Chapter 5

Dean and Sam met back at the Impala and drove away. "I didn't find anything. What about you?" Sam asked.

Dean smiled and said, "Of course I found something, Sammy. It's me."

"Well, what was it?"

"There was a car in the garage of the last house I searched. The EMF freaked when I got near it."

"So you think the woman died in that car?"

"That or her spirit's connected to it somehow. Either way I think tomorrow we should go talk to the owner."

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The next morning Sam and Dean pulled up alongside the house Dean had investigated the night before. Dean rang the doorbell and the door was opened by a man who was probably in his late 40s.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I'm Dean, this is Sam. We were wondering if that Honda is still for sale."

The man grinned and said, "It sure is. Come in." He held the door open so the brothers could enter. "I'm Joe, by the way," he said, shaking their hands. "How did you hear about the car?"

Joe led them into the kitchen and Dean said, "A friend told us about it. I don't know how he found out."

Joe nodded and leaned against a counter. "Well, it's an '83, but it's still in really good condition and runs great."

"How many previous owners?" Dean asked.

"Only four, including myself."

"Could we get a list of those names?" Dean asked.

"Sure. Let's see." He pulled out a piece of paper. "Grace Hamilton bought the car in '83 and sold it in '84, Charles Brandt bought it in '84 and sold it in '98, Amanda Cunsello bought it in '98 and sold it in '04, which is when I bought it."

Joe handed the piece of paper to Dean. "Let me show you the car," he said.

He led them out to the garage and turned on the light. Sam and Dean pretended to inspect the car as Joe told them about it. "It has about 375,000 miles on it, 4 cylinder engine, 5 speed automatic transmission. I'm asking $950 for it."

"Why are you selling the car?" Sam asked.

"Well, we just moved here from Gurnee and this mortgage is higher than the one on our last house. Something has to go."

Dean and Sam pretended to think about the offer as Joe led them back into the house. Sam finally said, "We'll think about it. We have a couple of other cars we want to look at, so we'll have to get back to you."

Joe looked disappointed that they didn't want to buy on the spot, but he nodded his head and showed them to the front door.

The boys got back in the Impala and Dean asked, "Where to now?"

"Library?" Sam suggested.

Dean started driving as Sam looked up on his computer where the local library was. While they were driving Dean asked, "How are we going to track this thing?"

"Well, if it's been following the car around, we should be able to trace where the former owners live and if there were any mysterious deaths around the time they had the car."

"And how are we going to find out who the spirit is?"

"Still working on that."

They pulled into the library parking lot and went inside. The boys made their way over to the computers and sat down. The sheet Joe had given them also gave phone numbers for the previous owners of the cars, which they could use to track down where the former owners lived.

"Okay," Dean said. "I'll take Amanda Cunsello. You take the other two."

Sam's eyes narrowed. "Why do you get less work?"

Dean smiled. "Because I'm older, Sammy."

Sam glared, but must have decided it wasn't worth arguing about because he soon started typing on the computer and Dean did the same.

About an hour later the boys turned to each other. Sam said, "Grace Hamilton bought the car in Lindenhurst and there were no killings when she had the car. The first murder I could find was in 1997 when Charles Brandt owned the car. The killings stopped in Lindenhurst when he sold the car. What did you find?"

"More of the same. Amanda Cunsello lives in Gages Lake and the killings correspond with when she owned the car. There were also murders in Gurnee until Joe moved away. So whoever's spirit this is must have known Charles Brandt. What do we know about him?"

"About him specifically? Not much. I only found one article with him in it."

"Did he have any family?"

"In the article it just mentions a son, Jacob."

"Do a search for him."

Sam did and two articles came up. The first headline said "Brandt Leads Team to Victory." Sam clicked on the article and Dean said, "That's her."

There was a picture, showing a teenage boy and a girl standing next to him. Sam read the caption out loud, "Jacob Brandt, football quarterback, and his girlfriend Dora Allen. That's the woman you saw?"

"Definitely."

Sam went back and clicked on the second article. The headline read "Brandt Body Found." Sam opened the page and the brothers quickly read it.

Dean said, "So he was the third murder."

"You think he killed her?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. Do another search with her name."

Sam did and only one article popped up. "Dora Allen Murdered."

Sam read, "Dora Allen was found at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday morning. Oh, wow. She was pregnant. Somebody cut the baby from her stomach and she bled to death."

Further down there was a picture of the crime scene. Dean leaned forward and asked, "Does that car look familiar to you?"

Sam nodded. Dora Allen's body was found in the car that Joe had been trying to sell them. The last sentence in the article Sam read, "The Allen family laid their daughter to rest in Warren Funeral Home Cemetery."

The boys got up and went back to the car. When they got in Dean said, "So, it looks like Brandt killed his girlfriend. Did they ever find the baby?"

"Not from what I could tell. Why would he kill his girlfriend?"

"You know as well as I do that people don't act rationally. How long will it take us to get to the cemetery from here?"

Sam pulled out the laptop and said, "Not long."

"Alright. I say we grab something to eat, then put Dora Allen out of her misery."