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Chapter Three: Investigation
Author: Gillian Leigh
Disclaimer: The X-Files and its characters belong to Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen Productions. I'm only borrowing them, and I promise to return them intact and in mint condition, though I might hang onto Mulder a little while longer. :o)
Summary: The agents begin their investigation into Jenn's murder and search for clues about Elena's disappearance.
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Dana had an overwhelming sense of dread as their Crown Victoria pulled up to Jenn Carver's house. Mulder stopped the car, and all three agents got out.
"Are you okay?" he asked, stepping closely to her. She gritted her teeth and sighed in aggravation.
"I'm tired of you checking on me every five minutes, Fox! I'm an agent, and a pathologist, and that is how I am looking at this case. I'm *not* looking at this case as Elena's stepmother. And just because I'm pregnant and a little emotional doesn't mean I can't handle this, okay? Just let me *be*!" she shouted. Several police officers and agents milling around the crime scene stopped and looked at them, but then turned away when Dana glared at them.
A male agent approached them. He was tall, the same height as Mulder, with short brown hair. He extended his hand to Monica, who was standing just to the couple's left.
"John Doggett," he said, showing his badge to the group at large.
"Monica Reyes, Fox Mulder, and Dana Scully," Monica said, and Doggett shook each of their hands. Dana put on her game face, as did Mulder, and they all walked with Agent Doggett as he briefed them on what had happened so far in the investigation.
"The local 911 operator received a frantic call from a young girl at about six o'clock PST. We have the tape right here," he said, leading them over to a satellite van. He hit the play button, and Dana's stomach wrenched at the sound of Elena's voice as she whispered to the operator.
"He's still in the house.."
"Sweetie, I need you to tell me where you are. What's your address?" the operator asked.
"He killed my mom," Elena whispered back, her voice breaking. Dana could hear that her breathing was ragged.
"What's your address? I need you to tell me what your address is so I can send the police," the operator interjected patiently.
"He's here… He's getting closer… I can't…" A gruff male voice interrupted, and Dana could hear Elena scream before the call was abruptly cut short.
"Elena?" the operator said. "Elena, are you there?"
Doggett turned off the tape, and when he turned to face the agents, he found that Scully was trembling.
"Agent Scully, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she replied shortly, looking him in the eye. She did not need another man checking up on her. "What time did the police arrive on scene?"
"At about 6:35. The call had to be traced in order for the police to get an address, and they got here as soon as possible."
"Both Elena and her kidnapper were gone by then?" Monica asked. Doggett nodded, and then continued speaking.
"I'd like to take you all inside the house." The three agents nodded, and as Agent Doggett led them into the house, Dana ignored the worried looks both Monica and her husband were giving her.
Looking around, the agents could see that the house had been ransacked. The tables had been turned over, and all the drawers were pulled out of the desks and tables, in search of money or other valuables.
Doggett led them into the kitchen.
"When the police arrived, there was something burning in the oven. The victim had been cooking dinner. We believe the suspect broke in through that ground-level window, and startled the victim…"
"She has a name, you know, Agent Doggett," Dana interjected. "Her name is Jenn Carver, and she's a person. Her name is not 'the victim', and neither is her daughter's." Doggett looked a little taken back, and became apologetic, remembering that he had been warned that Agent Scully had ties to the case.
"I'm sorry Agent Scully. I thought it would make it less personal. I'll refer to them by their names," he said. Her eyes met his, stone cold and devoid of emotion.
"Thank you, Agent Doggett. And I'll have you know there's no need to protect me. I'm on this case as an agent, and I'm looking at it professionally." Doggett nodded, and then continued speaking. Monica exchanged a worried look with Mulder, who was dreading this case more heavily than he had been before.
"Based on the call to 911 and the evidence we found here, Elena must've been upstairs when the man or group of men broke in. It is the belief of the agents and officers who have gone over the crime scene so far that Ms. Carver was struck over the head with this rolling pin," he said, holding up an evidence bag with the bloody rolling pin inside, "and then dragged up the stairs to her bedroom." The agents followed the ever increasing trail of blood up the stairs and into the first room on the right. "The one non-serrated knife missing from Ms. Carver's kitchen set was found over on the other side of her bed, next to her body. He slit her throat and stabbed her numerous times in the chest and abdomen. Blood loss is what led to her death." Dana stood back as both Mulder and Monica walked over to the other side of the bed. They both looked up at her, and she slowly walked around the bed herself. The body had been removed, but the blood stain made the knot in her stomach pull tighter, and she covered her mouth with her hand.
"Oh, my God," she whispered. "Poor Jenn."
