Hey, so please keep up with reviewing, I am currently working on a system where I will have more regular updates on fanfiction, be able to revise and not break my neck at GoApe! And be able to keep on top with drama. I love that lesson so much!

Anyway this episode is… yep you got it, it's The Usual Suspects. I was a bit iffy on whether or not to do it as I tend to be like that with an episode that has mainly Sam and Dean dialogue/ Dean is locked up in one place and Sam isn't. I need reviews please as I need more encouragement and things you usually get in a review, so please I you're reading this review…

The Usual Suspects

Baltimore, Maryland

In a motel at night a SWAT team broke open a 2nd-floor door with a battering ram; inside the motel, Sam stopped, and held his hands up.

'Going somewhere Sam?' a blonde policewoman said.

The rest of the SWAT team stormed past Sam and went into the other rooms, and a yell of 'you dicks get your hands of me!' could be heard.

Later that night at the Baltimore Police station

A policeman was talking to a man in cuffs, who was sitting in a chair opposite. 'So, you're wanted for credit card fraud, theft, speeding, grave digging, beatings, shootings, breaking and entering on numerous occasions and first degree murder on numerous occasions, the amount of crimes that have strung up committed by you are enough to send you to the chair, let alone the murders you have committed. And yet all the records claim you to be dead. But I gotta say, you look pretty healthy to me Dean'.

In another room in the police station

The policewoman who arrested Sam entered the room, where Sam was pacing by the window. She placed a coffee cup on the table.

'Thought you might be thirsty' she said.

'Okay, so you're the good cop. Where's the bad cop?' Sam asked, his eyebrows raised.

'Oh, he's with your brother' the woman smiled.

Sam smirked 'okay. And you're holding us why?'

'Well, he's being held on suspicion of murder. The girl-'

'Amelie'

'Yes Amelie is also being held for murder but one that is 17 years old. And you, we'll see'.

Sam leaned forward, shock was plastered all over his face.

'Murder?'

'You sound genuinely surprised. Or are you that good of an actor?'

'Who's they supposed to have murdered?'

'We'll get around to that'.

'Well, you can't just hold us here without formal charges!'

'Well actually, we can, for forty eight hours, but you being a pre-law student, would know that. I know all about you, Sam' the woman said and picked up a file and began reading from it.

'You're twenty three years old, no job, no home address. Your mother died when you were a baby, your father's whereabouts are unknown. And then there's the case of your brother Dean. Whose demise was, well, just a little bit exaggerated. Feel free to jump in whenever you like'.

Sam leaned back against the wall, and folded his arms.

'Shy? No problem. I'll keep going. Your family moved around a lot when you were a kid. Despite that, you were a straight-A student. Got into Stanford with a full ride'

She closed the file and looked at Sam, 'then about a year ago there was a fire in your apartment. One fatality. Jessica Moore, your girlfriend. After she died, you fell off the grid. Left behind everything'.

'I needed some time off. To deal. So I'm taking a road trip with my brother and his girlfriend'.

'How's that going for you?'

'Great. I mean... we saw the second largest ball of twine in the continental US. Awesome'.

Sam pulled up a chair to the table and straddled it.

'We ran Dean's fingerprints through AFIS'.

'Okay'.

'Got over a dozen possible hits'.

'Possible hits. Which makes them worthless'

'But it makes you wonder. What are we gonna find when we run your prints? What we found on Amelie's prints'

'Yeah, well'

'For hers we found some extraordinary things, when she was born, the crimes she has committed in the past'

'When was she born?'

'See that's the extraordinary thing Sam, the AFIS comes up with 15th December 1813'

'That's impossible' Sam exclaimed.

'Quiet right, for that to be true she'd be 183 right now which is physically impossible'

Sam pointed to the coffee cup. 'May I?'

'Please' the woman nodded 'my name's Diana Ballard by the way.

'Great' Sam smiled and picked up the cup.

He sniffed it before sipping it as the woman leaned over him, intently.

'Sam, you seem like a good kid. It's not your fault Dean's your brother. We can't pick our family. Right now detectives in St. Louis are exhuming a corpse. They're trying to figure out how your brother faked his own death. After torturing all those young women. Dean's a bad guy. His life was over the minute he got together with Amelie. Yours doesn't have to be' Diana said.

Sam looked at her, incredulous.

'You want me to turn against my own brother?'

'No. We already caught him cold. Red-handed at the Karen Giles murder scene. We just need you to fill in some missing pieces'.

'Why would I do that?'

'Because I can talk to the DA. Make a deal for you. You can get on with your life. Dean's as good as gone'.

