Disclaimer – I don't own Twilight, but I sure wish I did. Maybe someday I will write something original so everyone can write fan fiction with my characters. That would be great!

Chapter 19 – About Your Daughter…

EPOV

I was sitting in the waiting room at the police station when Charlie came through the door. He looked angry and somewhat terrified. The lady sitting at the desk had called him and told him I wanted to talk to him personally.

"What the hell do you want, Cullen?" he barked as he entered the room.

"Is there somewhere we can talk privately, sir?"

"We can go into the interrogation rooms if you like." he said giving me an odd look.

"No, those have two way mirrors and video cameras. I was thinking somewhere where we don't run the risk of anyone overhearing what we are saying." I whispered.

He looked at me suspiciously and said, "Why do you want to do that? Is there something you wish to confess?"

"Sir, please, can we do this somewhere else. I think I know how to find Bella." I know I was sounding desperate.

"Then why don't you want anyone hearing you?"

"Believe me! This is better for both of us." I said confidently.

He looked around and said, "Ok, let's go sit in my car." We stepped outside and walked toward the police cruiser. "I swear if you try anything funny, I will kill you right there in the parking lot. I don't give a shit who sees me do it either."

"I imagine you could, sir." I climbed in the backseat of the car and he shut the door.

"You're damn right, I can!" he said as he sat up front. I have never been so thankful for a metal grate between the seats as I was at that moment. I knew that it was all that was going to protect me from him strangling me when he heard what I had to say. "Ok, we're alone, now spill it. What did you do with my daughter?"

I took a deep breath and said, "It wasn't me, sir. Did you listen to the messages on Bella's answering machine?"

"Yes, we are searching for a lady named Heidi. We thought she worked in administration for the school district, but they have never heard of her. She called from a disposable cell phone. Do you know who she is?"

"Yes sir. She and her husband run a club in Seattle called Volterra."

"The strip club!" he yelled, "Why the hell would somebody like that be calling my Bella? I know my daughter and she would never get mixed up with someone like that!"

I took a deep breath. Ok, here goes! "Sir, your daughter has been working there for the last six months."

"You don't know anything about my daughter! How dare you come in here and tell me that my daughter has been working at a…"

"Sir!" I said with a stern voice "I believe I know your daughter better than you think. I am the one who married her!"

His face was bright red, "Where did you meet my daughter?"

"We have been working together at the school for the past two years." I said calmly.

"She has never said anything about you. How long have you been seeing each other?"

Thank god he didn't ask how long we have been dating. Bella said he could read a lie just as easy as reading the morning paper. I could be honest with this one. "I have been seeing her for the last five months."

"So you're saying that she was doing this before you two started dating? You knew about this all this time?" He was still angry but he calmed down slightly.

"She started performing up at the club when she was dating Mike. He made her feel… inadequate. She was looking for a way to prove him wrong."

"Bullshit!" He said giving me a hard look. "Don't lie to me, boy! I know when people lie to me. If you think you are man enough to talk to me face to face, you had better be man enough to tell the truth!"

Shit! He is good. I ran my fingers through my hair and took a deep breath. Bella is going to kill me. Ok, here it goes… "You want the truth then I'll tell you the truth, but you aren't going to like hearing about it." He nodded his head for me to continue. "Mike was not satisfying Bella's needs."

"Needs?" he said, indicating that I should explain.

"He wasn't giving her enough attention and he wasn't satisfying her… sexually." Charlie cringed. "Like, at all."

"Ok! Ok! I get the picture." he said with a repulsed look on his face. "Mike was always a little… off. But that doesn't explain why Bella started working at a strip club. Please tell me she was just waitressing!"

I shook my head, "No, she wasn't. That's why I wanted to talk to you privately. This is a small town and people talk. If they found out what Bella was doing at that club, it could cause big problems for both Bella and yourself. I don't want that to happen, sir. I love Bella too much. It would kill her to know that her actions caused her dad to lose respect in the community."

Charlie's face turned white. "Volterra is a very busy place. I know several people that have been in there." He sounded defeated, "Half of Seattle has probably seen my baby girl naked."

