Chapter 7
"So did you notice anything unusual?" Sam studied Eva as Dean asked the question. He looked around the theatre. It looked different from the night before with all the lights on.
"Aside from the usual theatre antics, no," Eva replied as she studied the man questioning her. She knew right off that he was the brother of the one that attended the show. There were a few things she knew that she didn't kiss and tell. "Tell me, why is the FBI interested in something the locals could handle?"
Dean looked at Eva. He picked up on the fact that she wasn't going to be easily swayed by anything they could cook up in terms of a snow job and he suspected she was only cooperating because she had met Sam the night before and Sam knew Angela… the whole gotta know someone thing. He replied putting on his best smile, "Well we're in the area and it is kind of our expertise."
"Really?" Eva raised her brow at Dean. She figured that they were hunters since she knew that Angela wouldn't travel with just anyone and she tended to stick around people who knew about the supernatural. "Because I thought that Angie was an art appraiser and she really didn't have an interest in G-men."
Sam blinked at that while Dean was rendered speechless before stuttering, "What… what do you mean?"
"Well Angie is an art appraiser and restorer. This is one of her guilty pleasures," Eva explained as she gestured around. "She has been generous with our group over the years and never fails to attend at least one performance."
"And your fellow group member Lulu said she performed right?" Sam picked up the conversation and ran with it. He figured that if he gained some rapport, Eva would be more open and forget this line of questioning though he highly doubted it.
Eva looked at Sam. She had to admit that he was clever and quick to try and salvage a situation but her instinct to protect the troupe kicked in and she was going to obey it even though her instincts also said to trust Sam since Angela trusted him. "There was an occasion or two from my understanding," Eva allowed. She rather liked Sam and could see why Angela liked him and more than just a friend if her behavior the night before was to judge by. She gave a slight smile and added, "Only from the stories I had been told."
"Angie is like that," Sam allowed, playing her game a little. "She's always willing to give a helping hand." He gave her a polite smile to show that he wasn't trying to pry to be nosy but to show that he wanted to help. "And that's what we want to do as well. Let us help… please." He was tempted to use the puppy eyes but decided against it.
Eva grinned, "You don't have to resort to any devious means." She sobered as she straightened up. She looked at the brothers. "I know that you both are hunters but you have to understand something: We… we really aren't overly trusting of outsiders."
"Yeah I figured that," Dean snorted in his usual fashion.
"We are a family. Maybe not blood family but we are very close knit. We know each other and we have our ways."
"Like traveling circuses and carnivals," Sam pointed out, vaguely remembering the case at the carnival he and Dean worked at and what they had to do to get the information they needed to do the job.
"Sounds like you've had your fair share of our kind." Eva knew that it was tongue in cheek as she said that. She didn't know how much the two hunters knew about them so she was going to play it safe.
"We've had a case," Dean allowed. He wasn't pleased that they were running into another group that seemed bent on keeping tight lipped. He couldn't blame them really since they were already on suspicion of what happened last night.
Eva looked at Dean and straightened up, "Then I can't help you. I already talked to the police and right now I got my hands full in moving."
"Moving?" Sam frowned as he glanced at his brother. It was not going to help if they left town and he highly doubted the cops were going to let them go so easily.
"We still have a few more nights," Eva replied with a raised brow. "Believe it or not we have to make a living." She raised her brow in a knowing fashion. "I'm sure you understand that." She turned her back to go back to work.
Sam reached out to stop her, "Wait. Are you guys leaving town?"
Eva would have given a brush off normally but she rather liked Sam. She replied, "No. Can't with the investigation. But we do have a change of venue." She looked at the door towards the stage and added, "But you are more than welcome to talk to the people here in the troupe. Whether or not they will answer your questions, I can't say." She turned to leave but paused and said, "I can see why she likes you, Sam. Don't waste it."
Dean waited until Eva was gone before saying, "Well that was helpful."
Sam rolled his eyes slightly, "Actually it was."
"Really?"
"We get a chance to talk to people here." Sam knew that they had pretty thin standing and he was banking on Angela's association to get them a foot in the door. It was just a matter of saying the right thing. He took in Dean's look and amended, "And maybe we'll get answers. The other option is to ask Angie."
