Point of Know Return

11. Uncle John's Band

[Dead Man's Blood]

(I thought the song was an amusing choice.)

CAFÉ

Dean was flipping through a newspaper, Sam was on his laptop, and Natalia was absentmindedly stirring her tea.

Dean folded the paper. "Well, dude, sis. Not a decent lead in all of Nebraska. What have you got? Nat's got nothing. Focus, Nat."

Sam chuckled before saying, "Well, I've been scanning Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota. Here. A woman in Iowa fell 10,000 feet from an airplane and survived."

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I dunno, maybe someday. In the meantime, we got a lot of work to do, Dean, you know that."

"Yeah, all right. What else you got?"

"Ahh, a man in Colorado, a local man named Daniel Elkins was found mauled in his home."

"Elkins?" Natalia repeated. "I know that name. Dee does too."

"Doesn't ring a bell."

Under his breath, Dean muttered, "Elkins... Elkins... Elkins."

"Sounds like the police don't know what to think. At first they said it was some sort of bear attack and now they've found some signs of robbery."

"Mm-hmm," Natalia hummed as she flicked through John's journal. "There, check it out."

"You think it's the same Elkins?"

"It's a Colorado area code," Dean told him. "Nice memory, Nat."

The Impala cruised down the road, snow capped mountains in the background.

They reached Elkins' cabin and Sam picked the lock. As he put it away, Dean flicked on a flashlight.

Dean looked around at the mess. "Looks like the maid didn't come today."

"Hey, there's salt over here, right beside the door," Sam noted.

Natalia flicked through Elkins' journal as Dean asked, "You mean protection against demon salt or 'whoops I spilled the popcorn' salt?"

"It's clearly a ring. Do you think this guy Elkins was a player?"

"Definitely."

Sam came up behind his siblings. "That looks a hell of a lot like Dad's."

Dean grabbed the journal from Natalia and she glared at him. "Yep, except this dates back to the 60s."

Outside, a man stood in front of the shadows of a large tree, looking at the cabin.

Sam, Dean and Natalia moved into the other room and shone their flashlights around the destruction, including up at the hole in the roof.

"Whatever attacked him, it looks like there was more than one," Sam said.

"Looks like he put up a hell of a fight, too," Dean replied.

"Yeah."

They looked around the room and Natalia crouched to get a closer look at the floor.

"You got something?" Sam asked.

"I dunno. Some scratches on the floor," Natalia told him.

"Death throes, maybe?"

"Yeah, maybe." She grabbed a page from a notebook, placed it over the marks, and rubbed a pencil over it to get an outline. "Or maybe a message."

She handed the paper to Sam. "Look familiar?"