"No sir. Bella wasn't dancing on stage. She was only doing private performances. Only eleven people have seen her perform. I think that's how she met her abductor. One of the guys she performed for regularly started getting weird, so they kicked him out of the club. He kind of went crazy."

"So he broke into the club and stole Bella's personnel file." he said excitedly.

"I believe so. The club keeps records of the people that pay for private performances, so they must have record of him."

Charlie started the car and put it in reverse. "It looks like we are taking a road trip to Seattle." I let out a sigh of relief. "Do you think you can convince these people to let us look through their files, or do we need to get a warrant?"

"I don't think they will let us rummage through the files, but Heidi likes Bella enough that she tried to warn her. I don't think she will have a problem turning over the information on the person we need."

We drove in silence for about an hour. The only sound in the car was the static and chatter on the police radio. We just passed Port Angeles when Charlie turned the volume down and said, "What else don't I know about my daughter?"

He was looking at me through the rearview mirror. I could feel the heat of his stare. "She has two tattoos."

He looked over his shoulder quickly and said, "What? Where?"

"She has a black swan just above her right buttock. She got it six months ago and a Japanese Kanji symbol on her hip that she got while we were in Mexico."

"So I take it that you two have…." He looked uncomfortable, "Been intimate."

"She's my wife." I said bluntly.

"And you are pretty confident that she is not going to have anymore problems like she did with Mike?"

I couldn't believe he was asking me about this. Does he really want to know about our sex life? "Extremely confident."

"She's a lot like her mother." He said as he looked out at the road. "Renee always was a feisty one. She never did slow down, you know. Even when she got sick… Still feisty."

I wasn't sure how I felt about this information. Was I happy that potentially Bella could have a hell of a sex drive that could last until she was old and gray? Was I sad that someone with so much life could get sick and die? Was I repulsed at the thought that Charlie ever had sex? Or maybe I was honored that he felt he could divulge this information to me. I just kept my mouth closed and nodded my head.

"I have one question for you, Edward." He looked at me through the rearview mirror again, "If you love her so much, why did you let her dance like that? Don't you have any respect for her at all? If she was only doing it to get back at Mike for being inadequate, why did you let her keep doing it when the two of you got together?"

"She was making quite a lot of money. When she was performing she could be a totally different person. It made her feel confident and alive. When I was first seeing her, I didn't want to take that away from her. When we got married, I told her that I didn't want anyone seeing my wife like that. I told her that I could take care of her financially, so she wouldn't have to worry about the money. I convinced her to give it up. She said she was going to quit, but she was taken before she had a chance."

"So the guy on the answering machine leaving a message for Izzy wasn't a wrong number then?"

"No, that's her stage name."

"That's what I figured." We continued to drive in silence for a little while then Charlie said, "Hey Edward, thanks for being honest with me. I may not be happy with the things that you said, but the fact that you came forward and told me the truth means a lot."

"You're welcome, sir. I just hope it helps us find Bella."

"Me too, son." He gave me a glance and said, "You know she's going to kill you when she finds out you told on her, don't you?"

"Yes, I'm afraid of that." I said looking out the window. It was really late. At the rate we were going, we would make it to the club right at closing time. "Hey Charlie, do you think we could go a little faster? I don't want them to close before we get there." Charlie stepped on the gas and we were on our way.

When we arrived at the club, I led Charlie in the front door. There was no way I was going to take him directly to Heidi's Parlor. He had the impression that she worked directly for Volterra and that is where her files were stolen from, so I assumed that would be where the other files would be too.

Charlie's eyes just about popped out of his head when we walked in the door. I saw Aro talking to some men it the VIP area. When he saw us come in he started walking in our direction. "Gentlemen, my name is Aro. How may I help you?"

"Aro, I'm Edward Cullen and this is Police Chief Swan from Forks PD. We are here about Bella Swan. You may not be aware but Bella has been kidnapped. We believe she was taken by one of her customers here at the club. Heidi left a message for Bella saying that someone broke into your office and took Bella's file?"

