A/N: This and chapter ten make me unhappy. I didn't want to go the Sam and Dean route of figuring this one out, but couldn't think of another way until after I'd already written this chapter and sent it to my beta. (Well, I had a way half-way figured out, but then I got stuck) Sadly, I'm in no mood to completely rewrite it and then send it back so ya'll are stuck with it this way. There was plenty of other things in it I got to change, but the solving of the case is too similar to the show to make me happy.
9-Bloody Mary (Two Can Keep A Secret)
"Why?" There's blood dripping steadily from the wound across Juliet's stomach, making small dots on the floor as she takes slow steps towards him. "Why, Justin? Why me?"
He opens his mouth to speak, to scream, anything, but there's an unseen spark, and suddenly she's burning and it's hot and he can't move back from the flames licking away at her body. Stumbling onto the bed, his eyes move up to the ceiling where his mother is watching him with a steady gaze.
"Justin!"
His eyes snap open, the echoes of Juliet's voice lightly overlapping that of his sister's, both calling to him, and he can feel Alex's hand on his arm, roughly shaking him awake.
"God," she sits back, one leg coming up to tuck under the other as she settles on the end of the bed. "You're so noisy when you're having a nightmare. It's annoying." But her eyes hold worry, one hand laid on the mattress between them within touching distance, and he nods, acknowledging both her unspoken concern and gentle ribbing.
"I've found a hunt," she states, holding up the newspaper still clutched in her left hand. "Steven Shoemaker bled out in his bathroom. Room was locked, and they're still not sure how it is he actually started bleeding to begin with."
Tossing the newspaper in his lap as she stands, Alex turns away for a second before glancing back at him. "Do we need to talk about this?"
He shakes his head, eyes focusing on the print in front of him, scanning the obituary before glancing up in time to see the mixture of both relief and worry on his sister's face.
Max walks in from the front door, fast food bags in one hand and cell phone in the other. Justin shoots Alex a look, wondering why she decided to trust their brother with a food run on his own.
"I've been trying Dad's cell," his little brother says as he dumps the bags on the tiny table next to the motel room's only window. Justin slides out from under the blankets, ignoring putting on pants in favor of food as he takes the few short steps to what will temporarily be their breakfast table. He doesn't bother to tell Max that it doesn't work, he and Alex having both called on several occasions only to get sent straight to voicemail.
"He's changed his message."
He stops, one hand buried in a white bag, fingers curled around what he thinks is some kind of breakfast burrito as he turns his head to stare at his younger brother.
"Changed?" he asks, finally removing his hand from the sack and pulling out what will be his meal from within. "How?"
Max pulls the phone away from his ear, hitting a few buttons to activate speakerphone, the loud ringing filling the tiny room as Alex moves closer to the phone.
"You've reached Jerry Russo. I can't answer the phone. If this is an emergency, call my daughter Alex at 873-555-3235. She and Max will do everything they can to help."
Justin stares at the cell phone, feeling frustration and anger well up in him. Their father had time to change his message, to record a new one altogether, but couldn't answer his phone any number of the times he and Alex had tried to reach him. Couldn't bother to let any of them know that he was ok, that he was alive. Justin tosses the burrito back into the bag, appetite lost as he moves around the room looking for the jeans he discarded last night. He pulls them on without a word, looking up at his siblings once he's got them buttoned. Max is looking down at his phone, seeming like he's debating calling again, and Alex is sitting on one of the beds, lost in her own thoughts.
"We should get going," she says suddenly. "Gotta get to Ohio before they bury Steven."
They move quickly around the room, gathering up the discarded clothes from last night and Justin's laptop. Max grabs up the weapons beneath the pillows while Alex checks the bathroom for any lingering beauty products before they hit the road.
They drop Justin off at the library as soon as they get into Teledo, Alex and Max going off to the hospital to take a look at the corpse. The librarian, a middle-aged woman with too much eye makeup, leading him to a row of ancient computers along the way.
"Thank you," he whispers, shooting her a polite grin as she walks off, the same bored expression that was on her face when he walked in. He sits down in the creaky chair, pulling it closer as he opens an internet page. The library's service isn't as fast as he's used to, the page taking a few moments to come up, and Justin taps his fingers on the wooden table as he waits.
