Tone of Deceit

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 10 (Allowed In)

"So she feels like she has to protect us, but at the same time, she's trying to be our friend." The group sat around a table at the mall food court, preferring to discuss matters there as opposed to where they so often discussed things. After all, no one knew just who could be listening in at Hollywood Arts's cafeteria. Beck leaned back, moving his hands behind his head and letting out a slow whistle. "Kinda wish we knew who was being investigated though."

"Sounds like it could be the school's faculty in general," Cat remarked while spooning up some soup she purchased. Jade agreed, but only because the way David spoke made it sound like the staff of the school was suspect. "Who knows if it's Lane, Mr. Sikowitz, Principal Eikner or even the ballet instructor."

"Money's on the ballet instructor," Andre said with a low chuckle, "Trying to fit bulky men in those tights is a crime in of itself!" Robbie brought his hand over his eyes and groaned while Beck folded his hands in his lap and flashed a toothy smirk.

"Oh the things you guys would do to get a girl's attention." He shook his head slowly under their leery gazes. "But notice how all the students are like on a first name basis with the counselor? I mean, Lane, he encourages it. I used to have regular sessions with the guy, but now I'm not so sure I should be."

"Nothing he's done or said has given reason to not trust him." Jade looked around the food court, noticing how empty it seemed. It was a slow day for a lot of places, but the usually crowded place had only a few people walking around or sitting down. "You know, I wouldn't pursue anymore conversations with him, just to be on the safe side; but we also shouldn't act any different just because we know the school's getting investigated."

"That's what Mr. Vega said." Cat nodded at her and pointed her finger outwards. "If we act differently, it could tip off the kidnappers that they are being investigated and they may be all the more careful and the operation could be forfeit."

"Essentially. We don't want to risk what the police are doing."

Robbie furrowed his brow and leaned forward, lowering his voice to a near whisper. "What if it goes all the way to Principal Eikner himself?" The others looked to him and Jade began to ponder the possibility. "He seemed really intimidating back in Sikowitz's class the other day, even Mr. Sikowitz seemed to be terrified of him. Maybe he's the guy?"

Cat dipped her spoon in the soup bowl once more and hummed inquisitively. "You know, I heard him say something about Helen back there. He told Mr. Sikowitz to remember what happened with her."

"Oh yeah." Jade brought her hands up to her face, tapping her fingertips against her nose. "I'd almost forgotten about her. She came in and he left for a little while, and then suddenly she was gone and he came back. There was never really a solid explanation for it, was there?" The others shook their heads, it seemed nobody had an answer for what transpired. It was as though Helen never truly existed.

"I have to ask though," Robbie began while dipping an overly salted French fry into a tub of barbecue sauce. "Could that gang we ran into be connected?" Jade's lips pursed and she looked to Beck, who cocked his head a bit. Robbie chewed the fry and swallowed quickly. "I mean they seemed familiar with Lindsay's landmark, and I mean she died on their territory. Trina said the attack happened because she was caught looking around and asking questions."

"She made the assumption they were connected," Beck replied, "But I don't know if she is fully certain they are. If they are connected, then…" His breathing grew shallow and his eyes enlarged. "Then my god, something big must be going down."

The look in his eyes told Jade he was genuinely afraid of the Knight. If that was the case, then she could only imagine how terrifying it must be to think that they could be involved in whatever was happening with Hollywood Arts. "I almost wish we could help them," Jade muttered, "I know we're not cops or anything but surely…"

"What if we started like a detective's club at Hollywood Arts?" Cat grinned for a minute, but the grin started to fade. Before Jade could think too much on that, she already knew it didn't sound like a good idea. "Then again, if the staff at Hollywood Arts are the ones being investigated, starting up something like that might be the exact opposite of helpful."

Jade raised her hands up and brought her chin down inside them like a perch. Cat slowly stirred the soup, frowning as she watched the liquid spin. The boys each fell silent as well, possibly all wondering where they could go from here.

She wanted to help the investigation, but of course she wasn't a cop yet and couldn't help without knowing some information that would be too case-sensitive. Besides all of that, this case affected all of them; it was their own school after all. Their lives were somehow being put in jeopardy and there wasn't a thing they could do about it.

