Chapter 7
Sam tapped on the open door frame of Stephanie Horowitzs' office and ducked through.
"Hi" She looked up from her paperwork, glancing behind Sam, presumably looking for Dean. When she didn't see him, Sam was surprised to see her physically relax.
Sam cleared his throat, amused. "Agent Cassidy had a few things to do so it's just me."
"Oh, so you have some questions?" She pushed the paperwork in front of her away with a look of relief.
"There are a few things, mostly I'm looking for your impressions on the cases." He shot her a dimpled smile. "Anything you feel is odd. Any odd coincidences, patterns or things that just don't feel right."
"Well..." the young coroner looked uncertain and looked down at her hands "We usually get one drowning a year, at very most from Montauk..." "And usually that's an out of towner. Montauk has been getting a reputation as a party town in the summer, so most of those deaths have a component of alcohol or drug fuelled, um, stupidity shall we say."
Sam smiled and nodded in agreement and understanding "But...?"
"But it's a bit early in the season; we've had, what 4? this month and all the men that have drowned are locals ... none of them had drugs or alcohol on board." She shrugged and met Sam's eyes.
"Yes Dean, uh Agent Cassidy pretty much said the same thing." Sam murmured. Immediately Stephanie's face closed up.
Damb! Thought Sam.
"My job is to find the cause of death Agent."
"Yes, Miss Horowitz, and no one would debate the finding of drowning. Your reports are detailed and concise... we see a lot of reports and yours are...gold star standard" Sam favoured her with what Dean called puppy dog eyes. "Your expertise is why I need your help Stephanie, these men had people that cared about them and they are dead. Maybe it's all coincidence but if it isn't could you live with yourself if you held back information that might help? Just because you were afraid of looking silly. You have the power to make a difference and possibly save a family some grief." He paused and she looked up into his eyes.
In that moment, Sam knew he had her.
"After all, what you tell me can and will remain between us."
Stephanie Horowitz took a deep breath. "There are some things that don't feel right" she admitted. "They could be nothing, but all of the cases have similarities."
"Such as?"
"Well apart from age and general build... the four, all had similar small cuts on the back of their hands and palms."
"The first reports don't mention them?"
Stephanie rubbed her palms together "Yes I know, but I was there during the first two autopsies. Michael Caplin our Cheif Medical Examiner did those, they weren't really pertinent to the cause of death..."
"And they all had cnidocytes in their mouths" she rushed on "only in their mouths, not on their arms or faces or other exposed skin."
"There are jellyfish in Sulffolk county waters, but the cnidocytes weren't identified as being from either the Lions mane or Moon jellyfish... which doesn't mean anything really, all the bodies were in the water for a significant amount of time, degradation would occur. Besides... We just don't have the kind of jellyfish round here that would cause someone to react to so badly it would cause them to drown, a few stings like that, even in the mouth would hurt but you'd just get out of the water." She shook her head.
"I noticed you were still awaiting lab results, can you tell me about that?"
Stephanie flushed "Uhm well, all the usual lab results showed absolutely nothing." She faltered "So I did a tick all the boxes type request on the samples we had from Mr Sessa and Mr Larsen. To say that's frowned upon is putting it mildly" she admitted "but we have... quite a few Examiners staff away, including Mr Caplin, and I ..." she faded out looking guilty.
"Stephanie from my experience ticking all the boxes can be a very good thing, I would be, very, uh ...grateful, if you could send me a copy of those results, or if anything else comes to mind" he assured her handing her a card with their contact details.
Her smile held relief as they shook hands and said goodbye.
...
When Sam finally exited the Suffolk county medical examiner's office Dean was leaning against the impala, head tilted back, eyes closed, soaking up the sun, enjoying the baking heat radiating off Baby's gleaming paintwork and chrome.
Green eyes opened at the sound of his brother's footsteps nearing. Sam had gotten something out of the lady, he could tell by the way he walked, but the frown on his face said Sammy was still trying to work out what it meant.
"Montauk?"
"Yeah" Sam slid into the impala without another word.
It was an hour and a half drive to Montauk and neither spoke. Sam didn't rifle through the fistful of autopsy reports, he didn't do web searches or consult scanned copies of the men of letters files. He sat, brow creased and lips quirking. There were thoughts going on behind his brother's floppy hair and hazel eyes.
Dean waited for Sam to speak sitting calmly on the tipping point between acceptance and frustration.
Finally half an hour later Sam cleared his throat and sought his brothers eyes. "I think" he began "there is some kind of case here, but I don't know what we are looking at."
And so, he told his big brother everything the lady coroner had said.
...
Dean drove and digested for a while "Ever wonder why we don't get more beach cases?" He asked finally.
Sam shrugged.
"When we first started this gig after Stanford and um Jess" Dean checked his brothers face, there was a small twisted smile but not a complete shut down so he continued "things weren't good with you, sunshine and sand I guess there were too many memories"
"Jess was a Cali' girl, sun in her hair.. she just loved the beach." Sam's voice was wistful.
"Yeah, I followed you guys once..."
Sam looked up at that and Dean shrugged apologetically "You were just goofing round being normal kids at the beach" he smiled sadly "so after...I got that the beach wasn't going to be good for you. So, I sort of decided, to not to, unless I could help it."
Sam raised an eyebrow at that.
"There are other hunters Sam. But after a while I noticed that seaside cases were just naturally thin on the ground. I even asked a few other hunters about it. Bobby reckoned it was the salt water, a lot of fuglies have an issue with salt. The whole 'moving water thing too I guess. Whatever the reason though beach vacations aren't usually their scene."
"So, you don't think this is a case then?!" Sam's question was quiet.
"Nah I do, just expect the unexpected man, we work the case and hope that something washes up" he shot his brother a pouting smirk "Saving people an' hunting things Sammy! If it makes you feel better, next time do the lawyer thing and put a rider in excluding giant mutant French kissing jellyfish."
"If that's really a thing I'm sending Chuck some hate mail" Sam said ruefully raking his fingers through his hair and starting the research ritual.
...
The rest of the drive was more normal, Sam researching and imparting useless morsels of information about jellyfish to his brother. Dean listened with half an ear doing the nod and smile routine he often used in the face of Sam's shared research orgy.
Dean was considering more important things than the fact that jellyfish don't have brains or the fact that some people eat the things.
Dean was considering payback for the peroxide in the shampoo incident, it was a topic that required careful considered thought and planning.
The punishment must fit the crime, John Winchester had taught him that.
It had to be funny, because Dean prided himself on his humour.
It needed to take Sammy down a peg but not totally humiliate him, because his brother could be an angsty emo bitch at times.
And it couldn't interfere with the case, another rule John Winchester had drummed into both his sons. The case comes first, the other stuff works around or gets shelved.
He considered application of itching powder, he considered coffee laced with something to cause a bit of gastric distress, he considered adding Icyhot or cayenne pepper to Sam's shower stuff. But considering even low grade torture of his little brother left him cold, after seeing and hearing what the bitch of letters had done to done to his little brother.
Then, he struck on the perfect idea, now all he had to do was plan and execute. Then sit back and laugh.
A/N Yeah, I know I'm a tease but with a multi chapter fanfic it appears its allowable, it's called delayed gratification. :Kathy (please quit being a guest and sign up already girl! If I can manage it (all by myself without techno hubby) so can you) Yes it is a case, I had the monster of the week picke ago (and it probably isn't a giant french kissing jellyfish.) Just like the real world be patient and wait for the lab results. Because before I became that multi splendored creature known as a 'stay at home mum' (read hostage negotiator, autism specialist, animal tamer, expert on particle physics, theology and cake decoration …..) I was a lab tech.