"Yes, it happened about a week ago. That was all that was taken. Heidi was worried about poor Bella. She said she has been trying to call her. We were under the impression that she was on vacation. When did she go missing?"

Charlie spoke up, "We think she was taken at approximately 7:30pm when she got home from her honeymoon."

Aro gave Charlie a strange look. "Honeymoon? I wasn't aware that Bella was engaged."

Charlie gave me a look and said, "Neither was I and I'm her father. Bella and Edward here decided to take it upon themselves to up and elope in Mexico."

Aro turned to me and said, "Congratulations on your wedding and I am sorry to hear about Bella's disappearance. How may I be of assistance?"

"Bella mentioned a regular client that she had on Monday nights that was kicked out of the club and banned, because of his erratic behavior. Can we have a copy of his file and drivers license? We think he would be a good place to start looking for her."

Aro looked at the two of us and said, "Our customer files are completely confidential, but since this is Bella we are talking about, I don't think I have a problem making a copy of one little file for you. I am only doing this because I agree that this could be a person that is worth looking into." Aro led us to a seat near the stage and said, "Please wait here. I'll be right back with the information."

Charlie looked a little uncomfortable. A waitress brought us some water and asked if we would like anything else. Charlie asked if she could get him a cup of coffee. I saw him glance up at one of the dancers and then quickly look down at the table. When new dancers came out on stage the ones that were up there came out on the floor.

I looked over at Charlie. He had an almost painful look on his face. "Sir, are you alright?" I asked.

"Call me Charlie." he said as he rubbed his eyes.

"Ok, Charlie, are you alright? You look a little…"

"Hell no, I 'm not alright! My daughter is missing. I find out that she got married without even letting me walk her down the aisle. She has tattoos that I didn't know about and she has been doing THAT!" he pointed to a woman giving a guy a lap dance in the corner. "It's just hard for me to sit in here knowing that my daughter was rubbing herself all over some total stranger for a few bucks!"

"Charlie, that's not what she was doing. She wasn't a cheap dancer like these girls. They come out on stage naked, they swing from poles, and they do lap dances. That is it. There is nothing left to the imagination. What you see is what you get with them. Bella wasn't a dancer, she was a performer. She performed in a private room with glass between her and the person she was performing for. They never touched her. She never danced around a pole, and she never did lap dances." I wasn't about to tell him what she really did.

When he looked up at me, I swear he looked like a wounded child. "So she never did… that?" He glanced back over to the lady who was now giving someone else a lap dance.

I shook my head, "No, she has more class than that."

Charlie nodded his head and downed his coffee as Aro walked up with an envelope. "Gentlemen, here is the information I promised. I copied the application and the attendance record. I also included a copy of the ID used to open the account. I hope this helps. I looked through the record of her other clients but this is the only one that we have had any problem with. Please contact me if I can be of further assistance."

Charlie shook Aro's hand and thanked him for his assistance before we headed out the door. When we got to the car, Charlie let me sit up front with him. He opened the envelope and pulled out the papers.

A look of shock came across his face, "This can't be! There's no way!" He tossed the papers up on the dash. I picked up the application and read the name, "Jacob Black". The address on his driver's license said he lived in La Push which is not far from Forks.

Charlie shook his head. "That has to be wrong! I have been friends with his dad Billy for as long as I can remember! I was at the hospital when Jake was born! Jake and Bella have been friends since they were little kids. There is no way he would do something like this to Bella." He picked up one of the sheets of paper. "I just can't see him coming here to see her… it looks like every week for I don't know how many months! He never even tried to date her!"

He's right, that didn't make any sense, but the records clearly show that he was her regular Monday client. There was even a note on his application listing that his membership was revoked due to ungentlemanly conduct and suspicious behavior.

It was 2am by the time we left Volterra and headed back to Forks. Charlie considered calling the station and having them bring Jacob in, but then he would have to explain why he thought it might be Jacob, so he decided it would be best to just show up at Jacob's house and take him by surprise. He said he wanted to look him in the eyes and ask him what he was doing going up to the club to see Bella like that.

