In Dean's lockup room…
Dean was handcuffed to another table as Ballard entered nervously and shut the door.
"Can we make this quick?" Dean deadpanned at her, "I'm a little tired, it's been a long day, you know, with your partner assaulting me and all."
She eyed him sheepishly, "I want to know more about that stuff you were talking about earlier."
"Time Life, 'Mysteries of the Unknown'." Dean raised a brow, "Look it up."
She sighed and moved to walk in front of him, "Let's pretend for the moment… that you're not entirely insane."
"Mmm."
"What would one of these things be doing here?"
"A vengeful spirit?" He asked waiting for her small nod, "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 that sent off his alarm bells, "Where did you get that?"
She pulled up her sleeves to reveal deep bruises, like those on Karen's wrists, "I don't know. It- it wasn't there before."
"You've seen it, haven't you?" Dean met her eyes worriedly, "The spirit?"
She paled, "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." At his words she turned and looked in the mirror, supremely freaked, "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? They died pretty soon after." At her silence she pressed, "You hear me?"
She tensed, "You think I'm going to die."
"You need to go to Angel and Sam." Dean nodded, "They'll help."
She turned at that in shock, "You're giving your brother and sister up?"
"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." Dean instructed, "Now you can arrest them if you want, or you can let them save your life."
At the motel…
At the motel table, Sam typed at his laptop with a furrowed brow as Angel went through files they had spread out around them. They both gave each other a look when there was a knock at the door. Sam got up and answered it, opening the door to reveal Detective Ballard. He hesitated and sent Angel a raised brow as she got up but Ballard shrugged at their eyes and came in. She was pale and her eyes freaked as she showed them the markings on her wrists.
"Woah…" Angels brows furrowed as she came up beside her brother to survey them, "These showed up after you saw it?"
"Yeah…" She shook her head nervously, "I- I guess."
"Alright." Sam nodded, "You're going to have to tell us exactly what you saw."
"You know…" She scoffed, "I must be losing my mind. You two are fugitives. I should be arresting you."
"Yeah, well, you know what? You can arrest us later, alright?" Angel looked her in the eyes seriously, "After you live through this, but right now you've gotta talk to us, okay?" She nodded tensely, "Good. 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." She described shakily, "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." Sam lead her over to a table where he gathered up a stack of crime scene photos, "We've been researching every girl that's ever died or gone missing from Ashland Street."
"How'd you two get those?" Her brows furrowed as she looked from the photos to the Winchesters, "Those are from crime scenes, and booking photos."
Angel smirked, "You have your job, we have ours."
Sam motioned, "We need you to look through these and tell us if you recognize anyone."
Ballard sat on the bed across from them and flipped through the stack. On the third photo, a young woman's booking photo, she stopped.
"This is her." Ballards eyes became wide, "I'm sure of it."
"That's Claire Becker." Angel said, "She's 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." Sam explained looking over, "You ever work narcotics?"
"Yeah, Pete and I did." She nodded with a frown, "Before Homicide."
He held up her photo, "You ever bust her?"
"Not that I remember."
"It says that she was last seen entering 2911 Ashland Street. Police searched the place, but didn't find anything."
"Well, come on." Angel instructed as she got up and put her jacket on, "We gotta check it out ourselves and see if we can find her body."
"What?"
"We gotta salt and burn her bones." Sam explained as he too got up, "It's the only way to put her spirit to rest."
Ballard scoffed, "Of course it is."
2911 Ashland Street…
Angel and Sam lead Ballard into a dark and creepy warehouse, "So what exactly are we looking for?"
Angel sighed, "We'll let you know when we find it."
Angel motioned and they split up, Angel started downstairs as Sam checked upstairs and Ballard continued on the level they began at. Ballard turned toward a window and jumped when she saw Calire struggling to talk to her.
"Sam!" She yelled panicked, "Angel!"
As Sam ran down the stairs and Angel came up from the basement the ghose disappeared.
"Hey, we're here." Sam cooed as he and his sister looked around for whatever had her screaming, "What is it?"
"What happened?"
"Claire…"
Sam turned, "Where?"
"She- she was here…"
Angel looked her over hurriedly, "Did she attack you?"
"No." She shook her head trying to steady her breathing, "No, she was just like, reaching out to me. She was over there by the window." The window was blocked by a shelving unit but Ballard hurried over, "Here, help me move this."
The three of them shoved the shelves aside, revealing the window. It was labeled from the outside:
ASHLAND SUP.
Ballard shined her flashlight over it with wide eyes, "Our little mystery word."
They turned to see a shadow on the opposite wall, casting the words into clear reflection.
Angel looked to Sam, "Now the extra letters make sense."
Sam pulled out his EMF reader and approached the opposite wall as Ballard eyed him, "What is that?"
"EMF." Angel explained as her brother concentrated, "Spirits and certain remains give off electromagnetic frequencies."
"So if Claire's body was here, that would indicate that?"
Angel shrugged, "That's the theory anyway."
The EMF reader purred as Sam waved it over the brick wall. Soon, he was breaking through the wall with a sledgehammer. When he knocked out a sizable hole, he poked his flashlight inside.
"Yeah, there's definitely something in there." He started breaking through the wall with his elbows and fists, "You know? This is bothering me."
Angel frowned, "Me too…"
"Well…" Ballard raised a brow, "We are digging up a corpse."
"No, that parts pretty normal for us." Angel sighed, "Whats weird is the fact that no vengeful spirit we've ever come into contact with has wanted to be wasted, so why the hell would Claire lead us to her remains? It doesn't make any sense."
"Alright." After Sam broke open most of the wall he turned to the women, "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 and cut the ropes holding the shroud together, uncovering her. Ballard held out her own wrists next to the bodied bound ones.
Sam looked between them, "Her wrists."
"Claires would be bruised just like yours." Ballard noticed a necklace on the corpse and touched it cautiously, earning Angel's attention, "That necklace mean something to you?"
"I've seen it before. It's rare. It was custom made over on Carson street." She reached into her neckline as her face became grim, "I have one just like it. Pete gave it to me."
