Title: "Credidi me Felem Vidisse"

Author: KimotoCat

Rating: PG-13

Summary, disclaimer and all that are in part 1.

Credidi me Felem Vidisse

Part 2

Special agent Dana Scully had the same kind of gut-feeling about this day as the one, Fox Mulder had felt when he entered the J. Edgar Hoover Building. She had been on a rotten assignment in Minnesota, doing an autopsy on a viciously killed middle-aged man and at that time, she had dreamed about returning home soon.

Dana Scully had seen a lot of things, but the cruelty of the World could still amaze her. And now, as she walked towards Mulder's office, knowing that he was already on another assignment in which she was to join him, she knew to herself that she would not like this one.

Besides, it was raining.

Mulder opened the door and came out to meet her as soon as she knocked.

"Hello Scully," he smiled in a fake grimace. "Excuse me, agents Vandenberg and Simmons. Just saying hi to my partner."

"Naturally. Go ahead," a steel voice sounded from the office just as Mulder closed the door.

"Hi," Scully said, looking at Mulder with concern in her eyes. "Had a rough day? Who was that?"

"A rough day? Me?" Mulder sighed. "Come, I'll buy us a drink."

He walked towards the venting machine, followed by Scully who sensed his repugnance. Without a word, he got them both an ice tea from it. Then he turned to look at his friend and partner.

"Ever had one of those days, where your every instinct is yelling at you to stay in bed?"

"Yes," Scully said thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, I felt this way today at two in the morning, when I was busy in Minnesota, doing an autopsy on a dead man who turned out to be the victim of his nine-year old son."

"Minnesota? Well, and just to make things better, you returned to this place."

"Talk to me."

"In my office I have two special agents, Francis Vandenberg and Randolph Simmons, going through files along with me. Guess what we are looking for?"

"What?"

"A cat-burglar!" Mulder exclaimed with a huge smile. "And not just any cat-burglar. This one really has a tail! Kimoto Takita, our friend from the inn!"

"The one from the Sewer?" Scully exclaimed through a mouthful of ice-tea, now taking a serious interest in the case. "Your biological miracle?"

"The same. Only this time, she has CSM's father and 'I Love FBI' looking for her."

"What?"

"Those two men give me the creeps!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Instinct, Scully. Instinct," Mulder said with a fingertip at his eye. "I can tell, you know. The older one, Francis Vandenberg, he is hiding something so big that it couldn't be stashed away inside the Grand Canyon. So in stead, they've shoved him into my meagre office. Along with some greenhorn handsome cloak-and-dagger guy who has spent more time in a solarium than at Quantico."

"What makes you think that Vandenberg is hiding something?"

"He knows a lot about some things and preciously little about others. He knew about the gun, but not that the military had it. He also knew about her, but preciously little about the exact case. In other words, he is not in any way a regular FBI-agent! I mean, even the name sucks. Vandenberg?"

"You're saying?"

"I'm not saying the badge ain't real," Mulder grumbled, sipping his ice tea. "All I am saying is that I bet the ink is still wet. They are not here as regular agents. Vandenberg's even in charge of this operation."

"Sounds like fun," Scully admitted in a dry voice.

"It is. Only thing is, Skinner assigned you and me with those two, so we're stuck for now."

"I see."

"Yeah, now I only have to find out who Vandenberg really is and where he is from." Mulder said, wolfing down the last ice tea. "At least I don't think Simmons is hiding as much, all though I am not sure about him either. But he is probably just bullied around by Vandenberg. I bet some people in high places are toying around with us again. And I do not like that!"

Scully agreed to this, but said nothing. In stead, she followed Mulder into his office where she was introduced to the two agents; Francis Vandenberg and Randolph Simmons.

And Dana Scully couldn't help but agree with Mulder as she met the older man. His eyes were dead cold and his behaviour was careful in a tense way. As he was in charge she did not have any choice but to follow orders. As for the younger one, Simmons, Scully could see Mulder's point, but she disagreed about him being pure greenhorn. He seemed more honest and hardworking. Then again, to seem honest was not hard when compared to Francis Vandenberg.

Soon, Scully had joined the men in their efforts to find out more about Kimoto Takita's M.O. A feline cat-burglar who did not steal any real values. Unusual to say the least. But as an agent, a doctor and a scientist, Dana Scully had long ago reached the conclusion about Kimoto Takita that she really was unusual. In many ways.

o o o

"There it is!" Mulder exclaimed in an eager voice. "The pattern! She steals from offices and privates which actually do have one thing in common!"

"What?" Simmons and Scully asked as in one voice. Vandenberg said nothing, but he did look up.

"The offices have all been cleaned by outsiders the day of the burglary. A cleaning company known as 'Clean-Bean' has had their staff in the building within the latest two or three days."

