It’s not something I can easily prove, but I think Sheriff Don Lamb is this season’s killer on Veronica Mars.
Summary
A school bus with 6 students, a driver (duh) and a teacher goes over a cliff, killing 7 right away, and 1 a few months later. Veronica was supposed to be on the bus, but wasn’t. Also, none of the rich kids except for Meg were on the bus, having claimed that it smelled and taken a limo home. Veronica was supposed to get in the limo with her boy toy, Duncan, but wanted to try and make peace with Meg, who was on the bus trying to avoid Veronica. At the rest stop, Meg lied about Veronica being on the bus, which inadvertently saved her life. Meg was in a coma, later we found out she was pregnant with Duncan’s baby, the baby lived, Meg died, Duncan kidnapped his daughter and ran off. Veronica and her father determine a bomb went off on the bus.
The Dead
- Ed – The driver, supposedly committed suicide.
- Ms. Dumas – The journalism teacher, dating Terrance Cook.
- Rhonda – Left a voice mail on her friend’s cell as the bus crashed
- Meg – 09er, Duncan’s ex, pregnant with his child, stayed on the bus to avoid Veronica.
- Cervando – PCH Biker with good grades.
- Marcos – Pirate Radio guy, possibly bisexual, was on the bus trying to be ‘normal’ to appease his parents.
- Peter Ferrer – Gay guy.
- #8 – The mystery person.
Suspects
- Ed – Accused of trying to commit suicide, but Veronica disproved that
- Terrance Cook – Baseball player, gambler (threw a ballgame once, owes millions to a casino). Is formally accused of using his cell phone to trigger the bomb. Also, Veronica found explosives in his garage/hanger.
- Woody Goodman – The hanger Cook uses is actually owned by ‘Mayor’ Goodman. (okay fine ‘Country Supervisor of Neptune’ Goodman. Happy?)
- Don Lamb – Sheriff of Neptune, he’s been a little adamant about pinning it on Cook, and not really deeply investigative.
Whodunnit?
Admittedly my rational for picking Lamb is this: He’s not an idiot and he’s not a special guest.
Going backwards, a guest star shouldn’t be the killer. Last season, the ‘name’ guest star was the killer. They won’t do that again. Goodman is played by Steve Gutenberg. Also, last season’s killer was the father of a main cast member. Cook is the father of a main cast member. He too can’t be the killer. While it would be awesome to have the Mars’ working for the killer, it’s unlikely that they’ll let Cook be the killer. It is suspicious that Goodman told his daughter not to ride the bus, but the only person she told was Lamb, and he told no one.
As for Lamb. Well, he’s a guest star but he’s not a NAME. You know, he’s just a supporting character. Lamb was smart enough to guess that Duncan ran off to Mexico with the kid. Smarter than the FBI, for sure, who fell for Veronica and Duncan’s tricks. Smart enough to realize right away that, after he found the water bottle and snacks in his trunk that Duncan had ridden with him to Mexico. Lamb? Really isn’t an idiot.
He’s lazy, I’ll give him that, but he has moments where he’s not a fucking asshole. He knows Veronica Mars is smarter than he is, and he’s willing to utilize it when he has to. But he’s also a man of great ambition and ego.
Why would he kill those kids?
Lamb wanted to be re-elected Sheriff. After Keith Mars solved the Lily Kane murder case (see: last season), he was da man. Everyone loved him, wanted to be him, wanted him to be sheriff. Come on, it was a great story! The former sheriff, insisting he’s right, gets fired, solves the case anyway and becomes a hero. It’s perfect!
Except, as those who watch the show know, Keith did not get elected as Sheriff. Mostly because at the time, Driver Ed was still a suspect and Lamb pulled out information that Keith himself had pulled Ed over for drunk driving years ago. Had Keith arrested Ed, instead of following Ed home, Ed would have had a record. Had Ed had an record, he would never have been hired to drive the bus. Had Ed not been driving the bus when he wanted to kill himself, the children would still be alive.
Dayenu!
