A/N Still don't own any of the characters. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter Six

Nancy POV

It was twilight by the time I reached Chicago. I followed the directions Edward had given me over the phone in order to reach his house. I knew it wasn't an apartment that he lived in based on a lack of some sort of generic address with an apartment number. I really thought he had probably managed to buy a small home that he lived in. What I did not expect was to eventually drive up a long, winding driveway that led to a mansion on the outskirts of town.

I slowly pulled around the gravel driveway to the front of the house. I wasn't sure if I was really supposed to park here, but decided that someone would be able to show me where I can leave my car once I introduce myself.

"This is some place," I said to myself as I got out of the car.

The mansion, for lack of a better word, was painted white and contained large columns in the front. It could probably be an old plantation house that someone had taken the time to restore. As I walked slowly toward the steps leading up to the front door, I gazed all around. Everything from the shrubbery surrounding the front of the house to the trees and grass out front was perfectly manicured. I wondered how many people it took to keep everything looking this perfect.

I walked up the four steps leading to the front door. There were hanging flower baskets spaced evenly apart along the railing that ran along the front portion of the house. I couldn't help but to smile as I thought of how much Hannah would love to see something decorated so tastefully.

I was really looking forward to seeing what the place looked like on the inside. Part of me still questioned how Edward would be able to afford a place like this, but perhaps he came from a wealthy family. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard for me to find out.

I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to come open the door. After everything I had seen outside, I expected to have the door opened my a butler. This led me to be somewhat caught off-guard when the door opened to reveal a very nice looking woman who seemed to be in her mid-thirties with auburn hair that fell to her shoulders.

The woman smiled at me before holding her hand out. "Hello, you must be Nancy."

I smiled and and shook her hand. "I'm Esme Cullen," she continued. "I believe you spoke with my nephew earlier today."

"Hello," I finally spoke. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Since you referred to Edward as being your nephew, I'm guessing that this house actually belongs to you?"

Esme laughed. "I guess it would seem odd to you if someone Edward's age owned a home like this. My husband, Carlisle, and I actually like to find older homes to live in. I love the challenge of taking an older home that has some flaws and restoring it to its former glory."

"I have to admit that I'm impressed with what you've done here," I told her.

"Oh, I'm sorry for being so rude," Esme said shaking her head. "Please, come inside instead of standing out there on the porch."

I stepped past the open doorway and gained my first view of the interior of the house. There was a grand staircase that was not quite in front of the doorway. Everything in this entryway was done in light hues of colour. It even looked as it Esme had chosen her antique collectibles to follow along with her decorating theme.

"You really have quite the talent at decorating," I complemented her.

"Thank you, dear," Esme said smiling. "Now let's see about getting you settled."

"Edward!" Esme called.

We didn't have to wait very long before Edward appeared. I was struck by how handsome he was. Edward was slightly over six feet tall, which was something I greatly admired in a man. He had a bronze tint to his hair, which looked as if he had been running his hands through it a lot lately. His facial features were chiselled. Even with his clothes, I could tell that underneath was a body that was definitely well-toned and developed. In short, he was drool-worthy.

"You must be Nancy," Edward spoke in his velvety voice as he held out his hand to me.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," I told him as he shook my hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," Edward replied politely.

Even though he was being the perfect gentleman around me, I could tell that his girlfriend's disappearance was bothering his greatly. Other than the ruffled hair, his eyes had dark circles under them that appeared as if he hadn't gotten enough sleep. While he was here in the room with me and Esme, I could tell that his mind was preoccupied with other things.

"Edward, would you be a dear and show Nancy to her room?" Esme asked.

"Sure, mom," Edward replied.

"I left my bag in the car," I told them. "Just let me go get it first."

"Edward can grab it for you, Nancy," Esme told me.

I watched as Edward went outside to my car and picked up my suitcase from the trunk. I was glad that I was working for such nice people. It can really make a job seem more worthwhile when I care about the people I'm working for.

Once Edward was back inside, he said, "Follow me."

