A/N… Okay, please see me at the bottom. I'll let you get to it.

~oOo~

Chapter 24

BELLA

"How do you want to do this, Edward?" I asked him as we sat at my table.

I'd ordered groceries to be delivered, because neither of us felt like going anywhere. Just to take the edge off what was coming, I made Edward the banana pancakes he liked so much. And of course, coffee was an absolute necessity.

He was quiet for a moment, eyeing his laptop like it was betraying him in some way, but it was the interaction with Sid that made me fight my smile. I wasn't sure he was even aware that he was doing it, but my cat was standing on the chair next to his, essentially headbutting his face. Edward, however, was simply leaning into it as he considered my question.

"When you two are done putting your heads together, let me know if you come up with something," I teased him softly.

He chuckled, turning to Sid, who bumped his chin one more time. "Great minds, Sid."

Grinning, I shook my head and got up to clear the table. It was official. I was completely ruined over the man sitting in my dining room. Just done. Yes, he was gorgeous and brave, but I honestly think it was the quiet, soft part of Edward I loved the most – the gentleness he used with Sid, the protectiveness of my family, and the sweet, awed way he'd look at me sometimes.

And yeah, he had issues with anxiety and temper, but I had a feeling that the shit I was about to see would explain it. Just hearing the story about his parents was one thing. Seeing the actual case file was going to be a new level of disturbing. But I'd promised I'd hold his hand, so I let him have a moment while I cleaned up after breakfast.

By the time I was done, he'd opened his laptop and was logging in.

"Where do you want me?" I asked him, taking the chair next to him when he pulled it closer. I lifted Sid and kept him on my lap when I sat down.

Edward seemed to steel himself before clicking open an email. "Emmett scanned everything in the file, along with a few other things he was able to locate at his office at the DA," he said softly.

I placed my hand over his before he went any further, and he met my gaze. "Before we do this… Baby, what are you hoping to find? Or…or accomplish by reading this?"

His brow furrowed, and he swallowed nervously. "I don't know. My point of view was…skewed, I think. I honestly don't know what he did to my mother the night before he told me she left. Maybe some answers. Maybe a connection to Aro. While I never wanted to talk about it, my family also sheltered me from it. It's time to know what really happened."

"The facts?"

"Yes."

"Fine, but I want you to step away if it becomes too much. Promise me."

"Okay."

He opened the file, and the first thing was the police report. I'd read a few of those when my dad was still chief of police in Forks. They were usually cut and dry – location, time, who was at the scene, who called it in, witnesses, and officers on location.

The address was in Stillwater, so it was close to Carlisle and Esme's house. The names on location were Edward Masen Jr, minor, Carlisle Cullen, relative, and two officers – Douglas and Mitchell. Douglas was the one filling out the report.

The reason for the call was "body found in basement."

I shot a quick glance to Edward, and he seemed okay. There was a fierce expression on his face, like he was trying to treat this like any other case file, but I didn't think it was working.

"I remember Mitchell," he said, looking to me. "She was kind. I was… I was a fucking mess, and she kinda held my hand while Uncle Carlisle dealt with all the other bullshit."

Smiling sadly, I nodded. "That's good. Maybe you can look her up…just to talk."

His eyebrows lifted a little, and he nodded, going back to the screen. He clicked for the next page, and I wasn't prepared for pictures. Luckily, they were simply photos of the home – outside, living room, kitchen, and finally the basement door and stairs. I'd barely had time to note what a stunning house it was before the basement popped up.

Edward had described that his mother had been in a space beneath the stairs of the basement, behind a chest freezer, and in a large suitcase. Apparently, those details were branded into his memory, because it was exactly how he described it.

He'd also said the suitcase was wrapped in large black garbage bags. However, I could see where someone had ripped those bags open. It was the next picture that had tears welling up in my eyes.

Elizabeth Masen was curled up in that suitcase around a small brown and tan cat. It had been a year before anyone found her, so she was shriveled and a tiny bit skeletal. But it was unmistakable who she was, because her hair was the exact same shade as the man sitting silently next to me.

