Fic: That Stiles Stilinski, He's A Marshmallow Written for the 2013/2014 Sterek Big Bang
Title: That Stiles Stilinksi, He's A Marshmallow
Author: lazydazyfics
Artist: delacours
Genre: Alternate Universe; Fusion
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~20k
Warnings: Veronica Mars Fusion
Summary: Stiles used to be part of the in-crowd. His Dad used to be the Sheriff. Then his best friend was murdered and everything went wrong. Now Stiles is left out in the cold because his Dad arrested the wrong person and his former friends are holding it against him. His Dad, reputation in tatters, became a Private Investigator in order to keep Stiles at school and Stiles, in turn, uses this to run his own investigations. Ultimately, he uses it to find out the truth about Laura Hale’s death in order to exonerate himself, his Dad and Derek, the person his Dad initially arrested. His search for the truth takes him through emotions he had been trying to avoid and results in a relationship forming that had long been wanted and repressed.
That Stiles Stilinski, He’s A Marshmallow
Stiles sat at one of the outer benches outside the cafeteria with his plate of what he could only describe as ‘goop’, pushing it around with his fork as he contemplated what it might taste like and whether it might actually be good for him. His contemplation was interrupted when Scott unceremoniously dumped his bag on the table next to him, plonked himself on his seat and started to bemoan the amount of homework they’d been given seeing as it was still only lunchtime.
“Hey Scott,” Stiles said over the rant.
“....and what is that?!” Scott finished gesturing at Stiles’ food.
Stiles looked from Scott to his plate and shrugged as his lips quirked into a smile. “I haven’t quite worked it out yet.”
“Hey! Did you see there’s a new girl? Means I’m not the newbie anymore and she’s dead hot too,” Scott said excitedly, getting completely distracted from his original train of thought as per usual.
“Anything in a skirt is dead hot to you... and me for that matter,” Stiles said as he watched Lydia walk past.
“There she is!” Scott whispered as he punched Stiles’ shoulder.
Stiles was still too busy watching Lydia, but as she reached the table where the in-crowd always sat, she turned and said something that had the crowd laughing. Stiles realised that she was making a snide remark about Allison Argent and realised that was who Scott had been pointing at.
“She’s not new,” Stiles laughed, “she’s been ostracised by the in-crowd since her dad was arrested for the Hale murder. You probably just hadn’t noticed her yet, what with all your walking around with your eyes closed.”
Scott squeaked in protest as a bell rang out across the yard and Stiles sighed. He’d got an entire afternoon of classes watching Jackson paw all over Lydia and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Especially as they’d left him alone for a couple of days which meant that they were due an almighty blow-out of Stiles bashing.
With one of his rare moments of actually paying attention to Stiles’ mood, Scott looked at him and said, “The afternoon’ll be over before you know it, then we can get outta here!”
“Yeah, it’s what’s going to happen before it’s over that I’ve gotta get through first,” Stiles muttered in response.
He dumped the rest of his food in the trash, leaving the tray on top of it as normal and then made his way with Scott to their lockers. They had five minutes before class and he wanted to swap his books over. Scott didn’t seem to worry too much about learning in class, but went along with swapping his books over whilst watching Allison walk down the corridor with a dreamy look on his face.
The in-crowd also walked past and Stiles looked at them as he remembered the time, not so long ago, when he had been an integral part of that group. Him and his best friend, Laura Hale. They’d been a force to be reckoned with and he certainly hadn’t been bullied by any of the group the way they did now. Even when they completely ignored him he felt like it was another way of getting to him.
Really, it was another way of them getting to him even if they weren’t doing it on purpose because it was getting to him. It hadn’t been that long since he had been a part of that group, fully integrated, everyone laughing at his jokes and telling him their secrets. Participating in all their parties and nights out, falling in and out of love (or, more likely, crush) and basically owning the place. Then his life had been turned upside down and inside out.
Laura Hale had been murdered. She was his best friend in the whole entire world. They’d told each other stuff that neither had ever told anyone else. They had hung out all the time and whenever they’d had boy or girlfriends and been hanging out with them they’d texted each other the entire time. So much so that their respective others always ended up suggesting double dates just so that they wouldn’t be glued to their phones all night. And no, they didn’t fancy each other, boys can have best friends that are girls without it involving all that icky stuff. They’d been best friends since they’d dug up Stiles’ back garden, originally in order to make mud pies, but mud bombs had worked so much better. Since that day they had been practically inseparable. Until she had died.
A lot of things had happened following her death. One of which had been the arrest of her murderer by his dad, only to be so completely wrong that the public humiliation and ostracism had spread as far as Stiles’ life. His father had been the Sheriff at the time of Laura’s murder and he had worked his butt off to try and solve the case. He was a hard worker whatever the job threw at him, but with this one he was working to help his son get over the death of a person held dear to him and he had worked day and night to get to the bottom of it. It had culminated in him arresting Derek Hale, Laura’s brother, which in turn had culminated in him being fired as sheriff for getting it so wrong and slandering the name of a prominent family. He now worked as a private detective to keep a roof over their heads and Stiles helped him out, using the opportunity to investigate things himself on the side in order to earn a bit of extra cash for himself. They got by, but they had been shunned by anyone that was anyone in the town so it had been a struggle to start off with, his dad struggling to get work so that they could carry on living there and Stiles finding himself outcast by all his friends.
Even though he was dawdling whilst he mulled over his life, he still made it to class in time. Dumping his bag on the floor he pulled his books and pens out in preparation and startled when a face suddenly appeared mere inches from his.
“I need your help,” Isaac said to him urgently.
“Dude, a little space? Please!” Stiles said as he leant away from Isaac so that their nose’s weren’t practically touching. “What with?”
Isaac sat back on his haunches. “I’ve had something stolen from me. Something important. Will you help me get it back?”
“In your seats, people, it’s a classroom not a dating arena!” Mr Finstock shouted, putting a stop to their conversation.
Isaac jumped up and grabbed the nearest available seat as Stiles nodded at him. He wouldn’t have said no anyway, his curiosity was always peaked by people asking for his help. It did mean, though, that he spent the rest of the class only half paying attention to the lesson as he tried to work out what it was that Isaac wanted his help with. He was pleased when the bell went so that he could speak to him again about it.
“So, Isaac,” he said as they left the classroom together. “What’s happened that you need the help of the one and only Stiles Stilinski?”
He grinned widely as he looked at Isaac expectantly.
“Come with me,” Isaac said, heading off towards his locker.
Stiles followed behind, ignoring the glares and the snide remarks from Jackson and Co. as they passed by. He rolled his eyes. Anyone would think it was him that had killed Laura the way they all carried on.
“Look.” Isaac pointed at his locker. “Someone’s broken into it.”
He fiddled with the damaged locker until the combination he needed clicked into place and he was able to unlock it. He reached into the back, under all his other stuff, and pulled out a tobacco tin.
“Woah, I didn’t sign up for that!” Stiles exclaimed, hands up as he made to back off, assuming the tobacco tin would contain something far more leaf-like.
“No, wait!” Isaac replied grabbing Stiles’ arm. “It’s not what you think.”
He opened the tin and showed the inside to Stiles. “See, it’s empty. It shouldn’t be, but it is!”
He pulled a photo off his locker door and unfolded it. It was of him and Camden and their dad. He’d folded his dad out of the picture when he stuck it to the inside of his locker.
“Look,” he said, pointing at the picture. “They’re supposed to be in this tin. Someone’s taken them.”
“You sure you’ve not just put them somewhere else?” Stiles asked.
“Of course I’m sure!” Isaac replied, affronted. “Camden’s dogtags and this photo are all that I’ve got for myself to remember him by. And I’ve only got these because Dad doesn’t know I have them. And I’m lucky to have these, I’m not even allowed in the shrine that used to be his bedroom.”
Stiles laid a hand on Isaac’s shoulder in support. He could see that the whole thing was extremely upsetting to him.
“When we were told Camden had died in action,” Isaac gulped a little to clear his throat and compose himself, “they gave Dad his dogtags. He spent the rest of the night drinking, as if that would change the truth. Eventually he got so mad that he threw the dogtags out. It was like them not being in the house meant Camden would still come home.”
Isaac paused and Stiles waited patiently for him to continue.
“After Dad passed out I went and rescued them. I guess I knew that I wouldn’t get anything else if I didn’t do this, what with him being the favourite and all.” Isaac shrugged. “So, you think you can get them back for me?”
Stiles noted the desperation in Isaac’s eyes. Linked to the sad fact that his brother had been a favourite not just at school, as Stiles could remember how popular he had been in comparison to Isaac, but at home as well, it made him even more determined to help out in this small way.
“Don’t worry, you’ve got the best man on the job,” he declared patting Isaac’s shoulder again.
Inside he was secretly hoping that the tears that looked ready to fall wouldn’t as he had no idea how to proceed if they did. Luckily, Isaac was able to hold it together having been given the hope that his brothers dogtags would be found so Stiles didn’t have to deal with any tears.
“Thanks,” Isaac replied with a grateful smile.
“I’m going to need to go over some details with you,” Stiles said just as the bell rang, “but I guess we’ll have to postpone that ‘til after class.”
Isaac nodded and they headed their separate ways for the last lesson of the day. Stiles’ head was already starting to catalogue the information and list the questions he needed to ask Isaac before he could get his teeth into this one. He spent most of his last lesson thinking about it rather than paying attention to class, but it wasn’t a problem as his thinking face seemed to be the same as his concentrating face because the teacher didn’t pick up on his in-attention. Unlike Scott’s, which was the only moment of the class that Stiles tuned into and quite hilarious too, to see his friends face go so red so quickly.
The bell rang signaling the end of the lesson and Stiles and Scott made their way to the changing rooms for basketball practice. Scott was currently on the starting line with Stiles on the bench, as was Isaac, so Stiles figured he could use the time to ask him some questions.
As per usual, Stiles was left out on the edge of the bench on his own whereas Isaac was sat in amongst the others. Even when his fellow students were indifferent about him they still made an effort to seem as though they were completely ignoring him. Mostly because they thought it would give them a better chance of becoming part of the in-crowd if they disassociated themselves from him. Stiles knew it wouldn’t help them, but generally just rolled his eyes and got on with things. Isaac usually sat by himself but Stiles had seen him come out to the bench first and the others had surrounded him. It was as if they knew he wanted to speak to him.
