Chapter Eight.

Accusations

September 2004 Forks, Washington

Carlisle returned home from the hospital later than usual one Friday evening and called a family board meeting. "It's nothing to worry about," he assured us. "Just something you need to be aware of." I couldn't tell right up until the last minute what his intentions were because Carlisle was blocking me, reciting the Magna Carta in Latin. Alice hadn't seen it coming either so we were all clueless.

Within minutes we were all assembled around the large polished mahogany dining table, eager with anticipation. Only now could I begin to decipher Carlisle's thoughts but he was beginning to speak now anyway.

"Well," he started, "There is one advantage of living in a small town like Forks; everyone knows everything and news travels fast." He took a quick glance around the room at each of us. I had now successfully infiltrated his mind and had a clear picture of what was coming next. I groaned, loud enough for Carlisle to return his gaze to me. It's alright Edward, no-one has made any accusations yet, he thought in my direction.

"One of the Quileutes has gone missing. It's the young gentlemen who came to see me at the hospital when we first moved here. His name is Sam, I don't know if you remember?" Carlisle paused to look around the table again as we all nodded. "Well, yes, anyway, he's been missing for over a week. The police, along with a few volunteers from the Reservation have been combing the area and have so far turned up nothing. They are now presuming the worst. Charlie Swan, the Chief of Police visited me today and he has asked me for permission to search our land, which of course I have given."

Rosalie shuffled awkwardly in her seat as a human would, years of practice at playing human. "How long will it take?" she asked.

"Until they either find him, or are satisfied that there is nothing to be found," Carlisle replied.

"Well, they won't find him here!" She retorted.

"We could go hunting up into the mountains this weekend, get away from here?" Emmett suggested, trying to appease his wife's sudden anger.

"Yes, I already thought of that, and it would be a good idea, although I don't think we should all go; it will look suspicious."

This was what I had been afraid of. My initial reluctance to return to Forks had been proved right. It would only be a matter of time now before there were accusations and a show down with the Quileutes would follow. Why would nobody listen to me? OK, so we had been here for a year and it had been uneventful, but things were about to change.

"Alice?" Carlisle asked, "Can you see anything that might help?"

"No, I've been trying for the last few minutes and I can't see anything. I told you before, I can't see any of them," she pouted.

"Hmmm, that's a shame." Carlisle was thoughtful for a few minutes and then he asked, "So, who will stay behind then? Jasper, I think you should go."

Jasper seemed a little put out that he had been singled out, but we all knew why. Jasper found it harder than the rest of us to control the blood lust and the thought of a bunch of unfamiliar humans wandering randomly over our land might be too much for him to resist. He sighed and said, "Yeah, ok, maybe you're right. Will you come too Alice?"

"I may as well as I am no use here," she replied, still obviously sulking at the gaping hole in her visions. She was actually thinking of Jasper at that very moment, trying to see if she could picture him killing anyone in the next few days.

"Emmett? Rosalie?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes, we will go too, if that's ok?" Emmett replied. Rosalie just scowled. She was always resentful about any part of our lifestyle being dictated by human intervention. It wasn't that she didn't like hunting trips, it was just that she would prefer to choose when she should go.

"Fine, so Esme, Edward and myself will remain here to keep up appearances. Thank you all. Once this search is out of the way we can return to normal. We will tell them that you have gone to New York for the weekend to visit relatives."

Alice suddenly gasped, capturing everyone's attention.

"What is it Alice?" Carlisle asked. "Do you see something?"

"No, nothing important about Sam, just Chief Swan, he's coming now. He is on the highway about a mile away from our turning. He's talking to someone, yes, he's got someone with him, but I can't see who. It must be one of them."

"They are coming a little sooner than I anticipated." Carlisle was thinking aloud now, planning as he was speaking. "You will have to leave now; and quickly...or, we could play out the charade and have you packing for the journey, yes that would perhaps be better. Go! You will need to pack suitcases and make it look as though you are going for a weekend vacation. Take Emmett's Jeep, there is more room for the luggage. Stay calm everyone, there is nothing to fear."

Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Alice were already gone. Loud noises and doors slamming upstairs indicated that they were packing bags with vampire speed.

Carlisle, Esme and myself moved to the living room and turned on the television, adopting a natural human family situation.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Carlisle got up to answer it, whispering "Stay calm, it will be fine." Emmett appeared at the bottom of the stairs with his suitcase and loitered near the doorway.

"Ah, Chief Swan, do come in."