"Hey," I whispered, forcing his gaze to mine. "Look at me for just a second." He pressed his forehead to mine and nodded. "I'm going to click the next picture. Okay?"

I reached over and changed the picture to the next, which was still the suitcase, and then the next. It took three pictures before his mother wasn't on the screen any longer. At least she wasn't up close.

"Okay," I whispered, brushing my lips across his.

He glanced back at a picture of the basement from a longer view. The freezer was pulled away from the stairs, the paneling off the wall. But I took in the rest of the room – brick walls, no windows, and a floor-to-ceiling wine rack that was pretty damn full. That last thing reminded me that Ed Sr. had started bringing his wine home.

Edward kept going, and the pictures started showing the rest of the house. The kitchen was fairly clean for a boy of fourteen. There was a bowl in the sink and a box of cereal on the counter. Edward wasn't messy, but at fourteen, none of us were OCD clean. I'd expected pizza boxes or delivery containers, but things were neat, tidy. But then I really looked at the kitchen. The cupboards were bare, except for a few cans of soup and ravioli. The fridge had a gallon of milk, some water, and a couple cans of soda. A loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and another box of cereal were on another counter.

"Baby, what did you eat?" I whispered, frowning at the screen.

"I can cook," he defended softly. "I didn't have a choice." He tapped the screen on the freezer side of the refrigerator. "Frozen dinners, chicken nuggets, pizza rolls. But there's burger patties, veggies, and ice cream."

I smiled up at him. "Pizza rolls are a teen staple, sir."

He grinned. "Yes, ma'am."

We kept going. The house was stunning, which I noted to myself. His parents had been well off, and I caught a brief glimpse of the china cabinet before its demise. Upstairs there were pictures of the bedrooms, and Edward's was exactly as I'd suspected – lived in, cluttered with clothes and books, and an empty glass or two. Nothing shocking.

Edward, however, leaned in when the master bedroom hit the screen. The room was large, with antique furniture and dark wood floors. In the first picture, the closet doors were closed, but the second picture showed them open. What I noticed was that there weren't many clothes in there, but what was left was certainly men's clothing. None of Elizabeth's clothes remained – no dresses, shoes, not even an old coat.

Edward tapped the screen. "That box, up top. That's where I found her phone, wallet, and keys. I don't remember telling them."

When he clicked the next picture, it was of the box he'd pointed out. "Apparently, you did. Or they found it on their own," I said, running my hand over Sid's head.

My cat was reading the room, it seemed; he was calm, purring, but he would occasionally reach out to set his paw on Edward's forearm.

The small shoe box contained a small, silver flip phone, a woman's wallet, and keys to a Volvo. And that made me speak up.

"Um… What happened to her car?"

Edward frowned, glancing my way. "He parked it at the train station."

That answer made me sigh in frustration and frown at the screen. "And he did all of this while you slept?" I asked rhetorically, but Edward turned my way. "I don't know, Edward. I'm just… He kills a woman and a cat, hides them in a suitcase, drags them down to the basement, moves the freezer, pries paneling off the fucking wall, seals them in there, pushes the freezer back, and takes her car across town. And he does all that shit while you sleep, making it back by the time you're up for fucking school."

Edward studied my face, glancing back at the screen. When his gaze met mine again, he said, "You're saying he had help. He wasn't alone."

"Maybe. Or we're missing a key element."

"Yeah, but you're right, Bella. Did he do all of that in one damn night? Or did he have help? Or did he hide my mom's car until he could get it to the train station?" Edward rattled off these questions one right after the other.

"Is this file complete? Like… interviews and arrest records?" I countered, catching up to his level of curiosity. "And does it have the last clients your dad was defending? Known associates, all that shit?"

"I'm sure. Emmett would've been pretty fucking OCD about it. He's always been that way."

I grinned about that tidbit concerning Emmett, but my smile fell quickly. "Okay, keep going."

The pictures of the house and crime scene finally came to an end. There were interviews with Carlisle, Esme, and Edward. Edward's read pretty much like he'd told me – simple, factual, and the repeated feeling that he knew his mother wouldn't just leave him. He told the officers that he knew his father was lying but he couldn't prove it.

