Previously: A one-eyed ferret breaks into Sam and Dean's hotel room and destroys Sam's computer cables.

The Birds
installment 3

"How bad's the toe squashin' been around here?" Bobby asked absently while Sam searched his much slower laptop for information.

"Considering nobody knows anything," Dean shrugged, "Not so bad. Kinda tense, I s'pose."

"You've been here twenty-four hours and you have nothing?"

"We don't have 'nothing'," Sam arched in the chair and looked at Dean and Bobby upside down, "We have lots of things: missing people, one missing hunter, one dead hunter, one dead girl, a tiny feather, a one-eyed ferret with a motive, and a bar full of Native American artifacts… all seemingly unrelated to each other." He glanced back at the computer, "Finally!" and began to scribble furiously on the hotel notepad.

Bobby and Dean waited silently for Sam to finish. The resulting sketch was a crude timeline, marking the approximate dates of the disappearances and deaths. "Five people went missing before the hunter, a Jacob Rollands, disappeared. Figures he was looking for the cause of the missing people and it got him, because another seven people went missing after that, then Greg Landrick, presumably after the same thing Rollands was, was killed in the same week as Sparrow's sister."

"Commonalities between victims, excluding the girl?" Bobby asked.

"Male, ages varying from thirty-one to," Sam sifted through open web windows, "sixty-seven. Different home towns, some with families, some without, a few with criminal records, nothing major, though. Stayed at a variety of hotels." He shook his head. "Like I said, lots of unrelated information."

"Alright… all the other victims have disappeared, why not Greg?"

"Easy, we showed up too soon. Hell, the guy was still warm when we found him. No time to dump the body," Dean volunteered

"And there was nothing off about the room?"

"Except that stupid feather in his hand, no."

"Can we go back, take a second look?"

Sam shook his head. "We could. His room's just down the hall, but the cleaning crew was there early this morning."

"Dammit." Bobby rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together. "This kid Rat? You say he's been doing a pretty good job screwing with your progress?"

"Yup. Maybe the cause of the all the destroyed computer equipment, and definitely withholding information about Sparrow's dead sister."

Someone pounded on the door. "Bobby! Bobby! I need ta'talk with you! I think I found something!"

Dean raised one eyebrow. Bobby just stood to answer the door. The kid in the threshold had his arm up, ready to start beating on the door again. In his other hand was a crinkled piece of paper.

"Bobby?" Sam asked, clearly amused, "I thought you preferred to work alone."

"I do, this is Daniel Landrick, Greg's son."

"Oh… I, uhm, I'm sorry."

Daniel ignored him and handed the paper to Bobby.

"I found it in the bible in the desk. Dad always leaves his notes on the same page as Revelations 2:2, in case… in case something…" Bobby clasped the boy's shoulder and tugged him into the room.

"It's gonna be okay, son. We're gonna find the thing that did this." Bobby passed the notes to Sam. "This is Sam and Dean Winchester. Their father was the best hunter in the business, and I wouldn't trust anyone else more with this case."

His jaw clenched, and he was blinking furiously to hold in tears, but Daniel managed an acknowledging nod.

"So what'd he leave us, Sammy?" Dean scooted over on the bed to watch over his brother's shoulder.

"A couple've addresses, one of them's the bar, the other's…" A few more keystrokes, and Sam sat back, "the other two, one's Sparrow and her siblings', the other's Rat's. His real name was Foster, right?"

Dean nodded. "Confirming suspicions we already had."

"Yeah."

"So, tomorrow, you boys go talk to that poor girl about her sister, and that Rat kid. I'll talk to the hunters milling around here, see what I can get. I knew Greg pretty well, but I wanna see if someone knew him better, or maybe knows somethin' we don't about this place."

"As good a plan as any," Sam shut the laptop.

"All right, Dan, go get some shut eye. We'll get back to work in the morning," he patted the boy on the back and nudged him out. When Bobby went to follow, Dean stopped him.

"Hold on, Bobby."

Bobby closed the door, waiting for the inevitable.

"That kid even outta high school?" Dean demanded.

"He's no younger than you and Sam were…"

"Yeah, when we were hunting with Dad. Hunters, Bobby, experienced hunters have died on this case, – "

"I know!" Bobby snapped. "But how the hell was I supposed to tell him not to come? Huh? Would you have sat around and waited for someone else to deal with it if it was your father?"

Dean made a wordless angry noise.

"I'll keep an eye on him," Bobby admitted. "You boys, just keep workin' this job like he's not here."

"Bobby," Dean warned.

"Like he's not here," Bobby repeated.