11

Four hours and a ferry ride later, Jasper pulled his truck up in front of the Forks Police Department. If you could call the small brick building that sat in the middle of the smallest town he'd ever seen a police station. During his drive, he'd called the two detectives, using that term loosely now that he'd seen the building, no less than a dozen times. Each time, he was sent straight to voicemail, which did very little to lighten his mood. After listening to the hell that girl had to endure the night her parents were murdered, Jasper only had one thought: stop Sam Uley at any cost.

Of course, that would be easier if the detectives handling the murder of Charlie and Renee Swan would actually communicate with him, something he was going to fix right then and there. Throwing open the driver's side door, Jasper climbed out of his truck and looked around before pushing the door closed and heading to the entrance of the police station. It was pretty standard, as far as small town police stations go. There was a front desk, a handful of other desks behind it, and a door that he knew lead to the back, where the prisoners were held until processed.

Sitting at the front desk was a pudgy woman with bright red hair and a pencil stuck behind her ear. She smiled when she saw him, and he noticed the piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth from her lunch.

"Well, hello," she said, smiling wider. "How can I help you, hon?"

Hon? He thought with a shake of his head. "I'm looking for Detectives Newton and Crowley. Know where I can find them?"

"That would depend who's asking," she said with a giggle that was more condescending than cute. "What's your name, honey?"

"Detective Jasper Cullen, Seattle Homicide," he said, flashing her his badge. Her eyes widened, and her friendly smirk dropped, which he expected. "Now, why don't you tell me where I can find Newton and Crowley?"

"Of course," she replied, trying to smile but failing. "They're having lunch over at the diner. Two blocks up on your left. Can't miss it if you tried."

Jasper scoffed before he turned and walked out of the police station, turning to his left and heading for the diner. It wasn't hard to find. He pushed open the front door, drawing the attention of everyone in the place. Something told him strangers weren't the usual around Forks, Washington.

Newton and Crowley weren't hard to find, either. The two men were seated at a table in the back corner, both of them wearing black dress pants and wrinkled white button ups shirts. Both mean were in their mid-forties, one with blond hair that was thinning on top, the other with dark brown hair sprinkled with grey. They shared a look at Jasper approached, which just pissed him off.

"Which one of you is Newton, and which is Crowley?" Jasper asked.

"I'm Newton," the blond with spiky hair that only teenagers wore back in the nineties, when it still wasn't cool. "And you are?"

"The man who has been blowing up your phone for the last four hours," Jasper groused, yanking one of the empty chairs out and sitting down, noticing the way Crowley, raised an eyebrow. "Now, one of you want to explain to me why you've been avoiding my calls? Or are you just not interested in solving what is probably the biggest case you've ever had?"

"Excuse me, who the fuck are you?" Crowley asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Name's Cullen. Jasper Cullen. I'm with Seattle Homicide," he said, holding up the empty coffee cup as the waitress came over, not even giving her a chance to ask if he wanted anything. Once she'd filled his cup, he smiled and said, "Thanks. Got a BLT here?"

"We do. Pretty damn good one, too," she said. "Want fries?"

"No, thanks. Add an extra slice or two of bacon, though."

"I'll have it right out," she said, smiling wider before heading to the kitchen.

"Why exactly have you been calling, Detective Cullen?" Crowley asked, picking up one of his French fries and tossing it into his mouth.

"I'm looking for information on the murders of Charlie and Renee Swan."

Newton and Crowley shared another look, this one less condescending than before.

"She sent you, didn't she?" Crowley asked. "Rosalie. She sent you, right?"

"No," he said, tilting his head to the side. "Why would you assume Rosalie sent me?"

"Because she and her uncle James call at least one a week about her parents' murders, and her sister's disappearance," he explained. "I feel for the girl, I really do, but the case is ice cold."

"Is that so?" Jasper asked, picking up his coffee cup and taking a sip. "Doesn't seem that cold to me? Why don't you tell me about it?"

