Charlie's POV
Eight months. Eight whole months without Bella. It'd felt like an eternity. I remember what happened like it was yesterday. I'd gotten a frantic phone call from Renee telling me that Bella had been missing for two days. Without any further thoughts I'd caught a plane to Phoenix to help conduct the search for my daughter.
I'd contacted the Phoenix police department, told them who I was and where I was from and they'd immediately put me in charge of the investigation even though it was way out of my catchment area. It'd been another day before we'd found anything. A hiker had come across a clearing the forest and had urgently called the police station. It'd been sheer luck that I'd decided to go with them as at this point nobody knew it was linked to Bella.
I did what all good cops have been trained to do and followed my hunches which told me I needed to go to the clearing, even if it were me trying to distract myself with something to do whilst I waited for news of Bella.
The most horrible sight greeted me when I arrived at the clearing. I understand immediately why the hiker had been so distressed. It was like some strange sacrifice ritual gone wrong, blood splattered everywhere. The only visual evidence, besides the gore, that someone had been there at all were three pairs of footprints and a body imprint in the dirt.
But no body.
We'd instantly called forensic experts to the scene who'd soon identified the blood as belonging to a young person, not long into adulthood, eighteen perhaps nineteen years of age. It had dried up enough that they reckoned it had been there two to three days at most.
As soon as they said that the most horrible feeling gripped me. I somehow knew, in my heart, I was looking at the place where my daughter had last been alive but I refused to admit it to myself until the forensic reports from the footprints came back.
"Chief Swan." Bobby, the forensic scientist had told me. "We've got the results from the footprints and the body imprint."
"Hit me with it." I'd said wearily, anxious to know the truth but trying to maintain some professionality.
"The shape of the body imprint confirms that it does indeed belong to a young female. One set of the footprints' DNA match up with the female body imprint. The team believe that the blood in the clearing belong to her too. Based on her blood profile, we believe she is closer to nineteen years than eighteen."
A sick feeling had gripped me and I had spoken in a panic. "Have you got any matches from her blood in the database?"
"No Chief. She's not on file." Bobby had said regretfully.
"I want you to take a sample of my blood." I'd said, without thinking.
"Your blood? What for?" He had questioned worriedly.
"I think… I think my blood may match with this blood in the clearing. I think it belongs to my daughter, Bella." My voice had cracked. "She was eighteen years old. Just eighteen. She was days away from her nineteenth birthday."
"Chief, it may not have been your daughter. There's hardly any evidence for that assumption." He said quickly. "It's possible it's just a coincidence."
But I'd known deep down he was wrong. "Bobby," I said tonelessly, "the footprint belonging to Bella," Bobby made a disapproving noise at my insistence but I ignored him, "size six, probably wearing sneakers." Bobby's mouth dropped open and I took that as confirmation that I was right. Ignoring the numbness starting to spread inside me I'd spoke again.
"Take a blood sample. Now." I'd choked out.
Bobby hadn't argued with that tone. He took a vial of my blood and cross referenced the DNA with the other blood found in the clearing. It took twenty minutes, with me staring at the body imprint on the ground the entire time, before anyone had spoken to me.
"Chief?" Bobby had said quietly. One look at his pale face told me everything I had needed to know.
"The blood, it's hers, isn't it? My Bella's?" I'd asked numbly.
He'd taken a deep breath. "It is very unlikely that it belongs to anyone else." He'd said regretfully.
With a strangled moan I'd fallen to my knees. Bobby had rushed over to me. "It doesn't mean she's dead Chief! There's no body!"
"I've seen murder scenes before Bobby. The amount of blood in this clearing… how could anyone survive? It looked like someone tried to kill her. Why? Why would they do that?" I whispered hollowly.
"Chief, there's evidence. We can find out who did this. We've got the result back from the tests on the other two footprints." Bobby had told me.
"And? Who do they belong to?" I asked automatically, detached from the situation.
