Disclaimer: Yeah, right. I wish. Have you seen my shoes? Believe me, they'd be nicer if I owned Bones.
A/N: Okay, this is the necessary chapter with all the science and useful facts about maggots and beetles. I know it's not as satisfying as some good banter or even some action/adventure but like I said, it's kind of necessary. I hope it holds your interest!
The Giant in the Basement
Chapter 3
"So!" Booth exclaims as he takes the steps up to the lab in a long leap. "Any new information on the identity of our arsonist?"
He crosses over to the examination table and pokes at one of the newly cleaned bones Brennan is studying. She slaps his hand away without looking up and answers, "Not yet. Zack's piecing together the skull right now." Remaining bent over at the waist and without taking her eyes off the skeleton, she awkwardly moves to opposite end of the table, forcing Booth to step back quickly out of her way. Her voice sounds frustrated and confused as she wonders, "Why can't I just figure out this height?'
"Are you actually asking me that or-" Booth's voice trails off when he notices his partner's utter inattention. "Okay, then. I got the fire chief's report if you want to read it."
Brennan stands up straight but waves her hand in the direction of the folder Booth is clasping. "Yeah, just a second. Zack, come here," she calls, glancing behind her.
Zack stands up and walks over from his work station. "Sorry, Dr. Brennan, but I'm not done with the skull yet..."
"It's not that." She pulls his sleeve, dragging him back to her original spot near the victim's shoulder. Booth hastily backs up again, upsetting a wheeled cart and its tray of silver, spindly instruments. As he kneels down to gather them up, Brennan points at a specific bone and says, "Look at the humerus."
Zack complies, imitating Brennan's hunched stature. As he straightens up again, his expression is pensive and he offers an inconclusive, "Huh."
"Huh?" Booth asks, from his position on the floor. "What does 'huh' mean?"
Zack looks at Brennan. "It's long."
"Very long," she says. She walks around the table again, tripping predictably over Booth and the scattered objects. She gives him a bemused look and continues, "Almost 50 centimeters."
Booth stands up. "And...?" he asks as the two scientists look at each other and then back down at the skeleton.
"And that would make our 16-year-old victim around 214 centimeters tall," Brennan says hesitantly.
Zack notices Booth's annoyed face and clarifies, "7 foot 2 inches." Brennan nods.
"Wow." Booth takes a step closer and gives the bones a long look.
"Yeah, except..." Brennan rubs her forehead. "There's obviously no formula for height based on the measurements of a person's torso."
"Obviously," Booth interjects, sarcastically.
She doesn't acknowledge the interruption. "Even so, looking at this one here, I would assume the victim to be no more than 6 foot 8. Maybe 6 foot 9."
"What does that mean?"
"It means..." Brennan looks directly at Booth for the first time during the conversation. "It means I need the victim's tibias. And his femurs." When he doesn't immediately respond, she continues impatiently. "His legs, Booth."
"I actually knew that one." Booth sits down heavily on a nearby stool. "They're looking." Brennan doesn't appear remotely pacified. "They really are, Bones, but you saw the place. It's a mess."
"Yeah..." she agrees, half-heartedly. She leans over the table again, carefully shifting various bones aside as she peers at the victim's spine. "Wait..." she murmers. She adjusts the light, aiming it at a particular section, and her face is drawn even closer to the remains. "Wait a second, wait...wait!" Her last command is nearly shouted.
"I'm not really going anywhere," Booth replies, jokingly.
"Right there!" She points dramatically at the skeleton. Zack's head snaps up and he abandons the broken and charred skull again to hurry over. "See it?" Brennan asks, excitedly, as he inspects the indicated spot.
"No..." he says, bewildered.
Brennan taps a certain bone with her glove-covered finger. "There. Slipped vertebrae. Spondylolisthesis."
"Ah..." A look of dawning comprehension crosses Zack's face.
Brennan's expression is triumphant as she beckons Booth over. "Remember the pectus carinatum?" she asks.
Booth squeezes in between Zack and Brennan at the victim's side and responds, "Something with the breastbone." He visibly searches his memory. "You said it could be a symptom of scoliosis."
"Exactly," Brennan says, with obvious delight.
"So what? Lots of teenagers have scoliosis."
"Yeah, but put it together with the spondyloisthesis..." she points again at the spine, "...the disproportionally long humerus..." Booth glances at the lengthy arm bones. "...and you get...?"