"Fine, whatever," Newton said, shaking his head. "Just after two in the morning, we got a 911 call from the Swan's neighbor, a lady named Amelia, saying she and her husband heard screaming coming from the Swan's house. Patrol officer took the call, figuring it would be a domestic dispute, but when he got there, he found them dead. Renee was sprawled out on the living room floor. She had more than a dozen stab wounds to her abdomen, chest, and arms. Charlie was on the stairs. He had almost two dozen stab wounds, also to his abdomen and chest, but whoever killed him slit him ear to ear. M.E. says they were both dead within minutes of being stabbed. We searched the house for Rosalie and Isabella, but neither were there. We assumed the girls had heard the intruder and taken off into the woods because Isabella's window was open, but then we found out that Rosalie had been at a friends that night. She . . ."

Newton blew out a heavy breath. "She came home just after seven, said her mom was supposed to take her into Port Angeles for a girls day. We'd already removed the bodies, thankfully, but she saw the blood on the floor. She confirmed that Isabella had been home that night and that some of her clothes and her teddy bear, Blue she called him, were missing."

"We put out an Amber Alert for her as soon as we could, processed the scene, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. All the prints we lifted belonged to the family, so we figured the intruder was wearing gloves. Renee's nails were torn, probably during the struggle, but whoever killed her, cleaned any DNA from under her nails," Crowley added. "That little girl disappeared in the middle of the night, and we didn't even know which way to look."

His lips trembled and it was the first time Jasper had seen just how much that case meant to the two men. Clearly a double homicide and child abduction wasn't the norm in Forks, Washington, which made Jasper wonder how they could let the case go cold for so long.

"Here you go," the waitress said, placing his lunch in front of Jasper. "One BLT with extra bacon. Can I get you anything else?"

"No, thanks," Jasper said, trying to seem friendlier than he felt. "Appreciate it."

"Let me know."

Jasper waited until she was gone before he said, "Ever have any suspects?"

"Not really. Charlie and Renee were good people, Jasper. Good people. Renee taught kindergarten and Charlie owned his own construction company. They stayed to themselves, never caused problems. Neighbor said she'd never even heard them raise their voice, not even with those girls. James, Charlie's brother, told us that they'd been planning a vacation, a surprise for the girls during Christmas."

Jasper picked up his sandwich and took a bit off the edge, chewing it thoroughly before swallowing it. "What can you tell me about Sam Uley?"

"The Uley kid?" Newton asked, his eyes widening. "Parents died in a house fire when he was ten. They lived outside of Portland, I think. He moved in with his uncle. Guy named Billy Black. Had a boy not much older than Isabella, actually. Sam was always in trouble. Cut more school than he attended, had complaints from neighbors that he'd killed their pets. Couldn't prove it, of course. He mostly stayed on the reservation, and unfortunately, our jurisdiction doesn't cover the rez."

"Why?" Crowley asked. "What's Sam Uley have to do with the Swan's murders?"

Jasper pressed his lips together before looking around. "Not time nor place, gentlemen. Why won't we finish our meal, and then we can chat?"

Newton and Crowley seemed wary, but agreed. Jasper couldn't explain why, but he felt the need to keep Bella's reappearance as much of a secret as possible. Who knew who they could trust?

—SfH—

Jasper paid for their meals before Newton and Crowley could argue and led the two men out of the diner and back down to the police station. They ignored the woman gawking at them from the front desk and led him into one of the interrogation rooms. Once the door was closed behind them, Jasper turned and looked at the two men, crossing his arms in front of him.

"This stays between us, understood?"

"Yeah, sure," Newton replied, matching Jasper's stance, almost like he was bowing up, preparing to challenge his authority.

Shifting his eyes to Crowley, he said, "Understood?"

"Yeah, of course," he said. "Why are you asking about Sam Uley and the Swan murders?"

"Because I think I found your missing girl."

The words had barely left Jasper's lips when Newton and Crowley were throwing questions like, "Where is she?" and "How do you know it's her?"

"I'm not telling you anything else," Jasper said, putting a hand up. "Right now, I'm just trying to put the pieces together."

"Wait, wait, wait," Crowley said, blowing out a deep breath. "You're saying she's alive?"

"She's breathing," he said, mentally adding that you could barely call what the girl was doing as living. "Been through a lot. A hell-of-a-lot."

