Jane pulls in, parks, and exits the car. He can't help but pause and breathe deeply of the park's clean air and fragrant flowers in full bloom. Birds twitter and sing, colorful flashes of feathers in brilliant sunlight. He looks around and spies a gaggle of cops and Jason Wiley surrounding a backhoe and deep hole. He walks past the cops, flashing his FBI ID when they move to stop him. His strides stop dead at the first whiff. It's no wonder everyone seems to have a hanky over their noses. With a grimace he pulls a handkerchief from his jacket and joins Wiley. Nearby, Lisbon and Cho are talking as they bend over a body near the hole.
"What do we have, Wiley?"
"Woman's body, been here for a while. The guy using the backhoe was digging up this part of the park for a children's playground. He called the police but since it's Federal land they called us."
"Not their jurisdiction - if they even wanted the case." Wiley nods and they walk over to Lisbon and Cho. Jane looks over the body and tries to keep his breakfast down. This body had been dead a long, long time. The remains were partially skeletonized - bones and teeth, cartilage, wisps of hair, black leathery tatters of skin.
"Hey," Lisbon greets Jane, noticing his pallor. "Should have warned you. When I called I didn't know the body had been here three or four months."
"Well I'm always open for new experiences. What do you know about the body?"
He looks away from the body and sees the coroner's assistants approaching with a stretcher. Cho and the coroner talk for a bit. Cho seems to notice something on the body, motivating Jane and Lisbon to move closer.
"What did you find?" Lisbon asks looking down at the body. Cho uses a glove from the coroner and pulls something from the body. He stands up and turns to Jane and Lisbon.
"Casey take the bus, Jane?"
"Yes, she was excited about riding it to school." His tone of voice reveals lingering doubts about the bus riding.
"What did you find, Cho?" Lisbon repeats, a bit surprised at Cho's digression.
Cho opens his hand to reveal a gold chain necklace with a heart-shaped locket. "Could have been a photo inside, but with the condition of the body and the necklace lying with it, likely the photo decomposed as well." He would let Forensics open it on the off chance a photo fragment could be salvaged.
Wiley steps over with an evidence bag. Cho drops the necklace in and seals the bag. Wiley writes the case information on the bag.
"Do we know what happened to her?" Jane says as he moves a little closer and looks more carefully at the body.
Cho replies, "Not until the coroner is through. There was a small suitcase by the body with a few pieces of clothing scattered around." The coroner's men carefully move the body to a body bag and take it to the van on the stretcher. They get a clearer look at partly rotted clothes that apparently spilled from the suitcase and were under the body.
"Odd. Clothing looks like it belonged to a young girl," Jane comments as he glances over the suitcase. "No other body?" he asks, puzzled about why a woman's body would be buried with a suitcase containing a child's clothing.
"Not in this grave. They're going to check the surrounding area with cadaver dogs. Nothing more for us here. Let's head back to the office." Cho walks away with Wiley following.
Lisbon hangs back with Jane till the others are out of earshot. "I'm sorry, Patrick. I didn't know a child might be involved too."
"It's okay. We're getting ahead of ourselves anyhow.…" He visibly shakes off the gloom that accompanies any violent crime involving a child. "I'll hang around the FBI and see what the suitcase has in it. Possibly the woman was running away with a child."
"Maybe whoever killed the woman took the child when he or she left. I hope the child didn't see the murder." The unspoken hope was that the child herself was still alive.
The walk to Jane's car is silent. They follow Cho and Wiley to the Austin FBI building.
/
Clatter and happy chatter fill the lunch room as excited kids share news about their summer vacations, new classes and teachers. At one table Casey and four girlfriends bargain and swap food until they reach the best possible mix. Casey traded little as she is happy with what her father packed. He always seems to know what she would like every day. She looks over at another table and sees Scout sitting at one corner, a little apart from the boisterous boys who occupy most of the other seats. Scout looks at a sandwich wrapped in paper towel. It turned out Scout wasn't in Casey's class room which disappoints Casey. They also have different recess schedules. Taking her lunch with her Casey switches tables to sit across from Scout. Casey's friends notice, then shrug and resume talking and exchanging food.
"Hi, how do you like your first day so far?" Casey asks with a smile. Scout doesn't say anything as she just stares down at her lunch. "Tomorrow come join us at our table. We trade for things we like."
"I don't really have anything I could trade," Scout says, still not looking up.
"Is that a peanut butter sandwich, I love them," asks Casey, her words tumbling over each other. "Want to trade my lunch meat sandwich? I don't really like it."
Scout looks at the sandwich closed in a clear plastic bag. "You really want to trade?" Casey pushes her sandwich over.
"Sure." Both take a bite of their sandwich, Scout continues nibbling at hers. Casey peeks at the filling in her sandwich - just a glob of peanut butter.
The girls finish their sandwiches. Casey peels an orange and separates it into segments. She splits the juicy treasure, making sure Scout has a little more.
"Want to get some cookies? They're really good, I like the oatmeal ones." Scout finishes the last piece of orange.
Scout shakes her head. "I'm full. I'll wait here unless you want to go where your friends are?"
Casey makes a face. "They're probably talking about math - we have math just before lunch. Most of them hate math."
Scout offers shyly, "I have to study extra to catch up. I missed a lot at the school I was at last year."
"I'll be right back." Casey says as she takes the plastic bag of quarters from her backpack. "Do you like chocolate or oatmeal cookies?" Before Scout can answer Casey is running into the cafeteria. She soon comes rushing back with four cookies...
"I got us each one oatmeal and one chocolate chip." She hands Scout two cookies and takes a bite of her oatmeal cookie. "Yum. These are so good."
Scout takes a bite of her oatmeal cookie and smiles. "It is good!"
The lunch bell rings and both girls move to put their cookies in their backpacks. Casey's goes in the empty plastic sandwich bag. Scout wraps hers in the paper her sandwich was in. When Casey notices, she hands Scout the bag from the quarters.
"They'll stay better in the bag - no crumbs. See you on the bus." She runs off to get in the line for her class. Scout gently puts her cookies in her old back pack, making sure they don't crumble. She skips over to her class line and waves goodbye to Casey.
/
Jane is lying on his couch reading the file they had on the woman in the grave. Lisbon comes over and pushes his legs away so she can sit down.
"Why did you call me in on this case?"
She shrugs. "Do I need a reason? -Anyway Cho is the boss and he wanted you on it."
"Why did you ask him to have me on the case? " He reiterates with a slight grin.
Her lips twitch - busted. "Because today is Casey's first day of school and I didn't want you doing what you did last year. It's a wonder someone didn't call the cops with you parked by the school all day."
Jane sits up and smiles. "Someone did call the police last year. The officer wanted to know why I was there. I showed him Casey's picture and told him it was her first day." He huffed softly. "Didn't keep him from running my plates. Was a lot friendlier when he found out I was with the FBI. He showed me his son's picture, it was his son's first day also. He told me he made the rounds around the school a few times. By then it was recess and we pointed our kids out to each other. He left me there and we would wave when he drove by."
"That's worse than some mothers. At least the mothers go home instead of parking their cars and stalking," She teases, laughing.
Cho had overheard and chuckles on the way back to his office.