Caduceus
Scully
flipped through a file on their latest case.
From what little she read as she scanned it the case was on a rash of
human mutilations. “Did we get this
case through your reputation, Mulder? Why haven’t the local authorities even
touched it?”
“Actually
they asked for you. Specifically.”
“Me?”
“I was
just as surprised.”
“Wait a
minute,” Scully flipped back to the
beginning of the file “these bodies were found in Maryland.”
“That’s
right, why?”
“It’s
nothing, I’m sure.”
“What?”
“It’s
just that I went to Medical School in Maryland. Just a coincidence.”
“Do you
know a Dr. Jefferson?”
“Jefferson? He was my senior instructor, he talked me
into forensics. Why?”
“He’s the
one who requested you.”
“So much
for coincidence. When do we leave?”
“Tonight.”
**********
Walking
into the Maryland School of Medicine was like taking a step back in time. Scully smiled as she passed doors that held
familiar professor's names. Nothing
much had changed in the eight years that she had been gone. They even had the same hideous salmon pink
paint on the walls of the long hallways.
“Hey,
Scully, look at this.” Mulder pointed
at a picture on the wall. “She’s cute,
a friend of yours?”
“Very
funny, Mulder.” Scully looked at the
younger version of herself that stared out from behind the glass. It was a picture of her graduating class.
A young
man who was making his way down the hall with one too many papers in his hands
finally lost his grip and the paperwork fell to the floor at the Agents’
feet. Scully crouched down to help him
retrieve the papers. When their eyes
met the man smiled wide in surprise.
“Dana?” He asked.
“Dana Scully? My God, you
haven’t changed.” Ignoring the papers
he rose and helped her up. “Just as
lovely as ever.”
“I’m
sorry,” Scully hesitated “you are...?”
“Of
course, it’s been so long. Jeremy
Waterson.”
“Jeremy,
you were in my class, right?”
“That’s
right, forensics even.”
“What
brings you back here?”
“Just
cleaning up some odds and ends.”
Waterson replied vaguely. “Word
on the street is that you went and got yourself a government job.”
Scully
held out her badge for his inspection.
“Hmm,
Special Agent. Very impressive.” He looked over at Mulder. “And that would make you...?”
“This is
my partner, Special Agent Mulder.”
Scully answered for him.
“Charmed.” Waterson cooed.
“Likewise.” Mulder replied uninterested.
“I bet
Dana here keeps you on your toes, she always was wild and crazy.”
“Really?”
“Never
mind, Jeremy.” Scully interrupted
quickly. “We really must be going, it
was nice seeing you again.”
“The
pleasure was all mine, I’m sure.” He
said giving Scully’s hand a quick kiss.
“I hope you get your spook.”
The
Agents continued down the hall. Before
they turned the corner Mulder looked back over his shoulder at the gangly
Waterson who was busily picking up his fallen papers. Mulder didn’t like him already.
He was too open, it made Mulder think that his personalty was more of a
screen than a display of his true self.
“How’d
your friend there know we were here on business?” Mulder asked suspiciously.
“What
else would we be doing here?” Scully
answered matter-of-factly.
They came
to Dr. Jefferson’s door and knocked. An
older man with thick spectacles opened the door a crack.
“Yes?” He said from within the room. “Can I help you?”
“Agents
Scully and Mulder.” Scully
announced. “You are expecting us.”
“Scully?” Dr. Jefferson repeated. “Oh, yes, yes, of course, Dana.” He opened the door wide. “Please, come in, come in both of you.”
Dr.
Jefferson ushered them into a small office cramped with medical text books,
models of various organs, and charts.
Dust infused every surface.
Mulder smiled as the doctor offered them chairs opposite his desk. It felt like they were back in college.
“Now
then, Agents, what can I do for you?”
“We are
investigating a rash of murders in the area.”
Mulder stated bluntly. “We
understand that you’ve reported some incidents here at the school. Apparently the victims were students of
yours, the report isn’t quite clear on that.
In fact it isn’t clear on anything really.”
