Red Fish, Blue Fish

Disclaimer: I still don't own "Bones" and I am still not making any money. Well, not doing this anyway.

Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, and to ani8 for the beta and the kick in the pants to get me finishing chapter 11.

For nattysuits, re: the boyfriend sending Bones and Booth in a new direction: honey, you have no idea! For everyone else... how would you like another plot twist?

CHAPTER TEN

"You think it's an inside job?" Brennan asked, surprised. It wasn't often that Booth expressed a lack of confidence in law enforcement officials – FBI, local PD, or otherwise. She wondered if this was one of those gut feeling things.

Booth shrugged. "It's possible. Or she could have been a plant, sent here for that express purpose. But that doesn't make much sense – this safe house is pretty fringe; not much worth spying on."

Right now, none of this made sense – at least none that Brennan could see. She pulled her laptop out of its case and handed it to Zach. "Zach, I want you to get a chemical analysis on the swab from the security panel and send it to Hodgins as soon as you can." If the panel had been wiped down with something, there was a slim chance they might be able to determine what, which might in turn give them an idea of who had done the wiping. "What do we tell the Marshals?"

"Nothing." Booth's tone was uncharacteristically grim. "You finished with this place yet, kid?"

Zach shook his head, busy connecting the satellite hook-up to the laptop. "I haven't touched that bookshelf yet. Other than that, the room is spotless."

Pulling a pair of latex gloves from her coat pocket, Temperance squatted until she was eye-level with the bookshelf under the window. It was pretty crammed, which didn't surprise her, since Karen was an English teacher, but what did surprise her was the range of books displayed. There were a few handwritten poetry journals, a battered set of Harry Potter books, some cheesy novels of the bodice-ripper variety (Brennan caught Booth smirking when she examined that one and kicked him in the shins), a well-worn copy of T. H. White's The Once and Future King, and the complete works of Dr. Seuss.

"No way," Booth exclaimed, leaning down and reaching with ungloved hands towards a book. Brennan slapped it. "Ow! Bones, it's the Sleep Book," he said, as if this were a matter of national importance.

"So?" She flipped through yet another one, checking for handwritten notes or anything else that might stick out as a clue. "Right now it's a crime scene. Put some gloves on. What's so great about a book about sleep?"

Booth pulled a pair of too-small gloves out of her pocket and sat beside her on the bed, reaching again for the book. "Are you kidding me? Any book that has Parker wanting to go to bed is good enough for me." He opened the cover. "For two entire months, he didn't want another bedtime story."

But that searching book, and several that followed after it, proved useless. "I don't think there's anything here," Booth said. "We've been through most of the shelf-"

Zach, who had joined the search after transferring the chemical breakdown of the panel swab to Hodgins, interrupted. "I think I found something."

He held up the book facing them. The illustrated page was an image of a stylized wave and five fish. Most of the words had been scratched out.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" Brennan asked Booth, whom she supposed was the expert on the subject.

Frowning, he reached out his hands for the book. Zach passed it over, and Brennan examined it over her partner's shoulder. "No. I wonder if the rest of the book is..." Carefully, he turned each page, but all of the words had been inked over in a heavy black marker. He turned the pages back.

"'Red fish'?" Brennan read curiously. "What does that mean?"

"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish," Booth recited, obviously having read this particular book before. "That's what it should say. So why just red fish?"

Zach was back at the laptop again, typing furiously. "What kind of red fish?" he asked. "A herring?"

"Does that mean something?"

Tapping the book thoughtfully against the shelf, Booth mused, "A red herring. You know, Bones – a false clue? Something meant to throw us off the scent?"

She frowned. "But if someone wants to throw us off, why would they tell us? That doesn't make any sense."

"Unless they're trying to throw off only half of the people they think are looking for them."

"What, and it's the dumber ones they want to fool?" Booth asked sceptically. "That's a bit of a stretch."

Apparently, Zach was feeling a little bit cheeky this morning. "Do you have a better idea?"

Scowling, Booth stood. "Alright, we're not getting anything done here. Let's just pack up and see what the boyfriend can tell us, okay?"

SEGUE

Brad Callum turned out to be a tall, solidly-built man with big, meaty hands and a very dry sense of humour. The atmosphere in this safe house was a little bit different since he was considered a suspect in the fraud case – not to mention, at least in Booth's book, a suspect in the disappearance of Karen Adams.

"Cozy," Booth observed, noting the unobtrusive bars on the windows and the security cameras everywhere. "You must feel right at home."

The three Marshals assigned to the case stood one in each doorway, facing outwards. Callum himself was seated in a beat-up recliner in the back room with one ankle resting on his opposite knee. "Oh, visitors," he said lazily. "You'll forgive me if I don't get up."

