This is it? I just... sign this and it's done?
As soon as I file it with the city clerk.
This pen...
she gave it to me.
It was an anniversary present.
I don't remember which one.
Walter...
they are expecting the signed documents
by the end of business today, which was ten minutes ago.
I know what time it is.
Then you should sign.
What are you doing, Walter?
After 17 years, they can wait another day.
Listen, no one knows better than I
what an emotional experience this is...
Don't lawyer me, Jane.
I'll do it tomorrow.
Why put yourself through another day of this?
I said tomorrow.
Excuse me.
Are you holding this for someone?
It's the only open seat.
Go ahead.
Good evening.
What can I get you?
Tonic water with lime, please.
Sir, would you like another one?
Sure.
Thanks.
For what?
Ordering another drink?
There's a man behind me wearing a red tie.
For some reason,
he felt compelled to tell me
half his life story.
I was afraid if you got up,
he might try to get in the other half.
I guess some people think that you owe them something
just 'cause you're out alone.
Does it ever bother you?
What?
Being alone.
Hey.
Okay.
Excuse me, sir.
Excuse me. Thank you.
I'm looking for Detective Waltos.
Who's asking?
My name is Mulder. I work with Assistant Director Skinner.
I'd like to speak with him.
You can see him after he gives his statement.
We're going to finish up at the station house.
Why don't you just get a statement here?
It seems the assistant director
is suffering from an minor memory lapse.
Yeah?
Mulder, it's me. I just got your message.
You said Skinner called in a homicide?
Yeah, it appears to be a little more complicated than that.
It seems like he had a front row seat.
I don't understand.
I don't understand it either.
They're not letting me talk to him.
Hold on a second.
Excuse me, sir.
I appreciate your concern, Agent Mulder,
but there's no need for you to get involved in this.
Detective. Detective.
Can you at least tell me what happened?
What does he say happened?
Well, he claims he met the victim
in the bar downstairs.
After a couple of drinks, they decide to get a room together,
which is all fine, except when he wakes up,
he finds her lying next to him with a broken neck.
That's all he says he remembers.
You don't believe him?
He refused to take a polygraph test.
It's not helping his credibility.
What about the victim? Has she been identified?
Not yet. She had no purse, nothing with her name on it.
Well, there must be evidence of an intruder of some kind.
Uh, Agent Mulder, I've been on the job for 18 years.
I know the drill. Well, then if you know the drill,
then you should be canvassing hotel employees, housekeeping...
I appreciate that he's a colleague of yours,
but I want you to understand something--
he's also a suspect.
Detective...
when you're done questioning him,
I'd appreciate a call.
All right.
Did you get any of that?
Most of it. Mulder, I'm on my way.
No, no. I want you to take a look at that body.
Get down to the coroner's. I'll meet you there.
The conspicuous absence of any contusions or lacerations
would strongly suggest that the victim's injuries
were sustained without a struggle.
From my observations,
I would have to concur with the county coroner's report
that her murder was most probably
a sudden and violent act in a vulnerable moment.
Beyond this, I found nothing in my postmortem examination
to recommend further investigation.
Beyond what?
Her spinal cord was crushed, Mulder.
The cervical vertebrae was fractured
in what appears to be manual trauma.
Were Skinner's the only prints lifted from the body?
So far.
They found no semen samples.
There was some irritation--
probably an allergic reaction to latex.
At least they were having safe sex.
Have they learned anything more?
Yeah. Her name was Carina Sayles.
She was a legal secretary
for one of the criminal defense firms here in town.
Have you talked to anybody she worked with?
Yeah. I just got off the phone with one of the partners.
She was fired a few weeks ago over an indiscretion.
An indiscretion?
Yeah, she was doing some moonlighting.
She was taking a little work on the side
from one of the firm's clients.
What kind of work?
This client operated an escort service.
She was a prostitute.
Okay, give me five minutes here.
I'll get the car.
Addendum.
Observed what appears to be a residual
phosphorescence around the victim's mouth and nose.
Note to have this analyzed.
Yes?
Lorraine Kelleher?
She's busy right now.
Is there something I can help you with?
Busy or not, we need to speak with her.
I'll tell her you're here.
Lorraine?
There's some people from the FBI here to see you.
Business must be booming.
I think you mean "banging."
Whatever this is about, can we do it later?
I'm running late for an appointment.
We'd like to ask you some questions
about an employee of yours-- Carina Sayles.
