Alright Alright Alright! I'm back with another chapter and since I've not been uploading a lot, this is going to be very long!
There's Edward in this chapter, mind you, it's purely investigative.
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"You are absolutely sure this is a good idea?"
Stephen asked as we drove out of the town borders, straight towards Seattle.
"Yes," I said.
"Didn't Alice say there was a vampire thing going about?" Stephen asked.
"Hence, why we have him with us," I jerked with my thumb to the backseat where Jacob's tall frame was folded.
"I feel so useful." He drawled, catching my eye in the rearview mirror as we grinned at each other.
"Besides, Alice and Jasper know where we are going. We'll be back by noon if we are lucky." I said.
"And if not…?" Stephen asked.
"Then we try again next time," I shrugged.
"This librarian of yours must be really good for you guys to go to all this trouble." Jacob said.
"To be honest, no, he's not. He was a right jackass. If it were up to me, we wouldn't be doing this at all." Stephen grumbled making me turn to raise my eyebrows at him. "Oh please, I mean it, the only reason I'm doing this is you." Stephen's mouth turned into a fine line, which was his 'no nonsense' face. I only laughed at it.
"You guys really make me feel special. I'm so thankful for you guys." I said.
"Yeah, you better be." I heard Stephen mutter.
Seattle was supposed to be a beautiful city. We had left really early which only gave us time to get there early as both Stephen and Jacob drove fast. The steel and glass structures rose up high and proud to the skies and I could see all the hustle and bustle of the city life that Forks lacked. People in glossy clothes floated by and the sky was still dull casted. It really was beautiful…if cold grey beauty was your thing.
I reminded myself that a part of me loved this city. Or maybe, I used to love this city. I couldn't tell anymore.
We passed the S.A.M and Stephen and I both stiffened in our seats, looking at it with mutual distaste and foreboding. I doubt I would step foot inside of it and I doubted Stephen would either, especially after the fact that we died in there.
"It's not that great, anyways."
I turned to see Stephen looking up at the structure with a grimace on his face before he turned away and drove off quickly.
"So, what's the plan?" Jacob asked finally.
"Alice told me this Jenks person keeps a lookout in one of the dumps around. Jasper offered to call to set up a meeting but I didn't want to," I began and Stephen cut me off with a huff. "You didn't want to impose and now we're driving towards a not so nice place where if Edward catches on to us, we'd all be dead." He muttered.
"I'd like to see him try." Jacob muttered but I laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"He won't find out. Jasper and Alice are already on him." I said.
"If he reads their mind…" he began but I shot him a sly look.
"He won't. They won't be thinking of us."
There was a pause in which both men turned to look at me incredulously. I giggled behind my hand and both of them looked at each other in alarm before collectively letting out a groan. "Please tell me you don't mean what I think you mean." Stephen whined. "I think she does." Jacob said. I burst out laughing looking at their reactions as they shot me disgusted looks.
"You guys are such babies. Sex is a natural thing. What, you think vampires don't have it?" I shrugged.
"I would prefer not to think of that." Stephen said.
"Especially since they are vampires," Jake added.
I rolled my eyes at that, wrinkling my nose slightly myself. It was true, I'd begged Alice to find a way to distract Edward for some time and she's agreed while exchanging wicked looks with Jasper. It wasn't until I'd asked him till she'd conspiratorially whispered it to me – scarring me but I understood. Besides, that's what siblings do, don't they?
"Ok, let's focus now. We all know the plan right?" I asked, finally.
"We have a plan?" Jacob asked.
"Yes, we do!" I said happily, not letting him dampen this for me. this was the first time I'd had a solid lead, even though both of them thought it would be a waste, I refused to let J. Jenks slip out of my fingers because then it would mean I let Alice and Jasper in on my wild plans for nothing.
"We find this guy and we set up a meeting. Likely, this guy is going to get us in through the bottom, which is why we pretend to be Sorenson's relatives. Once, we get him, we bust out that we're with the Cullens so he'd naturally spit stuff out." I said.
To be honest with myself, I sounded a lot more confident in this plan than I really was but if I didn't believe it would work, the chance of it happening went down even more.
"If Cullens have an in with this guy why would you want to meet him from the down below?" Jake asked.
"Because then it gives him a completely different ball game. He is a professional liar. He might be scared of Jasper but I'm not him, once he sees me there is no way he'll say anything worthwhile. He'll just try to sweet talk me out of any real information. This way I get the chance to make him squirm because he'll keep thinking Jasper might drop in at any moment." I said smoothly.
