Chapter 11
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Edward's POV
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Alice's voice sounded so quiet and broken when she responded, that anyone else who had listened to her would have thought a family member of hers was taken. That was what it felt like between them anyway; they were such good friends that I even remembered them joking one time, calling each other their long lost sister.
"What? Edward you better not be messing with me because that sort of thing isn't funny." She said sternly, but the worry was still evident in her voice.
"He's not lying love," Jasper quickly added, and I heard Alice take a sharp intake of breath on the other line, "It's a possibility she has."
"I don't get it…what's happened exactly?"
"We're not sure," I said, "I came home and my house was a mess, and a tape with a message to be played left in my front room, from what it sounded like, and the basis of what it looks like right now in my house, there's a possibility that someone was kidnapped, and unfortunately, since we haven't got a hold of Bella, it might be her."
"But there's also a chance she hasn't been kidnapped? Right?" Alice asked hopefully, ignoring the most obvious choice, for which I was quite grateful for Alice being the optimist.
"Yeah there's a chance." Jasper said.
Alice agreed to tell us if Bella happened to return, and Jasper said he would be working late again.
When he put the phone down the house was filled with silence once more. Jasper looked like he wanted to comfort me somehow but kept deciding against it
I couldn't take my eyes away from the spots of blood on the floor and was kicking myself internally knowing that it was maybe Bella's. I moved myself away from the hallway and towards my office. Jasper just watched me not knowing what to do.
"Call dispatch or something Jasper, get forensics down here!" I called out to him as I entered my office and saw the chaos in the room from an entirely different perspective.
I looked down to the door which was now lying on the floor. The obvious reason for it being there was if the criminal (I would not say kidnapper as I tried to hold onto any last shreds of hope) had knocked down the door, in an attempt to get something or someone in here. Again my mind reeled back to the possibility of that someone being Bella.
Stop thinking those things!
But why did she lock herself in here? The blood at the floor in the hallway must have meant she, or whoever was here (still grasping onto that hope) was close to that door, so why didn't she make a run for it? Unless that came at a different time.
I took another look at the mess in the room, knowing that there had been some sort of struggle in here, or the man was really desperate to find something. Sheets were strewn all over the floor, books from my shelves were on the floor, not to mention my desk was upturned and my computer was destroyed. For all I know, it was just some robbery, and the criminal was looking for a case file or something. That makes more sense than if Bella was here.
I took another glance around until I found something peculiar, well I thought it was.
My house phone was on the floor, a good distance away from the desk, and I am sure that was where it was last. It could have simply fell off when the desk was turned over, but then I remembered my phone ringing in the car, and a large sense of dread started to ease up inside of me.
I walked over to the phone, stepping over various things that were in my way, and crouched down. The phone was dead, and I ignored the urge to pick it up and place back on the holder to recharge, and find out who the last call had been placed to, but knowing I could destroy any evidence I left it there, the feeling of unease still in my body.
I knew that whoever had been in my house had tried to call me, whether it was the criminal himself or the victim calling for help. I pushed down the feelings of guilt as I wondered if Bella, if she had been the one here, had tried to call me in her struggle, if I wouldn't have thrown my phone in the back of the car, what could have changed?
I was forced to wait outside as Forensics started to search through my house and collect evidence. Another guy from the station wrote down the information about what time I had returned home, all that necessary stuff they needed. He hadn't mentioned anything about a second person, or a victim for that matter, which I was partially grateful for.
Once I was finished with him, I waited outside just to see if they had found anything valuable. They had already taken the tape to be analysed to see if they could originate where that came from, but right now I just wanted to check one thing.
I had told them that someone had called me from my house but I couldn't answer the phone, so I was waiting for them to collect it for evidence.
Not too long after, a woman walked out with a couple of evidence bags, and I looked at them quickly and was happy to see the phone had been collected. I quickly walked up to her as I wanted to find out something, and I wanted it done now.
She hadn't realised I was walking to her until I got close to her. "Can I help you with something Detective?"
"That phone you've got," I motioned to the cordless one in one of the bags, "did you manage to get anything from it?"
"Yes we were able to collect a few fingerprints. We know most are likely to be yours but they are going to be sent anyway to see if another person's prints are on it."
"Is there anyway you could, you know, search it now?" I asked, "I mean I've seen some of the portable machinery you forensics carry around in the back of those SUVs, is it possible you can do it now."
