I had two ideas:
a. What if the cops thought the fire in Sam and Jessica's apartment was arson.
b. What if Hendrickson got ahold of a tape the Palo Alto cops made of their interview with Sam after the fire.
I first planned on making two stories but decided that I couldn't come up with enough material and put the two ideas together.
After watching Adam-12, Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, Profiler, Law and Order cubed and other cop/FBI shows plus the occasional call to 911, I still don't know what the procedures are so I made them up as I went along.
Case #021105 - Fatal Fire In Palo Alto
Detective Michael Froehlich escorted Sam into an interrogation room at the Palo Alto Police Department. "Please sit Sam," he said indicating a chair on the far side of the desk facing the two-way mirror. Sam sat down and stared at the scarred table. "Would you like some coffee or a Coke, Sam?"
"A Coke would be fine," Sam said his voice still husky from smoke inhalation. Froehlich stepped out of the room and returned a few minutes later with a can of pop. Another detective came in with him carrying a large manila envelope and a file folder.
"This is my partner Detective Tatiana Blackthorne," said Froehlich as they sat down opposite Sam, who glanced up at Blackthorne and then back at the table. "Sam would you please tell us what happened in your apartment this morning?"
Sam took a sip of pop and cleared his throat, "there was a fire, Jess…Jess didn't make it out."
"How did you get out of your apartment?" asked Blackthorne.
"My brother pulled me out."
"Why didn't he pull your girlfriend out too?"
"She was on fire," he whispered as tears spilled from his eyes. Sam stood up and walked over to the corner of the room. He leaned against the wall, crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the floor.
"We understand that you had left your apartment early on the morning of the 31st with a man in a dark car. Who did you leave with and where did you go?" queried Froehlich.
"What does that have to do with the fire?" he asked in a low voice.
"Please just answer the question Sam."
Sam took a deep breath and looked up at the two detectives, "Dean and I went to Jericho."
"Dean's your brother, correct?" Sam nodded. "Why did you two go to Jericho?"
"He said Dad had gone down there and he needed help to bring him home."
"Why would your brother need help bringing your Dad home?"
Sam sighed, "Because Dad is…difficult when he's been drinking."
"Had he been drinking when you found him, Sam?"
"We didn't find him, he wasn't where we expected him to be." Sam looked back down at the floor.
Froehlich flipped through the folder. "So to recap; your brother Dean came to you for help in bringing your Dad home, you and Dean don't find him and not long after you arrive back at your apartment it goes up in flames, your girlfriend Jessica dies in the fire and Dean just happens to pull you out in time." Sam didn't say anything or even look at the detectives he just shrugged his shoulders.
"Well Sam it looks like not all of your things burned." Blackthorne pulled a plastic evidence bag containing a scary looking curved blade knife out of the manila envelope and placed it on the table. "What's this Sam?"
Sam glanced at the knife, "it's a claw dagger." He pushed off the wall and went over to the table. "I own a knife, big deal. I'm done here. I want my brother and I want to leave. I need to call Jess' parents." He sat down heavily in the chair and held his head in his hands. "Oh God…Jess."
Blackthorne stood up and leaned over the table, "we tested the knife Sam and it came back positive for blood. Is it Jessica's blood? Did you come home to find your girlfriend entertaining another man in your bed?" Sam's head snapped up and his mouth dropped open in shock. Blackthorne pressed harder trying to break him, "you killed her in a fit of rage and your brother helped you set the fire to cover up her murder. Isn't that so Sam?"
Sam stood up suddenly knocking his chair backwards, he clenched his hands and his eyes glared, "NO! My brother dropped me off, Jess was in the shower, I laid down on the bed and the next thing I know the bedroom is on fire, Jess is on fire and Dean is pulling me off the bed and hauling me out of our apartment!" Sam was beyond pissed and it took all of his self control to unclench his hands and not punch Blackthorne in the face.
"Sam, please calm down." Froehlich waited until Sam grudgingly sat down again before continuing, "we're just trying to find out truth." Froehlich tried a different line of questioning, "you said your Dad is 'difficult' when he's been drinking so is it possible your Dad set the fire? Not to kill you or Jessica, but just to get you to leave Stanford and come home?"
Sam shook his head, "No! No! NO!! Dad wouldn't do that! He would never set fire to our apartment!"
"Are you sure? Excessive drinking tends to make people unpredictable at times," pointed out Froehlich. "Sam, when he drinks does your Dad ever get violent towards you or Dean? Are you afra…" Sam abruptly stood up and walked towards the door but stopped when Blackthorne blocked his way.
"We are not finished here Sam," replied Blackthorne looking him in the eye.
"I'm leaving, arrest me or get out of my way Detective!" snapped Sam.
"Sammy!" The door to the interrogation room banged opened and Dean rushed in, "Sammy?"
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"Stop the tape," ordered Special Agent Victor Hendrickson. "This man, ladies and gentlemen," he said pointing at Dean before turning around to address the room, "is extremely dangerous. He set fire to his brother's apartment, killing Jessica Moore, so he could get Sam to agree to join him on the road. I don't believe Sam knew at the time that Dean had started the fire. But I believe by now he knows or suspects and is either just to scared to leave or Dean has brainwashed him into not being able to leave."
