Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy,
and Grandma and Grandpa LaPierre,
and Grandma and Grandpa Dyson and...
Okay, okay, Amber Lynn.
Bedtime. Come on.
You grab Mike, okay?
Hop in.
Let's get you cozy, cozy, toasty, toasty.
In the sack, snug as a bug.
Night-night, little.
Night, Daddy.
Night, Mommy.
Night, love.
Headlights out, Amber Lynn.
Good girl. That's a good girl.
Stop right there!
Weapon on the floor!
This is great.
What is this trial I'm being put through?
A test of my love for you?
Billie?
Oh, sweet angel.
Billie!
Amber Lynn!
Please, God!
Amber Lynn LaPierre, that's right.
A federal investigation is underway.
Of a kidnapping in Sacramento, California.
Why are you here, Agent Mulder?
I want this case.
I'm fairly certain I've got more than enough
competent agents in here.
Ooh, I can see that.
This is a kidnapping, Agent Mulder--
a little girl snatched from her bedroom.
Basic missionary-style FBI work.
It's not an X File.
I'm aware of the facts.
We're trying to rule out all possibilities
before we start making any statements.
That's what I'm talking about-- ruling out other possibilities.
I can't just give you the case.
I have to follow protocol.
Behavioral gets first crack,
then the people down at NCMEC.
Two, three, four hours,
this case is going to be a circus.
Every starstruck attorney in America
is going to want to represent these people for free.
If somebody doesn't ask the right questions right now,
they may never get asked.
You've got till noon.
Mulder.
The agents in my office...
they have a pool going.
They think she's dead.
Don't bet on it.
Make room, make room.
Back it up. Back it up.
Come on, a little more, sir.
A little more.
Excuse me, have they found the girl?
Are there any new developments in the case?
Is she dead?
Are the parents suspects
in the disappearance of their daughter?
Uh, sorry, no press allowed inside.
Special Agent Fox Mulder, FBI.
I'd like to speak
to Mr. and Mrs. LaPierre, if I may.
My clients have nothing to say.
Uh...
Harry Bring. How can I help you?
Mr. Bring, your-your card says
"real estate law and conveyances."
Have you ever handled a murder case?
This isn't a murder case.
Well, it might as well be
once the facts about Amber Lynn's disappearance get out.
My clients are not murderers,
and-and I resent any such accusation.
Yeah. If you really want to help your clients, Mr. Bring,
get them a real lawyer.
It's okay, Harry.
Billie and I got nothing to hide.
Mr. and Mrs. LaPierre, my name is Fox Mulder.
I'm a special agent
with the FBI,
and I have a lot of experience
with crimes like the one that took place here.
I know you've made a statement to the police,
but I'd like to ask you some questions about that,
and I'd like you to answer
in as much detail as both you
and your lawyer are comfortable with.
I want to ask you about the note you found.
Where did you find it?
In my daughter's bedroom.
When?
When I went to check on her.
Um, do you know what time that was?
9:30, I think.
It was right-right about then.
I was watching TV in here.
What were you watching?
I never heard of it before.
It was good.
What about you, Mrs. LaPierre?
I was in bed already.
Were you asleep?
Half.
Is that Amber Lynn's bedroom
that I saw down the hallway there?
Yes.
Do you always lock your doors at night,
even if you're home?
Yes.
You know most of your neighbors, I bet,
up and down the street.
You're on good terms with them?
Most of them, yes.
Can you think of anyone that might have
wanted to hurt Amber Lynn?
No.
That's enough questions.
They've been very helpful, but I think you can see
that these folks have nothing whatsoever to hide.
Mr. and Mrs. LaPierre,
I want you to understand something,
because it's going to get very confusing from here on in.
But whatever else the FBI says or does,
they're going to try their damndest
to find your little girl.
Thank you.
Agent Mulder,
do you think they will?
Find her?
Oh, I hope so.
Yeah.
I really do.
It's open.
Mulder?
Come on in.
What are you doing?
Thinking.
About?
Amber Lynn LaPierre.
Mind if I turn on a light?
Yeah.
I do.
Skinner is royally pissed.
At you.
I'm sure he is.
He expected a report at noon.
He waited.
Now he sent me to find you, to get it.
I don't have a report.
They had to move on the case.
The media got wind of the police findings,
and they're going to broadcast them.
The parents are being held for further questioning.
They're not guilty, Scully.
The facts would say otherwise.
There's no sign of a break-in, both the parents
were at home at the time that the girl disappeared.
They lied
about where they found the note.
Why?
That's what I've been thinking about.
Is it the media
or just our own morbid fascination
with the killing of an innocent?