Taking a deep breath he got up, walked over to Isaac and sat in the tiny space next to him.
“Excuse me, pardon me, small one coming in!” he said as he wiggled his bum, pushing both Isaac and the boy the other side of him until he had enough room to sit comfortably.
“Hi!” he smiled at Isaac.
“Hey,” Isaac replied.
“Seeing as we won’t be doing much right now, thought it’d be a good time to start my investigation.”
Isaac glared at him. “I didn’t do it myself!”
“I know that,” said Stiles, “I just need to find out if you have any information that might help me. For starters, is there any one that you’ve argued with lately?”
“Oh! Umm, I don’t think so.” Isaac thought for a moment. “No, not really had anyone to argue with.”
“Check!” Stiles said ticking off the question from an imaginary list and making Isaac half laugh and half roll his eyes.
“Next question. Can you have upset someone without knowing about it?” Stiles asked.
“Well,” Isaac paused, “if I have, I’m completely unaware!”
“Oh, you know what I mean,” Stiles replied.
“No, no I really don’t.” Isaac looked at him expectantly.
“Well, you might not know what you did to upset them, but maybe one of your friends or someone is glaring at you or acting differently to usual?” explained Stiles.
“Right, I see.” Isaac sat and thought for a moment. “No, not that I can think of. Did you want me to keep an eye out and see if I notice anything?”
“Yes, that would be a good idea. Do any of your friends know that the dogtags are normally kept there?” Stiles continued thoughtfully.
“I’m not sure anyone really knows about it. I hadn’t really told anyone about it but I do look at them every now and then, just to check they’re still there and, well, you know….”
Stiles nodded. “When was the last time you looked at them? Prior to discovering it gone.”
“A couple of days ago. It’s coming up to the anniversary. I tend to look at them more around this time,” Isaac told him as he looked out across the gymnasium.
Stiles stayed quiet for a moment to allow Isaac some time. He had blundered into his questioning without realising that it was close to the anniversary of Camden’s death.
After a while he asked quietly, “Does anyone know how important they are to you?”
“I don’t think so,” Isaac replied turning to look at Stiles. “You’re the first person I’ve ever properly shown them to, well talked about them with seeing as I couldn’t actually show you them.” He shrugged. “ I’ve never really spoken to anyone else about it. Dad’s always bemoaning the death of his hero son and I can tell he hates that it wasn’t me and Camden’s friends never really struck me as people I could properly talk to about it all.”
“Wow, I’m pretty privileged then,” Stiles said, unsure of how else to respond.
“You have a reputation for resolving people’s problems and being discrete about it. If the dogtags hadn’t been stolen you’d still be unaware of them.”
Stiles breathed out a puff of air he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. What Isaac said was right, however much it being said aloud was like being punched in the gut. He had never been that much of a friend to Isaac, either now or before when he was popular, that Isaac would have felt able to start a conversation with him about his brother. It hurt that this was so plainly true. Isaac was a bit of a loner but he was one of the people who had never actively distanced himself from Stiles. He inwardly cursed himself at his stupidity and made himself a promise not to be so ignorant again.
“I think I’ve got all the answers I need from you now. I’ve got some ideas of avenues I can follow and I’m confident that they’ll bring the dogtags to light.” He paused knowing what he had to say next and hating that he had to say it - he never could stand asking for money. “It will be at a small fee though, I’ve got school books to buy.”
Isaac nodded and their conversation ended. Basketball went on as usual and it wasn’t long before they were all back in the changing rooms and headed off from school for the day. Scott bounced around Stiles with excitement about how well he’d done that session and Stiles let him, only half listening. Eventually they were done and headed to Stiles’ jeep.
“You need dropping at Deaton’s?” Stiles asked.
“Yeah if you can that’d be good seeing as I’ve got to work,” replied Scott.
“You trying to say I don’t work?” Stiles responded with a raised eyebrow and they both laughed.
Once Stiles had dropped Scott at the veterinary surgery to help Deaton with feeding the animals (making sure to crack a joke about Scott not forgetting to feed himself), he headed to the office space his Dad had rented out when he set up as a private investigator.
He tended to do reception type work whenever he was able, having a desk in the outer office that was set up for him to be able to plug his laptop in, the proviso being that he did his homework whilst he was helping. Stiles simply translated this proviso into doing the smaller investigative jobs to assist his dad, his homework pretty much always being up to scratch.
He connected his laptop up, automatically connecting it to the printer and scanner whilst he called out to see if his dad was there. He didn’t receive an answer so he headed into the other office to double check. It wasn’t unlikely for his father to be too busy to answer him, or too engrossed in his work to hear that he had called out, and at times like that it generally meant that he hadn’t eaten or had much to drink all day and therefore would be in need of Stiles looking after him. For once, that wasn’t the case. The door was ajar and on opening it to go in Stiles saw straight away that his dad wasn’t in. He was intrigued, however, by the state the office had been left in.
There were papers all over the desk and the filing cabinet that his dad was usually meticulous about keeping locked to keep Stiles out of it, was open. The top drawer slightly ajar. Stiles was unable to resist. He had no idea where his dad had gone, nor how long he was going to be so it only took him a split second to decide that whilst he had the opportunity he was going to look in the forbidden cabinet. He had always been banned from going in this filing cabinet and his dad had always locked it telling him that the investigations within it weren’t for the eyes of a child. This always caused the argument that Stiles didn’t seem himself as a child, he was more adult than anyone he knew his age and at the very least his dad could call him a teenager rather than liken him to an age where toys are most important. The rant never worked, his dad normally just responded by laughing and telling him that once he saw him act as an adult he’d consider letting him see the work within.
His hands were trembling as he pulled the top drawer open a little further, spotting straight away that the files were alphabetised. A quick look through turned up nothing of real interest so he pushed it to and moved quickly onto the next drawer. As Stiles started leafing through files within this one he wondered why it was that his dad considered them too serious, intricate or sensitive for him to be party to. So far he could only see cases where wives felt husbands were cheating on them, missing people and one family feud that was believed to have ended in murder. He felt affronted that his dad didn’t trust him to keep to himself that there were adulterers in town. As if he’d want to gossip about such things!
He was sure that the files inside the cabinet weren’t saved to the computer as he had spent many a night hacking his dad’s network and password protected files and found nothing that he would deem to be interesting or worthy enough to be hidden from him. He really had thought that the interesting stuff would have been in the filing cabinet but so far he was drawing a blank. He pulled the drawer out further as he reached towards the back, but it jammed slightly. Reaching his hand inside he caught hold of another file that had got stuck in the mechanism of the cabinet. He carefully prised it free and pulled it out. He had just started to think that this drawer had nothing of interest in it, but his mind went into overdrive when he managed to free the file enough to see the label on it.
HALE
“Holy shit!” Stiles gasped glancing behind him to make sure his dad hadn’t come in without him noticing.
He turned back to the file and went to open it. His hands shook as he did so knowing that the only reason his dad would have a file labelled Hale, especially locked away like this, was because it was a continuation of the investigation into Laura's death. Stiles could think of no other reason for one to be locked away and it made the entire existence of the locked cabinet finally make sense to him. The other files in the cabinet looked pretty standard, boring even. Files on peoples love lives, files on stolen artefacts, even the occasional missing person. Nothing that his dad would normally say he couldn't get involved in. The only logical reason why he was locking the cabinet was to stop Stiles from finding the one file that was actually important. The Hale murder file. Opening the folder purely confirmed all the thoughts racing through his mind.
He started to flick through the file and winced when he saw the death pictures. Even though he had managed to see them at the time of the original investigation, it was still difficult to see his best friend like that. Blood around her head, eyes wide and glassy, mouth agape. Lifeless. Shrugging off the image he carried on looking through the file, then a noise from the other room made him jump.
He ran to the door and peered out only to find that the noise had been a breeze coming in through the open window and rattling the blind. It did help to make him realise that standing and looking through the file then and there wasn’t a good idea as his dad could return at any moment. He quickly went to the scanner and started to scan the file in page by page, making sure to keep it in order so that it could be put back in the drawer the same way he’d found it. His dad obviously didn’t want him to know about it so he needed to make sure he didn’t raise any suspicions.
Once the scanning was done he put the file back in the cabinet, making sure to push it right to the back where he had found it. Then he repositioned the cabinet back to how he had first spotted it and left the office. No sooner had he settled back at his desk, working on his computer as though he had spent his entire time in the office sat there that evening, his dad walked through the door with a client.
"Hey Stiles," his dad greeted him as he showed his client, a rather wealthy looking blonde lady, to his office.
“Hey dad,” Stiles replied trying his best not to look shifty.
“This is our new client, Mrs Welton, please can you bring a tray of coffee in,” his dad asked him as he followed her into his office and closed the door.
Stiles was thankful to see that he was far too engrossed in charming the elegant Mrs Welton to obtain her business, and therefore her money, to notice whether anything was amiss with Stiles. He went over to the small area where they had cups and coffee making facilities and did as he was told. Once done, he sat back at his desk and dutifully opened his homework. It was a short essay on Napolean Boneparte, which normally he would be able to rattle off in no time. However all he could now think about was the file and what exactly he had rushed to scan into his laptop.
He didn’t dare open it whilst his dad was in the office. That would be too risky. He was also a bit nervous about what he might find and not too sure he’d be able to look at it on his own. He shut down his computer, leaving the homework as a bad job that he’d just have to do later and started packing his things up to leave.
Mrs Welton walked through the door with his dad following closely behind.
“I’m sure we will be able to get to the bottom of this in no time for you,” he was saying to her.
Stiles looked up at them as they entered the room.
“Stiles, please tell Mrs Welton what our gold package consists of.”
Stiles smiled and nodded then proceeded to explain the requirements of the gold package and the costs therein, to which Mrs Welton nodded continuously and confirmed that she would be happy to pay. She brought out her cheque book and signed out the deposit and then was shown to the door by his dad.
“We’ll get started straight away, Mrs Welton, and be in touch within the next forty-eight hours,” Stiles’ dad told her as she left.
He then turned back to Stiles and said, “Leaving already?”
“Yes, I’ve got an assignment due and I can’t finish it without one of my books which I’ve left at home.” Stiles was able to lie fluently because he did have homework to finish, he just embellished it with the need for a book.
His dad nodded. “I’ll be home in time for dinner.”
