A/N: Hey guys! A couple of these really fast. First off, I had a guest review my last chapter saying the following:
"I'm sad you're abandoning this story. I really liked where it was going!"
~I just wanted to let that guest, and anybody else who may have misinterpreted the a/n in my last chapter that I am NOT abandoning this story. My updates might be a bit slower because of the writers block I seem to have found myself in at this point in the story, but I plan to continue to write it regardless. See, the problem is that I know exactly how I want this fic to end, I'm just struggling a bit with filling in some of the middle. But hang tight, I promise you, it is not a dead fic. (If you are the guest who wrote this review please let me know you saw this, cause I feel really bad you thought that I abandond this story.)
~Next, I wanna ask you guys to take a look at my last chapter "Authors Notes, Prompt Ideas (Chapter 13)" please. While I may be planning to keep this story going, I'd love to work on something else for a bit too. I'm hoping that working with other characters as well as prompts it might help me with my writers block too. I think that I've been spending so much time with these characters that I've just kinda forgot how I want to use them right now.
So PLEASE help me out guys. Just pick any characters from what ever fandom you want (my fandoms are listed in my bio, and if you don't see yours in there ask me anyway because if I'm familiar with it I'll still try and do one for you), pick any of the prompts listed in my last chapter, and then send what you guys want in a PM. I would LOVE to write you guys a story that you helped me design. :)
And last but not least, R&R please!? :) Also, if you actually read all of this, you are amazing. I love all of you lovely readers so much! Thank you for your support! 3
...
True to her word Renee had dropped off all of the email print outs that afternoon. Stiles, Lydia, and Larson had spent the next three and a half hours going over each threat taking careful note of every detail. Once that was done with, Stiles called in to pull the Anderson family's phone records to see if there was any correlation between the calls and the emails. There were three that correlated in the end so Larson took another officer with him to follow up on one of the leads—a woman by the name of Mary Clarks whom Carter had represented about two years back—while Stiles and Lydia went to meet with a man who had lost his case against his now ex-wife six months ago named Norbert Longman. The third was the man the widow had mentioned, Steven Bucksmith. It was decided that they would meet with him last so that Stiles, Lydia, and Larson could all be present.
…...
"Ms. Clarks," the female officer accompanying Larson began, "Could you tell us about the child endangerment case that you were involved in two years ago?"
"I lost my case, my job, and most importantly my daughter. My lawyer failed me. There isn't much to tell, Officer Morrow." Mary's tone filled with anger as she spoke.
The officers sat on the woman's front porch, Larson leaning against the rail while Morrow had elected to take a seat in one of the two rocking chairs. The suspect in question sat perched upon the porch swing.
"Of course ma'am." Deputy Larson said in his southern drawl. "We're terribly sorry for your circumstances. Just awful." He found that by playing friendly he could sometimes coax the suspect into being more forthcoming with information.
"I'll bet it infuriated you that you had your daughter ripped away from you. She went to live with a foster family in Detroit, Michigan correct? You haven't seen her since that day in court?" Morrow responded. She was often the one to play ''bad-cop'' in these situations. Morrow always asked the hard questions to keep the suspect on their toes.
"That is correct." Mary responded tightly, giving a glare in the direction of the female cop that sent genuine shivers down her spine before she looked back to Larson. "What is this even about anyway?" She snapped.
"Carter Anderson is dead. Murdered, actually." Morrow said with just as much venom in her voice as Mary had just used toward her.
"And you think that I killed him?" The woman asked incredulously.
"Didn't you?" Morrow asked, keeping up the bad cop appearance. "We know that you threatened him after you lost your daughter. What was her name again? Sarah?"
"No!" Mary shouted standing from the swing.
"I'm terribly sorry ma'am, we don't mean to upset you." Larson said interjecting, placing a calming hand on the woman's shoulder. "We just need to follow up with everyone who made threats toward him. We need to look at all possibilities. You understand?"
Heaving a heavy breath the now infuriated woman found her perch on the swing once more and tried to answer in a calmer tone of voice. "No." She managed again. "No, I did not kill him. I hate him, and you wont see me cry over his passing, but I didn't kill Anderson."
Her voice was still full of tension, as if she might explode again at any moment, so Larson tried for a brief subject change in order to calm her before continuing the interrogation. "Tell me about your daughter, Sarah? How old is she?"
"She would be 10 now. My beautiful little girl." The woman said wistfully, her voice immediately becoming softer.
