The X-Files

It's just a passport photo, not the cover of Vogue.

There's no reason I have to look like hell in it, is there? Settle down.

- We're on a schedule here. - I know we're on a schedule here.

Act natural.

- I'll be back in ten. - Make it five. I'll be around back.

Relax, Billy.

Lower it just a bit. Yeah, that's it.

Now, big smile. Yeah, hold it.

- Big trip you got planned? - Oh, you know, nothin' special.

Just good to have a passport.

It looks like it's clearing up. Might be a nice day after all.

It's just gonna take a few minutes.

That comes to $6.95.

Great. I left my money in the car.

- I'll be back. - I'll be here.

Ow! Hey, you jerk!

What?

Billy?

Billy, someone did something to me. Billy?

Shoot

My God!

What are your thoughts, Scully?

Have the local police been contacted by her abductor?

- No demand for ransom? - No, unfortunately. It's going on three days.

Any additional leads?

No. No hair and fibre evidence. The rain washed it all away.

The autopsy came back on the dead boyfriend.

A puncture wound through the eardrum and into the brain...

...possibly from a long needle or an awl.

I'm still not sure how we figure into this investigation.

Did you see the photo?

I assume that was taken by her abductor.

It was taken by a 65-year-old druggist moments before she was abducted.

That's a passport photo from a local drugstore.

The druggist was the last known person to have seen Mary Lefante.

He claims that wasn't the photo he was taking.

He says the photo he was taking was normal.

He only came to the police when he heard she was missing.

Well, whoever took this photo was obviously privy to the woman's abduction.

That is what you would think.

It's the damnedest thing. Here it is, just like I left it.

It was under lock and key.

- Is that where you keep it? - Yeah.

- Mind if I take a look? - Please, help yourself.

At first I thought I did something wrong when I took the picture.

There's that piece of paper you have to pull off. You have to do that just right.

I'm sure you did it just fine.

- Your film's out of date. - Is that against the law?

- No. I was just making an observation. - I don't get much call for passport photos.

The copy shop over at the mall does 'em cheaper.

- (phone rings) - Excuse me.

I sure hope you find that young woman safe and sound.

Which one of us gets to use the stun gun on Bruno Hauptmann back there?

So he doesn't exactly stand out as a suspect.

Mulder, take a look at this. You see this smeariness here?

I'm thinking it's heat damage.

With the heater sitting under the film, the emulsion probably melted.

That would make it look like she posed screaming for a passport photo?

Plus, the film is two years out of date.

The photographic chemistry could've changed. The dyes... fade, they...

- All right, so what's your theory? - I'm not sure I have a theory.

- Excuse me. You the two FBI agents? - Agents Mulder and Scully.

Sorry to have brought you all this way. I'm afraid we might have wasted your time.

Hey, Trott.

Inspector Puett, these are Agents Scully and Mulder.

- Agents. - Inspector.

US postal inspector. My office is investigating a mail theft...

...which we've traced to your missing person, Ms Mary Louise Lefante.

She was a postal employee.

A sorter at the Kurland Hills branch. A number of unsigned credit cards...

...in transit through that branch never made it to their respective owners.

She was intercepting them?

And her boyfriend was signing them. We ran him. He was into forgery, cheque fraud.

Mary Lefante's passport photo. Do you know how soon she wanted to leave town?

- Did she know about your investigation? - Probably.

Though we didn't focus on her specifically until after she came up missing.

- You think she faked her disappearance? - Looks that way to me.

Yeah, but why would she stab her boyfriend through the ear?

The magic was gone?

Did you find a camera anywhere here?

You think this woman planted that photo of herself in the drugstore?

- What would be the point of that? - I...

Here it is.

Stand back, Scully. It's loaded.

- What are you doing? - In the '60s a bellhop named Ted Serios...

...became famous for taking what he called "thoughtographs".

He claimed that by concentrating on an unexposed negative...

...he could create a photographic representation of what he saw in his mind.

He did landscapes, cathedrals, the Queen of England...

- Thoughtographs. - Also known as scotographs.

Literature on thought photography dates back almost to Louis Daguerre.

So that makes it legitimate?

Look at that.

Oh. my Gem!

- I think he was here, Scully. - Who was here?