Stephen was eyeing me up. "How much thought does a simple plan of yours have?" he asked finally. I stuck out my tongue at him for that.
"Listen, Tulika, even if you have thought about every scenario, there might still be some aspects of it that you might have missed and could go wrong. I'm not trying to stop you or bring you down because I know you won't but I just want you to know this might happen." He said.
"I know, there's a 65 percent chance we might not even see him which is exactly why we need to be completely prepared for anything and everything." I said adamantly.
Jacob was watching our exchange with grim eyes.
"If that is your way of making her back down, it sucks." He said.
"She has never in this lifetime backed down, Jacob." Stephen said as he turned off the engine before looking at me, his eyes raking over me calculatingly. "You sure you ready?" he asked.
I nodded and opened my door, sticking my hands in the jacket of the outfit Alice had decked me out in. Yes, Alice had draped me up because if you didn't even look like a prospective client, there was no way you'd get in.
I walked briskly to where a bulky man was sitting, a newspaper open in front of his face as he slumped slightly.
"Excuse me?" I said, my voice slightly shaking in its authoritativeness. It suddenly struck me that I was an eighteen year old girl trying to get in with something as close to a mafia lord as I could and that this man was basically a bouncer in front of a drug den and that this place was nothing that I could expect something from. I was completely out of my depth here.
I clenched my fists in my jacket pockets. If I found Sorenson, he owed us a lot.
The man looked up; surprising me as he neatly folded the newspaper. He'd been reading the financial news I saw.
I don't know what I'd been expecting, but it definitely wasn't a middle aged, well built man wearing a bright blue shirt, stretched tight on him and pressed pants. Whoever J. Jenks was, he paid his people well.
"Yes," he said, folding his arms and looking me up and down appraisingly.
"Do you work for J. Jenks?" I asked.
He raised an eyebrow at me, "Why do you want to know who I work for?" he asked, being careful to keep the question limited to himself so I wouldn't know if he agreed to it or not.
"I need to know because I might have a job…for him." I said, quickly and this time when the man raked his eyes over me it was like Stephen, calculating.
"What kind of job, if let's say, I work for this Jenks?"
"If you work for Jenks…which makes it a liability to tell you for me, doesn't it?"
He paused, tilting his head ever so slightly.
"How old are you, kid?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.
"It matters because if you're a runaway, your parents might look for you, they might cause trouble. If you're smart, you'll handle yourself and we'll handle our side. If you're stupid, you'll cause a mess for all of us. Personally, it doesn't feel like you're stupid. Are you stupid?" he asked.
The tone he used immediately told me he dealt with this a lot.
"No sir," I mumbled. He seemed pleased by the respectful term because he nodded, pulling out a phone from his shirt pocket and dialing a number, holding it up to his ear.
"Listen, I'm doing you a favor, do you understand? I sit here, making paths for his business and the usual for me is the small time riff-raff off the streets looking for fake ids to smuggle or some rich bratty kid who wants to get high. I find them distasteful, even if I am from one of those classes," he shot me a look which made it clear he wouldn't divulge more, "you're the most well spoken person to walk up to me in ages, so I'll push you in personally. Put in a good word for me, ok? I want to get out of sitting in this hovel all day every day." He said before his attention snapped to the phone call.
"Yes, hello, J. Jenks please…yes, I know, it's important. It's a client." He looked up at me once before waiting for a few seconds.
"Yes, boss, it's me. I know you said not to call at this time but it's important. I have a client. Well, if you would pick my call instead of just saying that I'm wasting my time it would work, wouldn't it? Yes, no, it's not the usual. She's got something to discuss with you privately. Yes, um…she looks like…she looks well-dressed. Yes, ok, I'll tell her."
He grinned as he put the phone down and looked at me.
"The boss will see you at his usual restaurant. It's called the Palm, and it's near the downtown offices, you can't miss if from the square. He'll be there for lunch at 2, catch him there." He said before the grin vanished and he was back to his cold collected exterior.
"Don't forget the good word. Have a nice day."
With that he unfurled the newspaper again and vanished behind it.
With slow shaky steps that rang mildly with my triumph, I returned to Stephen's car parked outside the grid.
At sharp 1:55, we opened the door to the Palm and the hostess walked towards us, clearly a little stunned at our unlikely party.
