The X-Files - 2.

3.5 The List

German title: Die Liste
translation: The List

(On a dark, damp and foggy night, a car stops for a man waiting alongside a road. The man opens the passenger door.)

DRIVER: Mr. Simon? Are you ready?

MAN: Yeah.

(The man gets in the car and it drives on.)

< EASTPOINT STATE PENITENTIARY, LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA >

(A guard knocks and enters the Warden's office. The Warden is meeting with another man.)

GUARD: Excuse me, Warden. It's 5:00, sir.

WARDEN: How's Neech?

GUARD: He's still in with his wife.

WARDEN: No, I mean how is he? How's he doing?

GUARD: Well, he won't eat his meal and he won't see the chaplain. Told him to get the hell out.

WARDEN: (sighs) What about the hired man?

GUARD: He's traveling.

WARDEN: All right. Let's get Neech prepped.

GUARD: Yes, sir.

WARDEN: If God can't save his sorry ass, neither can I.

(The guard enters the cellblock. As he passes the first cell, a prisoner, Roque, stands at the door and yells.)

ROQUE: Time's up, Neech! 2,000 volts, man. You ain't never coming back, you freak. (he laughs)

(Farther down the cellblock, several men are standing outside Neech Manley's cell. Manley is with his wife, Danielle. The guard approaches the cell.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: It's just like I've always told you. I swear on my life, Neech.

GUARD: Time to go.

DANIELLE MANLEY: I ain't ever going to love another man. You hear me? I won't. I won't betray our love - ever.

GUARD: Time, Neech. Time to go.

DANIELLE MANLEY: That phone call's gonna come, and the governor is gonna come through.

NEECH MANLEY: Got to go now.

(Manley is being led to the execution chamber by another guard, Parmelly. He exhales sharply as he enters the chamber. He is strapped to the chair and the electrode is attached to his head. The blinds on the witness chamber are opened and raised. The warden and a priest enter the chamber.)

WARDEN: We've got a hood if you want it. It's your option.

NEECH MANLEY: No.

WARDEN: Is there anything you want to say, Neech? Last words?

NEECH MANLEY: Yeah. I've been here 11 years, 56 days and now you're gonna murder me. The Lord says thou shall be merciful and just. I know no mercy. Allah says the spirit shall rise again and be reborn into this life ...

WARDEN: You should begin, Father.

NEECH MANLEY: ... The soul shall be recast born unto new flesh ...

FATHER: "The Lord is my shepherd ..."

(The Father continues to recite the 23rd Psalm as Neech continues without interruption.)

NEECH MANLEY: ... I will return to avenge all the petty tyranny and the cruelty I have suffered. I will be recast, reincarnated, reunion of spirit and flesh.

(The warden motions to the hooded executioner to take his station.)

NEECH MANLEY: ... Mark my words. Five men will die. Five men will go down! This will be my justice! This will be my law! This will be my capital punishment, and no stay of execution will be granted ...

(The warden and priest leave and the door to the execution chamber is closed.)

NEECH MANLEY: ... for there is no prejudice, no evidence to be admitted ... no lawyer ...

WARDEN: (to executioner) Fry him.

NEECH MANLEY: ... who did not perform his job. These men will die righteous deaths!

(The executioner throws the switch. Manley shakes as the voltage surges through him.)

ACT I

(In the X-Files office, Mulder is projecting a police photo of Manley on a screen.)

MULDER: Napoleon "Neech" Manley. He was convicted in 1984 for double murder in the holdup of a Florida liquor store. The actual gunman was killed in the pursuit. Manley was driving the getaway car and got sentenced to death.

SCULLY: He was put to death in the electric chair three days ago.

MULDER: Yeah, he'd been to the chair twice before but the governor had granted him last-minute stays.

SCULLY: Third time's a charm. What's your interest in this?

MULDER: Well, Manley was interesting. He was well-read, charismatic. He became a writer, a kind of prison philosopher. A week before his execution, word went through the prison that Neech said he was gonna be reincarnated. He was gonna come back from the dead.

SCULLY: Well, reincarnation has always been popular on death row for obvious reasons.

MULDER: Apparently, this was more than just a dying man's hope against hope.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MULDER: Manley didn't just claim that he was gonna come back but that he was gonna take vengeance on five men who had mistreated him.

(He changes the slide to one showing a dead prison guard lying on a bed in a cell.)

