Broken Trust (Broken Book 3)

35: Facing the Tiger

The psychologists left the sheriff's office and Stilinski sighed, seeing Lydia still at the station.

"Why are you still here?" he asked.

"Did they get anything out of her?"

"Should have gone with the medium."

Lydia sighed.

Parrish walked through the door. "We went through Brunski's office and only found evidence of him being an Angel of Death, but nothing to connect him to the dead pool or the Benefactor." He looked at Lydia. "Did you not go home yet?"

"Not until Meredith starts talking."

"Lydia," Stilinski sighed. "I promise she'll talk and when she does, I'll let you know. Trust me on this. Everyone talks eventually."

"Wait...," Parrish said, looking into the office at Meredith. "She's a Banshee, right?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should let Lydia talk to her?"

"No."

"Why not? She probably has a better chance at getting her to open up than we do."

Stilinski sighed.

"She got her to tell her the second cipher key," the deputy pointed out.

"Fine." He motioned for Lydia and Parrish to follow him into his office.

Meredith looked between the three of them. Stilinski and Parrish settled against Stilinski's desk while Lydia started to pace.

"I think I'm getting an idea of how all this happened," she finally said. "You used Brunski, right?"

Meredith just watched her, not saying a word.

"You knew he'd killed people and that he would do it again."

Meredith was still quiet.

Lydia sat next to her. "He used my grandmother's code for the dead pool. He put it online. He took the money from the Hale vault then turned the bearer bonds into cash. He made the payments. Was it Brunski's idea to fake your death?"

Meredith was still silent, but Parrish had a feeling she was about to start talking, judging by the look on the older Banshee's face.

"Did he get nervous because you helped us with one of the cipher keys?"

"I wanted to help," Meredith finally broke her silence, causing Stilinski's eyebrows to climb up his forehead.

"All you ever wanted to do was help."

Meredith nodded.

"Is that why you're here? I know you wouldn't want to be here if you didn't want to talk."

"I do. But only to one person."

"Who?" Stilinski asked.

"Peter." The three looked at each other. "Peter Hale."

~~~

Stiles and Malia left the hospital, Stiles telling her about the tape he took from the scene with Lydia's grandmother's name on it. He had a gut feeling that the tape would tell them how to stop the dead pool.

"How are you so sure?" Malia asked.

"I... I don't know. It's just a feeling I have."

His father was still at the station so they had the house to themselves. He pulled his stereo off the shelf and put it on his desk, popping the tape into the player and pressing play. As they listened they realized that Lorraine had escaped from Eichen and Brunski went to retrieve her.