Fowler sat in the makeshift interview room, elbows on the table, fingers pressed together in a praying position, the tips of his index fingers against his lips, as he looked at his notes so far – along with the Yearbook photos of some of the schools students – they'd asked Lane for an old year book, that they could cut up if needed. Both he and Diaz liked to have visual aids for their investigations, especially photos of the people of interest; they'd carefully cut out images and the name and quotes of multiple students. They'd be even more useful back at the station once they'd finished up at the school, useful for the whiteboards they used to keep track of everything.

Jade West was the first picture that was cut out, with her staring defiantly at the camera, not a smile but a smirk tilting her lips up on one side, black hair with bright purple extensions in perfectly coiffed curls. At the bottom of the picture was her name – Jade Francesca West – along with a quote 'Life's a b****. So f*** her.' obviously censored for the school, but it made him smile just a little.

The next photo had obviously been Ryder Daniels, from the 'Seniors' section of the photos, with him smiling charmingly at the camera, looking oddly similar to Jade with grey-blue eyes and pale skin and carefully styled black hair and under his name, his quote of 'Life's a party. And I'm always on the invite list.' After that had been Cat Valentine, which made sense since she was the first one they'd spoken with. In stark contrast to her apparent best friend, Jade, Cat was beaming at the camera so widely her eyes were almost squinted shut and her teeth were on full view, her hair thick and still bright red, her quote being 'Candy is totally it's own food group!', which while nonsensical, seemed to suit the girl perfectly, and actually made a real smile come to his lips.

He studied the next picture they had cut out – a boy who Diaz was in the process of meeting at the school office to bring for an interview; Robert 'Robbie' Shapiro, who sat smiling awkwardly in his photo, his curly hair going every which way, glasses reflecting the flash of the camera, a puppet held in his hands. His quote didn't make much sense to Fowler to be honest 'Thank you Mario! But your junior yearbook quote is in another castle!' but he guessed that was just an age gap thing.

Robbie's had been the last one they'd cut out so far, not wanting to get ahead of themselves quite yet and cut out the others until they were interviewing them; even detectives had preconceived notions based on first glance. It wouldn't do to go into an interview with opinions already formed.

He looked up as Diaz ushered in the boy in the photo he'd just cut out, and he slipped the photos all into a tan folder before closing it and placing it behind him, on the water glass table. "Hi Robbie."

The boy in question didn't have the weird puppet with him and was looking twitchy, chewing his lower lip. "Uh...Hi."

"You're not in any trouble." Diaz assured him as she took a seat next to Fowler, motioning for the boy to take his own seat across the table. "We just need to ask some questions."

"A-About Jade right?" Robbie swallowed hard, and shifted awkwardly in his seat when both detectives looked at him questioningly. "C-Cat was crying and...she said Jade had been hurt. And that she'd talked to two nice detectives." He gave shrug. "I figured that you'd maybe speak to me too, if it's about Jade and Ryder – Cat said you'd asked questions about him too." He added the last part on at another questioning look from the detectives.

Diaz and Fowler glanced at each other. "Do you know something about Jade and Ryder?"

Robbie shifted again, biting his lip. "I mean...Jade didn't really want people to know, because she's all tough as nails and didn't want to admit to being freaked out but...yeah. Me and Jade had a Video Editing project together. She has a really good computer at her house, that has the latest editing software on it. So she said we could do it at hers, since the school computers are really slow. But when we got to hers..."


Robbie shifted awkwardly, biting his lip as Jade clicked a little button on her dashboard, obviously something that had been secured on and not an original feature of the car, and the iron wrought gates in front of them slowly slid open, allowing Jade to smoothly drive up the long, winding driveway, around a row of trees to park in front of the huge glass fronted mansion Jade called 'Home'. Well, she didn't really call it home. She called it 'My dads house'. Everyone knew Jade's 'Home' was Beck's RV.

"C'mon Shapiro, move it." Jade ordered, climbing out of her corvette with a sigh and clicking it locked the second Robbie shut his door. "You can do most of the editing right? You're way better with that stuff than me."

"Then what'll you be doing?!" Robbie squawked. "It's a joint project! You can't just make me do all the work!" Everyone in the group often commented that it was kind of funny that normally dorky, whimpy Robbie Shapiro was really the only one in their group to back-talk Jade or question her orders. They couldn't decide if it was simply because he'd known Jade since they were toddlers or if it was just his complete lack of self-preservation. He thought it was probably a mix of both.