MULDER: Yesterday, a death row guard was found dead inside the cell that Manley had occupied those 11 years. His death cannot be explained.

(He shows a third slide. The guard is the same one seen earlier.)

(At the prison, the warden is leading Scully and Mulder through the prison.)

SCULLY: Has a cause of death been determined?

WARDEN: Suffocation, near as we can tell. Somebody must have snuffed him with a pillow.

MULDER: Any idea how one of your guards could get murdered in an empty cell like this?

WARDEN: No. It's not supposed to happen, not with all the precautions that we're taking.

SCULLY: I see the guards here wear panic devices. Was the victim's activated?

WARDEN: No. Apparently he never touched it.

(As they walk, Scully notices some prisoners staring at her and appears uncomfortable.)

MULDER: According to our reports, there were threats this might happen.

WARDEN: There's always threats of violence in here. Prison's nothing but a police state, basically.

MULDER: Do you give any credence to Neech Manley's claims that he was gonna come back and take revenge?

WARDEN: Neech Manley ... a smart man, very smart man. In fact, if he'd stayed outside I would have figured him for a Nobel Prize. But he made a mistake and paid for it with his life. Now, you take a man of that intelligence, you put him inside for 10 or 11 years - you're gonna have to pay for it.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

WARDEN: Well, there's nothing but bitterness and resentment in here seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It gets honed to a real fine point.

MULDER: So you're saying that Manley planned this and is carrying it out with the help of someone else.

WARDEN: Elaborate as Shakespeare. Now, if you want to see the victim's body ...

(A guard, Fornier, opens the door to another block and they enter.)

FOURNIER: Visitors coming through. Woman on the block.

(They are now in the prison infirmary. A covered body is lying on a table in an adjoining room. Scully walks toward it.)

WARDEN: We're holding the corpse until the state pathologist comes down this afternoon and conducts the official autopsy. That information should help us solve the murder.

MULDER: Did Manley have many friends among the prisoners?

WARDEN: A man has to have friends in prison to keep an eye on his enemies. Mostly, people were just afraid of him.

SCULLY: Warden?

WARDEN: What is it?

SCULLY: The body. I think you should take a look. I suggest you get it into refrigeration or you're not gonna have anything left to autopsy.

(Scully has lifted the sheet over the body. There are maggots all over it.)

WARDEN: Oh, God.

(Mulder is talking to John Speranza, an inmate in the same cellblock as Manley. Scully and Fornier stand outside the cell.)

MULDER: I've been told you believe Neech Manley's claims.

SPERANZA: It's not a matter of how or if he's coming back. The question is, when ... is he coming back again?

MULDER: What are you saying, Speranza? You believe Manley killed that guard?

SPERANZA: Well how else would you explain it?

MULDER: A prisoner waits for an opportunity ...

SPERANZA: Hey, look around. We ain't got but an opportunity to itchy-scratchy outside our cells.

MULDER: Yeah, but you've got prisoners on work detail. Trustees - a man slips away.

SPERANZA: Oh, this is "Q" block, death row. Don't nobody come in and out here without a guard watching and lately, you got double that.

MULDER: Why?

SPERANZA: 'Cause everybody's afraid of what they say can't be true. Neech is back.

MULDER: Reincarnated.

SPERANZA: Well, he would have called it "transmigration of the soul."

MULDER: Into what form?

SPERANZA: You, me, this mattress - I don't know. He didn't specify, but he's back. I can feel it. The man was electric, you know what I'm saying? Pure energy.

SCULLY: Would it be possible to see the cell where the guard was murdered?

FORNIER: I'll open it up for you.

(Fornier and Scully walk down the block, leaving Mulder with Speranza.)

MULDER: Any idea how he did it?

SPERANZA: Like I said, the man ...

(Several prisoners come to the doors of their cells as Scully and Fornier passes. There are several whistles and catcalls directed at her as she passes. Fornier opens the door to Manley's old cell and she enters.)

FORNIER: Nothing's been touched. It's pretty much the way Neech left it.

(Scully notices a pair of large flies on a stain on the pillow.)

SCULLY: Did you know Neech Manley?

FORNIER: Oh, yeah. I knew him.

SCULLY: What was he like?

FORNIER: Neech? Neech was so full of b.s., he couldn't stand it.

SCULLY: How is that?

FORNIER: He actually started to believe that crap he'd been preaching all those years, as if knowing all them religions made him some kind of god.

SCULLY: Who do you think killed the guard?

