Secrets in the Hunt (Book 2)

Faking Fine

After crying for a while, I stand up and brush off my dress, turning and trying to figure out where I am. I pull my phone out and frown at the number of missed calls from Allison. I can't talk to her right now. It might be selfish, but I can't. I start to walk, picking up speed when I see a familiar blue Jeep parked in the distance. I stop right outside Stiles's house, taking a few breaths to collect myself before knocking on the door. I bite my lip, trying not to pace as I wait for someone to open the door.
     "Tori?" Stiles says as he opens the door, frowning at me. I give him a tight lipped smile.
     "Hey Stilinski." I say, my voice scratchy. He steps to the side, pulling my into his house and squeezing my hand gently.
     "Are you okay?" He asks and I nod.
     "Yeah. My uh, brothers just got back and we argued a bit so I left." I lie, hoping he can't tell. He nods.
     "We found out who the kanima's master is." He says softly and my eyes widen. Apparently you miss a lot having an emotional breakdown.
     "Who is it?" I ask, thankful that I can focus on something else.
     "Matt." Stiles says and I frown.
     "Matt like annoying, got a concussion, took Allison on a date, Matt?" I ask and he nods. Well shit. He gently pulls me up the stairs.
     "Scott's here. We're trying to explain to my dad that Matt's the killer without going into too much detail." He explains and I nod.
     "Easy peasy." I say with a smirk He just grins and shakes his head, letting go of my hand as we walk into his room. He plops down in his computer chair and looks up to his dad. Sheriff Stilinski, who is no longer the Sheriff, does not look amused. He just shakes his head as he looks between the yearbook on the desk and his son.
     "So this kid's the real killer?" He asks and Stiles nods, letting out an exasperated noise.
     "Yeah." He says.
     "No." Sheriff says flatly, shaking his head.
     "Yes!" Stiles yells, frowning at his dad.
     "No." Sheriff says again, crossing his arms.
     "Dad, come on. 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." Stiles argues, standing to try to make his point.
     "Yeah, except for the fact that the rave promoter Kara wasn't in Harris's class." Sheriff argues, crossing his arms, and Stiles holds his hands up in defeat.
     "All right, okay, you're right, sorry. Then I guess they dropped the charges against him?" He counters, a determined look on his face.
     "No, you know what? They're not dropping the charges. But that doesn't prove anything." Sheriff says after a short pause.
     "H-" Stiles starts to say, but Sheriff cuts him off, looking at Scott.
     "Scott, do you believe this?" He asks, and Scott nods.
     "It's really hard to explain how we know this, but you just gotta trust us. We know it's Matt." Scott says calmly.
     "Yeah, he took Harris's car, okay? 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's class, that they'd arrest him." Stiles adds.
     "All right, fine. I'll allow the remote possibility, but give me a motive. I mean, why would this kid want most of the 2006 swim team and its coach dead?" Sheriff says, the exasperation clear on his face.
     "Isn't it obvious?" Stiles asks and I frown at him. "Our swim team sucks! They haven't won in, like, six years."
    "Not a great motive, Stiles." I mumble under my breath. He just rolls his eyes at me.
    "Okay, we don't have a motive yet. I mean, come on, does Harris?" He asks, turning to his dad.
    "What do you want me to do?" Sheriff asks, and I raise my eyebrows. I think he actually believes Stiles.
     "We need to look at the evidence." Scott says and Sheriff frowns.
     "Yeah, that would be in the station, where I no longer work." He says, over-enunciating his words.
     "Trust me, they'll let you in." Stiles says, desperation creeping into his voice.
     "Trust you?" Sheriff asks, pointing at his son and raising an eyebrow.
     "Trust- trust Scott? Or Tori?" Stiles asks, effectively pulling me into the conversation. Sheriff turns and glances at me before nodding.
     "Those two, I trust." He says and I can't control the grin that takes over my face.
***
The rider over to the station is silent, the only noise Sheriff Stilinski's blinkers as he turns into the parking lot. The second the car is in park, we practically fall over each other to get out of the car. I look over at Stilinski who just frowns at us before shaking his head and nodding towards the door. We all walk in together, and the woman at the desk raises an eyebrow at us.
     "It's two in the morning." She says.
     "Believe me, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't extremely important." Sheriff says, trying to convince her to let us in.
     "We look at the hospital stuff first, okay?" Stiles whispers.
    "What?" I ask with a frown.
     "The files." He explains and I nod, but Scott shakes his head.
     "Why?" Scott asks.
     "Because all the murders were committed by Jackson, except for one." Stiles explains and my eyes widen.
     "The pregnant girl." I say.
     "Yeah. Since Matt had to kill her himself, somebody from the hospital could've seen him." Stiles finishes explaining and I nod in understanding.
     "Thank you." Sheriff Stilinski's voice pulls me out of my thoughts. "Kids." He says, nodding towards the back. I nod at the lady at the desk as we walk past her, heading for Sheriff's old office.
     "Is there any security footage from the night Jessica was killed?" Stiles asks, and Sheriff nods. He digs through some things before pulling out a disc and playing the video on the computer.
     "I don't know, guys. I mean, look at this. There was a six - car pileup that night, the hospital was jammed." He says, gesturing to the screen.
