Disclaimer: I don't own the characters etc etc.

The Edge of Truth

Chapter 3: Lipstick

Bella yawned and stretched her fingers out, feeling the tendons tighten along the side of her spine. Mornings were the time of day that Bella had a heightened awareness of her body. The time on her engraved watch read 10:15, but the lights flashing rhythmically across her face as the car drove passed said otherwise.

"Did you get your toothbrush?" Charlie asked, his voice still thick with sleep.

"Yeah, dad." Bella leaned her head against the cruiser's passenger side window. "Got my toothbrush." The condensation from the window clung onto her forehead. Bella rolled her face side to side so that her whole forehead was covered in comfortingly cold dampness.

"Well, if you forgot something you can always just go to the store." Charlie mumbled.

"I know how stores work, dad." Bella rolled her eyes. Then after a second, "Sorry. Teenager moment."

Charlie only nodded back in response. He had been a father for 17 years but he wasn't good at it. He knew it. His daughter knew it too. It wasn't his fault. Not really. Like everything, to be good at something, you have to practice. Bella only saw Charlie once maybe twice a year for a few weeks at a time. On the spectrum of relationships, they were leaning more towards strangers.

"Getting closer. We're making good time." Charlie spoke aloud, mostly to himself. He looked over to Bella and saw her focused on something on her phone. "What are you doing?"

Bella hid her grimace behind a curtain of hair. Charlie normally didn't ask questions. "A project I'm working on." She answered unassumingly.

"Is it for school?"

"Yeah. It's due soon."

Charlie nodded again. They drove in silence the rest of the way.

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1 Unread Message: Made You Look

While Edward stared at his phone he had to remind himself to be gentle with it. If he lost control, he might break it.

Made You Look: Gotcha.

He tutted and leaned back on the couch while he typed out his response.

Edward: Odd, I don't know anyone named "Made You Look."

Made You Look: It's funny and you know it.

Edward: Mom told me not to talk to strangers.

Made You Look: Is that why you stay in your corner and pretend that no one else exists?

Edward: No one else is worth the conversation.

Made You Look: Parents mean well but sometimes you have to break the rules. Live on the wild side. Let your hair down (unless it's your hair, which seems to defy gravity on its own volition). Life isn't contained within the confines of a safety net.

Edward: I'm sorry, who is this again?

Made You Look: The girl who thinks your jokes are shit.

Edward: Fair enough.

Made You Look: Change my name to whatever you want. You'll hear from me again tomorrow.

Edward: What if I don't want to play your silly game?

As soon as he hit send, Edward began to panic. He was only just trying to gauge her reaction. What if she agreed to leave it all alone? Ten minutes went by. Then an hour. And another hour. No response. It was 1 am and Edward was pacing back and forth in his room. Dammit, Edward. He cursed himself. This is why he hated texting. It wasn't a real conversation. Not when the other person can leave without any explanation.

The sky began to lighten. Esme knocked on his door.

"Are you going to school today? The clouds are back." -He's been pacing all night. He looks like a mess.- "Rose and Emmett are about to head out. We weren't sure if you were. . . up to it."

Edward thought through several reasons not to go, but the pro-school list won out.

When Edward arrived at school he only had one mission: get through it.

It was just another school day. No one seemed to notice anything was missing. That is until lunch. Edward was tagging along behind Rose and Emmett as they went through the lunch line. He randomly picked food onto his plate and was about to ring out when Mike asked where Bella was.

"Did she say where she was going?" He turned to Jessica.

The girl with curly brown hair shrugged, but when Mike turned away, she spoke up. "Oh, I just remembered something about seeing her mom or something. I think she went to Jacksonville."

Edward crushed a can of soda between his fingers and the fizzy liquid sprayed everywhere. Could it be that simple?

"My apologies." He looked at the freshman girl next to him who likewise got covered in soda. "I'll get paper towels."

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"You'll call me when you land, right?" Charlie asked for the second time as he pulled up to the drop off lane.

"Yes, dad. I'll call you when I land. My phone is at 87%. I have a charger in my backpack, front side, left pocket. My ID is in my wallet. And the book I brought this time is the thriller Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough." Bella went through the checklist. Everything was accounted for.

"What about your boarding pass?"

Well, except that. Bella patted her pockets. "Oh, um."

