The Bones Of A Wolf-Chapter 1
The black SUV pulled up outside of Arlington National Cemetery, a shine reflection its contours in the sun. There was an eary silence In the air on the inside of the car, until the black haired agent broke it.
"Were here" he stated in what he hoped to be in a cheerful manner.
"Wouldn't have guessed" The blonde man replied in a sarcastic tone, opening the door and stepping out of the car one foot at a time.
Sirius sighed, before copying his actions on the drivers side. "I thought we had gotton over this row".
"What is the context of the find?" He asked pointedly ignoring Blacks statement.
Once again Sirius sighed, but answered his question "Routine landscaping. Dropped a load over by the pond. One of the workman thought he saw something."
The pair walked in silence though the hundreds of white marble tombstones, which looked slightly out of place on such a sunny day. They eventually arrived at a medico-legal truck, out of which stepped a short, plump man, who stood at about 5 foot 7. Not that short, however when he stood next to Remus who was about 6ft1 and Sirius who was about 6ft he looked very small. He turned around once out of the car, and flashed a smile at Dr Lupin, who returned it with a smile of his own.
"Hello Peter" Said the Dr in a pleasant tone, well more pleasant than when he addressed Sirius anyway.
"This eco-warrior look works for you" Peter said looking at his boss admirably
"Kiss-ass" Sirius muttered loud enough so only Lupin could hear. Who shot him a nasty glance before turning back to Peter smiling.
"Thanks"
"Very action orientated" The plump assistant continued.
"Agent Black, you remember my assistant Peter Pettigrew?"
"Oh Yeah" He said in quite a distasted tone, which the small man seemed too miss.
"How was Guatemala? Dig up lots of massacre victims? Learn a thing or two about machete strikes?" He said eagerly to Remus.
"Peter, I need water samples and temperature readings from the pond." Remus ordered ignoring the mans questions.
"Right away Dr.Lupin" He marched off.
"He's got no sense of discretion that kid, typical squint." Sirius said to the taller man as they approached the pond with the boat waiting.
"I don't know what that means" Remus said in confusion.
"Well when the cops get stuck we bring in people like you, you know squints, you know to squint at things." He explained.
"Oh you mean people with very high IQs and basic reasoning skills." Remus smirked, tossing his bag to Sirius who caught it.
"Yeah" The agent said, slightly confused if the 'squint' had out smarted him or not.
The two men stood on the boat in the centre of the lake, Sirius picked up an orange case at the bottom of the boat, opened it pulling out a camera with a large wire attached to it. He slowly lowered the devise into the muddy pond beneath them and made sure the camera never came into contact with any large obsticals.
"What exactly am I supposed to be squinting at?" Remus asked the agent, raising an eyebrow as he watched the screen as various underwater life came into view.
"Its like pornography, you'll know it when you see it." Sirius answered joining Dr Lupin in searching for…well whatever they were looking for, whilst he continued moving the camera slightly, until finally a large bone came into view on the murky screen.
"Yeah ok. This is a crime scene" Remus said, a grave expression on his face.
The Dr and his assistant stood under the muddy, brown underfoot, examine the remains of some so far un-known body. A silence hung in the air, as both men concentrated on the body before them. The only noise braking the silence, the click and flash of peters camera, as he took various pictures of the body from various angles, and the background music of the Washington crickets chirping in the grass and trees surrounding the pond.
"The remains were wrapped in formula flat poly construction sheeting." Remus finally said to his assistant.
"PVC coated chicken wire." Peter pointed out.
"Weighted. That's why the body didn't surface during decomposition, the skeleton is complete but the skull is in fragments." The doctor stated.
Sirius approached the two 'sqints' working on the remains.
"What can you tell me?"He asked the pair.
"Not much. She was a young woman probably between 18 and 22 approximately five foot three. Race unknown. Delicate features." Remus explained.
"That's all?"
"Tennis player" Remus added.
"You got a pretty, female, tennis player out of all that gunk?" Black said, somewhat impressed by their findings.
"Hip diffusion gives age. Pelvic bone shape gives sex." Peter exsplained.