"One was a masculine foot definitely, but oddly it was bare foot. We nearly mistook it for a female print at first, it was that light, but it's definitely male."
"And the other?" I'd asked for the sake of asking.
"A female, wearing ballerina pumps. Size three. She was young, possibly a child. Her footprint was heavier than the male which is very unusual."
"What?" I asked numbly.
"It was almost as if…" he hesitated, "the male was dancing or something. The female's footprint was lighter than you'd expect too, like she was more graceful than she should be, but the male footprint more than matched her lightness of foot."
Usually such a thing would get my attention and I wouldn't be able to rest until I'd solved the mystery but on this one occasion I couldn't give a damn. "Okay Bobby." I'd said miserably.
"There's something else Chief." He said quickly.
"What?" I ask slowly, hardly aware that he was talking to me and it required a response.
"The footprints. The male and… Bella entered the clearing together." I closed my eyes briefly. He wasn't denying that it was Bella who had been here.
I opened my eyes, filled with anger as I realised something. "Was my daughter seeing a man who ended up killing her?" I'd roared suddenly, rage consuming me. I would bring this man to justice. He would not get away with what he'd done to my daughter. I would die first.
"That wasn't what I was getting at Chief." Bobby had said, shrinking back from my anger. "Tests on the density of the footprint show that the male left the clearing first… without Bella. The thickness of the blood splatters show that they were created first, when the male and Bella were in the clearing together."
"So that bastard did kill her!" I'd ranted.
"Most likely sir. But that still wasn't what I was getting at." Bobby said quietly.
"Then what?" I shouted.
"Once the male left, the blood splatters increase in thickness; there is newer blood that is thicker than the older blood… like Bella was bleeding. The male left her alone, to bleed."
I flinched. "I don't want to know how my daughter died!" I yelled.
"No Chief." Bobby had said quickly. "But when the male left, the female entered. Her footprints are fresher than the males and look at them… they lead straight up to the body and the tests we have conducted show that at roughly this time the blood flow stopped, no new bloodstains from when we estimate the female reached the body."
That caught my attention. "What?" I asked, stunned.
"And then the most peculiar thing. The female left pretty sharpish, the length of time between her incoming and outgoing footprints were roughly half an hour."
"And then what?" I questioned, knowing there was more.
"And then the male returned. See that?" Bobby pointed to another track of footprints. "There's an hour difference in when those footprints arrive for the second time and when they leave again."
"So what happened in that second hour?" I questioned.
"Well…" Bobby's voice trailed off and his face paled.
I didn't need police intuition to know he was avoiding the question. "What happened?" I repeated fiercely.
Bobby turned white. "Look at the body imprint Chief."
I reluctantly looked at it. "Yes, so?"
"Three set of footprints lead to it right? Bella's footprints, the male's and the other female." Bobby says cautiously.
"Yes. What's your point?" I'd demanded impatiently.
"And then you can see both the female's and the male's outgoing footprints right? So that's two pairs of footprints leaving the body, right?"
"Yes." I said, my voice impatient.
"But there are three different sets of footprints walking out of the clearing." Bobby said quickly.
My head snaps up to look at him. "You what?" I'd asked in stunned disbelief.
"Three pairs. The male, the female and … Bella's all walking away from the place her body laid." Bobby said grimly.
My head spun and my breath came in rapid gasps. "But I don't understand. Does that mean Bella's alive?"
"The amount of blood that came from her body suggests not Chief. No one could survive losing that much blood. Yet, her footprints definitely walk out of the clearing." Bobby looked bewildered. "It gets even stranger because even though we're sure they are Bella's footprints they seem different when she leaves than when she enters."
"How so, Bobby?"
"Well… they are lighter the second time, see? They match the male's lightness of foot." He'd said, point to Bella's tracks.
"Like… Bella was dancing too?" I'd asked cautiously.
"Indeed." Bobby agreed. "It's the most confusing case I have ever seen."
