Chapter 23 – Things That Don't Go Bump…
I was at a loss for why Edward would dismiss Jake as the vandal so quickly. I was sure it was his handiwork. It'd be just like him to act like an immature brat and throw something at the shop. I wanted to throw something at his head! I was ready to call Billy for backup. With a new outlook on his health, I could see our family dynamics changing a lot.
"Who do you think it was?" Tanya asked Rose.
"It was Jake. It had to be him. Edward told Billy what was going on with Jake, and Billy laid into him and kicked him out of his yard. I know he was pissed. It'd be just like him to throw a tantrum like this," I said, glaring at the mess.
"It wasn't Jake." I didn't know why Edward was suddenly defending Jake, but it was pissing me off.
"It has to be. I can't believe you told the cops you had no idea who did it, when we have two viable suspects in our siblings, Jake being the most likely, because we pissed him off last night," I pushed.
"I know for a fact that it wasn't him, Bella. I don't think it was Alice, either. It wouldn't do us any good to send the cops down the wrong trail," he said, confusing me.
"What do you mean you know for a fact it wasn't Jake?" I asked. There was no way he could be sure of that.
"He was at Billy's house last night-" he started, but I cut him off.
"He left, and we don't know for sure that he went back," I countered.
"He didn't go back on his own accord. I didn't want to tell you, but you're leaving me no choice," he complained.
"Tell me what?"
"Jake came to the house last night. I heard him outside, causing a ruckus in the garden shed. He was drunk as a skunk and crashed the riding lawnmower into the porch. I called Billy to come get him. He was passed out cold, when Billy finally showed up. I helped him get Jake into the car. Billy took him home to his house, so he could look after him. That was around two thirty in the morning, so it wasn't Jake."
"You weren't going to tell me?" I snapped.
"I didn't want to scare or upset you. We didn't know how Jake was going to react to last night's scolding. I suspected he'd be by, that's why I stayed up. I can only guess he went to a bar after he left Billy's and drank until they closed. There was no damage done to the lawnmower or the porch. Billy and I thought it'd be best to not tell you about Jake's outburst just yet. We didn't want to upset you."
I didn't like his explanation. I didn't like him keeping anything from me, even if it was to keep me from getting scared. I'd rather be scared if I needed to be. If Jake was acting out, I needed to know about it, so I could keep an eye out for him.
"How do we know it wasn't Alice?" Rose asked. "She was here at the time of the crime. It'd be easy for her to get back at Edward and Bella. We all know she wasn't happy with them."
"It wasn't Alice," Jasper said, coming in. "She was with me the whole night."
"I appreciate you giving Alice an alibi, but I'm gonna kick your ass for touching my baby sister," Emmett butted in.
"It wasn't like that," Jasper defended. "She's having a difficult time at home. Jerry is giving her a hard time, which is no surprise. I slept on the couch, and she took the bed. She would've had to pass me to leave. After being in combat, any sort of footsteps has me on alert. Nobody is walking past me without me knowing."
"Okay, so, if it wasn't Jake, and it wasn't Alice, who was it, then?" Angela asked, exasperated.
"When we opened, we put some people out of business. One of them might be holding a grudge. I just hope the broken window was the last of it," Edward sighed.
"The cops didn't seem too concerned by it. I doubt they're going to do crap about this. What do we pay them for? They didn't even take fingerprints, just bagged up the rock and left, and that was only after we waited four hours for them to show up in the first place!" Tanya ranted.
I couldn't blame her. I was pretty pissed at their lack of interest as well. It was only seen as vandalism and not classified as a high priority, or any priority for that matter.
"I need to go check on Grandpa, and then we can head back and work on packing up your place some more," Edward said, turning to leave.
Eddie was fine, but he was upset that he'd slept through the whole ordeal. He thought he should have woken up from the noise. I pointed out that there was a whole upper floor of people who had slept through it as well. I guess Emmett had insulated the walls really well.
Over the next week, we packed up my stuff and cleaned the house, and then we helped Angela move into it. She was excited, and so was Ben. It was really sweet of him to suggest renting my house. Places in Forks were hard to rent out. It wasn't exactly a booming metropolis of newcomers.
