Down the Rabbit Hole

Into the Deep Part 1

A couple of weeks had past and Dean was completely healed now. They had been up at Rufus' cabin bored out of their minds so Sam had found them a case. It had taken them a couple of days drive but they had finally reached Dearborn. Dean pulled up to the crime scene and the three of them got out of the car.
"Feels wonky."
"What?"
"Working a regular job." Sam shrugged.
"Bobby will call if anything flares up on the Leviathan front. In the meantime, you know you want to work this case, Dean. Cop on the wire sounded dumbfounded."
"No arguments. It's kind of nice, you know. We're due for a little cut and dry." They flashed their badges to the cop on duty. "You seem good." Dean noted.
"I am, for me. By the way... thank you."
"For?" Dean looked confused.
"Amy. I know you didn't want to let her go, but it was the right thing to do. So, thanks."
"No problem." They walked into the dead guys apartment, showing their badges to the Detective in charge.
"Welcome to crazy town, population – one dead guy."
"Who was he?" Sam asked.
"Uh, Matthew Hammond. Seems to have been crushed to death."
"By?"
"Well. If we weren't on the tenth floor, I'd say by a car." The Detective shrugged. He carried on with his work and Sam discreetly pulled his EMF reader out of his jacket pocket and turned it on. The readings began to spike.
"It's going crazy."
"Some kind of ghost? With a license? License to kill." Dean smirked. Lacey gave him a small smile in return.
"Seriously?" Sam rolled his eyes. "Huh." He examined.....
"What do you got?"
"I don't know. Looks like some kind of powder."
"Sulphur?" Dean asked.
"No, just dirt. Could be 'Christine' like."
"Ugh, even possessed cars don't do stairs. It's something spectral." Lacey was looking around, bored. She rummaged through a dish beside the front door.
"What's this?" She asked, holding up a plastic coin.
"AA chip." Dean said, taking it off her to examine. "10 years. Dead and sober. Double crappy." He tossed the coin to Sam who was leafing through some bills he'd found on the coffee table.
"There's a charge keeps coming up, 50 bucks a month at a place called Jane's. All right. Congrats on your sobriety." He threw it back to Dean. "I'll go find out what Jane's is." Dean pulled a face.
"I gave up AA for lent."
"We're not catholic." Sam reminded him.
"Always with the details. AA gives me the jeebs."
"Wow. Shocker."
"Shut up."
"Fine, I'll hit the meeting, you two go hit up Jane."

Lacey and Dean were walking down the main high street in Dearborn, having figured out that Jane's was the local florist.
"You ok sweetheart? You seem quiet."
"Hmm? Yeah I'm fine... but I've been thinking, maybe I should go see my family for a few days. I was talking to Amy last night and she suggested I come up for a visit." Dean nodded his head.
"Yeah, that could be good for you, get in some RnR while we deal with this case. How you gonna get there?"
"Amy's sending the plane down for me." Dean raised an eyebrow. "I know right, I didn't know we had a plane either. Do you think you could drop me at the airport after we question the florist?"
"Yeah of course." Dean smiled and put his arm around her shoulder. "It's gonna be weird working a case without you though."
"I can stay if you need me to."
"No, no, go see the baby, you haven't seen him since he was born. We'll manage." Lacey smiled up at him and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
"Thanks, Dean."
"You're welcome sweetheart." Dean smiled as they headed into the florists.

Several hours later Lacey stepped off of the private plane and looked out on the small airstrip. There was a car parked on the other side of the runway and Amy was smiling and waving to her from beside it. Lacey waved back and descended the steps before rushing over and giving her a hug.
"How was your flight?"
"Not bad thanks. In fact that's the first flight I've been on in a long time." They climbed into the car as they spoke. "Where's Rian?"
"He's at Mom and Dads. I said we'd head there straight from the airport. Mom wants our help with something." Lacey nodded. "So, how are you feeling?" Lacey looked down at her hands.
"Not too bad. I mean, all the wounds have pretty much healed up now but I'm covered in scars. I guess we'll just see how this goes. This is the first time I've really been away from Dean since it happened."
"And your powers.... Are they really gone?"
"I... they don't work right now, I'm not sure if that's permanent or not." As they spoke Amy had driven them away from the air strip. Noticing the look on her sister face Amy changed the subject.
"So Grandma's here." Lacey raised an eyebrow as Amy pulled to a stop outside the gates.
