Chapter 7: 'The conversation was awkward enough as it was.'

That conversation between the two sets of partners had ended rather uncomfortably. Eventually, Booth – with a slightly smug smile still fixed upon his face – had told Trickett and Fryer to go and get the body shipped and follow up the details on the watch. What good the second request would do, Booth had no idea, but he was glad to get rid of them for the rest of the day.

They were now headed to speak to the witness, James Whitton. "Hey, Bones. Umm, thanks."

"For what?" It was times like these that Booth wished she was just a little more talented with her social perception. The conversation was awkward enough as it was, but he wanted to thank her.

"Y'know. For…sticking up for me." It sounded sappy but he couldn't think of another way to put it. She didn't seem bothered.

She shrugged her shoulders, "You'd have done the same for me." She quickly realised that she was perhaps revealing too much in regard to her emotions towards Booth, "And I only said it to shut them up anyway, so don't get all cocky and revert back to your alpha male tendencies." He smiled knowingly, Booth usually had more trouble reading her than others, but today she was an open book. Nevertheless, she was right, he would…he had.

"Yeah. Anyway, I got an address for Whitton. He's jobless so we should find him easy enough." They were pulling into the parking lot for the block of flats, "Bones. This guy could still be our murderer so if he doesn't answer, gun first, yeah?"

He stopped the engine and turned to face her, hand on the lever of the door. She nodded at him, "Gun first." They swiftly climbed the flight of stairs to the first floor and waited for a response to their knock.

The man that opened was in his late thirties, handsome. Tall but strangely, not threatening. In fact, if she hadn't known better, Brennan wouldn't have him pegged as a criminal. Booth had run a quick background check the afternoon they'd flown out. The man had record for petty theft and a minor assault charge but other than that he'd come up clean. He looked different to the mugshot though. Booth was too experienced to 'judge a book by it's cover' but since the photo was taken, he'd grown some hair, shaved and cleaned himself up. He wore a half smile and Booth began his enquiries, "Hi. James Whitton?"

"Yeah that's me." His eyes were questioning.

"Hi." Booth reached for his badge. "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth. This here is Dr. Temperance Brennan. We'd like to ask you a few questions regarding the murder of Freddy Steel."

The smile fled from his face immediately but he still looked calm. Brennan spoke, "May we come in?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah. Of course." He moved out of the way of the door to let them pass.

Five minutes later the friendly introductions were over and Booth sat next to Brennan in the man's living room, mug of coffee in hand. "So, Mr. Whitton-"

"Please, call me James." His smile was not returned by Booth. He was reluctant to appear too nice, careful not to make him think he could lie to them.

"James. The body of Freddy Steel was found yesterday morning. We've been looking over the evidence given in ninety-five, and things aren't adding up. You see," he flicked open his notebook. "In the initial trial, Luke Seddon was convicted due to the evidence you gave as a witness to the murder and burial, in absence of the body, and as an accomplice of Mr. Seddon. You stated to the jury that Mr Steel was killed by a slit to the throat…that he bled to death. And you also gave a specific burial site, a cemetery, Ridgelawn?" Booth looked up and the man shook his head in agreement.

"Right. Well the body has now been found. It was discovered by the river just a mile from here, and cause of death was a gunshot to the back of the head."

Booth had a knack for reading people, and he saw two emotions on the face of James Whitton. The first, was nervousness, something that Booth had been fully expecting, and something which was present on the face of almost every person he spoke to as an agent. The second, however, was genuine confusion. He waited impatiently for an explanation. Almost a minute later, Booth cleared his throat prompting the man to pull his head from his hands and return his gaze to the FBI agent.

"I lied. Eight years ago I lied." Booth wasn't surprised, neither was Brennan. She rarely met a man involved with a crime who hadn't lied to the police. "All of my first statement was true. You guys call it the motive. Seddon hated Freddy. He'd been stealing money from their company. Skimming some off the top of different accounts every month. But then Seddon hired a financial advisor, brought him to work, asked him to take a look at all their accounts, make sure things were in order. When he found out what Freddy had been doing, Seddon paid the accountant off so he could deal with it himself. He was furious. He contacted me. God only knows why; I'd never helped with anything like that before, I don't hurt people." Booth took another moment to examine the sincerity. The guy looked like he was telling the truth…that or he was a very good liar.

"Anyway, he offered me a shitload of money, and I needed it. He told me he would need help burying the body. I said I could help him out but that I wouldn't hurt anyone. So he called me up that night, and picked me up in his car. The body was in the boot and we drove to the cemetery. He said something about how they would never find the body 'cause there were too many. I couldn't show the police to the spot because it had been too dark to see anything. I asked him how the guy had died and Seddon said he'd slit his throat. I didn't ask anymore of it, didn't wanna know."

"When we arrived, we buried him. He paid me in cash and said he didn't ever wanna hear from me again."

"Surely you must have noticed that there was no blood? He should have had blood all down the front of his neck?" Brennan spoke this time and Booth nodded.

The guy was looking a little more agitated, his nervousness growing. "I wasn't really looking. Look, I'm really sorry. It's just, he didn't look like he was joking around. I wanted to make sure he went away. I guess, I didn't really think he would be convicted on my testimony alone anyway."

Booth shook his head, "Okay. Whatever, what we need to know, is…are you absolutely sure that he was dead when you first saw him, and that the original address you gave for the burial was correct? Because if we find out you're lying, prosecution could change their mind and charge you."

"Positive. It's the only cemetery for miles. And I'm not lying."

"Were you ever aware that Seddon planned to move the body?"

"No."

"Do you know the names of anyone else who had regular contact with Seddon?"

"No."

Booth was still a little suspicious. The guy didn't appear to be lying…but things still weren't adding up. "Okay. Look, stay close alright. Don't get into any trouble, don't go anywhere…just stay put."

The man nodded and Brennan and Booth made their exit.

"Do you think he's lying?" They were sat in the SUV when Brennan spoke again. Booth turned to look into her eyes.

He shook his head, "Nah, I don't think so. But that doesn't explain…When will the squint squad get their hands on the body? We could really use Hodgins for this one."

"They should get it by tonight. They've had today off so they'll probably stay half the night."

Booth nodded and started the engine. Next stop was a prison visit to Luke Seddon.

A/N: At this point I just wanna quickly remind you to check out the castings via the link on my profile now that we have a new character.

Also, sorry for breaking my pattern of a chapter every two days, I've been ill but I dragged myself out of bed today to post I'll keep with the original schedule though and upload the next one tomorrow.

Please let me know what you think so far… x