It is late Friday night and Dr. Temperance Brennan is fast asleep with her head resting on Special Agent Seeley Booth's chest. The phone ringing startles both of them awake.
"Hello?" Booth answers, blinking at the light Brennan just turned on in the room. "Ok, we'll be right there."
To Brennan he says, "There was a body found at the camp ground, they need us to check it out."
"Alright, we'll drop Christine off at your grandfather's on our way."
Booth leans over and kisses Brennan sweetly on the lips before getting out of bed and pulling on his pants. Brennan smiles, completely content with the life they have built together. She loves her job, her daughter, and her wonderful husband. Everything is as it should be.
Booth and Brennan meet Dr. Camille Saroyan at the crime scene.
"It's a teenager, just turned 16 a week ago. Her name is Alice Witt. A group of high school students were staying on these camp grounds for a Supernatural Club field trip. According to the teacher in charge, the students split up to go investigate the woods. One of the groups came running back, screaming they found something that attacked their friend. The teacher had the group lead him to the place of the attack, that is where the body was found," Cam explains as they walk towards the body.
"I can't do anything with this body until we have it back to the lab and the bones cleaned. There are no bones showing right now," Brennan says matter of factly.
"Well, then you and I can start questioning some potential suspects Bones," Booth says with a half-smile. He loves working with his wife, especially when they get to stick together. "We have to find this kid's attacker in case he's planning anything else. I think we should go talk to that teacher."
"He went home shortly after we talked to him, as did all of the students. We told them that we'd be in contact and got their addresses," Cam informs them.
"Let's go pay him a visit."
On their way to the teacher's house, Booth calls Dr. Lance Sweets.
"Hello?" Sweets answers, his voice heavy with sleep. "It's 2 am Booth, do we have a case?"
"Hey there Sweets, yeah we have a case. A teenager was found dead in the woods by some of her friends and a teacher. They were on a trip for some sort supernatural investigations club and a group of them were attacked. I need you to go talk to the students and find out what they know about the attack and the victim. The girls name is Alice, I'll send you a list of their addresses."
"Alright, I'm on it Booth."
Booth hangs up as they pull up to a small grey house with a wooden front porch and brown door. There is a gargoyle knocker on the door that seems too large for the house. Booth reaches up to knock, but the door swings open before he gets the chance.
"Hello, sir, how may I help you?" In response to Booth's puzzled expression he adds, "Don't worry I'm not psychic, I have cameras on my front porch at all times so I saw you approaching."
"Special Agent Seeley Booth. This here is my partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan. We'd like to ask you a few questions," Booth says holding out his badge.
"Oh yes of course, I'm Peter Morris. Come on in. Can I get you anything to drink?"
"No, thank you," Booth and Brennan say in unison.
They step into the house and are lead into the living room where they are welcomed to sit on a large, over stuffed couch.
"You have very interesting décor in your home, Mr. Morris. Is that an Nkisi statue from Africa?"
"Why yes it is Dr. Brennan, I have a strong appreciation for any objects other cultures consider to hold magical powers." The rest of the room is filled with equally unique artifacts.
"Do you believe they hold magical powers Mr. Morris?"
"Of course I do, don't you?"
"Bones doesn't exactly believe in anything supernatural, do ya Bones?"
"Why would I believe in some other force that has no scientific evidence to support it? It just isn't logical."
"Not everything in this world is logical, Dr. Brennan. You would be surprised by how much people cannot explain with science," Peter says while slowly walking closer to Brennan, staring accusingly into her eyes. "You best start looking deeper than what science proves, or you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise."
"Ok, I think that's enough magic mojo talk for now," Booth says stepping closer to Brennan and putting a protective arm around her shoulders. "Tell us about your relationship with the student found dead in the camp and where this camping trip idea came from."
