Solo
By: afg
Rating: NC17 for graphic violence, sex and expletives. 
Category: Casefile, Scully/other, MSR 
Disclaimer: Not mine and no money is being made.
Summary: While Mulder is suspended and on medical leave, 
Scully gets assigned to Violent Crimes.
Thanks: To audu2, for giving her time and much needed skill,
also to Xangel for help and encouragement.
For: The delightful AnubisKV5.  See what your simple 
request has unleashed! Bet you're sorry now.
Feedback: Would be lovely. siggy.63@btinternet.com
Website: www.ofnoconsequence.com
Note: This story is set season 5 before 'Travellers' but it 
doesn't follow canon.

~oOo~

Chapter Six

30 Howard Street
Baltimore
Maryland

10:30am

Scully parked the car on the quiet residential street. The 
houses were large and late Victorian in style. Number 30 had 
a tiny but neatly kept front lawn with a stone path leading to 
the front door. 

"Teachers are getting paid well these days," Prebetich said as 
he got out of the car.

Scully locked the car and waited for him to come around to 
the sidewalk. "It's certainly a nice old place." She handed him 
the car keys and they made their way to the front door and 
rang the bell. 

An African American woman answered the door, opened it a 
crack and peered out nervously. Scully and Prebetich flashed 
their ID's. 

"Good morning, I'm Senior Agent in Charge Prebetich and 
this is Special Agent Scully and you are...?" Prebetich 
ventured.

"Oh, thank god. I thought you might be more reporters, 
they've been harassing us all morning." The woman opened 
the door fully, suddenly noticing the two agent's expectant 
expressions. "Oh, Mount...Jocelyn Mount. Come in 
Agents…Is that what we call you?" She stepped aside to let 
them in.

"That's fine, thank you Ms. Mount." Scully gave the woman a 
smile.

"Just Jocelyn is fine. Come through to the living room." She 
gestured toward a door at the end of the narrow hallway. "Can 
I get you both some coffee?"

"Coffee would be good, thank you, Jocelyn." Prebetich smiled 
at the nervous young woman. 

"Just go right on through, the others are there. I'll be back in a 
moment." Jocelyn ushered them towards the room.

Scully watched her scurry off, presumably heading toward the 
kitchen. 

Prebetich bent down to put his mouth to her ear; she could feel 
his warm breath tickle the tiny hairs. "It seems that Ms. Mount 
might have been overdoing on the caffeine already."

"You can't blame her for being a bit jittery, considering the 
circumstances."

"I guess not." He stepped back to let Scully take the lead. 
"After you, Agent." 

They opened the door into a large living area. The two women 
sitting on the large sofa stood up. The taller of the two stepped 
forward, her face pale and angular, her brown hair cropped 
short. "Have you caught him yet?" she demanded, her grey 
eyes looked at them accusingly.

"No, we haven't, that's why we need your help, Ms.?" Scully 
knew this woman was frightened and that was making her 
confrontational.

"I'm Helen York and this is Carol Friedman, we 
work...shit...worked with Tessa...I just can't believe it. I read 
about what that bastard did to her in the papers. You have to 
get this psycho."

Prebetich gestured to the sofa "Let's sit down and wait for 
Jocelyn; I'd like to talk to you all together." 

The four of them sat down, Prebetich and Scully on one sofa 
and the two women on the other.

"We've already been interviewed by the police." Helen was 
perched on the edge of the seat. "I don't know how much more 
we can tell you."

"I know, Helen, I know it seems as though you keep getting 
asked the same questions over and over again, but it's 
important that we learn what happened that night." Scully 
tried to reassure the tense woman.

"We were all together, it could have been anyone of us." Carol 
Friedman said in a small voice.

Prebetich leaned forward in his chair. "Yes, it could, that's 
why we need to understand what went on before Tessa was 
taken, who she talked to, who she danced with, anything she 
said that might indicate she'd met someone that she was going 
to go with."

They all looked up as Jocelyn bustled in carrying a tray of 
steaming mugs of coffee. She placed it on the coffee table and 
passed the mugs around. She offered sugar to Scully and 
Prebetich, which they politely declined. Hostess duties done, 
Jocelyn sat down with the other two women. 

Prebetich gave them a reassuring smile. "Okay, how about 
you tell us about that evening. What time did you leave the 
house?"

