Chapter 7
Later that morning Mulder and Carroway arrived at the Hospital and made their way to the E.R department. They were directed to a side room, just off the main corridor.
Mulder knocked on the door, and waiting for a sign that they could enter the room. When he heard a quiet "come in" from a female voice inside, he opened the door just wide enough so that he could put his head through and announce who they were. When he looked into the room, the first thing he noticed was a young woman with long blonde hair sitting on the edge of the bed. She had a soft blue blanket wrapped around her like a cocoon; her pretty face was puffy and red with her eyes swollen from crying. An older woman was also sitting on the bed, and appeared to be comforting her.
"Miss Claire Ambrose?"
"Yes" she replied in a soft voice. "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder from the FBI. I'm with Special Agent River Carroway from the New York Field office. We'd like to ask you a few questions about what happened tonight, if this is a good time?"
"Of course this is not a good time" snapped the other woman as she stood from the bed. "Don't you think my daughter has been through enough already, without being bombarded by questions from the FBI? I suggest you leave immediately."
"Mom" said Claire as she leant forward to place a hand on her mother's arm. "It's Okay; I can answer a few questions. I'll have to sooner or later anyway."
"Sweetheart, I really don't think you're ready for this," she said rubbing a soothing hand over her daughters back.
"Look, its fine Mom really. Just go and get a coffee or something." She answered, appearing to hug the blanket a little tighter around herself. Her mother took once last look, and reluctantly left the room leaving Mulder and Carroway standing a little awkwardly at the end of the bed.
"Sorry about that, she's just being over protective" said Claire.
"Don't worry, that's perfectly understandable" Carroway answered, as she pulled up a chair at the side of the bed, followed by Mulder who did the same.
"Claire, I appreciate you've gone through a terrible ordeal." said Carroway. "And we know you've already given some information to the Police."
"Yes about how I found him…Like that." Claire said sadly, looking at Mulder who simply nodded and gave her a small smile of encouragement. "We wanted to know some things about Christian. What kind of people he hung out with, if he was in any kind of trouble?" asked Carroway.
"Trouble? No Christian isn't like that" Claire answered emphatically. "He only ever socialised with the people he works with, and friends he's known for years. That's how we met actually, through mutual friends."
"Have you been together long?" asked Mulder
"Three years." She answered quietly, with fresh tears begging to glisten in her eyes. "My friend April Brookes is a partner of the law firm where Christian works...Hunter, Brookes and Gamble. She introduced us one night at a party, and we've been inseparable since".
"But you don't live together, right?" asked Mulder, recalling the information the NYPD detectives had given them before travelling to the Hospital.
"Yeah that's right;" she said with a slight smile, reaching up to brush away a stray tear that had fallen onto her cheek. "I stayed over at his place a lot, mainly at the weekends but Christian had problems sleeping…I used to get disturbed a lot you know, woken up in the early hours of the morning when I had work. So it turned out better for me to keep my own apartment."
"When you say sleep problems, what do you mean exactly?" enquired Mulder.
"Well he suffered really badly with nightmares. Or night terrors as he would call them"
"Night terrors?" said Carroway looking from Claire to Mulder. "Aren't they something that only children suffer with? Monsters in the closet, that kind of thing?"
"Well not necessarily" answered Mulder. "Children do suffer with them yes, but there is a small percentage of adults who still experience them on a nightly basis. They differ from nightmares in that the person may scream in their sleep, move around the room and often hallucinate."
"Yes that's right," agreed Claire. "Christian would suddenly jump out of bed screaming and shouting about a man being in the room, or sometimes he'd say that someone was trying to break in. He did it almost every night and he would scared me half to death most of the time. That's why I only stayed at weekends."
"Did Christian ever seek treatment from his Doctor for this?" asked Carroway
"No, he was too embarrassed," replied Claire with a small smile. "I think he thought people would think he was crazy or something." She looked up at Mulder who nodded sympathetically; he knew that feeling all too well.
"He did go online a lot…chat rooms used by other sufferers of nightmares, night terrors that kind of thing. I think it helped him to chat with other people who experienced the same things as he did. There was this one chat room especially, he was always on there."
"Can you remember the name of it?" asked Mulder
"Umm, I think the website was called Night Chatter something like that" Claire answered sounding a little weary. Mulder stood up from his chair and moved over to Claire, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you very much Miss Ambrose you've been very helpful."
As they were about to leave the room, Claire called over to them "You know I can't think why anyone would ever want to hurt Christian. He is….was the kindest, sweetest guy I have ever met." She wiped a hand over her face as more tears began to flow freely down her cheeks. "Please get the bastard who did this to him."
"We'll do everything we possibly can, Claire" Mulder replied with earnest as he quietly closed the door to her room.
Mulder walked down to where Carroway was standing down the hall. "What was that all about Mulder?" she asked as he came to stand beside her. "What?" he replied as he absently smoothed down the blue tie he was wearing and looked down at his shoes. "Here it comes," he thought to himself. Justifying his sudden leaps of logic to his disbelieving female partner. This situation didn't feel familiar at all….
"Quizzing her about Christian Swift's nightmares? What has that got to do with his murder?"
"Just a hunch" he replied as he began to walk toward the exit of the E.R. "Where are you going Mulder?" Carroway called after him. "I'm going to do some research. I'll see you at the office." He didn't turn back as he walked out of the E.R.
