Thanks for the reviews... Here we go, the next chapter... the last one of the chapters I had already written out...
A longer one this time ;)
Chapter 7:
Booth parked his car beside Brennan's. To see her car in the usual spot made him clench his fists. He recalled the conversation they had had the evening before. Was it really just some hours ago? It seemed like a lifetime to him. He should have been more persuasive, he should have insisted on driving her home. Booth briefly closed his eyes and he could nearly hear her voice in his head: "Booth, I am driving with MY car to MY apartment, just as I do EVERYDAY... there is no need for you to be overprotective..."
Booth sighed and opened his door to enter the building to interrogate Bones' neighbours.
He decided to start with the apartments on the same floor as Brennan's, her direct neighbours. After knocking on the first door for some time without an answer he turned towards the next door and knocked again. After some time he heard the voice of an elderly woman shouting : "Patience, patience. I am old." He made out slow steps coming near the door and the voice asked him for his name and purpose. "I am special agent Seeley Booth with the FBI, madam." He showed his badge through the spyhole and continued. "Yesterday there was an incident at your neighbours apartment and I would like to ask you some questions, if you don't mind?"
The elderly woman opened the door reluctantly and eyed him suspiciously, but also curiously. "The scientist, right?"
"Dr. Temperance Brennan, yes" Booth pointed at the door of the apartment in question. "Did you maybe notice something unusual?"
"Besides the fact that the whole hall was jammed with people all morning? Nah, not really... You must know without this" she pointed towards her hearing device "I am nearly deaf. And I don't make a habit of spying on my neighbours." Her voice was like acid.
Booth suppressed a snort. He had enough experience with people to know that justifications without asking for them seldom came without a little feeling of guilt. And he knew that elderly people living alone had little things to distract themselves.
'Play the game, Booth!' he told himself and flashed her the best charm smile he could muster up in his recent state. "Of course not, Madam, I would never assume that. But sometimes living close to other people brings a little knowledge of each other with it..."
The elderly woman seemed to relax a bit at the sound of his words. "Well... to be honest... It so happens I heard raised voices yesterday evening, but don't ask me what time... but after a few moments it was quiet again. I could not make out a single word... I mean... not that I was trying..." she stumbled over her own words.
"No, of course not, Madam... you were merely noticing raised voices, I understand." Booth encouraged her to go on. "Maybe you accidentally noticed how many different voices?"
"A man and the doctor... Odd woman that is... " the old woman grumbled.
Booth cleared his throat and tried to fight down his urge to shout at the old woman. "Oh?"
"A woman that age should be married, that's what I am saying... don't you think so? And something is odd about that woman, I am telling you... Sorry, what has been you name? You look familiar, now that I am thinking of it?" The woman's eyes narrowed a bit.
"Agent Booth, madam. I sometimes work with Dr. Brennan." Booth answered.
"Yes. I know, I know ... you have been here sometimes. So, so... working with her, that's what you call it these days?" She shook her head and muttered something Booth did not understand, although he could make out words that sounded suspiciously like 'disgusting', 'Young people' and 'good old time'. He briefly closed his eyes and counted to three.
"Don't you want to tell me what happened? Did she get herself into trouble? Wouldn't be a surprise... Living alone, ain't no proper thing for a woman, I tell you! And working with dead people, disgusting, mark my words..." the woman started to ramble.
"Dr. Brennan has been kidnapped." Booth pressed the words through gritted teeth.
"See! Ain't no proper thing for a woman that age to live alone... What? Kidnapped? Here? In MY HOUSE?" Only now the elderly neighbour seemed to be shocked.
"I am afraid that's the truth" Booth confirmed.
"But... This has always been a good neighbourhood! I am telling you! This odd woman working with dead bodies! Brings kidnappers to our house! What are you doing to protect us now, eh? How can I be sure nothing is going to happen to me, eh?" The old woman pointed at him accusingly with her arthritic index finger.
That was too much for Booth's self control. His eyes went dark with anger and his voice dropped to a dangerous tone when he said:
"I can assure you that Dr. Brennan did not choose to get kidnapped and that it is not her fault that this happened. She helps to solve crimes, maybe you should honour this a bit!
And though I am not allowed to speak about ongoing investigations I can assure you that the kidnapper in question is not the least bit interested in old hags! Thank you for your so-called co-operation."
He turned around to the stairs, to go down at the floor below, his ears ringing with the old woman's curses, accusations and complaints about the young people of today, somewhere in the middle silenced by her apartment door slammed shut.
He nearly ran into a man of about forty years who was just coming up, an fidgeting with his apartment key. "Sorry" the man mumbled, looked at Booth and recognition dawned on his face. "Oh... you are Dr. Brennan's work partner, aren't you?"
Booth stopped and nodded. "Yes, Special Agent Booth. And you are..."
"James Pond. With P, not B." He smiled. "That's my apartment" He pointed towards the door Booth had been knocking at without success. "Is this about Dr. Brennan? That's why all the people have been here?"
Booth nodded again. "Yes. There was an... incident last night and I would like to ask you some questions if possible."
