Chapter Text
„Agent Scully, thank you for coming on such a short notice,” Assistant Director Skinner welcomed his agent to the late-night meeting.
He was stony-faced and looked tired and his body-language showed he was tense.
So was Scully.
“Thank you for having me,” she replied, shaking his hand and nodding to four other people attending the meeting.
“Please have a seat and let me introduce the team,” Skinner continued and pointed clockwise from Scully. “This is Special Agent Fisher, with the Behavioral Science Unit, Agent Michaels with the SWAT team. You’ve met Special Agent Conway who leads the investigation and of course you know Karen Kosseff.”
Karen gave Scully a warm smile, which Scully weakly returned.
“After careful consideration and weighing our options, we have decided to take you onboard this investigation, since you know more about the suspect than all of us do. We must warn you though, Agent Scully, you will be under constant supervision, I hope that’s clear to you,” Conway said authoritarian.
“Yes, I understand,” Scully replied firmly while sitting down.
“Good. Now that we got this straight, why don’t you tell us from your POV again what happened yesterday, so we can align our intel,” Conway demanded.
“Yes, Sir. On Wednesday, I came to the office at 8:30 am, finding Agent Mulder at his desk. Nothing seemed to be off, he was in good spirits and joked about last night’s basketball game which he had watched at home, as he said. We were called to a meeting with Assistant Director Skinner at 9:00 am about our reports on a case we had closed the day before. The meeting ended at 10:00 am and Agent Mulder and I returned to our office. At about 10:15, Agent Mulder received a phone call which I didn’t overhear until Agent Mulder yelled that the caller – I quote – ‘couldn’t do this’ and if he did, Agent Mulder would - I quote again – ‘make him pay for this’.
“Do you know who he was talking to?” Michaels intervened.
“I don’t know. I asked him what the call was about but he just shrugged and said it was something about his landlord.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Agent Mulder didn’t give me reason to doubt him.”
“What state was Agent Mulder in after that call? Would you say he was agitated?” Karen Kosseff asked.
“He was visibly angry but he tried to compose himself quickly.”
“What happened next?” Conway asked.
“We worked until noon and I went for lunch, asking Agent Mulder if he wanted something since he did not want to join me. He refused and I left the office. At approximately 12:30 pm, I received a phone call on my cell from Assistant Director Skinner ordering me back to HQ immediately. Since I was just across the street at Danny’s Diner, I returned to HQ at 12:40 pm where AD Skinner intercepted me in the lobby. He asked me if I knew of the whereabouts of Agent Mulder and I negated, adding that I thought Agent Mulder was in our office. AD Skinner informed me that Agent Mulder was seen on the executive floor 30 minutes prior and that he entered Assistant Director Donaldson’s office shortly after. Approximately five minutes after that, several staff-members heard shots being fired. It took another five minutes to point out the location and upon entering AD Donaldson’s office, the Assistant Director was found dead on the floor. It is believed that in the turmoil, Agent Mulder had left the scene. Surveillance footage shows him leaving the building at 12:20. It is therefore believed that Agent Mulder assassinated Assistant Director Donaldson and then fled to an unknown location.”
“Thank you, Agent Scully,” AD Skinner finished her report, “Have you had any contact with Agent Mulder ever since? Has he tried to reach you?”
“No, Sir. I haven’t seen or spoken with him since and he hasn’t tried to reach me. I don’t know where he is.”
“We have interrogated Agent Mulder’s associates, some of them pretty shady and highly paranoid but harmless characters. They hadn’t been in contact with him, either. There are no living relatives and since he doesn’t socialize with peers, other than Agent Scully, we’ve finished our interviews up to this point. We’ve also gone through his call logs and particularly checked on that phone call he received shortly before he went to Donaldson. It was untraceable for now but we’re working on that with some new software. His cellphone log was unsuspicious, too. On his private line, apart from a couple of calls to a phone-sex line, only Agent Scully’s number appeared,” Conway reported.
“His emails and regular mail lead us nowhere, too. I hate to admit it, but we are at a dead end. We’ve issued an APB but so far have received no leads. Currently we’re analyzing footage of traffic control cams but that might take another day until it’s all evaluated.
In the meantime, ballistics has proven that the shots had been fired from a Glock Model 22, FBI standard issue. The bullets retrieved from AD Donaldson’s body match bullets that had been fired at the FBI’s shooting range, originating from Special Agent Mulder’s weapon.”
The room fell silent while everybody considered the impact of Agent Conway’s last words.
“So much from my side, now I’d like Agent Fisher to continue,” Conway closed after a while.
“Thank you, Agent Conway,” the leader of the Behavioral Science Unit continued. “Since you’ve already received and read my profile, I will not elaborate on it again just go over it quickly. Agent Scully, here is your copy and if you would please be so kind as to go through it and possibly complete it, I would highly appreciate it.”
Scully nodded, still digesting the fact that her partner was a possible murderer. Fisher pushed a manila folder across the table towards her and then continued.
“Agent Mulder isn’t a person with all too many regular habits. His work is his life. He’s impulsive and sometimes tends to act irrationally when on a case. His peers consider him arrogant and condescending. He’s a loner. In the scenario that I’m currently creating, AD Donaldson was the unknown caller and Agent Mulder overreacted on what he said. It would fit his profile. I therefore must conclude that I believe Agent Mulder is capable of cold-blooded murder if triggered right.”
“Agent Scully, I know, we’ve asked you this before, but maybe in the meantime you had time to reconsider your initial statement. Would you know of particular places he went to, after he closed an investigation. Places of peace, where he calms down?” Karen asked.
“I know of a summerhouse in Quonochontaug and I know that he went there a few times. I found him there once, after he went through an aggressive procedure to recover buried memories. But you must know of this place, as I had filed that in the case report.”
“Yes, we do. Do you think it’s possible that he has gone through another of those procedures and that this caused him to react this way?”
“I think, we need to examine Agent Mulder, to either prove or disprove this theory. All I can say is he appeared normal to me.”
“We are of course surveiling this summerhouse as well as his friends’ apartments,” Conway added.
“Apart from the summerhouse, are there any other places you can think of, Agent Scully?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” Scully shook her head.
“Agent Scully, I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of this but if you’re holding back information to protect Agent Mulder…”
“I am not withholding information, Agent Conway,” Scully emphasized.
“Agent Scully, we just want to make sure there is nothing we fail to notice. I want Agent Mulder to be found alive so we can figure out what happened,” Skinner said.
“Me too, Sir. I don’t want him to get hurt or even killed. But I cannot provide you with anything that I do not know. I don’t know where he went and I don’t know who else he would contact in such a situation. I am usually the one he asks for help and I haven’t heard from him since yesterday.”
“Alright. We will adjourn this meeting until we have the report of the traffic control cameras. Local police forces scan the traffic, private as well as commercial vehicles and we have extra officers checking public transportation. I’m sure we’ll find him one way or the other. He simply cannot have vanished without a trace,” Skinner concluded.