Detecting Past Truths

A High School Musical Fanfiction

Chapter 1: Life as a PI

Disclaimer: The Mouse owns High School Musical and the characters within. I'm just borrowing them for awhile. I promise I'll put them back when I'm finished.

Summary: AU future fic. Things didn't go like he planned, no basketball scholarship, no career in the NBA. Now 14 years after high school, Troy Bolton has finally found his niche as a Private Investigator and his latest client is the world famous actress, Sharpay Evans.

Pairing: TroyPay, of course.

Time frame: Fourteen years after high school.

Troy Bolton slowly limped up the outside concrete staircase to his third floor office and for the hundredth time wondered why a man with a bum knee would even have a third floor office in the first place. He paused briefly to admire the hand lettered sign his mom made him when he opened up his own detective agency six months ago.

Troy Bolton, Private Investigations

He carefully sat the Styrofoam Dunkin' Donuts coffee cup down on the concrete floor and perched his half eaten donut on top of it. Then, he placed his bulging file folder down next to them before digging through his pockets for the key. When he finally found the key, Troy turned around and gasped at the absolute beauty he beheld. His building faced west and he had a perfect unobstructed view of the flat high desert stretching out before him. On a clear day like today, he could easily see past the Rio Grande and over the desert plains all the way to Mount Taylor, almost 100 miles away. Troy took a deep breath and realized for the hundredth time that this was why a man with a bum knee had a third floor office. And he also remembered something he'd read about the renowned artist Georgia O'Keeffe who so loved New Mexico that she referred to the Land of Enchantment as "the faraway" because you could see forever.

Brnng ... brnng.

Troy was startled from his revelry by the harsh sound of his office telephone. In his rush to get the door unlocked, he kicked over his coffee, spilling its contents all over the manila folder.

"Damn", he muttered as he left the mess to clean up later and he hobbled over to the desk to answer the phone.

"Yeah, talk to me", Troy said into the receiver.

"Man, the way you answer the phone is so high school. Don't you think you should get some new material?", came a very familiar voice through the receiver of the old black corded phone.

"Chad...", Troy sighed as he leaned back against his desk, a smile automatically coming to his lips when he heard his best friend's voice. "What's up, buddy?"

"I'm just confirming our stakeout for tonight."

"Oh, yeah. Well, I hope you're not getting your hopes up to just have them busted. It's not all that exciting; in fact, it's incredibly boring."

"Good, because that's exacting what I'm looking for."

"Uh?"

"My angle for this story is jobs that we think are exciting, but which are actually really quite boring -- like firemen, police officers, security guards, and PI's, although they can have moments of complete and absolute excitement, bordering on terror. Well, except for PI's... I think they're probably boring all the time."

"Gosh, Chad", Troy said sarcastically, "thanks a lot."

"So we're still on for 9:00 p.m.?"

"Yeah, I'll come pick you up and remember to bring lots of caffeine."

Troy returned the phone to its cradle and started to head around to the opposite side of the desk when he remembered the mess he left outside. However, before he could even turn around, he heard a tsking sound coming from the door.

"I do hope this isn't an example of your work", an effeminate male voice said.

Troy looked up to see a short blond man, about his own age, holding Troy's coffee sodden folder in his hand with a look of apathy on his face. The man wore pink Crocs, Kelly green shorts, a pink floral Hawaiian shirt and a white Panama hat decorated with a matching pink floral band. He was staring at Troy from over the top of his sequined bedazzled sunglasses. He looked Troy up and down, studying him and didn't seem to like what he saw.

Troy straightened his rumpled clothes self-consciously, hoping this guy wasn't about to make a pass at him. Realizing what the man held in his hand, Troy offered his hand out for the wet papers.

"Oh, here, let me take that."

He took them and grabbed a handful of tissues from his desk to try and blot out the mess. His blond visitor stood silently at the door holding his own wet hand out like it was something he truly wished he could throw in the trash.

"Um, all I have are some Kleenex", Troy mumbled while offering him the box.

The man begrudgingly accepted and then, vigorously started to wipe his hands.

"Do you have any hand sanitizer?", he asked with a lazy drawl.

