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jesterladyficThis chapter's title comes from James Houston
Duncan knew he was dreaming. He wished he wasn’t. It would have meant Meg was awake. He could see her there before him. She was dressed in white with her blonde hair flowing behind her. She looked at him and smiled and he reached for her, but she disappeared. He ran to catch her and found the bus, smashed to pieces and dripping wet, instead.
“On the bus, my life didn't flash before me.” Duncan turned around. Meg sat in a hospital bed. “You did. Our first kiss. The last perfect moment we had together. Remember? On the beach.”
“I would do anything to get it back,” he said, moving to her side.
She shook her head.
“You promised me. You made promises. You could save me. All you have to do is want to.”
“What can I do, Meg? You’re in a coma. You didn’t even tell me about our baby!”
She looked away from him.
Duncan sat up in bed with a start, sweating. This was becoming draining.
***
Keith banged the office door open and ran into his office. He’d have time for maybe five phone calls before he had to get to the station. Even with Veronica’s help there was more than enough work to go around. They weren’t taking on any new cases and sometimes he vaguely wondered what would happen to Mars Investigations.
He blew past Veronica who was just hanging up the phone.
“What’s got your cat all ratted up?” she called into his office. “Alicia find out about the other woman?”
“Afraid so, honey,” he shouted back. That reminded him, he’d been ignoring Alicia a lot lately. He needed to find some way to make it up to her. “Listen, can you call the Grottsens for me? Lamb left that station so out of whack it’s a wonder any justice is done at all.”
“I’m not sure that was his number one priority,” Veronica postulated. “Sure, I’ll do that. Be home for dinner tonight?”
“I might have to work late. Rain check?”
“I’ll just look up the forecast.”
***
Veronica went to the filing cabinet to find the file for the Grottsen affair. The only good thing about her dad being so busy was that he didn’t have time to follow her around 24/7 over the Curly situation.
She waved goodbye as Keith left. Hanging up the phone, she crossed that call off her to do list and got back to her current obsession: finding out about the kids on the bus. Morbid? Maybe. Productive? Perhaps. She could only hope it would prove someone had blown up the bus.
The phone rang and she jumped slightly. Glancing up at the clock, she grimaced. She bet that it was Logan on the phone since she was a half hour late meeting him.
“Help me, Mars Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope. I know we’re not exactly BFF,” his voice said in her ear, “but surely you don’t have to Artic blast me?”
“Don’t tempt me. Listen, can you just come to my dad’s office? It will save some time.”
“Done, my pet.” There was a tap on the door and Logan walked in. “Figured you’d hole up here.”
There was a slightly awkward silence as she, and she could only assume he, recalled the last time they’d seen each other. There had been some lip action. However, she knew they were both good at glossing over things like that.
“So whaddaya got for me, Mars?”
“Sit down, Flash. I need to pull up the info I got about your witness.”
“A witness for my very own? And it isn’t even Christmas.”
Logan flopped down on the desk so he could see the screen.
“Clint Ferguson lives in Nevada. He was a denizen of Neptune about three years ago. He currently works as a divorce attorney. All seems on the up and up, but then…” Veronica tapped several keys, “…we dig deeper and find out what he was doing in Neptune. He was a lawyer employed by the Neptune School District before he was fired for fixing a case for one of his students. Any idea who it was?”
“Hmmm, let me just put on my psychic cap.”
“Felix's older brother, popularly known as the Reaper.”
“So he had a connection to Felix and the PCHers.”
“What say we go have a little chat with those boys and see what they remember about him?”
“Won’t Weevil have something to say about that?”
“Weevil’s got detention.”
“Without me? How sad. Let’s go then cause if you could exonerate me soon, that’d be really great.”
Logan took out his car keys and Veronica grabbed her bag.
There was complete silence in the car on the way there. Veronica couldn’t think of a thing to say, cutting or otherwise. She was still trying to figure out how he could change from being a jackass to sweet at the drop of a hat.
“Uh-uh, you're staying here.” Veronica motioned to Logan to shut his door. “This takes a certain subtlety.” She got out of the car. “But if I need anyone punched in the face, I'll whistle for ya.”
Logan stared after her, his face uncertain. She knew he really didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go talk to a gang by herself, taser or no taser. He was probably right.
Veronica soon found herself in gang heaven. Thumper and Hector glanced up from their card game and spotted her leaning against a rusted car.
“You think maybe someone other than Weevil should be in charge?” she asked. “Maybe some redecorating would get done.”
“What do you want?”
“Well, I hear you guys are to be congratulated. I mean, after all, you’re getting what you want, right? A witness came forward, corroborated your story, said Logan killed Felix.”
“What’s it to you?”
Thumper moved closer seemingly in an attempt to intimidate.
“Nothing. I just wondered why it was that the same witness who saw Felix get killed got fired over helping Felix’s older brother out of a jam.”
“We don’t know nothing about that, so scram,” said Hector.
Veronica tsked at Hector.
“See, I think you do. I think you know a whole lot about it. Isn’t it convenient that the witness is someone who obviously feels strongly about the Toombs family?”
