As a young girl growing up, Bella spent a fair amount of time visiting the police station where Charlie worked. Years later, she spent time in that very same one where she had once run around the halls visiting her father's co-workers only that time it was as a victim, a survivor sitting in a comforting room with pale green walls, beige upholstered chairs and a polished wooden table, offering up her accounts, laying her soul bare to a woman police officer with a soothing voice.
Never once did Bella ever think she would be entering a police station as a person of interest. It was more than scary. It was humiliating. In this capacity she was completely out of her element. As if sensing her unease, Edward weaved his fingers through hers and gave small squeeze. She answered back with one of her own. She would be okay. They would be okay.
After being subjected to a metal detector and given visitors passes, they were led by a brusque female officer through a busy bull pen of loud voices, blue uniforms and ringing phones to a suffocating room with gray walls and a smell that faintly reminded her of the subway mixed with Lysol. A scarred wooden table was centered in the room with six chairs, each in various states of disrepair. Bright florescent lights hung overhead, the kind that would give anyone a sickly pallor. This was the interrogation room. A room set up to purposefully make its occupants feel uneasy, on the defensive.
"Detective Benjamin Amun will be with you in a moment," the policewoman said before shutting the door with a resounding click.
Alistair Charles, Edward's attorney, placed his leather briefcase on the table in front of him and loosened his tie a bit. "You might as well try and make yourselves comfortable. It might take more that 'a moment' like she claimed. They like to have you sit and stew. Makes you more anxious and loose-lipped that way. Don't fall for it." He opened up his briefcase and places two bottles of spring water in front of them. "The hospitality also sucks."
Bella chuckled and took the bottle graciously.
"Ah, I'm glad I finally got a smile out of you."
Twenty minutes ticked by and with each passing moment Edward grew visibly more irritable. Alistair made small talk and Bella knew they were being discreetly watched through the one-way mirror on the wall. She avoided looking at it, not wanting to see her reflection, not wanting to acknowledge they were being observed. She drew a ragged breath and steeled herself for what was to come.
Edward's hand slipped up her leg, rubbing soothing circles on her thigh. Had he sensed she wasn't as confident about this as she led him to believe? Or was he using the touch to keep himself grounded and calm? Despite the assurances she gave him, her father had been a cop. She witnessed the thought process. She couldn't take for granted that just because they were innocent, they were in the clear. Arrests were made on circumstantial evidence alone. Even if they had no hard evidence linking them to any wrong doing, just an arrest and their lives as they knew it could be irrevocably changed.
The door opened with a torturous sounding creak and a man whom Bella presumed to be Detective Amun strode in the room carrying a thick file. With dark circles under his eyes, unshaven jaw and a tie that was more than slightly askew, he had the appearance of a no nonsense type of man who had seen far too much despite the deceptive youthfulness of his face. She wasn't unfamiliar with the look. Charlie had the same one.
"Finally." Edward threw his arms up in the air.
The detective slapped the file on the table in front of Edward and smirked. "I'm sorry that my missing persons investigation is impeding on your precious time," he said in such a way that it was clear he wasn't sympathetic.
"Okay Detective, you've had your fun with my clients by making them wait. Let's say we stop wasting taxpayer money and you can ask your questions so Mr. Cullen and Miss Swan can get back to their lives and you can ferret out the real suspect."
"Fine." The detective sat and leaned back in the chair, twisting a pen between his fingers and stared at them a moment before directing his gaze to Bella. He smirked just a little. "Miss Swan, you may leave the room. I'm going to question you both separately."
Alistair gave her a nod. They had been told to anticipate this. With her back straight and proud, she followed a different female officer who had come to retrieve her. She was Isabella Swan, daughter of an esteemed officer of the law. She could do this.
"You can wait here." The policewoman motioned to a hard wooden bench in full view of the loud inner office of desks.
"Thank you," Bella said, taking a seat and folding her hands in her lap. She watched the hustle, the scene so familiar to her but one she was now so separated from and waited.
Behind the closed door of the interrogation room, Edward turned his attention back to the detective, fighting to keep his face impassive. Alistair warned him, warned them both that the detective would try and break them down and he would do it by separating them. If Alistair wasn't such a good attorney, he would have serious reservations about letting this detective be alone with Bella. It was bad enough that she had to deal with the police on her own yesterday.
