Do Not Archive.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Chapter Eight

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

The report arrived by courier and she took it straight to 
Parker's office, not even knocking as she burst through the 
door.  He and Tipton and another deputy turned from the wall-
sized dry erase board that held the most promising tips on 
CiCi's disappearance.  "Agent Scully," Parker said, not 
sounding pleased.  "What can I do for you?"

"I need to speak to you for a minute. It's urgent."

Parker hesitated and then nodded at Tipton and the other man 
to leave.  "What have you got?"

She handed him the results from the state crime lab.  "See 
for yourself."

He scanned the information, brows crinkling, and shook his 
head vaguely.  "That's impossible.  It's a mistake."

"Unlikely," Scully returned.  "The DNA on Eleanor's can was a 
direct match to that lifted from the envelopes.  She's been 
sending the cards to herself.  Now she's off with Mulder in 
the middle of God knows where, and I can't get in touch with 
either one of them."

"No," he said, still shaking.  "I can't believe she would do 
this.  Not Eleanor."

"If you got a an anonymous birthday card in the mail, what 
would you do with it?"  She waited, but he said nothing.  
"Probably throw it out, right?  But Eleanor didn't.  She kept 
even the first one.  There was no reason for her to save the 
first one--"

"--Unless she knew there were more to come," Parker finished 
weakly.  "Shit."  He picked up the phone and punched the 
numbers for dispatch.  "Pauline?  Get me Eleanor on the 
line."  A pause.  "I don't care if she's not answering her 
radio.  Keep trying.  Yeah, thanks."

Scully already had her phone out to try Mulder again.  Her 
heart beat high and fast, the phone slippery in her stilted 
grasp.  She'd been mentally berating herself for not 
mentioning her suspicions about Eleanor sooner, and with each 
unanswered ring, her worry ratcheted up another notch.  His 
voicemail came on again, but there was no point in leaving 
more messages.  He was either there or he wasn't.

"You don't think Eleanor's behind the kidnappings too?" 
Parker asked when she'd clicked off the phone.

"I don't really know what to think.  But if the cards and the 
disappearances are linked, I'd say it's entirely possible."

Tipton knocked on the door and stuck his head in the room.  
"Sheriff, we've got the next group of folks lined up--"

"Not now."

"But--"

"I said not now, Jimmy!  Get out and close the door."  Tipton 
scrambled back out into the main squad room as Parker shoved 
the nearest chair.  "Do you know where they might have gone?  
Mulder say anything at all?"

"He said they were going to Beckett to talk to a man named 
Daniel Vaughn."

"I know a guy there who used to work for me," Parker said, 
picking up his desk phone again.  "I'll see if he knows 
Vaughn, have him check things out."

"I'm going to drive out there myself," Scully said, starting 
for the door.  It opened in her face.  Tipton towered over 
her, his color ashen. 

"Sheriff?"

"Didn't you hear me the first time, Tipton?"

"Merloni found this outside, sir.  I thought you should 
know."  He held out a box wrapped in clown paper.  Scully saw 
the gift card bore Eleanor's name.

"Where exactly did you find it?" she asked, moving aside so 
he could enter.

"Not me, Ma'am.  It was Merloni.  He said it was out back 
near the bushes, where everyone goes to have their smokes."

"Paper's not wet," Scully observed.  "It can't have been out 
there that long."

Parker met her eyes.  Sweat had broken out on his upper lip.  
"Should we open it?"

Scully nodded.  "Get me some gloves."

Parker sent Tipton scurrying with a warning.  "Go get the 
gloves, and not a word of this to anyone else."  Less than a 
minute, Tipton was back, and his fingers trembled as he 
handed Scully the gloves.  She snapped them on.  Both men 
watched her intently, breathing down on her as she picked 
apart the wrapping at one end.

*You talked to him just a few hours ago* she told herself.  
*He's fine*

She took slow, even breaths to keep her stomach calm as she 
drew back the lid on the box.  Inside was a hand.  Slim 
fingers, nails painted bright pink.   Her shoulders slumped.