Booth ignored him, flashing his badge. "Special Agent Seeley Booth, FBI. This is my partner, Dr. Brennan. We'd like to ask you a few questions about the disappearance of Karen Adams."

"You and everyone else in the country. Who's the kid?"

Brennan bristled, but quelled the impulse to let her annoyance seep through into her voice. "This is my assistant, Zach Addy."

"If you killed Karen Adams, he'll find a way to prove it," Booth promised. Temperance was tempted to smile at his confidence in Zach's abilities, but that would have ruined the sinister effect of the words.

Callum's face went white and his icy demeanour slipped away. His foot slid to the floor. "Karen's dead?"

"We don't have a body," Brennan put in, half-scowling at Booth. Besides, there was every reason to suspect Karen had been across the border in Windsor the day after her disappearance – not that she couldn't have been under direct threat there, too, but then why had Allison Jensen turned up dead in Karen's clothes? "There is a chance she's still alive."

Callum sat forward and put his head in his hands. "I don't know where she is, okay? If I knew, I would tell you. Then you could get her away from whoever took her away."

"You believe she was kidnapped?" Brennan asked interestedly.

"Bones, I'll handle this," Booth interrupted. "You think she was kidnapped? By whom?"

Brennan rolled her eyes. So did Callum. "Who do you think? Karen made friends, not enemies. The only people who could have wanted her are ComTech's stooges."

"And you," Booth pointed out. "You're a suspect in the fraud case, which makes you a suspect in this case. Here's what I think: I think you took that money, and Karen found out about it. And as soon as you figured out where the Marshals were hiding her and sent her a little warning, she bolted, or you let her go – it doesn't really matter. If she doesn't testify, there's no case against ComTech, which means you're off the hook. That's what we here at the FBI call 'motive.'"

"Did you even read your case notes?" Callum spat, raising his pant leg. "I can't leave, genius – I'm radio collared like a damn animal. One step off of this property and the po po sweep in like a herd of Swiffer dusters." His jaw set. "Anyway, Karen knows I'm innocent. Not that I wouldn't steal ten million dollars from the government if I thought I could get away with it – I'm just not that clever."

"Zach, check that collar." Brennan shot Booth a curious look. "Just to make sure it hasn't been tampered with," Booth placated. "This guy's an engineer; he could probably rig it if he wanted to."

"I'm flattered," Brad said dryly, and stuck his leg out for Zach to examine. "You're right, I could probably rig it. And if I did, I would probably be clever enough to change it back."

"It hasn't been touched," Zach announced, forestalling further discussion.

Needless to say, that didn't make Booth too happy. "All that means is that he has an accomplice."

"I'm not allowed to have visitors," Callum pointed out. "Or phone calls, or email, and one of the suit monkeys reads and censors any letters I get or send. I wish you were right, man, but I'm innocent. On all counts."

Sighing, Booth pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. Brennan felt a little sorry for him, even though she didn't think Brad was guilty. He looked like he hadn't slept well since Vegas. "Alright, let's pretend I believe you – " Brennan and Zach exchanged glances – "Say Karen was abducted from the safe house. If she could get away from her captors, where would she go?"

Callum considered for a moment. "It's hard to say. If she could get hold of a fake passport, she might try Europe. She has some relatives there, and she'd blend right in. No passport, maybe a university town. She'd try to get another job teaching eventually, even if she had to go to teacher's college again. Or she might've gone east – she always liked the east coast."

"Would she cross the border back into Canada?"

"If she thought she could do it without tipping anyone off that that's what she was doing – then yeah. Definitely."

The girl was like a rabbit gone to ground, Brennan thought. She could pop up anywhere, or not at all. "Is it possible that she simply ran away?"

Callum frowned. "Why would she do that? She knew she was in custody for her own good--"

A shrill ringing cut him off, and she reached for her cell phone. "Brennan."

It was Hodgins. "Dr. Brennan, we've identified the residue Zach found on the security panel. It's associated with a specific type of latex products."

"Good work, Hodgins. Surgical gloves?"

"Uh, actually," Angela's voice piped in, "No. Two more guesses, sweetie."

"You're speaking with the boyfriend now, right?" Hodgins said. "Ask him what kind of condoms they use."

"Are you serious?" They were serious. Well, there was only one thing for it. "Mr. Callum, when you and Karen had sex, was there a particular brand of condoms you preferred?"

Booth and Zach turned to her with identical expressions of incredulity.

Callum reached into his wallet and tossed a packet in her direction. "Boy scout," he shrugged.

Brennan caught it and read the label to Hodgins. "That's it," he confirmed. "That's what was on the keypad."

Thanking him, she hung up. Briefly, she considered confiscating the condom as evidence. It would make Booth uncomfortable and cause amusing stammers in Zach. Instead, she threw the packet back at Callum. A reluctant and very tentative theory formed in her head. "Mr. Callum, just a few more questions..."