“Great, I’ll make sure it’s a good one!” Stiles replied.
“None of that rabbit food please!” his dad called back over his shoulder as he returned to his office to continue whatever case he was working for the new client.
Stiles took his opportunity to leave and, grabbing his laptop and his bag left the office and headed to his truck. Once he got going he realised that heading straight home meant looking through the files on his own and he didn’t want to do that. Instead, he found himself headed towards Scott at the veterinary surgery. Soon he had parked up outside and headed in through the front entrance.
“Hi Deaton, Scott?” he asked of the vet sorting his paperwork at the front counter.
“Out the back feeding the animals, Stiles,” Deaton replied smiling.
Stiles went through to the back and found Scott doing just that. He was slightly disconcerted by the cutesy animal noises Scott was making as he worked, but decided to save that one for a later date. This was far too important.
“Scott! Scott!”
“Oh, hey Stiles!” Scott replied turning away from the tiny kitty he had been fussing as he’d put the food into the cage. “What’s up?”
Stiles then told Scott all about the file. He spoke so fast that he was nearly hyperventilating by the time he had finished.
“Woah! Hold on! So what you’re saying is that even though the cops have it as a detected case with someone in prison for it, your dad’s still looking into it?”
Stiles nodded, still breathless.
“You think he might have found something?” Scott asked.
“I don’t know... haven’t had chance to look...” panted Stiles in reply.
“You came here first?” Scott sounded surprised.
Stiles nodded and Scott jumped into action. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go to mine and check it out!”
Scott’s excitement at the possibility that there was something more in the investigation than there had been before switched Stiles from being unsure what he was doing there telling Scott about it to actively wanting to check the files out right away. He agreed with Scott and they both left the veterinary surgery in a rush with a hurried goodbye to Deaton, neither noticing the concerned look on his face.
Stiles drove them both to Scott’s place and they set up his laptop in Scott’s room then started going through the paperwork that he had scanned in. Stiles talked Scott through it because he hadn’t lived in the town when it had originally happened. He choked at the pictures again and Scott gave him a manly side-by-side hug to help him through it. Pushing on through they come to the part which lost his dad his job.
“Who’s that?” Scott asked.
“That’s Laura’s brother, Derek,” Stiles replied.
“He’s rather moody looking,” Scott mused.
“You would be too if you’d just been arrested for murder.” Stiles felt strangely compelled to defend his best friends’ brother, even though he’d had no more to do with him than siding with Laura in the sibling rivalry and pranks that they set up against each other.
Growing up he had seen no more animosity between the two than he would imagine any normal family to have. There had been nothing there that would ever have made him think Derek capable of harming his sister, even if he was the quiet brooding type that barely ever spoke. At least, he’d barely ever spoken to Stiles.
The case hadn’t stood against Derek. It turned out that on the night of Laura’s murder he had a stone cast alibi that hadn’t come to light until Stiles’ dad had taken the case before the court. The Hale family had then come together and basically accused his dad of harassment and of trying to solve the case by picking on Derek rather than doing his job properly and arresting the right person. He had been the laughing stock of the town.
It had led to the loss of his job and Stiles’ life, changed already for the worse, had been turned even more upside down by it. After his dad had been elected out of office the newly appointed Sherriff had managed to add insult to their injury by arresting, charging and imprisoning Chris Argent. The next document included all the information about the investigation once Stiles’ dad lost his job. Stiles spent some time explaining to Scott that he had been fairly new to the town and the murder weapon had been found in his tool shed.
Going over the whole thing again took a lot of emotional effort for Stiles and he sat back, lost in thought of that time and how it had led to where his life was now.
Scott punched him on the arm. “If it’s any consolation, getting kicked out the in-crowd meant you got to know me!”
Stiles looked up at him and couldn’t help but laugh at the puppy dog eyes he was being given. His life may have changed drastically, but Scott was right, it hadn’t all been for the worse.
“Yep, I got to know you,” he said laughing, then, “is that a good thing?”
Scott punched him again. “Oi!”
They turned back to the computer, Stiles fully expecting the document about Derek to be the last thing. He was just shutting the folder down when Scott stopped him.
“Wait! Look! There’s another one we haven’t looked at yet.”
Stiles’ heart was in his mouth as he double checked and saw that Scott was right. He knew this murder case off by heart and had assumed that they’d looked at all the files because they’d looked at all the files he’d ever seen regarding this case. His dad had been slipped copies of the arrest of Chris Argent by a friend in the precinct and Stiles had badgered him until he’d let him see the whole thing. Plus they had convicted Argent. The murder weapon had been in his possession, why would there be any need for another file?
However Scott was right. There was another file that they had yet to look at. This meant that there was possibly another piece of evidence pertaining to the case that Stiles wasn’t aware of. He clicked on the file to open it as he held his breath in anticipation. He was pretty sure that Scott was holding his breath too, either that or the pounding of his own heart was so loud in his ears that it was blocking out all other sounds.
The file was a time stamped CCTV picture clearly showing Argent in Times Square, New York. The date and time stamp were such that it would have been impossible for him to have killed Laura.
Stiles was utterly gobsmacked and completely speechless.
Scott was also gobsmacked, but not quite speechless. “They charged the wrong person?”
“Chris Argent is innocent?” Stiles replied finding his voice.
They both stared at each other.
“How can this be?” asked Stiles, not really expecting an answer from Scott.
“I guess that’s why your dad still has the file then,” Scott mused.
Stiles decided that this was big news and he needed to sleep on it to let it sink in so they packed up and Stiles went home. Swearing Scott to secrecy and promising to keep him involved as he looked into this. He was going to need his help with such a big case to investigate.
***
Next day at school Stiles spent some time trying to further the dogtags investigation, but he found himself constantly distracted by the bombshell that he and Scott had unearthed the night before. He didn’t concentrate properly in class and he even missed all the teasing he received from Jackson and co., he was that engrossed in his own thoughts. He did chat to some of the kids in their year that were known to at least associate with Isaac, even if they didn’t specifically consider themselves friends, but he hit a brick wall with all of them. None seemed to have any issues with Isaac on a personal level and they all only really associated with him through school. He didn’t seem to hang out with any of them in the evenings or weekends. Stiles made a mental note to start including him in some of the stuff him and Scott got up to, he couldn’t bear the idea of someone not having friends or stuff to do outside of school.
By the time it was close to the end of school Stiles had decided that dwelling on the Hale murder case whilst he was in a position to do nothing about it was just silly and that he should concentrate more fully on the Isaac case. The guys he had spoken to had been alright about Isaac, but had positively gushed about Camden so he decided to use the after school club time to widen his net for the investigation. He mentally berated himself for pushing that case to one side whilst he was in a prime position to investigate it purely for the murder case when he could do nothing about that until the evening. If he had spent more time concentrating on what people had been saying to him at lunchtime it wouldn’t have taken him so long to twig to speak to friends of Camden’s.
Isaac’s brother had been one of the school’s best swimmers so once the last bell rang Stiles headed for the school pool in order to look at who he would have been friends with on the off chance that it was one of them that had stolen the tags. With Isaac telling him that there weren’t any people that he had argued with and no-one that he could tell that was pissed at him, whether he knew why or not, the next step Stiles could think of taking was speaking to Camden’s friends. The possibility was that one of them had spotted Isaac with the tags and decided they wanted them as a keepsake for themselves.
The swim team were already in the pool by the time Stiles arrived so he spent some time looking at the trophy cabinet and the photos on the wall. A lot of the team that Camden swam with had graduated and moved on, but some of the younger ones were now in their last years at the school and still part of the team. He decided to start speaking with them and see what he could glean.
He sat and waited in the bleachers surrounding the pool whilst they were drilled by the swim coach. It wasn’t as fun to watch as he found the basketball, but then he figured that was because he enjoyed playing basketball where-as he’d never really been that good at swimming and had always hated losing, which had turned into a further reason to hate swimming at school. He was grateful once the session was over and he was able to head into the boys changing room to speak to a few of them. He’d work out how to get hold of the girls another time.
As was expected, he was greeted with a modicum of hostility when he entered the changing rooms.
“What are you doing here?” was the nicest comment he heard.
“I just wanted a word about Camden,” Stiles said to the room in general.
“Hero,” came one reply.
“You’ve had your word, now clear off,” Boyd told him as he loomed over him, trousers on but shirt not so that his muscles rippled in a show like that of a silverback gorilla claiming his position.
Stiles gulped as the rest of the team started to gather around him. “I was just wondering whether any of you would have an issue with Camden’s brother, Isaac?”
There was a multitude of noise as they all spoke at once.
“Woah! One at a time please!” Stiles said hands raised in front of him to placate them.
Boyd glared at them all. “We never had much to do with his brother. He was always on the periphery, at parties and such like, but never really got involved. There’s no reason for any of us to have any issues with him. Why?”
“Thanks, that’s all I need to know,” Stiles said as he backed away, leaving the changing rooms as quickly as he dared without actually answering the question.
He headed to his jeep mulling over who else he could speak to now that the swim club had drawn a blank, but his thoughts turned back to the Hale murder case as he pulled away from the school. He was now in a position to look into it further. He knew he couldn’t speak to his dad about it, as he wasn’t supposed to know, but he figured there must be something he could do.
Stiles gasped and slammed the brakes on causing his jeep to do an emergency stop. Ignoring the angry beeps and shouts from the other motorists on the street he put his head in his hands.
“Derek!” he groaned. “Derek needs to know!”
He looked back up, staring out the window but not actually looking at what was there. He needed to tell Derek about this revelation. It wouldn’t be fair to keep it from him. If Argent was an innocent wrongfully jailed, as the evidence he and Scott saw had suggested, then Derek had a right to know. Decision made, he swung the jeep around and headed down the familiar route to the Hale mansion. He hadn’t driven this way since Laura’s death and it brought back a flood of memories. So much so that when he arrived on the drive he had to sit and compose himself before getting out of the jeep.
When he got out he was startled by Derek who was stood on his front steps watching him.
“Stiles, what are you doing here?”
Stiles approached him warily. He hadn’t properly spoken to him since, well, ever really as he’d never properly sat down and had a conversation with him even when Laura was alive. The most they’d ever said to each other were variations of greetings and goodbyes. He also knew that this was a visit completely out of the blue and he had no idea how Derek would react to him being there, let alone how he’d react to what Stiles was there to tell him.