“Ah, yes,
well, sorry about that the local police are not used to this.” Dr. Jefferson pushed his glasses higher onto
his beaked nose. “In fact there has
only been one murder.”
“The
report said five bodies have been recovered.”
Scully interjected.
“Oh yes,
there were five bodies, but only one of them was murdered. The others were bodies from the school.”
“I don’t
understand.” Mulder admitted.
“They
were cadavers, Agent Mulder. Bodies for
the students to dissect that had been stolen from the school. Very strange. The murdered man was a student here, well an ex-student at any
rate. It wasn’t until the murder that
we felt we had a problem on our hands, students often pull the classic body
snatching trick. When we realized that
one of the bodies was fresh we told the police, and they felt it would be best
to call the FBI. We don’t get very many
murders here, and certainly none like this.
I had recently stumbled across a newspaper article with Dan, I’m sorry,
Agent Scully here in it. So I recommended
her. So there you have it, five bodies
one murder.”
“I
see.” Mulder looked at Scully, but she
didn’t seem to understand it any more than he did. “I understand that all of the bodies are being held here.”
“Yes, we
act as the city morgue. It gives our
forensics students some hands on experience.
Of course we haven’t let the student’s touch these ones.”
“I think
we’d better see them.” Scully added
standing up.
“Yes,
yes, of course, I’ll show you the way.”
**************
It wasn’t
really necessary for Dr. Jefferson to escort them to the morgue, Scully had
spent hundreds of hours there during her graduate work. However, it made him feel like he was
helping. When they got to the door it
had been taped off by the police and a new code had placed on the automatic
lock.
Inside
the five bodies had been laid out on five of the twenty exam tables and covered
with stained sheets. Dr. Jefferson
walked over to nearest body and pulled the sheet back.
“Whoa!” Mulder had not been prepared for the condition
of the body.
The body
was completely denude of skin, even the facial covering had been removed. All of the muscles had been delicately
separated as if by an artist hand. The
lace work of the hand ended in a set of untouched nails that had been painted
pink. The manicure stood out in stark
contrast to the bare muscle structure of the cadaver.
“Was this
the murder victim?” Scully asked
undisturbed.
“What? Oh, no, no, this was one of ours.”
“Did the,
uh, body” Mulder didn’t know quite the
words to use “have skin when it was
stolen.”
“Yes,
yes, as a matter of fact it did. This
is a muscle dissection, all students have to perform one and name all the
muscles. If you don’t mind me saying
so, this is grade A work.”
“Have the
others been similarly dissected?”
Scully asked.
“Yes,
including the murder victim.”
“Well
that explains why the file said these were mutilations.” Scully turned to Mulder. “I’d like to spend a few hours with the
bodies and see if I can find anything, why don’t you go talk to the local
police and see if you can get anything more out of them.”
“Any
excuse to get out of here is fine by me.”
Mulder replied.
“Will you
need my help, Dana?”
“No, Dr.
Jefferson. I’ll be fine, I know how
busy you are. It’s almost graduation
time again isn’t it?”
“Yes, in
seven days actually. So things are in a
bit of tizzy even without the murder and body snatching which so far we have
managed to keep quiet, thank God.”
When the
others had left Scully flipped on the over head recorder and started her
report. First she went around and gave the cadavers that had been stolen from
the school a quick once over.
“Case
X-223-561, location: Maryland Medical School Morgue. Preliminary autopsy report by Dr. Dana Scully.” Scully paused for a second while she looked
for the skinless cadaver’s number she found it on a metal tag attached to the
ear.
“Cadaver
number 57A4903, the body has been striped of skin and the muscular system has
been dissected and exposed. Possible
motive, unknown.”
“Cadaver
number 98V3761, this cadaver has been used apparently to show the nervous
system, with the brain and spinal cord exposed and neatly pulled apart into its
different substructures. A bone saw
must have been used to open the skull and cleave the spinal vertebrae. The morgue and any equipment storage areas
should be checked for a missing bone saw and other medical supplies that might
also have been stolen to perform this dissection. Failing that any medical suppliers in the area should be checked
for small orders sent to nonmedical businesses or residences.”