"Not to worry, I printed them off last night. Figured you would forget something." Charlie winked as he pulled out the boarding passes from his front pocket. "Be safe. Don't talk to strangers and tell your mother I said hello."

"Will do. Thanks, dad." She clutched the large white sheets in her grasp. "See you in a few days." Bella hugged Charlie awkwardly over the console and then backed out of the cruiser.

When the electric doors swung open, Bella turned back and waved once more to Charlie. He looked oddly small in the cruiser. She walked in and was greeted by the overplayed recording of some B-list celebrity welcoming passengers to the Seattle-Tacoma airport. It was early morning and the airport was waking up to the hustle and bustle of passengers and crew who had places to be.

Two huge screens displayed the incoming and outgoing flights. She studied it for a few minutes. Glancing to the side, Bella spied a large sign directing passengers to the security checkpoints so they can be allowed into the concourses. She walked passed it and headed for the elevator in the corner mostly used by employees. On her way, she crumbled up her boarding passes and threw them in a passing janitor's trashcan.

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1 Unread message: Bella

Edward lurched forward in his chair. It was her. She texted back. Not just a reply. But this was the first message; the first clue. He didn't know what to expect.

He opened a picture up. After a short load screen he found himself staring at a copy of a newspaper clipping. He zoomed in on the date to read-

"Edward. No hay teléfonos en clase. Conoces las reglas." Why did his spanish instructor choose now to pay attention? Edward felt like the universe was out for him today.

"Perdón profesor. No volverá a suceder." He reluctantly put his phone back into his pocket. Satisfied, the teacher went on to talk about past tense verbs.

A newspaper article? The headline was written in french. What could she possible be trying to get across? He shook his head. Of course, Bella wouldn't just come right out and say the story. Edward had to figure that out too.

"You're driving home." He threw his keys to Rosalie who caught them on her pinky finger without looking. A mass of students spilled out into the parking lot.

"Good. You drive slow."

"Do not."

"Do to."

"Whatever, just drive." Edward grumbled as he slid into the backseat.

He pulled up the picture again. An old newspaper clipping from Le Monde, a local daily newspaper located in Paris, France. That date was mid june of last year. Edward's Spanish was flawless but his French still had work to do. However, he was proficient enough to read the bold headline: Lancer de Rouge à Lèvres Cible la Redevance

Lipstick Thief Targets Royalty.

The picture shown in the article was of a visiting diplomat wearing a gold necklace with a red gem in the center surrounded by diamonds. It was the last known photograph of the jewelry before it was taken. The Queen of England had lent it to the French Ambassador during an environmental meeting in Paris when it was stolen.

"What?" Edward breathed. "What does this mean?"

Emmett turned around in his seat. "You okay?"

"Bella sent me a clipping of a newspaper. But it's all in French. It's about how some jewelry was stolen last year in Paris. I don't see how this has anything to do with Bella."

"She's insane, Edward." Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Nothing she does will make sense."

1 unread message: Bella

"She sent another picture."

Another newspaper clipping. Only this newspaper was in Italian. The issue was dated May of last year from la Repubblica. Another bold headline: Milioni di dollari rubati con un bacio.

"Millions of dollars stolen with a kiss."

Being fluent in Italian, Edward raced through what was visible of the article. A business owner from Dubai was vacationing in Venice. After an evening out, he returned to see his safe opened and cleaned out. Security cameras picked up no intruders nor did the security officers remember anything a miss. The only clue left behind was a perfect red lipstick print on the handle of the safe.

Edward raced into the house before Rosalie even pulled into the driveway. He got onto the computer and immediately looked up the articles.

They were real. Bella hadn't fabricated anything or altered any dates or lines. The newspaper clippings were from actual sources with actual information. This wasn't just some hoax Bella threw together. Whether or not she had anything to do with these articles, they existed.

He found more articles on the purported "Lipstick Thief." Dozens of crimes committed, not just thievery, but all with the lipstick calling card. However, analysts began to believe that there may be copy cats. The most recent article about the Lipstick Thief was from a month and a half ago. "No Leads on Lipstick Thief" an article in Great Britain reported.

"Crime analysts are determining which, if any, of the white collar crimes have been committed by the original Lipstick Thief. The Press Commander over Scotland Yard said in a statement on Friday, 'We have a suspect in custody. However, we have reason to believe that the robbery on Brown Street was not the work of the original Lipstick Thief.' When asked why they didn't suspect the person in custody as the the original thief, the commander chuckled. 'Well, we compared their lips and they don't match up. The original Lipstick Thief is still at large.'"

