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Clues

I finally relaxed my stiffened posture and then I realized something.

That was odd. Why didn´t I notice that right away? Why didn´t any of the others?

"I still can´t believe that she just ditched like this without a word. It´s just not like her to be such a drama queen," Emmet mumbled. It was almost as if he was talking to himself.

"No you´re right Emmet," Jacob said. "But nothing in the last week has been normal. Nessie´s been acting really strange and I just don´t know why." He was whimpering a bit. Obviously he still thought that it was about him.

"Maybe she just woke up a week ago and finally had enough of the smell of wet dog," Rosalie snared. She wasn´t pleased that the small room was filled with werewolves.

Emmet and Jasper let out a short laugh.

Jacob rolled his eyes and ignored her comment.

"Rosie, this is hardly the time to be resentful," Carlisle added.

Rosalie just let out a "Hrmpf." She was not going to apologize.

I was still caught up with that strange feeling that we all just missed the biggest clue. Why was I the only one noticing? That would definitely be a first.

Edward must have felt me change positions in his arms. He looked down at me with questions in his eyes.

"What are you thinking Bella?" he asked.

Could he really be that ignorant?

"Haven´t you noticed something´s very off?" I returned his questioning glare.

"Well, yes. Our daughter is missing. I would say that´s way off," he answered me.

Obviously he wasn´t getting the point. I rolled my eyes to the back of my head. He used to be the smart one.

"What do you mean Bella?" Carlisle asked.

"Well for starters her room is way, way too tidy. Everything´s organized and that would be a first. The room didn´t look like this yesterday."

I looked around at my family and friends expecting them to jump to the same conclusion I had seconds ago. Nothing happened; they just looked at me puzzled.

"So she decided to clean her room before she ran away. Honestly I don´t see the big deal," Leah snorted.

She obviously didn´t want to be here. She couldn´t care less if we lost Nessie for good, but she was very loyal to Jacob and the pack. And she obviously didn´t know Nessie very well.

"The big deal, Leah, is that she has never in her life cleaned her room. Why would she bother to do it now?" I said still hoping my family would catch on so we could start scanning for other important clues.

"You don´t think that… that…" Edward was looking down at me with wide eyes.

He was close now. Finally.

"Yes I do think that, Edward," I answered him.

We turned to face each other ready to talk the possibilities through.

"When you guys are ready to share whatever information we´re missing we´ll be here," Emmet was impatient now. He really hated to be in the dark.

"Remember years ago when I had a `visitor` in my old room and suddenly the place was very tidy?" I asked looking from face to face.

I could see when each of them remembered. They looked around at each other. The silence was torture.

"But Bella," Jasper finally said, "Victoria´s gone. And so are all her helpers."

"Besides I don´t catch the scent of anyone unusual," Rosalie said.

"Don´t you?" I asked back.

They all turned around and glared at me. Obviously they didn´t. I caught Edwards's eyes. He glared at me for a second and then he closed his eyes. He finally noticed.

"Why didn´t we notice right away?" he asked me. Hurt in his voice. "We´ve wasted so much time."

"I don´t know," I said. "Chock maybe. It´s not every day the rug gets pulled away from under you."

"It feels like every day," Edward said.

He was right. It seemed like we never caught a break. Something was always chasing our tale.

I turned around to face the rest of the family. I felt bad for them. They had let me into their lives and they were paying for it every single day. I wouldn´t let myself think about the countless times I had been the reason they were put in danger. I constantly put them in harms way. Unintentionally off course, but sometimes I couldn´t help but to wish them back to their peaceful ways before I had decided to force my way into their lives and their hearts.

"I know you guys don´t come in to her room very often," I started to speak. I had to brace myself to speak in a way so that the werewolves would understand the whole thing as well. I didn´t want to waste any more time repeating myself. I hated speaking this slow when time really mattered. We had to get going.

"But if you close your eyes and tune in to your sense of smell, you might be able to find a distinct smell that doesn´t belong to anyone of us or the wolves."

"It´s not very strong, but it´s there," Edward continued. "Obviously the person or thing who´s been in here was trying really hard to cover his or her tracks."

Chock spread across the room.

My family all closed their eyes and concentrated. I noticed Rosalie flinch her nose a bit, obviously trying to ignore the smell of wet dog. She tried to sniff past the werewolves.

The werewolves just looked around. They waited for clues of which smell they were looking for. The only one of them who had ever entered Nessie´s room was Jacob and he wasn´t allowed to be in there for that long at the time. Edward was very protective of his only daughter and even though he could hear every thought in Jacob´s mind he didn´t trust him behind closed doors.

Jacob looked at me expecting me to describe the smell.

"Not yet Jake," I answered his expression.

"But we want to help. We need to help!" he said. So much despair in his voice. He fought very bravely not to break down and cry his heart out. I knew exactly how he felt.