"Looks female," she offered quietly.

"That's CiCi's ring," Parker replied.  "She never took it off 
that I saw."

Scully looked down at the severed hand.  "I think," she said, 
"it's time to call Boston."

XxXxX

With Boston on the way, Scully contemplated her best move, 
thoughts bouncing off her options like a pinball machine on 
full tilt.  Duty told her to stay with the hand, preserve the 
evidence.  It would need to be printed ASAP to see if it was 
in fact CiCi Lin.  Someone had to brief the Boston team when 
they showed up.  Based on his squirrelly history, Scully 
didn't trust Parker with the truth, especially where Eleanor 
was concerned.  And Eleanor concerned her a great deal.

"I can have someone else drive to Beckett and look for them," 
Parker told her.  "Tipton would be happy to do it, I'm sure."

Torn, Scully wavered.  She always wanted proof with her own 
eyes.  "I was thinking--"

Parker's shrill phone cut her off.  He picked it up and 
barked an answer.  "Go.  Great, great.  Patch her through."  
He extended his arm to Scully and waggled his fingers.  
"They've got Eleanor on the line."

A moment later, Scully's cell phone chirped, and she answered 
it before one full ring.  "Mulder?"

"Scully, I got your messages."

"We've been trying to reach you for an hour, Mulder.  Where 
are you?"

"We're driving back from Beckett.  It took us a while to 
track down Vaughn.  He wasn't a lot of help, but he did tell 
us one thing.  Bea left from the gas station that night in 
her own car, and with no one else inside.  Vaughn had been 
thinking about making a move, but she was already inside by 
the time he got out to the parking lot."

"He watched her drive away?"

"No, he got on his bike and left.  He doesn't remember 
Shannon Blessing at all."

Scully barely registered this information.  She watched 
across the room as Parker talked to Eleanor.  He'd better 
have the sense not to tip her, she thought.

"Scully?"

"Hmmm?"  She jerked her attention back to Mulder.

"I got your messages about the tests."  

Ah, smart boy.  He wasn't going to say anything with Eleanor 
still sitting beside him.

"It's very important that the two of you get back here 
immediately, Mulder."

"We'll be there within the hour," he answered.  "How sure are 
you about the results?"

"We'll have the full panel back in a day or so, but the 
results look pretty solid.  It's her DNA on those envelopes.  
You need to be very, very careful." Scully lowered her voice, 
turned away from Parker.  "A hand turned up here at the 
station this morning, Mulder, addressed to Eleanor just like 
last time.  Our preliminary ID says the hand belongs to CiCi 
Lin."

Silence on his end.  "Time of death?" he asked at last.

"We're not sure yet.  I'm going to take it over to the lab 
now and see what I can find out.  Mulder, watch yourself, 
okay?  If she's been sending the cards, we don't know what 
else she might have done."

"Right."

Scully hesitated.  "And I keep thinking that she's the one 
who called you up here.  If she's fixated on Coben, that 
might explain why."

"You think we're talking some sort of reenactment?"

"The second card said, 'Now the circle is complete,'" Scully 
answered.  "She might be talking about her original 
abduction.  If so, Mulder, that second card might be for 
you."


Mulder hung up with Scully's warning humming in his ears.  
Beside him, Eleanor looked calm as she steered the cruiser 
over the empty country roads.  Sun streamed in the glass, 
burning though his anxiety, and Mulder squirmed.  Eleanor 
glanced at him.  "Hot," she asked, "or nervous?"

"Why would I be nervous?"

"Both of them calling to check up on us like that?  Something 
big is going on back at the station.  I wonder if they found 
CiCi."

"Found her body?"

Eleanor stared.  "You think she's dead?"

"I don't know, but she's been missing almost two days now.  
It's a possibility, wouldn't you say?"