He opens a few medical sites, ready for when one of siblings texts in with more details on what they've found out, and a general internet search page. The evidence points towards supernatural events, but all bases need to be covered. It doesn't take long for his phone in his pocket to start vibrating, Justin fishing it out and open to see he's got a text from Max.
doc won't let us see body. Alex being flirty. not working
Justin shuts his phone with a roll of his eyes, setting it on his thigh as he goes back to the page on the screen before deciding there's nothing else he can do at the moment and clicking a new page and opening his e-mail. He gets two read before his phone vibrates again, nearly making him jump.
eyes melted
He moves quickly, closing his e-mail and revealing one of the medical websites, typing in the phrase "liquefied eyes" into the search. It reveals nothing, and Justin frowns, opening a fresh Google page and searching for natural causes. He dismisses several sites as useless before his phone vibrates again, the screen revealing that Alex is the sender this time.
blood n da brain. doc dont no y. max tryn 2 crwl n body fridge. :/
He texts back a quick OK before going back to the screen, clicking on a few more links, but the closest thing he finds is that some stroke victims will have blood vessel burst in their eyes.
He abandons the natural death approach, closing all pages before opening the library's page of reference, looking for past cases similar to that which happened.
He doesn't find any strange deaths going back fifty years, or at least nothing connected to Steven's murder. There was what looks to have been a black dog in the sixties, but it's long gone by now.
Justin's phone vibrates once more, a message from Alex containing the word here, and he quickly closes the page and deletes the browser's history. It won't stop a thorough search, and they don't have any need to cover their tracks, but it never hurts to be safe. Justin heads out, giving a nod to the still bored looking librarian.
"Find anything?" his sister greets as he gets in the passenger side, Max crawling into the back and leaving dirty shoe prints on leather between the seats.
"No. Not enough information for a full search."
She nods, turning back onto the road, one hand on the wheel and the wind from the rolled down window blowing back her hair.
"There's a wake for him at the house. We're thinking the daughter who found him might know more than she told the police." She doesn't say more, about how wakes often leave people's houses open, strangers coming and going without question, a good time to get a better look at the place a victim died.
The street that Steven Shoemaker and his daughters Donna and Lily live on is crowded with cars, Steven having apparently been well liked by the community, and Justin is unsure if this will make their job easier or harder. The three of them make their way up the sidewalk and onto the porch, walking in the already open door, Justin noting the large arrangement of formal black attire and suddenly feeling underdressed in his jeans and button up.
"I'm going to check out the bathroom where he was found." Alex's voice is low, one hand on his arm as she leans forward on her toes to speak in his ear. Justin nods his head, meeting her eyes for a moment before she turns and heads up the stairs.
Justin and Max make their way to the back yard, looking for the group of young girls crowded around the grieving sisters, and head over.
"Hi. Donna, right?" Justin breathes as they approach the group, eyes trained on the girl from the photo in the entrance way, smiling face next to that of her father's. "We're very sorry for your loss." The young man tries not to flinch at the words, at the cliché-ness of them and how meaningless he's sure they must sound after hearing them all day.
"Thank you." Her voice doesn't waver, one hand coming up to tuck a strand of short dark hair behind an ear, the other staying clasped in the hold of the blonde girl sitting beside her.
"I'm Justin, and this is Max," he indicates his little brother, Max nodding once in greeting, before his gaze flickers back to the young girl sitting silently on the other side of her sister. "We worked with your dad."
She blinks, glancing over at her friend across from her before looking back at them. "You did?" And Justin internally curses for not looking up Steven's occupation, not doing more research.
He changes the subject quickly, bringing up the official report of a stroke. "Funny, there wasn't any symptoms of stroke. No dizziness or migraines. At least not that I remember." He looks at Donna, pulling on the slowly healing pain from losing Juliet and putting some of it into his eyes, lets his sadness translate to his face, and she softens, all suspicion melting away.
"That's cause he didn't have a stroke." They all glance over at the youngest daughter in surprise, her eyes having finally risen from the ground to stare determinately at him.
"Lily." Her sister berates, looking at the young girl. She can't be more than twelve or thirteen. "Don't say that. You didn't do it."
Justin indicates Max, nudging his brother lightly in the side before the young man moves forward, kneeling before the girl. "What makes you think that you did it?"
Lily ignores her sister's arm wrapped around her, pain-filled gaze resting solely on Max. "Because I said it. Right before he died. I called to her. Bloody Mary. Three times in the bathroom mirror."
"But he didn't say it, did he?" Max tilts his head to the side, his voice the perfect pitch to sound like he's having a normal conversation with the girl, like he's taking her and her worry seriously, and for all Justin knows, he could be.
"No, I don't think so. But she takes eyes, and Dad's were gone."
"It's not your fault, Lily," her sister says, running her fingers through the preteen's long hair in comfort.
"If your dad didn't call her then it wasn't Bloody Mary," Justin says with as much conviction in his voice as he can muster and Lily looks at him, the guilt in her eyes lessening as she takes in this bit of evidence, slowly letting Donna pull her into her side, resting her head on the older girl's shoulder.
