Chapter Text
Photographs were just a part of the job. A troublesome job that included a lot of work for Beca. This wasn’t like the movies where every photo was developed off of each roll of film, but rather with the technological advances of the world, image files could simply be transferred to a USB. Although Beca on the other hand was very thorough in her work. Her photos were not only on one USB, but a spare USB was always prepared as a ‘just in case’ measure, not to mention the physical photos. She only printed 5 physical photos, which were always the most important photos in the batch. Documents with the target’s movement, the information of the people he met, as well as his agenda in meeting his partners outside of his marriage. Everything was compiled in an organized file and ready to be dropped off at the office for delivery.
She finished the rest of her diet coke, shaking her head in disbelief that Natalie got her hooked on the drink, now she felt as if she couldn’t live without it, especially when she was tired. She stood herself up, stretching upwards with her arms, before heading into her bedroom to change her clothing. She changed from the uncomfortable and tight dark green dress, the heels already shed from the moment she stepped into her apartment, and into a more comfortable pair of skinny jeans and a loose band tee. With her hair in a messy ponytail, she looked like an average college student as she threw on a crossbody purse to leave the house.
The office was located in the basement of an old bookstore. You would never expect a whole organization in the basement, but here she was handing the file over to her boss.
“Great job, and right on time.” Natalie spoke as she looked through the papers carefully.
“Don’t I always?” Beca replied with a roll of her eyes looking around the room like she always did. She had a habit of observing and making note of small things, such as the added paperwork on the desk, as well as the new addition of framed photos, simple scenery from different places where Natalie had visited.
Natalie was a fairly tall woman, taller than Beca, which was expected as she was cursed with being short. She was an older woman in her early 40’s, married with 2 teen children, and ran the bookstore upstairs as it had been in her family for generations. She always had her hair kept in a neat ponytail and only seemed to wear jeans. She had known Natalie for many years, and only worked for the woman for the last 2.
Natalie’s business was mainly the bookstore, and for how old and unpopular physical books could be, business seemed steady in the older part of town. But beneath it was Beca’s main occupation. Bookworm investigations seemed like such a cheesy name to Beca, and to this day, she thought it was a cheesy name.
Bookworm Investigations was an average private investigation office, handling business such as investigations such as cheating spouses, surveillance, background checks and at the odd time’s conducting undercover work, which was rare in their business. However, Bookworm Investigations was different from other services, where they handled investigations from women. It was a dog-eat-dog world, however, they only handled investigation requests from women. Finding out if their husbands were cheating on them, or surveying them for information. Surprisingly there were a lot of women of all statuses who looked for a discreet company to handle their requests, and Bookworm Investigations was one of the best.
“Anything else for me?” Beca asked leaning on the desk with her help and looking around the desk for any new cases.
Natalie simply shook her head. “Not at the moment, maybe in a few days? Emily is finishing an investigation at the moment, so you can have some time off.” Beca smiled, as much as she enjoyed her work, she was excited for the time off.
“Then I shall go rest at home.”
Beca was changed into sweats and eating mr noodles on the couch, her laptop on the kitchen counter. She was enjoying the remixes of music and thinking of her own set before heading back into her bedroom. Although she owned an apartment, she felt too open to set up in the living room and instead used a small corner of her bedroom. Her launchpad and controller as well as her keyboard set up and waiting for her.
She spent a few hours mixing music and relaxing before ending her night with a hot shower and slipping into bed. Her days off usually consisted of mixing music and catching up on sleep, and then starting a new hobby. Her current hobby had been building miniature home kits, as she was on her 3rd one, she usually had enough time off to complete at least one, and she had started building this one when her case was start to conclude. She wished at times like this she could be normal and binge watch movies or tv shows, and instead would just watch cooking shows instead. She was surprised that despite recognising ingredients easily as well as remembering the recipes, she lived off of mr noodles and pb&jelly sandwhiches.
She had just finished attaching the final piece of her miniature home kit, as well as having finished the last bite of her sandwich when her phone vibrated on the table. She glanced at the screen seeing a text from Natalie. A simple ‘New case for you’ in the message and nothing more. She quickly made herself presentable to quickly head into the office to see what her next case would be.
