"That's a little hard to believe." "Really?" "No, I'm pretty much of a homebody." "But all that changed, just from your words, the way you saw things." "I knew I wanted to meet you." "Well, I hope you're not too disappointed." "Lauren, we have a real connection, which is rare." "Most men don't feel that way." "Most men don't know what they're missing." " What?" "I can't believe this." "I-I mean, I can't believe that after three months, we finally meet in person, and you're..." "I don't know." "I'm just really enjoying myself tonight." "Oh, no." "Oh." "Here." "Let me help you." "My sister gave it to me." "For good luck, I guess." "Kind of dopey, huh?" "I mean, a cloverleaf." "How blatant can you get?" "It's beautiful." "Thank you." "Cock-a-doodle-doo." "Rise and shine in there." "Mother of God." "Dispatcher, this is car seven-three." "I got a D.P. out on the lakefront at Erie and Capitol." "Over." "We're not 100% certain, but from the driver's license, we suspect that it's Lauren Mackalvey." "I want you to get on it." "All right." "We'll check this out." " Why don't we go and check around?" " Sounds good." "Agent Mulder?" "Alan Cross, Cleveland P.D." "Thanks a lot for coming out so quickly." " This is my partner, Dana Scully." " Hi." "We found the purse in the front seat of that car over there." "According to the license, her name is, uh, Lauren Mackalvey, but, uh, we're not sure yet that this is her body." "You're not sure?" "We couldn't make a positive I.D., considering." "Wendy Sparks, she's our bureau liaison." "She thought this would be, uh, closer to your area of expertise." "Any indication what would have been the cause of death?" "We were lucky to get her into the bag without her body falling apart." "This substance, did you find it anywhere else in the car?" "In the carpet or the upholstery?" "As a matter of fact, no." "So, it was only on the victim's body." "That's what it looks like." "Why?" "Do you have an idea what happened here?" "No." "Not yet." "We'll call you when we find anything else concrete." " Detective?" " Yeah, sure." "Call me." "Mulder, what do you think it is?" "A couple months ago, a case came across my desk from the Mississippi office." "Four women from Aberdeen had disappeared in less than a month." " Disappeared?" " Only one of the victims was found, but her body was too decomposed to perform a viable autopsy." " What we saw was not decomposition." " I know." "I want you to find out what this is while you're at the coroner's." "What about you?" "Where are you going?" "I'm going to try to find out if Lauren Mackalvey was a lonely heart." "Each of the Aberdeen victims answered personal ads in the local papers." "If this is the same killer, he's just getting started." "Yes." "What is it?" "The handyman replaced the locks on the storage closets, and I wanted to bring by your new key." "I know what you do, Mr. Incanto." "What is it you think that I do?" "With all your typing and those packages from publishers in New York?" "You're a novelist, right?" "Or an editor." "You see, I'm a writer, too." "What a coincidence." "Shouldn't you be off writing or something?" "I don't mean to impose, but would you mind reading something of mine?" "It won't take much time." "They're poems." "Certainly." "Good-bye." "Oh, it's you." "That's not a problem, is it?" "No." "Just that Dr. Kramer didn't tell me that you were observing the autopsy." "I'm not observing." "I'm performing it myself." "You're a medical doctor?" "You sound surprised." "I don't know." "I, uh, I guess maybe I am." " Why?" " It's nothing personal, Agent Scully." "I'm just... old-fashioned in certain regards." ""Old-fashioned"?" "The truth is, I question the wisdom... of assigning female law enforcement officers to certain types of cases." "Like this one?" "Whoever killed Lauren Mackalvey has a definite attitude toward women, right?" "So this has to be affecting your judgment." "I appreciate your concern, Detective, but it's not necessary." "All I want to do is solve this case, just like you." "Look." "I'm not being sexist here." "I'm just being honest." "Where would you like the autopsy report sent?" "You can fax it to my office." "The date is August 29." "The time is 4:15 p.m." "The subject's name is Lauren Mackalvey, Caucasian, female." "Approximate time of death uncertain." "Cause