She does work for you, doesn't she?
I'm ten minutes late for a meeting with her.
Oh, that's all right.
I don't think she's going to be making that meeting.
Oh. Why not?
She's dead.
She was murdered last night.
How?
That's what we're still trying to determine.
I, um...
I don't know what to say.
Well, you can start by telling us
if she was working last night,
and if she was, who paid for her company.
I'm afraid I can't do that.
I guess that would hurt future book sales, huh?
You'd be surprised who some of my clients are.
No, I don't think I would be.
I also doubt that they'd want to get entangled
in a homicide investigation.
Look, we just need one name from you.
Who hired Carina Sayles?
Let's just say you both work for the government,
and so do I.
Cut the crap.
Who hired her?
She called me last night.
She said that she'd met someone in a bar who was interested
in a transaction.
I took his credit card.
Then you have his name.
Walter Skinner.
Thank you.
What the hell was he thinking?
It just doesn't seem like him.
You think he'd be a little more discreet.
I think the lack of discretion
is the least of his sins.
Still not enough to prove anything conclusively.
No, but that doesn't mean that we can discount the evidence.
You really believe Skinner did this?
Look, Mulder, I feel the same way about Skinner as you do,
but we were just shown a dated record
with Skinner's credit card number on it.
Credit card fraud happens every day.
Skinner was in bed with a prostitute
at the time of her death,
and he's offered us no explanation
or alibi.
Truth is, we don't know very much about him.
We don't know
what he does off duty, who he really is.
We know that he's put his ass on the line for us
a number of times.
We owe it to him to find out what really happened.
Even if it means proving his guilt?
Yeah. Mulder.
Thank you.
Who was that? Detective Waltos.
Skinner's been released on his own recognizance.
Sir, sir.
This doesn't concern either of you.
Of course it concerns us.
Why won't you tell us
what happened last night, sir?
Read the police report if you're really that curious.
Does it explain why you refuse to take a polygraph test?
Or why there's a prostitute in the morgue
with your fingerprints all over her?
You didn't know she was a prostitute, did you?
What are you doing, you jerk?!
Walter.
I just heard what happened. I was coming to see you.
Walter!
Do you know him?
I used to think so.
I'm Sharon Skinner.
I'm his wife.
We were just a little caught off guard.
Neither of us even knew that he was married.
He never told us.
Well, one of the things Walter has
always been good at is keeping secrets.
But the truth is, we haven't been together
for almost eight months.
Has he always been such a private person?
It's more than that.
He lives under this misguided notion
that silence is strength.
He's built a wall to keep everyone out.
Including you?
Yeah, especially me.
Is that why you were separated?
Yeah, I just realized one day that...
we were no longer married.
We had become roommates instead.
We were paying the bills, taking out the garbage,
and I couldn't live like that anymore.
Excuse me.
Scully.
You were one of the few people
that Walter ever mentioned from work.
Not that he said much,
but from the way he talked, I could tell he respected you.
That's probably why I feel that I can ask you.
Ask me what?
If Walter really killed that woman.
Sorry. Mulder, we've got to go.
You've got our numbers if you need to reach us.
You still haven't answered my question.
No.
I don't think he did it.
What's going on here?
Agents Mulder and Scully?
Yeah. That's right.
I'm Special Agent Bonnecaze.
I've been called up from the Norfolk field office
to coordinate this inquiry.
Well, I don't know what you do down in Norfolk,
but last time I checked, rifling through a man's office
was considered an invasion of privacy.
Well, we're operating under guidelines
specified by the Office of Professional Conduct.
A protocol, I understand, you've opted to disregard.
What do you mean?
I want both of you to make yourselves available
tomorrow afternoon.
Available for what?
A formal hearing
regarding A.D. Skinner's case.
What case?
He hasn't even been charged yet.
The hearing is to assess and determine his ability
to continue in his position as assistant director.
In the meantime, we'll be appointing our own investigators
to pursue any criminal case.
And I must ask you to stop looking into this any further.
Oh, what, in case we turn up any evidence
that might support his innocence?
Any evidence you may have obtained, Agent Mulder,
you'll be presenting tomorrow afternoon at the hearing.
Skinner's not answering his phone.
He's doing everything he shouldn't be doing.
Yeah, why? He knows better than that.
The evidence is still circumstantial at best.
He's behaving like a guilty man, Mulder.
The man's marriage is breaking up.
He's stressed out, you know, he's...
