Trial of Times

Chapter 15 (Mulder)

I knew something was wrong if Skinner called me three times during the night, and Skinner never calls me. Ever.  I had been over at Scully's without my phone for the entire night, and then the world falls apart. Great, just great. I check my phone's messages and find the one from Skinner. I press the key and the message begins to play.

"Mulder, it's me. There's a case down right by where you and Scully are located. It's pretty bad, a fellow agent was down here investigating a possible murder case, and in turn he himself has gone missing. I know this isn't ideal timing since you and Scully are on your little vacation, yes I know about the fake file, but can you guys check this out? Call me back when you solve this thing. Thanks."

Oh crap, there's an actual case. I slammed my phone down on the desk and ran to my suitcase, pulling out my nicer clothes. I quickly put on my shirt and my pants as I run out the door with my suit jacket and tie in my hands. The long legs of my pants cause me to trip, which hurt.
"Owwwwww," I muttered, and got back up.
Once I got over to Scully's, I was a bit out of breath. I ran through her door while trying to pull my pants up and tie my tie.
"Scully, you've gotta get dressed. Skinner called during the night, we've got a case. An actual one this time." I proclaim with a purposeful sense of urgency.

"What? You can't be serious. What's going on?" Scully says, shoving clothes back into her suitcase and grabbing her work clothes.
"I'll tell you on the way, but we really need to go. I promise it's important or I wouldn't be doing this." I respond. I had finished getting dressed as Scully ran to the bathroom to change. I started to pace after about 15 minutes. We were going to miss the cops if we didn't hurry.

  "Hold on, Mulder. I'm almost ready. Give me five more minutes." Scully poked her head out of the bathroom. She smiled at me and went back in. I was still pacing when she came out, looking beautiful as ever. She exited the bathroom quickly, and then tripped right into my arms. Reflexes, you did it again. I caught her and smiled.
"Easy there, Scully. I don't need you to get hurt on the first date." I quipped. She sheepishly smiled back. I take her hand and we walk out to the car, with zero tripping. When we get to the car, I open her door for her and close it once she's in. I walk over to my side, get it, and start the car. As we drive off, I begin to tell Scully what Skinner had told me.

"Alright, your debriefing. An agent working on a possible murder case has gone missing, and the only clue we have to use is the location of where the agent was last seen, which is a UFO sighting hotspot.  Could this be an abduction from extraterrestrials? I don't know. Could it be a human abductor? Still have no idea. We're needed to take a look at the scene and try to find any evidence." I sigh, while Scully gives me a what the heck is going on? look.
"I'm leaning more towards the human abductor route, but until we find evidence there's no way to prove anything. Let's go try to solve this thing." Scully says back.

The drive to the crime scene was only 30 minutes away from the motel, lucky for us. When we arrived, there were officers everywhere. We flashed our badges as we exited the car, and went into the taped off area. The place was a wooded area with a shallow pond, a very well thought out area to commit a crime. We split up and searched the property. I walked around to one of the bushes and poked around. My foot reached a pile of dirt. I bent down and moved the bushes to find that the pile was pretty big, even big enough for a body.
"Hey, Scully, you might want to get over here," I yelled, and Scully ran over.

"Hey we need some shovels over here!" I yelled to the nearest officer as I pointed to the pile of dirt. The officer scurried off to alert the other ones. The other officers ran back over with shovels, and passed one to me. We began to dig while Scully paced around the dig site. When we hit a solid, the pandemonium had only just started. I grabbed one end of the box, and another officer got the other. It was wrapped in a chain with a big padlock, but a quick clip from a bolt cutter did the trick. Scully and I pushed the lid, and a terrible smell filled my lungs. It was so potent that it made Scully cough and me pinched my nose.