Well hello Readers,
I received this review after I posted the first chapter of this story
From: stupid storyy (Guest) - stupid storyy:this story is stuuuuuuuuuuupid
I didn't like the review and well guess what you can go blow yourself for all I care because I am writing this story for myself and others that like it not you. So you should have saved yourself the few seconds it took you to write that and reviewed a story you liked or at least given constructive criticism. If you think it could be better then tell me how because saying this story is stuuuuuuuuuuupid doesn't help me at all.
MJM
JULY 9TH 2010 FRIDAY
The incessant ringing of her telephone had wakened Bella Swan up. She rolled over and grabbed the phone from its cradle to answer it.
"What?" She snapped into the phone.
"It's your boss and I got news for you." The familiar voice of her boss Aro said.
"Hurry up already please. I have sleep to catch up on." Bella replied.
"Emmet McCarty escaped from prison four hours ago."
"Who is that and why are you calling me at this hour when you could have told me later when I arrived at work?"
"He killed your sister."
"Her body was never found," She reminded him. "I'm guessing you think he might be after me now?"
"Yes, So I need you to be careful." He replied.
"Thanks for the call Aro." Bella said before she heard the dial tone.
Bella put the phone back into the cradle and rolled over and tried to get some sleep.
Bella combed out her short Brown hair and smoothed out the red and black dress she wore. Her entire morning felt like it dragged on, from the stake out at the old Carter ranch to the integration and paper work that followed. She finished it all just in time for her two o'clock court date, when in reality that she would be waiting a while and not testifying at two o'clock. Now after all the waiting, Bella could only wait to be called to the whiteness stand. Whishing that they would have let her in the court room but the prosecutor had not wanted her in the court room.
"I don't want your testimony to be affected by your reaction to the other witnesses."
"But I investigated the case!" Bella had yelled, "I can hide my emotions and facial expressions."
The prosecutor even gave her a stern look like she was three years old.
Thinking back to that day, a year and six months ago, Bella still had trouble realizing that a simple vandalism case turned into a murder investigation. She had been working with a patrol man chasing down leads on another case when the call came over the radio. Taking advantage of their close proximity to the crime they rushed right over.
Five minutes later they arrived on the scene. The restaurant was in shambles, tables were over turned, glass cases were shattered, and trails of blood lead them into a back room in no better condition than the dining room. They found a deceased victim's body under and an over turned file cabinet with a second victim was found hiding in a bathroom stall unconscious; bleeding from her forehead not knowing if she was an attacker or not Bella stayed with her while the patrol man checked the rest of the restaurant and radioed for an ambulance and back up.
Bella was greeted by two detectives that were no retired. They were cold and quite rude to her. They even sent her to tell the victims' families what had happened to them.
Nervously Bella looked around the hallway she was in. She saw several people that looked like they were there for a domestic reason or something as simple as drinking and driving. Neither of which she condoned. Thinking about the people Bella fixed her gaze on the court room door.
A few minutes later a door opened. Bella looked up expecting to see the bailiff. Instead of a man wearing a police uniform, out walked a man wearing a suit. He had thinning dark brown hair; the dark gray of his tie bringing out the gray in his eyes. She had recognized the man but couldn't remember where she recognized him from. Probably knew him from high school Bella thought.
After catching her looking the man looked at her oddly and walked passed her; Instinctually Bella gripped the arm of the bench tighter, her throat drying. I know him, I know I do, she thought. But where have I seen that face before? She asked herself.
Bella had waited until the man was completely gone before walking up to the woman he had been talking with and asking who he was after saying that she thought she knew him of course. Only the last name of the name given to Bella was familiar to her. The last name King was one that Bella would remember until she was too old to do so and that was only because that had been her sisters last name when she disappeared and likely killed. But from what she knew of her sister's husband Royce King did not have a brother or family of any kind. She had a weird feeling sweep over her when she sat down. She was so chilled by the feeling that she shivered like it was snowing outside.
Bella watched as the two women and little girl were led into another court room by Officer Jasper Whitlock (an ex-boyfriend). He gave her a courteous wave and nod of the head but said nothing to her. She replied with the same nod and wave. Her attention was only drawn away by an officer coming out of the court room for her. An hour and half later Bella had been free to go home but stayed to watch the rest of the proceedings. She watched the proceedings until just before five when the defense called for a recess. The judge gave them that but said they would reconvene at nine o'clock the next morning.
