Missing
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: There's a lot of important things that are discussed here in this chapter. As always, but even more now, pay attention to everything that happens and that is discussed.
Chapter 4 (An Investigation Reopened)
Tori and David took Victoria to the local ice cream shop for ice cream and milkshakes. As the child ate what could very well be her first ice cream cone, Tori watched the girl and studied everything she could. She was still processing the news and what it could mean for Trina.
The more she thought about it, the more her heart broke for her sister and for the hardships this girl must have gone through. "Having seen first-hand the things victims go through, Dad…" She cupped her hand over her mouth as the man's eyes shifted towards her. "I can only imagine what Trina and Victoria have gone through. You didn't see those bruises on the girl's back. Not to mention how thin she is. She eats like every meal's her last."
When Victoria looked up from the ice cream cone, Tori couldn't help but to smile. The child's eyes were wide and excited, and she had ice cream splattered around her lips like the mouth of a clown.
She took the napkin and reached over, carefully wiping the ice cream from the girl's face. Victoria tilted her head up for her and held her smile. "Careful not to eat too fast, you don't want to get a brain freeze." Victoria stopped and looked to the ice cream with a puzzled expression, her eyes studied the part of the cone where melted ice cream was flowing.
David started to laugh, startling Tori. "I can tell she hasn't had an ice cream cone before. She looks exactly like your sister did when she first had an ice cream cone. If she eats too fast, then she'll get a brain freeze but if she eats too slow, it'll melt away." Tori folded her arms on the table and curved up her lips while trying to remember the first time she ever had an ice cream cone.
"I don't think you ever took me out for ice cream when I was growing up."
"I did, but your mother never liked for me to, so I stopped and continued taking Trina out." She furrowed her brow and looked away as her heart pulsed anxiously.
"I used to think Trina was your favorite because of that, or at least, that's what mom always said." She watched Victoria take a giant bite of ice cream, then stop to stare at it with wide eyes. Tori stifled a laugh. "Looks like she just got a brain freeze."
"I tried not to play favorites. It caused so much conflict between your mother and myself that I stopped spending time with the family just to please the woman."
"I remember." She knew the truth regarding Holly, because David told her a long time ago.
Trina wasn't Holly's child. The girl was born out of relationship David had with some other woman, so no matter what she did, Holly always thought David was playing favorites.
"Mom never liked Trina all that much, she didn't even seem to care when Trina went missing." She wanted to investigate her own mother on that aspect, but in legal matters you can't investigate someone on a lack of concern-unless their behavior was suspicious. "She never acted suspiciously, did she?"
"No. She only kept saying Trina would probably show up when she wanted to." He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "I loved the both of you equally, but in her eyes it was as if I didn't just value Trina more than you, it was as though I valued her more than even her. Your mother hated Trina as much as she hated the woman that gave birth to her."
"Whatever happened to that woman?"
"I wouldn't know. She didn't want the child, so I insisted on taking my daughter and raising her. Your mother was jealous, but ill feelings doesn't always mean criminal act, as you're well aware of."
Tori cupped her hands together beneath her chin and flared her nostrils as she breathed. "Right." Those ill feelings and the lack of concern for Trina was the whole reason they were estranged from the woman in the first place. "I wonder if we should even tell her about Victoria."
"Right now?" He scowled and shook his head. "I wouldn't." Her gaze drifted out the corners and she rolled her head sideways to turn her view fuller onto him. His hand fell onto the table with a gentle pat and he glanced to his granddaughter. "Trina's daughter is alive, but just the fact that she's Trina's daughter…"
"Wouldn't mom deserve to know?"
"Would she even care? Besides, think about how you found Victoria. If the killer knew she were alive and how to find her-just mentioning it to your mother might cause her to mention it to someone else, and it could get around."
"You're right." She straightened her back and shifted her hands down to the table. She didn't want to do anything that would throw this child's life into jeopardy, more so now that she knew who the girl was. "Who do you think the father is?"
"No idea."
She hoped it would be Sinjin, but things were complicated now. Sinjin never gave up on Trina, but after nine years he was beginning to move on with his life. Mainly at her urging that since he turned thirty-one, he should not continue to dwell.
He was dating someone now that he met at the college he was teaching at, and that other professor was more of a bitch than anyone Tori ever met. Even Jade called the woman a bitch. Still, Tori didn't want to bother Sinjin with it, especially when she was the one that told him to start dating again.
"If Trina's still out there. So many things have changed. Can you imagine if Sinjin was the father?"
"The woman he's with wouldn't be happy." David's hand circled his mouth and his eyebrows flattened down and moved inwards, pushing up a wrinkle between the two. "I didn't think Trina would have been pregnant around then, but Victoria's age seems accurate. Trina went missing nine years ago, the girl's eight years old…it would say a lot that Victoria's dad isn't her kidnapper."
He dropped his hand and looked over with a smirk. "It is…nice to know I finally have a grandkid." Her right eyebrow rose and her lips fell into a frown.
"Finally? What do you mean, finally?"