Veronica realized with slight anxiety that several of the guys had circled round behind her. She slid her hand into her bag for her taser.
“You got a big mouth, girl,” Thumper warned. “I think maybe we should do something about that.”
The first guy who tried to grab Veronica got a taser to his throat. The second one slid to the floor as his arm was shocked. But the third and fourth grabbed her arms and bent them so she was forced to drop the taser. They dragged her over to the car crusher. Veronica tried to scream so Logan or anyone could hear her but hands were firmly in place over her mouth. She drug her feet and then kicked wildly, catching a metal pipe that resounded loudly.
“Maybe that big mouth could use a little crushing?” said Thumper.
"Dude," whispered Hector, but Thumper ignored him.
There was a noise behind them.
“Hey!” Thumper wheeled to see Logan with his cell phone to his ear. “I've got 911 on the line, who can give me the address here?” There was silence though some of the gang members laughed slightly. “No one?” Logan spoke into the phone. “Yeah, I've got one of those ankle monitors on, does that help? Yeah. The junkyard by the train tracks. There’s blood everywhere.” He hung up the phone. “Hey, Veronica, let's go.”
“You know something?” Thumper moved closer to Veronica, pulling a crowbar out from his pocket. “I think we could do a lot before the cops get here. Maybe even make a run for it.”
Logan lifted up his shirt and brought out a gun, leveling it at Thumper.
“Stop!” Thumper jerked his head to see the gun. “I've had a very bad year.”
Thumper dropped the crowbar and nodded to the two guys holding Veronica down. They released her and she ran towards Logan, stooping to pick up her taser as she went. Logan dropped the arm with the gun and backed up after her. Thumper shook his head in warning and Logan raised his eyebrows in answer. Apparently this little showdown wasn't over.
Logan got into the Xterra beside Veronica who wasn’t saying anything. He drove away quickly before the cops arrived and pulled up in front of the office again. Neither said anything for a few moments.
Slowly, Veronica let the tears go and she put her head in her hands as she cried.
“Hey, it's okay.” She continued to sob and he moved to put his hand on her back in comfort. “Look, you're gonna be okay.”
Veronica was terrified, not just because of what had happened, but what would probably happen now. When she felt him touch her back, she jerked upright and let loose with the torrent of her emotions.
“A gun, Logan? A gun! What are you doing with a gun? You're gonna get yourself killed, don't you understand that?”
He looked like he wasn’t even sure what she meant by that.
“Look, it's...look, it's not even loaded.”
“Oh, I feel so much better.”
Even a scared Veronica was a sarcastic one. He put the gun in the glove compartment.
“Dick's dad gave it to me. He said given my situation...”
”Given your situation, you should just move out of Neptune.”
“Yeah, well…” Logan moved up his pant leg so she could see the ankle monitor. “No can do.”
“Logan, you have to be more careful! The PCHers already want you dead and pulling a gun on them is like suicide!”
“So I was supposed to just let them use you as a practice car? Silly me.”
“No, the cell phone, that was fine, thank you. Maybe you did the only thing you could have done today, but why do you even have a gun? Why would you keep it?”
Logan looked startled like the fact that she was concerned for his life rather than angry at him for saving hers was surprising to him.
“I just needed some insurance. I’m not exactly a popular guy, Veronica.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Up to this point she hadn’t been looking at him, now she turned to face him and looked straight into his eyes. “Wasn’t I dating the most hated guy in Neptune last summer? Didn’t I wake up every morning wondering if this was the day my boyfriend would be found with a bullet in him? Didn’t the PCH drive-by confirm all my worst fears?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I already had to deal with worrying about losing you. Don’t make me go through it again.”
“What was all that stuff about me having fun with it all?” Logan’s tone was slightly less accusatory than it would have been a minute ago. “The part where you couldn’t be with someone like me?”
Veronica swallowed and turned her head down. It was almost easier to make him hate her than admit the truth.
“I’m sorry I said that. I just couldn’t handle losing you too. I still think the way you handled the situation was wrong; but, mainly, I wanted some distance. When you took it like you did, it made it a lot easier to justify my decision. After all, you give excellent jackass.”
Logan laughed a little bitterly.
“Then…it wasn’t my fault I lost you.”
“No,” she whispered. “Well, partly. It wasn’t like we were even friends before. You did a lot of nasty things to me. I didn’t know how much you’d really changed. As far as that summer goes, we can put that one on me.”
He had an insane urge to take her hand across the seat.
“What does that mean?”
“We both have to learn how to relate better to people?” she suggested weakly. “I can’t deal with the constant question of you, Logan.”
“Well, can we stay bitter enemies then, because that works for me?”
She glanced up at him. His face was closed off.
“Logan, I…”
“Veronica, people like you and I can never be friends. Neither of us knows how to forgive.”
“Fine,” she said, giving up the last bit of openness she’d had towards him. “Nasty quips it is then.”
“Excellent.” He flashed a smile and cracked his knuckles, the mask of indifference back across his features. “Until next time then.”
Veronica got out of the car wondering if they’d made progress or not.
