"The man can drink! I mean he slowly drinks but it takes him a while to get drunk, but when he is drunk he is really drunk. Hodgins talks a lot too. Most of the time it was about bugs, cute woman and conspiracy but I don't think he stopped to breathe once." Angela rattled off.
I found it an oddly comforting story, one of my co-works, Jack Hodgins and Angela had gone out for drinks the night before. Apparently Hodgins had thought it was a date but he did not treat it as such. At first, Angela told me, he was a gentleman, very sweet… for Jack Hodgins that is. But as the night slowly progressed and as the number of drinks he has consumed grew larger, he became aware of the many women around him. Normally Angela said she would have been angry, being a date and all, but this time however she found it quite amusing.
"After his sixth, I think, Irish Car Bomb he turned to the man that was sitting behind him and he began to flirt like mad. I'm telling you, sweetie, if you even saw five minutes of last night you wouldn't be able to look at Jack the same. The man shoved peanuts up his nose and called himself Dumbo." Angela made an odd gesture around her ears to make them appear larger. And before I could even smile I felt a hand land on my shoulder and grip.
"Bones, we've got a case. We need to go. Now." My partner said quickly, realizing he had startled me.
"Now? We were just getting something to eat. Maybe you can join us." Angela said sending 'signals' the size of tidal waves. I gave her an apologetic look; she gave me a quick hug and then sighed. "Mulder and Scully, at it again. Hurry back, Tempe, I still haven't finished telling you the whole story. I still have many more interesting gossips to share. Some of it even involves nudity."
I saw Booth raise an eyebrow before shaking his head and leading me out of my office and towards the door. We didn't speak until we reached his rather large SUV. His tight jaw and tense shoulders told me to refrain from asking to drive or take my car. Just once, other than that nice looking automobile in LA, I would like to drive. I pushed that thought to the back of my mind just in time because Booth began to brief me on what the case was.
"Last night two teenage boys were out at this lake, Jordan's Pond is what they called it. Anyways they were out there doing what every teenager does without supervision when they stumbled across an odd rock. Well it wasn't a rock, it was a human head. The police were called, then the morgue, search parties, people combed that lake for more parts, but we didn't find anything. We need you to tell us who it is and how they died." Booth explained. I nodded and noticed that his tension increased. There was something about this case he wasn't telling me, but for the moment I was okay with not knowing.
He didn't need to tell me what was bothering him. Upon arriving at the morgue I figured it out in an instant. The man at the morgue, Dr. Stevens was what Booth called a geek. I found him to be very intelligent and informative. He explained to me that the head was from a female around age 19 or 20 and that her cause of death was drowning. I concluded that this was right, but what he did not notice was the she was hit over the head before being tossed in the water.
Thanking the kind doctor we took the skull back to the Jeffersonian and had Angela put a face on the victim. She was talking through out the process about Dumbo, something about peanuts and I believe I heard her said the words "Hodgins wears thongs." I however do not know if she really did say or if my mind was starting to play tricks on me because some where in the middle of her story I realized that I recognized the woman. She was the Governors daughter Lisa Jones. "…are you even listening to me, Tempe?" Angela asked knowing full well that I was not.
"That…. That is Lisa Jones." I said hoping beyond hope that Booth would correct me.
"The Governors daughter?" Angela and Booth both gasped.
"That's not possible…" Booth muttered.
"What's not possible?" Angela watched my partner with the same expression I was sure I had on my face.
"She has only been missing for three days. No one knows about her disappearance besides her family and the FBI. And I guess you guys now…" Booth sighed.
"Great. Lets go tell them we found her." I said stepping away from the 3D image.
"No way, Bones, it's a skull. It can't be her. There's nothing else there but bones. It's a mistake." Booth said and I heard Angela slowly take in a deep breath. He had just insulted her machine, her work, her baby.
"No, Booth, it's her. Angela's machines are correct." I argued. I turned to leave and Booth followed trying to argue his point more. He didn't even finish his first sentence however because we came face to face with Dr. Goodman and some young man as we left the room.
"Ah, Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth, this is Austin Rogers. He has come here with knowledge on who this young woman is and what has happened to her." Dr. Goodman paused, looking at me, scolding me for bringing FBI work into his office. "Why don't you go to you office, Temperance and hear his side of the story?"
Not even waiting for an answer he turned and left, leaving me to guide the two men to my office. The walk as short but quiet. I think he was kind of frightened to be in the presence of the FBI.
"So who is she?" Booth said as the door clicked into place.
"It's Lisa Jones. She was my girlfriend." Austin sobbed. He had tears in his already red eyes, and I felt a little sorry for him.
"What happened?" My partner pushed harder.
"I don't know. Some of my friends heard she was rich and joked about how they could get money from her parents. I didn't like it, their jokes, so they started messing with me more. 'We can kidnap her, send a finger home for ransom.' One of my friends even went as far as finding an old chair and making it so it looked like it would be used to tie someone into and torture them." By now he was in tears. "I didn't know they were really going to do it. They always said they were only kidding. But when Mrs. Jones called me yesterday morning and told me she was missing I grew worried. I didn't know what to do. And then the news this morning, finding a skull… It has to be Lisa's."
I shot Booth a look, a rather childish triumphant one. But my victory was short lived. This was a Governors daughter, we had to get on this immediately.
"How did she die?" Booth hounded.
"You're the FBI, you tell me." He asked, wiping his eyes. "I mean it's your saying 'the truth is out there?' Go find the truth."
"Alright buddy, write down your number and stay at home the next few days. We may need to talk to you some more." Booth sighed and rubbed his eyes in frustration.
"So I am free to go?" Austin asked.
"Yes, you are free to go." Booth nodded.
"So you're not going to erase my memory with one of those memory erasing pens or anything?" The boy appeared to be panicked.
"Not today." Booth groaned. The boy nodded thankfully and ran off.
After a moment of silence Booth began to grab his coat from its place on my coat rack, then he grabbed mine. He scooped up my keys, tossed them to me and left the office without a word.
"Uh, Booth? Were are we going?" I asked hearing the clicking of my boots on the tiled floor.
"To inform her parents then to catch the son of the bitch who did this." Booth growled. Smiling to myself, I caught up with my partner.