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La Vérité Nous Sauvera (The Truth Will Save Us)
By Char Chaffin and Tess
Prologue
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9
Epilogue
Text Only
Chapter Four
San Diego, California
County Coroner's Office
Thursday, 3:36 PM
For the second time in two days, Scully stripped a pair of soiled latex gloves from her hands and tossed them onto the tray of instruments used during her examination of the victim's body. She took her time while washing her hands and splashed cold water on her face, beating down the niggling fear growing in her mind. Blotting her face with a paper towel, she took a deep breath and tried to school her features into placid lines. She balled her fingers around the paper towel and turned to face her partner.
Mulder was sitting at the small desk in the corner of the room. His feet were propped on top of the desk and his attention was focused on the file in his hands. Scully leaned one hip against the side of the desk and cleared her throat to gain his attention.
Mulder waved the file in his hands. "I have no idea what I'm reading," he confessed, "but at least it gave me something to look at while you were doing your thing over there." He tilted his head toward the sheet-covered body of Mary Luden.
Scully took the proffered folder from his hands and flipped it open. She scanned the contents of the three page typewritten report inside. "Well, the tests do not indicate the presence of any known toxins," she said. Her brow wrinkled in frustration. "Although the creatinine levels are elevated."
"Creatinine levels?" The perplexed look on Mulder's face prompted her to explain and she unconsciously fell into the kind of lecture mode she had used as an instructor at Quantico.
"Basically, it's a chemical waste that is generated from muscle metabolism. It's produced from creatine, which is a molecule used for the production of energy in muscles. Roughly two percent of a body's creatine is converted into creatinine every day. It's carried by the bloodstream to the kidneys where most of it is filtered out
and disposed of in the urine."
"And how does that relate to what's going on here?" Mulder unscrewed the cap from a plastic bottle of water and chugged several mouthfuls. Scully tapped the folder against her palm and continued her lecture.
"The normal level of creatinine in the blood of an adult female is 0.5 to 1.1 milligrams per deciliter. Obviously, adults with a larger muscle mass can have higher levels."
"And in Brenda Jordan and Victoria Durkin...?"
Scully referred back to the report. "I would not describe either of them as being muscular, yet the creatinine levels for both were close to 4.5 milligrams."
"Is that high enough to cause these violent deaths?" Scully shook her head. "No. As a diagnostic tool, an elevated creatinine level is indicative of poor kidney function. If the kidneys are impaired and are not filtering out the creatinine, then the levels will rise." Scully set the folder onto the desk and reached out a hand for the water bottle.
"But even then, an adult would have to have a creatinine level of close to 10.0 milligrams to even warrant the possible need for dialysis to help remove wastes from the blood. Some drugs can sometimes cause the creatinine levels to rise, but as I said, these test results do not indicate the presence of any known toxins. Certainly an elevated creatinine level would not cause a person to collapse and die they way these women did."
Mulder gnawed on his bottom lip and considered everything she had just told him. "What about Mary?" he asked. "Did you find any similarities to your examinations of Victoria and Brenda?"
Scully boosted herself onto the desk and unscrewed the cap from the bottle of water. "Same swelling of the tongue and abnormal redness to the gums. Inflamed and swollen throat; discoloration beneath the nails. Examination of the brain showed similar contusions to those found in my examinations of the other women."
"Well, I know that too much time has passed for you to find traces of the pound cake that the other women ate, but since you told me that the cake was there for Mary's birthday, I'd have to say that chances are very high that she would have eaten some of the cake as well."
Scully took a quick drink from the water bottle in a futile attempt to wash away the gnawing taste of fear.
"I heard her tell Victoria Durkin that she had been nibbling on the cake throughout the morning."
Mulder planted his shoes on the edge of the desk and pushed the chair back, its wheels squealing loudly in protest. He leapt to his feet and began pacing around the room.
"Well, then that's got to be it," he murmured. "The cake is the one thing that ties all three women together. Did you notice how many pieces of cake were missing?"
"I... uh. Mulder..."
"Whaddya think? More than half of the cake? Less?" He glanced her direction as he began a second circuit around the desk.
"Less than half. Listen, Mulder, I-"
Mulder nodded. "Okay. I'm pretty sure that the lab tests from Mary's autopsy will show results to the others-"
"Mulder..."