“I... um... Can we talk inside? Please?” Stiles asked, unsure of how to actually go about this but definitely sure that it wasn’t something to be done on the drive.
Derek looked at him strangely then turned and walked back into the hall. He had left the front door open so Stiles took that as his cue to follow him inside.
If the drive down the familiar route had been difficult, stepping into the Hale house was worse. Nothing had changed, even the smell of the place was familiar.
“Would you like a drink?” Derek asked awkwardly, obviously not used to visitors.
“Yes, please,” Stiles replied, not because he wanted a drink, more because it gave him something else to do and look at whilst he worked out how to tell Derek the news.
“I have pepsi, that okay?” Derek asked as he stared at the fridge.
“Yes, great, thanks,” said Stiles awkwardly.
He watched as Derek poured him a drink and accepted it with a small smile as Derek handed it to him.
He stared at it for ages without drinking and jumped when Derek asked, “Something interesting in the bubbles?”
Stiles looked up with a start. “Sorry, just trying to work out how to……”
Derek looked at him with a raised, questioning, eyebrow as Stiles trailed off. He took a deep breath and decided to just go for it.
“Argent is innocent.”
The words hung in the room, as if echoing, like an accusation. Derek didn’t respond for quite a while. He had tensed as soon as Stiles said the name. Then, all of a sudden as if he was a coiled spring just waiting to be launched, he swiped all the items from the kitchen side in a rage making Stiles jump.
“OUT!” he shouted. “GET OUT!!”
Stiles didn’t need telling again, Derek looked ready to explode with anger and he wasn’t about to wait around and see what that looked like. He turned and ran back to his jeep, only realising he was still holding the glass with the pepsi in it when he got there. He ran back and left the glass on the front steps and then beat a hasty retreat.
“Well, that went well,” he said to himself wryly as he drove home.
***
The next day at school Stiles decided to put the Hale case to the back of his mind and try and find himself an opening in the Isaac case. He had a free period so he headed to the library and grabbed himself a computer to research Camden on the school’s intranet. He already knew that he was on the swim team and speaking to the current team hadn’t been of much help, but the intranet showed him that the current coach had also been coach whilst Camden was at the school.
He headed back to the pool after school to try and catch a moment with the coach whilst the swim team practice was in progress. He didn’t fancy waiting until they’d finished and causing Boyd to go all ape again. That hadn’t been the most fun moment of his life. So he headed right to the pool side and approached the coach straight away.
“Hey coach!” he called out over the noise of the team splashing their way through numerous lengths of the butterfly stroke.
The coach merely nodded at him and continued shouting at the team, pulling them up on stroke technique and speed.
“Can I ask you some questions about Camden?” Stiles asked when the coach paused for a second.
He turned and looked at him. “Now there was a decent swimmer, none of this bad technique.” He gestured at the pool as he spoke.
“Do you know of anyone that had a problem with Camden, or his brother Isaac for that matter?” Stiles enquired as he tried to keep the coach’s attention.
“No,” he replied. Then he thought for a moment. “No, really don’t kid, that boy was a hero even before he went to war and his brother was never a problem. Quiet lad, never got in the way, always hanging around at the edge of the parties Camden used to host.”
“Thanks coach,” Stiles replied as the coach went back to yelling at his team.
Stiles headed out of the pool, stopping near the door as a photo caught his eye. It was of the team, but they weren’t at the school pool, the pool they were gathered round was an outdoor pool and he was pretty sure that Isaac was stood at the edge. He took the photo off the board and quickly shoved it into his bag. He’d have a closer look at that later. Right now he needed to get to his dad’s office. He was late enough as it was.
He reached the office and set himself up at the front desk as usual, calling a greeting through to his dad. This time his dad was in and not with a client so he came out to say hello.
“How was school?”
“Alright,” Stiles replied shrugging. “Want a coffee?”
“Go on then, I’ll try not to ask what you want,” his dad said laughing.
Stiles made them a coffee each and as he did so he pondered what his dad had said. He wondered if he could get away with asking him about the Hale case without him realising that he knew there was new information out there. Which would give away the fact that he’d rifled through his dad’s stuff. He didn’t want him to know that.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said as he handed his dad a coffee.
“Here it comes! I knew it was too good to be true,” his dad joked.
“Wait, what?” Stiles asked pretending to be affronted.
“That you asking if I want a coffee without any prompting came without strings,” laughed his dad.
“Oh, well, there’s no strings,” Stiles said.
“But…” his dad prompted.
“I’ve been wondering, just lately, why it was that Argent killed Laura. I mean, what reason did he actually have of doing it? There isn’t really any, is there, so do you think there’s a chance that he’s innocent?” Stiles rushed all at once so as not to allow his dad to interrupt him.
“That case is done and dusted, Stiles, you would do well to stop dwelling on it. The sheriff acted on what the evidence was saying and you can’t argue with evidence. That is final. Argent was imprisoned because the evidence proved his guilt, the reason why is a moot point,” his dad replied angrily as he headed into his office. “You would do well to move on, son, else the feelings will fester and you’ll never get over it.”
The office door closed, putting an end to the conversation. Stiles considered how his dad had reacted to the rush of questions and figured he’d be best to stay clear of the conversation. He was confused by the fact that his dad had reacted like this because the file in the cabinet contained evidence that proved Argent’s innocence, but he was unable to confront him about it because he wasn’t supposed to know that his dad even had that file, let alone what was inside it.
He couldn’t work out why it was that his dad would be doing an investigation of the murder, find new evidence that proves Argent was physically unable to have committed the murder and keep it secret. He’d not told anyone. In fact, by the reaction from Derek when Stiles had gone and told him, he hadn’t even passed the information to the sheriff, because if he had they’d have had to tell the next of kin of the deceased, it just wouldn’t be right not to let them know that the killer’s still out there.
Stiles just couldn’t work it out and he couldn’t leave it alone either. He knew that he’d be able to push the conundrum of his dad’s file; what he obviously knew and the fact that he reacted as he did; to the back of his mind, but he wouldn’t be able to sit and wait for the answer without actively trying to find it out himself. He’d been confused by the outcome of Laura’s trial but had accepted that her murderer was caught and punished for it. Now the whole thing was open once again and the fact that the wrong man was in jail didn’t sit right. Especially as it meant that the real murderer was laughing it up thinking they’d got away scot free.
That thought galvanized him into action. He packed up and knocked at his dad’s door before popping his head round.
“I’m going to Scott’s for a bit, there’s nothing much for me to do here for you, it must be a slow week,” Stiles told him.
“It is, yes. Son, I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier, I just don’t want you getting your hopes up unnecessarily.”
“That’s okay, dad, I understand,” Stiles replied with a smile. “Consider it dropped.”
His dad smiled at him and with that Stiles left and headed over to Deaton’s to see if Scott was still there.
“Hey Stiles,” Deaton said smiling as Stiles walked in.
“Hey Deat’s,” Stiles replied jauntily.
“Scott told me that there’s some new information on the Hale murder. I thought Chris Argent had been found guilty by the evidence found in his possession, so I guess there being new evidence must be quite hard for you to deal with. How are you holding up?”
Stiles had a moment, whilst Deaton was talking to him, to process the fact that although his dad had told no-one and he had only told Scott, the lack of him saying keep it a secret because he had just assumed that Scott would, meant that someone else now knew.
“I’m okay, thanks for asking though,” he said with a smile.
“If you need any help, you know where I am,” Deaton told him.
“Thanks, Deaton,” Stiles said, unsure of what else to say.
“I’ve always felt guilty that something I said at the time may have led to Chris being arrested, he always seemed like such a good man, but I guess you just can’t always tell.” Deaton moved to the gate separating the desk from the reception area and opened it up. “Scott’s out back. I guess that’s the real reason why you’re here.”
Stiles returned his smile as he went through the gate and glanced back at him, still smiling, as he walked through the door. He really was at a loss as to what to say, especially seeing as he hadn’t told Scott so that he could get other people involved.
“Scott!” he hissed and Scott looked up at him in surprise. “Why’d you tell Deaton?”
Scott winced and looked sheepish. “Sorry, I didn’t think….”
“No you didn’t think!” Stiles hissed at him. “There’s only you, me and my dad that knew that something about the case was wrong, it was supposed to stay that way so that my dad wouldn’t find out I’d gone through his things!”
“Oh!” Scott exclaimed and Stiles could almost see the light bulb going on in his head as he realised what he’d done. “I didn’t mean to. I guess it just slipped out. I didn’t tell him the actual details, just that we’d been looking at new evidence.”
Stiles rubbed his face with his hand. “I guess it’s okay Scott. Deaton is a friend of the Hale family, he’s just offered me his help so we can probably take him up on that if we get to the point where we need more than just the two of us looking into it.”
Scott nodded, grinning excitedly again. “Or we could use him as a sounding board, seeing as we can’t go to your dad about it.”
Stiles nodded, surprised and Scott laughed. “I do have good ideas sometimes, you know! So, we going to go do some investigating now then?”
“I am,” Stiles said. “You’re going to be my cover story.”
Scott’s face fell at that. “Only if you promise me I’ll get to do some investigating with you at some point. I want to help!”
“You will help, I’ve just got to go back to Laura’s to see if I can find anything that might have been missed. We need to go back to the beginning. Start again - and Derek wasn’t too pleased the last time I saw him so it needs to be done…” he paused as he searched for the right word, “sensitively.”
Stiles instinctively knew that it was going to be difficult to get Derek on board with all this and he didn’t want Scott tagging along and messing it up. As much as he loved Scott, he could be relied on to not just put his foot in it, but jump in with both feet and all guns blazing and Stiles didn’t need that kind of approach for this task.
Scott pouted slightly but nodded and agreed to tell Stiles’ dad he had dinner at his, should he think to ask, and with that Stiles fired off a text to his dad telling him Scott’s mum had invited him to stop for dinner and then left the surgery and headed to the Hale mansion once again.
He was pleased to see that he’d managed to choose a time that looked like no-one was home. He had parked up down the street and walked up to the house so as not to announce his arrival as he wanted to scout the place first and see what sort of mood Derek was in before approaching him, but none of the lights inside were on and there were no outside lights on out the front either. Stiles made his way round the side of the house fully expecting to find Derek sat in the living room, which looked out onto the back yard, watching TV in the dark. Instead all he could see inside the house were dark, empty rooms and the only noise he could discern was the fountain in the garden, no sound could be heard from inside the house.
