EPISODE 4x01
INTRODUCTION: As you know, this is a depiction, through my own imagination, of what could possibly happen in Season 4. As I've already stated, this season will feature two larger mysteries and each episode will contain a smaller mystery (that could span into the next episode if it's exceptionally big).
In a forewarning, I'm not an LoVe shipper - in fact, I'd rather see Veronica with anyone else in the world (Duncan, Piz, Troy...) but, I do recognize their relationship and it will be featured in this season, as it has been in all the others. I'd rather stay true to the story than please my own desires. So I hope I do the series justice.
And now, Episode 4x01.
EPISODE: 4x01: WHEN ONE DOOR'S TAKEN
DISCLAIMER: I, unfortunately, do not own the rights to the Veronica Mars series - that duty belongs to Rob Thomas and he refuses to pursue the storyline so here is my hopefully not too futile attempt at writing an episode or two.
"That box isn't going to move itself, you know." Wallace said, lugging one box while Veronica sat on another, reading a message on her phone from Logan. Call me, we need to talk....
She flipped it shut and looked up at Wallace, shielding her eyes from the California sun. "Really? Because I'm not using my legs at the moment - I was hoping it'd pull them off and start using them." The pair were unloading all of Wallace's worldly possessions from the back of Veronica's SUV - well, Wallace was, and Veronica had taken to resting after only two back and forth trips. "Alright, alright, I'm coming..." She said, getting off the makeshift cardboard chair and picking it up, flinching when one of the flaps knocked her in the nose. "Jeeze, you couldn't have taped the tops Wallace, I know you’re a poor student but..." Veronica dug in her pocket for her keys, locking the car before disappearing around the corner again and into the hall.
"Yeah, well, I needed the tape for my posters of beer and half-naked women." Wallace said with a chuckle, unlocking the door.
"Oh, and that one of a half naked woman drinking beer…"
"Now I'm really not putting that one up..." Wallace groaned, stumbling inside.
Veronica dropped Wallace's box on the bed with a heave.
"Can you shut the door? Piz isn’t coming ‘till later…" Wallace asked, pulling his box open.
Veronica pivoted on the spot and closed the door, silencing the retro rock music coming from the room across the hall. She tossed her jacket beside the box and opened up the top. "Oh look, Wallace brought his teddy bear..." Veronica pulled out a worn-out pink bear who's head was on the verge of falling off. "Man... this bear gives new meaning to losing your head..."
Wallace rolled his eyes and snatched up the bear, sitting it up on a bookshelf. "His name's Arnold. I got him from my dad. Well, my real dad. A long time ago..."
Veronica fell silent for a moment before tempting the subject a little, enough to break the silence. "Oh, how's he doing? Have you spoken to him since..." She stopped short, not really wanting to bring up anything that might make Wallace uncomfortable.
"Not since then, no." Wallace said, looking over at Veronica as he piled some of his books on the shelf next to Arnold.
"Hey Mister Grumpypants, you better turn that frown upside down before Piz gets here or he'll think the Wallace he knows has become a serious man..." Veronica said, emphasizing the last to words in a deeper voice and passing Wallace some more books. "Whatever happened to party-hardy, shmooze the ladies, so drunk he falls over..."
"Veronica."
"What?"
"That's Dick."
"Oh right..."
"But maybe I am more serious Veronica - I mean, do you remember when you first met me? I was taped to a flagpole. Do you think I'd ever let myself get taped to one now?"
Veronica looked at Wallace as if trying to read more into him. Maybe it was because she'd seen him almost everyday since they met that she hadn't really noticed the changes, but Wallace had gone through a lot. From liking - maybe even loving - Jackie, to dealing with his dad, and now he was in college, on their basketball team and one of the starting players.
"Maybe..." She admitted. "You know, Wallace, we should celebrate this discovery of you as a changed man..." Veronica rounded the bed and stood next to Wallace, clapping him on the back. She put on an accent before continuing, "And it's a mighty fine day when a friend of your's becomes a man."
"Veronica Mars... are you suggesting we throw a party?" Wallace said, heading back to the door.
"Not just a party, but the start of term party." Veronica replied, pointing at him as they headed out the door again for more boxes.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Wallace." Veronica opened the trunk and the Wallace grabbed the last two boxes while Veronica slammed the door shut again.