Surprise was an understatement when she arrived and was presented her next case. Undercover work was stressful and contained a lot more steps than one would expect.
“So, this will be sanctioned work for the police?” Beca asked as she scanned the papers in the folder.
“Chief Gains is a friend; we go way back. They don’t currently have an officer for this role, and you will be acting as an agent of the police.”
“Okay.” Beca took a moment to think. “Okay, explain to me this whole thing again.”
Natalie smiled. “There is a suspected drug ring at Barden University. They believe the university had a ring of students who act as drug runners, as well as blackmailing others to become drug runners, more specifically girls. So far their information has led to some information about who the students are, however they are also looking into the head of this ring. You have the information in the folder. They simply need more evidence, as well as confirmation for their information to make some arrests. They believe the ring goes above the university and simply need to follow the trail, and that is where you come in.”
“So I am to get close to the Barden University uh, trebles?”
“Yes, they are an a capella group at the university, one with many awards, and reputation in the college.”
“Things have definitely changed from my time at college.” Beca laughed as Natalie smiled.
“What do you do think?” Beca scanned the rest of the folder before releasing a sigh.
“It’s defiantly an odd case. Odd for us I mean. Why did you accept? Other than the friendship?”
“Well as you know, we do not handle a lot of undercover work. However, this drug ring is affected women at the college, and I am an advocate for women. Hence our cases. What do you say?”
“You know I can’t refuse.” Beca smiled. “When do I start?”
Natalie’s smile was even bigger and always made Beca nervous. “You fly out to Atlanta tomorrow night.” Beca’s smile faded.
“Shit.” She had a lot to do before taking on this new role.
Thankfully she had some leisure with her roll. She was placed into contact with her handler quickly, which was a different situation as her work never included keeping anyone in the loop other than Natalie, and only when needed. So, preparing her role and belongings in 24 hours made her slightly more stressed out than when she accidently took an elevator with her target and their mistress.
She spent the rest of her time going over the files she had.
Their main suspect was Luke Martin. 23 years old. Finishing a major in communication. Currently the station manager at Barden University for WBUJ. Perhaps the link between drug runners and a larger crime unit outside of the university.
Their suspected drug runners we the Barden University Treble Makers. A all-male a Capella group. The were suspected of using their position at the university, specifically the popularity and awards they had won, to their advantage to distribute drugs, and used the parties they were invited to and hosted to distribute, hook up with women and blackmail them into drug running or other things behind the scenes.
The only other information was members of the A capella group, which she wasn’t sure if it was 100% accurate or not as it was a university, and students did graduate, although there were some masters programs at the school after all. Although there wasn’t too much information about the students, she was glad to have a lot more information about the current progress of the investigation, in what would help Beca navigate the new journey that she was going through. It was a long undercover job, but she was also excited to start a new journey as well. At least that’s what she hoped when she was getting into her bed for the night to get one last good night of sleep before heading off to the airport.
The first day of college was different. It had been a long time since Beca had stepped foot into a college environment. She watched her surroundings as she rode in the back of the taxi, thankful she had time to check in with her contact before having to head into the orientation type of day.
She felt different, but in a good way with the dark eyeliner, dark skinny jeans and signature headphones around her neck. She also made sure to put all her earrings in, including her spike, which to any untrained eye looked very realistic. She paid her taxi and grabbed her bags after refusing his help to unload the trunk. Her bags were crazy heavy, just a solid weight as she ran into the first person at Barden University. She welcomed Beca with an upbeat attitude explaining the university as Beca took a glance around. Including catching the eye of a boy in the back of their parents’ car, jamming out to music giving her a little bit of amusement before the car drove off. As Beca’s attention was brought back to the girl she finished the welcome with the Barden University rape whistle, and it took all of her self-control to not comment and instead placed the whistle between her teeth.
She felt nostalgia walking through the campus towards her dorm room, although she never thought she would be at a college again. There was one thing is didn’t love, and that was abandoning her real phone. She tried to place as much of her things, that were allowed on her new ‘work’ phone, and thankfully she didn’t have too many connections back home in the first place. She texted her handler that she arrived at the school as she made her way to her dorm room. At first, she wanted a single, it would be easy to have after all, but unfortunately that was not an option and instead she needed to have a roommate. They chose a girl who would have the opposite schedule from Beca and she wasn’t sure if she was thankful for that or not.