***
The next morning Veronica was still shaken from the previous day. She’d never actually been afraid of the PCHers before, not with Weevil in charge. But, after all, hadn’t she been the one to suggest that he might not be in charge anymore?
She sighed when she saw her dad had already gone to the office. He’d left some muffins for her and she grabbed one while she went over the bus crash info. There was one kid she wasn’t having any luck finding anything about. She’d gotten an anonymous email from someone with a voice clip of Marcos Olivares, but whoever sent it said they’d only found out it was him by accident. Other than that no one seemed to know of his existence except as a statistic. His parents had sold their house and left Neptune. She stored the audio to show to Mac later and headed for school. She had someone she wanted to talk to.
“Yo, Weevil.”
“Something tells me you’re not happy to see me.” Weevil didn't look too happy to see her either. “Why’d you go mess with my boys?”
“Excuse me? Hmmm, well, if you call messing with them almost having my head put in the car crusher, then yeah, I suppose I did.”
Weevil’s eyebrows shot up his forehead.
“What happened?”
“Your little gang decided to use me as car crushing practice. If it wasn’t for Logan, I’d probably be dead, or headless.”
“Logan! What did you bring him there for? It would be enough to send my boys completely over the edge.”
“For your information, I told him to wait in the car, he did, and they still grabbed me.” Veronica held up her hand as he started to say something else. “But all I want to know is if you’re a part of this, Weevil. I don’t believe you would kill Felix, but I definitely believe you would set up Logan to justify your own hatred.”
“What are you talking about?” Weevil looked confused, annoyed, and slightly anxious about what she was telling him.
“Imagine my surprise when the new star witness in Felix's murder case turns out to be a PCH puppet. One very connected with your old leader and Felix.” Weevil's face showed nothing, but she could tell this news surprised him. “He’s scratching your back. My question is how are you scratching his?
Veronica stormed off and Weevil watched her go.
Veronica was so angry she wasn’t looking where she was going and bumped right into Wallace.
“Easy there.”
He steadied her. She wasn’t quite sure what to say and he wasn’t exactly looking her in the eyes.
“Wallace, I-"
“You don’t got to say it,” he assured her. “Right now it’s not a you thing, it’s a me thing. I’m just trying to sort some stuff out.”
“Any idea when you’ll get through the piles?” she queried. “I kinda miss my best friend.”
“Soon as I can,” he promised. “Just going through a mid high school crisis or something.”
“I could recommend a shrink but he never really did much for me.”
Wallace smiled vaguely.
“I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Okay.”
Veronica smiled sadly as he walked away. Life before Wallace had been hard. Life sans Wallace was harder. Now she knew what she was missing.
***
Weevil cut out of school early and called a meeting of the PCHers. None of them looked too happy to be there despite the fact that they were missing school.
“Now, I'm just checking something. Am I still in charge here? Huh?” There were muttered remarks but they all nodded. “Somebody wanna tell me why we’re using the car crusher on teenage girls now?”
“She was poking around, Weevil,” Thumper spoke up. “We were just scaring her.”
“I don’t care what she was doing. You got a problem, you come get me. We don’t do stuff like that. Never have.”
“It was the 09er that was the problem,” Hector insisted. “He was causing trouble.”
“It’s true, Weevil. Her we had no problem with 'cept for her nosiness. Then Logan Echolls came all up in here with his money, trying to buy us off and trying to fight.”
“That may be true,” Weevil conceded. “But I got another question. A little birdie tells me that the witness who came forward in Logan's case was bought and paid for by one of us. The witness used to be in with the Reaper. And that gets me wondering...did the rules change? Huh? Does just anyone get to decide how we run our business? Does someone know something about Felix’s murder that I don’t?” Nobody said anything. “It's now or never, boys,” Weevil warned them. Still no one talked. He sighed. “Go on, get outta here. Go scare some old ladies or something. Just know, one way or another, I'm getting to the bottom of this, okay? I’m gonna find out what's true.”
***
Veronica sidled up to Mac, who heaved a sigh, knowing that a favor request was coming.
“Mac, Mackie, my Mac.”
“If you don’t want me to repeat that little nickname favor, I’d stop there.”
Veronica pulled a chair over to sit by Mac’s computer.
“So what I'm trying to figure out is, is there any way to tell where or when a recording was made?”
“You got to give it to me first.” Veronica connected her USB to the computer’s port and played the random clips. “Oh, hey, this guy?”
Veronica lifted her eyebrows.
“You know him?”
“It's Cap'n Krunk.”
”Cap'n Krunk?”
“Yeah, he's one of the guys on Ahoy, Mateys!” Veronica’s face registered nothing but confusion. "Ahoy, Mateys! It's a pirate radio show, this weird sort of cult thing. There's these two guys, Cap'n Krunk and...Imitation Crab, who just talked a lot of bizarre smack about Neptune High. If you knew about it, Cap'n Krunk's totally a star.”
“Wait. We're talking about Marcos Olivares. I can't find a single person at school who heard him talk and now you're telling me that he's the Howard Stern of Neptune High?”
Mac nodded in affirmation.