Bella got out of there before the prosecutor could stop her and have another 'chat' about the case. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk about the case; she was just very tired at the moment and wanted to get home and get some sleep or rest so she was firing on all cylinders. Leaving the court house Bella had made it down the first set of stairs, about to go down the second when she was stopped by someone calling her name. She reluctantly turned around to face her boss; Aro Volturi, walking toward her with a scowl on his face.
"What did I do wrong now?" She asked when he came to a stop in front of her.
"No you haven't done anything." He replied sitting down on a nearby bench.
"Then what's with the grumpy face"
"I have to deliver some bad news to you."
"Is Alice okay? Did something happen to her?" Bella asked also sitting down.
"No. Alice is fine." He replied trying to calm Bella down.
"Then what's the bad news? My brother doesn't care about me and my mom and sister are dead—"
"Now about you sister, the man who killed her escaped from prison this morning."
"You already told me that this morning." Bella yelled causing several of the people passing by to stare at her.
"Sorry I thought that was your brother."
"That's fine but I would like to know how he escaped."
"Well at the moment we are assuming that he got some buddies on the outside to cause the prison transport he was on to crash."
"Why was he even on a transport?" Bella asked.
"The Prison he was he was placed at needed more room and was having him transferred to another facility with a stronger security system." Aro replied.
"Was anyone hurt?" Bella asked.
"Another prisoner has a slight concussion but none of the guards or anyone else was hurt."
"So why did you wait to tell me the details now and not earlier when you called me?" Bella asked.
"Marge. The prosecutor told me not to because she didn't want your testimony to be affected by the news and I got called out on another case."
"Are you telling me because he might be coming after me?"
"That's part of it. Plus we have to notify the victims or the victim's family when something like this has come up."
"You are not going to make me go home with a body guard are you?" Bella asked.
"Not unless something unusual happens." Aro replied.
"So let you know if something strange has happened?"
"That would be the idea but I don't want any of this to affect your work."
"I promise it won't" Bella told him before walking away; she really wanted to get home after the conversation she just had.
"Just be careful." Aro called after her retreating form.
She walked down the second set of stairs faster than she did the first set, not wanting to get stopped a second time. When she got outside it started pouring down rain giving her the need to run to her waiting car two blocks away. By the time she got out to her car and inside it she was soaking wet and shivering not just from the cold but the weird feeling she couldn't let go.
Bella had taken out her phone and called the only person she could think of and the only person she felt like talking to.
"I need someone to talk to." She said.
Bella Swan ignored the prying eyes of her neighbors as she pulled up to her home. She quickly made it inside and changed out of her wet clothing before Alice arrived. She paced the floor in front of her TV out of a bad case of nerves. She rubbed her hands together to ring out those nerves but they only seemed to get worse as the seconds ticked by. A sigh of relief slipped from her lips when she heard Alice's three sharp knocks sounded on her door.
"You can come in." Bella called.
Alice opened the door and walked in with one hand rubbing her extended belly. She was only six months but looked like about eight. Alice's eyes grew bigger when she saw how distressed that Bella looked.
"Bella you need to tell me now what has you so freaked out." Marry said.
"I need to calm myself down first." Bella replied.
"And how long is that going to take?" Alice asked.
Bella replied with a scowl that quickly turned into a grin. The grin slowly turned into a grimace as Bella thought about how to tell marry what had her so stressed. She took a deep breath before she even tried to speak.
"Em McCarty escaped from prison early this morning." Bella finally got out.
"Who's Em McCarty?" Alice asked. "And what does he have to do with you?"
"He is the one they think killed my sister." Bella replied. "But her body has never been found so I don't see how they know or think he did it."
"Wait, are you referring to Emmet McCarty?" asked Alice.
Bella nodded yes.
"That boy couldn't hurt a fly. There is no way he killed your sister." Alice told Bella.
"How do you know him Alice?" Bella asked.
"Well Jasper and I both knew him. He lived down on the same street as us growing up. He was a bit like you, preferred books over sports. He left town before you and your family made it here but moved back just before his senior year." Alice explained.
"How come this didn't come out at his trial?" asked Bella.
"Jasper and I were never asked to speak at the trial. I guess they think child hood acquaintances don't mean a thing." Alice commented.
"I never did think he killed let alone hurt her. His demeanor told me differently." Bella replied. "I didn't know that much about him and I also thought that the courts were competent to put the right man behind bars but I was seventeen, what did I know?"
"You knew a lot more than some cops that were on the force back then." Alice told her. "And if it turns out that Emmet or Em as you called him didn't do it then you are not the only one. I would be in that boat with you."