She's not dead, Scully.
Mulder.
Fox, it's me.
Mom?
Hi.
I'm watching the news.
That little girl in California--
you're out there, aren't you?
Yes.
I am.
Are you okay, Mom?
When are you coming back here?
Well, I'm not sure.
I... you know, I... I don't know.
Call when you get back, Fox.
Okay, I will.
Um, you take care, Mom, okay?
From the note,
we can and have determined several facts.
There is a threat of physical violence,
but no demand for money or ransom.
The note is short and written on a torn piece of paper,
suggesting haste and little or no planning.
The paper's a type used by dry cleaners
to protect laundered garments.
The torn piece the note was found on
matches exactly a piece that was found in the garbage
at the LaPierre home.
The ink matches a felt tip pen
that was also found in the garbage.
One set of prints were found on it--
Billie LaPierre's prints. Is it her handwriting?
That's going to be difficult to prove
due to the felt tip pen and the quality of the paper,
which tends to cause bleeding
and makes the handwriting indistinct.
It also looks like there's been an attempt
to disguise the writing.
By using samples
of Mrs. LaPierre's handwriting,
you see dominant letter forms--
the "S" in "strangle,"
"stray dog,"
here in "Santa Claus."
Matches up with the "S"s in "dollars,"
"seven" and "cents"--
enough to make a connection.
But not an indictment.
Do you have information
you'd like to share with us,
Agent Mulder?
Bud LaPierre says he'd been watching television
and had gotten up to go to bed
when he found Amber Lynn missing.
But according to the police report,
the TV set was still on
when the first officers arrived on the scene.
By his own account,
both mother and father put Amber Lynn to bed
and were never more than 20 feet from her room
during the period in which she was abducted.
The LaPierres know all their neighbors
up and down the street--
are on good terms with them.
But no one saw a stranger, on a Friday,
at a fairly early hour, enter into a locked and lighted home
and remove this little girl undetected.
Husband's lying for his wife.
I don't think so.
Why?
Because that doesn't explain
what happened to this little girl.
What are you doing, Mulder?
There's something in that abduction note
that I've seen before.
That's not what I mean.
You're personalizing this case.
You're identifying with your sister.
My sister was taken by aliens.
Did I say anything about aliens, Scully?
There are a lot of good agents up there in Skinner's office
who do not have the patience for this.
What did I do? I provided a logical counterpoint.
You told them that they were wrong, Mulder.
And they are.
Pocatello, Idaho, 1987.
Look familiar?
Kathy Lee,
visitors are here.
Oh, can you let them in, please?
Hi, Ms. Tencate.
My name is Agent Mulder.
This is Agent Scully.
You have a seat?
It's not the Ritz.
Um, we just have a few questions.
We've reviewed the facts of your case,
and the facts seem to speak for themselves.
Your six-year-old son Dean
was taken from his bed while he slept.
A note was found threatening his life,
later determined to be written by you.
You plead innocent at trial,
but you were convicted and sentenced to 12 years,
even though your son's body was never found.
Yes, that's right.
Your story is that, uh,
on the night your son disappeared, you had a vision
of him dead, but you thought
it was your mind playing tricks on you.
But when you got up to check on him,
he was missing from his bed. Is that accurate?
Yes.
Now, three years ago,
after seven years of incarceration,
you changed your story
and confessed to the murder of your son
in a fit of insanity, a psychotic break.
Yes, that's right.
Why did you do it?
I don't know.
I was full of rage.
I have a copy of the note that you wrote.
Do you mind if I show it to you?
Now there's a phrase
down here at the bottom.
"No one shoots at Santa Claus."
Can you explain what that means to me?
Uh, it means, that, uh...
when someone promises you something, a gift--
like Santa Claus--
that no one would do anything
for fear of not getting the gift.
A little girl disappeared from her bed three days ago.
This is a note that was left at that scene.
Will you take a look at that and tell me
what it says at the bottom?
Same thing.
Neither note makes a specific demand.
In both cases, there's no evidence
of foul play or a break-in.
And as in your son's case, there's no body to be found.
I told them where the body was.
Yes, you did, but, uh,
it wasn't where you said it was going to be.
I can't explain it. I think you can.
I can't!
You can't explain it because you didn't do anything.
You didn't kill your son and you didn't bury him.
You're not guilty of anything other than a lie,
just like these people.
The only reason you changed your story
was to get out of here,
because you knew the parole board might buy the story
of a psychotic break and of your terrible remorse,
but they would never, never let a woman out of jail
who claimed her son just disappeared out of thin air.
Now, these people...
they need someone to tell them it's okay,
someone to corroborate their story.
