A/N Okay, so I'm really sorry about not posting anything for such a long time. I didn't even realize how much time had gone by until the other day when I logged on. Anyway, things are now more or less back to normal with no big trips planned or weddings to go to anytime soon. Well, I take the wedding thing back because this year has been full of them. The good news is that I have the rest of the story planned out. I just have to write it carefully to make sure all of the pieces fall in place the way I want them to and to make it seem like a natural ending. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter and feel free to leave a review.

Chapter Twenty

Frank's POV

After leaving Nancy to sleep, I went downstairs and filled a glass full of water. I brought it back upstairs and left it by Nancy's bed. She had already fallen asleep, so I didn't say anything as I gazed at her. She was so beautiful and I refuse to let anything happen to her.

Tonight at the hospital had been another close call. Too close in my opinion. If Nancy hadn't been able to hold the nurse off for as long as she had, I might have lost her. I knew that we really needed to get to the bottom of this mystery fast before something else happens.

I wasn't as worried about Nancy getting hurt while she was staying here, mostly due to the number of people that hung around the house at any given time. However, I knew how she could be. Nancy will want to come investigate with me and Joe at the drop of a hat regardless of her physical condition or any other extenuating circumstances.

As I changed for bed, I tried to clear all of the thoughts out of my head. I was hoping to have a good night's rest and not be kept up by rampaging thoughts of someone trying to kill the love of my life.

As I laid down and tried to get comfortable in bed, I told myself that we were all safe here. I wasn't planning on letting down my guard, but I was fairly certain that nothing should happen to anyone while we were staying with the Cullens. Though that thought might not be completely positive, it was better than nothing and allowed me to finally drift off for a peaceful night of sleep.

Saturday brought with it a stormy day. All of us were gathered in the living room once again going over the documents Carlisle had provided. I think we all felt that there was something in them that we just weren't seeing. It was a frustrating task, but it had to be done unless we found something else that might give us better direction. For the time being, this had the most potential in providing a clue for us.

Nancy huffed loudly causing me to look up at her from where she was curled up on the sofa. "Maybe we should go back over the things we know about this case. I could use a break from looking at these spreadsheets," she said.

"Okay, we know that Jane was murdered by Felix," Joe began.

"But who murdered Felix?" Nancy asked.

"The only things we know about his murder is that Demetri's wallet was found near the scene of the crime and the type of gun used, which was a Remington 700," I responded. "That particular gun is widely used from most police all the way down to a hunter, so it's going to be hard to narrow that down."

"Has anybody checked up on the wallet yet?" Joe asked.

I shook my head. "I think Nancy was planning to before the accident, but since then hasn't really had the chance."

"In fact, I had forgotten all about checking out that lead with everything else that's happened," Nancy confirmed. "I should give the guy a call today and see if I can find anything out from him."

"Is there anything else we actually know?" Joe asked.

"I think everything else is still pretty speculative," Nancy answered. "I wish we had more to go on right now."

"We'll get there," I told her. "We just need to find the right thing that will break this case wide open."

Nancy stood up from her perch. "On that note, I think I'm going to make a phone call to Demetri and see if I can find out what he's been up to lately."

Joe sighed heavily. "Guess we'll get back to this stuff," he said gesturing to the papers spread out around him on the floor.

Joe and I were looking over the pages for a while before Nancy came back down the stairs. As she entered the room, I looked up and asked, "Did you find out anything?"

"Well, Demetri seems to have an alibi for the time of day when Felix was murdered," Nancy responded sitting down.

"Seems?" Joe asked quirking his eyebrow.

"Well, he told me that he was at his office working," Nancy told us. "I called the office once I got off the phone with him and talked to his secretary. She corroborates his story, but since she works for him, I suppose it's possible that she would also cover for him if he really wasn't there."

"Okay, so we can't officially rule him out of the game, but he might not be the killer," I spoke.

"Correct," Nancy confirmed.

"Did you learn anything else?" I asked.

"Nothing of interest," she said. "I did seem to catch his attention when I told him about his wallet being found near a crime scene."
"What did he say?" Joe asked.

"Well, he didn't know how his wallet would have gotten there because he hasn't been in that area of town before," Nancy explained. "He seemed worried when he found out about it."

"I would be too if I were him," Joe said. "That bit of evidence links him to the crime even if we don't hard concrete proof yet."

"Anyway, let's get back to work," Nancy said grabbing a few of the pages I had laid down earlier.

Another hour passed us by and we were still trolling through the spreadsheets. I could feel my eyes getting blurry looking at everything over and over. I was about to suggest a break from all of this to get a snack or just do something else when Bella and Edward ventured into the room.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Bella asked.

"Slow," Joe groaned.

"Bella and I were discussing what kind of pattern you might be looking for and decided to take another look at the spreadsheets if you don't mind," Edward said.

"Help yourself," I told him. "I needed a break anyway.

We all gathered the sheets together and handed them over to Edward. He looked over the sheets for several minutes while Bella peered over his shoulder.

