Working with Ghosts

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N: Making sure you realize this isn't a ghost story as the title may suggest, but an investigation story. The title is inspired by a show on the ID network (Investigation Discovery network) It's often said that working homicide you're working with ghosts. The victims are the ghosts and they are your client, if you will. To solve their murder is to put them to rest. Also I hope this will be interactive for you, in other words, as it goes along I really want to hear your thoughts on suspects, the motives, the crime scene and other things going on. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 (The Cold Case)

It was supposed to be a good day; Jade was looking forward to telling her friend that she and Beck had gotten back together after their most recent break-up. This time it was for good. He had proposed marriage to her, with the promise of waiting until they were done with college.

Tori moved out of her family home at the age of eighteen and moved into her sister's apartment. Trina was engaged as well, to the nephew of one of their former teachers. The two of them had an infant child and were preparing for a larger home.

"Come on, Beck." Jade left the car just as Beck shifted the gear into park. Her heart was racing from all the excitement and her eyes were scanning the apartment complex. "Tori should be the first to know."

"Technically second," Beck replied while exiting the vehicle. She pursed her lips and glanced back as he rounded the vehicle. "Andre already knows I was planning to propose." It was Beck's way of restoring and solidifying their relationship, and his promise that they would never have to separate again.

He put his hand to the small of her back, sending a wave of heat up her spine. She walked with him as if he were guiding her to the apartment.

Their excitement ended as quickly as it had begun the moment they reached the apartment. The first sign of trouble came to Jade's mind when she saw that the door was slightly ajar.

Her brow urrowed and her heart came crashing to a halt as a peculiar smell filtered from the door like a wave of smoke coming to surround her. "Something's not right." Her hand gripped Beck's and her nostrils spread as she took in the smell. "They wouldn't just leave the door open like this."

The girls kept their door locked even when they were home. This was just a behavior they adopted from having a police father.

She put her hand to the door and pushed it open, then was struck by a cold sweat when she heard Trina's baby crying off the hook. "You hear that? Rachel. Why is Trina not-"

"Jade." Beck pointed towards the kitchen and Jade got her answer. Rachel was laying down in the living room crib, her little arms were flailing in the air and her feet were kicking at the bars. "Where's Jason?"

"Probably at work." Jason worked late nights at his second job at the supermarket, and would not be home until close to the middle of the morning. She took Rachel into her arms and instantly caught wind of another terrible smell. "She needs a change! Beck, go figure out where the girls are."

She wasn't sure what compelled her to change the baby's diaper despite investigating the reason for the pit of anxiety growing in her stomach. By the time she had done so, Beck was screaming for her to call 911.

Horrified, she left Rachel on the changing table and ran to where Beck was. Jade froze in the doorway of Tori's bedroom, and the world around her crashed in a single moment.

Tori was lying with her back on the bed. She was fully dressed, her legs were bent at the knees over the foot of the mattress. Her arms were spread out and above her head, which was turned to the right. She had bruises on her wrists and arms, and a gunshot to her head.

She was brought to her knees by the sight and felt a shockwave of numbness overcome her as she saw the blood patterns on the walls and the floor.

Tori wasn't the only one.

Her sister was sitting against the wall, her lifeless eyes were open and focused on the bed. She had multiple gunshot wounds to her torso. Her blood was all over the place, with a trail leading to where she had struck the wall, leaving a smeared streak where she sank to her final position.

Unable to breathe and reduced to a fit of tears, Jade was only moved when Beck helped her to stand and rushed her out of the apartment.

Sixteen years later their murder remained unsolved, and Jade kept on good terms with Rachel and her father. She and Beck would often visit them, so often that they were like family.

On Thanksgiving, Jade and Beck were over at the Tyler family home, and she was pleased to see Mr. Sikowitz again after nearly twenty years. The man had aged decently, and was perhaps in better shape than his nephew, Jason. His hair was completely gone now, but he still looked the way he had before. Sikowitz still taught at Hollywood Arts, but was on the verge of retiring.