Sam began to think for a moment, he looked distraught, then speaking quietly Sam said, 'my dad and Tony Giles were old friends. They were in the service together. We've known him since we were kids, you know? So we came as soon as we heard about his death'.

FLASHBACK

In a Cafe next door to a motel

Amelie and Dean were sitting at a cafe table. Dean was reading a newspaper where the headline read: Man's Throat Slit Without A Trace.

Sam approached the pair with three cups of coffee and set one down. As he sat, Dean handed over the paper.

'There you go' Sam said as he gave Dean and Amelie their coffee's.

'Anthony Giles'.

'Who's Anthony Giles?' Sam asked.

'He's a Baltimore lawyer. Working late in his office, check it out'.

Sam read the article. 'Uh...' Sam started muttering the basics of the article 'throat was slit, room was clean. Huh. No DNA, no prints'.

'Keep reading, it gets better' Dean enthused.

'Security cameras failed to capture footage of the assailant' Sam said.

'So I'm thinking either somebody tampered with the tapes,'

'Or it's an invisible killer.'

'My favorite kind. What do you think, Scully? You wanna check it out?'

'I'm not Scully, you're Scully'.

'No, I'm Mulder. You're a red-headed woman'.

'Says the dude who has a red-headed girlfriend' Sam smirked.

PRESENT DAY

Sam was continuing his story to the policewoman.

'Woulda been kinda hard for Dean to kill Tony, considering we weren't in town at the time'.

'So tell me what happened next'.

'Okay, uh, that's when we went to see Karen. She was barely holding it together. We just wanted to be there for her. You know?'

FLASHBACK

In the Giles house

Karen, a young woman with dark hair and dark-framed glasses, was sitting in her home, on the verge of tears. She was looking at some forms that Sam and Dean, dressed as insurance company employees, have given her. Amelie was sitting beside her.

'Insurance. I totally forgot about the insurance' Karen said softly.

'We're very sorry to bother you right now, but the company is required to conduct its own investigation. You understand' Sam said.

'Sure' Karen nodded.

'Okay. Um. If you could just tell us anything you remember about the night your husband died' Amelie said.

'Uh, Tony and I were just supposed to have dinner. He called and said he was having computer troubles and that, that he had to work late. That was it'.

'Do you have any idea who could have done this to him?' Sam said.

'No. No, it's like I told the police, I, I have no idea'.

'Did Tony mention anything, you know, unusual to you? In the days before his death?' Dean asked.

'Unusual...' Karen said, looking at Dean.

'Yeah, like strange?'

Karen shook her head 'Strange?'

'You know, Karen, weird? Weird noises, uh, visions, anything like that?' Dean pressed.

Sam cleared his throat and gave Dean a look; Karen turned to Sam, who had on his concerned-face again, she briefly looked at Amelie before looking down.

'He had a nightmare the day before he died' she said softly.

'What kind of a nightmare?'

'Uh, he said that he woke up in the middle of the night and there was a woman standing at the foot of the bed, he blinked and she was gone, I mean, it was just a nightmare'.

'Did he say what she looked like?' Dean asked.

'What the hell difference does it make what she looked like?' Karen exclaimed.

'Uh, it's just, our, our company's very thorough' Amelie said .

'He said she was pale, and she had dark red eyes' Karen said.

PRESENT DAY

'... and that was it. End of story' Sam said.

'Sam, I am trying to help you here. But you have got to be honest with me. Now we have an eyewitness. Someone who saw two men and a woman fitting Amelie, you and your brother's description breaking into Giles' office'.

'Okay, look, Karen called us later, said that there was some stuff that she wanted from Tony's office, but the police weren't letting her in. I, like, a picture of the two of them in Paris, and some other stuff. Look, it was wrong to enter a crime scene, but she gave us the key!'

FLASHBACK

Giles' office

Sam was picking the lock on Giles office, when he did Amelie, Dean and himself entered, ducking under the police tape. Amelie shined his flashlight on a pool of blood on the floor.

'Hey. Anthony Giles' body was found right about here' she said 'the report said that his throat was slit so deep part of his spinal cord was visible, gross'.

Dean whistled 'what do you think? Vengeful spirit? Underlining vengeful?'

'Yeah, maybe. I mean he did see that woman at the foot of his bed' Sam said.

Dean picked up a sheet of paper lying on the desk. He read part of it before saying 'take a look at this'.

Sam took the paper of Dean and Amelie shined a light on it. It contained small-font printing of the word "danashulps" repeated over and over to fill the page.

'Dana Shulps. A name?' Amelie said.

Dean found another paper.

'I dunno, but it's everywhere' Dean said before grinning, 'well, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'.

Amelie shined her flashlight down on the glass table in front of her, and paused. She breathed on the glass, it revealed the same letters - "DANASHULPS" — impressed in the surface.

