| “Are you Hannah’s mother?” Mulder asked. “Yes, who are you?” She asked. “I’m Special Agent Mulder and this is Agent Scully. We’re with the FBI.” Mulder said. “You’re looking into that boy that was murder, aren’t you?” She asked. Scully nodded. “Can you tell us where Hannah is?” “She’s at Piper Alexander’s house. I can give you directions if you’d like, or I can call.” She offered. “That won’t be necessary.” Mulder said. “We know where she lives.” Mulder and Scully walked back to their car and drove away. Hannah’s mother stayed in the doorway for a moment but then went back into the house. Five minutes later, Mulder and Scully were at another doorstep. This time it was Piper’s. Mulder and Scully stood there, waiting. A familiar face opened the door. “Suzanne, right?” Mulder asked. “Yes, you’re Piper’s FBI friends, aren’t you?” The girl asked. Suzanne was one of Piper’s older sisters. On their last case together, Suzanne had found the missing link to help get Piper out of jail. Suzanne stepped back and allowed the agents to enter the house. “Piper’s downstairs.” She said knowing she didn’t have to explain. Mulder and Scully had been at the house so many times that they knew exactly where Piper loved to spend her time. Her basement was like her own world. There were pictures of aliens, UFO’s, and Sailor Moon pictures everywhere, as well as ones of her family and friends. Mulder and Scully made their way down the stairs. Mulder looked to his right and saw a familiar poster. It was a replica of the one hanging in his office that read “I want to believe.” Piper looked up when she heard the footsteps on the stairs. She smiled as she saw who It was. Scully looked around and saw Piper and a few more girls sitting downstairs. A song, from the stereo filled the air. Piper went over to it and turned down the music. There were five other girls, besides Piper, sitting in the basement. Each of them was sitting on the floor in a circle. The smallest girl was laying in the middle. They all looked up when they saw Mulder and Scully come downstairs. “Agents Mulder and Scully it’s so nice to see you again.” Piper said. The girls all moved from their positions and sat with their backs against the small couch. They sat in a straight line, almost like a barricade. “Mulder…Scully.” A voice said. Mulder and Scully looked around and saw Samantha sitting with the girls. Mulder and Scully had originally met Samantha and Piper at their Girl Scout camp a few summers before. “Samantha, it’s been a long time.” Scully said walking over to hug her. They embraced for a slight moment but then let go. “Piper, talks about you guys all the time.” Samantha said. “I see you girls stayed in contact.” Mulder said. Samantha nodded and took a seat with the rest of the girls. Secretly, inside she was glad she got to see Mulder and Scully again. They had worked very closely and basically they had changed Samantha and Piper’s lives. “What are all you girls doing here?” Scully asked wondering why all of the girls were gathered at Piper’s house that early in the morning. “We had a sleep over for Valentines Day.” Piper answered. Mulder and Scully had previously met Piper’s friends at heather’s birthday party. Scully thought the girls got together rather often but they seemed to love to be together. “Hannah, we actually came here to talk to you but since you’re all here we’d like to know which ones of you were playing manhunt on the night Nicholas Rosalini was murdered.” Mulder said. “It was me, Kyla, Piper, and Hannah.” Candy answered. “Was anyone else there besides you girls?” Scully asked. She took a seat on Piper’s newly furnished couch. Mulder sat down next to her and looked over at the girls. “Um…besides us and Nick there was my brother, Russ, and James Guild and Ian Nelson.” Hannah explained. “Hannah, it says here that you and Piper were the ones to find the body.” Mulder said. “That’s right.” Piper answered. “Do you care to enlighten us on where or how you find the body?” Scully asked not expecting no for an answer. “Every Friday we play a game of manhunt around mine and James’ or as we call him, Jim’s neighborhood.” Hannah explained. “Who usually organizes the games?” Mulder asked rather conspicuously, thinking one of the girls might be involved. “Various people on different weeks. Usually, it’s Jim or myself, but sometimes we’ll get a call from someone else telling us they’re bored so we’ll invite them over to play.” Hannah said. “On that particular night, I called Hannah because I was