Link To Part Two
Author: lazydazyfics
Artist: delacours
Genre: Alternate Universe; Fusion
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~20k
Warnings: Veronica Mars Fusion
Summary: Stiles used to be part of the in-crowd. His Dad used to be the Sheriff. Then his best friend was murdered and everything went wrong. Now Stiles is left out in the cold because his Dad arrested the wrong person and his former friends are holding it against him. His Dad, reputation in tatters, became a Private Investigator in order to keep Stiles at school and Stiles, in turn, uses this to run his own investigations. Ultimately, he uses it to find out the truth about Laura Hale’s death in order to exonerate himself, his Dad and Derek, the person his Dad initially arrested. His search for the truth takes him through emotions he had been trying to avoid and results in a relationship forming that had long been wanted and repressed.
That Stiles Stilinski, He’s A Marshmallow
Stiles sat at one of the outer benches outside the cafeteria with his plate of what he could only describe as ‘goop’, pushing it around with his fork as he contemplated what it might taste like and whether it might actually be good for him. His contemplation was interrupted when Scott unceremoniously dumped his bag on the table next to him, plonked himself on his seat and started to bemoan the amount of homework they’d been given seeing as it was still only lunchtime.
“Hey Scott,” Stiles said over the rant.
“....and what is that?!” Scott finished gesturing at Stiles’ food.
Stiles looked from Scott to his plate and shrugged as his lips quirked into a smile. “I haven’t quite worked it out yet.”
“Hey! Did you see there’s a new girl? Means I’m not the newbie anymore and she’s dead hot too,” Scott said excitedly, getting completely distracted from his original train of thought as per usual.
“Anything in a skirt is dead hot to you... and me for that matter,” Stiles said as he watched Lydia walk past.
“There she is!” Scott whispered as he punched Stiles’ shoulder.
Stiles was still too busy watching Lydia, but as she reached the table where the in-crowd always sat, she turned and said something that had the crowd laughing. Stiles realised that she was making a snide remark about Allison Argent and realised that was who Scott had been pointing at.
“She’s not new,” Stiles laughed, “she’s been ostracised by the in-crowd since her dad was arrested for the Hale murder. You probably just hadn’t noticed her yet, what with all your walking around with your eyes closed.”
Scott squeaked in protest as a bell rang out across the yard and Stiles sighed. He’d got an entire afternoon of classes watching Jackson paw all over Lydia and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Especially as they’d left him alone for a couple of days which meant that they were due an almighty blow-out of Stiles bashing.
With one of his rare moments of actually paying attention to Stiles’ mood, Scott looked at him and said, “The afternoon’ll be over before you know it, then we can get outta here!”
“Yeah, it’s what’s going to happen before it’s over that I’ve gotta get through first,” Stiles muttered in response.
He dumped the rest of his food in the trash, leaving the tray on top of it as normal and then made his way with Scott to their lockers. They had five minutes before class and he wanted to swap his books over. Scott didn’t seem to worry too much about learning in class, but went along with swapping his books over whilst watching Allison walk down the corridor with a dreamy look on his face.
The in-crowd also walked past and Stiles looked at them as he remembered the time, not so long ago, when he had been an integral part of that group. Him and his best friend, Laura Hale. They’d been a force to be reckoned with and he certainly hadn’t been bullied by any of the group the way they did now. Even when they completely ignored him he felt like it was another way of getting to him.
Really, it was another way of them getting to him even if they weren’t doing it on purpose because it was getting to him. It hadn’t been that long since he had been a part of that group, fully integrated, everyone laughing at his jokes and telling him their secrets. Participating in all their parties and nights out, falling in and out of love (or, more likely, crush) and basically owning the place. Then his life had been turned upside down and inside out.
Laura Hale had been murdered. She was his best friend in the whole entire world. They’d told each other stuff that neither had ever told anyone else. They had hung out all the time and whenever they’d had boy or girlfriends and been hanging out with them they’d texted each other the entire time. So much so that their respective others always ended up suggesting double dates just so that they wouldn’t be glued to their phones all night. And no, they didn’t fancy each other, boys can have best friends that are girls without it involving all that icky stuff. They’d been best friends since they’d dug up Stiles’ back garden, originally in order to make mud pies, but mud bombs had worked so much better. Since that day they had been practically inseparable. Until she had died.
A lot of things had happened following her death. One of which had been the arrest of her murderer by his dad, only to be so completely wrong that the public humiliation and ostracism had spread as far as Stiles’ life. His father had been the Sheriff at the time of Laura’s murder and he had worked his butt off to try and solve the case. He was a hard worker whatever the job threw at him, but with this one he was working to help his son get over the death of a person held dear to him and he had worked day and night to get to the bottom of it. It had culminated in him arresting Derek Hale, Laura’s brother, which in turn had culminated in him being fired as sheriff for getting it so wrong and slandering the name of a prominent family. He now worked as a private detective to keep a roof over their heads and Stiles helped him out, using the opportunity to investigate things himself on the side in order to earn a bit of extra cash for himself. They got by, but they had been shunned by anyone that was anyone in the town so it had been a struggle to start off with, his dad struggling to get work so that they could carry on living there and Stiles finding himself outcast by all his friends.
Even though he was dawdling whilst he mulled over his life, he still made it to class in time. Dumping his bag on the floor he pulled his books and pens out in preparation and startled when a face suddenly appeared mere inches from his.
“I need your help,” Isaac said to him urgently.
“Dude, a little space? Please!” Stiles said as he leant away from Isaac so that their nose’s weren’t practically touching. “What with?”
Isaac sat back on his haunches. “I’ve had something stolen from me. Something important. Will you help me get it back?”
“In your seats, people, it’s a classroom not a dating arena!” Mr Finstock shouted, putting a stop to their conversation.
Isaac jumped up and grabbed the nearest available seat as Stiles nodded at him. He wouldn’t have said no anyway, his curiosity was always peaked by people asking for his help. It did mean, though, that he spent the rest of the class only half paying attention to the lesson as he tried to work out what it was that Isaac wanted his help with. He was pleased when the bell went so that he could speak to him again about it.
“So, Isaac,” he said as they left the classroom together. “What’s happened that you need the help of the one and only Stiles Stilinski?”
He grinned widely as he looked at Isaac expectantly.
“Come with me,” Isaac said, heading off towards his locker.
Stiles followed behind, ignoring the glares and the snide remarks from Jackson and Co. as they passed by. He rolled his eyes. Anyone would think it was him that had killed Laura the way they all carried on.
“Look.” Isaac pointed at his locker. “Someone’s broken into it.”
He fiddled with the damaged locker until the combination he needed clicked into place and he was able to unlock it. He reached into the back, under all his other stuff, and pulled out a tobacco tin.
“Woah, I didn’t sign up for that!” Stiles exclaimed, hands up as he made to back off, assuming the tobacco tin would contain something far more leaf-like.
“No, wait!” Isaac replied grabbing Stiles’ arm. “It’s not what you think.”
He opened the tin and showed the inside to Stiles. “See, it’s empty. It shouldn’t be, but it is!”
He pulled a photo off his locker door and unfolded it. It was of him and Camden and their dad. He’d folded his dad out of the picture when he stuck it to the inside of his locker.
“Look,” he said, pointing at the picture. “They’re supposed to be in this tin. Someone’s taken them.”
“You sure you’ve not just put them somewhere else?” Stiles asked.
“Of course I’m sure!” Isaac replied, affronted. “Camden’s dogtags and this photo are all that I’ve got for myself to remember him by. And I’ve only got these because Dad doesn’t know I have them. And I’m lucky to have these, I’m not even allowed in the shrine that used to be his bedroom.”
Stiles laid a hand on Isaac’s shoulder in support. He could see that the whole thing was extremely upsetting to him.
“When we were told Camden had died in action,” Isaac gulped a little to clear his throat and compose himself, “they gave Dad his dogtags. He spent the rest of the night drinking, as if that would change the truth. Eventually he got so mad that he threw the dogtags out. It was like them not being in the house meant Camden would still come home.”
Isaac paused and Stiles waited patiently for him to continue.
“After Dad passed out I went and rescued them. I guess I knew that I wouldn’t get anything else if I didn’t do this, what with him being the favourite and all.” Isaac shrugged. “So, you think you can get them back for me?”
Stiles noted the desperation in Isaac’s eyes. Linked to the sad fact that his brother had been a favourite not just at school, as Stiles could remember how popular he had been in comparison to Isaac, but at home as well, it made him even more determined to help out in this small way.
“Don’t worry, you’ve got the best man on the job,” he declared patting Isaac’s shoulder again.
Inside he was secretly hoping that the tears that looked ready to fall wouldn’t as he had no idea how to proceed if they did. Luckily, Isaac was able to hold it together having been given the hope that his brothers dogtags would be found so Stiles didn’t have to deal with any tears.
“Thanks,” Isaac replied with a grateful smile.
“I’m going to need to go over some details with you,” Stiles said just as the bell rang, “but I guess we’ll have to postpone that ‘til after class.”
Isaac nodded and they headed their separate ways for the last lesson of the day. Stiles’ head was already starting to catalogue the information and list the questions he needed to ask Isaac before he could get his teeth into this one. He spent most of his last lesson thinking about it rather than paying attention to class, but it wasn’t a problem as his thinking face seemed to be the same as his concentrating face because the teacher didn’t pick up on his in-attention. Unlike Scott’s, which was the only moment of the class that Stiles tuned into and quite hilarious too, to see his friends face go so red so quickly.
The bell rang signaling the end of the lesson and Stiles and Scott made their way to the changing rooms for basketball practice. Scott was currently on the starting line with Stiles on the bench, as was Isaac, so Stiles figured he could use the time to ask him some questions.
As per usual, Stiles was left out on the edge of the bench on his own whereas Isaac was sat in amongst the others. Even when his fellow students were indifferent about him they still made an effort to seem as though they were completely ignoring him. Mostly because they thought it would give them a better chance of becoming part of the in-crowd if they disassociated themselves from him. Stiles knew it wouldn’t help them, but generally just rolled his eyes and got on with things. Isaac usually sat by himself but Stiles had seen him come out to the bench first and the others had surrounded him. It was as if they knew he wanted to speak to him.
Taking a deep breath he got up, walked over to Isaac and sat in the tiny space next to him.