FORNIER: I don't know who killed him, but I damn well know who didn't kill him.

SCULLY: Are you afraid at all?

FORNIER: Me? I just keep my ass covered and my eyes peeled. Same as always.

INMATE: (from back up the cellblock) Fornier! Hey, down here!

FORNIER: I'm gonna check back on your partner.

(Scully steps back into the hallway. Fornier walks to Speranza's cell.)

FORNIER: Everything okay in there?

MULDER: Yeah, fine.

(Scully looks toward the other end of the block and walks slowly in that direction, entering the empty showers at the end of the cellblock. From the shadows behind her, a hand comes out and goes across her mouth and pulls her back. It is Parmelly, another guard.)

PARMELLY: (whispering) Shh! I'm not gonna hurt you. I only want to talk to you, okay? I know who he's going to kill. There's a list. One of the cons has it. A man named Roque.

(He releases her, and Scully steps away and turns to the man.)

SCULLY: Who are you?

PARMELLY: My name's Parmelly. I want to help you.

FORNIER: (from a distance) Agent Scully?

(Parmelly steps back into the shadows. Fornier is at the entrance to the showers. Scully walks toward him.)

SCULLY: I was just looking around.

FORNIER: Not a place for a woman to be doing that alone.

(Scully walks back up the block to Speranza's cell.)

SCULLY: Mulder. I'm ready to go now.

MULDER: Okay. I'll be right there.

(He notices that she seems nervous. She steps to the entrance of the block and pounds on the door as he catches up with her.)

SCULLY: Guard!

MULDER: What's wrong, Scully?

SCULLY: I'm just ready to get out of here.

(She looks back and the prisoner in the first cell, Roque, smiles at her. As the door opens, she hurriedly exits.)

< 7:03 am >

(A guard leads a group of prisoners on a work detail into an area that is being painted.)

GUARD: I want every paint brush and putty knife to be accounted for, understand? Come on, gentlemen, move it.

(The first prisoner kneels in front of a paint bucket and opens the lid. He gasps and steps back, pointing at it, and then running to the other end of the room. The other prisoners step forward to look. Inside the bucket is Fornier's bloody head, covered with maggots.)

INMATE: It's the guard. It's Fornier.

GUARD: Come on you guys. Break it up. Get back. I said get back.

ACT II

(Scully and the state pathologist are in the prison infirmary. The pathologist removes Fornier's head, wrapped in plastic, from storage and places it on a table.)

PATHOLOGIST: I guess they haven't recovered the body yet so it's going to be difficult to establish an exact cause of death.

SCULLY: What did your preliminary exam turn up?

PATHOLOGIST: Well, it looks like the head was severed just below the jawline with repeated stabbing blows from a putty knife. There were no other indications of trauma to the head.

SCULLY: From the eyewitness reports, there were already fly larvae infesting the flesh. That seems unusual considering the short time-of-death window.

PATHOLOGIST: Not altogether. Here, let me show you this. (he shows her a jar half-filled with larvae) Lucilia cuprina - better known as the green bottle fly. They can lay their eggs within a minute after death occurs, and they breed more rapidly in a hot, humid environment.

SCULLY: In the anaerobic environment inside the paint can?

PATHOLOGIST: On my autopsy on the first victim, the lungs were absolutely alive with infestation.

SCULLY: Hmmm. What was determined to be the cause of that death?

PATHOLOGIST: Best I can figure, given the lack of indicators, he was suffocated to death. Either that ... or he drowned.

(Mulder stands outside Roque's cell as the door slides open.)

GUARD: You've got a visitor, Roque.

MULDER: I hear you have a list.

ROQUE: I prefer not to talk about it here. Not on the block.

(Mulder notices that Speranza, in the next cell, is listening to them.)

MULDER: Guard?

(The guard leads Roche out of his cell and toward an interview room. Speranza yells at him as he leaves.)

SPERANZA: You's a dead man, Roque! You hear me?! I'm gonna peel that head like an onion! I'm gonna to break you off a big chunk! You hear me?! He ain't gonna tell you nothing but a bunch of lies! You talk, punk, I will make you my Maytag! He's alive!

(Mulder and Roque are now in an interview room.)

MULDER: How did you come by this list you claim to have?

ROQUE: I heard Neech on the bars one night telling Speranza.

MULDER: How many names are on the list?

ROQUE: Five. Just like Neech said.

MULDER: So you knew those two guards were gonna be murdered?