I don't know if it was the caffeine or the adrenaline, either way, he didn't seem all that tired but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I slept in the car all the way home. I woke up when Charlie hit a pretty deep pot hole. I looked around but didn't recognize where we were heading. We were on a dirt road deep in the forest.

"Where are we?" I asked as I wiped the sleep out of my eyes.

"We are at Jake's place. He lives in that clearing up ahead." As we turned the corner, I saw a dark haired woman hanging clothes on a clothes line. The house was nice, but it needed a coat of paint. There was a barn behind it and a couple of old cars out front.

As Charlie parked the car, the woman walked over, smiling. "Charlie! What brings you all the way out here?"

"I was just dropping by to see your brother. Is he here?" Charlie said in a friendly tone.

"Sure, he's inside. Would you like to come in?" the lady said as she headed to house.

"That would be great." Charlie replied as I followed him up the steps to the front door. As he walked he was looking around at everything for any sign of Bella. "So, Rachel, I didn't know you were back in town."

"I'm only here for a few days. I came out to spend some time with dad but Jake talked me into helping him clean up the house. I leave tomorrow."

"He always was a sweet talker. Hey, where is he anyway?" Charlie asked.

"He must have snuck back out to the barn. You know how he is when he starts working on a car. You can't make him put the tools down. Let me go grab him for you." she offered with a smile.

"No, that's ok. I'll go get him myself, thank you." Charlie said as we stepped back out of the house and headed for the barn.

When Charlie opened the barn door, I could see a big guy bending over under the hood of an old car. He was wearing old faded jeans that had grease smudges on them and a worn white undershirt that was just as dirty. He looked like he worked out a lot. The man had more muscles than most guys I know.

"Jake, what are you working on?" Charlie asked as he stepped up to the man.

"Hey, Charlie, I didn't hear you pull up. I was just putting a new starter in this old Camaro. What brings you all the way out here?" He stood up and wiped his hands on a rag. The guy was a good five or six inches taller than me. He would have been very intimidating if it weren't for his bright smile.

"Umm, well, I needed to ask you a few questions about Bella." Charlie gave Jacob a stern look. "Do you know where she is?"

Jacob shrugged, "No, I haven't seen her in a few weeks, why?"

"Bella is missing. We think someone may have kidnapped her."

Jacobs expression changed to terror, "WHAT? NO! We have to go look for her!"

Charlie put his hand on Jacob's shoulder. "We are son. We have half the state on lookout. During the investigation, your name came up as a person we should talk to. Since I've known you your entire life, I thought I would come out here and talk to you, rather than drag you into the station."

Jacob looked stunned. He sat up on a bench against the wall. "Why would anyone think that I had something to do with this? Bella is my best friend!"

"I know, son, but you have to admit that it looks kind of strange that you spent all that time and money going up to see her in Seattle."

Jacob looked confused, "Seattle? What are you talking about?"

I handed him the papers and said, "It shows here that you were a regular at Volterra. Here is the application and a copy of your driver's license showing that it was you."

"You mean Heidi's?" His eyes got big and he blushed as he glanced at Charlie, "Umm, no one knows about that. I still don't know what this has to do with Bella."

Charlie rolled his eyes and said, "Cut the crap, Jacob. I know Bella was working up at that club and those papers show that you were a regular customer of hers for months."

Jake looked terrified, "What? No, hold on just a minute." He looked at the papers again, "I admit I was going out there pretty regularly for a while, but I never saw Bella."

I told him, "She was performing under the name, Miss Izzy."

Jacob shook his head, "No, I was out there watching Jane. This petite little blond with nice legs and a…" Charlie cleared his throat. Jake blushed and said, "Sorry. There is no way that they could have ever been mistaken for each other. Bella was working at Heidi's? Bella? I just can't imagine that!" He looked genuinely confused.

Charlie pointed to the dates on the page, "Don't bullshit me, Jake. It shows right here all the times you went to see Bella at the club!"

Jacob shook his head, "No, that wasn't me. I was only a regular for Jane. I saw this lady named Tanya once, but she sucked. When Jane said she wasn't going to do private shows anymore, I stopped going. I swear, Charlie, if I ever saw Bella even step foot in that place, I would have drug her ass back home!"

