A/N - I only have one thing to say. It's never what it seems to be. Thanks Charlie for suggesting the seven reference.
Chapter Two – A Full Scale Attack
When he got back to the lab, she was sitting in front of her laptop again, except this time, she was typing.
"Writer's block gone?"
"Not for reports unfortunately. I'm just adding what we know about the torso."
"So the beetles have finished have they?"
"Early this morning as a matter of fact."
Booth took a seat across from her.
"So what's new with our victim?"
"We think he was tortured before he was killed."
"How can you tell?"
"I'll show you"
Bones stood and moved out of the lab and Booth followed her to where the torso was now laid out, flesh free on one of the examination tables.
"Ok do you see the cracks in the ribs?"
Booth leaned closer, the smell of death still lingering on the bones.
"Yeah I can. Could that be from the fish?"
"No. They've heeled slightly before this man died. There is also so damage to his spine. If it were the fish, they would be broken, not cracked."
"So he was tortured and then drowned?"
"It's possible."
:"But we still don't have enough to keep going with the case, do we?"
"No we don't."
Booth called his boss and gave him the news. It would be yet another open case file on his desk. For the moment anyway.
People should suffer for their sins, that much he was certain of. However, choosing the victim and then making sure that he timed the sacrifice perfectly was another thing entirely. If his timing was off, then so was his system and then his while life would fall off the alter he had created himself on. The moon dominated when they died. Once a month he would kill and once a month he became someone else. This new person liked to kill in ways that remained with the old system, handed down through the centuries. Punishments that were now days considered torture were what he preferred and what he enjoyed. They need to know what they had done and that they were doing to die. That done, he would brand them forever with the letter of their sin and then kill them, dumping the body where he pleased. Fourteen years and on one said anything, no one knew anything and he liked it that way. It reminded him that he could do anything and he would do anything. The moon allowed him that in her heavenly light.
Three weeks later, Booth got a phone call from his boss. They had a body. This one was found by hitchhikers that had been tramping. Booth was almost too scared to tell Bones. She had made it almost a month without writing anything beyond reports for the lab. It was starting to make her a little crazy and now he appreciated her when she had been writing so much more. She had been happy, steady and better still, productive. Now she just did the work that was required before heading back to her office and the blank screen of her laptop. She was like a ghost, haunting those with the life that she no longer had. When he finally did work up the courage to approach her office, she was in front of the laptop only she was doing something different now. She was reading the 'Dummies Guide To Working Through Writers Block'. Never in his life had he seen something so funny and yet so desperately sad.
"We've got a body Bones."
"Hmmm?"
Booth moved forward and extracted the book from her hands.
"We have a case."
"They suggest free writing. Just sit at the computer and write whatever comes to your head for an hour then go back and read it. Do you think that's a good idea?"
"I think putting your writing out of the way for a while is. We have work to do. You know, the kind that you love?"
Bones sighed and took her coat before following Booth out the lab. Free writing would have to wait.
Booth was actually horrified with what he saw. He was always the last to know the particulars of a case and this was no exception. They could have mentioned just how deep in the bush they would have to go. Or the fact that the victim was a young woman crucified, her hands and feet nailed into the bark of a tree.
"Jesus."
"Almost poetic, isn't it? You say Jesus and this is similar to the way that he died."
"He was a savior. She's not."
"We could wait three days and find out"
Booth frowned at her but she ignored it, slipping on her gloves and getting to work examining the body. She had been there a while, that much was even obvious to Booth. Her skin was starting to shrink and her face was hollow, her eyes gone. The nails that had pierced her feet and hands had made neat little tunnels for flies to lay eggs. Those eggs had become maggots which slowly made their way through her entire body. She had become a victim far to young and far too violently. On a hunch, Booth lifted what was left of her white singlet, revealing a large circular tattoo.
"Bones"
She lifted her head and took in the tattoo.
"We have a serial, don't we?"
"Depends what you define as serial"
"More then one body with the same M.O"
"So our first torso was a murder."
"Looks that way"
This body was more work then the first. While Booth searched for an I.D working with Angela, Bones set about examining how exactly she died. When he got back two hours later, she was still working at it.
"How do you actually kill someone like this?"