"We went out about eight. It was a girl's night out to celebrate 
Carol's birthday." Helen stopped to think. "Tessa volunteered 
to be the designated driver, so we went to a few bars, but we 
didn't meet anyone we knew and nobody hit on us."  

"We saw Kyle." Carol interrupted.

Scully looked at her. "Who's Kyle?"

Helen took charge again. "Oh, that's Kyle Roberts, Tessa's 
ex."

"Did Tessa talk to him?" Scully asked.

"No, she didn't. He was with another woman, but he saw us."

Prebetich looked up from his notebook. "I take it the 
relationship ended badly?"

Helen's mouth turned down at the corners in disgust. 
"Considering that she found him in her bed with one of his 
secretaries then I'd say it definitely ended badly."

"It worked out okay for us though." Jocelyn said.

Scully took a sip of her coffee. "In what way?"

"This house was left to Tessa in her grandmother's will. Tessa 
and Kyle lived here together, when she threw him out she 
found that she couldn't keep up with the costs of maintaining 
the place so she took in lodgers...us."

Prebetich smiled at Jocelyn's candour. "I take it she told you 
all about Kyle?"

"She never shut up about him for a month. She still loved him 
but he was a real louse. He'd come back every so often and try 
to get her to go out with him but Tessa wasn't stupid, she 
knew about his affairs and she'd been willing to put up with 
them up to a point, but when he started bringing his conquests 
back to the house, well, it was the last straw.

"How persistent was he?" Prebetich asked.

"If you're asking if he stalked her, then no. He would just send 
the odd bunch of flowers, the occasional note. I think his pride 
was hurt by her dumping him."

Prebetich nodded "Where does he work?"

Jocelyn thought for a moment. "I think he works for the 
insurance brokers Knowle and Menzies; at least he used to."

"Classy firm." Prebetich wrote the name down. "I take it he 
wasn't short of money?"

"I should say not. Last time I saw him he was driving a 
Porsche."

"Was Tessa impressed by that?" Scully asked.

"No, I don't think so. He was charming though, she liked that."

"I always thought he was slimy," Helen said with a little 
shudder. "I never knew what she saw in him." 

Scully looked at Helen for a moment. "You didn't speak to 
him when you saw him at the bar?"

Helen met her gaze. "No, I was going to. I was going to tell 
him to stop pestering Tessa, but I didn't want to spoil the 
evening so I decided not to."

"Tell me about 'Bete Noir', " Prebetich suddenly asked.

Carol Friedman blushed scarlet. "That was my idea. It was 
stupid really. A girlfriend had told me about the place and, oh, 
I don't know, I'd had a few drinks and I wanted to do 
something a bit different."

"So none of you are into the scene?" Prebetich asked, gently.

"God, no." Carol put her hands to her face. "I just wanted to 
go, just for fun, to have a laugh."

Helen put her arm around Carol's shoulders. "It was just a joke 
really. We'd all had a little too much to drink and it seemed 
like a fun idea at the time."

Scully smiled reassuringly at the women. "We're not here to 
judge you; we just need to know what you were doing that 
evening."

"You know it was in the papers." Helen bristled. "Victim last 
seen in bondage club." Her parents will read that, what will 
they think? 

"I'm sure they know what sort of person Tessa was." Scully 
tried to reassure them.

Prebetich got back to business "So, what did you do at the 
club?" 

Jocelyn picked her mug off the table and wrapped her hands 
around it. "Nothing really, it was all a bit boring, we were 
expecting a few more..."

"Freaks?" Prebetich suggested with a slight smile.

"Well, yes, I suppose so." Jocelyn looked chagrined. "But it 
seemed to be full of guys in nice suits with their girlfriends."

"Did Tessa talk to anybody?"

"No, not really."

"Not really?" Scully asked

Carol shifted in her seat. "There was this man she told us 
about. She'd gone to the restroom and this guy had tried to 
pick her up."

Prebetich sat forward "Did she describe him?" 

Carol thought for a second "No, she just said he was cute."

"Did she or any of you talk to anyone else, did you dance with 
anyone?"

"I did." Jocelyn said. 

"I don't remember that." Carol looked puzzled.

"You know, that guy from the Catholic boys school in 
Annapolis?"

"Oh, him...he was strange."

