Hi everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but I just started my summer semester at college and I have a sick cat. But anyway, here's the next chapter, and I hope to post chapter 8 by tomorrow evening. I hope you enjoy chapter 7. :)

Viorna

Disclaimer still applies

Chapter 7

Well, I guess you guys better be getting to the airport," Nicole remarked. "It's going on lunchtime and there's going to be a lot of traffic if we don't get going."

"Actually, it's just Agent Scully going to the airport," Mulder told her, and a rather pleased smile crossed her face. "I'll be staying here until we finish the case."

"Won't your boss be mad?"

"Not really and Scully can explain it to him."

"Well, I do appreciate your help."

I felt like barfing as I watched Nicole talking to Mulder. And that nasty feeling didn't get any better when I thought about the fact that we were parting ways angry. We hadn't spoken to each other since last night when he left my room. And it didn't look like we were going to be talking anytime soon.

I was also starting to get mad again. He was ditching me for about the millionth time. Not in the technical sense of the word, but he was going to let me do all the explaining to Skinner, again.

So when I left for the airport I didn't bother to even try to say goodbye to him. And while I was sitting in the terminal waiting for my flight I considered just letting him explain himself to Skinner when he got back. Maybe that would teach him to ditch his partner.

Fifteen minutes before boarding time my cell phone rang. I snatched it up eagerly, hoping it was Mulder.

"Agent Scully," I said.

"Agent Scully, this Rick Lawden from the Atlanta Crime Lab. I found something on that .44 Magnum you recovered?"

"What?"

"I found a partial print and I ran it through AFIS and I didn't get a hit. But then I got a hit off of our own database. Not only does this database have criminal records but it also has other records with fingerprints."

"Well, Mr. Lawden, you should be talking to Agent Mulder or Detective Beaumont. I'm off this case and going back to Washington."

"I tried Agent Mulder's cell phone, and I don't want to talk to Detective Beaumont."

"Why not?"

"The print matched to Detective Beaumont."

My eyes flew wide open and I wasn't sure I had heard him right.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes I am Agent Scully. This is the reason I wanted to talk to you or Agent Mulder. Det. Beaumont assured me that she never touched the handgun, but I need to confirm that from someone else."

"After I found the gun, she arrived at the apartment at the same time you did. And the rest of the time she was there she didn't go inside."

"That's what I thought."

"Listen Mr. Lawden, I know I can't exactly authorize this, but I would like it if you and your team went back over to the Monterales' apartment and dusted again."

"I think under the circumstances it won't be a problem. And this will stay between you and me for now."

"That's right. Thanks for calling."

"Right. Bye."

Mr. Lawden hung up and I sat there, a little bewildered by this turn of events. Whatever was going on here, it wasn't good. Either Nicole had handled evidence without gloves or she, well, she was involved somehow. I hated to jump to that sort of conclusion, but something in my gut told me that I wasn't whistling Dixie. Mulder's cockamamie theory wasn't so cockomamie anymore.

Well, so much for me going back to DC. I had work to do and the first thing I was going to do was go back and talk to Mrs. Walden. And that meant showing her a picture of Nicole.

When I arrived at the little hotel, Mrs. Walden recognized me right away and her face lit up with a big smile.

"Why Agent Scully, what brings you back here," she asked brightly.

"Hi Mrs. Walden; I was wondering if you would take a look at a couple of pictures for me," I told her, and handed her a small collage of photos I had put together of different women, including Nicole. "Tell me if any of those women might have been with Mr. Monterale."

She took the paper and studied it very carefully, but I could see her forehead wrinkling in doubt. Finally she handed it back to me, shaking her head.

"You know, I could pick out a face, but I just don't know. You know, I'm older and maybe my memory isn't as good as it used to be."

"Just tell me what you think."

"Well, if I'm going to pick someone, it would have to be that women there," Mrs. Walden said, pointing to Nicole's picture.

My stomach gave a nauseous flip and I sighed inaudibly. This was going from bad to worse.

"I know I didn't tell you this before, but that was because I didn't remember until now. Just before they came in here, they stopped at that spirits store across the street."

"They did?" I asked, feeling crossed between elated and horrified and sickened.

"Yes they did. I don't know if that's of any help."

"It's been a lot of help. Thank you very. Now, if you remember anything else, give me a call."

I hurried out and across the street to the liquor store. If it was like most stores, it had a security camera.

I managed to convince the store managed to let me take the tape, and then I quickly headed back to the crime lab. I had to wait for their visuals specialist to take a look at it, but I couldn't wait very patiently.

While I was waiting, Lawden called again and told me that they had lifted a few other prints from the apartment and that they were at the top of his list. I thanked him and then it was back to more waiting.

