Out of Time
Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious
A/N:
Chapter 14 (Key Witness)
"I think we need to focus on David first." Beck paced the office floor, sliding his index finger along the indent of his chin. Gary was leaning back against a nearby wall, his arms folded across his stomach and his right leg wrapped around his left. "Right? I mean, we need help from the police. The police need to be on our side, so, who could investigate him?"
"The police would investigate him if there were a crime." Gary cocked his head to the right. "At this point the LAPD will not investigate suspicious activity on his part. However, the California State Police holds no loyalty to him, they report to a higher authority. Still, we need more than just speculation of criminal activity, we need to get an actual criminal report going."
"So, what could we do to pull the rug out from under him? You can't be the only cop that feels like he's a corrupt son of a bitch." Gary smirked at Beck's choice of words, his shoulders lifted up.
"I'm not, there are people in the force who do not care for him. The problem is, so many are afraid of him. People under him have questioned him, but he's imposed himself on those people. Intimidation is his greatest tactic. No one dares stand up to him, and the outgoing Chief of Police has too many health issues right now to pay attention."
"Do you think maybe the State Police could get involved? I mean, you said there has to be something…"
Gary pushed himself from the wall and shook his head. "I don't know, I could probably twist someone's arm." Beck raised an eyebrow and Jade turned her attention away from her phone, perking her ears. "I'm in the process of a potential hire into the CSP, the hiring process takes a bit of time. Now, I have a contact-an officer who is interested in hiring me-that I could talk to and see if he might investigate based on speculation. Even still, it's a stretch without something concrete, especially with the politics surrounding things."
"Like David being considered for Chief of Police?"
"Exactly. Any enemy can say 'Mr. Vega did this', they're not going to look into every little accusation."
Sam looked up from her laptop and raised her hand. "I might be able to offer some help there. Possibly." Gary furrowed his brow and Beck walked over to Sam's desk. "Freddie mentioned something to me recently. It's a long shot, but we need to talk to him…and to Spencer."
"Why not focus on finding Tori?" Jade wanted to know what route was best. Tori was missing, the Vegas were searching for her, therefore she thought it'd be better to try and locate her instead. Beck glanced with inquisition at Gary, who slid his hands into his pockets with a sigh.
"Tori has successfully removed herself from the equation," Gary answered. Sam proceeded to fire up her video conference tool. "We don't know where she is, neither do the Vegas; and right now the LAPD are focused on the ocean where her car was found." He leaned his head to the side and inhaled. "What this means is the Vegas do not have access to her as any sort of bargaining chip if we begin railing them with investigations. Rather than deal with a potential hostage situation, we can freely begin an investigation…and once that investigation begins, the Vegas will be distracted by it. This can enable us to also try and zero in on Tori's location."
"Okay…"
"Right now, we can establish that Tori does not trust any of us." Jade grimaced. She understood in her heart that he was right, but it still hurt. "Also, judging by the fact that calls to her phone don't appear to be going through any longer, she may have disposed of it…"
"It's probably in the ocean."
"Yeah. I wouldn't put it past her."
Sam was typing furiously on the keyboard, it seemed she was in an active chat with someone. Deciding it was better to turn the attention to this, Jade left her desk and made her way over. "So, what's the deal? Why bring Freddie into the mix?"
Not bothering to look up, Sam adjusted her laptop by pushing the lid back a bit. "Because right now he's the only friend Spencer's got in the area." Sam grit her teeth at a response Freddie gave. "No, no, it's time for Spencer to be brave here." She hit the call button and within seconds, Freddie's face popped up on the screen.
"Okay Sam, I'm not sure if we're going to get it to happen. I can try to talk to him, but you know how he is."
Sam looked over her shoulder to Gary, who frowned at the pleading expression in her eyes. "It's the only way we might get him to cooperate, Gar. Even if it is speculation." Gary dropped his arms and looked off to the right with a heavy sigh. "He's purposely stayed quiet, hidden because he's afraid for his own life, and you know he's crucial to this investigation one way or another."
"Okay." Gary crossed his arms and growled slightly. "Except your friend here doesn't appear to be involved."
Sam spun around in her chair and raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't discount that. Freddie told me Spencer had a recent panic attack when he saw somebody's photo." Gary's eyebrows shot up and he pulled a chair over to the desk.
"Okay." Taking a seat, Gary leaned over the edge of the desk. "But be careful, we cannot keep involving multiple people in this case."
"You've taught me a good deal, Detective Malone, I think you're forgetting in investigations you need to talk to friends, family, witnesses. Right?" Gary smirked, his eyes lit up with pride. "Right now, we're on the verge of cracking open an old case that needs to be resolved. Spencer's a key witness and Freddie says he was witness to something, we need to know what."
"That is correct." Gary closed his eyes and waved his hand in the air. "Carry on, then."
"Thank you, sir." Sam turned back to the computer, clearing her throat. "Freddie, you mentioned before Spencer had a panic attack. What happened?" Freddie nodded slowly and leaned back on the couch he was on. Sam scrunched her nose and hummed. "Are you at his apartment right now?"
