Bury the Past

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 22 (A Solid Case)

Trina breathed a sigh of relief as she approached the interrogation room where Jade was being held. Finally, they could talk to her without fear of Beck getting in the way. They had him, or so she believed evidence was strong against him; all they needed was to get Jade to talk.

Through the glass mirror she saw the girl, weak and vulnerable; but a shadow of what she once was. Jade's head was bowed and her pale eyes focused on the handcuffs around her shaky hands. Trina could almost make out bruising around the woman's left cheek. Her heart sank and she looked to her father standing nearby. "Let me talk to her."

"If you think you can get information from her, go for it." David positioned his hands flat in front of his waist, gripping his left wrist firmly with his right. His eyes moved towards his supervisor and the boss nodded his approval.

She was the best bet, since Jade had been warming up to her before. Jade wasn't a threat. Whatever happened that resulted in Beck getting shot had to be a cry for help.

Trina pushed open the door and watched Jade raise her head, gasping softly. "Officer," Trina said motioning to the guard standing behind Jade. "Can you remove those cuffs and get her some water?" The officer nodded and did as instructed. It didn't take long before he was back with a bottle of water for Jade.

Her hands folded over the top of the chair and she watched soberly as Jade drank multiple gulps from the bottle. There was a notebook on the table for her to take notes, she picked it up carefully and let out a sigh.

"Mrs. Oliver. Jade…" Jade lowered the bottle and looked at her with wide eyes. "We know you don't have amnesia." The girl's gaze fell to the table and Trina walked slowly to the edge of the table, sitting gently on the corner. "You can talk to me." She clasped her hands and placed them in her lap. "Beck's not going to know anything you tell me in this room, and I can do what I can to provide you names of those able to provide shelter to you. If you're afraid of something, tell me."

"Am I going to jail?" Jade furrowed her brow and stared at the light reflecting off her water. "For shooting him?" Trina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We were fighting. I knew he'd gone hunting before and that he kept a shotgun hidden-and where it was." Jade's voice trembled and her eyes filled with tears. "I wasn't going to shoot him. I was going to kill myself."

"I can't make any promises, but what I can do is tell you this…" They knew Beck survived the shot, and the poor bastard's right knee had been blown apart by that shotgun. There was a damn good chance he'd be locked to a wheelchair for a while. "Beck's going to be in the hospital for a while, undergoing surgery, so I suspect that you will be safe from him."

Jade laid her hands flat on the table, but her trembling fingers continued to beat it like a drum. "I stopped him from destroying your marriage, Trina. I could see what he was trying to do." Trina smiled gently as Jade looked up at her. "He wanted to put something in front of you to distract you, to keep you thinking about something besides the case…"

"Okay."

"There was even an old song my grandpa used to love. I asked one of the people going up to sing karaoke to sing that, because I thought it might make Martin think a little more about what was going on."

"I appreciate you doing that." Trina took a deep breath and smiled. "It's a good thing. You know, he and I are about to have a little one." Jade's eyebrows started to rise and her mouth opened into a wide grin. "You had a child once, didn't you?" The girl's smile faded and she looked off to the side. "That's why you work at the daycare center."

"Yes…We were devastated by the accident. Beck never got over it. He just threw himself into work, went to donate blood on a regular bases. We hadn't been intimate in a long time." Trina leaned her head back, humming softly.

So this was the reason, she surmised, that Jade went looking for affection elsewhere. "I know I shouldn't have had an affair, and I mean no one was really saying yes to helping a married woman cheat on her husband." Jade closed her hands and started to tremble like an earthquake. "Tori only found out because she'd been browsing dating sites, I guess she was looking for people…."

Trina flinched, shaking her head and inhaling. "Looking for people?" Her voice was soft and her brow furrowed. Jade unfolded her hand and raised her head up.

"I'm sorry Trina, but she was looking for people to sleep with. She and Andre came to me, asking about my wanting to cheat on Beck, and asked me if I wanted to try something 'new and exciting'."

"When did you discover they had HIV?" Jade froze, her breath hitching and her tears flowing harder.

"Only after," her voice shook harder and she dropped her head on top of her hands. "Only after Tori told me she was beginning to feel something more, only after we'd had sex multiple times. She'd been using me."

"What do you mean?"

