Fic: You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows (Logan/Veronica, Ensemble) R (1/?)
Title: “You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows”
Author:em2mb
Pairing/Character: Logan/Veronica, Lilly, Duncan, Mac, Wallace, Weevil, Lamb.
Word Count: 3,374
Rating: R
Summary: Berkeley, 1967 - Lilly snorted. “A part of me wants to see Duncan get drafted. I wonder how much Daddy would support this war if his son had to fight it.” It won’t be much longer before Veronica has to choose a side.
Spoilers: Through 1x22, “Leave it to Beaver”
Warnings: Character death, rape, and gratuitous nostalgia for a decade I didn’t live through
Author's Notes: A very long time ago, vm_library hosted a “Different Time and Place” challenge for which I (quite clearly) missed the deadline. But more than a year later, I haven’t managed to shake the idea of Veronica attending UC-Berkeley in the late 1960s. Title cribbed unabashedly from the position paper of everyone’s favorite radical domestic terrorist group, the Weather Underground Organization, which they borrowed from Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Apologies for any historical inaccuracies. I’ve done my very best. Written in part for 100_situations. Prompt: war.
Berkeley, California
October 3, 1967
Lilly Kane’s lips pursed to form a perfect pout as she examined herself in the full-length mirror. She held up a low-cut brown sweater, stretching the fabric tight across her bust before tossing it over her shoulder with a frustrated sigh. She whirled around. “I’ve got a secret,” she declared, throwing herself down on her roommate’s bed. “A good one.”
“Lil-ly,” Veronica Mars complained, trying to keep the mountain of books piled high around her from collapsing avalanche-style. She sighed as they hit the floor with the flood. “I’m trying to study.”
“Please,” Lilly intoned, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Like you need to study. We both know the only degree you’ll ever need in life is your M.R.S. in marrying my brother.”
Veronica’s face flushed. “I’m not marrying Duncan,” she said quickly.
Lilly slipped cat-like off Veronica’s bed, rolling her eyes. “Really?” she asked, bouncing across the room to the ironing board. “Then why are you going to meet the parents tonight?”
Veronica didn’t answer. “What’s your secret?” she asked.
“No time to talk, Veronica. I have a date.”
“So it’s a secret lover?”
Lilly paused, her eyes flashing. “Maybe.”
Veronica giggled, pushing off her bed. She waded through Lily’s shoe collection to her closet, where neatly folded sweaters were stacked on the shelves. “You’ll have to tell me all about it.”
“Obviously. God, Veronica, I have to do all the living for both of us anymore.” Lilly’s voice was muffled from beneath the ironing board. “Want to drive down to Oakland with me next weekend?”
Veronica eyed the steam rising from Lilly’s hair suspiciously. “What’s happening in Oakland?”
“Stop the Draft Week.”
“I don’t think so.” Veronica carefully pulled out a shawl.
Setting the iron aside, Lilly offered her roommate her most innocent smile. “But it’ll be fun, Veronica,” she begged. “There’s no way your dad will hear about it all the way in Neptune.”
“I’ll think about it,” Veronica promised, her mind already made up. “How do I look?” she asked, slipping on her headband.
Lilly put her hands on her hips. “Bland,” she declared. “Boring. Celeste is going to love you.”
Veronica smiled nervously. “Do you really think so?”
Lilly snorted. “No way. Face it, Veronica. There’s no winning over the ice bitch. She hates me, and I’m her flesh and blood.” She undid the top two buttons of her blouse, twirling in front of the mirror. She turned to Veronica, flashing doe eyes and cleavage. “What makes you think you have a chance?
“Do you plan to go out like that?”
“Of course,” Lilly declared, expertly plucking her pocketbook from the piles of clothing strewn about the floor. She pulled open the door, blowing Veronica a kiss. “I have to run and meet my lover, but I’ll see you at the house later.”
Veronica mustered a half-hearted wave, nervously wrapping her shawl more tightly around her shoulders as Lilly flounced away.
---
Celeste Kane hated Veronica with every inch of her daggered stare, causing her to choke with every few bites or sips of water. After Veronica’s third coughing fit, Celeste cleared her throat.
“Perhaps if you slowed down a bit?” she suggested, her voice dripping with contempt. Veronica nodded shyly, suddenly very interested in her napkin.
Jake Kane, deep in a conversation with his son about the governor, ignored both his wife and Veronica. “Just let me make a few calls,” he was saying. “I’m sure I can get you an internship in Reagan’s office this summer.”
Veronica glanced shyly at her boyfriend, who did not look up from his pork chop. He dragged a piece through his mashed potatoes. “I don’t know, Dad,” he said lightly. “Everything he said about cleaning up Berkeley… well, if what Lilly says is true, then there’s going to be a tall chal-”
“And where might your sister be tonight?” Celeste demanded, this time forcing her husband to take notice of her interruption. “I thought I was quite clear when I said Letty would serve dinner at promptly seven o’clock.”
Duncan shrugged, finally letting go of his silverware with a clatter. This earned Veronica another dirty glare from Celeste. “I’m not sure.”