“Cadaver
number 07L1179, latex has been injected into the veins and arteries to show
their structure and blood flow. The
system has been filled with different colors, blue for the deoxygenated veins
and red for the oxygenated arteries.
The cadaver record does not say anything about it being treated with
latex. This means the thief must have
painstakingly filled the circulation system him or her self. All of the major components of the
circulatory system have been meticulously exposed. Even the lungs had been removed after the latex treatment, with
acid most likely, to show the delicate lace work of the pulmonary arteries and
veins. Again, special medical equipment
would have been used in this process and it may be traceable.”
“Cadaver
number 24R8253, subject was female and apparently used to demonstrate the
female reproductive system. The abdomen
has been cut to expose the uterus, oviducts, and ovaries. One oviduct and half the uterus has been cut
open to expose the inner layers. The
rest of the body has remained untouched.”
Scully
placed the sheet over the long since dead woman. It was easy to look at these bodies with a clinical eye because
she knew they had all died of natural causes and had generously left their
bodies to science. However, the next
body was that of the murder victim. She
had saved that one for last because she felt it would require a proper autopsy
and not just and inspection.
Pulling
back the blood stained sheet it looked like an autopsy had already been
performed. All the visceral organs were
separated and dissected.
“Victim,
Steve Dogwood, MD. Cause of death
unknown, however from the condition of the body I suspect poison of some kind. The body has not been embalmed showing that
the murderer was smart enough not to try and gain access to formaldehyde, the
purchase of which could easily be traced.
The viscera has been exposed,
I’m assuming this was to investigating the digestive system. Why he or she turned to murder instead of
simply continuing to steal bodies is not yet known. However, now that they have tasted a fresh body they will most
likely be in search of more. A general
alert to the community should be issued.”
“These dissections
have been performed through a great amount of labor and skill. It is my opinion
that the murderer is well versed in science and may even be a doctor, or wishes
to be one.”
Scully
flipped off the recorder and sighed.
There really wasn’t anything she could do other than send a blood sample
to the lab for analysis. She was about
to pull the sheet back over the body when something caught her eye. Taking out a magnifying glass Scully took a
closer look at the snakelike coils of the dead man’s intestines. The were tiny perforations everywhere. Flipping over a portion of the small
intestine it all came clear. Well maybe
not all of it, but at least the holes and the general state of the corpses.
***********
“What’s
this?” Mulder looked at the bagged
object Scully had handed him.
“Evidence. It is a label on the end of a pin that was
stuck in the upper section of the small intestine of the murder victim.”
“Duodenum?” Mulder read from the slightly damaged tag.
“That’s
the medical term for the upper portion of the small intestine, where the pin
was.”
“What
does this mean? Our murder/slash body
snatcher, I’m assuming they are one in the same, is doing some kind of homework
assignment?”
“Sort
of. Each of the cadavers had a
different major system exposed.”
“Why
switch to a live body, so to speak.”
“I’m not
sure, maybe the security around the cadavers was tightened too much or maybe
just to get attention.”
“Right,
Dr. Jefferson said they really hadn’t paid much attention to the stolen
cadavers. The thief and murderer is an
artist, of sorts, and he wants acknowledgment of his work. A murdered man would bring an inspection and
perhaps an admiring eye to his work.”
“Mulder,
I don’t think were dealing with just some avant garde artist with a copy of
Gray’s Anatomy.”
“So what
are we dealing with?”
“A
doctor.”
“Doctor?”
“Or at
least someone with a strong medical background. I’m almost sure of it.
Look at this.” Scully handed
Mulder another evidence bag this one contained a small piece of paper with some
slightly damp writing on it.
“Steak,
broccoli, potato.... A grocery list?”
“Stomach
contents. The murder dissected and
labeled the victim with incredible skill and attention to detail. Did the local police have anything useful to
add?”
“No, not
really. The only thing the captain had
to say, and I quote: “Gross”.”
“Great. The problem with this case is every student
here and every doctor in the area could be considered a suspect.”
“Then we
better get started.” Mulder
sighed. “Why do I get the feeling that
this is going to be a long case?”
