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Fic: What Goes Down #4: A Picture's Worth (Veronica Mars, Lamb/Veronica)
Title: A Picture's Worth
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing(s): Lamb/Veronica
Word Count: 2730
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Theta Betas talk Veronica into attending their Halloween party. Lamb talks her into looking deeper into the sorority's secrets.
Notes: Fourth in the What Goes Down series. AU from episode 3:2 - My Big Fat Greek Rush Week; general spoilers up to episode 3:9 - Spit & Eggs. Some dialogue from episode 3:2 - My Big Fat Greek Rush Week.
Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
"You wanted to see me?"
Lamb looked up to see Veronica Mars standing in his doorway. He smiled tightly and ushered her in, closing the door behind her.
"What did you find out about the Pi Sigs?" he asked.
Veronica looked at him, her eyes widened in an expression of false innocence. "Why, Sheriff," she said, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
Lamb sat down, and opposite him, Veronica did the same. "Cut the crap, Mars," he said. "You told me you had a plan. Now, since I haven't had to haul you in here and arrest you, I assume it worked out. So, tell me. What did you find out about the Pi Sigs?"
Veronica said nothing, and Lamb leaned forward, fixing her with a glare. "I'm serious, Veronica," he said. "This is a criminal investigation. If you don't start cooperating, I'll -"
"I know," Veronica said, sounding almost bored. "You'll arrest me for obstruction of justice, yadda yadda yadda. You know, you really might want to get a new pick up line."
Lamb banged his fist on the desk. Veronica didn't jump.
"Dammit," he said, "I'm serious. I know you're looking into this, but it's my job, not yours. So tell me what you know."
"Nothing," Veronica said finally. "I found out nothing. The Pi Sigs have a basement that's for members only, but when I checked it out, there was nothing there. W ... I looked upstairs, but I couldn't find anything in any of the rooms."
Lamb studied Veronica. He hated that she never gave anything away; that he never knew whether she was lying to him or not. He generally suspected that she was, as a kind of default.
"Do you think the Pi Sigs are innocent?" he asked her.
"I think it's a possibility," Veronica answered.
Lamb shook his head.
"So what's the next step?" Veronica asked him.
Lamb looked at her. "Next step?" he repeated.
"Yeah." Veronica was looking at him with that expression, like she was just waiting for him to catch up. Lamb clenched his jaw. "What do we do next?" she asked.
"We?" Lamb asked. "Did you become a deputy while I wasn't looking, Mars? Like I said. This is a criminal investigation. Not a game for high school girls."
"I'm not in high school," Veronica reminded him.
"I'm well aware," Lamb said, leering at her. "But that wasn't my point. This is a matter for the Sheriff's department. You have no part in this."
Veronica stalked out of his office, and Lamb tried - and failed - not to watch her ass as she walked away.
-
"You have to come," Shania told Veronica earnestly, setting a hand on her thigh.
"Totally," Hallie enthused.
Veronica looked from one girl to the other, trying not to let the trepidation show on her face. "I know," she said, "it's a big deal. I'm just ..."
"On the rebound," Marjorie said. "We know. Which is why you should be having fun."
From the couch, Veronica tried to send Marjorie death glares. You were supposed to be on my side, they said.
"I'm not -"
"Don't lie to us, Veronica," Shania said. "It's okay. It sucks, but you'll get over it. Which is why you totally have to come on Tuesday."
Hallie was nodding at her earnestly. "Come on, Veronica. He's only a guy. We're your sisters," she said, laying her hand on Veronica's other thing and squeezing, and Veronica was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable.
Veronica tried her best to smile, and felt herself crumbling in defeat as Shania, Hallie, and Marjorie smiled back at her.
"Okay," she said, cursing herself even as she gave in. "I'll be there."
"Great!" Marjorie said, and Veronica couldn't help smiling again, this time for real.
"And don't forget your costume!" Hallie called out to her as she left.
-
That's it, Veronica thought, as she looked at herself in the mirror. I cannot seriously be thinking about going out like this. I'm going insane.
The Theta Betas really must put something in that lemonade.
As Veronica studied her reflection, she didn't see Veronica Mars, amateur P.I. with a fetish for costumes only when it was necessary for a case. Instead, she saw Wonder Woman.