“Well?” Celeste rounded on Veronica. “She’s your roommate.”
“I-” Veronica stammered.
“Please, I’m right here.” In seconds, Lilly had materialized in the entryway of the Kane’s formal dining room. “No need to get your panties in a bunch, Celeste.”
At his wife’s indignant gasp, Jake finally gave in. “Lilly,” he said warningly.
Lilly beamed. “Hi Daddy,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him on the cheek. “How’s work?”
“Fine,” Jake said, his tone suggestive that he’d already lost interest. Lilly winked at Veronica as she plopped down at the table. “I mean it, Duncan. Reagan’s politics are the future of this state, maybe even this country!”
“I’ll look into it,” Duncan mumbled unconvincingly.
Lilly laughed. “God, Duncan. He’s still grooming you for politics? When is he going to learn-”
Celeste was practically seething. She knocked her napkin from her lap in her haste to get up. “That is quite enough from you tonight, Lilly!”
“What?” Lilly glared at her mother, helping herself to a serving of mashed potatoes from the bowl in the middle of the table. “I just got here, mother.”
Celeste stormed out of the dining room. Jake’s eyes followed her for the briefest second, then he punched his son in the shoulder. “If you’ve had enough to eat, come have a smoke with me, son.” He stood. “Veronica, it was nice meeting you.”
“So kind of you to have me over,” Veronica muttered, knowing full well her boyfriend’s millionaire father wasn’t listening. She looked to Duncan for rescue, but he just shot her a helpless look as he exited the room.
Lilly giggled. “Do you ever think he wishes he were smoking something stronger?”
Veronica was taken aback by the question. “Lilly! Of course not!”
“Relax,” Lilly said, but a devilish grin had spread across her face. “So… notice anything different about me?”
“Ugh, Lilly,” Veronica sighed, taking in her friend’s rosy cheeks and mischievous eyes. “You reek of sex.”
“I know, right?” Lilly said cheerfully, stabbing at her pork chop. “You’ll never guess who with.”
“Probably not,” Veronica agreed, refusing to give her best friend any more satisfaction than she was already deriving from this moment.
Lilly pushed her chair back from the table. “I don’t even like pork. Let’s walk out by the pool.”
Veronica knew better than to say anything about skipped meals and table manners. She dabbed at the corners of her mouth with the napkin one last time before making haste to follow Lilly outside.
“Where are we going?” Veronica wanted to know. Lilly was moving so fast that Veronica barely had a moment to take in the splendor of the Kane home.
Lilly threw up her arms and twirled around beneath the stars. “Anywhere that’s not under Celeste’s roof,” she said, falling dramatically into one of the patio chairs. Despite the chill that had Veronica rubbing her sweater sleeves, Lilly looked relaxed and comfortable in her thin blouse. “My mother has a terrible habit of eavesdropping,” she explained.
“She hates me.”
“Please. Celeste hates anybody she thinks Duncan might love as much as her.” Lilly grinned. “That’s right, Ronnie. My little brother loves you.”
Veronica blushed. “Where were you?”
Lilly waved her hand. “Here and there,” she said vaguely, suddenly springing to her feet. “Let’s walk down the block.” She tugged Veronica up behind her, pressing a finger to her lips. “Shh.”
“What?” Veronica wanted to know. Lilly tried to hush her. “What did you see?”
Once they were out of earshot of the house, Lilly withdrew her finger. “Celeste at the window.”
“Oh.”
“I take it that your mom doesn’t make a habit of monitoring your every move?”
“I guess not,” said Veronica, who had a different kind of tumultuous relationship with her mother.
“Though I forget, that’s probably because your dad already has whoever you’re with framed in the sight of his gun.” She linked arms with Veronica. “Do you know who lives there? Aaron Echolls.”
“The movie star?”
“I dated his son once,” Lilly said matter-of-factly.
Veronica didn’t believe her. “No.”
Lilly smirked. “Try ‘yes.’ We were pretty hot and heavy the summer I was seventeen. But it didn’t last. He ended up getting sent to an all-boys boarding school.”
Veronica didn’t particularly care about one of Lilly’s long-ago conquests. “God, Lilly. Movie stars live on your street?”
“Just one,” said Lilly, as though this would lessen Veronica’s awe. They had come to a stop in front of a mansion several doors down from the Kanes’. “Money buys the best neighbors.”
Veronica picked up on the sarcasm instantly. “Remind me again exactly what your father does.”
Lilly shrugged. “Kane Industries,” she said. “They design defense systems. Made Dad a fortune during the war.”
“Right.”
But Lilly wasn’t done. “If the war in Vietnam continues much longer, it’ll make him another.” She snorted. “A part of me wants to see Duncan get drafted. I wonder how much Daddy would support this war if his son had to fight it.”
Veronica tried to imagine Duncan, gun in hand, running through the jungle. She shuddered. “Don’t say that, Lilly.”
“What?” Lilly challenged. “Please, it’s not like Duncan wouldn’t get a deferment. Why should he get to stay here and live while the poor have to fight and die?”