She returned her eyes to the road, squinting.  "I hope not."

Mulder regarded her, this slight woman with the sun-streaked 
hair and tiny freckles who seemed so suddenly calm.  If she 
were a monster, he'd helped in her creation.  An eerie 
prickling sensation broke out over the back of his neck, and 
he cracked his window, looking out at the road.  "I've been 
thinking about the cards you got," he said, deliberately not 
challenging her with eye contact. 

"What about them?"

"The kidnapper clearly wants you to think of these attacks as 
a gift.  Why do you suppose that is?"

"How should I know?  He's a psychopath, right?  His actions 
don't have to make sense."

At this, he did look at her.  "No, that's where most cops 
make their mistake.  All human actions have motivation and 
reasoning.  The logic might be faulty, but it's there."

"Yes, but how am I supposed to understand the reasoning of 
some crazy person?"

He held her gaze for an instant.  "Just guess."

She sighed and gripped the wheel a bit tighter.  Mulder saw 
the speedometer inch up over forty.  "I don't know," she 
said, sounding annoyed.  "He's familiar with the old case, 
like you said.  Maybe he wants to be Coben.  Maybe he wants 
to finish what Coben started, and that's why he's targeting 
me."

"Then why pick the others?"

"I have no idea!"  She glared at him.  "That's why I called 
you.  You're the one who gets into their heads.  You tell me 
why he's doing this."

"I think he thinks you liked it."

She braked in the middle of the road, throwing them both 
against the seatbelts.  "What the hell did you just say?"

"You heard me.  He thinks you liked your time in the closet."  
He eyed her.  "Maybe he was right."

"How dare you.  I can't believe you'd even think that, let 
alone say it.  You saw what he did!  He was a monster, an 
animal!  He was going to kill me!"  She was shaking, her eyes 
wild.  "I fought with everything I had to get away from him!"

"Then maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe he wants the others to suffer 
like you did.  Maybe he wants to show them how much you 
hurt."

Her jaw snapped shut.  "Why?" she asked at last.  "What would 
be the point?"

"Maybe," he said gently, "if there were others, then you 
wouldn't be alone."

"I... I'm not alone.  Besides, that's sick."

A car drew up behind them and honked, making Eleanor jump.  
She put her hands on the wheel and started forward again.  "I 
can drive," Mulder offered.

"I'm fine."  They continued on in silence for a few minutes, 
and then she looked over at him again.  "You were there," she 
said.  "You know how bad it was."

"Yes."

She nodded, turning away.  "Then there's no need to prove it 
to anyone else."

XxXxX

Laid out on the shiny exam table, the hand became smaller, 
sadder, as it lost its macabre tissue paper decorations and 
sat alone under the stark light.  Scully photographed it from 
several angles before beginning her examination.  Unlike the 
other hand they'd received, this one had not been preserved.  
The flesh was cold but tender.  Whoever had chopped it off 
had managed a clean sever, without so much as a chipping a 
nail in the process.

"The cut is similar to the one seen on Shannon Blessing's 
hand," Scully noted for the recorder.  "The blade is wider 
than the wrist, at least four inches, and sharp enough to cut 
clean through on the first try."

She took prints from all the fingers and scanned the index 
into the computer.  Wearily, she sat down at in front of the 
monitor and asked the program to check the print against the 
one from CiCi's file.  

It beeped.

"Match," Scully read.  "One hundred percent."

XxXxXxX

Mulder knew there was trouble the minute he spotted the suits 
hanging around in front of the station.  "Who the hell are 
those guys?" Eleanor asked as she pulled into her space.

"Feds," Mulder replied grimly.  "Parker must have called them 
in."

Parker descended with Feds in tow in the minute they entered 
the station.  "It's about time," he said.  "Eleanor, you 
probably remember Miles Garvey from the Boston FBI division.  
This is his associate, Joseph Johnson.  They would like to 
talk to you about the kidnappings."

