Hey, right well back from my festival and I couldn't wait to write some more. I'm camping again this weekend so I might not update until this time next week. Hope you guys like this and thanks for the reviews =]
Chapter 8
After locating the first name in the battered phone book I allowed myself to get distracted with my laptop. For a reason unbeknownst to me the motel had switched on its wi-fi so I was going to make full use of the opportunity. I had an email from a friend who I was doing a year abroad studying, what I was going to tell her when the so called 'year' was over I had no idea but I could deal with that when the time arrives. At the moment there were bigger fish to fry. For the best part of half an hour I flicked between various strange websites dedicated to Shapeshifters or the supernatural in general. It was insightful but most of it was just nonsense probably written by some greasy man who still lived with his parents in his thirties. There were an odd few websites that pretty much said the same thing as Sam and Dean, who I trusted more to know about this sort of thing than websites.
Realising I was wasting too much time if I wanted to go to bed anytime soon I closed the browser and opened excel to try and organise my search, at least that way I could highlight important stuff like occupation , phone number and address. Only eight of the names were in the phone book, four of which I found on the internet to be either a plastic surgeon, owner of a real estate firm, manager of a car sales place and an accountant. The remaining four I couldn't find anything for them online, not even a social networking account. I looked at the list, I'd highlighted in green the plastic surgeon, he seemed to be the most likely victim for the Shapeshifter, and this was closely followed by the owner of the real estate firm in orange. The others, as things stood, were at no particular risk unless the Shapeshifter changed tactic, which would really grate on my nerves a tiny bit.
One last time I saved the document I'd put together and then emailed it to Sam and prayed that he could understand it. The last job for the night was to update my iPod; it was long overdue for some new music. Within a few minutes of sending the email to Sam I got an instant reply, he agreed that the plastic surgeon was probably the most likely to be the next victim. Feeling quite pleased with my effort I put away my laptop and decided to call it a night ready for an early start in the morning.
And an early start it was, it took me an hour to finally feel awake after an overly strong cup of coffee with an unhealthy amount of sugar, it left me buzzing but at least I was awake. I met Sam and Dean in the diner down the street. Dean was ticking into a cooked breakfast that was oozing with fat, looking at it made me want to throw up. I ordered a plate of toast and yet another coffee and sat down with the boys. "Morning," I yawned. I was greeted with a similar response from them. Over breakfast we managed to throw together a plan of action for the day. Sam and Dean were going to look around the plastic surgeons house for any clues that he was a Shapeshifter and I was going to his office for a 'consultation' much to my horror to try and determine if he was the Shapeshifter. According to Sam and Dean you could probably tell if he was a Shapeshifter by the glare from its eyes on a camera. The problem was that we needed to look through a recorded image. Like a security tape. There must be some at his office.
As I was drinking the cold dregs of my coffee we were trying to decide what plastic surgery I would be getting, it certainly lightened the conversation. I really didn't like the idea, I liked how I looked or rather that's what I kept saying the truth of the matter was I was scared of needles and pain. Once, on a trip to the dentist I'd passed out, not one of my finer moments. Demons or spirits no problems but if I see a needle I'll run a mile.
"I still think you should go for breast implants," Dean grinned.
"No, I am not taking my top off for someone who might kill me," I answered with a frown.
"But you'll take it off for anyone else," he continued, seriously did he have a death wish.
I kicked him none too gently under the table as Sam warned him, "Dean."
I smiled with satisfaction as he reached under the table to rub his shin, that'll teach him to make out that I'm some kind of slut. "I'm sticking with a nose job thank you," I drained the last mouthful of the coffee and picked my bag up from the floor. There was no point in putting off my suffering, by now I was pretty fed up of trying to pretend to be someone else. Why couldn't I be the one investigating the house, they were probably going to flash those fancy FBI badges of theirs, "how are you going to get into the house?" I asked curiously.
The pair exchanged shifty looks and then Sam looked down guiltily. "You're breaking in," I rolled my eyes, of course they were. They didn't answer but it kind of went without saying. I decided not to ask any more questions and instead left them to it.