He was so sincere I could tell he was telling the truth. I turned to Charlie and said, "So where does that leave us? This was the only thing I could think of." I was getting desperate. "Can you check at the station to see if they have any leads?"

Jacob looked at me and said, "Who the hell are you?"

Charlie said, "Jake, this is Edward Cullen. He and Bella eloped last week in Mexico."

Jake looked shocked, "I thought she was with that loser, Mike Newton!"

Charlie shook his head. "Apparently not."

Jake said, "That just doesn't sound like something Bella would do. She has been with Mike for years. It's not like her to just dump him and marry the first guy that comes along. She has a better head on her shoulders than that."

Charlie looked down at the ground and said, "Well, it looks like neither of us knew Bella as well as we thought."

Jake picked up the papers again and started looking through them, "I just don't understand why they show that I was still going out there."

Charlie called in to the station to see if they had any progress over night. The crime lab came out and pulled evidence from the apartment and took it back to their lab to analyze it but it was going to take a while. Since no one had any other clues, Charlie and I decided to go back up to the station and wait for the lab to call with the results. Jake said that he was going to ask around the reservation to see if anyone knew anything. If he heard anything he was going to call Charlie and let him know.

Sitting at the station was hell. I felt so helpless. I wanted to go out and search every house from one side of the town to the other but Charlie pointed out that it would be better if we waited until we had a lead first. He was pretty sure that the person that took her didn't keep her in Forks. The town was too small to hide secrets, let alone a person against their will.

By lunch time, neither of us could stand the wait any longer. Charlie called the crime lab to find out what was taking so long. He was ready to shoot someone when they told him that they just started processing the evidence. Apparently they had spent all morning working on a murder/suicide. He screamed into the phone, "What the hell is wrong with you people? Both people involved in that case are already DEAD! They can wait! This is a LIVING girl that has been taken. She doesn't have time to waste!" He told them he wanted a call to update him every time they got something processed.

An hour later he got a call saying that the trace on the footprint was dirt and motor oil. Charlie wrote it on a whiteboard and radioed his officers. Twenty minutes later they called to say that the fingerprints on the doorknob were inconclusive. An hour after that, they called to say that some black hairs they found in the doorway of the apartment were not human, they were wolf. Charlie wrote it on the board and notified the officers.

A few minutes later, Jacob called. Charlie put him on speaker phone. "Charlie, have you found anything yet? I have been asking around here but no one was in town yesterday. They haven't seen anything."

Charlie said, "No Jake, we still have no idea where she is. The idiots at the crime lab just started working on her case a few hours ago. So far, we know that the perpetrator had dirt and oil on the bottom of his shoes, but he could have gotten that walking through a parking lot somewhere. We have no good fingerprints, and somehow they found a black wolf hair in her doorway. I can't imagine how that got there. Maybe the guy has a pet wolf or something."

Jake was silent for a minute and said, "Charlie, let me call you back. I need to check on something." Then he hung up the phone.

"That was strange." Charlie scowled as he looked at the phone. "Hopefully he thought of something."

A few minutes later Jacob called back, he sounded out of breath, "Charlie, I think I know who took her… It was Paul."

"Paul?" Charlie said, "Isn't he in the hospital or something?"

"No, he got out about six months ago. When they released him, he stayed with me for a few weeks. I told him about how disappointed I was that Jane wasn't going to be performing and that I wasn't going back out there. I think he took my key, because it's not in my dresser drawer. Anyway, when he got out of the hospital, he got the money his dad left him. He must have been using that to pay for his Seattle trips."

There was a pause and then he said, "Charlie, he's really messed up. The hospital didn't help him much and I don't think he is taking his medication anymore. I don't think he would intentionally hurt her, but… well, I'm just worried. No one has seen him in a couple of weeks, so we don't know where he is. We have every available man searching for her out here. We are pretty sure he would have stayed on or near the reservation, so if you want to send your guys out here, you can."

Charlie was on his feet immediately. "Thanks, Jacob. We're on our way!"

