Tone of Deceit

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 9 (Clarity)

"What were you thinking?" Tori paced the floor, throwing her hand into the air. Her eyes were wild with anger and her forehead was creased. "You could have been killed." She scoffed. "That's twice in a row where you guys waltzed right up to dangerous territory. I'm out for five minutes and you guys are nearly getting yourselves killed."

Andre spoke up, coming to the defense of the others and seemingly trying to calm the others down. "It's not like anything really bad happened, I mean-" Tori cut him off, holding up two fingers.

"Twice." She curled one finger down and growled lowly. "Trina tells me she gets a text that Mr. Sikowitz is attacking one of you guys-and now you tell me you got threatened by a gang member?" She dropped her hand down. "What next? Someone blows up your car? How are you guys supposed to be safe if you keep putting yourselves in situations where you can be killed, huh?"

Jade was hurt by the outburst and confused as to why Tori was so upset over this. "It's not like we're your charges or something," Beck remarked. Tori hesitated, her head leaning back and her mouth opening slightly. "We thought maybe we were your friends, and here you're treating us like you're a parent or something."

"Friends…" Tori waved a hand in the air and grumbled under her breath. "Like I need anymore attachments to lose." The words struck Jade like a knife to the heart. She backed up, her hands trembling as she watched Tori turn away and storm off upstairs. "What use is there, can't protect anyone. All ya'll are doing is spying on me and putting your lives at risk trying to get involved in something you don't know a goddamn thing about./"

Jade felt herself beginning to sink, so she slowly made her way to the couch as her lungs began to shrivel and the air around her started to fade. When she looked over to her right, she saw David standing in the doorway of his study, he had a somber expression and was slowly shaking his head.

"Give her time," he said, "She's got a lot going on right now." David walked forward, his arms swinging gently at his sides. Jade wasn't sure his words were comforting, but she wanted them to be. "She's struggling with a lot of different feelings, and I know you guys don't understand quite a bit. There is a reason."

He made his way into the kitchen and Jade watched Cat follow him. "What's that reason?" Cat asked. "We want to be her friends, we want her to think of us as friends; but there's so much we're finding that she's not saying. It hurts us, makes us think she doesn't trust us."

David picked up the coffee pot and set his porcelain coffee mug down on the counter with a heavy sigh. "Well." He began to pour the liquid in the mug. Jade walked over, furrowing her brow and listening, hoping for a solid explanation-or any explanation of some kind. The others remained still and quiet, but she could see the questions in their eyes as well. "It's not that she doesn't think of you as friends, it's more she doesn't really know how to handle the situation. Trina's one thing, she didn't get emotionally involved or attached like Tori. So it's a bit of a struggle for her."

Robbie extended his arms sideways, raising his voice up a bit more. "What does that mean? Emotionally attached? Why do you say it like that?" David leaned back against the countertop, he folded one arm across his stomach and lifted the coffee mug to his lips.

As he sipped the drink, the longer he took to say anything, the more anxious she became. "There are some things that she is not allowed to say that she wants to say. Some things are not safe to say, and there are things that could put various people in danger or alert the wrong people."

"What is it then?" Andre asked. "Is it an investigation or something? Are you guys investigating somebody?" David closed his eyes and took another long sip of his coffee, as though considering his next few words.

He lowered the mug and smacked his lips while moving his free hand along the edge of the countertop. "There is an investigation going on, yes." Jade's eyes grew wide and she reached her hand up over her heart, feeling it now pound underneath her chest. "An undercover operation that has been going on now for…" David squinted, glancing up to the left. He raised his palm upwards, tilting it in the air. "Two to two and a half years. I am willing to divulge that much."

Andre curled his eyebrows together. "That's at least when Trina was at Hollywood Arts." David heaved forth a heavy sigh and took another sip of his coffee. Two long creases formed on his forehead and he swallowed a large gulp.

"Yes." David lowered the mug once more. "Katrina has always wanted to follow in my footsteps, to be a police officer. She was a part of the junior detective club at Sherwood and wanted to help investigate a case involving a string of missing persons surrounding Hollywood Arts."

That hit Jade by surprise, but yet, she felt as though she knew that to be the case. "Kids were going missing there?"

"Still are, not very frequent, but there still are. Courtney Van Cleef was the most recent." She bowed her head, remembering too well the grief Tori was going through. Her anger must have been warranted. Tori simply did not want anything to happen to them, especially not after losing Courtney. "I wasn't in mind to put my daughter in a dangerous position, but I figured undercover missing person's case at a school, I could still keep watch somewhat…"

"But once Trina graduated, she couldn't do it anymore?"

