Sorry it took so long to post this part. Real Life can get a bit annoying at times. Anyway, here it is and I'll hopefully have chapter 5 up within the next few days. :-)

Part 4 - Investigations

With a loud sigh, Dean rubbed his hands over his eyes. They had only been at their research for a little over three hours, but that time, combined with the earlier excitement and their exhaustion from previous cases, left Dean feeling weary. It really had been a long night, and the brothers hadn't discovered anything that could tell them how to deal with the apparition in the woods.

Dean had actually gone so far as to raid the recycle bins behind the hotel, hoping that perhaps there had been some mention of a strange event in the discarded newspapers left by hotel guests.

There had been no such luck.

Sam had busied himself reading newspaper records from the entire county, going back as far as he could. There were no reports of murders, suicides or accidentsanywhere near the lonely road.

Dean glanced over at Sam. His brother had fallen asleep a short while earlier, his face planted uncomfortably on the table where he'd set up the computer. Dean didn't feel inclined to wake him.

The elder Winchester stretched and finally rose to his feet, trying to work out the kinks in his back. He paced the width of the small hotel room, then turned and paced back. He turned to pace again before realising that he hated pacing. With a grimace, Dean flopped onto his back on his bed.

This really sucked.

He stared at the ceiling for awhile, noting the interesting shades on the tiles- the result of years of mould accumulation.

Dean mentally shook himself back to the current situation. He needed to focus. He tried to compile a list of everything he knew about what he had seen.

There had been fog, a light, and a phantom car. Sam had reported electrical interferences.

Dean had been certain the apparition was in some way connected to a hit-and-run accident. His first thought had been that the ghost was reliving the event through whomever it happened to encounter. Though they had found nothing in the papers, Dean still leaned towards that explanation.

Dean sat up slowly. It hadn't been mentioned in the papers . . . but that didn't mean it didn't happen. It was possible he and Sam had been a little too literal in their search. Perhaps no one knew someone had died out there.

With a muttered curse, he pushed himself off the bed and crossed the room to where his brother was sleeping. He swatted Sam's head with a little more force than was strictly necessary.

"Wake up, bro," Dean demanded. "No time for sleeping now."

Sam blinked owlishly at the grim form above him. "What's going on?"

"We're idiots; that's what," Dean replied, pulling over the other chair and settling himself in it. "What if the reason we can't find anything is because there's nothing to find?"

Sam frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Dean leaned forward slightly. "I think no one knows that our ghosty died out there."

"Meaning that there's a body still out there somewhere," Sam grimaced.

Dean nodded. "Who knows? Maybe our ghosty got hit by a car and the driver didn't tell anyone. The driver could have pulled the body into the bushes. With no reason to suspect anything else, the police could have assumed the person just ran away or something."

"I think you might be on to something," Sam agreed, turning back to the computer. "Let's see if we can find anything on missing persons in the area."

He began to search through the computer once more.

"Dean?" Sam asked without pulling his gaze from the monitor. "Why do you suppose no one's mentioned anything odd out there before? I mean, it must be a pretty powerful spirit to do all the things it's doing. You'd think someone would have noticed."

Dean frowned. He'd been wondering the same thing.

He shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe it liked me?"

Sam shot his brother a dubious look. "Maybe it liked you? It ran you over with a ghost car."

"Good point."

"Maybe it has to do with the time of day you were out there?" Sam continued. "Maybe the ghost person was hit about midnight, the same time you set out."

Dean shrugged. "It's possible. Maybe it was the fact that I was walking and pedestrians are easier to hit with ghost cars."

Sam smiled. "That could be. How many people would walk down that road in any . . ." he trailed off.

Dean turned to look at him. "What?"

"I think I found something." Sam turned the computer so Dean could see the article. "This guy, Frank Lawrence, disappeared three years ago from this town. No one knows why he would have left so abruptly, or where he would have gone. He left everything behind."

Dean scanned through the article quickly. "No known enemies, either. Seems he was a bit of a loner."

Sam tapped his fingers on the table. "Could be him."

Dean shrugged. "We don't have anything else so far."

"If it is the spirit of an unburied person, we definitely need to find the body," Sam noted. "Though that's easier said than done."

"Not necessarily," Dean countered. "Our little friend could show us."

"You want to head back out there and talk with the thing that tried to kill you?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why not?" Dean replied. "If it appears again, instead of running away from it, we can follow it."

Sam stared at his brother. "Running away?" The words brought back the fleeting memory of his dream; a dream he had forgotten in the night's events. Dean was running from something; something that was getting closer and closer. He had felt Dean's fear as whatever was chasing him drew far too near . . .

"Sammy?" His brother's voice jolted Sam back to the hotel room. He glanced around, but saw nothing other than Dean looking at him curiously.

Sam took a shaky breath.

"What's going on?" Dean asked lightly.

"Nothing," Sam shook his head. "Just tired."

Dean clearly didn't believe him, but he let it slide