"I'll be doing the artistic input." She replied dryly as they reached the front door and Jade pulled her keys out, slotting them into the keyhole and turning, before blinking as if noticing something, pushing the door open. "Weird..." She muttered with a shrug, glancing at Robbie. "Guess I forgot to lock it."

"Or your dad or Julia is home." Robbie added, pointing out the obvious.

"Nah. Dad's in Boston right now and Julia went to see her mother in Reno. Weird...I swore I locked it this morning." Jade explained as they entered the foyer, Jade's heeled boots clicking on the marble as she messed around with a security and lighting panel just to the right of the doors, although she stopped suddenly, her eyes flickering around, up towards the top of the split staircase that was the focal point of the foyer – huge, marble and splitting into two at a landing midway up, leading up to the upper East and West Wings.

Turning away from the lighting panel, she bit her lip and took a step towards the stairs, peering up into the dark and sniffing the air lightly. Her eyes widened as she turned around to face Robbie.

"I forgot my phone at school. Just realised. Come on Shapiro, we can do this tomorrow and I'll drop you off at the end of your street tonight." She told him hurriedly, gripping his wrist and dragging him out of the front door, locking it behind her. Robbie stood perplexed as she stormed down the steps towards her car, moving faster than he'd ever really seen her move unless it was for a role, or chasing someone down for revenge. "Come on Shapiro. Move it!"

Robbie hurried down the steps, almost slipping in his converse, clambering into the car. Jade didn't even wait for him to close the door fully or get his seatbelt on before she started reversing, keeping an eye on her house in front of her – which Robbie found weird, since she was normally a really careful driver and always checked her mirrors (contrary to her 'bad girl' rep, she didn't drive dangerously. She wasn't stupid.)

"Jade? Are you OK?" Robbie asked curiously, taking in her lips, pressed together so hard they were white, along with the death grip she had on her steering wheel as she pulled up to the gate, pushing the button again to have the gates slide open.

"No Shapiro I'm not." She replied, her voice shaky. "I didn't forget my phone at school. It's in my pocket. But..." She took a deep breath, pulling over at the side of the road not too far away from her house. "Robbie. Someone was in my house. "

"What?!" He could tell from her tone of voice she didn't mean her dad or Julia or one of the maids. She meant someone else. Someone who shouldn't have been there. "How...?"

"I saw something. Upstairs, on the landing. Someone was creeping around up there. I could smell their aftershave or whatever." She told him through gritted teeth, exhaling loudly. "Plus...the alarms had been deactivated. We always arm the alarm system whenever anyone leaves. It's like, the first rule of that house. None of the maids would have forgot. And me and Beck didn't forget this morning. And I know I locked the door."

"Your stalker." Robbie said in a strangled voice. He knew all about the stalker; he'd been with her and Andre working on a project one night and she'd got a phonecall from a blocked number. When she'd answered, her face had gone pale and she'd slapped Andre's forearm for his attention then, when it was finally given, she'd hit the loudspeaker on her phone. Suddenly Andre's living room had the sound of heavy breathing echoing around it.

Andre had grabbed her phone and gripped it tightly. "Hey. Whoever you are, asshole, stop it. Leave Jade alone you fucking creep." He growled into the handset before stabbing his finger at the 'Hang Up' button. That was the first time Robbie had heard about the stalker; Andre had filled him in (with Jade's permission) after Beck had came and picked Jade up early. He'd heard about other things too, since then; the photographs being taken from her balcony when she was changing, flowers appearing in her locker with notes like 'Mine' and 'Soon' on the crisp white cards nestled in-between the stems, pictures of herself in various locations – at home, school, getting coffee, sitting in Nozu with Cat. He hadn't seen it, but he'd heard from Andre that once, she'd been sent a picture of her and Beck having sex, taken through the RV window, with Beck's face scratched out.

"Andre...Andre thinks it's Ryder." He told her as he chewed his lip, and her breath sped up a little; he'd known Jade since they were toddlers. He knew that meant she thought it was Ryder Daniels too. "Should we call the police?"

Jade bit her lip before exhaling loudly once more before nodding pulling her phone up and dialing the non-emergency line for West Division of LAPD – it was kind of terrible, Robbie thought, that she knew the number off-by-heart. How many times had she had to use it?

He sat in silence as he listened to her speak to someone on the other end, explaining that someone was in her house, but she wasn't in danger as she'd left immediately, hopefully without tipping the mystery person off. She gave her address, along with their current location and name, before hanging up. "They're sending someone over now." She told him with a hollow tone. "I'm going to text Beck."

