Catching Up
Chapter 10 – The Usual Suspects
Eager to get away from that nasty revelation, Sam quickly queued up the next episode. "The Usual Suspects," Sam announced. "Sam and Dean investigate the murder of a lawyer and his wife. Right before they died, they claimed they'd seen a ghost."
"Oh I remember this one," Dean recalled. "Loved this case."
"Just 'cause you got to act like a smartass for most of it," Sam snorted.
"Isn't that Dean's demeanour in general?" Cas asked, pointed avoiding the glare from the elder Winchester.
The show began once more with the open montage recapping Dean's run-in with the shifter before fading into a police station with a male cop grilling someone while another female leads a raid at a motel. It wasn't hard to figure out what was happening as the guy kept talking to his suspect. "Can someone please shut him up already?" Mary groaned. "All he's missing is a fedora and a cigarette and he could be a neo-noir cut out."
"Sorry mom he sticks around for a bit," Sam told her.
"This is why I could never be in your line of work boys," Crowley made a sour face. "Self-righteous humans who think they know all make me want to gut something."
"Are they a double act?" Rowena motioned to screen where the show had begun. TV!Sam was being interrogated by the female cop while TV!Dean was supposedly held on suspicion of murder.
"She's not so bad, if a little by the book," Dean dismissed. Just then TV!Sam made a remark about seeing the second-largest ball of twine in the continental U.S. and he smirked, "You were saying something about being a smartass there junior?"
"Shut up, she had it coming," Sam shook his head. The female cop continued to work on TV!Sam, insisting that they would get to the bottom of how Dean had 'faked' his death. She tried to convince TV!Sam that he didn't have to go down with his brother.
"Hang on pause," Mary called, Sam stopped the show. "They dug up the corpse of a shifter? What came of that?"
Dean thought about it, "You know, I have no idea."
"It was a patch job," Cas said simply. He noticed the dumbfounded looks and explained, "Medical examiner opens the body, see horrors untold, begins to pray. We'd been following the Winchesters closely for some time, anything remotely related to them was given top priority. It was in the best interest of desired outcomes to make things a bit smoother so one of the deputies was dispatched to dispose of the body and erase the examiner's memory."
"You mean to tell me that angels helped me get away with murder," Dean said slowly.
"It does sound quite oxymoronic phrased that way," Cas supposed. "But if you consider their intentions…"
"Yeah sounds about right." With that, Dean restarted the show with the woman insisting that TV!Sam explain to her what happened. TV!Sam then spins a story about Karen's late husband Tony being an old friend of John's and coming to town when they'd heard of his passing. In actuality, TV!Sam and TV!Dean noticed Tony's death in the paper and thought it could be a potential case.
Sorry to break it to you sweetness, you are Scully. "Am not!" Sam whined under his breath. Those locks don't lie. Meanwhile, TV!Sam tells the cop that he and his brother went to comfort the wife when they had really posed as insurance agents to investigate his death. Karen tells them that her husband had a nightmare of a woman standing over his bed shortly before his passing.
The detective continues to press TV!Sam insisting that he and his brother had broken into Tony's office. TV!Sam says that Karen has asked for them to pick up some personal stuff for her, he acknowledged that it wrong to break in a crime scene but she had given them the key. "Damn little brother even I believe you," Dean chuckled as their other selves picked the lock on the office to get in.
"Quite deceptive Samuel," Rowena crooned. "Impressive."
Indeed a silver tongue. "It wasn't that impressive, you should see me try and talk Dean out of pie." Just then, the TV!Winchesters discover the name Dana Schulps written over and over again but their search of the offices affords no other clues. TV!Sam tried another lead on the computer and with nothing better to do that make noises, TV!Dean decides to re-question Karen which TV!Sam tell the cop was just TV!Dean going to check on her.
At the police station, the female detective doubles down on why the brothers split up. She thinks it's because TV!Sam knew that his brother was going to murder Karen. She points that Karen had made a frantic 9-1-1 call about somebody being in the house. The scene cuts to Karen seeing the ghost and being stalked by it through the house. The woman goes upstairs and calls the police but the phone cuts out and the lights begin to flicker. The printer activates and begins printing 'danaschlups' over and over again, just as it had done at Tony's office. Karen goes to get a flashlight only to the find the ghost behind her. She screams and the scene abruptly ends.
"That one works fast," Mary shivered. "I think dealing with spirits is the worst part of the job. Nothing corporeal to hit or fight against."
"Corporeal? You are mother and son," Dean made a face.
