Mulder and Scully pulled up to the address that Skinner had called them back and told them to meet him at. Mulder glanced up at the apartment. "I know this place."
"You do?" Scully asked as she undid her seatbelt and looked at him.
"Yeah. Remember that psychic who came to exorcise your apartment?"
Scully paused. "Uhhhh….Isabelle?"
Mulder nodded. "Yeah, her apartment is here." He undid his seatbelt and climbed out of the car.
Scully stepped out of the driver's side and headed up the stairs into the complex followed by Mulder. She flashed her ID and walked past several officers and under some yellow tape that was by a doorway. After assuring the officers that Mulder was there to assist her, he followed her to the room.
Skinner met them at the door. "Agent Scully, Mulder." He led them over toward the bedroom. "The body is in here."
Mulder glanced around the apartment that was now becoming all too familiar to him. There was no possible way not to distinguish the books, tarot decks and incense. "No, it…it can't be true." He whispered.
"Mulder?" Skinner asked when he noticed that Mulder was not following them. "In here, please." He walked into the bedroom. "Victim was found here in the bedroom."
Scully looked at Skinner. "Who found her?"
"A woman by the name of Lisa McCormick apparently stopped by to see her. She got the key from the landlord and found her in the bedroom. She also positively identified the body." Skinner glanced at his notepad. "The victim's name was…"
"Isabelle." Mulder finished. "Isabelle Galloway."
Skinner looked up at Mulder. "You know her?"
"Yeah, you could say that." Mulder answered. "I hired her for something."
Scully looked at Mulder. "Wait, Mulder are you saying this is the same Isabelle who…"
"Did an exorcism at your apartment. Yes, Scully it is."
Scully gasped. "Oh god. I'm…I'm so sorry, Mulder."
Mulder shrugged his shoulders. "Guess she wasn't psychic enough or she would have seen this coming."
Skinner could sense the tension in the room from Mulder's remark and cleared his throat. "She was found here in the bedroom lying here."
Scully snapped on some latex gloves and started to examine the body. "Throat was slashed and…judging by the marks I would say it was a knife of some kind. And….the direction of the cuts would also indicate that the suspect is left-handed."
"The medical examiner who was in here earlier, came to those same conclusions as well." Skinner answered. "He also found blood at the base of the legs and in the vaginal area to indicate some kind of sexual assault."
Scully examined the legs. "And there is some bruising on the upper thighs as well to indicate that."
Skinner turned to Mulder. "Mulder, I know this is hard for you being as you know the victim but I need you to take a look at these injuries and tell me if it's Jeremy Reinsfeld or not."
"Sir, you are asking me to examine the body of a woman who you believe was killed by a man who is dead."
"I realize what I am asking you to do, Mulder. But you have to admit that it wouldn't be the first time something strange like this has happened in your line of work."
"With all due respect, Sir, my FORMER line of work." Mulder replied back curtly.
"Just please examine the body and give me your honest opinion, Mulder." Skinner answered back.
Mulder looked down at Isabelle's lifeless body. All he could see in his mind were the times they had made love together. He could hear her cries of passion and feel her lips on his. He knew he was going to have to keep his concentration on the case though or he would go mad. Not to mention the fact that Scully would leave him if she found out that he had an affair with Isabelle. He cleared his throat and walked over to the body. "Ok, cut across the throat which was definitely a trademark of Reinsfeld. Also cuts across the chest which look like they were made by the same type of weapon." He glanced up at Isabelle's wrists. "Wrists…bruised and with red marks indicating she was bound. Until you get actual forensic results, Sir I would say that either this was Jeremy Reinsfeld or a damn good copy cat killer."
Skinner nodded. "Agent Scully, I want you to get an autopsy performed on Miss Galloway as soon as possible. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can find out just what it is we're dealing with here."
"Sir, were there any fingerprints found?" Scully asked.
Skinner shook his head. "It appears our killer used gloves."
"What about semen? Did he use a condom?" Mulder asked.
"From what the medical examiner could tell, there were no indications of any kind of latex irritation." Skinner answered. "A swab test is being conducted as we speak so we should know more later in the day. That is of course, if he was a secretor."
"If it was Jeremy Reinsfeld, he was a secretor." Mulder muttered.
Skinner was then interrupted by his cell and answered it. "Yeah. Ok, sure hold on." He looked at Scully. "Agent Scully, I need you to get down to the city morgue to converse with the medical examiner before the autopsy." He then looked at Mulder. "Thanks for your help, I'll let you know what we turn up." He then went back to his cell call and walked away.
"What a welcome back to work." Scully sighed. "Looks like my day is already planned out for me. Just like the good ole days."
"Not quite." Mulder answered. "Because if that were true, I would be going with you for that autopsy."
"Oh, that's….that's right. Well….maybe we could have dinner later?"
"Actually we had reservations for lunch at Portobello's remember?"
Scully's heart sank. "Oh, I forgot. I'm sorry, Mulder really I am."
Mulder shrugged his shoulders. "What's there to be sorry about, Scully? You're the FBI Agent now, not me. And you have a job to do."
"But….you've been trying to get those reservations for weeks!"
"It happens." Mulder answered. "I mean how were we to know that this would happen, right?"
Scully let out a flustered sigh. "Well, I'll….I'll make it up to you, I promise. What about dinner? I wouldn't think the autopsy would take the whole night."
"Sounds like a plan." Mulder answered. "You take care of the autopsy and I'll take care of dinner."
"Ok." Scully looked back at him. "I…I would kiss you but well…"
"I know, Scully. It's ok." Mulder answered her with a reassuring smile. "You'd better get going before Skinner sends out the hounds."
Scully smiled. "Ok, I'll see you later on then. I'll call you if I find out anything." She gave him one last smile and then left the room.