'Wow. I'd say we've officially crossed over into weird' Sam exclaimed, glancing over Amelie.

'Maybe Giles knew her' Dean said.

'Or maybe it's the name of our pale red-eyed mystery girl' Sam said.

'Well. Let's see what we can see' Dean said.

Later

Amelie, Dean and Sam were all frustrated after having found nothing after searching through all accessible paper and computer files in the office. Sam was sitting at the desktop computer.

'There's not a single mention of a Dana Shulps anywhere. There's not a D. Shulps. Or any other kind of friggin' Shulps' Dean said.

'Great' Sam sighed.

'What have you got?' Amelie asked, looking up from the file she had been reading.

'Nothing. No Dana Shulps has ever lived or died in Baltimore in the last fifty years at least' Sam replied.

'So what now?' Dean asked.

'Well, I think I'm pretty close to cracking Giles' password. Maybe there's something in his personal files, you know?' Sam said.

'By close you mean...' Amelie said.

'Thirty minutes, maybe?' Sam sheepily said.

Dean glanced at his watch 'awesome. So I guess I just get to, uh, hang out'.

'Awesome' Dean muttered.

Sam started to type, concentrating on the computer in front of him. Dean sat down next to Amelie, annoyed at Amelie ignoring him Dean started making clicking and mouth-fart noises.

'Dude, seriously' Sam said.

'All right, I'm gonna go talk to Karen again, see if she knows anything about this Dana Shulps, huh? You two are such geeks, but Am' wanna come with me'

'Yeah sure, you okay here Sam?'.

'Great'

'Keep going, Sparky' Dean smirked.

PRESENT DAY

Police Station

'Then Dean and Amelie went back to Karen's place to check up on her. I mean, you know, she had been pretty upset earlier' Sam said.

'So why didn't you go with them?'

'I just went back to the motel….How'd you know I was there, by the way?'

'We found the motel matchbook on your brother when we arrested him. Let's quit fooling around. Now you were with your brother and his girlfriend the whole time you were in Baltimore. Why separate now? Because your brother and his girlfriend left you. To go murder Karen'.

'They didn't kill anyone' Sam protested.

The woman hit the table in frustration 'I heard the 9-1-1 call! Karen was terrified. She said someone was in the house'.

FLASHBACK

Giles House:

Karen was sitting on the sofa in her pajamas, crying. The TV was on, low. As Karen blew her nose, a figure passed her by. She took off her glasses to rub her eyes; Karen paused, then put them back on. Across the room in a mirror she could see a ghostly figure. She yelped, turned on the light only to find that the figure was gone.

She got up quickly, panicked, and then went into the hallway, then into her bedroom and shut the door. She called 9-1-1.

'Hello, emergency services' the operator said.

'Hello? I think I saw someone in my house'.

'What is your address?'

'It's 421 Clinton Avenue. Please, can you – '

There was a tinny click, and the call was disconnected.

'Hello?' Karen said.

The printer on her desk flicked on and started printing out the same repeated pattern as before: "". Karen fumbled for a flashlight, turned, and saw the ghost behind her – it was the ghost of a young blond woman with dripping red eyes.

Karen screamed.

No less than 10 minutes later Dean and Amelie arrived at Karen's house and knocked on the door,

'Karen, you in there?' Amelie called.

Dean looked around, then picked the lock and the pair entered. He tried the light by the door, but it wouldn't work. They went further into the house, Dean went up the stairs and into the bedroom, Amelie followed but went into another room. Dean pushed open the door and saw Karen lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Her throat was slit deeply. Dean glanced briefly at the pages from the printer and frowned.

'Seriously, what the hell?' he muttered.

Dean knelt down by Karen's body, noticing bruises on her wrists, he carefully took one in his hand.

'Freeze' a policewoman, Diana Ballard, said from behind him.

Behind Dean, two cops, a man and a woman had their guns trained on him.

'Stay on your knees. Hands where I can see them. Now!' Diana ordered.

Dean complied.

'Cuff him' Diana said, 'and make sure they don't talk to one another'.

PRESENT

Police Station, another part of it

Sheridan, the male police officer from before was sitting in an observation room from which he could see Amelie and when he turned around he could see Dean, they were both handcuffed to a table, but Amelie looked asleep.

Diana entered the room.

'You getting anywhere with them?' she asked.

'No. Just a lot of wise-ass remarks. You?'

'Sam's story matches Dean's and Amelie's to the last detail'.

'Hmm. Yeah, well, these guys are good. I'll give 'em that'.

'If we don't get Sam to flip we have nothing but a lot of circumstantial evidence'.

