Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 11:08 AM


Debra aka Romantique
------

Title:  Rubber Band (1/1)
Author: Romantique
Classification: XA - X Files/Angst
Rating: R - Language, Sexual Abuse of Victims
Distribution: Archive anywhere, but e-mail me,
please. dolph1n@internetcds.com
Summary: Scully and Mulder race to profile a murderer
before they find another victim.




2:30 a.m.
Beale Street Hotel
Memphis, Tennessee


They had seen this before in crime scene photos of a
murder in Montgomery and another in Baton Rouge. 
Only two days ago, they investigated a similar one in
Biloxi.  All had occurred within the last two months. 
All victims were male, ranging in age from mid-
twenties to mid-thirties, and now, victim four
appeared to be no different.  Like the others, this
victim's nude body was found in bed with a lethal
stab wound to the abdomen.  And then, there was the
killer's calling card: a green rubber band carefully
wrapped around the tip of the victim's tongue.

Autopsies of the first two victims revealed the
rubber bands in the victims' mouths had been splashed
with some kind of an acid, dissolving them into a
green "goo."  Scully and Mulder initially believed
this to be the work of Alien Bounty Hunters.  But
with the third victim, they were able to collect
forensic evidence before acid had completely
destroyed the rubber band.  Forensic testing
demonstrated that they were dealing with green rubber
bands and NOT the paranormal.

But now, the murders appeared to be moving from
Alabama to Mississippi and into Tennessee.  This was
fast becoming a Federal investigation.

"Mulder, I'll conduct the autopsy, but it's just a
formality.  I'm betting I will find evidence of
chloral hydrate in this victim, too.  We've got to
find this murderer before we find a victim number
five," a gloved Scully spoke while examining the
body.

"Yeah, so much for visiting Graceland on this trip,"
Mulder quipped.

Snapping on latex gloves, he began to survey the
crime scene.  Remnants of two, lipstick-stained
joints lay in an ashtray near the bed.

He quickly deposited them into an evidence bag and
stated, "Look, Scully, the probable source of the
chloral hydrate," and handed her the bag.

Then, he reached for the victim's pants, draped at
the foot of the bed.  Rummaging through the pockets,
he pulled out an unused matchbook.

"Hmmmm.  Rendezvous Club on Beale Street," he read
aloud from the cover.  And inside, the words "Rubber
Band" were scrawled in ink.

"Scully, while you perform the autopsy, I'd really
like to check on this Club," and he left her to
finish processing the scene.

Mulder didn't have to go far.  One only had to follow
the pulsating rhythms down the street. At the Club's
entrance, he noticed posters advertising the current
Act appearing for its last night; a grunge group
called "Rubber Band."

Upon entering the smoke-filled club, Mulder met two
bouncers clad in leather, zippers, assorted
piercings, and tattoos.  He flashed his badge and was
allowed entrance.

Allowing his eyes time to adjust to the strobe
lighting, he made his way to the back of the club. 
His curious stares at the "freakazoid" patrons were
met by stares of their own.  In a suit and tie,
Mulder was very much out of place.

Seating himself at a table in the back of the room,
he shouted over the music and asked a young woman at
an adjacent table when "Rubber Band" would be
playing.  She motioned to the band on stage.

There, Mulder observed a singer, guitarist, and a
drummer.  The drummer was a female with long, blue-
black hair, an exotic beauty.  Her cheeks were
pierced with safety pins and green rubber bands
dangling from each end.  The drummer made eye contact
with Mulder from across the room, eye contact that
she maintained until the end of the set.

At the break, she sent Mulder a wickedly provocative
smile, eventually, making her way to his table.

"May I sit down?" she asked him in a voice as smooth
as silk.

"Sure," Mulder responded, pointing to an empty seat. 
His hazel green eyes locked with her emerald green
ones, as they joined in a mutual hypnotic stare.

"My name's Jade," she purred, as she moved her seat
closer to him.  "You act as if you're lookin' for
someone."

Just then, the waitress interrupted them to ask if
they would like to order something from the bar. 
Mulder ordered a bottle of water, with the drummer
making it "two of the same."

When the waitress left them alone, Mulder leaned in
closer and said, "Me, looking for someone?  Maybe I
found her."  He dryly added, "I have a fascination
with rubber bands, you see.  Especially green ones."

Jade raised an eyebrow.  "I don't recommend them,"
she warned in a forbidding tone of voice.  "They
bring nothing but pain.  ESPECIALLY green ones."  And
she ran the tip of her index finger along the row of
piercings in her cheek.

"Is that why you're called Jade?  Hmmm, I'm
fascinated, nevertheless," he continued.  "And I'm
not afraid of pain.  In fact, sometimes I relish it." 
His gaze penetrated hers, and he sensed even more so
that this woman was involved in the rash of murders. 
He had to play this just right.