"Er, thanks, but I won't take up any more of your time, I just wanted to let you know we were here." Chief Swan lingered in the doorway and he must have noticed Emmett with his suit-case. The others were descending the stairs now too, at an unusually slow human pace. "Oh, are you going away?" he asked.

"No, I'm not," Carlisle replied, "But some of the youngsters are off to New York for the weekend to visit relatives. I presume that is ok? You don't need us all to be here?"

"Er, no, not at all. You all go ahead and have a nice weekend." There was a long pause and I could hear Charlie Swan shuffling his feet. "Look, Dr Cullen, I am sorry about this intrusion. It's just that we have searched just about everywhere else, and your land is the only place we haven't checked. Harry Clearwater, he's there in the car waiting to begin, well, he was most insistent we looked here, just in case. You see your land is mostly forest and there are so many places..."

"That's fine Chief Swan, I understand. It's not a problem. If it was one of mine I would expect the same. It's only natural."

"Thank you Dr Cullen. You've been most co-operative."

"Carlisle, please call me Carlisle."

"Er, yes, well... call me Charlie...none of this formal stuff eh?"

"Let us know if we can provide any refreshments, won't you?" Carlisle offered.

"Thanks, that's most kind," Charlie said over his shoulder as he retreated down the steps towards the car. Another vehicle had pulled in behind him now, more police officers from the town.

"Nicely handled as usual my love," Esme told Carlisle as he re-entered the room. He sat down beside her on the cream settee and took hold of her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, but he was looking at me and in his mind he was asking for a résumé of what I had heard in their thoughts.

I glanced quickly at my four siblings who were hovering in the doorway. Carlisle followed my gaze and then, as if suddenly remembering the plan and the need for the charade, told them they had better get going or they would miss their flight.

We all headed to the front door in the pretence of seeing them off. There were hugs and kisses all around and then goodbyes. "Give my love to Aunt Jessie," Esme called out as the disappeared into the garage. A couple of minutes later they were pulling out of the garage in the Jeep. More smiles and waves and then the Jeep roared off down the driveway. Harry, the Quileute, who looked extremely tense and nervous, and the police officers were still standing around Charlie's cruiser with a map outstretched on the hood, deciding which routes to take. Harry turned his head to glare in our direction. It was his thoughts I was more interested in hearing than the others.

Look at them all standing there, all smiles. Guilty as hell. Why don't they just confess and save us all this bother?

The police officers were paying us no attention and Harry turned his concentration back to the map. We returned to the house and resumed our positions in the living room.

"So?" Carlisle asked.

"Well, the police officers are not suspicious at all. They are just concentrating on the task in hand, in fact, Chief Swan is rather embarrassed about the whole thing. He has enormous admiration for you and the work you do at the hospital and wishes he didn't have to go through with this. He is just doing his duty and hopes you will understand."

Something was bothering me though. Charlie was hard to read. I felt like I wasn't getting the whole picture, which was weird. It was like his thoughts were in abstract, somehow. I had to really concentrate to pick out the full meaning. I decided against telling Carlisle about this at the moment. I had picked out enough to get the general feeling of embarrassment.

"Anyway," I continued, "He wishes his friends from the reservation didn't hold this stupid grudge. He has no idea what it is all about, but suspects that Billy and Harry are just superstitious old fools. Billy? Who is Billy?"

"I've no idea," Carlisle replied, shaking his head.

"Ok, no matter. Another one of the older tribesmen I guess; one of Chief Swan's peers. Anyway, Harry, the one who has come here tonight, well his thoughts are pretty much as I suspected. He is convinced we are guilty. He has been spreading the word down at the Reservation that we are murderers. He is not going to let this drop. Billy thinks the same apparently. He thinks Sam was too trusting of us and he regrets now sending Sam to represent them. He wishes had had come himself."

Carlisle put his head in his hands and was quiet for a few moments. I was listening to the search party outside who had begun to move off now, Harry had taken a couple of the young police officers in one direction and would no doubt have poisoned their minds by the time the search was complete, Chief Swan had taken the other two in the opposite direction.

Carlisle began to give us his thoughts, well, at least he spoke them for Esme's benefit, "Ok, well, they are not going to find anything here so they will eventually have to leave us alone. We are innocent, so there is no need for alarm. We just stay calm and go about our daily business. It is unfortunate that this has happened, and I guess you were right to have your reservations Edward, but we have kept our side of the bargain. We will just have to be prepared for trouble. Let's hope the young gentleman returns soon. It is not uncommon for teenagers to disappear for a few days after a lover's quarrel."

"Oh dear," Esme whispered. "I do hope this doesn't come to anything. Is there anything we can do Carlisle?"

