ALL ANDREW ANNA BAILIFF CHILDREN_ON_TV CROWD DIANA EGGERS EMILY JUDGE_BROWN MAN MAN_2 MELVIN MULDER OFFICER OFFICER_SEAN PASTOR SCULLY SONG SONG_ON_TV STRONG WENTWORTH DIANA You can't call me anymore. MAN But Diane. ANDREW DIANA I can't do this right now. I'm at the park with Andrew. MAN We need to talk. ANDREW Mommy! Mommy! Mr. Chuckleteeth! DIANA Mommy's on the phone, Andrew. ANDREW But Mommy, look! Look! DIANA I can't do this. ANDREW Mommy! Mommy! DIANA Stop calling me. Stop calling. MAN Don't hang up, Diane. Di. DIANA Andrew? Andrew. Andrew! Andrew! ANDREW Mr. Chuckleteeth! Mr. Chuckleteeth! Where are you? Mr. Chuckleteeth! Mr. Chuckleteeth! Mr. Chuckleteeth! Mr. Chuckleteeth! There you are. Mr. Chuckleteeth. Where'd you go? Mr. Chuckleteeth! Come back! EGGERS Andrew! WENTWORTH Andrew! EGGERS Andrew! It's Daddy! Andrew! WENTWORTH Andrew! EGGERS Andrew! WENTWORTH Oh, God. STRONG Oh, God help us. EGGERS Is that him? STRONG Rick. EGGERS Is that my son? STRONG Don't. Don't. EGGERS Andrew! STRONG No. WENTWORTH Hey. EGGERS Andrew. Oh, God. Let me go. Let me go! Let me go! Andrew! Andrew! Oh, please. Please! Andrew! Andrew! STRONG I think you can see in by the photographs in our case file there, the boy was viciously attacked. And the body was found right here. SCULLY The coroner has asphyxiation as cause of death, from a crushed windpipe and fracture dislocation of the cervical vertebrae. STRONG Yeah, the town was, uh, really shaken up about it. SCULLY But you think this was an animal attack? STRONG I think those photos speak for themselves, yes. SCULLY What kind of animal, Chief Strong? STRONG We get coyotes. Both here and in town. SCULLY Well, it's rare that a coyote will attack a human being. STRONG Well, they say that there's a new predator that they're calling a Coywolf. MULDER It's a mix of Canis Latrans and Canis Lupus. It's a hybrid coyote-wolf. SCULLY Is this the first such attack? STRONG And hopefully, the last. But, uh, let me ask you- What's the FBI doing here? MULDER The FBI has jurisdiction over the killing of the immediate family of a law enforcement officer. STRONG Wait, you think that this was a murder? SCULLY I don't rule it out. WENTWORTH What makes you say that? SCULLY I know this is a small town and probably very close knit, and I'm sure that you don't want to hear this, but if a man did this- and it would typically be a man- he would be emboldened by escaping detection and would likely kill again. WENTWORTH The evidence doesn't support that. SCULLY Well, the broken neck supports that. And the bite marks that you see might be postmortem animal predation. STRONG You can't just walk in here making assumptions that we've already dismissed. MULDER These aren't just careless assumptions. Agent Scully's also a medical doctor. And damn good at her job. SCULLY You'd be looking at a male, aged 19 to 42, with a criminal record. And probably lives near and frequents the park. Would know the boy's play schedule. And most disturbingly, these types of killers get aroused at the suffering of their victims. MULDER If it's all right with you, we were hoping we could see the body. SCULLY Thanks for backing me up out there. MULDER Yeah. You're my homie. SCULLY But Coywolves? Really, Mulder? MULDER Sometimes mixed with wild dogs. SCULLY Bet a wolf hasn't been seen in Connecticut for a 100 years. MULDER Just last year, to be accurate. SCULLY All that I took from the report is that a child was snatched right from that playground. Does that sound like a wolf to you? MULDER I wasn't thinking wolf. I was thinking more like a Hell Hound. SCULLY What's a Hell Hound now? MULDER It's a large black dog that guards the gates of the underworld, but that's neither here nor there. The point is that stranger things have happened around here, Scully. In 1658, a Puritan Midwife named Goodie Bishop was accused of witchcraft and lying with the devil. Legend has it that she spontaneously combusted in front of the assembled townsfolk. Right over there. SCULLY Well, as we've discussed before, people don't just spontaneously combust, and that woman was undoubtedly an innocent, a tragic victim of religious persecution and hysteria. And. MULDER Well. SCULLY anybody would know that if they read beyond the tourist literature. MULDER Well, just because there were bogus witch hunts doesn't mean that there were no witches. And while I do sadly concede that there are probably no Coywolves in Eastwood, Connecticut, I do suspect there are still practitioners of the black arts. SCULLY Well, they can practice all they want, but it doesn't mean that