"Ronny..." Wallace said with a laugh, rounding the corner.
"Ew... alright, fine. We'll only invite a few, maybe twenty. You can invite some guys from the team, I'll invite a couple of our friends..."
"Sounds like a plan, Stan."
"Don't call me Stan. Or Ronny. In fact, let's stick to Veronica."
"Never call me Wally and we have a deal."
"Fine, deal..." Veronica said. But Wallace never responded. "Deal?" She called out, turning the corner after him. As she did, she found Wallace staring at the doorway of his room.
"What? Did someone draw a unicorn on your whiteboard, because I could've sworn I told them to stick to princesses..."
"The door's gone."
"What?"
"The door... it's gone." Wallace said again, putting down the boxes and examiniing the hinges, as if the door had simply decided to hide from him.
Veronica appeared at his shoulder and looked up the hall, then in the other direction.
"How does a door just go missing?"
a long time ago, we used to be friends...
Veronica and Wallace stood in the silence for a moment, trying to contemplate how someone had stolen Wallace's door within the five minutes it took them to go back out to the car.
"Who steals a door?" Wallace said, slumping down on of one of the boxes.
"No idea..." Veronica said, stepping beyond the doorway for a second before reappearing. Just as Veronica stepped back out into the hall, they heard voices at the other end and both turned to look at them. "Hey! Hey! Are you the floor supervisor?" Veronica called, waving down a guy with the clipboard, talking to someone else at the moment.
"Alright, see you later, Tyson." He said, before turning in their direction and seeming deeply involved in whatever was on his clipboard.
"Hey! We're doorless over here, can we get some help?"
"You're what?" He said, vaguely looking up and seeing that Wallace's door was gone. "Oh, that's not good." He said, frowning.
"Oh no, we're exhibitionists, we like when the world can check out our junk after our morning shower...” Veronica replied sarcastically.
"Really?" The supervisor said, turning to Veronica and looking her up and down.
"No! I need my door back." Wallace said, inside the room now, looking for some kind of hint as to where it went.
"Was your door locked?" He asked Wallace, before looking at the two of them.
Wallace turned to Veronica, his expression a dead giveaway of the panic that was flooding through him. "No, we just went out to the car for few minutes..." Wallace's explanation, however, sounded lame, considering both he and Veronica knew, full well, that it took seconds for something like this to happen.
"Hm, that's troublesome." He said, consulting his clipboard as if it held the answers to everything.
"Listen... whatever your name is, my friend needs a door, and I'm pretty sure you don't carry those around on your clipboard. So can we either call maintenance or figure out who stole my friend’s?”
"My name's Shane. And we don't solve mysteries here, blondie.” He went on, ignoring the look Veronica gave him in return for her new nickname.
“And I’m pretty sure maintenance doesn't have spare doors lying around. They'd have to order one." Shane marked something down, then looked back up at them. Veronica was giving him the glare of death - the one that always got people to see her way.
"...But I'll check at maintenance and let you know..." Shane said quickly, giving in before hurrying off.
Veronica joined Wallace in his room and piled some books on the bed, pulling them out of the box, "He was really unhelpful..." She muttered under her breath, conscious of their lack of privacy now.
"Yeah... you'd think he'd have a better solution, like, how am I supposed to sleep in here tonight?"
"With one eye open and a knife under yer pillow..." Veronica said in a slang voice, sounding an awful lot like Clint Eastwood in one of his westerns. Wallace chuckled nervously as Veronica unloaded the last of the books from the box in front of her. "Anyway, I gotta go get some stuff for my dad - he's actually cooking tonight."
"What?!" Wallace said, looking at Veronica like she had just uttered something blasphemious.
"Oh, I know... And I'll see you later..." Veronica said, pointing to Arnold.
"Oh sure, say goodbye to the bear and not your best friend who might wake up naked..." Wallace said jokingly as Veronica picked up her jacket and headed to the door.
"Oh yes and you, Wally. Though, you always wake up naked if I recall... it’s why I sleep at Mac’s." She said with a grin, slipping out the doorway and groping like there should of been something there before disappearing with a laugh.
"Hey!"