"While we're waiting for the lab reports, we can head back to Value- Save. We need to pull the records of everyone who was in the office that morning. Employees, customers... God! She might have offered some of that cake to the clerks from the other car rental counters in the airport."
"Mulder!"
He stopped pacing and turned to face her. Scully dropped her eyes and began peeling the label from the plastic bottle in her hands - a nervous habit of hers that he had become acquainted with early in their partnership.
"Scully?" He felt a hard ball of worry forming in his stomach as he took a step closer to her. When she looked up with a frightened expression, he was sure he could actually feel the blood drain from his face. She hadn't said a word since sharply calling out his name, but he knew. And when she finally did speak, her words struck him with the force of a bullet.
"Mulder... I ate some of that cake too."
San Diego, California
Days Inn
Balboa Park
Thursday, 7:18 PM
The heavy drapes familiar to every hotel room across the country were drawn closed. A lamp turned to its lowest setting gilded the couple entwined on the bed with an amber glow.
The bedspread had been tossed to the floor to join the pile of their clothes. Mulder was stretched out over Scully, trapping her between the crisp coolness of cotton sheets and the hot heaviness of his body.
No words passed between them. Instead, serrated sighs and muffled moans stood proxy for declarations of love. Propped on his forearms, Mulder tunneled his fingers into the crimson hair spilled over the white pillowcase. She raised her face to meet his descending mouth; his lips tugged at hers with a desperate passion that belied the unhurried movements of their hips.
Scully bound him to her with legs loosely coiled around his waist. With every languid thrust of his body into hers, her fingertips skated up the sweat-dampened hollow of his spine and with every reluctant retreat, skimmed back down the same path to dip into the matching dimples at the small of his back.
They joined their bodies in a frantic bid to keep their fears at bay, mating in an ageless reaffirmation of life and love. And when their passions had been spent, Mulder wrapped strong arms around Scully as she buried her lips against the pulse beating steadily in his throat. And resting in their protective embrace on this night, their sleep was relatively untroubled.
Watery early-morning sunlight was leaking in through the slatted blinds when Mulder stirred awake. Face buried in his pillow, he first registered the sound of birdsong outside their hotel window, then slowly came to awareness. Flopping over on his back, he stretched and rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes, then glanced over at Scully's side of the bed, ready to smile and kiss her awake.
She wasn't there.
Frowning, Mulder sat up, looking around. He'd risen a few hours ago to get a glass of water, and she'd still been in bed, sound asleep. At least, she'd seemed that way to him. He'd slipped back under the covers and cuddled her close, falling asleep almost instantly. He got out of bed, figuring he'd find her in the bathroom, since the door was partially open. Naked, he approached the door and rapped his knuckles lightly.
"Scully? You in there?"
A muffled "Yeah", floated back to him. Mulder pushed the door open all the way and walked in, his eyes focusing with difficulty in the dim little room.
She was sitting on the bath rug, her back resting against the tub. Cross-legged, wearing the wrinkled shirt he had on yesterday, her hair in tangles and her chin propped in her palm. Mulder sat down on the toilet seat and she glanced up at him with a small smile on her face. He reached out a hand to stroke her hair and Scully leaned into it like a small cat.
"Whatcha doing?" Even in the dimness Mulder could see the smudges under her eyes. She hadn't slept well at all. She shrugged and rubbed her cheek on the back of his hand as it curved over her shoulder.
"Nothing much. Sitting. Thinking. I couldn't sleep very well."
Mulder nodded, then opened his arms to her. Scully slowly got to her feet and moved closer, swinging a leg on either side of the seat and straddling his lap, face to face. Their eyes met, unsmiling and intent, both tired, both needing far more sleep than they'd gotten. Mulder kissed her neck and felt tiny goosebumps form under her skin. "Thinking about recent developments and revelations? It's pretty much what kept me from getting into that deep REM."
She nodded and laid her cheek on his shoulder and her breath stirred the fine hairs behind his ear. "Yeah. It's hard not to. I woke up right after you came back to bed, and everything flooded my mind at once. I couldn't fall asleep again, so I came in here with the idea of taking a bath, and ended up on the rug, thinking." She hitched
herself closer and Mulder stroked soothing hands up and down her back as she added, "Trying to piece all of this together has actually given me a headache. I took four aspirin and they're just now taking effect."
