Chapter Thirty Six

Warning: Mention of rape.

Jasper

I was so angry with myself, so enraged I could hardly think. All that time I was having fun on Isle Esme, playing children's games and laughing Bella had been in the hands of some psychopath who had not only raped and killed her mother but done God knew what to her too. Renee was dead, I couldn't do anything for her now but get justice but her body had given us our first real lead.

Somewhere concrete to start looking at last, not Yellowstone or the roads between Seattle and there but San Diego and a narrower area too, La Jolla. I couldn't wait to get back and set things in motion and drove too fast but Charlie said nothing just clenched his fists. I guess he was partly in shock at hearing what had happened to poor Renee and fear for what might have happened to his daughter, my mate. As we approached the apartment I could feel the rage building up in me to a point where it was likely to become dangerous to anyone around me.

Charlie

I could feel the atmosphere in the car, Jasper was angry with himself, I was too, they'd been missing almost three months and we only found out a couple of weeks ago. If we'd known earlier Renee would still be dead but maybe we could have been looking for Bella and found her.

"You can't blame yourself Jasper, we couldn't have known."

I turned and I saw a strange fire playing in his eyes which were almost black now.

"When we get back I want you to go upstairs and tell the others what we know, then wait for me."

It was as if each word were being squeezed through clenched teeth.

"What about you? I really don't think you should be going off on your own the state you're in."

"Please Charlie do as I say."

He pulled up and waited so I got out but before I could look back and speak to him he leaned across slammed the door and took off way too fast. Left with no alternative I made my way back to the apartment and told Darius and Rosalie what we'd learned.

"Oh Charlie I am so sorry. Where's Jazz?"

"He just took off, I think he's blaming himself for wasting time when he should have been looking for Bella. I tried to tell him we still couldn't have known the truth until Renee's body had been found and we have no idea how long it had been in the trash dumpster."

She shared a look with Darius who grabbed his jacket,

"Stay here with Rosalie Charlie, I'll be back. Let the others know we're looking in the wrong place."

Darius

When Charlie told us what they'd learned I knew immediately that The Major would be blaming himself and went to find him before he exploded. Charlie told me he'd headed south and I knew the forest around here. He was headed for somewhere he could erupt without being discovered and drove off after him. It didn't take me long once I booted up my lap top and traced his cell phone.

I parked up a good mile from his position and locking mine followed him in on foot. I heard him before I saw him, the sound of splintering wood and snarls of rage guided me in but I waited just out of sight until the noise died down before approaching too close, I knew what The Major was capable of and I had no wish to become his next victim. Anger at himself and fear for Bella had tipped him over the edge into a rage and I had to wait until it subsided then and only then did I walk into view.

There were trees uprooted and not just saplings but ancient oaks too all smashed to matchwood. He stood amid the carnage for a moment then sank to his knees and whispered her name.

"Bella, can you ever forgive me? I promise I'll find you, just hang on darlin'."

"Major? Hey, Major you done yet?"

He turned slowly to look at me and I could see grief and self loathing in his face,

"I abandoned her Darius. I never suspected for one moment she was in danger and while I've been having fun she's been God knows where and suffering...God knows what. How am I gonna face her when we finally trace her? I left her in the hands of a madman for weeks Darius, weeks!"

"Yeah well now you've had chance to blow off steam what is our next move?"

"I want a full copy of the police papers on Renee's death, M.E's report, photographs, everything they have."

"No problem, I can get that for you."

"Depending on that we fly to San Diego and rip the city apart Darius, I will find her, I must."

Jasper

Darius was right, I had let off steam but I was left with a huge heavy lump in my chest that was guilt for not knowing there was something wrong earlier, if Bella had been a vampire I would have known immediately but as a human I didn't get the mating pull and right now I would give everything I had to be guided to her. I looked around me at the damage and shrugged, better inanimate objects like trees than humans and that's what I felt like doing, ripping human bodies apart with my bare hands to feel the relief that comes from tasting human blood but no amount of killing or human blood could erase the guilt I was feeling.

My mate was missing, possibly even dead at the hands of some sick human who had raped and killed her mother. Well I would find him if it took me years, find him and rip his still beating heart from his chest but not before I had beaten him to within an inch of his life, over and over again. He would beg to die and I would laugh in his face and start all over again.

I walked back to the car with Darius feeling the terrible ungovernable rage within me turn into a cold lump that filled my chest and reminded me of what I had vowed.

"You did well to control yourself with Charlie in the car but he's confused. You do know he's already suspicious that there's something strange about us. What if he finds out our secret?"

"I can't worry about that now Darius. I can only worry about Bella and finding her...dead or alive."

"OK, leave it with us for now but be careful. I'll book us on a flight to San Diego and tell the others to meet us there. Then we'll take the city apart if we have to."

We drove back in silence, I'd never seen The Major look so bleak and I was sure that if Bella was dead whoever was responsible would meet their death at his hands and it would be a hard death with no mercy and no pity.

Back at the apartment I found Charlie talking to Rosalie, he looked relieved when he saw The Major and I left them talking while I snatched copies of all the police reports and M.E's report on Renee Dwyer's body. There was a lot of it, most just routine stuff, where she'd been found, who by, nothing suspicious there, it was an old homeless woman known to the police who had been looking for anything she could sell in the dumpster.

It was situated at the back of an abandoned building in La Jolla. A building that had been mothballed several years ago and the dumpster was full of old broken furniture, rolls of stained and rotting carpeting from the building and empty paint buckets. The back of the building had been fenced off but the fencing was broken in places and the homeless used it sometimes but not recently since a shelter had opened a few blocks away. The old woman was probably the only person to have been there in weeks scavenging, anything of value had long ago been taken.