ROQUE: I knew they were on the list, yeah.

MULDER: Who do you think killed them?

ROQUE: I don't know. I just know who's on the list.

MULDER: You want to make some kind of deal, huh?

ROQUE: That's right. I want a transfer out of this hole.

MULDER: Why? Are you on the list?

ROQUE: I ain't saying nothing. Not until I get my deal.

MULDER: Well, what if they don't give you what you want?

ROQUE: Then they're gonna to see the other three die.

(The warden, Mulder and Scully are walking through the prison.)

WARDEN: I can't do it. I can't make that deal.

MULDER: You don't have the authority?

WARDEN: No, it's not that. If I make that deal I might as well go into the deal-making business. Every con with half a brain would come up with a scheme like that.

SCULLY: Well, what if it saves three lives? Isn't that a deal worth making?

WARDEN: Look, my job is about controlling anarchy. I don't run this prison, I just patrol it. Basically, it's war in here. We have freedom. They don't. Anything these men want, somehow it finds its way in here. They want another prisoner dead somebody's gonna find a way to put a shiv in.

SCULLY: These aren't prisoners. These are guards you've got being murdered.

WARDEN: Yes, and if I back down now, all I'll be doing is sending a message about the benefits of killing prison guards. There's a conspiracy at work here. I don't know who's behind it. But I am gonna crack it. That's my job.

(They have reached the warden's office. He opens the door to find the rest of Fornier's body - that is, minus the head - sitting in his chair.)

WARDEN: What the hell? Guard! Guard! Get in here.

SCULLY: I guess you'll be able to finish up that autopsy now, Scully.

< 3:45 PM >

(Scully and Mulder are examining the books in Neech Manley's library, which are stored on a shelf at the prison.)

SCULLY: He had quite a library.

MULDER: Yeah.

(She pulls a Bible off the shelf. It has dozens of paper markers in it.)

SCULLY: Looks like Neech Manley knew his Bible.

MULDER: Listen to this. "I come in return to the beginning of the end to begin again the journey of souls ... the godhead universal for whom there is no death only life eternal."

SCULLY: What's that from?

MULDER: Neech Manley, 1994. This stuff goes on for hundreds of pages. There's references to the Hindu Atman, Prarabdha, the Rosicrucians, Zoroastrianism. The man was obsessed with reincarnation.

SCULLY: Being obsessed with it doesn't mean you can do it.

MULDER: Unless he knew something we don't.

SCULLY: Like what? The secret password?

MULDER: Every major world religion encompasses the idea of life after death. That means millions, even billions of people believe in some kind of transmigration or rebirth of the soul.

SCULLY: I'm sorry, Mulder, that's not what I learned in catechism.

MULDER: Well, even Christianity teaches about the resurrection and ascendancy of the heavenly body.

SCULLY: Do you honestly believe that Neech Manley came back from the dead to kill those two men?

MULDER: Is there another competing theory?

SCULLY: A very good one, and one much more believable.

MULDER: That this is a complex scheme, that the headless man planted behind the warden's desk is the work of a conspiracy of inmates.

SCULLY: Or guards.

MULDER: (he nods) Yeah, but imagine if it were true, Scully. Imagine if you could come back and take out five people who had caused you to suffer. Who would they be?

SCULLY: I only get five?

MULDER: I remembered your birthday this year, didn't I, Scully? (she smiles) Well, here's somebody we haven't talked to yet. (he pulls a letter from Danielle Manley out of the file) She should know better than anybody else.

(Mulder and Scully are at Danielle Manley's house. He knocks and she answers the door.)

MULDER: Mrs. Manley?

DANIELLE MANLEY: Yes?

MULDER: We're from the FBI. (he flashes his badge) We'd like to ask you a few questions about your husband.

(They are sitting in Danielle's living room. Danielle smokes a cigarette.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: I had this dream ... had it many times. That they put Neech in that chair and they flipped the switch, but that he wouldn't die. They couldn't kill him. He's a powerful man. Very powerful man.

MULDER: Did he ever share his thoughts about dying with you?

DANIELLE MANLEY: Neech wasn't afraid to die.

SCULLY: Because of his beliefs?

(Scully notices that Danielle's hands are trembling as she smokes and holds an ashtray in the other hand.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: (nods) Sometimes ... see, I only got to have personal visiting days right before the execution dates. There was three in the last 11 years. But sometimes ... I could feel the power of his beliefs right through that visiting glass.

