Her hands were shaky and covered in sweat, gripping the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. The only thing on her mind was the road ahead, and by extension, her destination. Her dashboard lit up with different colours of the night; signs from open convenience stores, uncovered apartment windows, and when she turned a corner, red and blue police lights.
She finally slammed on the brakes. The noise attracted quite a bit of attention, but she ignored the turning heads. As she yanked her keys out of the ignition, her eyes were glued to a dense group of policemen, conversing within the yellow tape. That yellow tape extended from one end of the street to the other, effectively sectioning off that part of downtown.
She wasted no time leaping out of her grey Mazda and slamming the door shut. Ignoring a few policemen who were approaching her, she broke into a run towards the crime scene.
Of course, she didn't go unnoticed, just uncaught. She ran right up to the police tape with the full intention of ducking underneath when someone grabbed her arm. When jerking away proved unsuccessful, she turned and scowled at the officer that didn't let her pass.
"This is a crime scene," the officer said. The girl wanted to spit something along the lines of: "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." Instead, she raised her eyebrows.
"Rebecca?" Hearing her name, the girl tore her eyes away from the stoic officer, only to see the chief policeman. He was close enough to recognize her in the faint illumination coming from the various cop cars around them. She could see his face too and it instantly became wary. "You shouldn't be here."
"My mom's here," She replied. That meant nothing to him, obviously. He was used to her trying to interfere with police business because of that 'excuse', as he called it. "And he was my friend."
His mouth creased into a thin line. He was middle-aged but blamed her for his greying hair. He said in a gruff voice: "I don't care if he was your Godfather. It's twelve o'clock on a Tuesday. Go home."
"Sheriff! They found something on the-" A woman appeared from the swarm of officers. Her eyes were instantly drawn to Rebecca, and she stopped mid-sentence, narrowing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Hi Mom," Rebecca greeted pathetically, withering ever so slightly under her mother's venomous glare.
"If you'll excuse me for one moment, Sheriff." Rebecca's mother walked under the tape and wasted no time gruffly grabbing her by the elbow and yanking her away from the crime scene. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Gus told me that you'd been called in when I went looking for you," Rebecca immediately responded. She desperately tried to keep whatever shred of dignity she had left and not stumble on her own two feet as onlookers watched their interaction with fleeting glances. "Mom, he told me all about what you found on the body. Mercury? What the hell kind of murderer uses mercury?"
"Police business is not your business, Rebecca," her mother fumed, steam nearly erupting from her ears. "And I'll be having a little chat with Gus later, don't you worry. This stupidity is not starting again."
They had reached Rebecca's car and her mother at long last let go. Rebecca shook out her arm, looking her mother dead in the eye with a low voice so as not to be overheard.
"Mom, you know you need me for these types of cases," Rebecca insisted, nodding along to her own words. "How are you going to explain the body? Gus said that he had claws on him. Claws! He's in my biology class, and I can assure you he didn't have claws then!"
"May I remind you, young lady, that you are not in any position to be making such outrageous demands. And, like I said, don't you worry about Gus," her mom snapped, making Rebecca sit back on her heels.
"Mom, do you know what happened to him?" Rebecca asked quickly as her mother began to turn away. "Please, I just-"
"No," her mother shouted, raising a finger in warning. Rebecca's throat constricted and her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I don't need you to rush around pretending like you understand what's going on. Get in your car and go home. Now."
Rebecca gave her mother one last look, half hidden in darkness, before opening her car and clambering in. Her mom slammed it shut, then walked away.
Rebecca watched her mother yell something at the onlookers, then sidle up to the Sheriff, probably apologizing or something. She wiped her hands on her jeans in a slow, deliberate motion, then shoved her keys back into the ignition. Sitting there for a moment, thinking, allowed a bubble of anger to rise in her throat. It exploded in the form of a loud swear and her palm hitting the top of the steering wheel. She shifted into reverse and spun around, backing out of the crime scene and back into the uncharacteristically quiet city.
