Extra-Sensory Perception

Chapter Three:


Avalon, N.J.
8:23 a.m.

	Shana Fincher looked up from her steaming cup of chamomile tea, as the 
doorbell rang. The traditional Grandfather-Clock chime sounded through 
the sleepy house. Her children, niece, and nephew were downstairs, sound 
asleep. She didn't know how they managed it, with so much going on. She 
wished she could. 
	Padding across the cold tile floor, she glanced in the mirror to see if 
her hair was as messy as it felt. Not the she really cared. It was 
probably just the usual reporters. She walked over to the large door, 
and opened it. 
	In the doorway there stood a small woman, red-hair cut to 
shoulder-length, and styled impeccably.  Next to, and slightly behind 
the woman, stood a much taller man with dark hair, cut short for the 
summer, probably. They both wore dark sunglasses and dark suits. Feds, 
she guessed. 
	"Mrs. Fincher?" The red-haired woman asked.
	"Yes?"
	The woman took out her FBI badge, and the man followed suit. "I'm 
special agent Dana Scully," she nodded toward the man, "my partner, 
Agent Mulder. We'd like to ask you a few questions. May we come in?"
	"Yes, but you'll have to pardon my attire. It is, after all, 8:30."
	The man, Agent Mulder, cracked a smile. "We'll manage."
	Shana held open the door for the agents, taking in Agent Scully's suit. 
'Armani,' she thought. 'Our tax dollars at work.' She led them upstairs, 
and into the kitchen.
	"Can I get you anything? Coffee?"
	Agent Scully nodded, and said, "I think I smell something delectable. 
Is that chamomile tea?"
	Shana smiled. "Yes. Would you like some, Agent Scully?"
	"I'd love some," Agent Scully said. "And you can call me Dana."
	Agent Mulder cleared his throat. "I'm Mulder. Mrs. Fincher, your 
sister-in-law and her children are staying with you?"
	Shana nodded, setting the tea kettle on the gas burner. "Yes. They're 
going to be here for 2 weeks."
	"The day before yesterday was their first day here?"
	"Yes. Why?"
	Dana broke in. "We just want to know how much time we have, Mrs. 
Fincher."
	"Please, call me Shana," she said. She liked Dana. Mr. Mulder, however, 
she wasn't so sure of. He seemed to have an aura about him, and though 
it wasn't necessarily bad, it wasn't good, either. It was kind of 
spooky. 
	"Are Mrs. Carter's children awake, Shana?" Mulder inquired..
	"I'm not sure. I don't think so. Though sometimes they sneak quietly 
into Sarah's room to play nintendo. It's the only T.V. that it can work 
with." A shadow seemed to fall over Shana's face. "But now, I'm not sure 
what they do in the mornings. I'm guessing they'll just come up for 
breakfast."
	"Could I go down and talk to Anne or Julia?" Mulder asked.
	Scully glanced at Mulder.
	"Yes, I suppose. Just be quiet, in case they're still sleeping."
	Mulder nodded. "They're both downstairs?"
	"Anne is in the farthest room down, but Julia is up on the third 
floor."
	Mulder turned to Scully. He leaned towards her, for some privacy. 
"Scully, I'm going to go downstairs and talk to Anne. Maybe she can give 
us some clues about what happened out there. You talk to Mrs. Fincher, 
and see what you can find out about Sarah Carter."
	"Mulder, I don't see the point in talking to Anne Carter. It was late 
at night, and they're only children." She leaned closer to him. "I read 
into Anne's medical file. She's on a perscription drug, being treated 
for a dilusional psychosis .The symptoms are almost like being in a 
desert, when you see mirages. The victim sees what she wants to see, 
when she wants to see it. And even though she's being treated, the night 
plays tricks on people."
	Mulder nodded, and leaned even closer, and she could feel his breath.  
"Scully, you sound like you're talking from personal experience. Are you 
afraid of the dark?"
	Scully almost smiled, and arched her right eyebrow. "Remember Doug 
Spinney, Mulder? Darkness is our enemy. As it is in this case.  I'll 
talk to Mrs. Fincher, but I still don't see the point of interrogating a 
dilusional 7 year old."
	Shana broke into the conversaion, and Mulder turned away. She was 
saying: "Here's your tea, Dana." She handed Dana the warm mug. "Careful, 
it's still hot."
	Scully breathed in the steamy liquid, and watched as Mulder walked down 
the stairs. She shook her head, almost imperciptibly. Then turned toward 
Mrs. Fincher. 
	"Shana, has Sarah ever acted in hostility toward anyone, in the past?"