Garvey was a tall black man who dressed like he took his job 
seriously.  Despite the heat, his suit was pressed, 
unwrinkled and his tie hung perfectly centered.   Red, Mulder 
noted, where the suit was your basic fibbie gray.  Garvey 
played by the rules only so far.  

His partner, Johnson, was a study in contrast -- white, older 
and pudgier, but he nevertheless had a sharp gleam in his 
eye.  These two clearly thought they were headed in for the 
kill.

"If you'll just come this way," Garvey said, taking Eleanor's 
elbow.  

Bad move, Mulder thought, and Eleanor balked.

"I know my way around my own station," she said, pulling her 
arm free.  "If you'll just let me get my files, I can get you 
up to speed much faster."

"We'll look at the files after we talk," Garvey said.  "Right 
now we're much more interested in your opinion on the case."

"Since when?  I've been trying to get you guys to take these 
kidnappings seriously for years now.  You wouldn't even take 
my calls."

"That was our mistake," Garvey soothed.  His partner 
advanced.  "We're here now and we're very eager to hear what 
you have to say."

"The hell you are."  Eleanor took a step back, closer to 
Mulder.  "What's going on?  Why do you want to talk to me and 
not anyone else?"

"We're talking to everyone," Johnson assured her.  He reached 
out with fat fingers.  "Now, if you'll just come with us--"

"Not until someone tells me what the hell is going on!"

"We'll explain everything in the other room.  Now, come on."

"No," she said, struggling as Johnson laid claim to her arm.  
"Let me go!  Get your hands off me!  Sam, do something!"

"Just go with them, Eleanor.  Hear what they have to say.  
I'll be right outside."

"No, no I won't."  Her heels dragged, and she looked back at 
Mulder.  "Did you do this?  Did you say something?  Let go, 
you asshole! Mulder, answer me!"

Mulder say anything as Johnson hauled her away.  Parker 
looked like he might be sick.  "Shit," he said, and shook his 
head.  "I just can't believe it."

"Neither can I," Mulder replied.  Garvey tilted his head and 
studied him.

"You must be Mulder.  Parker was telling me about you."  
Mulder did the obligatory handshake and nodded in the 
direction Johnson had taken Eleanor.

"That could have gone better."

"We'll handle it."  He looked at Mulder.  "Why did she think 
you had tipped us off?"

"Search me."  Mulder gave him his best blank stare.  

"I understand you're the reason no one called us in on this 
case sooner."

"You got called in on this case three years ago, after the 
first victim.  How much sooner can you get?"

Garvey shifted his weight in Mulder's direction.  "You 
haven't slept much in the past two days, and your partner 
made a good call on the DNA, so I'm going to let that one 
slide.  But you know damn well that procedure demands we get 
at least a phone call when you come up here and start nosing 
around in one of our old cases.  I checked, by the way -- no 
one from your office knew you were even here.  It was an 
enlightening conversation all the way around."

"I came up here because Deputy Kot asked me to."

"Yeah, and I'm thinking she may have had a very good reason."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning maybe she wanted someone she could manipulate."

"Or someone who would listen."

"Another woman is missing, Agent Mulder.  Maybe even dead.  
I'd say listening is about all you've done.  Regardless, I 
don't have time to stand around here in a pissing match with 
you.  Thanks for getting her back to us okay, and we'll take 
it from here on out."

"Take whatever tact you like on the Nelson kidnapping," 
Mulder answered, "but Scully and I caught the Lin case.  You 
don't have the authority to order us aside."

"No, I don't," Garvey agreed amiably.  "But the man I spoke 
to in DC -- Kersh, I believe his name was -- he said that if 
you and Agent Scully aren't back at your desks by nine am 
tomorrow then you're out of a job.  Tell Scully when you see 
her, will you?  And say thanks to her for the heads up.  Nice 
to know there are still some agents out there who are team 
players."

"Wait, Scully called you?"