"She suffocated"
"Huh?"
Bones put her notes aside and turned to face him.
"Crucifixion on a single pole with no transom, with hands affixed over one's head, would precipitate rapid asphyxiation if no block was provided to stand on, or once the legs were broken."
"She had her feet nailed to the tree."
"Which is just as bad. She had no way to move to try and breathe"
"How long before she died?"
"One – five minutes. Did you manage to get an I.D?"
Booth nodded and handed her the picture.
"Anna Jenkins. Twenty-four, she went missing three and a half weeks ago"
"What did she do?"
"She was a prostitute."
Bones nodded and pointed to the tattoo. It was the same size as the last except this one had a large "L" in the center.
"We don't know what this is meant to mean."
Angela, who had caught the tail end of the conversation, smiled at them.
"It stands for lust people"
Bones turned to her, a frown on her face.
"What?"
"People were killed for their sins. You know honey, the seven deadly sins. People were punished in ways that were not considered very friendly."
"What about the first torso? The one with the letter "E"?
"Envy. Someone is trying to tell us something."
"How the hell do you know that?"
Angela gave Bones a soft smile.
"Honey, this guy, whoever he is, is ripping off Seven"
Everyone else let out a soft round of oh's but Bones continued to frown.
"I don't know what that means"
"Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow. It's a movie sweetie. One that you really need to see"
"So he's copying a movie?"
"Sort of. New ways and new time frames but it's still the same concept."
Booth nodded and started pacing.
"So he kills them for their sins. Anna was a prostitute and that poor bloke over there had something to do with envy. The question is, why is he killing them this way? More importantly, what is his time frame."
Bones shook her head.
"We already know that part. She was missing for three weeks and she's been dead for at least that long. That would put her time of death around the cycle of the full moon."
"So he's going by lunar cycles? Why?"
"Perhaps the moon represents something to him. Witches praise it, as do many other religions. It means rebirth and cleansing. He's trying to make them pure by killing them by the moon"
"Hell of a way to do it"
"No one ever said that mad men had a sane reason for doing things. They just think that it's sane"
She was late. Beyond late. She had gone from making a dramatic entrance to making a hurried apology. Even though she had only talked to the guy online, she had known him longer then that. She had gone to high school with him and with a very hazy picture in her head, had started chatting to him. He had turned out well enough, making his millions writing books on ancient British history but he hadn't attached a photo to his profile. To Angela, this meant that there was either something seriously wrong with him or that he was shy. Either way, she was eager to find out what he looked like. From what she could remember, he had been a spunk in high school. She finally arrived at the restaurant and frantically looked for someone that resembled the guy in her memory. Turned out that she still looked the same because he spotted her first and waved.
"Hello Angela, you look very nice"
"Nice to see that I haven't changed."
"You have but your smile hasn't."
Paul Everett had that hunky nerd thing going for him. He had a full head of light brown hair, smooth, even features and the same slightly crooked smile that she remembered. He had bulked out since school and she could see the flat stomach hidden by his shirt.
"You're looking good Paul. I'm so sorry I'm late, work was crazy"
"That's fine. Did you want a drink?"
Angela nodded and Paul ordered them each a glass of wine before turning back to her.
"So, am I allowed to know why work got crazy?"
"We've got another case, that's all. I don't want to talk about it, I just want to enjoy the rest of the evening"
"Your wish is my command. So, what should we talk about?"
"How about you tell me more about where you've traveled over the years."
"I think that more appropriate statement would be where haven't I traveled. I've had my passport redone twice now. All completely full of stamps, chasing history and stories I hear."
"wow, that's impressive. How do you finance it?"
"Usually my publisher does it. She arranges the entire thing."
"Maybe I should get my friend to do that. She's a writer"
"Really? Have I heard of her?"
"Temperance Brennan"
"I've read some of her stuff, it's pretty good. So tell me about the other people you work with"
Angela leaned in and started talking. They spent the rest of the evening this way, throwing comments back and forth about people they had each known of the years. The evening went well. Angela headed home a few hours later, her stomach full of good food and her head full of good wine. Even though the case had hit a bit of a bump, at least she had gotten a good night in before the case started speeding up again.