“You didn't want to get on Cap'n Krunk's bad side. He'd tear you a new one.”
“So, further illuminate this Ahoy Mateys cult phenomenon for me. I want to find out about Marcos any way possible.”
“I'll download a few episodes for you.” Mac clicked a few buttons. “It won’t be a chore. It made going to school here a little easier and in my opinion they stopped doing it purely to torture me.”
“Well, now that we know it was Marcos, I imagine they stopped because he’s dead.”
Mac glared at Veronica.
“You don’t have to make me feel guilty.” She pulled out the cord. “Listen and love, my friend.”
***
Duncan lay in his bed with Meg in his arms. He stroked her hair.
“I'm sorry I've been so out of it lately. Guess it's just a confusing time, you know?”
She moved her head up his chest further to look at him.
“I don't know why you're so confused.” She kissed him gently. “You either want to save me, or you don't. You know you're the only one who can.”
He moved his head down and kissed her…
And woke up.
A single tear slid down his cheek. He didn’t know how much longer he could take these dreams. Was she trying to tell him something? He felt so guilty and he didn’t even know what for.
***
Logan tried to calm the shuddering breaths that kept threatening to overwhelm him. He was rocking all over the back of the van while trying to remain quiet. He wasn’t immune to physical pain or violence though he wasn’t exactly a stranger to them either. Growing up with Aaron Echolls had meant he knew how to control himself when under duress. The worst thing with Aaron was the emotional stress. Here, the terror of being completely helpless under the ‘people’s court’ had been way too real.
The van pulled to a stop and he forced himself to lie still like he was unconscious. The door slid open and the ‘prosecutor’ leaned over him and whispered.
“You’re out so I don’t mind telling you this. I’m under orders, but this was a personal pleasure for me today. You don’t get to point a gun at me and get away with it.”
He turned to speak to the ‘judge’. Logan used the opportunity to lift the cell phone from his pocket.
They carried him and threw him down a small incline and drove off.
Logan got to his feet and started breathing again. He quickly redialed the phone.
“Is it done?”
Logan started as he recognized the voice. It wasn’t that surprising.
“Oh, it's just getting started, Weevs. You have no idea the hell you've just brought on yourself.”
Logan snapped the phone shut.
***
Veronica stood in the middle of the lunch tables and stared at all of her classmates. The headphones in her ears resounded with Ahoy Mateys fun. She couldn’t help but appreciate the genius of Marcos, but she was starting to wonder about his humanity.
“And here it comes, Imitation Crab.”
“Arrrgh!”
“The winner of this week's cock of the walk countdown.”
“Don't leave em hanging, Cap'n.”
“It's Logan Echolls!” Veronica’s gaze turned instantly to her former boyfriend. “That's forty weeks running. Rosemary's baby: the teen years. If I was his mother, I'd kill myself too.”
She didn’t know why Marcos was dead but he had obviously had no idea what he was talking about when he was alive. But Marcos wasn’t done with his classmates.
“Yeah, Becker's a date rapist, but in his defense, he's hideous and stupid, so meeting girls is hard! Duncan Kane. He can't be that rich and that pleasant without harboring a dark secret. What do you think, Crab? Serial murderer? Puppy strangler?”
Cap'n Krunk bagged on everyone at school. So what if someone found out? Suddenly I've gone from trying to find out if anyone might have it in for someone on the bus to wondering if there's anyone at school who didn’t want Marcos dead. Well, it might take me off the hook, anyway.
Veronica shook her head and took out the earphones. Listening to them wouldn’t help anymore. She’d gotten one more possible answer to the bus crash, but she’d have to back it up with a lot more evidence. In the meantime, it was time for her to meet her dad at the office.
He was forty five minutes late.
“Dad, you can’t keep going like this.”
“I’m made of stern stuff, kiddo.”
“You’re not superman. You’re not even half superman. You’re going to pull something.”
Keith leant down and kissed Veronica on the forehead.
“I appreciate the concern, but there’s not much else I can do.”
“I may have a solution,” she postulated nervously.
He pulled back in suspicion.
“What?”
“I could take over for you.”
“Veronica, you’re still in school, you have another job, you’re not licensed and I don’t want you anywhere near this business!”
“I can handle a job and school, I can quit the Hut, I can take the test, since I’m 18, and, like it or not, I’m here.”
Keith sighed.
“I don’t like the idea.”
“What’s the worse that could happen?” Veronica got up and put her arms around her father. “Sure, I screw up, the business closes down, you’ve still got a job and I can go back to the Hut or somewhere else.”
“It sounds so utterly reasonable and way too unlikely when you say it like that.”
“Just let me try, Dad. Don’t worry, I won’t shame you on the exam, might even beat your score.”
“That would be pretty tough.”
“Come on, please. If I’m licensed I can do actual stuff. I won’t take on lots of cases or anything until I’m done with school. Your name is still on everything, just waiting for the man of the hour to return.”
Keith swallowed hard. She watched him come to the realization that this was something he couldn’t forestall and that it was time to let go.
“We can try it.” Veronica squealed in thanks and squeezed him tightly. He chuckled slightly and hugged her back. “Now go do some homework or something.”