"Bursitis in the shoulder. In somebody this young must be an athletic injury."
"When did she die?"
"Ehh" The two said in unison.
"What does that even mean?" He said in confusion.
"It means, you have to wait for the bug and slime guy to tell us that" Peter stated.
"No clothing" Moony added to the description.
"You know in my line of work no clothing usually means a sex crime"
"Well in ours, lack of clothing could just mean that the victim merely favoured natural fibres" Remus pointed out.
"Your suit for example will outlast your bones by decades." Peter exsplained. At which Black gave his suit a critical once over.
Three figures walked through the maze like corridors of the Jeffersonian Institute Natural History Museum. The figure in th lead is a tall looking coloured man, who was no more than 40 and despite how intimidating he looked, stood no more than 5ft 9. He had a strong build and an air of seniority about him. In other words, he looked like a man not to mess with. Behind him was a tall man about 6ft1, who despite his hight looked far less intimidating than the man ahead of him. He was quite a slim build, however there were noticeable muscles underneath his white shirt, and his shirt sleeves were rolled up slightly above his elbows revealing muscle clad, tanned arms. His thick tawny hair falling into his amber eye's, as he rushed to keep up with the stern man, and even further behind him was a short plump boy, who although slightly younger than the taller male was having a harder time keeping up with the leader.
"Dr. Kingley, I wish you wouldn't just give me to the FBI." Remus said to the stern coloured man, in a slightly pleading tone.
"As a federally funded institution the Jeffersonian must seize every opportunity to prove our worth to our friend in congress which means I loan you out as I see fit. Especially to federal agencies." He responded in a deep african american accent.
"Loan out implies property, Dr.Kingsley. The FBI will never respect me properly." Remus said, slightly insulted that he had been referred to as such.
"I do not view you as property, Dr. Lupin. You are one of the Jeffersonians' most valuable assets." He said in a slightly kinder tone.
"Can I just ask you this by definition, property?" Peter piped in.
"What's the rule Mr.Pettigrew?" His firm tone was back.
"You only converse with PhD's." Peter said in a tone of someone who had just been told that they are not allowed snacks before dinner "You realize I'm halfway through two doctorates. Two halves make a whole so mathematically speaking." He said trying to prove his worth.
"Go polish a bone Mr.Pettigrigrew" Kingsley dismissed, and peter stopped following defeated.
"Dr. Kingsley, F.B.I. agents will never respect any of us as long as you simply dole out scientists like office temps." Remus argued. Kinglsey stopped walking and faced the younger man.
"Dr Lupin, are you playing me?" He said, a ghost of a smile on his face.
He gave him his best angelic face "you know I'm no good at that".
The older man couldn't contain himself and gave him a lopsided smile, raising a sceptical brow "hmm, thus far… but you have a disturbingly steep learning curve." He said before stalking off.
Four figures stood in the Jeffersonian lab, there is a glass ceiling and there is a raise centre platform. On the platform there is all sorts of computers, tables, and lab equipment. Remus, Lily, James and Peter stood gathered around the remains from the pond discussing the newest case.
"The pond is not only warm and teaming with microbes which accelerated decomposition but it houses black carp and coy which fed on the body." James potter exsplained to the group.
"Can I say, as the only normal person here…eew?" Lily said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. James smiled at her cute gesture.
"I got three larval stages of trichoptera, cara nibidae…"James continued, but was cut off by Dr.Lupin.
"Can we cut to the chase?"
"The body has been in the lake one winter and two summers."
"The spring before last?" He asked the spectacled boy.
"You really think I'm listening?" James said changing the subject. Remus shot him a look of confusion.
"The book" Lily explained to Remus, who looked at her, Lily nodded and smiled.
"No, no , no your not in the book" He said slightly flustered and flapping his arms.
"Sure he is, we all are" Peter input.
"No, none of you are in the book. Those are fictitious characters based on…"Moony began, but James cut her off.
"I found some small skull fragments in the silt." He said, changing the topic once again to the case, and the computer screen comes on with images of the skull in greater detail.
"We're out of the book now and we are back in real life." Lily put in.
"I guess were on a temporaria." James said, still talking about the case.