If the fact Jade knew LAPD's non-emergency phone number was terrible, the fact that Beck's GTO appeared within about 10 minutes – not long before the first squad car – was kind of amazing. He knew Beck was out with his parents for a celebratory dinner tonight, to celebrate his dad getting a promotion (Jade had apparently been invited but Beck's dad's favourite restaurant was one Jade had been banned from after pouring an entire bottle of sparkling water over some slutty waitress, so she and Beck had decided to just say she was busy, because otherwise his dad would have changed locations and he like, really loved that restaurant apparently). Beck had instantly cut out of dinner to come make sure Jade was OK.

When the police did arrive, and gained access to the house, they searched it from top to bottom. And whilst there was no sign of anyone else, when they'd called Jade, Robbie and Beck – who had been outside in Jade's car – inside, they'd led them up to Jade's bedroom – a room Robbie had never seen but knew it wasn't right.

Because Jade was a ridiculously neat person. She always had been. She hated mess and if stuff was on the floor, it annoyed her endlessly. She used to parrot, as they tidied away lego blocks or toys when they were kids, and Robbie would be dragging his heels; 'A place for everything and everything in it's place!'. Jade wouldn't dream of leaving her room in this mess; drawers pulled open and clothes all balled up and scrunched – no doubt Jade had them perfectly folded into neat little squares. His cheeks flushed red when he noticed one of the drawers that was actually on the ground, fully pulled out from the base and had the contents spread halfway across the carpet was her underwear drawer, and he'd never seen so much black, navy and red lace. Her bed was unmade, as if someone had been rolling around in it, jewellery boxes on her vanity table opened up, her walk in closet door wide open and clothes littering the floor of it. Even her en suite bathroom hadn't been spared, her make up, hair products and skin products sitting in the sink.

"I take it this isn't how you left your room?" One of the officers asked, taking in her horror filled expression. Robbie glanced a look at Beck and almost whimpered at the pure rage and anger on his face.

"No..." Jade shook her head slowly, eyes taking in the mess.

"Jade's a neat freak." Beck answered, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and tucking her under his arm protectively. And Robbie knew Jade must have been beyond freaked out by this, because as she huddled into Beck, she also grasped Robbie's own hand in her own, tightening her grip, as if for extra comfort. It made Robbie's heart break for her; they rarely ever touched. Which he got – Jade wasn't comfortable around him, moreso than anyone else simply because he knew. He knew more than Beck and possibly more than anyone but the police and his own parents. Because he'd seen it, he'd been there. He knew what had caused her to become so prickly and closed off (Jade had once been said to have the exoskeleton that was like the love child of a porcupine and a scorpion – sharp and venomous.). But the fact she was willingly touching him now was almost unheard of.

"She'd never leave her room like this. If she even thought she'd left a drawer cracked open she'd stress about it all day." Beck added, as Jade seemed unable to speak right now. Understandable, to be honest. Robbie was having a hard time and it wasn't even his house. Thank God for rational Beck, who even with his face painted with pure rage was still with it enough to speak to the police.

The two police officers nodded, taking in the room. "We're going to have to take photos and prints. Is anything missing? Anything that jumps out straight away?"

Jade peered around her room, eyes zeroing in on the book case she'd repurposed to hold her worryingly large collection of scissors – some looked old and rusted, like antiques, at the very top, Cat's secret Santa gift from the last Christmas taking pride of place, still in the perspex box. "Two pairs of scissors. One with a black handle and orange grips and a pair that're black with white stars drawn on in tippex." She managed to get out, her voice sounding choked as she took a few steps forward, looking at her vanity table. "My pale pink hair extentions. Some cheap costume jewellery..." Then she moved over to the bed and her eyes widened as she picked up something tattered. Something even Robbie recognised. A grey and black plaid shirt, shredded to ribbons. "This..." She paused and looked over her shoulder at her boyfriend. "This is Beck's...I...I wore it to sleep last night."

The police officers shared a look before turning to Beck. "Do you keep anything else here?"

Beck nodded and went towards the walk in closet, crouching down at a pile of fabric on the floor. "This...it's all shredded or ripped up." He held up a handful of strip, from jeans and tshirts and shirts, along with boxers no doubt. "All of my stuff is shredded."

"And this isn't the first time you've contacted us about a stalker?" One of the officers asked gently, obviously feeling bad for the poor girl – much like Robbie did. Jade was normally a force of nature, a whirlwind of destruction and seeing her this shaken, so pale she was nearly gray, her lips pressed together tightly as she floundered a little next to him, before gripping his hand again as Beck continued to inspect the closet.