"And what makes you think they'll talk to her? Yeah Eva said she contributed but that doesn't necessarily mean anything."
Sam shook his head slightly. He knew it was more than that and it was just frustration that they had an answer just not the one that they wanted. "Because Angie knows them and they know her. We can still ask just… not like you."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean frowned as he watched Sam move towards the door to go backstage. He knew he wasn't going to get an answer and decided on at least trying to get something out of the people that were doing the acting. He followed Sam and immediately lost sight of him and he sighed in a frustrated manner. This wasn't going to be easy.
It proved right as he wandered around. He tried asking but was often told that there wasn't time because of work aka too busy. Dean was about ready to growl his frustration when he bumped into an older man. He apologized since the guy looked like he was ancient and could fall over, "Sorry. Just looking for my partner. We're…"
"You're brothers," the old man replied knowingly.
Dean was caught off guard by the assertion and could only stare at the old man. "Excuse me?"
"He's not your partner. He's your brother," the old man repeated with a bemused expression. He broke into a grin and apologized, "My apologies." He held out his hand and gave his name, "I'm Richard. Rick to most everyone here."
Dean took the proffered hand more because good manners dictated that it be so. "Dean," he offered, completely forgetting that he had given a fake name to Eva. He was caught up in how the old man figured out their story. "How did you…?"
Rick chuckled a bit at that, "Personal experience. Comes with being a brother. My older one Henry is around somewhere." He gestured around at the theatre and moved to pick up a box.
To Dean, the box looked too heavy for the old man to pick up. He offered and picked it up without asking, finding that it was pretty heavy and he wondered what possessed the old man to think that he could carry it. "So you figured us out."
"Mmmhmm," Rick replied as he led the way. He knew what they were there for and probably they had already been brushed off. The younger ones would have avoided it entirely and the elder ones would have given polite refusals. He had seen this one and his brother the night before and he knew that they were friends of their patron so he was willing to give a chance. He was just going to be careful since they were hunters and they may not understand why Angela had done things the way she did though he did notice the other, taller one seemed thoughtful. So maybe… "Not that hard and like I said, I have a brother myself. You kind of know a thing or two and the signs."
"I guess," Dean allowed as he put the box o the cart that was going to be carted out with everything else. He put his hands on the box and asked, "So… can you tell me what has been going on?"
"Apart from the usual antics of the youngsters? Nothing unusual."
Dean didn't buy it but was going to be polite. He had been scolded enough by Angela about his manners and was well aware that being able to do a snow job mean being able to do it on all types of people and not just the pretty ones. She made that loud and clear and it wasn't like he could get away with it when he was around Haley either. "So nothing like cold spots? People appearing that aren't supposed to be here?"
"Aside from you? No." Rick knew he was being difficult on purpose and he wanted to goad the hunter into asking a direct question but he had to hand it to Dean in his ability to remain calm and cool and his attempt at asking questions that sort of pointed at the issue. That he could improve was on the older man's mind as he finished what he was doing and he glanced at Dean. He added, "This troupe has been traveling since the days of traveling shows. Some of us are several generations into the family business. A lot of what is strange to most folks is normal to us."
"Anything that isn't normal to you?" Dean decided to take that opening and hoped that it would bear some fruit. "Anything like someone who may have had a grudge or did the two actors have a grudge against each other?"
"They did have a healthy one. Mostly it was over who could play the lead male role the best but they obviously hadn't seen the Merchant of Venice production that we had done a few years back." Rick looked at nothing in particular as he remembered that time. "She put them both to shame."
"I can imagine," Dean replied politely, assuming that Rick was talking about Angela. "So was it bad enough that they would off each other over a role?"
"They may have had disagreements but in this troupe, no one would kill another over a role," Rick asserted. He looked at Dean with a pointed look and stressed, "We aren't like that."
Dean studied the old man and thought about what he said. He knew that with some people it was hard to fathom that there could be a bad apple in the group and it just decided to make itself know. Yet here he was getting the impression that there was more to it and the old man was really insistent that there was nothing wrong with the people. That may be the case.
Rick was well aware that the hunter was trying to determine the truth of his words. He really had to hand it to him in that he was being cautious and it was commendable. He added, "If anything they were probably put up to it and they would only do something drastic to protect us. We are like a family and we look out for each other."