***
Wallace ducked, the basketball narrowly missing his head. “Hey Marlowe! What the heck was that?” Wallace and the guy who had attempted the wild pass settled back into the middle of the court. Wallace gave him a playful nudge and he laughed. He had dirty blonde hair that seemed electric when scattered the way it was from practice and his eyes, grayish-blue, seemed to laugh in their own respect. Now - playfully, but when they wanted to, Wallace was sure they could turn on a dime and become cold with competitiveness. “Okay, let’s try this again Joey...” Wallace said, turning away from him, “And remember - face, hands… face…” Wallace said, gesturing to each in turn with a laugh.
“Okay, okay. I get it...” Joey said, rolling his eyes.
At the moment, it was just the two of them on the court, slightly early for practice. The others were filing out of the change rooms, one or two at a time. Joey and Wallace started up again, running side by side. Joey dribbled the ball then passed and Wallace caught it smoothly, bouncing it a few times as well before running into his shot, and dropping it in the net in a way that made it look easy.
Two of the others now on the court clapped loudly and laughed. When the group assembled Wallace broke down a few of the plays he and Joey had been running, before changing the subject. “So, guys, I’m holding a party next week in my room. You guys in?” Joey and the others all chimed in with their own ideas, but everyone seemed in agreement to coming. A couple, however, turned to ask Wallace about the incident with his door.
“What happened to your door? I heard it just disappeared?”
“Yeah, but my friend’s out trying to find it…”
“Your friend?”
“Veronica.”
“Mars? Really? She’s your friend?”
“Yeah... she’s the one I’m holding the party with...” Wallace said, steering the conversation back to the party and everyone continued talking about the need for booze and music.
“Awesome, bring whatever you want - anyway, let’s run the four and one...” Wallace said, trailing off to let Joey explain the play.
***
“Hi, my friend’s lost his door… and I was wondering if you knew anything about it.” Veronica spoke fast, like a vacuum salesman trying not to get the door slammed in his face.
“Your friend lost his…” the guy responded, a little confused.
“Door, yes. Like the thing you walk into after a few drinks…”
“Oh. And you think I had something to do with this?” He said, defenses already on high.
“No, I was just asking if you’d seen anything. But I don’t know if you should be so quick to defend yourself. Pretty much everyone on this floor is a suspect. What’s you’re name?”
“It’s Tyson, so why are you asking me?”
“Well Tyson, you were talking to Shane - the floor supervisor - right before we noticed the door was gone. I was wondering if maybe you saw someone walk by with a tool box or heard something.” Veronica explained, thinking that all of this should have been common sense.
“Nope.” Tyson said flatly.
“Nothing?” She said, getting the feeling Shane and Tyson were in the same boat of unhelpfulness.
“Not a thing…” He said.
“Do you have a roommate?” She asked, peering past his shoulder discretely.
“Yeah, but he’s a fitness buff... I think he was out running yesterday around that time. I don’t remember him being here.” Veronica nodded, then took a glance at the fitness equipment that was all over the floor including a few jerseys that read ‘James Axford’.
“Man, he’s a slob…” She said, making conversation.
“Yeah...” Tyson said, heaving a sigh, “I think he’s used to his mom cleaning up after him.”
“Ha, probably.” Veronica said with a grin, “Alright, thanks.”
She turned back to the hall, another message causing her phone to vibrate. Veronica, we need to talk. She ignored it and continued on to the next room.
***
Wallace returned as another one of his neighbor’s was shutting the door on Veronica.
“So Tyson, the guy Shane was talking to, is out of the question. And his roommate was out running. The room next to them, Peter, is a construction major, so he has access to the tools. But he has no roommate and says he hadn’t moved in yet which, according to his moving van receipt, is true. So he’s out of the question. And across the hall, Kevin and his brother - they had friends over who, when I asked them, they all said the same thing - they were in their room, playing Guitar Hero on full volume. Didn’t hear a thing.” Veronica sighed, settling down on Wallace’s bed.
Wallace sat down on it too and looked over at her. “Well, we better solve this soon. I invited the guys from the team and Piz said he’s inviting a few people from the radio station.”
“I know...” Veronica said heavily. “Let’s go grab some lunch, we can check maintenance on the way...”
Veronica and Wallace made their way down the hall to an office at the far end of it, passing a couple open doors on the way. Veronica rapped on the labelled wooden door loudly and, within a few seconds a boy, maybe two years older than them, opened up. “Hey... what can I do for you?” He said, sounding friendly, but a bit strained by the paperwork that littered the desk behind him.