Short, blonde Wonder Woman, but Wonder Woman just the same. Veronica turned instinctively towards the door. She fully expected the men in the white coats to come and drag her away any second.
Instead, she heard her dad's voice.
"Veronica," he called. "Are you all right in there? Don't you have a party to go to?"
Veronica slumped her shoulders in defeat. Yes, she did. And, amazingly, she was going to go to it.
As she stepped out of her room, she watched as Keith looked her up and down, then let out a soft whistle.
"I always knew you were a superhero," was all he said.
Veronica laughed. "I actually wanted to be Batman, but the rubber nipples just didn't do it for me."
"Have fun at your party, honey," Keith said, and Veronica nodded.
"And Veronica?"
Veronica, already halfway out the door, turned back to her father.
"I fully expect that that belt is a chastity belt," he said.
"You know us Amazons," Veronica assured her father, kissing him on the cheek as she turned to leave again. "It's not the men you have to worry about."
-
If Veronica had been worried about the amount of flesh she was showing, she felt significantly better when she arrived at the Theta Beta party. Although, better probably shouldn't have been the right word; shocked and scandalised ought to have been more like it, but she just wasn't feeling it.
Veronica could sense a theme. The house was filled with naughty schoolgirls, naughty nurses, naughty policewomen, and outfits that weren't so much costumes as girls in lingerie wearing animal ears.
Hallie was one of the latter.
"Veronica!" she squealed, running up to give Veronica a hug. A very tight, very long hug. Perhaps Veronica hadn't been as far off base with her comment to her dad as she would have liked to believe.
"Let me guess," Veronica said, finally extricating herself. "You're a mouse?"
"Duh," Hallie said, pointing to her ears.
As Veronica made her way through the party, she scanned the house, looking for familiar faces. Lots of Theta Betas, and college kids she didn't recognise. She should have made Mac and Wallace promise they'd show.
"Where are all the Pi Sigs?" Veronica asked Marjorie, when she finally spotted her.
"They're at their own house," said Marjorie, who was dressed as a Greek goddess, and looked every inch the part. "They're doing a haunted house. They do every year. All the Greek houses are participating. We're going to go over there later."
After reminding herself - several times - that she was there to have fun, and not looking for any ulterior motive, Veronica decided that the best way to forget that she was wearing what was essentially a leotard was to start drinking. Without the Pi Sigs around, she figured she's be safe.
A couple of drinks later, Veronica managed to learn that the Theta Betas, for the most part, were actually pretty decent people. Which was fortunate, she supposed, considering that she was one. Of course, that could have just been the cocktails talking.
So when Veronica spotted Lamb and Sacks across the room, she wasn't so much thinking oh my god, I'm barely dressed as she was why me?
She should have known she wouldn't get a night off.
"If you wanted to keep me out of this," she told Lamb, as she wove her way through the crowd, "coming to my sorority house is a poor way of showing it."
Beside Lamb, Sacks let out an appreciative whistle. At Lamb's glare, he shrugged and wandered off, presumably to find some girl in cat ears who would better appreciate a man out of uniform.
"Wonder Woman," Lamb said, looking Veronica slowly up and down. "Why am I not surprised that that's what you see yourself as?"
"And you're ..." Veronica looked at Lamb. "In very tight pants."
This, she suspected, was a visual she'd never be able to get out of her head.
They stood like that, staring at one another, until Veronica shook her head. "Why are you here?" she asked Lamb.
Lamb's expression changed, grew serious. "The Pi Sigs aren't the only Greek house to have been connected to the rapes," he said.
Veronica just looked at him.
"Are you telling me you're investigating the Theta Betas?" she asked finally, a note of disbelief creeping into her voice. And the memory of what Nish had said to her in the newspaper office creeping, unbidden, into her thoughts.
"They're on our list," was all Lamb said.
Veronica's expression must have given something away, then, because Lamb leaned closer to her. "Disappointed?" he asked.
Veronica was ashamed to admit that the answer was yes.
"I have to tell you something," she said then, pulling Lamb over into a corner of the room. Just as she was leaning into him, Veronica heard someone behind her.
