I woke to the sound of my mobile blaring the ringtone I had personalised for Booth. I sat up in bed wearily and picked up the phone.
"Hello, Booth," I said with a groan of tiredness.
"Bones, we have a case." I looked over towards the digital clock sitting on my bedside table. 4:00 am. I groaned and replied with: "I will be at the Jeffersonian in 1 hour."
I hung up and slowly got out of bed.
In 1 hour, I was standing on the front steps of the Jeffersonian Institute waiting for my partner. He arrived not that long after and when everything was settled, we were off. According to Booth, the remains had been found in a small town just outside of Philadelphia called Norristown. When we arrived at the sink hole of Norristown, I immediately saw why I was called to the scene. The remains sat inside a big, green safe. Its door sat open on an angle at approximately 45 degrees. When Cam saw us getting out of Booth's SUV, she walked towards us with a man in his mid 20's.
"Special Agent Seeley Booth, Dr Temperance Brennan," Cam introduced us to the man. "This is Mark Holder. He is one of the men who found the body last night." Booth nodded towards the remains.
"Any information yet?" I walked over to the safe, bending down so I could see the remains clearly. Putting on some gloves, I said to the agent, "It's female. Caucasian. She looks to be in her early teens. Approximately 160 centre metres tall." Booth nodded again and Cam raised her eyebrows.
"How long has she been dead for?" Cam asked, looking rather pleased, although I wasn't quite sure why.
"We need to take this safe and the remains back to the lab," I told Cam. Booth went over to the owner of the sink hole, whose name I have forgotten, and had a chat about the remains that had been found.
"Angela, can you run the skull through the facial recognition to see if anyone on the missing persons file matches?" Angela nodded and took the skull from my grasp. She turned around and left the forensics platform with a glance over her shoulder. "There are some of the bones missing," I stated to Cam, who nodded at the observation.
"Half of the humorous is present and the ulna and the radius are missing completely," she observed, pointing towards the left side of the body. I was curious as to why the ulna, the radius and half of the humorous were not with the rest of the body.
"It is obvious that suffocation was not cause of death," I announced to the rest of the team.
Angela came back then and had told Cam and I that she was able to draw a face from the skull and is now running it through the facial recognition. She showed her drawing and smiled.
"I drew her smiling 'cause that is how she would have been before her death."
Cam and I followed Angela into her office, after removing our gloves, and stopped in front of her computer. The facial recognition had finished and one picture was up on the screen.
"Her name is Susie Salmon, aged 14, reported missing by Abigail Salmon on December the 10th, 1973," Angela read.
"Well done, Angela," I praised her. "I should tell Booth that we found the victim's identity." Cam nodded and added: "Maybe you should talk to Abigail Salmon. She might know something." I pulled out my mobile and dialled Booth's number while walking to my office.
"Booth."
"We have found the identity of our victim. Susie Salmon, aged 14."
"That's great, Bones." He sounded flat when he said that.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Who are we talking to?"
"Her name is Abigail Salmon."