"I am the band director over at the High School. I had a large group of kids in my band interested in the supernatural, so we started a club. At first we would just watch shows about ghost hunting, demons, and other supernatural beings. We started doing some online research on our own, trying to compile as much information as possible. News got around the school and we had more and more members join, but Alice was one of the originals. The group decided that they wanted to do some field investigation so I arranged for them to stay the weekend at the camp. Standard field trip procedure was followed and I had two volunteer moms come as additional chaperones. I can give you their names and phone numbers. A few families donated video cameras so the students could film their investigations. It was really quite exciting for all of us."
"So the students who were attacked should have it on film? We need access to those tapes."
"The students still have the camera, you'll have to get it from them."
"Ok, now do you know of anyone who would want to pull a prank on Alice and her friends to scare them, or worse who would actually want to hurt her?"
"Nobody would want to hurt Alice. She was loved by everyone she talked to. Such a sweet girl, I don't think I've met a kinder soul in my entire life. I don't think anybody would want to pull a prank either, the club is well respected in our school and community, as is Alice."
"And you didn't hire anybody to give the kids some positive results in their investigation?"
"No, of course not! I believe as much as they do that the supernatural is out there, I would never try to fake a finding. There is no need!"
Booth's phone rings and he glances at it. Seeing Sweets' name he answers, "Hello…ok yeah we will meet you back at the lab," and hangs up. Addressing Mr. Morris he says, "Thank you, we will be in contact again. Have a good rest of your night."
Mr. Morris walks Booth and Brennan to the door and waves as they leave.
"Good night Mr. Booth and Dr. Brennan, keep your eyes and mind open. If you don't you'll regret it."
In the car Booth tells Brennan that Sweets got the tapes from the students who were with Alice. They are going back to the lab to talk to Sweets and hopefully get information from Cam about the body. Brennan seems lost in thought on something though.
"Hey, what's wrong Bones? Don't worry about what that guy said, I think he was just annoyed that you don't believe in the supernatural. He seems to be very defensive about that stuff."
"But, what did he mean about 'You'll regret it,' that sounds like a threat Booth."
"You don't have to worry Bones, I've got you. Nothing is going to happen alright?" He reaches over to clasp Brennan's hand.
"Ok," Brennan says with a tentative smile squeezing Booth's hand. She knows Booth will do what he can to protect her, he always has and always will. But, that puts him in danger too. She doesn't want to see anything happen to him and is more worried about him than herself.
They have arrived at the lab and Sweets meets Booth and Brennan at the door and they walk towards Brennan's office anxious to get to the point.
"These kids are really freaked out Booth, it was difficult to get anything out of them. They just kept repeating how scared they were and how they should have tried to save Alice instead of run. I offered my card to each of the families and told them to call if their child needed to talk. I think we should wait for them to come to us before we question them more, unless we become desperate."
They arrive at Brennan's office and Booth stops, "Sweets, you know we will have to question them if evidence shows them as suspects. But, we will at least wait until we know more before questioning."
"Alright, they just all seemed so…scared. Brandon Connor was the one holding the camera. He said he was Alice's best friend, they had been into the supernatural stuff since 6th grade. This trip was a big deal to the both of them. He seems to think that it is a supernatural being that attacked Alice, as does the other students. Here is the camera that was used, hopefully we can make something out of it."
"I'll bring the tape to Angela and go find Cam," Brennan says walking out of the room.
"Let's go talk to Alice's parents Sweets."
Cam is examining the body with Arastoo Vaziri, an intern at the Jeffersonian. The two seem to be discussing something they have found on the neck of the victim.
"I have a tape of the attack that I am going to give to Angela, have you found anything?"
Cam glances up saying, "Yes, there appears to be two puncture wounds in the neck about 4 cm apart with slight bruising. It looks like it could be a snake bite or some sort of spiked weapon. There may have been some sort of poison given orally or by inhalation as well. I'll send samples for a tox-screen, have Hodgins check for particulates, and have Mr. Vaziri clean the bones to see if they tell us anything else."
"Thank you. Mr. Vaziri, let me know when the bones are cleaned. I'll be in Angela's office."
