Disclaimer: Still don't own it
Mike could only stare at the computer screen.
To say he was shocked was an understatement; if it weren't for his military training, his mouth would be gaping like a fish out of water.
Out of all the people he never wanted or expected to see again, it was A. Though the title had been technically held by more than one person, there had truly only been one real Uber A and that had been Charles DiLaurentis. The A Game had died when he had been sent to a maximum security mental hospital until his death from suicide a few years ago. From what he had heard, there had been a few investigations to make sure that it was really him since Charles had been the master at manipulation. It was finally concluded that it was indeed his body and that it was truly over.
Be careful Alice, drugs are not a girl's best friend
-A
The message definitely matched ones that he had seen from his past; shown to him by Mona when they had been still together. As a part of her trust in him, that he later betrayed, she had revealed every last thing she had done to his sister and her friends. He had been angry at first, since he never really knew the full story about what had happened because he had been only told so much by his sister. But he had forgiven Mona because she had been sick at the time and it was his sister that had been keeping the secrets that got her into trouble; after all, his mother had deserved to know the truth about his father's affair and it was Mona who had revealed it, not Aria.
"What do you have there?" Toby asked as he saw his partner's sudden change in behavior and walked over. Mike just moved to his side to show Toby what he had found and the older man's eyes widened at what he read.
"What's wrong?" Spencer asked as she saw the look on her boyfriend's face and became concerned. Toby wasn't prone to looks of shock and she walked over to see what had been found on the computer.
At first, Spencer's mind did a complete crash like a computer that hit some sort of bug. She stared at the screen, trying to contemplate how this could be happening. She read the A message and read it again several more times in order to grasp the full scope of everything. Spencer then took a step back and plopped on the bed while having a blank look on her face; completely devoid of any emotions. Toby, concerned since he had seen that before with her, immediately went to her side and grasped her hand to show his support. Even Mike looked sympathetic given that he knew full well how this was affecting her.
"This is impossible," Spencer stated after a minute of silence. There was a slight trace of panic in her voice as she struggled to keep it together.
"Mike?" Toby inquired, looking over at his partner, wanting to know if there was more. The younger man nodded and Toby closed his eyes and sighed.
"There are a large number of the messages here; I think we should take the computer and run a complete search for anything besides what we have here," Mike said and his partner nodded in understanding. There was a knock at the bedroom door and Tasha appeared with a duster in her hand.
"Something wrong?" she asked, puzzled by the scene in front of her. Spencer was still on the bed with Toby clasping her hand while Mike was unhooking the computer.
"Did Alice have drug problem?" Mike asked aggressively the young woman before his fellow companions could answer. Spencer stood up and composed herself in order to look professional in front of the civilian.
"Ummmm…well….," said Tasha, looking very hesitant to answer the question. The way she was looking down at the floor as well as standing on one leg was all the answer he needed to press the young woman.
"What drug?" he pushed a little more gently as he got up from the chair he had been sitting in; impressing his partner. Mike had seen this before as an MP with his fellow soldiers and could sympathize with Tasha since it had been her friend.
"Uppers of various types; for school so that she could cram every chance she could. Alice was constantly concerned about her grades," admitted the blonde and Spencer nodded, having to relate given her own drug problem back in high school.
"How bad did it get?" Toby inquired, starting to get a feeling of deja vu given that this was all eerily familiar. Spencer's drug problem had caused some problems in their relationship as well as used by Charles.
"Well I had to cover for her a number of times with the manager when she started freaking out from taking too many pills. These last few weeks, she had been acting so paranoid that I thought that maybe Alice had moved on to taking something worse. But I looked at where she usually kept her stashes and couldn't find anything," informed Tasha as she sighed and looked around the room as if she was still mourning her friend.
"Who did she buy from and could she have been lying about the trip to hide her habit?" Spencer asked, wondering if Alice had been abducted when she had been trying to score. With the reveal that there might be a new A, some things were starting to click in her mind.
"No; we both won those tickets in some sort of contest but I couldn't go so she went by herself instead," answered the young blonde and she was quite adamant that the trip had been real.
"Why couldn't you go?" Mike asked, writing all of this down on his notepad with the computer unhooked and ready to be transported back to the office.
"Let's just say that I am not as good as a student as Alice is so I had to spend my breaks in the library. Alice had offered to stay and tutor me but I really thought she could have used the trip as a break to get away from anything," Tasha answered with her voice cracking and tears appearing in her eyes. Spencer got up suddenly and went to the young woman's side as she began to cry because of her diseased friend.
