"When was the body found?" Temperance Brennan asked as she grabbed her case out of Booth's truck.
"About an hour and a half ago, sounds like it's been there awhile." Booth replied.
"Who owns the house, where are they and when were they last seen?"
"One question at a time, Bones. The house is owned by a Julia Morrison and she hasn't been seen in about seven years so I'm gonna guess that that is either her or her doing."
"Lets not jump to conclusions. What are you doing?" The last part was not aimed at Booth, but rather at the cop bent over the body poking at the fingers of the right hand of the skeleton lying at the bottom of the stairs.
"Uh...trying to see what he is holding in his hand?" The uncertainty in his voice made Booth hide a smile as Bones glared at the man.
"I'm gonna need you to understand a few things. Ok?"
"Ok." He sounded even more scared now than he had the first time.
"First of all, that is a she, not a he. You can tell that by the shape of the pelvis. Second of all, if she is holding something in her hand then my team at the Jeffersonian can extract it the way it should be done. Not with a pair of tweezers that I seriously doubt that the origin is anywhere near sterile. And lastly I will not tolerate you coming within ten feet of me or this body for the next say 42 minutes and 37 seconds. Just to be finicky." She smirked as the guy quickly skirted the body and ducked out the front door.
"I think he was worried you were gonna go all Lara Croft on him."
"Who is Lara Croft?" It still astounded him, the genuine confusion in her eyes when someone quoted a movie. He forced down a smile and shook his head,
"Never mind, Bones, never mind."
"The victim is female, mid to late thirties and she has fractures to the radius and ulna of her left arm."
"So she broke her arm. How? She fall down the stairs?"
"I don't think so. The body is in the wrong place. It's more like she tried to defend herself against something coming down at her. See how her arm is across her chest? She raised it and it was struck back down hard enough to break the bones."
Just then a cop came down the stairs frowning. "The upstairs is clear except for one door that is jammed shut."
"Any idea what's behind it?"
"I'm not sure but if you look at these photos." He pointed to the set of pictures on the wall of the stairs.
"Are those school photos?" Booth felt his heart ice over at the thought of a child losing their mother die.
"Yeah, looks like it. There are three or four here so the kid would only have been what 7...8 years old."
Booth's face slammed shut, his eyes going cold. The shift was subtle but she saw it. His sniper mode. He wouldn't be letting this one go till the case was shut and someone was behind bars. "Booth..." He looked at her with ice in his gaze. "Is it a boy or a girl?" She shifted gears and stepped onto the bottom stair.
"A girl, unless you're going to put a boy in a pink school dress." Booth chuckled mirthlessly and started up the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Bones followed him without hesitation.
"To check out the kid's room. Maybe we'll even find out her name and find her and get a clue as to who the hell did this."
"I didn't see a kid's room." The cop's frown increased in intensity. "It could be the jammed door, I guess."
"Why would the kid's door be locked shut but not any of the others? And if this is a murder why not remove the photos? Wouldn't it make more sense to remove all traces of a kid if they saw what you did or you planned on killing them?" Bones frowned now.
"Why?"
"Because, Officer..."
"Creely, ma'am."
"Officer Creely. If you are going to kill someone and don't want to get caught isn't it better to kill someone who is invisible?"
"Oh right." He looked at the floor and Booth smirked.
"Come on, Bones, stop embarrassing the man and help me get through this door."
Taking the stairs two at a time Bones followed her partner's voice up the stairs and into the upstairs hallway. Noticing something she stopped and crouched. "Hey Booth, check this out. There's blood drops along here."
"So someone was either carrying a blood covered object down this hall or was bleeding as they came down this hall." Booth moved back to where she knelt and then following the blood trail back to the jammed door.
"That can't mean anything good."