(Night. Convex wall mirror reflects MARTY, a young woman, entering an old apartment building. She walks upstairs, down the hall into a room and tuns on the TV.)

TV COOKING SHOW: This ... this heare is a special gumbo. This gumbo gonna make your tongue roll outta your head and dial 911. (laughter) (MARTY places paper bag on counter and removes carton of cigarettes.) Take your best large onion and chop it up like this. Gonna make you cry – cry you’ll be so happy. (MARTY turns on gas stove, and lights a cigarette from the burner.) And a big ole teaspoon of this cayenne. Mix it in good. Now it’s all gonna come to a boil. Don’t watch that gumbo pot, or she ain’t gonna roll for you. Add in this nice shrimp and keep the flame going for twenty minutes. (MARTY turns off stove and sits in front of TV, smoking the cigarette.) Now some good parsley and them onion tops because Uncle Bayou don’t want nothin to go to waste.

(MARTY has a flashing image of an angry man (voice) yelling:)

VOICE: Where’s the money! You trying to rip me off?

MAN: Huh?

VOICE: You trying to rip me off?!

(MARTY stands and turns up TV, but images of the two men fighting keep appearing in her mind. Looks like the owner of the VOICE attacks MAN in bathroom.)

POLICE RADIO: Dispatch, this is unit seven investigating a reported disturbance at 214 Prospect avenue, over.

DISPATCH: Copy that ??

(Two policemen, JIMMY and KEITH arrive and enter room #10 with flashlights and guns drawn. Of course, this being the X-Files, they don’t turn on a light. They see blood on the bathroom floor.)

JIMMY THE COP: Jeez .....

(They see a figure behind the shower curtain.)

JIMMY THE COP: Police! Don’t move! (whips curtain back exposing MARTY) Keep ‘em in the air.

(MARTY drops a blood soaked sponge.)

KEITH THE COP: (turning on light) Cuff her, Jimmy.

JIMMY THE COP: (cuffing MARTY) Damn, she’s got blood all over her. (MARTY stares off into space.) Hey Keith. I think you might want to check this out. (They shine light into her eyes. The pupils do not contract.) I think she’s blind.

(X-Files office. SCULLY is giving a slide show to MULDER and DETECTIVE PENNOCK, who bears a striking resemblance to the DOD guy in Ghost in the Machine, season 1.)

SCULLY: The deceased is Paco Ordonez aka Little Monster. Street dealer. Liked to use grade school kids as couriers. Out on bail for possession with intent. Two-time loser looking at life.

MULDER: (looking at slide of dead guy) I have the same pair of pants. Who exterminated him?

PENNOCK: That’s a subject of some debate.

SCULLY: The killer carved a single C-shaped cut up through the right kidney. Fatal blood loss came in under 30 seconds.

MULDER: I’m going to assume the killer knew what he was doing and that "C" wasn’t one of his initials?

PENNOCK: Your assumptions are correct. Only the killer isn’t a he. (Hands MULDER a folder then goes to where slide of MARTY’S mugshot is projected, his face covered in the numbers from the height chart in her mugshot.) Marty Glenn -- 28. We found her at the scene doing a formula 409. Under normal circumstances, my department would have her dead to rights. There’s just one little snag.

MULDER: (reading) She’s been blind since birth.

PENNOCK: Now before your heart goes out to her, check out her rap sheet.

MULDER: "Fraud ... petty theft .... aggravated assault."

PENNOCK: Believe me. She’s a real piece of work.

SCULLY: Her juvenile records are sealed, but Detective Pennock has it on authority that two of them were drug busts – possession, and possession with intent.

MULDER: So, what, you think that uh, she caught Little Monster trying to snatch the pebble from her hand?

PENNOCK: Nothing else makes sense.

MULDER: Including how a blind girl could get the drop on an ex-con and bleed him out with surgical precision.

SCULLY: Ms. Glenn took a $60 cab ride alone straight to the motel. The cabbie instructed her to room 10, which she asked for specifically, and then told him to get lost. 30 minutes later, dead heroin dealer.

MULDER: All right, so you really believe that she did this? You just don’t know how.

PENNOCK: Well, I’ve got a theory, if you want to hear it.

MULDER: (nods)

PENNOCK: I think she’s got some kind of .. sixth sense, lets her see in the dark ... like a bat or something. (MULDER and SCULLY share a look.) I got 48 hours to convince the DA or wait till she kills somebody else.

MULDER: Well how soon can I meet her?

(MARTY’S jail cell. She is lying on bed. Door slams open.)