witchcraft has any basis in reality. MULDER Yeah, well. And yet, a young boy is dead. SCULLY Mulder, the only devil around here probably parks right here in front of the playground. Stirring something other than his cauldron. MULDER Huh. SCULLY I just want to find the killer. SCULLY No matter how many times we do this, Mulder, a child is always the hardest. Never gets easier. MULDER It's an innocent life cut short. It's hard not to take it personally. SCULLY Irregular lacerations and abrasions on the neck, throat, and torso. A significant amount of the lower abdomen is completely torn out and missing. MULDER That would appear to agree with their findings. SCULLY Well, evisceration fits animal predation, but the condition of the body makes it almost impossible to determine when it happened. Cervical fracturing fits with the picture that he was most probably shaken to death. MULDER By a man? SCULLY Well, it's something I didn't want to broach out there, Mulder. MULDER You think it's one of the parents. SCULLY You were in Violent Crime, Mulder, before you came to the X-Files. You know the profile. SCULLY Eyewitnesses exculpate the mother. SCULLY But the father. He's a police officer. MULDER Being protected by fellow officers? What's that? What does that look like to you? SCULLY Is that fine white sand? MULDER Looks like salt to me. Hm. Is that in the report? SCULLY What would be the significance of that? MULDER I'm not sure. Tell you what else isn't in the report There was an eyewitness to the scene who wasn't interviewed. And her father is the Chief of Police. SCULLY Mulder, she's five years old. MULDER Doesn't that seem odd to you? SCULLY And her mother was right there with her. MULDER Seems very odd to me. SCULLY But you're wasting your time, Mulder. MULDER Be back. SCULLY PASTOR Andrew blessed the lives of all of us here in Eastwood. Today, we all grieve with Diane and Rick. For the unimaginable loss of one of Eastwood's dearest sons. DIANA This isn't right. We don't even have his body. My baby. PASTOR It is in the most difficult times that the love and compassion of our community is so vitally important. "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." ALL Amen. PASTOR Andrew is with the Lord now. Free from the evils of this world. Free from our iniquities. And free from our sins. ALL Amen. STRONG Amen. ALL Amen. PASTOR both of you, just-just please understand that. If you ever, ever need to talk. EGGERS Yeah. PASTOR let me know, I. Yes. Thank you. Excuse me. STRONG Diane. DIANA Please, I can't talk now. STRONG Okay. I'm just I'm so sorry for your loss. WENTWORTH Hey, man. I’m so sorry. EGGERS All right. Hey, let me ask you something. Why won't the FBI release Andrew's body? Look, he's my son. What are they saying? What are you keeping from me, man? WENTWORTH They're pushing another story. They're saying it wasn't an animal attack. EGGERS What are they saying it was? WENTWORTH The female agent? Uh, she laid out a profile. Male, 19 to 42, past convictions. She even said he probably gets off on it. EGGERS Oh, God. WENTWORTH And he probably lives here in Eastwood. I-I'm sorry, man. EGGERS Thank you, Wentworth. STRONG Okay, we'll see you. ANNA Why Why does the FBI need to speak to Emily? She's just a little girl. STRONG Look, we need to cooperate with them. We've got nothing to hide. They just want to ask you some questions. Anna, just play nice. ANNA I was there. We didn't see anything. STRONG I'm getting it from all sides. They're trying to turn a tragedy into a damn murder investigation. ANNA But what does that have to do with Emily? STRONG Just let them talk to her. Okay? CHILDREN ON TV ANNA The man asked you a question, Em. MULDER Emily, did you see who took Andrew? ANNA But if you saw, you'd tell Mommy, right? MULDER Did you see anyone at all? EMILY I saw Andrew going into the forest. MULDER Right. ANNA Go watch your show. MULDER Well, um, I I guess I'm not as interesting as. ANNA Bibbletiggles. MULDER Bibbletiggles. ANNA Mm. She's obsessed. MULDER Well, who wouldn't be? ANNA I just I can't, um, I can't stop thinking about how easily it could've been us. I mean, you look away for just one moment. Do you have kids, Agent Mulder? MULDER Uh, well, I have, uh, a son, who's. He's grown, though. ANNA When I was little, you could hardly keep me in the house. Now you can't drag your kid away from a screen. MULDER Yeah. Are you from around here? ANNA Yeah, right down the street. Yeah, Nutmegger through and through. Husband, too. I met him when I was five years old. MULDER He must be under a lot of pressure. With