𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐍, aro volturi ✓

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘

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TROUBLE IN FORKS

KATHERINE BURBANK KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG WHEN BILLIE FAILED TO TEXT HER THE FOLLOWING MORNING.

Her location was turned off and Katherine's message of "text me when you leave the hotel" remained unanswered and unread. She thought maybe Billie was stuck in traffic, but she raised a good kid who knew that even a thumbs up to a message would suffice because at the end of the day, it was still a response.

But nothing— she received nothing.

Which is precisely why she marched down to the police station in her pyjamas after cancelling her appointments for the day, and all but stormed towards Charlie Swan's desk.

"Billie is missing!"

Charlie's stoic face turned to one of confusion. "Good morning to you too, Katherine."

Katherine rolled her eyes and slammed her phone onto the desk, showing her daughter's idled location that stopped pinging six hours ago. "This is not the time, Charlie," she snapped, finger pointing to the phone, "my kid is missing— you hear me? Missing!"

Her shouting got the attention of the other deputies, but she was undeterred. This was her child she was talking about; her child that she'd raised on her own, her pride and joy. And now, her motherly instincts were telling her that Billie was in trouble.

Charlie sobered up at that, taking a peak at the phone. He'd also known Billie her entire life, considered the girl to be like a daughter to him, and this was stirring up memories of Bella's brief disappearance just months earlier. Sam found Bella last time, but Charlie knew the same couldn't be applied to Billie's disappearance near Seattle's downtown core.

"I'll get an APB out for her," he told Katherine earnestly, watching the woman's shoulders let out a solid shake, "I'll get into contact with the chief down in the city... we'll coordinate."

Katherine rounded his desk, throwing her arms around the man. "I don't know what I'll do with myself if she—"

"Don't," Charlie interrupted her, his own arms gripping the anxious woman back tightly, "don't think like that. Billie's a smart kid, she can hold her own."

Katherine pulled back slightly, subtly swiping away at the tears that gathered in her lower lash line. "She is a smart kid; that's what I'm worried about," she sighed out, fingers scratching at her wrist habitually. "She wouldn't just go off with a stranger, and she rarely lets me see her phone, so I just—"

"Is her phone passcode protected?" he asked.

Katherine nodded. "Yeah, it's her birthday."

Charlie's eyebrows furrowed on their own. "Who else would know that combination— who else would even get close enough to grab the phone in the first place?"

The Burbank matriarch mulled it over, recalling the current whereabouts of those closest to Billie; it couldn't be the Stanley girl or the Newtown boy, given she'd seen them just last night at the theatre in town, it couldn't be Bella because she really couldn't hurt a fly if she tried, and at the end of the day, it couldn't really be anyone from Forks. People were too nice here.

But then, something scratched at her brain. Yeah, it couldn't be anyone from Forks.

"Her father— it's gotta be her father."

˚ʚ ❀ ɞ˚

Charlie and a few deputies stormed the Davidsons old house while Katherine sat in the cruiser outside. She'd all but threatened Charlie to let her come along, and he couldn't help but concede with her demand— but the child lock was on anyways, in order to prevent her from really interfering.

On the car ride there, Katherine informed him of her recent encounters with Vincent. He claimed he moved into town because of his job, and that he and his new fiancée Kate were trying to settle down somewhere quiet. Really, Katherine was beating herself up for not investigating the matter sooner, but Charlie was quick to reassure her that she really couldn't have known any better.

She also told him of the man's encounters with Billie; he always caught her on her way to school, stopping for a quick chat before the girl had to send him away out of discomfort. That being said, he'd always been harmless— a total deadbeat, on paper.

They were only in the foyer of the quaint home when a smell wafted into their noses, but that wasn't the very first thing that the Chief noticed.

He was quick to note that the entire house was in complete disarray.

Clutter could be found everywhere, curtains were only half drawn, and it appeared as though whoever had been here previously left in a rush. The closet door was ajar, coats and shoes spilling out from within onto the floor, and the number of takeout garbage was truly revolting.

In the kitchen was a bulletin board, and it was literally covered in shaky yet cursive handwriting. Red thread connected drawings of people that Charlie had never seen before, but right smack dab in the middle was a drawing of the girl whose mother was in his cruiser.

There was writing beneath her name in a language he knew wasn't English, nor could he properly decipher, but his attention to the board fizzled when he heard a deputy call his name from upstairs.

Ascending to the second floor, he found the smell of decay was growing stronger and stronger, until he met up with the deputy in what looked to be a spare bedroom. The deputy wore a grim look on his face, gesturing to the closet.

The Davidsons were inside— death by execution.

Marlene and John Davidson were an elderly couple who stuck to themselves, meaning that when they had moved away without telling anyone, it didn't really come as a shocker. Perhaps Vincent had chosen them because he knew no one would question their departure from the town— perhaps he knew more about the town than he had ever let on.

And perhaps, moving here because of work and his new family was just a fake alibi he fed to Katherine, and by proxy, his daughter.

"Well I'll be damned," Charlie muttered out, knowing damn well that if they collected any prints on the bodies, all signs would point to Billie's father.

With this new information, the search to find the missing girl was all the more dire, and Charlie was really regretting having Katherine wait outside. He'd have to be the one to tell her the findings within the home.

He owed her that much, though.

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[ wyn's note ]

shorter chap only because it's double update time; so by the time you finish this, chap twenty one will be out :)

charlie will do anything for his pookie katherine (so tempted to have them smooch ugh) but the search for billie is on!! don't kill me for the next chap lol

all my love xx