Duncan knew he was dreaming. He wished he wasn’t. It would have meant Meg was awake. He could see her there before him. She was dressed in white with her blonde hair flowing behind her. She looked at him and smiled and he reached for her, but she disappeared. He ran to catch her and found the bus, smashed to pieces and dripping wet, instead.
“On the bus, my life didn't flash before me.” Duncan turned around. Meg sat in a hospital bed. “You did. Our first kiss. The last perfect moment we had together. Remember? On the beach.”
“I would do anything to get it back,” he said, moving to her side.
She shook her head.
“You promised me. You made promises. You could save me. All you have to do is want to.”
“What can I do, Meg? You’re in a coma. You didn’t even tell me about our baby!”
She looked away from him.
Duncan sat up in bed with a start, sweating. This was becoming draining.
***
Keith banged the office door open and ran into his office. He’d have time for maybe five phone calls before he had to get to the station. Even with Veronica’s help there was more than enough work to go around. They weren’t taking on any new cases and sometimes he vaguely wondered what would happen to Mars Investigations.
He blew past Veronica who was just hanging up the phone.
“What’s got your cat all ratted up?” she called into his office. “Alicia find out about the other woman?”
“Afraid so, honey,” he shouted back. That reminded him, he’d been ignoring Alicia a lot lately. He needed to find some way to make it up to her. “Listen, can you call the Grottsens for me? Lamb left that station so out of whack it’s a wonder any justice is done at all.”
“I’m not sure that was his number one priority,” Veronica postulated. “Sure, I’ll do that. Be home for dinner tonight?”
“I might have to work late. Rain check?”
“I’ll just look up the forecast.”
***
Veronica went to the filing cabinet to find the file for the Grottsen affair. The only good thing about her dad being so busy was that he didn’t have time to follow her around 24/7 over the Curly situation.
She waved goodbye as Keith left. Hanging up the phone, she crossed that call off her to do list and got back to her current obsession: finding out about the kids on the bus. Morbid? Maybe. Productive? Perhaps. She could only hope it would prove someone had blown up the bus.
The phone rang and she jumped slightly. Glancing up at the clock, she grimaced. She bet that it was Logan on the phone since she was a half hour late meeting him.
“Help me, Mars Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope. I know we’re not exactly BFF,” his voice said in her ear, “but surely you don’t have to Artic blast me?”
“Don’t tempt me. Listen, can you just come to my dad’s office? It will save some time.”
“Done, my pet.” There was a tap on the door and Logan walked in. “Figured you’d hole up here.”
There was a slightly awkward silence as she, and she could only assume he, recalled the last time they’d seen each other. There had been some lip action. However, she knew they were both good at glossing over things like that.
“So whaddaya got for me, Mars?”
“Sit down, Flash. I need to pull up the info I got about your witness.”
“A witness for my very own? And it isn’t even Christmas.”
Logan flopped down on the desk so he could see the screen.
“Clint Ferguson lives in Nevada. He was a denizen of Neptune about three years ago. He currently works as a divorce attorney. All seems on the up and up, but then…” Veronica tapped several keys, “…we dig deeper and find out what he was doing in Neptune. He was a lawyer employed by the Neptune School District before he was fired for fixing a case for one of his students. Any idea who it was?”
“Hmmm, let me just put on my psychic cap.”
“Felix's older brother, popularly known as the Reaper.”
“So he had a connection to Felix and the PCHers.”
“What say we go have a little chat with those boys and see what they remember about him?”
“Won’t Weevil have something to say about that?”
“Weevil’s got detention.”
“Without me? How sad. Let’s go then cause if you could exonerate me soon, that’d be really great.”
Logan took out his car keys and Veronica grabbed her bag.
There was complete silence in the car on the way there. Veronica couldn’t think of a thing to say, cutting or otherwise. She was still trying to figure out how he could change from being a jackass to sweet at the drop of a hat.
“Uh-uh, you're staying here.” Veronica motioned to Logan to shut his door. “This takes a certain subtlety.” She got out of the car. “But if I need anyone punched in the face, I'll whistle for ya.”
Logan stared after her, his face uncertain. She knew he really didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go talk to a gang by herself, taser or no taser. He was probably right.
Veronica soon found herself in gang heaven. Thumper and Hector glanced up from their card game and spotted her leaning against a rusted car.
“You think maybe someone other than Weevil should be in charge?” she asked. “Maybe some redecorating would get done.”
“What do you want?”
“Well, I hear you guys are to be congratulated. I mean, after all, you’re getting what you want, right? A witness came forward, corroborated your story, said Logan killed Felix.”
“What’s it to you?”
Thumper moved closer seemingly in an attempt to intimidate.
“Nothing. I just wondered why it was that the same witness who saw Felix get killed got fired over helping Felix’s older brother out of a jam.”
“We don’t know nothing about that, so scram,” said Hector.
Veronica tsked at Hector.
“See, I think you do. I think you know a whole lot about it. Isn’t it convenient that the witness is someone who obviously feels strongly about the Toombs family?”
