Cross Your Mind , Stiles Stilinski ¹ ✓

[ 50 ] gunpoint

GUNPOINT

"SO, this kid's the real killer?" Sheriff Stilinski asked the three teenagers who had returned from the party from hell to the Stilinski house, after witnessing the kanima fall in line with Matt Daehler like his own personal bodyguard.

"Yeah." Stiles answered.

"No." His father deadpanned, unbelieving of their story.

"Yes!" Stiles exclaimed back.

"No."

"Dad, come on!" said Stiles, "Everybody knows that the police look for ways to connect victims in a murder, okay? So, all he had to do is, like, look through their transcripts and figure out which class they all had in common."

"Yeah, except for the fact that the rave promoter, Kara, wasn't in Harris' class."

"All right. Okay, you're right." his son said back with sarcasm. "Sorry. Then, I guess they dropped the charges against him?"

"No, you know what?" said the sheriff irritably. "They're not dropping the charges. But, that doesn't prove anything."

"H-"

"Scott, do you believe this?" Noah cut his son off, turning to the McCall boy on the other side of Stiles.

"It's really hard to explain how we know this, but you just gotta trust us." Scott answered, "We know it's Matt."

Then the sheriff turned to Aspen, standing on the other side of Stiles.

"Do you believe this?" he asked her, expecting either a nod or shake of her head.

"Trust us, sheriff." she spoke, taking the man by surprise, "Matt Daehler is the one killing people."

Noah went quiet for a second as he processed that Aspen was talking again, then after his moment of reflection he embraced her in a warming hug, because he was genuinely so proud of her.

"Your voice is back." he said quietly in realisation.

"Mmhmm." she hummed as he let go of her, "Now listen to it."

"He... he took Harris' car, okay?" Stiles returned back to the issue at hand. "Look, he knew that if a cop found tire tracks at one of the murders, and that if enough of the victims were in Harris' class, that they'd arrest him."

"All right, fine. I'll allow the remote possibility." Sheriff Stilinski sighed with sarcasm. "But give me a motive. I mean, why would this kid want most of the 2006 swim team and its coach dead?"

"Because the kid's a psycho." Aspen retorted.

"What she said." said Stiles, pointing his index finger to Aspen with a shrug, only earning an unimpressed look from his dad.

"Okay, we don't have a motive yet. I mean, come on, does Harris?"

"What do you want me to do?" said Noah with a sigh.

"We need to look at the evidence." said Scott.

"Yeah," Stilinski scoffed, "that would be in the station, where I no longer work."

Aspen's expression wavered with worry and concern, this being news to her.
They all noticed her look of surprise and sighed.

"They fired you?" she asked softly.

"Don't worry about it." Stiles' dad told her, but she didn't look any more at ease.

"Trust me, they'll let you in." Stiles told his dad.