Central Park in May can be quite a beautiful sight. It is no wonder that a young couple would decide to take a midnight walk through the blossoming trees. Kevin Marks thought that it would be a good idea an easy way to woo his new girlfriend Amy Groves. He had been planning this moment for weeks. Here under the moon light and engrossed in a little piece of paradise is where he planned on telling her how he felt. He watched Amy was she led him in the park. I couldn't help but to think about how beautiful she was. He watched the way her eyes sparkled in the moonlight. The way that dress hugged her in all the right ways. The way that the wind blew through her long red hair. "Kevin this is the best date I have ever been on." Amy said as she walked ahead of him. He speed up and wrapped his arms around her waist. He pulled her close.
"Amy, I love you." He said as he pulled her hair back and kissed her neck. She let out a giggle as she turned to face him. They kept walking.
"Good." She said with a smile. "Because I love you." She said as she looked at him. "Come on I think I know a short cut." She said as she pulled him into the woods.
"A short cut to what?" Kevin asked as Amy pulled along.
"The most romantic spot in the park…the fountain." She said with a smile. They had met at that fountain three months before. She was new in town a business major at NYU. He was a local with little money and big dreams. He loved how Amy was amazed with the city because he had grown tired of it years ago. She was now the light of his life. That is why his heart stopped when he heard her screaming. At first he didn't know what was wrong. Then he saw the face staring up at them from the ground. All that he remembered about how it looked was the two quarters placed on the eyelids to hold them down. He got Amy to the fountain before calling the police off his cell. Or at least that is the story he gave me. I could see the fear in the girl's eyes as she sat on the ground by the fountain. She had his jacket wrapped around her and was still shaking.
"I don't think New York will be magical for her anymore." He said to me as he looked over at her to. I saw that Becca was talking to her. Becca was the best detective in the NYPD in my opinion. However, I know that my opinion is probably subject to bias because she was my girlfriend.
"The magic had to be lost at some point." I said to him as I walked over to the edge of the tree line. Becca followed me soon.
"She is scared to death." She said to me as we walked back to where the body was. "It seems this was a body dump. The person trying to bury the body probably ran off when they heard the couple." She said as I got my first look at the body. The body was buried from around the waist down. I could tell the victim was close to his forties. He had reddish brown hair. However, what stuck out the most were the quarters on the eyes. Someone must have had a reason for that. I would even say it could be a personal reason. For now however, my questions were unanswered and I just took a look around as I thought.
I was sitting in my office later that day looking over old case files when Marty, one of the many people I oversee in the crime lab comes in. "I got an ID on the guy in the park. He is Edward Cullen. The brother of Alice Black." She said as she stood in my doorway.
"The Alice Black?" I asked as I looked at what she had to show me.
"Yes, the Alice Black. As in the second richest family in America. The one who owns a good bit of the city and master of all arts." Marty said as she looked at me. "Black reported her brother missing two weeks ago." She said. "That would be the first place I go." I called Becca and then we were off. Soon enough I found myself standing in front of an apartment building on Fifth Street.
"The top six floors belong to the Blacks." Becca said as we were in the elevator.
"How do you know this?" I asked as I looked at her.
"It was in People." She said as the elevator stopped at the last public stop which was the entrance to the family's home. I knocked on the door to find a teenage boy answer the door. He was probably about fourteen. He was tall and lanky with the same reddish brown hair as Edward. "We are looking for Alice Black." Becca said.
"Mom!" The boy called from the door. "Hey, I don't know what Sydney did, but can you wait to tell mom till I get my video camera?" He asked as a woman appeared behind him. She was short with short black hair. She was as pale as she could be without being dead. She was dressed in a designer dress and heels.
"Mason go upstairs and do your homework." She said as she placed a hand on her son's shoulder. She watched him leave before inviting us in. "Come in." She said as she looked at me.
"Can we talk to you about your brother?" I asked her. Her face went paler than before.
"This is about Edward. Let's talk in the study I have a house full of kids. I don't want them to hear." She said as she led us down the hall. In the study there were two sofas facing each other. She sat on one and we sat on the other. "He is dead isn't he?" She asked.
"I am very sorry for your loss." I said as I looked at her. I saw tears running down her face.
"I knew this would happen one day. My brother he has been up to no good since Bella left him." She said as she looked at me. She was staring into my soul. "She is his ex-wife. They got married at eighteen and by then they already had one kid. Soon they had three more and by the time they were twenty-four they were divorced and I was raising their kids." She said as she got up. She grabbed a picture off a shelf and came back. It was a picture of her family. "Jake and I have four children of our own. That's why we need a place as big as this. We were looking at moving away from Manhattan, but this is home. Edward's are Mason, Maya, Tony, and Izzy." She said as she pointed to them in the picture. However it was hard to tell the difference. Her husband was an American Indian and her children were darker, whereas Edward's were as pale as her. "Bella didn't want them and Edward knew he couldn't handle them. So, Jake and I adopted them. Mason was only three at the time, so they have been with us for twelve years. Izzy is the oldest she is nineteen. She is majoring in economics at NYU." She said as she looked at me. "I am so proud of her." She looked me dead in the eyes. "I know you're here for information on my brother. I really would like to know what happened."
"We found him in Central Park." Becca said. "That's all we can tell you at this moment."
"He loved Central Park. He played sax by the fountain. The one with the angel on top, its name escapes me at the moment." She said as she looked at me. He was close to where she was talking about.
"Did his sax have any special features? Anyway to identify it?" I asked her.
"It's engraved. It reads "To our lovely son. Congrats and best wishes, Love Carlisle and Esme." She said with a smile. "It was a graduation gift."
"How come they didn't sign it mom and dad?" I asked.
"We are adopted. Carlisle and Esme Cullen adopted five children. The other three are still in Washington with them." She answered.
"Why did you leave?" I asked her.
"Do you have time for a very long story?" She asked.
"Yes." Becca answered.
"Edward and I graduated together along with our brother Jasper. Edward had already knocked up Bella. Carlisle bought them a house and paid for their wedding. Carlisle is a doctor and we always had quite a bit of money. Jasper and I went to school in Seattle. I came back for Christmas break and that's when I met Jake. He was from La Push which is right outside of Forks. He fixed my car and I fell head over heels right away. However, there was bad blood between the Cullen's and the people from the reservation. So, Jake and I hid our relationship until I graduated. We went to city hall and got married. It killed me because I saw the beautiful wedding that Edward got. I felt like I deserved better after all I didn't get knocked up. Soon after I got a job out here at an accounting firm. We sold everything we had and started new. I didn't tell my family anything that happened. They didn't even know I moved till Bella tracked me down. Her and Edward were going through a divorce and she wanted money to hop a flight to Italy. Jake and I had been out here for three years. We both had good jobs, but not good enough to pay for that. Soon after Edward came by and left the kids. He signed the adoption papers and really we haven't heard much from him since. He popped up when he needed money. He didn't even go to Izzy's graduation. That was the point when all the kids gave up hope. Tony is graduating in a few weeks and Maya next year and we knew he wasn't going to come. The kids see us as their parents. Much like I did Carlisle and Esme." She said as she looked at me.
"That wasn't that long." Becca pointed out.
"It was the reader's digest version." She said as she looked at the clock. "Now if you don't mind I have to get a flight from Washington to here for the family."