22
Be Safe
Jasper stared at the two words for longer than he should have. They had just walked out of the disgusting, abandoned building when he pulled his phone from his pocket, realizing that he'd missed a text from Alice. She'd sent it hours ago, and even though he knew she was worried about him, she hadn't followed through with another, more desperate text. She was good like that. Knew when he was on a case that his mind was one hundred percent focused on his work. But Bella Swan wasn't just any case.
The young girl had invaded his family, made them care about her, love her. Jasper needed to find Sam Uley and stop him anyway he could. In that moment, he thought of his mother. Elizabeth was a fierce woman, who loved with every inch of her tiny frame. She was small, thin and always complained about her boys towering over her. She would have taken Bella Swan into her arms, loved her until her soul was back together, and made sure nobody ever hurt again. But Elizabeth Cullen wasn't there, so Jasper would have to do it.
"You all right, Cullen?" Garrett asked, and when he looked over at him, he saw him eyeing him closely. Too close.
"Yep."
"If you need to go be with your family, I can handle this case," Garrett said.
"Yeah, not gonna happen, Cap."
"Cullen —"
"I'm fine, Cap," Jasper snarled, earning himself a raised eyebrow. He took a deep breath. "Look, I appreciate the concern. I really do. But I have to see this through until the end."
"You're too close," he said, folding his arms in front of him, and when Jasper started to argue with him, he cut him off. "No, just listen to me."
Sighing, he motioned for the man to continue.
"This girl, she's in your head, man. I've never seen you obsess over a case like this, Cullen. You're too close. She's . . . she's your family."
"She is," he admitted. "And if you could meet her, she'd be your family too, Cap." Jasper slumped against the side of the building, bracing himself on his knees. "When she walked into the hospital that night, I saw . . . I saw this innocence in her eyes that had my knees weakening. She was covered in filth and grime, but there was this look in her eyes, this pleading for mercy. I've seen my fair share of abused women, Cap, but she's the worst I've ever seen. Even under the dirt and grime, I could see the bruises on her neck, her face. And once I got her into an examination room, the way she moved so that her back was against the wall, her eyes searching every inch of the room, planning her escape, I don't know, I just knew I needed to help her. But while I knew she'd been through Hell, I wasn't . . . I wasn't prepared for what I've learned. Kidnapped and raped at eight, pregnant at thirteen, her baby ripped out of her arms, being so beaten down that she honestly, truly believes she is nothing, a nobody. That she doesn't have a fucking name, Cap? A fucking name! She has no memories of her sister, and the last time she saw her parents, they were bleeding to death on the living room because Sam Uley butchered them when they tried to save their little girl. She has had to live with that for eight years!"
"Hey, calm down," Garrett said, putting his hands up. "I'm not taking you off this case, so don't lose your shit, Cullen. I'm just worried, and before you tell me not to, it's my job to worry about you being a dickhead."
Jasper smiled. "Yes, sir, Cap, and I appreciate it. I do. Just . . . Let's just get Sam Uley off the street before someone else dies."
Garrett sighed and nodded and the two men climbed back into Garrett's truck and they headed back to the station. When they walked into their squad room, they found Newton and Crowley standing in front of the map of Seattle with a tall, beefy Asian man with shortly cropped black hair. The three men turned and looked at them, Newton and Crowley tensing when they spotted them.
Though before they could address the three, one of the clerks, a young woman named Amy, handed Garrett a piece of paper before hurrying over to her desk. Garrett scanned it before holding it out to Jasper. "DNA came back as a match to Bella Swan."
Jasper nodded, thankful for official documentation that Bella Swan was who they thought she was. While it didn't make this case any easier, if by some distorted chance they had been wrong about her, he wasn't sure how Rosalie would have survived having her sister back, just to find out they were wrong. Jasper was glad that wasn't a conversation he was going to have to have. He'd already broken Rosalie Swan's heart enough every time he shared what they had learned about the tormented life Bella had been living.
"Captain Yorke, I'm guessing?" Garrett asked curtly, drawing their attention back to the Forks Police officers. "I'm Captain Mitchell. I spoke to you this morning."
"That'd be me." He stuck his hand out, which Garrett took. "Sorry to meet you under such circumstances."
