Be Made of Salt And... chp 4

They finally made it to Mission Falls in the late afternoon. Tommy was at the wheel of the Impala when he pulled up outside a diner on the outskirts of the small town. Once the car was stopped, he climbed out and stretched, looking over the top at his youngest brother and grinned. It had been a brief, but fruitful tussle that had led to him and Sam being in the front seat the last hundred miles, with Dean pouting in the back.

Dean got out and glared at his middle brother first, then his youngest. "You two are so dead." He shook his head and started for the diner, followed by his two laughing brothers. It sucked when a big brother could no longer scare his little brothers into doing something.

The food at the diner had been typical: greasy, but filling. They all had ordered cheeseburgers and fries with only their drink choices differing. Once they had eaten, the talk turned once again to the job.

Now, they were in the only room left in the last hotel in town. Considering there were three hotels total, they were lucky to even get the one room. The manager had dropped off a rollaway bed for one of them to sleep on without charging them extra for it.

Once again Dean had drawn the short straw, literally, and had ended up on the rollaway. He stretched out on it as they started talking about what they had found out by talking to some of the locals at the diner.

"So Grace wasn't the first victim, they all occurred during the early mornings and were about a month apart." Sam stated, laying out their notes.

"You know," Tommy began, stripping down to just his jeans. "If I didn't know better, I'd say this was a werewolf."

"Except that the killings aren't occurring during prime hunting hours." This came from Dean as he shucked his boots.

"That's why I said if I didn't know any better." He threw a pillow at his oldest brother.

"And the killings aren't anywhere near the time of the full moon." Sam had gone ahead and looked up the moon phases, just to help rule out one more thing.

Tommy suddenly sat up. "Sam, how far were all the murders from graveyards?"

Dean frowned at his middle brother. "You thinking a black dog?"

"It makes sense, especially since we've kind of determined that it couldn't be a hellhound just because of its behavior patterns."

"Bingo. All the murders happened within a mile from the main graveyard in town."

A maniacal grin spread over both Tommy and Dean's faces, leaving Sam with the feeling that they were going to be in for an interesting ride.

The next morning found the brothers stopping at another diner for breakfast before going to do a little recon of the area in which the murders had taken place.

The waitress grinned at the three of them, but made eye contact with Dean, who immediately plastered his best shit-eating grin in place. "Table for 3" He paused to read her name tag. "Please Kim."

She blushed slightly. "Follow me."

Dean grinned. "You don't have to ask me twice."

Sam and Tommy followed, shaking their heads at Dean's flirting. Once they were seated and Kim had taken off with their drink orders, Dean found himself face to face with his two less than pleased younger brothers. "What?"

"Do you have to flirt with everything in a skirt?" This came from Tommy, who was still a bit tired after their 'brief' planning session ended with Sam falling asleep on the laptop and Tommy falling out of the chair around 4 am.

"Well, yeah."

"At least wait until we've eaten. That way I've got something to throw up in my stomach." Sam shook his head as he watched Dean just grin.

"Now where would the fun be in that?"

Both of the younger boys groaned in unison, knowing that it was going to be a long, long day.