The X-Files

ls somebody in here?

Holy Moses!

What a way to go.

Have you seen this MO before, Detective? Men cremated alive?

Yeah. Third time this year.

Eleventh time, actually. There were three in Seattle, three in LA and two in Boston.

All Chinese men between the ages of 20 and 40. All recent immigrants.

We weren't able to determine any of that until recently.

The other two bodies were much more badly burned.

- We got lucky with this one. - Lucky?

That's an interesting word for it.

You got any leads on this case, Detective? Any thoughts or ideas?

We've got a big influx of immigrants from Hong Kong, trying to get out before 1997...

...and more gang activity in Chinatown.

But we can't tie the deaths to anyone or anything.

You got anybody that can read or speak Chinese?

- Yeah. Glen Chao. He's over there. Why? - Can you get him? I want him to read this.

Sure. Glen?

One second.

- Detective Chao. Glen Chao, Agent Mulder. - Hi. Whaddaya got?

There's something written on the ceiling. I was wondering if you could read it.

Yeah. It says "gwai".

- It means "ghost". - Ghost?

Mean anything to you?

I don't know, but it's a strange thing for a man being burned alive to write,

don't you think?

What's this?

Does anybody recognise this? It looks like foreign currency.

It's "hell money". It's used as an offering in the Chinese Festival of the Hungry Ghosts.

- Is it worth anything? - It's not money, per se.

It's a symbolic offering to the evil spirits and the ghosts. For good luck.

- Where would I get this hell money? - There aren't a lot of places that sell it.

Good. Maybe we just found a way to identify the body.

His name was Johnny Lo. He moved here about six months ago from Canton.

Still in the INS application process. He was a dishwasher in Chinatown.

How many dishes d'y0u have to break before you get tossed in an oven?

I think it's pretty clear this is a horrific cult or gang-retribution killing.

- Why would he write "ghost" in the oven? - I don't know.

What about the guard seeing three figures that vanished?

- So now we're chasing ghosts? - "Who ya gonna call?"

Ghosts or ancestral spirits have long been central to Chinese life.

So the ancestral spirits pushed Johnny Lo in the oven and turned on the gas?

Well, it'd sure teach him to respect his elders.

I checked all the neighbouring buildings. Nobody saw anything, not surprisingly.

- What does it say? - I don't recognise that.

- It could be idiomatic. Some kind of code. - It's still tacky.

- Can you copy it down for me? - Yeah, sure.

Talk about tacky...

Someone's been here. This place has been cleaned out. Look at this.

- What's that smell? - Maybe it's this new carpet.

Yeah, that's what it looks like.

Who'd spring for a new carpet in this dump?

Looks like they saved on carpet tacks.

They didn't even bother replacing the old padding.

What's this?

Chinese herbal medicine.

- What about this? - It's a dried frog.

I think they're sometimes used as charms.

Good health, prosperity, protection.

Looks like Mr Lo could have used a little of both.

Let's get this blood tested.

- (Chinese) - (uproar)

- (Chinese) - (uproar)

I couldn't tell you what any one of these things are.

Well, they're roots mostly. Ginseng, turmeric.

Then you've got your more exotic stuff: bear gall bladder, snake, shark fin...

...usually prepared in a soup or a tea.

What had the victim been using?

She says that it's skullcap root and Chinese angelica. They're used for painkillers.

Does she remember Johnny Lo or remember selling it to him?

Ask her if she knows he's dead.

Ask her if she recognises those characters that were painted on his door.

What was that about?

She says that the house was branded a "hongjak".

- "A haunted house." - Haunted?

- You mean by ghosts? - Yeah.

It's hard to give it an exact translation, but it's what I told you about before.

The Chinese Yu Ian Ji- the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts.

You see, on the 15th day of the seventh moon...

...in the Chinese calendar...

...it's believed the gates of hell are opened...

...and the ghosts of unwanted souls roam the Earth.

Believers protect themselves by leaving gifts of food

and hell money outside their homes...

...to appease the ghosts...

...to keep them from coming inside and causing trouble.

But for some spirits, the ghosts most feared by the Chinese...

...there's no buying them off.

The Preta, the ancient ghost of a murdered man...

...who wanders the Earth exacting his revenge on the living...

...or the Wu Chun Gwai...

...who collects the souls of doomed men and drags them down to...

..."Ti Yu"...

...to the Chinese hell.

D'you think these murders could be related?

It makes sense.

This year's festival is just about over.

What about you, Detective? Do you believe in Yu Ian Ji?

I find it hard to argue with 2,000 years of Chinese belief-

the stuff my parents and grandparents believe in.

But the truth is, I'm more haunted by the size of my mortgage payments.

Hey! What are you doin'?

A patrolman described

three men wearing the same masks as those lD'd at the crematory.

- What were they doing here? - I don't know.

They were spotted around this grave here,

but we can't figure out what they were up to.

- Is this a newly dug plot? - Yeah. There's a burial at noon tomorrow.

- Chinese? - I don't know. We can check.

Chao, see if you can get the name of the future occupant here.

I still don't understand what anybody would want with an empty grave.

What the hell's he doing?

Something just occurred to me.

Looks like somebody was trying to get two burials for the price of one.

What did you find?

A lot. And I haven't even finished my preliminary visual exam.

Look at this.

This guy's like a jigsaw puzzle. These are all surgical incisions.

Judging by the colour of the scars, I'd say they were made in the last year.

- What was wrong with him? - If you ask me, nothing.

- Nothing? What do you mean? - D'you know how much the body is worth?

Depends on the body.

- I don't know, a few bucks. How much? - It's worth a fortune.

You're saying he was selling his body parts for money?

A kidney, a portion of the liver, a cornea, bone marrow...

A person can lose these things and still cash his Social Security cheques.

He won't be cashing any Social Security cheques.

No. But if I'm right, this is one man who left his heart in San Francisco.

Even if you're right, it doesn't figure. There's no long-term business sense to dying.

What's the connection with the crematory deaths?

I only saw one body, but the only thing that wasn't burned to a crisp on Johnny Lo...

...was his glass eye.

Oh, God.

- (Chinese) - (uproar)

- What's this? - Maybe you can tell us.

It was found in the body cavity of the man who was dumped in the grave.

- This? - You said the frog was a symbol of luck.

Unless this is somebody's sick joke, I'd say it must have another meaning.

I don't know what it is. It could be a Triad symbol - something from organised crime.

Well, maybe you can tell me this.

Have you heard any word on the street

about the black-market selling of body parts?

What? Here, in Chinatown?

This man with a frog in his chest was missing a cornea and a kidney.

They were taken prior to the time of death, before the final removal of his heart.

And I found what is known as sterile ice on the skin around the incision on his chest.

It is the substance that is used to preserve human organs for transplant.

I don't even know where to start.

Well, we're gonna need more help from you than that, Detective.

The implication being that I'm not trying to help?

No.

Either you resent us being here,

or feel a kind of protectiveness towards your community.

Look, you don't even know what the hell you're dealing with here.

This isn't some pretty lacquer box you can just take the lid off

and find out what's inside.

You might see the face of a Chinese man here, but they don't see the same face.

They see the face of a cop. American-born Chinese - ABC.

To them, I'm just as white as you are.

You think, because I speak the language, I can get answers.

But what good is an interpreter when everyone speaks the language of silence?

What's this?

The name of the company that installed the carpet in Io's apartment.

I just happened to run across it while I was twiddling my thumbs.

You coming or not?