"Sorry, no."

There's an awkward silence for a few seconds before Troy finally asked, "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I'm starting to seriously doubt it. However, I do have an appointment with you this morning. Have you forgotten already?" He walked completely into the room, letting the door close behind him.

"Ryan Edwards?", Troy asked in amazement as he motioned for his new client to take a seat.

"That's me." Ryan sat gingerly on the edge of the worn faux leather straight chair, trying to make as little contact with the seat as possible.

"Man...", Troy fumbled with what to say to his former high school classmate. "You've ... well, changed, man." Then, he seemed to take stock of himself and stepped up to offer the man his hand which was accepted with a distinctly limp wrist. Troy settled back against his desk and continued. "I mean I remember you from school, of course, but..."

"You don't remember me as being quite so gay, right?"

Troy exhaled gratefully. "Yeah, that's it. I mean, you were the star pitcher of the baseball team. You guys went to the state championships the same year that we did on the basketball team. Gosh, I had no idea. I mean", Troy awkwardly brushed his finger through his brown locks. "... not that I'd have any problem with that, of course. You know, 'live and let live', but still..."

Ryan leaned forward in the seat as if about to share a confidence. "To tell you the truth, Troy, the only reason I joined the baseball team was because of the team showers, if you know what I mean." He added a sly wink at the end of his sentence.

Troy paled suddenly and gratefully remembered that basketball and baseball were played during different times of the year. He jumped up and hurried to the other side of his desk and started sorting through his notes in an effort to distance himself from this uncomfortable conversation.

"Soooo, in your phone call you said you wanted to hire me to find someone for you. And I explained my rates, right?

"Yes, here's your retainer."

Troy accepted the proffered envelop and quickly glanced inside and immediately his eyes bugged out. "Wow, this is, like, three times my normal fee."

"That's because I expect three times your normal speed and efficiency. I need you to find my sister, Sarah", Ryan replied succinctly.

Troy looked up in surprise. This day seemed to be full of them. "I never knew you had a sister."

"Yeah, we're twins, but I'm not surprised. She was very shy. Most people didn't notice her."

"Okay, well, how long has it been since you saw her last?"

"I haven't seen Sarah in about thirteen years, since about a year after high school."

"Wow, that's going to make it more difficult. What were the circumstances to your estrangement?"

"That's a personal matter and I'd prefer to not answer it."

Another sigh. "Okaaay, do you by any chance have her social security number?"

Ryan didn't bother to answer. He just raised his eyebrow in a 'you've got to be kidding' gesture.

"You're not giving me much to work with, here, Ryan."

"That's why I'm paying you so much money, Troy, remember?" He looked down at his watch and stood. Then, looking Troy in the eye, said, "I gotta get going and I expect to see some results in one week." Ryan walked to the door and with his hand on the handle turned back to Troy and said with a wink, "Bye, ... cutie", and as a final gesture, blew him an air kiss before disappearing through the door.

Troy swallowed hard and looked warily at the large stack of cash his newest client left for him. Then, his eyes shifted over to that folder of wet papers and he let out a loud groan. His final report on Mrs. Reynold's "conniving, cheating, scum-bag of a husband" was going to have to be reprinted and the file was on his home computer. Mrs. Reynolds was due in 30 minutes. Ugh, one of these days, he'd make enough money to afford a laptop.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"Oh my Gawd!", Chad shouted in his very best valley girl falsetto as he leaned back into the passenger seat of Troy's aging Toyota. "Ryan Edwards was gay?! And here I thought it was the football players you had to worry about... what with all that butt pattin' an' stuff."

"Very funny! So anyway, I'm supposed to find his missing sister, Sarah", Troy said as he took a large bite out of his hoagie and tried to continue his story.

They were sitting outside a very sleazy looking motel near the corner of Broadway and Coal in south west Albuquerque. They were parked under a blinking neon light which was just starting to give Troy a headache, but a job's a job.

"Ryan had a sister? Younger or older?" Chad asked as his absentmindedly reached under the patch covering his left eye and gave it a healthy scratch.

