Jewel in the Crown
Disclaimer: All the characters in the story are the property of Stephanie Meyer. I have borrowed them for my entertainment and (hopefully) your reading pleasure. I make no profit from their use.
Chapter 35: Discovery
Maybe it was stupid of me, but I'm kind of glad that I gave Charlie the airport tip. Sam, Dad, and the rest of pack are still pretty pissed that I did, but at least Charlie has something to do for the last couple of days. It turns out that she did fly from Sea-Tac to JFK. And then got a flight from JFK to Florence, but there's nothing after that.
Charlie is kind of freaked out by the fact that there was no Alice Cullen listed on any of the flight manifests. And all the tickets were paid for in cash. It figures that the bloodsucker would be smart enough not to leave a paper trail. She didn't even travel under her own name. She probably has a closet full of forge passports at home along with her designer shoes.
So now Charlie has two mysteries on his hands. He has no idea of where Bella went once she got to Italy and he can't find any evidence that the Cullens even existed. Of course over on the Rez we all know they exist. There are eight of us who are phasing into wolves to prove it.
The only break that Charlie has caught is that since it looks like Bella disappeared in Italy and there are no more leads in Forks, Renee has gone back to Florida. That's good riddance in my book. I can see why my Dad always thought that Charlie was better off when she left him, even if she did take Bella with him.
And another good thing is that the redhead is nowhere to be found. The week is up, so I'm back in school again. It's not that I like it so much. It's just that I want it get it over and done with. If I really get my ass in gear, I might even be able to finish my sophomore year and not have to repeat.
I just can't help thinking about that Volterra place where Bella and Alice were going. Suppose things went really wrong and all three if them ended up dead? I feel really bad for Charlie if that happened. Then he will never know about Bella and what happened to her. She will just be another one of the many disappearances in the world.
And I know that people go missing all the time. You can go on the FBI website and there are pages and pages of missing people. I have to wonder how many of them are victims of vampires.
Because he's been so down, Charlie's been spending most of his time with Sue and my Dad here in La Push. They all hang out at Sue's house, because it's the biggest. Theoretically Charlie goes over there to comfort Sue, but it seems like she is the one doing all of the comforting.
"It really doesn't bother Mom at all," Seth tells us one day when we are hanging out at Emily's place. "She says that when she is thinking about Charlie's problems, it helps her forget her own."
"My Dad says that the toughest thing about being there is Leah," I comment, because for once she's not hanging out with us for a change.
"Leah is going to spend the rest of her life making all of us miserable because Sam imprinted on Emily, and not her," he says. "In the beginning, Mom felt real bad for her. But now even she is losing her patience."
"It might not be so bad if she didn't have to be in Sam's head all the time," says Embry. "I mean, sometimes I don't like being in Sam's head."
"Well, her head's not that much better," says Seth. "Her thoughts are just as poisonous as her tongue these days. If she keeps it up, Mom just might kick her out."
"Well, my head can't be such a great place to be either," I reply. "Let's face it. This whole pack mind-sharing thing just plain sucks."
"Not when we need to coordinate in the field," says Quil. "I'm just mad because I didn't get to phase before you guys killed the bloodsucker in the meadow. It must have been a hell of a lot more fun than chasing shadows."
"None of it is fun," says Sam as he walked in. "Jacob, you need to go over to Sue's place. Charlie just got some news about Bella and he wants you to hear it."
"Finally," I say.
"Look, Jacob," he says sternly. "That was a really stupid thing that you did sending him in the direction of the airport."
"Hey!" I say. "At least it got Renee out of town."
"Listen," he says sharply. "No matter what he tells you, I forbid you to say one more thing. This whole mess could get a lot more dangerous than it already is."
"What?" I say. "Do you think that the Italian leeches are going to come here or something?"
"Go listen to what Charlie has to say and give me your opinion then," he replies.
Whatever, I think as I go out to phase. That's one convenient thing about being a werewolf. You can really get places in a hurry if you want to.
"What's up, Charlie?" I say, as I walk in the door.
"He's had word of Bella," says Sue.
"No," says Dad patiently. "He has word of Bella's backpack."
"Huh?" I ask.
"Charlie, why don't you tell him the story," says Sue as she massages his shoulders.
"Well, Jake," says Charlie. "I've already told you that we were able to track Bella as far as the Florence airport by the passenger lists. I talked to some guy who used to work for the American embassy in Rome and he said that if she flew into Florence then that would narrow the search. Rome would have been impossible, but no one goes to Florence unless they want to visit the Tuscan region.
"So anyway, this guy still has a contact in the embassy and he was able to get him Bella's name and picture. The guy then sent out the pictures to all the Italian police departments in the area. He figured that if something happened to her, it would give them a lead."
"Wow!" I say. "That was lucky."
"It wasn't all that lucky," he says. "Mike Newton's Dad has a friend of a friend who works for Senator Fain. He got him to pay attention and sent the embassy guy to me."
"So what's up with the backpack?" I ask.
"Well, some guy working for the police department in some little town called Volterra, said the picture looked familiar," he explains. "He looked through all the cases, but couldn't find anything.
"Then he remembered the lost and found. Apparently they have some big festival on March 19 every year and lots of tourists come. Bella's backpack with her passport, ID, and stuff were found outside the walls a couple of days ago. The plane ticket stubs were in there."