MARTY: Oh ... it’s you.

PENNOCK: (to MULDER and SCULLY) See what I mean?

MARTY: It’s not magic. It’s your crappy cologne. (MULDER is amused.) Who’s that with you?

MULDER: (surprised) Special Agent Mulder.

MARTY: And the lady?

SCULLY: Uh, Special Agent Scully. We’d like to ask you some questions, Marty.

MARTY: You must be having trouble with your case, Detective.

(PENNOCK walks to MARTY and takes her arm as if to guide her. She jerks her arm away.)

PENNOCK: Fine. Suit yourself.

(MARTY stands, walks slowly to the door. As she passes MULDER, she stops and faces him.)

MARTY: What are you staring at?

MULDER: An innocent woman. I hope. (smiles at PENNOCK as they exit the cell)

(Interrogation room. MULDER and SCULLY with MARTY. MARTY is smoking.)

MARTY: So, I’m all ears.

SCULLY: I’m curious why you’ve refused your right to an attorney.

MARTY: Unless you’re going to charge me, I don’t plan on needing one.

SCULLY: Well, you could be charged right now .. for the fact that you’ve given no compelling reason why you were in that motel room. What were you doing there, Marty?

MARTY: Putting mints on the pillows. (smiles)

SCULLY: (after look to MULDER) The cabbie has given a statement that you asked specifically for room 10, which would put you at the murder scene right about the time of death.

MARTY: Is that a crime?

SCULLY: If you were involved in any way.

MARTY: (sarcastically) You mean like, an eyewitness?

SCULLY: Did you intend to buy drugs from Paco Ordonez?

MARTY: (Big drag off cigarette.)

SCULLY: Did you kill him?

MARTY: Eh, maybe it was just his time to go. I mean, other than the stab wound, did you check his cholesterol level or anything?

MULDER: How did you know there was just one stab wound?

MARTY: Did I say that?

MULDER: Mmm hmm.

MARTY: I guessed. You know what the problem is? You’ve got no murder weapon. And I bet that’s driving Stinky back there crazy. Isn’t it, Stinky! (PENNOCK is watching the interview through a one way mirror.) Why is he hiding? It’s not like I can see him. You know what I did with it, Detective? I fed it to my seeing eye dog.

MULDER: I’m curious, Marty.

MARTY: Yeah, about what?

MULDER: If you didn’t kill him, why you were at the crime scene cleaning up and doing such a piss poor job of it.

MARTY: (No answer.)

MULDER: Why don’t we just stop playing games here, okay? I mean (laughs) you probably don’t know a feather duster from a duck’s ass, do you? I mean it’s ridiculous. You’re a blind woman, for God’s sake. So why don’t you just tell us who did kill Paco Ordonez, and Agent Scully and I can go arrest him, and you can go home and work on your angry-young-blind-girl comedy routine.

MARTY: (No answer)

MULDER: Or we can just ... (he grabs a glass and slams it down on the table in front of him) stay here and entertain each other for the next 48 hours.

(MULDER starts to pour himself a glass of water, Marty violently knocks it off table.)

MARTY: Go to hell.

(Later, MULDER and SCULLY have joined PENNOCK behind the one way mirror. MARTY sits by herself in the interrogation room.)

PENNOCK: See what I mean? Put a knife in that hand....

MULDER: All I see is a woman who’s adapted to her impairment admirably. She’s honed all her other senses around her blindness.

PENNOCK: She’s taunting you.

MULDER: I dunno I - I think she just wants us to think she’s strong, independent. (looking at SCULLY) It’s important to her. (SCULLY looks up at MULDER)

PENNOCK: She wants us to know she did it.

MULDER: I don’t think she did do it.

PENNOCK: Then why won’t she help us? It’s been my experience that innocent people don’t act like that, Agent Mulder.

SCULLY: She wouldn’t explain her presence in the crime scene, and she avoided all discussion about the murder weapon.

PENNOCK: She knew there was only one stab wound. You caught that yourself.

MULDER: Yeah.

SCULLY: Detective, did you snake all of the plumbing in the bathroom?

PENNOCK: I turned that place upside down and inside out.

SCULLY: Well, if we find the weapon with her fingerprints on it, she’s as good as convicted. Short of that, she's gonna walk.

PENNOCK: Well, maybe I can get you to come out to the crime scene one last time.

SCULLY: (looking to MULDER) Okay.

MULDER: You go ahead. I want - I want to – I want to investigate something.

(SCULLY glances at MULDER as she and PENNOCK leave.)