"The bad thing is I am probably the only one that would give him a fair shake at this point because there is no way in heck that they would give me a shot at solving the case." Bella said. "Oh wait Dylan might but he does not have control of that."
"Yeah you are right Dylan would but the first time you screwed up no matter how big he would take it right away and give it to someone else." Alice replied.
"You know your husband well." Bella commented.
"I am his wife. I am supposed to know him." Alice said laughing.
"Why didn't he come with you?" Bella asked.
"There was a bad fire on old Clearwater's farm. It was one of the old bars or something like that." Alice replied.
"I thought he didn't have to go out because of all the problems you've had with the pregnancy." Bella questioned.
"That was for the two weeks I was on bed rest because of my blood pressure."
"So there's no more bed rest?" Bella asked.
"Not right now but doctor Wright said the last few weeks I might be put back on." Alice replied.
"That's good. Are you hungry?" Bella said.
"Sure you got any Chinese?" Alice asked.
"I can order. The stuff in the fridge is a week old." Bella replied.
Bella got up from the couch to order the food. She had calmed down a little bit since Alice's arrival but not much. She had always had the feeling that Em McCarty did not hurt her sister but she never had the proof that someone else had hurt her sister either. Bella knew deep down that she wouldn't get her answers concerning her sister's death one way or another.
"What's with the funky look?" Alice asked.
"I have a feeling I'm going to do a back door investigation on this." Bella replied.
"Backdoor?" Alice questioned.
"It means that I can't do it in the open." Bella told her.
"You are not going to do anything illegal are you?" Alice asked.
"No. I do not plan on doing anything illegal. What makes you think I would?" Bella said.
"Your sister's murder was solved nine years ago though her body was never found." Alice replied.
Their conversation continued to flow into the late evening hours. Spending dinner in front of the TV with the fresh Chinese after it arrived, watching monk reruns and they continued to do so until Alice's husband Dylan called letting her know he would be late that night.
"Is everything okay?" Bella asked.
"Yes Dylan is just going to be home late tonight. The fire looks like it might be arson."
"Why would anyone want to do that? That has to be hard on Mr. Clearwater." Bella replied.
"I don't know but Dylan will do anything to figure it out because Mr. Clearwater was one of his daddy and granddaddy's best friends."
"I'll probably get the case since I can't work Em's case." Bella replied back.
"Dylan would probably request you after you figured out who stole that bake sale money freshman year." Alice said with a smile. "Ooh."
"Are you all right?" Bella asked on high alert.
"Oh things are just perfect. The baby was moving." Alice replied.
"How long has it been moving?" Bella asked.
"Not very long but they do move around a lot so as long as they continue to move I cam perfectly happy. The kicking I could do without."
"Why is that? I thought expecting mothers loved to feel the baby kick?" Bella asked.
"I do as long as they are not using my bladder as a soccer or football." Alice replied.
"Well Alice as much as I love having you here I think it might be time for you to go home. It is getting late and I don't think Dylan would want you to drive any later than this." Bella said.
"I agree." Alice said hoisting herself up off the couch.
"You should have let me help you up." Bella told Alice.
"Yeah, yeah I hear that all the time from Dylan." Alice replied. "Come on you can walk me out to my car."
Bella did help her friend out to and into her car.
"Call me when you get home." Bella said after Alice got into the car.
Alice nodded and pulled out of the driveway. After Alice left, Bella walked back inside. She cleaned up the Chinese food in the living room and tossed it into the trash. She had been in the middle of the clean up when she heard the door bell. She ignored it and continued to clean up. No one rang this late unless it was trouble.
After she had finished cleaning Bella just wanted to go to bed but another ringing door bell had stopped her. Bella groaned walking to the door; she had to see if anyone was still at the door. She opened the door slowly. No one was there when the door was completely opened. Not even a shadow from the porch light. The only thing in her line of sight was a single white envelope with her name in block print was left. She wouldn't have thought anything of it but it was placed perfectly in the center of the welcome mat.
She grabbed the envelope off the mat and brought it inside slamming the door behind her and locking it for the night. She went into the kitchen and started rummaging through her drawers she had dedicated to junk or things she didn't use to often looking for a letter opener her mother had given her before she passed away.
"Ha-ha success." She cheered when she found it.
Bella slipped the letter opener under the flap and dragged it along the seam to open the letter. A small white card fell out of the envelope when she was done, and in the same block printing as the envelope's front a single sentence was printed in the middle of the card and it read:
LEAVE THE CASE ALONE.