Veronica tilted her head to read the name badge pinned to his dark grey uniform shirt. It read ‘Jimmy’. “Hey Jimmy...” Veronica said, putting extra emphasis on his curse of a name, “We’re just wondering. Has Shane been to see you about room 108? The one with the missing door?”
“Yeah…” He said, opening the door a bit wider. “Come in, I just need one of you to sign the order form for the new one. It should be here in two days.”
Veronica and Wallace followed him into the office, standing before the desk as there were no seats except for the one where Jimmy now sat behind the desk. “Here’s the form... just sign... right there...” Jimmy said, pointing at the line on the form and handing Wallace a pen. Wallace signed quickly, then Jimmy handed him another and he signed that.
“Alright, that’s it...” Jimmy said, straightening out his papers and setting them back in a purple folder.
Wallace turned to leave but Veronica lingered. “Jimmy... is there anything you can tell me about the school. I mean, you know most of the rooms in it, right? Anywhere someone could hide a door that no one would check.”
“Hm...” Jimmy said, scratching his chin and turning to the large blueprint hanging on the wall. It showed the school, divided into smaller sectors - lecture halls, labs, the library, the residences. Jimmy’s eyes traced it for a while before turning to Veronica. “No where I can think of off the top of my head, but I’ll take a look around next time I’m out.” Veronica thanked him and her and Wallace made their way back out into the hall.
Instantly, they were met by a string of curses. ‘What the hell? Where’s my door!?” Peter, the roommate-less construction major, was outside his room, carrying several heavy-looking books.
Veronica stood dumb-struck for a moment. She and Wallace had been a door away from the room and hadn’t heard a thing. Veronica turned to Peter, while Wallace and Jimmy ran the same examination as they had when Wallace’s went missing. “How long were you gone?” Veronica asked, helping pick up some of the books he had dropped.
Peter stuttered for a moment, “Uh... ten minutes. I just went to the library.”
“Was your door locked?”
“Yeah, yeah it was. I made sure...” Peter said, digging in his pocket for his key, as if that were some kind of solid proof. Veronica scratched her head, getting to her feet again. This sudden discovery, that the door had been stolen from the outside, made everything all the more confusing.
“I better get another one of those forms...” Jimmy said, standing behind Veronica in the door way and turning to go find some on his cluttered desk.
Kevin and his brother stood in their doorway, more Guitar Hero tunes coming from behind them. “Let me guess, you heard nothing?” Veronica said sarcastically. The two of them looked guilty for only a moment, before shutting the door with a bit of fury for being accused of the theft. Veronica paced up the hall as if looking for someone, or something. How could someone just get away with a door?
***
Veronica was sitting in the chair behind the desk in her room, dragging her mouse and typing occasionally. She was making a flyer for the party she and Wallace were throwing. They intended on inviting everyone on the floor, with the purpose of figuring out who stole the two doors. Her cellphone vibrated on her desk and she snatched it up. “Wall-dawg, how goes it?” She said, keep a straight face until a grin crept onto her face.
Wallace, caught off guard, stuttered for a moment. “I… uh… don’t do that.” He said, recovering quickly, “Listen, Veronica, if we can’t figure out who stole the doors before tomorrow, we might have to cancel the party.”
“What?!” Veronica shouted. “WALL-DAWG! You disappoint me! People throw open-door parties all the time!” Veronica said, though slightly distracted by the thousands of options for clipart balloons.
“Fourth year’s throw open door parties all the time, Veronica. But most of us aren’t drinking age yet and the guys mentioned bringing some stuff...” Wallace paced through his room, Piz out at the radio station as usual.
Veronica chewed her lower lip and hit print, printing a test flyer. “We’ll figure something out. Listen, I've got another call on the other line, then I gotta get a whole bunch of these flyers printed. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“Alright, see yah Veronica.”
She hit end and the second call came through. "Hello?"
"Veronica..." Logan's voice came across the speaker.
"Not now, Logan." She said quietly.
"I said I was sorry..." He said in a voice that indicated exhaustion.
"Well, I'm not ready for this. Not now..."
With that, She flicked her cellphone shut and packed the flyer in a folder in her bag. She looked up just as her dad was walking in the door. “Daddy-O! What’s hanging?” She said happily, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
“I have to go out Thursday and Friday night for a case… a client of mine says his son ran away with his college fund to Mexico.”