(Lie detector test room. MARTY is hooked up to the machine. MULDER is watching the lie detector's printout, seated behind her.)

EXAMINER: I’m going to ask you a series of questions. Respond only with a "yes"" or "no." Do not judge the content of the question, simply answer truthfully. Is your full name Martelle Francis Glenn?

MARTY: Yeah.

EXAMINER: Are you a resident of the State of Delaware?

MARTY: Let’s just cut through the bull, or I’m going to decide not to cooperate at all.

MULDER: All right, let's, uh, get to it. (Glances up to examiner.)

EXAMINER: (to MULDER) I need to establish a baseline.

MARTY: I’m a resident of the State of Delaware, okay? Let’s move on.

EXAMINER: (sighs, and marks 2+ on the chart) Is it your intent to lie during the course of this examination?

MARTY: I’m sure you’ll tell me if it is.

EXAMINER: (slightly frustrated) Did you stab Paco Ordonez, also known as Little Monster?

MARTY: (she turns her head slightly and directs her answer to MULDER) Nope.

EXAMINER: (marks) Did you plan or arrange the murder of Paco Ordonez?

MARTY: No.

EXAMINER: Have you ever met Paco Ordonez?

MARTY: No.

EXAMINER: Would you ever have occasion to see Paco Ordonez (needles go crazy, MULDER looks at EXAMINER with concern) or know him in any other way? Strike that. Have you ever had occasion to interact with Paco Ordonez or know him in any other way?

MARTY: No.

EXAMINER: Were you present during the murder of Paco Ordonez?

MARTY: No.

(MULDER writes on legal pad for EXAMINER : "Did you see the murder?" EXAMINER hesitates.)

MARTY: Why don’t you just ask me yourself?

MULDER: Did you see the murder?

(MARTY doesn’t answer, but the needles start bouncing around again.)

MULDER: Did you see the murder?

MARTY: I don’t see anything.

EXAMINER: Yes or no, only please.

MARTY: Then the answer is no.

(Needles bounce again.)

(Hotel crime scene. PENNOCK and SCULLY walk through room.)

PENNOCK: No blood trails leading out of the bathroom, windows are painted shut, and as you can see, not a lot of places she could have stashed it.

(SCULLY’S cell phone rings. She gives PENNOCK an "excuse me" look, and he leaves her in the bathroom.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Scully.

MULDER: (On phone) She’s lying.

SCULLY: (on phone, voice) About what?

MULDER: (on phone) She knew Paco Ordonez, but I don’t think she murdered him.

SCULLY: (on phone, voice) How do you know that she knew him?

MULDER: (on phone) Well I made her take a polygraph test. She passed on every question except one – did she *see* the murder.

SCULLY: (on phone) Would you like me to remind you why polygraphs are inadmissible in court?

MULDER: (on phone) No, she cracked, Scully. She was lying. I’m sure of it.

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, maybe she was, Mulder, but don’t make me state the obvious. She didn’t see anything.

MULDER: (on phone) Not with her eyes.

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, how else did she see? Bat vision?

MULDER: (on phone, voice) I don’t know.

SCULLY: (on phone, looking at razor disposal slot in bathroom) Well, Mulder, when you figure it out, give me a call. (hangs up)

(SCULLY sees loose plaster around the razor disposal, and pries the plate off.)

SCULLY: Detective Pennock.

(She reaches in and removes a bloody leather glove. SCULLY and PENNOCK look at it and at each other.)

(MARTY’S jail cell. MARTY has flashes of a WOMAN in a bar.)

WOMAN: No thanks, I’m not looking for any company. Hey, listen, buddy! I said get your hands off of -

MARTY: (calling through bars) Somebody, I need a phone! I get to call a lawyer, somebody, I need a phone!

(Later, MARTY is at a desk with a phone. Guard pushes phone toward her.)

MARTY: I got it. (Picks up receiver, realizes guard is still there.) You know, I’m sure the ACLU is going to be very interested in how you violated a blind woman’s rights by eavesdropping on her private phone call.

GUARD: (makes obscene arm/hand gesture, then walks away)

MARTY: Same to you. (dials number)

CUT TO:
(Phone in bar ringing. BARTENDER answers.)

BARTENDER: (on phone) Blarney Stone. (listens) Uh, let’s see. Guy hitting on a redhead at the end of the bar? (Looks and sees upset WOMAN rejecting a man’s advances.)

WOMAN: I told you, stop it!

BARTENDER: (on phone) Yeah, we got somebody matching that description.

(Carries phone down to OLDER MAN at end of the bar.)

BARTENDER: It’s for you.

