Chapter 5: Teamwork
[Author's Note: Firstly, I want to make clear that some of this chapter's content is in no way meant to overdramatize or unnecessarily make light of those who suffer with real-life genetic diseases. No offense or disrespect is intended. Secondly, I want to apologize in advance if any of you happen to get lost in the details of my admittedly perfunctory attempt at an origin story for the Bat Creature.]
Medical Research Library
Our Lady of Sorrows Hospital
Washington, DC
4:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Dana Scully, now dressed in a white knit wool sweater that she wore as a jacket with a white cotton maternity blouse underneath, gray sweatpants, and white slip-on crocs, scanned her hospital keycard into the secure door reader of Our Lady of Sorrows Hospital's Medical Research Library. Charlie Scully stood right behind her, holding his sister's laptop bag in one hand as well as a second bag containing his own laptop in the other.
The library's location made great practical use of the hospital's spacious, if not sometimes uncomfortable, 1960's-era nuclear bomb shelter in the basement of the hospital's main building. Once the reader granted them access, Scully and Charlie went through the library's outer door, at which point Charlie got settled in at a long cherrywood reading table in the center of the room. He opened his laptop, linked it to the hospital's guest wi-fi network, and started doing miscellaneous fragments of his own research. He was hoping to help supplement the research that his sister was planning on doing.
Scully, meanwhile, scanned the various isles of books, medical magazines, and assorted physicians-only periodicals. She grunted with frustration as she seemed to be repeatedly unsuccessful in finding what they had originally gone there to find.
After several minutes and several well-examined isles, Scully finally stumbled upon a large red book, The International Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Debunked Illnesses. The very dusty and well-worn book had been co-authored by two very liberal-minded Swedish physicians in the 1940's. She smiled with satisfaction as she brushed the dust from the book's cover with her hand and brought it over to the reading table, where she took a seat opposite her brother.
"Find what you're looking for?" Charlie asked.
"Yep", Scully contentedly replied as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, "Now comes the hard part. Trying to convince Mulder to let us help without getting an hour-long lecture."
FBI Field Office
San Antonio, Texas
3:02 PM (Central Standard Time)
Meanwhile, Fox Mulder was sitting at a long conference table at the FBI's San Antonio Field Office, awaiting the arrival of John Doggett, Detective Darnell Willmore, and Texas Fish and Game Sergeant Mercedes Lucia. His cell phone then began to ring.
"Mulder", he promptly answered.
"Mulder, it's me" Scully replied from her side of the line, "Don't freak out, but I've been keeping tabs on your Texas investigation."
Mulder sighed a very discontented sigh before giving his pregnant girlfriend and partner a response. "Scully", he said, "You're supposed to be at home on bedrest. Are you there now?"
"No", Scully said, "I'm at Our Lady of Sorrows. Charlie's here with me. I think I found something they might be helpful to your investigation."
As if on cue, John Doggett and Detective Willmore entered the conference room. Detective Willmore was dressed in a tweed business suit with brown imitation leather slip-on shoes. He nodded a silent salutation to Mulder as he sat down near the head of the table.
Trailing behind them was Sergeant Mercedes Lucia. She was dressed in a very low-key unzipped black sweater jacket that very tastefully covered both of her bandaged arms, although the bandage across the right side of her forehead didn't really do much to make the aftermath of her previous ordeal seem any less apparent.
"Mulder?" Scully called out from her side of the line, "Mulder, are you still there?"
Mulder covered one side of his mouth in an attempt to momentarily be discreet. "Yeah", he softly replied, "Scully, sorry, I've gotta go, but open your FBI e-mail and leave it open. I'll sent you a web conference invitation in a little bit."
He then quickly hung up his phone and stood up to greet the sergeant, at which point he extended a well-mannered hand to her. "Sergeant Lucia, I presume?" he inquired.
Lucia shook his hand firmly. "Yes", she replied.
"I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder", Mulder said, "I've been working with Agent Doggett and Detective Willmore on this investigation. I'm so sorry for the loss of your partner. I've been told he was a very good man."
Lucia nodded and took a seconds-long reflective pause. "Thank you, sir" she said, "And yes, he was." She then took a seat beside Detective Willmore, at which point Doggett and Mulder both took their respective seats at the table. "The detective here tells me that you think what happened to Boyd and I might have some connection to a previous FBI case", she continued, "Is that right?"
"Yes", Doggett replied before grabbing a small remote control off the table, "Just a second, please."
The agent then clicked on a large high-definition TV monitor that was mounted on the other side of the room opposite the large conference table. The faces of Dr. Claudette Jerritz and another tall redhead woman, clad in a lab coat and appearing to be in her mid-40's, showed up in split screen view on the large screen with her background indicating that she was in some sort of collegiate office setting. "Doctor Jerritz?" Doggett inquired, "Can you hear and see us alright?"