	Shana shook her head. "Not that I know of. I only see her when we take 
her clothes shopping in September, and when she comes over with her 
siblings, to visit. But that's only once a month. The only real 
hostility is the usual sibling rivalry." Shana frowned. "I've never 
heard or seen Sarah pick on anyone. She's an angel. I can't believe that 
she just dropped some poor little girl into the water, knowing full well 
that she was committing murder."
	Scully nodded in sympathy. "Have you ever known her to lie?"
	"No, never. I mean, not that I know of. Maybe her mother would be the 
one to talk to about this. Sarah's one of the most genuine people I 
know. She's never been known to hide anything."
	"Sarah had said something about giving the child to dolphins, but her 
mother had seen nothing in the water. Are there many dolphins around 
here?"
	 "Yes, many. Sometimes in the morning, and at sunset, we see a pod of 
dolphins moving down the coast. They're such beautiful creatures. Even 
if Sarah were telling the truth, I can't imaging them hurting any child. 
There are all those stories about dolphins rescuing people from 
drowning. It doesn't make any sense. Any of this."
	Scully nodded. "Did Sarah have any sort of affinity for dolphins?"
	Shana's forehead wrinkled. "Yes. Yes, last summer, I remember her 
asking about Dolphins communicating with people. Via ESP."
	"Extra-Sensory Perception?"
	"Yes. I had told her about my friend. She, my friend Sally, had said to 
me, 'Do you want to see me call the dolphins?' I had laughed, and said, 
'Yeah, sure.' I didn't believe her. But then, she looked at the water, 
held out her hand, and about 15 seconds later, out pops a dolphin. It 
was amazing."
	"So, Sarah felt that maybe she could communicate with them?"
	"Yes. As a matter of fact, she had talked her family into going on a 
dolphin watch with her. She had claimed she had called them, on the 
ship."
	Scully nodded, finishing off her tea. "Thank you for your time, Shana. 
And I think I can speak for Mulder, too, when I say that you've been 
very helpful."
	Shana smiled. "Anytime." Then: "Do you think Sarah will be okay? I've 
never known her to lie, and I think that if she said dolphins were out 
there, dolphins *were* out there." She sighed. "I'm so confused."
	Scully patted Shana's shoulder. "I'm sure Sarah will be fine. We'll get 
to the bottom of this."

					*	*	*	
	Mulder walked down the stairs, and headed down the hallway for the 
little girl's bedroom. 'Anne is on the farthest room down,' Mrs. Fincher 
had said. He could see that the woman didn't particularly care for him, 
so he had wasted no time in chit-chat. He'd never been Mr. Congeniality, 
and he wasn't about to change his ways for a woman with a hairdo that 
put Marge Simpson to shame. 
	Mulder reached the farthest room, and rapped softly on the door.
	"Joey?" he heard on the other side.
	"No, this is Fox," he said. Though he had no idea why he had given her 
his first name.The little girl habit, he guessed bitterly. "Can I come 
in?"
	"Are you a stranger?" Anne said. 
	"No, I'm an FBI agent," he said. "Can I come in?" he repeated.
	"My mommy says that I'm not supposed to let strangers in. You're a 
stranger."
	"Do you want to see my badge?" he asked, slightly amused.
	"Okay," he heard, muffled by the door. Mulder reached into his inner 
trenchcoat pocket, and slipped his badge under the door. He saw a few 
tiny fingers reach into the crack, and take it. He couldn't hide a 
little smile.
	"Ooh... okay. I think it's real, since it's so heavy. Is that your 
picture?"
	"That's me. Can I come in now?" he was getting somewhat impatient.
	"All right." The door opened, and short little girl with curly brown 
hair stood in the doorway, looking at him. "Your hair looks different. 
In this picture, it looks longer. Did you get a hair-cut for the summer, 
like my brother?"
	He chuckled, and walked into the room, leaving the door open a crack. 
"Yeah, I did. You sound like a smart girl. What's your name?"
	"You know my name, silly. It's Anne."
	"How did you know I knew it?"
	"Because my sister watches the Y-Files all the time, and it's a show 
about FBI agents, too. You know who I am, cuz I'm an Eye-witnest."
	Mulder liked this kid. "Yeah, that's right. You *are* smart. Can I sit 
down?"
	"Uh-huh. Are you gonna ask me questions about my sister?"
	"I think you should be an FBI agent, Anne. You know my job better that 
I do." He smiled at her. This was unusal. He usually never talked for 
real with a witness, let alone grinned like an idiot with one. This kid 
kind of  reminded him of what Scully must have been like, as a little 
girl.  "Okay, Anne. Can I call you Annie?"
