| “Piper…no…Piper.” Max stuttered. She heard the phone on the other line hang up. Max hung up her own phone and sighed. Piper was one of her good friends and there was nothing she could do for her. In her own house, Piper’s heart went out to Max. She didn’t want to drag her into something that was going to end in bad news. Piper thought for a moment before picking the phone back up again. She dialed a familiar number and waited for the answering machine to pick up on the other line. “You’ve reached the office of agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Please leave a message with your name and number after the tone.” Piper recognized the voice of Mulder on the answering machine. “Agents, this is Piper Alexander. I’m having some problems at home with the police and an unexplained murder. If it’s possible for you to contact me, I would greatly appreciate it. My number is 112-0246. Thank you.” Piper hung up the phone knowing she was in good hands. She crawled under the blankets of her bed and fell into a deep sleep. The next morning Piper woke up to a doorbell ringing. She woke up and looked around. Her clock said it was one o’clock in the afternoon. She quickly got up and ran down the stairs. She looked out the window and saw no cars were parked in the yard meaning her parents and sisters probably went out. Piper saw two figures standing at the front door. They rang the doorbell again. Piper opened the door and smiled. “Hi.” She said excitedly. “What are you guys doing here?” Mulder and Scully stood outside her door. “We got your message and decided to come down and give you a hand.” Scully said. Mulder looked Piper over. Her hair was in a pretty sad excuse for a ponytail. She was wearing shorts and a wrinkled T-shirt in the dead of winter. Large bags had formed under here eyes. “Did we wake you?” Mulder asked. “Yea, but that’s okay. Come on in.” Piper led Mulder and Scully into her parlor. Mulder sat down on the couch and Scully walked over to the Christmas tree. Presents still lay under the tree. Unique ornaments hung on every visible branch of the obvious fake tree. “Looks like you guys had a great Christmas.” Scully said. “Yea, it was wonderful.” Piper sat on the floor petting her dog. “Can I get you guys anything?” “No.” Scully said sitting down. She sat next to Mulder on the edge of the couch. “Piper, what’s going on?” Mulder asked. Piper sighed and swallowed a hard lump in her throat. “Yesterday, Suzanne and I went out behind my playhouse to get some wood. Suzanne was supposed to have a party yesterday night and she wanted to have a fire in the fireplace. So, we went to collect the wood. We always store wood behind the playhouse because it stays dry back there and there’s plenty of room. I tried pulling the wood out but it was stuck fast. I even tried getting it out with a crow bar. Finally it came loose and the whole thing crashed to the ground like it was all glued together. It came out like one huge wall. I jumped out of the way but Suzanne wasn’t as lucky.” Piper’s eyes began to fill with tears. Her voice became shaky as she tried to continue the story. “She fell backwards into the yard behind us and broke her wrist. I helped her up and then I looked towards the playhouse. There was a body behind it…” She couldn’t continue. Remembering the past day was too difficult. So many times she had been questioned about what had happened by police officer after officer. She couldn’t help but feel bad for herself even though she knew Suzanne was going through the same thing. Her whole family was. “What was it?” Mulder asked. “The police told us it was a human. They say it’s probably been out there since my dad built the playhouse. That playhouse has been there for 21 years. They think my dad killed the thing back there but I know he could never do that.” Piper began to cry now. The thought of her dad spending the rest of his life in jail killed her. “You don’t think it’s human, do you?” Scully questioned. “It wasn’t. I know it wasn’t.” Piper said. “But I didn’t know what to do. No one would believe me so I just kept my mouth shut. I was lost last night I spent an hour and a half on the phone with Max. I told her everything…everything.” Mulder looked into Piper’s teary eyes. He knew there was something she wasn’t telling them. Something that could change the entire investigation but the question was how to get her to tell them. “Can we look at the scene of the crime?” Mulder asked standing up. “Sure, hang on.” Piper said. She ran up the stairs and grabbed a pair of pants to put over her light