photographs that she assumed Alexis had taken. One was the same one that she'd seen at Hearst of the hammock and beach scene. Well no pictures of Logan's face at least in the living room. All the pictures had an ocean theme. She looked more closely at one with large waves and a setting sun. She hadn't noticed at first that there was a surfer in the picture, but with the lighting, it was only a silhouette and you couldn't actually see the person's face, of course she'd know that particular body anywhere. So Logan is featured in the living room as well, you just have to know where to look for him. There was a space on the shelf between two pictures of her and her family where she was guessing the wave sculpture had probably been sitting. If that was the location, it would have been fairly prominent when you walked into the living room. The other deputies were going to try to reach the cleaning service as well, but it seemed like a very likely place for it to have been located. Veronica looked at the picture that was closest to that spot. Alexis was wearing a Theta Beta sweatshirt standing next to Marjorie, who was also in a matching sweatshirt. It's hard to imagine that if things hadn't gone so badly freshman year, they actually wanted me to join their sorority too. She briefly wondered how different her life could have ended up if she'd made different choices that year of her life. She shook her head and went back to looking around.
Nothing in the living room seemed abnormal. She didn't see anything that would have implied a struggle or someone chasing her outside. She went into the kitchen and she noticed an empty glass was sitting on the counter. She'd put on gloves when they came in, and picked up and smelled the glass. She couldn't detect a scent of anything, so figured it probably hadn't been used. Given there was only one glass, it didn't seem as if she had been getting drinks for her and who ever else may have been there.
Veronica said she was going to go look around upstairs next. The bedrooms were all very orderly and nothing looked like someone had been searching through them. The master bedroom had another large framed black and white photograph on the wall. It was another picture of an ocean with a setting sun and in the very edge of the photo there was a person leaning against a palm tree looking out toward the ocean watching the waves as the sun was about to drop below the horizon. Again it was only a silhouette, but Veronica was positive it was probably Logan. He wasn't very prominent in the photo, but he wasn't cropped out either. She wondered if anyone else would have actually noticed since it wasn't the main focus of the picture. After so many pictures of Logan in Alexis's office, she hadn't been sure what to expect in other parts of the house. She wasn't sure whether or not it made her feel much better that the other ones were only silhouettes that only Alexis would actually know who was in them.
She walked into Alexis's closet and took a quick look around there next. She saw a safe on a shelf that she assumed was where her expensive jewelry was kept. It was locked and didn't look as if it had been tampered with at all. She also did find a racquetball racket on one of the shelves. Well at least she does own a racket. She didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in the closet. She finished looking around upstairs and headed back down to the office again. She had mostly focused on the photographs the prior night, and this time noticed there were several shelves with books and what looked like photo albums. She pulled out one and flipped through it briefly. It must have been from when she went to Hearst. There were several pictures of her with her sorority sisters, quite a few taken in the sorority house so she recognized the location. There were a couple with a different location and she wondered if maybe it was the sorority house at UCLA. It would make sense that she was in the same sorority at both colleges. David was in a few of them, and he was wearing a Pi Sig sweatshirt in a couple of the pictures. Interesting, I didn't realize he was in the same fraternity as Dick had been, although that would have been at UCLA too. Toward the back of the album she found several with Alexis and Logan. There were even a couple of pictures with the two of them and Piz and Marjorie. The next album seemed to be entirely of one of their trips to Australia. There were some family albums too. She moved on to Alexis's desk. She opened the drawers and looked through them, but didn't notice anything suspicious at all. She pulled Alexis's laptop out of her brief case and booted it up. She wasn't surprised that there was a password. I'll have to see if her assistant might know the password and if not, maybe Mac can help. She gave Jayne a quick call, and found out that she didn't know Alexis's password. Jayne had access to her work email and calendar though from her own computer in the office, but not her personal email. She knew she'd need to get approval before they actually did look at information on her computer since it was locked. She decided to take it back to the Sheriff's office until they determined if they could look on it and then she'd see if Mac could help them.
She decided to go out to the backyard next. When she walked out and saw the dried blood near the pool, she felt the bile rise in her throat again. She tried not to think back to the scene at the Kane's, but it still wasn't any easier. How did you end up out here when it happened, Alexis? Veronica looked around again to try to figure out why Alexis would have been out by the pool when she was attacked if it hadn't been intentionally done that way by someone. The detectives the night before hadn't been able to find anything useful the night before either. Veronica spent some time wandering around the yard, but also didn't find any useful clues. She avoided spending too much time looking at the hammock. Between the secret photos and the hammock, it was as if Alexis was actually trying to taunt me without even being here. She went out the gate toward the ocean, propping it open so she could get back in when she was finished. She looked around in the sand near the gate and walked out to the beach a little ways. There were several people out walking or jogging on the beach and a few women with younger children playing as well. No one paid much attention to her, and she noticed several other yards also had gates that opened up to the same area.