Officer Morrow stood and walked to the far side of the porch to allow for them to have a privet moment, in order to reinforce the good-cop-bad-cop bit that the pair and started up, with out even planning it.
"What kind of things does she like?" Larson continued, careful not to use past tense in regards to Sarah. He didn't want to remind her that her daughter was elsewhere and have the woman clam up.
"Sarah loves Ballet. She likes reading too. She was always pretending to be a princess like the ones in her books, she even had a tutu from her dance classes that she would wear. She always said that it was her gown for the prince's ball." Mary smiled fondly and the memory and Larson allowed for a smile as well.
"Well, it sounds like you love her an awful lot Ms. Clarks." He stated.
"I love her very much Deputy Larson." She responded, "Would you like to see her picture?"
"I would like that very much ma'am." Larson said with a smile.
"I'll be right back then." She said disappearing into the house as Morrow rejoined him once again and took her place in the rocking chair.
"Nice job defusing the tension, Larson."
"Nice job playing bad-cop and issuing the tension, Morrow." He teased.
A moment later Mary Clarks re-emerged from her home with a framed photo which she handed to the deputy. "That's my Sarah girl." She told him proudly.
"She's certainly beautiful Ms. Clarks." He said passing the image to Morrow.
"You have a lovely daughter." The female agreed. As a mother of two, she found herself unable to keep up the hardball front when discussing the child in this manner.
As the photo was passed back to the mother Larson asked one final question. "Is there anything you might be able to tells us that could help Ms. Clarks?"
"No, Deputy Larson. I'm sorry I can't be of any more help."
"That's quite alright miss." He told her, handing her a card with his extension number on it, "Just give us a call if you think of anything?"
"I will Deputy." She said kindly to him, glaring daggers in Morrow's back the entire time as the pair walked back to the squad car.
...
"Norbert Longman, you lost a case about six months ago when you and your wife were going through a divorce correct?" Stiles asked the elder gentlemen sitting in front of him. Norbert wasn't old exactly, he looked as though he was in his late forties or early fifties, but compared to the sheriff he was elder.
"That is correct Sheriff." The man replied.
"And your ex-wife's lawyer was a gentleman by the name of Carter Anderson right?" Lydia asked him as a follow up.
"Yes." Norbert confirmed again.
"Did you send him death threats after you lost your case?" The sheriff continued.
The man sighed. "I'm not proud of it, but yes, I did send a few of 'em. Can I ask what this is about?"
"Carter Anderson was found dead." The redhead informed him as she pulled her turquoise cardigan tighter around herself. It was a chilly day outside and for whatever reason, this man seemed to have the air conditioner in his house turned on. "Murdered, to be specific."
"Oh my God." The man muttered in disbelief. After a pause he seemed to realize why he was being questioned. "You think that I could have killed him?"
"Mr. Anderson received several death threats Mr. Longman. We're just interviewing the people involved in some of the more concerning threats sir. We have to consider all of out options at this point." Stiles informed him.
"Can you tell us what happened with your case Mr. Longman? What was it about exactly?" Lydia picked up, continuing the interview.
"We were trying to decide who got what in the divorce." Norman explained, "You know, who got the house, who got the car. That sort of thing. And she won everything, I was living on the streets for about a month after the divorce. And I'll admit, I was pretty pissed at first. But I didn't kill him."
"You send him several death threats Mr. Longman. Most of them consist of you saying things such as, "I will smother you in your sleep" and "I'd like to see the blood run down your throat as you die slowly and painfully.'" the sheriff read. "Did you ever intend to act on these actions?"
"I would never." Norman said. "Look, I was mad in the beginning. I turned to drinking for awhile after the divorce—that was when I made those threats, when I was drunk. I've gotten help since then and I'm sober now. I'm not proud of doing those things. I lost my case, I've made my peace with that. I didn't kill him."
"Okay, well thank you very much for your time sir." Lydia said standing, she could feel her fingers becoming more ice-like as she sat in his cold house.
"We'll be in touch Mr. Longman." Stiles said as he too stood up, Norbert following there lead.
"Absolutely. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful." Norbert said walking the pair to the door and shaking each of their hands.
"Call us if you think of anything that might help." The sheriff said shaking his hand and offering a card that had the station number and his extension on it.
"Pleasure to meet you sir." The ginger haired girl told him as she returned the gesture before following Stiles back outside to the car.
"God, my hands are freezing. Why was his house so damn cold?" Lydia complained as they drove down the street.