It was Shania, smiling.
She gave Lamb an appreciative glance - or two - and turned to Veronica.
"Very nice," she said, a note of conspiracy in her voice. She leaned closer. "Excellent choice for moving on," she said, in a voice supposedly meant only for Veronica, but which Veronica was sure Lamb could hear perfectly. "Who needs epic romance, anyway?"
Veronica made a mental note to never again tell a secret to a girl in a sorority.
When Veronica turned back to Lamb, he was clearly amused. And smug.
"Moving on, are you?" he asked, stepping closer to Veronica. He looked down at her. "You could do worse."
"I could do better," Veronica said, and the gleam of amusement left Lamb's eyes.
"You said you had something to tell me?" he asked, leaning back against the wall. Which, in turn, forced Veronica to lean in even closer so she could lower her voice.
"Apparently the Theta Betas have a secret room," she said. "It's locked, and guarded by a camera. I've heard ... stories about what goes on in there."
Lamb stood up. "And this is the sorority you decided to join?" he asked incredulously.
"I went to the rush party to check them out. And then Sacks was there, and ..." Veronica faltered.
"So, let me get this straight," Lamb said. "You're blaming me for ruining your investigation." He let out a whistle. "Now that is rich."
Veronica just looked at him.
"What kind of stories?" Lamb asked her.
Veronica shrugged. "Just ... stories," she said, which didn't seem to satisfy him. She rolled her eyes.
"I could tell you," she continued, "But then I'd have to kill you. Which, actually, is kind of a bonus."
"Can you get into the room?" Lamb asked her. "Tonight?"
"I guess," Veronica said. "But I don't have my camera on me." She felt Lamb's eyes sliding across her costume, then, and she could read the not-so-hidden implication; that she didn't have much on her at all.
"I can give you my phone," he said, after a gaze that went on for a beat too long. "It's got a camera on it."
"Are you sure you trust me with it?" Veronica asked, as he handed it over.
"No," Lamb said. "I don't trust you at all."
It wasn't hard for Veronica to slip upstairs unnoticed. Karen had been downstairs in the kitchen, pretending she didn't see the Theta Betas making alcoholic cocktails, and it only took a moment for Veronica to find her keys.
It was a little more difficult to enter the secret room. Waiting what seemed like forever for a lull in traffic, Veronica hastily covered the security camera and slipped inside.
A month ago, the marijuana plants Veronica found inside probably would have made her happy. Now, she was just quietly resigned.
-
"It's marijuana, not GHB," Veronica said, as Lamb looked at the photographs on his phone. "It doesn't prove that the Theta Betas had anything to do with the rapes on campus."
"It proves that they're growing pot," Lamb said. He looked at Veronica. "You know what I'm going to have to do with these, don't you?"
Veronica nodded. If Lamb had gloated at her right then, she would have had to kill him.
But "good work, Veronica," was all he said.
After that confrontation, which should have been satisfying but which instead Veronica tried very hard not to think of as devastating, she made her way back to campus, which is where Marjorie found her.
"Veronica, we need to talk," she said. Taking a breath, Veronica forced her legs to move forward.
"About what?" she asked.
"There was another camera inside the room," Marjorie said, and Veronica sighed. Of course there was. "What were you doing?"
"I was trying to find the truth," Veronica said, but the words sounded hollow, even to her ears.
"The truth?" Marjorie said. "The truth is that Karen has cancer. The chemo made her so sick she couldn't leave the house, couldn't even come downstairs. A friend of hers gave her the seeds; he said it would help with the pain and the nausea, and it did."
Marjorie looked at her. "Veronica ..." she said, and reluctantly, Veronica met her gaze. She nodded.
-
"Please tell me you haven't done anything with those photos," Veronica said, as she walked into Lamb's office. She had debated going to her criminology lecture, but she wasn't sure that even Lamb was incompetent enough to sit on evidence for that long.
"I haven't done anything with the photos," Lamb said, rolling his eyes. "What now, Veronica?"
"Karen - the Theta Beta den mother - has cancer. A friend gave her the seeds. She's growing the marijuana for medical reasons. It has absolutely nothing to do with the rapes." She moved closer to Lamb. "Please tell me you won't go after her."