'Hey. We've got Dean at the crime scene with blood on his hands. Juries have convicted for less, plus the girl, she's wanted everywhere and for a hell of a lot worse than what they are'.

'Yeah, but, I mean, it has to be an older relative of hers that committed this murder, her mother maybe, she's just not old enough, anyway where's the murder weapon? What's the motive? You talk about reasonable doubt'.

'Diana' Sheridan sighed and brought his hand up to touch her face.'Do you have reasonable doubt? We keep leaning on these guys, one of them will tumble. And don't forget about St. Louis. I'm telling you. This Dean guy is our guy'.

'I know Tony Giles was a friend of yours'.

'Yeah. He was, he was a good friend'.

'Look, and I know you want to clean this mess up quick. But come on, Tony knew a lot of criminal types, I mean, maybe we're just...'

'Criminal types? He was a defense lawyer, for godsakes, of course he knew criminal types'.

'All right, let's get back at 'em'.

'No, you know what? Let 'em stew in their juices for a bit. Come here' Sheridan said and kissed her.

Amelie's interrogation room

Amelie was muttering a sting of curses when a young man entered the room.

He had on a black leather jacket and ripped jeans.

'You look kinda scruffy to be a police officer' Amelie said, raising her head of the table.

'Honey, you don't know the half of it' the man growled.

He slowly walked over to her and brought out a set of keys, he un-locked her cuffs and pulled her up.

'Thanks I think' Amelie said.

'Oh you have nothing to be thank full for honey' the man said and pushed Amelie back against the wall.

'Seriously' he said and closed his hands around her throat.

Dean's interrogation room

Dean, like Amelie before, was still handcuffed to the table, he was muttering to himself, thinking.

'Dana Shulps, Dana Shulps, Dana Shulps Dana, Dana Shulps...'

Sam's interrogation room

Sam pulled forward the pad of paper and a pen and wrote "DANA SHULPS" in block letters, he frowned in thought.

Amelie's interrogation room

Amelie kicked out at the man, as hard as she could.

'What the hell are you?' she screamed as he came for her again.

'Just coming to collect payment girl' the man spoke in a calm tone, which unnerved Amelie.

'What payment'

'This kind' the man said and back Amelie against the wall again and brandished a knife. Amelie gulped.

'Who are you?'

'A hunter' the man whispered as he pressed himself against her and sliced her arm open.

Dean's interrogation room

'Maybe it's not a name. Maybe it's not a name' Dean muttered.

Sam's interrogation room

'Anagram, maybe?' Sam said.

He started writing "ANDA SH..." underneath the first line, then continued to write more on the second.

Amelie's interrogation room

With a final heave Amelie kicked at the man and grabbed his knife.

'Then you know'

'Always known hun. Brought up on the legends that you created.

Amelie smiled a little before smashing the knife into the hunter's stomach.

He gasped 'he'll get you soon hun, don't you worry' before his breath stilled and his eyes turned glassy.

Outside a commotion could be heard and soon after Sheridan burst into the room.

'Sedate her, I want her chained to that table with both arms and I want her on a constant sedation till a cell is free' Sheridan ordered and gestured for the officers behind him to take care of the dead body as well.

Dean's interrogation room, next day

Head down, Dean continued to mutter to himself. There was a knock on the door; he looked up to see a smiling middle-aged man.

'Mr. Winchester?' the man said and poked his head through the door.

'Yeah'.

'I'm Jeffrey Kraus. I'm with the public defender's office. I'm your lawyer'.

'Oh. Thank god. I'm saved' Dean said with a roll of his eyes.

Kraus sat down and as he was doing so Dean said, 'hey, could I, uh, steal a pen from you? Some paper?'

'Sure'.

Kraus handed over the items to Dean, whom immediately started scribbling.

'Uh, well, the police haven't found a weapon yet. So that's good. But, uh, they got your prints. And literally blood on your hands. And with your police record, uh...' Kraus said before he was aware that Dean was ignoring him, 'Mr. Winchester? What are you doing?'

'I think it's an anagram'.

'A what?'

'An anagram. Same letters, different words'.

Dean held up the paper which now read:

DNA SHULPS

DAN SHULPAS

LAND PUSHAS

SUPASH LAND

PUSH LANDAS

PLUSH DANAS

'Uh, do me a favor? See if you recognize any of these words, you know, local names, places, anything like that?' Dean asked.

'Do you understand how serious these charges are?'

'I'm handcuffed to a table. Yeah, I get it. Humor me. Take a quick look'.

Kraus pulled the pad over to him 'well, S-U-P, I don't know about that, but Ashland is a street name. Not far from here'.

'A street'.

Dean took the pad back, tore off a sheet of paper and started writing again.

