Treasure Map
Bree's bedroom floor used to be littered with photographs and magazine clippings and scrapbook designs; now the bedroom was neat except for piles of old newspaper with highlights. The front page of one bore the news we all remembered: people mysteriously went missing in Seattle when Victoria was making an army of newborns. The news linked to a list of missing persons in another issue of the paper. Among these names was Bree Tanner, which was highlighted in pink.
"What's going on here?" asked Edward's voice.
I turned to the direction of the sound, and found the rest of my family looking bewildered at the doorway.
"How could you not know?" I snapped at Edward, who was taken aback.
"Calm down, both of you!" said Esme in that stern maternal tone I knew so well.
"Forgive me, son," I said, gently this time. "Your sister Bree is missing. Perhaps you should have heard her thoughts and stopped her in time."
Edward was not able to answer at once. As I had presumed, he had been too busy "celebrating" with Bella and too used to the voices buzzing in his head to notice a troubled one in particular. He held his eyes down guiltily.
"Let's just get down to it: look for her," said Jasper urgently.
Everybody except Alice immediately crouched to look for clues among the newspaper sheets. Alice sat on the bed and tried to concentrate.
"I found something!" said Rosalie, handing a dirty old page to me.
The sheet turned out to have so many inkblots from what looked like teardrops surrounding a news column highlighted in orange:
Tanner parents found dead one week after daughter goes missing
"So that's why I see her going to Seattle," said Alice, who was looking over my shoulder.
"Then, you, Jasper, Emmett, and I would go there," I told Alice. "The rest of you, stay here in case Bree returns. Rose, Bella, Edward … I'm counting on you."
I would have preferred that Edward never had to hear me thinking how disappointed I was with him. I was no longer angry, but I terribly wished this could have been prevented; Bree wasn't ready to expose herself to humans.
We used Emmett's jeep to travel to Seattle, where we went straight to 15th Street, where Alice saw Bree in her vision. Emmett, Jasper and I hurried up the stairs, calling for Bree; Alice stayed next to the street sign, asking passersby about a girl with dark brown hair.
The doorknob to the Tanner apartment was broken; Bree had apparently kicked it open. The family's belongings had been thrown around, as though a thief had rummaged over it.
Suddenly, Jasper's cellphone rang. I didn't like the look on his face when he heard Alice shrieking through the speaker. "Carlisle—quick—the security room—" said Jasper.
As fast as our vampire legs could carry us, we headed downstairs, where surveillance videos were being monitored. To our horror, there lay a dead security guard, and Alice was wrestling with a red-eyed Bree, who looked mad with bloodlust.
Emmett, Jasper and I advanced toward her, but Bree tossed Alice at us. The next thing we knew, she was gone.