The only ones who truly understood what Jacob felt were Edward and I. And I was really glad that the others didn´t know the truly devastating hurt it felt to lose their only love. To lose the reason they decided to take the next breath. Nobody needed to feel that.

"We will tell you in a minute Jake," Edward said in a calm voice. He knew why I didn´t want to describe the smell just yet.

Jacob looked at him very impatient.

"We don´t want to risk to manipulate the scent for the rest," he explained to Jacob. "They need to find it on their own in order to track it down."

"No let´s not manipulate the minds of a bloodsucker," Leah let out trough her teeth just high enough for everyone to hear.

Seth punched his sister on the arm and gave her a warning glare.

I heard Embry snigger very low and under normal circumstances we all would have found Leah´s little outburst quite funny. Now we simply didn´t have the time or the patience to notice it.

We stood very still for a few minutes, waiting for the family to sort through the different smells. Carlisle was the first one to open his eyes. He was silent. He also wanted to wait for the rest of them to find the scent on their own.

Jasper followed then Alice, Rose, Emmet and Esme.

They looked at each other and they all nodded.

"It´s not a smell I´ve ever come across before," Carlisle said. "But it´s our kind no doubt about that."

"I found a scent of one of our kind as well," Alice said. "It was covered in a different smell. Obviously some kind of cover up."

The werewolves still looked confused. In a room full of vampires it could be very hard to pick out a new vampire scent.

"Lilies," Rose said in a small voice.

The whole family turned to her and they nodded in agreement.

"I just thought it was some of Nessie´s perfume," Emmet said frustrated.

"And that must have been the plan all along," Edward answered Emmet´s frustrations. "So we would believe the goodbye note and pass the smell as perfume."

I looked at Jacob. His eyes were showing the hurt he felt in his heart, well in his whole body. He wanted to start looking for Nessie. The sooner the better.

"We will leave you to catch the scent of your own," I said not taking my eyes of his. "I know our scents are a distraction for you."

Rosalie rolled her eyes but turned around and left the room. The rest of us followed her.

"We should go outside," Edward said motioning everyone to the front door. "They need some time too."

I nodded and went willingly.

As we stood outside I thought about this new information. The clue to finding Nessie. I was relieved she hadn´t run away but that relief was instantly replaced with worry and anger.

She was all alone. Abducted by a stranger. A vampire. We didn´t know the intentions of the abduction but that didn´t matter. What mattered was getting her home safely.

The kidnapper had no idea of what was in store for him or her when the Cullens got their hand on him or her. Or the werewolves for that matter. Torture would not be enough and death would be to kind of a punishment.

I shuddered at the thought.

We waited patiently as the wolves caught the scent in the room. We didn´t hear a sound for several minutes.

Edward suddenly stiffened and then he let out a gasp.

I turned to look into his horrified face. Obviously the wolves had caught something upsetting or worse.

But what could possibly be worse. I felt so useless.

"What is it," I said. I didn´t want to wait for the answer. But he just looked down at me without a word.

In that same second Jacob and the rest of the pack was outside too.

So I turned to Jacob. He had always been more willing to share information with me than Edward had. And this was no time to spare my feelings. I needed to know. This time I could help too. I wasn´t human anymore. I wasn´t a newborn vampire. I had learned to control and to channel my power and strength. On top of that there was my now very powerful shield.

"What´s Edward not telling me?" I demanded looking into Jacob´s eyes.

"Look Bella. Edward," Jacob started and looked very upset.

"We know that Jacob. It´s not your fault," Edward interrupted him.

What was going on? Enough of that silent communication already. We all needed every piece of information we could get.

"No Edward. We don´t know," I said looking at my husband angrily.

He looked back at me confused. He quickly looked back at Jacob with concern in his eyes.

And then I understood the concern.

"I mean we don´t know what Jacob is thinking. So would you please just let him finish whatever it is he needs to say," I said while looking at Edward.

I then turned around to correct my mistake from before. I looked at Jacob.

"Off course we don´t blame you for any of this. So just finish what you wanted to say. I´m sure Edward would want us all to know whatever it is you know."

I really did hate the fact that Edward already knew more. It was really frustrating that all of us couldn´t get the answers just as fast. It really slowed down the process. The fact that Edward could get the answer the second people thought of it just emphasized the slow process the rest of us had to go through to get there.

Jacob took a deep breath and looked down at his hands.

"As I was saying none of us knew. We didn´t have a clue. Otherwise we wouldn´t have given up like that. Never."

He spoke as if I knew what he was on about. This was really nerve racking.

"Go on," I said trying real hard to sound patient.

"Last night we caught a new scent in the woods in the opposite direction from your home. We followed the scent, but lost the trail near the creek up north," he explained.

I gasped.

"And that scent. Is that…?" Carlisle was the first to speak the question I guess was on everyone´s mind.

"Yes." Jacob said looking up to meet my gaze. "It´s the same scent we found in Nessie´s room."