“Excuse me, pardon me, small one coming in!” he said as he wiggled his bum, pushing both Isaac and the boy the other side of him until he had enough room to sit comfortably.
“Hi!” he smiled at Isaac.
“Hey,” Isaac replied.
“Seeing as we won’t be doing much right now, thought it’d be a good time to start my investigation.”
Isaac glared at him. “I didn’t do it myself!”
“I know that,” said Stiles, “I just need to find out if you have any information that might help me. For starters, is there any one that you’ve argued with lately?”
“Oh! Umm, I don’t think so.” Isaac thought for a moment. “No, not really had anyone to argue with.”
“Check!” Stiles said ticking off the question from an imaginary list and making Isaac half laugh and half roll his eyes.
“Next question. Can you have upset someone without knowing about it?” Stiles asked.
“Well,” Isaac paused, “if I have, I’m completely unaware!”
“Oh, you know what I mean,” Stiles replied.
“No, no I really don’t.” Isaac looked at him expectantly.
“Well, you might not know what you did to upset them, but maybe one of your friends or someone is glaring at you or acting differently to usual?” explained Stiles.
“Right, I see.” Isaac sat and thought for a moment. “No, not that I can think of. Did you want me to keep an eye out and see if I notice anything?”
“Yes, that would be a good idea. Do any of your friends know that the dogtags are normally kept there?” Stiles continued thoughtfully.
“I’m not sure anyone really knows about it. I hadn’t really told anyone about it but I do look at them every now and then, just to check they’re still there and, well, you know….”
Stiles nodded. “When was the last time you looked at them? Prior to discovering it gone.”
“A couple of days ago. It’s coming up to the anniversary. I tend to look at them more around this time,” Isaac told him as he looked out across the gymnasium.
Stiles stayed quiet for a moment to allow Isaac some time. He had blundered into his questioning without realising that it was close to the anniversary of Camden’s death.
After a while he asked quietly, “Does anyone know how important they are to you?”
“I don’t think so,” Isaac replied turning to look at Stiles. “You’re the first person I’ve ever properly shown them to, well talked about them with seeing as I couldn’t actually show you them.” He shrugged. “ I’ve never really spoken to anyone else about it. Dad’s always bemoaning the death of his hero son and I can tell he hates that it wasn’t me and Camden’s friends never really struck me as people I could properly talk to about it all.”
“Wow, I’m pretty privileged then,” Stiles said, unsure of how else to respond.
“You have a reputation for resolving people’s problems and being discrete about it. If the dogtags hadn’t been stolen you’d still be unaware of them.”
Stiles breathed out a puff of air he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. What Isaac said was right, however much it being said aloud was like being punched in the gut. He had never been that much of a friend to Isaac, either now or before when he was popular, that Isaac would have felt able to start a conversation with him about his brother. It hurt that this was so plainly true. Isaac was a bit of a loner but he was one of the people who had never actively distanced himself from Stiles. He inwardly cursed himself at his stupidity and made himself a promise not to be so ignorant again.
“I think I’ve got all the answers I need from you now. I’ve got some ideas of avenues I can follow and I’m confident that they’ll bring the dogtags to light.” He paused knowing what he had to say next and hating that he had to say it - he never could stand asking for money. “It will be at a small fee though, I’ve got school books to buy.”
Isaac nodded and their conversation ended. Basketball went on as usual and it wasn’t long before they were all back in the changing rooms and headed off from school for the day. Scott bounced around Stiles with excitement about how well he’d done that session and Stiles let him, only half listening. Eventually they were done and headed to Stiles’ jeep.
“You need dropping at Deaton’s?” Stiles asked.
“Yeah if you can that’d be good seeing as I’ve got to work,” replied Scott.
“You trying to say I don’t work?” Stiles responded with a raised eyebrow and they both laughed.
Once Stiles had dropped Scott at the veterinary surgery to help Deaton with feeding the animals (making sure to crack a joke about Scott not forgetting to feed himself), he headed to the office space his Dad had rented out when he set up as a private investigator.
He tended to do reception type work whenever he was able, having a desk in the outer office that was set up for him to be able to plug his laptop in, the proviso being that he did his homework whilst he was helping. Stiles simply translated this proviso into doing the smaller investigative jobs to assist his dad, his homework pretty much always being up to scratch.
He connected his laptop up, automatically connecting it to the printer and scanner whilst he called out to see if his dad was there. He didn’t receive an answer so he headed into the other office to double check. It wasn’t unlikely for his father to be too busy to answer him, or too engrossed in his work to hear that he had called out, and at times like that it generally meant that he hadn’t eaten or had much to drink all day and therefore would be in need of Stiles looking after him. For once, that wasn’t the case. The door was ajar and on opening it to go in Stiles saw straight away that his dad wasn’t in. He was intrigued, however, by the state the office had been left in.
There were papers all over the desk and the filing cabinet that his dad was usually meticulous about keeping locked to keep Stiles out of it, was open. The top drawer slightly ajar. Stiles was unable to resist. He had no idea where his dad had gone, nor how long he was going to be so it only took him a split second to decide that whilst he had the opportunity he was going to look in the forbidden cabinet. He had always been banned from going in this filing cabinet and his dad had always locked it telling him that the investigations within it weren’t for the eyes of a child. This always caused the argument that Stiles didn’t seem himself as a child, he was more adult than anyone he knew his age and at the very least his dad could call him a teenager rather than liken him to an age where toys are most important. The rant never worked, his dad normally just responded by laughing and telling him that once he saw him act as an adult he’d consider letting him see the work within.
His hands were trembling as he pulled the top drawer open a little further, spotting straight away that the files were alphabetised. A quick look through turned up nothing of real interest so he pushed it to and moved quickly onto the next drawer. As Stiles started leafing through files within this one he wondered why it was that his dad considered them too serious, intricate or sensitive for him to be party to. So far he could only see cases where wives felt husbands were cheating on them, missing people and one family feud that was believed to have ended in murder. He felt affronted that his dad didn’t trust him to keep to himself that there were adulterers in town. As if he’d want to gossip about such things!
He was sure that the files inside the cabinet weren’t saved to the computer as he had spent many a night hacking his dad’s network and password protected files and found nothing that he would deem to be interesting or worthy enough to be hidden from him. He really had thought that the interesting stuff would have been in the filing cabinet but so far he was drawing a blank. He pulled the drawer out further as he reached towards the back, but it jammed slightly. Reaching his hand inside he caught hold of another file that had got stuck in the mechanism of the cabinet. He carefully prised it free and pulled it out. He had just started to think that this drawer had nothing of interest in it, but his mind went into overdrive when he managed to free the file enough to see the label on it.
HALE
“Holy shit!” Stiles gasped glancing behind him to make sure his dad hadn’t come in without him noticing.
He turned back to the file and went to open it. His hands shook as he did so knowing that the only reason his dad would have a file labelled Hale, especially locked away like this, was because it was a continuation of the investigation into Laura's death. Stiles could think of no other reason for one to be locked away and it made the entire existence of the locked cabinet finally make sense to him. The other files in the cabinet looked pretty standard, boring even. Files on peoples love lives, files on stolen artefacts, even the occasional missing person. Nothing that his dad would normally say he couldn't get involved in. The only logical reason why he was locking the cabinet was to stop Stiles from finding the one file that was actually important. The Hale murder file. Opening the folder purely confirmed all the thoughts racing through his mind.
He started to flick through the file and winced when he saw the death pictures. Even though he had managed to see them at the time of the original investigation, it was still difficult to see his best friend like that. Blood around her head, eyes wide and glassy, mouth agape. Lifeless. Shrugging off the image he carried on looking through the file, then a noise from the other room made him jump.
He ran to the door and peered out only to find that the noise had been a breeze coming in through the open window and rattling the blind. It did help to make him realise that standing and looking through the file then and there wasn’t a good idea as his dad could return at any moment. He quickly went to the scanner and started to scan the file in page by page, making sure to keep it in order so that it could be put back in the drawer the same way he’d found it. His dad obviously didn’t want him to know about it so he needed to make sure he didn’t raise any suspicions.
Once the scanning was done he put the file back in the cabinet, making sure to push it right to the back where he had found it. Then he repositioned the cabinet back to how he had first spotted it and left the office. No sooner had he settled back at his desk, working on his computer as though he had spent his entire time in the office sat there that evening, his dad walked through the door with a client.
"Hey Stiles," his dad greeted him as he showed his client, a rather wealthy looking blonde lady, to his office.
“Hey dad,” Stiles replied trying his best not to look shifty.
“This is our new client, Mrs Welton, please can you bring a tray of coffee in,” his dad asked him as he followed her into his office and closed the door.
Stiles was thankful to see that he was far too engrossed in charming the elegant Mrs Welton to obtain her business, and therefore her money, to notice whether anything was amiss with Stiles. He went over to the small area where they had cups and coffee making facilities and did as he was told. Once done, he sat back at his desk and dutifully opened his homework. It was a short essay on Napolean Boneparte, which normally he would be able to rattle off in no time. However all he could now think about was the file and what exactly he had rushed to scan into his laptop.
He didn’t dare open it whilst his dad was in the office. That would be too risky. He was also a bit nervous about what he might find and not too sure he’d be able to look at it on his own. He shut down his computer, leaving the homework as a bad job that he’d just have to do later and started packing his things up to leave.
Mrs Welton walked through the door with his dad following closely behind.
“I’m sure we will be able to get to the bottom of this in no time for you,” he was saying to her.
Stiles looked up at them as they entered the room.
“Stiles, please tell Mrs Welton what our gold package consists of.”
Stiles smiled and nodded then proceeded to explain the requirements of the gold package and the costs therein, to which Mrs Welton nodded continuously and confirmed that she would be happy to pay. She brought out her cheque book and signed out the deposit and then was shown to the door by his dad.
“We’ll get started straight away, Mrs Welton, and be in touch within the next forty-eight hours,” Stiles’ dad told her as she left.
He then turned back to Stiles and said, “Leaving already?”
“Yes, I’ve got an assignment due and I can’t finish it without one of my books which I’ve left at home.” Stiles was able to lie fluently because he did have homework to finish, he just embellished it with the need for a book.
His dad nodded. “I’ll be home in time for dinner.”
“Great, I’ll make sure it’s a good one!” Stiles replied.
