| Mulder looked to Scully. “Give us two minutes.” He said. They both disappeared into their rooms to get changed. * * * * Piper paced around the front lobby of the school. A few teachers began to come in but they paid no attention to the two girls. Kyla sat in a corner next to the telephone. She chewed her fingernails nervously. She hoped Erin reached her destination safely. “Piper, stop pacing you’re making me nervous.” Kyla finally said. Piper was about to sit down when she saw a car drive up. “I think that’s them.” She whispered. Kyla scrambled to her feet and got up. The two girls stood next to each other, gazing outside. They both looked at each other and bounded outside. Erin quickly climbed out of the car and met the two girls outside. They all just stood, staring at each other unaware of what to say. “Piper, what happened?” Scully asked as she and Mulder neared. “There’s another dead body.” Kyla answered. “And I found something in Ms. Winchell’s room.” Piper added in. “Where's the body?” Mulder questioned. “Outside Madison’s Restaurant.” Kyla said. “Okay look, I’ll go with Kyla to find the dead body. I’ll call some coroners and get someone down here to take away the body before it becomes the newest attraction. Scully, you stay here with Piper and Erin and check out what Piper’s talking about. Let the principal know what’s going on and we’ll meet at the autopsy bay when we’re done.” Mulder suggested. Scully nodded. Mulder exited the building and went to his car. Kyla began to walk away when Piper gave her shoulder a tight, comforting squeeze. Kyla smiled at her and walked out of the building with Mulder. Piper turned to Scully. “Let’s go.” She said as she began to lead Scully to Ms. Winchell’s room. Erin followed. They walked to the room and went inside. Piper looked again but Ms. Winchell still wasn’t there. Piper pointed to the blackboard to show Scully and Erin the triangles. “I’m assuming that’s blood.” Erin said. Scully walked over to it and peered at the blood shaped triangles. “What happened to the desk?” “I knocked it over when I ran out of the room.” Piper answered. She turned to Scully. “Any thoughts?” “It’s definitely blood but whose?” Scully wondered. Erin walked over to the other side of the blackboard. She looked up at a small stain that was beginning to form. She stared more closely at a small, wooden triangle shape that hung from the top of the board. It was made for a teacher to be able to draw a perfect triangle on the board. “Look at this.” Erin said. Piper walked over to Erin. “It’s more blood.” Piper noticed. Scully walked over to them and looked up at the wooden object. “Whoever drew these triangles on the board used these to trace them.” She calculated. “I’ll have to have the lab dust them for fingerprints.” “It looks like there’s blood on the point of this one.” Erin pointed out. “Like it was used to hit someone.” “Like the back of the victims.” Scully figured out. “This was probably used to knock out the victims before they were injected with the poison.” “What?” Piper asked, confused. “Never mind.” Scully said. She put on a pair of latex gloves and took the triangles off the hook they were hanging from. She pulled out a large plastic bag from her pocket and placed the triangles inside. She walked over to the other side of the board and pulled out a small container and a Popsicle stick from her pocket. She scraped some of the blood into the container and pocketed it. “Now the question is, where’s Ms. Winchell?” Erin said. “That’s one of the many questions that I’d like answered.” Scully responded. “Now what?” Piper questioned. “Now, you guys go to class or wherever teenagers go before school starts while I talk to the principal and then meet Mulder at the morgue.” Scully said. Erin and Piper began to protest when Scully gave them a stern look. Piper picked up her bag, which she had left there from before, and walked out of the classroom. Scully took one last look at the board and exited the room, closing the doors behind her. * * * * Meanwhile, Mulder was kneeling next to the dead body. Kyla kept her distant, not wanting to see the body again. She watched the road as she was told, keeping an eye out for the coroners. She looked down at the sidewalk, being sure not to step in the pile of blood again. Her shoes had finally stopped leaving bloody footprints but the bottom of her shoes were now stained red. “Was she killed the same way?” Kyla called to Mulder over the fence that separated them. “How did you know about the other murders?” Mulder wondered, not answering Kyla’s original question. “You sound like Piper.” Kyla commented quietly. “What?” Mulder asked. He stood up and peered over the fence at Kyla. “Never mind.” Kyla said. He bent back over and bagged the piece of chalk. “But to answer your question…yes, it appears as if she died the same way as the other victims but we won’t know that until Scully does a complete autopsy.” “Speaking of which, the van just arrived.” Kyla informed. Mulder stood up and walked around the fence. He met the van as they pulled over next to the sidewalk. A man and a woman hopped out. The woman went over to talk to Mulder while the man went into the back to grab a gurney. “You Agent Mulder?” The woman asked. Mulder nodded and shook hands with the woman. “Where’s the body?” “Back here.” He led the woman behind the fence. She looked down and shook her head. “When are you guys gonna catch this killer?” Mulder didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t really have an answer. He watched as the man and woman slipped the body into a body bag, loaded her onto the gurney, wheeled her to the van, and then loaded the gurney in the back. Mulder and Kyla waited as the van drove away. Mulder walked around the fence again, as a thought crossed his mind. “What is it?” Kyla asked, as she too, walked with him behind the fence. “The letters.” Mulder whispered. Kyla looked down at the ground and saw the letter PAE sprawled across the ground in blue chalk. “What does it mean?” Kyla wondered. “I don’t know.” Mulder confessed. “But we better find out before someone else winds up dead.” Chapter 7 March 25, 2000 3:55 PM Alexander Residence “Dude, this is so hard.” Piper whined. “Well, it would help if you paid attention more often.” Max retorted. “True.” Piper agreed. They both looked at each other and laughed. They were sitting in Piper’s basement, studying for a Geometry test they would have the next day. They both knew that when they got together to study they did more laughing than anything else but they always seemed to learn things, as well so it was okay. “Where are your friends?” Maxine asked Piper. “You mean Mulder and Scully? Oh…they’re around. Actually, Scully’s doing an autopsy and Mulder’s probably cruising trying to pick up chicks.” “Why can I imagine him doing that?” Maxine joked. She looked at Piper and the two girls burst into laughter. An hour later, Mulder and Scully walked into Piper’s house through the garage. Scully immediately dumped her jacket on a nearby chair. She slumped in the chair and put her feet up on the dining room table. Mulder stood behind her, hanging up his coat in the front closet. “Look, Scully, I’m not saying that my theory is plausible but…” Mulder stuttered. “Mulder, if you’re trying to convince me that aliens have come down to test this new poison on humans, you have to explain to me why. Why would they test on innocent people outside a local high school? And how did the object used to knock out our victims end up in Ms. Winchell’s room? She’s an obvious suspect in this thing. She’s been there, at ever murder. She knows her way around…she had a portion of the murder weapon.” “I don’t disagree with that, Scully. What I’m looking for is a motive. And until we find a motive or we find her connection to this poison, I think we need to keep open minds. I mean this thing…” |