of death unknown." "It just doesn't make sense." "He seemed so nice." "I thought you said you never met the man Lauren was with last night." "I never did." "He just seemed nice on the computer." "Oh, they met through an on-line service?" "In one of those chat rooms." "You know, where people get together to talk about whatever they're into." "Right." "Do you remember what chat room Lauren was in when she met him?" ""Big and beautiful. " She had kind of a weight problem." "But "2Shy" didn't seem to care." "It wasn't about sex with him." " "2Shy"?" " That was his on-line name." "Lauren used to... read me his letters." "They were amazing." "He knew exactly what to say." "Sure as hell fooled me." "She read you his letters." "Do you think that she kept any hard copies of them?" "Actually..." "I saved them myself." "If you want, I could get them for you." "Yes." "Can I use your phone?" "Yeah, it's right over there." " Scully." " Listen, Scully." "Our killer may have moved out of the personal columns and onto the internet." "I'm going to send out a localized on-line warning." "How do you know it's the same guy?" "Because he opened the account with one of the Aberdeen victim's credit cards." "I just called the on-line service." "Mulder, meet me in the coroner's office as soon as you can." " Did you find anything?" " There's not going to be an autopsy." "It's a metacarpal from Lauren Mackalvey's hand." "In life, bones have the tensile strength of forged iron." "Even in death, they remain strong." "But look at this." "What did this turn out to be?" "It's organic, mostly hydrochloric acid." "Similar to what is secreted by the gastric mucosa." "It's similar to stomach acid?" "Almost identical, only twice as acidic." "I also found trace amounts of pepsin, which is a digestive enzyme." "So, you're saying that this did that?" "I don't know how else to explain such accelerated autolysis." "Okay, what's in here, Scully, theoretically should contain... the same cellular components as her various tissues, right?" "Skin, muscle, blood." "In some broken-down form, yes." "In the results of your chemical analysis, did you find anything missing?" " Missing?" " Yeah." "I don't think so." "All of the body tissues were accounted for." "Except there were extremely low, almost trace amounts of adipose." "Fatty tissue." "That could explain the weight discrepancy." "What weight discrepancy?" "Well, the M.E. recorded Lauren's weight at 122, but her driver's license had her at 165." "Well, she probably lost weight since the license was issued." "Actually, Lauren's roommate said she was quite nervous about meeting this guy, because she'd put on some weight recently." "What possible motivation could the killer have... for removing his victim's fatty tissue?" "I mean, who do you think we're dealing with here?" "I don't know." "God, I look awful." "Please tell me it's the mirror." "Ellen, this wasn't some public-service announcement." "It was an on-line warning by the F.B.I. aimed at women in Cleveland." "Give me some credit, will you, Jo?" "I happen to be a pretty good judge of character." "Look." "I'm not trying to freak you out or anything." "No?" "Well, you're doing a pretty good job of it." "I just think you should be careful, that's all." "Do you think this is easy for me?" "I finally connect with someone I like who seems to like me." "I'm scared enough to meet him for the first time... without you telling me he's Charles Manson." "I didn't say that." "Besides, it's not like he's some stranger." "I've been chatting with him every day for over a month." "I know." "And he's probably as great as he sounds." "But what if he isn't?" " Check it out." " Want a little chocolate tonight?" " Hey, baby." "Right here." "Right over here, baby." "I'm here." "Got what you need over here, if you'd like some of this." "Ooh, yeah." "See something you like?" " You want some?" " He have the hots for you, baby." "I think so." " Hey, hey!" "What do you like, baby?" "Uh-uh." "No kissing." "Anything else you want is fine, but no kissing." "What are you doing?" "Aah!" "Oh!" "There's a place we can go near here." "Nice and cozy." "Okay." "Uh-uh." "Forget this." "Oh, my God." "Make sure you get statements from all of them." "Her name was Holly McClaine." "She's worked this area for a couple of years now, but