Chapter Two: The Investigation

They pulled over by Patricia's house, pulling on gloves and grabbing their fake FBI badges. They flashed their badges as they approached the cops blocking off the driveway, and were allowed to enter the house.

"I'll check out upstairs, you talk to Claire." Sam said as he went for the staircase. When he entered the scorched bedroom, he performed all the routine tests: scan for EMF, check for sulfur, check for hex bags, and check for anything that could lead to something supernatural. Finding nothing, he checked the bathroom and guest bedroom, and came up empty-handed again. He went back downstairs, defeated, and found Dean talking to Claire in the kitchen. The brothers shared a look and Dean ended his talk, leading Sam outside.

"Find anything?" Dean asked.

"Nothing. No hex bags, no sulfur, no EMF, no anything! The entire second floor was clean." Sam said, opening the car door. They sat down and Dean started the engine, the heater on full blast.

"Claire tell you anything?" Sam asked.

"For her being 53 years old, she's smoking! Did you see her? I don't know what she's doing, but she looks…" Dean rambled, smiling to himself.

"Dude, she's almost twice your age." Sam cut in, grimacing at the thought of his brother hooking up with someone that old.

Dean's smile vanished, replaced with a frown of disapproval. "Fine. You want to talk business, we'll talk business. Claire, who is single, said her mom had no enemies of any kind. Never mentioned anything strange, either." he said, and drove off.


After dropping Sam off at the motel, he went to the local police station to look at Jennifer Sampson's files.

The Sheriff, a blonde haired, blue eyed man, gave him everything the station had on the recent death.

"Was anything found at the scene?" he asked, opening the police report.

"You mean besides that poor woman burned up on her bed? No." the Sheriff replied.

"Wait a minute…" Dean mumbled to himself, rereading the sentence he skimmed over. "Why was Claire Mackson there?"

"She was Jenny's best friend. Found the body when she went over to see why she didn't come to work." the Sheriff replied.

"Can I get copies of all this?" he asked.

"Anything for the feds." the man replied cheerfully.

Copied files in hand, he returned to the motel.

"You are not going to believe what I found out." he said, closing the door behind him, and sealing the cold from the room.

"I found something pretty wild, too." Sam said, turning in his chair.

"Claire and Jennifer were BFF's." Dean blurted, wanting to beat Sam to the headline news.

"They're more than that. They were twins." Sam said.

Dean raised his eyebrows. That was a big, big revelation. "Come again? They didn't look alike to me."

"They were fraternal." Sam said after an eye roll. "Patricia gave Jennifer up for adoption, and kept Claire. Since Jennifer had her adoptive parents' name, I didn't make the connection."

"See if the other two vics are connected somehow." Dean instructed.

Sam typed and clicked away as Dean sat on his bed, impatiently waiting for results for about ten minutes.

"Samantha Gradst, the second victim, and also the youngest, was an employee at a local adoption agency, and get this, took over our first victim's position after he retired. I can't believe I missed all of this!" the younger brother explained, clearly frustrated with himself.

"Everyone has their mishaps, Sammy, but with you, it's funny as hell." Dean said, watching his brother's little tantrum.

"So what do you think is doing this?" Sam asked, calming down.

"Well, my money was on a pissed witch, but no hex bags at victim number four's house." Dean said.

"There were no supernatural indicators of anything. No forced entry." Sam added.

"No nothing." Dean said, looking outside in thought. "I think we should talk to Claire again." he said, looking back to Sam.

"And tell her what? 'Your best friend was actually your twin sister'?" Sam tried.

"You'll think of something." Dean said, grabbing his keys.


By the time they got to Claire's apartment, it was now lightly snowing out. Dean knocked on her door, and they were quickly allowed inside.

"Thanks for seeing us on such short notice." Dean said.

"No problem, agent. Oooh, you partner's a cutie pie as well." Claire said, eyeing them both up and down.

Sam glanced uncomfortably at Dean, then cleared his throat. "Ms. Mackson, there's no easy way to tell you this, but your friend, Jennifer, she was your… she was your sister." he said, watching for her reaction.

"I know." she stated matter-of-factly.

"You-you know?" Dean asked.

"From the moment we met, I knew she was my sister. Fraternal twin, actually." she said, sitting down across from the Winchesters.

"So, do you know about the spontaneous combustion victims in Chase and Krakow?" Sam asked.

"It's tragic. Doctor Kelsy was the man who dealt with Jen's adoption. God, he…" she stopped to dab away some tears. "He retired two years ago. The clinic didn't want to lose him, as old as he was. And after he moved to Krakow, I heard a younger woman took his place." she explained.

"Do you know if anyone was after Jennifer, or the doctors?" Sam asked.

"You think someone was after all three of them? And my mother? Am I next?" she asked, one hand shooting up to cover her mouth in shock.

"We'll make sure nothing happens to you." Dean said.

"Jen, she has a daughter in Chase. Can I call her…make sure she's okay?" Claire asked. The brothers nodded and Claire left.

"You stay here. I'll go check on the daughter." Dean said, excusing himself as he passed through Claire's kitchen, where she was making the phone call.


As day became night, Sam started to worry when Dean didn't call, or return. Claire had gone to bed an hour ago, so Sam researched to keep his mind from wandering to Dean's possible perils.

As if he jinxed it, Dean suddenly burst through the door, his pistol drawn.

"Dean, what are you-" Sam started.

"It's Olivia." Dean said, moving to the couch.

"Jennifer's daughter?" Sam asked. He didn't see that coming.

"Where' Claire?" Dean asked, looking around the room wildly.

"She's in her room. Look, no one's come by since you left." Sam replied. The fire alarm went off and the brothers ran to Claire's room. Smoke was pouring out from under the door and Dean kicked it open in one move.

As they waved away thick clouds of smoke, they saw Claire's corpse turning to ash before their watering eyes. The bed remained untouched by flame, along with the rest of the room. Olivia was nowhere to be seen, and the brothers were forced to retreat