Howl

The Jacket

Stakeouts with Dad was one of my favourite things to do - besides curling up in bed and binge-watching NCIS. The thing was, the stakeout itself was boring beyond anyone's imagination. Nothing usually happens and I always end up falling asleep in the back seat. But the thing that I actually liked about it, was that we got to spend some time with Dad. And also because it was the only time when Stiles allowed us to get takeout.

"Did they forget my curly fries?" Dad muttered as a few cars passed us.

Stiles rummaged through the bag, flashing Dad a stern look, "You're not supposed to eat fries, especially the curly ones."

"In that case..." I leaned over and grabbed the bag from him, finding my chicken nuggets and taking the curly fries as well.

Dad shrugged, "I'm carrying a lethal weapon. If I want the curly fries, I will have the curly fries."

"Too late." I grinned and stuffed a few in my mouth, muttering almost incoherently, "And I'm PMSing, which makes me a lethal weapon you don't want to be arguing with."

Dad gaped at me before holding up his hands in surrender, "Alright, then. Keep the curly fries and I'll have the salad - that's what a responsible father would do, right?"

I smiled and rested my chin on his shoulder, "Exactly."

The radio on the dash suddenly buzzed before a voice came over, "Unit 1, do you copy?"

Stiles jumped at the opportunity and reached out towards it. Dad, on the other hand, was quicker and slapped my brother on the hand. The two of them were in a mini stare off before Stiles caved and leaned back in his seat. I couldn't wait for him to become a cop one day - what else would he do? He literally lives and breathes crime scenes and mysteries.

"Unit 1, copy," Dad spoke into the radio.

Stiles turned around and grabbed the curly fries from my hands, stuffing the last of them in his mouth. I would've never been okay with him taking my food, but the poor boy's ego just took a dip. Let him have the fries.

"Got a report of a possible 1-80-7." The radio buzzed.

Stiles jerked his head to the side, fries sticking out of his mouth like tentacles, "A murder?"

"Yeah." Dad confirmed and started the car, "Now look, I didn't expect this stakeout to take an unexpected turn like this - which is exactly why I brought you along. I need you to promise me that you'll just let the cops do their job, stay out of the scene."

Though he was looking more at Stiles than me, I also gave him my word that I would keep my nose out of it. There have been a few times that I just couldn't help to play Mystery Inc. with Stiles in Dad's cases. Usually, we were let off the hook after he grounded us for a week. But there were one or two cases that we totally messed up. Let's not get into detail about the punishment, though.

The murder scene was at the video store. It half scared me, since it was the store where I usually came to rent movies on a boring weekend. In fact, I was planning on coming here tonight if Dad didn't take us on his stakeout - what a turn of event that would've been. Dad told Stiles and me to stay in the car before leaving to do his job. We watched the police and EMT's marching about the scene and heard some of the conversations. They were still retrieving the body from inside the building, but apparently, there were two eyewitnesses of the person or thing who did this.

However, as some of them cleared away from the ambulance, we finally saw who the other two unfortunate souls were: Jackson and Lydia. Stiles muttered a 'no way' under his breath, while I couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if they weren't as lucky as the police said they were. I scoffed. Couldn't the murderer kill Jackson's ego just a little bit?