The X-Files

Land sakes, George, what are you tryin' to do?

- I was trying to be quiet. - Quiet?

I smelled you on the stairs.

39 years, I'm still surprised that embalming fluid of yours doesn't wake the dead.

Didn't wake old Zig McPherson tonight, God rest his soul.

Well, you go outside and take those clothes of yours off, so I can rest mine.

George!

I'm going, Tohoma. I'm going.

What the hell?

What the hell is that?

George?

So, this is where the bad kids are banished to.

Put me down here, I'd probably cook up a lot of crazy ideas, too!

- Good morning. - Morning.

Um...

I'll catch you guys later.

Some friends. They're just curious.

I'm not here to be a curiosity, Agent Doggett. I'm here to work.

I am too, Agent Scully.

I've been here all weekend and this morning. I went over every X-File in that cabinet.

I just left to get some coffee.

Well...

- D'you have any questions? - Just a few!

Maybe first you could tell me where your area is here and where mine's gonna be.

This is my partner's office, Agent Doggett.

You and I will just be using it for a while.

- So where do we get started? - Homicides. Two in Idaho.

White male, 62, undertaker by profession.

He was killed on his porch, ten feet from his wife.

Holy God.

Cause of death was blood loss from numerous deep wounds, from bites.

Any thoughts, any questions?

- Bites? - On his head, torso and hands.

Two of his fingers were missing, eaten off.

- By what, an animal? - These were murders.

The bites on his wife appear to be human.

I've seen some violent crimes, some seriously screwed-up stuff,

but this is extreme.

- Is there demonstration of motive? - Not according to local PD.

Is there any pattern or ritual or anything?

I have to admit, Agent Scully, I'm at a loss.

Well, that's a good place to start.

- You the folks from the FBI? - Yeah.

- Yale Abbott, Cassia County Sheriff's. - Hi. Agent Scully. This is Agent Doggett.

We like to handle our own problems,

but some hotshots in the county seat think this is beyond us.

Not that we don't appreciate your coming out to help.

Well, I hope we can.

- I'm a little baffled by what I've seen. - Oh, really?

Detective, we've seen cases like yours regularly on our unit.

Agent Doggett has only just been assigned to the X-Files.

There is nothing baffling about human bite marks.

That's what I was getting around to, ma'am.

We're not so sure now that these bites are human.

The bodies were found by neighbours, so there was contamination of the crime scene.

My boys did a damn good job of separating the various shoe prints and pulling these.

Come on over.

Right there. See that?

- (Doggett) What is it? - It's not human, I know that.

- It's not quite animal, either. - There's only four toes.

That's not an unheard-of birth defect. No more rare than polydactyly.

- What did she just say? - I assume she means it could be human.

Is that a fair assumption?

I'd say that assumption is the problem here.

A strange print is found, and immediately the most important evidence is thrown out

to try and force an explanation.

Maybe this print can help explain those bite marks.

- How? - I'm not quite sure yet.

She's not quite sure yet.

Well, I have to say, I've worked a lot of homicides.

If the victims laid out here for any time at all,

in a setting like this, it'd be pretty remarkable if they didn't attract animals.

I think postmortem predation is definitely a consideration here,

but I only see one print.

And if it were an animal, there would be numerous prints all over here and in the yard.

You agree, Agent Doggett?

I'm gonna go take a look around.

I got two old folks in the morgue, mauled beyond recognition.

I have no motive to go on, no intent.

No evidence cries out for a human explanation,

yet you stand there telling me flat out that what we're looking for is a man.

Thanks for everything, Agent Scully. We'll take it from here.

I'm sure your explanation will mollify those hotshots down at the county seat

and relieve any general anxiety about what this thing might be,

but only until it strikes again.

And one more thing.

I never said that what you're looking for is a man.

Agent Scully?

Is that a second print?

Could be, but I'm not sure if it tells us anything.

Maybe there's no prints in the yard because whatever made these didn't go there.

It came through the house.

If anything, I'd say this print leads up the stairs.

Think I've got another partial here.

- There is a more obvious explanation. - Mm-hm?

The more basic answer is what we're dealing with is simply a man.