For the entire drive to the doctors' office I kept glancing at my nose in the rear view window, I didn't like to think there was anything wrong with it, in all actuality I liked it but I had a feeling that faking it to get to the plastic surgeon was making me paranoid. Shoving the paranoia from my mind I thought of Sam and Dean breaking into someone's home. A part of me thought it must be quite thrilling but then again I didn't fancy jail, I'll stick to a safe life. Well as safe as my life gets.
I really wasn't looking forward to having someone tell me I wasn't perfect for the next hour, chances are Shapeshifter or not I would want to stab him with the silver knife by the end of it. The guy, a Dr Marc Wilson, he was certainly the stereotypical surgeon, expensive clothes, perfect smile and gorgeous body. I guess that's reason enough for the Shapeshifter to take on his form. For some reason I felt this was a pointless exercise but one that kept the doctor out of his house whilst Sam and Dean snooped around so I suppose it wasn't that pointless. Within the first few minutes the so called Doctor had managed to insult me and bring out my insecurities.
"I can see why you wouldn't like you nose," Dr Wilson said, honestly the cheek of the guy but I had to make it sound like I really wanted the nip/tuck.
"I know, it's like hideous," I replied playing the dumb vain girl persona. I wanted to punch myself in the face; hopefully the boys were having better luck. The whole time I was on the look out for anything suspicious but I felt, despite not knowing the guy, that he was not the Shapeshifter. He seemed so genuine despite being a complete dick, then again surely the Shapeshifter was supposed to be genuine so he could pull it off, wasn't it the power he wanted anyways. I left the plastic surgery centre feeling very negative and hating the world, I'd tried to stay positive but honestly it was difficult, not only did I think that he wasn't the Shapeshifter but I'd also had someone pick faults with me for the last hour. What had really tipped over the edge was when he had said, "Have you considered having botox?" Honestly, I was twenty two, I was still young dammit. Instead of stabbing the guy, Shapeshifter or not, I took my frustration out on the road, completely ignoring the speed limit.
I rolled to a stop at a red light and cast a glance in my rear view mirror; a police car had just pulled up behind me. Taking note of this I watched my speed, sticking five below the limit, a speeding fine was the last thing I needed. It followed me for the next five minutes, fabulous, something else to add to my irritation. To make matters worse it set off its siren complete with flashing lights, signalling me to pull over. What the hell! I wasn't speeding.
"What seems to be the problem officer?" I said as I unwound my window, I actually quite liked using that clichéd line straight from any number of films. I wanted to laugh but that wasn't the best thing to at the present moment in time. Instead I kept a straight face and I looked up at the officer who I couldn't help but feel some form of familiarity towards, maybe it was the uniform. It had to be.
"Are you aware that you have a break light out?" was that it? I wanted to smack my head on the steering wheel repeatedly. It was at that moment, as I looked up at the officer that I realised how familiar he was. He was the Sheriff, the badge kind of gave it away and he was the one who Dean was talking to, small world.
"Oh, no I didn't," and that was the god honest truth, at least I lived to speed another day. Within a few minutes I was on my way again, only towards a garage for a bulb, I had time to kill anyway. Sam and Dean were going to call me when they were done, which actually meant Sam was calling me.
I pulled into the garage and checked my phone, there was a missed call from Sam, he must have phoned when I was talking to Dean's Sheriff buddy. I called back, "Hey Sam, sorry I didn't answer, I had a run in with the Sheriff." That would make him worry.
"What happened?" he asked clearly worried making me feel guilty.
"Brake light out, listen, the Plastic Surgeon, I don't think it's him," I said, I let Sam talk before I continued.
"Brake light?" he seemed amused.
"Yep," I confirmed.
"Picky," he needn't say that twice, "we had the same impression, but it was never going to be easy to tell."
"Still want to cause him some form of bodily harm though," I muttered to myself.
"What was that?" Sam said I should have known that he would hear.
"Oh nothing, just talking to myself," I tried to make it convincing. "So what now? We check the surveillance tapes?"
"Yeah, we'll meet for dinner and head over there tonight," I hung up and went to get myself a bulb for my brake light. I was more then glad that Sam shared the same thoughts on the plastic surgeon.
Later on, as dusk was falling, Sam knocked on my motel room door; I stepped aside to let him in, "no Dean?"
"No Dean," he confirmed. I was unsure what to think to that, since that rather interesting night a few days ago I had hardly been alone with Sam. "He's out with the deputy for a drink."
