Solitary Man chpt 3

by sifi

--

With calls having been made to all the steady contacts they had left, Dean sat in the library in Salt Lake City staring blankly at the computer screen, his mind many miles away from the rest of him. Until he heard something from someone he had two choices as he saw them, he could either continue to New York pell mell or he could work smart and see if he could find any clues about anything that might have sparked enough curiosity to make his little brother feel like he had to lie to him.

He ran searches on as many of Sam's friends from Stanford as he could remember and when he found something, a total of four occasions, that might have drawn Sam away, he made phone calls only to find out that Sam hadn't been contacted, nor made any contact of his own, and he most certainly hadn't been seen. Part of him knew that any of those four folks could've been lying but very few people were practiced enough to pull the wool over Dean's eyes. He had a pretty fair ear when it came to sensing untruths, though he did it unconsciously. He even went so far as to run a search on Jessica's surviving family to see if something had happened with any of them, maybe something Big Bad related, but they seemed to be moving on with their lives too. Well good for them, but it doesn't help me much… his eyes caught something as he was scrolling through the page, What's this…Sedalia Missouri…scribing…undisclosed identity… he clicked on the news item.

Local police are baffled once more by yet another unusual

happenstance, this time at the morgue. Four days after the

brutal murder of a local woman while in the care of an area

medical facility it seems that not even death can provide release.

Police are refusing to speculate on who might have been

responsible for the desecration of the victim's corpse, or to say

exactly what was found to have been inscribed on the body.

Local authorities however are urging anyone with information

in this matter to please come forward.

He looked at the date of the story and realized it had been a new news item two days ago. Dean tried a few more searches to see if he could get into systems that might provide information on what exactly had been inscribed on the body of a dead woman, but after wading his way through a never ending series of mazes he sat back scrubbing his face in frustration, the abrasive gauze still protecting them actually felt pretty good against his face.

Is this what you're chasing Sam? Did you find this story and figure to check it out yourself? But why? Do you really think I'm that weak? Come on Sammy, call me back, talk to me…you know we're better as a team… and beneath these surface speculations a key seemed to turn somewhere within, tightening his nerves just a bit as a concept began to form and he allowed himself a question, What if we didn't kill it after all? he grasped his jacket off the back of the chair and strode from the library knowing in his depths that if he followed this hunch, somewhere along the way he'd find Sam.

--

His patience was stretched thin and his stomach was practically vibrating when he walked into the office at the Sedalia Motor Inn sixteen hours later, and laid his Dean Taylor credit card down on the counter. He hadn't eaten since breakfast and his brain was just starting to slow down.

"Mr. Taylor… good to see you again so soon," the mid twenties shapely brunette at the counter said cheerfully, "You just missed your friend…"

Dean had to check the distracted nod he was about to give her, he didn't feel like flirting right now but at the mention of Sam his attention snapped like a rubber band to her, "Really? He checked out already?"

She nodded smiling and batting her brown eyes at him, "Mmm hmmm," she licked her bottom lip and Dean actually felt his inner self roll its eyes, "Yesterday afternoon," she said reaching for a room key for him, "I take it you want a single too?"

Dean wedged the left side of his mouth up into his most charming half smile, "Single… heh, yeah… uh, he didn't say where he was going did he?"

The clerk's brows furrowed and she chewed her bottom lip for a second before shaking her head, "Mmm mmm, sorry…"

"Do you remember what he was driving?" he asked.

--

Dean sat at the table in his room and could almost see an echo of his brothers' presence. He shook his head knowing it was ridiculous to think it, but staying in the same room Sam had vacated the previous day made him feel closer to him, made him think that maybe if he worked hard enough at it that he could get into his younger siblings' head and figure out where he was headed to next, or see if perhaps he'd even left a clue behind that housekeeping wouldn't think to clean up. Unfortunately it wasn't to be.

Giving his eyes a rest from the articles he'd printed at the library he started making another round of calls. His frustration built steadily as he left another message for Sam, another for his father, one each for Bobby, Shep and Joshua and finally dialed the last number. This one he actually expected to have to leave a message at.

"Hey handsome… you miss me already?" Laura was grinning on her end, he could hear it in her voice.

"More than you know… I'm starting to feel like a red-headed stepchild here…" he sighed.

"What's goin' on?" she asked curiously.

"You sure you have time?" he asked knowing she'd been called away from him for a case of her own.

"Yeah, I'm just doing some research… go ahead," she urged.

Half an hour later he sat back on his bed, water bottle on the nightstand and remote in one hand while the other held his cell to his ear.

"…so now I'm in the room he was in day before yesterday with no clue which way to go," he finished.

"Hmmm sounds like you've got a plan though… go check out the corpse, see what you can find out… once you get those greens of yours uncrossed go back to the stuff you printed up and see what you come up with… You'll find Sam and figure this out… I have faith in you," she said matter-of-factly.

Dean shook his head, "I don't know why… all I've done since this whole Guinardi thing started was screw it all up… it's like everything I'm doing is coming out ass backwards y'know?"

He heard her sigh on the other end, "Sweetie we all have rough moments, no one said what we do is easy y'know? Okay… so this is a little 'road rash-y' for you but think about this much, Sam is a grown man. He's smart, he's capable, and he's your brother. Okay the whole everything-loves-to-choke-him thing notwithstanding, but… if he thought there was something that needed to be investigated without involving you, you can bet your sweet ass he's just trying to do for you what you've always done for him."

"I'm the one who's supposed to protect him…we're supposed to be a team, you don't just blow off your team y'know?" he interjected.