"I've called a few times before. Mostly it's just been...phone calls with heavy breathing and moaning, and photographs being left or flowers." She chewed her lower lip, letting go of Robbie's hand and tucking herself back under Beck's arm when he returned to her bedroom proper. "The worst before this was... they were on my balcony..." Jade glanced across at what Robbie assumed had glass doors hidden behind the dark curtains and foils, that led out onto a large romeo-juliet style balcony that he'd seen from the back garden before. "There was a tree near it...Dad had it cut down the next day when we realised it was too close to my balcony. But I've...I don't think he's ever been in my house before. There's never been anything like this."

"There was a photo too..." Beck offered, squeezing his arm around Jade while looking pretty freaked out himself. "Of me and Jade...uh, together. It had been taken through the window of my RV. My face was all scratched out." So that was why he was quite rightfully looking freaked out. Jade being harassed made Beck pissed off and angry and protective, but not worried for himself. But now? On top of the creepy photo, all of his things being shredded to pieces? No wonder Beck was now starting to worry about his own safety just a little.

"Are you alone here tonight? Where are your parents?"

Jade shook her head, and Robbie answered for her. "Her dads in Boston for business. Her step mother's in Reno seeing her mother."

The police glanced at each other, at a slight loss. They couldn't really kick the girl out of her own house, but it wasn't safe for her to be here alone, obviously. And even if it was, they needed to investigate the room for finger prints or any evidence of who might be stalking this girl. "Is there anywhere else you can stay tonight? Both for safety and so we can process the room?"

Beck and Jade glanced at each other, having one of those wordless conversations. Robbie figured it was about where to stay; sure, Beck had the RV but that wasn't really safe right now. The stalker had already proved that by taking pictures through the window. Normally, Jade wouldn't care, but she was so shaken that just the thought of staying somewhere the stalker had access too – even just the outside of it – wasn't something she wanted to do.

"My dad has a hotel room on retainer at The Ritz-Carlton LA. An executive suite in case he has business associates for meetings come to LA. He likes to rub it in their face that he can afford it." She rolled her eyes a little and Robbie was happy to see her normal self come through a little. "I...I need to call him anyway. But I can probably stay there."

It took a while until they were free to head off. The police asked questions for a long time, and although Robbie was pretty much useless after the first few, that were about noticing the stalker in the house, he couldn't leave – just in case. So he listened as Jade detailed everything in her room that had been messed with, along with a list of prints they'd expect to find – hers and Beck's mostly, alongside her dad, Julia and Cat, possibly Andre's as well. He couldn't help but notice that not once did she mention that she had someone she suspected of being her stalker.

Once the police gave them leave, whilst saying they'd have to call in a team to look at the evidence and document it, Jade called her dad. It was an interesting onesided conversation, and Robbie was still a little in awe of how...protective her dad was – people always assumed, due to Jade's personality, that her and her dad had a bad relationship, when really it was the opposite. Sure, her dad didn't put much stock in 'The Arts' but he didn't threaten to pull her from Hollywood Arts twice a week like many would assume. He truly cared but, much like his daughter, had no real clue on how to show that other than showering her with money and materialistic things – if he could solve a problem for her with cold, hard cash or his influence, then he would do it without a second thought. Judging by Jade's side of the conversation, it seemed like her dad was pushing for a bodyguard for her, of all things, which Jade refused – after all, she was feeling creeped out because someone was watching her. She sure as hell didn't want to double it up with someone always watching her 24/7 and getting paid for it. Her dad, obviously, agreed to her staying in the hotel – and didn't even put up a fuss when she said Beck would be staying with her; in fact, he seemed happy about it if Jade's surprised expression was anything to go by.

"Listen Robb, I'll drop you home on our way to my RV. We need to pack some stuff for the next night or two." Beck explained as they headed out towards his GTO, Jade's own car now parked in the multi-car garage.

"Sure, just drop me at the end of my street." He nodded, already knowing that would be the case – if Jade was driving or in the car, he always got dropped at the end of the street. No one ever made Jade go near her childhood home, which still sat empty and dark, as it had since Jade moved into her dads.


"I don't...I mean, I can't prove it was Ryder. No finger prints were found." Robbie shifted in his seat. "But...I mean, it was kind of just assumed it was him. I don't know why Jade never said anything to the police when they asked. I guess...she didn't want to cause her dad problems with Ryders dad. But it kind of...shook everyone. Beck and Jade stayed in the hotel for 3 days until her dad came back and beefed up security at the house and hired security guards. He didn't used to like Beck staying but allowed it because he'd prefer her at home with security and guards than in an RV."

