Georgetown
April 14th
11:00 am

Mulder only had to take one look at Derek Jefferson to know that he wasn't a possible suspect.

Dark rings below his blood-shot eyes suggested more than one sleepless night and made the thirty-six year old man appear much older.

"Mr. Jefferson, I know this is hard for you but we have to ask you some questions", Scully began her interrogation appropriately, while Mulder took in the apartment of the victim and her boyfriend.

"Tell us something about Jenny", Scully asked gently.

He sighted.

"She... she is... was... a wonderful person. She was kind and so intelligent."

"And she looked well", both Mulder and Scully added to themselves.

A small smile played across Jefferson's lips.

"You know, before we got involved we have been friends for years. She was the first person in the world to make me feel worth anything. Just thinking about how much time we wasted..." His voice trailed off and so did Mulder's thoughts. They wandered to the petit person next to him. He could have said the same about her.

"Do you think this has something to do with her work?" Jefferson asked suddenly and ended his thoughts.

Surprised, he looked at Scully, who looked away quickly. He could swear he saw her blush, but he wasn't sure if that was because she had thought the same or just because she was embarrassed because neither of them knew anything about Jenny Bryson's job.

"Excuse me, Mr. Jefferson, but what was Ms. Bryson's job?" Mulder inquired.

"She was working for CDER." He explained tersely. Mulder looked at Scully questioningly.

"I don't think that your girlfriend's job has anything to do with her job." She said. "Of course the decisions made by the Center of Drug Evaluation and Research are important to many pharmaceutical companies, but we don't think that the killer has any economic or political goals," she summarized.

"CDER belongs to the FDA, doesn't it?" Mulder asked and continued as both Jefferson and Scully nodded. "The building of the Food and Drug Administration is not too far away from the National Gallery of Art."

"Yes," Jefferson agreed. "That's where I met her. At that time I was still with the FTC. We met in the café accidentally." He sighed heavily. "Even after I quit working for the Federal Trade Commission, we met there regularly."

Mulder wrote it down while his suspicion that the killer spend much time in the Sculpture Garden and met his victims there for the first time substantiated.

"Thank you, Mr. Jefferson. You were very helpful," he said after exchanging a quick look with Scully that confirmed that she had not further questions.

Jefferson nodded. "Could... do you know when the body will be released for the funeral?" he asked as he showed him out.

"I will do the autopsy myself," Scully explained. "And I assure you that you will be informed immediately."

Jefferson nodded gratefully and closed the front door behind the agents.

After Mulder had opened the car door for Scully he moved around the vehicle and sank down in the driver's seat.

He only though about the fact that the killer probably met his victims in the Sculpture Garden, maybe even talked about the place where they were found later. His thoughts were circling around a remark that Jefferson made. "Just thinking about how much time we wasted..."

He quickly glanced at his partner who was concentrating on reading her notes.

Suddenly it was painfully clear to him that death was everywhere, especially in his job. He vowed to himself to spend as much time as possible with this wonderful person next to him. Maybe he would even gather the courage to admit his feelings to her.

After a look at the clock he finally broke the silence.

"Scully, why don't you let me buy you lunch before heading back to Quantico?"

She smiled. "Victory", he thought.

"Lunch sounds good, Mulder," she said, "but you don't have to treat me."

"I insist."

She sighed, which he took as agreement.

"Sometimes you make it really hard for me to be nice to you, Scully," he teased.

Autopsy Bay, FBI Academy
April 14th
01:30 pm

Scully had done all she could to make lunch with Mulder last as long as possible. On the one hand she liked spending time with this man who was fascinating her so much and was one of the few male agents that had treated her as an equal partner from the beginning, on the other hand, because she needed time to prepare for another autopsy.

As she carefully removed the sheet covering the body, an unpleasant feeling spread in her stomach again.

She shook her head.

She didn't only hate the feeling itself. It also reminded her, that she had weaknesses, she couldn't always control. But mostly she was upset because she didn't know why.

She had seen much worse. Dismembered bodies, all kinds of mutants, healthy persons murdered in most brutal ways. However it was dead bodies like that of Jenny Bryson that curdled her blood – although the body didn't show any injuries on the outside. Except for the paint she looked perfectly normal.

Scully didn't know if it was because the victims were her age and this showed her how short life was, or because the victims had died so soon, but there life had been more fulfilled than hers would ever be.

She shook her head again. The psycho stuff was Mulder's area of expertise. She had to concentrate on the science.

After she took one last deep breath she turned on the microphone that was hanging down from the ceilings.