"Are you okay?" Spencer asked Tasha as she comforted the crying blonde. It was a rather dumb thing to say to the blond in her opinion but she couldn't think of anything else given that it had been years that she last had to comfort someone.
"It's all my fault; I should have gone with her or let her stay to tutor me. She's gone because of me," stated the young woman in between sobs. Spencer saw the guilt in her eyes as well as heard the pain in her voice.
"This is not your fault; it is the person who did this to your friend," Spencer pressed adamantly while looking into Tasha's eyes. Looking at the young woman mourning her friend, the FBI Agent had a sense of anger and determination awash over her.
"Really?" asked the woman, the guilt still evident in her voice and looking uncertain. Spencer stared into her eyes and nodded, almost a little too aggressively.
"Yes; I promise you that we will find out who did this and make him or her pay. You just need to stay strong for your friend; ok?" Spencer said and Tasha nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. Spencer looked over at Toby and he nodded while Mike continuing to write everything down.
"Do you still have those tickets and information on the trip?" Toby inquired, trying to get things back on track. He was glad that he brought Spencer given that she was better at comforting people than he was. It stemmed back to the days of high school when she and the other girls had to rely on each other for support.
"Yes; I'll go get it," Tasha answered and left the room to go get the stuff from her room. Once she was gone, Spencer turned back to the two police officers.
"Things are starting to make sense now; I know why Ms. Buto had been dressed up that way in Brookhaven," Spencer stated with pure professionalism in her voice. Toby knew she was in full investigative mode from past experience with his girlfriend.
"She was made to emulate Aria," Mike stated and Spencer nodded in reply. Toby didn't like where this was going since it brought up bad thoughts on what was to come.
"Which means that there will definitely be more bodies to come in the coming days," Toby said, not wanting to make it so poetic give the seriousness of the situation.
"Are we dealing with a copycat though?" Mike asked, slightly confused since Charles had been dead for years now and supposedly had no partner.
"Or the original A," Spencer mused, then kicking herself for saying it out loud and Mike suddenly became furious about what she was insinuating.
"Mona is not responsible for this," he said adamantly as he took a step toward Spencer which caused Toby to step in between the two.
"Mike, stand down; Spencer, I agree with Mike that Mona can't be the person behind this," Toby stated and while Mike looked pleased, Spencer looked over at her boyfriend in shock since he was supposed to be siding with her.
"Why do you say that; the messages totally fit her MO," Spencer said though logically it didn't make sense if you thought about it.
"Mona messaged people; not kill them and dress them up. That was what Charles did and you know it," Toby stated to her, trying to be as gentle but firm as possible. His girlfriend's main problem was that she always jumped to conclusions before thinking something out which had caused her problems in the past.
"You're right, I am sorry. I just got caught up in the moment," said the young FBI Agent, thinking about it and cursing her abrasiveness since she thought that she had outgrown that. Mike continued to glare at her and Toby had to get him away from her to cool off.
"Get that back to the car with the computer; we'll join you when we get what we need from Ms. Lamont," Toby ordered his partner and Mike nodded, still glaring at spencer as he picked up the computer and then left the room.
"I'm sorry; I was just musing and should have kept it to myself," Spencer said with guilt in her voice and looking apologetic to her boyfriend.
"This isn't Mona and you have to stop blaming her for everything that went bad in the past," said the young man, rubbing his girlfriend's shoulder. Spencer had done that a few times in the past when it became apparent that Aria and Hanna were never going to reconcile with Alison.
"I know; we are all responsible for our own weaknesses and faults. I just wish we would have had a chance to make nice with her and that I hadn't listened to Alison when I did. Maybe I could have patched things up between Mon and Alison like Hanna had suggested," said the young woman with a good amount of regret in her voice.
That had been the plan in the beginning, right after they had escaped the Hell of the dollhouse. The core four had realized that the infighting between all those hurt by Charles had to end; especially when it came to the war between Mona and Alison. It was because of that division that they couldn't take the fight to A so Hanna came up with the idea of mending the fences between the two adversaries for good. Spencer believed that the blonde wanted all the girls to become friends and put the past behind them. It had been a long shot but had a chance to work until Spencer had screwed it up.
Now they were still paying the price for that mistake.
