Dean knocked back the last of his drink and grunted to himself. Sam, seeming to share his brother's unspoken sentiments, sighed softly. Looking across the table at his recent companions, he asked.
"What now then? What did we miss?"
"We didn't miss anything, I burned everything in that grave." There was a sharp quality to Dean's voice.
"Salt. Lighter fluid. Fire. Gone." Faith didn't look up as Alex spoke, keeping her eyes on the drink in her hand. A vodka coke, with a splash of blackcurrant. An awkward silence hung in the air, punctuated every so often by the droning voice of some modern flash-in-the-pan pop star blaring over the radio behind the bar.
"Well, you missed something. Hookman was far from gone last night."
"We didn't miss anything Faith, everything was burned." Alex felt bad about snapping at her, but it didn't last too long.
"Everything? Did you get the hook?" There was a pause. Dean and Alex looked at each other, sharing a look of realisation.
"The hook?" Dean was questioning. It was obvious to Alex that Dean wasn't sure if the hook had been in the grave or not. Sam, seeming to miss the real reason for his questioning, spoke up.
"Well yeah, the hook was the murder weapon, could be the source of his power." Alex rolled his eyes very slightly to himself, inperceptable to anyone there. Except Faith.
"Don't be a smart-ass Alex, just answer me: did you get it?"
"I don't know. Maybe not." He knocked back a mouthful of cider.
The library was empty when they settled themselves down at a table. Faith looked irritated, which seemed par for the course. Sam gave her a quzzical look, one of his 'is everything alright?' eyebrow raises. Faith shrugged a little.
"Any reason we can't use the computers?"
"Records from this far back are rarely digitzed, we'll have to sift through it all by hand."
"What are we looking for exactly?"
"What the prison did with Carne's hook after he was executed. There should be a record of it somewhere." Dean slammed a box of records down on the table as he spoke. Flipping it open he threw a stack of folders in the direction of the three people in front of him. "Dig in kids."
It was about three hours later that one of the spoke again. Alex looked up fromt he folder he was reading and cleared his throat.
"Got one here." He span the page round to Sam.
"Carnes, Jacob. Upon execution, all personal effects are to be returned to the prisoners house of worship." Sam sat back looking a little more pleased.
"Not done yet Sammy, gotta find out what the church did with the hook. I doubt they'd leave a blood stained silver hook lying around a house of worship." Dean walked off with the first box, only to return a few moments later with another. "Church records. Let's keep going guys."
It wasn't too long later when Sam looked up from the file he was holding and spoke again. "Here we go. Received: Silver handled hook from state penitentiary. Reforged." He dropped the file. "They melted it down, made it into something else."
"Well, that's problematic." Faith moaned dryly.