| He was cut off by a loud laughter that surfaced from the basement. He looked at Scully who gave him a sympathetic look. She didn’t want to get up but she knew she had to. She followed Mulder past the dining room and through the kitchen, to the stairs. As they started down the stairs, they heard music and laughter coming from below them. As Mulder opened the door, the laughter immediately stopped. He and Scully walked down the stairs to find Piper sitting on the floor, trying to balance a dry erase board on her head, while Max was sitting on the couch, throwing markers at Piper. “And once again, I’m not going to ask.” Scully said as she took a seat next to Maxine. Piper dumped the dry erase board on the ground. “So what did you find?” She asked. “Same cause of death.” Mulder answered. “Which would be?” Max dragged on. “A poison.” Scully responded. “What kind of poison?” Piper questioned. “Well, it’s hard to explain but it attacks the blood stream and with the amount of dosage that we found in our victims, it is very lethal.” Scully explained. “Did you figure what all those letters meant?” Max interrogated. Mulder and Scully both shook their heads. The room grew silent except for the music coming from the radio. A few moments later, Scully asked the question that had been floating around in her mind for quite sometime. “Girls how well do you know Ms. Winchell?” Max looked to Piper, unsure of how to answer. Piper blankly stared back at her, questioning the same thing. Finally, it was Piper who spoke up. “What do you mean?” “Well, when did you first meet her? How often did you see or spend time with her? How much do you know about her or how much does she know about you?” Scully wondered. “Well, we just met her this year.” Maxine explained. “But we’re with her all the time. I mean, we see her everyday in class. We hang out with her almost everyday after school. Heck, she even came over my house to make perogees once.” Piper replied. Mulder looked to Scully, then to Max, and then to Piper searching for an explanation about the weird name. “It’s a polish food.” “She’s our friend but she’s all our teacher.” Maxine clarified. “How much does she know about us?” Mulder asked. “Well, I’ve told her about you guys briefly when you first arrived. I had mentioned before when talking about the deaths of my parents. But, she doesn’t really know that much about you.” Piper responded. She grew silent, tired of explaining things. She wanted an explanation as to why Mulder and Scully cared so much. “So why do you want to know all of this about Ms. Winchell?” “Piper, you do have to admit that it is kind of strange that the weapon used to knock out the victims was found in Ms. Winchell’s room.” Mulder said. “Okay, so it’s strange but just because it was there does mean she did this.” Piper exclaimed. “Ms. Winchell isn’t capable of this.” Maxine added in. “She wouldn’t murder somebody.” “And tell me this.” Piper began. “Why would she hang the weapon in her own room? Don’t you think that she’s smarter than that? That she wouldn’t incriminate herself?” “Maybe she’s tired of running.” Scully suggested. “I don’t think you understand. The bottom line is she didn’t murder these people.” Piper said fiercely. “Piper…the evidence doesn’t exactly fit but she is a suspect and…” Scully began. Piper cut her off. “I don’t want to hear it.” Scully was about to speak again when Mulder shot her a sharp glance. She understood and quickly shut her mouth. Piper let her feelings brush off her like sweat as she listened to the radio. The lyrics of the songs soothed her. Music seemed to be the only thing that could sooth her now. Whether she was listening to it, or playing it on her saxophone, music swept her away to another place. A world where she felt protected and safe. “What’s that?” Mulder asked, pointing to the dry erase board. Piper’s train of thought was broken as he spoke. She looked to the board and then looked back up to Mulder. “That’s just Maxine’s way of trying to teach me a Geometry lesson.” Piper answered. “Scully, look at that.” Mulder commanded. Scully looked down at the dry erase board and gasped. “What is it?” Maxine wondered. “What you drew, what does it mean?” Mulder questioned. “It’s a transversal cut by two parallel lines.” Maxine replied. “Yes, but what do the colored half circles mean?” Scully pondered, knowing what Mulder was getting at. “It represents congruency. The angles that are marked with the same color are equal in measurement. Why?” Maxine explained. “Look at the pattern.” Mulder said. “The colored angles show the spots where we found victims.” “What?” Piper exclaimed, thinking they were talking total gibberish. “If the transversal is the main road then those two parallel lines represent the sides streets and the congruent angles show where we found each body.” Scully clarified. A thought suddenly hit Maxine. “That’s what the letters mean.” She whispered. “Okay, now this is getting too weird.” Piper said. “What are you talking about, Max?” “Under the first body, you found the letters PAI. Look at where they found the bodies. On the side streets where the alternate interior angles are congruent. And then you found PCA under one of the bodies. Now, if the killer continues this pattern, you should find the next victim on…” Max began. She stopped a moment to think. “The corner of Charleston and Cleveland Street.” “You think the murderer wants to be caught?” Piper asked. “We don’t know but I think Maxine is right.” Mulder said. “It all makes sense. It’s all falling into place.” “Now the only thing we need to find is the murderer.” Scully sighed. “That would help.” Piper joked. She looked around, smiling, first at Max, then Mulder, then Scully. None of them seemed to think she was very funny. She quickly wiped the smile off her face. “So what do we know about the murderer?” “Well, apparently he or she must know a lot about Geometry.” Max answered. “Based on the profile that we’ve established for the killer, we’ve figured that most likely he’s a male.” Scully explained. “I guess that rules out Ms. Winchell.” Piper added in. Scully rolled her eyes at Piper. “It’s a slim possibility that the killer is a woman. But a possibility none the less.” Scully said. “He’s either a doctor or he works very closely with them. Closely enough that he can obtain medicines that would otherwise be unattainable.” Mulder continued. “Looks like this guy’s got lots of talents.” Piper said sarcastically. “Apparently so.” Mulder responded. “The point is we have to stop him before he murders again.” “And how do we do that?” Maxine questioned. “We stake out Charleston and Cleveland Street for as long as we have to until the murderer comes back.” Mulder answered. “That could be fun.” Piper commented. “You say that as if you’re invited.” Scully said. “Am I to take it that we’re not?” Piper asked, meaning Max to be the other part of the we. “You could say that.” Mulder finished. “You guys need to go to school.” “But how can I concentrate when you’re sitting two streets over?” Piper whined. “Piper, you don’t concentrate even when they’re not there.” Max added in. Piper glared at her. “Look, can’t we help out for a few hours after school ends tomorrow? Please? Give you guys a little break? I mean, you’re going to be there all night.” She begged. Scully sighed. “Fine. But only a few hours after school.” “Well, while we’re sleeping tonight we’ll be thinking about you guys sitting in that car all by ourselves.” Piper joked. “Am I to take it that Max is staying over your house tonight?” Scully interrogated. Piper nodded her answer. Mulder smiled. “Well, I guess we’ll see you girls tomorrow. After school.” He reminded them. Mulder and Scully stood and walked up the stairs. Piper listened as they closed the front door and drove away. “So, what are we going to do tonight?” Piper asked Maxine. “You up for crashing a stakeout?” “I think they were serious when they said no help from us.” Max said. “But I can think of something better to do." "Oh, and what's that?" "Let's go out and chase some squirrels!" Max responded, laughing. "What?!" Piper responded, laughing as well. "Come on, it'll make us feel better." "I'm thinking more along the lines of looking up info on all doctors in Rhode Island to see who has an alibi and who doesn't." "I still think chasing squirrels would be more fun." "Come on." Piper said, still laughing. |