Lamb looked at her for a long moment, his gaze never wavering. "I don't have a choice, Veronica," he said. "It's a crime. And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm the Sheriff."
Veronica bit back the urge to say that she hadn't. In that moment, she wanted to kill him.
Lamb looked at her as if he were thinking hard. It looked painful.
"But the photos are inadmissable as evidence," he said, "even if they did show what you claim. I've been looking at them all morning, and I can't make anything out. What did you do, take them with the lights off?"
Veronica swallowed, barely daring to breath.
"The next time you come in here making these sorts of claims, I suggest you come up with a better story." He leaned over her. "Or I'll start to think you come over here just to see me."
Lamb walked over to the door, and opened it. "Now, if you don't mind," he said. "I have actual crimes to follow up on."
As she left his office, all Veronica could think was that maybe - just maybe - Lamb was only ninety-nine percent evil.
All Lamb could think was that Veronica Mars in a Wonder Woman costume was all the fantasy he was ever going to need.
-
"Karen."
As Veronica spoke, Marjorie appeared next to the den mother, and Veronica looked at both of them.
"I just wanted to say ..." Veronica paused. "You don't have anything to worry about." She turned to leave, but Marjorie followed her out the door.
Veronica wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn't Marjorie's hand around her shoulder. "Trust, sister," she said, as she led Veronica back toward the Theta Beta house.
Trust, Veronica thought. What should she trust? Trust that the Theta Betas really were mostly decent? That the Pi Sigs were only as bad as any other organisation based on beer and misogyny? That maybe the Greeks really weren't the root of all that was evil? Well, maybe it was worth a shot.
"Oh my god, did you hear?"
Veronica looked up as Shania ran into the house.
"Hear what?" she heard herself ask.
"Another girl got raped last night. Everyone's saying she was at the Pi Sig haunted house."
Veronica felt her stomach sink. Or then again, she thought, maybe not.
*The reference to Lamb's costume, for those who didn't catch it, is a nod to "Captain Tightpants," aka Mal Reynolds on Firefly. Yep, Lamb's secretly a Browncoat. Hallie's costume, of course, is a reference to Mean Girls.
Next: Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing(s): Lamb/Veronica
Word Count: 2730
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Theta Betas talk Veronica into attending their Halloween party. Lamb talks her into looking deeper into the sorority's secrets.
Notes: Fourth in the What Goes Down series. AU from episode 3:2 - My Big Fat Greek Rush Week; general spoilers up to episode 3:9 - Spit & Eggs. Some dialogue from episode 3:2 - My Big Fat Greek Rush Week.
Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
"You wanted to see me?"
Lamb looked up to see Veronica Mars standing in his doorway. He smiled tightly and ushered her in, closing the door behind her.
"What did you find out about the Pi Sigs?" he asked.
Veronica looked at him, her eyes widened in an expression of false innocence. "Why, Sheriff," she said, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
Lamb sat down, and opposite him, Veronica did the same. "Cut the crap, Mars," he said. "You told me you had a plan. Now, since I haven't had to haul you in here and arrest you, I assume it worked out. So, tell me. What did you find out about the Pi Sigs?"
Veronica said nothing, and Lamb leaned forward, fixing her with a glare. "I'm serious, Veronica," he said. "This is a criminal investigation. If you don't start cooperating, I'll -"
"I know," Veronica said, sounding almost bored. "You'll arrest me for obstruction of justice, yadda yadda yadda. You know, you really might want to get a new pick up line."
Lamb banged his fist on the desk. Veronica didn't jump.
"Dammit," he said, "I'm serious. I know you're looking into this, but it's my job, not yours. So tell me what you know."
"Nothing," Veronica said finally. "I found out nothing. The Pi Sigs have a basement that's for members only, but when I checked it out, there was nothing there. W ... I looked upstairs, but I couldn't find anything in any of the rooms."
Lamb studied Veronica. He hated that she never gave anything away; that he never knew whether she was lying to him or not. He generally suspected that she was, as a kind of default.
"Do you think the Pi Sigs are innocent?" he asked her.
"I think it's a possibility," Veronica answered.
Lamb shook his head.
"So what's the next step?" Veronica asked him.