“Dammit! Why didn’t I think of that!” Veronica said with a laugh before catching the door. Suddenly a realization struck her and she turned around slowly. “Wait… you said you’re going out of town?” Veronica said slowly, trying to conceal the ideas now running through her head.
“Yes ma’am, and I expect this place to be just as clean as I left it.” Keith said, placing his coat on a hanger and putting it back in the closet.
“So dirty dishes piled to the ceiling, laundry all over the floor and mugs of cold coffee all over the place?” Veronica said with a laugh.
“Pretty much. And all the files in the office have to be put away...” Keith said, “Where are you off too?”
“To go get some copies done… I’ll be back before dinner.” Veronica said, slipping out the door.
“Oh right… I have to do that, don’t I?” Keith said before watching her disappear.
***
Veronica set the folder down on the counter and dug in her backpack for her wallet.
“Veronica Mars?” The person behind the counter said, as if recognizing her.
“Uh, yeah. Hi.” Veronica said distractedly, finally finding her wallet. “Oh you can run, but you can’t hide from my need to spend money!” Veronica said, holding her wallet up triumphantly.
The dirty-blonde behind the counter just raised an eyebrow.
“Oh right, you were saying?” She said, digging out a green five dollar bill.
“Yeah, I’m Joey. Joey Marlowe. I’m on Wallace’s basketball team. He invited me to your party on Friday.” Joey picked up the folder and went over to the copier, placing it face down and hitting copy to print a test sheet. When it emerged, warm and glowing with the scent of ink, he handed it to Veronica. “I guess this is for the party.”
“Yeah...” Veronica said, examining the copy. “I need thirty copies.”
“Sure.” Joey said, “So is Wallace’s door still missing? I live on his floor, but I wasn’t around when his or that other guy’s went missing. I just hope it doesn’t happen again.” Joey punched in the numbers and hit copy, the machine spewing fresh duplicates.
“Yeah... I just don’t get how someone just takes someone’s door off and no one’s around to notice...” Veronica said, almost talking to herself in hopes of seeing the situation in a new light.
“I don’t think walking away with it would be too hard, it would be the getting it out of the building.” Joey said, tapping the papers on the counter to line them up before putting them back in Veronica’s folder for her.
Veronica glanced up at Joey with a sense of realization before picking up her folder. “What if they never left the building? What if they’re still on the first floor?” Joey looked at her, his mind racing for some kind of response but before he could answer her she was out the door, hurrying over to Wallace’s.
***
She arrived five minutes later and entered without knocking, not like there was any need. Wallace was sitting at his desk, typing something on his laptop. “Anything?” He said, but she just dropped the folder on his desk and pulled him up. “Follow me, I have an idea…” She said, and Wallace got up and followed her. The pair went down the hall, past the maintenance room and to the supply closet that was attached to it. Veronica turned the handle but it was locked, so she hurried back to the office and knocked on the door.
Within seconds, Jimmy answered. “Hey Veronica, what’s up?”
“Hey Jimmy, is the supply closet always locked?” Veronica said, getting straight to the point.
“Yeah...” He said, suspicious of her questions. “Only the attending, Rick, has keys to those.”
Veronica paused for a second. “Could you call him, see if he can open this one for us. I think I might have found the missing doors.”
“Uh... yeah. Alright. He’s out for lunch right now, but when he gets back I’ll have him open it up. But I seriously doubt they’re in there, Veronica, unless Rick is stealing the doors. By the way, Wallace, your door might be a while, the company that makes them said they’ve never had to replace a door and the kind they made was only made for the school like ten years ago so...”
Wallace nodded, a worried expression crossing his face as he turned to Veronica and thanked Jimmy. Veronica didn’t respond. She and Wallace turned to leave, following Rick’s lead to go grab some lunch.
***
“That was the worst excuse for a taco I have ever tasted...” Wallace said, turning to look at Veronica as the pair made it back to his hallway.
“Don’t feel too bad, the taco didn’t like you much either...” Veronica said with a grin.
Wallace laughed and turned toward his room. He stopped mid-turn at the sight of a crowd around Tyson’s door - or what used to be his door.
