Appetite for Destruction

The Right To Remain Silent

The door opened and I raised an eyebrow when the Sheriff entered the room. "Richards, take a break." He told the deputy. "Go grab a coffee or something."

Richards much have heard the order beneath the suggestion and gave a short nod before leaving the room. The Sheriff waited for the door to close behind the man before taking a deep breath, and I sighed as I waited for the same questions I'd been asked all day to be repeated.

"Did you or your brother have anything to do with the death of your sister?"

"No." I said, growing tired of saying the word over and over again. This was honestly exhausting, and with every passing minute my anger at Scott grew. Why couldn't he have just left it alone?

"She was buried in your yard." The Sheriff said as if I didn't know that. I scoffed and looked out the window. "You two haven't set foot in Beacon Hills in years, and then the day after your sister's body is found in the woods you and your brother are spotted in town, then we find her body buried outside your old house. You can see why that looks suspicious."

I grit my teeth, still not looking at him. "We came here looking for Laura," I said, bitterness creeping into my tone. "She sent us a weird text and then wouldn't answer her phone. We got worried, came back here to find her." I took a steadying breath, blinking away the image of Laura's mutilated body from my vision. "We heard a body had been found in the woods. We didn't believe it was her until..."

The Sheriff's expression softened a fraction. "Do you know how she died?" He asked, a little kinder than before. I grit my teeth, trying to come up with some sort of explanation; a werewolf had killed her, but it was the Hunters who had cut her body in half. But that wasn't something I could tell the police - not unless I wanted to be put in a straightjacket.

"A wolf killed her." I said after a moment, and the Sheriff raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"How do you know a wolf did it?"

"My aunt worked in a rehabilitation preserve for wild animals," I lied easy, schooling my expression into something appropriate. "She had a special interest in wolves."

He seemed to consider that for a second. "Okay, let's say I believe you - why didn't you report it when you found her body? Why bury her in a shallow grave with no funeral, no nothing?"

I fixed the man with a hard stare. "The only family we have left is our uncle, and he's been in a coma for six years and probably wouldn't understand if we told him." I said tonelessly. "We buried her because we couldn't deal with the people, the paperwork, or the fees. When our family died in that fire we couldn't have a funeral for them either, so we buried Laura at the house because that's where they were. It's what she would have wanted."

Playing the sympathy card looked like it was working. The Sheriff pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Laura's body is being autopsied. If you're telling the truth, you and your brother will be free to go." He stepped up to the table and uncuffed my hands, shrugging when I raised an eyebrow at him. "This door locks." He told me when he opened the door to leave. "And just to remind you, you are being recorded."

He left me alone to wait for what I guessed would be another boring few hours.

-x-x-x-

It took 24 hours for us to be released from police custody. 

We got lucky. When the Wolfsbane was removed from around the grave Laura had transformed back, but a few wolf hairs remained on her body and that, along with the brutality of the death, was enough for them to determine it was an animal that had killed her, not us.

After our release I managed - just barely - to convince Derek to let me be the one to talk to Scott because I wasn't entirely convinced he wouldn't just kill the teenager. A long argument and a broken window later, Derek gave me Scott's address (I didn't even ask why he knew where Scott lived and put it down to Derek being all creepy-stalker-wolf to freak the boy out) and I found myself climbing through the open window to his bedroom like the creepy-stalker-wolf I'd labelled Derek as.