From a Dog's View

Pilot [5]

"So you want to give us your real name?" The officer asked as he walked into the interrogation room.

"I told you." Dean sighed. "It's Nugent, Ted Nugent,"

"I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here,"

"We talking, like, misdemeanor kind of trouble or 'squeal like a pig' trouble?" Dean smirked.

"You got the faces of 10 missing persons taped to your wall, along with a whole lot of satanic mambo jumbo. Boy, you are officially a suspect,"

"That makes sense 'cause when the first one went missing in '82, I was 3,"

"I know you got partners. One of them's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing," The officer began looking through a box of items. "So tell me, Dean..." he tossed a journal onto the table. "Is this his? I thought that might be your name. See, I leafed through this, what little I could make out. I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy. But I found this, too." the officer flipped to a page that had Dean's name and a set of numbers written "Now, you're staying right here till you tell me exactly what the hell that means,"

***

Sam stepped back when the door opened, and a man peeked his head out.

Lulu let out a slight sneeze at the smell of tobacco and alcohol coming off the man.

"Hi, uh, are you Joseph Welch?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," the man nodded.

Sam handed over a photo. "Have you seen this man before?"

Joseph looked over the photo and nodded. "Yeah, he was older, but that's him. He came by three or four days ago, said he was a reporter,"

That's right." Sam nodded. "We're working on a story together,"

"Well, I don't know what the hell kind of story you're working on...the questions he asked me,"

"About your late wife, Constance,"

"He asked me where she was buried,"

"And where is that again?"

"What, I got to go through these twice?"

"It's fact-checking," Sam reasoned "If you don't mind,"

Joseph sighed. "In a plot behind my old place over on Breckenridge,"

"Why did you move?"

"I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died,"

"Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?"

Joseph shook his head. "No way. Constance...She was the love of my life, prettiest woman I ever known,"

"So you had a happy marriage?"

"Definitely,"

Sam glanced down at Lulu and nodded. "Well, that should do it. Thanks for your time,"

Mr. Welch nodded and walked back towards his house.

"Come on, Lulu,"

Lulu remained unmoved.

"Lulu!"

Lulu shook her head and backed towards Mr. Welch. She let out a slight sneeze.

Sam sighed as he walked over towards the blue-eyed dog. "Mr. Welch, you ever hear of a woman in white?"

Mr. Welch turned back around. "A what?"

"A woman in white or sometimes a weeping woman. It's a ghost story. Well, it's more of a phenomenon, really. They're spirits. They've been sighted for hundreds of years dozens of places in Hawaii and Mexico, lately in Arizona, Indiana. All these are different women, you understand, but ll share the same story,"

Mr. Welch shook his head. "Boy, I don't care much for nonsense,"

Lulu let out a low growl.

"You see, when they were alive," Sam continued, "their husbands were unfaithful to them, and these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children. Then, once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways, and if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him, and that man is never seen again,"

"You think..." Mr. Welch said, "You think that has something to do with Constance, you smartass?"

Lulu moved between Sam and Mr. Welch.

"You tell me," Sam challenged.

"I mean, maybe..." Mr. Welch shook his head at the thought. "Maybe I made some mistakes, but no matter what I did, Constance never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here, and you don't come back,"

***

"I don't know how many times I got to tell you," Dean told the Sheriff. "It's my High-School locker combo,"

"Are we gonna do this all night long?" The Sheriff questioned.

One of the deputies walked into the interrogation room. "We just a 911. Shots fired over at Whiteford Road,"

The Sheriff looked back at Dean. "Do you have to go to the bathroom?"

"No," Dean replied.

"Good," The Sheriff left Dean handcuffed.

Dean took the paperclip from his dad's journal and got to work.