"Which one?"
"Grandma Ellie." The gates began to swing open. "I think that's why Mom called us in, reinforcements." Lacey let out a laugh as Amy pulled up to the house. The two of them got out and headed through the large wooden front door.
"A little higher William, higher, no, no dear, higher!" Their father was on a ladder on the upper landing trying to hang a large painting. On the ground floor stood their mother looking up at him worriedly, next to her in an electric wheel chair was the woman giving all the orders, their grandmother Ellie.
"Hey Mom." Ann turned and smiled at them, looking relieved.
"Amy, Lacey, I'm so glad you're here." She gave Lacey a hug. With a mechanical zip Ellie turned her chair around to get a better look at them. She squinted up at Lacey, scrutinising her before breaking into a smile.
"It's nice to have you back, dear."
"Thanks, Grandma." Lacey smiled back. Ellie beckoned for them to follow her and she sped off at an alarming rate towards the kitchen.
"We are hosting a charity event tomorrow evening and I could some help from you two with the decorating committee. I've had several people from the ladies auxiliary have to cancel at the last minute, there seems to be an epidemic doing things to grandmothers you just wouldn't believe." She told them drily. Lacey and Amy exchanged a look.
"Ok, sure, although I've never done anything like this before." Lacey shrugged.
"Oh, you'll be fine, dear." Ellie whipped out an outdated mobile phone and began punching in numbers. After the phone rang for a while she hung up.
"That's the third time I've called Mr Cornish this morning, I don't know what can have happened to him. He's lending us his ballroom for the event." She explained to Lacey. "Let's have some tea and catch up and if I haven't heard back from him then we'll go over and see him ourselves." They walked into the kitchen where Claybourne was cleaning the silverware while Rian was sat in his highchair, chewing on a rusk.
"Hey buddy." Lacey cooed, taking hold of one of his little hands as they sat around the table.
"How is Dean, dear?" Ann asked as Claybourne set out the tea things.
"He's good, him and Sam are busy working so I thought I'd make the most of the free time and visit." Lacey told them.
"Who?" Ellie asked as she poured herself a cup of tea.
"My boyfriend Dean and his brother Sam." Lacey explained.
"And what do they do?" Ellie enquired.
"Uh..." Lacey looked at Amy who shook her head. "They're FBI agents."
"How interesting." Ellie was distracted as her phone began to ring. "Ahh! Hello Mrs Nugent! Perhaps you'll be able to shed some light. I've been calling Mr Cornish all morning and got no reply, do you know where he might be? No Mrs Watkins said he was fine when he left their canasta game last night....Ok I'll do that. Thank you. Good bye." She hung up the phone.
"Well Mrs Nugent hasn't heard from him either, and she's on the floral committee. She suggested we go round to his house and see if he's ok. Claybourne would you pull the car around, William can drive us round, can't you William?"
"Yes that's fine mother." They left Rian in Claybourne's care and the five of them drove a few miles further into town until they reached Mr Cornish's house. As William pulled up outside Lacey peered out of the window at the house.
"Wow Grandma, you've really gone for the spooky look, haven't you?" Ellie looked up at the house as she climbed back into her chair.
"Do you think it's that spooky?"
"Uh, yeah, I've seen plenty of haunted houses and that puts a few of them to shame...." Lacey trailed off at the looks everyone was giving her. "Well, I mean, they claimed to be haunted." She back tracked. Satisfied with her explanation Ellie turned her attention back to the house and began to make her way up the front path, the others following behind. They reached the front door and William out to pull the bell cord. The ringing echoed through the house but there was no movement from within.
"What should we do?" Ann asked. "Should we call the police? He could have fallen and hurt himself or something." She dithered.
"William, see if there's a key under any of those plant pots." Ellie commanded, taking charge of the situation. Their father bent down and began lifting up the plant pots surrounding the front door. After a few attempts he lucked out and straightened up to open the front door. The door swung open with an ominous creak.
"Oh sure, just what we needed." Lacey rolled her eyes before stepping through the door. As soon as Lacey stepped through she felt the temperature drop. Her breath began to fog up the air in front of her.
"Brrr! It's rather chilly in here, do you think Mr Cornish's heating is broken?" Ann asked as she rubbed her arms, shivering at the cold.