Veronica realized with slight anxiety that several of the guys had circled round behind her. She slid her hand into her bag for her taser.
“You got a big mouth, girl,” Thumper warned. “I think maybe we should do something about that.”
The first guy who tried to grab Veronica got a taser to his throat. The second one slid to the floor as his arm was shocked. But the third and fourth grabbed her arms and bent them so she was forced to drop the taser. They dragged her over to the car crusher. Veronica tried to scream so Logan or anyone could hear her but hands were firmly in place over her mouth. She drug her feet and then kicked wildly, catching a metal pipe that resounded loudly.
“Maybe that big mouth could use a little crushing?” said Thumper.
"Dude," whispered Hector, but Thumper ignored him.
There was a noise behind them.
“Hey!” Thumper wheeled to see Logan with his cell phone to his ear. “I've got 911 on the line, who can give me the address here?” There was silence though some of the gang members laughed slightly. “No one?” Logan spoke into the phone. “Yeah, I've got one of those ankle monitors on, does that help? Yeah. The junkyard by the train tracks. There’s blood everywhere.” He hung up the phone. “Hey, Veronica, let's go.”
“You know something?” Thumper moved closer to Veronica, pulling a crowbar out from his pocket. “I think we could do a lot before the cops get here. Maybe even make a run for it.”
Logan lifted up his shirt and brought out a gun, leveling it at Thumper.
“Stop!” Thumper jerked his head to see the gun. “I've had a very bad year.”
Thumper dropped the crowbar and nodded to the two guys holding Veronica down. They released her and she ran towards Logan, stooping to pick up her taser as she went. Logan dropped the arm with the gun and backed up after her. Thumper shook his head in warning and Logan raised his eyebrows in answer. Apparently this little showdown wasn't over.
Logan got into the Xterra beside Veronica who wasn’t saying anything. He drove away quickly before the cops arrived and pulled up in front of the office again. Neither said anything for a few moments.
Slowly, Veronica let the tears go and she put her head in her hands as she cried.
“Hey, it's okay.” She continued to sob and he moved to put his hand on her back in comfort. “Look, you're gonna be okay.”
Veronica was terrified, not just because of what had happened, but what would probably happen now. When she felt him touch her back, she jerked upright and let loose with the torrent of her emotions.
“A gun, Logan? A gun! What are you doing with a gun? You're gonna get yourself killed, don't you understand that?”
He looked like he wasn’t even sure what she meant by that.
“Look, it's...look, it's not even loaded.”
“Oh, I feel so much better.”
Even a scared Veronica was a sarcastic one. He put the gun in the glove compartment.
“Dick's dad gave it to me. He said given my situation...”
”Given your situation, you should just move out of Neptune.”
“Yeah, well…” Logan moved up his pant leg so she could see the ankle monitor. “No can do.”
“Logan, you have to be more careful! The PCHers already want you dead and pulling a gun on them is like suicide!”
“So I was supposed to just let them use you as a practice car? Silly me.”
“No, the cell phone, that was fine, thank you. Maybe you did the only thing you could have done today, but why do you even have a gun? Why would you keep it?”
Logan looked startled like the fact that she was concerned for his life rather than angry at him for saving hers was surprising to him.
“I just needed some insurance. I’m not exactly a popular guy, Veronica.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Up to this point she hadn’t been looking at him, now she turned to face him and looked straight into his eyes. “Wasn’t I dating the most hated guy in Neptune last summer? Didn’t I wake up every morning wondering if this was the day my boyfriend would be found with a bullet in him? Didn’t the PCH drive-by confirm all my worst fears?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I already had to deal with worrying about losing you. Don’t make me go through it again.”
“What was all that stuff about me having fun with it all?” Logan’s tone was slightly less accusatory than it would have been a minute ago. “The part where you couldn’t be with someone like me?”
Veronica swallowed and turned her head down. It was almost easier to make him hate her than admit the truth.
“I’m sorry I said that. I just couldn’t handle losing you too. I still think the way you handled the situation was wrong; but, mainly, I wanted some distance. When you took it like you did, it made it a lot easier to justify my decision. After all, you give excellent jackass.”
Logan laughed a little bitterly.
“Then…it wasn’t my fault I lost you.”
“No,” she whispered. “Well, partly. It wasn’t like we were even friends before. You did a lot of nasty things to me. I didn’t know how much you’d really changed. As far as that summer goes, we can put that one on me.”
He had an insane urge to take her hand across the seat.
“What does that mean?”
“We both have to learn how to relate better to people?” she suggested weakly. “I can’t deal with the constant question of you, Logan.”
“Well, can we stay bitter enemies then, because that works for me?”
She glanced up at him. His face was closed off.
“Logan, I…”
“Veronica, people like you and I can never be friends. Neither of us knows how to forgive.”
“Fine,” she said, giving up the last bit of openness she’d had towards him. “Nasty quips it is then.”
“Excellent.” He flashed a smile and cracked his knuckles, the mask of indifference back across his features. “Until next time then.”
Veronica got out of the car wondering if they’d made progress or not.