Lamb looked at her. "Next step?" he repeated.
"Yeah." Veronica was looking at him with that expression, like she was just waiting for him to catch up. Lamb clenched his jaw. "What do we do next?" she asked.
"We?" Lamb asked. "Did you become a deputy while I wasn't looking, Mars? Like I said. This is a criminal investigation. Not a game for high school girls."
"I'm not in high school," Veronica reminded him.
"I'm well aware," Lamb said, leering at her. "But that wasn't my point. This is a matter for the Sheriff's department. You have no part in this."
Veronica stalked out of his office, and Lamb tried - and failed - not to watch her ass as she walked away.
-
"You have to come," Shania told Veronica earnestly, setting a hand on her thigh.
"Totally," Hallie enthused.
Veronica looked from one girl to the other, trying not to let the trepidation show on her face. "I know," she said, "it's a big deal. I'm just ..."
"On the rebound," Marjorie said. "We know. Which is why you should be having fun."
From the couch, Veronica tried to send Marjorie death glares. You were supposed to be on my side, they said.
"I'm not -"
"Don't lie to us, Veronica," Shania said. "It's okay. It sucks, but you'll get over it. Which is why you totally have to come on Tuesday."
Hallie was nodding at her earnestly. "Come on, Veronica. He's only a guy. We're your sisters," she said, laying her hand on Veronica's other thing and squeezing, and Veronica was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable.
Veronica tried her best to smile, and felt herself crumbling in defeat as Shania, Hallie, and Marjorie smiled back at her.
"Okay," she said, cursing herself even as she gave in. "I'll be there."
"Great!" Marjorie said, and Veronica couldn't help smiling again, this time for real.
"And don't forget your costume!" Hallie called out to her as she left.
-
That's it, Veronica thought, as she looked at herself in the mirror. I cannot seriously be thinking about going out like this. I'm going insane.
The Theta Betas really must put something in that lemonade.
As Veronica studied her reflection, she didn't see Veronica Mars, amateur P.I. with a fetish for costumes only when it was necessary for a case. Instead, she saw Wonder Woman.
Short, blonde Wonder Woman, but Wonder Woman just the same. Veronica turned instinctively towards the door. She fully expected the men in the white coats to come and drag her away any second.
Instead, she heard her dad's voice.
"Veronica," he called. "Are you all right in there? Don't you have a party to go to?"
Veronica slumped her shoulders in defeat. Yes, she did. And, amazingly, she was going to go to it.
As she stepped out of her room, she watched as Keith looked her up and down, then let out a soft whistle.
"I always knew you were a superhero," was all he said.
Veronica laughed. "I actually wanted to be Batman, but the rubber nipples just didn't do it for me."
"Have fun at your party, honey," Keith said, and Veronica nodded.
"And Veronica?"
Veronica, already halfway out the door, turned back to her father.
"I fully expect that that belt is a chastity belt," he said.
"You know us Amazons," Veronica assured her father, kissing him on the cheek as she turned to leave again. "It's not the men you have to worry about."
-
If Veronica had been worried about the amount of flesh she was showing, she felt significantly better when she arrived at the Theta Beta party. Although, better probably shouldn't have been the right word; shocked and scandalised ought to have been more like it, but she just wasn't feeling it.
Veronica could sense a theme. The house was filled with naughty schoolgirls, naughty nurses, naughty policewomen, and outfits that weren't so much costumes as girls in lingerie wearing animal ears.
Hallie was one of the latter.
"Veronica!" she squealed, running up to give Veronica a hug. A very tight, very long hug. Perhaps Veronica hadn't been as far off base with her comment to her dad as she would have liked to believe.
"Let me guess," Veronica said, finally extricating herself. "You're a mouse?"
"Duh," Hallie said, pointing to her ears.
As Veronica made her way through the party, she scanned the house, looking for familiar faces. Lots of Theta Betas, and college kids she didn't recognise. She should have made Mac and Wallace promise they'd show.
"Where are all the Pi Sigs?" Veronica asked Marjorie, when she finally spotted her.
"They're at their own house," said Marjorie, who was dressed as a Greek goddess, and looked every inch the part. "They're doing a haunted house. They do every year. All the Greek houses are participating. We're going to go over there later."