Mary Lefante's abductor. I think he stalked her.

He could have come up right here.

I think he came in here and looked at her through the window, this close.

Close enough to affect the camera film.

Psychic photography?

Mulder, it's obvious that somebody doctored these images...

...and planted them to be found here. Maybe as some kind of a smoke screen.

To conceal what? This isn't about mail fraud.

That's just incidental. What if...

What if someone had this ability?

An image like this would be a peek into that person's mind.

- Into their darkest fantasies? - The fantasy of a killer.

She's completely non-responsive.

We did a tox screen and found traces of morphine and scopolamine.

- Twilite Sleep. - The dental anaesthetic?

A painkiller cocktail. It's also for women in labour.

- Would that account for her condition? - No.

What would?

Give her a PET scan.

All set.

Oh, my God!

What is it?

She's been given a transorbital lobotomy. It used to be known as an ice-pick lobotomy.

It involves inserting a leucotome through the eye sockets.

We're looking for a doctor? Someone with training?

- Notjudging by this. - Whoever did this, Mulder, did it wrong.

Un...

Un...

Unruhe.

Unruhe.

- (Mulder) Mary. - Un...

Un...

You'd better go in there and get her.

Unruhe.

Unruhe.

Unruhe.

We just got the call. There's been a second abduction.

Unruhe.

Unruhe.

Hab keine Angst.

Ich werde dir helfen.

Du wirst deine Unruhe bald vergessen. Deine Unruhe vergessen.

You can roll. We're set here.

Get that area taped off.

Watch it.

Excuse me, ma'am.

- Mulder? - Charles Selchik, certified public accountant.

Dead from a stab wound through the ear. Cleaning crew found the body.

- What about the missing woman? - His secretary, Alice Brandt, age 32.

The family says she was working late last night.

- What's her connection to the first victim? - Apparently none. But the MO is the same.

- Yeah. The clock is running. - Yeah.

I keep thinking about what Mary Lefante was repeating: "unruhe. "

The Michigan phone book has three different spellings, but none within 80 miles of here.

It might be significant as a word.

That's what I've been thinking. In German it means "trouble" or "strife."

- Unrest. - You took German in high school, Scully?

- College. - Unrest, huh?

I'm working on these crime-scene photos from the first abduction.

If we're lucky, the abductor gets a thrill from returning to the scene of a crime.

He wasn't there, Scully.

- How do you know? - It would've affected the photos.

- Trott, what did you find? - Nothing much.

There's no cameras or film here whatsoever.

It's all just accountants' offices, so I don't know why there would be.

Is that what we're looking for? Evidence of psychic photography?

It may be the only evidence we get.

I've got a forensics team coming from Detroit.

What's here for them to find? This guy's very good at what he does.

He's left no witnesses, no latent prints...

Only those photos, which makes me believe he doesn't know he has that ability.

We haven't found any new psychic photos here either.

Wait a second.

I wanna show you something.

Right here. This.

And look.

It's the same company. What if the kidnapper was working construction at both sites?

He would've been able to pick out the two women.

- Check it out. Let me know what you find. - Where are you gonna be?

Back in DC. I want Special Photo to run this. I still think the answer's in here.

What if it's not? This woman's time is running out.

All the more reason to fully investigate the one hard piece of evidence we do have.

I'll be in touch.

Das ist fur dich.

Es ist wie das, das sie getragen hat.

Get away from me! Get away from me, you bastard!

- Shh. - Let me go...

Bald. Leise. Sehr bald.

Can you get rid of the blurriness here?

Yeah. I just need to mark a place where the blur comes to a point...

...and let the computer do its business.

Bingo. Lord, look at that!

- This guy's an artist. - Why do you say that?

However he did this...

...however he put this together, it's seamless.

What about this face? Can you bring that up?

Wait a second. Let's try.

- I think I can sweeten it more. - OK, do that.

What have you got?

From the construction company employees, 18 workers overlapped on both job sites.

- We're checking, but so far nothing. - What about day labourers?

Mr lskendarian there doesn't hire workers off the books.

I don't want IRS trouble.

But his foreman might hire cash-only day labour without his knowledge.

He's got seven job sites going now, as many foremen.