STRUGGLES

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them. She also makes the banners for each of my stories.

It was as Edward reached this point in his report to Bella that everyone was suddenly surprised by the door being unexpectedly open and in walked Charlie Swan. He didn't notice his daughter being awake at the moment since all of his attention was centered on Edward. He was waving a sheet of paper in his hand and told Edward, "The results are in!"

CHAPTER 33: POSITIVE YOU'RE GOING DOWN

As Charlie got closer to where Edward was seated next to Bella's bed, he came to a sudden stop. It was as if he had been frozen in place mid-stride. He had, just for a moment, glanced over at Bella and received a shock: she was wide awake. And, Bella seeing his reaction responded by saying, "Hey, Dad, love you."

"Charlie, snap out of your trance and tell us what you're talking about." Carlisle said with a slight chuckle to his friend's reaction to seeing Bella awake and talking.

"Charlie, I'm assuming, by the way you're waving that paper around, that you are talking about the ballistic results. Is there any news concerning the blood found in the downstairs powder room?" Edward asked as he was reaching out towards Charlie Swan to get a hold of the sheet of paper that had been waved around upon Charlie's entrance into the room.

Edward's question and his action of reaching for the paper that Charlie had seemed to be what was needed to snap Bella's father back to the present. The paper was handed over and Edward quickly read through everything. And, as he was reading both, Bella and Carlisle, closely watched him as a smile slowly began with a clearing of his facial expression. They surmised that the news was good and what he hoped it would be.

"Mind sharing with us, Edward?" Carlisle asked with a bit of impatience sounding in his voice. It seemed to Carlisle that a switch had been flipped, putting everything into fast forward. No one is able to catch their breath before they were facing another incident.

"It seems the slug dug out of the bedroom floor is a match to the gun that Bella had used. This report proves that two, not one, shots were fired from the same gun in the same spot. And, all of this information confirms the coroner's report of two shots being fired into Frank Harrison's body.

"This report goes on to say that the blood found in the powder room is a close match to Frank Harrison's, also, but, the DNA belongs to a female member of the Harrison family. It states that the DNA matches Frank's as a sibling." Edward was telling Bella and Carlisle as he was scanning the paper to see all of the important information contained within the report Jenkins had sent over with Charlie.

"All of that is on that one page?" Carlisle asked. He thought that each test would have been on separate pages since they were two different tests being done. He wasn't used to everything being put on one sheet of paper since it was different departments that conducted each of the tests.

"Jenkins quickly jotted down the results of each test when I asked for the information." Charlie was quick to justify why there was only one page instead of several.

"Also, I learned that Det. Asher has an appointment to talk with Jenkins later on today."

"Charlie, did you mention anything about Bella having regained consciousness?" Edward asked with some worry being evident in his voice and his face.

"Well, I didn't bring up the subject, but, Jenkins asked for confirmation in a manner that he was already aware that she had come out of her catatonic state at one time or another. And, he did ask if she had said anything about the case during that time.

"I considered lying to him, but, then, remembering all of the help he has been to us about the case against Bella, I decided that honesty would be the best policy. But, I did explain that her attorney hasn't had time to talk with her about her statement due to her consciousness was an on and off type of condition at the moment. That was the reason it hadn't been reported to the investigating officer."

"Charlie, excuse me if I misunderstood what you just said about honesty in dealing with Capt. Jenkins. But, I do believe that you weren't completely honest with the man." Edward commented with a smirk.

"I was honest with him about the circumstances that I had originally been informed concerning her condition." Charlie answered with a straight face. That is until everyone else, except Bella, burst out laughing. Bella wasn't sure what the joke might be, so, she remained quiet and listened to the conversation flowing between the three men.

"Okay, this is a good thing, but, we need to wait for the outcome of the meeting between Det. Asher and Capt. Jenkins." Edward told the others.

"I hate to say anything about an unspoken subject that seems to be ignored at the moment, but, we do need to tell the women about the current circumstances with Bella. Then we're going to have to bring them up to date about what all has been discovered and the results as well. That way we don't have to worry about them accidentally discovering Bella awake and let the cat out of the bag before we're ready for it to be announced." Charlie advised Edward.

"I hate to interrupt all of you, but, you are talking about me as if I'm not here. I would appreciate being included in things." She remarks while looking from one to the other of the men with a bit of sarcasm sounding in her voice.

XXXXXX

Asher wasn't sure why he was being called in Capt. Jenkins' office. As far as he knew he hadn't done anything that required Internal Affairs to be questioning him. But, then again, he considered that maybe it had something to do with a fellow officer and the Captain thought that he might have some information that could help with their investigation.

The problem was that he couldn't bring anything to mind that would involve the misconduct of any of his fellow officers. So, his thoughts came full circle as to trying to figure out the reasoning behind his being called in.