“Because
there are over 500 students and eleven pages of doctors in the Maryland yellow
pages.”
“Well,
let’s let our fingers do the walking.”
**************
Three
days later they were no better off then when they’d started. They had been given access to all of the
students records and were looking for anything that might warrant closer
attention. Since the bodies had been
stolen from the school it seemed logical place to start.
So far a
few students had turned up with what might be called a criminal record. However most of the charges were for public
intoxication. One student that stood
out against the others was Gary Bradshaw.
He had been caught body snatching his freshman year. Bradshaw was brought in for
questioning. It had turned into a dead
end. When they asked Bradshaw about his
previous record he actually laughed at the memory. He’d placed the body in the bed of his dorm supervisor. It had been the practical joke of the decade
he said. Then he turned a bit more
serious, he had the sudden thought that his past was going to keep him from
graduating in the next week. They
assured him it wasn’t and he was dismissed.
“What do
you think, Mulder?”
“Just a
kid with a sense of humor.”
“My
thoughts exactly, besides he has a stable background and a bright future in
front of him.”
“That
doesn’t lend itself to raging psycho.”
“I’m sure
he’s been too busy passing the final exams.”
Scully sighed and went back to the files. “Square one.”
The next
morning when they came back to the file room Dr. Jefferson and a police officer
were waiting for them. Dr. Jefferson
was visibly sweating and the cop didn’t look any happier.
“Ah! Agents, I was hoping you’d come soon.” Dr. Jefferson greeted nervously.
“Good
morning, Doctor.” Scully replied.
“No, no,
not so good. There’s, well, there has
been another murder.”
“Where?” Mulder asked.
“That’s
the thing,” Dr. Jefferson looked around and then lowered his voice despite the
fact that there was no one else around
“it would appear that it happened, well, uh, here.”
“Here?”
“Yes,
this morning there was another body, not one of ours of course, anyway, there
was another body in the morgue.”
“It was
found in the morgue?” Mulder asked astonished.
“Yes,
yes, terrible.”
Scully
was already moving towards the morgue when Dr. Jefferson squeaked a
protest. She didn’t pay him any
heed. She couldn’t believe what was
happening, she and Mulder had been here almost all night. Right here, five doors away from the morgue.
Punching
the code into the automatic lock Scully quickly gained access to the
morgue. That made her realize that
whoever the murderer was they knew the access code. Inside the original five bodies were off to the side, the sixth
was on the center exam table with a sheet over it. Ripping back the sheet caused a piece of paper to fall to the
floor. Ignoring the body, the face of
which was almost completely missing, Scully bend down and picked up the
paper. She stared at the words inked in
blood. When Mulder finally caught up
with her she read the crimson page aloud.
“All that
hard work last night didn’t save this life, nor break this case, did it Dr.
Dana? Perhaps you should seek an
alternate career. Failing that,” Scully faltered for a second “failing that I have a more permanent
solution for you.”
***********
“Put that
away, Mulder. He isn’t going to attack
right now.”
Mulder
looked down at the gun in his hand, he hadn’t even been conscious of drawing
it. “We have to get you out of here,
Scully.”
“No, the
killer is trying to get my attention, he knows me. You need me to catch him.”
Scully turned the paper over. On
the back was a perfect thumbprint in blood.
“He’s mocking us, look.”
Mulder
took the paper and took a close look at the thumb print. “This didn’t get here by accident, he even
rolled his thumb so we’d get a complete print.”
“That
means we can rule out any of the students.
They wouldn’t be that stupid, it would just take a simply fingerprinting
to catch him if he were enrolled here.
He must be confident that we don’t know him.”
“I’ll
have a messenger send this over to Danny, maybe they’ll have something in the
database.”
“I doubt
he would make it that easy for us.”
Scully looked back at the corpse.
“Do it anyway. I’m going to see
what I can find on this body.”
“Scully...”
“I’m
fine, Mulder.” Scully assured as she
found a pair of gloves. “I can handle
it.”
“I just
think that you’d be safer back in Washington.”
“He all
ready knows who I am, I’ll be just as easy to find in Washington.” Scully turned a set of stone eyes on her
partner. “If you want to protect me
help me catch this guy.”