Well, she was a fighter and she knew Cat was as well. Clearly the boys were too. "I don't want to not be given a chance to fight back," Jade said quietly, "I don't want to sit around doing nothing while somebody at our school schemes and threatens to destroy our lives."

"Me either." Cat shrugged. "But what can be done? We're on our own, and we don't even know what's going on there. How could we possibly help when we can't even start up something like that detective squad that has? The minute we did that, we'd be tipping off whoever the cops are watching. Not like all of us can just quit and go over to Sherwood either."

"Yeah, but how content are you to just sit and watch?"

"Not very…"

"So don't," someone said. Jade gasped at the voice and jerked her head upright, the others followed suit and turned to see Tori standing just a few feet away with her sister. Her hands were on her hips and her lips curved into a smile. "Start up an unofficial club outside of the school." Trina's eyebrow cocked upwards and a smile stretched across her face as well.

"Tori? How'd you even find out where we were?"

"Easy." She dropped her hands and walked towards them. "I've been following you guys for three days." A sigh rushed over the group and Jade slowly shook her head. "Sorry I yelled at you guys the other day. It's been hard for me to put my emotions in check lately-you guys didn't deserve that. If anything, you deserved more of an explanation; but I think my dad took care of that."

"He told us you were going through a lot." Jade scratched her forehead for a moment before dropping her hand. "An understatement, but still…"

Tori sat down across from Jade, in between Robbie and Andre. Her knees were spread out and she was leaning over the table. Her hands clasped together on the surface and her eyes dipped down for a minute.

"I haven't been fair to you guys. I know that, but been difficult for me to know how to let you in and how much to give. I come from a police family, we live private lives to protect ourselves."

"We get that, Tori, we really do."

Tori bowed her head, her shoulders sloped. "Losing Courtney is the hardest thing for me. I won't even let Ian step foot near Hollywood Arts, and here I am forming connections with you guys when I was only supposed to be observing, watching." Jade bit her lip and her fingers slowly curled into her palms. She watched Tori's head lift and her gaze find hers. "So now, I'm stuck fearing that I might lose one of you guys. I'm not even a real cop yet."

She put her hand to her chest. "I want to go into forensics, but I've got to wait another year or two before I can even get close. I'm collaborating with my dad and sister on everything; so if something were to happen to one of you, I hadn't eve prepared myself for that yet." Tori looked over her shoulder at Trina. "I mean, Tri, what would you have done?"

"Kept close watch," Trina replied, "I never let them out of my sight while at that school. Not once." Jade's jaw dropped for a moment and she saw bewilderment growing on her friends' faces. "I couldn't be everywhere, so I had some tricks set up. Cameras and whatnot, so if one of them got approached or abducted, I was going to catch it and I could report it to my dad…the police would've swooped in while I tried to do whatever I could to assist."

Tori looked back at the group and a heavy sigh rolled away from her lips. "There's only so much either of us really could do being part-time students; but Dad didn't feel comfortable letting Trina go through that risk, and then both of them didn't want me being full-time. Even then, there's only so much that I am able to do."

"You can't make arrests or anything like that," Beck said, "Probably can't question either."

Tori poked her thumb over her shoulder. "Trina could make an arrest. She probably could interrogate too, but most likely Dad or Gary will do the interrogating."

"Gary…" Andre flashed a toothy grin and Tori's eyes flickered skywards while Trina slowly brought her hand over her eyes as though she knew what was going to be asked. "You know, we thought he was having some type of an affair, he was always around."

"He is essentially our Godfather." Tori sat upright and crossed her arms. "He thought it'd be funny to put on performances because we were doing that." Her eyes narrowed. "Of course he knocked that off, but the damage was already done. You guys think he's having an affair with our mother, and that couldn't be farther from the truth"

"But why the performance? Why the deception?" Andre motioned to Trina. "Trina acted like a batshit insane diva to what end?" Trina chuckled softly and Tori glanced back at her for what felt like the longest time.

