Stiles's Arc

Chapter 5 of 20

By morning they had a plan. Lydia needed the coroner's photos to map the wound shift she'd spotted, and the photos lived in one place. Stiles drove them to the station and parked around the side. He pulled the keycard from his glove box — borrowed months ago, never returned. Scott watched him thumb the edge of it. "In and out," Stiles said. "Side door, file room, gone." They crept along the brick wall toward the side entrance. Stiles reached for the reader. Then the front door swung open and his dad stepped out, keys in hand, heading for his cruiser. Stiles froze, then shoved the keycard into Scott's palm. "File room, back left, tall gray cabinet by the copier. Six folders. Go." He pushed Kira after Scott and peeled off toward the parking lot, waving. "Dad! Hey. Hi." The sheriff turned, surprised, tired. Stiles started talking about nothing — school, the jeep making a noise, did they have milk. His dad squinted at him the way he always did when Stiles was lying. Stiles kept talking. Over his dad's shoulder, he watched the side door click shut behind Scott and Kira. Inside, Scott moved fast and clumsy. Kira yanked the cabinet drawer too hard and it banged. They froze. A phone rang somewhere down the hall. Scott grabbed folders by the tab — one, two, four, six — and Kira stuffed them flat against her stomach under her jacket. They slipped back out the side door, half-running, folders crooked under Kira's arm. Stiles caught the movement past his dad's shoulder. "Anyway," he said, already backing away, "I gotta go, love you, bye." His dad opened his mouth. Stiles was already jogging. He hit the jeep at the same time Scott and Kira piled into the back. Folders spilled across the seat. Kira was laughing the breathless kind of laugh that wasn't really laughing. Stiles threw the jeep into gear and drove. His hands shook on the wheel. In the back, Scott spread the folders open across his knees, and there they were — six sets of coroner's photos, the wound shift waiting to be mapped. The case wasn't finished. But for the first time, Stiles had everything Lydia needed. The board was about to grow teeth.