It's his irrational behavior that concerns me.
It speaks to his state of mind.
If-if an otherwise stable man
is compelled to go out and hire a prostitute,
what else is he capable of?
Please, give him the benefit of the doubt.
I am, Mulder, believe me.
I'm not trying to convince myself.
When I mentioned that hooker to him,
he didn't even seem to know.
Well, maybe he doesn't remember.
What do you mean? Either he remembers or he's a liar.
Not necessarily.
This man's running away from a train.
No! No!
He sees it coming straight at him.
He hears its whistle.
Several times a month he ran away from that train,
until one night he broke his wife's arm
when he threw her to the floor.
Night terrors?
No. Night terrors and sleepwalking occur
during slow-wave, non-dream sleep.
The clinical term for this is REM sleep behavior disorder.
Although rare, dozens of cases
of sleep-related violence have been attributed to it.
That's fascinating, but what does it have to do with Skinner?
This videotape came from the Bethesda Sleep Disorder Center,
where Skinner has been receiving treatment
for the past three months.
For running away from trains?
The same disorder, different dreams.
According to Skinner's psychiatrist,
he's been experiencing a recurring dream
in which he's confronted by an old woman.
She speaks to him, but he doesn't understand a word.
Sometimes she-she straddles his chest, suffocating him.
So you think that Skinner
may have killed the victim in his sleep.
Defending himself against this imaginary old woman.
A lot of these patients
have no recollection of their nocturnal activities,
which might explain Skinner's amnesia.
And it's not such a strange story.
It isn't?
It's ancient, actually.
You may have heard it,
although not in such clinical terms.
In the Middle Ages, a visitation
like the one Skinner described
would have been attributed to a succubus.
It's a spirit that visits men in the night,
usually in the form of an old woman.
Visits them for sex?
Usually, though sometimes the succubus
becomes so attached to the man that she would kill
any woman competing for his affection. Here.
What's that?
Reports of residual and luminous phenomena
have been associated with some succubus encounters,
at least according to the mythology. Why?
I feel kind of strange saying this,
but I found something during my postmortem exam
that I think you should see.
There was a circular patch
around the victim's mouth and nose
approximately 11 centimeters in diameter.
It retained light energy and glowed in the dark.
I know what I saw, Mulder.
It was here.
This phosphorescence required no U.V.
or infrared light?
No. It was definitely visible to the naked eye.
Did you get a sample?
Yeah. I sent one over to chem-tox.
And?
Well, my first hunch was that it was
some kind of a fungal growth,
but the only substance that they detected
was amylase, which is found in saliva.
So I had them send over a sample to the elemental analysis unit.
The results should be back...
Yes, this is Agent Dana Scully.
I'm calling to find out the lab results on
a tissue sample that I sent in earlier this morning.
Thank you.
What'd they say?
That there was no analyzable substance
in the sample container.
Are you sure you saw something?
Mulder, I'm afraid this isn't exactly something
that I'd make up.
Maybe that's it.
Maybe that's why Skinner's running.
'Cause he's afraid.
That he did it?
That he doesn't know he didn't do it.
Hi.
You didn't answer your phone. It just kept ringing.
Yeah. I unplugged it.
I haven't been sleeping too well lately.
So are you going to invite me in,
or should I start building an ark?
Come in.
You still haven't gotten around to unpacking.
Yeah, well, you know... work.
So what are you doing here, Sharon?
I'm not sure.
After I saw you today, I didn't know what else to do.
If you're trying to satisfy some morbid curiosity
about what happened...
That's not why I came.
I just... I just want to make sure you're okay.
I'm okay.
Except right now,
company's about the last thing that I need.
I'm not company. I'm your wife.
Ex-wife. Remember, you're the one who asked for the divorce.
Only because you didn't have the guts to ask for one yourself,
so don't put it on me.
Fair enough.
So what else do you want me to say?
Nothing.
I don't want you to say anything.
I just want you to let me in.
Just this one time.
Why?
Because I know you.
I know that you're scared
and that you could use some comfort.
I also know that you'll never let me give it to you.
Just take care of yourself, okay?
What's this about?
You want to grab your coat and come with us?
We'd like to ask you a few questions.
Why? What the hell's going on here?
It's your wife-- she's been in an accident.
Is she all right?
Someone ran her off the road.
You're going to have to come with us.
Oh, God.
We'll also need to see the keys to your car, sir.
How is she?