She went back in, closing the gate behind her and headed back into the house to see if Norris noticed anything unusual. Her cell phone rang as she was closing the doors to the back yard. She didn't recognize the number.
"Hello, this is Veronica Mars."
"Hi, this is Mrs. Bennett. I was told you called yesterday when I was out of town?"
"Yes, I've been working on the Jewelry robbery cases. I had a question about your amethyst necklace."
"Did you find it finally?" Mrs. Bennett asked hopefully.
"No, I'm sorry. Not yet anyway. I was wondering if you had ever loaned your necklace to Stephanie Whitman to wear to a formal dance?" Veronica asked.
Mrs. Bennett laughed, "That necklace cost over ten thousand dollars. No, I never loaned it to Stephanie to wear to a dance."
"Do you also have an expensive sapphire necklace too?"
"Yes, but that one wasn't stolen. I actually wore it last weekend."
"Can you send me a picture of that one? You can text it to this number. I'm following up on a potential lead and would like to see if it matches a necklace I saw in a picture."
"A picture with Stephanie?" Mrs. Bennett asked. Veronica was impressed by her intuitiveness.
"Yes, Stephanie and another girl, Stacey Davenport."
Mrs. Bennett let out a deep sigh. "I can't imagine the girls taking my necklaces without asking. Maybe they were just wearing ones that were sort of similar?"
"Well if you can send me a picture of your sapphire one, it will help."
"Of course. I'll send it very soon."
"Thank you." They both said good bye and she ended the call.
Norris met up with her in the kitchen to see if she'd found anything and what their next stop was. Her cell phone went off again and she saw it was her dad.
"Hey Dad. What's up?"
"I thought I'd let you know your mystery man left and I have a shot of him from the video camera."
"You're the best!" She said cheerily into the phone. "Can you send me a screen shot of him?"
"Yep. It's on its way now to your phone and um... I don't think he's as mysterious as you may have thought. Did you want me to leave the camera there longer, or go back and retrieve it?"
Interesting… "Let me check the picture and I'll let you know." Her phone made a small beep. "Hang on for a second and let me take a look."
Veronica clicked on the email message he'd sent and opened the attachment. "Well I'll be damned." Norris shot her a curious look and she held her phone up to show him. "Look familiar?" Norris nodded his head and smiled.
Veronica put the phone back to her head. "Thanks Dad. I'm not sure we need to keep watching them, but you're right, not so mysterious, though a bit of a surprise."
"Was that who I thought it was then? I haven't seen him for a couple years, but thought I recognized him."
"Well if you thought it was Gavin Fitzpatrick, then yes."
Keith let out a frustrated sigh. "You think he had something to do with Alexis's attack?"
"I'm not sure." Veronica answered as her mind started working through scenarios again.
"Well be careful sweetheart." Keith said in his warning fatherly tone.
"Always," She replied with a grin.
Keith laughed slightly. "And don't forget you owe me a favor now."
Veronica let out a sigh, "Speaking of favors… have you talked to Logan at all today?"
Keith sighed, "No honey, he hasn't called. I did mean what I said yesterday and if either of you need some help with Abby, just let me know. Alicia also said she'd be willing to take some time off to help too."
"Thanks pops. I'll let you know." They said their goodbyes and she switched back to look at the picture again. "So, Kennedy and Gavin. I wonder how long that's been going on? I also wonder now if she helped Tommy out more as a favor for Gavin than just Tommy."
"Perhaps that's also why she said she 'maybe' had someone who could corroborate her whereabouts yesterday?" Norris offered.
Veronica nodded. "She maybe didn't want to involve him if she really didn't have to. Fitzpatrick's aren't particularly good alibi's either. She may also know we questioned him about Corina's disappearance and wouldn't want to cause more trouble for him."
Veronica glanced down at her phone for a moment. "I um… I think I'm going to check in with Logan quickly and see how he's doing."
Norris nodded at her. "If we're done here, I could just meet you in the car. I didn't find anything that stood out to me, you?"
Veronica shook her head. "No, me either. Sounds good. I'll be out in a few minutes and will lock the doors again. Hey could you grab Alexis's laptop on your way out too?"
Norris nodded and headed back toward the office. She waited until she heard the front door close, and then pressed Logan's name on her phone.
"Hey," Veronica said as the line connected.
"Hey," Logan replied back. "I was actually going to call you in a little bit. I'm just dropping Abby off at Mac and Dick's and was going to head over to the hospital next."
"Did you want me to meet you there?"
"If you're not too busy, that would be great. But if you're tied up, I'll understand."
"Nope, I can make time for sure." She thought he sounded better than he had when she left the house that morning though no where close to his normal jovial self. "I'll have Norris drop me off and then he can come back for me later."