Brennan walks into Angela Montenegro's office. She is staring at a picture of Alice pulled up on her large computer screen. The girl looks beautiful, young, and care free. Long straight brown hair and glowing green eyes. A bright smile dances on her face. It takes a moment for Angela to notice Brennan has entered the room.
"Oh, hi sweetie. I was just looking at Alice's social sites trying to find anything that shows some sort of threat or something. But then, I got caught up just looking at her…"
"She was beautiful."
"Yes, and she was loved. Every one of the people she talked to seemed to love her. Especially this guy Brandon. I think, he was possibly in love with her. They were supposed to go to the homecoming dance together, as a date. God, her life was just starting."
"Brandon, he said they were best friends."
"Yeah, well I think they were becoming a bit more than that," she says sarcastically, smiling for a second. Her smile fades, "he must be crushed." Angela glances over at the picture again with tears in her eyes. "What could they have become? What could her life have been?"
"It could have been anything Angela, it is impossible to know what would have been. But, we do know Brandon got part of the attack on camera before they ran away. Maybe, we can stop something like this from happening again."
"I'll take a look at the tape, try to see if I can get a facial recognition."
"Thank you Angela."
"No problem sweetie, hey are you ok? You seem a little freaked."
"Yeah, I'm ok. Just, Booth and I went and talked to the teacher that was in charge of the students last night. He really believes in the supernatural and magic. He told me I'll regret if I don't 'keep my eyes and mind open'. It feels like either a threat or a warning, I don't know which."
"And you're worried that something is going to happen to you? Brennan, it sounds like he is just trying to scare you because you don't believe. Don't worry too much."
"You know, Booth said almost the same thing."
"That's because it's true."
Mr. Veziri knocks as he enters the room. "Dr. Brennan, your bones are clean and I think you'll find this interesting."
Brennan and Arastoo enter the bone room where Mr. Veziri has laid out the skeleton on the table. He walks over and looks down at the left hand and wrist. Brennan joins him, looking at the bones very carefully.
"There are small fractures on the radius and ulna as well as some fractures along the outer metacarpals on both sides of the body that appear to be perimortem," says Arastoo as he points out the small cracks in the bone.
"So the victim fought her attacker. I don't understand why I should find this interesting."
"Because, the victim showed no evidence of bruising near the injuries."
Arastoo holds out photographs of the victim focusing on the hands and wrist. There is no markings that would indicate a struggle on the skin.
"That doesn't make sense, there should be some signs of bruising. There was bruising near the puncture wounds…" Brennan says trailing off. She moves to look at the neck. "There are two indents here, the puncture went through to the bone..." Her phone rings, it's Booth. "Hello," Brennan answers. "Yeah I can meet you there. See you soon." To Arastoo she says, "Mr. Vaziri, I would like you to see if you can determine what could have caused the puncture wounds and look for any other damage to the bones. I will see if I can determine the cause for lack of bruising. I have to meet Booth at the Royal Diner."
Booth is sitting at their usual table at the Royal Diner sipping a cup of coffee. He smiles when he sees Brennan walking over.
"Hey Bones, want some breakfast?"
"No thank you Booth, I'm not very hungry. How was talking to the parents?"
"They seemed almost unaffected. They were sad, but only about as much as they would be if they lost their favorite shirt. It's like they weren't even involved in their child's life. We asked them what they knew about the camping trip, but they said that they didn't know anything except that Alice was going with Brandon. They hardly knew anything about Alice's social life aside from Brandon being her best friend."
"Angela thinks that Brandon and Alice were becoming more than friends. They were supposed to go to a school dance together in a few weeks."
"Huh…that's interesting. We have to talk to him. Maybe he knows something more. Sweets and I went to talk to the two parent chaperones as well. They seemed pretty annoyed that Sweets didn't just talk to them when he talk to the children, but he didn't know and neither of them brought it up before. Both of them said that they know nothing about the attack. They were each with their own child's group. They said that they heard a scream in the woods and went back to camp to see what was going on. The teacher explained the situation, but that is all that they know."