Now alone in the room, Mulder looked down at Isabelle's dead and violated body. "Oh, Isabelle, I never wished this on you." He whispered. "Even good girls can make mistakes. But I promise I will find out who did this to you." He watched as the paramedics came in with a gurney and then placed Isabelle on it.
It kind of saddened him that he would never know whether their child was a boy or a girl. But at least now Scully would never know of his infidelity.
After speaking with the medical examiner, Scully wasted no time in getting to the autopsy. The medical examiner had mainly wanted to show Scully the records of the previous victims which had the same marks. He was also under the impression that this was just merely a copy cat killing and nothing else. Until there was actual physical evidence to connect this murder to Jeremy Reinsfeld, it was going to be viewed as just someone trying to mimic his murders. It wasn't like others trying to immortalize some of their favorite killers hadn't done it before in the past.
She turned on the examination light and then spoke into a mic. "Date is the 6th of December, time is…" She glanced at her watch. "12:00 p.m. Special Agent Dana Scully chief investigator. Victim's name is Isabelle Galloway, 26-year-old white female Caucasian. Probable cause of death…" She glanced at the body. "Death by severing of the throat, particularly the jugular. Now starting a visual examination. Judging by the marks on the body, it would indicate the weapon was some kind of knife and the direction of the cuts would indicate that the murderer was left handed. Deep cuts located on the chest area particularly above the breasts. There is also bruising on the thighs and on the wrists to indicate abuse." She examined the wrists. "Also red marks on the wrists to indicate some kind of bondage." She examined the wrists closer. "Appear to be also tiny cuts indicating the bondage was most likely from rope." She picked up her scalpel. "Beginning Y-incision…."
As Scully went about her task of taking out various body organs and weighing them, she was interrupted by the sound of a door opening.
"Excuse me, Agent Scully?" Asked the medical examiner from the doorway. "May I come in?"
"Dr. Rattler, of course. Please." Scully answered as she turned off her recorder. "I was just finishing the weighing of the lungs."
"What have you found so far?" Dr. Rattler asked as he stepped into the autopsy room.
Scully lowered her medical mask." Well, heart and lungs appear normal. No abnormalities of any kind to indicate they contributed to the cause of death. Cause of death appears to be loss of blood from the jugular more then anything."
"What about sexual assault?"
"I did find vaginal tearing to indicate sexual assault trauma along with the bruises on the thighs as was reported earlier."
"We did find semen from the sample that was taken at the crime scene."
"And?"
"And….we've gone through the test over and over again but we come up with the same results."
Scully tilted her head. "Which are?"
"The DNA matches that of Jeremy Reinsfeld."
"You're certain?"
"As I said, we've redone the test and each time get the same result. This woman was raped by Jeremy Reinsfeld."
"What about a brother?"
Dr. Rattler shook his head. "Jeremy Reinsfeld was an only child."
"Well, there's always sperm donors…"
"Agent Scully, it would have taken some one a lot of time to plant something like that. Not to mention the fact that they would have had to find it first. Believe me, I don't want to believe these results either but the fact is…they are what they are."
"Maybe, we should examine the uterus more closely and see if anything else can be uncovered." Scully answered as she moved back over to the body. She started to examine the uterus carefully and then pulled back. "Oh my god."
"What is it?" Dr. Rattler asked as he walked over to the body.
"Well, not only was Isabelle Galloway raped but she was also pregnant." Scully answered as she looked back at him.
"Pregnancy as a result of the rape?"
"Well, it is a possibility although it's hard to tell without taking a sample and putting it through some tests."
"Then I advise we do so." Dr. Rattler answered. "Because if we can determine if the pregnancy was a result of the rape or was BEFORE it…"
"Then it may determine if there may have been some kind of motive." Scully finished.
"Let me know what you find." Dr. Sattler answered before leaving the room.
Scully glanced over at her watch and sighed. She knew there was no possible way that she was going to be able to go to dinner with Mulder now. She pulled off her latex gloves and washed her hands. Walking over to her coat, she pulled out her cell and dialed.
"Hello?"
"Mulder, it's me."
"Hey, slice n' dice! How's it goin'? Working up an appetite?"
"Actually, that's what I'm calling you about." Scully paused. "I'm not going to be able to make that dinner tonight, Mulder."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"There's….been some new developments concerning the autopsy and I need to run some tests."
"Why, what did you find?"
"Well, the results came from the vaginal swab and the DNA matches Jeremy Reinsfeld perfectly."
"Are you sure?"
"The test was done several times with the same result."
"Looks like you got a real X-File on your hands now. Don't think those facts can be ignored now."
"There's more." Scully took a breath. "I just examined the uterus and there is indications that Isabelle was pregnant."
The smile that had been on Mulder's face now faded as heard Scully's last sentence. His worst fear had just been realized, Isabelle had been pregnant and now Scully knew about it. She would do a test on the fetus and find out that he was the father. Then, all of his future plans with Scully would be ruined forever and all because of stupidity. He felt his hand holding his cell go limp.
"Mulder? Are you there?"
He could almost hear laughter in his mind as images began to flood through it. He could see Scully walking into his office the first day, see her smiling at him, see her laughing as he told her a joke, kissing her in her apartment. Tears came to his eyes as he once again saw himself making love to her after coming back from the 50's dance. Everything in his life had seemed perfect until that day she went to her mothers. Then had come the temptation and he had succumbed to it. He had thought that death had saved him from facing his consequences. But now it seemed as if death was laughing at him now. And now his images were nothing but shattered pieces of glass. He let go of his cell and sent it crashing to the ground.
Note: I'm sorry it took so long to get this next chapter done! Stress makes things VERY hard. Anyway thank you to those who continue to read this. I am trying very hard to keep it rolling and do some good storytelling! I promise you there is more to come.
Dana