I'm not that person.
They need your help.
That was utterly irresponsible, Mulder.
It was out of line and it was without any basis in reality.
Do you think that woman could have killed her son?
She was convicted in a court of law.
So how do you explain those two notes,
written ten years apart,
could contain the same obscure phrase?
I can't explain it, Mulder,
but you're doing exactly what I said.
You're personalizing this case.
No, I'm going to solve this case.
I am going to solve it.
How?
I'm going to find those kids.
What if they're dead, Mulder?
Don't go looking for something you don't want to find.
Guard?
Guard, please can you get them back?
Guard!
I need to talk.
This is Fox Mulder.
Leave a message. I'll try to get back to you.
Fox, it's your mother.
I'd hoped you'd call upon your return,
but I haven't heard from you.
I'm sure you're busy.
There are so many emotions in me,
I wouldn't know where to start.
So much that I've left unsaid
for reasons I hope one day you'll understand.
This is highly unusual.
I want to know what you're doing here.
There's something I want your clients to see.
I want to know what it is first.
Don't shoot at Santa Claus, Mr. Bring.
You're going to want to see it, too.
I believe you share a secret.
I'm, uh...
I'm doing this because I feel that it's the right thing to do,
and because I know what you're going through,
and I wouldn't want to happen to you what happened to me.
I just want to tell you that your little girl is okay.
And I know you're afraid of the truth,
because I-I saw things that I was afraid of, too.
And I can't explain all of it except to say that I don't
remember... ever... thinking
those words that I wrote, let alone writing them.
It was like they wrote themselves using my hand.
But, um, what I know for sure,
because I feel it in my heart,
is that my son is safe and protected
and in a better place.
Rumors and suspicions aside,
the parents of Amber Lynn LaPierre
were released today for lack of evidence against them,
and after giving a new statement to the Sacramento Police,
which insiders say
has authorities still baffled and confused,
recounting a detailed story that claims supernatural forces
were at work when their daughter was abducted.
The LaPierres, seen here returning to their home,
declined comment...
Federal investigation of the case will continue,
but will no longer focus on the LaPierres as primary suspects.
We, uh... we will intensify our search for Amber Lynn,
and we remain hopeful of her eventual safe return.
Intensify our search where?
The Twilight Zone?
I have a corroborating witness.
In state prison.
There's a material connection
between these two women.
The only connection, Agent Mulder, is you.
I've got people busting their butts
on this thing, Agent Mulder,
putting together hard evidence, real evidence,
while you're out gathering Grimm's Fairy Tales
from convicted murderers.
Doesn't make sense.
It's incomprehensible in any kind of a real-world way.
I deal in the real world, Agent Mulder.
You begged onto this case
as part of the solution.
All you've done is hand our only suspects the Twinkie defense.
Sir?
What? What is it, Agent Scully?
I need to have a word with Agent Mulder.
It can wait.
No, it can't, sir.
What is it, Scully?
Mulder, your mom's dead.
Mulder?
Over here.
What is it?
Diazepam.
She used them to sleep.
Was there a note?
She called when I was in California.
She wanted to talk, but, uh... I never called her back.
Mulder...
Uh...
why would she do this?
Just doesn't make any sense.
We never truly know why.
No, she wouldn't kill herself.
Why are these pictures gone?
There were photos here.
There were photos of my sister and I.
This is all that she had left of us,
and they're missing. Why...?
She saw me on the news.
She wanted to talk about the missing girl Amber Lynn.
She wanted to tell me something about her, or maybe
she couldn't tell me over the phone
'cause she was afraid
that they would do something like this to her.
Who?
Whoever took my sister.
Look at this place. I mean, it's like...
it's-it's all staged-- the pills, the oven, the tape.
It's like a bad movie script.
They would have come here,
and they would have threatened her.
She would be upset; they would have to sedate her.
I would look for a, uh... a needle puncture mark
or something else in her system besides these pills.
Oh, no, Mulder.
Please don't ask me to do this.
Scully, who else can I ask?
An autopsy, Mulder?
I mean, it's one thing on a stranger,
but you're my friend, and she's your mother.
I know, but if you don't do it, I might never know the truth.
You've seen things.
I need to understand them.
Something's happened to you.
My mother's dead.
You know why.
Look, I can help you.
I can talk to the parole board for you.
But right now, I need you to help me.
I don't understand what you want.
I'm not here by accident.
My sister was taken
away from me when she was eight years old,
like your son was taken away from you.
Where's your sister now?
I don't know.
Your mother knew, didn't she?
Why do you ask that?
She was trying to tell you.
Tell me what?