(OLDER MAN is surprised. WOMAN puts money on the counter and leaves.)

OLDER MAN: (on phone) Yeah?

MARTY: (on phone) Leave her alone.

OLDER MAN: (Looks around in shock, watches WOMAN leave. On phone) Who is this?

MARTY: (on phone) You just leave her alone. I’m watching you.

(OLDER MAN looks shocked as MARTY hangs up.)

(Jail interrogation room. An evidence bag containing the bloody gloves is dropped in front of MARTY. She picks it up and feels it.)

MARTY: Let me guess ... Your killer is OJ Simpson.

SCULLY: They were found at the crime scene with blood all over them. We believe they were worn by Paco Ordonez’s killer.

MARTY: You’re good.

PENNOCK: We think they belong to you.

MARTY: Well, they don’t.

PENNOCK: Well, how ‘bout you try one on for us. (Removes glove from bag.)

MARTY: And put my prints all over them?

SCULLY: Your prints are already all over them, Marty.

(MULDER is watching from behind the mirror.)

PENNOCK: (MULDER’S POV) Hold still. (puts glove on MARTY)

MARTY: (MULDER’S POV) Are you happy, Detective?

PENNOCK: Looks to me like it fits.

MARTY: Somewhere, Marcia Clark weeps. But you still haven’t got a weapon.

PENNOCK: Ah, it’s just a matter of time.

MARTY: (smug) But you haven’t got time.

(Later, SCULLY joins MULDER in another room.)

SCULLY: Hope you saw what just happened in there.

MULDER: Even if the gloves do fit, you can still acquit.

SCULLY: I think it’s arrogance, Mulder. I think it’s the same reason why she agreed to take the polygraph test. She knows that the prejudices in this case are all in her favor.

MULDER: I don’t think it’s that simple. Look at this. (opens a folder) She lives in poverty, but she’s never taken advantage of the disability benefits that are available to her.

(LIST OF BENEFITS: Social Security, General Disability, Blind Disability, Public Assistance, Unemployed Compensation, Supplemental Security Income, Insurance Benefits -- all checked "no." )

Never once. It’s poison to her. The - the mere suggestion that she’s anything other than a whole or complete person is offensive to her. It’s not arrogance, it’s pride.

SCULLY: So, you think that it was pride that made her ditch the bloody gloves? Her prints were all over them, Mulder. Why would she do that.

MULDER: I have no idea. I don’t –

SCULLY: Okay, so - so by your reasoning, the killer took off with the murder weapon, but not the gloves leaving Marty to come in, go straight to the gloves, and hide them in the one place that nobody would easily think to find them.

MULDER: I think that’s the most accurate scenario available to us, right now.

SCULLY: Well, wait a minute. Maybe it’s much simpler than that.

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: What if she’s not really blind? I mean, she hasn’t applied for any of her - her disability benefits. Maybe that’s because she knows that she couldn’t pass the medical screening.

MULDER: (disbelieving) You think she’s faking it?

SCULLY: No, no. But - but possibly it’s a - a conversion disorder, or a - a form of blindsight. A - a split consciousness whereby a person has a certain level of visual ability but they’re not aware that they’re actually seeing. It’s worth checking out.

(OLDER MAN is on pay phone. He is holding a briefcase.)

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Yo, man, moving Little Monster’s "H" ain’t gonna be easy. See, a lot of people respected him, you know.

OLDER MAN: (on phone) You buying or not? If you’re not buying, I can go to somebody else.

DEALER: (on phone, voice) (laughs) No you cain’t. But I’m feelin’ magnanimous. Swing by in a couple of hours. Maybe we can do some business.

OLDER MAN: Good. Yeah, there’s something I’ve got to look into first. When I’m done, I’ll be in touch. (hangs up, and places briefcase in a locker.)

(Prison medical examination room. MARTY’S eyes are being tested. MULDER and SCULLY observe.)

DOCTOR: Eyes wide, please, Marty. Good. Try not to move around too much. Are you aware of any sensation at all?

MARTY: (inhales sharply in wonder) Ahh! It’s a miracle!

(DOCTOR looks to MULDER and SCULLY, whose expressions say "not.")

DOCTOR: All right , Marty. Now we’re going to introduce some optical stimuli. Try not to blink. (Her eyes do not respond.) Just relax for a moment. (to MULDER and SCULLY) I’m not getting anything. I don’t think there’s any activity in either the visual cortex or the superior colliculus.

SCULLY: There’s no way that she could fool the machine?

