Bury the Past

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 13 (Another Angle)

Seated across from her was Daniel Mattis, the boy that Tori dated long ago and, according to Beck, hooked up with her again in recent years. "So Danny, I hear you and Miss Vega started dating again." She tapped her nails gently on the surface of the table and slanted her eyes. Danny's eyes slid towards her and his eyebrows started to rise. "And you got into a few nasty arguments with Mr. Harris."

She laid out the photographs of the four victims and pointed to Tori. "Tori and Andre were the key victims of one man's rage. Her mother and friend were caught up in this attack. Two people are dead, Danny, one is in a coma and the other has been left paralyzed."

"Am I under arrest?" He turned his eyes up and put his hand to his chest. "Am I being accused?" She leaned back slowly, her nostrils flaring out. In the past, there had been so much she wanted to do to this guy because of what he did to her little sister. Unfortunately none of that applied now.

"No. We are simply trying to consider all our options. Did you or did you not start up a relationship with Tori Vega recently?"

"I did, but that was three or four years ago." Danny crossed his arms and Trina felt her heart beginning to sink. She didn't fully believe he had done it, but it was the strongest and most viable lead they had found.

He had a record of assault as well, and had been to jail a few times. Trina pulled open the file she had on him and pushed a sheet of paper in front of him. "You've been arrested for assault, and DWI."

"Doesn't mean I had anything to do with what happened to Tori and her family." Danny nodded and pushed the paper back. "I had gotten into a few tussles with Andre when dating Tori. He was so protective of her, even when we were together, that I was getting sick of it." Danny's eyes narrowed and his voice started to rise. "We argued, and yes I came close to hitting her in anger, but I would never kill somebody."

"An abuser doesn't always intend to murder, but we've seen those situations end that way." Danny frowned, and his entire body seemed to drop as though he were giving up. "Where were you that evening?"

"Bowling with friends. I won. I have the ticket in my jacket." He pointed his thumb to the jacket hanging on his chair. "Inside breast pocket, left flap." Trina looked to the officer in the room and motioned to the jacket. Danny raised his hands to his face, sighing into them and groaning as the officer began searching the jacket. "I did care about her. The first time we dated, I screwed up. When I was with Cat, I screwed up." He lowered his hands, revealing watery eyes. "I could never do to her what that bastard did that night."

The officer removed a scorecard from the jacket and handed it to Trina. She read it aloud, checking the date and the score. "Okay." She set it down in her folder and Danny bowed his head. "You don't mind us calling your friends that you played with, just in case?"

"Go for it." The officer handed him a pen and paper, instructing him to write down the names. "I won't mince words, I'm not surprised to hear about Andre. He always came across possessive, almost as possessive as his best friend, but not as unbearable. They kind of complimented each other."

Trina raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "Which best friend?" She had a feeling in her gut, but wanted to hear it from this man himself.

"Beck Oliver." Danny set the pen down on top of the paper and raised his eyebrows high. "When I was dating Tori, I'd personally see Beck keeping Jade close by and in his sight. He was always checking on her and smothering her…which is strange, because I don't remember him like that in high school."

"People do change as they grow." She crossed her arms and started to hum. "Do you know if he was like this when they started working?"

"Yeah." Danny motioned to Jade's photograph. "She got a job somewhere, he got a job elsewhere. When they weren't together, I remember it was like he couldn't wait for her to get off work. She needed to be home right after she got off, and had to stay there. If she did go out, he needed to know where she was and what she was doing at all times. He was possessive as fuck, if you'll pardon my language…"

"Sure…" She moved her hair over her shoulder and looked down to the folder. "Did you ever notice any other strange behaviors from them when you were dating Tori?"

"Not much. They had a fairly dysfunctional relationship. Both were paranoid the other was cheating on them." Danny folded his forearms on the table and leaned towards her. "Though if you ask me, she was the one looking for fun. He was always busy working, so she was on the prowl-not the other way around."

"Do you know this, or are you making an assumption of character?"

Danny scoffed and leaned back, sweeping his hands out. "Hell, she even approached me, asking if I knew anybody that would be willing to take her out somewhere. She was unhappy, but didn't want to leave her meal ticket. She just needed a man-whore on the side!"

