Roads of Reckoning

Skin

February 28th, 2006
We've been driving for ages and I yawn as we pull into a gas station.
"Alright, I figure we'd hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south, hit Bisbee by midnight." Dean says.
Neither Sam nor I respond.
"Sam wears women's underwear."
I roll my eyes.
"I'm listening, I'm just busy." Sam doesn't look up.
"Busy doing what?"
"Reading emails." He says as Dean gets out of the car to pump the gas. I follow. I need to stretch my legs.
"Emails from who?" I ask, leaning against the car.
Sam looks up at me from his seat.
"From my friends at Stanford."
"You're kidding." Says Dean. "You still keep in touch with your college buddies?"
I turn to Dean and cross my arms.
"Why not?" I say.
Dean makes a face and turns away.
"Well, what exactly do you tell 'em? You know, about where you've been, what you've been doing?"
"I tell them I'm on a road trip with my brother and family friend..." he looks at me. "I tell them I need some time off after Jess."
"Oh so you lie to them"
"No. I just don't tell them...everything."
"Yeah that's called lying. I mean, I get it, telling the truth is far worse."
"So what am I supposed to do? Just cut everyone out of my life?"
Dean shrugs. Sam scoffs.
"Look it sucks, but in a job like this, you can't get close to people, period."
"You're kind of anti social, you know that?" I say.
"Whatever."
Sam goes back to his emails and I get back into the car.
"God..." Sam says.
I lean forwards, looking over his shoulder.
"What?"
"In this email from this girl, Rebecca Warren, one of those friends of mine."
A pang of jealousy floods through my mind.
"Is she hot?" Asks Dean from outside. Sam ignores him.
"I went to school with her, and her brother Zack. She says Zack's been charged with murder. He's been arrested for killing his girlfriend. Rebecca says he didn't do it, but it sounds like the cops have a pretty good case."
"Dude, what kind of people are you hanging out with?"
"No man, I know Zack. He's no killer."
"Well, maybe you know Zack as well as he knows you."
"They're in St. Louis. We're going." Dean chuckles.
"Dean come on. We don't have any other leads on your dad at the moment. It won't hurt." I say.
"Look Sam, sorry about your buddy, but this does not sound like our kind of problem."
"It is our problem. They're my friends." Sam says.
Dean sighs in defeat and we pull away from the gas station.
•———————————————————————•
Rebecca greets us at the front door.
"Oh my god Sam!" She exclaims.
"Well if it isn't little Becky." Sam says.
I scrunch my nose slightly at that.
"You know what you can do with that little Becky crap." She smiles and they hug.
As they pull away she looks at Dean and I.
"I didn't know you would bring friends."
"That's Dean, my older brother. And Demi. She's a family friend."
I smile and extend my hand out for her to shake and she accepts.
"We're here to help. Whatever we can do."
We follow her inside.
"Nice place." Says Dean.
"It's my parent's. I was just crashing here for a long weekend when everything happened. I decided to take the semester off. I'm gonna stay until Zack's free."
I look around the home. It's cosy, nice.
"Where are your folks?" I ask.
"They live in Paris for half the year, so they're on their way home now for the trial."
We make our way into the kitchen.
"Do you guys want a beer or something?"
Dean's eyes light up but before he can answer, Sam cuts him off.
"No thanks. So tell us what happened."
"Well, um, Zack came home and he found Emily tied to a chair. And she was beaten and bloody, and she wasn't breathing."
She starts to cry.
"So he called 911 and the police ~ they showed up, and they arrested him. But the thing is, the only way Zack could have killed Emily is if he was in two places at the same time. The police ~ they have a video. It's from the security tape from across the street. And it shows Zack coming home at 10:30. Now Emily was killed just after that, but I swear, he was here with me, having a few beers until at least after midnight."
"You know, maybe we could see the crime scene. Zack's house." Sam suggests, looking at us.
"We could." I say.
"Why? I mean what could you do?" Rebecca asks.
"Well us," Sam gestures to himself and I. "Not much. But Dean's a cop."
Dean laughs.
"Detective actually."
Rebecca's eyes widen.
"Really? Where?"
"Bisbee, Arizona. But I'm off duty now."
"You guys, it's so nice of you to offer but, I just don't know."
Sam walks over to her.
"Bec, look. I know Zack didn't do this. Now, we have to find a way to prove that he's innocent."