"What about the blood residue on the knife?" asked Special Agent Daniel Fox while turning Sam's knife over in his hands, "was it Jessica Moore's?" He passed the knife over to the Agent next to him.
"No. Further testing revealed that it was animal blood," replied Hendrickson.
Deputy Director Inez Almanson opened a file, "it says here that the official cause of the fire was an electrical short in a ceiling fixture. The Palo Alto police had suspected their Father, John Winchester, of starting the fire so why do you insist that Dean Winchester started it instead?"
Hendrickson walked over to a tackboard that had pictures of Dean, Sam and Jessica pinned to it plus pictures of Sam's and Jessica's burned out apartment. "There had been no contact between the brothers," he pointed at their pictures, "for a little over two years and coincidentally the same weekend Dean shows up on Sam's doorstep the apartment goes up in smoke? I don't believe in coincidences. Dean persuaded Sam to come with him, ostensibly to look for their Father, and when he couldn't convince him to leave college and travel with him, Dean did the only thing that a man like him would do." Hendrickson pointed at Jessica's picture, "he killed the one person who was, in his mind, keeping his brother away from him. Jessica Moore had to die in a way that would force his brother to depend on him for everything." He looked around at the men and women seated in the room before walking over to the conference table and sitting down.
"I admit that sounds plausible Hendrickson," stated Special Agent Anja Mueller as she flipped through the file, "but it looks like the Palo Alto police were satisfied with Dean's statement. Quote, I dropped Sam off at his apartment around 0300 and drove off but about five - ten minutes later decided to come back and see if he would let me sleep on the couch. I smelled smoke when I stepped out of my car and saw flames in the window of Sam's apartment. I ran upstairs, kicked the door in and heard my brother screaming Jessica's name. I ran into the bedroom, grabbed Sam off the bed and I saw Jessica's body burning on the floor, so I dragged Sam outside and called 911, unquote. So if everything Dean said in his statement was true when did he have the time to start the fire? And how did he make sure that only Jessica died? It would have been very easy for his brother to die also, either from smoke inhalation or the flames."
Hendrickson leaned forward and ticked off each point of his theory on his fingers, "First, he drives around the corner, comes back to the apartment building and climbs up the fire escape. Second, he breaks into the apartment, probably through an open window. Third, he surprises Jessica in the shower and breaks her neck before she can call out. Fourth, he notices that his brother had fallen asleep on the bed so he quietly places Jessica's body on the floor outside the bathroom door and sprays an accelerant on the body and on the wall nearest the bathroom. And last, he tosses a match and then hustles out the same way he came in."
Fox continues where Hendrickson leaves off, "then Dean drives back to the apartment building and runs in to save Sam. I get it but the timing is tight. Very tight."
Hendrickson gestures at Dean's picture on the tackboard, "he could do all this in under 10 minutes."
"It's still way to tight," countered Almanson. "There was no way for Dean to know that Sam would fall asleep on the bed instead of joining Jessica in the shower. Plus, how would he even know that Jessica would be in the shower? She could have just as easily been asleep on the bed and what would he have done then? Tie his brother up while he kills Jessica?"
"This is starting to get ridiculous," said Mueller. "Dean's arrest record consists of breaking and entering, grave desecration and credit card fraud. There is nothing in his file indicating that he was involved in arson or murder…"
Hendrickson interrupted, "he has been sighted in the area of several murders!"
"And," Mueller continued ignoring Hendrickson's interruption, "since Sam has left Stanford he's been arrested once…in Ankeny, Iowa and that was a college prank for which he was fined and released. You are making a mountain out of a mole hill."
"So far all you have are some unreliable sightings." Special Agent Todd Jennings got up and walked over to a side table and opened a file. "They also escaped from Baltimore police custody but according to this," he held up the file, "the case against them was going to be dismissed because of mishandling and gross misconduct."
Hendrickson stood up, clearly agitated, "they were involved in the attempted heist of the Milwaukee Bank and they killed one hostage."
"There is no evidence that they killed that man," replied Jennings. "No hair, fiber or blood evidence from the Winchester brothers was found on the dead man. And least we forget Hendrickson, a box addressed to you in care of the Milwaukee Police Department contained the SWAT gear that they had stolen or 'borrowed' according to the note enclosed in the box."
"That is not the point!" Hendrickson yelled.
"That is the point," reiterated Almanson standing up. "Special Agent Hendrickson you have not succeeded in justifying the need for additional personnel for your task force. Jessica Moore's death is not attributed to Dean Winchester and will not be added to the list of charges pending his capture. This meeting is adjourned." Almanson placed the file she had been reading on the side table and left the conference room, followed by the other Agents.
Fox stopped at the door, turned around and faced Hendrickson, "I believe you." He then walked out the door leaving a dejected Hendrickson behind.
Hendrickson glanced behind him at Dean's likeness on the video monitor, "someday Winchester you will screw up and I will be there when you do."
FIN