Bad news folks I'm away for a week, I will try to post as often as I can but the new story will be slightly delayed. Love Jules xx

Chapter Thirty Eight

Peter

So we'd been looking in the wrong fucking place all this time? Great, but at least we had a solid lead this time, the only problem was that the sicko could have dumped the body there randomly on his way through the area. He might not even live in the area, or San Diego itself. He could have driven down from Los Angeles or even San Francisco to keep from being discovered. Still it was no worse than scouring the national Park, now that had been soul destroying even with the Denali girls there to brighten up my day, not that I'd let on to Char, I quite liked my body with all its appendages where they were and my mate was jealous to the nth degree. We all met up and made our way to San Diego where Esme had already rented three motel rooms in Imperial beach as a base. Must be nice to just snap your fingers and things get done like that, or maybe I was just prejudiced against the Cullens, yeah probably was.

We all crammed into one of the motel rooms, a family room which made it the largest and Esme had purchased a huge map of the city circling La Jolla in red. There were sectors marked out in green and a black circle showing where Renee's body had been discovered in an industrial sector.

"I already marked areas out so we can get started before Jazz and Bella's father get here."

"The human's coming too? What the fuck for?"

"Peter please, try to keep your language in check and be careful if you meet Charlie, he knows nothing about our true nature."

"And you think that's going to continue? Is he blind, deaf, and imbecilic? Cos if not then he's going to put two and two together and make it a big fat five which will only make matters worse. Why don't we just tell him... or kill him?"

"Jasper doesn't want him told, remember Bella knows nothing either."

"Yeah well they're both gonna get a rude awakening then 'ain't they? Can't stand all this cloak and fucking dagger stuff, it never works out."

We were paired up and sent out to look for fuck knows what, the truck yeah I'd recognize that but the photo's of Phil and Bella weren't that helpful, scents would have been much more helpful but wasn't to be. Charlotte and I got the area closest to the building where the body was found and we watched it for a while, the crime scene tape blowing in the wind being the only sign of life after dark. Of course it being California and so fucking sunny we couldn't operate by day but of course we'd have to find an excuse for that to Charlie which was another good reason to just come out with it, "Charlie we're vampires but don't worry you aren't on the menu." End of story, problem solved but no one ever listened to me, no siree.

"Shall we get closer? See if we can pick up any scents."

I looked at Charlotte and rolled my eyes,

"Scents? There will be the scent of half the fucking police force of this city blowing about in there not to mention the doctor and all the hangers on. Do you really think we're going to find anything useful? Especially since there was a none too fresh corpse stinking the place up for fuck knows how long,"

"It's still worth a try, check out the area around the dumpster and the places where the fences are broken down."

I sighed heavily but followed her in and of course I was right but I didn't rub it in, for now. There were a multitude of scents but everything was heavily overlaid by the stink of death, a smell I never got used to even as a human. Charlotte smiled at me and shrugged,

"OK You were right but we had to try Peter. Come on lets try the broken area of fencing, he had to come in that way, you'd never get a corpse over that high gate with the razor wire on top, not a human."

I followed her stopping every so often to test the air but the smell of decay was still in my nose and it would be hard to get rid of. Close to the broken fence it was clear to see that a lot of people had come in and out, both before the body was discovered, although most of those were probably teenagers come to make out or smoke and drink or all three, and after most likely ghoulish sight seers. There was no way of telling our quarries scent among so many! It was a hopeless cause.

"Right then lets see how easy it would be to carry a body to the fence from the road."

We made our way over some uneven ground littered with stone blocks and broken glass, syringes, and the broken remains of crack pipes to the road and looked both ways. It was dark, the only street light was out and there were only blank warehouse walls looking onto the road until you reached the far end so not much chance of witnesses looking out and seeing our man.

"He must be pretty strong though to carry a body over that ground."

"Great Charlotte, that's really gonna help, its not a geriatric or someone on crutches, good thinking."

"Peter shut up and use your gift, don't you feel any draw?"

"Nope, only to The Major, I don't know the girl remember and she's human so I'm hardly likely to be drawn to her am I?"

When we got back to the motel just before dawn we found the rest had drawn blanks too, we had no idea who we were looking for and the truck certainly wasn't parked in plain view, not in the areas we'd checked anyway.

"The others will be here in a few hours so I think we should choose a spokesperson from each group to meet Charlie. He doesn't need to be overwhelmed by so many...people."

"You mean so many pale skinned red eyed or golden eyed monsters don't you Esme?"

"Well red eyes is certainly going to be a problem, how do we explain it? "

"You think I'm gonna sit on my ass while one of your veggie kids speaks for me? I've got a better idea, I'll wear shades just like Darius. If they can make him look non threatening then I'm sure they'll continue to work just fine for me Esme, don't sweat. Lets worry about finding Bella not the color of my eyes shall we?"

The others disappeared to their rooms when Charlie arrived so there was only Esme and I around, Carlisle was checking all the hospitals just in case which he could do during the day as well as night. The Major had looked worse but not by much and he certainly looked in the zone which meant he was on a knife edge, anything that upset him would find itself in pieces, be it inanimate object or stupid fucking human! Charlie impressed me as a man who had only just found out his ex wife had been murdered, he was calm and collected listening as we told him everything we had done and the lack of success we'd had.

"I just want to thank you all for helping. I have no idea why or who you really are but thank you anyway."

Esme handed him coffee and sandwiches she'd got from the vending machine outside and he subsided into a chair looking shattered, but then he was only human after all.

"Peter, Esme tells me you checked out the area where they found Renee."

"Yeah but we didn't find anything, it was a good place to dispose of a body, not overlooked although it seemed well used as a hang out for wino's and druggies but they don't want trouble so even if they saw something they aren't likely to go to the cops."

"Do you think he knew that? Or was it picked at random?"

"You want my honest opinion Chief Swan?"

"Its Charlie Peter and yes."

"If you don't mind names make me kinda nervous so I'll stick with Chief. Personally I think he knew exactly what he was doing and if mad Annie or whatever the fuck her name is hadn't decided to rummage through a dumpster that had been checked a thousand times already your ex wife would probably still have been there in a years time."