“None of that rabbit food please!” his dad called back over his shoulder as he returned to his office to continue whatever case he was working for the new client.
Stiles took his opportunity to leave and, grabbing his laptop and his bag left the office and headed to his truck. Once he got going he realised that heading straight home meant looking through the files on his own and he didn’t want to do that. Instead, he found himself headed towards Scott at the veterinary surgery. Soon he had parked up outside and headed in through the front entrance.
“Hi Deaton, Scott?” he asked of the vet sorting his paperwork at the front counter.
“Out the back feeding the animals, Stiles,” Deaton replied smiling.
Stiles went through to the back and found Scott doing just that. He was slightly disconcerted by the cutesy animal noises Scott was making as he worked, but decided to save that one for a later date. This was far too important.
“Scott! Scott!”
“Oh, hey Stiles!” Scott replied turning away from the tiny kitty he had been fussing as he’d put the food into the cage. “What’s up?”
Stiles then told Scott all about the file. He spoke so fast that he was nearly hyperventilating by the time he had finished.
“Woah! Hold on! So what you’re saying is that even though the cops have it as a detected case with someone in prison for it, your dad’s still looking into it?”
Stiles nodded, still breathless.
“You think he might have found something?” Scott asked.
“I don’t know... haven’t had chance to look...” panted Stiles in reply.
“You came here first?” Scott sounded surprised.
Stiles nodded and Scott jumped into action. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go to mine and check it out!”
Scott’s excitement at the possibility that there was something more in the investigation than there had been before switched Stiles from being unsure what he was doing there telling Scott about it to actively wanting to check the files out right away. He agreed with Scott and they both left the veterinary surgery in a rush with a hurried goodbye to Deaton, neither noticing the concerned look on his face.
Stiles drove them both to Scott’s place and they set up his laptop in Scott’s room then started going through the paperwork that he had scanned in. Stiles talked Scott through it because he hadn’t lived in the town when it had originally happened. He choked at the pictures again and Scott gave him a manly side-by-side hug to help him through it. Pushing on through they come to the part which lost his dad his job.
“Who’s that?” Scott asked.
“That’s Laura’s brother, Derek,” Stiles replied.
“He’s rather moody looking,” Scott mused.
“You would be too if you’d just been arrested for murder.” Stiles felt strangely compelled to defend his best friends’ brother, even though he’d had no more to do with him than siding with Laura in the sibling rivalry and pranks that they set up against each other.
Growing up he had seen no more animosity between the two than he would imagine any normal family to have. There had been nothing there that would ever have made him think Derek capable of harming his sister, even if he was the quiet brooding type that barely ever spoke. At least, he’d barely ever spoken to Stiles.
The case hadn’t stood against Derek. It turned out that on the night of Laura’s murder he had a stone cast alibi that hadn’t come to light until Stiles’ dad had taken the case before the court. The Hale family had then come together and basically accused his dad of harassment and of trying to solve the case by picking on Derek rather than doing his job properly and arresting the right person. He had been the laughing stock of the town.
It had led to the loss of his job and Stiles’ life, changed already for the worse, had been turned even more upside down by it. After his dad had been elected out of office the newly appointed Sherriff had managed to add insult to their injury by arresting, charging and imprisoning Chris Argent. The next document included all the information about the investigation once Stiles’ dad lost his job. Stiles spent some time explaining to Scott that he had been fairly new to the town and the murder weapon had been found in his tool shed.
Going over the whole thing again took a lot of emotional effort for Stiles and he sat back, lost in thought of that time and how it had led to where his life was now.
Scott punched him on the arm. “If it’s any consolation, getting kicked out the in-crowd meant you got to know me!”
Stiles looked up at him and couldn’t help but laugh at the puppy dog eyes he was being given. His life may have changed drastically, but Scott was right, it hadn’t all been for the worse.
“Yep, I got to know you,” he said laughing, then, “is that a good thing?”
Scott punched him again. “Oi!”
They turned back to the computer, Stiles fully expecting the document about Derek to be the last thing. He was just shutting the folder down when Scott stopped him.
“Wait! Look! There’s another one we haven’t looked at yet.”
Stiles’ heart was in his mouth as he double checked and saw that Scott was right. He knew this murder case off by heart and had assumed that they’d looked at all the files because they’d looked at all the files he’d ever seen regarding this case. His dad had been slipped copies of the arrest of Chris Argent by a friend in the precinct and Stiles had badgered him until he’d let him see the whole thing. Plus they had convicted Argent. The murder weapon had been in his possession, why would there be any need for another file?
However Scott was right. There was another file that they had yet to look at. This meant that there was possibly another piece of evidence pertaining to the case that Stiles wasn’t aware of. He clicked on the file to open it as he held his breath in anticipation. He was pretty sure that Scott was holding his breath too, either that or the pounding of his own heart was so loud in his ears that it was blocking out all other sounds.
The file was a time stamped CCTV picture clearly showing Argent in Times Square, New York. The date and time stamp were such that it would have been impossible for him to have killed Laura.
Stiles was utterly gobsmacked and completely speechless.
Scott was also gobsmacked, but not quite speechless. “They charged the wrong person?”
“Chris Argent is innocent?” Stiles replied finding his voice.
They both stared at each other.
“How can this be?” asked Stiles, not really expecting an answer from Scott.
“I guess that’s why your dad still has the file then,” Scott mused.
Stiles decided that this was big news and he needed to sleep on it to let it sink in so they packed up and Stiles went home. Swearing Scott to secrecy and promising to keep him involved as he looked into this. He was going to need his help with such a big case to investigate.
***
Next day at school Stiles spent some time trying to further the dogtags investigation, but he found himself constantly distracted by the bombshell that he and Scott had unearthed the night before. He didn’t concentrate properly in class and he even missed all the teasing he received from Jackson and co., he was that engrossed in his own thoughts. He did chat to some of the kids in their year that were known to at least associate with Isaac, even if they didn’t specifically consider themselves friends, but he hit a brick wall with all of them. None seemed to have any issues with Isaac on a personal level and they all only really associated with him through school. He didn’t seem to hang out with any of them in the evenings or weekends. Stiles made a mental note to start including him in some of the stuff him and Scott got up to, he couldn’t bear the idea of someone not having friends or stuff to do outside of school.
By the time it was close to the end of school Stiles had decided that dwelling on the Hale murder case whilst he was in a position to do nothing about it was just silly and that he should concentrate more fully on the Isaac case. The guys he had spoken to had been alright about Isaac, but had positively gushed about Camden so he decided to use the after school club time to widen his net for the investigation. He mentally berated himself for pushing that case to one side whilst he was in a prime position to investigate it purely for the murder case when he could do nothing about that until the evening. If he had spent more time concentrating on what people had been saying to him at lunchtime it wouldn’t have taken him so long to twig to speak to friends of Camden’s.
Isaac’s brother had been one of the school’s best swimmers so once the last bell rang Stiles headed for the school pool in order to look at who he would have been friends with on the off chance that it was one of them that had stolen the tags. With Isaac telling him that there weren’t any people that he had argued with and no-one that he could tell that was pissed at him, whether he knew why or not, the next step Stiles could think of taking was speaking to Camden’s friends. The possibility was that one of them had spotted Isaac with the tags and decided they wanted them as a keepsake for themselves.
The swim team were already in the pool by the time Stiles arrived so he spent some time looking at the trophy cabinet and the photos on the wall. A lot of the team that Camden swam with had graduated and moved on, but some of the younger ones were now in their last years at the school and still part of the team. He decided to start speaking with them and see what he could glean.
He sat and waited in the bleachers surrounding the pool whilst they were drilled by the swim coach. It wasn’t as fun to watch as he found the basketball, but then he figured that was because he enjoyed playing basketball where-as he’d never really been that good at swimming and had always hated losing, which had turned into a further reason to hate swimming at school. He was grateful once the session was over and he was able to head into the boys changing room to speak to a few of them. He’d work out how to get hold of the girls another time.
As was expected, he was greeted with a modicum of hostility when he entered the changing rooms.
“What are you doing here?” was the nicest comment he heard.
“I just wanted a word about Camden,” Stiles said to the room in general.
“Hero,” came one reply.
“You’ve had your word, now clear off,” Boyd told him as he loomed over him, trousers on but shirt not so that his muscles rippled in a show like that of a silverback gorilla claiming his position.
Stiles gulped as the rest of the team started to gather around him. “I was just wondering whether any of you would have an issue with Camden’s brother, Isaac?”
There was a multitude of noise as they all spoke at once.
“Woah! One at a time please!” Stiles said hands raised in front of him to placate them.
Boyd glared at them all. “We never had much to do with his brother. He was always on the periphery, at parties and such like, but never really got involved. There’s no reason for any of us to have any issues with him. Why?”
“Thanks, that’s all I need to know,” Stiles said as he backed away, leaving the changing rooms as quickly as he dared without actually answering the question.
He headed to his jeep mulling over who else he could speak to now that the swim club had drawn a blank, but his thoughts turned back to the Hale murder case as he pulled away from the school. He was now in a position to look into it further. He knew he couldn’t speak to his dad about it, as he wasn’t supposed to know, but he figured there must be something he could do.
Stiles gasped and slammed the brakes on causing his jeep to do an emergency stop. Ignoring the angry beeps and shouts from the other motorists on the street he put his head in his hands.
“Derek!” he groaned. “Derek needs to know!”
He looked back up, staring out the window but not actually looking at what was there. He needed to tell Derek about this revelation. It wouldn’t be fair to keep it from him. If Argent was an innocent wrongfully jailed, as the evidence he and Scott saw had suggested, then Derek had a right to know. Decision made, he swung the jeep around and headed down the familiar route to the Hale mansion. He hadn’t driven this way since Laura’s death and it brought back a flood of memories. So much so that when he arrived on the drive he had to sit and compose himself before getting out of the jeep.
When he got out he was startled by Derek who was stood on his front steps watching him.
“Stiles, what are you doing here?”
Stiles approached him warily. He hadn’t properly spoken to him since, well, ever really as he’d never properly sat down and had a conversation with him even when Laura was alive. The most they’d ever said to each other were variations of greetings and goodbyes. He also knew that this was a visit completely out of the blue and he had no idea how Derek would react to him being there, let alone how he’d react to what Stiles was there to tell him.
“I... um... Can we talk inside? Please?” Stiles asked, unsure of how to actually go about this but definitely sure that it wasn’t something to be done on the drive.
