49

Jasper sat in the middle of morning traffic, tapping his nails impatiently against the stirring wheel of his truck. Normally, he'd be jamming to whatever loud, vulgar song was belting out of the radio, but today, he felt frustrated. No, not frustrated. Annoyed, anxious, frazzled were closer, though even they didn't adequately describe how he felt.

He was tired. Tired of Sam Uley, and the Tribal Council and Eric Yorke and all the other people who let Bella Swan down. He was tired of men who thought they had the right to hurt little girls. He was tired of watching his brothers hurt, watching Edward hurt. He was tired of being afraid to start a family of his own with Alice, because what would happen to their child if he and Alice died, like his own parents had? Simply put, Jasper was plain tired.

He'd just started to move again, thanks to a wreck that had the interstate at a complete standstill for over an hour, when his phone chimed with a new text message. He dug his phone out of his pocket, tapping his thumb on the screen, finding a message from Garrett, tell him to move his ass. He bit back the urge to tell him to fuck off, but simply sent a reply saying he was five minutes out, earning him a thumbs up emoji in response. Again, he scoffed and stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

Eight minutes later, he pulled into his usual parking space behind the station, picked up his travel coffee cup, and headed inside. The station house was oddly silent considering there were almost two dozen detectives and patrol officers milling around. They all turned and looked at him, which only annoyed him even more. Didn't they have work to do?

"Cullen," Garrett barked, and when he looked toward his office, he found his captain standing in the doorway, scowling. "Get in here."

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he nodded and walked across the room, ignoring the way everyone watched him, had been watching him since the news of him and Garrett arresting Eric Yorke. Cops tended not to appreciate when one of their own was arrested, even if they were guilty as Hell, and Eric Yorke was guilty as Hell.

When Jasper walked into Garrett's office, he found a man and a woman sitting in front of the desk. He was big, tall and husky with dark brown hair and brown eyes that were guarded, protective even. The woman sitting next to him, her arms wrapped around her torso, had shoulder length blond hair, bright green eyes that were filled with tears. Jasper glanced at Garrett, who gave him a look before he shut the door behind him.

"What's going on, Cap?"

Garrett cleared his throat as he moved so that he was standing behind his desk. "This is Demetri and Heidi Romans. They, um, they believe our . . . our Jane Doe found on Bainbridge Island may be their foster daughter," he added.

Jasper shot his eyes to the couple, who were maybe in their mid-thirties. "They do, huh?"

Garrett hummed, saying, "They do. This is Detective Jasper Cullen. He's been leading the investigation against the man we believe is responsible for our Jane Doe's death."

"It's, um . . . I was going to say nice to meet you, but nothing about this case has been nice. You think Jane Doe is your foster daughter?" Jasper asked, shifting his eyes from Demetri to Heidi and back.

"We do," Demetri said, sliding his arm around his wife's shoulder. "We took custody of Gianna when she was no more than a few months old. She'd been abandoned at a fire station in Portland with a note that simply had her name, and when police couldn't find her parents, we were contacted by children's services and asked to take custody of her. We lived in West Linn, Oregan at the time, but moved to Lacey, Washington about eighteen months after she was placed with us." He paused, sniffing as he brought his hand up to his mouth. "We fell in love with her immediately. We were in the process of adopting her when she went missing. We went to pick her up from school and they said she hadn't shown up that morning. Heidi had dropped her off that morning, but security cameras at her school show her walking into the building, waiting a couple minutes, and then walking out. She left school grounds going north, and . . . Well, she was never seen or heard from again. The police in Lacey said she had run away. They gave up on her, and it didn't matter how hard we pushed they . . . they refused to look for her. Told us we needed to move on," he cried. "You don't move on when your child goes missing. You never move on from that, Detective Cullen."

"What makes you think our Jane Doe is Gianna?" Jasper asked, frowning. "They ran her prints through the system, her DNA. They never got a hit."

"The Lacey Police didn't lift her prints, or take her DNA. I don't know about when she was a baby, but they refused to listen when we told them that Gianna wouldn't have run away. She . . . She'd changed in the year before she disappeared, but she wouldn't have run away. We were working through it."

"Changed how?" Jasper asked, moving so that he was leaning against Garrett's desk. "Tell me how she'd changed."

Heidi whimpered, covering her mouth before she said, "She'd always been such a loving, affectionate little girl. She loved hugs and kisses, smiled all the time, but just after she turned seven, she . . . she was angry, and mean. She'd cry and scream and throw temper tantrums over nothing. She'd never been like that before, never, and we thought maybe it was because we were having a baby and she was jealous," she confessed. "She started having nightmares and wetting her bed, regressing backward. She refused to eat, and her teachers said she seemed distracted. We took her to her pediatrician, thinking maybe she was sick or something, but she refused to let him near her. We didn't know what to do next, and before we could figure it out, she was gone."

