Bury the Past

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 18 (Pieces of the Puzzle)

"My supervisor feels Beck may be our prime suspect on this case." David scratched his chin and looked to a large bulletin board. On it was a photo of Beck and the four victims. Trina was leaning backwards, gripping the edge of a small table as she studied the photos. "We've found a lot of circumstantial, however."

"We have a gun." Trina looked over her shoulder, studying a box and a manila folder stuffed with papers. "We have a file that states he was tested positive for HIV." She raised her hand, pointing at her dad. "You also found a pair of brass knuckles stuffed into a drawer."

"Yes, but that's circumstantial." David paced to the right and groaned. "Because of Jade's mental state right now, we can't do anything to her without Beck's permission. We can't interrogate her, we can't test her for HIV either."

"You think she has it?"

"If Beck has it, his wife might very well have it too." She hated to admit it, but David was right. There was no doubt Jade was HIV positive at this point, but the question was how did she contract it? "We know that Jade may have been looking for something on the side, so if she had an affair, it's possible she slept with someone that had HIV."

She hated what this suggested, because the thought that came to her mind was suggesting Jade slept with her sister. That fact enraged her, perhaps as much as Andre, because she never approved of either. "What about the books she'd written? She handed us those stories…"

"On one hand, they could be just that. Works of fiction." David tensed his brow and started to hum. "On the other hand, from day one it's felt like she's been trying to tell us something." He closed his eyes and sighed. "I don't like the idea that she could be the mystery girl, but again, without her own statement we have nothing that suggests she was sleeping with them. We have nothing that suggests she or her husband got HIV from our victims. Without the evidence, all of this is wild speculation."

"Yeah, and if Beck is the person of interest, there's no way in hell he's going to let us talk to his wife."

"Especially not after that last stunt." Jade's slamming into the bookshelf may have appeared accidental, but Trina was questioning it when Jade looked over before backing up and then became incredibly calm after the vase shattered.

David's index finger ran slowly across his upper lip, and determination swelled in his eyes. "We need to find a way to talk to Jade."

"And isolate her." It was a problem she had; Beck was always at her side. "I don't believe this amnesia thing for a minute, either…it's just a feeling I have." She closed her shoulders and arched her back, sighing heavily. "When we first met her, she knew me in an instant."

"You noticed that as well?"

"Yeah." Studying Jade in the initial encounter, the woman was very responsive to her husband's statements. "She didn't look like she believed a thing Beck was saying about his back injury either."

"You don't believe he's got a back injury?"

"That, and if he did, he hasn't been able to produce a record of it."

"My supervisor has looked into the accident Beck claims to have been in, but has found no incident reports matching the account." Trina leaned her head back for a moment, then bowed it. Her shoulders fell and her heart started to sink.

"Unless we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Beck was in that room that night, we have nothing."

"He can walk with a really good attorney, but we also have to be certain it's him." It seemed like David's supervisor was doing just about as much work as they were, so she wanted to know what conclusion this man was drawing. "Before you go suggesting Beck is our primary, we have to be sure you don't let your personal feelings get in the way…especially after his confrontation with your husband."

"I know. Your supervisor seems to be doing just as much work, what do they say?"

"He's starting to draw on the possibility of Beck being the guy. He just needs to find a way to prove it. We have to prove Beck has the motive, the ability and the means." David took a deep breath and lowered his hand. "Even if ballistics come back a match on that gun, we have to prove he fired it."

"His alibi isn't so strong. At home, nursing a headache, while his wife was with her friends."

"Right. It's an easy alibi to discredit and a hard one to prove."

Their next step was to visit the blood donation clinic that turned Beck down. They needed to gauge his reaction. They found the woman that denied him, she was a friendly woman with dark black hair pulled back into a bun. "So you've worked with Beck in the past?"

"Oh yes," the woman replied, "He was a regular." She frowned and put her hand to her chest. "It was painful to turn him down. He would come donate every two weeks, said he loved helping out those that needed it." What she was hearing was donating blood and plasma was something that Beck was passionate about, something of a livelihood, if nothing else.

