Chapter 43

Song for this Chapter: Hippie Radio by Eric Church

Thanks again, Mama4Dukes for being my Beta!

Izzy's POV

"So that means that Quil Sr was a wolf at some point…" I was stunned.

"He meets his imprint. Abuses her till she runs away. Her Makah family sends her to Ava's mom. She gets the antidote. Goes back to LaPush. Ends her side of the imprint, and then he kills her. And then goes after Ava's mom?"

"Sounds that way." Everyone was just as floored as I was.

"A lone wolf? A pack of one?"

"It makes sense. It was him who probably killed the other shifter, Levi, in 1968." My dad was in cop mode.

"Yeah, but he couldn't phase after she ended her side of the imprint. He also couldn't… ummm… You know…" Yep, I couldn't say the word erection in front of my dad. Nope, never going to go there!

"Alice got there in December of '39. Kills the doctor. Quil kills his imprint right around that same time…" Dad says, totally ignoring my last statement.

"Alice would have been able to smell that he was a shifter. I'd bet my last dollar that she watched him kill that girl. Then she blackmailed Quil Sr for the rest of her life." Jasper said.

"Now, my gift is going off. Listen, I looked at the land survey from '39. There was nothing put there yet. No roads, no telephone poles, no nothing. Just a deep hole and some sticks going up to build a house. I think Quil needed your folks to sell that land because that poor girl is buried somewhere on it."

"But why would he kill Levi? On the same day his 2nd wife, Aunt Molly, was killed?" I asked, and my dad answered.

"Bells, you said so not a month ago. A wolf can only have children with their imprints. Quil Sr killed his only chance at becoming a father... Ruth. He married my Aunt… They can't have kids at all. All of a sudden, at 52, she has a baby. That baby that she had wasn't Quil Sr's son. No, my friend Quil Jr was most likely Levi's child."

"So why keep Quil Jr alive until…"

"June 1st, 1985. A few days before graduation…" Dad continued. "I believe I have the answers to that as well… To be a full Quileute council member you need a son or daughter to pass your seat onto. He wanted until Janice was pregnant with your Quil III and then ended him. I always thought his drowning was suspicious… I wasn't on the force at the time. His case was closed right after you were born."

"Okay, but all this started because I saw several council meetings held at Billy's, and I watched as they went over some cooked books. How does that fit into this screwed-up mess?"

"The money the NTA gave the tribe wasn't used for its intended use. Nope, someone needed some fast cash… To say, buy a house in Forks when the old owner died in some tragic way," Peter said, staring at my dad as he spoke.

"But we died after the meeting."

"Yes, you did. But I'd say your dad's new wife might have been rooked into doing something to get herself and her children a permanent seat on the council. After the owner of said house married her. And he was somehow killed in the line of duty..."

"Sue?" Both Dad and I both yelled at the same time.

"She was all for the house going up for sale… I bet Old Quil was just waiting till I dropped the price… Shit!" Dad was pacing.

"So what do we do with this new information?" I sat there for a long time thinking before I asked my question.

"I'd say we pull an Alice. Send off all of this evidence to Mark Azalf or John Pompey anonymously. There is no time limit on the statute of limitations on capital murder in the state of Washington."

"Money laundering, misuse of funds, and how many counts of murder?"

"Four. Ruth. Ava's mom, Aunt Molly, and Levi Uley."

We all sat around that evening talking and thinking about the things that we'd learned about the Quilute. The people of a tribe I once thought of as my new family.

I'd always known that there was something off, but I'd never imagined that some of its community were that sick in the brain.

We talked about how the world at large held so many people, just like Quil Sr. Human, Shapeshifter, and Vampires. Deranged people were everywhere. The species didn't matter.

The Quileutes, The Cullens, The Volturi. They lost it all because of power and greed.

Time didn't matter. 100 years from now there will be only old paper trails of the things some people did within their lifetimes. Either it was for the good or the worse.

The only thing that we as a family could do, was to live our lives as best we could. Hoping and Praying that our actions didn't lead us to our destruction.

Over the next few days, my dad, Peter, and Jasper carefully sorted through what they believed would help a prosecutor add murder charges to Quil Sr's trial.

Charlotte mailed off several copies of the file to Washington, the NTA, and the FBI. Dad added a few news channels that would spread the information.

We were left to see which way things would go.

Charlie's POV

I was watching Peter and Jasper as they turned over the ground in the back pasture. It was now late September. Bells and I have been vampires for almost four months now. We were going to be putting in some winter wheat back here. The ground might as well be used for something.

The three of us guys got along with each other unbelievably well. The only time that I'd had issues with either of them was when Jasper asked my Bella to go spend the night in Dallas with him.

Alone. In a rented room. A Broadway play. And maybe some bad guy for dinner afterward.

I know in my mind that she's a grown woman, and she can't help but feel the pull to her mate. But that didn't mean that I liked it. Though, Jasper was very respectful. They wouldn't… umm… have relations within my earshot, but damn it, I am her dad.

We only had bagged blood on the property for emergencies now. We'd both taken to hunting criminals like ducks to water. There wasn't much that either Bells or I couldn't do.

My vampire gift was working out rather well for Charlotte. She had come up with a way for me to tell when her husband was lying to her.

Over the course of the last few months, I'd watched my daughter as she played her guitar and wrote some amazing music. Did she still smoke too much? Yes, she did, but otherwise, our lives were going great.

I'd finally gotten through all of her financial reports and statements. When the market crashed in 2008, she came to save me in Forks. The house values tanked with them. But over several months, I watched as their values started to rise once again.

We'd talked about it and I helped her sell each of her once Cullen-owned properties. Except for the ranch. Her net worth went through the roof upon the sale of the Chicago, London, and New York homes.

Swansons Corp did end up buying my old house. Bella had Jenks make an offer to the county before they even went through the place. My old boat came with the deal.

We'd be sneaking into Forks in a few months to grab everything we'd wanted to keep. We'd read in the paper that my pension and 401K was helping the people who needed it most.

Was I pissed that I couldn't use it myself? Not really.

She did after end up getting a few hundred acres surrounding the cabin in Nome. She has plans for a new house to be built-something with bathrooms was her major priority, although none of us needed them.

Being a vampire there isn't much that I don't have, that I'd need some cash on hand for. When Peter suggested that I work as a hand here on the ranch, Bella blew a gasket.

She ended up giving me the funds that I'd lost in my 401k. I was pissed, but she'd said that she wanted me to be able to come and go as I pleased. Though she didn't want me to go anywhere without her.

Peter and I were working on all of the investment portfolios.

It was almost time for us to start making our trips. Jasper said he'd go where we went so we'd decided that Tennessee in December. NOLA in March. She'd wanted to go to BVI during that past summer, but getting the paperwork to the NTA had proved rough. She'd get to BVI next summer. Then next May all five of us would be off to Europe.

England. Scotland. Ireland. Spain. Greece. And we'd do our stop in Italy along the way.

Life as a vampire wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. And having my daughter and our new family surrounding us, made it all worth it!

Washington Gazette

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Man Dies in Clallam County Jail

Quil Atrea Sr, an 86-year-old man, died while awaiting his trial in the Western Washington Federal District Court.

He was charged with money laundering, misuse of funds, and four counts of capital murder. The last four counts were added to his arrest after an unnamed source brought evidence to both the FBI and our local news station.

He was found hanging in his jail cell in an apparent suicide.

The three other defendants charged in the LaPash scandal were tried as a group, and found guilty on Friday. They were each sentenced to 15-25 years in jail, a $250,000 fine, and mandatory court-appointed counseling.

It is unknown if the three defendants will appeal this ruling.

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