"Loud and clear, Agent Doggett" Dr. Jerritz replied from her screen, "This other lady here with us is my colleague I told you about, Doctor Reagan Green. She's a forensic anthropologist and she also heads up the Department of Anthropological Studies at UT Austin."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Green" Doggett said, "I'm Special Agent John Doggett with the FBI. This is my partner, Agent Fox Mulder. Also, at the table here with us are Detective Darnell Willmore with Austin PD Homicide and Sergeant Mercedes Lucia with Texas Fish and Game."
"Nice to meet you all", Dr. Green replied, "I hope my insights on this will be helpful."
Mulder then raised his hand. "Uh", he interjected, "Sorry. Agent Doggett? I'd like to loop Agent Scully in on this. She says she has some information that could be very useful."
Though somewhat caught off guard by this, Doggett nodded. "The more the merrier, I guess" he said.
With that, Mulder took a moment to do something on his phone, presumably sending the web conference invitation to Scully as he said he would. Within roughly 40 seconds, the faces of both Dana and Charlie Scully appeared on the screen.
"Welcome aboard, Agent Scully" Doggett warmly greeted, "It's so great to see you again, in a matter of speaking!"
On her side of the screen, Scully smiled back at her longtime friend and former partner. "Likewise, Agent Doggett!" she replied in just as affable a tone, "Thank you for letting Mulder include us in your case." She then gestured to her sibling. "This is my brother, Charlie" she continued, "He's been doing some research of his own that I think could help."
Charlie gave the room a nervous wave in salutation. "Hello", he greeted, "It's nice to finally meet you, Agent Doggett. My sister and Agent Mulder speak highly of you."
Doggett smiled. "Nice to meet you as well, Charlie" he said, "Glad to have you aboard. He then turned to address the others in the conference room. "Everyone", he continued, "For those of you who don't know, this is…"
"Dana Scully!" Dr. Jerritz excitedly interjected from her side of the screen, "We met two years ago when you gave a speech at my alma mater for the American Society of Women in Forensic Science! I got both my M.D. and my Ph.D. in Genetics from Baylor!"
Scully chuckled in response at the doctor's apparent exhilaration at her presence. "I'm sorry", she replied, "I'm having a bit of a memory lapse at the moment. You are?"
"Doctor Claudette Jerritz, ma'am" Dr. Jerritz clarified, "I'm the Deputy Chief M.E. for Travis County."
Now putting two and two together, Scully nodded and smiled in recognition. "Ah yes", she said, "I remember now. It's good to see you again, Doctor."
"I'm sorry", a now increasingly frustrated Sergeant Lucia cut in, "This whole 'family reunion' thing that y'all have going is great and all, but I'd really like to get down to business if we could, please."
Taking the exasperated sergeant's cue, Mulder stood up from his seat. "I believe the sergeant has a point", he said, "Let's concentrate on the problem at hand, shall we?" He then took a moment to introduce Scully and Charlie to Detective Willmore and Sergeant Lucia.
"In that case", Doggett began, "I think it's best that we begin at the beginning. In the spring of Two-Thousand, I was assigned to the FBI's X-Files division to partner up with Agent Scully and fill in for Agent Mulder during an extended absence."
"We were promptly handed the case of a double homicide in the town of Burley", Scully added, "It was a very small town in Cassia County, Idaho. The victims were an elderly couple found in their home: sixty-two-year-old George Odenburg, a local undertaker, and his sixty-one-year-old wife, Tahoma."
"The two of them had apparently died as a result of massive blood loss", Doggett said, "Caused by multiple deep bites inflicted to their heads, torsos, and both hands. When Agent Scully and I arrived at the home, we determined that the perpetrator appeared to leave deformed four-toed footprints at the scene, and even then, they were only left every twenty-five feet."
"I noted the presence of what looked like gauge marks in the roof beam of the front porch", Scully added, "I know how odd this is going to sound to you all, but it seemed to me at the time that something had just been…"
"Hanging there", Lucia chimed in. Scully nodded in response to this inference from her screen.
"A day or two later", Doggett continued, "There was a second murder in Burley. An elderly woman named Mary McKesson was found murdered in the attic of her home. Same MO as the Odenburgs: death by blood loss by a series of bites to the head, torso, and hands. We found four-toed footprints at the scene as well as a pair of Mrs. McKesson's regurgitated fingers."
"I should also mention that I personally received a pretty cold reception from the Cassia County Sheriff's detective who supervised the cases", Scully chimed in, "His name was Yale Abbott. He wasn't very open-minded to the rather 'unorthodox' methodology we often utilized in order to work X-Files cases. Agent Doggett, however, used his ever-present professionalism to win him over for the moment."
"However," Doggett said, "It was through this bit of discourse that we realized the first real connection between the two brutal murders. The body of Mrs. McKesson's long-estranged adult daughter had been pulled from a nearby river two weeks before the first murders. It had been burned beyond recognition."
"We then realized that the connection between the two cases was the body itself", Scully added, "The undertaker prepared it, the mother identified it, and Detective Abbott got the call when the body was found. Unfortunately, this connection would soon prove fatal for the detective."