     "All right, just keep going. Look, he had to have passed one of the cameras on that floor to get to Jessica, okay? He's gotta be on the footage somewhere." Stiles insists, and his dad sighs before leaning back and letting the video continue. I watch carefully, scanning the people and trying desperately to find someone that looks like Matt.
     "Oh, hold on, stop! Did you see that? Scroll back." Scott exclaims, pointing at the screen. Sheriff rewinds it and the video slows down as it goes back. My eyes widen when I spot Matt.
    "That's him! That's Matt!" Stiles says, pointing at the figure.
    "All I see is the back of someone's head." Sheriff argues, pausing the video.
     "It's definitely Matt's head." I say, agreeing with Stiles.
     "I sit behind him in history. He's got a very distinct cranium, it's weird." Stiles adds. Sheriff turns to him, his face full of frustration.
     "Are you crazy?" He asks.
    "All right, fine, then look at his jacket, huh? How many people do you know who wear black leather jackets?" Stiles counters and I frown at him.
     "Dean and I both wear leather jackets." I point out and Sheriff nods at me.
     "Literally, millions of people." He says.
     "Okay, can we scroll forward? There's gotta be a shot of him coming at one of the cameras." Scott speaks up. Sheriff nods and hits play.
     "Right there! Stop, stop! See, there he is again." Stiles says, gesturing to the video. I bite my tongue to keep myself from reminding him it's the back of Matt's head. Again.
     "You mean there's the back of his head again." Sheriff argues and I smirk. Great minds think alike.
     "Okay, but look. He's talking to someone." Stiles points out and I frown. Melissa McCall.
     "He's talking to my mom." Scott says, his eyes wide. He pulls his phone out and immediately calls his mom, putting it on speaker and laying the phone on the desk.
     "Mom? I need to ask you about a person you talked to on the night Jessica was murdered." Scott says.
    "Scott, you know how many people I deal with in a day?" She asks with a huff.
     "This one's 16 he's got dark hair, looks like a normal teenager." Scott explains, frowning at Stiles as he leans over the phone.
     "Yeah, he looks evil." Stiles grumbles.
     "Scott, I already talked to the police about this." Melissa complains.
     "Okay, mom, I'm gonna take a picture and send it to you. Did you get it?" Scott adds, quickly taking a picture of Matt from the yearbook and sending it.
     "Yeah." She says. I bite my lip and cross my arms, waiting patiently.
     "Do you recognize him? Do you remember him?" Scott asks rapidly.
     "Yeah, I did. I mean, I remember I stopped him because he was tracking mud in the hall. Scott, what's going on?" Melissa asks, concern in her voice.
     "It's - it's nothing, mom. I'll explain later. I gotta go." Scott says before hanging up. Sheriff quickly shuffles through the files on the desk.
     "We've got shoe prints alongside the tire tracks at the trailer site." He says, shuffling through the papers.
     "And if they match, that puts Matt at the scene of three murders. The trailer, the hospital, and the rave." Stiles says, and Sheriff shakes his head.
      "Actually, four. A credit card receipt for an oil change was signed by Matt at the garage where the mechanic was killed." He adds, standing up. My eyes widen. This has got to be enough to arrest him.
     "When?" Stiles asks.
     "A couple hours before you got there." Sheriff says.
    "All right, dad, if one's an incident, two's a coincidence, and three's a pattern, what's four?" Stiles asks.
     "Four's enough for a warrant." Sheriff says, and Stiles fist pumps in celebration.
    "Scott, call your mom back, see how quick she can get here. If I can get an official ID, I can get a search warrant. Tori, go to the front desk. Tell them to let Scott's mom in when she gets here."
    "On it." I say, rushing to the front. I stop immediately when I realize the guard is gone. "Hello?" I call, looking around. I look behind the desk and my eyes widen when I see her on the ground, her neck and chest covered in blood. I turn to run back to the office, but a gun is pointed right at my head. Matt stares at me and frowns, tears in his eyes. I frown, before immediately going on the defense. I rear my arm back and try to punch him, missing as he whacks my arm with the gun. I stumble a bit, and kick around, trying to knock him down. But I can't think. Everything is hitting me again and I fight back tears. Not now. Not now. Break later, not now. I pull back again to try to hit him, when a loud shot rings through the station. I stumble back against the desk, yelling out in pain. I hear yells from the other room, but my focus is all on Matt.
     "You could stop me. And I don't want you to." Matt says, his face snarled in anger. I grab my shoulder and glare at him as Stiles runs into the room.
     "Tor- shit." He says, the gun now aimed at him instead.
     "Go." Matt hisses, pointing towards Stilinski's office. I push myself away from the desk, following right behind Stiles, wincing at the pain in my shoulder. As we walk into the office, Sheriff and Scott start to move towards us.
     "Don't." I warn, and they both turn and look at me, their eyes wide. Guess they didn't think I was the one to get shot. I glance down at my shoulder, trying hard not to puke at the amount of blood.
     "Time to talk." Matt says, his gun unwavering. This took a turn.
***
So it's not really present in this chapter, but Tori is going to have a really hard time. The rest of this season is not going to be easy on her. As always, comment and vote!

LydiaRoseMartin