Inside an abandoned apartment building in a deserted part of town, Doggett sees a figure bolt out of one of the rooms into the night. Shortly thereafter, he hears a scratching sound and steps up to a wet plaster wall. He claws away at the plaster until ribbons of red blood begin streaming downward.

With help from morgue assistant Diener, Scully performs an autopsy on the body Doggett found behind the wet plaster. She reviews her findings with FBI cadets, one of whom, Rudolph Hayes, accurately guesses that the victim hooked up with the wrong man at a bar. Using Hayes� uncanny insights, Scully realizes that this murder is connected to another killing two weeks earlier. Doggett wonders why someone tipped him off about the murder to begin with, as it is clearly not an X-Files case.

Later, Doggett and Reyes approach Hayes, who tells them the killer they�re looking for is a felon linked to organised crime, contradicting the agents� profile. Reyes and Doggett then visit a bar and talk to Nicholas Regali, a tough mobster who claims he�s in town looking for work. Hayes� intuition about Regali proves correct.

Meanwhile, Hayes returns to his apartment, the walls of which are covered with crime scene photos of murder victims, including one of Doggett�s son. Doggett is so impressed by Hayes� gift for solving crimes that he asks him to look into his son�s murder. Hayes takes Doggett to his apartment and tells him that if he sits very quietly, the photographs tell him things. He also admits that he has been following the case of Doggett�s son�s death for a very long time, and shows Doggett a mug shot of Robert Harvey, a suspect in the murder. Hayes believes Harvey abducted Doggett�s son... but that Regali killed him.

Doggett approaches Brad Follmer, who worked in the New York organized crime division, and asks him to look into any connection between Regali and Robert Harvey. Doggett convinces his ex-wife Barbara to come to an identity parade, but she does not recognize Regali.

Meanwhile, Scully finds similarities between the wounds inflicted on Doggett�s son nine years earlier and those on the bodies of the two women recently murdered. Checking through files on Regali, Doggett finds it odd that he has served so little jail time since the late Eighties, despite his connection to illegal activities. He begins to suspect that someone in the FBI is on the take.

Later, Follmer informs Reyes and Doggett that Rudolph Hayes died in an automobile accident in 1978... and that Cadet Hayes� is really Stuart Mimms, a mental patient. Follmer also uncovers evidence that Mimms was living in New York City at the time Doggett�s son was murdered.

A SWAT team storms Mimm�s apartment and takes him into custody. Mimms is placed in a police lineup...and Barbara identifies him.

At a secret meeting between Follmer and Regali, it becomes clear that Follmer took money from Regali to make an indictment go away. Mimms tells Scully that he was drawn to the Doggett case only after he noticed an article about the boy�s murder in a newspaper. He claims he lied to the FBI to become a cadet so he could have access to the Bureau�s inner workings and help solve the case. He tells Doggett that Regali murdered his son.

Approached by Doggett, Regali tells him a "hypothetical" story, in which a paedophile takes a young boy to a mobster�s home. The mobster walks in on the paedophile, and the young boy sees the mobster�s face. Fearing the boy might associate him with the crime, the mobster has him killed. Regali then rises and walks towards the exit.

Filled with rage, Doggett unsnaps his holster. A gunshot rings out, but it's from Follmer's gun, and kills Regali. The mystery of their son�s death now solved, Doggett and his wife make their way to a beach and scatter their son�s ashes into the water.

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