"Mr. Cullen," Amun started his questioning, "not long before Miss Denali's disappearance, you fired her. Why?"
Edward sat back, his posture relaxed and his fingers resting under his chin. He made sure to keep direct eye contact with the detective. "Her behavior was becoming inappropriate for the office. She had already been warned it would not be tolerated. She chose not to alter her behavior so I had no choice but to act on my previous warning."
"That's a pretty template response. In what way was her behavior inappropriate?"
"She was coming on to me if you must know. She ignored boundaries of personal space and went so far as to physically lay her hands on me in a manner that was more than just suggestive."
"And in two years of her being in your employ, you had no interest at all? You didn't find her desirable? Your girlfriend's not here now." He gave a conspiratorial wink that made Edward sneer in disgust.
Alistair sighed and rolled his eyes. "Detective, whether or not my client found her attractive is irrelevant. There is no question that Tanya Denali is a beautiful woman. Many men, I'm sure, would find her attractive. Even you. Let's stick to questions relative to your case, please."
"Let me rephrase then, in two years, have you ever been out with her socially or engaged in any sort of intimacy that would lead her to believe there was something between you."
"Outside of the occasional office party? No. I have a very strict personal policy. I do not sleep with my employees. If Tanya is under the false impression that I would, the fault lies with her, not me."
"So when she made these advances, you fired her?"
"Yes."
"What was her reaction?"
"She was suddenly rejected and unemployed with no references to speak of. She wasn't happy."
"What was she then?"
"She was angry, what do you think?"
"And you're reaction to her anger?"
"I told her to pack her things and leave. Then I had security escort her out. I never saw her after that."
"But your girlfriend, Miss Swan did."
"I didn't hear a question, Detective," Alistair said with a warning tone.
"I'll rephrase again. Are you aware that Miss Swan saw Tanya Denali after she left your office?"
"Yes, she told me everything that happened."
"Told you or accused you?" Benjamin cocked his head to the side, never taking his eyes off Edward. "Did Miss Swan believe that you had sex with Tanya at that point?"
Edward bristled under his stare. He wasn't a stupid man and he knew what the detective was trying to do. Thinking back to that morning, he remembered how angry, how hurt and betrayed Bella had felt. She did believe Tanya. Not without some reason but she still believed her. And that still stung.
"Mr. Cullen, did Miss Swan believe, at any point, that you and Tanya Denali had sex? It's a simple question."
"Yes," he said through gritted teeth. "She did."
"Interesting. I wonder if that belief put your girlfriend over the edge."
"Questions, not leading statements, Amun. This is an interrogation room, not a court room. And you're not an attorney. I won't warn you again."
Detective Amun held the plams of his hands out as if in surrender. "I'm just trying to get a clear picture."
"Tanya had been very convincing with her lies," Edward said, defending Bella and his relationship. It made him ill that he had to do it at all. "Bella may have believed it at first but we talked about it and I told her what really happened in my office. She didn't doubt me."
"Tell me then, how far would you go to protect your girlfriend?" Amun asked suddenly switching gears.
As far as it takes, he thought but they words he would never say to the detective.
"Bella does not need protection from Tanya."
Benjamin Amun grinned then, like he had some secret spoiler to share. Edward watched with curiosity as his fingers thumbed through his file. He pulled out several photographs and papers and spread them out on the table. Edward leaned in to take a closer look, his eyes rounding in shock, bile rising in his throat.
"What the hell is this?"
"You're a very good businessman, Mr. Cullen. Surely you assess risks and predict outcomes on a daily basis and you're quite good at it too. Are you going to tell me now that Miss Denali wasn't a threat? That you had no idea the depth of her obsession with you? That you couldn't reasonably guess the lengths she was willing to go?"
"Miss Swan, the night you attacked Tanya Denali –"
"Slapped," Bella corrected. "I slapped her, I didn't attack her."
She curled her fingers in her lap, her nails digging into her thighs. The policewoman led her back here when Edward's questioning was finished. When she spotted him in the hallway, he looked physically ill. His face was pale and his hair was rumpled as if he threaded his hands in it too many times. Even his hands felt cold and clammy when he gripped hers for support as she passed him. What had him looking so shaken?