"Well dear." He put a closed hand to his left temple and turned his head to her. "We all knew you were never going to have kids." Tori smacked his arm and he laughed.
"I just haven't been interested in relationships, that's all. I don't exactly have a schedule that allows for a relationship, much less a full time family."
Truth be told, she wouldn't mind having children, but just watching Jade juggle her professional life with her family life made it appear much harder than the woman admitted. She didn't think she could do the job, but now that Trina's daughter just got thrown into her life, she was going to have to do her best.
"I'm not exactly mother material, Dad." She hesitated and twisted around to him. "And what do you mean 'we all knew'? Who else thinks this?"
"Your best friend, for one." Tori narrowed her eyes and scoffed. "Beck and Jade have been over many times and we've discussed the fact that you do nothing but work, work, work."
"So now you're saying I'm a workaholic?"
"Pretty much. You have no social life, sweetheart."
"Says the old man who spends the majority of his day sleeping."
"I'm an old man, I have justifiable reasons. You're a twenty-seven year old woman who would rather spend your days at the crime lab and nights going over every case you're working on."
"Someone has to do it."
At the other end of the restaurant, she saw a familiar woman walking around. It was an old friend of hers, Cat Valentine's former roommate, Sam Puckett. The girl spotted them and began to make her way over. "Hey, fancy meeting you here," Sam remarked, "And who is this little one?"
Victoria shifted away and Tori moved quick to comfort the girl. "It's okay Victoria, this is just an old friend of ours, Samantha." Victoria hummed and leaned her back against the wall. Tori exhaled and glanced up to Sam. "It's a difficult story, Sam. So what are you doing here? Just stopping for something to eat also?"
"Yeah, anything to keep me up. Narcotics has me going undercover tonight, another drug bust." Sam ran her hand over her neck and cracked her head to the right. "It's going to be a long night."
"I hear you." It was Tori that helped her get the job. When Cat left LA, Sam stuck around, hoping the girl would come back, so when she made that decision to stick around she needed a job. Tori pulled some strings with her supervisor, who was good friends with the narcotics department night shift supervisor, and Sam was called in the next day for an interview based off the criminal justice classes she'd been taking in college.
"You know, her grandmother passed away about a month ago." Tori frowned and Sam leaned her shoulder against the wall beside the booth. "Funeral was held and Cat was nowhere to be found. You'd think her Nona passing, she'd hear about it and be there."
Sam never was that close to the grandmother, from what Tori understood. So the fact that she attended the funeral was a surprise. "You went, obviously."
Sam's shoulders rose and her eyes darted to the side. "Yeah well…I was kind of hoping Cat would show up after all this time." Tori looked to Victoria and rolled her head to the right. The girl was gazing out the window, her eyes seemed to be focused on flock of birds flying in circles in the sky. The look on her face was the same that Trina had whenever she was trying to distract herself.
"It's a shame she didn't show."
"Maybe one day." There was a sad note in her voice, but almost instantly she changed to a more serious tune. "Anyway, the undercover narcotics squad got assigned a new team leader."
Tori leaned back and hung her elbows over the top of the seat. "Do tell." She crossed her legs and smiled as Sam pushed off of the wall.
"He's fairly young. Thirty-one or thirty-two, great leadership skills got him the job apparently." Her lips fell open and Sam picked off a piece of lint from her shoulder. "Small town wonders, I guess."
"That would explain it." Sam didn't live directly in LA anymore. She was about ten to twenty minutes out in a town with less than a thousand residents. All Tori knew of it was that mainly wealthy people lived there, as well as a large population of elderly. There were plenty of young people, though, and of course it was so small that drugs were often exchanged out there. It was only within the last few years that the town was forced to start a narcotics squad.
"Jesse Klein. Fairly intelligent, I suppose." Sam crossed her arms and scrunched her nose. "We've already caught a record of people selling drugs with his help."
"You don't sound too thrilled."
"Eh, I'm fine with the guy, just getting tired of the small town. Thought it'd be quieter."
"Yeah." Tori looked out the window and her hand closed slowly. "You're in the wrong career field if you're looking for silence."
"Jade's right." Tori raised an eyebrow and shot a look at Sam. "You're way too serious these days. I mean, I understand why, with what happened to your sister and all, but you have to learn to live too. That's what you've told everyone, even that Sinjin guy, take your own advice."
"My sister's alive, Sam." Sam's eyes widened and Tori moved her arms away from the top of the seat. "New information has come up, and we think she's still out there somewhere. If anyone needs to be serious right now, it's me."
"My god." Sam exhaled sharply and took a step forward. "I didn't know. What do you know so far? Anything?"
"Nothing I can mention here." She glanced at Victoria and Sam's gaze followed. Sam's mouth closed and the lump in her throat fell. "If Trina really is still out there. I'm going to find her." A smile flickered at Victoria's lips and the child looked up to her with admiration. "If it's the last thing I do."
Okay tell me what you thought of all discussed in this chapter. Also brace yourselves, the next chapter we will see Trina for the first time. Also go in with an open mind because we will not yet see the two main captors, but some people who are forced to be there.