The point is, without the bus accident being rolled back to point at Keith, he would have been elected.
But as Veronica discovered, Ed didn’t do it. In fact, the phone call he made wasn’t a suicide call but a call to his mistress! If Lamb is smart, and I’m working on the idea that he’s not an idiot, then he knew same as we did that Ed didn’t do it. Veronica proved to Lamb that Ed wasn’t trying to commit suicide, and Lamb refused to reopen the case. Why? Either Lamb is (still) to proud to admit Veronica’s smarter than he is, he’s hiding something or he’s covering something.
Lamb knows damn well Veronica’s smarter than he is (and in Donut Run pretty much admits this). That leaves hiding and covering as the best options. Given that when Lamb finds the dead stunt coordinator, Curly, dead on the beach with Veronica’s name scrawled on Curly’s hand, Lamb actually tells Veronica, I’m a little doubtful about the covering. Unless, of course, Lamb’s trying to throw Veronica off the scent.
Most of the season, Veronica has assumed the bus was meant to kill her. Curly was best friends with Aaron (last season’s killer, whom Veronica caught). Curly had her name written on his hand. Curly likely set the bomb, being clever with explosives and such. There was a rat on the bus, which Veronica took to mean that she was a rat.
But. Curly also had one of Weevil’s earrings on him. Weevil is the former head of the PCH biker gang, punted from the gang for working with Logan to try and figure out who killed Felix and pinned it on Logan. It’s complicated, but the PCHers think Logan did it, and Weevil was ‘fraternizing with the enemy’ so he was punted.
Also, the rat smelled, and everyone had complained about bus stench. Only the rich kids, however, had the money to leave the bus, which implies that the killer wanted someone poor to die. Veronica’s on the poor end, but she was publicly dating a rich boy so it’s more likely she would not have been on the bus.
Weevil got an anonymous call that stated Curly was responsible for the bus crash. Veronica traces the call to the Echolls’ house, but it was during Logan’s Life’s Short party (which both the PCHers and the sheriff’s department crashed), so it could have been anyone.
In all, it’s not about you, Veronica. Sorry, babe.
If Lamb was trying to throw Veronica off her game, it worked. Why else would he want to share with her the information about Curly?
Finally, we have the two facts that Lamb blackmailed Cook, who has a lot of gambling debt, into running the auction at the police ball, and Lamb also is accusing Cook of using his cell phone to set off the bomb. Lamb’s reasoning for the bomb is that Cook was having an affair with the teacher, Ms. Dumas, and she threatened to out them.
Veronica was bugging Lamb’s office, and recorded the blackmail conversation, giving it to Keith at some point during his run for office. She also got a copy of Rhonda’s voice mail during the crash, and she and Keith agree there’s an explosion sound. Keith gives the copy of the voice mail to Lamb, who … does nothing.
It’s more than fishy. It’s suspect.
Questions
And of course I still don’t know things.
Who was the mystery 8th person dead on the crash?
Everyone else seems to have died by cruel accident. The 8th person likely holds a major clue. I know this person will be someone I should know. I trust Rob Thomas not to be cheap and introduce a new character we’ve never met as the important dead guy. So who have we not seen this season… It’s not someone in Veronica’s immediate group, it’s not an 09er.
How does this tie in to Logan being accused of killing Felix?
These cases must tie together, but Weevil and Cervando are the only connections so far. It’s possible Cervando knew something about Felix’s death, something to exonerate Logan, and was killed to shut him up. Since the ‘witness’ to Logan killing Felix is a rich, plastic surgeon who is in league with the rival gang (the Fitzpatricks), it’s possible the ruse to get the rich kids off the bus was to make sure none of his daughter’s friends were hurt.
We know that Hector and Bootsy were the two PCHers who were left alone with Logan and Felix on the bridge. Felix had a West Side Story life, dating Molly Fitzpatrick. Thumper is working with the Fitzpatricks and has a coup to punt Weevil from the PCHers. Logan is intentionally dating the daughter of the plastic surgeon who is the witness to Logan killing Felix.
It’s all too complicated now.