Carlisle's interview was short, as was Esme's. Neither would have known what was happening in that house, because Edward had been threatened not to tell anyone.

Emmett was indeed a detailed thing, because he'd included the paperwork from Child Protective Services that placed Edward into Carlisle and Esme's custody.

When we hit the mugshots, my sneer curled up on my face. They'd arrested Ed Sr. in Chicago and then extradited him back to Seattle. The interrogation with him was ugly.

Ed Sr. denied everything, stating that his wife had left them. He said he was simply traveling on business. Not once, in all the questions and answers, did Ed Sr. concern himself with his son. Not one fucking time. And he denied it all until the arresting officer slapped down the picture of Elizabeth and Sam stuffed in that fucking suitcase. It was then that he asked for a lawyer.

He was charged with murder in the first degree, child neglect, and child endangerment.

While Ed Sr. waited out the weekend in King County Correctional, Officer Dana Mitchell decided to interview possible witnesses. Elizabeth's friends, their neighbors, even Edward's teachers. Dana also made some calls to Chicago, recording every last one of them in her reports.

She looked into Ed Sr.'s client list, as well. He'd defended Marcus Volturi in Chicago for tax evasion, a few other gentlemen for charges that were violent or drug related in both Chicago and Seattle, a few thieves, a couple of prostitutes, and lastly, uttering forged instruments and fraud.

The last client he'd had around the time Elizabeth was killed was a man named Caius Volturi. Aro's twenty-four-year-old son.

"Oh, my damn," I whispered, stopping Edward before he could move on so I could scour that whole report.

Caius Volturi was arrested for assault, domestic violence, and manslaughter. He was convicted. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, but he died after a fight broke out in the main recreational room. He hadn't even been in the state penitentiary for a full twenty-four hours.

"Fuck me," Edward whispered, glancing my way. "This whole thing may be fucking revenge."

"Holy shit! What if… What if your mom wasn't the target that night? What if it was supposed to be your dad or…or you? A son for a son."

Edward's eyebrows shot up, but he didn't answer, because well, we didn't have the fucking answer. The only thing he said was "Makes sense why Aro sold me out to Powell."

"Maybe." We stared at each other for a moment, but I asked one more thing. "Or your mother figured some shit out and your dad snapped?"

Edward's nostrils flared, but he didn't say anything to that for a moment. "Figured out what? That he was cheating on her in Chicago? Or that Aro had put a hit out on him?"

"All of it?" I stood up from the table, setting Sid down in my seat, so I could pace. "I don't know, baby. The way he treated you and your mother was cold and hateful, so why not just go? Your mom had to have known something, because she insisted that they move here. And you were only four. So did she get shitty vibes way back then?"

Edward shook his head. "We need the autopsy report and the forensic report," he stated, flipping through the file. "If there's proof it was my dad, then yeah, I could see how that might be a possibility. Mom calls him out on his bullshit, and he loses it." He clicked the mouse several times, finally coming to a stop. "Here it is."

I came back to my chair, scooping Sid back up and sitting down. I took a deep breath, preparing for what we were about to find.

~oOo~

EDWARD

Before I turned back to the computer, I reached over to bring Bella in for a kiss. "Thank you."

She looked at me like I was crazy, asking, "What for?"

"For just…this." I pointed to the computer. "I think… I was scared to do this for way too long, but you… You're seeing it way differently than I had built up in my head." I tapped my temple.

What I didn't say aloud was that I hoped we found something that could help take Aro Volturi down. I wasn't sure what that could be, but I owed Felix the intel, at least.

"Cop's kid, Edward," she stated, grinning at my laugh. "I hung out at the station way more than I probably should have."

I pressed a kiss to her forehead. "It's more than that, beautiful," I whispered against her sweet skin.

She smiled and nodded a little. "Okay. So let's see what they say."

The report was no different from fifteen years ago than it was today – same format, same cartoon drawing of a human body, and same questions. There were marks on my mother's neck, face, and wrists. The coroner noted that there were defensive wounds on her hands and arms. My father was my size, but my mother was no bigger than Bella. It would have been easy for him to overpower her, knock her out, break her neck.