"What happened when he was turned down?"

"I think it took a minute for the shock to register." The woman folded her forearms on the desk and looked down, patting her arm gently. "I tested him again and he still came up with having a disqualifying disease. He started to panic, becoming almost belligerent and confused, demanding that I keep testing him and questioning how he could be positive." The woman lifted her sorrowful eyes up and shook her head. "He was trembling terribly at that point, scratching his head and sweating. It was the first time we had to call security on him."

"You called security?"

"We were concerned about his safety as well as ours or other clients here. I asked him if he'd slept with anyone beside his wife, he told me he hadn't. He also said his wife hadn't slept around with anyone else either, as far as he knew. It was 'impossible', and they had a 'picture perfect relationship'."

Concerned this was a trigger-point, they drove to the doctor that confirmed a positive test result. They had a warrant ready and the doctor led them into his office. The man was in his fifties and looked somewhat like the Colonel of KFC, without the moustache and a shorter goatee.

"It was concerning," the doctor pushed an ink pen into the chest pocket of his white coat and then adjusted his thick glasses. "He always came in for his routine checkups, never had a single issue that I can think of." Trina squinted her eyes and leaned forward, pushing her enclosed hands on the desk.

"Really? What about back trouble, Dr. Peterson?" The doctor raised an eyebrow and scratched his beard.

"He is in tip-top shape as far as physique goes. If he has claimed back trouble, it is an issue he has not brought up with me." David and Trina looked at each other with surprise and turned their focus back to the doctor. This was new information, and incredible as far as the investigation was concerned.

"How did he respond to the positive HIV test?" Dr. Peterson bowed his head a bit and shook his head.

"Devastated, distraught, and confused. He paced about my office, mumbling about the how's an why's of getting the disease. I told him it wasn't strictly through sex that it was contracted, HIV can be contacted through the exchange of blood and or bodily fluids."

"He didn't accept that advice, I take?" David raised a hand to his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Do you know if he decided to take action towards discovering the cause?"

"Oh yes. He told me he hired a private investigator. One Mitchel Pierson. He was adamant about finding out whether or not he got infected by his wife, distraught and horrified to think she was stepping out on him."

Trina narrowed her eyes. "He can't have taken that well after years of her accusing him of having affairs."

"No he didn't…he brought it up repeatedly how 'hypocritical' she must be if she had been cheating on him. He informed me that he never once cheated, but loved her enough to be patient and accept her paranoia."

"Did he ever come to you about whether or not he made a discovery?"

"No, but Mr. Pierson would be the best person to inquire about that. I suggest contacting him, Detectives."

"We'll do that." Trina smiled gently and nodded. "Thank you for your time."

Mr. Pierson wasn't difficult to talk with, just as the others hadn't been. The man's office was neat and tidy, and he was dressed well. He had a thick brown moustache that blew with each breath he exhaled. "I do remember that case," Mitchel stated, "I must have followed his wife for ages. He didn't want to believe she could cheat on him, and was adamant that she hadn't. He continued to tell me about how he contracted HIV, and how his life was ruined because of it."

"Ruined?" Trina arched an eyebrow. "Ruined how, Investigator?"

"Donating was his life, his everything. Now he couldn't do that. He'd been handed a death sentence and something that he was incredibly passionate about was cut off…I'd say he was pretty pissed about that, he couldn't stop talking about it."

"And did you discover anything?"

"I did." Mitchel removed a folder from his file cabinet and handed it to them, he had a solemn look on his face and pressed his lips inwards. "These are the copies of the photographs I took, and my notes."

David opened the notes and Trina leaned sideways, looking over his shoulders at the photographs. Many of the initial ones showed Jade walking around, or talking with Tori.

There were quite a few pictures of Tori, which was surprising. "In my following of them, I could tell they had a deep relationship going on. I believe it was Mrs. Oliver's first foray into a lesbian relationship, but as I've stated in my notes, Jade seemed to want the company of a guy as well…"

"Okay." The next series of photographs horrified her. Jade was being pleasured by Tori, rubbing together in bed. In one, Tori had been wearing a strap-on. Trina nearly turned away, too disgusted to see the activities her sister had been involved in. It never got any easier to see.

