CHAPTER TEN
Two days later, Balthazar stopped by the cabin to update Dean and to drink his whiskey.
"Jack Daniels'. How utterly barbaric." Somehow Dean thought that maybe he wasn't quite forgiven yet.
But Dean decided he was man enough to take it. "So how is he?"
"Pneumonia, they say. Again. They're going to keep him in the hospital until he's better, got him hooked up to all sorts of machines. Best doctors money can buy and they can't even cure Pneumonia. Bastards." Balthazar polished the glass off and moved to help himself to another. Dean didn't argue. "Look, he woke long enough to ask me if you've found anything. It's all he cares about these days, finding out what happened to Bela. But I think we know how that will turn out, eh ol' boy?"
"I don't know about that. I may have found something."
The glass stopped just at Balthazar's lips. "Are you serious? My god, you're serious. What have you found?"
Dean hesitated, "Look, I don't want to get too excited, just yet. Last time I thought I had solid info I ended up with an empty bank account." Balthazar laughed and sipped at his drink. "I need an assistant."
"Gabriel said to give you whatever you need. Actually, I think he said something like, 'If he asks for seventy-six virgins, I expect you to get it to him, Balthy.'"
"Tempting, but I think I'll just stick with the research assistant. I can start looking A.S.A.P."
"No need, I know the perfect one. He did the background check on you."
"Background check?"
"Of course. You didn't think we'd hire you without checking under your bed first, did you?"
"No, uh, I guess that makes sense. Do you have the report?"
"Ha, nice try, pretty boy, but I can't give that to you."
There was a long pause as Dean tried to work about how best to get his hands on that damn report. Finally, he decided on the simplest and fastest manner: he stood and began to carefully remove pages of research from the wall.
There was a sigh behind him, but Dean kept going.
"All right, all right! You bastard. I'll see what I can do."
"Dean Winchester? Mrs. Mills will see you now."
The office he was led into wasn't that big for what he pictured a CEO of a security company to have. There was the classic window view of course and a door, but it could have belonged to anyone. The woman behind the desk had dark, short hair clipped to her chin and was dressed simply in jeans and a zip-up hoodie. Her eyes were dark and wide, not stern naturally, but he could see the potential for it. He liked her already. Shame.
"Mr. Winchester! Please, sit down. Drink?"
"No, thanks. And call me Dean." Dean sat down across from her and almost felt bad for what he was about to bring up. "I'm here about this."
He opened the folder he'd brought with him. The cover page read:
Report:
Dean Winchester
February 22nd, 2012
By
Castiel Novak
"How did you get that?" Now Ms. Mills sounded worried.
"Balthazar Allard gave it to me. Now, I've tried to find this investigator of yours, but I can't find anything about him at all."
"Well, you wouldn't. His information is confidential." Now Ms. Mills was on the defensive and yup, definitely feeling bad for her now.
"Why?"
Mills' jaw clenched and she stared at him for a long time before asking, "Why does it matter?"
"Because it's pretty obvious the means that he used are illegal. There is information in this report that not even my closest friends, not even my brother know and I raised that kid."
Yeah, she definitely was not happy. "I'm sorry, but it's against company policy for me to give out the information of any of our researchers."
"Okay. How about this?" Dean grabbed a pen and one of her cards off the desk, scribbling down a name. "This is my brother who is also my lawyer. He'll be calling you. This document is illegal and was funded by your company."
Mills gave a frustrated shake of her head and sat forward, leaning her elbows on the desk. "The reason you can't find any information on him is because he is a ward of the state and his records are sealed. I'm breaking about a hundred or so rules here so you better appreciate this. Before I tell you anything, you have to understand this: he's had a very rough life."
The apartment building Jody Mills had given him the address for was about what he expected for Queens. Not too shabby, but not exactly condo-living either. The place didn't even have a buzzer system set up. Sketchy.
It was ten in the morning and Dean had been damn patient if he did say so himself. When Mills had given him the address, his first instinct had been to fly over and bang the guys' door down right away. But Dean had kept his cool and waited until the next morning, a Saturday, before arriving on the guys' doorstep.
It took some time after he knocked before he finally heard movement, shuffling at the door.
"Who is it?" A deep voice called out, one that could have shaken mountains with its timbre. The guy must be huge.
"Dean Winchester." As expected, there was silence. "Can I come in?"
"Not a good time. I'm not decent."
"I just want to talk, promise." Another long pause and Dean was beginning to think that the guy was ignoring him when the door finally opened and he could see just the slim line of a face and one bright blue eye.
