Dean sat on the hood of the Impala, elbows on knees, eating the last of his fifth Slim Jim. He was starting to worry. He'd been outside waiting for Sammy to come back for over an hour. The hour before that he'd spent inside the room getting dressed and taping the frame back together on the cheap picture that fell from the wall at his brother's rather violent exit. Sammy wasn't normally that theatrical. Well, except maybe when he argued with their Dad. That had always seemed to get the best of both of them, no matter what it was about.
He shook his head, wiping at the sweat forming at the back of his neck. He was lucky part of the motel was shading this section of the parking lot or he would be doing more than sweating. Dammit, Sammy, where the heck did you go?
As if summoned by the thought, Dean spotted his brother as he made the corner from the street. His hands were shoved deep in his pockets, gaze locked on the ground, his long sleeved striped shirt tied about his waist, leaving him only in a dark blue t-shirt. His skin was looking a little pink all around.
Dean finished off the Slim Jim, and thrust the wrapper into his pant's pocket as he slid off the hood. "About time you got back."
His brother glanced up in surprise. A look of guilt, quickly hidden, flashed across his face. "Sorry. Time got away from me."
"Well I'm dying for something cold to drink. How about you? I'm buying."
Sammy nodded, saying nothing, and wound his way to the car before reaching to open the passenger door. "You have the map?"
"Dude…Already in the car, along with your Q, the laptop, the EMF reader, and a change of clothes in case we have to get dirty." He gave Sam his best 'I'm always prepared' smile. "Lucky for you the sun doesn't set around here till close to nine."
This got him half an eye roll. Not a bad sign. Not a bad sign at all.
Two of the bodies had been found on the west bank of the Trinity River. They decided to hit those first. The closest was found within the Greenbelt Park, basically a wide strip of green on either side of the river, which could double for a flood plain. The Trinity itself was broad and flat, the water lazily winding its way in a southeasterly direction. Clear the water was not. It possessed the usual fishy type smell, but there was also something sour underneath, like too many pollutants had been finding their way into the mix.
Dean parked on a side street and locked Baby up tight. She blended in okay in the semi rundown neighborhood, so she should be safe. They climbed up the twenty foot or so levy wall paralleling the park area and river. He stopped his brother at the top.
"Check it out, dude." Dean pointed at what could be seen of downtown across the way. "It's the Dallas Skyline. Postcard city." They could see tall glass buildings, some which looked almost like works of art, others made in odd shapes, but most prominent of all was Reunion Tower with its trellised, nightly lit ball at the top, which housed a revolving restaurant called Antares. "Do any of the buildings look familiar?"
He watched Sammy look at them then turn a questioning gaze in his direction. "No. Should they?"
"Sometimes I despair of you, my brother." Dean put his hand on Sam's shoulder, shaking his head. "Logan's Run, dude. A bunch of the futuristic buildings come from right here. Though the cool fountain section in the movie is actually in Fort Worth, which is that a way." With his thumb, he pointed behind them toward the west.
A raised brow met this information. "And your geeky trivia is helping us on this case how exactly?"
"It's history, and you're the history freak, right? Just seeing to your proper education. Like an older brother should."
"Yeah, great. The geek teaching the freak. Lovely." Sam shrugged off Dean's hand from his shoulder and started down the other side of the slope. Dean followed, chuckling lightly.
A short hike brought them to the river itself. The slope from the lush grass to the green-brownish water was at least a foot. An occasional short tree or two graced this side of the bank, the other being more lushly populated. It was easy to tell where the body had been found, as the greenery there had been trampled into a mush of dirt and mud by
Emergency personnel, reporters, and gawkers. The spot was at a slight bend in the river not far from the I-30 overpass.
The two of them spent a good ten minutes under the glaring eye of the hot Texas sun before deciding there was nothing to find there. Dean wasn't holding his breath on the next place either.
The second western location was south of I-35, by the Union Pacific rail crossover, in a heavily forested section of the river. Their destination was a wide shallow curve of the Trinity that looked to be a regular catch all spot for floating junk, limbs, and whatever else happened to be floating in the water. After traipsing through the trees and an hour plus sifting through what was there, they came up empty just as expected. The change of clothes came in handy. Dean didn't think he'd ever want to be near the smell of rotting fish again. They still had two more spots to go. "We can cut over on Cedar Crest and get to the east side spots."
Sam nodded at his suggestion, looking about as excited as he was. "Might as well."
The other locations were as unhelpful as the first. None of them showed any readings whatsoever of supernatural residue either.
Dean pulled them into a Sonic Drive-in so they could hydrate, eat, and maybe figure out what to do next. He handed Sam his grilled chicken sandwich, already drooling for the extra long Coney he'd ordered along with a Route 44 Strawberry Limeaid. You just couldn't get tasty treats like these up north.
"Dude, I can't believe you won't try one of these." Dean gave his brother a food filled smile then licked the chili off his teeth. He followed that up with a handful of fries.
"Gah! Why do you always have to do that?" Sam turned his face away, disgust in every line. "No way I'm trying it after that."
Dean chuckled and took another large bite.
Sam set his own sandwich to the side and mucked about with the map instead. "Our one shot is that whatever is doing this isn't changing their MO from kill to kill and is dumping the bodies into the river around the same area every time. Maybe we can work our way north and find it."
"You actually think we can?" It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Until someone comes forward and identifies one of the bodies and gives us something else to go on, it's the only shot we've got."
Dean took a long pull from his drink. "Guess we can turn in early and hit the pavement at first light then." He was already dreading the long fruitless search.