the case. ANNA There's the guilt. That it happened on his watch. He's very protective of this little town. Obsessively. MULDER Hm. ANNA Runs in the family, I guess. EMILY Mommy. I want juice please. ANNA Excuse me. MULDER Sure. ANNA Oh. ANNA My husband's a local history nut. MULDER Uh-huh. ANNA The, uh, witch trials and all that. Anything else, Agent Mulder? MULDER No. Thank you for your time. EMILY Mommy! SONG ON TV EMILY He was in the forest. STRONG Seeing the body change your mind? SCULLY I maintain that the boy was murdered. But there's something that you should know. As hard as it is to contemplate. STRONG Don't go there, Agent Scully. SCULLY When the child is under the age of five, the majority of assailants are in fact. STRONG Rick Eggers did not kill his son! SCULLY Most of the time, friends and family can't even contemplate that the suspect is capable of these crimes because they carry out their fantasies in private. STRONG I think I've heard about enough. SCULLY I want to rule him out as a suspect. STRONG Officer Eggers loved Andrew. He's a decent, honorable man. A good cop. SCULLY but I need your help. When the suspects are confronted, they have a tendency to become violent towards themselves. STRONG I would confront him myself, but I don't have to. He was working his shift when Andrew was attacked. SCULLY With you or out on his own? STRONG Why don't you ask him yourself? STRONG Hey. Where's Eggers? WENTWORTH He just ran out of here, Chief. Almost knocked me over. STRONG Hey! Let's go! STRONG Rick, I need you to pull over. That's an order. Pull over right now. Where the hell is he going? Hold on. SCULLY You think he's going home? STRONG He's going the wrong way. EGGERS Melvin Peter! Where are you, you son of a bitch? STRONG Put that away. Eggers! STRONG Eggers. Eggers. EGGERS He's not here. STRONG Eggers, what are you doing? EGGERS He's not here. He's not here! STRONG Hey. Hey! Put the gun down. Rick. Put the gun down. It's okay. Come on. I got it. I got it. What the hell is going on? EGGERS I found the piece of garbage that she was talking about. He's my boy. STRONG Okay. Okay. SCULLY Mulder. Where are you? MULDER Back where they found the body. SCULLY There's been a development. MULDER What kind of development? SCULLY I'm not quite sure yet. But the dead boy's father has had a breakdown. Mulder? Mulder, are you there? MULDER Just tell me where you are. SCULLY 2861 Pine Tree Road. MULDER Who let the dogs out? SCULLY Waiting on a search warrant. MULDER Whose house are we searching? SCULLY Convicted sex offender, Melvin Peter. He failed to register with the local police when he moved in last year. Two blocks away from Ash Hill Park. MULDER Who figured that out? SCULLY Father of the deceased. Right over there. Based on the profile I provided. MULDER I'm not convinced. SCULLY You sure about that, Mulder? MULDER I'm not sure about anything. STRONG I got the warrant. Let's go. MULDER Oh! Come on. SCULLY What is it, Mulder? SCULLY They put out an APB on Melvin Peter and called his parole officer. MULDER I still don't like him for it. SCULLY What's not to like? I mean, you couldn't dream up a more perfect suspect. He's potentially John Wayne Gacy with a monkey. MULDER That's it. It's too perfect. I don't-I don't like perfect like that. Makes me uncomfortable. SCULLY Well, sometimes the simplest of competing theories is actually the right one. MULDER Well, I think most of these people would agree with you, and that's what scares me. SCULLY Well, they've been living next to a convicted pedophile, and they didn't know it. MULDER Yeah. This guy has no chance. SCULLY Why are you defending him? MULDER I'm not, I'm not, I'm not defending him. But you said it yourself, it's this rush to judgement. Mass hysteria. Salem. McCarthyism. What happened to the precious presumption of innocence, which is rooted in a very democratic ideal that it's better to let ten guilty men go free than to imprison one innocent man. SCULLY I am all for benefit of the doubt, Mulder. But he is a convicted felon, and we have to start somewhere. MULDER And you and this mob are re-convicting him right here and now for the sins of his past. With a fervor that we see too often in this American experience of ours. CROWD CHILDREN ON TV ANNA Em, it's time for lunch! Emily. TV off, now. Em. Emily. CHILDREN ON TV ANNA Emily? Emily! Emily! SCULLY Similar signs of predation, but not beyond forensic analysis. You okay, Mulder? MULDER I talked to her just this morning. Just this morning she was alive. SCULLY Is this the killing field? ANNA Is it