“All
right, if that’s your decision.”
“It
is. When you send the messenger give
him instructions to get the files from the Quanitco Medical School on enrolled
students between 93’-94’.”
“What are
you hoping to find?”
“I taught
the forensics class there for two years before I was assigned to the X-files. I failed a lot of students, our killer might
be one of them. I’m hoping to go
through them and see if one jumps out at me.”
“Figuratively
speaking.”
“We’re
wasting time, Mulder. Go.”
Mulder
hesitated.
“Leave,
please.”
**********
A few
hours later Mulder found Scully still in the morgue. The fresh body was covered again by a sheet. Scully was over by one of the sinks washing
something. Mulder cleared his throat so
he wouldn’t startle her.
“Danny
found a match to the fingerprint.”
Mulder announced.
“The
'Caduceus Killer’, I know.”
“How?”
Scully
turned around and held up what she was washing. It was a tiny gold charm.
Mulder came up and took it from her.
In his palm lay a caduceus, the universally recognized symbol of medicine. The delicate gold trinket bore two snakes
wrapped around a winged staff in intricate detail.
“I found
it in the heart of the latest victim.”
Scully turned and picked up another one off the counter. “I went back and found this one in mouth the
previous victim. I forget how many
doctors he has killed in the past seven years, but I do know this is his
calling card. I would have found it
sooner if I had done a complete autopsy on the first victim.”
Mulder
knew the number: 11. At least that was
the number that had been officially reported.
Mulder was almost positive the number was higher. Local police and coroners could easily over
look reporting something as small as a piece of jewelry. Even the FBI couldn’t collect all the
information on every murder in America.
No one knew who the killer really was.
He’d left fingerprints, but those prints had never been traced. It takes a previous criminal record or army
service to have prints on file. Other
than a murder spree this guy was clean.
“Did you
get the files I asked for.”
“Yeah,
they’re in the records room down the hall.”
“I want
to catch this guy, Mulder.” Scully took
the charm back and placed it in an evidence bag. “I need to catch him.”
***********
Two days
of sifting through enrollment records hadn’t yielded any answers. Scully took off her reading glasses and
rubbed her sore eyes. Looking down at
her gold watch she found that it was already midnight, she’d been there since
four that morning. Mulder couldn’t help
her with the files because he didn’t know any of these students. He was going through local dental records
trying to identify the second victim who had been rendered unrecognizable by
the Caduceus Killer’s dissection of the senses. In doing so he had removed and diced up both eyes, tongue, and
half the face while getting at the sinuses.
Mulder
put down the X-ray he was looking at and noticed the time himself. Scully had been here when he’d arrived in
the morning so he didn’t know how long she’d been working. However, he guess it had been since far
before sunrise. She had her back to him
so he could see the V of sweat that marred the back of her white blouse. He suddenly got the feeling that the stain
was caused more by fever than exertion.
It was time to give in for the night.
“You need
some sleep, Scully.”
“Just one
more hour.”
“No, it’s
time to call it a night.”
Mulder
was right, and Scully knew. However,
she wasn’t about to stop searching, the answer was here. This case was like a choke chain collar around her throat and she couldn’t breath
until she broke it. She wanted it
solved before the campus went into graduation and that left her less than
twenty four hours. She also need to
solve it before he claimed his next victim, which very well might be herself.
Mulder
came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Scully paid him no heed and continued to
flipped through the files. He slipped
his hands down her forearms and caught a hold of her feverantly working hands.
“Stop
this.” Mulder hissed softly in her ear.
“Get off
me, Mulder.” She tried to shake him off but she could only offer token
resistance.
Mulder
pulled her closer to take her away from the files. Crossing both their arms around Scully’s waist Mulder attempted
to talk some sense into her. “Have you
ever heard the story of Archimedes ?”
“Mulder...”
“Hear me
out, Scully. This might help. A wise King once came to Archimedes with a problem, he had been given a gift, a
golden statue, and he wanted to know whether or not it was solid gold without
destroying it. Archimedes struggled with the puzzle for weeks, he
tossed and turned at night, he wouldn’t eat.