It only took three days to get the window repaired and get back to business as usual. We now had a vacant room upstairs, though, and Edward was refining the ad to put in the paper, when Jerry made a good point.
"You don't know who attacked your store. Right now isn't the best time to be bringing in new people you don't know. You don't want to rent to Charlie."
I was upset that Jerry had used my father's name with a negative connotation. I stormed out of the room upset. Eddie found me crying in my room. When I told him what had happened, he gave me a big hug and told me that he'd set that idiot straight. Jerry didn't know my father's name.
Eddie explained to me that Jerry was just trying to tell me that we shouldn't open ourselves up to possibly renting to the person who had vandalized the store and give them the opportunity to do worse. He'd just gone about it all wrong, using an old Korean War slang name for the enemy.
Jerry showed up at the house the next day with flowers, chocolates and a teddy bear. He was very sincere with his apology. "I'm so sorry, Bella. I didn't know your parents had passed away or that your father's name was Charlie. I meant no disrespect to him. I hope you can forgive me."
I nodded yes and gave him a big hug, which I think surprised him. I guessed Jerry wasn't the hugging type.
Alice had been the one who had brought him to see me. She stayed back on the sidewalk, not even daring to come on the porch. I wasn't sure I could handle her on my porch yet, now that it was officially my porch. It was still a little surreal to think of Edward's home as mine, but I'd put my change of address in at the post office, so it was official, this was my home.
I knew she had asked Edward about the apartment, and Jasper had put a bug in his ear about it, but I didn't fully buy that Alice hadn't broken the window. She had been there. She'd had the perfect opportunity, not to mention motive. She hadn't been happy about having to give up her own place and moving home, especially with Jerry giving her a hard time. He had a knack for telling it like it was, or I should say, how he believed it was.
Alice's alibi was weak at best. Jasper admitted to being asleep on the couch at the time of the crime. I was sure if Alice had wanted to sneak out, she could have. I just had to find a way to prove it was possible. I knew Edward wouldn't consider her a suspect until I did.
Jasper's birthday was coming up, and I decided to use it as an excuse to see if he really was that light of a sleeper. I had a key to all of the apartments, so I planned to let myself in and see if he'd wake up. I made a birthday cake as a cover, just in case he actually did wake up. I really doubted he would. I highly doubted there was any way he'd hear a person tiptoeing.
I'd made his cake the night before. Edward thought I'd be bringing it into the shop to give to him at lunchtime. He had no idea that I planned to sneak it into his apartment and do a little investigating myself.
I grabbed the cake and carried it sneakily out of my house. No one stirred. Edward and Eddie both slept like the dead. I had actually checked on Eddie a few times to make sure he was still breathing. It turned out he had sleep apnea.
I let myself in the back door of the shop and flipped on the light. For some reason, the store creeped me out, when it was completely empty like it was, or maybe it was my nerves. It wasn't every day that I broke into an apartment.
I tiptoed up the stairs and wondered if it was all for nothing. Emmett had insulated the walls really well, so well that no one had heard the smashing of the window.
When I got to Jasper's door, I carefully shifted the cake in my grip, so I could use my key. I was relieved, when it didn't even squeak or creak. I didn't even risk making noise by closing it. I left it open, sure that I'd be able to get in and out, proving my point.
I made it to the little kitchen counter, when I heard my name. "Bella, what are you doing?" Jasper asked in a raspy, half-asleep voice. I had no idea how he'd heard me. I hadn't even heard me!
"Cake!" I'd had a plan, but now I was drawing a blank. Even if it was his birthday, and I had a cake for him, it was still really weird for me to be sneaking into his place to give it to him at five o'clock in the morning.
"Cake?" he asked like I was nuts. Maybe I was.
"For your birthday?" This was not going well. Edward was going to take the apartment keys and hide them from me for my own good.
"My birthday," he looked at me squinty-eyed.
"Yeah, it's your birthday today."
He shuffled over to a wall calendar and ran his finger across the days. "Well, I'll be. It is my birthday. How'd you know?"
"We have everyone's birthdays from their applications. I thought it'd be nice to surprise you."
He walked over and leaned on the counter right next to me. He was much too close to be polite, especially since he was only in his boxers. Of course, it was my fault for sneaking in to his place.
