The Bones Do Lie 2/?
By RaEnright and Peregrine Craig
Starwatcher Motel
May 17, Friday
8 am
     Mulder woke with a start to a knocking on the door. Bewildered, he
looked around and saw the sun streaming in through the curtains on the
window. "Shit." He muttered. "Slept in..."
     He stood and opened the door, facing a wave of cheerful faces in blue
police hats. Great, the pep squad.  "Sir, we're here to take you to the
crime scene?" one of them spoke up, squinting at him. He realized how he
must look and nodded. "Give me a few minutes?"
     "Yes, sir." The man looked like he was about to salute.
     He shaved, burshed his hair, and changed quickly into jeans, pulling
his suit jacket on over a t-shirt. Scully was already sitting in the car
eating breakfast by the time he was ready.
     "Thanks for waking me." He muttered to her as he climbed in. 
     "You're welcome." She replied sweetly. "I thought you might want to
get more than your average three hours."
     He nodded and started the car, following the squad car out of the
parking lot. Scully offered him an apple. He took it and ate with one hand
while driving with the other. She grinned as juice dripped down his chin.
He smiled back and grabbed the proffered tissue. "You could have driven,
you know."
     "And missed watching you eat? Never." She shot back.
     The crime scene was accessible only by trail, and they had to abandon
the car for a two-mile hike through the forest. For the first mile or so
they passed through camps, rustic tents vying for space with scientific
equipment under metal lean-tos. The scientists stared with apprehension as
the two agents and three policemen passed each tent. A few were just
setting up, such as Glasses Man, who waved to them.
     The site itself was subtly disappointing--a simple clearing a little
over twenty feet in diameter. Two flags marked the placement of the bodies
that had been removed. The three officers stood back as the agents began to
examine the site.
     "No altars. No strange symbols, either on the bodies or anywhere
else. I think we can rule out a cult, Scully."
     "I think you're right." She replied. "But officer Lyst was buried.
How do you account for that if a human didn't do it?"
     "And an animal wouldn't have the dexterity to lay her out like that."
He consulted the pictures from the file and looked at the actual area. "You
see anything?"
     "Not so far." She pulled a pair of gloves on it and crouched down.
Mulder followed her head and examined the area around the second flag.
Lots of leaves. Lots of dirt. No sign of anything out of the ordinary.
     "Ah ha, I see you beat me here!" DePace came up from behind him. "So,
you find anything my men missed?"
     "Not so far. Tell me, have you had any unusual reports lately? In the
last two weeks?"
     "Unusual?"
     "Odd sightings, encounters, people who've seen unexplainable things."
     "I'd say the murders were pretty damned unusual, wouldn't you?"
DePace scowled. "What are you trying to say, Agent Mulder?"
     "I'm just trying to determine all the factors, Sheriff."
     "You think these women were..." the man frowned. "These women were
killed and that dog was skeletonized by some sort of ghostie or somthing?
Maybe a werewolf?"
     "No, if it were a werewolf there would be toothmarks on the bones."
     DePace grinned, thinking he was joking. "Then what?"
     "Alien abductions."
     "What?!" the man stepped back. "You think they were killed by little
men from mars?"
     Mulder thought idly that the good Sheriff must be off his Prozac this
morning. "I don't know at this point, but it's certainly a possibility." He
replied mildly.
     "Hot damn." DePace took his hat off. "You'll excuse my skepticism,
Mulder, but that's just plain nuts. And there haven't been any of that
sort of thing, that's been reported, at any rate."
     "You're sure." Mulder questioned.
     "Yeah, I'm sure. Word would have gotten around, even if no official
report was filed. F'you want to know my personal opinion, one of them
scientists did it."
     "Hm." Mulder turned to look at Scully, who was kicking at the dirt at
the edge of the clearing. "We'll need flight rosters of everyone who's come
into town in the past three weeks. Outgoing flights, too. And the name of
the scientist Mr. Lyst was involved with."
     "Hell, you know how many people come up here every week? Close to a
hundred, sometimes two. You want some help? I can take some men off
vagrancy duty--"
     "We're just looking for anyone who may have been here for both
murders. Do many of the town residents come out this way?"
     "A few. Emma and Aten, mainly. She had a few odd habits, that one."
     "Don't we all." Mulder remarked cryptically. "Anyone else?"
     "Tary Nichols. But he hasn't been out for a while." One of the men
called the sheriff over, holding out the raido from his belt. Scully
walked up. "Nothing out of the ordinary. No footsteps, no tracks. Nothing
to indicate a murder. Or anything else, Mulder. No singed trees, no
circles, before you can ask."
     "You're sure."
     "That's what strikes me, Mulder. No animal tracks, at all. *None*. No
droppings, either."
     "That might not be so unusual--"
     "But there are tracks just beyond the clearing. And I found this
caught on the tree." She held out a tuft of fur. "It looks like raccoon.
And the droppings end right behind the treeline. There's something about
this spot, Mulder, that the animals don't come here."
     "Either that or someone else does and cleans up after them. Let's see
if we can get it analyzed."
     "In this town?" she smiled. "I don't want to burst your bubble,
Mulder, but I doubt anything here has that technology."
     He grinned back. "Scully, d'you remember the men we passed on the way
in? And all the equipment they were setting up?"
     "That technology wouldn't survive conditions like this, Mulder. I
doubt anyone out there brought a genetic tester with them."
     "I don't know. I bet if you asked our friend he'd be able to dig
something up." He smirked. "Come on Scully, where's you sense of
adventure?" he leaned down and handed the fur back.
     "I left it back in Washington. Where's your sense of
self-preservation?" she shot back. "Sheriff, we're going to head back. I
don't think there's anything we can find here."
     "Oh?" DePace's face fell. "Well, you need any assistance, you let us
know, right?"
     Mulder saluted. "You can count on it."      
     Following her down the trial, he rubbed his chin. "Scully, you get
the feeling our local police force is a little perkier than the usual?"
     "I think they're used to dealing with obstinant scientists."
     "Those men had all the personality of speed bumps." He observed. "Do
you get the feeling there's something wrong with the residents of Kennedy
Valley?"
     "If you're suggesting this is another Chaco Chicken I think you're
mistaken."
     "So what is your opinion, Dr. Scully?" he jumped over a log and
continued. "Killer raccoons?"
     "I don't know. Maybe it *is* a cult. Maybe there's a new acid out on
the black market that doesn't eat into bones. I think we may know more
when we see the bodies."
____________________________
The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.
          Tom Clancy