Jasper shared a look with Garrett, who simply nodded to confirm they were sharing the same thought. Not only had she been expressing typical signs of sexual abuse, but Gianna had been seven years old, and Sam Uley had a thing for little girls around that same age: Lean, Emily, Bella.

"What did Gianna look like?" Jasper asked, struggling to keep his voice calm and even.

"She's . . . she was beautiful," Heidi wept, pulling a photograph out of her purse. She stared at it for a moment before she shifted her eyes to him, holding it out. "She had the most beautiful curls, and hair so red . . ." She brought her hand up to her mouth as Jasper slipped the picture into his hand. "People always asked is it was her real hair color."

Gianna Romans was indeed a beautiful little girl with a head full of curly red hair, dark brown eyes, and skin with just the hint of tan to it. In the picture, she had her hands on her hips, a huge smile on her face, and freckles sprinkling across both her cheeks. She matched the description of their Jane Doe, that much Jasper could admit, but could she be their little girl?

Jasper turned and handed the picture to Garrett, who glanced at it quickly, before he looked back at Demetri and Heidi. "Why didn't you come forward before now? Our Jane Doe has been dead for seven years. Her pictures had been put out on all the news channels. Why had it taken so long for you to come forward?"

"About a year after Gianna went missing, we moved out of state, down to Texas. We'd just had our son, Alec, and my company offered me a transfer to Austin," Demetri said, frowning. "We just moved back to the area about six months ago. We were watching the news a couple weeks ago when we heard about . . . about the little girl over in Forks, that had been found alive after so long." He looked down at his hands, shaking his head. "We thought. . . . We hoped that Gianna . . . Anyway, we reached back out to Lacey Police, who of course were no help, but said they would reach out and see what they could find out. They called yesterday, said detectives from the Forks Police Department told them about . . . about the little girl on Bainbridge Island, and they suggested that we reach out to you, for . . . for confirmation, I guess."

Jasper nodded, pressing his lips together. Just like Newton and Crowley to pass the buck. They'd done it when Bella went missing, why not do it now?

"There's no denying Gianna matches our Jane Doe's description," Garrett admitted, walking around the desk and holding the photograph out to Demetri, who sighed when he took it. "We would need something with Gianna's DNA in order to confirm, but are you sure you want to know?"

"No, we're not," Demetri admitted. "But we've spent the last nine years not knowing where she was, what she was going through. We need . . . we need closure, and if . . . if she is Gianna, she deserves to be honored as someone other than a Jane Doe."

Heidi blew out a shaky breath before she pulled a zip-lock bag out of her purse. "We, um, we read that you can get DNA from baby teeth," she wept, holding out the bag. "She'd only lost a few teeth when she missing, but we kept them in her baby book."

Jasper frowned as he took the bag. "It could take a while to get the results."

"We've waited nine years, Detective Cullen," Demetri said, standing with his wife in his arms. "Gianna deserves someone to fight for her. We didn't fight hard enough. Maybe if we had . . ."

He shook his head before leading his wife over to the door, but stopped when she turned and looked at him. "Is she okay? The little girl from Forks . . . Is she okay?"

Jasper felt his lips tremble as he said, "She's . . . trying really hard to be okay."

Heidi nodded, tears sprinkling down her face. "You'll be in touch? When you know . . . you'll be in touch?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jasper promised. "You have my word."

"Thank you, Detective Cullen," Heidi whimpered before Demetri tightened his arm around his wife and swept her out of the room, closing the door behind them.

Jasper turned and sat in the chair he'd just vacated, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees and holding the zip-lock bag with three tiny baby teeth inside. "There's no stopping him, is there? Sam Uley just keeps hurting people."

"He does," Garrett admitted and when Jasper looked up at him, he saw his captain watching him closely. "You need a break, Cullen."

Jasper nodded, tears filling his eyes as he said, "Yeah, I think I do, too. I just . . ." He wiped the tears off his face, before standing and holding the zip-lock bag to him. "I'm going to take some of my days. I've got quite a lot saved up, so . . . I think I'm going to take some."

"Think that's a good idea," he said, taking the bag in his hand. "You're a good cop, Cullen. A damn good cop, and it doesn't make you weak to need a break."

"Yeah, I know."

Jasper cleared his throat before he turned and walked out of Garrett's office, past the hoard of detectives and patrol officers, and out the backdoor of the station house. He climbed into the driver's seat of his truck, but instead of starting the truck, shifting in reverse, and driving home, he cried. He fucking cried for Leah Clearwater, Emily Young, Bella Swan, and Gianna Romans, and all the other little girls monsters like Sam Uley destroyed.

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews! This chapter kind of destroyed my soul a little.