"To keep up appearances and avoid detection." Tori turned back around. "When you go undercover, it becomes necessary at times to don a persona. Trina went so annoyingly in-your-face flashy that it would cause people to automatically want to avoid her or ignore her. And it worked."

"Whereas you did the opposite," Beck retorted, "Becoming popular and dominating the scene with singing and acting." Tori raised an eyebrow and cocked a smirk.

"I have no interest in that, and I truthfully cannot sing all that well." Jade did a double take and Robbie instantly accused Tori of lying. Tori started laughing and the smirk on Trina's face grew more. "Nope. You've never heard me sing truly, not once." Tori waved her hands in the air. "I'm fake, I lipsynced it all."

"But how? There were even times where, unless you had somebody hiding out somewhere with-" They stopped and turned their gazes towards Trina, remembering that she's pretty much always been hiding out somewhere. It would be easy to hook a radio up to an amplifer or get something ready for such a situation where Tori might be prompted to sing. "That…is dedication." Andre shook his head once more. "But why?"

Tori rolled her head to the right. "Trina wanted to avoid prying eyes early on in the investigation." She rolled her head back to the left. "I drew all the attention onto me. Part-timer, rising to popularity and becoming bigger than the full-timers…Nobody else is getting the attention because I won't let them, so no one is gaining popularity or being thrust into the limelight. This means a lot of potential victims are slipping by." Tori peered down her nose. "Unfortunately, I see now that may be counterproductive. It may potentially cause desperation among the kidnappers. Courtney may have been abducted because there were no viable options."

"How come no one has tried anything with us though?"

Tori shut her eyes and smirked. "I've done my job well. Too well, I suppose, I'm not supposed to be preventing things from happening because then the police aren't being given what they need to make a move."

"What do they need? I mean, is there anything they can move on right now?"

Tori looked down, her fingers tapping the table gently. She looked to Trina, as though asking permission for something. Trina simply closed her eyes and raised her shoulder. "There is one who is highly suspect right now," Trina answered, "But we can't move in on him because we have reason to believe there's more at play here. We are watching him, seeing if he will lead us to the bigger picture. Even then, we are going to need proof, evidence." Her eyes opened slightly. "Remember when I asked if I ought detain you just for talking about Courtney?"

"I remember." Jade knew the answer was a hard no, because there was nothing to go on. "Circumstantial, right? Just mentioning her name doesn't suggest guilt."

Cat nodded her head. "My mother couldn't even use that in court, it'd be thrown out in a heartbeat." The redhead threw her arms forward, speaking in a mock pompous voice. "Oh the defendant just mentioned the victims name, therefore they must be guilty! As guilty as the other dozens of people talking about the victim!"

Tori chuckled. "Yeah, it wouldn't work very well." The girl raised her hand up and waved it through the air. "But I want to go back to the other point real quick. You guys." The group fell silent and Jade waited with baited breath. "I do want you to know, I do consider you to be friends. Friendship at this point is hard, though, because there's a very serious investigation going on and I can't let it be compromised. However…" Tori looked to the side, biting her lip for a brief moment. "There may be something we can do."

"We wouldn't talk about the case," Jade replied with an exhale. "We wouldn't do anything to disrupt the police work." Tori smiled a bit and clasped her hands together once more on the table.

"Well, I think my family can agree you probably wouldn't cause a lot of damage. You've intrigued us though, what with your investigating us." Jade's face grew red and she looked to the others, all of whom were now trying to avoid eye contact with anyone as if attempting to make believe they had no idea what Tori was talking about. "In the future…" Tori leaned in, her eyes narrowing while her smirk grew. "Just ask. I'll be happy to answer whatever questions I can. After all, we're not the bad guys here. Still, you've a knack for investigating things…"

"Ooh, maybe we can help you guys?" Cat inquired. "I mean, you could use some fresh eyes, right?" Tori leaned back slowly and looked back at Trina, who was staring at them with an eerily calm expression. "Not to mention, some full-time students."

"There isn't a lot you'd be able to do," Trina replied. "Essentially you'd be about as good as Sherwood's detective club. Maybe a bit more efficient since you're actually at Hollywood Arts; but any real investigating would have to be done under direct supervision and an officer would have to handle any possible evidence or suspects. You would also have to be under strict supervision, anything you hear or discover comes to me or my dad. Or Gary."