she wasn't most Johns' first pick, if you know what I mean." "What happened?" "Looks like our guy again." "One of the other girls found her." "All of the air passages are blocked with what appears to be... the same viscous hydrochloric acid we found on Lauren Mackalvey." "You know what this stuff is?" "Hey, this is still my case." "We're dealing with a serial murderer... who's using an on-line service to attract his victims." "All single women looking for Mr. Right." "That doesn't jibe with a $20 hooker." "No, it doesn't." "Something must have gone wrong last night." "He was forced to improvise." "We're still talking about a guy without a consistent M.O." "Not necessarily." "These are letters he E-mailed to Lauren Mackalvey." "They contain lines from a handful of 16th-century Italian poems." "So he has a copy of Bartlett's Quotations." "So what?" "You won't find any of these in Bartlett's." " I'm not sure I follow you." " Look at this." "Ginaselli's La Vita Nuova, Castionni's Il Cortigiano, and a few others I won't even try to pronounce." "These are from obscure text from privately-owned libraries that only lend to academic affiliates." "You're saying our... our suspect's a college professor?" "Or a graduate student, a visiting fellow, maybe a translator." "What we need to do is compile a list of everybody in the Cleveland area... who has these kind of credentials." " Can you do that?" " Yeah." "I'll get right on it." "Here's something else that might help." "The killer should have an identifiable wound pattern from this." "Looks like she took her pound of flesh, huh?" "Yes?" "I got a package for Incanto from Stratcher Publishing." " Leave it." " Sorry." "I gotta get a signature." "Hello, Mr. Incanto." "Good afternoon, Jesse." "Jesse, did you find those drop cloths yet?" "Oh, Mr. Incanto." "I didn't know you were out here." "I'm just picking up a package." "Jesse, did you know that Mr. Incanto's a writer?" "I know, Mom." "You told me a thousand times." "I'm putting those poems together." "If you don't mind, I'd like to drop them by sometime." "just slip it under my door." "After you've read them, can I take you to dinner somewhere?" " Give me a break." " I'm busy." "I have a deadline." "I don't believe this." " Excuse me." "I wish you weren't always so rude to him." "I don't care." "He creeps me out." "Plus he smells gross, like he uses dish soap for after shave." "Okay." "Blaine just gave me the list from the university." "How's it going over here?" "Good." "We're just expanding the search... to include the faculty rosters from the local community colleges." "We..." "Oh, excuse me." "Sure." "I'll let you know what we turn up." "Did you find anything?" "We're almost done with the list." "That skin you found under the prostitute's fingernails?" "I had the lab check the DNA results against the known offenders database." "And?" "Well, it says here they didn't find a match." "No, but they did find something else." "Check the next page where it's circled." ""The skin sample contains no oils or essential fatty acid."" "There are any number of factors which could have caused that result." "Where are you going with this?" "Okay, it's not yet the finely-detailed insanity you've come to expect from me." "It's just a theory, but what if he's not doing this... out of a psychotic impulse but rather out of some physical hunger?" "Maybe he needs to replenish this chemical deficiency to survive." "From a dry-skin sample, you're concluding what?" "That he's some kind of a fat-sucking vampire?" "I don't know how else to explain Lauren Mackalvey's missing adipose." "I bet if you check the Aberdeen victims, you'd find exactly the same thing." "This killer secretes a digestive substance which renders the fat..." "Which he ingests before the rest of the body dissolves entirely." "There are examples of this in nature, aren't there?" "Yeah, scorpions predigest their food outside of their body... by regurgitating onto their prey." "But I don't know too many scorpions who surf the internet." "Okay, but if I'm right, then we're not just looking for a serial murderer." "We're looking for some kind of genetically-different human being, a creature who may be responsible for who knows how many missing persons... throughout the United States." "We've combed every faculty list and