Hey guys, this is the penultimate update for the week of chapters. I hope you're enjoying it so far! I would've love to upload another chapter on Saturday and Sunday but I'm going camping this weekend (in cold wet English weather…yaaay).
Anyway, hope you enjoy and review if you did or follow or favourite!
They reached the motel again.
"I'm gonna get some cheesy fries, want anything Emma, Salad Boy?" Dean questioned as he went and picked up his wallet from the table.
"No thanks." The two replied.
"See ya when I'm fat." The brother joked before leaving the motel room again.
"What are you going to do now?" Emma asked the remaining brother.
"Work." Sam answered, pulling his laptop out of his bag and sitting down at the motel table.
"Can I join?" she asked casually, knowing that she had literally nothing else to do.
"Sure." Sam answered. Emma pulled out a chair next to the hunter and accompanying him at the desk. "I warn you it's probably going to be a bit boring."
"Yeah well it's probably more interesting in staring at the ceiling." She admitted. "So, what are you going to research?"
"I'm going to search up the news articles of all the deaths that have happened at the university."
"And one of those will be the ghost?"
"Most likely." The long-haired man answered before typing 'private university of Nashville deaths' into the search engine. The top result was the death of Daniel Murphy, a news article published twelve hours ago. The next few results were about James Brennen and Jedd Gardner and how the university was under attack from the 'chemist-killer'.
"They gave the ghost a nickname, that's nice of them." Emma commented sarcastically.
"I don't think they date any of the previous murders meaning that it probably happened before the internet was invented."
"So, what do we do now?"
"We have to go in the old-fashioned way, into the Nashville police department."
"Y-You mean the actual police department, the guys that will be able to tell that I'm way too young to be an agent and that our badges are completely fake?"
"Don't worry, our badges were made by professional liars and they'll believe you if you're with me, okay?"
Emma hesitated before replying. "O-Okay, I trust you." She finalised nervously. "Do we call Dean?"
"No, we don't want to distract him from his food." Sam decided, knowing that Dean would rather drown in bacon fat than do the brain work.
They left the room they had only just came back to and headed out into the cold air. Even though she had agreed to go, Emma was still pretty terrified at the idea of lying to the followers of law. She knew that she could have just stayed behind but she felt like she had to get over all of her fears to become a hunter, plus she didn't want to let Sam and down. This time last month, or this time five years ago, she wouldn't have even dared to attempt seeing an eighteen-rated movie when she was underage. And now she was about to lie about her age, her name, her whole identity to the people whose job it was to stop law breakers.
Seeing as the diner was only down the road, Dean had left the Impala parked outside the motel. Sam got out his spare set of keys and went to open the Chevy car door.
"Wanna ride shotgun?" he asked the redhead.
"Really?" she grinned.
"Yeah, seeing as there's only two of us."
"Thanks." The girl smiled before opening the door and sitting on the chair that was usually reserved for the younger brother.
They began their journey to the police station. Although this opportunity was quite a minor one, Emma found it fascinatingly exciting. Even though she had been in this car for hours on end for days, this was her first time ever sitting in the front. She never had the best positions sitting in cars on car journeys, sitting in the middle on family car treks, sitting alone in the back of the Impala and even on school trips, she'd let Alex sit by the window. It may not be of any significance to most people but to her sitting in the front made her feel like she was someone of importance, like she was worth something to someone. She smiled gently as she looked out of the car window; at least shotgun got rid of some of her nerves for the police station.
X
"Chief," Sam addressed the policeman who came to see them as soon as they walked into the police station. "I'm agent Jones and this is my colleague agent Jackson." They both held up their badges.
"Let me see hers." The chief said taking her badge, he was a man that looked around forty; he had quite a stout body and greying, short hair with a thick black moustache. He studied her ID closely, she tried to keep calm and tried to look as confidence as Sam did.
He handed it back to her a few moments later. "Sorry, you just looked a bit too young to have this position."
"She's new; I'm just showing her the ropes for this case." Sam explained with a broad smile.
"Ah, and what case are you working on exactly?"
"The murders from the private university downtown sir," the male 'FBI agent' explained.
"Such a tragedy." The police officer sighed. "I knew James, he the husband to my sister's best friends. "He was a good guy."
"Can you please show us the report files on all of the people that have died in the university to date?"
"I'll see what I can dish out." He nodded. "Fredrickson!" he barked.
A younger man looked up from his desk, he quickly rushed to them. "Yes Chief?!"
"Take these two agents to the file room."
"Yes Chief." He said.
The man named 'Fredrickson' began leading them to the back of the building. Emma saw many of the cop crew looking at her, she tried to look like she belonged here and wasn't just a seventeen year old pretending to be a twenty-three-year-old agent.
