FINDING HOME
SUMMARY – Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?
MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER – All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER 10
Clint was seated in the back of his quinjet, reviewing the new crime scene photos and ME reports on his tablet from Jacksonville PD, when the call finally came in from the rest of the team.
"Finally," he muttered as he swiped to receive the call and watched as Tony, Natasha, and Bruce's faces all appeared on his screen, "I thought Rogers was supposed to be making the call tonight?" he asked, confused at not seeing their leader's face.
"It would appear that Mr. World-War-Two still hasn't mastered the use of Skype," Tony explained, laughing, "I'm going to patch our technology challenged teammates in right now, hold on."
There was a brief pause as the call connected, and then Steve and Thor appeared on his screen alongside the others.
"Alright," Steve began, "Thanks Tony, for getting us connected. Who wants to start?"
"The Jacksonville PD is fairly oblivious unfortunately," Clint decided he would share his findings first, "But they do keep incredibly detailed records. They didn't have much of anything else to add to the Dwyer's murders directly, but I found something else curious that was happening at the same time that I think might be related."
"Go ahead," Steve encouraged, curious, but also worried that Clint might have found the same thing he and Thor had when they visited the Seattle PD before heading to Forks.
"There were seven murders in the days leading up to the Dwyer's deaths," Clint told them, sending the case specifics to each of them as he spoke, "All of them were completely drained of blood, and their bodies were disposed of in public dumpsters, and burned beyond recognition. No physical evidence, no concrete leads, no witnesses. Then the Dwyer's deaths, and the murders suddenly stop."
"Obviously this was the work of a serial killer," Tony admitted, but didn't want to think that a cold, professional killer like this could be involved in the hunt for his niece, "But what makes you think the cases are related?"
"At first glance I wouldn't," Clint had anticipated this question and sent the rest of his photos, "But if you take a closer look at the list of victims, among them was a high school girl who worked part time as Sabrina Dwyer's babysitter, a coworker of Renee's, and the barista from the little café where Phil got his coffee every morning. The other four victims were all homeless or runaways, living on the streets, people that no one would miss."
"So the babysitter, the teacher, and the barista were inconsistencies in the victim type," Natasha commented, "and they all had ties to the family. I can see where that would raise some red flags. But I'm guessing there was something else?"
"There were messages left in blood on the sides of the dumpsters," Clint continued, knowing that given the history of taunting and threatening notes at the other crime scenes, this would certainly peak their interest, "One word at each scene, placed directly above where the bodies were found. The handwriting is an exact match for the other notes."
"What was the message?" Thor asked, looking deeply concerned at the thought of even more deaths attributed to this killer.
"If you read them in order of the deaths, it says 'SO EASY IT WAS HARDLY EVEN FUN'," Clint feels sick as he reads this aloud.
"That's just sick," Bruce says, his eyes taking on a slight green tint as he flips through the graphic images of the charred corpses and sadistic, bloody messages.
"Unfortunately, I think we found a similar pattern here," Steve informed them sadly, "In the months leading up to Charles Swan's murder, there were dozens of unexplained disappearances in Seattle and surrounding towns, mostly drug addicts, homeless people, and runaways. Because of the type of people being taken, very little was done in way of an investigation."
"Likely why V chose that victim type in the first place," Natasha pointed out, "If you kill people that no one is likely to miss, and cover your tracks fairly well, the authorities are more likely to let it slip through the cracks. There's probably far more victims than were actually reported."
"They didn't find any messages like the ones in Jacksonville?" Tony asked.
"None," Steve confirmed, "But there were nine bodies found in all, every one drained of blood and burned before being left in a dumpster. So I think it's safe to say these are the work of the same person."
"But if there were no messages, and all the victims there had no ties to the family, how'd you two catch on to the possible connection?" Bruce suddenly asked, looking puzzled, "It makes sense now, given the similarities to the case in Florida, but you already knew, how?"
Thor sighed sadly before hitting a few buttons on his tablet screen, "If this infernal devise will do as I intend, you should be seeing the pictures of the nine victims whose bodies were found, pictures of what they looked like while they were alive."
Clint waited for a moment before the pictures did indeed appear on his screen and just like that it all made sense. Nine photos of teenage girls, smiling on his screen. All brunettes with brown eyes and pale complexion.
"Jesus," Bruce breathed as his own copies of the victims' pictures came through, "They all look exactly like her."
"Ok, so we've thoroughly established that V is a seriously sick puppy, and one that really hates our girl," Tony cut in, "Did you guys actually find anything that might help us find my niece before she ends up a bloodless, charred corpse?"
"Nothing concrete," Steve responded, wishing he had more to give his friend, "The attendant at the gas station Isabella stopped in the night she ran remembered her, and confirmed that she was using the alias Natasha suggested. He also said that she mentioned heading North, possibly to Canada."
"Well she's proving to be even better than we thought," Natasha chuckled, clearly impressed.
"What do you mean?" Clint asked, confused.
"She planted a false trail just in case someone tried to follow her," Natasha clarified, "She told the attendant that she was headed North, knowing that anyone following her might ask him if he'd seen her, and then she immediately got on the highway and headed South."
"You found her trail then Lady Natasha?" Thor asked, his voice rising in his excitement at a lead.
"The cameras were useless," Bruce told them, "It makes sense given her father was the Chief of Police, but she seemed to know exactly where we would be looking. Aside from the lucky break in Seattle we haven't gotten a single good shot of her on camera anywhere."
"But we were able to trace the fake credit cards she used to a certain extent," Tony added, "As far as we can tell, she'd make a large purchase, usually jewelry of some kind, and then pawn the item off for cash before moving on. No ATM transactions means less of a chance of being caught on camera, and her movements are harder to trace than if she was using the cards everywhere she went. There was one charge on each of the cards she used and then nothing."