academic journal in Cleveland." "Came up with 38 names." "I figured we'd divvy up the list, and I'd get the captain to put more people on it." "I'd like to brief them, if that's okay with you." "Sure." " You have mail." "Mr. Brenman?" "I'm Special Agent Scully from the F.B.I." "Would you mind if I ask you some questions?" "Thanks." "I'm sorry to bother you." "I'd like to ask you a few questions." "Sure." "These are all university addresses." "Chances are he spent most of the morning on campus." "Scully." "I wouldn't have made a good Amway salesman." " I knocked on more doors than..." " Cross hasn't checked in yet." "We've been trying his cell phone, but there's no answer." " I'm treating you." " No, I insist." "After the way I stood you up, I'm the one who should insist." "Please?" "I'm sorry." "I shouldn't have..." "It's a kind of eczema." "I've had it since I was a kid." "Oh." "You know, I still feel so stupid about the other night." "Ellen, you don't have to make any excuses." "Whatever reasons you had, I'm sure they were good ones." "You were right, though, about me being afraid." "It's a pretty hard habit to break." "You're not still afraid, are you?" " No, I'm not." " Good." "Unfortunately, I have to get going." "The last cross town bus leaves in 15 minutes." " You're taking the bus home?" " My car's in the shop." "I'll call you." " Don't be silly." "I'll drive you." " Ellen, you don't have to." "I'm driving you home." "Mr. Incanto?" "So, how long have you lived here?" "Not very long." "You know, I only live a few blocks away, near St. Mark's, until some developer decided to turn it into condos." "You can still see the steeple." "Ellen, you don't have to be nervous." "I'm not very good at this." "It's been a long time since I've been in this type of situation." "It's okay." "Why don't you come up with me?" "I'll read you that poem I told you about..." "Il Cassone." "I don't know." "It's kind of late." "Well, I don't want to say good night just yet, do you?" "You know what?" "You're absolutely right." "It's late." "I have a lot of work I have to do." "Excuse me." "Mr. Incanto?" "Mr. Incanto?" "What is it, Jesse?" "Uh, do you know where my mom is?" "Your mother?" "No." "She takes a class down at St. Frank's tonight, a poetry class, and she was supposed to be home over an hour ago." "I'm sure she'll be home soon." "She didn't stop by to say hi or anything?" "No." "Not tonight." "Okay." "Thanks." "She'll probably be home soon." "I'm going to New York for a few days on business." "Don't worry about your mother." "I'm sure she'll be fine." " Cleveland P.D." " His name's Cross." "That's right." "He would have been by sometime this afternoon." "Maybe sometime this morning." "Do you remember what time specifically?" "Could you describe him tome for verification?" "Excuse me a minute." "Did you find him?" "We just got a 911 reporting a possible homicide... from a young girl at one of the addresses on Cross's list." "Police!" "Clear back here." "We got two inhere." "Mulder." "The landlady's body." "We found her in the bathroom." "What about Cross?" "I know this is hard to talk about right now, but I need you to tell me exactly what happened." "I smelled her perfume." "Your mother's perfume?" "That's when I knew he was lying." "She was wearing her perfume when she left for class." "And you smelled it in his apartment?" "I was..." "I was scared that he'd hurt me." "I could tell he wanted to." "And then he grabbed me." "He grabbed you?" "After I bumped into the suitcase, he grabbed me pretty hard." "What suitcase?" "It was next to the door." "He said he was going away on business or something." "Did he say where?" "Um, New York." "Okay, Jesse, that helps us." "I'm gonna take a couple minutes and go talk to Agent Mulder." "Mrs. Shepherd is right here." "I'll be right back." " Agent Scully?" " Yeah." "Why would someone do this?" "I don't know, Jesse." "The composite artist came up with this sketch from a neighbor's description." "His name is Virgil Incanto." "That's what it says on his rental agreement." "But other than that, there's no record the guy even exists." "There's no D.M.V., no birth certificate, no Social Security, not even a bank account." " What about employment records?" " He's a translator of Italian literature." "Freelance." "His publisher pays him