"Good-bye, Agent Mulder," he said over his shoulder.  "And 
good luck."

XxXxXxXxX

He saw them out and around, mixed with Parker's people, as he 
drove to the lab to find Scully.  Garvey and Johnson had 
clearly ordered another canvassing of the common where CiCi 
had disappeared.  Cops covered it like flies on a turd, 
buzzing with activity.  A waste, Mulder thought.  The 
kidnapper had obviously planned CiCi's abduction from the 
fair well in advance; there would be no further clues there 
left to find.

He passed a half dozen black-and-white cruisers on the road.  
What they were looking for, he couldn't begin to guess.  He 
jerked the car into park and gave the door a satisfying slam 
on his way out.  Down in the morgue, he found Scully 
collecting tissue samples from a severed hand.

"Hi," she said, looking relieved at the site of him.  "You 
made it back."

"Yes, to find the Boston Feds lining the streets."

She set down her scalpel.  "It was well past time to call 
them in, Mulder.  You know that.  You would have been livid 
if things had been the other way around and they hadn't 
called you."

"I thought we agreed to wait."

"And I did.  But waiting hasn't helped.  This is CiCi's hand, 
Mulder.  We made the positive ID, and I think we both know 
what that means in terms of the likelihood of finding her 
alive.  What's more, this hand has been decaying for at least 
sixteen hours now, which means that she's probably been dead 
for quite some time.  With you missing, Eleanor the prime 
suspect, and a possible second victim on the horizon, yes, I 
felt it was time to call for help.  This case has gotten far 
too big for just the two of us."

"Garvey and Johnson have fixed that problem for good."

"What do you mean?"

"Garvey ratted us out to Kersh.  We have to be back in DC 
tomorrow morning or our jobs are on the line."

She was quiet, eyes on the hand, and Mulder moved a step 
closer.  "What, that's okay with you?"

"We knew we were walking a thin line here, Mulder.  You can't 
be that surprised."

"If you wanted off this case, you could have just told me.  
You don't need any sort of official stamp to leave."

"Hey," she said, "I'm sorry you're angry, but don't make this 
about me."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner that you suspected Eleanor?"

"I did say I found her behavior abnormal, but you dismissed 
it."  Her voice rose to match his.

"And so this is what, punishment for not listening to you?  
You could have at least talked to me before calling Boston, 
Scully."

"Your phone was turned off!"

"I had no reception," he shot back.  "It's not my fault 
Daniel Vaughn lives in a cellular black hole.  You gave it a 
whole big sixty minutes." 

"And how many times could you have been dead during those 
sixty minutes?"

He shook his head.  "I was fine."

"I had no way of knowing that."

He eyed her steadily, and she held his gaze dead-on.  "So 
this was about concern," he said, "and not even a little bit 
about being right."

"I don't know.  Maybe you should tell me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're the one who's supposed to solve these kinds of cases, 
right?  I just collect and catalogue the evidence."

"I never said anything like that!"

"I think you just did."

He stared at her a minute longer and then turned to leave.  
"Mulder?"  He turned.

"It was a good catch," he said softly, "but nothing's solved 
yet."

"Mulder..."  She sounded tired, frustrated.

"The card said 'circle,'" he said, "which means the victims 
have to be connected somehow.  By my count, we have about ten 
hours to figure out what that connection is before the circle 
closes for good."

XxXxXxX

After two hours she called in an attorney just to make them 
stop.  She needed out of the little room and she didn't 
really care what he said to them to make it happen.  They let 
her go reluctantly, but Sam took her badge and gun first.  He 
did not look her in the eyes the whole time.  Maybe he just 
hadn't wanted to see the tear stains on her cheeks, or maybe 
he believed what they were saying about her.

Out back, in the dark, she met Jimmy Tipton smoking near the 
bushes.  "Can I have one of those?" she asked, and he gave 
her a curious look.

"I didn't think you smoked."