"So Bella was attacked, laid dying, somehow recovered and left?" I summarised.
"It seems so, Chief." Bobby agreed.
"That's impossible." I shook my head. "She would have gone home, to Renee, if she wasn't hurt."
"But she didn't." Bobby argued. "And with the amount of blood she lost, she should be dead, not capable of walking anywhere."
"But you don't think she is dead, do you?" I questioned, hope rising to the surface.
"I really don't know Chief. This is the most confusing case I've ever had. It doesn't make sense."
/
I sigh, jolting myself out of my memories. It wouldn't do to dwell on the past like that. There had been no more evidence from Bella's case, no fingerprints except Bella's where her body had laid, nothing at all. It was only because I was Chief of Police in Forks that they hadn't closed the case, although they had really wanted to with the complete lack of evidence available to them.
All we knew was that Bella had been attacked, was dying and then had somehow left the clearing, alive. I shudder. Why hadn't my daughter gone home to Renee? To me? What had possibly happened to her to make her want to stay away? I hadn't seen her for years anyway, she'd stopped spending time with me in Forks when she was four, but I regretted it so much. I wanted to see my daughter, more than anything, alive and well.
I was still struggling to come to terms with the fact that it probably wasn't going to happen. It'd been all I could do to keep Renee's morale up as well as my own, especially when I'd learnt that Bella had been planning to come and live with me in Forks once Renee married Phil to give them some space. That hurt more than anything, the thought of finally being able to see my daughter more, to have that cruelly ripped away from me.
I was fearful that I would never see her again, that I would never know what happened to her, that I would never get vengeance on the bastard who had brutalised her.
A sudden pounding on my door made me jump and I wearily stood up from my chair to go and answer the door. Mrs Newton's cat had probably fallen down the well again and she wished me to go to help and, regardless of my fragile emotional state, it was my duty to offer my help. With a sigh, I march to the door and pull it open.
"Yes, how can I help y.." I begin before blinking in surprise. Jacob is stood there, grinning and shirtless. "Jacob." I say warmly. "You're not wearing a shirt."
"Never do Chief." He grins. "It's too warm for me out here."
"It's the middle of winter." I disagree. "You'll get a chill."
"Nah, not me." He laughs. "I'm too hot for that."
I laugh with him, relieved for some lightness to bring me out of my depressed mood. "Did Billy send you?" I was immediately hopeful. "Does he want to go fishing?"
"Billy didn't send me." He is immediately serious. "I'm running an errand for a… friend."
"Oh?" I question, keeping the disappointment out of my voice. "Can I help with that?"
"Yes I think you can. Meet my friend." He chuckles, before moving aside.
I blink in shock. There is a young woman standing there behind Jacob, perhaps twenty years old at the very latest and she is, without any doubt the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life. Her clothes were peculiar, a long checked shirt which was rolled up at the sleeves, way too big for her and a pair of jeans which were equally as long for her and rolled up at the ankles and she was barefoot but none of that made her any less stunning. I had a feeling she could wear a bin bag and still look beautiful.
Her hair was a deep chestnut brown and pinned up in a casual disarray. Her skin was pale and flawless, like she'd just stepped off the cover of a glamour magazine but she looked a thousand times better. She looked lithe and slender, with a more voluptuous body than any woman I'd seen. I stare at her in complete shock when I notice she could do with a few nights' sleep; there were light purple shadows under her lovely eyes which were a strange shade of lilac. I'd never seen anyone with purple eyes before, let alone a woman who resembled a supermodel. But the strangest thing was that this woman looked remotely familiar although I was certain that I'd never seen her before.
My eyes were drawn to a hole in her checked shirt and I spoke before thinking about it. "Is that… a bullet hole?" I ask warily. I'd seen a few bullet holes in my time and this definitely looked like one.
The woman frowned and looked down at her shirt. "Oh … yeah. About that." She said sheepishly and my mouth dropped open at her voice, which was melodic and sweet.