	"Sure." She perched on the bed across from him.
	"All right. Annie, the little girl who you saw the other night, what 
did she look like?"
	"Well, her leg had a really big boo-boo. And her face looked beat-up. 
And she was sleeping."
	"What did your sister do?"
	"Well, she put her fingers on the girl's neck, and closed her eyes for 
a really long time. Then she told me and Julia to go and get help from 
Mommy and Aunt Shana."
	He crossed his arms across his chest. "And then what happened?"
	"Well, me and mommy and Sammy and Joey and Zach and Aunt Shana and 
Julia came out. We saw Sarah in the ocean with the little girl, and then 
Sarah swam back all by herself. Mommy got mad at Sarah, and shook her, 
and then Joey started to cry, and I walked next to Sarah. Then I heard a 
splashing sound, and me and Sarah turned around and saw a dolphin jump, 
and then it went away. And then mommy called the police."
	"Annie, did Sarah ever talk about dolphins?"
	"All the time!" Annie exclaimed. " She loves dolphins. She called them, 
last year."
	Mulder's eyebrows lifted. "Called them?"
	"Yeah. With EST, I think. She said that she closed her eyes for a long 
time, and then she saw dolphins, and when she opened her eyes, they were 
there."
	"Did you see Sarah do that?" he asked. 
	"Yeah. I did. It really worked. I tried it, but I couldn't do it." 
Annie frowned. "I wish I could, though."
	Mulder smiled. "Okay, Annie. That's all I need. Hey, I have an FBI pen. 
Do you want it?"
	Annie's eyes lit up. "Yeah!"	
	Mulder dug into his pocket, and pulled out his pen. He handed it to the 
little girl, who looked at it with delight, then squinted, trying to 
read the writing. 
	"Eff.... Bee... Eye.... Feederal Booreeayow of Inveestigateyeon." She 
grinned at him, pride showng in her face that she could read the words. 
"Thanks, Fox!"
	Mulder closed his eyes. She sounded just like her. He took a deep 
breath, and opened his eyes. "Okay, Annie, I have to go now." He got up 
off the bed.
	"Are you going to see my sister?"
	"No, I have to talk to Julia now."
	"Is that red-haired lady up there with Aunt Shana?"
	Mulder's eyebrows raised. "Yeah, how did you know that?"
	"I saw you out the window. You guys looked just like on that T.V. show. 
But she has red hair, not purple. And she's really short. But I think 
she's prettier than the lady on T.V."
	"I think so, too. But I think she'd look pretty funny, too, with purple 
hair," Mulder said.
	Annie nodded, then grinned mischeivously. "Hey, are you guys married?"
	Mulder shook his head. "No." Just then, Scully entered the room, as 
Mulder was leaning over to Annie's ear. "She only likes guys with 
buck-teeth."
	Annie went into a fit of giggles, and Scully asked, "Mulder?"
	Mulder jumped a mile. "Oh, hey, Scully." He straightened his tie in a 
nervous gesture, and checked his watch. "It's 9:30. We'd better head 
out."
	Annie said: "Aren't you going to talk to Julia?"
	Scully raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, Mulder, aren't you going to talk to 
Julia?"
	Mulder looked toward Annie, made a little face at her that Scully 
couldn't see, then looked back at Scully.  "Well, I'd like to get 
something to eat. Since you starved me yesterday, my stomach's ready to 
rupture itself."
	Scully sighed in resignation. "I'll bring the car around." She left the 
room. 
	Mulder bent and shook Annie's hand. "Pleasure working with you, Miss 
Carter."
	Annie beamed. "You too, Fox." 
	Mulder bit his lip, then exited the room.
	Out in the car, Mulder put the key in the ignition, and backed out of 
the cobblestone driveway. "Where are we headed, Scully?"
	Scully looked at the map. "There's a nice little restaurant in Cape 
May." She looked up at him, squinting at the daylight, having forgotton 
to put her sunglasses on. "I was thinking we could eat there, then go to 
the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center. Maybe some people there 
could help us out."
	"Sounds good to me. I've heard of that place, too, Scully. They're 
supposed to have a great dolphin watch boat there, too. What say we get 
a bite to eat, talk to the Marine Biologists, then hop on the ship and 
check out the local marine life?"
	Scully squinted out into sunlight. She closed her eyes, not in the mood 
for an argument. "Okay, Mulder. I'll go along with you, but not on the 
ship. If we're going on any boat, I'm driving."
	"Scully, remember what happened the last time we tried that?"
	She smiled, then pointed to the 'X' on the map, marking the place where 
she wanted to take off. "Here be monsters, Mulder."