'Let's start with where you were the night Anthony Giles died'.

'Can you get in to see my brother? Or girlfriend?'

'Mr. Winchester, you could be facing the death penalty here'.

'Hey, thanks for the law review, Matlock. But. If you want to help me...' Dean sighed dramtically and held up the folded note he'd just finished.

'Only one of them need see it'

'Mr Winchester, might I remind you that you are in no state to be ordering people around. You're brother at the moment has more rights than you do and he is also being detained'.

'What about Am?'

'You're girlfriend?'

'Yeah'

'She's is being held for charges of multiple murder, one from 17 years ago and one, well one from under an hour ago'

'Just please I need you to see my brother'.

Police Station ~ next day

Ballard was writing an email at her computer.

Suddenly the repeating string DANASHULPS started scrolling across the screen. She looked around, nervous.

Amelie's interrogation room

'I have been in worse places' she bluntly told Sheridan who was sat opposite her, apparently unfazed by the blood that had been left from the body of last night.

'Sure you have sweetheart, but this time you're gonna be sent to the chair, you and your boyfriend'

'All talk and no action' Amelie smirked and used her hand to mimic the policeman.

'You better watch what you say around me, 'cause I could get you killed so easy no will notice that you're missing'

'Death ain't that bad, plus it just means I can come back stronger and so full of hate that I'd look at you and you'd be dead in an instant'.

'You know, you have this big I don't care attitude, when I reckon deep down that if anything happened to those boys out there, you'd kill yourself'

Sheridan paused before smiling, 'I'm right aren't I'

Just one look at Amelie's face was enough to confirm it.

Sam's interrogation room

Sam was looking at the note Dean had sent him, it read:

HILTS —

IT'S A STREET

ASHLAND.

-MCQUEEN

'I hope that's meaningful. But I'd like to discuss your case now' Kraus said to Sam.

Sam gestured to the chair, 'sure thing, Matlock'.

'You two really are brothers, aren't you?' Kraus said as he sat down. 'Now. As you know, the DA might be interested in...'

A knock on the door was quickly followed by Ballard, who addressed Kraus.

'We need you. With the other one'.

Dean's interrogation room

Several others were now crowded into the observation room outside where Dean was being held; across from his seat a digital camera has been set up. Ballard and Kraus entered.

'Counselor? Your boy decided to confess' Sheridan said.

'Mr. Winchester? I'd advise against that strongly'.

'Talk directly into the camera, first stating your name for the record' Sheridan called to Dean.

Dean cleared his throat and leant forward, looking into the camera.

'My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women 'specially Amelie, boy is she frisky. And I did not kill anyone. But I know who did. Or rather what did. Of course it can't be for sure, because our investigation was interrupted. But our working theory was that we're looking for some kind of vengeful spirit.

'Excuse me?' Ballard asked incredulously.

'You know, Casper the bloodthirsty ghost?' Dean replied.

In the observation room, the spectators started laughing.

'Tony Giles saw it. I'll bet you cash money Karen did too. But see, the interesting thing is the word it leaves behind. For some reason it's trying to tell us something. But communicating across the vale, it ain't easy. You know, sometimes the spirits, they, they get things jumbled. You remember "REDRUM". Same concept. You know, it's, uh, maybe word fragments... other times, it's anagrams. See, at first we thought this was a name, Dana Shulps. But now we think it's a street. Ashland. whatever's going on, I'll bet you it started there'.

Dean spread his hands and smiled.

'You arrogant bastard. Tony and Karen were good people, and you're making jokes' Sheridan exploded.

'I'm not joking, Ponch'.

'You murdered them in cold blood just like that girl in St. Louis'.

'Oh, yeah. That wasn't me either. That was a shape-shifter creature that only looked like me' Dean smiled again.

Sheridan suddenly lost his temper and hauled Dean up by the collar, slamming him against the wall.

'Pete, that is enough!'

'You asked for the truth' Dean spat.

'Lock his ass up. Put the girl with him too, both can rot for all I care'.

Another cop took over, shoving Dean face-first against the wall and handcuffed him.

Sam's interrogation room

Sheridan and Ballard returned to find Sam gone; the coffee and the note were still on the table.

'What the hell? Where is he?' Sheridan said.

Sheridan walked over to the window, which was open, he looked out - it's a four story drop with no visible fire escape nearby. Ballard saw the note on the table and picked it up.

'What'd he do? The fire escape's way over... what?' Sheridan said before noticing the note in Ballard's hand.

'These people' she muttered and handed him the note.

'Hilts and McQueen?'

'Hilts is Steve McQueen's character in the Great Escape'.

