Tone of Deceit
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N:
Chapter 12 (Victims and Suspects)
It was agreed the Vega home would be the place to meet, especially since they already were known to visit the family on a regular basis. Therefore, it wasn't so much of a risk of tipping off the suspects that there was an undercover operation going on.
Once there, the group started handing Mr. Vega the forms as he stood in front of the kitchen table with Trina beside him. Tori was reclining on the couch, eating a slice of pie. "What're you eating there?" Jade asked, licking her lips. Just the smell of fresh, warm pie was enough to make her drool.
Tori motioned to the countertop where a freshly made cherry pie was sitting. "Marie Callendar's cherry pie. We made some for dessert. Help yourself." Jade grinned from ear to ear and hurried over while practically pushing her form into David's chest. He raised an eyebrow at her and cleared his throat.
"Okay then." David glanced down at the forms, sifting through each until he stopped on Andre's. His eyebrow rose higher and he looked towards the youth. "You signed your grandmother's signature, didn't you?" Andre raised his shoulders and motioned his hands towards the forms.
"Man, she can't sign a damn thing. I got to do all the paperwork for her. You ought to see her fret over the damn bills, thinking they're someone trying to use her personal information to spy on her. If she's not paranoid about something, she'll be paranoid the dust bunny under the couch will bite off her damn foot!"
"I see…" David set the forms down on the countertop and shook his head. "Anyway, all of you are good to go, of course limits still have to be put in place. I assume the girls already told you about the restrictions and procedures?"
"They have." Jade plated an abnormally large slice of pie on her plate and froze when she saw all the eyes on the room studying her. Looking down at the pie, she chuckled nervously and held it up as if showing it off. "I like pie."
David ran his hand along his forehead, groaning softly. "God I hope our suspects don't offer you any food or candy." Jade shrugged and dipped a fork into the delectable looking pie.
The rest of the group gathered around the table, each eagerly waiting for whatever was going to come next. Jade wondered what their instruction would be and just what they'd might be doing.
Trina spoke up first, maintaining eye contact with the group. "You are here to help assist with the missing students that have disappeared from Hollywood Arts. Every detail of this case is confidential; and anything that you discover, see, or hear is to be reported to the senior officers. If you have reason to believe you have found evidence or even a confession of sorts, you must report that to the senior officer and allow that officer to investigate. Do you understand these regulations?"
Jade nodded first, then the others, each declaring that they understood. When Jade looked to the couch, she saw Tori had left the room. She was surprised, but only for a moment, as she could hear the sound of wheels hitting tile and her attention turned to the study where a bulletin board on wheels was being rolled out.
Tori peered at the group as she guided the board towards them, then brought it to a stop just in front of them. David and Trina walked around it, gripped the edges of the board and flipped it over to reveal numerous photographs.
There were twenty photographs, some with familiar faces and others not as much-it was a sight that not only took her breath away but filled her with fear. David was the one to start going through the details of each individual student that had gone missing, details that filled Jade with a sense of grief.
Robbie said he recognized one student as a girl they were trying to impress in the ballet class. Andre recognized Burf, who had come around from time to time. He was in Mr. Anthony's music class with Andre. Mr. Anthony was the teacher that had given Andre a D for a song at one point, which Tori helped persuade to give another look at to change his mind.
Ryder Daniels was shown on the board as well, a surprise to everyone in attendance. "He was last seen in Nurse Kotter's office for a sprained ankle," Tori remarked with a grim tone. Another student, Sherry, who Andre dated a few times and couldn't stop making out with constantly, was listed as a missing person. When Jade saw her picture, she looked over to see how he was dealing with it; and not surprisingly, she could see mist forming in his eyes until he had to turn away to wipe them.
Glancing back at the board, Jade felt a sensation of grief grip her heart; an old friend, Eli McAllister was there. She picked him for one of the very first improve scenes she had done with Tori. He played Cat's brother, son to her and Beck. An old friend, Jade thought he simply moved away.