Veronica knew better than to say much when her roommate got like this. She held her tongue until Lilly started shuffling back towards her house. “You really dated Aaron Echolls’ son?”
“Mhmm,” Lilly murmured, her eyes distant and unfocused. “Wait, what?”
“Aaron Echolls’ son?”
“Oh, Logan, right,” said Lilly. She folded her arms across her chest, top two buttons of her blouse still undone. “You know how he is.”
“No?” said Veronica quizzically.
Lilly starred at her. “You know, shaggy hair, bad clothes, drives that God-awful canary yellow Camaro? He lives in our dorm, Veronica.”
Veronica’s brow furrowed. “The one that always peels out of the parking lot?”
“Unfortunate, right? I don’t know what I was thinking.” At the end of the Kanes’ property, Lilly pulled herself up on her tiptoes to look over the edge of the fence. A sultry smile spread across her face. “Check out our gardener,” she hissed.
Veronica joined Lilly at the fence, having to climb up several inches to see over. A shadowy figure moved in the distance. “Who am I looking at?”
“Let’s go around,” Lilly suggested, hopping down and tearing around the corner. Veronica sighed, far too used to trying to keep up. She trotted after. “Eli!” Lilly called.
A young Mexican man stepped into the low poolside light. “Evening, Miss Kane,” he said, his tone surprisingly sarcastic. The shovel he was carrying scraped against the patio brick. “Didn’t I tell you to call me Weevil?”
Lilly arched her eyebrows as if to challenge Weevil. “This is Eli Navarro,” she said to Veronica. “He’s Letty’s grand-”
“Who’s your friend?” Weevil interrupted, resting his chin on the shovel handle. He extended a hand to Veronica. “I’m Weevil.”
“Veronica,” she said, finally stepping forward from Lilly’s shadow. Weevil’s palm was gritty with dirt.
“What does Daddy have you doing at this hour?”
Weevil chuckled, taking a step closer to the two girls. Veronica stepped back. She wasn’t afraid of Weevil, but the intense chemistry she could sense between him and Lilly made her uneasy. Had Lilly had an affair with the gardener?
“Celeste wants her new brick walkway ready for the dinner party she’s hosting on Saturday night.”
“So that’s why she didn’t want Veronica around this weekend,” said Lilly knowingly. “Veronica is dating Duncan.”
“Is she?” Weevil said, again stepping forward to close the distance between him and Lilly. He stage-whispered, “Your friend is a regular shrinking violet. What’s Celeste worried about?”
Lilly’s throaty laugh had Veronica shying further away from the unlikely pairing. Increasingly, the meeting on the patio felt like a private moment. “Tell me about it,” Lilly said. “I can’t imagine what she and Duncan do for fun.”
“Never mind what they do,” Weevil murmured, resting one of his hands on Lilly’s hip. “What are you doing later?”
“Another lover?” Lilly suggested playfully, making Veronica suddenly very interested in her shoes. Her heart was pounding. Was her best friend trying to get caught? Hadn’t Celeste been watching from the window just minutes ago?
“Don’t make me angry, Lilly,” Weevil warned. His lips brushed Lilly’s ear. “We both know I’m the best damn-”
“Get away from my daughter!” Celeste’s voice was frantic as she charged from the house, Jake on her heels. “Don’t you dare touch her!”
“What are you doing?” Jake demanded, grabbing Weevil roughly by the shoulder and yanking him away from Lilly. The shovel he was holding fell to the patio with a clatter. He began to shake Weevil. “What did you do to her?”
Now Duncan was coming from the house to check out the commotion. He made a beeline for Veronica, grabbing her elbow and trying to jerk her away from the pool, but she stood frozen, unable to look away from the melee.
“Don’t touch me,” Weevil growled, roughly trying to throw Jake off his arm. Swinging blindly, his open hand finally made contact with the millionaire’s face.
Jake stumbled back, landing solidly next to the shovel. He had no sooner picked it up than Celeste had snatched it away, holding it in front of her like a battering ram. Her eyes were cold. “That’s it,” she hissed. “You and your grandmother are both fired.”
Weevil dropped back. “Not my grandmother,” he begged. “She needs this job. My cousins, she has to take care of-”
“Get off my property,” Celeste rumbled. She jerked the shovel forward several times. “I said, get off my property!”
Weevil glared at the Kanes, but he didn’t need to be told a third time. Jake had to restrain Lilly to keep her from following him as he sulked away. Finally, unable to shake her father’s grasp, she shouted, “Call me!”
Celeste slapped Lilly solidly across the face. “That’s enough from you,” she hissed, her voice dangerously low as Weevil made an obscene hand gesture in parting. “Quite enough.”
“What were you thinking, Lilly?” Jake demanded. “Who put it into your head that it was okay to chat up the help?”
Now Celeste rounded on Veronica, still in shock, still resisting Duncan’s attempts to haul her away. “Oh, I don’t think we have to look very far for the answer to that question. It’s been nothing but free love and protest with Lilly since you moved in with her.”
