Up the creek
Leah Allen had instituted some changes after the visit of the police detective to the school a few weeks earlier. The first had been the exile of Ryan Starnes from her presence, as punishment for writing the stupid letters that had gotten his mother suspicious in the first place. She called together those she'd chosen as her followers and restated in no uncertain terms that there were to be no love letters, emails, text messages, recorded communications of any kind.

This was to be their secret, no one else was to know unless she gave permission.


After that she had what items she'd brought in (the bed amongst other things) removed from the school, just in case that bitch detective started sniffing around again.

Once that was taken care of, the hybrid resumed her activities, albeit in a more secretive manner. She wasn't going to let one glitch take down the entire plan, and eventually Ryan would be allowed back in her good graces as he was far too tasty to stay away from forever.

Tonight Leah'd dined on a football linebacker for dinner and drained perhaps a bit more than she should have, but she'd been hungry. The hybrid left the young man lying on the sauna floor, unconscious, and slipped on a robe to make her way to the locker room to change. Once she was dressed she'd check on him and make sure that he was still alive. If not then she'd have to give him off to Bickerstaff to dispose of, the ghost demon had been useful in getting rid of the few meals that she'd overindulged on and she didn't ask any questions on what happened to the remains.

Warrants, as a rule, could be difficult to obtain. Even with a friendly judge, there were certain protocols that had to be followed and a chain of evidence that had to be maintained. But with the autopsy report on the real Laura Anderson in hand, Starnes managed to get the paperwork pushed through and got a handful of uniformed officers to accompany her to her children's school to put this ugly business to rest.

She had been forced to take Ryan's official statement as to the goings-on between himself and the woman posing as an educator, and along with Ian Weathers, whose own mother had stood over him with her arms folded like an executioner, the teenager had admitted to repeatedly having sexual intercourse with her. Drew was angry with her for involving the boy in the case, and they'd had a fight about it that morning over breakfast, but Ryan had been involved for months now. Needless to say, all was not well in the Starnes household.

So she was already in a black study when she pulled her unmarked car into the parking lot of the high school, listening to gravel crunch beneath her wheels and thinking that it sounded the way her nerves felt. Whoever the lying bitch really was, she'd dragged both of her kids into a mess they should never have even heard of. And God only knew what she was capable of, considering the lack of an official cause of death for the unfortunate school teacher who'd died back in September. Good thing she'd cleaned and loaded her service weapon yesterday.

"All right," the detective said, facing the other officers as they stood together near the building. "I want everybody to be really careful in there. Consider her definitely dangerous, possibly unstable. I don't want any mishaps."

Official papers at the ready, the cop marched up to the school building and stepped inside. 'Anderson's' office first, then most likely the grounds. If they had to, they'd find out where she lived and execute another warrant on her apartment. Whoever she was, unless she slept hanging by her toes in a closet, she had to live somewhere. First things first, though...

A check on David revealed the boy to be alive but in an exhausted stupor, so Leah left him where he was. He'd wake up and move on his own eventually and all her followers knew they were to see to their own way out of the school.

With that accomplished the hybrid finished dressing and made her way toward the office. She had a few papers to grade and then it would be time to head back home to change clothes for a night on the town. Being a school teacher, even a pretend one, was starting to get old and she was feeling the need to move onto bigger pastures. Maybe once the school year was over she'd work on expanding to the college scene with some of her seniors. UNLV had a large population didn't it?

The hybrid opened the door to her office only to find a uniformed policeman ruffling through her file cabinet. "What the hell?"

"That's actually supposed to be my question, I think." Starnes was also in the office, poking through a second cabinet, but she left off what she was doing when the other woman stepped into the room. "I'm hoping you can answer it for me."

The folder containing the copied autopsy report hit the desk with a dull slap, and the detective eyed the brunette warily. "Funny thing," she said in a meditative tone. "That says you're dead. That you've been dead for eight months. You must have one hell of a plastic surgeon, 'Ms. Anderson'."

There was a silence as she waited for some kind of reaction, and the uniformed cop going through the filed paperwork shook his head in silence. Nothing there, at least nothing really incriminating. "Keep looking," Starnes said. "There's lots of paper around here, I'm sure there's got to be something worth reading. And have somebody check the steam room. I've heard a lot of the cool kids hang out in there after hours. After that, the grounds. We wouldn't want to break investigative protocol."

"Dead?" Leah was pleased she managed not to let her voice quiver. Busted, she was so busted. It was a good thing she'd told Marie about her plans back at the beginning and let Wolfram and Hart help her out on identity papers, there was nothing on her that would give away her real name. One phone call and she'd be out and on her way out of town to start over elsewhere.

At least this was good practice for the future.

She stared back at the detective impassively. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Obviously I'm very much alive."

"Obviously you are," Starnes agreed evenly, leaning one hip against the desk where the file still sat. "But the DNA match that the Clark county medical examiner made says that the woman you say you are isn't. Apparently whoever murdered her made every effort to make sure the corpse would never be identified. They weren't even able to determine the cause of death. Even if the killing was the work of some psychopath, that doesn't explain who you are and how you're supposed to be Laura Anderson when Laura Anderson is a corpse."

'Murder'. 'Psychopath'. 'Corpse'. Not exactly the most technical terms around, but possibly they'd be enough to elicit some kind of reaction. Unless the woman really was a sociopath, she'd have to react somehow. It was one of the fallacies of being made of human parts. Another officer stepped into the office, started where the detective had been before, going through the file cabinet.

"I spoke with Dorothy Weathers and her son Ian again," the older woman said deliberately. "I wonder if he's been writing any letters lately?"

Leah couldn't help it as her face heated up at the accusations of being a psychopath. She was a murderer, technically speaking, in the same way that a wolf was the murderer of the animals it preyed upon. But she didn't see herself as a monster or a psycho.

"If you're going to arrest me, get it over with." Leah held her hands out for the Detective to cuff. There was no point in pretending she could charm her way out of this, there were more female cops than male and none of her followers were in the building aside from the one out cold in the sauna. "Then I want my phone call."

"Phone call. Right." That meant there was going to be a lawyer getting involved, which the guilty always resorted to rather than answer questions. Well, so be it, Starnes thought, and she took her cuffs off of her belt. They'd get her downtown and put her in a cell for a few hours, see if that softened her up. If not, they'd see if the lawyer was a reasonable person. Even if it was all just circumstantial, the bits were piling up. Regardless, at least she'd be out of here and away from these kids for a while. The woman was a menace.

"We're taking you in on suspicion of the murder of Laura Anderson," she intoned, clicking each cuff closed around the other woman's wrists. "You have the right to have your attorney present during questioning, as well as the right not to incriminate yourself." The detective started the slow walk out of the office, the brunette in front of her. Not knowing her real name made the Mirandizing process a little awkward, but she'd get by. Police work relied on improvisation and gut instinct most of the time, anyway.

The cars were waiting for them outside, and as the older woman guided her erstwhile prisoner down the front stairs, several other vehicles pulled into the quiet parking lot. Three black sedans, glittering in the late afternoon sun, and when the doors opened, several suited men and women stepped into view.

"Detective Starnes?" the one in the lead said, and when the cop nodded he flashed a badge of his own at her. "I'm Agent Danielson, Department of Homeland Security. I just wanted to thank you for assisting us in apprehending our prisoner. We'll take over from here, you needn't concern yourself any further."