***
The next morning Veronica was still shaken from the previous day. She’d never actually been afraid of the PCHers before, not with Weevil in charge. But, after all, hadn’t she been the one to suggest that he might not be in charge anymore?
She sighed when she saw her dad had already gone to the office. He’d left some muffins for her and she grabbed one while she went over the bus crash info. There was one kid she wasn’t having any luck finding anything about. She’d gotten an anonymous email from someone with a voice clip of Marcos Olivares, but whoever sent it said they’d only found out it was him by accident. Other than that no one seemed to know of his existence except as a statistic. His parents had sold their house and left Neptune. She stored the audio to show to Mac later and headed for school. She had someone she wanted to talk to.
“Yo, Weevil.”
“Something tells me you’re not happy to see me.” Weevil didn't look too happy to see her either. “Why’d you go mess with my boys?”
“Excuse me? Hmmm, well, if you call messing with them almost having my head put in the car crusher, then yeah, I suppose I did.”
Weevil’s eyebrows shot up his forehead.
“What happened?”
“Your little gang decided to use me as car crushing practice. If it wasn’t for Logan, I’d probably be dead, or headless.”
“Logan! What did you bring him there for? It would be enough to send my boys completely over the edge.”
“For your information, I told him to wait in the car, he did, and they still grabbed me.” Veronica held up her hand as he started to say something else. “But all I want to know is if you’re a part of this, Weevil. I don’t believe you would kill Felix, but I definitely believe you would set up Logan to justify your own hatred.”
“What are you talking about?” Weevil looked confused, annoyed, and slightly anxious about what she was telling him.
“Imagine my surprise when the new star witness in Felix's murder case turns out to be a PCH puppet. One very connected with your old leader and Felix.” Weevil's face showed nothing, but she could tell this news surprised him. “He’s scratching your back. My question is how are you scratching his?
Veronica stormed off and Weevil watched her go.
Veronica was so angry she wasn’t looking where she was going and bumped right into Wallace.
“Easy there.”
He steadied her. She wasn’t quite sure what to say and he wasn’t exactly looking her in the eyes.
“Wallace, I-"
“You don’t got to say it,” he assured her. “Right now it’s not a you thing, it’s a me thing. I’m just trying to sort some stuff out.”
“Any idea when you’ll get through the piles?” she queried. “I kinda miss my best friend.”
“Soon as I can,” he promised. “Just going through a mid high school crisis or something.”
“I could recommend a shrink but he never really did much for me.”
Wallace smiled vaguely.
“I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Okay.”
Veronica smiled sadly as he walked away. Life before Wallace had been hard. Life sans Wallace was harder. Now she knew what she was missing.
***
Weevil cut out of school early and called a meeting of the PCHers. None of them looked too happy to be there despite the fact that they were missing school.
“Now, I'm just checking something. Am I still in charge here? Huh?” There were muttered remarks but they all nodded. “Somebody wanna tell me why we’re using the car crusher on teenage girls now?”
“She was poking around, Weevil,” Thumper spoke up. “We were just scaring her.”
“I don’t care what she was doing. You got a problem, you come get me. We don’t do stuff like that. Never have.”
“It was the 09er that was the problem,” Hector insisted. “He was causing trouble.”
“It’s true, Weevil. Her we had no problem with 'cept for her nosiness. Then Logan Echolls came all up in here with his money, trying to buy us off and trying to fight.”
“That may be true,” Weevil conceded. “But I got another question. A little birdie tells me that the witness who came forward in Logan's case was bought and paid for by one of us. The witness used to be in with the Reaper. And that gets me wondering...did the rules change? Huh? Does just anyone get to decide how we run our business? Does someone know something about Felix’s murder that I don’t?” Nobody said anything. “It's now or never, boys,” Weevil warned them. Still no one talked. He sighed. “Go on, get outta here. Go scare some old ladies or something. Just know, one way or another, I'm getting to the bottom of this, okay? I’m gonna find out what's true.”
***
Veronica sidled up to Mac, who heaved a sigh, knowing that a favor request was coming.
“Mac, Mackie, my Mac.”
“If you don’t want me to repeat that little nickname favor, I’d stop there.”
Veronica pulled a chair over to sit by Mac’s computer.
“So what I'm trying to figure out is, is there any way to tell where or when a recording was made?”
“You got to give it to me first.” Veronica connected her USB to the computer’s port and played the random clips. “Oh, hey, this guy?”
Veronica lifted her eyebrows.
“You know him?”
“It's Cap'n Krunk.”
”Cap'n Krunk?”
“Yeah, he's one of the guys on Ahoy, Mateys!” Veronica’s face registered nothing but confusion. "Ahoy, Mateys! It's a pirate radio show, this weird sort of cult thing. There's these two guys, Cap'n Krunk and...Imitation Crab, who just talked a lot of bizarre smack about Neptune High. If you knew about it, Cap'n Krunk's totally a star.”
“Wait. We're talking about Marcos Olivares. I can't find a single person at school who heard him talk and now you're telling me that he's the Howard Stern of Neptune High?”
Mac nodded in affirmation.
“You didn't want to get on Cap'n Krunk's bad side. He'd tear you a new one.”