Finally his wife (who was also at her wits end having to deal with him)
suggested that he go take a hot bath.
He took her advise and while he was getting in the tub he noticed the
water level rise: displacement.
Suddenly he had a way to discover volume and therefor with weight he
could get density which would tell him the diffrence between gold and any other
metal -he had his answer. He cried
‘Eureka!’ and was so excited that he leap out of the tub and ran naked through
the streets to the palace to tell the King.”
“What’s
your point, Mulder?”
“My point
is that you need a hot bath.”
*************
Mulder
had finally won out. The students were
all starting to blur into one anyway.
They walked back to the hotel where they were staying, which was only a
few blocks from the school. Mulder had
brought a few dental records with him in case he suffered from his usual
insomnia tonight.
“I’m
right next door if anything happens.”
“I know,
Mulder. I’ll be fine. Go get some sleep.”
“Only if
you’ll do the same.”
Scully
didn’t bother replying. She locked the
door and turned the hot water on in the tub.
A bath did seem like a wonderful idea.
She poured some of the hotel shampoo into the running water for
bubbles. Slipping out of her cloths and
into the tub Scully let the near scalding water attempt to soothe her. The water felt good. Water.
Water. Suddenly Scully made a
connection. She practically exploded
out of the bath tub. Unlike
Archimedes however, she remembered to
cover herself.
She
rushed to the School. All the lights
were dimmed and the doors were locked.
However, they had been given the codes to the doors. Coming to the picture that Mulder had
pointed out to her before of her classmates she searched through the
pictures. Looking at the last few names
her blood froze when she couldn’t find the name she had come here to find, the
name the bath water had reminder her of:
Jeremy
Waterson.
“Waterson.” She whispered in horror. He had the training it would take. He knew her, he had 'accidentally' bumped
into here after all this time, and he’d known what she had gone into the
FBI. In itself none of that was real
cause for alarm. However, he had been
in forensics as well, he’d told her so.
Why hadn’t Dr. Jefferson asked him to help her? Unless Dr. Jefferson didn’t know he was
here, or knew that Waterson wasn’t qualified because he had never graduated!
“Brava!”
The
ironically chilling accolade spun Scully around. “Waterson!” She snarled.
“I must
admit that I was getting disappointed in you.”
Waterson walked down the hall in a casual manor. “I was only going to give you till
graduation to figure it out. After that
I was going to declare myself the winner and claim my prize.”
“What do
you want? Why have you been doing
this?”
“Revenge,
my dear Dr. Dana, revenge.”
“Revenge?” Scully couldn’t even imagine what she could
have done to Waterson, she hardly knew him.
“Over me? It’s been eight
years.”
“You
didn’t exactly leave a forwarding address.
And don’t think this is all about you.
I have been keeping busy, there were 158 of you. 132 now.”
“158 of
us?” Scully still didn’t have all the
pieces together. Then it dawned on
her. Turning slowly Scully stared in
horror at the 158 pictures of recently graduated students behind the glass
panel. “When Dr. Jefferson told me the
murder victim was an ex-student he didn’t mean ‘ex’ as in dead, he meant that
he had all ready graduated.” Scully
said to herself. Her eyes went wide
with growing realization “He graduated
with me, all the victims did!”
“You
never did take the time to get to know your fellow classmates, did you
Dana? Or else you might have recognized
the victims or at least made the connection a little sooner. I figured it was a safe bet, you’ve always
been cold.”
“You’ve
been hunting us all this time? Why,
because we became doctors and you didn’t?”
“That’s a
bit simply put, but in a way, yes. And
when I found you, I found a special case.
You not only had to prove you could be a doctor, you went and made
Agent. So I thought it would be sweeter
to use them both against you. It was easy to get Jefferson to ask for you, I
just left the newspaper article that I had used to find you, and he took care
of the rest. I thought I would offer
you a case you couldn’t solve and a life you couldn’t save. Unfortunately I waited too long and it would
seem that you’ve solved the case. But
there is still the issue of the life.”
“What
life?”
“Why your
own, of course.”