"Apparently, they're twins and would you, please, stop doing that scratching thing. That's nasty, man. I can't believe Taylor lets you get away with that."

"Well, it itches and she obviously loves me more than you do." He made a show of putting his hands on his lap.

"Well, I hope so ... since I'm not the one having your baby and would you, please, stop wearing those stupid shirts around me, too."

With an offended look on his face, Chad caught the hem of his graphic t-shirt and straightened it out to show the design. It read, Without Me, There Would Be No Bun In Her Oven.

"Oh no, man. I absolutely refuse to do that. Tay and I have been married for eight years now and it took us five years to get pregnant, so I'm planning on letting everybody know."

"I'm afraid to even ask how many different shirts you have."

"Be afraid, be very afraid", Chad replied with an extremely unserious look on his face.

"Okay, so I looked her up in the yearbook and check this picture." Troy handed Chad the East High School Wildcats 2009 yearbook. "There she is right next to Ryan."

Chad studied the photograph of a nondescript brown haired girl wearing thick tortoise shell glasses and very little makeup. Then, he exclaimed, "No way, I have never seen this girl before in my entire life. I can't believe she went to school with us."

"Yeah, me either. It says she was in the drama club, the co-president with Ryan, in fact."

"Well, that makes sense. I mean with him being gay and all."

"Will you lay off the whole gay thing? I'm sorry I said anything. You know, I didn't even know Ryan was in drama. I don't think I saw a single play and musical or anything the whole time I was there." Troy kept talking to Chad, but without taking his eyes off of room 212, waiting for the wayward Mrs. Reyes to make her appearance.

"I'm with you there, dude. That Ms. Darbus gave me the willies." Chad started to reach under his patch again and then, quickly pulled his hand away and mumbled, "Sorry."

"It's okay; if it bothers you that much, go ahead and scratch. You have to slow down when you walk with me, so it's the least I can do. Besides an eye patch is way cooler than a gimpy leg, especially with Pirates of the Caribbean 8 coming out next summer."

"Well, you know...", Chad started as he tried stretched out his legs in the small car before giving up. "I have to agree with you. I do look pretty damn hot with this thing on."

"Don't get carried away, man. After all, you did have to cut those long gorgeous locks of yours to accommodate that string."

"Aaah, that retro 'fro was practically turn of the century and 'string-head' is much worse than 'hat-head'", Chad commented while patting his closely cropped haircut.

"Sooo, I was wondering if Chad, the great god of LexisNexis, could help me out?", Troy asked with as much pity in his voice as he could muster.

LexisNexis is a paid subscription based Internet search engine which no six month old PI could ever hope to afford. However, since Chad works for the Albuquerque Journal, he has access to the newspaper's business subscription of the 'world's largest collection of public records, unpublished opinions, forms, legal, news, and business information'.

"Troy... you know I'm not supposed to use it for personal stuff", Chad said reluctantly.

"Just say it's research for a story."

"I'm the sports reporter, Troy. How can I justify researching some high school drama queen from over ten years ago?"

"What about this PI story you're working on?"

"I'm only doing that on my own time. When I'm done, I'll approach my editor and see if I can sell him on the story." He took a deep breath and gazed out the dirty car window. "God, I am so tired of covering high school sports. If I have to watch one more crappy JV game, I don't know what I'll do."

"But what about all your adoring fans, my man?", Troy asked lightheartedly.

"My adoring fans are all old, like me. No one even knows who I am anymore, Troy." He paused a bit before continuing. "You know, though, that's actually a good thing, a very good thing. I was just about sick of all the, Oh you're one of the East High Tragic Three, aren't you? And, Damn man, I saw you play before you lost that eye, you could have gone all the way. And of course, my favorite, Do you ever feel guilty about that guy who died since you were driving the car?" Chad changed his inflection slightly with each quote to distinguish them from each other."Oh yeah", Chad sighed, "that one's definitely my favorite."

Troy studied his life long friend's face for a long time before replying. "It could have been any of us at the wheel that night, Chad. We were young, stupid and immortal, remember?"

"Yeah", Chad said with a bitter chuckle, "immortal... except for Zeke."