After reminding herself - several times - that she was there to have fun, and not looking for any ulterior motive, Veronica decided that the best way to forget that she was wearing what was essentially a leotard was to start drinking. Without the Pi Sigs around, she figured she's be safe.
A couple of drinks later, Veronica managed to learn that the Theta Betas, for the most part, were actually pretty decent people. Which was fortunate, she supposed, considering that she was one. Of course, that could have just been the cocktails talking.
So when Veronica spotted Lamb and Sacks across the room, she wasn't so much thinking oh my god, I'm barely dressed as she was why me?
She should have known she wouldn't get a night off.
"If you wanted to keep me out of this," she told Lamb, as she wove her way through the crowd, "coming to my sorority house is a poor way of showing it."
Beside Lamb, Sacks let out an appreciative whistle. At Lamb's glare, he shrugged and wandered off, presumably to find some girl in cat ears who would better appreciate a man out of uniform.
"Wonder Woman," Lamb said, looking Veronica slowly up and down. "Why am I not surprised that that's what you see yourself as?"
"And you're ..." Veronica looked at Lamb. "In very tight pants."
This, she suspected, was a visual she'd never be able to get out of her head.
They stood like that, staring at one another, until Veronica shook her head. "Why are you here?" she asked Lamb.
Lamb's expression changed, grew serious. "The Pi Sigs aren't the only Greek house to have been connected to the rapes," he said.
Veronica just looked at him.
"Are you telling me you're investigating the Theta Betas?" she asked finally, a note of disbelief creeping into her voice. And the memory of what Nish had said to her in the newspaper office creeping, unbidden, into her thoughts.
"They're on our list," was all Lamb said.
Veronica's expression must have given something away, then, because Lamb leaned closer to her. "Disappointed?" he asked.
Veronica was ashamed to admit that the answer was yes.
"I have to tell you something," she said then, pulling Lamb over into a corner of the room. Just as she was leaning into him, Veronica heard someone behind her.
It was Shania, smiling.
She gave Lamb an appreciative glance - or two - and turned to Veronica.
"Very nice," she said, a note of conspiracy in her voice. She leaned closer. "Excellent choice for moving on," she said, in a voice supposedly meant only for Veronica, but which Veronica was sure Lamb could hear perfectly. "Who needs epic romance, anyway?"
Veronica made a mental note to never again tell a secret to a girl in a sorority.
When Veronica turned back to Lamb, he was clearly amused. And smug.
"Moving on, are you?" he asked, stepping closer to Veronica. He looked down at her. "You could do worse."
"I could do better," Veronica said, and the gleam of amusement left Lamb's eyes.
"You said you had something to tell me?" he asked, leaning back against the wall. Which, in turn, forced Veronica to lean in even closer so she could lower her voice.
"Apparently the Theta Betas have a secret room," she said. "It's locked, and guarded by a camera. I've heard ... stories about what goes on in there."
Lamb stood up. "And this is the sorority you decided to join?" he asked incredulously.
"I went to the rush party to check them out. And then Sacks was there, and ..." Veronica faltered.
"So, let me get this straight," Lamb said. "You're blaming me for ruining your investigation." He let out a whistle. "Now that is rich."
Veronica just looked at him.
"What kind of stories?" Lamb asked her.
Veronica shrugged. "Just ... stories," she said, which didn't seem to satisfy him. She rolled her eyes.
"I could tell you," she continued, "But then I'd have to kill you. Which, actually, is kind of a bonus."
"Can you get into the room?" Lamb asked her. "Tonight?"
"I guess," Veronica said. "But I don't have my camera on me." She felt Lamb's eyes sliding across her costume, then, and she could read the not-so-hidden implication; that she didn't have much on her at all.
"I can give you my phone," he said, after a gaze that went on for a beat too long. "It's got a camera on it."
"Are you sure you trust me with it?" Veronica asked, as he handed it over.
"No," Lamb said. "I don't trust you at all."
It wasn't hard for Veronica to slip upstairs unnoticed. Karen had been downstairs in the kitchen, pretending she didn't see the Theta Betas making alcoholic cocktails, and it only took a moment for Veronica to find her keys.