"Thanks, Veronica. I'll be there soon. I love you."
"I love you too. See you there." They said goodbye and she headed out to the car, making sure all the doors were locked as she left.
Norris dropped her off at the hospital and said he'd go back to the office and check in with the other deputies and for her to call when she was ready for him to come back to get her.
She was waiting in the lobby for Logan when she heard someone call her name. She turned to see Emily. Emily had a concerned look on her face as she walked over. "Hi. I heard about what happened to Alexis. How absolutely horrifying." Veronica nodded in reply. "I talked a little with Leo about it last night and again this morning. I hope they find whoever did it, especially if it was a random attack and someone else might be in danger next." Veronica nodded her reply again before Emily continued on. "He also mentioned how hard it's all been on Logan. I know the two of them were good friends, so I can understand why he'd be worried about her."
"Yeah, plus with him being the one to find her, that's made it even more difficult for him." Veronica added as a slight shiver coursed through her body thinking about that again.
Emily shuddered, "Poor Logan. I can't even imagine finding one of my friends like that. Of course being a nurse, I frequently do see horrific injuries, but if it was a close friend, that would be so devastating."
Veronica nodded in agreement. "I'm actually waiting for him to meet me here."
"I wish I could stick around and say hello to him too, but my shift is starting in just a few minutes. Please let him know that I'm so sorry he had to go through all of that. And if there's anything I can do, please let me know. Leo mentioned his niece is staying with you and I have a few days off this week if you need anyone to watch her."
"Thanks Emily. I'll be sure to let him know and keep your offer in mind for Abby."
Emily gave her a slightly sympathetic look and leaned in a little closer putting her hand on her arm, "How are you holding up? I'm sure this can't be easy for you if he's handling it as badly as Leo described."
Veronica shrugged and gave her a small smile. "I'm just trying to be as supportive for him as possible. We've both had too many things like this happen in our lives unfortunately."
Emily nodded and moved her hand away. "Well if you need any one to talk to yourself, you be sure to let me know okay?"
Veronica gave her a grateful smile and nodded as Emily turned and headed towards the elevators to go up to the pediatric floor.
Veronica took a seat in one of the chairs and waited for Logan. As she was waiting, her phone chimed again. There was a text from Mrs. Bennett with the picture of her sapphire necklace. Veronica was pretty sure it was the same necklace Stacey had been wearing, but the picture was back in her office, so she'd have to wait to compare later. She was just putting her phone away when Logan walked in. As soon as he spotted her, a relieved smile formed on his face. He looked so exhausted from the stress and not sleeping well the night before. She stood up and walked over to meet him.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him, placing a lengthy kiss on the top of her head. "It's so good to see you." He whispered into her hair.
She tipped her head up to look at him, and gently ran her hand over his face. She gave him a loving smile and tipped up to kiss him softly on the lips. "How'd your morning with Abby go?"
A small smile flitted across his lips for a moment. "It was good. We walked down to the beach after breakfast and looked for shells and agates to pick up. She even found a whole sand dollar."
"That sounds fun," Veronica replied. She was glad they'd done something that hopefully kept his mind off of Alexis. Although she imagined with all the time they'd spent surfing and at the ocean, it probably wasn't the best distraction.
"And one of the neighbors up the beach was out walking with his dog, so they stopped so Abby could play catch with him." Logan continued.
"Mr. Murphy with the golden Labradoodle?"
Logan nodded, "Yeah, Toodles the Labradoodle." She gave him a little smile at the silliness of his name. "Abby loved him of course and tried to talk Mr. Murphy into letting her have him." Veronica had met them one day when they were out walking through the neighborhood and she had to admit Toodles was one adorable dog. "He negotiated with her that she could stop by and visit him any time she liked." Veronica had chatted with Mr. Murphy a bit that day and learned he was retired and recently widowed. She imagined he'd probably love to have Abby and one of them come visit him. She made a mental note to maybe make a batch of cookies with Abby to take down to visit him. She couldn't help but chuckle to herself as she thought of it.
Logan gave her a curious expression. "I was just thinking, Abby and I could make some snicker doodles, to take to see Toodles the Labra-doodle." He chuckled softly and kissed her on the head.
"I'm sure both of them would love that," Logan replied with a little nod. "Any breaks on the case?" Logan asked next with a hopeful expression.
Veronica looked around the lobby, "Maybe we could find a quiet spot to talk before we go up to the ICU?" Logan nodded and looked around too. There was a reception desk and he gestured to it. They walked over and the young woman sitting behind the counter asked if she could help them. Veronica gave the girl an authoritative look, "I'm with the Sheriff's Department and wondered if there was a private room we could use to discuss an official matter in private."
The girl smiled and nodded. "You're free to use one of the consultation rooms along the west wall if you'd like."
