Jeffersonian Medico-legal Lab
Saturday, 1:00 AM
Nearly three hours later, the squints were still working tirelessly, despite the late hour. A simple workday might have a set time, but with Zack missing, they refused to stop searching until he was found. They'd looked over every possible detail in the particulates gathered before for something important they'd missed. But still, nothing! Everyone was stressed beyond belief, and visibly showed their fear. Except for Brennan, who worked on stoically, fighting to retain the urge to panic like Angela had when she and Booth had first gotten back.
The usually perky artist was now on the brink of tears. Hodgins didn't deal well with sorrow, so instead went about fuming and cursing as he did his work, all the while snapping the rubber band on his wrist. Cam kept reviewing the notes they had gathered so far on the case, even after it got to the point where she had memorized large chunks of the text and the letters started to swim across the paper. Even though he and Zack were never really close, even Booth could not deny that he had a soft spot for the kid; and even more, he knew how much he meant to Brennan. So, Booth had pulled every file involving cases that were suspected to involve the Hangman, and was steadily working through the large stack. As usual, Brennan went over every detail with a keen, shrewd eye, as she attempted to keep her emotions from affecting her judgment. But inside, she was hurting even more than she was willing to admit even to herself.
At some point, Cam decided it was time to get the team together and pool their information. Right now, it was the only hope of finding their friend.
"All right everyone, it's been a while; let's see what we've found." ordered Cam.
"The particles found in the former cases Booth looked up are most likely from different locations. If we're to trust what Ride told us, their meeting place is always different, so that's totally useless!" Hodgins reported, the news clearly doing nothing that positively affected his temper.
"The injuries and cause of death for the victims in the other cases were inconsistent too."
"Bullets and knife wounds for each kill didn't match up. The Hangman doesn't use the same gun enough times to track it." Angela added sadly.
"C'mon, this is getting us nowhere; what else?"
"In the footprints there were particulates of plastics from various toys, wood splinters, and metal chips, along with dust and an old piece of paper the size of a quarter! What'd you expect us to learn from this?" Hodgins retorted. Why did people always seem to expect him to just be able to pull answers out of nothing, like a rabbit out of a hat?
"Hodgins, I believe the proper response here is 'chill'." said Brennan.
"I ran the paper through some scans and it most likely came from a peanut butter jar," explained Angela. "All the 'clues' in the footprint and the old files point to a million different places."
"Perhaps we would benefit from trying to understand the gang's motives for kidnapping Zack." Sweets pondered. Little did the squints know that this wasn't far off; back at the crime-scene, the knife still lay unnoticed.
"For all we know, they got defensive about Zack being in territory they claimed as theirs. It wasn't unheard of back in the Bronx." Cam said, switching back into cop-mode.
"We're wasting time people! Does anyone have any idea how these all fit together?"
"A warehouse," Brennan said suddenly. The bickering stopped and all eyes turned to her. "The wood could have come from furniture, the metal from different appliances, the toys, the food label… couldn't they all belong in a warehouse? The large amount of dust would suggest abandonment."
"That could be it," Hodgins said, his voice suddenly quiet. He dashed over to his desk and did a quick run-through of the information he had collected. "That could definitely be it!" A short, small grin broke out on their faces, for the first time in what felt like days.
"I'll do a search for abandoned warehouses in that area where those particles you found before come from," Booth declared. He looked over at Brennan. "Don't worry Bones, now that we've got a location, we'll find him." She nodded slightly.
"It's just… he's been gone for over four hours! What could they be doing to him?" The fear at last showed in her voice. Everyone stopped, and for a moment each squint had the same scenario rolling through their heads. Zack's bloodied body lying cold and lifeless on an autopsy table…
"All right people, we're almost there; let's hurry it up!" Cam ordered, her voice cracking slightly.