Derek looked at him strangely then turned and walked back into the hall. He had left the front door open so Stiles took that as his cue to follow him inside.
If the drive down the familiar route had been difficult, stepping into the Hale house was worse. Nothing had changed, even the smell of the place was familiar.
“Would you like a drink?” Derek asked awkwardly, obviously not used to visitors.
“Yes, please,” Stiles replied, not because he wanted a drink, more because it gave him something else to do and look at whilst he worked out how to tell Derek the news.
“I have pepsi, that okay?” Derek asked as he stared at the fridge.
“Yes, great, thanks,” said Stiles awkwardly.
He watched as Derek poured him a drink and accepted it with a small smile as Derek handed it to him.
He stared at it for ages without drinking and jumped when Derek asked, “Something interesting in the bubbles?”
Stiles looked up with a start. “Sorry, just trying to work out how to……”
Derek looked at him with a raised, questioning, eyebrow as Stiles trailed off. He took a deep breath and decided to just go for it.
“Argent is innocent.”
The words hung in the room, as if echoing, like an accusation. Derek didn’t respond for quite a while. He had tensed as soon as Stiles said the name. Then, all of a sudden as if he was a coiled spring just waiting to be launched, he swiped all the items from the kitchen side in a rage making Stiles jump.
“OUT!” he shouted. “GET OUT!!”
Stiles didn’t need telling again, Derek looked ready to explode with anger and he wasn’t about to wait around and see what that looked like. He turned and ran back to his jeep, only realising he was still holding the glass with the pepsi in it when he got there. He ran back and left the glass on the front steps and then beat a hasty retreat.
“Well, that went well,” he said to himself wryly as he drove home.
***
The next day at school Stiles decided to put the Hale case to the back of his mind and try and find himself an opening in the Isaac case. He had a free period so he headed to the library and grabbed himself a computer to research Camden on the school’s intranet. He already knew that he was on the swim team and speaking to the current team hadn’t been of much help, but the intranet showed him that the current coach had also been coach whilst Camden was at the school.
He headed back to the pool after school to try and catch a moment with the coach whilst the swim team practice was in progress. He didn’t fancy waiting until they’d finished and causing Boyd to go all ape again. That hadn’t been the most fun moment of his life. So he headed right to the pool side and approached the coach straight away.
“Hey coach!” he called out over the noise of the team splashing their way through numerous lengths of the butterfly stroke.
The coach merely nodded at him and continued shouting at the team, pulling them up on stroke technique and speed.
“Can I ask you some questions about Camden?” Stiles asked when the coach paused for a second.
He turned and looked at him. “Now there was a decent swimmer, none of this bad technique.” He gestured at the pool as he spoke.
“Do you know of anyone that had a problem with Camden, or his brother Isaac for that matter?” Stiles enquired as he tried to keep the coach’s attention.
“No,” he replied. Then he thought for a moment. “No, really don’t kid, that boy was a hero even before he went to war and his brother was never a problem. Quiet lad, never got in the way, always hanging around at the edge of the parties Camden used to host.”
“Thanks coach,” Stiles replied as the coach went back to yelling at his team.
Stiles headed out of the pool, stopping near the door as a photo caught his eye. It was of the team, but they weren’t at the school pool, the pool they were gathered round was an outdoor pool and he was pretty sure that Isaac was stood at the edge. He took the photo off the board and quickly shoved it into his bag. He’d have a closer look at that later. Right now he needed to get to his dad’s office. He was late enough as it was.
He reached the office and set himself up at the front desk as usual, calling a greeting through to his dad. This time his dad was in and not with a client so he came out to say hello.
“How was school?”
“Alright,” Stiles replied shrugging. “Want a coffee?”
“Go on then, I’ll try not to ask what you want,” his dad said laughing.
Stiles made them a coffee each and as he did so he pondered what his dad had said. He wondered if he could get away with asking him about the Hale case without him realising that he knew there was new information out there. Which would give away the fact that he’d rifled through his dad’s stuff. He didn’t want him to know that.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said as he handed his dad a coffee.
“Here it comes! I knew it was too good to be true,” his dad joked.
“Wait, what?” Stiles asked pretending to be affronted.
“That you asking if I want a coffee without any prompting came without strings,” laughed his dad.
“Oh, well, there’s no strings,” Stiles said.
“But…” his dad prompted.
“I’ve been wondering, just lately, why it was that Argent killed Laura. I mean, what reason did he actually have of doing it? There isn’t really any, is there, so do you think there’s a chance that he’s innocent?” Stiles rushed all at once so as not to allow his dad to interrupt him.
“That case is done and dusted, Stiles, you would do well to stop dwelling on it. The sheriff acted on what the evidence was saying and you can’t argue with evidence. That is final. Argent was imprisoned because the evidence proved his guilt, the reason why is a moot point,” his dad replied angrily as he headed into his office. “You would do well to move on, son, else the feelings will fester and you’ll never get over it.”
The office door closed, putting an end to the conversation. Stiles considered how his dad had reacted to the rush of questions and figured he’d be best to stay clear of the conversation. He was confused by the fact that his dad had reacted like this because the file in the cabinet contained evidence that proved Argent’s innocence, but he was unable to confront him about it because he wasn’t supposed to know that his dad even had that file, let alone what was inside it.
He couldn’t work out why it was that his dad would be doing an investigation of the murder, find new evidence that proves Argent was physically unable to have committed the murder and keep it secret. He’d not told anyone. In fact, by the reaction from Derek when Stiles had gone and told him, he hadn’t even passed the information to the sheriff, because if he had they’d have had to tell the next of kin of the deceased, it just wouldn’t be right not to let them know that the killer’s still out there.
Stiles just couldn’t work it out and he couldn’t leave it alone either. He knew that he’d be able to push the conundrum of his dad’s file; what he obviously knew and the fact that he reacted as he did; to the back of his mind, but he wouldn’t be able to sit and wait for the answer without actively trying to find it out himself. He’d been confused by the outcome of Laura’s trial but had accepted that her murderer was caught and punished for it. Now the whole thing was open once again and the fact that the wrong man was in jail didn’t sit right. Especially as it meant that the real murderer was laughing it up thinking they’d got away scot free.
That thought galvanized him into action. He packed up and knocked at his dad’s door before popping his head round.
“I’m going to Scott’s for a bit, there’s nothing much for me to do here for you, it must be a slow week,” Stiles told him.
“It is, yes. Son, I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier, I just don’t want you getting your hopes up unnecessarily.”
“That’s okay, dad, I understand,” Stiles replied with a smile. “Consider it dropped.”
His dad smiled at him and with that Stiles left and headed over to Deaton’s to see if Scott was still there.
“Hey Stiles,” Deaton said smiling as Stiles walked in.
“Hey Deat’s,” Stiles replied jauntily.
“Scott told me that there’s some new information on the Hale murder. I thought Chris Argent had been found guilty by the evidence found in his possession, so I guess there being new evidence must be quite hard for you to deal with. How are you holding up?”
Stiles had a moment, whilst Deaton was talking to him, to process the fact that although his dad had told no-one and he had only told Scott, the lack of him saying keep it a secret because he had just assumed that Scott would, meant that someone else now knew.
“I’m okay, thanks for asking though,” he said with a smile.
“If you need any help, you know where I am,” Deaton told him.
“Thanks, Deaton,” Stiles said, unsure of what else to say.
“I’ve always felt guilty that something I said at the time may have led to Chris being arrested, he always seemed like such a good man, but I guess you just can’t always tell.” Deaton moved to the gate separating the desk from the reception area and opened it up. “Scott’s out back. I guess that’s the real reason why you’re here.”
Stiles returned his smile as he went through the gate and glanced back at him, still smiling, as he walked through the door. He really was at a loss as to what to say, especially seeing as he hadn’t told Scott so that he could get other people involved.
“Scott!” he hissed and Scott looked up at him in surprise. “Why’d you tell Deaton?”
Scott winced and looked sheepish. “Sorry, I didn’t think….”
“No you didn’t think!” Stiles hissed at him. “There’s only you, me and my dad that knew that something about the case was wrong, it was supposed to stay that way so that my dad wouldn’t find out I’d gone through his things!”
“Oh!” Scott exclaimed and Stiles could almost see the light bulb going on in his head as he realised what he’d done. “I didn’t mean to. I guess it just slipped out. I didn’t tell him the actual details, just that we’d been looking at new evidence.”
Stiles rubbed his face with his hand. “I guess it’s okay Scott. Deaton is a friend of the Hale family, he’s just offered me his help so we can probably take him up on that if we get to the point where we need more than just the two of us looking into it.”
Scott nodded, grinning excitedly again. “Or we could use him as a sounding board, seeing as we can’t go to your dad about it.”
Stiles nodded, surprised and Scott laughed. “I do have good ideas sometimes, you know! So, we going to go do some investigating now then?”
“I am,” Stiles said. “You’re going to be my cover story.”
Scott’s face fell at that. “Only if you promise me I’ll get to do some investigating with you at some point. I want to help!”
“You will help, I’ve just got to go back to Laura’s to see if I can find anything that might have been missed. We need to go back to the beginning. Start again - and Derek wasn’t too pleased the last time I saw him so it needs to be done…” he paused as he searched for the right word, “sensitively.”
Stiles instinctively knew that it was going to be difficult to get Derek on board with all this and he didn’t want Scott tagging along and messing it up. As much as he loved Scott, he could be relied on to not just put his foot in it, but jump in with both feet and all guns blazing and Stiles didn’t need that kind of approach for this task.
Scott pouted slightly but nodded and agreed to tell Stiles’ dad he had dinner at his, should he think to ask, and with that Stiles fired off a text to his dad telling him Scott’s mum had invited him to stop for dinner and then left the surgery and headed to the Hale mansion once again.
He was pleased to see that he’d managed to choose a time that looked like no-one was home. He had parked up down the street and walked up to the house so as not to announce his arrival as he wanted to scout the place first and see what sort of mood Derek was in before approaching him, but none of the lights inside were on and there were no outside lights on out the front either. Stiles made his way round the side of the house fully expecting to find Derek sat in the living room, which looked out onto the back yard, watching TV in the dark. Instead all he could see inside the house were dark, empty rooms and the only noise he could discern was the fountain in the garden, no sound could be heard from inside the house.
Link To Part Two