"I don't," she said as she reached with shaking fingers for 
his outstretched pack.  "I just want one is all."  He lit it 
for her and she leaned against the metal rail.

"I heard what the Feds saying," he murmured.  

"It's not true," she said, though they had her half-convinced 
it was.  Sometimes she woke up in a different room of the 
house, sore and tired.  She didn't remember how she got 
there.  What if she'd been writing letters then?  What if 
she'd been doing something worse?

"Of course it's not true," Jimmy agreed quickly.  "You'd 
never do something like that."  He shuffled his feet.  
"Listen, I'm off now for eight hours.  You want to get 
something to eat?"

The thought of an hour's worth of forced conversation was 
more than she could stand.  "No, I think I'll just go home.  
Thanks."  She extinguished her butt and slunk around the 
front to her car.  Prying eyes followed her every move, 
making her feel dirty.  She peeled out of the parking space 
and drove home.  Only inside her familiar pale walls could 
she breathe again.

XxXxXxXxX

I have seen them crawling everywhere now.  I should have 
known right away there would be trouble.  Like roaches, 
where's there's one, there's bound to be others.  I can't 
walk two feet in this town anymore without drawing someone's 
attention.  I want to scream at them, push me, will you????  
I can push back.  I am strong.  Eleanor is the weak one, 
weaker than I ever knew.  She's fucked everything up.  I can 
fix it.  I can.  I write the plan as it appears in my head, 
and it feels good to see the words on the page. 

DIE
DIE
DIE
DIE
DIE

I get the keys again.  I get Eleanor the last of her 
presents. 

I will fix things.  I will.

You all die tonight.

XxXxXxXxX

At her borrowed desk, Scully took off her glasses and rested 
her head in her hands.  She hadn't heard from Mulder in 
hours, and their argument continued to play inside her head 
as she wrote up all her notes on the case.  Maybe, just a 
little bit, it had been about being right.  Not right, but 
useful.  He'd relegated her to trash duty and she'd made it 
work.  But apparently this was not the way things were 
supposed to work in Mulder's universe.  

Her phone rang and she snapped it up.  "Mulder?"

"Agent Scully?  This is Agent Garvey.  I take it you and 
Agent Mulder are still in the area?"

"Yes."  Scully rubbed the bridge of her nose.  "I'm just 
finishing my autopsy notes on CiCi Lin's hand."

"Yes, well...  we seem to have found the rest of her.  Can I 
ask you to come take a look?"

"Sure," said Scully, already moving.  "What's your location?"

"Schoolyard on Elm and Crescent."

Scully halted.  "She's out in the open like that?"

"Yeah, I don't know what to make of it either.  How soon can 
you be here?"

"I'm on my way now."

In the dark, she fumbled with her car keys, finally managing 
to get the door open.  She started out onto the road and 
dialed Mulder at the same time.  "They found CiCi," she said 
when he answered.

"Where?"

She told him the location.  "I'm on my way there now at 
Garvey's request, but I thought you'd like to know."

"I'll meet you."

She tossed the phone on the seat next to her and steered the 
car off the highway and onto the dark country road back to 
Woodsbury, her mind on the case at hand.  The lone light 
ahead was green as usual.  Scully didn't slow down as she 
entered the intersection, barely had time to register the 
high-beams that came out of nowhere.  The car hit her from 
the side going full speed.  She heard glass breaking, metal 
crunching, felt the Taurus become airborne.   Screaming pain.

And then there was nothing.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Eleanor hadn't thought she would sleep, but if she was waking 
then she must have.  Her face felt swollen; her joints ached 
from holding herself.  The night wind stirred her curtains, 
swirling them in a silent dance, but it wasn't the silence 
that had woken her.

She sat up, sweat-soaked hair on her cheek, and listened.  
Her heart stopped.   From downstairs came a noise she knew 
all too well:

Someone was taking the nails from the closet.

XxXxxxX


End chapter eight.  Continued in chapter nine.

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