shorts. She grabbed a pair of clogs and put them on her feet. She ran back down the stairs and both Mulder and Scully stood up. “You’ll want to bundle up, it’s usually pretty cold outside.” Piper said. She led them towards the back of the house. They walked through her kitchen and into the dining room. Piper stopped short looking at the table. “What is it?” Scully asked looking at the table. A small, square note with neat handwriting was on the table. “Nothing, it’s just a note from my mom. My mom took Suzanne back to the emergency room to put a cast on her hand. Lynn went over to her friend’s house and my dad went to my grandmothers to help her clean up after our Christmas party that we had there.” Piper walked over to a closet. She pulled out a coat and put it on. Digger ran into the sun room, which was next to the kitchen, barking his head off. “Digger, stop it.” Piper said rather loudly. She walked into the room and looked out the window. “Oh my god.” Mulder and Scully walked into the room and looked out the window. They scanned the backyard and saw what Piper was looking at. There were two policemen in Piper’s backyard looking around her playhouse. “They can’t do this, it isn’t fair!” Piper yelled. She opened the door and ran outside with Mulder, Scully, and her dog following. Her dog ran to the men barking his full head off. Piper ran over to the police officers screaming. “Get out of here! You can’t be here! You bad word! Get out of my yard!” Piper yelled at the top of her lungs. Her dog had run over to the men and started sniffing them. “Go away!” “Piper stop.” Mulder said from behind her. He held her arm so she wouldn’t continue towards the men. “Who are you?” The police officers asked. “We've already spoken to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander.” “I’m Special Agent Dana Scully this is Agent Fox Mulder, we’re with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. What are you doing here?” Scully asked. “We’re conducting and investigation. In case you didn’t know this place is a crime scene.” One of the officers said. He was the taller of the two and by the looks of his uniform he had more experience than the other man. “In case you didn’t know, this place is the home of a family, not just a crime scene. Now unless you have a warrant I suggest you get out of here before we place you under arrest for unruly trespassing.” Scully said. Mulder was still holding Piper back. The thought of men searching around in her backyard for who knows how long gave her chills. She wanted to wake up from the entire nightmare, but she couldn’t. She wanted to scream, everything inside her was bottled up inside but she couldn’t do that either. “Get off her property right now!” Scully shouted. “You cannot come in here and push us out like this. We won’t take it.” The officer shouted right back. “You can’t stay here, get out!” Scully screamed. Mulder stood behind her taking in the entire argument. “Scully.” He said sternly but she wouldn’t take it. “If you can’t show me a warrant then I suggest you get out and get one.” She said continuing to yell. “You can’t stop police officers from visiting a crime scene.” The other officer said. “No but you can stop them from investigating. Did you even bother to listen to what the girl had to say? About what happened about what she thought happened.” Scully shouted. “Dana.” Mulder said from behind her more sternly than before. “Just get out.” Piper said. “We’ll leave but we’ll be back.” The officer said. He and his partner left the backyard exiting by the gate. Piper’s dog followed them but fortunately didn’t get out. “Anyway, come back here.” Piper said while leading Mulder and Scully in back of the playhouse. She wiped the tears from her eyes and waited for Mulder and Scully. All the wood was still stuck together on the ground. The fence was bent backwards towards the yard behind them. Piper showed them the pile and they saw a spot where a body would have been. “Where’s the corpse now?” Scully asked. “Maybe I can get them to let me autopsy it.” “Yea, sure they will with the great hospitality you just showed them.” Mulder joked. Scully glared at him. “I just don’t know what to do. My dad couldn’t have done this. He built this playhouse for my sisters and I with his bare hands. They wanted to arrest him but they didn’t have enough to go on. They were servailing my house last night. I sat in the bathroom staring at them from the window for hours before I called Max. I didn’t know what else to do.” “How’s the rest of your family taking this?” Scully asked. |