"What do you want?" Jesus, that voice was deep and the guy only seemed to come up a few inches lower than Dean.
"Just to talk," Dean assured. He suddenly felt like he was dealing with a small animal, one that if you moved too suddenly, he'd go skittering away. "I brought burgers?"
Opaque blues eyes flashed up to meet his own and Dean found he couldn't look away.
That is, until the door slammed in his face.
Dean rolled his eyes, already turning to leave when he heard the sound of the chain being released and the door slowly opening and Dean took that as invitation enough, barging in and shutting and locking the door behind him. This was Queens, after all.
The guy was exactly and yet not at all what Dean expected. He was skinny, but not at all frail looking; Dean could see the lines of muscles in his legs and arms since the guy was standing there in a pair of briefs and a long black shirt that simply read, FUCK OFF. His face looked like it had been chiseled by hand with a broad jaw and a wide mouth. But man, those eyes; guy had the eyes you only saw in those old renaissance paintings of angels. He was handsome in a classical way, his features only sharpened and defined by the piercings and the tattoos.
But Dean was totally being objective here and not ogling at all. A rustle from the bedroom made Dean crane around the guy and look down the hall where the bedroom door was open. There was a blonde girl rolling around in the sheets.
"How about you tell your girlfriend to vacate so we can talk?" Dean spotted the kitchen and headed for it, glad that the guy seemed to be some kind of neat freak. He knew from personal experience that most people who did what Castiel did weren't always the cleanest. He set the food down on the small dining table and pulled off his coat only to find Castiel still standing in the middle of the entryway, staring at him with those wide blue eyes.
"Come on, dude, we need to talk." Dean began riffling through the cupboards, searching for plates.
"Who do you think you are?"
That made Dean stop and turn with a grin. "I'm the guy you know better than anyone. Now, go on."
That seemed to wake him up and he turned stiffly down the hall. There was a rumble of voices as Castiel presumably told his girl to leave, maybe they argued, but Dean couldn't know for sure. It wasn't any of his business anyway, no matter how blue someone's eyes were.
He was setting down their coffee and laying out the burger a shuffle of movement made him raise his eyes.
Castiel's girlfriend was tall and slim, almost intimidating in her manner. Sharp cheekbones highlighted her face and her blond hair was pulled back away from her face. Even rumpled she looked stern.
"'Bye!" Dean called out. She only glared at him. Dean had to lean a bit to see around the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room, but he saw Castiel kiss her softly, saw his lips move in an apology before he was shutting the door behind her. Dean quickly turned his attention back to the food.
Castiel came into the kitchen and stared him with that weird piercing gaze, like he was trying to give him a damn x-ray.
"Dude. Chill out. Sit down." Dean moved to do the same, plopping down in one of the chairs and unwrapping his burger. Castiel only inched closer and Dean rolled his eyes.
"I read your report." If possible, the guy's eyes blew open even wider. "Yeah, pretty interesting stuff. Most of it came from my own computer at home. I'd really love to know how the hell you managed that. Gotta say that it wasn't very fun to read."
Castiel kept inching forward as Dean spoke until he reached the chair and sank down into it stiffly. "It wasn't meant to be 'fun.'"
"Yeah, I could tell. I really should be suing the shit out of you, but—" Dean shrugged, letting his burger drop back to the plate for now. "I need your help with something." Castiel was still watching him, like his eyes were glued to Dean's face or something. It would have been damn creepy if Dean had been able to force himself to look away for more than a few seconds.
"Cas – can I call you Cas?" No answer, just the same wide-eyed stare. That was a yes then. "I need you to help me catch a killer."
Half an hour later, Dean had unpacked basically all the research he'd brought with him and Castiel was sitting beside him on the couch with a pile of photocopied newspaper articles and the bible entries in his lap, flicking through them quickly.
"So I figured out that Karen Singer is K.S. and that the way she died corresponds to the bible verse, but I can't match any of the other four with local women or with what any of them might have to do with Bela Milton. Karen Singer was killed before Bela could barely walk. I—Where are you going?"
"Pack."
When Dean parted with Castiel in New York, there was no big fanfare. Castiel promised that he'd come to Haven in the next few days, once his preliminary research on the other four girls was done. He'd said little else to Dean before he tore off and Dean was left to shrug and head back to Haven.
When he returned everything seemed fine until he realized that the stray cat was inside. Dean never let the cat stay inside when he was gone.
Crap.