"My god…" Her trembling reached over her mouth and her eyes gently closed over. "He moved away, I remember talking about that with Mr. Sikowitz. Sikowitz said Eli had so much talent and he was going to miss having him in class." Tori closed her eyes and bowed her head, but Jade was grateful the girl said nothing more. "Beck and I were good friends with him, we were upset he moved without-"
"Yeah I don't think he moved," Beck remarked with a grim and quivering voice. "In fact, he looks to be one of the first few students to go missing." The pictures were placed in order of disappearance, and Eli's was the third in the lineup.
"Another you might recognize," Tori said as she pointed to another familiar face. "Her dad owns 'Franks Cupcakes' downtown…" Both Beck and Jade gawked at the photo, their eyes growing wide. It was Meredith, a girl who had shown interest in Beck and essentially agreed to everything he said at the time. He'd gone out with her during a period of separation with Jade, but went back to Jade and quickly dropped Meredith due to her nature.
"When did she-no, I didn't even know she was missing."
"Shortly after you dumped her and went back to Jade, she was last spotted by fellow students entering Lane Alexander's office for counseling." Tori lowered her arm, her gaze still fixated on the photograph of Meredith. "She never returned home that night." Jade shut her eyes and moved her hand to her stomach while Beck stumbled towards the couch.
"If you excuse me." He gripped the armrest with a tight hand, pulled his other hand over his mouth and collapsed onto the cushion. "Goddamn." Jade turned her gaze to the first photograph, a young girl with bright blue eyes and luscious brown hair. She was gorgeous; but not someone that Jade easily recognized.
"Who did you say she was?" She pointed to the picture. "I vaguely remember that face." Trina leaned forward, peering at the photograph.
"Tiffany Richards." Her name was said in a manner of fact, just a name in an investigation. There was emotion in Trina's words, as with Tori and David, a sense of determination; but this was an investigation where one had to separate their emotions from fact and evidence. "She was the first student to go missing, seen by a student of Sherwood hugging her professor outside of the school."
"Who was the professor?"
"Erwin Sikowitz." Jade's heart stopped and a deathly chill ran down her spine. The others looked to Trina with stunned gazes. "He is our prime suspect." Trina stood erect, clasped her hands together and lowered them to her waist. She stared directly at Jade, her eyebrows curved high and lips pressed thinly together. It was an expression as though asking if she had further questions.
Jade could feel her knees starting to buckle and tears began rolling from her eyes. "I-I didn't even think."
"We also suspect Lane Alexander, Nurse Kotter, Mr. Anthony, and Madame McKee." She exhaled slowly. "These are all staff members who had known interactions with multiple missing persons." Jade saw Beck's skin pale and he rose from the couch with his entire body shaking like a leaf in the wind.
"Lane? Lane is a suspect?" Trina nodded at him. Beck stumbled forward, his hand patting his chest and voice rising to a near panic. "I go and talk to him almost every week." Trina frowned while Jade slowly looked away, feeling as though she may be sick. "He knows everything about my life, my family, my home. He even knows-" Beck froze, his muscles tensing and teeth chattering. Jade opened her mouth and hurried towards him, taking his hand in hers as he turned his eyes to her. "He knows about the gang."
"This is the gang you ran into the other day?" David inquired while raising an eyebrow. "The one you mentioned having been a part of in the past?" Beck nodded and David slowly breathed out. "I would have you not suddenly break routine in visiting Lane, because for now all we know is he is a suspect not that he is guilty of anything. Exercise caution, however. Understood?"
"Yes sir…"
Robbie looked to the row of suspects at the bottom of the board and drew in a heavy breath of air. "Are there any other suspects? Anyone you guys are looking at?"
"Coach Davis," Tori remarked. Andre rolled his eyes and spread his arms out.
"Great, that's my damn P.E. coach." Andre raised a hand to his forehead and groaned loudly. "We know all these teachers, they're all important to us in one way or another. How could any one of them…jesus."
"Coach Davis has only been involved with one student, Ryder. Ryder was in his class when he sprained his ankle and had to go in to see Nurse Kotter."
It was difficult to hear, difficult to understand or even believe that any of these trusted faculty members could possibly have anything to do with what was going on. "Of course," Jade began slowly, "Nurse Kotter and Lane Alexander would have the most contact with all of these victims. The school nurse and guidance counselor? How many students do they see on an average day?"