"I begin autopsy on Jennifer Bryson. Age 33. Caucasian. Height: 5'38'', Weight : 120 lb."

She rounded the body slowly. "The body shows no signs of injuries on the outside."

Carefully she lifted the victim's arms and looked closely at the wrists.

"There is no evidence indicating that the victim defended herself."

She hesitated. "However it is possible that small bruises might be covered by the paint. I'm going to take some more photos before removing the paint and continuing with the examination of the organs."

She switched the recorder off and walked over to one of the cupboards determinately.

X-Files Office,
April 14th
02:30 pm

Mulder had been staring blankly at the screen in front of him for the past half hour.

The only thing he had typed so far was his handwritten notes. He wasn't getting anywhere. He already had collected quite a lot of information on the killer, but the most important piece was missing and without it the rest of the puzzle didn't make any sense.

All the information flickering across the screen in front of him was only small details. He knew that it was often these details that convicted the suspect in the end, however it was nearly impossible to find a suspect that matches all the details. You had to start with a large-meshed net and close it later.

He was sure that the killer was male, white and in his early thirties.

Furthermore he was a frequent visitor of the Sculpture Garden, but there had to be hundreds of persons among the thousands of visitors fitting that description.

The ringing of the telephone startled him. He blinked the blankness out of his eyes and looked at the clock in confusion. Scully couldn't normally be done with the autopsy yet. Did that mean that Scully had found something?

Hopeful, he reached for the receiver.

"Mulder."

But it wasn't the lovely voice of his partner that answered them.

The deep voice, coming through the receiver, sounded angry, but despite that the words caused his hope to rise.

"Do you know where the tip came from yet?" he cut his boss of.

"That is our smallest problem, Agent Mulder!" Skinner replied.

"Every newspaper and TV channel in this city is demanding a statement from us!"

"Sir, I assure you, that nobody from our team gave information to outsiders. Maybe it was the witness or even the killer himself.

His gaze met the screen.

"Sir, I think the tip came from the killer himself - after all he thinks of himself as an artist and wants attention."

Skinner sighed.

"I think that we could use that statement to get a rise out of him."

Mulder could see Skinner removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose in front of his mind's eye.

"Ok, Mulder, write a statement. The press conference will start in an hour."

He hung up.

FBI Headquarters
April 14th
03:42 pm.

Mulder stood at the exit of the conference room and observed the pack of reporters gathered in front of him.

He had insisted that all journalists had to inform them about their sources before they were allowed to enter the room. So far all of them either reported anonymous calls or had from it through the media themselves.

While Skinner began reading out the statement, Mulder's gaze wandered through the crowd. He wasn't sure how big the killer's need for appreciation was, but if he has assessed him correctly he wouldn't let this opportunity to experience the reactions to his work firsthand pass.

It was almost as if he could feel the presence of evil, as it brewed beneath the treacherous cover of normality - whatever that was. He concentrated on this subliminal feeling of darkness with all his might, when suddenly a bright light blazed a trail into his consciousness.

The light emanated hope and sympathy but most of all it emanated friendship and love. Although he couldn't see the source of the light yet, he was sure who radiated it. It had already saved him from the darkest depth of his being so many times that he'd recognize it everywhere.

As he turned he looked into the ocean blue eyes of Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully.

"Do you think he's here?" she asked as if she read the first part of his thoughts. If she read the rest too she decided to ignore it – as he did. As always.

"He won't miss this. His first page made the headlines everywhere.

The first thing he did after nothing was published after his second crime was to call the press. To witness the reaction first hand has to be a big deal for him."

Now she nodded.

"You stay here. I'll go get a look of the group from the front." she decided and marched towards the podium on which her superior stood.

Although Skinner had just finished with the salutation and it would get interesting soon, Scully could feel that some persons, colleagues as well as journalist, turned their attention from Skinner to watch her walk past them through the aisle and positioning herself next to the podium instead.

She knew that many men thought that she was attractive, but she wasn't accustomed to such looks. Most men she met seemed to be intimidated by Mulder's presence.

As Skinner began to recite the facts most eyes left her. But she could still feel the looks here and there.

A cold shiver ran down her spine at the thought that one of these men could be the killer. No one knew she was right.

With a nod of his head, Mulder let her know, that Skinner would now read the part of the statement written to provoke the killer, so that he might blow his cover. She nodded back as a sign that she had understood und concentrated on the crowd before her.

When Skinner said the word "copycat" most listeners began making notes.

Almost disappointed, Mulder noticed that no one acted very suspicious, jumped up or turned often.

He had succeeded in upsetting the killer, only his attention was completely focused on his partner.