"Basically, and by then Tori was wanting to get involved." David looked up the stairs and his lips pressed thinly together. "If they told you about Lindsay, Tori was close to Lindsay as well. She wanted to continue where Trina left off, to see that they find the missing students and find whoever was responsible for the attack on her sister and on Lindsay…Again, worried about letting my daughter get involved in that; but so long as I could keep watch, I thought it'd be okay."

Andre sat on the couch and stared at the coffee table for a minute before clearing his throat. "So, if it's an undercover operation, that means there are some things Tori and Trina can't say." David nodded at him. "You can't say who you're investigating or anything like that because we're not involved and telling us any sensitive case information could result in blowing the whole thing."

"Exactly."

"But are there some things you could tell us? Things that maybe wouldn't risk the case?"

"It's difficult, because if you start to act differently-it could tip off the suspects that are being observed. If you have questions and I am able to answer them, I can do that."

"Alright." Andre ran his palms along his leg and shook his arms out in front of him as though shrugging off any dirt. "Why are the girls part-time only? Why did Trina essentially force herself into our group when we all first met, and then Tori seemed to do the same?"

David closed his eyes and smirked as Jade cast her own intrigued look onto him. Andre was asking the right questions, and it came to her as a surprise considering he never seemed the slight bit interested in it all. "They are-or were-part-time students because I felt more secure keeping them that way. We were also noticing a trend in the missing students where none of them were part-time. Whoever was behind the disappearances did not seem to focus on them, so I thought it would be the safest bet."

"Wouldn't it make more sense for an undercover agent to be full-time?" Jade asked, clearly annoyed that any undercover agent would be so limited.

"It would; but like I have said, the thought of throwing my daughters into the fire so quickly gives me hesitation."

"Understandable." She shrugged. "So back to Andre's other question…" She crossed her arms and her voice trailed off for a moment.

"Courtney's is the first and only disappearance to where she did not come from a wealthy or popular background. The trend of disappearances is not limited to male or female, not limited to ethnicity; but almost always the victim is either a hugely popular student or comes from a wealthy family."

He pushed himself forward from the counter, his brow furrowing a bit more as Jade shared concerned glances with Cat. "Therefore, Trina caught on to Andre." He motioned over to Andre and then nodded towards the others. "Then the rest of you. She saw that your group was among the more popular crowd-as well as wealthy. Robbie's father being the district attorney, Cat's mother being a top prosecutor for LA , and even Jade."

She turned her head, already knowing what he had to say about her family. "My dad owns the company that a lot of counselors work for and donated to Hollywood Arts when it first opened, right?"

"Basically. You guys were persons of interest in the sense of people that needed to be watched, in case our suspects tried to approach you."

"So when the transition happened, between Trina and Tori, it happened before Trina graduated completely."

"There was a time that Trina didn't feel she should stay undercover there any longer, rather to work on the outside and taking charge with me. At that point, Tori wanted to go in. Where she's at right now, she's worried she's getting too emotionally involved."

"But she's not." Jade looked down, struggling to understand the last part. Trina, and then Tori, had been tasked to watch over the group. "Unless she never thought of us at friends. We figured out Trina had been acting out a persona, the crazed diva; but was everything with Tori also fake?"

"No." David exhaled and Jade looked up to him, her heart lifting with a slight tinge of hope. "At first, she wanted to keep you at a distance. Some of you guys made things a bit more personal, made her actually have to try harder to be a part of your group."

Jade heard someone cough over her name, as though trying to call her out. She shot a glare at the others, only earning a wide, innocent grin from Robbie.

"Then she began to get attached. I believe that's where she's struggling, especially having just learned about Courtney's death." David set his coffee mug down and pushed his hands into his pocket. "Courtney is the first of the missing victims that has been discovered dead. Another point of note, I believe." He paced to the right, pulling one hand from his pocket to stroke his chin. "Why were we allowed to discover her?"

"I think I get it." He raised an eyebrow and looked to Jade, his finger pausing just on the side of his cheek. "It all happened so fast with her, it seems like." David nodded slowly, his eyelids lowering halfway. "Well, she wasn't popular or wealthy, so maybe the kidnapper was desperate?"

"Desperate?"