"We have an appointment with a gentleman dining here at 2," I said politely and she smiled, although her eyes were fixed on Jake's mammoth height.
"That would be Mr. Scott, if you'll follow me," she swished a hand and we followed her.
"He expects just you, doesn't he?" Stephen murmured.
"Yep, he'll have a nice…big…surprise." I said, shooting a glance at my huge wolf friend and slightly smaller varsity friend. I was the only tiny thing there.
As expected, J. Jenks was a short, paunchy, balding man of about 50 and even though he was wearing a suit that screamed designer, he looked of a nervous disposition. When he saw the hostess leading us towards his table he stood up a little confused, his eyes first finding mine then those of the boys behind me.
"It's nice to make your acquaintance, Miss…?"
"Mukherjee, but please, call me Tulika, the pleasure's all mine, Mr. Jenks." I said, naturally reverting to charming. Huh, playing a book character was easier when you had read about it before hand.
"Please, call me Jason, have a seat, Tulika." He stepped out to pull the chair out and sat me down as Steph and Jake sat down, looking at Jenks with mild interest.
"Would you like something to eat or drink? It's my lunchtime and…" he began.
"Oh no, please feel free to eat, we're fine." I said nodding at Stephen and Jacob as Jenks dug in his meatloaf.
"So, what can I help you with? Max says you were the first customer he pushed on me with such vengeance." He said, smiling nervously.
"Well, we heard of you from an uncle of ours, a Professor Sorenson." I said. He nodded thoughtfully. "He seemed to say you were reliable in what you do and of course, Jasper Hale speaks highly of you." I snuck in.
If I hadn't been so focused on why I'd met the man, I would've laughed. Jenks's face went purple before paling drastically, looking at me with wide, fearful eyes.
"You…you're a Cullen but you can't be…you…" he spluttered, reaching for the glass of water Jacob pushed towards him.
"We don't look like them?" Stephen said helpfully.
"Regardless of our actually being Cullens, we're with them…and they know we're with you, so if you could just answer a few of our questions, we'll leave and let you get on with your life peacefully." I said simply.
"I…yes, of course, anything…might I just ask though, how are you related to the Cullens and Hales?" he asked, his color returning.
"I'm dating Mr. Hale's brother." I said and he looked away quickly, almost respectfully.
"I see, of course, he's a lucky man."
I ignored that, sure he was trying to buy time and jumped to the question. "Do you know Roosevelt Sorenson was murdered?" I asked sharply, trying to sound like Jasper.
"I…did read something about a murder in the town news section but there have been serial killing here, so I didn't pay much attention. I'm sorry for your loss."
"What documents did he have you forge?"
He stopped short for a second, frowning. "He didn't have a will, if that's what you're here for. He just needed travel documents, ones that would give him easy access to fly anywhere at any given time; Passports, credits, signs of legitimacy, things like that."
"You gave him everything he asked for?" Jacob asked incredulously.
Jenks smiled softly, patronizingly.
"That is what my reputation is based on son, I give what I say I'll give." He said.
"Did he pay you?" Stephen asked.
"I got my payment on due time, yes. He didn't rip me off. I'm not going to ask for money from you in the future either." He blustered.
"No, I mean, how did he pay you?" Stephen asked, now leaning forward.
"I got a credit line, straight to my accounts…"
Stephen looked at me and I looked at Stephen.
"A credit line, means we can follow the trail." He said, a slow grin stretching across his face.
"I'm not so sure, the line came from one of the identities I made him, if he's dead, and it'll be bankrupted." Jenks offered.
Stephen and I shook our head, still looking at each other. Sorenson wasn't dead though, which gave us another lead.
"Thank you, Mr. Jenks; I hope you have a pleasant evening. Oh, and, please shift Max to a nicer spot, he does better than what he's getting." I said, standing up and holding a hand out for him to shake.
Jenks didn't shake my hand, he leaned over it and placed a wet kiss on it but I didn't mind, it was obvious that he was used to treating Alice and Rosalie or even maybe Esme that way. He was just treating a Cullen's girl that way.
There it is.
It's 2:02 AM here and I am so tired but I know I was leaving you guys with nothing so I made sure I got this chapter up today. My vacations have started for a while I hope I'll be able to give you guys more. Juggling two fanfictions in so hard...the other one is on Tumblr, if you wanna check that out.
Anyways, I didn't have time to proofread it so if there are any mistakes please excuse me.
Also, tell me if you guys liked it!