CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“Shit! Shit! What are we going to do?”
“Shut up. Just shut up and let me think for a second.”
Veronica found herself on her back, staring across a grimy, khaki-colored carpet at a landscape of dust bunnies and beer caps. She couldn’t move to turn her head from where it was crooked to the left, but from where she lay she could make out a bed with a rumpled quilt spilling half on the floor, a single desk lamp casting yellow light around the bedside table. There were dirty clothes all over the room, and just a few feet away, a blue nylon duffel bag slumped on the floor.
That vanilla perfume grew stronger, and she felt warm breath on her cheek. Pain ricocheted through her body as Aurora shocked her again, her nerves screaming. She felt her legs flop against the floor like dying fish, wondering distantly if this was some horrible kind of karma for all the people she’d tased over the years. Then she fell still.
“Hand me her purse,” Aurora demanded. “We have to make sure she’s not armed.”
There was a rustling noise near Veronica’s ear as Aurora rifled through Veronica’s bag and pulled out her Taser. “Hold on to that. We definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of this thing.”
They had Veronica’s Taser. Her mouth was dry. She could already feel the pins and needles of sensation returning to her limbs, but before she could move she felt something pressing into her legs.
“We need to get her tied up before the shock wears off.”
“Yeah, but what then? She’s seen you, Rory—what the fuck are we going to do with her?” Adrian’s voice suddenly seemed to have dropped about two octaves in the last few seconds.
“Baby, I love you, but you are not helping.” Aurora’s voice was a tight, controlled hiss. “Use your exercise bands and tie her up.”
There was some scuffling behind her. Veronica wiggled her toes, testing her movement. Suddenly Aurora was in front of her, cocking her head to one side to meet Veronica’s eyes. She was in a black bra and panties, her hair loose around her shoulders. Her mascara was smeared beneath her eyes. She held the stun gun in her right hand.
“You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve heard about you,” she said. Her voice was tense and excited. “Clever, good Veronica Mars, the daughter so decent and upstanding Lianne couldn’t even look her in the eye. It’s fucking pathetic. She never had that problem with me.” Aurora gave a short, harsh laugh.
“It takes a con to know a con, I guess,” Veronica rasped. Her throat was dry, and her muscles were bunched in tense, vicious knots. She groaned, her voice weak and shaky, as Adrian appeared and tugged her arms roughly away from her body. He wound something cool and tight around her wrists. Almost instinctively she pulled her hands slightly apart, hoping against hope that it would help her generate slack in the bindings.
Aurora seemed to be enjoying her discomfort. “So it was Adrian who attacked Duane Shepherd with the maraca and left those beans there for me to find?”
“I knew that doorknob of a sheriff wouldn’t put it together, but I thought you might.” She started to pace, her bare feet padding back and forth across the carpet. “I never liked Shep. He liked to think he was in charge of the whole operation. Kind of a bummer that I didn’t get to smack him myself.” She paused, looking behind Veronica at Adrian. “You get it good and tight? Get her legs too.”
Next it would be a gag. She didn’t have a lot of time left if she wanted to get them talking. She lifted her head slightly to meet Aurora’s catlike green eyes.
“So how long have you been sleeping with your gay BFF, Aurora?”
Aurora stopped her pacing for a moment and actually giggled. It sounded absurdly young, almost childish.
“We started the Will and Grace act last year, just after we started dating. At first we did it just to see if we could get away with it. I told Lianne and Dad a couple sad, sad stories about how the kids at school bullied him, about how his own family would disown him if they knew. They ate it right up. Never said a word, not even when I’d come out of my room with Adrian still in there, half naked.” She smirked. “I wasn’t surprised Lianne bought it, but my dad should’ve figured it out. He’s lost his edge.”
“You started the rumor just so you could fool around?” Veronica asked. Adrian quickly wound a towel around her ankles. Again, she kept them almost imperceptibly apart. “That’s a long con. I’m impressed.”