Warnings: Description of murder/self-harm/attempted suicide/kidnapping, swearing

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognisable characters.

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CHAPTER 4:

After the short drive to the baseball stadium, Booth and Brennan made their way to the diamond where Brennan began searching for disrupted or uneven dirt. Booth kept his eyes on the baseball team who were in the outfield, Harrison Verne among the young men doing push-ups.

"Find anything, Bones?" Booth asked as he turned to her.

"Nothing yet," Brennan replied. "Wait, there's something in the dirt here…"

Booth crouched down beside her and watched as she plucked a thick string from the dirt. Brennan brushed away some of the orange dirt to reveal an interwoven pattern of blues and greens.

"That looks like the one Lindsey Tomlin was wearing," Booth said as he pulled an evidence bag from his pocket and handed it to Bones. "Maya taught her how to make them, she probably had one on when she died."

"Highly likely."

Booth looked back to the baseball team where he could see Harrison watching them. "I'm gonna go have a quick chat to Harrison Verne. You head back to the car."

"Alright," Brennan said as she stood.

Booth made his way over to the team, pulling his badge and flashing it at the coach. "Sorry to interrupt, FBI, just need to talk to Harrison Verne real quick."

"No problem," the coach said and the team watched as Harrison got to his feet and followed Booth over towards the bleachers.

"What is it? Is Lindsey okay?" Harrison asked.

"I'm not here about Lindsey," Booth said. "We have reason to believe that Maya was here some time before her death. Why would she come to your baseball team's field?"

Harrison shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she was spying on me? Maya was getting creepy before she disappeared. I mean, she was a great girl and I liked her but I'm in love with Lindsey. I wasn't about to break up with her for her sister. That's gross."

"Did you tell Maya this?"

"Of course. Multiple times. She didn't seem to care."

"Did you ever have reason to get physical with Maya? Did you try to get your point across with your fists?"

Harrison shook his head, his mouth hanging open in disgust. "No, definitely not! My parents taught me to solve things with words, not fists. And that's what I told Lindsey when-"

Booth ducked his head slightly. "When what?"

Harrison sighed and shook his head again. "She asked me not to say."

"In case you hadn't noticed, this is a murder investigation."

Harrison bit his lip before explaining, "Lindsey wanted me to help her kill Maya."

Booth closed his eyes and nodded. "Right, you're coming with me."

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Watching Harrison through the one-way mirror, Booth was beginning to fear Parker's teenage years more and more by the second. He couldn't imagine kids killing kids and he hoped that what Harrison had told him at the baseball field was just a big misunderstanding.

"Are you ready?" Bones asked, pulling him from his reverie.

"Yeah, let's get this over and done with."

Booth headed into the interrogation room, the evidence bag containing the bracelet they had found at the stadium tucked into the pocket of his jacket. Harrison looked up at him fearfully as he approached his seat, sitting across the table from the teenager.

"So Lindsey asked you to help her kill Maya?" Booth asked.

Harrison leaned forward, his eyes frantic. "She did but I swear, I was never going to do anything! Lindsey was sick! She'd called me because she wanted to kill herself - I went over there to talk to her and she was crying. She just said something like 'I hate her, I want her gone. Help me get rid of her.'"

"Did you have anything to do with Maya running away?"

"No, she and her sister fought over something and the next morning she was gone."

"Do you know what they fought about?"

"If I did I would have already told you," Harrison said as he leaned back in his chair, stretching out his legs below the table.

Booth nodded and pulled the bagged bracelet from his pocket, tossing it onto the table and watching as it slid toward Harrison.

The boy frowned at it. "My bracelet. It must have come off before practice. Some of the guys and I were screwing around before coach got there... Why's it in an evidence bag?"

"Because it was found at the likely site of Maya's burial."

"Burial? But wasn't Maya found in Lindsey's bed?"

"We have reason to believe Maya was abducted before she was killed."

"Oh my god," Harrison murmured as he paled.

"Lindsey told us that when these bracelets fall off, a wish comes true." Booth pulled the bracelet back towards him before leaning forward over the table, his eyes boring into Harrison who know stared at his lap. "Did your wish come true Harrison?"

"I don't know yet," he whispered.

Booth nodded. "You were in a horrible position - caught between two sisters like that. It must have frustrated you."

"Yeah, I guess."

"And Maya bullying Lindsey the way she did, must've made you angry."

Harrison nodded, not lifting his eyes from his lap.

"Did you hate Maya?"

"Of course I did."

Booth raised his eyebrows. "And why was that?"

Harrison slammed his hands on the metal table, anger burning in his eyes. "She bullied both of us. She treated us like shit! I didn't want to kill her!"

"Something obviously changed your mind though, because Maya's dead."

"Lindsey was crying. She was sitting on the bathroom floor with a blade in her hand, cutting herself right in front of me! I had to make her stop! I would have done anything to make her stop!" Tears streamed down his face as he shook his head. "Lindsey was going to kill herself if Maya didn't stop. I couldn't let that happen... I wouldn't."

"So what did you do?"

Harrison sniffed. "Lindsey gave me a knife. I put it in my pocket and went to find Maya. She was downstairs - their parents had gone to visit some friends. They did that a lot. Um... I took Maya outside and I kissed her. I told her that Lindsey was dead upstairs, that we should run. We hid at the baseball field and that was where I-" He swallowed harshly. "I waited until she fell asleep. I tied her up and cut her arms. I didn't mean to kill her – I didn't want to, I swear. But then blood was just – it spurted everywhere. I ran."

Booth nodded. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"I'll go to prison," Harrison whispered.

Booth swallowed, irked by the recession of his voice, Harrison sounding like a child as he shrunk in on himself. He leaned closer to Harrison one last time. "Lindsey will pay for this too, Harrison. You're not in this alone."

"I know," Harrison finally met Booth's gaze. "But I did it so that she didn't have to."

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A/N: Woo, another step closer to the end :) Probably two more chapters, not sure (turns out the plan I wrote wasn't that fantastic). But I hope you're enjoying this and thank you for reading :) –Em