They were silent for a long time after that, each of them remembering that fateful night. They were planning on meeting Taylor and Gabriella at the dance since Troy, Chad and Zeke all made it to the state All-Star team and it was poorly scheduled on the same day as the senior prom. The All-Star game was played in Carlsbad, about five hours south of Albuquerque. Then, after the early afternoon game, they showered, changed directly into their tuxedos, and hit the road. Chad's radio was broken, so they had no way of knowing they were driving directly into the path of one of the largest wind storms to ever hit New Mexico. Winds of 70 miles per hours pummeled the little car and swatted it off the road like a gnat.

The resulting crash left Troy's right knee a mangled mess of ligament, crushed cartilage and ruined dreams. Despite three arthroscopic surgeries, his basketball future and his hard-won scholarship to the University of Albuquerque was lost. Chad faced similar bad news. A shard of windshield pierced his left eye and ended his NBA career before it even had a chance to start.

However, Zeke, their unobtrusive teammate and friend, faced the worst fate of all. Chad and Troy had known the shy, quiet boy since middle school and loved him like a little brother. Even though he was the same age as them, he always seemed more innocent and naive and they always felt like they should protect him. He was an eclectic mix of interests. Ezekiel Baylor was a tall, lanky African American with a talent for basketball and passion for cooking. He continually baked delicious pastries for the team, to such an extent that Coach Bolton, Troy's father and their basketball coach, finally had to put a moratorium on the activity. The team was simply putting on too much weight.

Zeke died on that lonely stretch of highway half way to home and safety. Troy and Chad didn't do such a great job of protecting their little brother and they've lived with the guilt since that fateful prom night almost fourteen years ago.

"Hey, isn't that her?", Chad shattered the silence by exclaiming excitedly and pointing vigorously towards the hotel.

For an instant, Troy actually thought he was talking about Sarah Edwards. Then, he quickly realized that his client's cheating spouse was making her exit from the rent-by-the-hour motel. Troy quickly grabbed his Nikon D700 digital camera with a 4.3 times telephoto zoom lens and started clicking away. Mrs. Reyes was followed from the room by a dark skinned Hispanic man wearing a red silk shirt and dark sunglasses on this moonless night.

"Dude, he looks like a male skank. It's just pitiful when a brother has to sell himself like that, you know?"

Troy stopped the rapid firing of his camera to look at his friend in disbelief. "Gee, Chad, I guess you really have grown-up after all."

"Look at that!", Chad pointed back to the clandestine couple and saw that they had made it to the woman's car. As they locked in a heated embrace, they also saw the man-ho reach behind Mrs. Reyes' back and help himself to her wallet by lifting it very skillfully out of her purse. "Are you getting all this?", Chad asked excitedly.

"I'm getting' it; I'm getting' it."

"I guess it serves her right for cheatin' on her man", Chad said with some satisfaction.

Five minutes after they couple departed in separate cars, Chad turned to his best friend, "You know this really was fun and for a few brief seconds it was actually exciting. Thanks, man."

"You're welcome, Chad", Troy replied as he put the car into gear and pulled out of the lot.

"And hey, I was kidding about the Lexis thing. I'll get right on it in the morning. Just give me a call about nine."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"Oh my Gawd! You won't believe what I found out!"

Troy pulled the receiver away from his ear and winced in pain. Then, after studying the phone cautiously, he put it back to his ear when it seemed like Chad was waiting for a response.

"Let me guess. Sarah Edwards is gay too", Troy said sardonically.

"What?", he snapped. "Oh, very funny and no, that's not it. It's much better than that."

TBC

Okay, guys here's my new one and I know, I know, I promised to work on Why?, but I just don't have the motivation for that one right now.

Anyway, I'm really trying to develop this one more. More descriptions, more character development, etc, etc. Trying to make it a "real" story.

Hope you like. Please let me know.

Oh and there are 2 educational things in this one.

1st is Georgia O'Keeffe. She's like a god in New Mexico.

2nd is LexisNexis. Here's some more stuff I got from Wiki. Typical customers of LexisNexis include lawyers, law students, journalists, and academics. "It's how you know" was the primary slogan for LexisNexis for over a decade.