MULDER: You think he's come back, don't you?

DANIELLE MANLEY: You know ... I think that if anyone could ... it'd be Neech.

(At the prison, a guard opens the door to Roque's cell. He is doing pushups on the floor.)

GUARD: Get up, Roque. Putting on the chains.

ROQUE: Hey, man ... for what?

GUARD: The warden wants to talk to you.

(He puts the chains on Roque and steps back into the corridor. Roque comes out and starts left, toward the warden's office.)

GUARD: Other way.

ROQUE: Where are we going?

GUARD: (motioning in the other direction) This way.

(The guard gives Roque a push.)

ROQUE: Let go of my arm, I'm going! What you want with me, anyway? Stop pushing!

(The guard leads him into the showers at the end of the block. The warden comes down the stairs at the other end. The guard leaves them alone.)

WARDEN: Hey, Roque. I want to talk to you about this list.

ROQUE: I ain't saying nothing.

WARDEN: Come on, Roque, you got a big mouth. What are you shutting up now for? Huh?

(The warden punches him in the face. Roque sinks to his knees.)

WARDEN: Who's on the list? (he jerks Roque to his feet by his shirt) Am I on the list, Roque? Am I on that list?! (shouts) Is my name on that list?!

(Roque has blood in his mouth from the punch.)

ROQUE: You're number five. How's it feel to be on death row, Warden?

(Scully and Mulder are outside, leaving Danielle Manley's house.)

SCULLY: Did you catch her body language?

MULDER: She was nervous, or scared.

SCULLY: Of what? That her husband's gonna keep his word?

MULDER: A lot could have happened in her life in those 11 years Neech was in prison. A lot probably did.

SCULLY: You mean she thinks she's on the list?

MULDER: I don't know, but I've been thinking a lot about that list, Scully.

(Scully's cell phone rings.)

SCULLY: (to phone) Scully. We're on our way. (hangs up) (to Mulder) That was the warden. There's been another death.

MULDER: Who?

SCULLY: Roque. They found him beaten to death in the showers on death row.

(As they get into the car to leave, Danielle watches from a window. A man comes up behind her.)

PARMELLY: Gotta go now.

(She jumps and spins around nervously.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: God. You scare me when you do that.

PARMELLY: Why? You think it's him?

DANIELLE MANLEY: Wh-where are you going?

PARMELLY: I'm going to work.

DANIELLE MANLEY: Parm, I'm scared. You feel me? I'm shaking like a little kitten.

PARMELLY: Hey. (kisses her) Now what are you scared of?

DANIELLE MANLEY: What if somebody finds out? I-I mean, what if ...

PARMELLY: Will you stop your worrying? Everything's gonna be all right. Hmm? (walks away and puts on his shirt) He ain't coming back, Danielle. He ain't. (he leaves)

ACT III

(Scully and Mulder walk down the cellblock toward the showers. Several inmates taunt Scully as she passes. In the shower, Parmelly and another guard are putting Roque's body on a stretcher. The warden approaches Scully and Mulder.)

SCULLY: Who found the body?

WARDEN: One of my guards.

MULDER: No one heard anything?

WARDEN: Nobody who should have. I'm ordering a lockdown of this facility until the situation is brought back under control. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who had contact with Neech Manley is a suspect.

(The warden walks away, as Scully examines Roque's body. Mulder turns and pursues the warden.)

MULDER: Warden?

(Scully puts the sheet back over Roque's head. Parmelly is beside her. They are alone.)

PARMELLY: (quietly) I warned you. That's three.

(Mulder catches up with the warden.)

MULDER: Warden? Why Roque?

WARDEN: Neech hated Roque. They pretty near tried to kill each other once.

MULDER: Well then, why the other victims?

WARDEN: Neech probably hated them too.

MULDER: Did Neech have a history with the guards who died?

WARDEN: Neech had a small behavioral problem, about a year, a year and a half ago. Fornier and the other men had to, uh, discipline him.

MULDER: How badly was he beaten?

WARDEN: He took his licks.

MULDER: So there's a pattern here, a logic. All these men had a violent history with Neech. They all caused him to suffer physical pain.

WARDEN: What are you getting at?

MULDER: A lockdown may not solve your problem, warden.

WARDEN: Sure as hell'll put a lid on it.

MULDER: If it's a conspiracy among the inmates, but how many inmates could have put that body in your office? How many could have gotten access?

WARDEN: You're saying the guards are involved?