"I am. He's actually upstairs at the moment, doing some cleaning." Freddie looked over his shoulders to the stairs, then back to the computer. "It's true, I was talking with a friend of mine a couple weeks back. A tech guy that I met when we were all down there." Sam raised an eyebrow but kept quiet.
Freddie raised his shoulders and breathed in slow. "We were also talking to Carly, she was in the process of her Italy-tour project and he was helping her a little bit. Then we began talking about someone he knew."
"Who was this?"
"Tori Vega." Freddie nodded at them. "You remember her, Sam." Sam's eyes opened wider and Gary raised a hand over his mouth and chin.
"Why were you talking about her? "He wanted her to consider her as a recipient of the Italy tour project." Beck and Jade exchanged curious glances, wondering if that had been Tori's plan all along. "Spencer was in the background with Carly when my friend showed a picture of her, a family photo with her sister and parents." Freddie's brow furrowed and he quickly cleared his throat. "Spencer took one look and lost it. He screamed something about the man in the picture."
Gary instantly grabbed a picture of David from the investigation folder and held it up. "Was this the man?" Freddie leaned towards the computer and nodded.
"Yep, that was him. Spencer said it was the guy that tried to kill him. Something to that extent."
The room fell so silent a needle could echo like thunder, no one looked at each other. It was a terrifying concept to Jade, just thinking that David could have been the man involved in the Grayson murder.
They needed something to get the higher police interested, and it may have just been handed to them on a silver platter. Beck was the first to say something, his voice trembling with frenzy and excitement, but still so quiet as though not to break the silence. "Spencer just implicated David Vega in a double homicide…"
"Technically Freddie did," Sam mumbled, "But we definitely need to talk to Spencer. No more playing around, it's time we start acting." She leaned forward, looking Freddie square in the eyes. "It's imperative we talk to him. I know he might not want to talk to the police right now, he might be afraid; but this is critical."
"Yeah, I hear you. I'll try to get him to open up."
Freddie left the screen and Sam leaned back in her chair. She brushed her hair back, exhaling sharp. As they waited, Jade counted the minutes, she was sure Freddie was in the process of trying to convince Spencer to talk to them.
After about five more minutes the two men appeared before the camera. Spencer was hunched forward, his palms were rubbing together quickly and his nervous gaze was studying the computer. "Spencer, I won't ask how you're feeling-"
"I'm anxious," he replied, "I've held all this back for so long and now Freddie tells me to talk to the police again? You know they haven't done a damn thing for me ever since that day?"
"Well now's the time to act, Spencer. Think about Mr. and Mrs. Grayson." He bowed his head and clenched his eyes shut. "Think about their daughter. They deserve justice, they deserve to rest."
"They couldn't identify anyone. The attorneys thought I was involved, despite being attacked." Spencer laced his fingers together and turned his head to the side. "Do you realize how painful it is to let myself even go back there?"
"I do, and I get it. I understand." Sam breathed out slowly and raised her hands up, closing them together just under the tip of her nose. "You identified someone, someone that right now we're trying to open an investigation on. We need something, anything, to get this investigation underway." She opened her eyes slowly, her voice calm and soft. "Spencer, we need you."
"I don't know what I can even do."
"Just talk to us, tell us what you saw."
"I told the police what I saw, they couldn't identify anything." Remembering something Gary had mentioned earlier on, Jade knew David was virtually a nobody when the murder happened. If he was involved in any way, his generic appearance or figure would be hard to pinpoint.
"David Vega is not a nobody anymore," Jade said abruptly. Spencer's eyebrow rose and Sam turned her head. "He's about to become the Chief of Police for the LAPD. He's suspected of being part of a criminal organization, part of an organization suspected of abducting Sasha Grayson."
Spencer froze, his eyes growing wider than a frightened doe. The color of his skin began to pale and his right hand rose over his face. Sam let out a sigh, mixed with a subtle growl, and she slowly shook her head.
"Spencer." Sam's hands slid forward on the desk, her arms were straight and tight. "Carly is in Los Angeles right now." Spencer moved his second hand over his face and he screamed loud into them. "And we think…we think there might be a chance you have a living child caught up in this."
The silence returned, filling the room like a heavy fog. Spencer's hands slid away from his face slowly and his face was filled with a new kind of terror. "W-What did you just say?" Sam bowed her head and closed her eyes.
"We're not one hundred precent sure; but we believe Sasha had given birth to that child and that it is being raised by whomever took her. Now that may be pertinent information and we can't confirm it to be true, but there is a suspicion and if that suspicion turns out to hold water…then you could potentially have a child whose life is in danger."
Spencer began to shake, he clenched his hands together and tapped his forehead with them, groaning loudly. Freddie reached out, gently patting Spencer's back. "It's okay man. We're here for you." Spencer's shoulders peaked and tears began to slide down his cheeks.