A bathroom in the police station ~that night

Ballard entered the bathroom and the lights started to flicker. She sighed thinking stupid lights, janitor can never fix them. As she approached the sink, it turned on by itself. She recoiled. All the faucets started pouring out hot water, steam rising. In the fogging mirror the letters DANASHULPS were formed; Ballard scrubbed them away which in turn revealed the ghost. Her throat was slit deeply, her eyes a deep red. She was struggling to talk.

Amelie and Dean's lock up room

Dean was handcuffed to another table, Amelie was opposite.

'You killed someone 17 years ago and again tonight?'

'Relax Deanie, the person 17 years ago had it coming. The one tonight different story'

'You we're 6 17 years ago'

Amelie didn't answer just looked down.

Dean was about to say something else but Ballard entered the room, nervous. She shut the door.

'Can we make this quick? I'm a little tired, it's been a long day, you know, with your partner assaulting me and all, also my girlfriend is now keeping secrets from me'.

Amelie didn't bother to look up at Dean, so he didn't notice the tear that fell down her cheek.

'I want to know more about that stuff you were talking about earlier'.

'Time Life. Mysteries of the Unknown. Look it up'.

'Let's pretend for the moment you're not entirely insane'.

'Mmm'.

'What would one of these things be doing here?'

'A vengeful spirit? Well, they're created by violent deaths. And then they come back for a reason, usually a nasty one. Like revenge on the people that hurt 'em'.

'And uh, these, they're capable of killing people?'

As she rubbed her neck, Dean noticed something on her wrist.

'Where did you get that?'

Ballard pulled up her sleeves revealing deep bruises, exactly like those on Karen's wrists.

'I don't know. It, it wasn't there before'.

At this point Amelie looked up at Ballard, there was a hint of sorrow in her eyes.

'You've seen it, haven't you? The spirit?'

'How did you know?'

'Because Karen had the same bruises on her wrists. And I'm willing to bet that if you look at Giles' autopsy photos he's got 'em too, it's got something to do with this spirit, I... I don't know what'.

Ballard turned away, she gazed into the mirror opposite.

'I know. You think you're going crazy. But let's skip that part, shall we? Because the last two people who saw this thing? Died, pretty soon after. You hear me?' Amelie said.

'You think I'm going to die' Ballard stated.

'You need to go to Sam. He'll help' Dean said.

'You're giving your brother up?' Ballard eyed.

'Go to the first motel listed in the yellow pages. Look for Jim Rockford - it's how we find each other when we're separated. Now you can arrest him if you want. Or you can let him save your life' Dean said simply.

Motel~ that night

Sam was sitting at a motel desk, going through files. There was an abrupt knock on the door; he opened with his hand on the gun in his waistband.

Ballard was standing on the other side of the door; he hesitated before pulling the door open allowing Ballard in.

'What are you doing here?' Sam said, his eyes alert for any police car.

Ballard pulled up her sleeves to show Sam the bruises on her wrist.

'These showed up after you saw it?' Sam asked.

'Yeah, I guess' Ballard mumbled.

'All right. You're going to have to tell me exactly what you saw'.

'You know, I must be losing my mind. You're a fugitive. I should be arresting you'.

'All right. Well, you know what? You can arrest me later, all right? After you live through this. But right now you've gotta talk to me. Okay?'

She nodded.

'Okay, great. Now, this spirit. What did it look like?'

'She was, um, really pale, and her throat was cut, and her eyes, they were like, this deep dark red? It appeared like she was trying to talk to me. But she couldn't. It was just... a lot of blood'.

'You know what? Here. I've been researching every girl that's ever died or gone missing from Ashland Street'.

He led her over to the table he'd been sat at earlier, he gathered up a stack of crime scene photos.

'How'd you get those? Those are from crime scenes, and booking photos'.

'You have your job, I have mine. Here. I need you to look through these, tell me if you recognize anyone'.

Ballard pulled up a chair and sat down before she started to flip through the stack. On the third photo, the first that had a young woman's image on it, she stops.

'This is her. I'm sure of it'.

'Claire Becker? Twenty eight years old, disappeared about eight or nine months ago'.

'But I don't even know her. I mean, why would she come after me?'

'Well, before her death, she was arrested twice. For dealing heroin. You ever work narcotics?'

'Yeah, Pete and I did. Before Homicide'.

'You ever bust her?'

'Not that I remember'.

'It says that she was last seen entering 2911 Ashland Street. Police searched the place, didn't find anything. Guess we gotta check it out ourselves. See if we can find her body'.

'What?'

'Well, we gotta salt and burn her bones. It's the only way to put her spirit to rest'.

'Of course it is'.

2911 Ashland Street

Sam led Ballard into a dark and creepy warehouse.

