Carlisle looked at the building, which according to its own sign was "Paradise motel", but Carlisle was rather disappointed if that was what paradise looked like. Because this motel was in a horrible condition, and with his heightened sense he estimated it would collapse somehow in a few years. No one seemed to have much care for this place, but Carlisle could see how it might attract certain clients.
Because who would look for anyone at this place? Carlisle had not checked yet, but he was pretty sure this was the kind of place with no surveillance cameras, just like people were allowed to pay in cash with no questions asked.
To Carlisle this was a disgusting place, filled with unfortunate souls who needed help to seek a better path.
When Carlisle parked the car in front of this disgusting place, it was already late if not morning at this point, and even for a vampire this had been a crazy day. It had only been a bit over twenty four hours since they were robbed, and they had already searched through most of Seattle and Port Angeles for their belongings and tormented a young man.
Carlisle still felt horrible about what they did to Riley, but even he had to admit they couldn't just let all of this slide, as this girl might know too much. Vampires didn't have that many laws, but if Carlisle was to ignore this problem they risked getting exposed by this human, and putting himself and his family in danger. To be honest he wasn't even sure what to do about the girl, and could only hope she knew nothing.
Most of what he had done tonight was against his morals and beliefs, and a part of him just wanted to let Jasper, Edward and Emmett deal with it on their own, but in the end he couldn't. He had created this coven, and he was the coven leader, which made this his problem.
And therefore he found himself looking at Paradise Motel, wondering just how he had gotten into this mess, but he filed those thoughts for later and got out of the car.
"Jasper and Emmett, go try and sniff out where her room is, but don't go in if she is there. Edward and I will try and see if we can get some information from the reception," Carlisle ordered, trying to take leadership once more, despite how much he hated this whole situation. Hopefully they could deal with this within an hour, and if they were lucky this woman knew nothing about their true nature.
Carlisle also had a personal interest in this, seeing how his wife's necklace was missing. At Riley they had, according to Emmett, found all of their missing jewellery and watches, apart from the only one that mattered to Esme, and thereby Carlisle. He could only hope this girl either knew where it was or had kept it for herself, because Carlisle had sworn he would find it, and he intended to keep that promise.
Emmett and Jasper quickly began to search the rooms, trying to locate the woman's remarkable scent, while Edward and Carlisle began to walk toward the reception.
"She is young you know," Edward said as soon as Jasper and Emmett were out of hearing range, and Carlisle looked at his son with surprise. "Riley felt rather guilty about giving her name, but I saw her in his mind, and honestly, I think we might be dealing with a minor. I mean, she was really small," he told Carlisle in a hushed voice, while a small worry began to form inside Carlisle, who no longer knew how to handle this situation. This Alice had never had an age or face in his head, but the thought of potentially harming a child did not sit well with him.
"How old are we talking?" he asked worried, afraid she might be so young she couldn't understand the consequences of her own actions. What was a girl of her age even doing at a place like this?
"Honestly, somewhere between fifteen and seventeen… her face was mature enough, but she is really tiny," Edward told Carlisle, who nodded as he tried to think for a second.
"Hopefully she saw and knows nothing about us, and we can simply call social security and leave her in their hands," he sighed, and could only suspect this girl was a runaway kid, or her parents lived here with her. He had nothing against parents living at a motel with their kids, but this place was shady even for a motel, and he would like to think the parents might need some kind of assistance. If there were any parents, which he doubted.
"Let's hope that," Edward muttered, he himself unsure what they would do if this Alice knew too much. But none of them got a chance to voice their opinions, as they stepped into a small rundown reception. An elderly man was lazily watching tv behind his desk, but as soon as he saw Carlisle and Edward he immediately straightened in his seat, surprised that two beautiful well dressed people would step into his motel. "You lead the word, and I will read his mind," Edward whispered, too low for any human ear to understand or even notice.
And with a charming smile Carlisle stepped up to the man, and knew his appearance was going to work in his favor. Most humans would do almost anything while being dazzled by a vampire.
"Hello… I am searching for a girl named Alice. Do you have any idea what room I might find her in?" Carlisle asked, giving this man the same smile he gave his patients, which seemed to work as the elderly man was completely hypnotized by the beauty.
"Uhm… uhm… I don't think I have any Alice's here…." he stammered, unable to speak normally.
'Short of height, looks fairly young,'' Carlisle tried to press, hoping her height might be such a noticeable feature the man would recall her.
"Try to ask for a Whitney Young," Edward whispered, his voice far too low for any human ear, and Carlisle realized Alice hadn't checked in under her real name, if Alice even was her real name.
"She might have signed in under the name Whitney Young," Carlisle added, and the elderly man recognized the name immediately.
"I know that name…" he admitted slowly, although he began to grow slightly weary as well. Carlisle had seen that happen often, the dazzling effect disappearing as instincts kicked in. Vampires was afterall a predator and a threat to humans.
"Can I ask which room I might find her in?" Carlisle asked softly, trying to look as friendly as possible, but the man didn't buy his facade this time.
"What's your business with her?" he asked suspiciously, and Carlisle couldn't blame him. He could only assume a lot of unfortunate dark souls lived at this place, and this man didn't want anything to do with their dirty businesses.
"Pretend you are her father, and inform she is a minor," Edward whispered supportingly.
"Forgive me," Carlisle smiled, trusting his son's judgement as he stretched his hand out to shake the elderly man. "My name is Dr. Young, and I am searching for my daughter Alice, who sometimes goes under the name Whitney," He said with a charming smile, before he changed his expression to being worried. "I am afraid my daughter and I got into an argument a while ago, and she ran away as a protest. My whole family has been looking for ever since, and one of her friends gave us a tip that she was here, at your motel," Carlisle explained, and tried to sound distressed. "I might add that she is a minor," he continued, and the elderly man's face paled slightly by the thought of that.
"She claimed she was older," he muttered, and believed Carlisle without even thinking twice about it. He didn't even consider how young Carlisle looked, and how little features Alice and Carlisle had in common.
"You wouldn't be so kind as to give me her room number, so we can get her home safely?" Carlisle asked friendly, once more smiling kindly, but made sure it had a worried edge to it.
"I am afraid she has already left Dr. Young," the elderly man apologized, now worried as well. Although he couldn't care less about Alice, but rather his own reputation and shady business. "Checked out this morning," he added, and Carlisle was slightly surprised by that. He had by all means hoped all of this would be over in an hour.
"Did she say anything about where she was going?" Carlisle asked curiously, hoping the man might know something, although he doubted it. Alice would have had no reason to communicate with this man beside checking in and out.
"Unfortunately no… had lived here for a month, and suddenly she wanted to check out," he tried to apologize, afraid these people might report him to the police. "But she left some of her things behind, if you want any of those?" he offered, clearly hoping that might be a payment of sorts.
"We would love to have anything she left behind," Carlisle smiled, wondering what the girl might have left behind, and if Esme's necklace might be among those things. But he knew that was a long shot.
And just seconds later the elderly man handed Carlisle a black plastic bag, which they would have to search through later.
"She drove on a black motorcycle if that's any help?" the elderly man offered, willing to say anything that might keep him out of trouble. "I think it might have been a Honda… and the licence plate started with NM… or something like that," he added, and Carlisle smiled thankfully. His information was better than nothing at this point.
It was with disappointment the four men left the Paradise Motel, suddenly one step behind, and Carlisle couldn't help but wonder: did Alice know they were coming?
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