I leaned back against the part of the sofa I was seated on and watched them as they poured over the document in silence. I briefly glanced away and saw that Joe had shifted to lay flat on his back on the floor and had his eyes closed. I imagine that without much interruption, I would probably be hearing the sounds of a wood chipper starting up soon. Nancy, on the other hand, seemed to maintain her interest even though I could tell that she was getting tired.

"I've got it!" Edward exclaimed smacking his knee with his hand.

"Was it what we thought?" Bella asked him.

Edward nodded enthusiastically in response to her question. He looked up at all of us because Joe had jerked up when he heard the loud noise.

"It's a Fibonacci sequence," Edward stated.

He frowned when all three of us kept giving him blank stares.

"What's a Fibo-something sequence?" Joe asked grumpily.

Edward held up the spreadsheets. "The pattern they're using is a Fibonacci number sequence. Instead of increasing the number of rejected items by one or two a month, they're using this particular sequence," Edward explained.

"I've never heard of what you're talking about, but I'll give you the benefit of knowing what you're talking about," I said. "So what would be the reason for using a pattern like this one versus something else?"

"It's not as easily noticed as you guys all know," Edward replied. "It's a number sequence that increases gradually over time instead of doubling or tripling numbers like other patterns."

"If it's not easily noticed, how did you manage to figure it out?" Nancy asked frowning.

"We've been thinking about how to help you guys find this pattern since yesterday," Bella answered. "I was the one that actually brought up the possibility of it being a number sequence because I've always enjoyed doing things like that in my spare time. I know, I'm a dork," she said as she looked pointedly at Joe, who was probably about to make some snippy remark.

"Anyway, Bella got me thinking about number patterns, and we came down here to give it another shot to see if maybe she was onto something," Edward continued.

"And you found a pattern," I concluded.

"So how does this pattern work?" Nancy asked.

"Well, a Fibonacci number sequence works based on adding the two previous numbers in the sequence," Edward began explaining. "It can start with a zero, then one, then another one because the two numbers prior add up to one. The next number in the sequence would be two and so on."

"Wouldn't we have caught something like that?" Joe asked quirking his eyebrow.

Edward shook his head slightly. "I think the reason none of us noticed the pattern earlier is because whoever is behind all of this using the pattern every month. The pattern seems to be in effect every three months and as the number in the pattern increased, the rejected items were spread out over the three month period so that the company wouldn't end up with fifteen rejected batches one month and then have none the next month."

Joe whistled softly. "That's pretty sneaky."

"So the big question is who is behind all of this?" Nancy asked.

"I don't know, but I know of a way you might be able to find out," Bella spoke up.

We all turned our heads to look at her. I hid a grin as our focus caused her to blush.

"All of the rejected batches have to be shipped out on a truck to go to another location and be burned," Bella said. "I don't know how often these trucks leave the company, but I bet Carlisle would be aware of their schedule. You guys could follow the truck and see where it goes."

"That's actually not half-bad," I mused then grimaced as Edward shot a glare at me. I didn't mean that to sound insulting, but I guess it did.

"I'll go see if Carlisle knows anything about when they might be sending a truck," Edward said before getting up and heading in the direction of Carlisle's study.

"This could be a break in the case," Joe said looking at each of us.

A few minutes later, Carlisle joined us in the room. "You boys will be happy to know that there's a truck that leaves the company every other weekend to deliver the rejected products to a dump site where they are incinerated. This happens to be the day that the truck will be leaving, so you should be able to follow it if you can get there in the next half hour."

"Great!" I shouted standing up.

Nancy and Joe stood up with me and turned to follow me out the door.

I turned around suddenly and looked at Nancy. "Nan, I'm not letting you come along for this."

"Why not?" she retorted with her hands on her hips challenging me.

I placed my hands on her shoulders as I moved us away from everyone else. Joe had moved past me and had already made his way out of the door toward the car and was probably waiting for me to join him.

I looked directly into her eyes as I spoke, "You've just been released early from the hospital and are still recovering from your injuries. There is no way in hell that you can convince me to bring you along to investigate something."

"But you guys might need help," Nancy persisted.

"Look, I doubt we'll need any help with this," I told her. "All we're doing is tailing a truck to its drop-off point."

"If that's all you're doing, why can't I come along?" she asked triumphantly.

"I will not risk anything happening to you," I responded as calmly as possible even though she was driving me crazy with her arguing. Not that I can really blame her for that because I would almost certainly be the same way if the situation were reversed.

"Sure, it's supposed to be a simple task," I agreed, "but I will not run the risk of you being there and potentially getting hurt if something does happen."

Nancy finally realized that I wasn't going to let her talk me into her coming along. She tried to keep the pout off of her face, but I could still see it. I raised my hands from her shoulders up to cup her face and kissed her tenderly.

"Be careful," Nancy whispered as I stepped back from her.

I smiled at her before responding, "I'm always careful."