"I slept with my husband, I infected him without knowing." Jade wiped away a stray tear and a sob fell from her lips. "Tori used me at the start, told me later she felt bad about it and had begun caring, but she used me…she never got over you, her sister, leaving. She was angry at everyone, blamed the entire world, and when her college boyfriend infected her…she used that as a weapon."

Trina covered her mouth with her hand and raised her eyes to the window on the wall. Jade cleared her throat. "I know she told me once a long time ago, she blamed me for your going away. She blamed Beck, blame Andre and even Robbie and Cat."

"I see."

"Robbie and Cat saw her depression and they broke away, ended the friendship and took off." Trina nodded once more, thinking back to the traveling comedians that Martin had met. "I don't think they ever want to come back to Los Angeles, don't think they ever will…but that's beside the point. Tori found a way to hurt us, but she hurt Beck in the worst way. I don't think she even realized how badly it affected him."

"How badly, Jade? What did Beck do?"

"He was angry, and he confronted them. This was months ago, when he first found out. Demanded I end my friendship and affair, but I don't know why…" Jade raised her hands over her eyes, weeping into them. "I couldn't call it off! I just couldn't."

"You said the other day that you saw the attacker's face. You heard his voice. Is this true, Jade?" Trina handed her a tissue, waiting calmly as the girl wiped her eyes.

"Yes." Jade gasped softly and crumpled the tissue in her hands. "He made me fake the amnesia, told me he'd kill me if I talked…said I was nothing to him anymore. Nothing. But he could control me now, he said I couldn't stray now that I can't walk."

"Who? Who was telling you all this, Jade?" Her face softened and she looked into her eyes with kind reassurance. "Just give us a name, and we can try to protect you. We can make an arrest." Jade's body jerked and a violent huff fell from her lips.

"Beck. My husband." Trina took a sharp, deep breath, her body and chest rising as air filled her lungs. "He was planning for it…He bought the brass knuckles months ago, he said he was going to 'beat the shit out of them', but I didn't think any of it at the time. I thought he was just blowing smoke." Jade turned her head to the right, staring at a corner section of the wall with quiet eyes. "There's a journal of notes he kept in the desk drawer in his office. I found it recently, it has notes and ideas of how he was going to pull off the attack."

"Are you suggesting that he planned this?"

"Yes."

This was it, they had him. Trina felt a rush of emotion overtake her, but kept a stoic expression so she wouldn't betray herself. "Thank you, Jade." She stood up and started to walk away from the table, but stopped next to her chair and placed a gentle hand on the top. "What did he do with the clothing from that night?"

"Burned them. In our fireplace. He wore gloves, had a mask. He had a black sweater and black pants." Jade let out a relieved sigh and closed her eyes. "I walked up to the window, hearing something, and I saw Beck tapping on the glass. He had the calmest look on his eyes, he didn't look angry or vengeful, he looked like he'd gone over that attack multiple times in his mind or something. Like he knew what he was about to do."

He distanced himself from the crime, made himself emotionless so he could carry out as much as possible.

"I watched him pull his mask down over his head, then he struck the window as hard as he could." Jade laid her arms out, looking at them. "Glass splintered out, cutting me. I saw him with the gun and tried to run, but he shot me…"

She took a seat and continued to take notes on a notebook before her. "Was it deliberate or did he miss another target?"

Jade pressed her lips firmly together and shook her head. "No, he aimed right at my leg. He knew where to shoot…he wanted to do this to me." Jade hugged her waist and watched as her tears dripped from her chin and doused her pants. "I hit my head on the table, but was conscious enough to hear him cussing out Tori and Andre the entire time. He shot Andre first, I didn't see him hesitate for one minute. Then, he attacked Tori…"

She could hear the tension in Jade's voice, and knew it was hard on the girl. As she wrote down the notes in her clipboard, she couldn't help but to wonder what could have been different had none of this ever happened. Who was at fault? Did it matter? Beck needed to face justice regardless.

"Mrs. Vega was there," Trina said quietly, "She was murdered too." Trina raised her eyes and watched the shame pass through Jade's eyes. "Do you think he intended for her to be there?"

"No. He cursed when she showed up, and shot so quickly that I think he was startled. My husband doesn't miss…" Jade's eyes welled up with fresher tears and she looked at Trina with a pained expression. "He joined the military around the time you left, Trina." Trina's eyebrows rose and her heart stopped suddenly. "He was a sharpshooter. He once told me 'the only time I'll ever miss, is if I'm surprised'. Holly shouldn't have been there, he didn't expect her…She had a headache when I went to visit, and she went to take a nap…"

Hearing it hurt worse, though she already knew her mother had been an unintended victim. Needless to say, they had a rock solid testimony from Jade, but she needed to first learn if Jade would be willing to testify in court.