"Marfan syndrome," Zack answers. "A genetic condition affecting the body's connective tissues." His voice slips into a monotone as he recites the definition.
"Go check the medical records of Angela's list of missing persons, would you Zack?" He nods, and quickly leaves the lab. Brennan smiles at Booth. "This should make him a lot easier to identify."
Booth smiles back, impressed. For a moment, the tension from the factory returns as neither moves from their positions, pressed close together over the burnt, legless corpse.
"I found something." Hodgins jumps up the stairs, obliviously disrupting the awkward moment.
Brennan steps away from the table and Booth with perceptible haste. "Is it as good as identifying the victim's genetic disorder?" she asks, avoiding her partner's eye contact.
"Better," Hodgins replies automatically. His gaze darts back between the two embarrassed faces suspiciously before he registers Brennan's comment. "Wait, genetic disorder?"
"Marfan syndrome," Booth speaks up with confidence.
"Oh...that explains the freakish length of the radius and humerus. Nice..."
"Yes. So what'd you find?" Brennan asks, as Zack returns, followed closely by Angela.
Booth moves over to Angela, attempting to peek at the sheaf of papers she's carrying. She shields the top sheet effectively, shakes her head at Booth, and sits down in front of one of the computers.
"You know the burnt fibers left over from the victim's clothes I was examing?" Brennan and Zack nod, Booth looks slightly lost but Hodgins continues, "Well, I was able to discern maggot excrement attached to them." he pauses for effect. "At first, I thought I was seeing things but then I found this..." He wields a tiny, glass jar containing a fair amount of ash as well as either the front or back half of a very dead, dried out beetle. Brennan's eyebrows raise as she examines it and she looks at up at Hodgins in surprise. "I know!" he says with enthusiasm. "Obviously, I was thrilled..." Booth snorts, but no one acknowledges it. "...but I had to be sure. So I prepared a solvent of ten percent ammonium hydroxide and..."
Hodgins continues explaining his discovery to the attentive Brennan and Zack but Booth leans over to Angela, still inputing values into the computer, and quietly inquires, "Does he talk like that when you're..." he smiles widely, tilting his head and making a suggestive hand motion. "...you know..."
Angela's gaze switches sharply from the computer screen to Booth's face. She slaps his arm. "No!" she whispers harshly. Booth just grins and rubs his arm, refusing to turn away. Angela sighs and lowers her voice even further, looking cautiously behind her at the still-speaking Hodgins. "Not anymore," she admits.
Booth's laugh is loud and poorly disguised as a cough as he catches Brennan's dispproving eye. "Are you even listening to Hodgins?" she asks, her tone slightly dangerous.
Booth glances at Angela, who is leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed and a smug, expectant expression on her face. He rolls his eyes. "Of course not." he responds, petulantly. "When will you people learn that I only need to know the all-important conclusion, not the incredibly complicated procedure by which you arrived at it?"
Angela stands up, pats his shoulder and, as she moves over to Hodgins, tells Booth with a hint of laughter in her voice, "You know, sometimes that incredibly complicated process is actually more fun than the...grand finale, Booth."
Hodgins speaks up quickly before Brennan has a chance to fully process Angela's innuendo, "My conclusion is that the victim was not killed in the fire. Or even this morning."
Booth stares at him. "Then when was he killed?"
"Three to four months ago."
"What? Months?" Angela asks, surprised.
"Yeah, maggots had already infested the victim's body and had left as the flesh became too dry for them to consume. This guy..." He holds up the glass jar again and shakes it. "...a hide beetle... and his friends have mouths better suited for-"
"Okay, we get it." Booth tries rapidly to process the new information. "So someone murders this kid three months ago and hides his body in the basement of a factory...?"
"Or," Brennan picks up keenly. "Or did they hide the body somewhere else and then move it today-"
"-before setting it on fire. In the process, burning down an entire building." Booth's eyes crinkle up as he speculates.
Brennan shakes her head. "That's irrational. Why wouldn't the murderer have burned the body months ago if that was his intent? Why do it now and in a factory basement?"
Booth looks around at the confused faces of the gathered scientists and claps his hands together once. "That's what we have to find out."
A/N Part Deux: (If you're still awake) The math and symptoms of Marfan syndrome in here should all be correct. I should probably cite DeathOnline (cheery site, let me tell ya) for the info on hide beetles. Everything else came from my anth textbooks, very useful to have around when writing Bones fiction.