"No, mom, I don't think it's his heating. Grandma, would anyone want to hurt Mr Cornish?" Lacey asked as the five of them crammed into the hallway.
"Hurt him? No, I can't think of any reason that anyone would. Why?" Suddenly the front door slammed shut behind them, making them jump.
"Must be the wind." William guessed, although his voice faltered a little.
"Again, I don't think so. Okay, we should probably split up Mom, Dad, Grandma you search downstairs, Amy and I will go upstairs." The five of them broke apart and Lacey and Amy headed up the winding wooden staircase.
"What are you expecting to find?" Amy asked as they headed along the landing.
"Well, all the signs are pointing to a ghost." Lacey told her as they entered the first room. This was clearly a guest room, a lot of the furniture had white sheets covering it and a layer of dust could be seen on any uncovered surfaces. The next door they came to was a bathroom and a cursory look revealed nothing. The third door they came to was pulled shut and as soon as it swung open the stench hit them. What was left of Mr Cornish was laid out on the bed, a large blade buried deep in his chest and the bedding around him was soaked in blood. Judging by the smell he had clearly been there a while.
"Ugh." Amy recoiled backwards, retching slightly. "Oh my god, this is horrible. How are you not fazed by this?" She asked Lacey who had done nothing more than wrinkle her nose in disgust.
"Just used to it, I've seen corpses in a worse condition than that, but believe me, my first few time at the coroners, I was way worse than you." Lacey told her as they stepped back, pulling the door to behind them. "Let's get out of here. We can call the police from downstairs. As they reached the stairwell there was a sudden gust of wind, hard enough to press them back against the wall. Amy grabbed hold of Lacey's arm and ducked behind her. The window beside them swung open, the glass smashing as it hit the outside wall. Lacey could just about make out an outline of a figure of a woman in front of them before the wind died down and it disappeared.
"What the hell?" Amy asked as she straightened up.
"Well, I'm 100% sure it's a ghost now." Lacey informed them. The two of them hurried down the rest of the steps and found the others coming out of one of the ground floor rooms.
"Well we didn't find anything." Ann reported to them.
"That's ok. We found Mr Cornish, Dad can you give the police a call, they need to come and see the body." Ellie's expression was shocked.
"Body?! You mean he's dead? What happened?"
"He's been stabbed through the chest. No idea who did it or why?" Lacey asked her grandmother.
"No, none at all."
"William, get your mother a glass of water." Ann ordered. "Let's get some fresh air Ellie, it might make you feel better." The four of them headed out onto the driveway. As much as Lacey was used to this sort of scene, it was still nice to be back out in the sunshine. William joined them soon after, handing his mother a glass of water.
"They're on their way, said to wait here so they could take our statements." He informed them. It wasn't long before they could hear sirens and blue flashing lights appeared through the trees leading up the drive. As the police cars came to a stop, several officers got out. Most of them headed for the house but one of the older more stately looking gentlemen headed in their direction.
"Good Morning, I'm Sherriff Watkins, are you William McNulty?"
"Yes, this is my mother Ellie McNulty, my wife Ann and my daughters Amy and Lacey."
"And you were the ones who found the body?"
"Yes. My mother was organising a charity event with Mr Cornish and became worried when she hadn't heard back from him, we decided to drive over and see if he was ok, we used the spare key from under the flower pot to open the door, we went in to search for him and my daughters found him in his room." William told him succinctly.
"And did you touch anything in the room?" The Sheriff asked, turning to the girls.
"No, the only thing we touched was the door." Lacey told him.
"That's good, one of my officers will want to take a formal statement from you, if you wouldn't mind waiting a little longer." He nodded at them before heading inside the house.
"What do we do about the you-know-what?" Amy asked Lacey.
"Well, normally..." Lacey began before she was interrupted by the sound of wheels grinding on the gravel drive. The five of them looked over to see an old fashioned estate car grind to a halt and an older woman with immaculate clothes and hair get out and hurry up the drive towards them.
"Is it true? Is he dead?" She asked, sounding out of breath.
"Mrs Fortescue, what are you doing here?" Ellie asked, surprised. "Yes I'm afraid he is dead." Mrs Fortescue took a step forwards as if to go into the house but stopped and headed back to her car.
"Who was that?" Lacey asked, frowning after her.
"That was Mrs Fortescue. She's the wife of the former chief of police." Ellie told them, as they watched her turn the car around and head for the road.