"Marks on her neck, her wrists, her face," I muttered, trying my best to see this as just some case and not my mother. I needed to focus on the facts we were trying to sort out. "The hand size around her neck matched his hands."

I flipped passed the autopsy photos to the forensic report.

"Oh!" Bella gasped, tapping the screen. "Look, your dad's fingerprints were all over the suitcase, the paneling, the garbage bags, and the freezer. But look what else it was on…"

"Sam's collar tag," I whispered, my brow wrinkling as I glanced over at her. "He never touched that cat. Not one time do I ever remember him even petting Sam. Sam wouldn't allow it."

"So the only way his fingerprint ended up on that tag was…"

"If he killed him," I finished for her when she trailed off. I studied the fingerprint analysis again. "His prints were on everything in that box, too, so yeah, he definitely killed her. Why, though?" I sighed, sitting back in the chair a little and lightly rubbing my shoulder. "I'm trying to remember her, but I'm failing."

"Like from the last time? Or in general?" Bella asked softly. "Because there are days I can barely bring up memories of my mother's face, and she only died a few years ago."

Wrinkling my nose, I said, "Both, beautiful. Both. But I'm trying to remember if she ever slipped and said something about Dad. I don't think she did, but…" I trailed off, sighing deeply and rubbing my face.

This whole file could've sent me into a rage, and the fact that it didn't was thanks to the girl by my side. She not only kept me calm, but she also gave me a different perspective about how my mother could've possibly ended up dead.

I turned to face her, and she was reading that file like it contained all the answers. "What are you looking for?" I asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Officer Mitchell interviewed everyone. I'm looking for Jane, the Chicago fiancée."

My eyebrows shot up. "Why?"

"I want to know what she knew. She didn't know Ed Senior had a Junior." I grinned at the slight growly anger in her tone, but she went on. "I guess I want to know how long he dragged Jane along. And why she was dumb enough to accept it."

My brow furrowed, and I absentmindedly scratched at my bandage as I thought that over. "I wonder if the only person who could fill in these blanks is Aro Volturi."

"Mm," she hummed, giving me a side-glance. "Well, don't drive over to Volturi Construction just yet."

Grinning, I nodded. "Yeah, that's not happening anytime soon."

"Found her. Let's see what this dumb bitch has to say."

"Bella," I said through a laugh.

"Seriously!" she countered, glaring my way. "Ed Sr. dragged two women along, maintained two households, and lied about every-fucking-thing."

I shut up with that said, because she was completely correct. We both leaned in to read the screen. Mitchell had called Jane after Dad's arrest. Apparently, Jane had met my father at Marcus Volturi's home. They struck up a conversation, which turned into something more. Jane, at the time, thought it was just a one-time thing, but she said he pursued her. Jane knew he was married, but she didn't know he had a son. He had strung her along with promises of divorce.

"That's the oldest, lamest excuse," Bella muttered. "C'mon!"

"How could she not know?" I asked softly. "I was born in Chicago. My dad worked for her brother. I was four when we left. Did he keep me a secret?"

Bella frowned my way. "Maybe. Or your mom did. Maybe she wanted you as far away from that life as possible, which was why she pushed to move closer to Esme. I'm thinking your mom knew way more than even we are assuming."

Groaning, I rubbed my face roughly. "That's probably very true."

Bella pulled my hands from my face. "Have you considered the possibility that your house may hold some answers?" Her lips were on mine quickly. "I'm not pushing, I'm not forcing, and I'd never make you do something that hurt you. I'm just saying… The woman who introduced you to Sherlock Holmes maybe left you some clues or answers in that house."

My brow furrowed, and I swallowed nervously. "I don't know… I don't think I can…" I shook my head, but I met those warm, dark eyes. "Would you go?"

She smiled sadly, cupping my face. "Of course." She kissed me again. "I think we should take Emmett with us. And maybe Carlisle."