"Perhaps we should go and ask some questions at 'Clean-Bean'," Vandenberg suggested.

"Perhaps we should," Mulder agreed as he got up and snapped his jacket. As always in peculiar assignments, his repugnance against Vandenberg had been forced to give way to his eagerness for a while.

Scully also got up and followed the three men, casually controlling her sidearm. She noticed that Simmons did the same; briefly taking out a heavy-duty automatic which seemed to clash somewhat with his otherwise polished image until he shoved it back into a shoulder-holster.

They quickly got a car and left for the 'Clean-Bean' company.

o o o

"This is it! Clean-Bean Cleaning Company," Mulder said as he drove the silver Ford into the parking ground next to a grey, dirty looking two-story building. "And there's our best evidence yet!" he said, pointing as he climbed out of the car.

The other three looked in the direction Mulder pointed and saw a small, greyish cat who was sitting at the roof of a shack near by, licking a paw and gazing at the intruders with consent in its green eyes.

"Well, it does fit some of the description," Mulder excused, shrugging his shoulders as Vandenberg sent him an icy stare. "Okay, sorry. I forgot that this was a no-humour zone. My mistake!"

Mulder also ignored Scully's warning eyes as they all walked towards the grey building.

If Vandenberg had any comments to Mulder's words, he kept them to himself, just as he kept everything else to himself. Only Simmons smiled at the joke.

They entered through the glass doors at the one end of the building, the part housing the cleaning company, and came into a slightly dusty hall, almost a contradiction in appearance to the goal and services of this particular company. The name and logo, a bean-shaped man with a broom, were in black printing on the wall farthest from the door and behind a desk, a short, dark woman was sitting.

A small sign on the desk said that her name was Emily King and that she was a secretary of 'Clean-Bean'. Mulder swallowed a sarcastic comment as he noticed that Miss King was in fact busy doing her nails.

"Excuse me, miss," Scully said, taking out her badge. The others did the same. "I am special agent Dana Scully from the FBI. These are agents Mulder, Simmons and Vandenberg, also FBI. We are here conducting an investigation. Could we speak to the manager please?"

Emily King looked up with the kind of excitement in her face coming from watching to many television series about the FBI. Mulder could tell by the look in her eyes that she could spend several weeks telling uncaring friends about her encounter with the real FBI now, even if nothing really happened.

"Hi, Mrs Scully, and welcome to Clean-Bean," the secretary smiled with an overeager grimace as she got up. "Yes, off course. Mister Thorndyke can see you right away. Yes, come right this way."

Scully did not correct the secretary's mistake about her marital status. In stead they all followed the small woman down the hallway towards the office of Mr Thorndyke, the man in charge here.

Mulder couldn't help but ask himself what Mr Thorndyke would think about his secretary letting in four FBI-agents without telling him about it or even just asking. But then that was not his problem.

Nor was it his problem that Miss King seemed to be eating agent Simmons with her dark eyes.

And he hoped it would not become his problem that this seemed mutual by the looks in Randolph Simmons blue eyes.

"Here it is, agents," Miss King smiled as she knocked a door at the end of the hallway. A steel sign with black letters informed that this was the office of Henry Thorndyke. "Mr Thorndyke? There are some FBI-agents who would like to speak to you!"

Without awaiting Mr Thorndyke's answer, she opened the door and let them in to a shining office.

If the rest of Clean-Bean showed dust and a touch of negligence, the office of Henry Thorndyke did nothing of the kind. In stead, this place was a display in modern steel and black, kept in a clean, almost sterile design that seemed only to match the man in the black seat behind the equally black glass-covered desk.

"Miss King, what is this all about?" he asked as he got up. "Who do you say these people are?"

"FBI-agents, Mr Thorndyke," the secretary smiled. "It's about some investigation!" She said the last word as if in contained more mystery and enchantment than anything else she'd ever encountered did. It occurred to Mulder that perhaps it did.

"Mr Thorndyke?" Mulder said, taking out his badge again and approached the man. "I am special agent Fox Mulder and these are special agents Scully, Simmons and Vandenberg. Could we speak to you for a moment?"

"Naturally, agent Mulder," Thorndyke said with the concerned look, people always had when they were confronted with the FBI. "Please have a seat. Miss King, would you get us some coffee?"

"Yes, Mr Thorndyke. Right away." The secretary left the office, unable to hide her disappointment.

Vandenberg took out one of the chairs in front of the desk and offered it to Scully in a gentleman-like gesture, after which he took the only other chair for himself. Mulder and Simmons remained standing, as they did not have much choice.

"I am sorry, I only have two chairs for visitors," Thorndyke said with an excusing gesture. "This is a small cleaning-company and I do not get a lot of visitors and definitely not from the FBI. Now, what can I do for you?"