He had things to do with the final arrangements for his ex-wife, Alma Johnson. No one else of her family seemed to be interested enough to step up and deal with the matter. Besides, as far as he knew Alma only had one relative left, except for distant relations, and that was Norma Harrison. However, her whereabouts, at the moment, seemed to be in question since no one had been able to find her to inform her about Alma's death.

Also, because of his past connection to Alma, he had decided that it would be best to distance himself from the investigation that was concerning her death. He had enough going on with the case of Frank Harrison's death and pending charges against Harrison's wife, Isabella Harrison. And, since Alma had been arrested for being involved with that case, he felt that he shouldn't cross lines and become involved with the investigation of her death.

But, as he reached this point in his thinking, the detective looked at his watch and realized that he had barely enough time to get to headquarters for his appointment with Capt. Jenkins.

XXXXXX

Norma was making herself unavailable to anyone until she was needed to testify at her sister-in-law's trial. From what she had been told, she was going to be a key witness against her brother's wife. Everything was coming together, and it wouldn't be long before she would be able to claim it all.

She had turned in the necessary information to Frank's insurance company concerning his death, so, the payment for his funeral was handled and the rest that was left over would be hers.

His body had been released to the funeral home and they had been given their instructions on how his burial was to be handled. So, she had nothing else to do in that area.

She did find out that Frank's insurance had a double indemnity if his death was anything other than natural, as long as it wasn't suicide. So, she would be inheriting ten million dollars instead of the original five which would have gone to Bella if she wasn't being held for murdering Frank. And, next she would be dealing with getting a hold of Bella's share of the restaurant; that would give her a steady income above and beyond the insurance money.

In her opinion, she was set for life and wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore in life. She could go where she wanted and spend what she wanted without worrying about the cost of getting there, or, how much it cost to buy the luxury items she has been denied until now.

And, the best thing that had come out of Frank's death, other than having more money than what she would ever be able to spend, was that she wouldn't have to be accountable to him any longer for any damn thing. She wouldn't have to put up with his abuse any longer either. The constant fear of him not approving of something she had done.

She was tired of being treated like she was his personal punching bag because of whatever reason he felt she needed to be punished at the time.

True, she did have her own apartment, but, that still didn't stop Frank from knowing what she did and didn't do. He always seemed to have knowledge of her movements, what she wore and what she said.

At times, she believed what he had told her when she was younger about their family having mob ties. The asshole even bragged once about how he had prevented Bella from leaving him by asking the 'family' for assistance to teach her a lesson. What that lesson was she never knew; he wasn't stupid enough to tell her and she didn't have the nerve to ask for the details.

Never stopping to consider Bella's feelings or how Frank was treating his wife, Norma only had concern for herself. She knew that Frank had his own business and gave her a healthy allowance, so she didn't need to work since he didn't believe that she should have to work for a living, and, the income that Bella brought home was a lot more than his, so, Frank wasn't worried about his style of living being interrupted.

Norma never considered if her brother loved his wife or not, but, she knew that he was desperate to get control of her business. That way he would have a say of how things were done and would have control over her money.

The problem that Frank ran into was his wife's constant stubbornness by refusing to allow that to happen. She was in partnership with her cousin and felt that by turning over any sort of control of her share of the business would be showing a lack of trust and confidence in her cousin's abilities to make wise business decisions for both of them and the business.

And, the second part of the problem came after Frank pulled whatever stunt it was to teach her a lesson about threatening him with leaving or a divorce. From that moment, Bella refused to even discuss her business with Frank or to listen to any demands or suggestions he might have. This angered him to the extreme, so, he became even more demanding of her time at home and more controlling of what she did elsewhere outside of the home.

Norma was very pleased that the one person who knew what she had done to Frank, Alma Johnson, her cousin, has been eliminated and nothing was available to tie her to Alma's death. Everything had been done to make it look like a suicide and not murder.

Norma was feeling confident that she was in the clear all the way around. There was nothing anywhere that could link her to Frank's death or to Alma's death.

XXXXXX

Capt. Jenkins looked up from the file that he had been reading at the sound of someone knocking on his door. "Enter." He called out to the person that was standing on the other side of the wooden door.

The door opened to admit Det. Asher. He walked in, closing the door behind him and asked, "Captain, you wanted to see me?"

Capt. Jenkins motioned for the young detective to take a seat, then he began to speak, "Asher, yeah, I did. There have been a lot of inconsistencies surrounding your handling of the Harrison case. Then it comes to my attention that you have a connection to a person of interest involved in that case that has since being released from our custody, is now dead due to being murdered.

"I would say that you have a lot of questions to answer in the hopes of clarifying your position."

A/N: We know now that evidence is starting to pile up against Norma Harrison and she is in LA LA LAND with her ideas concerning her future. Capt. Jenkins is now starting to question Det. Asher about his connection to Alma Johnson and the two deaths that he seems to be involved. How will Det. Asher be able to answer to clear himself of any possible wrong doing?

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