'So what exactly are we looking for?' Ballard asked as she ducked the second cobweb in the space of 2 minutes.

'I'll let you know when we find it'.

They split up with Sam checking up a flight of stairs and Ballard continuing on the lower level. She turned towards a window and saw Claire, she was standing by the window and struggling to talk.

'Sam? Sam? Sam!'

As Sam ran down the stairs to Ballard, the ghost disappeared.

'Hey! Hey, I'm here, what is it? What happened?'

'Claire...'

'Where?'

'She, she was here'.

'Did she attack you?'

'No. No, she was just like, reaching out to me. She was over there by the window' Ballard pointed to the window that was blocked by a shelving unit.

'Here, help me move this' Sam said and away his flash light.

'All right'.

They shoved the shelves aside, revealing the window. It was labelled from the outside:

ASHLAND SUPPLIES

'Our little mystery word' Ballard breathed.

They turned to see a shadow on the opposite wall, casting the words into clear reflection.

'Now the extra letters make sense' Sam muttered before pulling out his EMF reader and approaching the wall.

'What is that?' Ballard asked, coming over to him.

'Spirits and certain remains give off electromagnetic frequencies'.

'So if Claire's body was here, that would indicate that?'

'Yeah. Well, that's the theory'.

The EMF reader purred as he waved it over the brick wall. He turned before breaking through the wall with a sledgehammer he'd pulled from his backpack. When he's knocked out a sizable hole, he poked his flashlight inside.

'Yeah. Yeah, there's definitely something in there' Sam said and broke through the wall with his elbows and fists.

'You know? This is bothering me' Sam said.

'Well, you are digging up a corpse' Ballard said, eyebrows raised.

'No, not that. That's, uh, that's pretty par for the course, actually'.

'Then what?'

'It's just, I mean, no vengeful spirit I've ever tussled with wanted to be wasted, so why the hell would Claire lead us to her remains? It doesn't make any sense'.

By this point Sam has now broken open most of the wall.

'All right, here. Give me a hand'.

Together, they pulled out a shroud-wrapped body and placed it on the ground. Sam pulled out a pocket knife from his jacket and cut the ropes holding the shroud together, uncovering Claire. Ballard held out her wrists.

'Her wrists. Yeah, they'd be bruised just like yours?' Sam said.

Ballard glanced at Claire's neck she gazed at the necklace on the corpse and touched it cautiously.

'That necklace mean something to you?' Sam asked upon seeing her touching the necklace.

'I've seen it before. It's rare. It was custom made over on Carson street'.

She reached into her neckline pulling her own necklace out 'I have one just like it. Pete gave it to me'.

'Now this all makes perfect sense'.

'I'm sorry?'

'Yeah. You see, Claire is not a vengeful spirit, she's a death omen'.

'Excuse me?'

'Claire's not killing anyone. She's trying to warn them. You see, sometimes spirits, they don't want vengeance, they want justice. Which is why she led us here in the first place. She wants us to know who her killer is'.

Sam sighed and looked over Ballard, 'Detective, how much do you know about your partner?'

Ballard thought for a moment before shock and horror passed over her face 'Oh my god'.

'What?'

'About a year ago, some heroin went missing from lockup. Obviously it was a cop. We never found out who did it. But whoever did it would need someone to fence their product'.

'Someone like a heroin dealer. Somebody like Claire'.

A lone highway that night

Sheridan was driving an armored van with Amelie and Dean in the back.

'So we're being extradited to St. Louis, huh? And you just decided to transfer us yourself, eight hundred miles? At two in the morning? This can't be good' Dean mumbled.

Along the same highway but further back that night

Ballard was driving Sam down a similar stretch of road, and had just finished a call on her cell phone.

'All right. Thanks'.

'What is it?'

'Pete just left the precinct. With Dean and Amelie'.

'What?'

'He said the prisoners had to be transfered, and he just took them. Dispatch has been calling but he won't answer the radio'.

'Radio? He took a county vehicle?'

'Yeah'.

'Well, then they should have a lo-jack, you've just gotta get it turned on'.

In a clearing

The armored van pulled off the road and stopped making Amelie fall onto Dean.

Dean smirked and pulled Amelie in for a kiss before raising his voice. 'Pee break? So soon? You might want to get your prostate checked' .

Sheridan got out and circled to the back.

'Son of a bitch' Dean yelled as Sheridan wrenched open the van.

'Hey, we're cool in the van, you go do what you gotta do, and we'll just do what most couples do'.

Sheridan reached into the van and hauled Dean out, throwing him to the ground, before pulling Amelie out and chucking her down next to Dean.