There was a knock at her door, but before she could get up, I kissed her again. "I um… I don't know. I'll… I promise to think about it."

She opened the door, chuckling when Charlie and Alice were on the other side. Even better was CJ sleeping in Alice's arms.

"Hey! Come in and give me my nephew!" Bella ordered without shame or pause. "I was just changing Edward's bandage."

Her lie was smooth, and it covered up the fact that I was sitting shirtless at her dining table. Honestly, that might have been the first time I'd ever seen her not tell the truth, but I wasn't sure Charlie bought it. I didn't say shit. She cradled CJ in her arms, pressing kisses to his forehead and hiding her smile.

"Did you guys… Bella, did you set up all that baby stuff?" Alice asked.

"Nope," she purred against the baby's cheek. "All Edward's doing. Called in every favor he could possibly remember. They cleaned up Common Ground, too."

"Damn, son. I owe you one," Charlie said with true gratefulness to his tone.

"No, sir. I told you I'd help her," I replied, but his eyes betrayed him. He locked on to the screen of my computer. "My parents' case file. Emmett sent it to me. We were trying to find answers. Or I was, really. I've never truly read it. I wanted to see if there was a connection to Aro."

Charlie looked to me. "Want some help?" He held up his Velcro cast. "I'm not exactly gonna be painting and plumbing the next few days. I'd be happy to help you. Maybe an old cop's eyes can see something you can't."

Bella glanced from me to her dad, blinking rapidly. "We should bring him too, if we go," she said, and it was cryptic to Charlie, but it made total sense to me.

"Yes, sir. By all means. I can email you the file. Thank you."

He nodded, looking to Bella. "Jasper's doing well. He's been moved to a regular room. He's in pain, but he's still refusing anything stronger than an aspirin."

She smiled, gazing down at CJ. "Your daddy is as stubborn as a mule." CJ's tiny hand waved around, finally landing on Bella's face, and she pressed kisses to his fingers.

Charlie and Alice cracked up, but Charlie said, "He's going to be in there a few more days. They're just watching that he's healing properly. He wants to see you when you can. He knows you're gonna be busy with the shop, but whenever you can go."

"Okay. Not today, but yeah. Definitely."

"Also, Carmen and Eleazar should be back after the weekend. Their flight is late Sunday night," he told her. "Mr. Saunders, however, is considering staying in Phoenix, and after this whole shebang, I'm not sure I care if he breaks his lease."

"Yeah…no. I get it," Bella said softly, swaying CJ gently. "I know he's missing his daughter, so let him out of it, if that's what he wants."

"Yep. We're on the same page. Okay, well, I'm gonna walk the building, see what needs doing for when my arm is better." He looked to me. "Send me that file. I'll see we what we can do."

I turned toward my laptop, asking Charlie for his email address and forwarding Emmett's email to him. "Done. Thank you again."

Bella looked to Alice. "You need some help downstairs?" she asked her.

"Yeah, just… I need a shower, and he needs to be fed and changed. Just for a few minutes. You don't mind?" Alice glanced between Bella and me.

I smirked, closing my laptop and standing up. "Go be an aunt," I teased Bella, who walked to me. I kissed her lips but held out a finger to CJ, who gripped it with way more strength than I was expecting. "Hello, CJ. You kinda look like your mom."

Alice giggled, and Bella joined her, saying, "I won't be long."

"I'm going up to my apartment. I need to start that laundry. Come up when you can," I told her, thinking this was about to be our new normal.

We were back at Common Ground, and while things were a little different this time around, I truly was happy to be back inside this building. I'd come to appreciate everyone in it. And I was looking forward to how Bella and I could blend our lives.

~oOo~

A/N… Okay, so with the crazy week I've had concerning the plagiarism of Gravity and RL work stuff, I need to put CG on a week off. Honestly, I need two weeks, but I won't do that to you guys. So there won't be an update next Monday. It's not on hold. I'm just taking a week to catch up.

I'm working on some other projects, as well. One of those is the epi for When Angels Fall. I haven't forgotten. So I'm taking some breathing room.

That being said… I'll see you next time… Mooches, Deb ;)