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need something," Esme said before I followed Edward up the stairs. "Also, I'll make sure we give you a better tour of the house when our other guests arrive."

"Thank you," I told her earnestly.

I followed behind Edward as he carried my suitcase up the stairs. I could tell that this house was huge, and it would probably take me a little while to grow accustomed to where everything was located in it. Edward began walking down the hallway on the second floor. I followed behind him quietly because he seemed to be in his own little world far away from the present.

Edward finally stopped at the end of the hallway in front of a door. "This is the room my mother thought you would like to stay in while you're here," he told me before opening up the door.

The room was beautiful just like the rest of the house that I had managed to see. The bed was a wooden four-poster canopy bed. The bedding on it was a mixture of golds and reds and the canopy held sheer pieces of golden fabric that were draped around it. Everything from the fabrics of the chairs inside the room to the curtains on the windows matched it.

"This is wonderful," I complemented as I took everything in.

"My mother will be happy that you find it to your liking," Edward responded.

I looked toward him with a raised eyebrow. "How could I not? Your mom is the most talented person I know at decorating."

A small smile finally graced Edward's lips at the complement I gave his mother. "Yes, she does have a special talent when it comes to decorating."

"There's an en-suite bathroom through that doorway over there," Edward told me pointing in the direction of the doorway in question. "Make yourself at home and dinner will probably be ready in about an hour."

Before I could say another word, Edward disappeared out of the room. I took another look around in wonder at the beauty of the room I was staying in before I decided that I should get freshened up before dinner.

I opened my suitcase and decided to go ahead and put all of my clothes away first. I found the closet easily, since it was the only other door in the bedroom other than the ones leading back out into the hallway and into the bathroom. I was surprised to see that the closet already held several dozen empty hangers in it, so I decided that I would use those to hang up all my clothes.

After putting away the last item, I picked out a nice emerald green sweater and a black skirt ensemble to wear for dinner tonight. I walked into the bathroom and was once again surprised by the vastness of it.

I had thought that since this was a guest room that the bathroom would be small in size, although not necessarily cramped. I was amazed to see a separate shower and tub in the bathroom along with another smaller section that held a toilet behind a closed door. The vanity area was large enough that even Bess wouldn't find an issue having enough room for all of her beauty products.

I quickly took a shower and washed up. After drying myself off, I put on the outfit I had picked out and put a little makeup on my face. After adding some matching jewelry, I looked myself over in the mirror. Pleased with my reflection, I picked out some shoes to match what I was wearing. Since this was simply for dinner at home instead of a night out on the town, I went with some black flats.

I glanced at my watch and saw that dinner should be read in about fifteen minutes, so I decided to make my way downstairs and have a look around for a bit until it was time to eat. I walked slowly back down the hallway taking notice of just how many rooms there were on this one level of the house. It made me wonder if the Cullens had a large family or if they just entertained a lot of guests in their home.

I reached the staircase and walked down taking a second look at everything I had seen earlier from the chandelier hanging in the foyer to the paintings decorating the walls. After reaching the bottom of the staircase, I could hear faint voices coming from my right.

I turned to walk into the living room where the voices were coming from only to stop short at the sight I saw.

There was a tall man with blonde hair and fair skin that must be Edward's father talking to two young men who were almost equal to his height. It was the young men that caught my attention because I would know those two anywhere.

"Frank? Joe?" I asked in amazement.

At the sound of my voice, all three turned to face me. "Hey Nan," Frank greeted me with a smile. "I thought I recognized your car out front."

"Yeah, there's not many people who drive a blue mustang with a license plate that says 'EYESPY' on it," Joe commented.

"How come you're here?" I asked as I went up to give them both hugs.

I noticed that Frank held onto me a little longer than was necessary. With his dark hair and lean body, he always seemed to be able to get my heart beating just a little faster than normal.

"I hired them," the blonde gentleman finally spoke. He held out his hand to me. "I'm Carlisle and you must be Nancy Drew."

I looked up at Carlisle with confusion on my face. "You hired them to find Bella?" I asked him.

