Destiny [D.H.]

22

We walked into the sheriff's office and Stiles said, "We look at the hospital stuff first, okay?"

"Why?" Scott asked.

"All the murders were committed by Jackson, except for one. Remember?"

Scott nodded. "The pregnant girl, Jessica."

"Yeah. Since Matt had to kill her himself, somebody from the hospital could've seen him."

"Thank you. Boys. Ella," Sheriff said before my father continued to look through video footage. "I don't know, guys. I mean, look at this. There was a six car pileup the night the hospital was jammed."

Stiles waved his hand impatiently. "All right, just keep going. Look, he had to have passed one of the cameras on that floor to get Jessica, okay? He's gotta be on the footage somewhere."

My father continued to run the video when something, or rather, someone, caught my eye. "Stop!"

Scott nodded, seeing what I was getting at and said, "Oh, hold on, stop! Did you see that? Scroll back."

"That's him!" Stiles exclaimed.

"That's Matt!" I told them.

Sheriff Stilinski frowned. "All I see is the back of someone's head."

"Matt's head, yeah," Stiles said. "I sit behind him in history. He's got a very distinct cranium. It's weird."

"Are you crazy?"

"All right, fine, then look at his jacket, huh? How many people do you know who wear black leather jackets?"

"Millions, literally. Eliana wears one sometimes."

I moved my hand in a rolling motion. "Enough about jackets. Can we scroll forward? I'm sure we can a shot of find him facing the camera."

My father played the video and Stiles yelled, "Right there! Stop, stop! See, there he is again."

My dad frowned. "You mean the back of his head."

Stiles shot my dad a look. "Okay, but look. He's talking to someone."

"He's talking to my mom," Scott realized.

Scott dialed his mom's number and began talking to her. I tuned out their conversation and focused my attention on the screen. What I didn't understand was why Matt was controlling Jackson. Was it some ploy for revenge? An attempt to prove something? Something else? I wasn't sure what and I hated not knowing.

When Scott finished his call, he looked to me and Stiles and nodded, letting us know we were right.

Sheriff Stilinski said, "We've got shoe prints alongside the tire tracks at the trailer site."

"And if they match, that puts Matt at the scene of three murders," Stiles said.

I nodded. "The trailer, the hospital and the rave."

"Actually, four," the sheriff corrected. "A credit card receipt for an oil change was signed by Matt at the garage where the mechanic was killed."

"When?" Stiles asked.

Sheriff looked at the time stamp and then his son before saying, "A couple hours before you got there."

"All right, Dad, if one's an incident, two's a coincidence and three's a pattern, what's four?"

"Four's enough for a warrant. Scott, call your mom back, and see how quick she can get here. If Officer Hart and I can get an official ID, we can get a search warrant. Stiles, go to the front desk. Tell them to let Scott's mom in when she gets here. Ella, you're with me. You've got good eyes and I want you to help me look for anything we might have missed."