His nephew was a personal trainer at the gym and a fitness instructor. Jason didn't date, he never married, and remained focused on raising his sixteen year old daughter. He didn't look any worse for wear, but Jade could always see in his eyes, he wanted to know who was responsible.

As for Rachel, she'd grown into a beautiful young girl. She was sassy and looked just like her mother, but for Jade it was just a dreadful reminder of the scene that haunted and drove her.

"Tell Dad to start dating again," Rachel said while placing the sweet potatoes on the counter. Jade laughed for a moment, expecting the girl to be joking. Rachel's lips slid into her cheeks and she crossed her arms at her waist. "I'm being serious. Dad's lonely, he needs someone to take care of him."

Sikowitz came from around the corner and sunk a fork into the sweet potatoes to sneak a bite. Jade turned and Rachel called him out. "Your father can handle himself," Sikowitz said while chewing the bite. He swallowed it and flashed a cheesy smile. "How do you always make the best sweet potatoes?'

"It was a recipe mom developed in college." Rachel pulled the tray back as Sikowitz tried to dip his fork back into the potatoes. "Wait until dinner." Rachel then turned to the pot on the stove, stirring the mashed potatoes. Jade saw something in her that she recognized well over the years.

Rachel was hunched over the pot, her shoulders were slumped and her long brown hair hugged them. Her eyes were littered with tears and the skin around her lips were twitching.

It was this way after every holiday, every year, and each year the girl wanted to know more about her aunt and mother. Jade could never tell her the details of the crime, and she tried her best to answer Rachel's questions.

"So, Mrs. Oliver." Rachel curled her hair over her right ear and looked up from the pot. Jade leaned against her elbow against the counter and smiled as the girl's hazel eyes made contact with her. "Any news about Mom and Aunt Tori? Their case is still being worked on, right?"

Jade worked homicide, and it was the grisly murder that drove her. However, the case had gone cold due to the lack of physical evidence and eyewitnesses. Police wanted to focus on Jason, but his alibi was rock solid. They also tried to focus on Tori's boyfriend at the time, Ian Dennison, but he too had an alibi.

Every time Rachel asked, Jade had to tell her they had nothing. "Rachel…" She looked past the girl, and for a moment she thought she could see them: Tori and Trina. They were standing with one arm draped across the other's shoulders and their faces reflected intense disappointment.

"I know, there's still nothing, right?" Rachel dropped her wooden spoon into the potatoes and reached for a can of green beans. This was to be a special type of green bean casserole, another recipe handed down from one of the Vega sisters.

The girl stopped momentarily and brought both hands up to the sides of her head, dipping her fingernails into her honey highlights. Jade reached up as the girl began to tremble, and slowly pulled down her right forearm. "What's on your mind, Rachel?"

Rachel lowered her hands to the counter and began furiously tapping her nails on the surface. She swayed to the right and avoided eye contact. "Nothing." The girl rubbed the side of her neck and craned it. A sigh left her lips and her shoulders rose like mountains.

These were signs the girl was hiding something. She'd grown to be like a mother to her, so she knew when something was troubling her.

"Rachel, I know you. Something's bothering you, talk to me. If there's something you want to say, say it."

The teenager turned towards her and let her hands fall into Jade's. "Okay." Rachel's tears were framing her mouth and dripping from her chin, and the distressed look in her eyes seemed to imply a fear of trouble. "Remember I went to visit you guys and Vanessa a few weeks ago?"

Vanessa was her eldest daughter, just shy of her fourteenth birthday. She was one of Rachel's best friends. "Yes?" Rachel sniffed and raised her hand to her face, sweeping her fingers through the moisture beneath her right eye.

"You know that room you don't want us going into?" Her heart dropped and her eyebrows shot up.