“So, further illuminate this Ahoy Mateys cult phenomenon for me. I want to find out about Marcos any way possible.”
“I'll download a few episodes for you.” Mac clicked a few buttons. “It won’t be a chore. It made going to school here a little easier and in my opinion they stopped doing it purely to torture me.”
“Well, now that we know it was Marcos, I imagine they stopped because he’s dead.”
Mac glared at Veronica.
“You don’t have to make me feel guilty.” She pulled out the cord. “Listen and love, my friend.”
***
Duncan lay in his bed with Meg in his arms. He stroked her hair.
“I'm sorry I've been so out of it lately. Guess it's just a confusing time, you know?”
She moved her head up his chest further to look at him.
“I don't know why you're so confused.” She kissed him gently. “You either want to save me, or you don't. You know you're the only one who can.”
He moved his head down and kissed her…
And woke up.
A single tear slid down his cheek. He didn’t know how much longer he could take these dreams. Was she trying to tell him something? He felt so guilty and he didn’t even know what for.
***
Logan tried to calm the shuddering breaths that kept threatening to overwhelm him. He was rocking all over the back of the van while trying to remain quiet. He wasn’t immune to physical pain or violence though he wasn’t exactly a stranger to them either. Growing up with Aaron Echolls had meant he knew how to control himself when under duress. The worst thing with Aaron was the emotional stress. Here, the terror of being completely helpless under the ‘people’s court’ had been way too real.
The van pulled to a stop and he forced himself to lie still like he was unconscious. The door slid open and the ‘prosecutor’ leaned over him and whispered.
“You’re out so I don’t mind telling you this. I’m under orders, but this was a personal pleasure for me today. You don’t get to point a gun at me and get away with it.”
He turned to speak to the ‘judge’. Logan used the opportunity to lift the cell phone from his pocket.
They carried him and threw him down a small incline and drove off.
Logan got to his feet and started breathing again. He quickly redialed the phone.
“Is it done?”
Logan started as he recognized the voice. It wasn’t that surprising.
“Oh, it's just getting started, Weevs. You have no idea the hell you've just brought on yourself.”
Logan snapped the phone shut.
***
Veronica stood in the middle of the lunch tables and stared at all of her classmates. The headphones in her ears resounded with Ahoy Mateys fun. She couldn’t help but appreciate the genius of Marcos, but she was starting to wonder about his humanity.
“And here it comes, Imitation Crab.”
“Arrrgh!”
“The winner of this week's cock of the walk countdown.”
“Don't leave em hanging, Cap'n.”
“It's Logan Echolls!” Veronica’s gaze turned instantly to her former boyfriend. “That's forty weeks running. Rosemary's baby: the teen years. If I was his mother, I'd kill myself too.”
She didn’t know why Marcos was dead but he had obviously had no idea what he was talking about when he was alive. But Marcos wasn’t done with his classmates.
“Yeah, Becker's a date rapist, but in his defense, he's hideous and stupid, so meeting girls is hard! Duncan Kane. He can't be that rich and that pleasant without harboring a dark secret. What do you think, Crab? Serial murderer? Puppy strangler?”
Cap'n Krunk bagged on everyone at school. So what if someone found out? Suddenly I've gone from trying to find out if anyone might have it in for someone on the bus to wondering if there's anyone at school who didn’t want Marcos dead. Well, it might take me off the hook, anyway.
Veronica shook her head and took out the earphones. Listening to them wouldn’t help anymore. She’d gotten one more possible answer to the bus crash, but she’d have to back it up with a lot more evidence. In the meantime, it was time for her to meet her dad at the office.
He was forty five minutes late.
“Dad, you can’t keep going like this.”
“I’m made of stern stuff, kiddo.”
“You’re not superman. You’re not even half superman. You’re going to pull something.”
Keith leant down and kissed Veronica on the forehead.
“I appreciate the concern, but there’s not much else I can do.”
“I may have a solution,” she postulated nervously.
He pulled back in suspicion.
“What?”
“I could take over for you.”
“Veronica, you’re still in school, you have another job, you’re not licensed and I don’t want you anywhere near this business!”
“I can handle a job and school, I can quit the Hut, I can take the test, since I’m 18, and, like it or not, I’m here.”
Keith sighed.
“I don’t like the idea.”
“What’s the worse that could happen?” Veronica got up and put her arms around her father. “Sure, I screw up, the business closes down, you’ve still got a job and I can go back to the Hut or somewhere else.”
“It sounds so utterly reasonable and way too unlikely when you say it like that.”
“Just let me try, Dad. Don’t worry, I won’t shame you on the exam, might even beat your score.”
“That would be pretty tough.”
“Come on, please. If I’m licensed I can do actual stuff. I won’t take on lots of cases or anything until I’m done with school. Your name is still on everything, just waiting for the man of the hour to return.”
Keith swallowed hard. She watched him come to the realization that this was something he couldn’t forestall and that it was time to let go.
“We can try it.” Veronica squealed in thanks and squeezed him tightly. He chuckled slightly and hugged her back. “Now go do some homework or something.”