“Mrs. Kane-” Veronica started, very much wanting to assure her boyfriend’s mother that Lilly had been that way when they’d met, that she often tried to check Lilly’s most raucous and rowdy behavior. But she didn’t have time to find the words.
“Don’t speak to me,” Celeste fumed. “Nothing but trailer trash from downstate. Not nearly good enough for my son.”
Veronica hung her head. Fortunately, Jake had materialized behind his wife, quietly urging her to show some restrain. “Duncan, why don’t you take Veronica home?”
Duncan nodded impassively. “Come on, Veronica,” he urged, still leading her by the elbow. Once they were out of earshot of his parents, he added, “I think you’ve caused enough trouble for one night.”
Veronica remained silent as they walked to the car. In the distance, she could hear Jake and Celeste berating their daughter. “The help, Lilly, the help!” Jake kept repeating, his mantra peppered with interjections from his wife that that was not how they’d raised her.
“Honestly, Lilly! The shame could kill me, if I don’t kill you first!” Celeste chided.
In the driveway, Duncan’s imported Triumph roared to life. Veronica wordless slid into the passenger seat, refusing to indulge her boyfriend’s attempts at small talk. They drove in silence back to the UC-Berkeley campus.
“I didn’t do anything, Duncan,” Veronica said finally as they approached her dormitory. “I didn’t do anything, and you couldn’t be bothered to stand up for me.”
“Come on, Veronica, you saw how my parents are,” Duncan said. “That’s just how it is with them. Don’t let them get to you.”
Veronica wondered how he could remain so unflinching in the face of his parents. “I didn’t do anything, Duncan,” she repeated.
“Isn’t that the problem, though?” Duncan said, pulling the car to a stop. “You know how Lilly is, Veronica. You know how Lilly is and you just let her be Lilly.”
“Oh, so you would have stopped her?” Veronica said, pushing open the car door. She paused, angry, anticipating Duncan’s response.
“At least I would have tried!”
“And you honestly think it would have done any good?”
Duncan was silent. “No.” He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. I just wanted to have a nice evening at home, not a Lilly-induced fireworks display.”
Veronica softened. “I know.” She hesitated, but then she decided it was time to prove to Lilly that she wasn’t just some shrinking violet. “Do you want to come up?”
Duncan blinked rapidly. “Oh, uh-” he stammered, then shook his head. “Actually, I was going to go back, make sure Lilly doesn’t need to be bailed out.”
Fair enough. Veronica nodded, leaning in to kiss Duncan lightly. “Later, then?”
He seemed to soften. “How about I come by when I’ve rescued Lilly from the wrath of Celeste?”
Veronica smiled. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll be waiting up.”
Duncan grinned. “I’ll hurry back,” he promised. Feeling very Lilly-like, Veronica blew him a kiss as he took off.
---
October 4, 1967
A light fog had settled over Berkeley around midnight, and Veronica pulled her cardigan tighter as she raced down the steps of her dormitory. It was after one o’clock, and Duncan still hadn’t returned from his parents’ house. It wasn’t like him not to call, and she’d already checked with his roommate, Casey Gant, to make sure he really hadn’t blown her off.
As the engine of Veronica’s old Rambler rumbled to life, she was so frantic with worry that she couldn’t muster the embarrassment that usually accompanied starting the old junker. Something was wrong. She could just sense it. She pointed the car towards unincorporated Alameda County, just outside Berkeley, where the Kanes lived.
Could Duncan have been in an accident? Could the Kanes have decided to send Lilly away, to Vassar or Bryn Mawr or some other all-girls school? Lilly had said that was the kind of thing that happened to Aaron Echolls’ son back in high school.
Setting her fear aside, Veronica felt hopelessly out of place as she turned onto the Kanes’ street, the expensive mansions dwarfing her old rust bucket. Lights were flashing in the distance. She swallowed hard. Police cruisers lined the street outside the Kane estate. She brought the Rambler to a jerky halt, running desperately towards the house. The front door was open.
“Duncan!” Veronica shouted, instantly awash with relief when she saw her boyfriend in the foyer. She raced towards him, but something wasn’t right. He had traded his sharp jacket and trousers of earlier for ill-fitting pants and an old shirt, as though he’d had to go rummaging through his boyhood closet for a change of clothing. He was rocking back and forth on a bench, and Veronica knelt before him. “Duncan?” she tried. “Duncan?”
No response. Veronica stood and sprinted towards the back door. A milling police officer tried to stop her, but she barreled past. Most of the commotion seemed to be taking place poolside, where the pale body of a lifeless teenage girl lay prostrate on the ground.
Veronica froze. No, she thought, not Lilly, please not Lilly, please not Lilly.
But she would take that image with her to the grave - blood oozing from her best friend’s head, a soiled shovel lying nearby, and the Alameda County sheriff leading Weevil away in handcuffs.
“It wasn’t me! ” Weevil was shouting. From across the lawn, he caught Veronica’s eye. “Tell them what Celeste threatened! Tell them I loved Lilly!”