"Speaking of, it's been a long ass day, gentlemen. How about we get down to business? What'd you find out about the Tribal Council?" Garrett asked.
"Not much," he admitted, placing his hands on his hips. "The Tribal Council consists of three elders: Embry Call, Quil Ateara, and Paul Lahote. They've been running the tribe for the last two decades. All three men agreed to meet with me this afternoon, but when I pressed them about Sam Uley's sexual assaults on Emily Young, and Leah Clearwater, they claimed to have no idea Uley had even sexually assaulted the two when they were little girls. They said Uley was, and this is a quote, 'A good boy who was often misunderstood.' Now, I know all about Uley's mishaps in school. I'd taken more than one complaint for concerned parents about the boy bullying their children, people claiming that he'd stolen pets, only to find them dead in the woods. Didn't have any evidence, of course, or I would have locked the bastard up years ago."
Yorke gripped the back of his neck. "But while the Tribal Council didn't have much to tell me, I know a few elders from the reservation, who aren't afraid of the council."
"Who would that be?" Jasper asked, drawing Yorke's attention to him.
"Ephraim Black for one. He's Billy Black's brother. Collin Littlesea, Brady Fuller. They ran the Tribal Council before Call, Ateara, and Lahote were called to take over. From the way they tell it, Jared Uley was kicked off the reservation about two years after Sam was born because he made a nasty habit of beating his wife on a daily basis. Put her in the hospital with a few broken ribs, a busted arm, and more than half a dozen concussions. Of course there were never charges filed, and hospital records state that Claire Uley fell down a lot."
"You think he beat on Sam, too?" Garrett asked.
"I asked them the same question, but none of them had a straight answer. Thought they did say when Billy brought Sam back to the reservation he had bruises on his face, arms, legs, and back, but when they pushed him, he refused to talk about it. They didn't want to traumatize him more, seeing as he'd just lost both his parents."
"Do you think the current Tribal Council covered him because his father beat him and his mother?"
"Can't honestly say. Just telling you what they told me. I'm digging into Jared Uley's past, too. Make sure there's nothing else we're missing, you know?" Yorke paused and then said, "I also stopped by and had a chat with Sue Clearwater."
Jasper and Garrett shared a look before Jasper asked, "Did you tell her about Emily?"
Yorke nodded. "Didn't seem too surprised, to be honest. Said Emily hadn't spoken to her much over the last six, seven years, not after she sent her here to live with her brother in law Seth and his wife Rebecca."
"Why'd she stay on the reservation?" Jasper asked. "Uley killed her husband, led her daughter to commit suicide at the age of ten. Why would she stay there?"
"She said the reservation was her home, her only connection to her husband and her daughter."
"Do you have any idea where Uley's been hiding?" Garrett asked. "The man has eight murders on him, plus two suicides, and that's not to mention what he's done Bella Swan."
"Eight murders?" Yorke asked, shifting his eyes from Garrett to Jasper. "I know of seven: his parents, Harry, Billy, Charlie, and Renee; this little girl on Bainbridge Island that Newton and Crowley are looking into. Who else did he kill?"
"We found Jacob Black in an abandoned building downtown. He'd been beaten to death, and we found girls clothes. We think that's where he'd been keeping the Swan girl until Cullen here found her."
"Holy mother of God," Yorke muttered, covering his hand with his mouth. "That's a damn shame. Jacob Black was a good kid. Took care of his old man when his momma walked out on them. Black's wife Rachel left about two years after Sam came to live with them. Rachel and Claire were sisters. Billy said Rachel couldn't handle the two boys, especially after her sister's death. Said Claire's death hit her real hard."
"Any idea where Rachel is now?" Garrett asked, and Jasper knew he was thinking the same as him. Sam would have been about twelve when she left. Maybe she had some kind of inkling of what that monster was capable and wanted out.
"No, sir. I have people trying to track her down, though," Yorke added, almost as if he was trying to make it clear he knew how to follow leads. Of course if he had, Bella Swan never would have been in danger of Sam Uley in the first place, but Jasper kept those thoughts to himself.
He shifted his eyes to Newton and Crowley. "So what'd you find out from the dicks from Bainbridge Island?"