'You're a cocky son of a bitch. You think those people in St. Louis are gonna buy that crap you're peddling? Here's the thing. You're not gonna make it to St. Louis. You're gonna die trying to escape'.

He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Dean's head 'with you dying first'.

'Wait! Wait. Let's, let's talk about this. I mean, you don't want to do something that you're gonna regret later'.

'Yeah, 'cause I dunno 'bout you but I regret waking Dean up in the mornings somedays'

Sheridan cocked the gun.

'WAIT! If you're gonna shoot someone then shoot me first'

Sheridan just smirked and bent down to Amelie's level 'honey, I've got better plans for you' he whispered.

'You sick son of a bitch' Dean cursed.

Just then Ballard pulled up.

'Pete! Put the gun down' she called.

'Diana? How'd you find me?'

'I know about Claire'.

'I don't know what you're talking about'.

'Put the gun down!'

'Oh, I don't think so. You're fast. I'm pretty sure I'm faster'.

'Why are you doing this?'

'I didn't do anything, Diana'.

'It's a little late for that'.

'It wasn't my fault. Claire was trying to turn me in, I had no choice'.

'And Tony? Karen?'

'Same thing! Tony scrubbed the money, he got skittish, and then he wanted to come clean. I'm sure he told Karen everything'.

Dean and Amelie glanced over at Sam, Sam was giving the pair "How do we get out of this" looks. Dean shook his and Amelie just looked at her necklace, Sam gritted his teeth not really wanting to deal with a demonic Amelie.

'It was a mess; I had to clean it up. I just panicked' Sheridan said.

'How many more people are gonna die over this, Pete?' Ballard said.

'There's a way out. This Dean kid and his slut-'

'HEY!' Amelie shouted.

's a friggin' gift. We could pin the whole thing on them. Right? No trial, nothing. Just, just two more dead scumbags'.

'Hey!' Dean protested, outraged that someone would call his girlfriend a slut and himself and her scumbags.

Sheridan raised the gun; Dean backed down, pressing himself closer to the ground.

'No one will question it. Diana, please. I still love you' Sheridan begged.

She lowered the gun.

'Thank you. Thank you' Sheridan smiled.

As he turned back to Dean and Amelie, Ballard brought her gun back up and fired, hitting Sheridan in the stomach. He went down; Dean and Amelie quickly rolled out of the way.

'Then why don't you buy me another necklace, you ass?'

Sheridan tackled her legs, knocking her down; she lost her gun in the struggle, Sam tried to go for it, but Sheridan got there first.

'Don't do it! Don't do it!' Sam called.

Ballard stared past Sheridan, who turned to see the ghost behind him, staring through her bloody hair. She smiled. A gunshot went off as she did: Ballard had recovered a weapon and had shot Sheridan in the back. He went back down again, this time more permanently.

In the morning in the same clearing

Ballard was kneeling by the body of her late partner. She got up and approached Amelie, Sam and Dean. They were standing nearby.

'You doin' all right?' Sam asked.

'Not really. The death omen Claire. What happens to her now?' Ballard asked.

'Should be over. She should be at rest' Amelie said.

'So, uh. What now, officer?' Dean asked.

'Pete did confess to me. He screwed up all your cases royally. I'd say that there's a good chance that we could get your cases dismissed, Amelie that guy you killed yesterday, you're going to have to go on the run for that, but I could say you got the jump on me as Pete was about to kill Dean'.

'You'd take care of that for us?'

'I hope so. But guys the St. Louis murder charges? That's another story. I can't help you. Unless... I just happened to turn my back, and you walked away. I could just tell them that the suspects escaped'.

'Wait, are you sure?'

'Yeah, she's sure, Sam' Dean said.

'No, it's just, I mean, you could lose your job over something like that'.

'Look, I just want you guys out there doing what you do best. Trust me, I'll sleep better at night'.

Ballard turned to go but turned back to the trio and said 'listen, you need to watch your back. They're gonna be looking for all of you right now. Get out of here. I gotta radio this in'.

'Hey, uh, you wouldn't happen to know where my car is, by chance?' Dean asked.

'It's at the impound yard down on Robertson'.

Upon looking at Dean and seeing a calculating look on it she said 'don't... even think about it'.

'Look it's okay, it's all right, don't worry. We'll, uh, we'll just improvise. I mean, we're pretty good at that' Amelie said.

'Yeah. I've noticed'.

Amelie, Sam and Dean walked off down the road.

'Nice lady' Sam said after a while.

'Yeah, for a cop. Did she look familiar to you?'

'No, why?'

Sam smirked and shoved Dean playfully.

'I don't know. Anyway, are you guys hungry?'

'No' Sam and Amelie chorused.

'For some reason I could really go for some pea soup'.

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