"No, we just have to let it runs its course and hope it doesn't end badly. The good thing is that I don't believe any of them have become wolves yet so they are unlikely to want to fight, but they could do more damage by exposing us. I think that is the worst that can happen, so we must be prepared to move on, if we have to. I will give Alice a call and update her. Edward, can you monitor? "

"Already on it," I replied and I got up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Esme asked, seemingly alarmed.

"I'm going to follow Harry and his hired hands. I want to pay close attention to him so I can get an insight into the general thoughts of our enemy, if that is officially what they are now."

"Oh, do be careful Edward," Esme said, a worried expression on her face.

"Of course, I'll keep my distance."

"Well, is it really necessary to put yourself at such risk?" she continued.

"What risk? I am sure I can defend myself against an old man and two young guns. I am impervious to bullets remember? But it won't come to that; they won't even know I am there."

I wondered if Esme was so practiced at pretending to be human, and being a loving, caring home-maker, she forgot how strong and fast we were. I couldn't be upset with her over it, but there really wasn't any need for her concern, and she could see that now. She was chastising herself for being over-protective. She knew I was in no real danger.

"Yes, of course, Edward." She gave me a warm smile and wished me good luck.

I soon caught up with Harry. They were moving slowly through the dense forest, and of course, they had been slowed down by having to find a bridge over the thirty foot wide river, which I, of course jumped without even thinking about it.

I kept to a distance of about fifty yards and moved silently behind them. They were cracking twigs with their feet as they moved, I wasn't. I didn't need to, I barely touched the ground. I was close enough to hear their thoughts, which was just as well because they weren't speaking.

Carlisle had been right; there were not any wolves at La Push yet. Harry was wishing there were. Then we would stand a fighting chance and we could seek revenge on these bloodsuckers who have taken my future son-in-law away.

Ah, so that was it. Harry's daughter was presumably dating Sam Uley, hence Harry's particular intense interest. No doubt she was inconsolable with grief and Harry wanted to see his daughter happy, that was only natural. I instantly felt pity for this young girl I didn't even know and hoped her boyfriend returned in good health, for her sake, and not just ours.

They were looking hopelessly under every upturned tree and in every hollow. How ridiculous! Did they really think we would have left Sam's spent body on our land if we had been responsible for his death? I was surprised they hadn't bought dogs with them. Surely a dog would have a better chance of finding a human body? I decided it was probably because Chief Swan had been in charge of this operation and he was unconvinced they would find anything at all. He was just going through the motions for the sake of his friend. Of course, Harry Clearwater would have a better sense of smell than a normal human, due to him having the wolf gene, but he wasn't a wolf and it was therefore restricted.

The two young police officers looked distinctly uninterested, even bored. They trudged along behind Harry, longing to not be there. One of them was thinking of the date he had been forced to cancel to take part in this stupid search. The other was wondering what he was missing on television. Both of them were thinking they were hungry and would rather be tucking into a good meal.

Harry was just continuing with his silent rantings about bloodsuckers being no good and for a brief second, he was actually hoping they would find a body so that we could be implicated, and he would be proved right. The young generation had no idea! It was all a game to them, they didn't realise the danger these Cold Ones presented. He instantly pulled himself up; feeling guilty for hoping to find a body. Leah would want Sam home in one piece, and so would he really, so would all of the Quileutes.

Damn these bloodsuckers, showing up here and wrecking our lives. Even if Sam does return I am going to insist we ask them to leave. This forest is huge. We could search here for a week and not find anything. Why was Charlie so reluctant to call in the dog squad? Charlie was misguided. Yes, I will speak to Billy and see if we can't send another representation asking these murdering bloodsuckers to leave.

And so it went on. I decided he wasn't going to give me any more useful information so I returned to the house and told Carlisle what I had heard so far.

"So, I should prepare myself for another visit, I guess?" he said, with a huge sigh. "Oh well, I might just have to tell them what Alice reported to me earlier then, it may just be of interest to them."

"Oh really, what was that then?" I asked, remembering that Carlisle had said he was going to phone Alice and give her an update. I saw it in his thoughts but Carlisle put it into words anyway.

"Well, Alice and the others abandoned the Jeep in an unused dirt track at the foot of the mountains. As they were ascending the slopes through the forest, looking for mountain lions and bears they came across werewolf scent, just one solitary animal. Rosalie and Emmett recognised it immediately, there is no doubt. I wouldn't mind betting this is where the missing young man has hidden himself while he goes through his transformation. It would seem it has begun." As he finished speaking I saw an image in his head of a pack of huge wolves, just like we had witnessed all those years before.