"Frog bones" Remus explained, relieved of the change in topic.
"Also some tiny gold links as from a fine chain." James said, enhancing said gold links.
"Just to clarify. I'm not a virgin. No where near in fact." Peter pointed out, referring once again to the book. Remus groaned at the change in topic.
"Who you captured perfectly…is Black. Buttoned-down but buckets of sexual confidence which …ugh…I for one would love to tap." Remus shot Lily an annoyed look, and James shot one of somewhat jealousy.
"It's not right to discuss tapping asses in front of a soaker." Said peter, looking pointedly at the skeleton.
"I can't bounce back and forth between my book and real life. Since we are stuck with real life let's just forget the book." Remus said in annoyance.
"I haven't analyzed whatever it was the victim was holding in her hand." James magnifies the image of the hands on the screen "It looks like cellulose." Remus silently thanked James for the change in topic once again.
"Paper?" Lily asked.
"Mmmm possibly" James agreed.
"I found microscopic grit embedded in the skull fragments. I need you to identify those too remove the remaining tissue." Remus said to Peter, who nodded in response "I will debris the skull fragments myself. Reassemble it so Angela can put a face on the victim."
"Good, I prefer holographs. They don't stink." Lily said pleased.
"Peter, I don't like those terms for human remains. Soaker…crispy critter." Remus told his smaller assistant.
"I know Dr.Lupin" Peter said in an apologetic manner.
Remus studied the many tiny skull fragments littered across the glass desk like a puzzle waiting to be figured out. He slowly put the pieces gracefully together, hours flew by as he worked on the puzzle pieces in front of him, until eventually the likeness of a skull began to emerge. Once he had finally finished with the work set out in front of him he sat down at the table admiring what he had spent all night working on, until his vision became blurry and his eye's began to close on there own accord as sleep over took him.
Peter walked quietly up to the table his boss had been working all night at, to find the older man with his head resting on the desk, his eye's shut tight and his breathing even. He smiled fondly at the image as the tawny haired man let out a sigh in his sleep. He placed the red coffee mug down on the table in front of his sleeping boss and walked away just before Remus, sleepily opened his eye's looking at the coffee cup, and the skull in front of him that he had worked all night on.
Sirius sat in a large dimly lit office, sitting at a large desk with an assortment of picture frames and other items scatterd across it, in a surprisingly neat fashion. The only thing he could get a proper look at though was a small plague facing his way which read 'Director Of The FBI-Albus Dumbledore'. Facing him at the desk was a tall man with white hair and a grey beard, which were both too long is Sirius's opinion. However odd this man looked, he was fair, and well liked by many of the other Agents, including Sirius.
"Let me guess, you're here to talk about Dr.Lupin" Albus asked. He was also very perseptive, which was probably the reason he was made the director of the FBI.
"Yes sir" Sirius noted the certain knowing twinkle in the mans eye.
"I see…so you want to take a squint out into the field in an active murdur investigation?"
"Yes sir"
"I thought you said he wouldn't work with you any more", the twinkle in his eye remained.
Sirius looked slightly sheepish "Well the last case we worked he provided a description of the murder weapon and the murderer but I didn't give him much credence."
"Oh?" The older man said, raising a silver eyebrow above his half-moon spectacles
"Yes well. He did it by looking at the victims autopsies"
"Was he right about it?" The older man asked
"Yes, turns out he was right on both plus the pond victim" He handed the older man a file which he accepted "Lupin gives me the victims' age, sex, and favourite sport."
Albus chucked slightly "Which is?"
"Tennis"
"He's good" Dumbledore commented a half smile on his old face.
"No, he's amazing. If the only way I can get him back on my side is to bring him out in the field I'm willing." Sirius said firmly, Albus smiled a knowing smile.
"I should think he'll be an exellent contribution to the team" He stood up, reaching over the desk and shaking hands with Sirius, who gave the man a smile.
"Yes sir" Sirius said accepting the folders back of the Director.
I did some editing of this chapter, changed it so Kinglsey's Remus's boss instead of McG and edited some mistakes
If You Read This Chapter Could You Please Leave Me A Review
Thanks : )