Recondite {Malia Tate}

27: Anger Flares and The Coyote Detective

"Let's go Lorraine," Brunski grunted through the tape player.

"Listen to me," Lorraine said, "please listen. There's something I have to do," she spoke. "Something I have to stop."

Malia and Charlie sat close beside each other as Stiles paced Charlie's bedroom. The three were working together to try and figure out what was out of place during the recording of the particular tape being played.

"I have to take you back to Eichen, Lorraine," Brunski told her.

Charlie reached forward and turned the volume up, trying to get himself to focus his new hearing on anything that could possibly help them find another clue.

"No," Lorraine quickly denied, "No. I don't think you're gonna be taking me anywhere," she said.

Malia looked to Charlie and Charlie looked from her to Stiles, seeing his friend abruptly stop his pacing.

"I can hear the recorder in your pocket. It's on now, isn't it?" She questioned, pausing. "You're making a tape. Just like you taped the others."

Stiles quickly paused the tape, glancing in betweeen Charlie and Malia, "This didn't happen in Eichen," he told the two.

"If it didn't happen in Eichen, where did it happen?" Charlie wondered, scratching his nose as he tried to figure out this thousand piece puzzle before him.

Stiles gave a small shake of his head, "That's what we need to find out," he said, rewinding the tape.

<>

"...back to Eichen, Lorraine," the group listened to the tape another time around, eyebrows furrowed as they listened closely.

"No. No. I don't think you're gonna be taking me anywhere."

"That's it," Malia said. "That's where it is. Play it again and turn it up."

Charlie hit pause before he rewound the clip, pressing playing on the tape player and turning the volume up.

"...Eichen, Lorraine."

"No. No. I don't think you're gonna be taking me anywhere," she told the man. "I can hear the recorder in your pocket. It's on now, isn't it?"

Charlie and Stiles watched Malia intently, waiting for her to figure out what she had heard.

"You're making a tape. Just like you taped the others."

"It's the record player," Malia suddenly realized, a confused look highlighting her features.

Charlie paused the tape, shaking his head, "What record player?"

"The one in the lakehouse, in the study," she said, standing to her feet.

"So she escaped from Eichen  House just to go back to listen to a record player?" Stiles wondered, rubbing his chin.

"Well, she was like Lydia, right? She was a banshee?" Malia began to pace, her mind swimming in the ocean of revelations she had just begging to float to the surface.

"Yeah, but-but only once," Charlie said. "She predicted Maddy's death, and then spent forever trying to predict something else."

Malia turned away from Charlie, freezing in her spot, "Maybe she did," she said, whirling around. "And what if this time, it wasn't just one death, by a lot of deaths?"