Fredrickson took them into a room at the end of the building; it led them into a slightly smaller, but still relatively big, room. It was packed with hundreds of file cabinets, covering every part of the walls, the only thing assisting the files in the room were a desk and chair. The man took out a large set of keys that held the unlocking to all of the files in the room.
"What are you looking for?" he asked.
"Death reports from everyone that has died at the private university of Nashville."
"Interesting." He nodded. "Where would that be?" Fredrickson asked quietly to himself, frowning deep in thought. His facial expression relaxed a few seconds later and he rushed over to a file cabinet on the back wall. He went through each of the keys before stopping at one and inserting it into the lock of the top drawer.
"So how old are you?" he directed at Emma as he was flicking through the files.
"Oh, um, twenty-three." The redhead lied; although this would've been her age this year, if she hadn't had time travelled.
"So am I!" he said happily. "But, I must ask, how did you get to be an agent, I thought they were meant for hard, tough people."
"She was the best in her class." Sam made up. "The boss thought it would be a stupid idea not to enrol her."
"Oh, so are you two together?"
"No, no." Sam laughed. "I was just stating a fact. Jackson here is the best in her league." He grinned.
"Thank you, agent Jones," Emma played along.
"So, are you single?" He asked trying to sound casual.
"I…er-" she started, the man was fairly good looking but she hoped he wasn't trying to flirt.
"Let's get back to the files, shall we?" Sam saved her.
"Y-Yeah." Fredrickson nodded. "Okay…um…here we go." He pulled out a thick file and put it down on the desk. "I'll need to stand watch outside the room but I'll leave you too it." He got up and leaving the room.
The two agents sat down at the desk with the file below them. Emma looked at Sam, who cracked a smile, and found herself grinning as well.
"Don't say anything." She laughed.
"I wasn't going to…but just wondering, when is yours and Fredrickson's first date." Sam giggled like a child.
"Shut up." she said in embarrassment. "I felt so bad; I kind of just wanted to tell him I was really seventeen so at least he wouldn't feel uncomfortable."
"Don't worry; I'm sure he won't be the first guy you turn down."
"Can we carry on with the case?" she asked hopefully.
"Sure." He granted. He went and flicked open the heavy file; inside settled a number of pages. Sam started flicking through them. Emma tried to study the death reports but Sam changed the page in a matter of seconds.
"So how do you know if they're important or not?" Emma asked curiously, after wondering if her companion was even reading the reports. Sam stopped flicking through and turned to her to explain.
"All three men were chemists and were killed by methods to do with chemistry, therefore our ghost probably used to work in that profession. They were also probably murdered in the building, meaning deaths caused by suicides or natural ways won't be viable suspects."
"So, we're looking for a murdered chemist?"
"Yep." The man answered before going back to scan the remaining murder files.
A few moments later Sam stopped at a murder report and studied it with a greater interest. After noticing that this report was of greater importance, Emma joined the older hunter in reading it. She learned:
Name: Howard Mitchell
Age: 21
Occupation: Medicinal Chemist
Crime Incident: Accidental suicide
How attack was committed: Deceased consumed unclassified drugs, caused severe allergic reaction. Swelling of glands caused blocked airways making person of interest unable to breathe, causing suffocation.
Date of death: March 3rd 1969
Time of death: 9:00-11:00pm
Suspects: None
"But they weren't murdered?" Emma asked curiously.
"It says that but it has the most common interests. A chemist who died by a drug-"
"And died around the same time all the chemists died," Emma ended his sentence.
"Nice observation." Sam grinned. "So, we can infer that Mr Howard Mitchell's 'suicide' involved the three recently murdered scientists.
"So, what now?"
"We go and speak to Howard's relations, see if we can dig up any personal information about him."
X
After finding out that Mr Mitchell had a mother that lived uptown from the deputy's help, they went back to the Impala and made their way on an hour journey to the relative's house.
"So, we're just going to randomly show up at this poor woman's house and ask her if she knows if her dead son is a ghost who is murdering people?" Emma asked
"We're not going to mention her son's ghost features but we are going to ask her if she knows anything extra about Howard Mitchell's death." Sam explained while driving the car.
"And don't you think bringing up her son will maybe bring up unpleasant memories?"
"It happened decades ago, she would have moved on by now. Everyone can get over death after time." Sam said grimly.
"Some people can't." she said feebly before looking out of the window and watching the moving surroundings.
X
They reached the building that supposedly belonged to Howard's mother; it looked pretty run down, seeing as the walls were grimy and decorated with graffiti. The crimson red paint from the door was peeling off, the golden number three door number was askew by about forty-five degrees and- worst of all- a dead raccoon was decaying on the front porch.
"Does anyone live here?" Emma asked curiously, half convinced that this was an abandoned house, seeing as it was an accommodation which would make her mother feel a tad faint.
"The light is on in that room." Sam observed, pointing to the left window on the ground floor.