Her roommate was already in the room when she arrived.
Kimmy Jin was already there, sitting on the edge of her bed, silently when Beca came in.
“You must be Kimmy Jin. I’m Beca.” Her outstretched hand was not taken and instead met with just a stare back from Kimmy Jin.
“Oh. No English?” A blan stare. “Yes English? Just tell me where you’re at with English.” It was unnerving to have no response from the girl so Beca made her way into the room and placed her bags on the bed. The other side of the room seemed to be finished, and decorated as Beca looked to her blank side.
She quietly started to unpack and organize her things. Including the cheaper version of her mixing equipment, which luckily would be her way into making connections on the campus. Kimmy Jin had disappeared with a quiet statement of going to the activities fair as Beca looked out the window to see her meet up with a few other Korean students. She wasn’t sure what she would be doing with her free time. Being an agent of the police was a lot different than her normal work. She would be planning her break in’s and her investigation photos, but that was not really the case.
After unpacking most of her things, she decided to check out the activities fair, it would be good to get some information. Her headphones were placed on her head, music lightly playing, where she would pause the music should she be listening to people. She noticed Kimmy Jin being welcomed by another table, the sign saying Korean Student Association. She seemed to be much more open there with the others, as Beca continued to follow the path in the fair. She let her priority slip by for a moment as she observed the Barden DJ’s, and not hiding her slight disappointment that it meant the Barden Deaf Jews. It was there she met another student who came up to the booth.
“Shalom!” She heard the greeting.
“That’s not a real word! Keep trying! You’ll get there!” The girl spoke making Beca smile.
“Not a lot of Jewish people where you’re from?” She was intrigued by the information this girl was willing to give, and was still amused after the girl had floated off to her next target.
Beca continued on her way too.
Her headphones were blasting music, the best way to avoid flyers, and people in booths from calling her over to ask her sign up. It was also a good way to observe her surroundings and specifically the group across the quad, getting attention with their singing, which Beca could not hear. She was trying to see which faces in the group she recognized from the file, but more specifically which faces were not there. She blamed this as the reason for nearly running into another booth, and more specifically why the outstretched hand with a flyer caught her off guard.
She slid her headphones down to her neck again, the music loud enough to just slightly hear the beats as the redhead spoke to her.
“Hi! Any interest in auditioning for our acapella group?” The redhead asked, and Beca was taken off guard by the bright blue eyes.
“Acapella. Oh right, that is a thing now.” Beca responded, toning down her surprise.
“Oh totes, we sing covers of songs but do it without any instruments. It all comes from our mouths.”
“Yikes.” Beca spoke seeing the slight falter in the redhead but she continued.
“I’m Chloe. Co-captain of the Barden Bella’s, we’re the tits. So, are you interested?”
Beca was looking at the flyer, rather than the bright blue orbs. “I don’t know, seems kind of lame.”
It was at this time she noticed the other girl, who was slightly further back than the redhead but no less beautiful. “Aca-scuse me? Synchronized lady dancing to a Mariah Carey chart topper is not lame!” Beca was intrigued by the girl and instantly noticed the redhead’s calming hand on the other girls elbow, before the redhead spoke again. She seemed to be the mediator after all.
“We sing all over the world and compete in national championships.”
“On purpose?”
“We played the Cobb Energy Performing arts center you bitch!” If the other girl didn’t capture Beca’s attention before, she defiantly did now.
“What Aubrey means to say is that we’re a close knit, talented group of ladies whose dream is to return to the national finals at the Lincoln center this year. Help us turn our dreams into a reality?” She held a beaming smile on her face and Beca was almost persuaded to agree however she had a job to do.
“Sorry. I don’t even sing so… it was nice meeting you.” She gave the flyer back before heading off, headphones back over her ears, missing the looks behind her, as she glanced to the Trebles and then to the rest of the fair.
She was going to have to figure out a way to get more information on the Trebles, but her next steps involved getting close to Luke as well. Thankfully she had some inside information about a possible job, so she was headed there first.
Her second first day at College didn’t seem so bad.