A New Lead

With Victoria Walker now fully informed of Kurt’s plan, Gavin’s sleeping around and Ashley’s drunken foursome, the only event left to divulge was the incident between Lisa and Police that morning before she returned. The only problem was that neither Ashley nor Kurt really seemed to know what was actually going on either.

“The police arrived this morning, apparently they had gotten a tip about **** in the cabin,” Ashley told her best friend, still sitting on the bed by her foot. “What’s stranger is that they actually found Vicodin and some other pills in her bag.”

“That’s about all we really know though,” Kurt interjected before the conspiracies could begin. “But, I don’t believe that Lisa is a druggie. Even only knowing her for a brief period, it seems very out of character.”

Victoria pouted thoughtfully. “So, what? People think it was planted on her? By who?”

“Well, the leading theory is me,” Ashley stated, irritably. “Including Zack and Chloe, who think I set up Lisa to get her out of the picture after she tried to steal my boyfriend. But I’m going to get to the bottom of this and figure out who really did do it.”

“Why do you care?” Kurt asked. “You shouldn’t have to prove yourself to people who think so little of you and why do Zack any favours by exonerating his ex?”

“Because I want to show them that I didn’t do it.” Ashley replied. “For a while there Zack and I were happy, and I hate that this is the perception he has of me now. I want him to see that I’m still the same person he loved once, that I can still be trusted. I probably should be angrier at him, and I can’t explain it, but I just don’t want to give up on it. If I can prove my innocence and stay away from other men in the meantime, maybe I can convince him that I’m still the right girl for him.”

“You do realise that sounds really suspicious?” Kurt noted. “It’s very often the people who are trying the hardest to prove their innocence that have something to hide.”

Ashley frowned and folded her arms across her chest. “I thought you said you didn’t think I did it.”

“I don’t,” Kurt agreed and shrugged. “But I just thought you should know that being this gung-ho about figuring out who did it will only make you look guiltier.”

“Kurt does have a point,” Victoria admitted, smiling sympathetically. “Especially if you can’t figure it out, which is pretty likely if the only evidence is a bag of **** in Lisa’s bag. If you can’t prove who did do it, it’s only going to make you look like you were trying distract everyone else from your own motives.”

“Not you too!” Ashley sighed, hanging her head. “Alright, point taken, but maybe we can start this from the position that I might be innocent and work from there.”

“Well, again, the only other explanation is that Lisa really did own that bag of ****,” Kurt replied.

“Maybe not…” Victoria’s voice rose with excitement. “Maybe we’re thinking about this all wrong and trying to figure out who had a motive against Lisa, but it’s not directly about Lisa.”

“How can it not be about Lisa though? It was her bag. She confessed to that,” Kurt said, scratching the back of his head. “Unless you think they got the wrong bag?”

“No, I think whoever did it was targeting Lisa, but it might not have been to get to Lisa,” Victoria suggested, her mind racing as she imagined the possibilities of her theory. “Maybe it’s about Lisa’s dad.”

“Vicky, you fucking genius!” Ashley screamed, jumping up from the bed. “We never even entertained the idea that this was someone out to get Carlos Rivera by targeting his daughter.”

“I don’t understand,” Kurt said, furrowing his brow, trying to remember if he’d ever heard who Lisa’s father was. “What’s the big deal with Lisa’s dad?”

“Lisa’s dad is a detective in the police, and a damn good one. There are a lot of criminals behind bars because he caught them and found the evidence to put them away,” Ashley explained, gleefully. “But that also means he’s made a lot of enemies.”

“Ah, I get it now. That makes a lot of sense,” Kurt’s face brightened as he fell in line with the thinking of the other two girls. “Though I’m surprised that her father wasn’t able to do something about the investigation.”

“It’s not that strange. A criminal accusation is an accusation. The police have to investigate, and it’s not like he would have known it’d be his daughter who’d end up being the suspect,” Victoria noted. “The tip probably came in and officers were dispatched before he even knew about it.”

“This is great,” Ashley said, dancing from foot to foot. “And we have a clear line to investigate. We can look at past criminals that Carlos Rivera helped put away, focusing on those with **** offences. It’s likely what whoever did this probably wanted to get **** in the same way that they were caught.”