"Do the moms believe in the supernatural too? Are they encouraging their children to pursue this nonsense?"
"Yes, the moms do believe too. They aren't as certain that the attacker was supernatural, but they encouraged me to consider all possibilities."
Brennan shakes her head, "Nothing about this case is making any sense to me…"
"What do you mean Bones? I know you don't get why people believe in what can't be proven, but just focus on the science behind it."
"But that's the thing, even the science isn't making sense…"
"What?" Booth looks surprised.
"There are two puncture wounds on the neck of the victim that show bruising. Cam and Hodgins are working to find the cause. There are also fractures on the victim's wrists and hands that happened before she died. There should be severe bruising where the injuries are, like on the neck. But, no bruising is seen. It doesn't make any sense."
"Do we know cause of death yet?"
"No, Cam's thinks a spiked weapon may have been used, but that only explains injuries. We haven't seen any injuries that truly seem fatal, the puncture wounds didn't even hit any fatal arteries so the victim could not have bled out."
"Huh…could it be a poison or something like that?"
"Cam thought maybe the girl was given a poison or the attacker used a venomous snake as a weapon because the wounds look like a bite mark."
"Sounds like Cam is reaching for a cause."
"Arastoo is looking for more injuries on the body and Cam is waiting for the tox screen. Hopefully the tape of the attack gives us more to go on for suspects."
"Until then, I'll go talk to Brandon. Why don't you go get some sleep Bones, it's been a long day and it's not even 10 yet."
"No, I…I can't sleep. And besides, I used to always stay up all night working."
"Alright, then come with me to talk to Brandon," Booth says standing up. Brennan follows.
Angela walks into Hodgins' office carrying the tape of the attack. Hodgins is observing the puncture wounds on the victim. He looks up when he hears Angela come in.
"Hey baby, how are you?"
"I'm good, find anything interesting?"
"No…not yet. I'm running some tests to see if this is a bite mark. If it is, we should pick up on some saliva. I can't seem to find any particulates in the wound so I'm at a loss on the weapon. What about you?"
"Just that Alice was completely and totally loved by everyone she talked to. I can't find a single thing that points to someone disliking her or wanting her dead. I have this tape though…of the attack…I have to watch it and see if I can get a face of the attacker."
"Hopefully that will give us something to go on, if not the attacker than maybe a weapon."
"Yeah, I was wondering if you could come watch it with me…remember what happened last time I had to watch a creepy tape made in the woods?"
Hodgins smiles, "what, you mean you getting freaked out by what looked like a ghost on screen and ended up staying the night at my place?"
"Yeah…that…well this case is being deemed supernatural by all those who were there so I have no clue what I'm going to see."
"Well it's a good thing we live together then," Hodgins says, kissing Angela on the cheek. "Yes, I'll watch it with you, I have to wait a while for my results anyways. Want me to make some popcorn?"
"Sure," Angela says with a laugh.
"Great, it'll be just like a scary movie!"
"Yeah, only it's real…"
Angela walks back to her office and puts the tape into the tape player. Hodgins comes in a few moments later with popcorn.
"Here ya go Angie. Ready?"
"Thanks and no is not an acceptable answer, so sure…" Angela says as she presses play. The tape starts. Angela and Hodgins focus on the large screen in Angela's office.
A group of teenagers are seen walking through the woods. There are two girls and two boys, plus Brandon who is holding the camera. The girls are giggling nervously and the guys are leading the way, trying to act tough.
"The one on the left is Alice, our victim," Angela points out.
As the students continue to walk deeper into the woods, the image gets darker.
"I don't think these kids are very smart with technology, they didn't even know to use night vision," Hodgins says, laughing.
"Shhh, watch!"
A snapping sound like a branch being stepped on is heard in the distance. Angela jumps, moving closer to Hodgins.
"Shit! What was that?!" says one of the guys.
The whole group stops and listens, looking around for any sign of movement. All that is heard is silence.
Alice giggles and puts her hands on her hips. Teasing she states, "One of you goofs must have stepped on a stick." Pushing in front she says, "Let's go."
