Dean stepped away from the case, feeling strangely soiled, as if he'd been covered in an oily substance. That sensation of wrongness from the dream surrounded him and closed in as if trying to smother him. He took another step back, the room spinning at the edges of his vision.

"Dean?" Sammy was suddenly at his side, propping him up by the elbow. Had he tried to fall? "Come on, let's go back out into the hallway."

Not sure he could resist even if he wanted to, he let his brother lead him from the room out into the broad corridor of the museum. The farther from the case they went, the better he felt. With a snap, everything went back to how it was before. He stopped. "I'm, I'm okay."

Sammy's worried gaze scanned him, trying to verify what he said for himself. "You sure? You looked pretty green there for a minute."

"I'm good." He gently pulled his arm from his brother's grip. "Honest."

"The EMF didn't pick up anything. And nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me. You sure there was something there?"

"It's not part of the Fruit of the Earth, so it wouldn't pick it up." He didn't realize until he noticed Sam's confused look that he'd said anything odd. It was like when he looked at the calendar and knew the date was wrong, as if he were remembering things he already knew but hadn't recalled till that moment. "The plane we live in?" It was more than a little disconcerting, this knowing of things he didn't know he knew.

Sam kept staring at him funny.

"I'm okay! I know what I'm talking about." He made a circular motion with his hand. "Just…just go with it. Trust me."

"What's next then?"

Dean wasn't all that sure Sammy was convinced, but at least he wasn't staring at him like an escapee from the loony bin anymore. "Wasn't there an information desk by the front? Let's see what they've got to say."

They made their way over to a short desk. A thin man in his late thirties with frost tipped hair was sitting smartly behind it with a fitted green jacket, his name on a gold tag on the lapel.

"Hey, Danny, mind giving us some info?"

Blue eyes widened as the man turned in his stool to look at him. With a quick flick they inspected Dean from top to bottom. A brilliant smile grew on the clean-shaven face. "Well, hello there, handsome. Aren't you just the yummiest drink of water." The man's gaze roamed over him again. "We don't get many in here with that lovely roughed out look. It so suits you."

Dean heard Sam try to stifle a laugh beside him. He didn't do a very good job of it. Bastard.

"Yeah, well, uhm, we were kind of curious about one of the exhibits?"

Danny leaned over his desk his gaze never leaving Dean's. It reminded him of Clarice at the morgue, but in this instance it was so very very wrong. He threw a glance in his brother's direction, hoping to plead for help. Sammy had turned away, half doubled over, his hand over his mouth. He'd get no help from there. Traitorous bastard.

"What would you like to know?"

Dean swallowed hard. "Look, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I don't go that way."

Danny shrugged and leaned back, his gaze no less intense than before. "I work in a museum. I'm used to just looking."

A gasp of amusement rang over from beside him. Without looking, Dean whacked Sammy on the side, trying to keep a controlled neutral look on his face for the information guy. "We were wondering how long the Maya exhibit had been here at the museum?"

"Oh! Aren't the pieces lovely? We were ever so lucky to get to show them. They've been on exhibit a little over a month now."

A month, four deaths, the rotten smell – there was no doubt in Dean's mind they were finally on the right trail. "Say, anything weird happen around here since the exhibit opened?"

Danny's eyes widened with a different type of interest. "Look, I can take a break in about a half hour or so. How about I meet you up at the restaurant and then we can have a chat?"

"We'll see you up there." Dean managed to dredge up a half friendly smile, then grabbing his still grinning brother by the scruff of the neck, headed off to go wait.

Dean was nursing a cup of horribly expensive coffee, trying hard to ignore the chuckles which still occasionally came across from the other side of the table, when Danny showed up with a jaunty step for their meeting.

"Thanks for talking to us." Sammy actually managed to keep a straight face, and about time it was too. "I'm Sam, and you've already met my brother Dean."

"Brothers, is it? Interesting."

The way Danny said it though and how he then glanced over at Dean oh so coyly, as if all sorts of assumed closed doors were suddenly opening, made Dean want to groan.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sammy bite his lip to hold back a smile. Swell. He'd have to come up with something truly inventive to get back at his brother for this.

"Uh, I'm sure." A barely repressed snort followed his statement. He threw Sammy a dirty look. Yeah, definitely would call for something very special. "So, uhm, as I asked before, has anything odd happened around here since the Maya exhibit arrived?"

"Well, I'm normally not one to gossip…" The glitter in his eyes said the total opposite. "But, while nothing really has gone on. And I doubt it's connected…we did have one of our night watchmen disappear almost a week ago."

"There was a robbery?"

Danny looked at him with surprise. "No. Everything is accounted for. The police had us check just in case, even though as far as anyone knows he wasn't here when he disappeared. He left work like normal one night then just didn't show up the next day, and no one's heard from him since."

"Do you know his name?" Sam had his Q out, all his previous mirth at Dean's expense gone.

"Sure, Thomas Williams." Danny leaned forward again, his voice lowering to a conspiring whisper. "Worked here for years and years. Single, sadly heterosexual, a Pisces. Parents deceased. Night owl due to the job. Not a bad dresser. I do believe he has an aunt living in California somewhere."

They were onto something here. Dean was sure of it. "Can you describe him?"

"Honey, can fish swim? Of course I can describe him! Six foot, broad shouldered, milk chocolate skin, you know, the kind that would melt in your mouth not in your hands?"

Sammy choked. And he thought Dean was brazen. Dang, this man had him beat.

Danny giggled. "He was in his mid to late forties, I think. Brown eyes. Wore his hair fairly short. He wasn't into all that gold jewelry or anything, reserved tastes for him, all the way. Not a bad looker either. Very even tempered. For the life of me I can't think of any reason why he would just vanish like that."

Dean flashed a questioning look in Sam's direction. A security guard would carry a weapon, so his fingerprints would be on file. One of the bodies had had the fingers specifically cut away, possibly because the murderer knew it would be a way to determine its identity. He just wasn't sure which of the four bodies it had been.

Sam's gaze met his. He nodded. They had a match.

"Was Mr. Williams the only guard under the museum's employ?"

"Oh no. Trevor and Harry take care of things during the day. Thomas and Ricky split the night shift."

"You know their last names, by any chance?" Sam asked.

"Sure. Trevor Austin, Harry Wilkinson, and Ricky Ah Kin."

Sam wrote them down. "Ah Kin, that's not one I've heard before. Is it Korean?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "No, my dear, Ricky is from down south, way way south. He's Guatemalan. I think the name might even be Mayan. Tried to ask once, with the exhibit articles being from the same region and all. But he's tight lipped that one."

Dean exchanged another glance with Sammy, this one more pointed than the last. Were they finally getting a break?