***********
Scully
went to draw her gun, but found that like the naked Archimedes running to the King she had dashed out of
the room too fast and forgotten it.
“Tsk,
tsk.” Waterson clucked as he walked
calmly closer.
“Stay
Back, Waterson!” Scully threatened
emptily. She took a moment to size up
her opponent. He was wiry, but he still
had the advantage of height and weight on her.
“Now,
now, Dana, I’m reasonable. I’ll make it
quick.”
Standing
her ground Scully waited for Waterson to come in range. When he did she spun and kicked him hard in
the throat. Waterson dropped to the
floor coughing with a mixture of pain and surprise. Scully fled down the hall trying to get to an exit. When she heard Waterson’s outraged cry she
took the nearest right to avoid detection.
Unfortunately this took her deeper into the building.
Coming to
a locked set of glass doors Scully desperately punched in the only door codes
she knew. None of them worked on this
inner door. When a large caliber bullet
shattered one of the glass doors in front of her Scully abandoned the
autolock. She had underestimated her
enemy, weapons were not part of his profile he’d always used Sodium Penthol,
she hadn’t thought that he’d be armed.
Scully turned to face Waterson and stepped toward him to get out of the
broken glass. If she was going to die
she didn’t want to be shot in the back.
“You’re
brave.” Waterson croaked, blood stained
the corners of his mouth. He held a .45
unsteadily in his left hand.
“I have to
be.”
“You’re
also fool hearted!” Waterson came up
and sharply back handed her across the face.
Scully hit the floor, she scrambled back to avoid being kicked. The remaining glass door kept her from going
too far.
“Please,” Scully was not below asking for her
life “I haven’t done anything! I don’t understand!”
Waterson’s
face was flushed, sweat dripped down his hollow face, and his frame
trembled. He did not seem like the same
calculating killer he’d been a moment ago.
“I just
wanted to help people!” Waterson
screamed.
“You
still can, you can help me! Put the gun
down Waterson.” Scully tried to get
control of her runaway heartbeat. “You
can help me.” She repeated in a
whisper.
Waterson
wavered for a second. He looked down at
his victim who didn’t even seem to notice glass she had backed into. Looking around the empty hall his eyes fell
on another set of pictures from a previous graduating class. “No.”
He murmured. “No!” He repeated with conviction. “It’s too late for that!”
Scully
watched the shaken Waterson try to steady the gun’s aim at her heart. The lack of sleep and the past ten minutes
had taken the fight out of her. Scully
closed her eyes causing the gathering tears to spill, and waited for the
searing lead to take her life.
The shot
that rang through the long hallway was almost enough to stop Scully’s heart in
itself. However, when the pain didn’t
come she slowly opened her tear reddened eyes.
Waterson was on his knees at her feet with a look of shock on his pale
face. Blood poured out of his cavernous
mouth. When he finally fell to the cold
floor Scully could see Mulder still standing in his firing stance at the end of
the hall. At that moment she realized
she’d been holding her breath. When she
drew a ragged breath the rush of oxygen to her over exerted system caused her
to slip gratefully into unconsciousness.
************
“How did
you know to come?” Scully asked
Mulder. She had just woken from a two
day sleep in a hospital bed, but other than a few cuts and bruises she was no
worse for the wear.
“I didn’t
really.” Mulder admitted. “I had just identified the second body when
I got a notion. I came to the school to
check out the picture of your classmates.
Not only were the name of both the victims on it, but the names of the
other 11 Caduceus Killer victims were also there. I was going to turn back to the hotel when I noticed some blood
on the floor. When I stopped to look
closer I heard Waterson cry out. You
know the rest.”
“Thank
you, Mulder.” Scully sat up, she’d been
in bed far too long. “There is just one
more thing I have to check on.”
“What’s
that?”
“He said
he had killed 26 of us, I have to know if that’s true.”
“It is, I
already checked.” Mulder reached out to
and smoothed down her crimson hair.
“I’m sorry, Scully.”
“The real
tragedy is when you kill a doctor you're not just killing one person. You’re sentencing some of those they would
have saved to die as well.”
************