"First of all, I would like to ask you if you know this woman?" Mulder said, handing a picture to Thorndyke. The picture showed Kimoto Takita or rather, it showed her the way she would look if she tried to hide her whiskers, shoved her pointed ears under her hair, dyed the hair brown and kept her mouth shut around the canines. A fine piece of retouch-artwork made by the technicians at the Bureau and showing Kim as human as she could become without plastic surgery. Or a shave...

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I think I do," Thorndyke said. "It looks a bit like one of the ladies at our day team. I am not sure though, the one she looks like has black hair, not brown."

"She could have dyed the hair more than once," Mulder said, slightly distracted by the first reaction of emotion he had seen in Vandenberg's face. He had seemed relieved!

"Well, like I said, it could be her. I hope she's not in any kind of trouble?"

"Under what name is she working here?" Scully asked. "It could be the woman we are looking for and if it is, she could be working under a false name."

"Has she murdered anybody?" Thorndyke asked in a slightly coarse voice.

"Not that we know," Vandenberg snapped. "What makes you ask?"

"Erh, well, I don't know…" Thorndyke answered, suddenly being intimidated by Vandenberg's grey gaze." "I guess I… Well, sorry."

"No need," Scully said. "Now please, Mr Thorndyke, what can you tell us about this woman?"

"Well, her name is Katherine Thompson and she has been with us for just about one month," the manager explained with his eyes wandering uneasily between the present agents. "She works hard and there has been no trouble. No trouble at all. She is very skilled."

"Skilled?" Vandenberg inquired. "At cleaning? In what way?"

"Well, cleaning windows in high altitudes, reaching stuff, that kind of things. And she is not scared of anything. No yelling at spiders or mice, you know. She even fenced off some stray dogs the other day."

"You seem to know your staff well," Vandenberg said in a voice sounding accusing without directly implying anything. "Have you been talking a lot to this woman?"

"Yes, well, some," Thorndyke admitted. "She was, well… I have…" The man stopped as his face grew red and sweaty.

"Have you had an affair with Miss Thompson?" Vandenberg asked, piercing the poor man with his steel eyes.

"No!" he exclaimed. "That is, yes, well, I tried to. We talked, but she did not want to. I thought she would, but…"

"You haven't given up, have you?" Vandenberg continued mercilessly.

"No, I guess not," Thorndyke admitted. "She has something, well, special about her. She is a tigress in disguise. Look, my wife died four years ago, there's nothing wrong with this and I don't have to answer for it! I have not tried to force her into anything, you know."

"We did not say that," Mulder said, thus avoiding Vandenberg's comments. "Can you tell us where she lives or where she is now?"

"Yes, well, she is at work," Thorndyke mumbled. Then he looked up and met Mulder's eyes. "Has she done anything wrong? Murdered anyone?"

"Nothing of the kind," Mulder assured the man. "We have some questions to ask her about a very important case, that's all. In fact, I don't think she has violated any serious laws."

Scully gave Mulder a stare. This could hardly be said to be true, even if it was also not really untrue either. Being a freak of nature was hardly a crime in it self and the accusations of cat-burglary were yet to be proven.

"Why do you think she has murdered anyone?" Simmons asked.

"I don't know, really. I do not think she has murdered anybody. Not really." He briefly looked at the desk, and then he looked up again. "I am just very certain that she is able to kill if she wants to. I don't know. She is a wild one."

"I know," Mulder said, hiding a smile. "Where is she working now?"

"Her team are at Teen-Hut at noon, it's a fast-food restaurant. After that, they are to clean at the Toledo Sports-Centre, which would probably take all afternoon."

"And her address when not working?" Scully inquired.

Thorndyke gave an address in the neighbourhood not far from the place where Mulder had met her the first time. A lousy part of town, barely a real neighbourhood, more like somewhere providing roof and some shelter.

The agents thanked Thorndyke and left the office, leaving Mulder's card and phone-number in case he heard anything from Kim.

In fact, Miss King never got around serving the coffee; Henry Thorndyke had asked her to fetch, as Simmons said when they left the building.

"I noticed," Vandenberg answered to this. "I bet she was listening outside the door as we spoke. But never mind, I just hope that Henry Thorndyke is not on the phone, warning his puss about us."

"Puss?" Scully mumbled in a low but angered voice.

"I am not sure," Mulder said. "But I do not think he is the kind of man who would do that."

"You may be right," Vandenberg stated as they entered the silver Ford. "But I suggest that we go back to the Bureau, get another vehicle and split up: Two of us can go to Teen-Hut and from there to Takita's apartment as it's near and the two others can go to Toledo Sports-Centre."

"Good idea," Mulder admitted. "Who goes where?"

"You and I go to Toledo, Scully and Simmons to Teen-Hut."

It did not sound like a suggestion and Mulder knew that it was not.

Francis F Vandenberg was in charge of this operation.

o o o

To be continued…