Mulder pressed his lips to her forehead. "Poor baby. It's frustrating. We need answers, and soon. We also need a plan. Is there anything else you remember about that day, something you haven't mentioned? Did you see anyone besides Victoria Durkin eating the cake? How much of it did you actually swallow, Scully?"
She thought for a moment. "I never saw anyone else eating it while I was standing there - other than Durkin. There were at least three pieces missing before she handed me a slice. And she gave the cake to me before she took any for herself. As I mentioned earlier, I heard Mary say she'd been nibbling here and there, so I assume she'd pulled a slice of the cake aside, probably first thing when she opened it up. I never saw Brenda eating, so she must have had a slice of it before I got up to the counter. That leaves one other slice unaccounted for." She frowned a little, forcing herself to recall minute details. "I ate one decent-sized bite. The cake tasted bitter - left an odd taste in my mouth. I swallowed it, Mulder - the entire bite I'd taken - and I dumped the rest of it in the nearest trash-can. I don't think anyone saw me do it. And just a few seconds after I threw it away, Victoria Durkin began choking."
Mulder nodded, relieved as hell that she'd only eaten a bite. Though Scully hadn't found evidence of any toxins, if they were dealing with some form of poison, thankfully she wouldn't have ingested much.
He sifted gentle fingers through Scully's tangled hair as she rested her head on his shoulder. In the silence of the small bathroom, a steady drip of the tub faucet blended with the chirp of a noisy lark in the tree outside their window. Sunlight slowly lightened the dim interior and without checking the watch he'd forgotten to remove last night, Mulder knew they had to get moving. They had a lot to do that day.
But he was loathe to move, didn't want to let go of the soft woman in his arms. He faced the knowledge that despite his efforts to remain calm, an insidious fear was escalating within him. His arms tightened around Scully's body and she cuddled even closer, her mouth now buried against his neck. Underneath his shirt she was bare and warm, her legs dangling on either side of his hips. His own body had responded to her damp warmth as soon as she'd sat in his lap - and for the time being he'd been content to feel her rubbing into his erection, the friction a comfort as well as an arousal.
But now... it seemed as if a potential time-bomb had found its way into their lives. It was just too incredible, the thought that a piece of cake could kill. No apparent cause, no trace of toxins. Elevated levels of chemical imbalance in the human body that could actually be the result of anything other than what each of these
women ate prior to their deaths. It was easy to rationalize, that was true.
Easy... until it involved the woman he loved, adored, lived for. Easy - until the moment he admitted to himself that he was scared shitless.
She'd eaten a bite of cake, chewed and swallowed it. One bite. Maybe it wasn't enough to hurt her - and maybe it was. How the fuck could they know for sure? Three people were dead, and each of them had apparently eaten different amounts of the cake. Each had died at different times after ingestion.
It didn't add up.
And he was worried - hell, beyond worried. Scared shitless. It had to be repeated. He couldn't remember being this frightened even when Scully had been taken from him, even when he'd raced against time into that frozen Antarctic hell to save her from a fate he still struggled to comprehend. Time bomb.
Jesus...
His arms gripped her hard, panic and worry blending into an urgent and desperate need to connect with her, to feel her life force all around him. Mulder shoved one hand into Scully's hair and pulled back her head, barely registering her muffled squeak as he covered her mouth with his and kissed her, deeply. Demandingly. He stood up with her still in his arms, mouth locked to her lips, and carried her back to their bed. He deposited her on the twisted bed sheets, tugging off the shirt she still wore, following her down, draping his body over hers, their kisses now frantic as the force of his desire caught her alight.
She didn't ask why; she knew. Scully's arms and legs twined around him tightly; she met kiss for kiss and touch for touch. Mulder was marking her as his, as surely as any male animal marked his mate. She understood, he knew it... for she gasped as he pushed between her legs, pressed himself into her wet center, slipped inside and drove himself home. Her nails dug into his back, her teeth latched onto his bottom lip in a nipping kiss and she bit him as his hard thrusts raced them both to the edge.
And as they fell from that great height, for one perfect moment each were able to forget that anything at all threatened their love, and their world.
Continue to Chapter 5
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