"Okay, the night you slapped, Tanya Denali, tell me about that night. You were out with your co-workers. It was on a Saturday."
Broken out of her thoughts by the deep timbre of Amun's voice, Bella locked her gaze to him and answered, "Yes."
"Where was Edward?"
"He was at his office. Working."
"Working, huh?" He smiled, reminding Bella of a Cheshire cat. "Did you know Tanya Denali was with him?"
"No." She wouldn't mention he had lied to her and told her he was sick and at home, how she went to his apartment and waited for him and eventually gave up or how her mind had made the automatic leap that he had went back to his old ways.
"But you found out later. Tanya told you. She told you a lot of things you didn't want to hear. Correct? That must have made you angry."
"You already know the answer to that."
"Angry enough to make her disappear?"
Bella widened her eyes in shock. "Are you-"
"I'm warning you again, Detective. You're insinuating, making it more than it was. Walk into any bar or night club in this city on a busy night and you're likely to see a fight break out over a man or a woman. That doesn't mean someone is going make someone disappear over it."
"No, but it does show motive. Speaking of motive, Mr. Cullen must have been very upset to find out that Miss Denali was spreading allegedly false claims about having sex with him."
"He wasn't happy about about it but that doesn't translate to a strong motive for kidnapping or whatever happened to her."
"Mr. Cullen is very protective isn't he? I mean with the bodyguards watching over you and considering your history...well, how far do you think he'd go?"
"I don't understand what you mean by that question."
Amun smirked, leaning in so close, Bella wanted to rear back in her seat. Aware of the game, she stayed where she was, unmoving, and kept unflinchingly direct eye contact.
"Would Mr. Cullen do anything to protect you?"
It was a loaded question and everyone in the room knew it. Bella considered her response carefully, knowing the slightest misstep could be used against them. There, of course, was no doubt in her mind that Edward would do anything to protect her. How far he seemed willing to go sometimes scared her. She knew in his mind there were no limits, no thought to his personal safety if hers came into question, even if it meant stepping outside the law to do it. She was also certain, that in this circumstance, he was completely innocent and that is what she had to convey. The detective wanted to talk about hypotheticals but she wasn't going to give him that.
"Edward may worry for my safety, that's true. Given what we've had to deal with, it would concern anyone but let's get one thing straight, there was no reason for him to protect me from the likes of Tanya Denali. She is nothing more than a small nuisance, hardly worth committing a crime over."
"You bring up an interesting point. You and Mr. Cullen were involved in a hit and run accident very close before Miss Denali's disappearance. You see, I don't believe in coincidences. And that makes all sorts of red flags wave. I'd be a terrible detective if that didn't warrant further investigation to a link between the two."
"We were told it was random. Are you saying it's not?"
"I'm not saying anything right now."
"My clients were in the hospital for much of the evening and went home straight after. The security tapes of their residence combined with the data on the apartment entry card would prove that. In fact, all of their alibis since that date can be accounted for. You have a flimsy motive at best, you lack the opportunity and while my clients may have had the means, that is irrelevant at this point without anything else."
"The motive isn't flimsy if Mr. Cullen believed it was Miss Denali behind the wheel of the car."
"That's ridiculous!" Bella shot to her feet in outrage. Realizing her outburst and how it might look, she took a deep breath and sat back down. "I'm sorry but Edward didn't see who was driving the car any more than I did. It happened too quickly. And if he had, he would have told the police at the scene. You're reaching and you know it. This whole disappearing act could be some elaborate hoax being perpetrated by Tanya trying set us up!"
"Are you sure about that, Miss Swan? Considering we practically found a shrine dedicated to Mr. Cullen in her apartment along with some decimated pictures of you, it is a very real possibility that not only Miss Denali was a threat to you but Mr. Cullen was aware of just how much of a possible threat she was."
"What?!"
Benjamin tossed the pictures on the table in front of her so she could get a clear look. Bella blanched, feeling sick as she looked them over. Inserts of Tanya's face replaced hers in the public photographs of her and Edward. There were newspaper clippings of her and Edward, with her face x'ed out. If the detective had meant to stun her, it worked. Not that she for one second thought that Edward knew but she really had underestimated Tanya's obsession.
