Charlie Swan: Vampire Hunter

2. Murder

                "It's not too bad in my opinion." The guy at the impound lot pointed at Bella's truck as we walked up. "The engine, tires, and frame are fine. Looks like it was just a fender bender."

Looking at the damage it was true; from a distance the thing barely looked scratched. Up close near the back left corner, however, was a new dent on the bumper just large enough to cause minor concern. "I need to get that fixed," I said gesturing toward the back bumper.

He crouched down to get a better look. "Yeah," he said. "Good thing it's so old. Replacing parts on it shouldn't run you too much money. Not like the kid with the van."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh yeah, the van that came in with your Chevy is broken up pretty bad. The passenger side has a huge dent in it. That kid's lucky he wasn't on that side of the car, he could've got killed."

Killed? From a little fender-bender like this? "Let me see the van."

"You're not the owner."

"No. But I'm the Chief of Police. Consider it official police business."

"You got me there, Charlie." He stood up and turned me around, pointing to the van parked across from Bella's truck. "It's right there."

My breath caught right in my throat. Tyler's van was wrecked. The passenger side doors were dented in an unnatural shape where it must have impacted. The windows were shattered, the glass probably littering the parking lot at Forks High School. I pulled the flashlight from my utility belt and looked inside the absent windows and got a view of the ripped polyester cushioning that covered the floor. The leather on the seats had split open and the contents had spilled out.

"What the hell?" I turned back to the man. "These two vehicles were in a collision? With each other?"

He shrugged, "Hey man I wasn't there, but that's the story they gave the tow trucks. Anyway you know how sturdy these old cars can be."

"And you believe that! It looks like this van got wrapped around a pole. My daughter's truck is barely scratched." There's sturdy and then there's indestructible.

"Like I said I wasn't there. But we got multiple reports from different faculty and students that back up the claims if you're worried about the insurance company trying to challenge it."

That was the farthest thing from my mind. What I wanted to know was how such a large, deep indentation could be made in the side of Tyler's van. From the size, shape, and location of the dent there was no way in hell it had been made by the tiny ding left on the corner of Bella's bumper. And it wasn't made by Bella either since she was perfectly unharmed.

What the hell could it have hit?

"Do you have a tape measure?" I asked him as I clipped my flashlight back to my belt.

"Yeah, hold on." He excused himself for a few moments to the office before coming back with a carefully rolled up plastic tape measure.

He handed it to me and I went about measuring the width of the dent on the side of Tyler's van. Then I measured the distance between the dent and the ground. I did the same with Bella's truck.

The math didn't add up. Even if Bella's truck were strong even to keep its frame after the impact with the van, the distance between the damage and the ground on each vehicle was off by over five inches. If they hit each other like the reports say then the damage to Bella's truck should be far larger than just the end of the bumper. It should extend upward into the bed of the pick-up.

That doesn't even explain the depth of the dent on the van. A collision like this should have left a shallower indention. None of this added up.

I gave the tape measure back just in time for my phone to ring, "This is Chief Swan."