Jade appeared to accept his sadistic proposition,
when she suggested that he wait for her to get off
work from the Club.  She explained the next set would
be the band's last, as they were leaving town later on
in the day.  But she thought to herself that she had
plenty of time to first have her way with this John. 
She placed her hand on top of his, giving it a
squeeze and more than slightly digging her nails into
his flesh.  Mulder winced and then couldn't help but
notice burns and scarring on her hands and arms.  She
finally released his hand, leaving marks in the back of
his hand.  And she blew him a sexy kiss, as she
returned to the stage.

Upon the short walk back, a waitress stopped Jade,
whispering into her ear, "Rocko said that guy you
were talkin' to flashed a badge when he came in to
the Club.  He's a Fed, not a John."

"Oh, shit," Jade said.

Looking down at the waitress's tray, she asked, "Are
these the waters we ordered?"

The waitress nodded, yes.

Jade carefully pulled a small vial from her pocket
and glanced at Mulder, who was talking to the couple
at the next table.  She quickly emptied the vial's
contents into one of the water bottles.  She asked
the waitress, "Want to help me bed this Fed?"  And
the two young women giggled.

"Sure.  Never cared much for Feds, myself," the
waitress smirked.

Jade grabbed the other, untouched water bottle and
climbed up on stage to finish her set.

Within minutes, the waitress sat the laced bottle on
Mulder's table, as the band began to play.  As Jade
slammed her sticks into her drums in time with the
music, she locked eyes with Mulder's once again, as
he began to unwittingly sip the altered liquid.




7:30 a.m.
The Rendezvous Club
601 Beale Street
Memphis, Tennessee


Mulder slowly opened his eyes, trying to shake away
the fog that surrounded his aching head.  He began to
experience some semblance of clarity, only to find
himself sprawled on the floor with his head cradled
in Scully's lap.

"Mulder, what happened?  Are you OKAY?" she asked,
pulling up on each of his eyelids, somewhat alarmed
at the size of his dilated pupils.

"Oh, God, Scully.  I had her," he answered in a
panic.

"Who," she asked as she reached for his neck to take
his pulse.

"The murderer," he said with much concern on his
face.

"Mulder, we found victim number five, an hour ago,"
Scully tried to brace her partner as she delivered
the disturbing news.

He attempted to lift up his head and noticed Memphis
police in the club, questioning a man and one of the
bouncers.

"Rubber Band," Mulder tried to explain.  He was
groggy, as if under the influence of an unknown
substance.  "We've got to find the drummer," Mulder
tried to explain to his partner.  "She's the one. 
Her name is Jade."

Scully explained, "Yes, I immediately noticed the
name of the band when I came here looking for you. 
The manager said the band has already left town."

"Where is the waitress?" he asked, still trying to
gain his bearings.  "She drugged me.  It was in my
water."

Scully quickly surveyed the tables in an attempt to
locate his water to use as evidence.  But the tables
had all been cleared.

"Mulder, you've been drugged by 'who knows what.'  I
need to get you to a hospital, immediately," Scully
admonished him, as she pulled out her cell phone.

"No, I'm fine," he argued as he again struggled to
raise his head.

"Mulder, lie still.  If you won't go to the hospital,
then I need to obtain a blood sample from you, as
evidence.  We need to know what kind of drug is in
your system.  Now."  And she pulled a syringe and
tubing from her medical bag and lay it aside.  "What
do you bet that its chloral hydrate?"

A resigned Mulder nodded his head in agreement.

Scully helped him remove his coat and roll up his
sleeve.  She tautly wrapped a piece of elastic tubing
around his upper arm, forcing blood down into his
lower arm.  She stretched a pair of sterile gloves
over her hands and began tapping on the vein inside
his elbow until it puffed up.  Then, she popped the
cap off the syringe and quickly drew two tubes of
blood.  She then placed a small bandage in the crook
of Mulder's arm to stop the bleeding.

A moment later, Mulder announced he was going to be
sick, and he began to heave up the contents in his
stomach.  Scully tried to help him by rolling him
over.  The smell of bile was overwhelming.  After the
heaving seemed to subside, she helped Mulder move
away from the pool of vomit on the floor.  She then
grabbed a tablecloth from a nearby table and wiped
his mouth.

"Ohhhh," Mulder moaned, looking pale and clammy.  "My
throat burns."

"Mulder, I think I know why the rubber bands
dissolved in the first two victims," Scully said with
new enlightenment.  "It was stomach acid, Mulder.  A
side effect of the chloral hydrate."

