I N S T I N C T | Jackson Whittemore

46: till death do us part

Till Death do us Part
Chapter 46

"So this kid's the real killer?" Sheriff stared down at the photo of a kid named Matt in the yearbook.

Stiles nodded, "Yeah."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No."

Stiles huffed, "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."

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

Stiles looked at Scott, sighing, "All right, okay, you're right, sorry. Then I guess they dropped the charges against him?"

Sheriff shook his head, "No, you know what? They're not dropping the charges. But that doesn't prove anything."

"H–" Stiles's father cut him off.

"Scott, do you believe this?" Sheriff questioned.

Scott swallowed, feeling put on the spot, "It's really hard to explain how we know this, but you just gotta trust us," he paused. "We know it's Matt."

Stiles nodded, "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."

Sheriff nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose, "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?"

Stiles scoffed, "Isn't it obvious? Our swim team sucks! They haven't won in, like, six years... Okay, we don't have a motive yet. I mean, come on, does Harris?"

Sheriff took a moment, and then realized that for once in his life, everything Stiles just said was true, "What do you want me to do?"

Scott nodded, "We need to look at the evidence."

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

"Trust me, they'll let you in," his son nodded.

Sheriff sighed, "Trust you?"

Stiles raised his eyebrows, pointing at Scott over his shoulder, "Tr-trust Scott?"

Sheriff nodded, sighing, "... Scott I trust."

Believing to trust Scott over his own flesh and blood, the three boys headed down to the station at 2 AM. Most of the deputies had already gone home to be with their families, but a few were still wandering around the station... thank goodness, they all still looked up to their past Sheriff.

"It's 2:00 in the morning," the night shift Deputy sighed, pinching his nose.

Sheriff nodded, sighing, feeling stupid that he had to put himself through this, "Believe me, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't extremely important."

Sheriff gave the Deputy one last reassuring look before hearing the buzz to the door being opened. As Stiles rushed to catch up with his father, he hit his fist into his flat hand, whispering to Scott...

"We look at the hospital stuff first, okay?" Stiles nodded.

"Why?"

"Because all the murders were committed by Jackson, except for one, you remember?"