"All these pictures prove is that Tanya is the one who has the potential to commit a crime. Not my clients. As already mentioned when you questioned Mr. Cullen."
So that was why Edward looked so ill. She imagined she didn't look all that different. Amun wasn't finished with her after he dropped that bomb. Question after question, answer after answer until he ran out of questions and Bella was too weary to supply any more answers. In the end Amun had nothing concrete and they all knew it.
Ben sat hunched over his desk, hands threaded through his hair, his concentrated stare pouring over the case file, looking for something, anything they might have missed. It had been an hour since he was finished questioning Edward Cullen and Isabella Swan and they walked out of the station as free as they were when they walked in. He had nothing. Not even a judge would give him a warrant to check their phone and bank statements.
"Insufficient evidence," had been the Judge's succinct reply. "Find a body and I may reconsider."
It wasn't worth the argument. Ben knew the judge didn't want to risk an expensive lawsuit to the city. He also knew he was right. Without a body, they didn't have much. Nothing much besides hope that she was still alive somewhere. But he knew how this scenario would play out. The longer a victim was missing, the less chance she would be found, let alone found alive. Sometimes he wondered why he tried so damn hard.
"I thought you could use the caffeine." Kate, his partner placed a steaming Styrofoam cup of coffee on his desk.
"Thanks." He offered her a small smile.
"So what did you think about Edward Cullen and Bella Swan?" She had been standing behind the glass in the interrogation room, watching and noting everything, his second pair of eyes.
"I can't see Bella Swan as the type."
"And Cullen?"
"Cullen was..." He blew out a heavy breath. "He was very convincing."
On paper, he was the most obvious suspect, the only one that had the most motive by far. Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that there were some major pieces missing from the equation, something or someone else factored in. After hours of questioning, he had more questions than he had answers.
"And from what I observed, their reactions to those photos you tossed at them were honest. They had no idea the extent of Denali's fixation." She paused. looking at him with an expression of understanding. "You sympathize with him." Kate's voice was soft with no hint of accusation. "That's why you went after them like that. You were over-compensating."
Kate, more than anyone, knew his history and what he overcame but he wasn't in the mood to be psychoanalyzed by his partner even if she was right. He felt an affinity with Edward Cullen to an extent and even admired him. He read the guy's back story, knew how easy it would've been for him to become a product of his environment or worse. But he didn't. He rose above it. Just like he did.
"Maybe," he hesitantly admitted.
"Men like Cullen don't get to where they are by being altruistic."
"No. But they don't get to where they are by acting on emotion either."
"Love makes people do stupid things, especially when you throw fear into the mix."
"I thought you said you believed their reactions."
"I do." She smiled. "I'm just playing devil's advocate."
He looked up at her and frowned. "I don't think I am wrong in this. There's something else missing." He slammed his palm on his desk. Coffee sloshed over the sides of the cup. "Shit!" Grabbing at some stray take-out napkins, he fervently mopped up the coffee before it reached any of the papers.
Kate grabbed his hand. "Hey, Look at me." When he met her eyes, they were full of understanding and reassurance. "If there's something missing, we'll find it. I'll round up the team and we'll do another sweep of her apartment building, question the neighbors again and her friends. If anyone knows more than they're letting on it's them."
"You know, maybe Bella Swan was close to the truth after all."
"That this is an elaborate hoax? I don't think so."
"But if Denali was that obsessed with Edward Cullen and knew she had no chance with him, she just might have done something desperate."
Kate snorted, the idea apparently ridiculous. "If forensics puts her in the vehicle that hit Cullen that night, I'd say that was definitely a desperate move. But she didn't commit to it. Judging by angle on the collision, she either changed her mind and turned the wheel just in time to avoid hitting them head on or she never intended to hurt them seriously as much as she wanted to scare the shit of them."
"Maybe but have the feeling that even though those two had nothing to do with her disappearance and I can put my finger on it but they're linked to this somehow even if they don't know it."
"Linked how?"
"That's what we're going to have to find out."