The longer I waited, the sicker feeling I got. I knew I didn't really like Nicole, but that was only because she was interested in Mulder. (I didn't like any woman who was interested in Mulder.) But that didn't mean I wanted anything like this to happen. I figured she was a good officer, and it would only hurt the department if she had killed Mr. Monterale. And just the idea that she would murder someone like that was horrible. Oh I wasn't shocked: I had seen a lot during my time with the FBI, but it still unnerved me.

My cell phone rang again and when I answered it, my stomach dropped two floors as I heard AD Skinner's voice.

"Agent Scully, I was just calling to see when you would be landing in DC."

"Well, sir, some things came up," I told him, trying to keep my voice from giving away too much.

"And just what came up Agent Scully?" he asked suspiciously.

"We had a break in the case. It's very important that Agent Mulder and I follow this lead out to its end."

"They do have detectives down there in Atlanta, Agent Scully. I think they're perfectly capable of handling the case."

"You see sir, that's the catch. Some new evidence has come to light and the preliminary results seem to indicate that the detective in charge of this investigation may be involved somehow."

There was a deep silence on the other end, and I could almost hear the wheels turning in Skinner's head.

"Why don't you turn this new information over to another officer in the Atlanta PD?" he finally asked.

"Because sir, they may not be very receptive to the evidence or the theory."

Skinner sighed heavily and said, "Well, given this new situation you both have another twenty-four hours, but after that I want you to turn this over to the APD, you understand?"

"Yes sir, and thank you."

"Goodbye Agent Scully."

"G'bye sir."

As I hung up I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. That was a bit of a load off of my mind. At least we could stay in Atlanta without disobeying orders.

"Agent Scully," Ben, the young man working on the security footage interrupted my thoughts. "I think I have something for you."

"Okay, what?"

"Well, c'mon in and I'll show you."

I followed Ben back into the lab room, and he proceeded to show me what was on the tape. He had enhanced the image so that we could see the faces clearly and at a larger scale. And there on the screen, walking into the liquor store with Mr. Monterale was Nicole Beaumont.

Well, that definitely gave me enough reasonable suspicion to start digging around Nicole. But I wasn't going let her or Mulder know I was still in Atlanta. I needed more proof before I brought Mulder in, because I knew he wasn't going to believe it was her without a lot of it.

I checked in with Lawden, but they hadn't finished processing the prints yet. So now I needed come at this from another angle. Then it struck me that maybe when Nicole had told us that she hadn't gotten any feedback from the hotels she had talked to she might've been lying. And that meant I needed to go talk to them myself.

I showed her picture around at the first six hotels, and they didn't know her, but they did remember Mr. Monterale. Now that didn't mean a whole lot, but it did tell me that she hadn't been there yesterday. The next two hotels after that didn't remember her or Mr. Monterale.

On the last two hotels I hit jackpot. Not only did the clerks remember seeing Mr. Monterale and Nicole together, but the last one had Nicole's signature for payment of a room in his record book. I collected the book as evidence, and then I headed back to the crime lab.

On my way in Lawden stopped to talk to me and he told me that the prints they had lifted matched Nicole's. He said they had found them on the door post, like someone had been resting their hand there.

I thanked him, and then I told him I was going to head over to Mr. Monterale's office, and I might need a crime team. He told me that I'd get one if I needed it.

I didn't have any trouble getting the low level secretary at the front desk to let me into Mr. Monterale's executive suite. I did found it a little strange though that they hadn't searched Monterale's office, but since Nicole was in charge of the investigation I guessed it wasn't really that strange after all.

When I first went in, I didn't notice anything right off. Everything seemed to be in place and the whole place was very clean. Maybe a little too clean. It looked to me like perhaps surfaces had been wiped down.

As I was looking around the office I heard the door rattle, and then the sound of someone inserting a key and unlocking it. Then I heard Mulder and Nicole's voices and I quickly looked around for a place to hide. I didn't want them seeing me there, not yet. It would show my cards before I was ready.

I ducked inside the bathroom closet and crouched down behind the clothes hamper. It was just big enough to hide me from view should someone open the door. Please, please don't let them look behind the clothes hamper.

"Well, it looks clean," I heard Mulder say. "Almost too clean, like somebody wiped it down."

At least he shared my opinion of the room, even though he had no clue that he did.

"C'mon Mulder, you really don't believe that, do you," came Nicole's voice. "If somebody actually knew what they were doing, then why did they shoot Mr. Monterale the way they did. It was erratic: amateur like the coroner said."

"It's just a hunch, something I can't shake."

"Well, I'll take the bathroom; are you alright out here?"

"Yeah."

I heard Nicole enter the bathroom and I shrunk further into the corner. If she saw me it was going was going to be all over; and really, really embarrassing.

"Please let them still be there," I heard her mutter, and then the closet door opened. My heart jumped into my throat and stayed there as the light came streaming in.

Nicole switched on her flashlight and flipped open the lid of the hamper. She started digging around in it, and she was muttering. I couldn't quite understand what she was saying, but it did sound rather desperate.