DOCTOR: We’re talking about wholly involuntary physical responses. I wasn’t getting any reading.

(MULDER sees MARTY’S pupils suddenly contract.)

MULDER: Then what is that?

(MARTY begins having flashes of the bar again. Walking in and seeing a friend of the WOMAN from before.)

MAN’S VOICE: Where is she?

(In examination room, MARTY stares straight ahead. MULDER kneels next to her.)

MULDER: What is it, Marty? What do you see?

(Door opens, PENNOCK sticks his head in.)

PENNOCK: Agents? (MULDER and SCULLY follow him and another man into hall.) This is Daniel Costa from the DA’s office.

COSTA: So what did we find? I hear the girl can actually see with some limited ability?

MULDER: No. No, according to her examiner, she is completely without sight or any kind of light sensitivity.

SCULLY: But she is still our best and only suspect.

COSTA: You said we were making progress.

PENNOCK: We are.

COSTA: Well, I’m not going to try to indict a blind girl on some lousy prints.

MULDER: She doesn’t exactly fit the definition "blind girl."

COSTA: Come on, folks. Either she is or she isn’t.

PENNOCK: (to MULDER) What are you talking about?

MULDER: Well, there is evidence of some kind of neurological activity which caused her pupils to dilate.

PENNOCK: From what?

MULDER: To me, it indicates some reaction to stimuli. Some kind physical response to images in her mind’s eye.

COSTA: How’s that make her the killer?

MULDER: I didn’t say it did.

COSTA: (nods, then says to PENNOCK) Kick her loose.

PENNOCK: Danny ...

COSTA: I got no case, Penn.

PENNOCK: I don’t believe this.

COSTA: I’m not trying her. Not without a murder weapon. Kick her loose. (leaves)

PENNOCK: (sarcastically to MULDER and SCULLY) Wonderful. Thanks.

(Office in the jail where you get your stuff back. MARTY signs a form. Her signature goes off the line. OFFICER hands her a manila folder. She snatches it, takes her wallet out and fingers some money.)

MARTY: These better still be twenties.

OFFICER: (sarcastically) No, I replaced them with fifties since you’re so damn sweet.

(MARTY unfolds her cane, pauses. Looks like she senses MULDER watching her. He is. She begins walking slowly down the hall using her cane. SCULLY comes up to MULDER.)

SCULLY: Want to hear the latest?

MULDER: Yes.

SCULLY: Detective Pennock ran the gloves for blood typing and found two different samples, one type matching Marty Glenn’s.

MULDER: Well, she was examined. There were no cuts or wounds on her.

SCULLY: Yeah, well, all the same I’m going to hand deliver them to the lab in Washington, expedite a PCR to see if she’s a match.

MULDER; Look at her. (They watch MARTY slowly walking) Do you really think she’s capable?

SCULLY: I’ll let you know as soon as I get the tests back. (leaves)

(Outside on street. MARTY is walking. Suddenly she has flashes of WOMAN from bar being attacked in an alley.)

CUT TO:
OLDER MAN: (to WOMAN) Who called me last night? Who’s watching me? (Takes his hand slightly off WOMAN’S mouth.)

WOMAN: (frightened) What?! I ... I don’t know what you’re talking about.

OLDER MAN: You a cop? You wearing a wire? (WOMAN begins screaming.)

WOMAN: No! I’m not a cop!

CUT TO:
(MARTY still having flashes.)

WOMAN: Let me go!

MARTY: (to other pedestrians) I need to get to Spring Street. Which way is Spring Street? Somebody, answer me!

NICE PEDESTRIAN MAN: Four blocks to the left.

WOMAN: (MARTY hearing voice) Please! Please!!

(MARTY suddenly walks into street almost getting hit by several cars. They blow their horns. MARTY looks disoriented. She stops cold in the middle of the street.)

WOMAN: No! Don’t kill me! No! No! No! No!

(NICE PEDESTRIAN MAN runs to MARTY and guides her out of the street.)

(Later, MARTY and NICE PEDESTRIAN MAN reach the alley.)

MARTY: Where?

NICE PEDESTRIAN MAN: Here. Here - here. There’s an alley here. Right here.

(MARTY finds the wall and begins walking clumsily down the alley running into things.)

MARTY: Thanks. Leave me alone.

(She passes a dumpster, then feels some bars over a window that she saw in her visions earlier. She goes back to the dumpster and opens it. The WOMAN, covered in blood, lies face down. MARTY feels the body, then for a pulse. She apparently finds none.)

(Police station. Same OFFICER who gave MARTY back her stuff is at his desk. Looks up at sound of MARTY’S voice.)

