From The Time Line
Amber Lynn
LaPierre, a young girl, says her prayers before going to
bed. Mom and Dad watch from the door then tuck her in.
Later, as Dad watches TV, Billie LaPierre is seen in a daze,
writing an abduction note concluding with the cryptic
statement "no one shoots at Santa Claus." Amber's door slams
shut. Mr. LaPierre breaks in the door and the child is gone.
At FBI HQ in
Washington at around 3am, the investigation is under way on
the LaPierre kidnapping in Sacramento. Mulder enters and
wants the case. Skinner doesn't think it's an X-File but
ends up allowing Mulder to fly out and investigate. Mulder
arrives at the LaPierre home and questions the LaPierres
about the note. They lie about the circumstances. At 10pm,
Scully arrives at Mulder's motel, sent by Skinner to find
out why he hasn't reported. As they talk, Mulder's mother
calls. She has been watching the news about Amber Lynn and
wants him to call when he gets back to the east coast.
In Washington,
Skinner is doing a briefing when Mulder and Scully enter.
The note may have been written in Mrs. LaPierre's
handwriting and the evidence is pointing at the parents but
Mulder says none of the theories explain what happened to
the little girl. Scully thinks Mulder is personalizing the
case, thinking about his abducted sister but Mulder
recognizes something in the note. In a Pocatella, Idaho
kidnapping in 1987 a note with the same "no one shoots at
Santa Claus" signature was found. The agents go to the Idaho
state women's prison and talk to Kathy Lee Tencate. She was
convicted of the murder of her six year old son Dean, taken
from his room with the note found her handwriting. Dean was
never found. Mulder thinks she is innocent. She refuses to
help, but when they leave she has a vision of her son and
calls them back.
Mrs. Mulder calls
Fox again, leaving a message on his answering machine. There
is so much she has left unsaid that she hopes he will
someday understand. She burns pictures of her family.
Mulder, meanwhile, is in California and shows the LaPierre's
a video of Tencate telling part of her story. It was like
the words of the note wrote themselves, she says. She knows
her son is safe and protected. The LaPierre's make a private
statement to authorities and are released for lack of
evidence. A chubby man is seen watching news video.
In Washington,
Mulder is discussing the case with Skinner when Scully
enters. Mulder's mother has committed suicide. Mulder and
Scully arrive at her home in Greenwich, CT, where police are
still reviewing scene. The room was sealed and the gas oven
opened. She also took sleeping pills. Mulder says it doesn't
make sense that she would do this. Why are the family
pictures gone? Mulder suspects that whoever took his sister
did this to her. He is grasping at straws. He demands that
Scully do an autopsy. Mulder returns to Kathy Lee Tencate,
who opens up this time. His mother has seen them, she says -
the "walk-ins" -- old souls looking for new homes. She can
see them sometimes but it is hard beause they live in the
starlight. "They" took Samantha to protect her soul from the
harm it would suffer in life but Tencate doesn't know where
the children are taken. At Santa's North Pole Village
children's park, kids look at a pen with reindeer. The
proprietor says Santa is just flying in. He goes inside and
enters a locked room filled with video tape boxes and
equipment where he prepares to put on a Santa suit.
Mulder finally
hears the answering machine tape. Scully arrives and he
plays the tape for her. He thinks his mother knew what he
would find in the Amber Lynn case. The parents have had
psychic visions of their children. His mother must have
written a similar note when Samantha was taken. He's been
looking in the wrong place. She was trying to warn him,
that's why they killed her, he claims, but Scully's autopsy
shows Tina Mulder was suffering from a terminal disease. She
knew and didn't want to live. Mulder still believes she was
trying to tell him something. Scully thinks his mom wanted
him to stop looking for Samantha - to take away his pain.
At the LaPierre
residence, Mrs. LaPierre sees a vision of Amber Lynn
standing next to her bed at night. In the morning, Skinner
arrives at Mulder's apartment where he is greeted by Scully.
Mulder has had a rough night. Mrs. LaPierre is asking to
talk to Mulder. All three go to California and Mulder talks
to Billie LaPierre who describes seeing her daughter in
pajamas, trying to say something to her -- possibly the
words "seventy four." Mulder does an unexpected turn around
and tells Skinner and Scully that Amber Lynn is dead and
that he wants off the case so he can take some leave time.
As they drive off, Scully sees a highway sign for route 74.
She realizes the Santa Village connection. They drive to the
establishment and enter. Mulder and Scully find the inner
room with the video equipment. Some of the tapes go back to
the 60s. Scully puts one in a machine and finds images of
Amber Lynn at a playground, dated two days before her
disappearance. The owner of Santa's Village enters and locks
Mulder and Scully inside. He runs and Skinner chases. Mulder
and Scully break down the door and also give chase. Skinner
fires into the air and Santa stops. The man, who says his
name is Scruloff, is arrested and nearby the agents find
what appear to be several shallow graves. To be continued.