She'd seen them.
Who?
The walk-ins.
Old souls
looking for new homes.
Your sister's among them.
You can see them?
Yes.
But sometimes it's very difficult,
because they live in the starlight.
Is my sister dead?
They took her
to protect her soul from
the great harm it would have suffered in her life,
just like they did my little boy.
Where do they take them?
Your boy?
This little girl Amber Lynn LaPierre?
I don't know.
But they're okay.
I'm sure your sister's there, too.
That's not Rudolph.
Do they all have names?
Is not. Is not.
♪ Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer ♪
♪ Had a very shiny nose ♪
Like a lightbulb!
Red-nosed reindeer! You can't sing it.
Yes, I could. No, you can't.
I could. No, you can't.
Hey, buddy.
The kids want to see Santa. What about it?
He's just flying in.
We're going to see Santa!
Fox, it's your mother.
I'd hoped you'd call upon your return,
but I haven't heard from you.
I'm sure you're busy.
There are... so many emotions in me,
I wouldn't know where to start.
So much that I've left unsaid,
for reasons I hope one day you'll understand.
There are... so many emotions in me,
I wouldn't know where to start.
So much that I've left unsaid
for reasons I hope one day you'll understand.
I'm glad you're here.
My mother was trying to tell me something.
Think I figured it out.
Something about my sister
she was never able to tell me.
So much that I've left unsaid for reasons
I hope one day you'll understand.
She knew what I'd find with this case out in California.
How could she know that, Mulder?
A child disappearing without a trace--
without evidence-- in defiance of all logical explanation?
She knew because of what's driven me--
what I've always believed.
Mulder...
Scully, these-these parents who have lost...
who've lost their children... they've had visions
of their sons and daughters
in scenarios that never happened,
but which they describe in notes
that came through them as automatic writing
and words that came through them psychically
from old souls protecting the children.
My mother must have written a note like that herself...
...describing the scenario of my sister's disappearance,
of her abduction by aliens.
Don't you see, Scully? It never happened.
All these visions that I've had have just been...
they've been to help me cope, to help me deal with the loss,
but... I've been looking
for my sister in the wrong place.
That's... what my mother was trying to tell me.
That's what she was trying to warn me about.
That's why they killed her.
You mother killed herself, Mulder.
I conducted the autopsy.
She was dying of an incurable disease--
an untreatable and horribly disfiguring disease
called Paget's carcinoma.
She knew it. There were doctor's records.
She didn't want to live.
Mulder...
She was trying to tell me something.
She was...
...trying to tell me something.
Mulder, she was trying to tell you to stop.
To stop looking for your sister.
She was just trying to take away your pain.
Hi.
How's he doing?
It's been a hard night for him.
Billie LaPierre is asking for him.
She's got something to say,
and she'll only talk to Mulder.
It's not a good...
What is it?
This case has heated up.
I've booked two flights for us.
Well, then you better book three.
Honey, wake up.
He's here.
Come in, Agent Mulder.
It's okay. She's here to help.
What happened here, Billie?
I saw my daughter,
right in this room.
Standing right there.
I swear to God.
She was right over there
in the pajamas her grandma gave her...
saying something to me.
What was she saying?
I don't know.
Her lips were moving, but I couldn't hear.
I thought...
I thought she was saying "74."
"74"? The number 74?
Does that mean anything to you?
74 mean anything to you, Mr. LaPierre?
Let's go home.
Mulder, we just got here.
We're not going to find these people's daughter alive.
How do you know that?
What we're hearing--
it's the delusional talk of people
that don't want to accept the truth.
You think they know what happened to their child?
Maybe, maybe not, but you can't see a ghost
and still hope to find her alive.
Both things can't be true.
And if this little girl's spirit really did appear to her mother,
then there's probably only one explanation.
You think the daughter's dead.
Well, what about the handwritten note?
I don't know what that means.
I don't know what is the truth
and what isn't anymore.
I'm way too close to this case
to make any kind of sound judgment.
In fact, I would like to ask for you to let me off
this case, please, and I'd like to
take some time off.
What is it?
Santa Claus.
What?
Stop. Turn around.
Some of these tapes go back to the '60s.
Think I know what we're going to find here.
It's what my mother was afraid of-- my sister.
It's Amber Lynn LaPierre.
This tape is dated two days before her disappearance.
Hey!
Stop!
Keep your hands up!
What's your name?
Ed... Truelove.
You're under arrest.
You have the right to remain silent.
If you give up the right to remain silent,
anything you say can and will be used against you
in a court of law.
You have the right to speak with an attorney
and to have the attorney present during questioning.
If you so desire...
Scully.