How hard could it be? • LM / SS

Chapter 126

"It's just like seeing her
for the first time."

Sheriff Stilinski closed the door to his office, sighing deeply at how little progress he had made. Today had been an eventful day at the station, to say the least. His son and partner in crime, Lydia Martin, had gone to Eichen House in hopes of gaining access to a specific file that belonged to the banshee's grandmother. Honestly speaking, they should have had a bit more common sense and not went to Brunski, of all people. In the mental health facility— if you could even call it that— the two teenagers had been forced to listen to Lorraine Martin take her final breaths on a tape.

Deputy Parrish had come to the rescue once again, shooting Brunski. It was evident that Brunski had murdered Lorraine, the identity of the Benefactor also being revealed; although, it wasn't who you would think. A very much alive Meredith Walker was taken into custody, being the mastermind behind the whole process.

"What did she say?" Lydia questioned the second the sheriff was in the hallway, desperate for an answer. That had hands down been the longest hour and a half of her life, pacing the room and chancing a glance through the blinds every now and then. None of this made sense. Why would Meredith do all of this, fake her death and distribute cash? What was she getting out of any of this?

"Hard to tell. There were words, I'm not sure there were actual sentences. I reckon we're gonna need a psychologist," he sighed, flicking through the pages of a phone book. It looked like it was going to be one hell of a long night, especially if no one was able to get anything out of Meredith.

"I know someone who can help in that department." Lydia disappeared around a corner, phone held up against her ear as she tried to get into contact with a psychologist. It was a good thing she constantly did background checks and research on the people that she met. "She's on her way, give her five minutes. Is Meredith even competent enough to be charged with something?"

Noah was outraged at the accusation, simply because he knew many others would think the same. He didn't even think to ask who Lydia had called, too busy justifying his reasoning. "If Meredith is the benefactor, then that means she was competent enough to trick Kate into opening the Hale vault, competent enough to blackmail Brunski into helping her, and competent enough to create a hit list and pay out money for its completion. She's practically a criminal mastermind, whether you want to believe it or not."

Lydia rubbed her forehead wearily, trying and failing to find a plausible excuse to the situation. Maybe there was no reason; it could be possible that Meredith just did it because she could, because she knew she would get away with it, the last person that anyone would suspect. Yet part of Lydia still refused to believe it. Maybe she was biased, letting her emotions take over instead of thinking about this rationally. She was projecting; she didn't want to believe that banshees were evil, harbingers of death and nothing else, and maybe if Meredith had a good, honest reason for why she did it, everything would be okay.

"I'm only interested in the 'why,' if it tells me the 'how,' Noah folded his arms across his chest, scratching his head in thought. He could see why Lydia wanted to believe that there was a reason behind everything, but sometimes there wasn't. And there wasn't an underlying motive or some hidden subtext as to why someone would do something like this.

"After what happened to Scott and the others tonight, this thing's still going. The payments could be automatic. And as long as the killers are getting paid, and paid very well might I add, that list is going to keep getting smaller." He had been filled in via a phone call about what happened at the school, some information being left out due to Melissa 'handling it in her own way,' whatever the hell that was meant to mean.