"And did you accept her approaches?"

"Hell no! I wasn't going to go near that mess." Danny shook his head several times and cleared his throat. "I don't even want to know what Beck would have done if he even remotely suspected I'd try and touch his woman." Trina's eyes narrowed and the corner of her mouth slid into a smirk.

"Sounds like you had reason to fear him."

"I wasn't so much afraid of him as I didn't want to earn his ire or cause a huge fight between him and his girlfriend, or him and myself." Danny's hands moved to his chest and his eyebrows rose. "I had enough contention with Andre scrutinizing my every move."

"And that is why I ask you about Andre and Tori. My concern here is that you could have been angry enough, or vengeful enough to go after them."

"Right, I got that, but I don't hold grudges years later."

"Why would you be fingered, then?"

"I don't know. Maybe whoever pointed at me just didn't like me."

Just then, the officer walked up to her with a sheet of paper given to him by a lab technician. "You need to see this, Detective." Trina looked up at him and took the report. What she saw was not only stunning, but it frightened her. "Three out of four victims were HIV positive. The blood on the windowsill belonging to the killer-"

"Also HIV positive," she muttered. The only one that wasn't was Holly. Danny blinked twice and leaned back, both of them were aware he did not have this in his blood. "Danny. You're free to go…just stay close and don't leave town, okay?"

She cupped her hand over her mouth, furrowing her brow and waiting as the officer guided Danny out of the room. "It can't be." David entered and sat across from her, staring at the report in her trembling hand. "Dad, this can't be right."

"We know at least every one of the porn stars we've spoken with have been positively tested with HIV," David replied, "Many of them were caught unaware. Some were highly agitated when they found out."

She was aware of this, and knew it would give them great cause for motive. "These results could be indicative of a false positive. The blood needs to be isolated, because both the killer and one of our victims have blood on the same surface. That could have contaminated the other."

"Very true. One may be a true positive and the other might not." David took the report and frowned. "The question here is…which one is the true positive?" Trina raised her hand to her left temple and leaned towards the touch, rubbing her forehead with a groan.

It had been harder to focus lately with what happened to Martin, but she still had no clue what Beck would have been delivering all the way over there. "Beck has a cousin over in that area," Trina said. David arched an eyebrow. "But that doesn't explain him delivering window panes to Oasis Canyon."

"Sure it does. If people in that area moved there from LA and used his company, and were loyal enough, they could order special from there. There are a number of reasons why a company will send a truck out for hours."

"I guess." She raised her head, groaning softly. "Sorry to bring it up."

"It's hard, I know."

Trina shook herself and dropped her hand to the table. "Something else I remember. Back in the day, when I would be out practicing my martial arts, I'd see Beck from time to time."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, we wouldn't talk or anything. I would just be practicing and he'd be running around the park. He was very into athleticism and would be involved in things like parkour..." She didn't consider if this whole thing with Martin had been an effort to distract her or not, and if it had been, she had to figure out why. "Do you think we need to consider Beck a suspect?"

"Why?" David curled a finger over his upper lip and his eyebrows flattened.

"Well…" She straightened her back and opened her hands. "He knows I'm investigating this case, and he went after my husband. I think he has lied to us on multiple occasions, and I'm not quite convinced of his back trouble." David dropped his hand and smiled.

"I think we should look into this. He may not be the perp, but given recent actions, he is a person of interest. We certainly need to check him out." She nodded and peered down at her hands, fidgeting with them in her lap. David's head tilted as he watched her. "So this Martin. You said his first date, he took you over to Mt. Lemmon with what?" Her eyes lit up and she smiled wide, remembering the date.

"Popcorn, chocolate covered raisins, and orange soda."

"Wow."

"I thought it was romantic." She chuckled softly and closed her eyes. "I wound up doing the same thing for him on a spur of the moment date night not that long ago."

David's thumb tapped the steering wheel. "What made you choose him?" Trina raised her eyebrows and felt a rush of blood rise to her cheeks. "What I saw of him, he didn't appear to be athletic."

"He's not. He jogs a little, but he's not athletic."

"Growing up, that was all you'd date. I recall the last man you dated, some martial arts expert that moved back to Texas. Muscular and toned."