The guys look nervously at each other and move forward, the other girl and Brandon following close behind. Alice is slightly ahead now, separated from the group. About a foot in front of her a figure jumps down from the tree branch overhead. The whole group screams and Angela screams with them. Hodgins places his arm protectively around her shoulders.
"Shhh, it's ok baby"
They continue to watch.
The camera focuses on the figure in front of Alice for a moment before dropping its view to Brandon's running feet. The group continues to scream and their labored breathing is heard. Finally the running stops. The camera remains focused on Brandon's feet, but you can hear the students telling the Teacher what happened.
There is a pause before the teacher asks, "Where is Alice?"
It sounds like it's Brandon's voice that says, "Shit, I thought she was right behind us. We gotta go back. What if that…that thing got her?!" He sounds terrified.
The feet turn and begin walking and the camera is focused on the trail once again. This time, Brandon is in the lead. The voices of the others can be heard behind him murmuring.
"When the thing jumped down, we all just ran."
"I could have sworn she was right with us."
"Yeah, but nobody checked…"
"I'm really scared guys…"
Brandon's voice chimes in, "we are almost there…"
Everyone falls quiet, anticipating what they are going to see. Angela is leaning into Hodgins, knowing what is going to be found but unable to stop the tape until it is complete.
A form is seen slumped on the ground against a tree.
"Oh god…oh god, oh god, oh god…" Brandon cries.
The group gets closer to the form and it comes into focus on the screen, a pale, lifeless Alice with her head drooped to the side showing the two puncture wounds in her neck. The camera starts to shake and then falls to the ground. Brandon is heard sobbing in the background and the screen goes blank.
Angela sits staring at the screen, frozen there. Her face looks mortified. Hodgins rubs her back.
"Angie, you ok?"
"Those poor kids…."
"I know, they'll be ok though. Eventually."
"Alice won't, and I bet Brandon won't. That was terrifying for me and I was only watching a recording! God, I have to find out who or, or what did this!"
"What?"
"Well all the kids seem to think it's supernatural, you know maybe they are right. I mean it looked pretty human, but you never know I guess."
"My bet is on aliens," Hodgins says laughing.
Angela smiles, "Only one way to find out. I'll see what I can get for a face. I think the camera focused long enough for me to get a good image."
"Alright, I'll leave ya to it"
"Hey, thanks for watching with me."
Hodgins smiles, "Any time, baby."
Booth and Brennan arrive at Brandon's house and knock on the door. A woman answers with a very concerned look on her face.
"He-hello?"
"Mrs. Connor? I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan. Can we talk to your son, please? We think that he may be able to help us answer a few questions."
"You don't think he did it do you? Attacked Alice? He would never do that, they were best friends. She was practically a part of our family…"
"No, no Mrs. Connor. We think he might be able to help us understand who the attacker is. May we come in?"
"Oh….ok….yes of course."
Booth and Brennan walk into the front hallway of the Connors' home as Mrs. Connor goes to get her son.
"This woman appears very stressed," Brennan acknowledges.
"Well her son just found his best friend dead and from the sounds of it, Alice came here very often. Mrs. Connor is probably just feeling the loss and worrying about her son. That would make anyone feel stressed."
A handsome young boy comes walking down the stairs. He is tall with shaggy, dark brown hair that falls in his chocolate brown eyes.
"You wanted to talk to me?" the boy says hesitantly.
"You must be Brandon. We are very sorry for your loss. We'd like to ask you a few questions. Is that ok?" asks Booth
"Ummm…sure I guess."
"You were very close to Alice right, best friends?"
"Yeah, I wanted us to be more than that…I was starting to try to tell her a few days before…before last night. I don't think she felt the same way about me though. She always emphasized that we were friends, seemed like we never would be more. I guess I'll never know for sure now," Brandon says staring down at his hands so his long bangs shield his face. A deep, shuttering sigh escapes his lungs.