He looked down at the cake and smiled. "You even got my age right." He dipped his finger down into the frosting and sucked it off. He had a mischievous smirk on his face. "Is there anything else you want to give me this morning, since you're here, all alone on this fine morning?" He pushed my hair off my shoulder and then let his hand run down my back. He leaned in and whispered, "It there something else you wanted from me?"
My eyes popped wide. I should have realized how insane my plan was. I blamed it on my obsessive behavior. I just had to find out who had busted my window, and that need had me in a very uncomfortable place right now.
I heard a scoff from the doorway, and we both turned toward the sound to see Tanya scowling. "You're disgusting. Edward's going to drop you like a hot volcanic rock when he sees this!" She waved her phone at me, and I looked back at Jasper in a panic.
"No, it's not what you think!" I called after Tanya, but she was already running out the back door. I was quick on her heels, and like me, she just walked into someone else's house. I had left the back door open, because I'd planned to sneak back in, and no one would've been the wiser. I should've known that plan was crap.
Tanya shouted for Edward, and he came stumbling out. "What is it? What happened? Did someone damage the shop again?"
"No, but your fiancée proved what a whore she is again," she said, waving her phone at him.
He looked over at me confused, and then Jasper stepped in the open back door. He was only wearing jeans, no shoes, no shirt, just pants, and I was sure it looked even worse than it was.
Edward took the phone from Tanya. His brow furrowed, as he looked at the damning picture.
"It's not what you think," I started weakly.
"She was just checking Alice's alibi," Jasper stated plainly.
My head snapped to him. "How did you know?" I asked shocked.
"Please, who sneaks into another person's house to secretly leave a birthday cake? You just wanted to see if I'd really wake up, when someone walked by me while I was asleep. I did, I told you Alice was at my place all night, and she didn't do it."
I let out a huff of frustration. "Well, somebody did it," I griped.
"Edward, I'm sure if you look carefully at the picture, you can tell I was just messing with her for coming into my apartment unannounced. She was leaning away from me so hard, I thought she was going to fall backwards," he chuckled.
"You really still thought it was Alice?" Edward asked sadly.
"She had means, motive and opportunity," I defended. "Her alibi was a sleeping man!" I exclaimed, pointing at Jasper. "You have to admit that's kind of fishy. We all know he's sweet on her, which was reason enough for him to cover for her. I mean, come on, Edward, I was sleeping in the same bed with you, and you didn't even stir, when I flipped on my night table lamp to get dressed. It's not normal to have super hearing like that. He freaking heard me from the other side of the apartment. I even left the door open, so he wouldn't hear me shut it until I'd already left!"
"You're a freak," Tanya scoffed and stormed out. I guess she'd realized Edward wasn't going to blow up and throw me out.
Edward let out a sigh and then pulled me into his arms. He kissed the top of my head.
"We cool?" Jasper asked him.
"Yeah, thanks for not calling the cops on her, or pulling a gun."
Jasper chuckled. "Oh, I did pull my gun, but she had her back to me. She's lucky I know to be sure of my target before I shoot. You shouldn't break into an ex-marine's place, Bella. If you'd worn a hoodie or something, I probably would've shot you in the leg. Luckily for you, I recognized Edward's ugly sweater."
"Hey, it's not ugly," I fussed.
The men laughed at me. Jasper settled down and headed for the door.
"Hey, Jasper, I'm sorry," I apologized.
"Don't worry about it. I love chocolate cake, so all is forgiven."
Once he was gone, Edward turned me around to face him. He looked down at me with a stern face, but he couldn't hold it. "Silly girl, come to bed, unless you plan on sneaking into someone else's house tonight?" he teased.
I pouted. "It may not have been the best plan, but you have to admit, you doubted Alice's innocence, too."
"Maybe a little, but I trust Jasper more. He wouldn't be willing to cover for her. Now, are you satisfied with your findings? Is Alice off your suspect list?"
I leaned into him frowning. I was back to square one. "Yeah, I guess."
He let out a yawn. "Good, then leave that mess to the police. It's their job to handle it. Yours is to give massages. My fiancée really stressed me out this morning. Do you think you could help me out?"
I giggled and kissed him. "Of course, you are my favorite customer after all."
"Yeah, why is that?"
"Because you pay me in kisses," I whispered against his lips, before I charged him in advance.