A/N: Thank everyone who's read and reviewed! It's greatly appreciated! hugs to all
Disclaimer: I wish it were mine, but it's not.
Booth slammed his fist against the steering wheel, releasing a violent string of curses. Nothing. He'd come up empty. Sunny Durssin didn't have any family left. Her friends were nothing more than glorified acquaintances, who had attended her sparse funeral, only to forget about her three weeks later. None had motive or even passion enough, to avenge her death.
Grabbing his phone he punched in Cam's number, hoping they'd had better luck processing the note. She answered on the first ring, spilling information the minute she came on the line. "We might've figured out another part of the note. He, this Aries guy, he used the word 'flee' in his note, 'Will flee her eye'. We all thought his choice of wording was odd, but Angela recognized that 'flee' doesn't necessarily refer to running away from danger. Its other definitions mean 'to hurry towards a place of security, or 'to pass away swiftly'. "
"And? What does that mean for us," Booth demanded. He impatiently drummed his fingers against the dash. Cam sighed. "What it means Seeley, is that he might believe he's giving Dr. Brennan some sort of favor in his killing of her, security or peace of some sort."
"Oh great. So he's just gone from crazy, up a few notches to whack-job with a messed up conscience."
"Pretty much. Any luck with tracking down the family and friends?"
"No. It was all a dead end, which leads me to believe that you may have been right."
"About the same person who killed Saundra Durrsin kidnapping Dr. Brennan?"
"Yeah."
"I don't know Booth; do you really think it's possible? What could his motive be?"
"Hell I don't know Cam, but it seems like the only answer for the time being so I'm gonna run with it. I'm gonna go over all the evidence from the Durrsin case see if anything fits. I'll keep you posted." He snapped his phone closed before Cam could reply. He needed to think, to re-analyze every minute detail of that old case. It might prove to be the only was to save his partner.
A man meandered up to the SUV's window, obviously drunk, banging half-heartedly at the window. Booth lowered the glass. "What do you need sir?"
The man weaved, almost fell down, and then righted himself. "Nothinnggss," he answered slurring every word. "I've gots sssomethinng foor ya." The man handed Booth a piece of aged, yellow paper folded neatly into a square. Booth's heart raced, he grabbed a tissue being careful not touch the paper.
"Where'd you get this," he asked the man, eyes blazing with repressed anger and frustration.
The man peered at Booth through a squinted, glazed expression. "The man ins thuh ha-at," with those words the man passed out cold at Booth's feet. He jumped out of the SUV hurriedly bundling the man into the back seat. He might not be of much use now, but when he woke up he could be the only link to the kidnapper.
Jumping back behind the wheel, Booth drove as if hell itself was after him. He stopped long enough to drop the drunken man off in the FBI holding tank, before heading to the Jeffersonian. Barely remembering to take the keys out of the ignition he burst into the building, heading towards the small group examining boxes of evidence in the Durrsin case.
Without preamble he shoved the note towards Cam. "We got another one. I didn't want to open it until after you guys had a chance to check it for…stuff." Cam donned gloves, extracting the paper from the tissue. The team held their breaths as she unfolded it, reading the enclosed message aloud.
Weak is week,
strength is Pow-er.
Her possession of each,
PLeaDs for control.
Aries
Everyone glanced uneasily at each other. No one knew what it meant. No one wanted to admit that they were afraid to find out. No one forgot that it was 10 o'clock p.m. and with the dawn they would soon be out of time.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Brennan lay shivering underneath two blankets that did nothing to ward off the chill. Her mind was fuzzy, unfocused. It hurt to think. She could hear her teeth chattering, the sound echoed in her brain. Where was she? What had happened? And why was it so dark?
He saw her begin to shake as the drugs wore off, an unfortunate side-effect. Glancing at his watch he registered the time. The FBI agent would have received his latest clue. It amused him to think of them scrambling around trying to uncover the secret of Aries' message. They never would. It always took them too long, that was how he knew to kill them. There was a clock, a timer. He gave them clues. If they didn't figure the puzzle out in the time allotted he killed them, if they did figure it out….he laughed hysterically at the thought. They'd never figure it out, they never did.