Rebecca's thumbs were kept busy, tapping a tuneless melody on her wheel as her mind went a million miles an hour. She felt the same amount of panic as she did when she was rushing towards in the opposite direction. Gus had explained that mercury was pooling in a puddle mixed with blood. Definitely a werewolf, judging by the claws, but a tail that had been cut off and found down the street suggested kanima.
The kid who showed up dead - his name was Omar, if she recalled correctly - hadn't showed up for class for a solid week before turning up dead. And in that week, who the hell knows what could have happened to him? He could have been bitten or tortured, or both, or...
Rebecca was suddenly blinded as two pairs of headlights flew around a corner, the vehicle attached to them was speeding straight for her.
Letting out a piercing scream, she violently swerved to the right while the headlights, she could see, turned out of the way as well. Slamming the breaks with all the force she could muster, she sat numb and panting, adrenaline causing her to tremble. Looking in her rearview mirror, she watched a bead of sweat roll down the side of her head. Eventually tugging her eyes away, she looked to her steering wheel and flexed her fingers. They were trembling.
Letting out a shaky breath, she found the anger she needed to confront the idiot driver that nearly killed her.
Climbing out of her car and stepping back to check if there was any damage, she was amazed to see that apparently, the vehicle that nearly collided with hers turned right as well.
Spinning around to face it, she saw a blue pick up truck in the dim light, with the driver just now climbing out.
"What the hell is your problem?" Rebecca exclaimed, arms raising at her sides to emphasize her words. Her already heightened emotions added a shrillness to her voice. "Are you in the middle of a drag race or something? Because I'm pretty sure doing one hundred in a fifty is illegal."
The driver, after inspecting the damage of their own vehicle, sauntered out halfway across the street to confront her. In the shadows, she saw what was obviously a guy, rubbing the back of his neck as if suffering from whiplash.
"Yeah, sorry about that," the guy offered, giving her an apologetic expression. "I was in a hurry and I didn't really see you until it was too late."
The way he kept rubbing his neck was beginning to make her nervous. Abandoning all her anger, she took a few more steps and they were soon only a few feet away.
"Hey, are you alright?" Rebecca asked, cocking her head with a concerned look in her eye. The guy smiled. The glint in his eye made it seem like he was teasing her about her quickly evaporated frustration. He dropped his arm.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he reassured. Something about him was off-putting. His tone of voice sounded sincere, but his smirk and that strange glint in his gaze made it seem like everything he said was just to mock her. "How about you? Is your car damaged? I'll pay for anything..."
"Nah, we're both fine." Rebecca gestured to her car then shrugged. She pursed her lips instead of offering an ensuring smile.
He nodded slightly. "Good. You know, I'd love to chat, but I wasn't lying about being in a hurry."
He jerked his thumb to his truck while starting to turn away. Rebecca nodded, tilting her body in the direction of her car as well, so the two of them seemed reflections of each other. His mouth twitched again as if he could tell that Rebecca was intentionally trying to mock him.
"Yeah, okay. Just try to stay in the speed limit," she said.
He omitted a sarcastic laugh, and said; "I'll try."
Rebecca turned away, opening her car door when she heard his voice again.
"Right, before I forget: I never caught your name," the guy said. He was calling from across the street but didn't seem to care. His arm and head were poking out of his open window, another smile on his face.
She didn't know what this guy's game was, but for some reason, Rebecca smiled. It wasn't out of humor, more because she felt like in this sort of situation, she should be running as far away from him as she possibly could.
"Rebecca. Rebecca Virk," she said, listless humor in her voice. "You?"
"Theo. Theo Raeken," he responded. There it was again, his smirk and the copying. Was this his way of flirting? "I guess I'll see you around, then."
She raised her eyebrows and gave him another smile, as if she sincerely doubted that. Or maybe she just sincerely hoped not.
She decided it was definitely the latter as she watched him pull away and drive in the direction of the crime scene.