"And you have the worst luck in human history," Sam pointed out as TV!Dean decides to break into Karen's house when she doesn't answer the door.
"Of all the times to break in," Rowena half-laughs. TV!Dean came upon Karen's body but when he tried to look, the police came in and arrested him on spot.
"Okay come on," Mary scoffed. "After a murder like that, there's barely any blood on him. There's no motive, no real evidence."
Onscreen, the two detectives are seen discussing the boys. The female cop, Diana, is not entirely convinced that they're guilty and it is revealed the male cop was friends with Tony, Not only that but the two detectives were involved. "Gotta love an office romance," Dean smirked.
The show moves on to the brothers, in separate holding rooms trying to figure out the meaning behind 'danaschlups'. At the same time, TV!Dean's lawyer comes in to discuss his case but find the elder Winchester completely uninterested in the potential death penalty, rather he needs to get a message to TV!Sam. Also Diana is now faced with the mysterious string of 'danaschlups' appearing across her screen. "That's not good," Mary commented mildly.
"Neither is what you're about to see," Sam sighed as TV!Dean appeared to be gearing up for a confession.
"They gave Dean an audience," Cas pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Well it could be worse, he is being honest," Mary still cringed.
"Only good thing is that it tipped off your lady friend," Crowley nodded to Diana.
"And gave Sammy the chance to run off," Dean beamed with pride at his brother's clean getaway.
Meanwhile, Diana is accosted by the ghost in the bathroom. And then I saw her face, now I'm believer! Sam muffled his cackles into his arms. The room still looked at him like he was insane, it was quite thing for Heaven, Hell, and Earth to wonder what was wrong with you. "Sorry," he rasped. "Beer went down the wrong way."
In the show, Diana goes to TV!Dean who realised she'd been marked by the spirit. He tells her where to find TV!Sam who gives her some photos of missing women to identify their ghost. The ghost's real name was Claire Becker who disappeared almost a year prior when Diana and Pete, the male cop, worked narcotics but she doesn't remember ever busting her. They decide to go to the last place she was seen, on Ashland St. (the hint from the danaschlups). Inside, Diana sees Claire again and TV!Sam breaks open a wall and they find her body inside. TV!Sam had remarked how strange it is for a vengeful spirit to lead them to their corpse. That was until they found a very unique necklace on the victim, the same one Diana had around her neck – given to her by Pete. "Son of a bitch," Mary whispered.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Dean sipped his beer.
Together, Diana and TV!Sam piece together that Pete had probably involved Claire in some heroin smuggling while he worked narcotics, a business relationship that likely led to her death. Claire wasn't a vengeful spirit, she was death omen warning people against the impeding fates. At the same time, it's shown that TV!Dean was being driven down an isolated road by Pete. "You had better luck in Purgatory," Cas told his friend.
"He's not wrong," Sam said dubiously.
Diana tries to call in and find Pete but he had taken off and wasn't responding to dispatch. TV!Sam tells her to turn on the van's tracker and they go after them. While this was happening, Pete stops in the middle of the woods, preparing to murder TV!Dean and make it look like he was escaping. He was just about to shoot him when Diana and TV!Sam arrived.
In a twist, it was revealed the spirit had never killed anyone, Pete had. He was trying to cover up his heroin trafficking by killing Claire, Tony, and Karen for good measure. He begged Diana to pin it all on TV!Dean and forget that it ever happened. "As if you could ignore your partner murdering three innocent people," Mary disparaged.
"Yes let's just run off into sunset with a body count trailing behind us," Rowena rolled her eyes.
"That could describe at least three of your former relationships mother," Crowley scoffed.
"Hardly," Rowena objected but then thought it over. "Well maybe two."
In the show, Diana doesn't fall for it and shoots Pete in the leg. He puts up a struggle and is about to kill Diana when Claire's spirit appears giving Diana the chance to shoot him in the chest, killing him. With Claire at peace and having gotten a confession from Pete before his death, Diana let the boys go promising to get the charges dismissed. "I like her a lot." Mary smiled.
"She can't work homicide anymore but she's on our side now," Sam told her. "Helps out hunters if they ever run into trouble with the law."
"Do those other charges still exist?" Rowena asked. "The ones in St. Louis?"
"Yes but officially speaking the murderer died," Sam explained. "After that it's a game of semantics no one wants to dig too far into."
"Nice," Mary stood. "I think that's about a good an ending as we're going to get for a while. How about something to eat?"
"You're learning," Dean joked. "Yeah you're right, let's eat."