The CT scan showed a subdural hematoma.
She's in surgery right now
to relieve pressure on her brain.
Scully's trying to get more information.
I have to see her.
You can't do that, sir.
Why not? They said I wasn't being charged.
Not yet, but they're building a pretty convincing case.
You think I did this to Sharon?
No, I don't, but I'm in the minority.
What about Agent Scully?
Scully...
Scully doesn't understand
why you're not trying to defend yourself.
Defend myself against what?!
Don't you think if I knew
what was happening to me that I would try to...
I don't know what to believe anymore.
What about the old woman in your dream?
Who is she?
It's going to come out.
Look, if you don't start trusting someone,
you don't stand a chance.
A few months ago, I started...
seeing her again.
"Again"?
I told you once what...
what happened to me in Vietnam.
I was caught in an ambush.
Yeah. You were the sole survivor.
You also described what sounded like
a near-death experience.
There was nothing "near" about it, Agent Mulder.
I was a dead man.
That's when you first saw her?
I saw lots of things over there.
I didn't give much credence to any of them.
And why not?
I got through that experience like most 18-year-olds--
by numbing myself with whatever was around.
I was no choirboy.
I... I inhaled.
So you just dismissed her as another hallucination?
I tried.
But you couldn't?
She was there with me...
watching me...
as I was watching myself dying,
my blood spilling from a hundred different places.
Until she lifted me up and carried me back...
away from the light.
Well, maybe she was trying to protect you.
Maybe she's trying to protect you now.
Protect me from what?
That's a question only you can answer.
I don't know.
I don't have a clue.
Number five.
This is Skinner's car?
According to Waltos's report, the hood was still warm
when they got to Skinner's apartment, even with the rain.
Look at the left front panel.
They matched the paint in the dent
to Sharon Skinner's car.
Waltos's people finish going over the interior?
Only prints they found on the steering wheel were Skinner's.
Can I borrow your flashlight?
Sure. Why?
I don't know what you're expecting to find, Mulder,
but, uh, Skinner's hearing is in half an hour.
I'll meet you there.
What are you doing?
Collecting evidence.
You know how an air bag works?
Your car hits something,
a bag fills with air, you don't die.
Not air. Nitrogen.
Now, the latent image, the one we're interested in,
is found in the byproduct of that explosion,
in the finely-dispersed sodium metal
that coats the interior of the air bag.
See this pattern here?
It's created by whoever
was behind the wheel when the air bag deployed.
Doesn't look like a face.
Not yet. First I'm scanning the pattern.
Then I'm running it through software which translates
its varying densities into a dimensionalized likeness.
After that,
it's a matter of fine-tuning.
Well, how long does that fine-tuning take?
You need this in a hurry it sounds like.
I'm not the only one who needs it.
We're still waiting for Agent Mulder?
Yes, sir.
We're finished waiting.
I'm going to begin without him.
Have a seat.
Let's go over the physical evidence again.
You say you found nothing damning?
No, sir. None of the physical evidence we recovered
directly connects the assistant director to her death.
You reexamined the victim's body.
Did you find anything of note?
I took a sample of an extraneous substance
that turned out to be unidentifiable.
How's that?
A naturally occurring enzyme
around her mouth and nose.
And do you have any idea why it was there?
No.
If you are withholding something from this committee...
Sir, I feel reluctant to say, or to speak for Agent Mulder.
To say what?
Agent Mulder had a theory that the substance
could have come from a visitation.
But you have another explanation.
No, I'm sorry. I don't.
Do you believe in paranormal phenomena, Agent Scully?
Whatever extreme cases I have encountered,
I have always viewed through the lens of science.
I believe that is why I was assigned to the X Files
and to Agent Mulder.
And has A.D. Skinner
always been as discriminating as you?
Excuse me, sir? I don't understand the question.
Would you say that, like yourself, your direct superior
has been affected by
or enchanted by Agent Mulder's notions?
No, sir. Not at all.
And yet he continues to sign off on whatever extreme cases
you and Agent Mulder elect to investigate.
I believe the assistant director has protected us
out of a respect for the work.
Just as you might protect him?
By trumping up unidentifiable evidence?
No, that is not true.
Thank you, Agent Scully. That will be all.
Sir, if I may...
That will be all.
I'm not finished.
Yes, you are, Agent Scully.
Hello?
Mulder...
Hello.
You missed it.
Not that anything you said would have made a difference.
What happened? Where's Skinner?