MARTY: (very quietly) Excuse me. Excuse me, somebody.

OFFICER: Yeah?

MARTY: I killed them. I killed them both. (Holds up her bloody hand.)

(Interrogation room. MARTY sits alone. MULDER enters and sits across from her. He pauses.)

MULDER: I read your *confession*. Detective Pennock is typing it up as we speak for you to sign.

MARTY: (sighs) I’ll sign it.

MULDER: You’ll make him a very happy man.

MARTY: Can’t have everything.

MULDER: Just for me, I’m a little puzzled by this sudden change of heart.

MARTY: Please, too much charity of heart and I want to puke.

MULDER: I - I just ... why kill *them*. Paco Ordonez ... Susan Forester? (MARTY looks surprised.) Did you even know that was her name? Susan Forester. She was 30 years old. Native of Wilmington. She waitressed part-time. She lived alone with her two cats...

MARTY: Shut up! Why are you doing this? I - I .... I’ve given you people everything you want.

(She pulls out a cigarette and feels for her matches. MULDER strikes a match and holds it for her. She reaches for his hand and lights the cigarette.)

MULDER: I *like* you, Marty. I *admire* you. And I don’t want to see you confess to crimes you didn’t commit.

MARTY: You just feel sorry for me.

MULDER: No, I don’t. Not the way you think I do.

MARTY: Read the confession. I got it all perfect. Every detail. How could I do that if I’m innocent?

MULDER: I believe you witnessed both murders. You - you saw them, somehow. But you were way ‘cross town when they happened. You were a $60 cab ride away.

MARTY: You’re crazy.

MULDER: I think you tried to stop them. You tried to, but you didn’t get there in time.

MARTY: (shaking her head) I don’t have to talk to you anymore.

MULDER: Marty, whoever did this, they’re going to kill again. And you *can* help stop that.

MARTY: (shakes her head again and puts her hand over her eyes) I can’t stop anything. I don’t have to talk to you anymore, period. (she stands up, so does MULDER, and she yells ...) Officer! We’re done!

MULDER: Who’s worth pleading guilty for, Marty?

MARTY: Officer, we’re done! (MULDER grabs her arm)

MULDER: You didn’t do it. And I’m not going to let this happen. (Officer enters.) Do you hear me? Marty?

(MARTY leaves with officer.)

(Bus terminal. OLDER MAN on pay phone.)

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Sorry, man. Deal’s off.

OLDER MAN: (on phone) What do you mean "deal’s off?" You can’t back out.

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Hey, look it here, brother, I do what I got to do to stay on the download (???) and you shinin’ too much light on me.

OLDER MAN: (on phone) What are you talking about?

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Somebody’s gunning for you, man. And I ain’t gettin’ in the middle of it.

OLDER MAN: (on phone) Who? Who’s gunnin’ for me?

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Some old girlfriend of yours called last night and told me I should steer clear.

OLDER MAN: (on phone) She called you?

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Yeah, said she was passing the word.

OLDER MAN: (on phone, angry) Listen to me. Listen, man. She’s nobody, huh? She knows nothing.

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Yeah, right.

OLDER: MAN: (on phone) You and me, man, we’re still cool. Trust me.

DEALER: (on phone, voice) Well, if she don’t know anything, how’d she get this number?

OLDER MAN: (on phone) Listen to me. I got nowhere else to take this stuff.

DEALER: (on phone, voice) That’s not my problem. Just don’t you call here again.

(OLDER MAN slams down phone.)

(MULDER alone in an office looking at MARTY’S file. "January 27, 1970, 8:55 pm, address - 555 Hol ...? Body found at 1044 Pend..? Lying face down on the floor. Single stab wound right kidney." PENNOCK enters.)

PENNOCK: Well, I appreciate your help here, such at it was, but I’d say we’re doing all right. She just signed her confession.

MULDER: Congratulations.

PENNOCK: I don’t feel as good as you might think, you know.

MULDER: Well, all you’ve got is a signature. No lawyer’s going to let her go down based on that.

PENNOCK: I’m aware of that.

MULDER: Doesn’t it bother you, Detective, that you still have no clear motive?

PENNOCK: Well she just now gave us that. Drugs. Just like I thought. She even told us where to find them.

(Bus station. MULDER and PENNOCK get briefcase full of heroin out of locker.)

PENNOCK: I’d say this is gonna make it a pretty short trial.

MULDER: Well, if you think about it, Detective, it actually proves nothing.

PENNOCK: There it is, just like she said.

