Chapter Text
"Are you going to call him?" Deputy McKenzie asked him while they looked at the half body in the hole. This was not an ordinary crime, the Sheriff knew that, starting with how they found out about this body until everything related to it. "I already called, he'll be here in no time now." he answered while getting up, checking everything around the area, to be sure he wasn't missing anything.
"Who?" A younger deputy asks his partner.
"Detetive Stilinski." McKenzie answered.
"Who?"
"His father used to be the Sheriff before Sheriff Parrish."
"I didn't know we have a detective in the Beacon Hills"
"Not here, from the county."
Jordan let the two young men at that because he saw Stiles parking his Jeep so he walked up to meet him. “Detetive.” Parrish said in his professional tone, reaching out Stiles’s hand. "Sheriff." The other man retributed his professionalism.
“What do we have here?” They start to walk up to the crime scene. Jordan picks up his notebook and starts to explain. "Woman, early 20’s, there is only one half of her body buried in a shallow grave, the top half, we also find out a wire shallow buried forming a spiral symbol large enough to cover the entire place." Parrish finished and dropped to Stiles level when he kneels, close to the hole. "Have you ever seen anything like this before Stiles?" Jordan asks sincerely curious.
"Unfortunately, yes." Stiles looked around the preserve wondering if Hale House used to be here before it was torn down."Many years ago, before I was a detective, before you even came to Beacon Hills." Jordan frowned at the fact that Stiles wasn’t in the law enforcement before he came to Beacon Hills, but didn’t comment. "What does that mean?" He asks instead, pointing to the spiral wire.
"Nothing good." Stiles answered, parroting Derek’s answer to Scott 10 years ago. He got up and walked around checking every detail that may be missed by the cops, not that he thought Parrish would make a mistake, Damn he was already fucking precise as a rookie, he manages to be even worse as a Sheriff, but this one was too close to home for Stiles don’t give a second look. Yeah, he had seen it before, that's exactly how it all started. Well, almost, since the first half of Laura's body was not buried when he took Scott to that forest in the past and here he was seeing half of a woman's body buried just like Laura’s one they found one night after Scott had been bitten.
So this crime scene raised some important questions. (a) Was this body positioned near the former Hale house? (b) the other body’s part is in that forest as well? and why hasn't the Sheriff found it first or yet? (c) was this really a supernatural case? Was this woman a werewolf? (d) Was that symbol something random or was it really a Hale's revenge he was seen here? (e) In that case, which Hale was behind this revenge and why? Stiles mentally listed the Hales still alive. Peter, his primer suspect, because he is… you know, Peter, and he was the one who killed Laura so… But, he was in Eichen House so, Stiles had to check it, with Peter we never know. Cora, but as per everybody knows she was in Brazil, they spoke last week, but of course she could be elsewhere at time and lastly Derek, he hasn't heard from him for 4 years now, 4 damn years. Not even Cora has ever mentioned her brother to him and Stiles has never dared to ask.
Stiles decided to start with the questions that were most likely to be answered by the Sheriff, so he turned to Jordan who walked beside him and was also looking closely at every detail in the wet earth to see if he could find any other piece of evidence that might help with the case. “And what about the other half…” Stiles stopped mid-sentence because, even after 10 years with the wolves fighting the supernatural world, witch 4 of them being on law enforcement, he didn't get used to this type of violence. "...the other half of the body?" he finally finished the sentence, feeling the bitterness of his words come to his mouth.
"We're searching the entire place, but the dogs haven't been able to track anything yet." Stiles shrugged, thinking about his second question. But this was one that Parrish wouldn't know how to answer, maybe Lydia, but if she wasn't here, she probably hasn't caught anything yet or… "How did you get to the body… I mean… this half of the body." Stiles asked and noticed Parrish's slight hesitation. "Lydia." He said almost in a whisper without needing to explain further, Stiles nodded and continued to walk beside Parrish. After a few more silent minutes, as they walked away from the deputies dotted around the crime scene, Stiles stopped and looked at Jordan asking in the same tone the Sheriff had just used. "We need to know if she's a werewolf." Parrish nodded before speaking. "Issac is off today, but I'll call him, I'll tell him we need backup." Stiles knew Isaac wouldn't be happy to be taken from his day off, but the sun was already coloring the sky in tiny orange hues and soon it would be dusk and the light rain that was now falling wouldn't take long to get stronger and would end up taking away all the evidence, if there was any, either from here or any other crime scene at the preserve so, if the other half was here, they need to find it right way.
Their better chance was to find it in the same location as the previous one was found by his father, but for obvious reasons Stiles avoided that forest whenever he could and nobody would question him over that, and, despite the various supernatural events that had taken place in recent years, the forest had ceased to be their main focus of it anyway. So Stiles didn't know this place as well as before, big fucking supernatural tree involved or not, not as good as Derek or Scotty at all. He could call Scott and… Stiles closed his eyes and shook his head as if to wake up from a trance. For a moment he forgot…
"Do it." Stiles replied dryly and Parrish didn't even question him as he knew there was a bigger reason for his change of mood.
The fourth question could not be answered with the information he had right now, which took him to the fifth and final one. Which Hale was looking for revenge? Cora was further away as he knew and he didn't know Derek's whereabouts. That left him with Peter. Stiles snorted, he hated the man more than anything but he had no choice here, he should go to Eichen House to talk to him. He looked at his watch, 5pm. “Damn!” He couldn't get anything this late, because breaking into mental institutions to talk to a patient there without a warrant, as well as waking up judges in the middle of the night to get said warrant, could work in movies and series. In real life not so much.
He ran a hand through his long hair as he paced back and forth feeling useless and when he lifted his head to look around and saw all the cops looking at him like he'd grown a horn or something he realized that his attitude was probably looking a little manic. “Shit,” he thought, then waved at everyone and decided to leave, since there was nothing else he could do around there.
Ten minutes later, Stiles maneuvered the Jeep onto the main road towards Beacon Hills, Jordan had promised to update him if something else came up after Issac made his thing so Stiles was replaying the entire scene trying to remember every detail of the same scene 10 years ago. The victim's age and gender, the position of the body, the spiral symbol. It was all the same, except that Laura was a wolf when he and Scott found her turning back to human form only after they took the spiral out. Derek had said later about the symbol to them, a symbol of revenge. Peter explained the origin of the symbol years later and Stiles cursed for knowing so much about the Hales, about Derek… he stopped the car sharply, squeezing his hand against the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white before calming down and looking around.
Only then, he realized where he had driven to. “Fuck.” He cursed and leaned his head against the bench behind him, closing his eyes as he breathed trying to calm himself down. He had no idea how he got here. 'Driving is obvious'. But, he didn't know how his body acted so automatically bringing him to that damn building. He knew he would need to come here eventually, of course, because 'the man' was the third Hale on the list and with no clues to his whereabouts, the only possible place to start investigating would be his loft. But this was also the last place they…
Stiles couldn't finish his thought, because his heart ached so much at the memory and screwed his head, now, filled with images of the older man that flashed by, like a cliché music clip from the 2000s. Derek’s laugh while standing near the stairs or in the kitchen making breakfast in only sweatpants when Stiles hugged him from behind. Or Derek twisting with desire and snatching Stiles against the counter…suddenly just the empty loft. Stiles couldn't stop the tear that had been burning in the back of his eyes since he got there, from falling down onto his stupid anguished face.
"Fuck" Stiles said as he turned off the key of his jeep and slammed the door shut as he let out. He was here so better get this over with. He took the gun from the holster under his shirt, pointed it forward defensively, and headed toward the imposing building that towered in front of him.