Max stands, following Justin as they say their goodbyes and make their way back to the house.
"Dad ever find any signs of the Bloody Mary legend being real?" Justin asks when they're out of earshot.
"Not that I know of." Max shrugs, not looking too concerned, but his eyes keep straying to the mirror in the hall. "Wonder what he saw in the mirror." Little brother has always had a habit of picking up on the nearly unnoticeable details, even as he misses the blatant obvious things staring them in the face, and Justin trusts his instincts on this.
"He did die right in front of the mirror. And his eyes were gone." He looks away, glancing around the house as he tries to put the pieces together. His eyes catch on Alex coming down the stairs, heading towards her brothers when she sees them.
"Find anything?" She asks without preamble.
Justin shakes his head, seeing Max do the same out of the corner of his eye. "The younger daughter Lily said she called for Bloody Mary just before her dad died. Think that could be it?"
Alex shrugs, hands going into her back pockets as she thinks about it. "Hundreds of kids call to Bloody Mary every day. We don't see them dying."
He begins to nod, taking in this fact before something clicks. "Unless this is the town the legend began in." They look at each other, the theory spinning between them as the idea grows.
The three turn, heading back to the car as they discuss what they'll need to find on the way towards the motel they saw on the way in.
Once they've settled in room nineteen, Justin's laptop booted up and plugged into the limited wifi, they settle in to search.
"There can't be that many Marys that died in this town," Alex says after Justin lets yet out another frustrated sound.
"That's just it; there isn't even one. I've found a Katherine that died in front of a mirror and a Stan who had a mirror dropped on him but no Mary's." He turns the screen so she can get a better look at it from her perch on the bed closest to him, sharpening a blade on a whetstone with careful precision.
"Can't you just broaden it to all Marys that were killed in front of a mirror?" She's giving him a look like he's an idiot, head tilted to the side and dark eyes glancing up at him through her lashes.
"There's over fifty versions of who the original Mary was. Some say she was a witch, others a murdered bride. There's even a recent tale that she was a cross-dresser that was a victim of hate crime." He lets out a breath, pushing the laptop away from him as he rubs his tired eyes, "There's just too much."
He takes a moment, staring at the window, trying to get his thoughts to line up in an order that makes sense before pulling the computer back towards him. "What about the family? Maybe this is about them." His sister stands, coming up behind him as he types Shoemaker into the town's local history. It brings up a Linda Shoemaker, the late wife of Steven, died nearly ten years ago, an overdose of sleeping pills.
Alex gives him an unsure look, shrugging when his own skepticism shows. "It's a start. Maybe." She stifles a yawn, going back to the bed to put her weapons away before grabbing her night clothes out of the bag. "Whatever it is, Mary or not, I'm thinking we've found all we can tonight." She heads into the bathroom, and Justin shuts the laptop, pulling out his own sleepwear and glancing at Max, already passed out on the bed closer to the wall.
They change quickly, slipping under the covers and dozing off, a fleeting worry about dreams of Juliet entering his head before he's pulled into slumber.
Justin's on a breakfast run the next morning, the first to wake up and therefore the first to go for food. He shoots an extra wide grin to the diner waiter handing him take out before turning back to the door, half wondering if maybe the young man thought he was flirting with him. He had no nightmares the night before, no dreams of his mother or Juliet or fire, and he's beginning to suspect that the presence of one of his siblings by his side at night is what is keeping the dreams at bay.
He pulls the Impala keys from his front pocket, balancing the cups and bags of food in one hand as he opens the door and slides in. He starts up the car, turning up the talk radio station his sister would hate as he pulls onto the road and makes his way back to the motel.
His siblings are already up when he walks in, Alex at the computer. She glances up when he places the food and coffee before her, and then turns back to the screen, while Max flips through a book on dispelling evil spirits.
"I was thinking that maybe it's Linda," his sister says as Justin makes himself comfortable on his bed from last night, pulling out the styrofoam box containing his omelet. "What if the sleeping pill thing wasn't an accident?"
"Why would Mary go after Linda?" Max replies, eyes glancing up in confusion from the page he was studying.
"It might not be Mary." The irritated look she sends their little brother makes Justin wonder if the other boy hasn't asked this question before. A knock on the door cuts him off before he can say anything, add his own opinion in on the matter.
He gets up quickly, one hand wrapping around the gun tucked into the back of his jeans as he opens the door a crack with his other. The friend of Donna's, the one that held her hand, stands on the other side, blond hair a mess and face tear streaked. He steps back with surprise, fully opening the door as he hand falls from the hidden weapon.