I wondered briefly if this woman was any relation to the Cullens, she had many of their … qualities. "Are you related to the Cullen family by any chance?" I ask quickly, curiosity getting the better of me.
A flicker of pain flashes across the woman's face before she composes herself. "No, although I am staying with them for a while."
I try to smile at her. "Of course not." I look at Jacob. "You wouldn't be with her if she were a Cullen. I know what you lot are like on the reservation when it comes to them." I let the disapproval I felt show in my voice.
Both Jacob and the woman frown at me and I immediately feel uncomfortable. "So… are you from around here?" I try to change the subject.
The woman looks pained again as she takes a deep breath. "No. I'm from … Phoenix." The words almost tumble out of her mouth.
My eyes widen. "Phoenix?" I question, unable to keep the pain from my voice.
The woman nods, her purple eyes strangely sympathetic. "Yes."
"Well I'm pleased to meet you. I'm Charlie Swan, Chief of Police." I say stiffly, extending my hand out for her to shake. She takes it cautiously and I try not to flinch at the coolness of her skin, so similar to Dr Cullen's on the few occasions I'd met with him.
"Please to meet you… Charlie." I notice that she did not offer a name.
"May we come in Charlie?" Jacob asks suddenly, his expression serious once again.
"Oh … er sure." I say, wondering why Jacob was here. I step aside and watch Jacob and the woman walk into my house. Jacob is the same as usual, sauntering along, totally at ease but the woman is so graceful in her walk I try not to gawk. She was definitely from the same mould as the Cullens. I wondered briefly why I found her so familiar, it was evident that I'd never seen her before, I would remember a face and a walk like that.
I sit down at my kitchen table and gesture for Jacob and the woman to sit down too. Jacob instantly sits next to me but the woman remains standing, staring at my cupboards with a look of pain on her face. "They're still yellow." She says quietly.
I look at my cupboards in puzzlement, the yellow paint is peeling off them softly. "They've been yellow since I first moved here with my ex-wife, Renee." I say, frowning at the woman.
"And you haven't re-painted them since?" She questions, hurt still on her face.
I swallow, overcome with memories of Renee. "No." I say quietly. "I like yellow."
The woman nods, her expression tender. "I'm sure." She agrees before finally sitting down in a chair opposite me.
"So… Jacob." I say, when no-one speaks. "What can I do for you, and your … friend?"
"Well…" Jacob says slowly. "It's more about what my friend can do for you."
I frown at him. "What do you mean Jacob?"
The woman stiffens in her seat but Jacob is still relaxed. "Look at her Chief. Does she seem familiar to you?"
"Um… what sort of question is that?" I frown.
"Jake… Not like this." The woman says suddenly, shooting a warning look at Jacob which he totally ignores.
"I mean it Chief. Does she look familiar to you?" He demands.
I look at the woman, take in all her off-worldly beauty and finally nod. "Yes, she seems familiar, although I'm sure we've never met. It's just a strange coincidence."
Jacob smiles grimly. "Not sure it is Chief."
I frown again. "What do you mean?"
"You know this woman." Jacob says impatiently.
"Enough Jacob!" The woman snaps, her eyes seemingly glowing a scary red for a few moments. "We have rules about this!"
"Look," Jacob snaps back, "you wanted to do this. Bluntness is the best way. Charlie is tougher than you give him credit for."
My head spun in puzzlement. "What's all this about Jake?"
He stands up, his grin back in place on his face. "You don't live in the world you think you do, Charlie."
"And what do you mean by that?"
But there's no answer from Jacob. The air around him starts to ripple and shimmer and I can only stare in astonishment. "Shit Jake! That's an even worse approach! Don't you dare!" The woman yells, her voice almost a growl.
"Language young lady!" I chastise automatically, still watching the air around Jacob.
Then there's no Jacob.
Instead, in his place is a giant horse sized, russet coloured wolf.