MULDER: Just like she *described.*

PENNOCK: You know, the thing I find most surprising about this case is you. You are one skeptical guy, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: Skeptical?!

PENNOCK: Oh, yeah.

MULDER: I’ve been called a lot of things. Skeptical, however, is not one.

(With impeccable timing, MULDER’S cell phone rings.)

PENNOCK: (gathering up briefcase) Well, whatever.

MULDER: (answers phone, to himself) Skeptical. (on phone)

SCULLY: (walking down hallway in DC, on phone) Mulder.

MULDER: (on phone) What?

SCULLY: (on phone) I’ve got the PCR results on the two blood types from the gloves. Neither was Marty’s. You were right, Mulder. She didn’t do it.

MULDER: (on phone) Well, I know that, and you know that, and so does whoever Marty’s protecting, but Pennock is salivating right now. What we have to do is convince Marty. I got an idea. I’ll get back to you. (hangs up)

(On a bench, OLDER MAN watches the police leave with the briefcase. He follows.)

(MARTY sits in her jail cell. We hear footsteps coming down the hall.)

MARTY: What do you want now?

(Door slides open, MULDER enters and sits beside her.)

MULDER: I know who you’re protecting, Marty. And I think I know why. You’re protecting the man who murdered your mother.

MARTY: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

MULDER: I read the original police report from 1970. Your mother died from a single stab wound to the right kidney -- as did Paco Ordonez and Susan Forester. Dead at the hands of an unknown assailant.

MARTY: I never knew my mother.

MULDER: No. I know. But for once you were there when it happened. She was pregnant with you at the time. She died on the operating table as doctors were trying to save her. You were born ... just barely. But the interruption in blood flow you suffered most likely caused your blindness.

MARTY: What does that have to do with anything?

MULDER: I think that during that time ... as you lost one sense ... you gained another. That somehow ... a connection was formed between you and your mother’s killer.

MARTY: What connection?

MULDER: You see through his eyes. You always have. You don’t want to, you just do. And because of that you feel responsible for his actions, but you’re not. And you’re sitting here in prison for crimes you didn’t commit. It isn’t going to accomplish anything, Marty.

(Door opens.)

PENNOCK: Excuse me, Agent Mulder. She’s being transferred now.

MULDER: There’s absolutely no point to you doing this, Marty. We’re going to find him with or without your help.

MARTY: (as she leaves with PENNOCK, to MULDER) I’m sorry.

(Later. Marty is led to a prisoner transport vehicle. She is wearing chains. Suddenly, she begins having flashes of a woman being led to a prisoner transport vehicle. Shock, as she realizes she is seeing herself. She turns her face toward the fence where the OLDER MAN is watching her.)

(MARTY, in prisoner garb, is led to a visitor’s booth where MULDER is waiting.)

MULDER: Hi, Marty.

MARTY: What’s going on?

MULDER: Detective Pennock is with the warden right now arranging for your release.

MARTY: (frustrated) Ah! What?

MULDER: The charges against you are being dropped. You’re no longer a suspect in this case.

MARTY: How can they do that?! I confessed.

MULDER: Yeah, well, confession is worthless if it’s a lie, and yours was a lie.

MARTY: What have you been telling them?

MULDER: Just that you’re innocent, which is something they would have found out on their own anyway. The locker you sent us to? It had prints on it, but they weren’t yours.

MARTY: I was careful.

MULDER: Yeah, well, somebody else wasn’t so careful. Charles Wesley Gotts, an ex-con. Convicted in 1970 of aggravated assault. He was paroled three weeks ago and he’s been missing ever since.

MARTY: Never heard of him.

MULDER: I happen to believe that, Marty. The PCR tests confirmed that it was his blood on the glove. The tests confirmed something else, Marty. He’s your father. (MARTY is shocked.) That was the connection. (MARTY is on verge of tears.)

MARTY: Hmm.

PENNOCK: (entering) Okay, we’re all set. (looks between MARTY and MULDER) That is, if everything’s taken care of on this end.

MARTY: What’s he talking about?

MULDER: (hard for him to say) Detective Pennock has agreed to not pursue aiding and abetting charges if you agree to help us ... if you agree to help us find him. We need your help, Marty. You can end it now.

MARTY: (she nods) I can end this.

MULDER: I’m sure that’s what you’ve always wanted.

MARTY: (nods, then shakes her head) I never wanted to spend my life in a place like this. I had no choice. Hmm. If I help you, will you protect me until he’s caught?

PENNOCK: I will personally guarantee your safety.

MARTY: (sighs) Hmmm. Take me home.