"Round trip?" I ask hopefully.
"No, one-way," he says. "But she arrived in Florence on the 19th and they figure that she went to Volterra for the festival. The backpack looked like it had been sitting outside for a while. Anyway, the police in Volterra swear that nothing could have happened to her inside the city because its one of the safest cities in the world. They think that she never got inside."
"Of course if something did happen to her there it might ruin their safety record," I say sarcastically. "What a crock!"
"Not to them," he says. "That's what this whole St. Marcus festival is about. Some saint drove all the vampires out of Volterra a century ago and was martyred in Romania. But now it pretty much celebrates the great safety record of the city. The police take it very seriously and wouldn't want to admit that a crime occurred on the same day that they were being honored."
At the word vampire, my head starts to spin. Holy crap! It figures that the Italian bloodsuckers would be hiding out in a place that got rid of all its leeches. Dad gives me this death stare, so I quickly think of something to say.
"So what do they think happened?" I ask.
"They think that she was on the way to the festival and she was mugged, attacked, whatever outside the city and taken away."
"Do they think that she was kidnapped?" I ask.
"Who would want to kidnap Bella?" he asks. "It's not like she's famous or I have any money to pay them."
"Where do they think that her . . . um body is?" I ask reluctantly.
"They don't think there's a body," he says. "They don't even believe that she was attacked. They have another theory."
"Oh?"
"They think that she went to Italy with Alice and then ran away with Edward to elope," he says with a sigh. "They think that it's some kind of romantic thing."
"How could she get married without any ID?" I ask.
"Apparently, you can get anything that you want in Italy if you pay a big enough bribe," he says. "And we know the Cullens are rich."
"But Alice wasn't even on the plane," I say. "So how does that story make any sense? And do they even know if Edward was in Italy?"
"That's much harder," he says. "I mean he could have come in at any time, from anywhere. And if he flew to another country in Europe and then went there by car or train, there aren't even any passenger lists to go by. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. No, that's it. We know that she was outside of this Volterra place and that's it."
"Have you thought of going over there yourself?" I ask as Billy and Sue glare at me.
"What good would that do?" he asks in frustration. "I don't speak the language. And I don't have the money to go over. I don't have to go there to have the police stonewall me. And I don't have the money to bribe them if that's what they want.
"The embassy over there has promised to keep an eye out for her. They are also going to get the backpack from Volterra. If she wants to leave he country, she will need her passport. And if she doesn't have one then she has to contact the embassy for a replacement."
Which she'll never do, I think to myself. I can tell by the defeated set of Charlie's shoulders that he agrees with me. I wonder what Renee thinks, but I know better than to ask. She's probably been all over him with more abuse. At least she has no reason to come back here. Maybe she'll go to Italy and drive them crazy.
"Charlie," I say. "I'm real sorry. I wish that there was something else that I could do."
"Thanks, Jake," he says. "But you've been more helpful than anyone else. And I now know where she was last seen and that there's no way that she can get out of the country without her passport. All that I can hope is that she will go to embassy in Rome so that they can help her."
My Dad follows me outside.
"Are you happy now?" he says.
"It's better than having him running all over the Olympic peninsula thinking that he's going to find her here," I say. "Besides at least he has enough sense not to try and go there."
"I suppose that you're right," he sighs. "I'm going back in to try and comfort him. What are you going to do?"
"I guess that I'll phase and give the pack the news," I say. "And I guess the redhead's not coming back. If you're right and she tracked her east, she's only got two choices: give up or go to Italy. But there's no reason for her to come back here."
After he goes back inside, I don't phase right away because I want to think. If Bella did get into Volterra and ended up with the bloodsuckers, there's possibility that Edward has managed to protect her. I know that if I could go to Italy, then I could find her, if the stink from so many leeches didn't kill me first.
But how the hell am I going to get to Italy? I don't have a passport and I don't have the money for a plane ticket. But where there's a will there's a way. I'm going to figure something out.
Author's note: Some of the details that I have included about the Volturi and other vampires mentioned come from The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide.
Author's Note: This has nothing to do with this chapter, but I thought that I would drop a few fun facts. As a classical scholar, every once in a while, I like to throw in a few real details from the ancient world. The iron wedding was the band that women wore in ancient times. Men didn't wear them.
The women's names have interesting etymology behind them. "Athenadora" is Greek and means gift of Athena. If you read the original texts you learn that Athena was actually a very spiteful goddess who had no use for silly girls (look what she did to Arachne).
"Sulpicia" is actually a Roman name with no etymological roots, it was a clan name. But the historical Sulpicia was actually one of the few extant Roman poets that we have. It's my own little inside joke.
"Corin" is a corruption of the word "Kore," which is the other name for the goddess Persephone, who became the queen of the underworld (the place where dead people went). The Illustrated Guide tells us that Chelsea's original name was "Charmian" which means joy or delight in Greek (from which we get the word charm). "Renata" comes from the Latin "reborn."
Jane's name has a rather ironic origin. It means "God is gracious." I don't know how much thought Stephanie Meyers put into her name choices. The characters that I am developing from the sketchy mentions are my idea of what they should be like.