Veronica smiled and thanked her and then they walked over to one of the small rooms that were empty and closed the door behind them. Logan immediately pulled her against his chest and leaned down to kiss her again. "Mmmm… I missed you so much today." He said softly as he pulled his lips away from hers. He left his forehead resting against hers and took a deep breath.
"I missed you too." She said lovingly. She reached up and ran her hand up through his hair.
He smiled grimly then took a step back and pulled out a chair for her and after she sat down, pulled another out for himself.
"So what did you find out so far?"
"Well we went to see Kennedy." Logan nodded and waited for her to continue. "She did admit that it was Tommy's idea for her to dance with Casey Saturday night. She said he'd told her he was mad because apparently Alexis had decided the prior weekend that she wasn't going to see him anymore. Kennedy thought he was doing it to ruin her birthday because of that. Of course it makes more sense that he was trying to make Alexis mad at Casey so he could win her back and it sounded like he was successful at that based on what Vanessa told us." She paused for a moment before she continued. "I could tell there was a guy in her bedroom while we were there too." Logan's eyebrows raised up as she shared that information. "I had my dad set up a camera and found out it was actually Gavin Fitzpatrick."
"That's surprising," Logan said with wide eyes. Veronica nodded in agreement.
"I don't think she's the one who attacked Alexis though, but she didn't give us a solid alibi yet either. I get the sense she may have been with Gavin and didn't want to drag him into it if she didn't have to." Veronica took a deep breath. This isn't going to be very easy. "Did you know that Alexis played racquetball with Mike Branford?" Logan's expression became surprised and he shook his head. "Her assistant said they played every Thursday evening that she was in town and that they'd been doing it for at least as long as she'd worked for Alexis."
Logan gave her a concerned look. "And I'm guessing you don't think they were actually playing racquetball do you?"
Veronica shrugged. "I haven't verified it yet. Do you know if she had a membership at any gyms that have racquetball courts?"
Logan nodded, "Yeah she's a member at the Neptune Country Club, so she could have been playing there. We did play sometimes in college and even a few times after, so I do know she actually does play."
Is he trying to convince me or himself that she maybe wasn't actually having an affair with a married man? She thought about asking about his poker nights, but if she'd been doing it for the past two years, it really didn't matter if it was longer than that as well. "Did you know she was friends with Mike?"
"Well he did help us buy my house, and then when we split up, he helped her find hers, so I knew that they knew each other. But no, I didn't realize they were that good of friends." Veronica nodded in response.
"I uh…" Logan started then hesitated and stopped. She gave him a curious look and waited a moment to see if he'd continue. "I was thinking more about Matt and why he's always been such an ass to me since I became mayor. I uh… it was so long ago that I'd forgotten… but with everything going on, I don't know… I was just thinking back to before… you know…" he paused again and gave her a worried look. She gave him an encouraging smile, hoping he wouldn't feel bad about whatever he was going to say. "I'd forgotten that during one of my break ups with Lilly that she hooked up with him at a party. I think you were out of town that weekend… There was a party at Josie Shelman's house and I… no surprise I had way too much to drink and ended up finding them together at the party and may have… I may have punched him. And then by Monday we'd gotten back together and I'd totally forgotten about the drunken incident that happened over the weekend."
"Oh," Veronica said as he finished. "Well, apparently he may not have forgotten about that." She tried to give him a comforting smile, but there was a tinge of worry there too.
Logan ran his hand nervously through his hair. Veronica reached out and squeezed his other hand. He gave her a solemn look and moved his hand from his head to hers. "Thanks for being so understanding through all of this," He said as he brushed his hand softly over her hair.
She nodded and gave him a reassuring smile. "I love you Logan. I'll always be there for you when you need me. No matter what we have to face, we'll face it together."
He nodded and a small smile formed on his lips as he leaned closer to her and pressed his lips against hers with a gentle kiss. "I love you so much." He said as he pulled his lips away from hers.
"I know," she said softly. Their faces were still so close that she could feel soft puffs of breath against her lips when he exhaled. She ran her fingers tenderly up his neck and into his hair. "If you want me to come home with you this afternoon, I can just have Norris keep working on the case without me."
Logan shook his head. "I'll be fine. Abby's actually going to stay the night at Mac's, so I'll probably stay here quite a while and keep Alexis's family company. Her dad called me this morning right after you left to let me know they did call Vanessa and she was coming over today too." Veronica gave him a grim smile and nodded.
"Did they have any news on Alexis when they called?"
Logan shook his head again and took a deep breath, "No. There hadn't been a change yet when they called."
She nodded in reply. "Shall we go up and see how things are going now?"
He nodded and leaned in to give her another kiss before they stood up to leave. She reached down and intertwined her fingers with his and led him out of the room and toward the elevators.