"In all honesty." Tori sighed and locked her hands behind her back. "The entire staff of the school is suspect." Jade's jaw dropped and she found it difficult to muster up anything further at this point. "These five here are simply key suspects, perhaps the most high profile."
"There is a guy we have inside, Festus, who runs the grub truck." They knew of him well, and Jade was secretly praying he wasn't suspect. She had to run David's words again in her brain to realize that he was not. "He's watching every interaction among students and faculty. A few of the janitors are hired by us as well." David crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "There is not a single staff member in that school that we do not suspect of somehow being involved in this."
"That can't be possible." Cat threw her hands over her mouth and groaned. "That just can't be." David nodded in her direction.
"The difficult part of it is discerning whether they're involved with the kidnapping or unethical behavior. Our observers have gotten mixed up between this, because several teachers and staff members have been spotted socializing with students, sharing lunches, and even driving their students home."
Cat's voice rose to a level of anger and a fierceness in her eyes that Jade recognized in the girl's own mother."Well shit!" Cat pounded the countertop once with an enclosed fist. "It's no wonder the cops can't pin down who's doing what when you've got kids getting into cars with their damn teacher."
Jade hooked a finger over her chin and studied the board of victims with a heavy heart. All the way from Tiffany to Courtney, these victims broke her heart and some she could see how the others may feel responsible for. "What if that's part of the ruse?" She inquired. The Vegas turned towards her, intrigue in their eyes. "What if…Two things are possible, I think."
"Go on?"
"First, there could be multiple abductors and they're using this unethical behavior by their fellow staff members to blend in and look friendly-so anyone investigating will be confused or thrown off; and the issue is a separate one."
"Okay."
"Or darker still." She narrowed her eyes and stepped forward, studying the five key suspects at the bottom. "They're all connected." She felt a rush of air leaving the room and inhaled slowly. "What if very single staff member at Hollywood Arts, knowingly and willingly participates and plays 'best friends' with their students to throw investigators off of the real kidnappers?"
This was a truly frightening thought, and one that turned her stomach. It spelled disaster, she knew; but now was the time to get serious. No matter what happened, they had to save the kids. Maybe some of these victims were still alive and out there somewhere, or maybe they were all lost forever, she didn't know. The one truth that was stirring in her heart was they needed to prevent any other victims from being taken, they had to stop these monsters once and for all.
Looking bath to Meredith's photo, happy and grinning with purse in hand, then to Eli and Courtney, Andre's former girlfriend Sherry, and finally Tiffany, Jade found resolve. This was for them, for all the victims and for all the potential victims. The monsters would be stopped one way or another.
"If that's the case, is there a ringleader?" Beck inquired. "Someone that could be giving the orders, and if there is, who does he answer to?"
Jade looked to Courtney's photograph and noticed, seemingly for the first time, a photograph beside it. "Courtney's the only one that was found, correct? The only one found murdered?" David nodded and Jade slowly approached the second photograph. "Guys, come over here."
The others followed while Beck remained on the couch. The photograph was that of Courtney's body. She was found fully clothed, bruised and bloodied, thrown with indignity beside a dumpster. It was as if she weren't even good enough for the trash.
As they studied the photograph, they noticed very particular markings. Her wounds were deep, wide and long, made by an instrument like an oversized knife. As it dawned on her, the lightbulbs appeared to go off in the minds of the group and each of them turned their eyes to Beck. He looked sideways, then over fully, raising his eyebrows.
"What?"
Jade pointed at the photograph. "Look at Courtney's wounds." Beck moved over, squinting his eyes. As he studied the photograph, his skin began to turn pale. "What weapon do you think could leave cuts like those?"
"I've seen those. Machete." He staggered back, slowly shaking his head as beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. "N-No. Similar yes, but it can't be." Beck turned away, clutching his stomach and mouth. "The Knights, they brutalize their victims like that. But they can't be involved, they can't."
"Was Courtney handed over to a gang? For what purpose?"
So here we are, looks like we've got quite a bit to look at. Maybe you'll recognize some of those names, none of em are OC characters, heh. But yep, looks like the whole school may be in on this disappearing act, and potentially the gang that we ran into is somehow involved. Wonder who holds the power.