"I know," she paused a long moment and he could almost feel her heart touch his, trying to soothe him as was her way, "Maybe it's just as simple as wanting to give you some rest and recreation y'know? Maybe he caught sight of the story and figured he'd check it out, make sure it wasn't anything important then really go to New York and see Sarah after all… I don't know… but… what I DO know is that he'd never intentionally hurt you. His awareness has gone through a lot of changes over the last year and he's starting to get the concept of connection… repercussions that echo through time in both directions…"

"Hey Laura…. back to Earth please… you're going a little too esoteric on me here," he smiled. He actually enjoyed it when she went off on quantum tacks, it kinda gave her eyes a dreamy look, like she was looking through ages, and he had to admit, even though he didn't usually quite get what she was saying, listening to her say it, hearing the passion it inspired in her was… yeah, it's kinda hot.

"Oh yeah… sorry…" she muttered and he could almost hear her blush.

"Don't be," he smiled getting up pacing the room in a lazy circle.

On the other end of the phone something shattered and thundering 'whumps' reverberated through to him as he heard her voice, "Son of a bitch!"

"Laura?" he barked and felt butterflies take flight. He heard a metallic 'snick' followed by the unmistakable sound of a series of blows being traded behind a melee of destruction.

"I gotta call you back…" she breathed hard just before the line went dead.

Dean ran his fingers through his hair and frowned, I never even asked her where she was, he realized and breathed deep. She'll be okay… it sounded big, whatever it was… and angry, don't forget angry…she'll be okay… I hope.

--

Chicago, Illinois

Trish Harris pushed the heavy steel door to her Lincoln Park loft open just enough to admit her then slid it closed and pulled down on the steel latch that was part of the reason she loved the place so much. She was safer here than she could've been anywhere else that she could think of.

She slung her messenger bag off her shoulder and dropped it atop a pile of shoes she kept on a little mat by the door, then added the pair she was wearing to the jumble.

"Aaah free the feet…" she sighed shrugging out of her windbreaker and hung it on the tree.

Walking toward the kitchen her toes worked hard to grab the highly polished and lacquered hard wood floor even through her socks. The kitchen floor was no better but she kicked off the small threshold that separated the room from the hallway and skated toward the refrigerator.

"I can't believe I got everything done!" she sighed to herself unscrewing the cap from one of the water bottles and drinking half of it down as she stood there. Party plans and mental 'to do' lists with all their points crossed off flittered through her mind as she closed the refrigerator door and startled at the face that stood staring at her.

"Damnit Bob! What the hells' wrong with you! You almost gave me a freakin' heart attack…" she shouted then shook her head as he stepped out of the shadow and leaned down over her.

"Sorry baby…" he said holding her eyes with his own and stroked her chin with his finger, "forgive me?"

She nodded, "Duh… I just didn't know you were home that's all…" she grinned and allowed herself to be reeled in for a kiss. She sighed and gazed into his blue/gray eyes. She watched his lids come down as his grip on her chin grew tighter and his eyes opened revealing oily shimmering blackness.

His arms wrapped around her, holding her against him while he nudged her head aside and his teeth sunk into the flesh of her neck severing muscle, tendon, vein, and artery. She tried to scream as one of his hands wrapped around the back of her neck, just under the base of the skull and finished disconnecting her from life.

Moments later he rose to his feet and looked down at his handiwork. Her torso lay bare before him, no "Y" incision to work around this time. The message was clear as could be for the recipient. He had a job to do and so far the only one who didn't seem to be following the beaten path was the one person it was most necessary to eradicate. Killing him wasn't an option, the whole family knew it. Breaking him was the only way to get him out of the way, but he was proving to be far more formidable than first reckoned. The problem was that no one knew how or why. He should've broken in Oklahoma but he hadn't. So now he'd become a messenger, leaving behind a trail of breadcrumbs meant to sap away the strength of a warrior spirit. He wondered how many it would take before this paladin was devoured by his own doing. He didn't know, and honestly he didn't care, he could kill as easily as the body he wore could breathe, what did cause the merest hint of uncertainty though was the understanding that whatever resources his opponent had inside had been grossly underestimated.

"I can still smell him on you even after all this time," he said to the marred corpse on the floor and cocked his head to the side, "I wonder if he'll remember you."

--

Sam paced his motel room, his phone pressed hard to the side of his head, his jaw clenching in frustration. He was furious, some at their allies, but mostly at himself for having listened to their advice. In fact he was so angry and preoccupied with his storming he didn't hear the faint 'tick'-ish sound of the flimsy doorknob lock being picked, "… I know it's not easy but you're the one who put me on to this, you're the one who suggested I leave Dean with her and now she's not there! He's alone Shep! Damnit I never should've listened to you… y'know every damned time we start trying to do something the way you guys would it just frells us up straight to hell! When are you guys gonna stop trying to make the big decisions for us!" he yelled angrily, his oven-mitt sized hand squeezing as if the phone was a stress ball. He listened for barely a moment while shaking his head, "No… no I'm not, I'm going to hang up this phone and do what I should've done from the moment you e-mailed me that clip, I'm going to tell Dean and wait for him to get here and we're going to work this in our own way!"

"No Sammy, you're not…"

Sam wheeled at the sound of that voice and found himself staring deep into those brown eyes he'd gone toe to toe with on so many occasions in his life.

"Dad…" he ended the call and stood staring, "… like hell I'm not…"

--

tbc?

still think I should keep going, or do y'all think I'm reaching a bit here?

sifi