MULDER: I'm saying that Roque may not be victim number three. Now, I need a name from you. I need the name of Neech's executioner.

WARDEN: (shaking his head) It's confidential.

MULDER: How many men know it?

WARDEN: Three men, including me. We place an ad, pay him in cash. There's no written record.

MULDER: Well, his life may be in danger.

WARDEN: There is no chance ...

MULDER: Well look at it this way, warden. If I'm right, it'll reduce your list of suspects to four.

WARDEN: I said three men knew that name.

MULDER: I'm counting Neech Manley.

(Mulder and Scully approach the home of Perry Simon, the executioner of Neech Manley. The door is unlocked, and there is a pile of mail inside the door.)

MULDER: Mr. Simon? Perry Simon? Couple of days' worth of mail.

(No one answers, so they look through the house. Scully finds a picture of Simon holding a large fish. [Simon is the man who was waiting by the side of the road in the teaser.] She notices several maggots on the floor nearby and looks up toward the ceiling.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: What is it?

(He joins her and looks up as well. There is another maggot in a light fixture in the ceiling. It drops and Mulder catches it.)

(They open a door upstairs and see Simon's body in a chair. Many maggots are on the floor around the chair. They approach and find his body badly eaten by the maggots. Mulder puts his hand over his mouth and steps back.)

SCULLY: Oh, God. (she steps away as well)

(Speranza is led, in chains, to the interview room at the prison where Mulder waits. The guard leaves them alone.)

SPERANZA: I told you, didn't I?

MULDER: You told me everything but what I need to know. Who else is on that list, John?

SPERANZA: I can't tell you that.

MULDER: How's he doing it, John?

SPERANZA: I really can't tell you.

MULDER: And you're just gonna let those men die?

SPERANZA: Ain't my call!

MULDER: Well, they're going to pin it on somebody! They're gonna pin it on you ...

SPERANZA: They're gonna what? What are they going to do to me?

MULDER: Put you in solitary, one hour a week outside your cell, no contact with anyone. They say it can break a man.

SPERANZA: I can't tell you, man.

MULDER: You're afraid of Neech?

SPERANZA: I saw him.

MULDER: You saw Neech.

SPERANZA: Standing outside my cell, big as life.

MULDER: Tell me who else is on the list, John. Who's next?

SPERANZA: I can't tell you who's on the list. But I can tell you, Roque wasn't on it.

MULDER: Roque's not on it?

(The guard lets Scully into the room.)

SCULLY: Mulder, can I have a minute?

(He steps over to her and they converse quietly.)

SCULLY: I've just been going over Neech's phone calls over the last two months. Over 30 of them were made to a man named Danny Charez - twice as many as to his own wife.

MULDER: And?

SCULLY: Charez has been here three times to see Speranza since the first murder. He could be working with him on the outside.

(Scully and Mulder are in the living room of Danny Charez.)

CHAREZ: Look, I've got nothing to hide.

SCULLY: Okay then, what's your business with John Speranza?

CHAREZ: I was trying to get Speranza a deal.

SCULLY: What kind of deal?

CHAREZ: Retrial maybe. Reopen the case. I got some connections with the government.

MULDER: What kind of connections?

CHAREZ: I used to be an attorney. Actually, I represented Neech Manley.

SCULLY: You were Neech Manley's defense lawyer?

CHAREZ: I was 26. I was court-appointed. I had no business on a death penalty case.

MULDER: Why help Speranza now?

CHAREZ: I heard about Neech's death list. Word gets around. And I know he blames me for him getting fried so I figured I got to try something.

MULDER: You think Speranza's got some sway with Neech?

CHAREZ: I'm just trying to save my ass. I've been to the Governor, Speranza, Neech's wife ...

SCULLY: Why Neech's wife?

CHAREZ: Maybe she's got some mojo with him too. I don't know. Anyway, I got run out of there by her crazy boyfriend.

SCULLY: She has a boyfriend?

CHAREZ: Works at the prison. Waving a freakin' gun in my face.

(At the prison, the door to Speranza's cell opens and the warden steps in.)

WARDEN: Hello, John.

SPERANZA: (stands) What do you want?

WARDEN: Oh, no, sit down, sit. I'm here to do you good.

SPERANZA: (remains standing) What you talking about?

WARDEN: I want to be your advocate. I'm gonna get them to look at your case again, pull a few strings in Tallahassee.

SPERANZA: And what do you want from me?