in cashier's checks." "He told the girl he was on his way to New York." "I'll check fight schedules and have the airport issue an A.P.B." "What is it?" "He's not going to New York, Scully." "Not now." "He's smarter than that." "He knows how to survive, you know?" "Well, how are we going to track him?" "Well, he made contact with each one of his victims, right?" " Yeah." " That means they're all here somewhere." "Each one of them..." "past, present and future." "All the files have been deleted." " Any chance of resurrecting them?" " It's hard to say." "He deliberately reformatted his hard drive." "This guy didn't want anyone looking at his stuff." "Hmm." "The good news is..." "I can restore the erased files." "And the bad news?" "These files are all password-protected and encrypted." "It could take some time." "Well, we don't have much time." "It'll take as long as it takes." "Joanne?" "Is that you?" "Joanne?" "Who is it?" "Ellen, it's me." " It's late." " I know." "And I'd like not to wake your neighbors." "Can we talk about what happened tonight?" "There's nothing to talk about." "You made it pretty clear what you wanted." " No, you don't understand." " I think I do." "Look, Ellen." "I gave you a second chance... after you kept me waiting in that restaurant for two hours." "Give me the same courtesy, please." "And then if you want me to go, I'll go." "Only, let's not do it out here." "Thank you." "You want some coffee?" "I can make some." "Yeah." "I'd like that." "You're right, Mulder." "They're coming up empty at the airport." "So I'm releasing the sketch to the media." "We still have time to make the morning papers." "That may not be necessary." " "Friend"?" " That was Mackalvey's on-line name." "These are all his victims." "It's a regular grocery list." "We need this scanned and sent to everyone on that list." "Done." "I'm gonna call the on-line service and have them fax us... the telephone numbers of all those women." "The machine will pick up." "Milk?" " I only have nonfat." " No, no, no, this is fine." " Give me a minute, will you?" "I'd like to put on some clothes." "Ellen, you don't have to do that." "I want to." "I'll be right back." "Just lock your doors until we contact you again." "You'll be fine, Ms. Innes." "He doesn't tend toward forcible entry." "Okay, thanks." "That was Cleveland P.D. They've reported three women on the list as missing." "Well, we've already contacted everyone on this list, except for these two." " I left messages on their answering machines." " We'd better check on them." " You have mail." "Ellen?" "I hope you're not on-line with some other guy." "I was just E-mailing my girlfriend." " Your girlfriend?" " Yes." "What about?" "Us." "What were you telling her?" "just how happy I am... that you're still interested in me... and that you hadn't rejected me like I thought you had." "I'm glad you feel that way, Ellen." "I know I do." "Look." "I still haven't changed my clothes." "Why don't you go wait outside, and I'll be right out?" "You look beautiful, Ellen." "You don't need to change for me." "Please leave me alone." "Please." "What do you want?" "No!" "Could I help you?" "We're with the F.B.I. We're looking for Ellen Kaminsky." "She's in her condo." "She just E-mailed me a few minutes ago." " Why?" "What's wrong?" "Is something the matter?" " Get back in." "Ellen?" "Mulder." "You go ahead." "I'll stay here." "Go." "This is Federal Agent Dana Scully." "I need an ambulance right away to 658 South Hudson Avenue, apartment number 23." "Request special chemical burn unit." "Freeze!" "Federal Agent!" "Now put your hands up and step out where I can see you." "Just..." "Just don't shoot me, man." "Jennifer Flasket, Kathy Miller, Hillary Turk." "Forty-seven women reported missing in five states." "At least give their families some peace of mind... and tell us how many are on that list because of you." "They're all mine." "Come on, Scully." "Open the door." "Why?" "When you look at me, you see a monster." "But I was just feeding a hunger." "You're more than a monster." "You didn't just feed on their bodies, you fed on their minds." "My weakness was no greater than theirs." "I gave them what they wanted." "They gave me what I needed." "Not anymore." "The dead are no longer lonely." "Let me out." "supplied by CoBeR coberus@go2.pl"