true? Emily! STRONG No, no, no. No, no. No, Anna. ANNA Em! STRONG No, no, no. Don't go there. Don't. ANNA No. STRONG Honey, don't go. ANNA No, no, no, no, no. Emily! Let me go! STRONG Anna. Stop, stop. Stop. ANNA Emily! STRONG No. You can't be here. Okay, you can't be here, honey. ANNA You did this! You did this to her. This is all your fault! STRONG She can't be here. Get her out of here. WENTWORTH I'll take her out, Chief. SCULLY What is it, Mulder? MULDER It's salt. SCULLY Whoa, there's some here, too. MULDER You seeing this, Scully? SCULLY Mulder, it's a crime scene. MULDER No, you know what this is? This is a magic circle. SCULLY Mulder. MULDER In witchcraft, magic circles are used to summon spirits and demons. SCULLY Mulder, stop. MULDER When casting spells or curses, the salt protects the caster from the demons unleashed. SCULLY Mulder, this is protecting no one, and you can't do this. MULDER In the 16th and 17th century, witches were said to conjure spirits called "familiars," which usually took the form of-of animals. But sometimes could take human shape, in the guise of their victims' ardent desires, or a beautiful woman luring a man to his death, or. OFFICER SEAN Hey! What are you doing? Hey, I asked you a question. MULDER A TV character. SCULLY What do you mean a TV character? OFFICER SEAN Mind telling me what you're doing? MULDER Scully. This is a Puritan graveyard. This is ground where spirits and demons have been unleashed. I think there's someone who's not telling us everything they know. MELVIN What the hell? What did I do wrong? EGGERS You killed my boy! MULDER You closed the case because you didn't want it looked into further. You knew there was salt on that young boy's body, but you hid that fact. A fact you know would reveal that someone was practicing witchcraft. SCULLY Mulder. STRONG No, it's. It's okay. He's right. OFFICER SEAN You ought to take a beat, Chief, before you say anything else. SCULLY Did you kill those children? STRONG I have let the devil into my soul, and I have sinned against God. Broken a sacred commandment, but I did not kill anyone. Especially not Emily. MULDER Then, what's your part in all of this? STRONG I am a lustful man. An adulterer. She wanted to end the relationship, but I wouldn't let her. I kept pushing and pushing. I was on the phone with her when Andrew went missing. And now. My own daughter. God. What have I done? What have I done? See, I'm being punished. I've opened the gates of hell. Oh, God. OFFICER SEAN Let's all give him some room. SCULLY How did you know, Mulder? MULDER I did not see that coming. SCULLY But you knew something. MULDER Yeah. In his library, there are all these books on the town's history. Folklore. Witchcraft. SCULLY Well, that's circumstantial at best. I'm sure lots of libraries in this town have those books. MULDER Yes, but he would have known about magic salt circles and familiars and Hell Hounds. SCULLY So you think Chief Strong unleashed something? MULDER I think someone has put a curse on this town, Scully, and maybe unwittingly opened the gates of hell. OFFICER Hey, we got a situation here. Officer involved. It's Officer Eggers. MAN Get him! Get him! Get him! MAN 2 Hit him again! CROWD WENTWORTH Eggers, stop! Stop! Hey! Back off! Don't do this! EGGERS He killed my son. MELVIN I never killed anyone. EGGERS You're a convicted predator. WENTWORTH Hey! You can't do this! EGGERS Let me go! WENTWORTH Hey! Relax, all right? I'm serious, Eggers! Back off! Hey! EGGERS Who the hell are you protecting? Just let me go! Let me go! WENTWORTH You, Rick. I'm protecting you. MELVIN We were kids. It was statutory. I never hurt anybody! EGGERS Oh, no! Don't you talk to me about kids! WENTWORTH All right. Relax. Everyone, back up! All of you! CROWD WENTWORTH Hey! Back up! Hey! Get off! Stand back! Get off him! Get off him. MULDER fbi! SCULLY Any further violence will be viewed as attempted murder! MELVIN I never hurt anybody. SCULLY Call and ambulance. MULDER No! BAILIFF All rise for Judge Theo Brown. JUDGE BROWN You may be seated. I fear emotions are running high today, and so I want to remind everyone to remember the seriousness of our jobs at this arraignment. I'll ask respective counsels to approach. MULDER There will be two injustices here The death of an innocent man and the release of a guilty officer. SCULLY What makes you so sure, Mulder? MULDER It's small town justice. They have their scapegoat, their predator. SCULLY We've witnessed mass hysteria and mob violence at its worst, but I'm not so sure about an innocent man. MULDER This is a witch