(MULDER pulls up in front of the Blarney Stone bar.)

VOICE ON POLICE RADIO: Moving into position at the back exit.

MULDER: All right, stand by.

VOICE ON POLICE RADIO: Copy that.

(MULDER looks into his rearview mirror, sees SCULLY getting out of the car behind him, gets out to meet her)

MULDER: Just in time for the surprise party.

SCULLY: She told you he’d be in there?

MULDER: Yeah, she described this place perfectly, right down to the matchbooks.

SCULLY: What made her decide to cooperate?

MULDER; She wants to stop him.

SCULLY: All of a sudden? I mean, if she’s so anxious to stop him, why didn’t she tell us his name before now?

MULDER: She didn’t know his name. They’ve never met. He’s been in prison her entire life.

SCULLY: Well, yet, according to you, she’s been seeing through his eyes the whole time.

MULDER: I - I don’t think she was sure exactly what she was seeing but it was more like a - a constant image in her mind that she learned to live with over time. Up until three weeks ago.

SCULLY: When the murders started.

MULDER: He was paroled and everything changed.

SCULLY: Well, if all this is true, let's go get him. (Starts for bar. MULDER doesn’t follow.) Mulder?

MULDER: Everything’s changed for her, Scully. I don’t think we’re going to find him in there.

(MARTY’S apartment. PENNOCK and MARTY are in her apartment. She is packing.)

PENNOCK: Need some help over there?

MARTY: Nope.

PENNOCK: (to himself) Should’ve known. (MARTY keeps packing.) Now you know, you don’t have to pack everything you own. I promise you, you’re not going to be in protective custody that long.

MARTY: It’s too late for that, anyway.

PENNOCK: Why is that?

MARTY: Gotts is already here.

PENNOCK: What are you talking about?

MARTY: (feels an old-style coffee pot on the stove) He’s been keeping tabs on me for about a day. (walks to the opposite side of the kitchen, takes out a couple of packs or cans of something, then walks back to the stove, putting her hands on the pot) Now he knows where I live. He’s reading the names on the mailboxes right now.

PENNOCK: What? How could you know ........

(MARTY hits PENNOCK on the head with the pot knocking him out. She takes his gun, opens the front door and goes back into the apartment. Downstairs, GOTTS, the OLDER MAN looks at mailbox #26, the name GLENN above it, then goes upstairs.)

(MULDER, holding his cell phone, and SCULLY come out of the bar.)

SCULLY: How did you know he wouldn’t be in there?

MULDER: She doesn’t want us to get him. She misdirected us on purpose.

SCULLY: She’s still protecting him?

MULDER: No, she’s not. She never was. (hangs up) Pennock’s not picking up.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MULDER: It’s not him she’s been protecting. If he goes back to prison, so does she. Until now, she’s never had a choice. (Gets in driver’s side of car.)

(MARTY’S apartment. GOTTS enters, sees PENNOCK still out cold. GOTTS opens a switchblade and begins walking through the house. MARTY, hiding in the kitchen, sees his progress in flashes. When GOTTS gets to the kitchen, she reveals herself, points the gun at his head.)

MARTY: (very quietly) I hate the way you see me.

(We see GOTTS' point-of-view as she fires at him.)

(Later, MULDER and SCULLY enter the apartment and see GOTTS dead with a bullet hole in his forehead.)

SCULLY: Mulder...

PENNOCK: (cuffing MARTY) She did this one. Trust me. (leads her out past MULDER and SCULLY, she looks right at MULDER as she passes him.)

(MULDER walking down prison corridor to MARTY’S cell.)

MARTY: Not much to look at, is it? At least, that’s what they tell me. (She walks to the bars and he reaches through to take her hand.) You were at the sentencing, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: Is it my cologne?

MARTY: (smiles) No, I just knew you’d be there.

MULDER: Marty, let me speak to the judge on your behalf.

MARTY: No.

MULDER: We found where he’d been staying. It was a motel not far from where Paco Ordonez had been murdered.

MARTY: And before that, Atlantic City. Hmmm. I’d never seen the ocean before. And now when I close my eyes, or even when I open them, that’s all I see.

(Guard’s footsteps approaching.)

MULDER: Well, you’re lucky he wasn’t a fan of the Ice Capades.

(They laugh.)

(Guard touches MULDER’S arm. He squeezes MARTY’S hand.)

GUARD OVER INTERCOM: Lights out.

(Lights go out. MULDER leaves. MARTY stands at bars, then turns and disappears into the darkness of her cell. )

[THE END]