"No problem" Mr. Pond agreed "Come on in. The old crone surely is eavesdropping again."
A hardly audible grunt from behind the apartment door on their left side confirmed his statement. Pond grinned and shrugged, then unlocked his apartment door and motioned for Booth to come in.
A few moments later they were sitting in Pond's living room. Pond cleared his throat and said: "Well you already had the pleasure to meet the old crone. Horrible person. Don't believe a word she says. All she can do is whine about the good old time and how horrible the young people of today are."
"Got a first-hand impression of that." Booth agreed. "Well, Mr. Pond. The reason for me being here is... It seems there was a break-in into Dr. Brennan's apartment last night. She is missing. Now I would like to ask you if you noticed anything unusual last night or last evening?"
"Nope, sorry, man. I would really like to help, but I've been working at the hospital, night shift. I came home at 4:30 this morning and everything was quiet. I woke up somewhat around 10:00 when I heard people in the hall, I guess those were your people, right?"
Booth nodded. "Did you notice anything when you came home? We do not know when exactly the kidnapping took place, so it might help us to establish a time window..."
Pond frowned a bit obviously thinking hard, but after a few minutes he shook his head. "Nope, sorry... I've been pretty worn out and tired... Shit... I am sorry that I can't help you. I hope you find her... she's cool."
Booth only nodded and thanked Pond for his time, leaving him his card. "You might want to talk to Sandy from downstairs. She's got the apartment directly underneath Dr. Brennan's. Sandy Nichols. Maybe she knows something. Good luck, Agent Booth."
Booth sighed and thanked him again, then went downstairs to talk to Sandy Nichols.
He knocked at her door and soon afterwards a young blond woman with sympathetic green eyes opened. "Hi" she grinned at him. "Wrong floor!"
"Sorry?" Booth asked confused.
"Well, usually you are knocking at the door one floor up. You are Brennan's so-called partner. Agent Booth. Now don't look so surprised, you think nobody notices how often you come to see her?" She giggled. "Partner." Another giggle. "So... assuming you did not just mix up the floor numbers... how can I help you?"
Booth quickly recovered from the shock that everybody at this house was assuming that he and Brennan had an affair. 'Well, who gives a shit, I have to find her.'
"Last night somebody broke into Dr. Brennan's apartment..."
The green eyes widened in shock. "Really? Oh, that's what all the fuss was about? All those people this morning? Oh, shoot... but...FBI? You do not deal with a normal break-in, don't you... Did ... something happen to Dr. Brennan?"
"She is missing. I have a few question, If you have time..." Booth answered, unsuccessfully trying to mask the pain behind the words.
"Oh, SHIT! I mean sorry... well, come in." She guided him to her kitchen, motioned for him to sit down at the table and poured both of them a glass of water. "Missing ... as in kidnapped?"
Booth nodded. "Yes. We know she has been kidnapped. Unfortunately we do not know what time it happened. Maybe you could help us, did you notice something? Heard something maybe?"
The young woman still looked utterly shocked. "I met her on the stairs when she came home last evening. Told her about power outage we had yesterday morning..."
"Power outage? When?" Booth asked.
"At about 9 or so. She had already left, as usual. It was only for a few minutes... It was only this building they figured it was a problem with a fuse or something. An electrician came a few hours later and checked out the whole building and replaced a fuse or something. I don't know about that stuff, you would have to ask the caretaker, Mr. Pearse downstairs."
"Okay, I will do that, thank you. Anything else you recall?" Booth asked.
"Well... yeah yesterday evening I heard some shouting or so... but... I figured it was the old crone watching TV at maximum volume again... I... Oh God. What if I heard her scream and... Oh shit, I should have checked on it, but I just thought... Oh God damn it. You think it was that sick bastard? That Collector? The newspapers are full with him..."
Booth sighed. "I am sorry, Miss Nichols, but I can't answer that question... Do you recall at what time you heard the screams?"
She miserably shook her head. "Sorry, I have no idea... After 10 in the evening, for sure, but what time exactly? Sorry, I don't know..."
Booth sighed again. "Well, thank you for your help, Ms. Nichols. Here is my card, please call me if you remember anything else."
She nodded, then briefly squeezed his hand, he looked at her, clearly surprised. "I am sorry, Agent Booth... this must be very hard for you. I hope you can find her soon." Her words sounded genuinely sympathetic and the concern in her eyes made him swallow hard.
"Yeah" he croaked, then cleared his throat to steady his voice. "Thank you, Miss Nichols."
When she closed the door he leaned against the wall. He was feeling totally worn out after only three interrogations, and there were still some neighbours left. At least he had found out something interesting. A power failure, the very day Brennan had been kidnapped. Coincidence? Booth did not believe in coincidences.
please let me know, what you think!!!
as already mentioned above, this was the last chapter I had already written down... so the next update may take a while... I'd like to thank you in advance for being patient ;) I just started another fic, that will be up here soon too... It's incredible, my muse is always forcing me to start something new... 4 ongoing fics now... I know it's crazy...