The distressed girl comes in in a flurry of movements, turning quickly, barely glancing at Alex now standing by the table, and Justin notes that she's closed the laptop, before looking back at the oldest Russo.
"Are you a cop?" He blinks in surprise at her words, shaking his head as he shuts the door.
"We told you, we work with Donn-"
"Mr. Shoemaker was a day trader. He worked alone." He flinches at her words, mind suddenly racing for a lie to sooth the situation, eyes catching those of Alex over the blonde's shoulder, his sister's arms crossed over her chest as she stares at him in confused annoyance. "And all those questions," the girl continues, "about his death. What was that about?"
"Look, we're just trying to figure it out. Trying to keep what happened to Steven from happening to anyone else." The girl flinches at his words, eyes closing temporarily as she turns her face away. "Did it? Happen to someone else?"
She looks up, eyes filling with tears as she nods. "Jill, our friend that was sitting across from us at the wake, she died last night. They found her on the bathroom floor." She lets out a choked sob, one hand coming up to wipe at her eyes. "Her eyes… were, g-gone."
"How did you find us?" Alex snaps, drawing the girl's attention to her. "And who the hell are you?"
The blonde blinks at the irritated girl standing behind her before answering in a small voice. "Charlee. I'm a friend of Donna's."
"We met her at the wake," Justin supplies, eyes pleading with his sister, trying to calm her down. Alex shoots him glare before turning back to the girl, fingers of her right hand twitching for a weapon.
"I called around. Looking for your car. Thought they were cops. Thought you could help." Her voice is hard by the end, chin up and eyes defiant through her tears as she stares at the shorter woman.
"We can." The room's occupants look over at Max, who had yet to speak after Charlee had entered the room.
"I'm sorry, Charlee." Justin keeps his voice low, stepping towards the girl with one hand out as if to touch her. "For Jill." She looks up, meeting his gaze and nodding slightly before looking down.
"She said it," she whispered, arms coming up to cross over her chest. "I was on the phone with her, and she did it, called to… Mary." Charlee glances back up, wide eyes searching Justin's. "It's not from that, right? I couldn't be." She looks away when he doesn't answer, staring at the cheap carpet and Justin meets Alex's eyes over the blonde's shoulder.
"Look," cuts in Alex, shoulders sagging as she releases the irritation that had developed at the other girl's entrance. "We're going to figure this out. But it'd help if you could get us into Jill's place. Let us take a look around."
Charlee nods, arms dropping as she pulls herself together. "Ok. I can do that."
"I don't get it," Justin says as soon as he and his siblings are in the car, turning the wheel to follow Charlee out of the motel parking lot. "The first victim didn't summon Mary, and the second one did. What's her pattern?"
His sister shrugs, pulling out their dad's journal and flipping through the pages, looking for any clue.
Charlee pulls over on a suburban street, getting out of her little car and waiting for them to do the same. "Jill lives just up the road. Her mom's home. I can probably get," she gestures to Alex, "inside, but I'm not sure how I can explain you two."
His sister goes around the to the back of the Impala, a mischievous grin on her face as she opens the trunk. "Don't worry about them. They'll meet us in there." She pulls out a camcorder and the EMF reader. Justin is careful to keep himself between Charlee and his sister in case the blonde gets curious. They have far too many weapons in the trunk, the majority of which they carry illegally, and they don't need to frighten the poor girl any more than she has been.
He gives his sister a questioning look when she comes back around, handing the camcorder to Justin as she pockets the reader. Alex points to the side of the home, the little garden next to the brick siding with a little half-wall that's perfect for getting onto the bit of roof between the first and second story and to a bedroom window.
He grabs Max's arm, and the two break off, watching the girls make their way up the front steps. The climb isn't hard, and it doesn't take them long to find the window to what looks like an adolescent girl's room. It's locked, but it only takes a few moments before the door opens, Alex and Charlee coming in, his sister making a beeline to the window and letting them in.
"Girl's got talent," Alex says with a grin. "Lies like a natural."
"What are you guys looking for?" Charlee asks as Justin pulls out the camera and sets it on night vision. There's the whirl of the EMF reader coming to life, little lights blinking for a moment before dying out once more, and Justin shrugs, looking at his sister who's moving around, device in hand.
"Not sure yet." He goes to each mirror in Jill's bedroom, scanning the edges and glass with the camcorder and watching the little screen jutting out from the side for any anomalies.
There's silence from the EMF meter as he finishes with the vanity mirror, working his way into the bathroom connected to the bedroom where Jill's body was found.
"What I wanna know is why Jill said it at all," Alex says, looking at a still sniffing Charlee.