"Not much. They sent over the autopsy report on the Jane Doe." Newton picked up the file, handing it to Jasper as he said, "A girl around the age of nine or ten was found on the banks on the North side of the island. M.E. figures she'd been in the water three, maybe four months based on decomposition. She, um, she was naked, and her body showed signs of trauma."
"What kind of signs?" Garrett asked.
"Repeated sexual assaults, breaks in her arms, legs, ribs. The girl had been through a lot. The police were never able to match her to any missing girls. A few, like the Swan girl, had matched the approximate age and had gone missing around the same time frame that matched, but DNA comparison always came back as not a match."
"Now, we pushed a little more about the visit to Uley, the one the Swan girl —"
"Her name is Bella," Jasper gritted out. "Not that girl, not the Swan girl. She has a fucking name, gentlemen, and its Bella. Fucking use it.
Crowley sighed, but said, "The one Bella was telling your brother about," Crowley added. "There's no official record of the visit, but we managed to get copies of the incident report. Owner of local market had noticed the little girl wander in a few times. Said the first few times she didn't take anything, but the fourth time, she watched as the little girl tucked a pint size bottle of milk under her shirt and walk out without paying. The owner didn't make a big deal about it, because it was just a small thing of milk, but then the girl came back again and again.
"Each time she'd take a bottle of milk. She called the police department, said she didn't want to press charges, just asked that they pay a visit to the home of the little girl and let them know what'd she been doing. Didn't really even care if they paid, just wanted her to stop stealing from her, you know? Anyway, a couple of patrol officers made the visit. Their notes are . . . Well, pretty pathetic, to be honest.
"Said a man matching Uley's photo opened the door, though he said his name was Austin, opened the door and when the police informed him of the little girl's theft, he was upset, promised to make it right with the owner of the shop, and that was the end of it. Neither officer made any kind of indication in their notes that there was another girl even in the house. Said Uley made the little girl apologize to the officers, and they left. Three days later, Sam Uley left the area, and neither he nor the little girl were seen again. Four months after that was when the body of Jane Doe was found."
"How'd they know the little girl lived with Uley? How'd they know where she lived at all?" Jasper asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Said the owner called them when she was in the store and they followed her home," Newton said with a shrug.
"What'd she look like? Got a description?" he pressed, feeling frustrated. "Did you talk to the owner of the market? Who owned the house Uley was living in? This is police work one oh one, gentlemen."
"Okay, let's take it down a notch," Garrett said, putting his hands up and giving Jasper a look before turning his attention back to Newton and Crowley.
"Though, he brings up a good point. Did you talk to the owner of the market?"
"No, she died about a year later, cancer." Newton gave Jasper a snide look that he really wanted to wipe off his face. "But her initial report says the little girl was around nine or ten years old. Small for her age, though. She was thin, and she had long red, curly hair. Said her hair color was what stood out to her the most. She said you didn't see natural red heads like her much. Said the little girl was quiet, startled easy, though. That's why she didn't want to press charges, just wanted them to have a chat with her and her parents."
"We're searching the database for missing children for Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, but the problem is we don't know how long she'd been with Sam Uley," Crowley added. "We know he was living on the reservation until the Swan girl . . . I mean Bella went missing about fifteen months before the day the police approached the house, but did he have her before he took Bella? After? There's just too much we don't know, but we've put a five year span in our search, hoping something pops up."
"As for the house, the deed says it's owned by a woman named Mildred Smith. She and her husband bought it in the early seventies. Her husband Daniel died in eight-five and the deed was transferred into her name." Newton paused. "However, Mildred hasn't been seen in almost nine years. Sam had told neighbors that Mildred was his aunt, that she'd gone to live with her daughter in Arizona, but Mildred didn't have any daughters. She had two sons, both of whom died in a car accident ninety-nine, when they were going to school here in Seattle. She had no family, very few friends, stayed to herself after the loss of her boys."
"So, we're all thinking the same thing, aren't we, gentlemen?" Garrett asked, shifting his hands onto his hips and looking at each and every one of them. "We can add Mildred Smith to the list of people Sam Uley has murdered."
Thank you for all the amazing reviews!