Rachel was talking about her study, where she kept information on the cases she worked. One item in that study was a cardboard box that sat on a shelf at the top of the room. In the box was the evidence and case file of the Vega murder case.

It wasn't uncommon for investigators to take a cold case home to look over it, and that's what she'd done. Still, she hadn't brought herself to look at the contents, fearful that like all before her, she might never solve the case. It would cast far too much doubt in her mind, being the case that drove her into homicide.

"You went into the study?"

"I know you're always saying not to, but I had to see." Rachel's speech broke and she started to stutter. "I saw the pictures. Of Mom, of Aunt Tori. I-I never knew it was that bad, I just…" Jade held her breath and closed her eyes as Rachel's head dropped to her shoulder.

"Don't be mad at me."

Jade wrapped her arms around the girl and gently rubbed her back. This was the very thing she always wanted to protect her from, but it was inevitable that she'd learn exactly how grisly the crime had been.

Rachel had always been a curious girl, and she had the heart of a rebel. If someone told her not to do something, she would do it just to see why she wasn't allowed.

"I'm not upset with you." She looked past Rachel and saw her husband grabbing two beers from the fridge. One of which was likely for Jason; the two had become as brothers over the years. Beck looked at them with a frown and shook his head.

He sauntered out of the room and Jade leaned back and slid her hands up to the girl's upper arms. The poor child should never have been able to see the pictures of the crime scene. It was hard enough for Jade to look, so she could only imagine how terrible of an impact those photos had on the girl.

"How much did you see?"

"Just the crime scene photos. I…I couldn't…" Rachel cupped a hand over her mouth and Jade pulled her close, holding onto her as she wept. "H-Have you given up? The police? It seems like-"

"I haven't given up." The truth of that was that she didn't know what more she could do. That case had all but destroyed the Vega family, and they all still sought out justice. Rachel often acted up, and more recently her grades had been suffering.

She knew this was because of the murders still weighing on her. What Rachel said next shocked Jade's heartbeat to a dead silence. "You never told me I was there. I know you, Dad and everyone wanted to protect me, but I always thought I was with Grandma and Grandpa."

Rachel looked up at her and furrowed her brow, and a single whimper left her lips. "Why would you lie about that? I thought maybe it was a break-in, but I was left alone."

"It wasn't an intentional lie, we were just trying to protect you."

"From what? The truth? That whoever killed my Mom and Aunt left a baby to sit in a pile of feces and with no food?" Rachel bowed her head and closed her eyes. "I don't care about that, I just—I want you not to give up on them. Don't forget about them."

"I won't." She would officially reopen the case, but she didn't know where to begin. It was true that once both men in the girls' lives had been cleared, investigators considered the possibility that this was as robbery gone wrong. There were only two problems with this theory that Jade saw: There was no evidence of a break-in, and Rachel's life seemed to be a testament against the theory.

Why would a burglar with the intent to murder the inhabitants of a home leave a child alive? Jade questioned if it meant a streak of humanity, but the murders had been methodical. Tori's death looked more like an assassination, Trina's looked unplanned.

"I will take another look, Rachel. I promise you." She smiled at the girl and gently kissed the top of her head. "I don't think either your Mom or Aunt would let me put it to rest."

She would start from scratch, that was the plan, but she knew this would likely be a circumstantial case. Without a murder weapon, or even a list of suspects, she didn't know if she could ever solve the murders.

Like I said, I hope you'll interact and give your thoughts on suspects and other things that go on through this. Give the story time to progress as well since I've got a few projects to finish up on, I just want to have this out and posted, but it shall be updated as all my works. Enjoy, and I'll give you the second chapter now so that you can get an idea of what suspects there are so far. Bear this in mind: Jade has been a homicide detective approximately 10 years at this point though the crime happened sixteen years ago, she also has not begun to reopen or work the case despite it being the reason she joined the force. She's had the box, unopened, in her study as well for nearly a year...but now she will begin working the case. It won't be easy, hope you'll follow along and enjoy this