WARDEN: Just call off the dogs. That's all. What do you say? Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

SPERANZA: All right.

(The warden nods at him and steps back. The guard closes the cell door.)

WARDEN: I'll have somebody from the Governor's office down here to see you by this weekend.

(That evening, Charez pounds on the air conditioner at his house. He opens a window and takes a drink, then unbuttons his shirt and lies on his sofa, putting the cold glass against his forehead. A fly suddenly appears on his face and he wipes it away. He opens his eyes to see a man pressing a pillow against his face. He struggles.)

(It is dark and Parmelly pulls up in front of the house he shares with Danielle. He enters the house.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: Where have you been?

PARMELLY: Out.

DANIELLE MANLEY: Out. What do you mean, out?

PARMELLY: What's with you?

DANIELLE MANLEY: You see who's sitting outside watching this house? You see that car out there? You know who that is? (he looks out the window, seeing the car) Huh? The stupid FBI. They came here tonight asking about you.

PARMELLY: About me?

DANIELLE MANLEY: Said they saw you waving a gun in some lawyer's face in my front yard.

PARMELLY: That's crazy!

DANIELLE MANLEY: I thought you said nobody knew about us. Now lookit, just lookit.

(Scully and Mulder are sitting in the car.)

SCULLY: A woman gets lonely ... sometimes she can't wait around for a man to be reincarnated. I think we should notify the warden.

(Mulder starts the car and they drive off.)

(At the prison, the warden is showing Scully and Mulder pictures of the prison staff. He points to the photo of Parmelly.)

WARDEN: Is that the man?

SCULLY: That's him. (reads the name) Parmelly.

(The warden picks up his phone.)

WARDEN: (to phone) Yeah, give me, uh, Vincent Parmelly's work sheet for the last week, will you please? Thank you. (hangs up) (to Scully and Mulder) Now, you say you saw him with Neech's wife?

SCULLY: Yes. I hadn't reported it but that same guard also cornered me and made an overture for prisoner Roque.

WARDEN: He's tied in with Roque?

SCULLY: Well, does it make sense to you that Parmelly is Neech's assassin?

WARDEN: I don't know Parmelly that well. He's a transfer in from out of state. He's only been here six months.

SCULLY: Well, according to an attorney we spoke to, he had brandished a gun at the residence.

WARDEN: What attorney?

SCULLY: A man named Charez. (the warden reacts) You know him?

WARDEN: Everybody knows Danny Charez. He was found dead earlier this evening at his apartment.

MULDER: Murdered?

WARDEN: Suffocated to death, or so it seems.

SCULLY: Well, he could be the fifth victim.

WARDEN: I think somebody ought to go out and arrest Vincent Parmelly.

(Scully and Mulder leave. Mulder looks a bit undecided.)

(Later, Danielle Manley is lying in her bed. She sees a man standing in the bedroom doorway.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: Oh, my God. No ...

(It is Neech Manley in the doorway.)

ACT IV

(Neech steps away from the door. Danielle comes out of the darkened bedroom and walks slowly through the house. She sees a man looking out the window.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: Neech?

(It's Parmelly instead.)

PARMELLY: What the hell you doing?

DANIELLE MANLEY: He's here.

PARMELLY: What are you talking about?

DANIELLE MANLEY: Neech - I saw him.

PARMELLY: Somebody's here, but it ain't Neech.

(He looks out the window again and sees Mulder, Scully and several policemen pull up in front.)

PARMELLY: They're coming here.

(He turns to Danielle and sees that she is pointing a gun at him.)

DANIELLE MANLEY: It's you, isn't it?

PARMELLY: What?

DANIELLE MANLEY: You're him.

PARMELLY: You're crazy, baby.

(Mulder, Scully and the policemen approach the front door. Mulder knocks while they take positions.)

PARMELLY: (whispering) Put that gun away, Danielle. That's the police out there.

MULDER: This is Agent Mulder. Please open the door.

DANIELLE MANLEY: I should have known. I should have opened my eyes.

MULDER: Mrs. Manley, we're federal agents. Open the door.

DANIELLE MANLEY: The way you touched me ...

MULDER: (knocking again) Danielle?

DANIELLE MANLEY: ... and the sound of your voice.

PARMELLY: Point that gun away, Danielle. I'm telling you - they're gonna put you away just like your old man.

DANIELLE MANLEY: Don't you come near me.

PARMELLY: You're seeing ghosts.