"What about your mom? Is she not a police officer?" Trina blinked at Cat's inquiry. "Just curious, I mean-"

"Mom is a registered nurse," Tori answered with an apathetic sigh. Clearly, the question was poorly timed. "Mom and Dad met when she was an intern at a local hospital and Dad was a rookie cop. He got shot and had to go to the hospital, his wound was a minor one, so Mom was the one that cleaned him up. It was kind of a love-at-first-sight thing."

"Aww."

Jade leaned into Cat and started to whisper. "Cat, I love you, but I think Trina was just about to say we could somehow help the investigation. Let's move away from their mother now before Trina walks away." Cat nodded abruptly and Trina flashed a knowing smirk.

"Oh I'm not going anywhere," Trina replied, much to Jade's shock. "But not a bad call." Trina approached the table and leaned over it, putting her palms flat on the surface. She looked amongst the group, surveying them with a narrowed gaze. "I'll allow assistance. But you should know, Tori already discussed this option with Dad and myself."

Jade dropped her head and stifled a nervous chuckle, she was hoping for the relief of having just convinced the sisters to let them help; not that they'd already considered it.

"The reason being, Tori feels like she's gotten herself compromised due to her emotions. I also feel that undercover part-time students aren't a benefit. There's only so much that Tori is able to see and do. I think that's why this case has been moving so slowly, and Dad agrees. People are in danger because we have someone that can't be at Hollywood Arts all time. Criminals are being given too much time to act, and if they started to suspect something, they would have even more time to get the hell out of dodge. They must be stopped, we can't let this investigation go on much longer than this."

"Just let us know what we can do to help, and we'll do it gladly." Jade grinned from ear to ear, eager to be a part of this. Still, there was a heaviness within her, the heaviness of fear and of uncertainty.

There was no telling what to expect, and she didn't want to lose anybody close to them. Perhaps with the sisters' watchful eyes and David in close vicinity, they wouldn't suffer that loss. Then, there was the unknown-just what was there to expect? How would she react to what was found out?

She spent so much time at that school that she'd grown to love the people there; but if everything at that school was one big lie, then was everything in her life one big lie as well?

"W-What about my dad?" She asked in a spontaneous moment. Tori raised an eyebrow and Trina frowned at her. "He-He was a donor, he helped jumpstart the school. You don't think he's a part of whatever's going on, do you?"

"I don't believe so," Trina admitted much to Jade's relief. "The school had a legitimate start in everyone's eyes, being touted as a school for the arts. Mr. West donated money to the school and continues to do so on the belief and understanding that it helps students appreciate and discover the arts. I also believe that is something that has kept any abductors eyes off of you, Jade."

"Really?"

Trina shut her eyes. "If the school is no longer legitimate, they need funding from somewhere. Unwitting donors are a pretty good source of income. If Mr. West lost his daughter and thought that Hollywood Arts were responsible either for letting it happen or not preventing it, and he pulled his donation…" Trina paused and looked Jade straight in the eyes.

She understood where Trina was going with that and not much else was needed to be said. "Yeah, the cashflow stops."

Trina raised a finger and pointed to Cat, and then Robbie. "You've also got Cat's mom, high class prosecutor, and Robbie's dad who is the District Attorney. Any abductors would have to walk an extremely thin line there as well."

Robbie furrowed his brow. "So what are you saying? The reason we've been left alone is because of our parents?"

"Something like that. In this group, Beck and Andre are the easiest for any abductors to grab." Trina shrugged. The two boys exchanged wide-eyed looks and the heaviness in Jade's heart grew stronger. "Simply saying." Trina stood upright and sighed. "But this is not where we need to discuss an investigation. We need to be somewhere that you wouldn't be overheard or suspected. A mall? Too many ears."

"What about the precinct?"

"If suspects started to notice you guys going to the police department frequently, it might tip them off as well. We will figure something out…"

So it starts to come out, and it looks like the group will be taking part in an investigation as well. Shall we see how deep the rabbit hole goes? What is your take on everything?