"You can say that again," said Helen.

"Strange in what way?" Scully interrupted

Jocelyn shrugged her shoulders "He was really full on, I don't 
think he realized that I wasn't in the scene and he made 
suggestions..." She trailed off looking a little embarrassed.

Scully smiled reassuringly at her. "Suggestions?" 

"Let's just say that for me, beds and handcuffs don't go 
together."

Prebetich gave a little laugh. "The guy was a quick worker."

Jocelyn smiled at him "No kidding, he was gunning for Tessa 
before I put him straight."

"What did you say to him?"

"I just told him that none of us were interested and to back 
off."

"Was he aggressive?"

Jocelyn shook her head "No, not aggressive as such but there 
was something a little bit too intense about him."

"He left you alone after that?"

"Yes, he left the club about ten minutes later."

"Did you get his name?"

"Yeah, Paul Stockton he's a teacher at St Xavier's in 
Annapolis. I've seen him at teacher conferences before."

Scully wrote the name down "What happened after that?"

"I got sick." Carol's cheeks flushed with embarrassment 
"Helen and Jocelyn went with me to the restroom and Tessa 
went to bring the car round. She never came back."

"I should have gone with her." Helen said, bitterly "We 
should never have let her go alone."

A heavy silence filled the room. Prebetich stood and walked 
over to the three women, he hunkered down to meet their 
eyes. "You did nothing wrong, don't spend the rest of your 
lives blaming yourselves. Sometimes things happen and you 
have no control over them. Tessa was just unfortunate to be in 
the wrong place at the wrong time. You blame the man that 
murdered her, okay? 

Helen and Jocelyn put their arms around Carol's shoulders as 
she sobbed quietly. Helen's eyes burned with the effort not to 
cry. "You will catch him won't you? I want that bastard to pay 
for what he's done."

Prebetich patted her arm "We're doing all we can." He stood 
up, his knees cracked loudly in the still room. "We'll leave 
you alone now. Thank you for your help. We might need to 
ask you some more questions later, will that be alright?"

"That's fine we, just want him caught." Jocelyn got up to 
show them out, leaving Helen comforting the still weeping 
Carol. The three of them walked down the hallway.

"Helen loved Tessa, didn't she?" Scully quietly asked.

Jocelyn stopped and turned to her. "We all loved Tessa." She 
dropped her gaze and looked at the carpet "I'm sorry, I don't 
mean to be obtuse. Yes, Helen loved Tessa, she had for a long 
time."

Scully gave her a sympathetic look. "Did Tessa know?" 

"She knew but Tessa was straight as a plank and Helen knew 
it wasn't going to go anywhere but you can't help who you 
fall in love with, can you?"

Scully sighed. "No, you can't." She held out her hand 
"You've been very helpful and I promise we'll do everything 
in our power to catch the person who did this."

Jocelyn shook her hand. "Tessa was a wonderful person, 
Agent Scully, her students loved her and they will miss her 
terribly, what are we going to tell them?

Scully met Jocelyn's brimming brown eyes, she had no 
answer for her, she squeezed her hand. 

"We'll keep in touch." Prebetich said gently and he and Scully 
walked out of the house and back onto the street.

"I need coffee. Come on, I know a good place near here." 
Prebetich got into the driver's seat, wincing a little as his 
knees pressed against the steering column. "He looked at 
Scully as she got, in his eyes flicked to her legs as he adjusted 
the seat and let out a relieved sigh as his body unfolded. 

A short but convoluted drive later, Scully was sat opposite 
Prebetich in a little booth in the pleasant atmosphere of a 
small coffee house. She watched as he rubbed his hands over 
his face. "Are you alright, Agent Prebetich?"

"Louis." 

"I'm sorry?"

He gave her a tired smile. "I know the FBI likes last names 
but Prebetich is such a mouthful, so, when we're not 'on' as it 
were, call me Louis."

"All right." She wasn't used to such casual camaraderie from 
her fellow agents.

"So, what do I get to call you?"

She almost out of habit said 'Scully' but suddenly she didn't 
want this man to call her by a name that had so much of her 
life attached to it, Scully was the lab rat, the cancer survivor, 
the barren mother of a dead child. Scully was Mulder's. 
"Dana."