They all waited with baited breath as Spencer's quaking grew worse for a few minutes and then started to subside. The man began breathing, deep and slow, before lowering his hands. His eyes were staring at the floor as though staring into space.
"That night, I was in the restroom when someone entered the house." Spencer continued staring, his expression now blank but his eyes full of fear. "I didn't hear anything. I saw a face in the mirror for a split second, before I could react, they stabbed me in the back. I still have a scar…"
He grew silent for another minute before speaking. "I heard them screaming. I laid there, covered in blood, listening as Sasha's parents begged and pleaded. I-I should've done something, anything, but I was too afraid." He shut his eyes and turned his head sideways. "I heard footsteps and waited, god I can still remember the stench. I can remember the silence, so quiet."
Freddie pat Spencer's shoulder, his expression was solemn. "When I heard the front door shut, I crawled out of the bathroom. I found something in the hallway I could pull myself up and tried to get to the living room where the phone was." Spencer shoved his hand through his hair. "I looked out the window and I saw the man who did it, he was talking to another man. The other guy had a similar build and everything…he was handing the guy money."
"Okay…"
"When that boy was talking to Carly, when he showed that family picture. That was the man who paid the guy that killed them." Spencer wailed, raising his hands to his face once more and trembling yet again.
Sam seemed on the verge of tears herself as she held up David's picture. "Spencer, I'm sorry to make you have to relive this. I really am, but you know, you're being brave. An inspiration." The man shook his head. "Spencer please tell us, is this the man you saw that night?"
Spencer lowered his hands and looked at the camera, his muscles started to tense and he slowly nodded. "That's him." He looked away slowly. "I'll never forget him, he's the guy handing the killer money outside their house."
David may have slipped up in that moment, giving payment at the scene of the crime. Unless he wanted to watch what happened, like some evil narcissist. Also never ensuring Spencer was actually dead inside that house. Either way, Spencer could place him at the scene of the crime, and Jade didn't have to have any experience in criminal justice to know this was a big deal.
The state police, the FBI, LAPD internal affairs themselves, they could take their pick. David could now be subject to a criminal investigation. Considering also that David wasn't well known enough to be identified then and Spencer likely hadn't seen the man until that recent conversation, it could be understood how he might've been overlooked.
The game was changing, and fast. "Gary, you said you had connections with the CSP." Jade turned to him and he met her gaze. "Do you have any connection with the FBI office at all? I mean, an entire department's name could be at stake, right?"
"I do have a contact there, have a contact there, yes. Even the LAPD internal affairs would have an interest in this investigation, so really it depends on who might be best fit to investigate this. Either way, an investigation can be underway, and for sure his standing in the force will be in question. He's going down, one way or another."
"There's another thing," Freddie said. He was almost unheard, but Sam quickly turned her attention to the screen. "When we were talking to Sinjin, he had information about the Vegas. Even Tori, she apparently saw that boy being beaten by her sister." Jade's breath caught in her throat and she raised a hand to her neck. "He said she took a camera when she saw it happening and recorded it from her bedroom. Apparently she's formed her own opinions about those people, they don't think she's related to her. Sinjin thinks they could've had something to do with whatever happened to his sister, so they're like afraid."
Sam leaned forward, narrowing her eyes. "Freddie. Why was Sinjin talking to you about Tori in the first place?" Freddie blinked and shook his head.
"He wanted Carly's help, he wanted to help Tori get away from those people and when Carly started her Italy tour project, he thought that might be a way."
Jade crossed her arms and hummed to herself. On one hand, this wasn't great news and it meant that Carly likely knew exactly where Tori was; but on the other hand, it was nice to know she wasn't the only person that thought about that. At the same time, if she'd considered Carly's project as a means of escape, and Sinjin was working on that same means, anyone else might be able to connect those dots.
She now understood why Tori took the flyer from her. They had to make sure the Vegas couldn't connect her to this, and at the same time, ensure they couldn't figure out where Carly was.
"If Tori did get in touch with Carly, we have to be cautious." Beck whisked his hand away from his chin. Jade looked to him, sensing he was forming the same thought process. "She doesn't trust us even still, she might've told Carly not to say anything."
"We have to get Carly to convince her to let the police do their job." Sam looked back to Freddie. "Do you remember anything else in this conversation you guys had? Anything at all?" Freddie scratched his chin and nodded.
"Sinjin talked about this teacher he worked with, saying he was sure the man had something to do with his sister's disappearance. He said the last time he saw her, she had been held after one of his classes. He also talked about hearing some of Tori's friends talking about a murder."
Jade's chest tightened and Sam furrowed her brow. "What murder?"
"I don't know. It was the weird kid with the puppet, his father apparently had been a hitman of some kind long ago. The kid was bragging about it and Sinjin overheard."
"Thank you…"
The next move was clear to them now, they had to find a way to reach Sinjin. They needed to find a way to get him and Tori to talk to them. Jade wasn't sure what sickened her more, though; the fact that David clearly was involved in the murder of the Grayson family, or that her own friends seemed even more so to be involved in criminal activities.
Welp, your thoughts?