"Later that evening", Doggett explained, "I had secured a judge's order to exhume the burned body so Scully could properly autopsy it. Detective Abbott proceeded to the county cemetery to observe the exhumation when he apparently happened upon our killer. He was tragically murdered in the same fashion as the others. Needless to say, the sheriff's department wanted Scully all but crucified for what happened."
"Once again, however" Scully said, "Agent Doggett was able to talk everyone down and I was able to proceed with the autopsy as planned. Although the woman's cause of death was a natural one, Doggett and I followed another lead that led us to a man named Myron Stephaniuk."
"The next day, Mister Stephaniuk was able to point us to his estranged brother, Ernie" Doggett commented, "He lived on a small island in the Slade River. We took a rowboat out there later that night and spent some time with Ernie when we were interrupted by our killer. He abducted Ernie, accosted Agent Scully, and wounded me before escaping. I had to have six stitches in my upper left shoulder to close up a bad slash wound."
"So, this 'Ernie' guy was never found?" Detective Willmore asked.
"His body was apparently found beneath a highway overpass near Boise, Idaho" Scully replied, "This was roughly a week after we had returned to DC. Same MO as the Burley murders. Agent Doggett had previously received word from Ernie's brother, Myron, saying that he was moving to the nearby state of Wyoming to go into hiding from his brother's killer and there's been no word from him since."
"I don't know if this will be of any help", Charlie chimed in, "But I discovered that an F-Two tornado blew through Cassia County, Idaho in June of Two-Thousand-Nine and flattened everything in its path. Maybe the storm forced your killer out of hiding and that's why there haven't been any murders fitting his MO in a while."
"Maybe", Doggett replied, "And maybe our boy made his way down here to Texas. Lucky me."
"You mean 'lucky us'", Detective Willmore very straightforwardly interjected. Doggett then nodded in response.
"Now that we're all caught up", Mulder finally chimed in, "Scully, what's this information you guys have?"
Scully sighed deeply in retort, fully realizing how irrational this next cluster of information was going to sound to probably everyone else in the conference, sans Mulder and Doggett. "I believe", she finally said, "In my medical opinion, that this killer is suffering from an exceedingly rare genetic condition called Nosferatu's Disease."
Mulder nodded. "As crazily peculiar as this is going to sound", he said, "It does sound familiar. The disease was first discovered in Nineteen-Thirty-Two after a nine-year-old boy and his mother came into a Bulgarian Hospital. The young boy later died and soon after, his mother mysteriously disappeared. The disease was named after the famous vampire film of the same name."
"It's characterized by a very unusual genetic anomaly", Scully added, "This results in things such as abnormal connective tissue development as well as very unusual joint flexibility and elongation. It can also cause conditions such as hemarthrosis, or bleeding into the joint spaces, a dangerous lack of blood platelets resulting in additional hemophilia-type symptoms, chronic angina and palpations of the heart, and in certain cases, blindness."
"We'll take that under advisement for now, Agent Scully" Doggett replied before looking to Dr. Green on her side of the web conference. "Doctor Green", he continued, "Were you able to shed any light on the male skeleton that Mulder found in the cave?"
Dr. Reagan Green nodded from her side of the screen. "I was able to definitively confirm Doctor Jerritz's supposition that the victim was male", she explained, "The closed pelvis was a dead giveaway, if you'll all please pardon that morbid expression. He had full closure of the growth plates in the long bones of both arms indicating someone of older age. Excessive pitting and sharpness of his sternal area tells me that this dearly departed gentleman was approximately eighty-two to eighty-seven years of age when he died."
"So, I was right about that, too?" Dr. Jerritz asked.
"You were", Dr. Green replied, "I found no sign of obvious trauma anywhere on the skeleton, so I really can't definitively say that his demise came as a result of any foul play. I did find elevated levels of the compounds C-Fourteen, Strontium Ninety, and Cesium One-Thirty-Seven in his bone marrow. This is common in people old enough to have lived around World War Two. Those compounds were a bit more commonplace in the world back then."
"I'm curious", Scully said, "Could the osteoporosis you found be a symptom of Nosferatu's Disease as well?"
"Well," Dr. Jerritz chimed in, "Considering that the disease is of a genetic nature as you noted, I suppose that could've been the cause of his osteoporosis, yes."
"I second that", Dr. Green replied, "Despite the rarity and oddity of the condition, I'd have to agree."
"So, you're both saying that our killer and this skeleton guy have the same condition", Sergeant Lucia said, "Could they be related?"
With a lightbulb now having gone off in her head, Scully's mouth dropped for a second. "That is an excellent question", she said, "Dr. Jerritz, you said you have a background in Genetics as well, right?"
"Yes ma'am", Dr. Jerritz replied.
"Would you be able to test the DNA found in the recent murder for the mutation specific to Nosferatu's Disease?" Scully asked.
"I'd have to look it up", Dr. Jerritz replied, "And that could take some doing, but I don't see why not."
"…And if we identify our skeleton man", Detective Willmore added, "We could potentially get an ID on our killer."