Fowler and Diaz looked a bit quizzical at that, no doubt wondering why a girl as rich as Jade would be living in an RV of all things, so Robbie continued. "Beck stays in an RV in his parents driveway. Jade practically lives there too. Well, she did. For the last month or two, they've been staying at Jade's, like I said."

"And you said at the start...you've heard the phone calls she was receiving? But there was nothing recognisable in them?"

Robbie shook his head. "No...I only really heard one of them. But I know Beck heard them a few times. And Andre heard them a lot...Beck said he thinks the Stalker liked Andre's reaction to them, so he kept calling when Andre was around especially." Robbie ducked his head, his fingers clenching on the table.

Diaz frowned a little and leant forward, studying Robbie closely. "Robbie...do you know something else that might be useful for us to know?"

"Once...I...I overheard Ryder talking to his friend last week. Shawn Becker. He went here too, but graduated with Ryder." Robbie bit his lip. "I don't think they knew I was in the booth beside them at Inside-Out Burger – I'm pretty missable." Here he shrugged a little. "But...Ryder was talking about Jade. That...that she was 'sending him messages' and 'totally wanted to be with him, not fuckin' Oliver'. Shawn was trying to get him to see sense, I guess. But...Ryder didn't seem to listen. He just kept saying that he knew Jade really wanted him, not Beck." Robbie shook his head. "I told Beck about it and...well, I guess that kind of cemented the idea that it was Ryder doing the stalking. Beck told me not to say anything to anyone...I guess he didn't want to freak Jade out more; Ryder seemed...so convinced that Jade wanted him back. It was...creepy, because I knew how scared she was of him."

Diaz noted the name – Shawn Becker – down. So far, all their prospective interviewee's had been from Jade's side of things. A few from Ryders would be good practice. She hoped the school had a record of his last known address from the year before, as it would certainly speed things up. And if Ryder had spoken about Jade to him? It would make the clean cut case even more clean cut.

"Thank you Robbie. If we think of anything else, we'll contact you. And if you think of anything, please, just call us." Fowler slid his card across the table towards the boy.

Robbie nodded, standing up and moving towards the door before he paused. "Um...if you're looking to talk to Andre Harris and Beck Oliver you um...may need their numbers. Neither are in school today. I think...I think they went to see Jade at the hospital."

"We can get them from the school if needed. Thank you for your help Robbie." Fowler nodded with a kind smile, and the awkward looking boy shuffled out of the room.

"It's weird right?" Diaz stated after a few moments of contemplative silence.

"What part? The part where we're investigating this like it's not an obvious conclusion or that we're sitting in a high school interviewing kids about a murder and rape – that happened not even a 5 minute walk away from this room?" Fowler replied, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Neither. I was more thinking there's something weird about Harris."

"We've not even seen a picture of him yet." Fowler pointed out, raising his eyebrow, utterly unable to follow Diaz's point.

"I'm not saying it's related to the case." She rolled her eyes. "But seriously...did you not notice that Harris has been mention a weirdly large amount of times in relation to West? Lane and Helen both said he was extra defensive of her."

"He said that about Oliver too though..."

"Yeah. And Oliver is her boyfriend. That's expected. But Harris is just meant to be a friend. Yet he's gets in fights over her. He's the one who hears most of the stalkers calls because his reaction is 'amusing'? He's the one who came and dealt with Daniels in the mall, during Valentine's story. He's at the hospital right now. That's weird right? Normally, he'd be at school with Valentine and Shapiro still."

"Your point being...?"

"Ugh, where's your sense of romance? I think we have a little love triangle going on." Diaz smirked and let out a low chuckle. "Probably nothing to do with the case, but interesting either way. I wonder if the boyfriend knows."

Fowler rolled his eyes. "I honestly don't care if it's not about the case Diaz. Besides, it's a completely baseless hunch. We don't know anything about them other than hearsay."

"OK. But if I'm right, you owe me a beer when this case is done."


More flashbacks showing the creeptacular behaviour of the stalker. As long time readers know, I'm quite a fan of the awkward Jade/Robbie friendship - and he kind of IS the only one (other than Tori) who ever backtalks Jade. I mostly just think it's just a cute friendship with them both being awkward around each other; Robbie because he's Robbie, Jade because Robbie lived next door to her during her abusive childhood so he knows about it and she kind of connects him directly to the abuse because he was around at the time.

Shawn Becker was mentioned - he's the dude in Tori Tortures Teacher that Trina is trying to get a date with, classed as one of the hottest guys in school. In my head, the three school hotties were Beck, Ryder and Shawn.

Thank you for all the lovely reviews and comments! Please, keep sending me your conspiracy theories about the story, or any of your thoughts on what's going on - I love to read them!