"What about Andre Harris? Did you ever see them together?"

"I did. They also seemed to have a relationship, but it was not as sexual as the one she was having with Tori Vega." Trina cupped her hand over her mouth and tears started to well up in her eyes. "Her relationship with Miss Vega was sexual, her relationship with Andre was romantic…but there was a time when they slept together."

"You only saw it happen once?"

"Yes. The next set of photographs document that."

Trina thumbed through them, steeling her nerves and tensing when she saw them. David, however, doubled over and had to look away-shaking with disgust.

The photographs showed Jade wearing a purple mask while sitting atop a bed. Tori was crawling on her right, peeling away Jade's jacket while Andre was positioned between Jade's legs, holding her knees apart with his hands.

"Do you mind if we take these in for evidence?" Her voice trembled and she closed the folder. Mitchel nodded, confirming that he would be happy to turn them over. "How did Beck handle the news?"

"I think he knew she was cheating by that time, but seeing his best friends were the ones she was sleeping with…that did him in. I've never seen the soul suck out of a person so quickly. He sort of died right before my eyes, falling into a dead silence, staring at those pictures in my office for a good twenty minutes."

"When did he leave?"

"After about half an hour. He didn't shed any tears, just stood up quietly and thanked me for my work before walking out the door. I was worried about him, but hadn't heard from him since that last day."

"He was crushed," David said after arriving at the office and telling his supervisor everything. "Everything Beck ever built, everything he loved, died in the cruelest ways."

"Yeah, and he was given a death sentence."

"My supervisor tells me, and I agree, that all of this gives him motive but does not prove he was the one there that night." Trina nodded, thinking about the blood on the windowsill. They needed a way to get Beck to hand over his DNA, but he would never it if he was truly the killer. If he was smart, he'd lawyer up. "There's a lot we have to prove, but right now, all this makes him a strong contender."

"Mostly circumstantial. We need hard evidence." She leaned her head back and furrowed her brow. "I wonder if he's thrown out that broken pane of glass yet." If it was in a dumpster, it was officially public domain and could be taken. "Anything come out with the ballistics testing yet?"

"Yes. My supervisor was just telling me about those results." David smirked and his eyebrows started to rise. "They came out a match. We have our murder weapon." Her heart skipped a beat and she moved her hands over her mouth, gasping into them. "There's a problem though."

"Oh god…"

"We have no prints on it. We also have to prove that Beck is the one that fired it, as I mentioned earlier." She dropped her hands and sighed. "Unless we can prove that, we still have nothing more than circumstantial evidence and a case in which two of the investigators working it are closely tied to the victims."

"Which means…" She clenched her eyes shut and felt her heart drop into her stomach. David didn't have to say what it meant, she already knew. The case had to be strong, especially if they went about accusing Beck-someone who not only had known ties to her in the past, but someone that just attempted to wreck her marriage. "The case had better be strong enough to erase any and all doubt or suspicion of bias."

"Exactly."

It was disheartening, but not overly devastating. Trina was confident they could build a case, but it just meant they would have to go through everything with a much finer toothed comb than normal. "I haven't let my emotions get the best of me yet, I think I've been in solid control of that."

David nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder. "True." He looked her in the eyes and the corners of his lips pulled back. "But you also understand Beck. He's part of the group of people that riled you, he knows how to get to you. If he is our person, he will test you…he will try to provoke both of us. We have to be strong like usual, but stronger…we have to bring our A game now, Trina."

"I understand completely." She opened her eyes partially and flared her nostrils. "I'm ready to bring him down. For mom, for Tori, and even for Andre and Jade."

So what are your thoughts? It appears we have a potential motive and a potential lead suspect now. It isn't enough that Jade was cheating on him with his best friends, but his life and his passions were cut short by this infidelity. HIV positive. Is that the true motive? Is Beck our person? If so, how can they prove the connections? What are your thoughts?