Brennan looks at him with pain in her eyes. She remembers how she felt all those years ago, knowing she might never get the chance to tell Booth how she feels about him, knowing how he felt but unable to admit she felt the same.
"I think she felt the same about you." Booth glances at Brennan surprised. She continues, "She may not have known it yet or wasn't ready to accept it, but I think she really cared for you."
Brandon glances up, "You think so?"
"Yes," Brennan says confidently even though she has no hard evidence to support that.
For a moment Brandon looks lost in thought, smiling slightly to himself. "Thank you," he whispers.
Brennan nods, not knowing what to do next. Booth glances between the two. Finally breaking the silence he says, "We think you can help us figure out who did this. Will you do that, for her?"
Suddenly determined Brandon replies, "Yes."
"Thank you. First, we have to ask you a bit about Alice. How did you know Alice?"
"We went to school together and she lived right down the street. My family moved in part way through second grade and I didn't have many friends. Alice and I became very close very fast. She was a very sweet, fun loving girl with brilliant green eyes and a knack for getting people to enjoy her presence if they paid a little attention to her. She always wanted to come over and I was very happy to have her here."
"Did she ever want you to come to her house?"
"No," Brandon's eyes darken.
"Why is that?"
"Her parents…weren't very parental. They were always caught up in work stuff. Her dad owns an art gallery and her mom is a surgeon in the city. Both jobs are pretty rigorous I guess. Her dad was always flying to different places trying to find 'the next big thing' for the gallery and her mom was always at the hospital. When they were home together, they were always fighting. Alice always wanted to get away to feel a little normalcy. My mom took her in as practically one of her own."
"Her parents had issues with anger towards each other, were they ever angry towards her?"
"No, it was more like she didn't exist. If you guys didn't tell them what happened to Alice, they probably would not have noticed her absence for a while…"
"Would they ever want to harm her…or get rid of her?"
"No, she didn't bother them so they wouldn't bother taking the time to do something to get her out of their life. It wouldn't be worth it for them."
"Alright, thank you. Can you tell us how you guys became interested in the supernatural?'
"Well, like I said she always liked coming over. She'd stay the night sometimes just to be out of the house. As we got older we started watching goofy scary movies about ghosts, zombies, vampires and such. We started watching some of the shows where they look for ghosts and realized that all these things in the movies could actually be real. This was in 6th grade. We started to do research and tried to learn as much as we could. Once we hit high school, we knew quite a bit and would talk about it in class when we thought nobody was listening. But, the band teacher overheard us and suggested we start a club. We were shocked to find how many other people believed. We did research as a group, used an Ouija Board after school once and talked to the original principle of the school. The camping trip was our first shot at true field experience though. Gosh, Alice was so excited. You should have seen how she practically vibrated with anticipation before we were sent off into our groups."
Brennan is visibly holding back what she wants to say, which is rare for her. But, she knows this boy has been through enough for today. "Why do you think it was something supernatural that attacked her?" Brennan asks.
Brandon shrugs, "It jumped down from very high and landed with such grace. The only things that can do that without hurting themselves are supernatural or animals and this was not an animal."
"Ok, thank you Brandon. That is all for now, I'd like to talk to your mom some though. Thank you and we are truly sorry for your loss," Booth says shaking the boy's hand.
Brandon nods and thanks Booth, then Brennan. "I'll go get my mom for you," he says and with that he is gone.
"Bones, that was great what you did for him."
"What?"
"You told him that Alice loved him even though you have no clue if that is how she felt."
"I understand her, she wasn't loved by her own family as a child so she was afraid to truly love anyone. She thought it would just bring pain, that she'd just end up ignored anyways. I really think she loved Brandon, but couldn't accept it herself."
Booth stares at Brennan for a moment, his obvious love for her showing in his eyes. The moment is interrupted by Mrs. Connor entering the room.
"Brandon says you wanted to speak to me?"
Booth turns to look at Mrs. Connor, "Yes, Brandon says that you took Alice in as one of your own practically?"
"That I did Mr. Booth. She was so young and bright and beautiful, I couldn't stand to see her neglected so."
