Gunpowder and Lead

XXXI

[LOTUS]

Sam, Dean and Kennedy, in their FBI suits and dress, were walking down the hallway of a morgue. Nadia was in Kennedy's arms. They showed their badges to a doctor who was coming out of a room.

"Your colleagues are already inside," the doctor informed.

Sam, Dean and Kennedy exchanged questioning looks, simultaneously putting away their badges and entered the room to find Castiel and Crowley. They were standing next to an autopsy table, where a body laid covered by a sheet.

"Agents," Castiel and Crowley said.

Dean frowned. "Okay, this has gotta stop. All right, give me that." Dean pulled an FBI badge off Crowley's jacket lapel.

"Armani!" Crowley protested. "As opposed to you and Lassie bringing a child?"

"Okay, enough. Let's have a look," Sam said as Kennedy stepped back so Nadia wouldn't see much.

Dean pulled the sheet down to reveal the face of the body on the table. It was an older man with his eyes burnt out.

"Ooh. Looks like somebody forgot to put on his sunscreen," Dean commented.

Kennedy frowned. "Really, Dean?"

"This was Wallace Parker, the very powerful CEO of almost everything," Castiel informed.

"And apparently, Lucifer's latest vessel. Wasn't strong enough to hold him."

Sam covered the man's face again.

"Lucifer's not content with slutting it from one random vessel to the next." Crowley told them. "He's moving on to blue chips — celebrities, captains of industry. He just got a lot more dangerous."

"I agree with Agent Zappa," Castiel said.

Dean looked at the angel. "Oh, will you stop?"

Kennedy rolled her eyes and smiled briefly. "Nice work, Agents."

BUNKER

Sam, Dean and Kennedy were drinking beer in the library of the Bunker. Nadia sat on her father's lap with a sippy cup of apple juice.

"So, find anything?" Dean asked. "Anyone powerful or respectable who suddenly changed... or exploded?"

"Well, this is pretty interesting," Sam noted.

His laptop showed a news article with the headline 'Record Donation to Dioceses'. He clicked on a picture and turned the laptop around so Dean and Kennedy could see. "This is the Archbishop of St. Louis with Wallace Parker."

The picture showed a man in a suit holding a check and shaking hands with the priest in the red robe with a large cross around his neck.

Dean rested his feet on the table. "So?"

Sam met his eyes. "So, that was him three days ago." He scrolled through a few pictures.

Kennedy pointed to a picture. "And this... is him last night at the opening of a food kitchen. You two notice anything missing?"

Dean scrolled back and forth through the pictures before he said, "Yeah, the big mother of a cross around his neck."

"Exactly. And this morning, his office canceled all further public appearances without comment," Sam said.

"Okay, so you two are thinking that, uh, Lucifer blasted out of Parker and into his buddy the Archbishop here."

"Worth a shot."

"Yeah."

---

It was nighttime and raining. The Impala pulled up to a building with a sign that read 'Archdiocese of St. Louis'. They exited the car and walked up to the door.