(no subject)
This is a totally indulgent post of the geee aren't i clever type. . In August last year I write a fic (Five conversations Dean Winchester never heard). One part seems particularly relevant given Nightshifter and I thought I'd post that section of the fic. The two characters speaking are Don and Charlie from Numb3rs, although no knowledge of that show is required. (Don is an FBI agent, Charlie is the maths genius brother who helps him).
“Hey hope you’re not grading term papers or something." Don dumped a pile of folders onto the desk. "Got a priority job Charlie. I really need you on this one.”
“Just the one? There must be over twenty files here.” Charlie started looking through the case summary on the front of each folder.
“Twenty-four, Charlie. And there may be more.”
“Doesn't look like any of these are from L.A. Why you?”
“Got a call from Quantico. They’ve done a lot of work on this but one of them, Jake -- that agent you met on that kidnapping case last March--thought you’d be able to help”. Don pulled up a chair and pulled out his notebook.
“These cases are diverse. There are murders, suspicious deaths and disappearances. Most of them unsolved. Some are bizarre. The sort of cases that make experienced officers write notes in the margin about spontaneous combustion, or satanic cults.” Don shook his head. “They often occur in clusters in a small town. Two or three people, sometimes more, often friends or family members. They occur over more than ten years across more than a dozen states.”
“So what’s the link?” asked Charlie.
“One person. Someone who turns up as a person of interest during the investigation of about a quarter of these cases. Different ID in each case but same fingerprints or strikingly similar physical descriptions.” Don ticked the points of on his fingers. “In the rest his fingerprints were found either at the crime scene, or other significant scenes such as the victim’s home. This guy was always discounted as a suspect, so the queries were never followed up in depth, or his identity thoroughly checked.”
“Any idea who he is?” Charlie had divided the files into three piles. Don wondered what pattern was already forming in his head.
“Suspect’s name is Winchester, Dean Winchester, although we have at least a dozen different aliases for him.” Don flicked through his notebook. “Born in Kansas. Mom died in a suspicious fire when he was four. Raised by his father, a Vietnam vet who seemed to go off the rails after the wife died. Packed up the family - there’s another brother - traveled around a lot. Father - John Winchester - doesn’t have a record except for a few DUIs. Child Welfare investigated a complaint of neglect of the kids in 1987, but nothing came of it. Dean starts showing up on the records when he’s about 15. Nothing serious. Driving while underage. Petty theft from a church. Pastor wouldn’t press charges.”
“Nothing more?” asked Charlie, “No cruelty to animals, arson, or violence?”
“No,” replied Don, “but then things get interesting. He gets a driver’s license, graduates high school and that’s about the last official thing he ever does. As he gets older, he starts living off the grid more and more. No records of health insurance or use of Medicaid. Not only never lodged a tax return, there’s no record of him ever having had a job. Or rented an apartment. Or registered a car. At least not in the name of Dean Winchester. However, we have tentatively connected him and the father to a long-running credit card scam and a series of identity thefts. Dean Winchester’s prints start appear at crime scenes in 1997.”
“So kid with a hard childhood ends up itinerant, living under the radar,” Charlie paused for a moment, “Maybe takes lots of cash jobs. Delivery guy, handyman? Explains fingerprints at lots of sites. What happened to the brother?”
“Name’s Samuel Winchester,” said Don, “Four years younger. Totally different story. After high school gets a full ride to Stanford. Enrolls in pre-law. No contact we can trace with either Dean Winchester or the father for four years. Good grades, no trouble. Kid aced his LSATs.”
“One rebel brother, one smart one. Sound like any family we know?” Charlie grinned.
Don held up his hand as he continued, “Get this, November 2005, his girlfriend is killed in a fire in their apartment. Samuel Winchester claims to have been away on a road trip with his brother for the weekend. The brother he hasn't seen for four years. They return to find the apartment on fire.”
“Didn’t you say the mother died in a fire?“ Charlie wasn’t grinning now.
“Yes. Similar circumstances. Only one victim. No sign of accelerants, but no other reasonable explanations so logged as accidental. First fire was put down to ‘electrical fault in a night light’; the one in Palo Alto to ‘over-turned oil burner’. No real evidence in either case."
"Then both brothers disappear. Don’t have a record of the younger brother’s prints, but Dean’s keep turning up at crime scenes over the next year. Saginaw, Michigan; upstate New York; Burkitsville Indiana. Never any other physical evidence linking him to crimes. But a man fitting his description is reported as having arrived in the areas around the time of each crime, and there is usually a record of him having contact with the victim, or family members.”
“So have you tracked him down?” asked Charlie. He shifted a couple of files from one pile to another.
“Well yes and no. You’ll love this,” Don paused for effect, “Dean Winchester was killed on March 7th, 2006, by a SWAT team in St Louis. He was the chief suspect in a series of homicides and was killed at the scene minutes before another victim would have died.”
“But Don, some of these cases occurred in the last couple of months. Was the ID wrong?”
“No.” Don shook his head. “We’ve checked that thoroughly. Exhumed the body, checked the fingerprints. It matches all the records and photos we have for Dean Winchester.”
“What about the rest of the family?” Charlie opened a file and flicked through the pages.
“Well that’s where we got our break. We put out a low level alert for them, and yesterday we got a hit from police in Jefferson City. Seems three men were involved in a collision with a semi. We’ve identified two of the men as Samuel and John Winchester. There’s a third man with them, fitting the description of Dean Winchester.’
“Has anyone interviewed him?” Charlie closed the file and looked at Don.
“Not yet, he’s in ICU but expected to pull through. That’s why I need your input on this. A local agent will interview him as soon as he’s conscious. We need more to go on, more linking these crimes and Dean Winchester. Any info we can go in there with will help.”