Then she exclaimed softly, "Oh thank heavens," and pulled out a red, lacy bra and a matching pair of panties. She hurriedly stuffed them into her purse, and then closed the hamper, and left the bathroom.

"Well," she said, "I didn't find anything in the bathroom. How 'bout you?"

"No, nothing, but it definitely looks like somebody wiped this desk down. There aren't any prints that I can find," Mulder replied.

"I guess we better get going."

I heard them leave and I let out my breath. Slowly my heart sank back to its proper resting place and my breathing slowed to a healthy rate. That had been close, too close. If she had seen me there, she would know something was going on and get paranoid. And I couldn't talk to Mulder until I had enough evidence so that if she did run we could arrest her. If she saw Mulder going off by himself that would probably excite her suspicions too. If she even knew I hadn't gone back to DC and I hadn't told them I had stayed, that would probably be enough to put her signals up. Needless to say, I had to be careful.

I wished I had gotten to that hamper before she did. There might have been some DNA on the clothes that could've helped nail this thing down. The only evidence we really had just proved that she was probably having an affair with Mr. Monterale. None of it proved that she was the one who killed him. Except for a partial print on a weapon that was like the one that killed Monterale; and the prints on the wall in the apartment. It was all very vague circumstantial evidence.

I slowly walked down to my car, trying to think of some way to figure this case out. It was really frustrating that I couldn't break it; it was even frustrating that Nicole and Mulder couldn't break. But I guess with an investigator who was the killer, the killer would always be one step ahead.

About half an hour later a man from ballistics called me and told me that the gun I had found was very definitely the gun that had killed Mr. Monterale. It was good information, but it wasn't really proving anything one way or the other.

Maybe it was time to talk to Mulder. There had been many times when we had found very little evidence and then he had been able to see something that would crack the whole case wide open. That's why his solve rate was so high; he good see beyond the obvious into the unknown and make the invisible visible.

It was now going on eight in the evening, and I figured that Mulder and Nicole would be eating something by now. Hopefully Mulder would go back to his hotel room after supper, and I definitely hoped he would go alone. Not only did I not want them sleeping together, but if she were there, then I wouldn't be able to talk to Mulder very well.

I had some time to kill so I figured would do a little more investigation. A curious thought occurred to me. I wondered if the police had knocked on the neighbors' door during their preliminary investigation. It definitely wouldn't hurt to check it out so I headed back to the Monterales' apartment building. If it didn't pan out then I would go get something to eat until it was time for me to go talk to Mulder. I hadn't eaten much today and my stomach was grumbling loudly by now.

The first two neighbors hadn't been home when the murder had occurred, so they weren't of much use, so I moved onto the next apartment. I rang the doorbell, but nobody answered. I rang it a second time, and when again nobody answered I felt rather discouraged. As I was turning to head down the hall, the door opened and a handsome older man stuck his head out.

"Did you ring the bell miss?" he asked.

"Yes I did," I told him. "I Special Agent Dana Scully, with the FBI and I was wondering if I might speak with you."

"Certainly. This is regarding the Monterale murder?"

"Yes."

"Well, please come in."

His apartment was similar to the Monterale apartment, at least in layout. It wasn't quite as lavish in the way it was furnished or decorated, but it still had an air of elegance.

The man introduced himself as James McHarlin and then proceeded to tell me what he had seen that night.

"I didn't get home until around twelve fifteen, but on my way in I collided with a young woman," he told me. "I suppose she was about nineteen or twenty years old. She ran straight into me on the stairs. Nearly knocked me over."

"Why were you taking the stairs?" I asked.

"For exercise. I take a stairs instead of an elevator whenever I can."

"So, can you describe her?"

"I didn't get a chance to get a good look at her face but she was about your height and she had blond hair. And you know how sometimes you can feel when people are terrified; well this was one of those times. She was very definitely terrified."

"Is there anything else?"

"That's all I can remember and I don't know if that'll be of any use to you."

"Well, thanks for your help just the same. I appreciate it," I told him.

"Glad to be of service," Mr. McHarlin said with a smile.

Now the next step in the process was finding some way to identify the girl. It could possibly be done through a security camera, if she had been caught on film but the likelihood of that being a reality wasn't too good. But still, it wouldn't hurt to look at the security cameras, just to see.

I went downstairs to the security office and told them who I was and why I was there, and they had a little surprise for me. They said that they had seen the girl and that they had caught her on camera, and she had dropped some books on her way out of the building. They had collected the books and the books were from a library, but they hadn't returned the books yet. I told them I would take the books with me so that I could use them to get the girl's name.

Unfortunately, the library was closed for the evening, so finding out who she was would to have to wait until morning. Anyway, I had to go talk to Mulder, and I wasn't really looking forward to that. I hoped Nicole hadn't gone back to his hotel room with him. If she was there, it was going to make for an awkward situation.