Chapter Forty
Edward
I sat on the balcony of my hotel room in Rome looking at the people below, the lights of the cars, the street lights reflected off lit store windows and wondered what to do next. I had no doubt that the Volturi would act on my information, how could they not? I just wondered if Aro might spare them if they came to live in Italy, in Volterra.
He and Carlisle had been very close at one time. I couldn't see him willingly writing out Carlisle's death warrant. There was a small voice at the back of my head however that kept whispering the same question over and over,
"What will you do if the Volturi kill your family?"
Well they weren't my family any longer, I'd put up with their attitude long enough. I'd bent over backwards to accept every newcomer to the family, first Esme, who thought she was my mother, then Rosalie changed to be my mate, well that was a laugh, what would I want with her? She wasn't good enough for me, she never had been, she was damaged goods for starters. Just about right for that idiot Emmett she brought home like a stray dog.
He was bearable in small doses but he had the intellect of a flea. You couldn't hold a sensible conversation with him but of course everyone loved Emmett like they loved an appealing puppy dog wagging its tail at strangers. Alice was probably the best of the crowd, at least she was gifted even if it was about as reliable as the weather forecast! She was fun to have around if a little overpowering at times but she had gone down in my estimation when she sided with Bella.
After all Bella had been my experiment and she should have been loyal to me not gallivanting around with Alice and the others. She had proved my superior self control and I had been ready to wash my hands of her. How dare she beat me to it and try to belittle me? Well she wouldn't for much longer, the one thing I could be sure of was that the Volturi would order her death, she knew about vampires and that was an automatic death sentence for any human.
What should I do with myself now though? I couldn't go to Denali even if I wanted to. Carmen and Eleazar were too close to Carlisle and Esme and they would blame me for whatever happened. I could travel, maybe even go to Isle Esme, after all no one else would be using it again. I wondered if Aro might gift it to me as I was the one who informed him of the breach of law. It was worth thinking about. Of course I knew almost all Carlisle's houses around the world and where he kept his money, the bank account numbers and passwords. I would never be short of cash and could go where the whim took me.
There was one thing though. I knew Carlisle had a large stash of money and goods he had collected over the centuries, some of which were extremely valuable. What I didn't know was where they were stored and once the family had been taken as I was sure they would be, not killed, no I didn't expect or even really want that which is why I rang Aro and not one of the other brothers, I could take my time and go through all his papers until I found out. I had no intentions of becoming one of those pitiful nomads who lived hand to mouth and roamed the countryside like beggars, no I had big plans for myself.
My reverie was interrupted by my cell phone and I walked across to the desk where I had left it charging up. On the screen was Carlisle's number and I turned away, I wasn't ready to speak to him yet. I wasn't going to speak to him until I knew what Aro Volturi had planned.
If as I suspected he called the Cullen family to reside in Volterra then I would contact Carlisle and he could thank me for making sure the family was safe by speaking directly to Aro. I would explain he was putting the family in danger and I did the only thing I could to stop him. By that time I hoped to be well on my way to finding his hidden stash. For now I had no intention of telling him where I was or explaining my actions, he would have to wait.
Deciding there was no time like the present I rang and booked myself on a flight to London, Carlisle's birthplace and somewhere he visited alone, not even taking me with him although when we were alone we went everywhere together. I was convinced he had hidden a part of his accumulated wealth there somewhere, I just needed to think, he must have given clues away over the years and it was down to my keen brain to work them out.
Once in the air I reclined my seat, first class of course, and closed my eyes going back over all the years Carlisle and I had been together and trying to work out where in London his wealth was hidden. I knew his father had been a vicar so it was likely the site could be a church although in London a lot of churches were burned down by the great fire in 1666. Carlisle was still there at the time, hiding from his father and thinking about it I remembered that his father's name was Palmer and Carlisle's given name had been Joseph, a name he gave up when he became a vampire.
The other clues must be there somewhere, I could hardly go looking for a vicar in London somewhere by the name of Palmer! I visualized his study, the things he carried around from place to place, those that meant the most to him. There was a map of London in the 1660's, well not the city but the part called the liberties, with parish churches marked on it. So maybe one of those was his father's. There was another drawn up after the great fire again the churches were marked so I had a place to look but it was still too large.
I was interrupted at this point by the flight attendant offering me coffee and I explained I was on a special diet and wouldn't be eating or drinking, nor would I appreciate being interrupted again and she went off muttering to herself. I didn't care if she thought me arrogant and rude so long as she left me alone. After four hours I thought I had it.
Carlisle had been a great admirer of Samuel Pepys, had known him. He'd said once that the man was a parishioner of his father's. All I needed was to know where the famous diarist worshipped. By the time we landed I was ready for the hunt and it didn't take long once I had booked into a hotel in central London to find my target, St Brides, where a certain Mr Palmer was the preacher during the time frame I was looking at and where Samuel Pepys was baptized and worshipped. When I read he had buried his brother Tom in the vault I knew I was right.
I waited until after midnight when there were less people around and made my way to St Brides and slipped into the church, the lock didn't prove a problem and neither did the other security measures, after all they hadn't been expecting a visit from a vampire. Down in the vault I looked around, it was large with many chambers and plaques but the church had been destroyed by the fire and bombed in 1940 so little of the old was left. Eventually I found a carving on the farthest wall. Thomas Pepys 1664. This was it! I pulled the stone forward noting the mortar looked very old but was in fact not from 1664 or any time close. Peering into the space I saw a book wrapped in oilcloth and pulling it out found the name Joseph Palmer written on the seal.