bored. She called Jim, who called Ian, who called Nick and asked if they wanted to play manhunt. I then called Candy who called Kyla to see if they wanted to play.” Piper explained. “Well, after that complicated, lovely movie why don’t Agent Mulder and I talk to Hannah and Piper alone upstairs.” Scully asked. Mulder and Scully stood up and Piper and Hannah followed. The other girls stayed put downstairs talking and giggling like usual. Piper led Mulder and Scully into her living room. Piper and Hannah sat down together on the smaller couch while Mulder and Scully sat down on the larger one. “Why don’t you tell us exactly what happened that night, start to finish?” Scully asked. “We all arrived at about 6:30 PM.” Piper said. “It was Russ, Ian, Jim, Nick, Candy, Kyla, Hannah, and myself.” “We split up into two teams. One of them consisted of Ian, Jim, Nick, and Russ. The other was Kyla, Piper, Candy, and me.” “So basically it was boys on girls.” Mulder said. “Basically.” Piper responded. “Our team hid first.” Hannah explained. The round went well and we won. The guys gave up before they could catch us.” “So, then we went back to Hannah’s house to warm up for a minute.” Piper said. “About ten minutes later, we started a new round. This time the guys hid. After a little while, Candy and Kyla had found Jim and Nick while Piper and I went to go look for the rest of them.” “Candy stayed behind at Hannah’s house to guard Nick and Jim. Kyla went off alone to look for us. We all ended up splitting up, going after different people. Finally, we all met outside the church, which is near Hannah’s house. I thought I had seen a ghost or a monster so I screamed and collapsed but it turned to be Ian.” “Fortunately Kyla was right around the corner so she caught him in time. Piper, Kyla, and I all met and walked back with Ian to my house. On the way, we screamed that the round was over and my brother emerged from a bush. At my house Jim was still there with Candy but Nick wasn’t.” Hannah said. “We called for him but he never came. That’s when we decided to split up and go look for him. Russ stayed at the house in case he came back. Kyla and Candy walked towards the woods, Ian and Jim went by the main road, and Hannah and I went back to the church.” “After about a half hour, we didn’t find him. We circled the church one more time and saw a figure inside a fenced in playground. As we got closer we realized it was Nick. We both hopped the fence, walked towards him, shook his shoulder and he fell off the swing.” “I leaned down to check his pulse and there was none. Hannah and I hopped the fence again and ran back to Heather’s house. We were both afraid.” Piper explained. “Piper, you said you saw something right before you screamed. Are you sure it was Ian?” Mulder asked. “Well, I thought it was, there was no one else it could be.” “What did you see before you collapsed?” Mulder asked. “I was walking around looking for heather or Kyla or even someone from the other team but no one was around. I thought I heard something behind me so I turned around but there was no one there. A few seconds later, something went flying past me, so I screamed, closed my eyes, and fell. Minutes later, I opened my eyes and saw Hannah standing over me. Kyla was behind her, holding onto Ian so he wouldn’t escape.” Piper explained. “Well, I think I’ll go autopsy the body while you girls go with Agent Mulder to the crime scene.” Scully decided. “Well, Agent Mulder, you’re going to have to wait for another half hour for everyone to leave.” Piper said. “As soon as everyone’s gone, we can go.” Mulder nodded. Scully stood up and took out her cell phone. She called a taxi and waited outside for it to arrive. Mulder waited upstairs in Piper’s parlor as all the girls came up with their bags and sleeping things. The girls all sat upstairs listening to the radio. The girls left one by one as their parents came to pick them up. Soon, Piper’s house was empty. She called up the stairs to her parents that she was leaving for a little while with Mulder and Hannah. They agreed and Piper and Hannah left with him to check out the crime scene. * * * * Scully reached above her and clicked on the tape recorder above her head. She looked at the clock and put on a pair of latex gloves. “The time is 12:01 PM on February 14, 1999. Fourteen year old Nicholas Rosalini case number X67282. Visual examine of the body suggests that it was drained of blood, however there is no entrance or exit wound for a needle of any kind.” |