"I'm not sure Detective, I guess it is a possibility of doing it now, but the time it takes for a perfect match can be days."
"I only need to compare it with one person." I said, in an attempt to make this quicker.
She looked uneasy, but then she nodded and motioned with her hand for me to follow her. "Are their prints already in the system?"
I nodded, feeling a pain in my chest remembering why the prints were put into the system those years ago.
We had made our way to one of the SUVs, and the woman opened the trunk of the van to reveal a bunch of technology that I assumed could be used for quick analysis such as this. She opened up a laptop, whilst also taking the fingerprints she collected and scanning them in by a small scanner which was also there. The screen loaded up, and the scan of the fingerprint was quickly on the screen.
"Name?" She asked.
"Isabella Swan." I said. Saying her name the way it was previously just felt so different from what I've known her as.
The woman typed in her name and it didn't take too long before a small message appeared saying the name couldn't be found.
"Try Isabella Cullen." I asked again, forgetting that was the name she used when giving in the prints, and she quickly typed in her name again.
The computer quickly found her, and all the details for Bella were correct, even though I knew they needed to be updated. Especially as her marital status will now be single.
She done what was necessary to prepare the results, and soon they were being compared.
I shifted restlessly on my feet as I watched a small bar start to move across the screen, internally hoping that it wasn't Bella who was in my house, as I knew that if it was, then ultimately that meant the message that was left is true, and that Bella was taken from my house.
Eventually the bar reached the end of the screen and I took a deep breath to prepare myself for whatever was going to appear on the screen infront of me.
A message appeared, and I was confused as I didn't know what it meant. It wasn't saying the fingerprints were a match, and it wasn't saying they didn't match either, it was something else. I turned to the girl next to me to see if she could explain.
"The print isn't completely clear. There must be oils, residue or something that is making the fingerprint unable to read for comparison. Because the print is so small, it's harder for the machine to get a clear image."
"So when would you be able to get it?"
"We would have to take it back to the lab, try and get a cleared print and then use that one for comparison."
I looked at the screen disappointed, as I still didn't know who the person was who used my phone.
"Alright, I want you to send me those results as soon as you get them please…"
"Tracy."
"…Tracy, and thanks anyway for trying."
I nodded to her and then turned away, hoping to find Jasper and see if he knew anything new.
I spotted him talking on the phone, and from the way he looked, it didn't look good.
I made my way over to him just as he put the phone down.
"Anything?"
"Alice says she still hasn't returned, and she left her phone in the house. Also, Alice was so worried that she went to the nearest shop and asked the shop assistant if he had seen Bella."
"And?"
Jasper shook his head. "But that was just one shop Edward." He tried to reassure me, "She'll show up, don't worry. Do you want to stay at ours for a while until they clean up your house?"
"No, not yet, I think I'm just going to go to the station and wait for the results. Anyways, if Bella comes back…"
"Edward…"
"No Jasper," I answered back sharply, "I am not accepting it, not until the evidence proves it. For now, someone broke into my house. Stole a case file from my office."
"Edward…"
"A break-in." I said finally. I didn't know what to think of myself each time I denied the obvious. It seemed like for everyone else they accepted what happened, but I guess because of how much she had been a part in my life; it was just too hard to accept it. I was holding onto any ounces of hope I could find.
I walked away from Jasper and towards my car.
"You don't need this for evidence do you?" I quickly asked one of the forensics and they shook their head, "Good." I said to myself, climbing into the car and driving away from my house.
With the speed I was going, it didn't take me long before I was back at the station and storming to my office. Jacob saw me and had got out of his chair to follow me.
"I heard about what happened? Is it true?" He asked.
I stopped walking and turned to him. His expression was probably just as worried as mine. Sometimes I forget how strong a friendship Bella has with Jacob.
"I'm not sure." I simply answered, turning away from him and entering my office.
I slammed the door shut and closed the blinds, before sitting behind my desk and waited for the telephone to ring.
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? POV
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Laurent waited impatiently for Felix as he stood outside the now abandoned warehouse in Chicago. On his orders everyone had been told to move up to another one of their bases close to Seattle, Washington. It was for the best if they could get as far from the police and Detective Cullen as possible, and nothing like the other side of the country was a good place as getting far away.
Laurent checked his watch for the tenth time in the past half an hour. It was an easy schedule to follow so he didn't know why it would take him so long. Unless he screwed it up and he was sitting handcuffed to a table in an interrogation room.