Don closed his notebook and leant forward, “Charlie, if Dean Winchester if responsible for even half these crimes, we could be looking at the worst serial killer this country has ever seen.
“Hey hope you’re not grading term papers or something." Don dumped a pile of folders onto the desk. "Got a priority job Charlie. I really need you on this one.”
“Just the one? There must be over twenty files here.” Charlie started looking through the case summary on the front of each folder.
“Twenty-four, Charlie. And there may be more.”
“Doesn't look like any of these are from L.A. Why you?”
“Got a call from Quantico. They’ve done a lot of work on this but one of them, Jake -- that agent you met on that kidnapping case last March--thought you’d be able to help”. Don pulled up a chair and pulled out his notebook.
“These cases are diverse. There are murders, suspicious deaths and disappearances. Most of them unsolved. Some are bizarre. The sort of cases that make experienced officers write notes in the margin about spontaneous combustion, or satanic cults.” Don shook his head. “They often occur in clusters in a small town. Two or three people, sometimes more, often friends or family members. They occur over more than ten years across more than a dozen states.”
“So what’s the link?” asked Charlie.
“One person. Someone who turns up as a person of interest during the investigation of about a quarter of these cases. Different ID in each case but same fingerprints or strikingly similar physical descriptions.” Don ticked the points of on his fingers. “In the rest his fingerprints were found either at the crime scene, or other significant scenes such as the victim’s home. This guy was always discounted as a suspect, so the queries were never followed up in depth, or his identity thoroughly checked.”
“Any idea who he is?” Charlie had divided the files into three piles. Don wondered what pattern was already forming in his head.
“Suspect’s name is Winchester, Dean Winchester, although we have at least a dozen different aliases for him.” Don flicked through his notebook. “Born in Kansas. Mom died in a suspicious fire when he was four. Raised by his father, a Vietnam vet who seemed to go off the rails after the wife died. Packed up the family - there’s another brother - traveled around a lot. Father - John Winchester - doesn’t have a record except for a few DUIs. Child Welfare investigated a complaint of neglect of the kids in 1987, but nothing came of it. Dean starts showing up on the records when he’s about 15. Nothing serious. Driving while underage. Petty theft from a church. Pastor wouldn’t press charges.”
“Nothing more?” asked Charlie, “No cruelty to animals, arson, or violence?”
“No,” replied Don, “but then things get interesting. He gets a driver’s license, graduates high school and that’s about the last official thing he ever does. As he gets older, he starts living off the grid more and more. No records of health insurance or use of Medicaid. Not only never lodged a tax return, there’s no record of him ever having had a job. Or rented an apartment. Or registered a car. At least not in the name of Dean Winchester. However, we have tentatively connected him and the father to a long-running credit card scam and a series of identity thefts. Dean Winchester’s prints start appear at crime scenes in 1997.”
“So kid with a hard childhood ends up itinerant, living under the radar,” Charlie paused for a moment, “Maybe takes lots of cash jobs. Delivery guy, handyman? Explains fingerprints at lots of sites. What happened to the brother?”
“Name’s Samuel Winchester,” said Don, “Four years younger. Totally different story. After high school gets a full ride to Stanford. Enrolls in pre-law. No contact we can trace with either Dean Winchester or the father for four years. Good grades, no trouble. Kid aced his LSATs.”
“One rebel brother, one smart one. Sound like any family we know?” Charlie grinned.
Don held up his hand as he continued, “Get this, November 2005, his girlfriend is killed in a fire in their apartment. Samuel Winchester claims to have been away on a road trip with his brother for the weekend. The brother he hasn't seen for four years. They return to find the apartment on fire.”
“Didn’t you say the mother died in a fire?“ Charlie wasn’t grinning now.
“Yes. Similar circumstances. Only one victim. No sign of accelerants, but no other reasonable explanations so logged as accidental. First fire was put down to ‘electrical fault in a night light’; the one in Palo Alto to ‘over-turned oil burner’. No real evidence in either case."
"Then both brothers disappear. Don’t have a record of the younger brother’s prints, but Dean’s keep turning up at crime scenes over the next year. Saginaw, Michigan; upstate New York; Burkitsville Indiana. Never any other physical evidence linking him to crimes. But a man fitting his description is reported as having arrived in the areas around the time of each crime, and there is usually a record of him having contact with the victim, or family members.”
“So have you tracked him down?” asked Charlie. He shifted a couple of files from one pile to another.
“Well yes and no. You’ll love this,” Don paused for effect, “Dean Winchester was killed on March 7th, 2006, by a SWAT team in St Louis. He was the chief suspect in a series of homicides and was killed at the scene minutes before another victim would have died.”
“But Don, some of these cases occurred in the last couple of months. Was the ID wrong?”
“No.” Don shook his head. “We’ve checked that thoroughly. Exhumed the body, checked the fingerprints. It matches all the records and photos we have for Dean Winchester.”
“What about the rest of the family?” Charlie opened a file and flicked through the pages.
“Well that’s where we got our break. We put out a low level alert for them, and yesterday we got a hit from police in Jefferson City. Seems three men were involved in a collision with a semi. We’ve identified two of the men as Samuel and John Winchester. There’s a third man with them, fitting the description of Dean Winchester.’
“Has anyone interviewed him?” Charlie closed the file and looked at Don.
“Not yet, he’s in ICU but expected to pull through. That’s why I need your input on this. A local agent will interview him as soon as he’s conscious. We need more to go on, more linking these crimes and Dean Winchester. Any info we can go in there with will help.”
Don closed his notebook and leant forward, “Charlie, if Dean Winchester if responsible for even half these crimes, we could be looking at the worst serial killer this country has ever seen.