Edward leaned back. So Bella sent two articles about an international cat burglar. One in France and one in Italy. These two seemed to be universally accepted as actually being performed by the original. There were other thefts reported online that Edward found that were up for debate, like the one on Brown St. But Bella didn't send article on those. Some even said that there was never just one lipstick thief, that perhaps these were committed by an organisation. Forums online suggest that police units should start collecting data on lip prints. Government entities have issued statements saying that the implementation of such practices would be a waste of resources and impossible to coordinate.

Edward shook his head. What was Bella trying to imply? There wasn't a connection to Bella at all in this stories. Edward was about to take a break when his phone buzzed a third time.

1 Unread message: Bella

Another newspaper article. This was from a local state paper, the Arizona Republic. The date read two years ago from April. "Things Heat Up: State Senate Race is Underway."

He scanned the headlining article about the local senate race. This wasn't right. Did she send the wrong picture? There was nothing about the Lipstick Thief in here. The other two were obviously connected. They were both from major news sources in foreign countries about a series of crime sprees by a single famed thief. This third one was just an article from a failing state paper about a boring local election cycle. What was the connection? What was he missing? There was absolutely nothing in the main story. There was a small blurb about younger high school students sneaking into proms. An ad for lawn care. A correction on a statement from the last issue.

Then he caught it. A small ad in the corner: "Reward for information on missing Rolex Watch. Last seen at the Grand Hotel. Engraved. Please contact Precinct 220 for details."

Edward started to breath harder. Was Bella insinuating that this was the first target of the Lipstick Thief?

Edward checked the forums again. There was nothing about the missing Rolex there. It wasn't a part of anyone's theories. No one else made this connection. This was new information that only someone intimately involved would know.

Then Edward googled the Grand Hotel. It was a five star rated hotel in downtown Phoenix. Phoenix. The city Bella grew up in. At the time of this article, Bella would have been a freshman. She probably wouldn't even have her driver's license. Edward attempted to find more information on the crime but there wasn't much. No one seemed to care about the stolen watch. Not even the police.

However he was able to access public records. There was a public police report hastily filled out. "Camera footage showed no intruder. Safe was not tampered with. Probably just misplaced." Then in the margins was a small note: "Lipstick smudge on door."

Lipstick. A traveler. Missing jewelry. It checked all the boxes.

Edward recalled the way Bella easily unlocked the door and broke into the house. No hesitation. No struggle.

"I usually don't get caught." She had muttered under her breath.

This was the first story. Bella: The Lipstick Thief.

It was impossible. Edward narrowed his eyes at the computer screen. Bella couldn't be the international thief. No way. She was just a seventeen year old girl.

But then Edward began to doubt. It felt so real. And Bella wasn't like the other teenagers in school. She was private and reserved but then also witty and insanely intelligent. Edward scrolled up on their text conversations. Something she said earlier didn't sit well and had been on the back of his mind. ". . . sometimes you have to break the rules."

Edward huffed. He didn't want to believe this story. It was absurd to entertain the thought. But it was the only story he had at the moment. The story laid before him had been carefully crafted to take him on a journey to conclude that Bella was this mystery figure. She never said it outright, but it was her intention for Edward to make his deductions. She turned him into a detective. A detective trying to catch a cat burglar.

If Bella was the Lipstick Thief then what was she doing this weekend? Or more accurately, what was she stealing this weekend? He felt his gut tighten. The evasions from both Bella and his sister on whether or not she would be safe. Bella was in danger. In danger of being caught red handed. Or red lipped in this case.

If she wasn't the Lipstick Thief then how did Bella know about the crime sprees to begin with? How did she find this page in the Arizona paper from two years ago? A seemingly insignificant detail that no one else in the world would have connected. No one else but Bella.

Edward stood up and pinched the bridge of his nose. If this was just today's story, what on earth did Bella plan on showing him tomorrow?

AN: I have a head cold. So I'm not sure if this makes sense and flows like I want it to. I just wanted you guys to get your toes into the action.

Tell me what you think! If you have theories or predictions, let me know. I'd love to hear them. Ask me questions if you have 'em. I may answer.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

xoxo

Rosalie