Charlie called his officers as we ran out the door. On our way to La Push Charlie told me about Paul. Apparently Paul's father was one of the elders in the tribe that told the stories about their people and the legends, so Paul grew up listening to stories about the tribe being descendants of wolves and how their elders used to be able to change into wolf form. Paul's dad talked about it all the time. Paul's mom died when he was a little boy so it was just him, his dad, and his older brother, Sam.

Two years ago Paul's dad died from a heart attack and was cremated. He wanted his sons to spread his ashes around the forest where he used to hunt. When Paul and Sam went out to spread their father's ashes, they were attacked by a pack of hungry wolves and Sam was killed. His throat was ripped open and his hand was completely mauled off. For some reason Paul wasn't touched.

When he came out of the forest two days later, he told everyone that Sam had turned into a wolf and was now the leader of the wolf pack. Of course people went out and found Sam's body, but they couldn't convince Paul that his brother was dead. He ended up in a mental hospital and that's where he was living for the last year and a half.

It was dusk when we arrived back out at Jake's house to start the search. There were a bunch of guys from the reservation already there. They knew the area much better than the police officers. They divided everyone up into groups and assigned a guide and an officer to each group. Charlie, Jake, and I stayed in one group. Billy, Jacob's father, stayed back at Jacob's house to man the phones. He thought it would be the best way for him to help since he was in a wheelchair.

The sun was setting fast. Our group headed to Paul's dad's old house first but found no trace of him. One of the other groups tried the woods where his dad used to hunt but found nothing. The other groups started at First Beach and worked their way through the forest toward the reservation boarder and then moved over and worked their way back toward the beach. They were going to continue searching the grid like this until every square foot of the reservation had been searched. Jacob took us to the place where the teenagers go to make out and then to the old tree house that he, Paul, Sam, and some other guys built when they were kids but we found nothing.

We went up to the school and to the church but found nothing there. The other group that was doing random checks called in and said that someone spotted Paul at the gas station just a few hours before Bella went missing. This was a good sign. At least we knew that he had been staying somewhere in the area.

The search was taking a long time. It was dark and the temperature had dropped considerably. Jake drove back by his house and grabbed jackets for me and Charlie. While we were there, someone called in and told Billy that they found some clothes that they thought belonged to Bella in the woods. Charlie told them to stay where they were and not touch anything. We would come to them.

We tore out of the house and headed in the direction of the search party. When we got there, it looked like someone had tried to bury her clothes. Everything was there, her shirt, pants, bra, panties, shoes, even the little fake ring. The police officer took pictures of the clothes and bagged it all for evidence.

We heard wolves howling in the distance. Jacob said, "It sounds like they're out at Dad's old place. It's been abandoned since I moved out and dad moved to town. Paul practically lived with us when we were kids. Maybe he's there."

My heart started to beat wildly as we rushed back to the car. Please let her be there. Please let her be alright!

A/N – Happy Tuesday! So, were you surprised that it wasn't Jacob? I have to admit, I did giggle every time I saw reviews with people complaining about Jacob being the crazy one. I thought it would be fun to try to switch it up a little. I hope you aren't too upset with me. We are coming near the end… There will only be 3 more chapters and an Epilogue. I have some ideas for a few outtakes but they aren't typed up yet.

Stats update… Can you believe there are 1330 people following this story through Alerts and Favorites! I am honored that so may people are interested in what I have to say. I think I have the best readers out there. We are up to 1178 reviews! I love reading them and thank every one of you who take the time to actually post them.

Ok, I have been telling you about my beta NoWayWithWords from the very beginning. Well, I am proud to say that she has finally started posting her story that I have been reading. It's called "My Imaginary Friend". She just posted the first chapter last week. I have already read a few chapters ahead and strongly recommend it to someone who it looking for a great sweet story. It's not lemony right now but has some potential in the future. For those that like music, she has even put together a playlist that you can listen to online by following a link in her profile page. If you are interested in checking out the story, you can find it at… www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/5808299/1/

On another note, I have not heard from anyone at the website that I need to do anything to the story. I will continue as scheduled until I am told otherwise.

Thanks for your support.

A Little Distracted