"I mean, what if they suspected that the popular kids were being watched or something? What if there was some catalyst that prevented the kidnapper from taking someone, and then Courtney comes along, and they grab her just to grab somebody." David lowered his hand and straightened his body, watching as the others slowly approached from behind Jade.

"I could see that," Cat said, "Not saying that's what happened though, right Jade?"

"Exactly. Just speculating."

Cat rolled her eyes and smiled at David. "She's always speculating, Mr. Vega." He chuckled softly.

"That makes a good investigator," he replied, "But a good investigator also has to be careful not to get caught putting cameras in potted plants." As he smirked, Jade felt her blood rushing to her face. "Or hiding in the backyard bushes." He tapped his foot and shot a disapproving look towards Robbie.

"Anyways," Jade continued, "What if the fact that Courtney had no wealth or status was something that had been rejected, and therefore whatever they're doing with the kidnapped victims, they didn't follow through with her. Instead, they killed her and dumped her body."

"That." David hummed for a moment and started to pace once more, nodding again. "That is not a bad angle. I'll have to look into that possibility. You said that you believe the popular kids may be suspected of being watched?"

"It's certainly possible," Cat remarked. The girl leaned sideways and propped her elbow onto Jade's shoulder. "Let's say Mr. Sikowitz, for example, is creepy and could potentially be suspect." David slowly raised his eyes skyward, his lips parting slightly. "He knows who you are, or has known, right?"

"A lot of people are well aware of who I am. I do carry a silver star." Cat looked confused for a second, then spoke the rank associated with one silver star.

"Police commander. Of course. My mom's prosecuted cases where you were called on as an expert witness."

"That is correct. So with that, let's assume hypothetical Mr. Sikowitz were involved and thought that maybe with Tori's presence, we were all being carefully observed by the police. Just her presence makes trying to get any one of us dangerous, because the police would be watching her and therefore watching us."

"A possibility."

"But you can't tell us who you're investigating," Jade said in a softer tone. She was already running the thoughts through her mind, though it wasn't easy. David crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly.

"What I can say is it is more than one person. We're investigating a possible network of suspects. The reason people at other schools such as Sherwood, Northridge, and so on look down so frequently on Hollywood Arts is because to everyone-they feel it is not a legitimate school. They've reported seeing and hearing cases of teachers getting too close to their students among other things, and there really hasn't been anyone graduating from that school becoming anything they like to tout…Hollywood Arts has not produced any celebrities of note."

Jade flinched, taken aback by the statement, although she couldn't deny that she herself was hard pressed to find anybody that found success after Hollywood Arts. "It's a hobby school to everyone, then?" She looked back up at David to see him nod.

"We had a couple Northridge girls report once, you may recall this, seeing a group of Hollywood Arts kids having a grand old time at a karaoke place with an instructor-and they accused the school of being a place where staff didn't teach anything other than having fun being 'friends' with your teachers until you graduate."

Jade cringed and shook her head abruptly. "I'll bet other schools think of our school as a hotbed of harassment cases."

"Yes." She sighed and he raised his shoulders. "That was one of the things that turned our attention towards Hollywood Arts in the first place. Someone from Sherwood reported seeing a friend of theirs that attended the school hugging a faculty member; and that friend was one of the first to go missing as well."

A silence fell over the group as they each turned to look at another, wondering if there was anything to add. It was a scary thought, realizing that perhaps there was something to what all the other schools thought of them as. Here, they had thought Northridge students and Sherwood students looked down on them for different reasons, shallower reasons, not that they thought the whole school itself was just a creeper's school.

There was something to the looks they received, then, from those other schools. More than just disdain and disgust; but perhaps just wondering which of them would be the next to possibly fuck a teacher.

It didn't help that they were so close with Mr. Sikowitz either, certainly doing things like participating in a sleepover at his house would spur many salacious rumors.

Jade began to tremble, not sure what to make of these more recent considerations. Was Hollywood Arts truly a dangerous place to be? She couldn't fathom that it could be, yet there was something amiss now that she was thinking about it.

"I think we should go." She fought against the lump forming in her throat and tried to ignore the pounding of her heart. "Tell Tori, we're sorry for causing her any trouble and that, well, if she wants to talk to us we're here for her and she knows where to find us." David smiled at them, saying nothing as they walked to the door. "We would like to be her friends, and not people she feels like she has to fret and worry over."

Well, seems they have a little bit. Mr. Vega's probably taken pity on them, or maybe sees something in them the others aren't. Who knows. They've learned a great deal in this chapter and so have you, what are your thoughts?