"What the hell am I looking at?" Dean retracted his gloved hand from the bloody mess which was all that was left of the businessman.
It looked like the leftover bits of the turkey at the end of their thanksgiving dinner last night. If Dean had not been doing this for as long as he has, that thanksgiving meal would have made a reappearance.
"Looks like some kind of animal attack," his partner, Max, said.
"A hyena who knew how to unlock the front door?" Dean scoffed, "Hey you, bag these ribs up and bring it back to the lab. We could probably get something out of these bite marks on the bones."
"Detective Winchester! There's a neighbour here who saw a guy entering the house last night. You might want to talk to him," a uniformed officer poked his head into the room.
"Yeah, coming," Dean clapped a hand on Max's shoulder, "you should go to animal control and see if they know anything."
"Okay, meet you back at the station later."
"Heya Bobby."
"Hey Sam, how's the vampire nest in Montana?"
Sam knew that the older hunter was not calling to make sure that they did their job. Bobby was calling to make sure that they were both okay.
"Yeah, yeah. We cleaned that up yesterday and we're both fine. Got another job for us?"
"Actually I do, I've got a chomped-up body in Oregon."
"Sure, we'll take care of it. Bye Bobby," Sam hung up and started up his laptop.
Mary emerged from the motel bathroom, hair still dripping wet from the shower.
"Was that Bobby?"
"Yeah, there's a case in Oregon he wanted us to check out," Sam scrolled through the newspapers and the police reports, "Oh no."
"What?" Mary looked up from packing both their duffel bags.
Sam turned his laptop around so that his mom could read the report by the police. This was so not good. Maybe he should ask Bobby to put another hunter on this.
"I don't see what the problem is, Sammy," Mary frowned.
"Have a look at the cop who signed the report off, mom," Sam sighed.
"Oh no."
Dean and Max were driving back to the station after visiting the second crime scene where another body in similar condition was found. All they had at the moment were questions and no answers, and that was starting to get on Dean's nerves.
"Well, maybe...the killer brought a wolf or something with him, and then let it loose on the vics..." Max guessed.
"The witness said nothing about seeing our mystery guy with a wolf on a leash," Dean sighed, "and can you not eat that in the car? I swear if you get gravy on my baby's upholstery I'm gonna kill you with a wolf myself."
"Geez, fine. I swear you have an unhealthy obsession with-"
Dean turned the knob of the radio, filling the impala's interior with classic rock at an uncomfortably loud level.
By the time they were back at the station, Max was sure he had lost his hearing in both of his ears. They made their way down to the medical examiner's lab, where Emily was expecting them.
"What've you got for us, Em?" Dean smiled when he saw the beautiful brunette at work over another dead body.
The ME stopped her cutting and digging and held out a file for them, "The teeth marks on the ribs of the first victim? They are human."
"Oh c'mon, really?!" Max scrunched his nose.
"So, what? Now we've got a cannibalistic serial killer on the loose?" Dean asked.
"Your job, pretty boy. Not mine. I'm only here to take things apart and find out what made them not tick anymore."
"Great, the news are going to love this," Dean muttered to himself as they walked up to their workstations.
They spent the next few hours trying to find out everything they could about the two dead men. A dozen cups of coffee later and they were ready to call it a day.
"So what's the connection between the two vics?" Max rubbed his tired eyes.
"That's the thing..there's absolutely-"
"No connection between Edward Gorden, the successful businessman, and Mike Daniels, the high school dropout," Sam relayed the results of his research as Mary drove them to Oregon.
Both of them agreed that they were going to take the case despite the risk of Dean recognising his mother and his brother. Mary had to make sure that Dean was safe, from whatever this was.
"What's our cover mom? I mean what if he sees us..."
"Dean's probably not going to know who you are Sammy," Mary assured him.
She did not miss the fleeting look of sadness on Sam's face when she said that.
They were excited to see Dean and John again. The last time Mary had saw his boys was five years ago, when Dean had graduated from the police academy. Mary and Sam watched from a distance, as a proud John congratulated a sharply dressed Dean who just graduated as the top of his cohort.
"Mom?" Sam brought her out of her reminiscing, "light's green."
"Right," Mary stepped on the gas, "you go talk to Dean. I'll meet you back at the motel tonight."
"Okay, what are you going to do?"
"I'll go check out the crime scenes."
"And?"
"And what?" Mary asked.
"I know you looked up the address for the auto shop dad is working in," Sam raised his eyebrows.
"So?" She pulled the car up outside the entrance to the police department.
"So...have fun visiting the 'crime scenes'. Seeya later mom," Sam made air quotes with his fingers before he climbed out of the car.
What wouldn't she give for the four of them to be a family again.
"I'm looking for the detective in charge of the cannibal case," Sam flashed his FBI badge at the uniform at the reception.
"Detective Winchester," The cop pointed Sam towards the direction of Dean's office.
Sam thanked him and trudged up the stairs. He couldn't stop wiping his sweaty palms against the rough fabric of his black pants since his hands wouldn't stop sweating.
"Just another job. Stay cool, Sam," he muttered to himself as he neared Dean's office.
He found his brother easily enough when he stepped into the room full of working detectives. Dean looked stressed, staring intently at his computer screen. He was so absorbed in his work that he hadn't notice Sam walking towards him.
