Back in his small windowless office in the basement the FBI, Mulder had just finished sending an APB for Dan. He leaned back in his chair, threw his feet on the heavy wooden desk which occupied most of the tiny space, and looked up at the ceiling covered in white tiles from which protruded a dozen or so yellow pencils. Sharpening pencils and tossing them up at the ceiling was another one of Mulder's peculiar hobbies that helped him concentrate when he thought about a case. When he was successful, the pencils stuck in the soft spongy texture of the tiles. They hung there until a cleaning crew would notice them and remove them. This happened rarely. Hardly anyone, cleaning crews included, ever came into Mulder's office, which he himself joked was intended for the "FBI's most unwanted."
Scully found him contemplating the stuck pencils when she walked in.
"Got the lab results," she said, pushing Mulder's feet off the desk and placing a transparent plastic bag with the jar from Dan's apartment on it instead. She handed Mulder the familiar green folder, which, Mulder knew, contained the analysis of Dan's blood, and sat down across from him on the other side of the desk on the only other chair available, which was a small, foldable one. Mulder opened the folder and read aloud.
"Sugars. Trace amounts of an unknown organic material. Cocaine... Cocaine again?" he looked at Scully, eyebrows raised.
Scully nodded. "Yup. He lied to us, Mulder. He was also doing cocaine, just like Tony. He had less of it than Tony did in his blood, but enough to be aberrantly high."
Mulder put down the report. "Maybe that explains why he was actually able to take off one of his sneakers before he turned mad," he said. "He must have been less drugged than Tony."
"But it doesn't explain his behavior," said Scully. "Mulder, we talked to this kid. Did he strike you as someone who was lying? Or someone who was high?"
Mulder raised his index finger and pointed it at Scully.
"Now you are catching on," he said. "Exactly the point I was trying to make about Tony. Mrs. Crane, who knew her son well, could not believe Tony was under the influence. Nothing gave it away. Both kids, though they presumably never met, were excellent liars, and were able to hide their drug use well."
"It's almost as if..." Scully was staring at Mulder in thought.
Mulder finished her sentence. "Yup. It's almost as if the kids themselves didn't know."
Scully appeared surprised by his conclusion. "But how could they not know?" she asked. "How can one not know they are injecting themselves with cocaine?"
Mulder shrugged. "You are the medical expert, you tell me," he said.
"What about the object you said you found in Dan's shoe?" asked Scully.
"It looked like a piece of barbed wire that had been rolled into a small ball," reprised Mulder.
Scully paused. "I wonder..." she said, trying to formulate her thoughts, "I wonder if the kids didn't actually inject themselves consciously? What if, instead, they absorbed the cocaine passively through wounds on their feet?"
Mulder nodded, his eyes shining with avid interest, but said nothing. He knew his partner. She was a scientist, and currently, she was in familiar waters, working with the data they had, and formulating a hypothesis that attempted to explain the facts. When the wheels of her brain started turning, it was best to let them turn until she uncovered the scientific truth behind the complex phenomena they often investigated.
"It's starting to make sense," continued Scully. "Both kids had wounds on the bottom of their feet. Dan kept a sharp object in his sneaker, constantly opening up new wounds which would allow for faster absorption of any substance he placed in that sneaker."
She was on a roll, following her own reasoning aloud.
"Let's say that someone put cocaine in the boys' sneakers. Initially, the cocaine would have absorbed into their bloodstream through the skin, slowly. Later, as the kids played sports actively, tiny wounds would appear on the bottom of their feet from the rough action, facilitating absorption. With time, the kids would find out that the more their feet hurt, the better they performed in sports, and the higher they felt. Maybe then, as in Dan's case, both kids started to inflict additional damage to their feet to get more of the good feeling. Reaction through association. We are back to Pavlov again. The kids get addicted to cocaine without even knowing they are taking it. Consciously, they are attributing the way they feel to their sneakers. Hence their perceived addiction to the sneakers, and hence their fear of taking them off!"
Mulder smiled triumphantly. "That's the Scully I've been waiting for!" he said.
"We are still looking at a possible crime," she continued, disregarding his overt admiration. "Someone who could have had access to the sneakers of both boys."
"Mr. Roshtoff?" suggested Mulder, capitalizing on her momentum. "Or, the Government lab that synthesized the new experimental glue with materials from Guatemala? Altova Labs?"
Scully shook her head. "No. Mr. Roshtoff sold them the sneakers, but he didn't have the access to keep restocking the supply of cocaine after that. Same is true for the lab, even assuming the cocaine was somehow in the glue produced there. In either case, there couldn't have been enough cocaine in the sneakers initially to last them a long time. The kids must have somehow been exposed to a renewable source of cocaine. Amounts like the ones found in their blood require prolonged exposure for months. No, it must have been someone who knew both boys, and who had day-to-day contact with both."
Mulder nodded again. "Right," he said. "So, maybe you, too, were right earlier on. Maybe it is good old meticulous police work from this point on to find who was responsible."
"Maybe," said Scully.
She sat back in the small foldable chair. Unanticipated moisture filled her clear, green eyes.
"Mulder, can you imagine how much it must have hurt?" she said. "Just like Mrs. Crane said, at every step."
Mulder watched her with unhidden admiration. Strong, analytical, and at the same time compassionate and sensitive. He couldn't wish for more in a partner.
Scully caught his eye and eyed back a silent question. Why are you looking at me like this? He shook his head with a shy smile. No reason.
She shrugged, got up, and picked up the jar from the desk with sudden determination.
"We have to find Dan," she said firmly. "If someone did this to these kids, he or she may have a great interest in finding Dan before we do."