Antique Love

Chapter 9

A/N: Howdy, folks! Sadly, I'm back from the warmth and sun of Florida, and I miss it. I'm ready to be back on that beach. *sigh* Anyway, a huge thanks to all of you for reading and reviewing, and an even bigger thanks to my beta for her massive help on this chapter. I suppose I should tell you this chapter has a lemon, so on you go.

Bella

"When was your car stolen, Mr. Denali?" Emmett asked.

Mr. Denali, wearing a suit that probably cost more than my monthly salary, sat down in a chair across from us and steepled his fingers under his chin as he stared at us.

"Sometime last week," he said in a dismissive tone. "I filed a police report once I realized it was stolen. I assume you've found it."

"Possibly," Emmett replied. "It was seen outside of a store that had been burglarized."

"Well, you can't possibly think I had anything to do with that, can you?" Mr. Denali asked with an incredulous tone.

"Of course not," I told him with a fake smile. Although the truth was, I thought he was very much involved. My gut was telling me so, and I never bet against my gut.

"Do you have any idea who may have taken your car?" I asked him, and he told me no.

"You don't have security cameras?" Emmett then asked, and Denali told us that the cameras had been compromised.

I was a bit suspicious about the whole thing. If you're going to break into someone's garage, why not steal the Ferrari that Emmett had informed me was worth well over a million dollars. And for that matter, why not break into the house that was connected to the garage and steal more things of value.

"Was anything else taken besides your car?" I asked Mr. Denali.

"Nothing. Just the car. If that's all, I have a conference call I need to make," he said, standing up and basically dismissing us.

We thanked him for his time, and the second we were out the door, I told Emmett the guy was lying.

"Yeah, I think so too, but how do we prove it?"

That was the question. The local police had been nice enough to let us investigate the guy even though we were out of our jurisdiction, but I wasn't so sure they'd allow us to tail him, and we didn't have probable cause to tap his phone or search his house or computer. For now, we were out of luck. Although, I did have a trick up my sleeve, I just hoped it wouldn't cost me much more than a fancy coffee.

"I don't know, but I'm going to have Archie do his computer guru magic and see what he can find out about Mr. Denali. Maybe his search will tell us something."

Once we were back in the car, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and smiled when I saw I had a text from Edward. He was in Seattle at some auction, but he wanted to know if we could get together for dinner, and I was totally onboard with that.

I sent him a text back, but by the time we had arrived back in Port Angeles, I hadn't heard from him. I wasn't too alarmed because we both tended to get busy with work and lose track of time.

"I'm gonna go see Archie real quick," I let Emmett know once we were back at the station, and he nodded his head to let me know he'd heard me as he opened up a document on his computer. The man was a methodical note taker and kept backup notes in his computer. That was probably a smart idea and something I should probably start doing since my notes always ended up scattered across my desk or tucked away in a drawer somewhere.

After tossing my jacket on the back of my chair, I made my way down the stairwell to the basement that housed the lab and the computer division.

"Hey, Archie. You got a minute?" I asked him as I made my way over to his desk which was just as messy as mine. Although, Archie's desk was covered in bobble heads and toys from Star Wars and Star Trek, not to mention Doctor Who. Edward would probably get along great with him.