Carlisle shook his head. "No, Frank and Joe are here to go undercover at Volturi Pharmaceuticals and find out anything they can about who murdered Jane Aswad."

I held up both hands, "I'm confused. I didn't hear anything about a murder from Edward."

"Dinner's ready," Edward came in to announce before anyone could respond to my questions. "You must be Frank and Joe Hardy," Edward spoke holding out his hand to shake. "I'm Edward Cullen."

"It's nice to meet you," both of the Hardys said as they shook his hand.

"I'll lead you to the dining room," Edward told us. "After dinner, I'll give you a quick tour of the house before we all settle down and talk a little more fully about everything that's going on."

"Lead the way," Joe said. "I'm starving."

I saw Frank elbow Joe in the side and give him a look before turning to find Edward staring at me and offering his arm. I looked up at Edward with a raised eyebrow only to have him lean down to whisper in my ear, "My mother would kill me if I didn't escort a lady to the dining room."

I shook my head in disbelief as I took his arm. Edward led me toward the dining room with the others following behind us. Upon reaching the dining room, Edward pulled out a chair for me to sit in. I gave him a smile as he walked around to the other side of the table to sit beside Esme.

Carlisle took a seat at the head of the table adjacent to Esme while Frank and Joe took seats on either side of me. I looked over at Frank who was glaring at Edward. I wondered what Edward might have done to earn that kind of glare from Frank, who was normally very calm and laid back. Edward didn't really seem to notice the glare from Frank. He seemed to once again be preoccupied with something. That something was probably Bella. I felt for him because I didn't know what I would do if my boyfriend suddenly went missing without any explanation.

I shifted my focus from the drama going on between Frank and Edward to the food on the table. Esme had prepared dinner for an army it seemed. Before me was a chicken casserole as our main dish with several vegetables like green beans, roasted potatoes, butternut squash, and corn for sides. Esme had also prepared some freshly baked bread and a salad.

"Everyone help themselves," Esme said.

I watched as Joe immediately grabbed the nearest thing to where he was sitting and started spooning roasted potatoes onto his plate. I took a little bit of everything and marvelled at how good it all tasted.

"Esme, this is wonderful," I complemented her. "It reminds me of home and Hannah's cooking."

"Is Hannah your mother?" Esme asked with a smile.

I shook my head, "No, she's our housekeeper. Although, I consider her like a mother considering how much cooking and cleaning around the house she does. Hannah is also great when I need someone as a sounding board and my dad's at work."

"Well, I hope you make yourself feel at home while you're here," Esme said reaching across the table to pat my hand.

We all finished healthy portions of our meals before Esme announced that she had dessert ready in the kitchen. I was already full from the wonderful food she made that I wasn't sure where I would be able to put any dessert.

Esme brought in a large container of chocolate brownies along with bowls filled with vanilla bean ice cream. The brownies were still warm from the oven as she placed one in each dish for us to eat. Before handing them out to us, she went back in the kitchen. I found out when she came back to the table that she had forgotten some hot fudge sauce that she had made in a small sauce pot. She drizzled some of the fudge over each of our dishes before handing them out to us.

I took my first bite of the dessert and almost moaned in delight. "Esme, this is fabulous," I told her.

"I'm glad you like it," Esme said. "I made plenty so you three can have as much as you want tonight or even later as a snack."

"Thanks for the meal. It's delicious," Joe said between mouthfuls of food.

We all finished our dessert quietly enjoying every bite. Afterwards, Esme retired to the kitchen to start cleaning up and Carlisle followed her in order to help. That left me sitting at the table with the three guys. Frank was still in a mood because he hadn't spoken one word during the whole meal. I couldn't imagine what the Cullens must think of him with the way he was acting.

"Shall we take the tour?" Edward asked.

I nodded and went to get up only to find Frank hovering behind my chair to help me. Instead of looking at me, however, he was glaring once again at Edward who finally seemed to have noticed. Edward's jaw clenched a moment in what could only be annoyance before he chose to ignore Frank altogether.