Author:em2mb
Pairing/Character: Logan/Veronica, Lilly, Duncan, Mac, Wallace, Weevil, Lamb.
Word Count: 3,374
Rating: R
Summary: Berkeley, 1967 - Lilly snorted. “A part of me wants to see Duncan get drafted. I wonder how much Daddy would support this war if his son had to fight it.” It won’t be much longer before Veronica has to choose a side.
Spoilers: Through 1x22, “Leave it to Beaver”
Warnings: Character death, rape, and gratuitous nostalgia for a decade I didn’t live through
Author's Notes: A very long time ago, vm_library hosted a “Different Time and Place” challenge for which I (quite clearly) missed the deadline. But more than a year later, I haven’t managed to shake the idea of Veronica attending UC-Berkeley in the late 1960s. Title cribbed unabashedly from the position paper of everyone’s favorite radical domestic terrorist group, the Weather Underground Organization, which they borrowed from Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Apologies for any historical inaccuracies. I’ve done my very best. Written in part for 100_situations. Prompt: war.
Berkeley, California
October 3, 1967
Lilly Kane’s lips pursed to form a perfect pout as she examined herself in the full-length mirror. She held up a low-cut brown sweater, stretching the fabric tight across her bust before tossing it over her shoulder with a frustrated sigh. She whirled around. “I’ve got a secret,” she declared, throwing herself down on her roommate’s bed. “A good one.”
“Lil-ly,” Veronica Mars complained, trying to keep the mountain of books piled high around her from collapsing avalanche-style. She sighed as they hit the floor with the flood. “I’m trying to study.”
“Please,” Lilly intoned, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Like you need to study. We both know the only degree you’ll ever need in life is your M.R.S. in marrying my brother.”
Veronica’s face flushed. “I’m not marrying Duncan,” she said quickly.
Lilly slipped cat-like off Veronica’s bed, rolling her eyes. “Really?” she asked, bouncing across the room to the ironing board. “Then why are you going to meet the parents tonight?”
Veronica didn’t answer. “What’s your secret?” she asked.
“No time to talk, Veronica. I have a date.”
“So it’s a secret lover?”
Lilly paused, her eyes flashing. “Maybe.”
Veronica giggled, pushing off her bed. She waded through Lily’s shoe collection to her closet, where neatly folded sweaters were stacked on the shelves. “You’ll have to tell me all about it.”
“Obviously. God, Veronica, I have to do all the living for both of us anymore.” Lilly’s voice was muffled from beneath the ironing board. “Want to drive down to Oakland with me next weekend?”
Veronica eyed the steam rising from Lilly’s hair suspiciously. “What’s happening in Oakland?”
“Stop the Draft Week.”
“I don’t think so.” Veronica carefully pulled out a shawl.
Setting the iron aside, Lilly offered her roommate her most innocent smile. “But it’ll be fun, Veronica,” she begged. “There’s no way your dad will hear about it all the way in Neptune.”
“I’ll think about it,” Veronica promised, her mind already made up. “How do I look?” she asked, slipping on her headband.
Lilly put her hands on her hips. “Bland,” she declared. “Boring. Celeste is going to love you.”
Veronica smiled nervously. “Do you really think so?”
Lilly snorted. “No way. Face it, Veronica. There’s no winning over the ice bitch. She hates me, and I’m her flesh and blood.” She undid the top two buttons of her blouse, twirling in front of the mirror. She turned to Veronica, flashing doe eyes and cleavage. “What makes you think you have a chance?
“Do you plan to go out like that?”
“Of course,” Lilly declared, expertly plucking her pocketbook from the piles of clothing strewn about the floor. She pulled open the door, blowing Veronica a kiss. “I have to run and meet my lover, but I’ll see you at the house later.”
Veronica mustered a half-hearted wave, nervously wrapping her shawl more tightly around her shoulders as Lilly flounced away.
---
Celeste Kane hated Veronica with every inch of her daggered stare, causing her to choke with every few bites or sips of water. After Veronica’s third coughing fit, Celeste cleared her throat.
“Perhaps if you slowed down a bit?” she suggested, her voice dripping with contempt. Veronica nodded shyly, suddenly very interested in her napkin.
Jake Kane, deep in a conversation with his son about the governor, ignored both his wife and Veronica. “Just let me make a few calls,” he was saying. “I’m sure I can get you an internship in Reagan’s office this summer.”
Veronica glanced shyly at her boyfriend, who did not look up from his pork chop. He dragged a piece through his mashed potatoes. “I don’t know, Dad,” he said lightly. “Everything he said about cleaning up Berkeley… well, if what Lilly says is true, then there’s going to be a tall chal-”
“And where might your sister be tonight?” Celeste demanded, this time forcing her husband to take notice of her interruption. “I thought I was quite clear when I said Letty would serve dinner at promptly seven o’clock.”
Duncan shrugged, finally letting go of his silverware with a clatter. This earned Veronica another dirty glare from Celeste. “I’m not sure.”