A psychotic killer with a deformed foot.

You're familiar with the principle of Ockham's razor?

Yeah. You take every possible explanation and choose the simplest one.

Agent Mulder used to refer to it as Ockham's principle of limited imagination.

Unless you have a simple explanation as to how a killer with a deformed foot

leaves a print only every 25 feet.

Or to what he'd even be doing up here.

I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out just like you are.

Agent Doggett?

It's dark up here.

What do you see? Agent Scully?

Right now, not a heck of a lot.

If there was anything up here, it might have gone out that window.

You ever carry one of these?

Never.

V for "victory".

What?

You said the male victim was missing two fingers?

Well, how'd the fingers get up here?

Well, from their smell, I'd say they were regurgitated...

recently.

By What?

I saw those on the porch, too.

Looks like, to me... I don't know.

Like it was... It was...

Hanging there?

- You still here? - Yeah.

I was waiting for lab results and I wanted to take another look at the body.

Why? What did you find?

Nothing that will allay anyone's fears about what killed this man or his wife.

"What"? You mean who killed them.

To be honest, what I found here leans more towards an animal explanation.

The scratches on the body match the four-toed prints that we found.

And the bites have fang-like tears.

What I thought were marks left by human molars are now inconclusive

because of enzymes that were found in the bites, which are clearly inhuman.

Anticoagulants, which are found solely in the saliva of bats.

- Bats. - Yeah.

I can't exactly explain it, but I realise I owe the detective an apology.

Well, I'm not so sure about that.

Montana. Headline, circa .

The story's the same as what you told me.

The creature was taken to the coroner, who confirmed it was neither man nor animal.

Two days later the coroner was disembowelled by something with four toes.

It ate several body parts and regurgitated them elsewhere.

- Did they ever find it? - Five men died or disappeared.

Then the killing stops. It doesn't say why.

But 44 years later it appears it's back and killing again.

You see those marks, right?

And the ones over here on the rafter?

If you ask me, those look like claw marks.

I don't care what kind of a savage he is, what did this isn't human.

If I may speak for Agent Scully, we're both prepared to concede that point, Detective.

- Then you know what this thing is? - I've got an article I wanna show you.

- (Scully) Agent Doggett? - A rather strange account from .

I found something. A photo album.

- I think it's our first break. - What is it?

The victim's daughter - Ariel - her body was pulled from the river last week.

I got that call. Had to come tell Mrs McKesson the bad news.

You saying there's a connection?

You not only told her mother her daughter was dead,

but that her body had been horribly and inexplicably burned.

A daughter who, by the way, she hadn't seen in over 40 years.

Since , to be exact, which is the date your article says those first killings started.

Do you see the connection?

I'm not sure where you're going with this, Agent Scully.

- The daughter is the connection. - How is that?

I don't know, but these killings only started up since her burned body has been found.

Honest to God! You just jump at whatever explanation is the most far-fetched.

I suggest you jump at it, too, because her body may have been burned for a reason.

You're gonna wanna exhume it to find out why.

You want me to dig up a dead body when I have real people whose lives are in danger?

Hey.

What did you say to him?

I told him to dig up the body. Isn't that what you wanted?

What else did you say to him?

I told him you were a leading authority on paranormal phenomena,

and who are we to argue with an expert.

Look, I am not an expert.

I am a scientist who happens to have seen a lot.

- I am just making a leap here. - Well, I'm sure you have your reasons.

You told him to exhume the body when you don't even necessarily believe me yourself?

I told you I spent the weekend looking through those X-Files,

and I saw how pretty much every X-File broke with a leap.

Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned cop, but I don't take leaps.

In my experience, leaps only get people killed.

Well, I'd say that you're taking a pretty big leap believing in that article

about a human bat.

How do you do it? I called the judge's order in a half-hour ago. You're fast.

Yep. We're really fast when someone's done most of our work.

What are you talking about?

We got out here, somebody had already dug up the box.

All we had to do was haul it out.

I don't know what they were using, but they scratched up the wood on the lid real good.

Let's get this down to the morgue. I think the sooner the better.

God!

I want a word with you.

We listened to you. The detective listened to you.