"Oh?" I said, intrigued.
I turned away from Sam and busied myself with my mascara and shoes, not letting it bother me that we were alone. Sam explained further about Dean as he stood awkwardly near the door, "if it's not the plastic surgeon then we need any information we can lay our hands on so Dean jumped at the chance to talk to the Deputy."
"Naturally," I replied with a laugh.
"I thought we could still go out for dinner," Sam said hopefully, I guess he was worried I would say no.
"Yeah, cool, well," I paused as I picked up my bag, "I'm ready." I knew Sam liked me and after the other night I would more than willingly have said no to avoid the constant feeling of embarrassment but I wasn't quitter. I liked Sam but as you are probably sick of hearing I couldn't go there.
With silence we walked two blocks to a Chinese restaurant and said very little until we'd sat down and ordered, "I'm not looking forward to returning to the plastic surgeons later," I said voicing my thoughts aloud.
"How come?" Sam asked.
"The place was horrible, too clinical and well I don't like him," that didn't sound like a very sound reason but I couldn't help the way I felt.
"With silence we walked two blocks to a Chinese restaurant and said very little until we'd sat down and ordered, "I'm not looking forward to returning to the plastic surgeons later," I said voicing my thoughts aloud.
"How come?" Sam asked.
"The place was horrible, too clinical and well I don't like him," that didn't sound like a very sound reason but I couldn't help the way I felt.
Sam raised an eyebrow so I told him what he said, "I hope you didn't listen to him, I think you look perfect the way you are."
I could fell my cheeks burn as he said that and looked away, I had no intention of forcing myself to change the way I look, it was the compliments I had an issue with. It had been a long time since I had been out to dinner with some or even received a compliment, it was a nice change.
Over dinner we talked some more about the case, bouncing ideas off of each other, there were still two more possibilities on the list that we had so far ignored because all three of us felt that it was the plastic surgeon, so if watching the surveillance tapes gave us no answers then we would turn our attention to them. One of them was the Sheriff, which is why it made sense for Dean to talk to his deputy. Although I had a feeling that it was more than likely that Dean just wanted some action.
With dinner over with we paid and left, Dean was already waiting by his car in the parking lot. It made more sense for us all to go in one car. Sam insisted I sit in the front, I loved that he was such a gentleman, however, I chose to ignore him and sit in the back. I expected Dean to drive fast and I wasn't disappointed, although I will admit it was slightly scary sitting in the back.
Dean's drink with the Deputy hadn't been very helpful, apparently the only unusual thing was the Sheriff taking a sick day but that could just be a sick day. It did get me think though, after all the Sheriff was on the list but was I just being overly suspicious. Apparently Sam and Dean also shared in my suspicions when I voiced them although still continued with our plan for now, if only to rule out the plastic surgeon.
Nerves started to build as I realised we would have to break in to watch the surveillance cameras, it was just nerves though, it adrenalin and excitement. Sam picked a window lock on a window around the back of the building and within seconds we all scrambled in. Between us we must have seen nearly ten hours of footage in the three hours we were there for and not once had we seen any eye glare from anyone. "The Sheriff it has to be," Dean sounded pissed that he was wrong about the plastic surgeon, I couldn't blame him.
We checked that we weren't on any of the surveillance tapes during our little night time escapade. Dean left through the window first and I was going second but before doing so I knocked a rather expensive vase from a shelf as I passed by, Sam raised his eyebrows in surprise, "what the hell was that?" Dean whispered loudly.
"I accidentally knocked a vase over," I tried to sound innocent and hoped it worked. Dean rolled his eyes and muttered something about being clumsy.
"That was no accident," Sam whispered in my ear as I began to climb out of the window. It made my heart skip a beat for some inexplicable reason.
"Yes it was," I said but knew I was fighting a losing battle, Sam saw straight through it.
"Okay fine," I caved in, "the guy said I needed botox and that he could see why my nose needed work, let's call it pay back."
Sam didn't argue back he laughed instead. I realised it was a childish thing to do but I now felt better about myself. I waited for Sam as he shut the window after climbing out, "didn't you listen when I said you are perfect as you are?" he didn't wait for my answer but instead walked straight past me to the car. I was left standing gob smacked in the car park. I shook my head and went to their car.