Shorts

Te Duem Part 7

Continuation of Te Deum

Mulder pov

June 14th 1998, 4:31 p.m., Lansing, Michigan

"Mulder? Are you alive over there?"

Mulder shook his head lightly, not having realized the front door to Harriet Schuster's home was opening. "Yeah, I'm alive," he said.

The door swung inward, and the gut-wrenchingly familiar house was once again revealed. What surprised Mulder most was the fact that everything had remained seemingly in the same position as it had been during their prior visit, at the start of this whole fiasco.

"Agents, is everything all right?" Harriet said as she met Scully's eyes, her face glazed with concern.

Scully turned to Mulder. This was, after all, his own idea. He cleared his throat. "Everything's fine, Miss Schuster," Mulder said, and watched as the woman seemed startled that the agents had discovered her last name. "We were just wondering if we could ask you a few more questions pertaining to the murder of Jayce." Mulder attempted to grin through the lie. If it was true, and the Sigbin was there, he knew that he needed to keep Harriet from feeling threatened, as that would be when the Sigbin would attack.

"Oh, of course. Please, come in," she said, gesturing into her house and stepping out of the door frame. Mulder held back and Scully entered the house first, with him following close behind. Harriet shut the door quietly, walking around to face the two agents and sitting on the couch. "Won't you sit down?" she said warmly, and the agents sat in two chairs across from the woman.

"Miss Schuster, we came to tell you that we've handed the murder case over to two other agents, whose area of expertise on the matter is far more advanced than ours," Mulder began, and Scully sat silently. "But we do have a few other questions for you. Just simple background-check information."

Harriet shifted awkwardly on the couch. "All right," she said, nodding her head once.

Mulder looked to Scully. They had gone over the list of questions to ask Harriet as they were on the plane. Scully glanced up, not missing a beat.

"Miss Schuster, if you don't mind me asking, where did you and your parents grow up?" Scully said innocently, but Mulder knew there was no innocence behind her intentions.

"I grew up here, in Michigan, the same as my mother. My father, on the other hand, immigrated from The Phillipines when he was twelve years old, and has since lived in Michigan," she stated, as though reading from a textbook.

Scully and Mulder nodded. "Now, that's interesting - you said your father lived in The Philippines until he was twelve?" Mulder chided.

"Yes, he did."

"One of my dad's friends used to live in The Phillipines and recently moved to Michigan. His name is Mark Tungol; maybe you know him?" Mulder continued.

Harriet shook her head. "I'm afraid not, no."

"I figured not," Mulder chuckled. "But you know, he always did tell me a rather funny story about the place. See, when I was little I was always really clumsy. You know, tripping down the stairs, dropping things and what have you."

Harriet nodded slowly, her eyes calculating.

"And Mark would always tell me, 'Oh it's just your Sigbin following you around. They can accidentally trip you up, if you happen upon a real clumsy one,'" he continued. "And when I asked him what the heck a Sigbin was, he told me it was a creature that could turn invisible and act as a body guard for me. I thought that was great," he said with a chuckle, watching as Harriet released a tight-lipped smile.