"Martin came up to me, he was shy and nervous, but honest. He didn't have a clue what he was doing, but he had to try." She looked down and a smile formed on her face. "He was smart, and was always trying to impress me with his knowledge."

"How'd you meet?"

"I would go jogging around the park outside of the university he was at, he'd always be on the bench reading some book. Eventually, I stopped to talk to him about something he was reading…we became friends. One day we were in the park and he just started blushing and telling me how he didn't want to mess up a friendship, but he was hoping to take me out on a date. It was nice."

"You miss him?"

"Yeah. He's a good man."

"Sounds like it." David stood up and extended his hand to her, helping her up. They left the room and started towards the exit of the building. "I remember when you were a little girl, I always said I was going to be the father that scares away any boy that comes near my little girl." She smirked and he started to chuckle. "You meet a man out of my line of vision and now you're married…"

There was a small change she noticed in his expression, a hint of sadness flashing across his face. "Gary walked you down the aisle, I guess?" He pushed the door open and waited as she walked out.

"Yeah. Martin thought Gary was my real dad for a while." He may as well have been during those years. Many times when she called Gary 'dad', she didn't do so out of a false act, but because she felt like he was close enough to being her father. "It was hard to talk to him about my past. I didn't want to scare him off or make him think I was damaged goods."

"You're anything but that." They stopped in the middle of the parking lot and she turned to him, gazing up solemnly.

"You think so? After everything I've been through?"

"You've been through a lot, but you're a tough girl. You've risen above a lot of it." Her heart lifted up and she smiled at her father. "You're stronger than you give yourself credit for."

"Thanks, Dad." It was difficult to talk about her feelings with him, and by that same token, she figured he was the same way. Some things didn't need to be said, while other things were far more difficult to say.

She gave him a pat on the arm, then moved for the car, catching a glimpse of a smile from him as she turned. It didn't seem like much, but that look of pride in his eyes was everything to her. Perhaps he needed her as much as she needed her dad. It had been so long that she didn't even know where to start.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to walk me down the aisle at my wedding." He shrugged and entered the car, saying little. Trina got in and looked at him with a tiny smirk. He wasn't emotionless or hard, she knew how he felt about the matter, whether or not he spoke up. It was something he'd talked about doing throughout her life, something he looked forward to.

"I know I wasn't the best dad in the world, and certainly not the easiest person to get along with. I should have been there for you." He started up the car and glanced sideways at her. "There was nothing you did that was wrong, Trina. If you know nothing else, I want you to know that. Nothing you did was wrong."

She dipped her eyes and slowly rubbed her arm. "Still hurts from time to time." She raised her head, glancing out of the car. "You know…the community Gary and Carol live, there were a string of robberies going on. One of those guys had the same name. 'Ned'. It was weird, almost surreal. Different guy, same name, doing the same shit." She tapped her chest and looked at her father, watching the frown grow on his face. "I stopped them, Dad. I actually stopped them."

"Good."

"Back then…why did you ignore me? Why did you act like what happened to us changed me? Made me worse?"

"It didn't change you, Trina. Not for the worse, it changed me." He sighed and dropped his shoulders. His eyes poured out onto the scene before them and his voice started to tremble. "I was guilty, ashamed. I couldn't protect my own family. My parents, my daughter. What kind of a cop was I that I couldn't defend you?"

"You were a damn good cop." He closed his eyes, chuckling in defiance. She placed a hand on his shoulder and turned fully towards him. "Everything I know, everything I learned, I learned from you. Even now, I'm still learning from you." His eyes opened partially and his lips curled into a half smile. "I wanted to be a detective just like you, nothing about that changed. If anything, those two men made me want to be a cop even more, just to put bastards like them away."

"Yeah, but now look where we are. Your mother, your sister…"

"Well put whoever did this to them away."

"I'm thinking…" He swallowed and shifted the car into drive. "I'm thinking I may retire after this. I'm not sure I can take much more." David looked at her with a mild laugh. "Besides, I've had my fill. It's your turn to shine."

"Think I'll be a good cop, Dad?"

His smile grew.

"A damn good one." Her heart skipped as David pressed down on the gas. "Come on, let's go catch the bastard that hurt your mom and sister."

Thoughts? Observations?