hunt. I think the person or persons responsible for the deaths of those children is in this courtroom today. SCULLY What happened to hounds of hell? MULDER Oh, I saw one. SCULLY Hmm. MULDER I did. SCULLY Whatever you think you may have seen, Mulder, you still haven't explained how a wolf can take a young child from under its mother's nose. MULDER No, he was- He was just guarding the entrance to the underworld in this case. JUDGE BROWN Return to your tables. SCULLY You still haven't answered my question. JUDGE BROWN Mr. Eggers. Due to your exemplary record as an officer of the Eastwood Police Department, the testimony of your peers, and in determining you are not a flight risk, bail will be set at $5,000. Next court date is 30 days from today. Court is adjourned. MULDER Looks like somebody wants to talk to us. WENTWORTH Agent Scully, Agent Mulder. SCULLY Officer Wentworth. MULDER You missed the proceedings. WENTWORTH I'm sickened how things turned out. I didn't become a cop to watch a man get gunned down without due process. So I went out and did some digging. The day Andrew disappeared, Melvin was performing at a birthday party 40 miles form here. I checked with his client. They have him on video. The encoded time stamp places him there at 215 p.m. Right when Andrew disappeared. There's no way he could have been in that park. SCULLY Have you told anybody else about this? WENTWORTH I told Chief Strong, but he didn't want to hear it. He told me to let sleeping dogs lie. I-I don't think the Chief's head's been right since he lost little Emily. MULDER No, you did the right thing. WENTWORTH The town won't see it that way. SCULLY Time has a way of shedding light on injustices. Especially in this part of the country. And we're not done here yet. WENTWORTH I sure would like to find that killer. See him get what's coming to him. MULDER We'll talk to Chief Strong. EGGERS You think I didn't know? DIANA It's over, Rick. I called it off. EGGERS It's a little late for that now. DIANA I was stupid. People make mistakes. I'm asking you to forgive me. EGGERS For sleeping with my boss? Or for the death of our son? No, I will not forgive you. DIANA What, you're gonna kill me, too? EGGERS I'm leaving you, you witch. DIANA You can't leave me, Rick. I'm leaving you. Stay away from me! DIANA Andrew! Ah! EGGERS Come on out here, you son of a bitch! Anna, you stay down. It's between me and your cheating husband! Strong! ANDREW EGGERS What the hell is this? SONG STRONG Eggers? MULDER Man down on the doorway. It's Officer Eggers. Shot dead. SCULLY I'll call it in. Mulder, there's salt. MULDER Chief Strong! FBI! SONG MULDER Mrs. Strong! You in here? SCULLY There's a patrol car on the corner. MULDER There's no one inside. There's something missing. A Grimoire. It has instructions for summoning spirits and deamons. SCULLY Mulder, a man's been shot, and it wasn't a spirit. Chief Strong is having an affair with Eggers' wife, and it was probably a crime of passion. MULDER Passion and the Gates of Hell. SCULLY Where are we going? MULDER Back to the scene of the crime. STRONG Come on, Diana. Pick up the phone. DIANA Please leave a message after the beep. STRONG Oh, my Lord! No. No, no, no, no, no. Diana. Diana! STRONG Diane! Diane! Diane! Diane! STRONG Diane! ANNA STRONG Anna? Anna? Anna, what are you doing? ANNA Don't! I have to end what I started. STRONG What you started? ANNA I only meant to curse Diane for what you were doing behind my back. STRONG You! You did this? Our baby girl? ANNA I was only trying to curse you! STRONG You've unleashed something. Something that you can't control! ANNA No. I can end this! ANNA ANNA STRONG ANNA SCULLY Oh, my God, Mulder. MULDER Anna! Put the book down. ANNA Ite, daemones, unde ad inferos. MULDER Anna, drop the book. ANNA No. No, I can end this. Please. Redite, daemones, unde venistis. Ad inferos ex quibus uenistis. MULDER No, no. You-You may have tapped into something you can't control. Anna! ANNA SCULLY Somehow this didn't burn. MULDER What'd you tell him? SCULLY To consider that book as evidence. MULDER Uh, evidence of what exactly? SCULLY Of a town in the grip of madness. Of the most human faults and frailty. MULDER Or in the grip of a curse, unleashed by a modern-day witch. SCULLY Well, leave that to the tourist literature, Mulder. I just hope that it's over. MULDER I only hope that it is, too. SCULLY That woman went up in flames. MULDER Maybe it was the candles. SCULLY Maybe it was the Gates of Hell. Let's get out of this town, Mulder. MULDER There is no getting out of this town, Scully. Not these days.