Rebecca nods.
"Ok. I'm gonna go get the keys."
I watch her walk down the hall and Dean turns to us.
"Oh, yeah, man, you're a real straight shooter with your friends."
"Look, Zack and Becky need our help."
"I just don't think this is our kind of problem."
"Two places at once? We've looked into less." I say. Dean says nothing, defeated.
•———————————————————————•
"You're sure this is ok?" Rebecca asks as we get out of the car.
"Yeah. I'm an officer of the law." Dean says. I roll my eyes and we walk to the front door. Inside is a mess. The furniture and walls of the house are smeared in blood.
"Tell us what the police said." I say as I sweep my flashlight across the lounge.
"Well, there's no sign of a break in. They say that Emily let her attacker in. The lawyers ~ they're already talking about plea bargain. Oh god." She looks around the room and breaks into tears.
"Look Bec, if Zack didn't do this, it means someone else did. Any idea who?"
"Um, there was something, about a week before. Somebody broke in here and stole some clothes ~ Zack's clothes. The police, they don't think it's anything. I mean, we're not far from downtown. Sometimes people get robbed."
I walk away, surveying the room. There is a dog barking next door.
"You know, that used to be the sweetest dog."
"What happened?" Asked Dean.
"He just changed."
"Do you remember when?"
"I guess around the time of the murder."
•———————————————————————•
I walk down the hall and a photo stops me. I pick it up. It's of Sam, Rebecca and a guy I assume is Zack. Sam looks happy. I smile softly.
"God, look at my hair in that."
I jump and turn around to see Sam.
"Jesus." I say clutching my chest. He chuckles.
"Sorry."
I shake my head and smile.
"It's not that bad." I look back at the picture and back at Sam. "But I like it better now." He smiles down at me.
"Hey nerds!" Dean appears in the hall. "So, the neighbour's dog went psycho right around the same time Zack's girlfriend was killed."
"Animals can have a sharp sense of the paranormal."
"Yeah maybe Fido saw something."
"So, you think maybe this is our kind of problem?" I ask.
"No probably not." Dean says. "But we should look at the security tape, you know, just to make sure."
Rebecca comes up to us.
"So that security footage ~ you think maybe your lawyers could get their hands on it, 'cause I just don't have that kind of jurisdiction." Dean asks.
"I've already got it." She says. "I didn't wanna say something in front of the cop. I stole it off the lawyer's desk. I just had to see it for myself."
•———————————————————————•
"Here he comes." The tape shows Zack entering his house. I look at the timestamp.
"22:04. That's just after ten. You said time of death was 10:30." I say.
"Our lawyers hired some kind of video expert. He says the tape's authentic. It wasn't tampered with."
"Hey Bec, can we take those beers now?" Asks Sam. Rebecca gets up from the couch. Sam turns to her.
"Hey, maybe some sandwiches too?"
I raise an eyebrow at Sam.
"What do you think this is? A Hooters?" And she leaves the room.
"What is it?" I ask Sam as Dean comes over.
"Check this out." He rewinds the tape and replays it. One of the frames shows Zack looking directly into the camera. I look closely at his eyes. They seem silver on the screen. Sam looks at us for input.
"Well, maybe it's just a camera flare." Dean says.
"That's not like any camera flare I've ever seen." Sam says. "You know, a lot of cultures believe that a photograph can catch a glimpse of the soul."
I think for a minute.
"Remember that dog that was freaking out?" The boys look at me. "Maybe he saw this thing. Maybe this is some kind of dark double of Zack's, something that looks like him but isn't."
"Like a doppelgänger." Dean says.
"It'd sure explain how he was in two places at once." Says Sam.
•———————————————————————•
"What are we going her at 5:30 in the morning?" I ask, yawning. It's freezing and I wrap my arms around myself.
"I realised something. The video shows the killer going in but not coming out." Sam says.
"So he came out the back door." Dean says.
"Right. So there should be a trail to follow. A trail the police could never pursue."
"Cause they think the killer never left. And they caught Zack inside. I still don't know what we're doing her at 5:30."
I walk around the outside of the house and notice some blood smeared on a telephone pole.
"Hey." I wave them over. "Blood. Somebody came this way."
"Yeah but the trail ends. I don't see anything over here." Deans says.
An ambulance burns past us, lights and sirens blaring.