"Well then, Dana, no, I'm not alright." He pushed his hand 
through his hair, making it stick up. "I'm just a glorified 
bookkeeper, I don't know why the hell they gave me this 
assignment." He looked at the scratched tabletop, one finger 
tracing a particularly deep scar in the Formica. "I feel like I've 
got the families and friends of four dead women looking over 
my shoulder and I have nothing to give them." He looked up 
at her with an expression of weary frustration. 

Scully sighed, she knew all too well the pressure a serial case 
put on the agents involved. "Louis, they wouldn't have given 
you this case if they didn't think you were up to it. At least we 
have some names to work with now." Scully fished out her 
notebook from her pocket. 'Kyle Roberts and Paul Stockton; 
they both sound as though they might have characteristics that 
fit Mulder's profile."

"Yeah, it's a pity they don't have 'Psychopathic Malignant 
Narcissist' tattooed on their foreheads. It would make spotting 
our guy so much easier."

Scully smiled over the rim of her coffee cup. "Well, you never 
know, maybe we'll get lucky."       

The sound of a cell phone had them both reaching into their 
pockets.

"It's mine." Prebetich flipped open his phone. 

Scully listened as he made some affirmative noises, then he 
looked across at her, his eyes excited. 

"Where?...Good...take it in and get the lab boys on it." He 
slipped the phone back in his pocket. "They've found Tessa's 
car. Baltimore PD spotted it on Julian Street." Prebetich drank 
the last of his coffee. "I need to get back to VCS, I'd like you 
to go and have a talk with Kyle Roberts. I'll send Agent Hicks 
to interview Mr. Stockton. I want to get a feel for these guys 
as soon as possible."
 
"Okay you can drop me at Knowle and Menzies on the way." 

"Excellent, let's go." 


~oOo~

Knowle and Menzies
Insurance Brokers
Washington DC

1:00 pm

The offices of Knowle and Menzies were plush and had the 
distinct ambiance of old money. Scully walked through he 
lobby to the reception area where the immaculately pant suited 
middle-aged receptionist kept her eyes on her the whole time, 
as if she expected her to run off with one of the leather arm 
chairs at any moment.

"Good afternoon. Would it be possible to speak to Mr. 
Roberts?" Scully inquired.

The receptionist favoured her with a supercilious smile "I'm 
afraid you'd need to make an appointment. Mr. Roberts is in 
meetings all afternoon.

"I'm sure Mr. Roberts would make time to see me." Scully 
presented her credentials with an accompanying icy look that 
usually felled the most recalcitrant of receptionists.

The older woman knew when she was beaten. "I'll ring his 
office. If you would take a seat for a moment."     

Scully sat down in one of the armchairs as the receptionist 
spoke quietly into the phone.

"Take the elevator up to the twelfth floor. Mr. Roberts will see 
you now."   

"Thank you." Scully gave her a sweet smile and made her way 
to the elevators. She emerged on the twelfth floor to an 
atmosphere of quiet industry. Dark suited men with expensive 
briefcases wandered back and forth and secretaries scurried by 
carrying sheaves of paper. A tall blonde woman approached 
her.

"Agent Scully?" She asked

"Yes"

"Would you follow me please?"

Scully fell into step behind her escort as they passed highly 
polished dark wood doors. They came to the end of a corridor 
to a set of double doors, which the secretary opened.

"Agent Scully to see you, Mr. Roberts." The woman ushered 
Scully into the office, which was deeply carpeted and smelled 
of furniture polish and cigar smoke.

Scully watched as the man seated behind a large mahogany 
desk rose to his feet.

"Take a seat Agent." He gestured to a large leather armchair 
in front of his desk.
 
Scully watched as his eyes casually roamed her body taking 
particular interest in her breasts. She gave a mental eye roll 
and sat down in one of the chairs directly in front of the desk, 
hearing the doors close quietly behind her.

"I take it you're here about Tessa?" He came to the front of 
his desk and sat down on its edge opposite her.  

"Yes, I'm told you saw her on the night she was murdered."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, I saw her, but we didn't 
speak."

"How long had you and Tessa been an item?" Scully found 
herself craning her neck to look at his face. The depth of the 
chair she sat in and his position on the desk giving him a 
distinct height advantage. 
 
"We'd been lovers for about two years. Why do you ask?"

"I was told that you were finding it hard to let go." Scully 
attempted to sit up straighter but the slippery leather was 
making it difficult.

