Reckless and Brave

XXVIII. Bad to the Bone (Part I)

[Bloodlust]

Dean zoomed along the road, dancing to the music. Holly was dancing along as well.

"Whoo!" Dean cheered. "Listen to her purr! Have you ever heard anything so sweet?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You know, if you two want to get a room, just let me know, Dean. The same goes for you, Holly. I see how you're eyeing the car."

"Oh, don't listen to him, Baby. He doesn't understand us."

"You're in a good mood."

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"No reason."

"Got my car, got a case, things are looking up."

"And it's an interesting case, too!" Holly cried.

Sam chuckled. "Wow. You two hear of a couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows and you're Miss and Mister Sunshine."

"How far to Red Lodge?" Holly asked.

Sam looked at the map. "Uh, about another three hundred miles."

Dean nodded. "Good."

When they reached Red Lodge, they immediately made their way to the Sheriff's Station. There, they talked with a sheriff with quite the mustache. The siblings were posing as reporters.

The sheriff said, "The murder investigation is ongoing, and that's all I can share with the press at this time."

Sam smiled. "Sure, sure, we understand that, but just for the record, you found the first, uh, head last week, correct?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Okay, and the other, a uh, Christina Flanigan..."

"That was two days ago. Is there--"

A young woman knocked on the door and pointed to her watch. The sheriff looked back to the siblings. "Oh. Sorry, boys, young lady, time's up. We're done here."

"One last question--" Sam said.

"Yeah, what about the cattle?" Dean asked.

The sheriff frowned. "Excuse me?"

"You know, the cows found dead, split open, drained...over a dozen cases."

"What about them?"

"So you don't think there's a connection?" Sam wondered.

"Connection...with..."

"First cattle mutilations, now two murders? Kinda sounds like ritual stuff." Holly said.

"You know, like Satanic cult ritual stuff?" Dean clarified in a questioning tone.

The sheriff laughed before noticing the serious looks the trio had. "You--you're not kidding."

"No."

"Those cows aren't being mutilated. You wanna know how?"

"How?" Sam asked.

"Because there's no such thing as cattle mutilation. Cow drops, leave it in the sun, within 48 hours, the bloat will split open so clean it's just about surgical. The bodily fluids fall down into the ground and get soaked up because that's what gravity does. But, hey, it could be Satan. What newspaper did you say you work for?"

"World Weekly News..." Dean said.

"Weekly World News." Sam corrected.

"World--"