He lay there taking in deep breaths, as he attempted to
regain his composure and allow the waves of nausea to
settle down.  Then, Mulder recognized the face of a woman
standing behind one of the tables.

"You!" Mulder shouted.  "You drugged me."

It was, indeed, the waitress.  She slowly came out of
the background and approached Scully and Mulder.  The
waitress offered the sickened agent a glass of water.

"Shit," Mulder yelled.  "Do you honestly think I
would ever take anything from you?"

"Look," she slowly began.  "I'm sorry, Mister.  Let
me explain.  My boyfriend Rocko and me thought you
was just another cop customer lookin' for some fun
with Jade.  She didn't want to do you, Mister."  She
paused, "Jade is my cousin."

She continued on, "I knew she was hookin', but now
ya'll come in here talkin' about murder?  We don't
know nothin' about no murder."  The waitress appeared
to be frightened, and yet, she seemed to be sincere.

"What's your name," Scully asked.

"Savannah.  Savannah Wyatt," replied the young woman.

Scully continued, "Well, Savannah.  We have cause to
believe that your cousin may be killing her
customers.  What can you tell us about her?"

"Her band's been on tour.  They came here after a gig
in Biloxi.  I hadn't seen Jade in a long time and
thought she was pretty weird this visit.  She's
fucked up, but I'm not surprised.  I mean, she was
abused really bad by her old man when she was a kid."

"Abused?  How so?" Mulder asked.

"Oh, she's told me some stories that make me sick. 
Her Daddy would do her every which way but loose, and
when he was done with his business, he'd pass her on
to his friends.  He'd burn her with acid and lit
cigars.  Scarred her up bad so no one else would want
her.  And if she ever told on him, he threatened he'd
kill her.  He did once kill her dog."

"Where was her mother during the abuse?" Scully asked
with compassion.

"Her Momma died when she was three.  Her Daddy's been
doing her as long as she can remember."  The waitress
went on, "He was wrong about the burns, though.  Men
pay a lot of money to be with Jade, and they don't
care nothin' 'bout scars."

"And where is her father now?" Scully inquired, again
with genuine concern.

"Son-of-a-bitch died of AIDS, last year," Savannah
answered with little emotion.

After a pause, Mulder asked, "Do 'rubber bands' hold
any special meaning to you?"

Looking down, Savannah said, "Jade said her Daddy
used to tie rubber bands around her tongue real tight
'til she'd scream.  Then, he'd do her until she'd
shut up.  Man, he was a sicko!"

"Did she every mention green ones?" Scully added.

"Green?"  Waitress thought for a moment.  "Well, of
course, her name is Jade.  And her last name's
Greene."

The waitress continued, "Jade and her band are headed
for Dallas.  She lives there with her Aunt.  Y'all
aren't gonna hurt her when you find her, are you?"

Mulder sadly responded, "No.  It's seems she's
already been hurt far too much."

"Will you excuse me for a moment?" and Scully walked
toward one of the uniformed Memphis PD.  After a
brief discussion with the officer, they waited for
information to be radioed back, and Scully and the
officer began to exchange written notes.  After a
time, Scully walked back toward Mulder and the
waitress.

Mulder was now sitting up.  His face still had little
color.  He was now attempting to drink some water,
and he sounded as if he was just finishing up with the
waitress.

"Yeah, we know where to find you if we have any more
questions.  And here's my card if you remember
anything more.  Anything," he instructed.

The waitress nodded, indicating she understood and
left the two Agents.

Mulder tried to stand, but he didn't make it up very
far before his legs collapsed out from under himself. 
He didn't feel very well, at all.

"You sit right here, partner, and rest," Scully
helped him back down.  "I'm going to wrap things up
here and have you and your blood sample checked out. 
No arguments, Mulder."

He knew she was right.

Scully pulled out her cell, began entering numbers,
and placed the call.

"May I have the Dallas Office of the Texas Bureau,
please."  After a moment, Scully continued as Mulder
listened.

"This is Agent Dana Scully from the D.C. Bureau.  We
request you to pick up a Ms. Jade Greene for
questioning.  She's a suspect in a string of serial
killings originating in Montgomery, Alabama.  We
believe she is en route to Dallas from Memphis,
Tennessee.  She left at approximately 6 a.m. local
time with two young men, travelling in a red 1993
Pontiac Le Mans with Texas plates.  Please, hold for
a license plate number and physical description of
the suspect."




Epilogue

While en route to Dallas, Jade Greene was arrested
outside of Texarkana by the Texas Bureau of
Investigation.  Charged with five counts of murder,
Ms. Greene currently awaits trial and is held in
psychiatric custody.

There were no more murders fitting the "rubber band"
modus operandi.

~fin~