They finished their tour of the house in Elena's room. Her closet door was smashed in, and her drawers had all been ransacked as well. The portable phone was found in the closet as well, smeared with Elena's blood. There were only a few drops of her blood around the room, suggesting that she hadn't been hurt too badly. They'd also found drops of blood that when type crossed did not match Elena's or Jenn's. It was the suspect's blood, which meant that Elena fought back. Other than his blood, the police had nothing else to go on. They hadn't found a fingerprint, or a strand of hair, but the forensic investigation of the scene was set to continue for at least another day.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed in their hotel room, Dana silently studied Elena's silver cross, which had been torn from her neck in the struggle; it was sealed in an evidence bag. Rolling the chain back and forth between her thumb and index finger, she remembered the day she's given her stepdaughter that cross. The morning of her wedding day, she'd given the cross to Elena to wear with her bridesmaid's dress. It was more than a simple adornment to Elena, who hadn't really had a religion before she met Dana. Even before she and Mark were married, Dana would take Elena to church with her, because the girl expressed an interest in theology and Catholicism. Elena had quickly adopted the religion, and even talked her father into going. The smile she'd worn at the memory quickly faded, and Dana choked back a sob, setting the evidence bag down on the bed.
She stood up and walked to the window of their motel room and pushed the heavy curtains back. The night sky was clouded over, and the rain fell lightly, making pin pricks in the puddles. Mulder had gone out to buy them dinner, and though she'd insisted she wasn't hungry, *he* had insisted that she eat to keep her strength up. She sighed and allowed her forehead to rest on the cool glass of the window, watching as her breath fogged the glass each time she exhaled. For the second time in as many hours, she glanced skyward and uttered a silent prayer.
"How's Dana doing, Dad? This Elena thing is all over the news…" Eve said. Mulder sat in his car in the parking lot of the restaurant he'd just ordered their dinner from.
"She's taking it really hard. She insists on being involved in everything, but it's killing her emotionally. She's even insisted on doing Jenn's autopsy tomorrow before the reading of the will," he replied, running his hand over his face.
"Grandma Maggie said she was really worried about Dana and what it must be doing to her in her condition… Is she alright? She's not sick again is she? Has her cancer relapsed?" Eve asked, twirling the phone cord around her finger.
"She's fine, Eve. Don't worry. She was just feeling a bit under the weather," he said. "The flu or something. But she's fine. Don't worry."
"Okay," she responded. "Tell Dana we miss her and we love her."
"I'll tell her. Make sure to send everyone our love, and hopefully we'll be home soon," he replied.
"Bye Dad."
"Bye Eve."
Mulder pocketed his cell phone and started the car, heading back to the motel. He reached their room and knocked at the door.
"It's open!" Dana called from within. He opened the door and set the bag with their dinners inside on the small table with two chairs which sat next to their bed. Dana emerged from the bathroom a moment later, wearing her pajamas and bathrobe.
"It smells good," she commented, sitting down at the table. "What did you get?"
"There's a great Thai restaurant the next block over, so I stopped there. I hope you don't have any objections," he said as he removed the containers from the paper bag. She shook her head.
"No, the baby only objects to Mongolian food. Thai passes the test," she replied, opening the containers he had set in front of her.
"What happened to having 'no appetite', Mrs. Mulder?" he asked, teasingly, passing her the bottle of iced tea she had requested. She looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Has it occurred to you that you passed on your appetite to all of your children, this baby included?" she asked, dumping rice and several other entrees onto her plate. He smiled at her and shook his head, and he was relieved to see her smile back. The meal was mostly silent, but the silence was not uncomfortable, and Mulder watched with amazement as his wife ate more than he did, and even finished off whatever he left on his plate. Once the garbage had been taken care of, they brushed their teeth, and climbed into bed. They then spooned up and fell asleep.
Jenn Carver's autopsy was the most difficult Dana could ever remember doing. Several time she had to stop her tape recorder to steal into the bathroom to either cry her eyes out or throw up. The police weren't wrong. The woman had indeed died from blood loss. She had also been raped, and stabbed forty-seven times. *Forty-seven.* Halfway through the autopsy, Dana had had to cover the woman's face, because every time she looked at her she saw Elena, or hallucinated that the woman was speaking to her, pleading for her help. She was standing motionless over the body, scalpel in hand when a lab tech opened the door.
"Dr. Scully? I have the results on the blood and body fluids for you." The young woman paled at the sight of the mutilated body on the table and Dana met her at the door.
"It's okay, Abby. You don't have to come in any further." The girl looked relieved.
"Thank you." Dana turned to walk away. "And, Dr. Scully?" She turned back to face the girl.
"Yes?"
"I hope they catch the bastard who did this."
"Me too, Abby," she said, walking back over to the table. Reading over the results, she banged her fist on the metal tray her instruments were resting on, causing them to jump.
"Damn it!" she exclaimed. There was no evidence of semen- whoever raped her had used a condom. Feeling defeated, she continued reading, and her eyes widened, and her stomach wrenched.
"Oh, my God… Jenn was pregnant."
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Author's Note: Okay, I'm not going to put a review minimum on this chapter, but fair warning, if I don't get a lot of feedback on this chapter, I'm not going to post the next one. This is getting to be too much to write for a meager two reviews per chapter… My apologies to those of you who *do* review.
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