"Really?" Dean realized that he was getting somewhere and decided to follow the line of questioning. He wasn't as tactful as Sam on certain things but he was confident that they could pool their information together and then come up with a plan. "So anybody outside the troupe say or threaten you guys?"
Rick thought about it. Unfortunately, since he was no longer in charge of certain aspects of the troupe, he couldn't be certain about a few things. He didn't want to stir up trouble since being in the good graces of the town was on the fritz with this latest incident but… "Nothing that I witnessed but Eva our director did have a few choice words with Mr. Korbin. He has some influence here in town and there might have been a disagreement on a few things."
"Why wouldn't Eva say anything when I asked her?" It had Dean curious as to why the girl wouldn't tell him or Sam about it when they asked earlier.
"Probably because it was a misunderstanding." Rick hastened to explain, "Eva's position requires a lot of diplomatic measures to be taken. Negotiations and the like and often there are disagreements."
Dean would allow that. She probably didn't see the significance of it and hence the reason why she didn't mention it. Still this was his best lead ever and he continued to questions the old man, occasionally inserting a question about the theatre in general. He hoped Sam was having better luck than he was.
Sam looked down the corridors and walked through them with a purpose, retracing his steps when he followed Angela, hoping to see something that they had missed because it was dark. No one paid him no mind and he figured that as long as he wasn't bothering them, they weren't going to bother him. That and maybe they were doing that close knit thing they did. Still this was better than nothing and the theatre was pretty public and the local authorities thought him and Dean were FBI on vacation and helping out.
It was probably stupid to go by himself but it was better to split up and cover more ground now. With Angela though… When he went to knock on her door, he found that the room was empty and paying attention to Moira confirmed that. First thoughts were ones of panic since it was a possibility that someone took her from past experience but he tempered it since he poked around and noticed that nothing seemed out of place and the note certainly helped.
Sam took it in a stride after that and let Dean know of the situation. There really wasn't anything they could do about it since she was only doing what she thought would help their case. He was relieved and it allowed him to focus on the job that had been dropped in their laps. Pulling out his penlight, he turned it on to get a better idea of the area that they had lost whatever it was that they had chased the night before. His throat convulsed slightly at the damage done to the door since it didn't look like it was done by a normal person.
Using his light as a guide, he looked around the floor, the walls and well… anything. There wasn't anything unusual visually so he pulled the EMF reader out to take a look. There was nothing registering as he walked through the area until he moved to where Angela had been standing when they found her and the meter started going off. It went off when he moved away and it had him move back to make sure it wasn't a fluke.
It wasn't going off wildly like some of the vengeful spirits he had encountered but it was enough to alert him that there was something there. He looked around and moved the meter to test out what was going on since the energy seemed to be restricted to one area. It was not the usual fare but it was something to take back and examine more. When he turned, his breath came out in a puff and he stood still as a chill came down his spine. When he turned…
"What are you doing here?"
Sam tried not to jump and managed to succeed when he came face to face with a man that was looking at him suspiciously. The guy had raven black hair and piercing eyes that looked like black pools. Sam assumed that they were probably a dark brown and the pupil was hiding in the iris color. The facial features were familiar of a sort but at the moment he was being stared down and the guy was expecting an answer.
It was routine to pull out his badge and show it while explaining, "Just investigating what happened here."
The man looked at Sam with a suspicious look and asked, "And why do you think anything is here. The action was on stage." He pointed in the direction of the stage and raised his brow at Sam.
Sam studied the man in front of him. There was something off that he sensed but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Taking a safe route, he replied, "Just checking out all areas. Someone said that they saw someone go this way."
"No one came back here."
Sam knew that was a lie since he was back here with Angela the night before. Yet he couldn't come out and accuse someone from the troupe, and he was assuming that, that they were a liar. It wouldn't bode well and probably they were going to be under a lot of fire from the local authorities. "I am just following up with what a witness said."
"Hmm."
"So what are you doing here?"
"My job."
Sam had expected the clipped answer. It didn't mean that he was going to let it go. "What exactly do you do for the troupe?"
The guy looked at him with a raised brow and replied, "Prop and set moving. Occasionally a small bit role. You wanna know my favorite color?"