"Jade." Trina stood up and leaned forward, hovering over the table and sliding her hands forward. "We are going to charge him with murder." Jade whimpered and shook to the right. "Of Holly Vega and Andre Harris. The attempted murder of Victoria Vega, and yourself…what I ask you is, will you be willing to testify against him? With your testimony, we can lock him up for the rest of his life."

"I-I understand." Jade looked like a woman that lost everything, someone truly defeated. "I will testify. God I'm so sorry…" Jade hunched forward, raising her hands to her face and sobbing hysterically.

Trina thanked her and left the room without another word. When she met her father, she instinctively fell into his arms. He hugged her close, letting her cry into his shirt. "We got him," David said with a tremble in his voice. Tears were running down his cheeks like Trina had never seen before. He let out a heavy rush of air as Trina's hands clutched his shirt. "We've got him, sweetheart."

She could hear his supervisor from behind, proud of the job being done. "It isn't over yet," the man said, "but we have enough to make an arrest. My detectives have been combing the Oliver house while you were interviewing Jade." Trina pulled her head away from her father's chest and looked at the supervisor closely. "There was a black leather glove found in the corner of the fireplace, lightly burnt and covered in ash. It's likely when Mr. Oliver removed his glove, blood was transferred from that and onto the brass knuckles."

The man flashed a smile and his bushy brown eyebrows lifted up. "My men also found the journal she just mentioned a bit ago. It has premeditation written all over it."

This was almost too good. Beck slipped up, made a mistake, and now they had more direct evidence placing him in that house as the attacker. Jade's testimony placed him as well, and Tori's testimony proved that she and Andre had prior conflicts with him and were afraid he might try something.

Within the hour, Trina marched through the walls of the hospital with brazen satisfaction on her face. She was surprised when she saw Beck walking around in the rehab clinic with a pair of crutches. He had a knee brace wrapped around his leg and looked to be straining himself to move.

"Mr. Oliver, how are you coping?" She smirked and narrowed her eyes, feeling a surge of victory and triumph. Beck turned his head and started to smile. "I was under the impression they had you confined to a wheelchair, I see that's not the case?"

"Oh no, it is." He hobbled to the right and motioned to an empty wheelchair with his head. "I've been wanting to try and walk, I don't care if the doctors say I shouldn't. How's my wife?"

"She's okay." They had an order to place Jade in a mental clinic under suicide watch, so Jade was safe.

"It pains me not to be able to look after her. I don't think she even knew what she was doing. I'm glad she's okay."

"She's safe."

Beck's eyebrows curled up in the center and his smile grew. "When will she be home?" David walked over to the wheelchair, pushing it behind Beck. Beck looked back. "Oh Mr. Vega."

David turned his eyes up to Trina. "I'll let you do this, Trina." Beck swayed his head and rolled his eyes, letting out a swift sigh.

"Fuck. She talked, didn't she?"

"Don't worry Beck. You're only going to get to see your wife again with a pair of cuffs on you."

"Isn't it ironic? You. Coming to her aid. What is this, justice for the very people that ruined your entire teenage life?"

"It is whatever the evidence says it is." Trina helped him to sit into the wheelchair, then removed a pair of handcuffs attached to her waist. "Beck Oliver." Beck closed his eyes and let her cuff his wrists, then placed his clenched fists in his lap. "You're under arrest for the murders of Holly Vega and Andre Harris." She moved behind the wheelchair and gripped the handlebars. "And the attempted murders of Victoria Vega and Jade Oliver."

Beck's shoulders fell and he shook his head, glaring out as she pushed him towards the exit. "I want a lawyer," he answered with a growl. That was it, they couldn't ask him any further questions, but it didn't matter, she was confident that the case they'd built against him was a solid one.

Finally an arrest has been made. Jade's testimony, perhaps the most shocking one. The evidence now can stand on its own in court, and the supervisor is sending everything to the DA to press charges. Tori's testimony, Jade's testimony, and all the evidence...Beck lawyered up? Don't think that'll be something they have to worry about. What are your thoughts about everything that happened here in this chapter?