“Well?” Celeste rounded on Veronica. “She’s your roommate.”
“I-” Veronica stammered.
“Please, I’m right here.” In seconds, Lilly had materialized in the entryway of the Kane’s formal dining room. “No need to get your panties in a bunch, Celeste.”
At his wife’s indignant gasp, Jake finally gave in. “Lilly,” he said warningly.
Lilly beamed. “Hi Daddy,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him on the cheek. “How’s work?”
“Fine,” Jake said, his tone suggestive that he’d already lost interest. Lilly winked at Veronica as she plopped down at the table. “I mean it, Duncan. Reagan’s politics are the future of this state, maybe even this country!”
“I’ll look into it,” Duncan mumbled unconvincingly.
Lilly laughed. “God, Duncan. He’s still grooming you for politics? When is he going to learn-”
Celeste was practically seething. She knocked her napkin from her lap in her haste to get up. “That is quite enough from you tonight, Lilly!”
“What?” Lilly glared at her mother, helping herself to a serving of mashed potatoes from the bowl in the middle of the table. “I just got here, mother.”
Celeste stormed out of the dining room. Jake’s eyes followed her for the briefest second, then he punched his son in the shoulder. “If you’ve had enough to eat, come have a smoke with me, son.” He stood. “Veronica, it was nice meeting you.”
“So kind of you to have me over,” Veronica muttered, knowing full well her boyfriend’s millionaire father wasn’t listening. She looked to Duncan for rescue, but he just shot her a helpless look as he exited the room.
Lilly giggled. “Do you ever think he wishes he were smoking something stronger?”
Veronica was taken aback by the question. “Lilly! Of course not!”
“Relax,” Lilly said, but a devilish grin had spread across her face. “So… notice anything different about me?”
“Ugh, Lilly,” Veronica sighed, taking in her friend’s rosy cheeks and mischievous eyes. “You reek of sex.”
“I know, right?” Lilly said cheerfully, stabbing at her pork chop. “You’ll never guess who with.”
“Probably not,” Veronica agreed, refusing to give her best friend any more satisfaction than she was already deriving from this moment.
Lilly pushed her chair back from the table. “I don’t even like pork. Let’s walk out by the pool.”
Veronica knew better than to say anything about skipped meals and table manners. She dabbed at the corners of her mouth with the napkin one last time before making haste to follow Lilly outside.
“Where are we going?” Veronica wanted to know. Lilly was moving so fast that Veronica barely had a moment to take in the splendor of the Kane home.
Lilly threw up her arms and twirled around beneath the stars. “Anywhere that’s not under Celeste’s roof,” she said, falling dramatically into one of the patio chairs. Despite the chill that had Veronica rubbing her sweater sleeves, Lilly looked relaxed and comfortable in her thin blouse. “My mother has a terrible habit of eavesdropping,” she explained.
“She hates me.”
“Please. Celeste hates anybody she thinks Duncan might love as much as her.” Lilly grinned. “That’s right, Ronnie. My little brother loves you.”
Veronica blushed. “Where were you?”
Lilly waved her hand. “Here and there,” she said vaguely, suddenly springing to her feet. “Let’s walk down the block.” She tugged Veronica up behind her, pressing a finger to her lips. “Shh.”
“What?” Veronica wanted to know. Lilly tried to hush her. “What did you see?”
Once they were out of earshot of the house, Lilly withdrew her finger. “Celeste at the window.”
“Oh.”
“I take it that your mom doesn’t make a habit of monitoring your every move?”
“I guess not,” said Veronica, who had a different kind of tumultuous relationship with her mother.
“Though I forget, that’s probably because your dad already has whoever you’re with framed in the sight of his gun.” She linked arms with Veronica. “Do you know who lives there? Aaron Echolls.”
“The movie star?”
“I dated his son once,” Lilly said matter-of-factly.
Veronica didn’t believe her. “No.”
Lilly smirked. “Try ‘yes.’ We were pretty hot and heavy the summer I was seventeen. But it didn’t last. He ended up getting sent to an all-boys boarding school.”
Veronica didn’t particularly care about one of Lilly’s long-ago conquests. “God, Lilly. Movie stars live on your street?”
“Just one,” said Lilly, as though this would lessen Veronica’s awe. They had come to a stop in front of a mansion several doors down from the Kanes’. “Money buys the best neighbors.”
Veronica picked up on the sarcasm instantly. “Remind me again exactly what your father does.”
Lilly shrugged. “Kane Industries,” she said. “They design defense systems. Made Dad a fortune during the war.”
“Right.”
But Lilly wasn’t done. “If the war in Vietnam continues much longer, it’ll make him another.” She snorted. “A part of me wants to see Duncan get drafted. I wonder how much Daddy would support this war if his son had to fight it.”
Veronica tried to imagine Duncan, gun in hand, running through the jungle. She shuddered. “Don’t say that, Lilly.”
“What?” Lilly challenged. “Please, it’s not like Duncan wouldn’t get a deferment. Why should he get to stay here and live while the poor have to fight and die?”