It was a little more difficult to enter the secret room. Waiting what seemed like forever for a lull in traffic, Veronica hastily covered the security camera and slipped inside.
A month ago, the marijuana plants Veronica found inside probably would have made her happy. Now, she was just quietly resigned.
-
"It's marijuana, not GHB," Veronica said, as Lamb looked at the photographs on his phone. "It doesn't prove that the Theta Betas had anything to do with the rapes on campus."
"It proves that they're growing pot," Lamb said. He looked at Veronica. "You know what I'm going to have to do with these, don't you?"
Veronica nodded. If Lamb had gloated at her right then, she would have had to kill him.
But "good work, Veronica," was all he said.
After that confrontation, which should have been satisfying but which instead Veronica tried very hard not to think of as devastating, she made her way back to campus, which is where Marjorie found her.
"Veronica, we need to talk," she said. Taking a breath, Veronica forced her legs to move forward.
"About what?" she asked.
"There was another camera inside the room," Marjorie said, and Veronica sighed. Of course there was. "What were you doing?"
"I was trying to find the truth," Veronica said, but the words sounded hollow, even to her ears.
"The truth?" Marjorie said. "The truth is that Karen has cancer. The chemo made her so sick she couldn't leave the house, couldn't even come downstairs. A friend of hers gave her the seeds; he said it would help with the pain and the nausea, and it did."
Marjorie looked at her. "Veronica ..." she said, and reluctantly, Veronica met her gaze. She nodded.
-
"Please tell me you haven't done anything with those photos," Veronica said, as she walked into Lamb's office. She had debated going to her criminology lecture, but she wasn't sure that even Lamb was incompetent enough to sit on evidence for that long.
"I haven't done anything with the photos," Lamb said, rolling his eyes. "What now, Veronica?"
"Karen - the Theta Beta den mother - has cancer. A friend gave her the seeds. She's growing the marijuana for medical reasons. It has absolutely nothing to do with the rapes." She moved closer to Lamb. "Please tell me you won't go after her."
Lamb looked at her for a long moment, his gaze never wavering. "I don't have a choice, Veronica," he said. "It's a crime. And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm the Sheriff."
Veronica bit back the urge to say that she hadn't. In that moment, she wanted to kill him.
Lamb looked at her as if he were thinking hard. It looked painful.
"But the photos are inadmissable as evidence," he said, "even if they did show what you claim. I've been looking at them all morning, and I can't make anything out. What did you do, take them with the lights off?"
Veronica swallowed, barely daring to breath.
"The next time you come in here making these sorts of claims, I suggest you come up with a better story." He leaned over her. "Or I'll start to think you come over here just to see me."
Lamb walked over to the door, and opened it. "Now, if you don't mind," he said. "I have actual crimes to follow up on."
As she left his office, all Veronica could think was that maybe - just maybe - Lamb was only ninety-nine percent evil.
All Lamb could think was that Veronica Mars in a Wonder Woman costume was all the fantasy he was ever going to need.
-
"Karen."
As Veronica spoke, Marjorie appeared next to the den mother, and Veronica looked at both of them.
"I just wanted to say ..." Veronica paused. "You don't have anything to worry about." She turned to leave, but Marjorie followed her out the door.
Veronica wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn't Marjorie's hand around her shoulder. "Trust, sister," she said, as she led Veronica back toward the Theta Beta house.
Trust, Veronica thought. What should she trust? Trust that the Theta Betas really were mostly decent? That the Pi Sigs were only as bad as any other organisation based on beer and misogyny? That maybe the Greeks really weren't the root of all that was evil? Well, maybe it was worth a shot.
"Oh my god, did you hear?"
Veronica looked up as Shania ran into the house.
"Hear what?" she heard herself ask.
"Another girl got raped last night. Everyone's saying she was at the Pi Sig haunted house."
Veronica felt her stomach sink. Or then again, she thought, maybe not.
*The reference to Lamb's costume, for those who didn't catch it, is a nod to "Captain Tightpants," aka Mal Reynolds on Firefly. Yep, Lamb's secretly a Browncoat. Hallie's costume, of course, is a reference to Mean Girls.
Next: Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18