The first thing sitting on my desk when I got into the station was another report of missing hikers in the area.
Last spring's series of deaths had ended as abruptly as they'd started, and while most of the precincts in the area figured that the serial killer had moved on, I sure as hell hadn't let my guard down so easily.
It just didn't make any damn sense. All throughout the spring, the deaths kept getting closer and closer to our corner of the Pacific Northwest, and just as they'd begun popping up in our very district, they'd stopped.
Now, granted, I'd taken some much-needed time off of work to deal with my own mental health after Bella's ordeal a few months earlier, and it was right around then that the killer (or killers, potentially) had disappeared without a trace.
Now we had three more missing hikers in an area not so far from here, adding to the alarming tally that had been growing over the summer. A few hikers were destined to go missing every year in this remote area of the world, whether through foolishness, bad luck, or of their own volition, but it didn't take a scientist to see that the numbers had severely spiked.
No, there was definitely something going on, alright, and I meant to get to the bottom of it.
"You thinking that killer might be back, then?" Denise asked, reading the look on my face as I leafed through the reports.
"Well, there's a lot to think about, that's for sure," I said. "I don't know if I'd jump to any conclusions, but three hikers? All in a group? It just doesn't line up with usual serial killer behaviour. I took a look into the backgrounds – these were all experienced hikers. They'd know to have bears pray, or hell, even a handgun with them for going that deep into the Olympic. Same with the couple that went missing last month."
"Well, there's been talks from Search and Rescue that it could be an animal," Denise said. "We know better than most that the woods around here are full of bears, cougars, wolves."
"Still, doesn't explain the uptick in disappearances any, or the deaths from earlier this year."
"Well, it's a good thing we've got park rangers for that, Chief," Denise said, patting me on the shoulder. "Let's just worry about keeping our own little corner of the peninsula safe, hey?"
"That's all I'm trying to do," I said, scanning the missing persons reports for any sort of pattern, any sort of clue. As usual, there were none.
I knew what Denise was really saying, though. Leave trouble in Olympic National Park to the big guns. We were a small enough station as it was, and didn't have the resources to tackle anything outside of our town limits. Hell, even offering a hand when needed to Quillayute Reserve was more than we were technically supposed to do, but I wasn't about to stand aside if the good peoples of La Push needed help – it's not as though Washington State was in a hurry to send Park Rangers their way.
We were stretched thin. I knew that better than anyone. I tucked the reports away out of sight (but not out of mind) and started leafing through the traffic violations, complaints, and 9-1-1 call logs that would take up the majority of my day.
I just hoped that Bells was having a better day than me, and that whatever danger was lurking out there in the wilds of the Washington Penninsula, it would stay the hell away from me, my town, and, most importantly, my daughter.
—
I swung by my favourite pizza place, Pacific Pizza, on the way home. It took me a few minutes (and, admittedly, a call to Renee) to remember Bella's favourite toppings, but the pie was still hot when I walked in the front door.
"Hey kids!" I said, spotting Bella and Edwin hanging out in the living room. "I thought you'd like a break from cooking and washing dishes for your birthday. Hungry?"
"Sure. Thanks, Dad." Bells said with her usual modicum of enthusiasm. I'd grown used to it, as well as Edward's apparent lack of appetite any time he was over. I could only imagine the types of meals he'd been used to eating at Carlisle's mansion, and couldn't help but be a little perturbed by his seeming disdain for an everyman's kind of food.
Realistically, on the list of Reasons Why Edward Was Kind of a Weirdo, his lack of appetite barely broke the top 10. But Bells seemed to like him, so I begrudgingly put up with the kid.
"Do you mind if I borrow Bella for the evening?" he asked, as though my daughter was something I owned that could be lent out on a whim.
Given how much Bella had preferred being at the Cullens over the summer rather than here with me, I'd figured that her going over there tonight had already been concretely planned. I saw Bella looking at me, realizing that she probably felt a little guilty to want to spend her first birthday in Forks over at the Cullen's. I decided to give her an out, as much as it broke my heart that she'd be gone. Though could it really not have crossed anyone's mind to invite me to my own daughter's birthday dinner?
"That's fine," I said, more to her than to Edward. "The Mariners are playing the Sox tonight, so I won't be any kind of company," I lied. "Here." I tossed her the camera I'd given her that morning, which was sitting, dejectedly, on the coffee table. If I wasn't going to be invited to my daughter's own dinner, I'd at least like to see some photos of it. Bells flinched as the camera soared towards her, and Edward snatched it out of the air.
"Nice save," I conceded. "If they're doing something fun at the Cullen's tonight, Bella, you should take some pictures... You know how your mother gets – she'll be wanting to see the pictures faster than you can take them." Her and I both, but I wasn't about to admit that out loud.
"Good idea, Charlie," Edward said, handing Bella the camera.
She took a photo of him. His smile, as usual, didn't extend to his strangely golden eyes. "It works," she said.
I wondered, and not for the first time, why it was that Carlisle's entire adopted family insisted on wearing those strange golden contact lenses every day. Maybe Carlisle's eyes really were like that, and his kids went along with it so that they could feel like more of a biological family than they actually were... but the fact that four of his kids were dating each other kind of threw that entire hypothesis for a spin. Just one more oddity of the family. But that did get me thinking...
"Hey, say hi to Alice for me. She hasn't been over in a while," I said, reminding the two of them that Alice and I were friendly, so if they did want to invite me over for Bella's birthday dinner, I would have both her and Carlisle to potentially talk to.
"It's been three days, Dad," Bella said instead of extending the invite. "I'll tell her."
I deflated a little, but at this point I'd become used to Bells leaving me out of her plans. A small part of me thought maybe today would be different, seeing as I always saw children's birthdays to be just as much a celebration for the parents as it was for the kid, but I should have known better than to get my hopes up.
"Okay, you kids have fun tonight," I finally resigned. They took off out the door without another word, leaving me to the barely touched pizza, the TV, and the empty house.
Well, at least Bells would be having a fun birthday. I just wish I could be there to see it.
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