Veronica stepped forward, pushing her way through the crowd. “Not another one...” She muttered. This time, she didn’t bother questioning whether people saw or heard anything. She assumed no one did. Jimmy stood on the other side of the crowd, talking to Tyson. Veronica made her way over and Jimmy turned to look at her. “Hey, Rick opened that closet now, if you want to see.” Jimmy said, turning to lead her down the hall and Veronica followed, but by now her initial assumptions seemed foolish. There was no way they could be there if Jimmy had been in his office and Veronica herself had seen the door locked. Sure enough, when Jimmy opened the door, Veronica peered in amongst the rows of metal shelves and bathroom cleaners and saw nothing more. No doors, no tools, not even so much as a knob. There was certainly enough room for one or two of them, but, it seemed the door-thief had found somewhere else to hide them. Veronica turned to leave, passing the crowd again and peering into Tyson’s room, still covered in clothes and only Tyson around to witness the horror of his messy room being exposed to the rest of the school.
“I have a plan.” Veronica said when she reached Wallace’s room again.
“For getting my door back?” He said hopefully.
“No, for the party. If we can’t do it here, we’ll do it at my place.” She said, making her way back to Wallace's room.
“What?! Your dad will freak!” He said, slowing down to let her catch up.
“No he won’t, he’ll be out of town and we’re only inviting thirty people or so, so it should be fine.”
“Actually, we’re up to more like fifty, what with inviting the whole floor.” Wallace said, stepping in the room now.
“Alright… fifty it is…” She said, sighing and stopping at the doorway.
“I’ll reprint the flyers then put them up around the floor.” Wallace said, looking at them and where they said his room number. He’d have to change that to Veronica’s address.
“Thanks buddy.” She said, winking and pointing her fingers at him like a gun.
Wallace just rolled his eyes and watched her go.
***
When Wallace arrived the next day, he discovered Veronica wrapped in lime green streamers. “Is this some kind of sexy strip tease?” He said, laughing as he helped her unravel from them. Apparently she had been standing on a chair and dropped the roll when Backup decided to chase it, causing the ones she had already hung to fall on her and bind her arms and legs together.
“So I bought a couple things, but my bank card isn’t working. When I tried to pay, it said insufficient funds.” Wallace said, putting the bags up on the counter.
“That’s not good…” Veronica said. “Didn’t you get your student loan money last week?”
“Yeah…” Wallace said, “I don’t know where it went. I’m going to have to go check it out later.”
Veronica and Wallace set up quickly, stringing the streamers up, putting out the plastic cups and putting away the breakables. “Well, if this isn’t some kind of exciting, I don’t know what is.” Veronica said, separating the cups by colour.
Wallace laughed, “Yeah, and when someone runs into one of those streamers and strangles them self.”
Veronica threw a cup at Wallace, who caught it and tossed it back - a perfect shot into the sink. “Nice moves, MJ.”
“I prefer to be known as WF.” Wallace said, saluting Veronica jokingly.
“That just sounds like wiff and trust me, no one wants to do that to you before, during or after practice.” Veronica plugged her nose and Wallace tossed another cup at her. She ducked and it hit the fridge.
***
A few hours later, almost everyone had arrived - drink in hand. Wallace and Veronica made rounds together, Piz occasionally joining them. Their first stop was Wallace’s basketball buddies. Joey and the others stood around, laughing about something Joey had said. Wallace patted him on the back and Joey turned to him. “Funniest white guy I know…” Wallace joked.
“Isn't he the only white guy on the team, Wallace?” Daniel said and they all laughed, including Joey. It was, however, noticeable that Joey was kind of the weird one on the team. Tall, lanky, fairly pale - he stood out amongst the others. From behind Wallace and Joey, another person joined the group. It was Shane, the warden of Wallace’s floor.
“Hey Joe, you want another?” He said, reaching for Joey’s drink.
“Yeah sure...” He said, leaning back to kiss Shane on the cheek.
Neither the team nor Wallace seemed to notice this but Veronica nudged Wallace in the rubs. “Whoa, Joey’s...” She said, leaving the sentence hanging. Somehow, she hadn’t noticed at all. Not that she cared, it just came as a surprise. Wallace laughed and nodded. “Yeah, Joey’s our token white guy AND the token gay guy.”
Again, everyone laughed and Joey buried himself in his cup, nearly choking on his drink.
