The Lone Gunmen were trying to find out who murdered Jeff Strode when they found Jeff Strode himself, alive and well though in FBI custody. He explained that he had blackmailed a man who seemed to be cheating on his wife only to learn he was an FBI agent undercover with his partner as an importer. The woman online was his real wife. So when he showed up at the club to demand the money in person, Assistant Director Walter Skinner had to attack him in the bathroom and make it look like a homicide while the FBI hid Jeff Strode in a safe house.