by Rob Thomas
“You know, Veronica, we’re really good together.” Leo spoke suddenly in the midst of the silence. Veronica felt her cheeks burn, remembering the shared kisses of a decade before. She’d be lying if she denied feeling Leo’s affection for her as they’d worked on the case. She’d be telling herself a worse lie if she refused to admit that she enjoyed it. But the dirty little secret, the one that pained her in the wee hours when she couldn’t sleep, was that she felt something similar for Leo.
Until this moment, she’d buried it deep. It was not unlike the way she’d turned off the camera when Sweet Pea went to work on Bellamy. She was anxious to maintain plausible deniability. Leo was here. He hadn’t chosen to leave her. Her dad adored him. Keith didn’t have to figure out a way to “develop a healthy relationship” with him. Veronica’s feelings became jumbled, and she was just trying to figure out how to articulate them. I’m with Logan, and I love him more than I thought I could love a man, and we have an opportunity to be happy in spite of everything and I can’t throw all that away for something more convenient. But then she realized that Leo was still talking. “You ever think about going legit? You’d have to start on a beat, but you’d make detective in no time. The academy’s testing in December.”
She smiled then. Her confused thoughts went still. She was certain she was blushing, something her dad often compared to a Halley’s Comet sighting. There were already so many complications to her life; why did her brain seem so eager to invent more?
“Me? On the force?” She laughed. “Can you imagine me reporting to a CO? Come on, D’Amato. I’m a loose cannon. A cowboy cop. A maverick. Besides, just because I’m not legit doesn’t mean we can’t work together. I think this arrangement worked out pretty well for both of us. And I’m not sure Detective Veronica Mars, SDPD, would’ve been quite so willing to play fast and loose with the criminal element.”
“Really? Because I’m pretty sure Detective Veronica Mars would be plenty willing. And that might be a problem.” He grinned. “But fair enough.” He grabbed one of her fries and dipped it in the ketchup. “Let me know if you ever start dreaming of a pension and actual benefits. It’s not all bad, playing by the rules.”
Now she opened her dad’s front door wider to let him in.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said to the group. “We win yet?”
“Not yet. But we haven’t lost yet either. Thanks for coming.”
“Hey, thanks for having me. Nice spread.” He waved at Mac and Wallace as he entered, setting the wine bottle on the table just as Keith burst out of the kitchen with his mushrooms.
“Detective!” he said, spying Leo. “Welcome, welcome. Hope you brought your appetite.”
“I never leave home without it, sir,” Leo said, grinning.
Keith slapped Leo on the shoulder and went into the living room to offer the hors d’oeuvres around. Leo turned back to Veronica, looking suddenly more serious. “How you doing?”
“I’m doing all right. Apart from the fact that we’re about to get four more years of Lamb, I mean.”
“Yeah, well. That just means you’ll have four more years to give him hell.” His eyes sparkled.
A hubbub rose up in the living room, overridden by Lisa’s authoritative “Shhhhh!” Veronica hurried to the doorway to see what was happening.
On the screen, a stiff-haired Martina Vasquez stood on the steps outside of the courthouse, microphone in hand. “It seems we’re only a few moments away from hearing the results from the Balboa County sheriff’s race. And if you’re wondering why we haven’t projected a winner it’s because, so far, no clear leader had emerged when the last precinct results came in. But the head of elections just informed us that they’ve finished counting the ballots and are preparing their announcement.”
Inga had her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide. On the sofa, Mac pulled her knees to her chest in a protective hug.
“No whammy, no whammy, no whammy,” said Keith. Nobody laughed as they stared at the screen.
The newscaster seemed to be listening to something for a moment. Veronica’s knuckles were white as she clutched the doorjamb, braced for the news.
“These numbers are subject to final certification, of course, but it appears that political newcomer Marcia Langdon has edged ahead—largely on the strength of votes from precincts in the predominantly minority Eastside. We’re projecting she will win the race by fewer than two hundred votes.”
The room erupted. Wallace leapt from the sofa, doing a modified touchdown dance in the middle of the living room. Lisa threw her arms around Cliff, then turned and kissed her wife. Drinks were exultantly chugged, pots and pans were pounded with ladles, and Pony bolted maniacally around the room on an interspecies contact high.
Veronica stared at the TV. Marcia Langdon was coming out to the podium to deliver her acceptance speech, surrounded by falling balloons and cheering supporters. Even her victory smile was grim; she waved at the crowd with a satisfied, no-nonsense set to her chin. For a moment Veronica let herself imagine what it could be like, this world without Lamb. Would Langdon be able to whip a long-corrupt department into shape? Would the wealthy of Neptune tolerate a sheriff who didn’t pander to their every need? Or would they just find another way to get what they wanted anyway?
She took a flute of champagne from the platter Keith was passing around, lifted her glass, and toasted the new order. Surely things couldn’t get worse.
—
Veronica drove home a few hours later, after helping Keith make a dent in the mess. Pony was asleep in the back of the car, one enormous paw dangling over the side of the seat.
The celebration had gone on far later than anyone had planned. They’d opened a bottle of champagne that Cliff had brought, just in case. Inga got giggly after her third glass. Keith proposed a toast. “To Marcia,” he’d said, holding up his red plastic cup. “To our new sheriff.”
Cliff raised his cup in assent and hoarsely added, “And to the citizens of Neptune, for voting her riveted-on, steel-plated ass in!” The group had shared a final Hear, hear! and clapped their PVC chalices together.
So Lamb was out. Veronica entertained the thought that perhaps she’d been wrong; maybe things could change in Neptune, slowly and against the tide. She wasn’t sure what kind of sheriff Langdon would be, but at least she’d be different. That was a start.
Other than that, things were set to get back to normal—or what passed for it in her life. In a few weeks she planned to drive to Tucson to spend her first Thanksgiving with her little brother. She wouldn’t see him for Christmas. That she reserved for Keith, forever and always. But Lianne had found a used guitar, and Veronica had arranged for him to take weekly lessons with a local teacher.
She’d have to start finding more paid gigs. Some would be with people she didn’t respect or like. Some would be seedy, dirty, and as crooked as Neptune’s black heart. But some of them? Some would matter.
First things first, though. Tonight she had a date.
She pulled into the parking lot of her complex. Pony was on her feet the moment they parked, wagging wildly. Upstairs, she turned on the lamps and checked her reflection. Then she opened her computer.
She didn’t have to think about all the time she and Logan spent apart, all the distance their lives might put between them. Not tonight, anyway. Right now, all she had to think of was him. The fact that he was alive. The fact that he was doing something that made him proud and strong. The fact that she loved him. In this moment, that was enough.
The computer chimed. She clicked Accept, and Logan’s face appeared on-screen. His eyes lit up at the sight of her.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d make it,” he said.
She smiled.
“I’m here,” she said.
ALSO BY
ROB THOMAS
AND JENNIFER GRAHAM
* * *
VERONICA MARS
The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
Ten years after graduating from high schoo
l in Neptune, California, Veronica Mars is back in the land of sun, sand, crime, and corruption. She’s traded in her law degree for her old private investigating license, struggling to keep Mars Investigations afloat on the scant cash earned by catching cheating spouses until she can score her first big case.
Now it’s spring break, and college students descend on Neptune, transforming the beaches and boardwalks into a frenzied, week-long rave. When a girl disappears from a party, Veronica is called in to investigate. But this is no simple missing person case; the house the girl vanished from belongs to a man with serious criminal ties, and soon Veronica is plunged into a dangerous underworld of drugs and organized crime. And when a major break in the investigation has a shocking connection to Veronica’s past, the case hits closer to home than she ever imagined.
Crime Fiction
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