"Like I said, she is proving herself to be a lot harder to pin down than we anticipated," Natasha reiterated.
"But you were able to trace her major movements?" Steve tried to refocus the genius.
"Charlotte Connelly buys a diamond engagement ring in San Francisco, California three days after Charles' death," Tony begins listing off, "Then it's rubies for Kimberly Williams in San Diego, California two months after that. Emeralds for Emily Samuels in Denver, Colorado four months in to her little road trip. Sapphires for Lauren Grant in Michigan two months after that. Opals for Angelica Emerson in Albany, New York two months after that. And finally Chocolate Pearls and Onyx for Elizabeth Masen ten months after she left Forks in Miami, Florida."
"Consistent, efficient, but varied enough so as not to draw attention," Natasha comments, not even trying to hide her obvious approval of their little runner. If J. Jenks hadn't been caught, and they hadn't recovered his IDs, there was no way they would have found her trail.
"And after Florida?" Thor asks.
"After Miami nothing," Tony replies dejectedly, "The rubble of a burnt out car registered to Elizabeth Masen was found outside Atlanta, Georgia. Inside were recovered what appeared to be the melted remnants of several IDs and credit cards, along with a small duffel of women's clothing. Nothing else, and her trail goes cold from there. I've got nothing."
"So either she realized that Jenks had been arrested and ditched the IDs in case someone got ahold of the names from him, and she dropped off the grid some other way," Clint began, trying to be optimistic, but seeing in all of their eyes that they knew the second option was far more likely.
"Or V caught up with her, torched her car, and took her," Natasha finished.
"We don't know that," Steve cut in before any of them could completely give in to the horrible thought that this girl might already be long dead, "And even if she was taken, we have no reason to believe she is dead. It's been two years since the car fire. No body has been recovered. We continue to pursue this as if she is alive until we have proof otherwise."
"Steve's right," Bruce added, "And even if, God forbid, Isabella is gone, we owe it to her and her family, and all of the other victims we've found in Florida and Washington, to bring V to justice."
They all felt somewhat reassured at this declaration, even if they didn't completely believe it in that moment. It was enough to know that they were all on the same page, and that they were still looking.
"There's nothing more I can do from here," Clint told them, "I'm going to take the quinjet tonight and head to Seattle. I'll meet you two in Forks by tomorrow morning."
"Good idea," Steve agreed, "No one should be alone on this one until we get a better handle on what we're dealing with."
And with that, Bruce, Natasha, and Tony signed off, leaving Clint with the Captain and the Norse God on the line.
"The deeper we dig here, the more I feel like we've gotten ourselves involved in something seriously darker and more dangerous than we were prepared for," Clint spoke up after a moment, "None of us are going to stop until we find Isabella, and if she's alive, we are all going to go to the ends of the Earth to bring her home. Just be careful out there, ok? I can't explain it, but I just know there's still a big part of this we don't have a clear understanding of yet, and I don't want to see either of you get hurt."
He was glad he waited to voice his concerns until the others were no longer on the line, as Tony would have assuredly given him hell for such an emotional comment. As it was Steve and Thor both looked surprised at his obvious show of concern, but neither commented any further, just nodding and returning a solemn, "You too Hawk," before signing off.
Of course, none of them realized they were being watched in that moment…
Jared walked into his alpha's home late that night, having been relieved from his watch duty by Collin. It was bizarre for them, taking back up surveillance shifts again after three years of having no one to really watch over, like a strange déjà vu.
"Where are they now?" Sam asked him as soon as he made it through the door. He didn't have to clarify; Jared knew he was asking about the SHIELD agents. He was surprised however, to find that everyone from the earlier pack meeting was still there, sprawled out in varying levels of dozing off on couches and in chairs.
"Motel room at the Forks Lodge," he answered, settling himself in the only empty chair at the dining room table, "Collin's taken over, but I think they've settled in for the night."
"Anything new to report?" his alpha asked.
"Actually yes," Jared responded, "The two Paul saw appear to be a part of a larger team. They had a video call about an hour ago to share their findings. One man was digging deeper into the deaths of Renee and her family in Jacksonville, and he found a trail of bodies there, drained of blood with messages for Bella. The other three seemed to be back at their home base, wherever that is, and they were digging into Bella's movements after she left here."
"Were they able to find anything useful?" Paul asked, sitting up from his place on the couch.
"They basically said she was like a ghost," Jared admitted, "She somehow got fake documents, credit cards, that sort of thing under a bunch of fake names, and she was using them to disappear. SHIELD got ahold of a list of names and followed her to California, then Colorado, Michigan, New York, Florida, and finally Georgia. Apparently she completely disappeared after that, ditching the fake IDs."
"How long ago was she in Georgia?" Sam asked.
"Two years ago, so about a year after she left here," Jared informed them.
Paul let out a low whistle, "Well damn, she pretty much covered the country in a year without raising any red flags. Impressive."
Ignoring his comment, Sam pressed, "Any idea why they're looking for her now?"
"Oh, you're going to love this," Jared couldn't help himself from smiling here, "Most of this team seem like total mystery agent types, but there was one face I recognized. Tony freaking Stark."
"Iron Man?!" Brady asked, floored, suddenly wide awake in his place at the bottom of the stairs.
"The one and only," Jared confirmed, "He seems to be the one driving this little 'find Bella' government operation, and you're never going to be able to guess why…"
"Don't leave us hanging here Jared," Sam warned, "What does he want with Bells?"
"Apparently, our very own Bella Swan, is Iron Man's niece," he finally told them all, watching as all of their jaws dropped in unison and he was greeted with a glorious stunned silence.