“And I may have an idea of how we can search for it,” Victoria offered, beaming. “I’m sure my parents will let us use their archives.”

“Sorry, again, but who are your parents?” Kurt asked.

“My parents are editors of the local paper, the Azure Rocks Nugget,” Victoria told him. “They’ll have a whole bunch of back issues that we can look through. I’m sure they’ll have written up about all of Carlos Rivera’s arrests.”

“What are we waiting for?” Ashley was nearly screaming with excitement now. “We can take Zack’s car and go right away. I’m sure he probably left his keys in his room.”

“You don’t think he’ll be bothered by your taking his car without asking?” Victoria swung her leg off the bed and grabbed Ashley’s wrist to stop her. “Especially after he accused you of planting the ****.”

“If it frees Lisa, I don’t think he’ll mind,” the petite blonde insisted.

“Alright, let’s go then” Victoria said, releasing her and allowing her best friend to rush from the room.

As Ashley dashed out the doorway, she passed Gavin, narrowly avoiding knocking the bespectacled teen over. She breathlessly apologised but didn’t stop as she sprinted off through the living room and down the other hall towards Zack’s bedroom. Gavin mumbled a “no problem” before continuing on to room Ashley had just left, rapping on the door frame with a knuckle to gain the attention of Victoria and Kurt.

“Kurt, do you mind if I talk to Victoria for a moment?” He asked the older blonde, making his voice deep and firm to convey the seriousness of his request.

“Uh, sure,” Kurt agreed, taking a step towards the door but Victoria stopped him.

“Kurt can stay,” She intervened. “I already know what you’re going to say.”

“I don’t know if I really need to be here for…” Kurt began but a look from Victoria quietened him.

“You already know…” Gavin echoed, shaking his head. “What do you mean?”

“I know that you left me on the path to the caves to go see Chloe, I know you had a threesome at the waterfall, I know you got drunk and fucked Ashley last night. I know everything,” Victoria listed, matter of factly, looking Gavin dead in the eye as she said each one.

“You…know…” Gavin repeated, then turning to Kurt. “You told her?”

“She asked. What was I supposed to do?” Kurt argued. “Ashley knew a lot of it as well, so even if I did lie, she’d have known.”

“Did you tell her it was your plan?” Gavin growled, clenching his fists. “Did you tell her that you told me to seize all those opportunities with other girls?”

“I told you to seize the opportunity to take Victoria to the caves, like I thought you wanted. You were supposed to leave Chloe to me at the waterfall, not come help me fuck her. I just did the best with what I got,” Kurt snapped back. “Don’t blame me because you fucked around and now you regret it.”

“I didn’t fuck around…I mean, I wasn’t trying to…” Gavin asserted, turning angrily to Victoria again. “Why aren’t you mad at him? Are you upset with Ashley? Why is it just me?”

“Because you were my boyfriend,” Victoria retorted coolly. “You did what Kurt suggested because it made you feel good. You fucked Ashley because you wanted to. You were so far gone from being my boyfriend at that point that yeah, if she wanted to get off and you were there, then why not. You’d drifted so far away from me at that point that it was barely a betrayal on her part.”

“That’s not…dammit, Vicky, I did this for you, for us,” Gavin desperately tried to convince her, his eyes becoming wet. “I wanted to become the kind of man you needed. I was so shy and scared of you sexually, and scared of our future. I wanted to grow out of that. I wanted to become a better man for your sake.”

“You had me,” Victoria replied bluntly. “And you lost me. All you had to do was choose me. Instead, you chose to fuck around and that wasn’t for me, Gavin, that was for you. And I’ve been with enough boys who have looked after themselves when they couldn’t get what they wanted from me. Consider your name added to that list.”

“But I did…I did choose you…” Gavin blubbered, tears streaming down his cheeks as he fell to his knees before her.

“Alright, I got ‘em, let’s…uh…” Ashley rushed back into the room, her excitement fading instantly as she saw Gavin prostrating himself before Victoria and sensing the heavy, depressing atmosphere.

Victoria pushed up off the bed on to her good leg, wobbling like a new born lamb. She reached out a hand and Kurt stepped forward to support her. Following her lead, he walked her around Gavin, joining Ashley at the door. Exiting together, they left Gavin to weep, alone.