"Oh, let me guess, that dyke of a lodger told you, didn't she?" 
Roberts rolled up the sleeves of his handmade shirt showing 
well tanned forearms.

"Did you want Tessa to take you back?" Scully dodged the 
question and got to her feet, tired of this little power game.

Roberts looked at her for a long moment. His eyes were a very 
pale blue. "Look Agent...Scully, is it? I loved Tessa. I was an 
ass and she threw me out of the house and I deserved it, but 
she knew what I was like. I'm a man who likes to indulge 
himself. I don't deny it. I shouldn't have been quite so blatant 
about it but she knew I had casual affairs. What can I say, I 
like women." He gave Scully the most disarming smile she 
had ever seen. His eyes suddenly sparkled like a little boys on 
Christmas morning.

"You don't seem that upset about her murder." Scully 
challenged, diffusing his charm offensive somewhat.

"I'm terribly sorry about Tessa's death. It was an awful thing 
to have happened to such a lovely person. However Tessa and 
I hadn't been in contact in person for eighteen months, so I'm 
sorry if I'm not tearing my hair out with grief. A lot of water 
has gone under the bridge." 

Scully was beginning to suspect that this man had all the 
emotional depth of a puddle. "Where did you go after you saw 
Tessa at the bar?"

"I went home, with a lady friend who stayed with me all night. 
Would you like me to give you her phone number?" He 
looked her in the eyes, fixing an expression of sincerity on his 
handsome face.

"Yes." Scully almost smiled at his look of annoyance as he 
wrote the number down and handed it to her. 

"Thank you, Mr. Roberts." She pocketed the piece of paper.

"Call me Kyle." He smiled at her with a mouth full of very 
expensive dental work. 

"Mr. Roberts, when was the last time you sent flowers to 
Tessa?"

He looked as though he was thinking whether or not to lie 
about it. Common sense prevailed. "About three weeks ago."

"Not so much water under the bridge then, is it, Mr. Roberts?" 
Scully handed him her card. "Please feel free to call me if you 
think of anything that might help in the apprehension of 
Tessa's killer." She turned to leave "We'll be in touch, don't 
leave town." She left the office glad to be away from the man. 
Helen York had been right; he was 'slimy'.

Scully left the building and hailed a cab. As the taxi made it's 
way slowly through the uptown traffic she thought of 
Mulder's profile. He had said that the man they were looking 
for was a master manipulator, someone who liked to be in 
total control of the people around him. Kyle Roberts certainly 
seemed to like things his way, but somehow she couldn't quite 
see him being clever enough to get away with murder for four 
years. She sighed and palmed the back of her neck trying to 
ease the tension in her muscles. She'd be having a long 
afternoon checking his background and seeing if he had any 
connection to the other three victims. She hoped that Prebetich 
got lucky with the car. 


~oOo~


Mulder's Apartment.
Alexandria
Washington DC.

8:05pm

 
Scully walked into Mulder's apartment, threw her keys on the 
little table by the door and kicked her shoes off. She'd spent 
the afternoon running Kyle Roberts' name through the 
computer, but as far as she could tell he had no priors and 
apart from a predilection for amassing parking tickets he 
appeared to be a model citizen. She couldn't find any 
connection to the previous three victims. Prebetich had fared 
no better with Tessa's car. It had been wiped clean. Eventually 
Prebetich had told them to call it a night. He had, to her 
surprise, managed to convince her to grab a quick burger with 
him at the little joint across from the Hoover building. Partly it 
was the thought of returning to Mulder's place that persuaded 
her but also she found herself enjoying the man's company. 
He was uncomplicated and sensitive and she'd found herself 
talking about her father's love of old radio shows and arguing 
about who was the Shadow's best adversary. She was rooting 
for the Red Menace but Prebetich reckoned that the Five 
Chameleons were far more formidable. They had finally 
agreed to disagree and she'd almost reluctantly said goodnight 
and headed over to Mulder's.


The place was quiet except for the low rumble of voices 
coming from Mulder's bedroom. She walked to the door and 
entered his room, finding her mother and Mulder both settled 
on the bed with a deck of cards between them. 

"Hi, I see you've introduced Mulder to the joys of gin 
rummy." Scully arched an eyebrow at her mother.