Irritated by the male egos around me, I ignored Frank's hand and got up by myself. I strode over to where Edward was waiting to lead us on a tour of the house. Instead of leading me around like he did earlier, Edward kept his distance as he began showing all of us around the ground floor.

We walked through the living room and into the foyer before venturing into the other side of the house. This side contained a music room, which held a shiny, black grand piano as well as a few other musical instruments along the side of the room. The furniture in this room was minimal and basically consisted of a couple chaise lounges.

Further along we entered the next room, which was a library. There were wall to wall shelves that were full of books. Most of these books even seemed to be hard bound copies. The room had a bay window with a large window seat. It also contained a few comfortable looking chairs and a large sofa for people to sit on while they read.

The final room on this side of the house that Edward showed us was Carlisle's office. It was done in a similar style to the library except there was a large wooden desk with an office chair in the room. Behind the desk were more bookshelves that seemed to contain books that were more professional in nature compared to the novels in the library.

"If you ever need Carlisle, you'll probably find him in here," Edward told us. "This is a sanctuary for him and he spends a good portion of his time here when he's home from work."

"So, do you guys have a pool?" Joe asked.

Edward looked at Joe as if he were insane. I was starting to wonder if Joe was even thinking about the case they were supposed to be working on. So far, it seemed as if his head was revolving around food and entertainment. Then again, this is Joe Hardy.

"There's a heated pool in the back yard along with some other features that you might like to use when you're not working on a case," Edward replied stiffly.

I could tell by the twitching of Joe and Frank's jaw muscles that this could get ugly fast. I decided to step in before anything happens.

"Why don't you show us around the rest of the house?" I asked politely before giving an icy look to the Hardys.

Edward's face softened a moment at my request before leading me back toward the front of the house. When we reached the staircase, he led me up the stairs to the second floor where I was staying.

"Most of the rooms on this floor are guest rooms," Edward told us. "We keep a few set up for some of my friends who like to stay here on a regular basis."

"So you still live with your parents?" Frank asked in a mocking tone.

Edward glared at Frank before responding. "Actually, I have an apartment in town. I just like to stay with my Aunt and Uncle on occasion because I think it's important to keep up my relationship with my family."

"Oh, I thought Esme and Carlisle were your parents?" I asked.

"No, my parents died when I was young and Esme and Carlisle took me in," Edward explained to me. "I think of them as a second set of parents and we'll very close to each other."

I think Edward ended the tour sooner than he would have normally because of the growing hostility between him and the Hardys. It irked me to no end that they were behaving like this around someone who was definitely hurting because of his missing girlfriend.

By the time the tour was over, I walked back downstairs with Edward at my side. I was anxious to find out everything that I could in order to get a good start on solving the mystery. I knew that it was probably too late tonight to do anything for the case, but I could at least make plans for tomorrow based on everything I heard tonight.

I took a chair in the living room and watched as everyone except Esme settled in. Frank and Joe were seated on a nearby sofa and Carlisle and Edward were seated next to each other in chairs across from me in the living room. Esme came in to bring us a snack and something to drink. I wasn't really hungry after that wonderful meal, but I sipped on some tea as I waited to hear more details about what's going on around here.

"First of all, I guess I'll start by explaining a little more about what's going on at Volturi Pharmaceuticals," Carlisle spoke.

I leaned in with complete attention for every word that was to come out of his mouth. I could tell out of the corner of my eye that both Frank and Joe were sitting up straighter to listen to Carlisle speak.

"Early this morning, I got a call from Aro Volturi. Aro is the CEO of the company," Carlisle began. "He called to tell me that I needed to get down to the plant because our lab manager had been found murdered in her office. By the time I got there, the police and medics were already on the scene. I don't have a lot of information to give you about what their findings might have been. All I can really tell you is what I saw for myself. The manager, Jane, was shot in the head. I believe I heard a police officer say something about her being shot from the front and that she probably knew the person, but this is merely heresay."

"We can always talk to the police to see what additional information they might be able to give us," Frank said.

"I didn't notice anything else because there were just too many officials around. Although, I'm not sure I would have wanted to get a better view," Carlisle admitted. "It's bad enough that they didn't manage to get everything cleared out before my workers came in for the day."

