BrySt1: thank you! I'm glad you think so!

Chapter Three:

At Rebecca's house, or what Riley assumed was her house, the Impala stopped and was put into park. The brothers got out, leaving Riley in the backseat because Sam figured letting a dog walk around someone's house probably wasn't the best idea.

Riley watched the brothers walk up to the door and a woman open the door and greeted them. After Sam hugged her, she let them inside. The door closed and Riley rested her head on the door, since the window was down. She let out a long breath from her nose and waited.


On their way to the crime scene, Rebecca pet Riley. Rebecca was briefly surprised Sam had a dog, but Sam explained he'd found her and figured he'd take care of her.

After a minute, Riley had put her head on Rebecca's legs, feeling comfortable with the girl. Rebecca continued to stroke her head; and Riley was loving the attention after so long without any.

Dean, again, put a window down for Riley before getting out of the car.

"You sure this is okay?" Rebecca asked Dean.

"Yeah, I am an officer of the law." Dean lied smoothly.

Riley almost snorted, knowing it was a lie but she admitted he was good at it.

As they got closer, Riley watching them from the car, her ears flicked forward at the barking. She listened, trying to figure out a reason: a mailman, owners returning to the house, something.

She didn't see anything which unnerved her.

The barking turned almost into a growl and Riley figured she'd had enough of that kind of attitude towards Sam and Dean. She jumped out of the open car window and ran over to the gate where the dog was.

Riley started barking, growling almost. She could tell from the other dog's barking that it was angry and confused; something had happened here, something more on the supernatural side. Dogs, and cats, had a good sense of the supernatural, which usually made them good guard dogs.

Sam, taking notice to Riley's bark, ran back out of the house to see her barking at the dog. Dean followed him out while Rebecca stayed inside the house.

Sam grabbed Riley's collar and pulled her back. Riley, now on her two back legs, continued to bark.

"Told you that thing was like Cujo." said Dean, staring at Riley.

Sam gave Dean a look before pulling Riley back to the car. He opened the backseat door and let her in, and then put the window up partly so she couldn't get out this time.

"So the neighbor's dog went psycho around the time Zach's girlfriend was killed." Dean told Sam.

Sam looked at Riley, as if she was an example, "Animals can have a sharp sense of the paranormal."

"Yeah, maybe Fido saw somethin'."

"So, maybe, you think this is our kind of problem?"

"Oh, probably not." Dean shook his head.

Sam almost smiled. "We should get back inside."

Dean nodded and headed back to the house, while Sam leaned down to get eye level with Riley. She was looking at him sadly and let out a whine.

"You can't do that, Riley." Sam told her gently before his eyebrows pulled together. "Is something wrong?"

She wished she could tell him, that, yes, something was going on here. That dog saw something and it sure as hell wasn't Zach. Something was wrong and they needed to do something about it.

Riley whined again, before picking her head up and looking at the house. She barked once, trying to get Sam to understand.

Sam looked back at the house, back at the barking dog then at Riley.

"That dog did see something, didn't he?" Sam wondered.

Riley barked again, trying to say yes.

Sam smiled at her, scratched her head and ears, "Thanks, Riley." Then he turned back to the house.

Riley believed she had gotten her message across, now she just had to hope the brothers found the monster in time.


After seeing the tape and then returning to the motel, the brothers went to sleep. Riley eventually fell asleep at the foot of Sam's bed but was awoken around five when Sam woke her up.

He fed her, woke Dean up and they got coffee before heading back to the crime scene. Sam needed to get another look; he was missing something.

The brothers exited the car and Sam let Riley out. She walked to the front of the car and sat beside Dean.

"All right, so what're we doing here at five thirty in the morning?" asked Dean, sipping his coffee.

"I realized something." answered Sam. "The video tape shows the killer going in, but not coming out."

"So he came out the back door." Dean reasoned, taking another sip of his drink.

"Right." Same walked over towards the alleyway between the two houses, over near a wooden telephone pole. "So there should be a trail to follow; a trail the police would never pursue. Riley, come."

Riley, who had been watching curiously, sauntered over to Sam. When she reached him, she looked up at him and cocked her head to the side.

"'Cause they thought the killer never left. And they caught your friend Zach inside." Dean leaned against the Impala's hood. "Still don't know what we're doing here at five thirty in the morning."

Sam pointed to the red trash bin and Riley started sniffing it while Sam looked inside. Riley sniggered around it, but following her nose, she walked over to the wooden pole, nose still on the ground.

When a familiar scent caught her attention, she stopped, barked and sat down next to the telephone pole. Sam turned, glanced at Riley then the pole.

Sam leaned close and examined what he saw. "Blood." he said simply. "Somebody came this way."

"Maybe the trail ends, I don't see anything over here."

Sam looked up the pole and then the sound of sirens could be heard.

An ambulance rushed down the street between where Dean and Sam were. The three of them watching it go and Riley had the urge to chase after it. She fought against it and stayed at Sam's side.

The brothers glanced at each other.


It turned out to be another crime scene. The brothers, and Riley, had followed the ambulance to see what had happened.

They found a small, but growing crowd, police, caution tape, cop cars and the ambulance.

Confused, Dean asked a jogger what had happened, looking on at the scene.

"He tried to kill his wife. Tied her up and beat her."

"Really?" Sam asked, surprised.

"I used to see him go to work in the morning; he'd wave, say hello. He seemed like such a nice guy."

They watched as the man got put into the back of a cop car, looking guilty - but more so that he couldn't stop what had happened then as if he had actually done it.

Sam was checking out the back of the house with Riley when Dean started walking to them.

"Hey!" Dean called their attention, approaching. "You know when I said this wasn't our kind'a problem? Definitely our kind'a problem."

"What you find out?" Sam asked.

"I was just talking to the patrolman who was first on the scene and he heard this guy, Alex's, story. Apparently the dude was driving home from a business trip when his wife was attacked." Dean explained.

"So he was two places at once?"

"Exactly. Then he sees himself in the house and the police think he's a nut-job."

"Two sake doubles, attacking loved ones in the exact same way."

"Could be the same thing doing it too."

"Shapeshifter?" Sam suggested.

Dean shrugged.

"Something that can make itself look like anyone?"

"Every culture in the world has its shapeshifter lore." Dean said. "Legends of creatures who can transform themselves into animals,"

Riley, who had been watching them, put her head down in a guilty fashion, lucky the boys didn't notice her. She sighed before looking back up.

"or other men."

"Right. Skinwalkers, werewolves."

"Well, we've got two attacks within blocks of each other. I'm guess we have a shapeshifter prowlin' the neighborhood." Dean told him.

"Let me ask you this: in all of this shapeshifter lore, can any of them fly?" Sam asked, looking up at the wall.

"Not that I know of."

"I picked up a trail here, someone ran outta the back of this building and ran this way."

"Just like your friends house."

"Yeah and just like at Zach's place the trail suddenly ends."

Riley looked up at Sam, wondering why he thought it suddenly ended. The scent hadn't; then again, Sam did not have her sense of smell.

She nudged his hand with her nose, trying to get his attention. Sam, half annoyed, finally looked down at her, raising his eyebrows.

"What is it, Riley?"

She was half tempted to do nothing because of his attitude and send them on a wild goose chase, but knowing someone else's life was in danger she walked a few steps towards a manhole. Then she sat down next to it.

"Huh." Sam almost scratched the back of his head, wondering why he hadn't thought of 1) having Riley sniff it out or 2) that there had been a manhole at Zach's place too, so it made sense.

Dean nodded, not totally minding Riley now. "Well, that's another way to go. Down."