They walked towards the entrance of the broken looking house. Sam knocked on the rusty knocker, which made a dull thud against the door surface. It took a few moments for a reply to arrive but they heard someone undo the locks behind the thick plank of wood. A woman was standing by the door, a face sketched in wrinkled and dyed red hair that had grey-silver hiding in it.
"Hello," Sam introduced. "We're-"
"I don't care if you want to sell me something or it's charity work-"
"No, no," Sam stopped her, pulling out his badge; Emma copied him with the procession for the hundredth time that day alone. "I'm agent Jones, this is agent Jackson… can we come in?"
"Why are you here?"
"Your son-"
"Why?"
"Some of the files down at the police station have gone missing and we need to regain the information."
"My son is dead and has been with God for a long time now, why should you care about how he died?"
"Please, it's just routine check-up, you can turn us away now but there will be another couple of agents that will come in the next two days if you don't."
Mrs Mitchell sighed heavily in frustration before looking Sam hard in the eye. "Five minutes and then I want you off my property."
"Thank you." Sam smiled kindly. She cleared the doorway and they made their way into the shack. It was hard to walk into the living room as the house was packed of clutter, there was mould caking the walls and a peculiar smell that had an aroma of cigarette smoke and a strong, cheap perfume that hung in the air like a deadly poisonous gas. They eventually made it to the living room and she guided them to a lumpy sofa that was covered in old newspapers and dirty cups and plates. After Mrs Mitchell made it clear that she wouldn't clear space for them on the sofa, Sam moved the objects on the couch, with a disgruntled expression, and he and Emma sat down. Instead of joining them, the mother of the deceased stood in front of them, towering over the two 'agents' almost as if she was the interrogator.
"So, your son was Howard Mitchell, is that correct?" Sam asked, pulling out his notebook.
"Yeah, it's why we share the same surname." She replied bluntly.
"We could get through this a lot more easily, if you just let us ask the questions and you answer them without any additional comments." Sam suggested.
"You ruined my day; I'll answer them how I like."
"Okay." Sam said in annoyance, sharing a this-is-going-to-be-difficult look with Emma. "He died when he was?"
"March 3rd, 1969, he was twenty-one, a bit older than you by the looks of it." She said slyly towards Emma, who felt her cheeks going red.
"And how did he die?"
"Suicide, silly bastard, leaving his mother alone with nothing,"
"I'm sure he had his reasons-"
"He was supposed to become a noble prize-winning scientist, whole life without money, spending it all on fucking school and university fees and all of it was for nothing. He was the first good Mitchell, the first one that was going to get somewhere, sure he may have been bullied at school and never really fit in but he was the smartest little boy in the world."
"I'm sorry for your loss." Sam said in a grave tone.
"Life screwed me over." The woman admitted. "Fourteen and pregnant, could have had an abortion, save the suffering if it hadn't been illegal."
"Isn't it better he was alive for twenty years rather than none at all?" Emma questioned.
"All he was to me was a waste of money."
"Do you know if there was anyone who might have had a disliking towards your son, anyone that may have triggered his suicide in anyway?"
"My son wasn't liked but no one hated him, he was just invisible in the world."
"And did he have any friends…or people that noticed him at all?" Sam asked curiously.
"I have some pictures, Howard liked photography, he had a few photos that were with other people at his work."
"Could you show us some of them?"
"Why, this doesn't have anything to do with his suicide?"
"We…we wanted to see if we could go and see any other people that knew Howard."
Mrs Mitchell looked at the pair of them suspiciously before saying "Fine, but after you've looked, you're leaving." She got up and left the room.
"Nice woman." Emma said with a shiver, she almost felt sorry for this Howard boy, having to live with a lady, who probably told him how she would have aborted him if she could, every day of his life.
"I've met worse." Sam admitted.
"Do you think Howard could be the ghost?"
"Hard to say, he could just be a poor kid who committed suicide but he is the most likely suspect."
Ms Mitchell came down the stairs a few minutes later; she had a small pile of grainy black and white photos. She handed them to Sam and he started flicking through them. All of the pictures had the same scrawny boy present in them, a young man with glasses and a bowl-shaped haircut, who was normally wearing old fashioned clothes even for that era.
"I think he got on alright at that university, he only got to work on one project…that's it that one there." she pointed at the photo that Sam had just reached.
The two agents quickly looked at each other after looking at photo in Sam's hands. The photo depicted Howard standing next to four men in a science lab; their faces were extremely recognizable to the two hunters. Even though they were younger in the picture and their features grainy from the bad quality, the four other men were: Jedd Gardner, James Brennen and Daniel Murphy and on the very end, the man caused Emma and Sam's mouths to open, was Frank Smith.
Recap: Frank Smith was the guy in the elevator from last chapter. If you were thinking he was acting suspicious, you're most probably right ; )
The next chapter will be the actual hunt so return to find out what happens!