"Do you have any idea who might have wanted to kill Jane?" Joe asked.

"I can tell you that nobody liked her," Edward spoke up. "Although, I can't really imagine anyone I know killing her."

"Why is it that nobody liked her?" Frank asked civilly.

Edward shot a glance at Carlisle before answering. "Mostly, it was because she was incompetent. I'm not quite sure how she ended up getting hired for her position, but she didn't know how to do her job properly. Most of the QC chemists had to figure out how to solve their own problems because if they asked her for help, she would just give them some BS answer and walk away."

"So you didn't like to report to her?" Joe guessed.

"I don't work for QC, so I didn't have to report to her," Edward answered. "I was just unlucky enough to work in the same lab that she was in."

"I've already lined everything up for you two to go undercover tomorrow at the plant," Carlisle told Frank and Joe. "Since the murder took place in the lab, I'm placing you there as a couple lab techs. It's the easiest position for me to get you in unnoticed as well as you'll find that as a tech you get a lot more access to areas of the plant than most people."

"Thanks, should make things easier when it comes to asking people questions," Frank told him.

"So, do you have any additional information to tell me about Bella?" I asked Edward.

"Nothing I can think of other than what I told you over the phone," Edward said. "I haven't seen or heard from her since I left work yesterday."

"I have to agree with Edward that this is unusual behaviour for Bella," Carlisle spoke up. "I just hope nothing has happened to her."

"Do you have a key to her apartment?" I asked.

"Yes, would you like it?" Edward asked.

"It might be helpful for me to go by there tomorrow and check the place out," I told him as I took a key from him. "I could probably also start looking into phone records and maybe even check out any credit card usage she might have had recently to see if it gives us any clues."

"I'm grateful for anything you can do to help find her," Edward said.

We were interrupted by Carlisle's cell phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket to answer.

"Hello?" he answered.

We all watched as he listened to the other side of the conversation. His face was becoming more grim by the minute.

"I'll be down there in a few minutes," Carlisle said before hanging up.

He looked up at us. "That was the police department. They have some video footage that I need to see. I thought you might want to come along."

It took only minutes before we were all out the door and driving down the highway toward the police station. Since we were all staying at the same house, we let Carlisle drive us.

We pulled into the station minutes later and walked up to the front desk. A lady behind the desk looked up at us. "Carlisle Cullen?" she asked.

Carlisle nodded and she led us to a room that held two police officers and a television.

"Carlisle Cullen?"an officer with wavy blonde hair asked. "I'm Officer Turner and this is my partner, Officer Harrison."

"These are some private detectives that are going to be helping me on the case," Carlisle said gesturing to us.

"I'm Frank Hardy and this is my brother Joe," Frank introduced as he gave a firm handshake to each officer.

"Nancy Drew," I said.

It was always a good thing to get the cops on your good side because they are more willing to give you information about the case. However, as I watched Officer Turner look me up and down, I wished that I was anywhere but here right now.

"You said you had a video for us to see?" Carlisle probed.

"Yes, we hoped that you could help identify the people in it," Officer Harrison said.

Officer Harrison, who was probably in his early forties with greying hair, started the video. I watched as the screen showed an area of the plant that was most likely part of a warehouse. There seemed to be several pallets stacked off to the sides where a clear view of a docking bay was. I could see a regular sized door next to the docking bay that was also in the video.

We waited for a couple minutes as the scene stayed exactly the same. Then, I watched as two people, a male and female, came onto the screen from somewhere in the plant and ran out of the door next to the docking bay.

Officer Harrison stopped the video and rewound it to right before the two people came onto the screen. This time when they showed up on the video, Officer Harrison paused it at a spot where both of them seemed to turn their heads to look behind them. They then zoomed in on the still image of the two people and I heard Carlisle take in a breath.

We all looked toward him for confirmation of what I already knew judging by his facial expression.

"You know these two?" Officer Turner asked.

Carlisle nodded before taking another deep breath and exhaling loudly. "That's Jacob Black and Bella Swan."