Chapter Thirty Five

Warning: Mention of sexual abuse.

Charlie

Two weeks with nothing, not a single lead or trace of them and we'd travelled the entire route looking for God knows what but finding nothing and every time we heard from the others it was the same news, no sign of Bella, Renee, Phil, or the truck. Even Jasper's friend Darius on whom everyone held out such great hopes had been able to come up with only two things, the truck hadn't been exported and none of the chop shops or car thieves in the area had handled one and the only abandoned car to speak of was an old rust bucket that had been stolen two weeks earlier from a fishing camp about one hundred miles from Seattle which really didn't get us any further because chances were the car had been stolen by kids having what they classed as fun before getting bored.

But if they were still with the truck then why weren't they answering their phones or contacting me or Jasper and where the hell were they? I could see Jasper becoming more despondent every day and more frustrated just as I was but I was puzzled too, with all the resources we had why couldn't we find anything at all and not only us but the cops too. There were murmurings of bringing in the FBI but a family disappearing together complete with their transport without any signs of violence wasn't going to be exactly high on their agenda either. I was beginning to believe they had been beamed up by a UFO off the road, after all it was impossible to hide three people and a truck or, God forbid three corpses and a truck indefinitely, I knew that, I was after all a cop myself and we knew where to look in our own areas.

I was eating a lunch Rosalie had cooked for me, alone as usual remembering that both she and Jasper had a special diet, when the phone rang and she waved me on answering it herself. Jasper had gone out with his friend Darius who was staying close by to see a friend of the latter's without much hope of any lead. Rosalie spoke for a few seconds then turned to me holding the receiver out and looking grave,

"Its the police, they think they might have something."

I dropped my fork and ran to the phone praying this might be the lead we had been waiting for.

"Yes, Chief Swan here what do you have?"

"Chief its Detective Jones here. Could you come to the station, I might have some news on your ex wife."

"Renee? Has she been spotted? Is she OK? What about the others? Bella?"

"It would be better if you could come down here Chief. I'll send a squad car for you."

Hearing the door open and male voices I continued,

"Its OK I can be there in about fifteen minutes, I have transport."

I put the phone down wiping my mouth with the napkin Rosalie held out and grabbing my jacket as I gabbled the message from Detective Jones and Jasper grabbed the keys from Darius and followed me out the door both of us hoping this would be good news but fearing the worst.

At the station Detective Jones was waiting for me along with another officer I had never seen before and both baulked at Jasper joining me but I insisted and reluctantly they took us through to an interview room shutting the door after we both refused coffee.

"Chief Swan, would you recognize your ex wife's jewelery?"

"You found her jewelery?"

Then it hit me,

"No, you've found a body haven't you? And you think it might be hers. Where? What happened?"

He held up a hand as Jasper touched my arm to stop me,

"Can we see the jewelery? I saw Renee Dwyer just before they left and I know what she was wearing."

Jones looked at me and I nodded, I wouldn't recognize Renee's things,

"Before you do that can you tell me why we can't just see the body?"

"We only have photographs I'm afraid, of the jewelery that is. The body was discovered in Southern California and the woman has been dead some time, we're still waiting on the M.E for more details."

He shook out three photographs from a manilla envelope, blow ups of a wedding ring, engagement ring, and a necklace that looked like the kind of thing Renee might wear with huge brightly colored beads on a thick what looked like rope. We all heard the intake of breath from Jasper and the detectives looked at him keenly.

"You recognize these."

"The necklace and the wedding band look identical to those Renee Dwyer was wearing but the engagement ring, that's the one I bought Bella just a few months ago."

There was a deathly hush then the stranger leaned forward,

"Are you sure about that?"

Jasper looked him in the eye,

"Absolutely. So why was Renee wearing Bella's ring? How did she die?"

Again there was a long silence before the stranger spoke again,

"We'll need DNA or dental records to be sure it is Renee but everything else matches, hair color, height, identifying marks. She was found in a trash dumpster in La Jolla, she'd been beaten, raped, and her throat was slit. The body was wrapped in a tarpaulin but there were fragments of clothes too, badly ripped. Can you tell us again what she was wearing when you last saw her Mr Whitlock."

"Yes, blue denim jeans, a white tee shirt, light blue cotton shirt over the top and brown leather thong sandals."

"That's what we thought. If you could give us a minute. I want to see if the M.E has finished his report."

They were gone at least ten minutes and in that time a police officer brought in mugs of coffee which sat on the table in front of us slowly growing cold.

"It's her isn't it?"

He nodded,

"Yes I think so but why was she wearing Bella's ring? Bella wouldn't have just given it to her. Why would she?"

"I don't know son unless..."

My voice trailed off, unless whoever killed Renee had also killed Bella and put the wrong jewelery on the wrong corpse.

When they came back they looked more disturbed than before,

"They are sending a copy of the M. E's report over but as far as he can tell Renee Dwyer, if that's who it is, was killed only a week at most after you last saw her Mr Whitlock."

"A week at most? You mean she was dead before they ever reached Yellowstone?"

"It would appear so, the M.E said, I hate to tell you like this but as a police officer you'll understand, that she had been sexually assaulted repeatedly before her death so its our theory that she was in the hands of her murderer for at least a few days. I don't think they made it anywhere near Yellowstone. Whatever happened, it happened soon after they left on their trip, bearing in mind the time it would take to drive all the way to San Diego."

"What about Phil and Bella? The truck?"

I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

"There are no other bodies so far and the truck seems to have vanished too."

Jasper spoke up again but this time his voice was like a laser cutting through steel.

"You think the murderer hijacked the truck don't you?"

They both looked at him without speaking and he got up the sound of his chair scraping over the floor making us wince,

"If you're right then he left another vehicle somewhere, the one he got them to stop with and I intend to find it, and Bella. When can I have her ring back?"

"I'm sorry Mr Whitlock but its evidence in a homicide and I would strongly advise you not to impede the police in this matter."

"Impede? You don't need me for that detective."

He glanced at me and I got up as if he had ordered me to do so.

"I'm sorry to be the bearer of such tragic news Chief Swan, we'll keep you informed but do you know her dentist? Or another family member for DNA?"

"I've got a hairbrush of Bella's, that should give you some DNA detective."

Saying this Jasper opened the interview room door and waited for the detectives to escort us out.