Veronica knew better than to say much when her roommate got like this. She held her tongue until Lilly started shuffling back towards her house. “You really dated Aaron Echolls’ son?”
“Mhmm,” Lilly murmured, her eyes distant and unfocused. “Wait, what?”
“Aaron Echolls’ son?”
“Oh, Logan, right,” said Lilly. She folded her arms across her chest, top two buttons of her blouse still undone. “You know how he is.”
“No?” said Veronica quizzically.
Lilly starred at her. “You know, shaggy hair, bad clothes, drives that God-awful canary yellow Camaro? He lives in our dorm, Veronica.”
Veronica’s brow furrowed. “The one that always peels out of the parking lot?”
“Unfortunate, right? I don’t know what I was thinking.” At the end of the Kanes’ property, Lilly pulled herself up on her tiptoes to look over the edge of the fence. A sultry smile spread across her face. “Check out our gardener,” she hissed.
Veronica joined Lilly at the fence, having to climb up several inches to see over. A shadowy figure moved in the distance. “Who am I looking at?”
“Let’s go around,” Lilly suggested, hopping down and tearing around the corner. Veronica sighed, far too used to trying to keep up. She trotted after. “Eli!” Lilly called.
A young Mexican man stepped into the low poolside light. “Evening, Miss Kane,” he said, his tone surprisingly sarcastic. The shovel he was carrying scraped against the patio brick. “Didn’t I tell you to call me Weevil?”
Lilly arched her eyebrows as if to challenge Weevil. “This is Eli Navarro,” she said to Veronica. “He’s Letty’s grand-”
“Who’s your friend?” Weevil interrupted, resting his chin on the shovel handle. He extended a hand to Veronica. “I’m Weevil.”
“Veronica,” she said, finally stepping forward from Lilly’s shadow. Weevil’s palm was gritty with dirt.
“What does Daddy have you doing at this hour?”
Weevil chuckled, taking a step closer to the two girls. Veronica stepped back. She wasn’t afraid of Weevil, but the intense chemistry she could sense between him and Lilly made her uneasy. Had Lilly had an affair with the gardener?
“Celeste wants her new brick walkway ready for the dinner party she’s hosting on Saturday night.”
“So that’s why she didn’t want Veronica around this weekend,” said Lilly knowingly. “Veronica is dating Duncan.”
“Is she?” Weevil said, again stepping forward to close the distance between him and Lilly. He stage-whispered, “Your friend is a regular shrinking violet. What’s Celeste worried about?”
Lilly’s throaty laugh had Veronica shying further away from the unlikely pairing. Increasingly, the meeting on the patio felt like a private moment. “Tell me about it,” Lilly said. “I can’t imagine what she and Duncan do for fun.”
“Never mind what they do,” Weevil murmured, resting one of his hands on Lilly’s hip. “What are you doing later?”
“Another lover?” Lilly suggested playfully, making Veronica suddenly very interested in her shoes. Her heart was pounding. Was her best friend trying to get caught? Hadn’t Celeste been watching from the window just minutes ago?
“Don’t make me angry, Lilly,” Weevil warned. His lips brushed Lilly’s ear. “We both know I’m the best damn-”
“Get away from my daughter!” Celeste’s voice was frantic as she charged from the house, Jake on her heels. “Don’t you dare touch her!”
“What are you doing?” Jake demanded, grabbing Weevil roughly by the shoulder and yanking him away from Lilly. The shovel he was holding fell to the patio with a clatter. He began to shake Weevil. “What did you do to her?”
Now Duncan was coming from the house to check out the commotion. He made a beeline for Veronica, grabbing her elbow and trying to jerk her away from the pool, but she stood frozen, unable to look away from the melee.
“Don’t touch me,” Weevil growled, roughly trying to throw Jake off his arm. Swinging blindly, his open hand finally made contact with the millionaire’s face.
Jake stumbled back, landing solidly next to the shovel. He had no sooner picked it up than Celeste had snatched it away, holding it in front of her like a battering ram. Her eyes were cold. “That’s it,” she hissed. “You and your grandmother are both fired.”
Weevil dropped back. “Not my grandmother,” he begged. “She needs this job. My cousins, she has to take care of-”
“Get off my property,” Celeste rumbled. She jerked the shovel forward several times. “I said, get off my property!”
Weevil glared at the Kanes, but he didn’t need to be told a third time. Jake had to restrain Lilly to keep her from following him as he sulked away. Finally, unable to shake her father’s grasp, she shouted, “Call me!”
Celeste slapped Lilly solidly across the face. “That’s enough from you,” she hissed, her voice dangerously low as Weevil made an obscene hand gesture in parting. “Quite enough.”
“What were you thinking, Lilly?” Jake demanded. “Who put it into your head that it was okay to chat up the help?”
Now Celeste rounded on Veronica, still in shock, still resisting Duncan’s attempts to haul her away. “Oh, I don’t think we have to look very far for the answer to that question. It’s been nothing but free love and protest with Lilly since you moved in with her.”