It was a simple plan; go into the house, drug the girl and get out of there.
The timing was crucial otherwise the plan would have failed and Felix could have walked into the house whilst they were having dinner. Or Felix could be carrying Cullen's unconscious wife out of the front door and he pulls into the driveway.
Any delay on his part would have had an effect on the whole plan. This was the only suitable idea that they had which didn't involve some jail blueprints and some explosives.
Laurent had a look around to see if he could see the black van, or, to also make sure he couldn't see any flashing lights and police cars. When he couldn't see it infront of him he sighed and pulled out his phone to call him instead and ask where he was.
Just as he went to dial the number, someone beeped from behind him. He put the phone away and turned around where he was briefly blinded by a pair of headlights. He heard the sound of an engine turn off, and he shielded his eyes as he walked towards the van which had appeared.
Laurent walked to the driver's side where Felix was leaning slightly out of his window. "Getting in?"
Instead Laurent motioned for him to get out of the van, so he did with a confused and slightly worried look on his face. As he stepped out Laurent took a look at him and shook his head.
Felix had a cut on his face and blood was drying on his cheek. Only he could manage to get hit in a fight against a woman who was almost two foot smaller than him.
"What the hell happened?" Laurent asked, nodding to Felix's cut face and his watch.
"There was a bit of trouble at the house."
"I can see that." Laurent said to himself, "Pass me the cloth." Felix's brow furrowed confused at what Laurent wanted. "The drugged up cloth, give it to me." Laurent rolled his eyes as he realised what he was talking about and reached into his pocket for the cloth.
"I didn't even need to use it." Felix said proudly as Laurent looked for the bottle of chloroform that they had put in the front of the van earlier that day.
"So you knocked her out by hitting her?" Laurent said as he found the bottle and poured a bit more on the cloth.
"She kept fighting back." He defended pointing to his cut cheek. He noticed Laurent finishing with the cloth and was suddenly worried incase it was going to be used on him.
"What do you need that for?"
Laurent ignored him and started to walk towards the back of the van, "I'm guessing she's in here." He said whilst looking at Felix.
"I got the right girl." Felix said following him to the back doors, feeling a need to defend his ability to work. "Why do you need the cloth again?"
"Because…" He answered and opened the back door. Felix stepped forward to advise him not to do that since he didn't tie up the girl.
Before he realised what was happening, something tackled into him from the van and he fell to the floor, trying to fight off the person who had just knocked him over. He looked up to see the brunette he was sent for, trying to untangle herself from Felix's restraining arms, and preparing to run away. She didn't realise there was another person watching them in amusement.
Felix lifted his arm to punch her but suddenly her weight was taken off him. He sat up to see Laurent standing behind her, his arm wrapped around her neck as he pressed the cloth over her mouth and nose, and his other arm pinning her arms against herself so she couldn't fight as easily.
She struggled for a few seconds until she slumped against Laurent; her eyes closed and her body limp.
"That's why." He answered again as he dropped the girl to the floor.
"Make sure she's really out, she faked it when I tried."
Laurent looked to him in astonishment, but bent down and slapped her across the face to check. When she didn't move he stood back up.
"She's out, and this time tie her up." He told him as he dropped the cloth to the floor next to her. Felix got up hurriedly and looked in the back of the van for something to tie her up with. He saw some duct tape so he grabbed it and tore off a large piece to tie up the girl's hands and legs.
"We don't have all day Felix." Laurent called out from inside the van, "We need to be in Seattle by tomorrow for the next stage of the plan." The van's engine was turned on as Felix finished up with the duck tape, and picked up the girl and threw her back into the van.
He jogged around the other side and climbed in the passenger side, and Laurent drove away from the warehouse and made his way onto the highway, as he started their journey to Washington, happy that their plan was working out so far.
AN: So here's the next chapter, hope you liked it. Thanks for reading/alerting/reviewing, it means a lot. As usual a sneak peek will be given to those who review :D
With my half term being next week, I would say I would be getting a lot of writing done, but this half term is really important for me in terms of my revision so don't be mad if I forget to update :)
On a random note, one my my close friends found out this weekend that she got accepted into an American Uni :) We're all made up for her, but I think the whole distance thing hit everyone today and we all got a little sad :( but I was soon cheered up by seeing the new BD part 2 trailer. Have you seen it yet? Thought it was too short for my liking :P
Thanks again everyone :)
Jaimie xx