"Holy fuck," Newton swore, grabbing the back of his neck before he looked back at Jasper. "She saying Sam Uley did her parents? Took her that night?"

Jasper nodded.

"Oh, my God," Crowley muttered, shaking his head.

"You talk to Uley back then?"

"We talked to Billy Black, because James had told us that he and Charlie had had a falling out over Sam's . . . attention toward the girls," Newton confirmed. "Black, of course denied it, said it was about their last fishing trip. Said he, Sam, and Jacob had been on the rez all night."

"But did you talk to Sam? He was what? Eighteen, nineteen?"

"Just turned eighteen, I think. A month or so before. Sam confirmed what Billy said, they were at the rez all night. Didn't have any reason not to believe them. Neighbor confirmed that Billy's truck and Sam's car were at the house all night long."

Jasper nodded. "Who are the neighbors?"

"Harry and Sue Clearwater. Harry passed a few years back, massive heart attack while on a hunting trip. Sue still lives there, though."

"And Sam?" Jasper asked. "He still in the area?"

"Um, no, I think he left . . ." Crowley shook his head. "Damn it, I think he left town not long after Charlie and Renee Swan were murdered."

"Jesus fucking Christ," Jasper swore, clenching his hands into a fist, the urge to beat the shit out of them for shitty-ass police work was strong, yet he knew that wouldn't help him find and stop Sam Uley. "Any idea where he went?"

"No, but Billy and Jacob might have an idea. He still lives on the rez, same house." Newton pulled his phone from his pocket. "We can call, get permission to stop by."

Jasper laughed as he turned and grabbed the door handle. "I ain't waiting for permission, gentlemen. Looks like I'm taking a trip to the reservation."

"You can't just trespass," Crowley argued. "They aren't subject to our jurisdiction."

Jasper yanked the door open and looked back at them. "And who's going to stop me?"

And when neither men said anything, he walked out of the room, through the police station, past the woman with the shocking red hair, and out to his truck. As he climbed in behind the wheel, he saw Newton and Crowley follow. He tilted his head to the side, telling them to hurry. They gave each other a look before Crowley hurried to the passenger side and Newton climbed into the backseat.

"We're going to get our asses reamed for this," Crowley said, pulling on his seat belt. "But if it helps that little girl, I'll take the reaming."

"No shit," Newton muttered.

Fifteen minutes later, Jasper parked in front of an old, rackety house that looked like it needed torn down and rebuilt. There was a blue tarp covering the majority of the roof, several windows had been boarded up, and the porch looked rotted.

Jasper climbed out first, and by the time Newton and Crowley were out, the front door opened, and a young man stepped out with long black hair and dark eyes. Jacob, Jasper assumed based on how young he looked. He didn't look much older than Bella, and there was a protectiveness around him that Jasper found interesting. What was he hiding? Did he know that his cousin was a pedophile and a murder?

"Mike, Tyler," Jacob said, nodding. "What are you doing here?"

"Just came to talk," Newton said, putting his hands up. "Is your Dad around?"

Jacob pressed his lips together before shaking his head. "Guess you hadn't heard. Dad passed a few months ago."

"No, I hadn't," Newton said. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"He was a good man," Crowley added.

Jacob nodded, his eyes shifting to Jasper. "Who are you?"

"Name's Jasper. I'm from Seattle," he said.

"And why are you here?" Jacob asked, raising an eyebrow. "Outsiders aren't welcome here."

"I'm looking for Sam."

Jacob's jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. "He's not here."

"Where is he?" Jasper asked.

"Don't really give a shit," Jacob quipped. "He's not welcome here, either."

"Why is that?"

Jacob pressed his lips together before he looked around, almost like he was making sure nobody was listening before he walked down the front steps so that he was standing closer to Jasper. "Look, I can't talk to you here. It's not safe."

Jasper nodded. "When? Where?"

"An hour, playground behind Forks Elementary," Jacob muttered before he turned and hurried back into the house.

Jasper, Newton, and Crowley shared a look before they walked back over and climbed into the truck, but not before Jasper noticed the older lady peeking out the window at the house across the street. As he started the truck and head back to Forks, Jasper was starting to wonder how much Jacob knows about Sam Uley. And who was he afraid of?

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