Sam rehearsed what he was going to say to his brother in his head one more time before he cleared his throat loudly.
"What?" Dean barely glanced at him before his eyes went back to the computer.
"I'm Agent Allen from the FBI, and I'm looking into the case with the two mutilated bodies. I was told you're in charge of this investigation," Sam patted himself on the back mentally as he got all that out despite his wildly-beating heart.
Dean gave an annoyed sigh before he stopped what he was working on and looked right at Sam.
Sam's heart skipped a beat when he found Dean studying him. What if he knew who Sam was?
"Aren't you a little too young to be FBI?"
"Uh...umm..." Sam was thrown off for a second, "I...get that a lot. Thanks."
Dean snorted at the skyscraper of a man in front of his desk. He was dreading the imminent visit from one of them the minute they found the second body.
Even though Dean knew that he had reached a dead end with the investigation and the new pair of eyes might come in useful, he was still not happy about working with the feds again. All the FBI did were to stroll into town after they had done all the tedious legwork, order them around, and then leave town with all the credits for nabbing the bad guys.
That all being said, the man in front of him may not be too bad after all. Something about the guy seemed different from all the other douchebag agents.
"Dean Winchester," he held out his hand.
"Sam Allen," Sam made sure to dry his hands once more before shaking Dean's hand.
"So...agent, what can I do for you?"
"What have you got so far? Any suspects?"
"I've been working this case with Max, and we've found nothing concrete," Dean pulled a chair towards his table and motioned for the agent to sit.
Once he was seated next to Dean, Sam could see the photographs of Dean and their dad on the table. There was also a photograph of the four of them, back when Sam was still a newborn.
"Hey, you listening to me?"
"Sorry, what?"
"As I was saying, agent, we have an eyewitness from the first case. It was too dark for him to make out the features of the intruder. We also sent the teeth imprints on the ribs for analysis but so far, nada."
"Sam, you can call me Sam."
"Funny, that was the name of my brother. Who would have been around your age by now."
"Was? What happened to him?" Sam clammed his mouth shut when Dean shot him a look, "Sorry."
Did Dean think that Mary and him were dead?
"Anyway, we uh-" Dean broke off when his phone rang.
Sam went back to looking at the photographs as Dean answered his phone.
"Son of a bitch..." Dean rubbed his face tiredly, "Hey. We've got ourselves another body. You coming?"
"Of course," Sam turned his attention back to his brother.
Dean drove them to the pier in his impala while Sam wrung his hands together in the passenger seat. There was a millions things he wanted to say, questions he wanted to ask his brother. Like how was their dad, how was their normal apple pie lives, and did he ever missed mom or Sam. But now, Sam was just another FBI agent to Dean, an FBI agent whom Dean was forced to work with, who had no business in asking about Dean's life. Sam hadn't missed the look of annoyance on Dean's face when he realised that they had to work together.
"You've got something on your mind, Sam?"
"What do you mean?" Sam feigned ignorance.
"Nah, you just look like a guy who's going to pop the big question to his girlfriend at dinner. What's up?"
"Nothing. Just thinking about some stuff. Family stuff," which was the truth.
"Hmm," Dean nodded, "we're here."
"Max," Dean strode over to his partner with Sam at his heels, "This is Sam Allen from the bureau, he'll be working with us on the case."
Dean watched as Max narrowed his gaze at the newcomer.
See, none of them liked the feds.
"Right, what've we got?" Dean asked.
"Andrew Mills. The wife found the body in the garage this morning, although she is clearly traumatised and not making much sense."
"What did she say?"
"Time of death was estimated to be around last night, but Mrs Mills over there swore that she was in bed with her husband all night, until he left the house for work at 7."
"So the evil twin brother ate her husband, left the scraps in the garage, and went to bed with her," Dean clarified, "is that what we are going with?"
Max shrugged and gave Dean a 'I-am-as-confused-as-you-are' look.
"Excuse me, guys. I'm going over to interview the wife," Sam spoke up suddenly, looking as though all of these were making perfect sense to him.
Huh. They must have seen a lot of crazy cases like this at the FBI.
"Seriously man...this has to be the most bizarre case I have ever worked on. I am actually missing bodies with gunshot wounds from angry ex-wives right now," Dean massaged his aching temples.
They had been working non-stop since the first body was found two days ago, and all they got was an angry captain whose face turned a shade redder every time Dean showed up in his office empty handed. Dean understood the urgency in finding the murderer, since the civilians were starting to get uneasy about the human-eating killer running loose in the city. All these stress was giving him a migraine.
The man with Andrew Mills' face hid behind the bush as he watched the police work.
He should have killed the woman when he had the chance. Now, the hunter was going to be on his ass.
Ever since he woke up from his grave with a hunger for human flesh, he had been eating and becoming the men who were blessed with looks which allowed them to get whatever girl they wanted, and then sleeping with said girls all over town. And since he wasn't as lucky with his genetic lottery when he was still alive, he'd be damned if he didn't enjoy his afterlife like he was doing now.
He was going to have to skip town tonight, before the hunter found him...on second thoughts...maybe tomorrow night. That was a face he was willing to risk one more night for...
The ghoul grinned widely as his gaze followed the tall, handsome detective walking towards a black muscle car.