Stiles laughed and nodded in agreement as he flipped the heat on low in the cruiser.
…...
Steven Bucksmith lived in a lake house not unlike the one Lydia now resided in, only his was a bit smaller. His house was more of a log cabin style too, where as Lydia's was built more like a stone cottage. As Lydia walked up the front stairs, she found herself having to admit that it was a lovely home. Officer Morrow had driven Deputy Larson over to the lake house so that nobody would be forced to take the back seat of the cruiser, and had elected to stay to provide backup if it became necessary. As they reached the front porch Stiles reached out to knock on the heavy wooden door and a moment later it was swung open to reveal a tall dark haired man in his mid to late thirties.
"Steven Bucksmith?" Larson asked him. The man nodded.
"Can I help you?" He asked skeptically with a heavy dark brow raised.
Stiles held up his badge for the man to see and introduced himself. "Yea. I'm Sheriff Stilinski. This is Deputy Larson," he pause gesturing to the man in question before placing his right hand on Lydia's shoulder and continuing. "And this is Dr. Martin. We were wondering if we might borrow a few minutes of your time to ask you a few questions?"
The grumpy looking man nodded tersely and stepped aside so that the three could enter the home. Upon entering he shut the heavy wooden door behind them and led them to the living room before gesturing for them to take a seat on the black leather sofa. They all obliged and Steven found a seat of his own in the matching chair to their immediate right.
"So, what sort of questions are you going to be asking me?" The taller man began.
"Can you tell us about what happened between you and a lawyer by the name of Carter Anderson?" Lydia asked jumping right to the chase.
The mans face instantly reddened in anger, his jaw clenching before he spoke. "He's the reason I was shorted $40,000 in my law suit case." He answered tightly.
"Yes, of course." Larson picked up, "But would you mind telling us a little bit about the case? Like, uh, what was the suit over, for example?"
"I was fired from my job with out any probable cause!" The man half yelled. "I kept asking them why I was let go but they never told me. Then one of my friends who still worked at the office told me that the day after I left they'd already found a replacement for me. Some woman. My friend told me the boss never stopped flirting with her. I lost my job so that he could get a booty-call at work!"
"So you tried to sue your employer for discrimination then?" Stiles guessed.
"Of course I did! Why wouldn't I?" He said defensively.
"And Carter Anderson was your employers lawyer, right?" The sheriff continued.
"Yea, and the bastard shorted me the compensation that I rightfully deserved! I was a damn good employee! And he fired me because I didn't have breast or a—"
"Okay," Lydia laughed, "I think we get the point of where that was going. Next question. After you lost your case, you sent threats to Mr. Anderson and even went so far as to stalk his daughter correct?"
"Hey, I've obeyed the terms of my restraining order so if that bastard is trying to press charges on me then I—" and once again Steven Bucksmith was cut off.
"Mr. Bucksmith nobody in the Anderson family is pressing charges." Larson informed him. "We're here because some joggers found Mr. Anderson's body in the woods a few days ago. He was murdered."
That information cause the man before them to release a bark of laughter, not that his amusement surprised any of them at this point in the conversation. "I always knew someone would kill him someday!" He announced joyfully. Actually, this was the happiest the three had seen him since arriving at his home.
Finally the odd man before them sobered up and regained his previous grumpy state. "You won't see me shed a damn tear over his death, I'm glad he's dead. But I'm not the one who pulled the trigger, so to speak. Not that I wouldn't love to be the one to kill him, but I'm not your guy."
"Well, we're sorry to have disturbed you sir." Larson spoke, even he was finding it difficult to remain polite in Steven's presence. "If you can think of any information, please give us a call. And stay in town, we may need to contact you again."
After handing him the same card they had given the other two people they'd interviewed that day they showed themselves out the door and walked wordlessly back to their cars.
Upon shutting the door on the passenger side of the cruiser, Larson looked to his driver and friend and sighed. "That might have been the most disturbed man I've ever met in my life." He told her as she started the car.
...
A/N: Hey guys! I really hoped you enjoyed this chapter! It was actually a lot of fun to create and write for all of the different suspects. So just to some up my previous a/n in the beginning:
A) I will NOT be abandoning this story. (Yay!)
B) Please help me out and give me some characters and a prompt to write for? (Thank you!)
C) R&R if you read and liked this chapter! (Seriously, your reviews inspire me to write faster.)
Thanks again for reading guys! I love you lovely people so much! Mwah! 3