“Mrs. Kane-” Veronica started, very much wanting to assure her boyfriend’s mother that Lilly had been that way when they’d met, that she often tried to check Lilly’s most raucous and rowdy behavior. But she didn’t have time to find the words.
“Don’t speak to me,” Celeste fumed. “Nothing but trailer trash from downstate. Not nearly good enough for my son.”
Veronica hung her head. Fortunately, Jake had materialized behind his wife, quietly urging her to show some restrain. “Duncan, why don’t you take Veronica home?”
Duncan nodded impassively. “Come on, Veronica,” he urged, still leading her by the elbow. Once they were out of earshot of his parents, he added, “I think you’ve caused enough trouble for one night.”
Veronica remained silent as they walked to the car. In the distance, she could hear Jake and Celeste berating their daughter. “The help, Lilly, the help!” Jake kept repeating, his mantra peppered with interjections from his wife that that was not how they’d raised her.
“Honestly, Lilly! The shame could kill me, if I don’t kill you first!” Celeste chided.
In the driveway, Duncan’s imported Triumph roared to life. Veronica wordless slid into the passenger seat, refusing to indulge her boyfriend’s attempts at small talk. They drove in silence back to the UC-Berkeley campus.
“I didn’t do anything, Duncan,” Veronica said finally as they approached her dormitory. “I didn’t do anything, and you couldn’t be bothered to stand up for me.”
“Come on, Veronica, you saw how my parents are,” Duncan said. “That’s just how it is with them. Don’t let them get to you.”
Veronica wondered how he could remain so unflinching in the face of his parents. “I didn’t do anything, Duncan,” she repeated.
“Isn’t that the problem, though?” Duncan said, pulling the car to a stop. “You know how Lilly is, Veronica. You know how Lilly is and you just let her be Lilly.”
“Oh, so you would have stopped her?” Veronica said, pushing open the car door. She paused, angry, anticipating Duncan’s response.
“At least I would have tried!”
“And you honestly think it would have done any good?”
Duncan was silent. “No.” He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. I just wanted to have a nice evening at home, not a Lilly-induced fireworks display.”
Veronica softened. “I know.” She hesitated, but then she decided it was time to prove to Lilly that she wasn’t just some shrinking violet. “Do you want to come up?”
Duncan blinked rapidly. “Oh, uh-” he stammered, then shook his head. “Actually, I was going to go back, make sure Lilly doesn’t need to be bailed out.”
Fair enough. Veronica nodded, leaning in to kiss Duncan lightly. “Later, then?”
He seemed to soften. “How about I come by when I’ve rescued Lilly from the wrath of Celeste?”
Veronica smiled. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll be waiting up.”
Duncan grinned. “I’ll hurry back,” he promised. Feeling very Lilly-like, Veronica blew him a kiss as he took off.
---
October 4, 1967
A light fog had settled over Berkeley around midnight, and Veronica pulled her cardigan tighter as she raced down the steps of her dormitory. It was after one o’clock, and Duncan still hadn’t returned from his parents’ house. It wasn’t like him not to call, and she’d already checked with his roommate, Casey Gant, to make sure he really hadn’t blown her off.
As the engine of Veronica’s old Rambler rumbled to life, she was so frantic with worry that she couldn’t muster the embarrassment that usually accompanied starting the old junker. Something was wrong. She could just sense it. She pointed the car towards unincorporated Alameda County, just outside Berkeley, where the Kanes lived.
Could Duncan have been in an accident? Could the Kanes have decided to send Lilly away, to Vassar or Bryn Mawr or some other all-girls school? Lilly had said that was the kind of thing that happened to Aaron Echolls’ son back in high school.
Setting her fear aside, Veronica felt hopelessly out of place as she turned onto the Kanes’ street, the expensive mansions dwarfing her old rust bucket. Lights were flashing in the distance. She swallowed hard. Police cruisers lined the street outside the Kane estate. She brought the Rambler to a jerky halt, running desperately towards the house. The front door was open.
“Duncan!” Veronica shouted, instantly awash with relief when she saw her boyfriend in the foyer. She raced towards him, but something wasn’t right. He had traded his sharp jacket and trousers of earlier for ill-fitting pants and an old shirt, as though he’d had to go rummaging through his boyhood closet for a change of clothing. He was rocking back and forth on a bench, and Veronica knelt before him. “Duncan?” she tried. “Duncan?”
No response. Veronica stood and sprinted towards the back door. A milling police officer tried to stop her, but she barreled past. Most of the commotion seemed to be taking place poolside, where the pale body of a lifeless teenage girl lay prostrate on the ground.
Veronica froze. No, she thought, not Lilly, please not Lilly, please not Lilly.
But she would take that image with her to the grave - blood oozing from her best friend’s head, a soiled shovel lying nearby, and the Alameda County sheriff leading Weevil away in handcuffs.
“It wasn’t me! ” Weevil was shouting. From across the lawn, he caught Veronica’s eye. “Tell them what Celeste threatened! Tell them I loved Lilly!”