"It was just a joke. She was making fun of Donna's little sister and…" she trails off, one hand coming up from her side, and Justin focuses back on the camera in his hand, eyes catching site of something below the mirror but above the sink when he passes the camcorder over it. A sort of dried liquid seeming to have dripped from under the mirrors edge is along the wall, invisible without the camcorder's night vision lens to look through.
"Hey, Max." His little brother looks up from his spot on the floor by the dresser, one hand digging through a drawer and looking for clues. "Help me get this down."
Max leaves the drawer open, walking into the bathroom and giving the mirror a small tug as Alex leans against the door frame, EMF reader making soft noises in her hand.
Justin uses a pocket knife to unscrew the mirrored door from in front of the bathroom cabinet, he and Max dragging it over to the bed. He runs the camera over every inch on the front before turning it over, Alex looking over his shoulder as they search for more of the mysterious substance. The back is clean, nothing showing up on the camera, but the device in Alex's hand is making light whirling noises, showing signs that there are traces left, even if whatever spirit was there has now left.
Justin starts to peel off the backing, cutting away the dark brown paper designed to hide the plain backing before his sister's impatience gets the best of her and it's torn away in thick strips. Her focus is on the camera, shining the lens down on the back, and the four of them crowd around trying to get a better look.
There's a handprint, seemingly dipped in some clear paint and pressed onto the back, only there's no trace without the camera. The name Cary Bryman is scrawled with a crude hand in thick letters below.
"Know who that is?" Alex directs the question to Charlee, who's staring at the mirror with a kind of confused horror.
"No. Should I?" Alex just shakes her head, the two boys quickly replacing the mirror and putting the room back together.
"We should check out the library." His sister groans at his words, but Justin ignores her. "See if we can find out more on Cary. Meet us at the car." He and Max head out the window, Alex carefully closing it behind them before going out the door behind Charlee.
They leave Charlee's Escort behind, the blonde girl joining Max in the backseat as they head to the library.
"I think I should stay here," Alex says once they're parked outside the building. "Ask Charlee some questions about Jill, really get a feel for the girl." She's moving her hand around in a vague gesture, and Justin resists the urge to sigh before nodding.
"Fine. And while you're at it, entertain Max." He gets out of the car quickly, leaving his sister glaring at him while their little brother jumps forward into the front seat and excitedly starts babbling away. Max can be easily kept amused if you don't let him know that's what you're doing, otherwise he's an excited ball of energy impossible to please or ignore.
There's a smug grin on his face as he enters the building, nodding to the same librarian that was there yesterday and indicating with his hand the wall of ancient computers. She gives him a bored look, turning back to her magazine before Justin even gets fully past her.
He finds the article quickly, printing out the page about the small child involved in a hit and run, paying the ten cent fee to print the piece before heading back to the car.
"Cary," he says as he opens the driver's side door, effectively cutting off Max in what seemed to be a long speech that was leaving Charlee a bit green looking. "Died when he was eight. Hit and run two years ago. Never caught the driver, but they were driving a dark Toyota Camry."
The blonde girl pales, eyes wide as she stares at Justin, barely moving out of the way as Max crawls back into the back seat.
"Jill had one of those," she said, eyes flicking to Alex and back to Justin. "You don't think-" She stops, biting her lips as she gets lost in thought. "She got really freaked out a couple years ago, talked about getting rid of it. Her mom wouldn't let her though. Said they didn't have the money for a new one."
"We need to get back to Donna's house," his sister replies, turning back in her seat as Justin climbs in.
It's a quick drive, the Shoemakers' home only a short way from the library and Charlee's presence easing Donna's worry about allowing the Russos into her house.
The blonde leads the way up stairs, the four of them crowding into the small bathroom as Alex shuts the door behind them. Justin makes quick work of the white backing on the bathroom mirror, taking the camera from Max and flipping on the night vision. Another hand print, and the name Linda Shoemaker appearing on the back in the same dried paint style.
He and Alex exchange looks, ignoring the wide eyes of Charlee behind them, before they turn and leave the bathroom, giving their goodbyes to Donna on their way out of the house, Charlee trailing behind them.
"Now what?" The blonde asks once they're back at her car.
"Now we go back to our hotel, and you go home." Alex's voice is friendly, and Justin wonders what happened to have her warm up to the girl so quickly. "And don't say... you know." She indicates vaguely in the air with one hand, Charlee opening her mouth to protest before closing it and nodding.
She heads back to her car, turning when she reaches the door and smiling at Justin. "Thanks. For… everything I guess."
He just nods, slightly confused because they haven't really done anything, but Alex snorts from the passenger side so he climbs in the Impala, focusing once more on the case.