Out of a job.
They dismissed him?
He would've had a better chance against a firing squad.
They used us to do it, didn't they?
They used the X Files. How'd you know?
'Cause I think Skinner's been outmaneuvered, Scully.
They found a weakness, and they're exploiting it.
But why? To put us in check.
You remove Skinner, and you weaken us.
What am I looking at?
This is man that stole Skinner's car last night
and tried to kill his wife.
But I don't understand.
Why would they orchestrate such
an elaborate scheme just to set him up?
Why not just kill him?
They already tried that once,
and a second attempt would be too obvious,
even for these thugs.
Anyway, I think Skinner's probably worth
more to them alive in disgrace than dead and buried.
Who is this guy? I don't know.
Danny couldn't find anything on him.
He's still running it.
So how are we supposed to find him?
Well, this guy is a pawn.
Pawns always make the first move.
So he must've hired the prostitute.
What happened here?
Jumper. Happens whenever it rains two days straight.
He got to her first.
Mulder, look.
Usually there'd be something set up in the room,
to get pictures, tape, whatever.
Judy, we need you to identify somebody.
Is this the man who hired Carina?
He said that nobody would get hurt.
He lied.
Skinner's not the only person he set up.
Are you saying he killed Carina?
And Lorraine. He's cleaning house.
We need you to arrange a meeting.
Well, I can't.
I mean, Lorraine's the only one who ever really talked to him.
Unfortunately, Lorraine can't get to the phone right now.
Please don't make me do this.
Look what he did to your friends.
We're your only chance of coming out of this okay.
Agent Mulder's right.
I'll stay with you if you want until we take him into custody.
I want you to call him.
Tell him you're scared because we questioned you.
Tell him you want money to get out of town.
You'll meet him at the Ambassador Hotel bar.
Okay?
Hello?
Hi.
This is Judy Fairly.
You might not remember me,
but I work for Lorraine.
One moment, please.
Yes?
Some FBI agents came to see me
about what happened to Lorraine.
What did you tell them?
Nothing.
I didn't say anything.
But they scared the hell out of me.
Look...
I need some money.
That can be arranged.
Can you meet me?
Where would you like to meet?
The Ambassador Hotel at...
In an hour?
I'm close.
I'll see you in an hour.
I had to tell you, Sharon, before anything else happens,
I'm not signing those papers.
For a lot of reasons.
Most of them, I'm just...
realizing myself for the first time.
Some of the things I've seen...
...the violence and the lies
that I've witnessed men inflict on one another,
I can never tell you that.
Not that I ever stopped believing in the work,
but there were contradictions that I...
that I couldn't reconcile,
which meant shutting down part of myself just to do my job.
I never told you what I should have told you.
That what really got me through each day
was knowing that I'd be sleeping next to you that night.
Knowing that I had a reason to wake up in the morning.
I'm not sure if you can even hear me now...
...or if it even makes a difference to you anymore.
But I at least wanted you to know that.
Sharon?
Somebody...
Listen to me.
Did you get him?
No, he hasn't shown up yet.
He should have been here 15 minutes ago.
What's going on?
Nothing.
Great.
Maybe it's the rain.
This guy isn't about to let a little rain stop him.
Mulder, hang on a second.
Judy?
Scully, what's going on?
Mulder, get up here right now.
He's upstairs.
Judy?
What the hell are you doing?
I'm sorry.
I called, but you didn't answer.
What's the matter?
Are you okay?
Mm-hmm.
Sir?
Come in.
This is our report.
You'll see, though,
that several questions remain unanswered.
The identity of the man I shot?
We ran his face and fingerprints
through every available database.
There are still no matches.
And we're doing a dental record search,
but that will probably be a dead end, too.
And regarding the other man,
the telephone number that we had for him has been disconnected,
and there's no record of an account.
Don't waste your time, Agent Scully.
You won't find him.
Just get whatever forensic evidence you need
off the body you have and bury it.
Is there a problem, Agent Mulder?
Yeah, there's something else you'll find missing in there.
An explanation for how you knew
to be at the hotel last night.
I was hoping you could fill in that line item yourself.
I'm afraid I can't do that,
at least not at this point in time.
Why not?
Because whatever I believe may have happened...
it has no place on an official report.
Then why don't you just tell me.
Off the record.
If you'll excuse me, I have some catching up to do.
The OPC did a number
on my office.
But I want to thank you for the quick turnaround on this.