"So do you think this is a copycat?" Toby asked, bringing up the matter at hand. He was already starting to regret having to let Tanner know about this since she had been a part of the drama as well.
"Maybe; some things were never found out because Charles took a few secrets to his grave so there is a chance he had a friend or two on the outside to continue his work," answered the young agent with a frown.
"We also have to consider that someone disturbed read Aria and Ezra's book; becoming inspired and mimicking A," suggested the officer.
A few years after everything was resolved, Ezra and Aria had released a book detailing what had happened in regards to A. The two had received everyone's permission of course, even Alison who wanted her side of events out there. Spencer felt that the book was a way for the complete truth to be out there in order to settle all the bad gossip that had spread during that time. The general consensus had been that everyone, including Charles, had been in the grey no real villain in the events that had transpired in Rosewood. Though people seemed to hold Mona in more regard than Alison once everything was out there; seeing the small woman as an unfortunate victim of circumstance.
"Here you go; we actually got the tickets from a place just up the street from here. A travel agency that I used to work for if you needed more information," Tasha said as she returned with an open envelope which she handed to Spencer. The FBI Agent took the envelope and scanned its contents briefly.
"Thank you; we will probably be back for more information at some point so if you can keep a hold of her stuff, we'd appreciate it," stated Spencer and the young blonde nodded. The two then left the apartment to rejoin Mike at the car.
"Maybe we should check out that travel agency while we are in the area," Toby suggested as they walked downstairs and towards the Manager's office in order to get the security tapes for anyone suspicious.
"Sounds like a good idea; should we take the car or walk?" inquired the young woman as they approached the office and she then knocked on the door, waiting for a reply. When there was no answer, Spencer knocked again and then tried the door; finding it locked.
"We could always come back after checking out the travel agency and we might need to come back with a warrant anyways," said the older officer since he knew from experience that the people who ran places like this enjoyed their privacy.
"We'll do that then; we could always canvas the area to see if we could get anymore camera footage in case A had been watching the place," Spencer said as the thought of someone mimicking one of the worst incidents from her past filled her with dread.
When she'd left Rosewood then years ago, Spencer thought the nightmare of A was done for good. While all the time before the final three weeks had been bad, the Dollhouse had left scars on all of them. Even though it had only been for a few days, the four girls had been treated horribly and would never forget what had occurred. They had been left out in the cold, starved, forced to dress up like dolls, and played with by Charles. Looking back, Mona had been the one who had there the longest when she had been forced to act like Alison; which had made the accusations against her all the more ridiculous. Sometimes, Spencer couldn't believe how naïve and quick to judgment she was; even after all of these years.
Mike was at the car waiting for them with his arms folded; Toby tossed him the keys which he caught easily.
"Take the computer back to the office and make sure it's secured. Spencer and I are going to check out a possible lead," ordered the senior officer. His partner nodded and got into the car while the other two headed off down the street to the address of the travel agency was on the envelope.
"That was a good idea; the last thing we needed was for us to lose something critical like that because we didn't make sure it was safe," Spencer stated, impressed that her boyfriend was being cautious. She remembered all those times in the past where the girls lost critical pieces of information because they just left them in an open room to be grabbed.
"Tanner has never forgotten that break in by Charles all those years ago and our evidence locker is just about secure as Fort Knox," stated Toby with a smile. Some of his fellow officers had complained about the issue but they had no clue what had happened back in the day.
"I am surprised that A would not grab the computer or at least erase the hard drive when he or she had the chance. I think we might be dealing with an amateur," stated the young agent as they walked down the street. Though it was about noon, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of people about but that could just be because of the area they were in.
"Or he or she did it intentionally in order to taunt us; maybe that was the whole reason for us finding the body like that," Toby suggested as a dark thought began to form in his head. Spencer began to grasp what he was suggesting and shuddered.
"You think someone might be continuing The Game," said the young woman, hating that term since Mona and Charles had called it that. To this day, Spencer couldn't hear the word "game" without cringing at the sound of it.
"It's a thought; one that I hope isn't true because even Charles never killed anyone except Bethany and his own Mother," stated the older man, which Spencer nodded in agreement. Even though no one else had died, it was miracle that any of them had survived the ordeal.
Spencer was about to say something when they approached the travel agency and a familiar face walked out of the front door; all three freezing when their eyes met.
It was Mona.
Please and Review; also a shout out to my friend Paraddicted for the pre-read and you should check out her stories!