Veronica and Wallace moved on. On the other side of the room, Kevin and his brother, Kyle, sat with their Guitar Hero group. They all sat around tell stories about the game and Piz had joined in, comparing high scores and favourite songs. Veronica rolled her eyes at how dorky he could be and she and Wallace continued. “I don’t really like those guys...” Wallace muttered to her. “They seem so weird, constantly playing that game and their door’s always half open, yet they still don’t here some guy stealing our doors.” But Veronica just raised her eyebrows and smiled.
The pair continued, running into Tyson who was talking to Peter, both of them brewing over who had stolen the doors.
“I wonder if it was the school, maybe we just haven’t gotten a notice about it? Maybe they’re replacing them.” Peter suggested, running dry of ideas or otherwise becoming foolish from several bottles of beer.
“Nah...” Tyson said, looking down into his cup. “I think they would have told us by now, what with three missing. Or one of us would have seen the maintenance worker.” Tyson turned to look at Veronica. “Hey, Veronica. Found anything yet?” He said casually.
Veronica leaned on the counter, looking at him. “Actually. Yes, I have.”
Wallace, who stood behind her, immediately turned to look at her. “What? And you didn’t tell me?”
Veronica ignored Wallace for now, because actually - the solution had only hit her a few seconds ago.
Veronica turned to look back at Piz and the gang of gamers. “James!” She called.
Jimmy, who was amidst the crowd looked up and Veronica knew the game was up.
“Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy…” She said, pacing over to him. “The doors were in that store room, weren’t they?”
Jimmy raised an eyebrow. “What? No they weren’t. I showed you it. It was empty.” He said in a feigned casual tone, but he was talking too fast to be completely innocent.
“Of course it was…” She said, staring him down, “Because by then you had cleared them out. You and I both know that ‘Rick the attendant’ doesn’t exist. What kind of school doesn’t give its maintenance workers the keys to the supply closets?” Veronica turned again, back to Tyson and Peter. “And you, Tyson...” She said, “You knew James and Jimmy are the same person and deliberately led me in the wrong direction. Which was made even easier by the fact that you had your door stolen too, or did you just take it off and hide it in your closet?” Everyone else at the party had quieted down and was watching Veronica unravel how the two of them had taken the doors off. “Naturally, Jimmy had access to the tools to remove the doors and, once he got away with the door, no one would question him. Ah, the power of the uniform...” Veronica put her hands on her hips, looking around at Wallace, Mac, and Piz. They all grinned at Veronica, knowing she was in her zone.
“And why, pray tell, did you steal the doors?” Veronica said. “Well, it seems Wallace is missing some money from his bank account and I bet, if Peter checked, he would be too. But Tyson isn’t. And why’s that? Well, Wallace and Peter signed a formed - probably one that would cover the cost of the new doors and considering they didn’t read it, you two walked away with close to a thousand dollars that didn’t actually go towards buying new doors, now did it?”
The silence in the room now was deafening. Peter turned to Tyson, who had been acting like a friend to him. Wallace turned to Jimmy, who had also treated him like there was some kind of understanding there. But it was Veronica who broke the silence. “I think this party’s over, boys. I don’t want a fight on my hands.”
And with that, people began grabbing their coats and filing out. No one groaned or complained, because everyone realized where the party was headed.
Veronica began to gather up half-empty cups, saying goodbye to the team and most of them offering to give her a hug, but she dodged them, making the excuse that they had their sports bags to worry about, but really most of them had just come from practice. When they had all filed out and she and Wallace were left to clean up the mess. “Veronica, where’s that big garbage can?” Wallace asked, his arms full of plastic cups stacked on top of each other.
Veronica turned to Wallace, equally loaded with the party’s remnants. “In my dad’s office, I’ll go get it.”
She stepped through the kitchen, putting down the cups and hurried into the room with his desk. She put her hand on the rim of the garbage can and picked it up, but dropped it when she noticed the door beneath the aquarium open - the door to their vault where her dad kept his files - the one's she had put away earlier. She hurried over and looked inside. The vault had been emptied of all of them. All the details of almost every case they’d ever handled. Veronica straightened up and looked around the room for some kind of clue. The only one she could find lay on her father’s desk: a piece of paper with the code to the vault scrawled on it in his hand writing.
“Oh no…” She breathed.
"Veronica?" Wallace said, stepping into the room, "Someone's at the door for you..."
*Questions, comments, concerns? Did I do it justice?
Let me know.