The sarcasm was on par with Dean and being used to it, Sam wasn't too put out by it. He stared at the guy and replied, "Just want to know. Did you see anything?"
"Just doing my job. Moving set pieces."
Sam knew he was going to have to get specific about things and maybe play a little hardball. It probably wouldn't work but he had to give it a go. "Did you see anyone that didn't belong when you were moving set pieces?" He gave a firm look.
The guy looked at Sam before turning away to continue what he was doing. He paused for a moment and then turned to look at Sam. He thought another moment and then said, "There was no one back here when I passed through here but there was something strange. Like it was cold." He then turned and walked away.
Sam watched as the guy walked away. It was something if not sufficient. The guy best described a spirit haunting and from what was witnessed, possible possession. It fit what he saw but Sam wasn't convinced and maybe he was going to end up making a mountain out of molehill but… He let the guy go and turned to look around some more. It was then that he shined his light that something flickered and caught his attention.
Walking over towards the door, Sam shone his light and the object flickered. Frowning, Sam moved closer to take a look. Kneeling, he picked up what was unmistakably the foil wrapper of a candy bar. He made a slight face at that since the crew that moved back there probably could have dropped it, or it could have been dropped by the guy that left the theatre. The first thoughts he had was a trickster but the one that came to mind was one that he thought was a total dick and he was grateful for pointing him in the right direction. But it was only one wrapper and couldn't mean that.
Squatting there, Sam looked around. He heard the meter making its sound. The signs pointed to ghosts and ghost possession but… Standing up, he pocketed the wrapper for no reason at all. He started wandering around and back towards where the props and costumes were. He appeared to be wandering around but he was still looking for anything suspicious. Most of the people paid him no mind and he was able to slip into where the props were being kept and was able to look to his heart's content and it was a good thing too since the EMF started going off.
Pulling it out, Sam held it out with a frown as he tried to determine what was setting off the EMF emitted. He walked through the room and brushed against a few props that he was certain didn't have anything to do with the night's performance. It occurred to him that it was a collection of props from different productions and things that would probably finds use in a production in the future. It was certainly an interesting trove of treasures.
Making a turn, the EMF went off and had Sam pause. He moved it around to determine where it was coming from. It was hit and miss for a time until it went crazy near a box. He let it hover for a moment before turning it off and putting it away. He started to dig through the box and came up with a mask. It was the mask that the phantom was to use and it had Sam puzzled but not quite. He started to pick it up.
"What are you doing in there?"
Sam looked up and tried to feebly make an excuse, "I was looking around and…" He gestured around before walking out and past the woman that had startled him.
The woman looked at him as he walked down the hall and towards the lobby area. She frowned in confusion at it before her expression became somber and almost blank from expression. She muttered to no one except herself, "So… you are the one."
Sam walked past members of the troupe and tried asking questions but was greeted with grunts or no responses at all. He made his way towards the lobby to see if his brother was back. He found Dean waiting and looking bored but a bit annoyed at the whole thing. It hinted that he wasn't probably as successful as they hoped. Still Sam had to ask, "Got anything?"
Dean was trying to look like he was waiting for someone important and not too impatient about it when Sam came out from behind the stage. He replied, "Apart from that they are changing venue… not much."
"Same here."
"Well you did say that it would be hard."
Sam didn't need reminding on that note. "I did get something off the EMF though in the back where we found Angie."
"And I'll raise you on that."
They walked out and headed towards the car. Dean reported what he learned after they avoided running into anyone from the troupe, "This old guy, Lawrence or something, was telling me that they two actors did get into a tiff. Apparently they were in disagreement over who got what but it wasn't this thing you went to."
"Well it is a troupe and not uncommon to be rehearsing for several roles… maybe more," Sam offered with a slight shrug.
Dean allowed that as he got into the Impala. "Well some sort of tiff between them and it got out of hand on the stage?"
"And it attracted vengeful spirits? Doesn't sound right," Sam replied.
"Well… maybe Hale and Angie have something to add." Dean started the car and put the Impala into drive. There was time to get something to eat.
A/N: They take on the case to figure out what is going on and the troupe is being a little less than helpful. Hmm... Stay tuned for more Message of the Crow...