"In your opinion, would Alice's parents have done anything to deliberately harm her physically?"
"No, never. They hardly ever remembered she was their daughter, she simply did not matter to them. They did not dislike her, nobody did. They did not want her hurt, they didn't realize how much they hurt her emotionally. If they did, they would be crushed."
"Thank you Mrs. Connor. We will be in touch again I'm sure. We are sorry for your loss."
"Thank you," and with that she leads them to the door.
Outside Booth says, "This is starting to make less and less sense to me too."
"Because the parents don't sound like suspects?"
"Because nobody sounds like suspects except for maybe the teacher, but I just don't feel like it is him. I'll have to go talk to him again…"
"Booth, let's go back to the lab first. Maybe someone there has made some progress. You should get some rest and then we can go talk to the teacher."
"You are resting with me after we talk to everyone."
"Ok," Brennan says, knowing there is no use arguing. He will not budge on it.
Back at the lab, Cam is just getting her results for the tox screen when Booth and Brennan walk in. She notes how exhausted they both look and wonder if she looks just as tired.
"Hello, have you received the results of the tox screen?" Brennan asks.
"Yes, they are just in. The sample has tested negative for all types of poison. We can rule out poison and snake as cause of death. Not that snake was even a very strong possibility in the first place," Cam says, the last part slightly sarcastic.
Arastoo enters the room looking perplexed. "Oh, good. Dr. Brennan you're here."
"Yes, I am. Have you found anything?"
"No, there were no other injuries other than those on her hands and wrists along with the marks on her neck. There were not any remodeled injuries either."
"So right now, we have no cause of death," Cam says.
"The only thing I can think of is the victim bleeding out through the puncture wounds," responds Arastoo.
Cam shakes her head. "There was not enough blood at the crime scene for the victim to have bled out and none of the fatal arteries were damaged."
"What about a weapon, Mr. Vaziri?" Brennan interjects.
"I couldn't determine an exact weapon. Using the indents on the bone and the sample Hodgins no longer needed after swabbing for particulates I could only determine that it had to have been a weapon with slightly curved spikes. I couldn't narrow it down to a single, known weapon."
Booth says cynically, "Great, so we have no cause of death, no real weapon, and only one tentative suspect. Could this case get any more complicated?"
"Don't forget about the unexplained lack of bruising on the injured wrists," says Arastoo.
"I guess it can," Booth mutters.
Hodgins is heard walking up behind them. "Well, I just might have a weapon but it doesn't entirely make sense. My tests came back positive for human saliva. The weapon was a human mouth."
"Very good Dr. Hodgins. But, that still does not help us with cause of death and suspects. Also, how would human teeth cause that deep of indents? If Angela does not come up with a face, we may need you to do a DNA test on the saliva."
Angela, who just walked into the room, clears her throat. "You guys need to come see this."
The whole Jeffersonian team curiously follows Angela to her office where a still of the investigation tape is pulled up on her screen.
"Now I brightened the image and restored it some to make it more focused. I then scanned it to recognize facial characteristics in order to get a face of the attacker."
As an image of a man with long black hair, a strong jaw, and cold grey eyes appears Brennan says, "So we have our attacker then?"
"Well, it's a bit more complicated sweetie. See I got a face, but when I run it against my facial recognition software and all of the recent databases throughout the country, I get no results that this guy has existed in the past 50 years. I even decided to run it against global records, still no results."
Suddenly there are sounds of a struggle near the security desk. The team runs out to the platform in time to see the security guard for this shift fly past the glass door to the lab and land hard on the floor.
Booth draws his gun and starts walking slowly towards the doors motioning for everyone else to back up and hide. From the direction of the security desk comes a short and thin woman with long blonde hair and piercing blue-grey eyes. Everyone freezes. The woman pushes through the doors striding midway to the platform and stopping. She looks fiercely at the group standing before her. With feet planted determinedly and hand on her hips she looks directly at Booth and says,
"We need to talk."