"He was bored." Maggie got off the bed and gave her 
daughter a tight hug, in fact it was so tight Scully had 
difficulty breathing.

"Mom, are you okay?" Scully peered over her Mother's 
shoulder and gave Mulder a questioning look. He kept his 
expression neutral.

Maggie pulled back and patted her daughter's cheek. "I'm fine 
honey. Good day?" she asked a little too brightly.

"Fine, are you sure you're okay?" Scully was starting to 
wonder what the hell was going on.
    
"Absolutely. I'm going to leave you two to it. Jean's invited 
me over for dinner and Fox said he'd order take out for the 
both of you tonight." She gave Scully a look that she couldn't 
decipher. 

Scully was totally confused as her mother gave Fox a kiss on 
the cheek and was out of the apartment before Scully could 
get a word out.

"So, what do you want, Pizza or Chinese?" Mulder asked as 
he reached for the phone.

"Nothing thanks, I've already eaten." Scully was still looking 
in the direction of the door; she turned to face him. "Mulder, 
what was all that about?"

"What?" He gave her an innocent look.

"Don't play coy. My mother looked as though she'd been 
crying. What have you two been talking about?"

Mulder's eyes flicked away from hers for a second. "You, 
mostly."

Scully folded her arms "Me."

"Mostly."

"It's the mostly I'm worried about." Scully was beginning to 
wish she hadn't eaten as her stomach began to churn.

"She wanted to know, Scully." Mulder looked at her now, 
needing her to understand.

"What, did she want to know?" 

Mulder just looked at her.

Scully felt a cold wave of dread wash over her nerve endings. 
"Tell me you didn't."

"She asked me, what did you expect me to tell her?"

"About the same as you tell me, nothing." Scully looked pale 
and fragile and more furious than he had ever seen her. "What 
in Christ's name did you think you were doing, Mulder, 
recruiting for the cause? How dare you involve my family, my 
mother for god's sake. She has nothing to do with our work, 
nothing. Yet a couple of days in your company and you've 
filled her head with your goddamned 'Truth'." She'd begun to 
pace back and forth at the foot of Mulder's bed. "Which bits 
did she like best, Mulder? Did you keep all the juicy parts in 
or did you give it to her dry. Maybe you told her all about old 
Flukeman, did you tell her about fucking that vampire? That 
should have livened the conversation up a bit."

"Scully."

"I know! You told her all about the Government that her 
husband gave years of his life to, cataloguing its citizens like 
cattle on behalf of their evil alien overlords. Gee, I bet she 
really got a kick out of that."

"Scully."   

"No!" Scully stopped pacing and faced him her eyes cold and 
her hands fisted at her sides. "You had no right to bring her 
into this. You had no right to interfere in my family."

"I couldn't lie to her Scully." Mulder looked bereft.

"Why the hell not, you lie to me all the time." 

Mulder hitched himself up straighter. "I've never lied to you 
Scully, you know that."

"I'm sorry, I forgot that omission is the order of the day when 
it comes to you and me." Scully rubbed her temple. "You're 
everywhere, Mulder. Where do I go now that's not full of 
you?"  

"Scully, listen to me. I never meant to interfere in your private 
life but your mom was worried about you, shit, I'm worried 
about you. She just wants to help, she ought to know what's 
going on; everybody should."

Scully's shoulders had slumped and she seemed almost to fold 
in on herself. "Did you even think for one second, that you 
might be endangering her life by telling her."

"Yes I did, but she insisted and I honestly believe that she's 
safer knowing. Forewarned is forearmed."

 "Now I know you're reaching if you're throwing clichés at 
me."

"It only becomes a cliche because it's true."

"Have you taken your meds this evening?"

"What?" Mulder was thrown by the conversational gear shift.

"Your meds, have you taken them?" 

"Yeah...look, Scu..."

"Can I get you something to eat?"

"No. For Christ's sake Scully, talk to me."

"I'm going to bed, I'll see you in the morning." She turned for 
the door.

"Scully, I'm sorry." Mulder had never seen her back away 
from him like this.

"So am I." Scully walked out, pulling the door to behind her.

"Jesus. H. Christ." Mulder flopped back on his pillows 
wincing as he jarred his leg. "What a mess." He heard a 
muffled noise coming from the living room. God he was an 
ass.

Scully was crying.