MULDER: (knocking again) Mrs. Manley, open the door.

(Scully steps aside and looks through the window, seeing Danielle and Parmelly as Mulder knocks again.)

SCULLY: She's got a gun on Parmelly. Center room, facing away.

MULDER: (drawing his gun) (to the others) On a count ...

(They hear a gunshot before they can enter. They storm in, finding Danielle holding a gun and Parmelly on the floor.)

MULDER: Drop your weapon!

SCULLY: Put it down! Put it down!

MULDER: Drop your weapon, Danielle. (she does) Let's get a paramedic in here.

DANIELLE MANLEY: (whispering) It was him. He came back.

(Mulder checks Parmelly's pulse. Parmelly has a gunshot wound in the chest.)

MULDER: Forget it.

DANIELLE MANLEY: (still whispering) I swear it was him. It was Neech.

(She puts her hand over her mouth.)

(At the prison, Speranza's cell door opens. A guard stands there with chains. Shortly after, the guard steps back into the corridor and Speranza follows in chains, starting to the left.)

GUARD: No, go this ...

SPERANZA: What you talking about?

GUARD: We're going this way. Somebody wants to talk to you.

SPERANZA: (loudly) What kind of crap is this? Who wants to talk to me?

(The warden is pacing in the showers. He hears Speranza and the guard approaching.)

SPERANZA: Well, the warden's office is that way.

GUARD: We're going down here.

SPERANZA: Uh-uh. No.

GUARD: Why not.

SPERANZA: Man, this is bull! I ain't going for it! What the hell is this, man? Why do you want to talk to me in the shower for anyway, huh? What the ...

(The guard shoves Speranza into the shower.)

WARDEN: John. (chuckling) Hear about your friend Parmelly tonight?

SPERANZA: He's not my friend.

WARDEN: Oh, he's not your friend. Well, it doesn't matter any more anyway, does it, huh?

SPERANZA: You promised me a deal.

WARDEN: Yeah, well, that was when there was a deal to be made.

(The warden punches Speranza in the midsection and he doubles over. The warden motions for the guard to leave.)

WARDEN: Who else was in on it, John?

SPERANZA: I can tell you.

WARDEN: Tell me what?

SPERANZA: I can tell you what I know.

WARDEN: Well, tell me what you know.

SPERANZA: Neech's list ... got one man left to die.

(The warden stares at him for a moment, then pushes him back against the wall. He steps forward and starts punching him.)

(On the block, other inmates yell out. The guard stands silently at the entrance to the showers.)

INMATES' VOICES: What's going on up there? Something's going on. Hey, leave him alone!

(The next day, Mulder and Scully are driving along a road when Mulder pulls over.)

SCULLY: Why are we stopping?

MULDER: You know, it just doesn't make sense.

(He gets out of the car and walks a short way down the road. Scully follows.)

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: Laying it all on Parmelly.

SCULLY: I thought we already went through this.

MULDER: It doesn't bother you that he was only on duty for one of the guards' murders or that he wasn't among the three men that knew the name of Neech's executioner?

SCULLY: Then he was working with someone. They just haven't found out who.

MULDER: Well, why would he come to you and try to get you the list?

SCULLY: To use fear as leverage for Roque's deal with the warden.

MULDER: But Neech hated Roque. If Parmelly was working with Neech, he wouldn't have done that, would he?

SCULLY: I don't know. Maybe Parmelly wasn't sticking with the original plan. I'm sure this shacking up with Neech's wife wasn't part of it either, or maybe Neech's wife killing Parmelly was part of the plan from the beginning so that he'd take the truth to the grave with him.

MULDER: I just don't see the motives. Do you? I don't think Parmelly killed anybody.

SCULLY: Well then, who did? Neech Manley?

MULDER: Speranza and Neech's wife both said they saw him.

SCULLY: It's over, Mulder. Let's just go home.

(Scully walks back toward the car. Mulder pauses for a few moments, then follows.)

(As Mulder gets into their car, the warden passes in the other direction. The warden adjusts his rearview mirror. A fly appears on his face and he swats it away. In his rearview mirror, he suddenly sees Neech Manley in the back seat. Manley grabs the warden around the neck with one arm and reaches for the steering wheel with the other. The car runs off the side of the road, headlong into a tree. The horn sounds continuously. Blood is all over the windshield. Inside, the back seat is empty. The warden lies across the front seat, blood across his face. A fly is on his face.)

THE END