A/N: This is really random, but is anyone else HATING the recent Bones episodes? I am starting to get sick of it. The writers really destroyed what would've been an awesome couple of Booth and Brennan by getting her prego right off the bat. Am I alone in this? I hope not... anyhoo, enjoy your reading. Happy Holidays!
Disclaimer: FOX and CBS own this real estate. I just rent.
~~Betrayal~~
Booth gazed over the case file, taking a sip of mediocre break room coffee, studying a few of the details as a sudden thought struck him.
Reported Missing by: Walters, Jessalyn M. (See attached affidavit)
He flipped through several meandering police forms dealing with ongoing investigation updates, affidavits taken from other neighbors during the canvass, when he realized the obvious gap in whose statements were taken. Becky and Shawna.
The two girls hadn't been interviewed. Booth sighed in frustration at that notion. Those two would have been up near the top of his list. And yet, he flipped through the file (which was becoming increasingly extensive the further their investigation went) again, looking to see if their statements when she went missing got jostled around somewhere and were merely misplaced. Alas, he came up empty. They didn't exist.
The agent sighed, squeezing his eyes shut. He was about to curse the NYPD for letting inexperienced officers perform the canvass, for letting go large leads by not investigating further into Lynn's life when another thought struck him. Bones would be pissed with all these 'intuitive leaps' I'm making. When he interviewed the two friends, it was like they didn't even know she was missing. If they were as close as they made it seem, why were they not the ones to report her missing?
Booth set the file down on the table in front of him before scrubbing his hands across his wearied face. This case was proving more complicated than he'd originally thought. He wished fervently that their very first suspect, the brother, had done it; case closed, end of story. But no, this case (which wasn't even technically a federal investigation. He had to do some fancy footwork with his superiors to even allow Bones and he to come and assist. Quite frankly, they didn't care if Bones went. She worked for the Jeffersonian, not the FBI. A mere contract stated that she help them when needed. But Booth wasn't about to let Bones go up to New York City without him. He could barely remember what cases were like without his Squint Squad, and even though they would never admit it, they forgot what it was like to not work with him as well.) had turned into a quagmire of suspects who all had motive in the most pedantic of ways, boatloads of evidence that gave them no solid leads, frustrating double-backs when they realized their leads wound up at a giant dead end.
In the break room of the crime lab, Booth decided to go question the best friends again. The strangest, even unnoticeable, holes in a case could sometimes lead to the biggest breaks. He collected the myriad of paperwork that was now strewn over the table and stood, planning on finding his partner to tell her what he planned to do.
Meanwhile, Brennan and Zack were poring over their current evidence, trying (mostly in vain) to find something to link to one of the suspects.
"Perhaps we should return to Hell Gate Bridge? Maybe we missed something?" The fact that Zack was admitting that they 'may have missed something' gave Brennan a clear picture of how desolate their evidence situation was becoming.
"You don't miss things, Zack," she reminded, somewhat fruitlessly. She knew that he knew that.
"I'm aware of that fact. However, I did not discover all of the evidence. Several techs that the NYPD provided found some of the evidence."
Brennan sighed. "The only important evidence we found on the bridge was the blood, and yet that to was a proverbial 'bust'."
She heard a chuckle from the doorway to their temporary lab. "You should know that I am so proud you finally used that in the correct way," Booth said, fondly remembering times similar to this when she'd substituted 'bust' for several other words including 'pop' and 'explosion'.
"I think I'm starting to get the hang of using common vernacular slang terms," she smirked in good humor at her use of another phrase she heard Booth say quite often.
"Like I said, I'm very proud." Booth approached the table where the remains lay. "Finding anything?"
She sighed as his segue brought her back to her current frustration. "Nothing that would indicate a perpetrator."
He wasn't surprised. "I'm sure you'll find something. You always do. Remember the Terry Bancroft case with that special fungus? You'll find us some special fungus."
She quickly realized he was using a colloquialism. "What about you?"
"Hm?"
"Did you find anything of use in the file?"
He suddenly remembered the reason he came here. "Oh, yeah, the vic's two best friends were never interviewed after she went missing, and the first time I talked to them, it was like they didn't even know she was gone. And its the middle of the softball season, you know? So why wouldn't they notice that she's not at practice or games?"
"You raise good points, Agent Booth," Zack said, finally speaking up. He was still looking down at the bones and didn't actually expect a response. He and Booth still had their 'guy thing' going on.
"I agree with Zack. If the two women in question had such a personal relationship with the victim, how could her absence go unnoticed?" Brennan said, her logical mind quickly picking up on the thread.
"My thoughts exactly."
It was then that Mac walked into the room, seeking the same answered that Booth knew he wouldn't get. "Are you finding any useful evidence?"
She tried to keep her tone as patient as possible. She wouldn't be able to find any evidence with all these interruptions. "I was just telling agent Booth that no, we have not found any evidence that may lead to a perpetrator as of yet, but Booth may have a lead." She returned to her bones, letting Booth explain what he recently discovered.
He gave the summed up version to Mac, explaining the best friends' ignorance much the same was as he did with Bones and Zack. Mac nodded slightly, face thoughtful. "We should bring them in for interrogation."
A few hours later, they had Becky and Shawna both in the same interrogation room at the precinct. Booth was the only one interrogating. He convinced Detective Taylor he would handle this on his own. The two military men hadn't agreed easily on how to proceed, but they'd eventually come to an accord.
Mac wasn't sure what to think of Agent Booth. The man boasted an easy confidence, even a little bit of an ego (especially where his interrogation skills were concerned), but there was a deep humility beneath the surface that Mac's instincts knew was buried trauma of the other man's military past. He'd been able to discover that Command Sergeant Major Seeley Booth was a well-respected man, not just in the Rangers, but the US Army as a whole. Credited with taking out dozens of targets, Booth was credited as the best shot in the Rangers at the time.
As a Marine, Mac held a great respect for the Rangers. He knew that snipers often had the worst job of all- they had to get to know their targets. Learn their routines, behavior, patterns in their life, family members... it took a great deal of recon by the sniper before they were able to properly take out a target. It was a well known fact that Army Rangers were the ones that frequented the offices of Army psychologists most often (at least when the tough bastards admitted that they needed help). Mac couldn't fathom getting to know someone (in a sense) and then having to kill them. He imagined that it was, at the very least, excruciating. With taking a human life, there is always a price to be paid.
Starting out at the lowest rung of the military as a lowly Private, Booth clawed his way up the ranks quickly, becoming one of the youngest Sergeants in the Ranger's history. Countless medals were thrown his way, Mac found, most notably a Bronze Star (for carrying an injured member of his squadron nearly four miles while being tailed by hostiles), a Silver Star, and the Army's highest award, a Medal of Honor (he was one of the few who were actually alive to see the honor), along with a myriad of other ribbons and medals. Mac even realized that the number of honors this man received outnumbered his own.
The stellar military record added to Mac's confidence in the young agent, and he agreed to let him do the interrogation solo.
Rebecca Jean Moss looked nervous. Her leg bounced against the floor as if she had Restless Leg Syndrome, her hand kept dragging through her thick mop of dark brown curls, and her green eyes shifted constantly. Booth knew he'd have to keep an eye on her.
Shawna Margot Briggs looked depressed. She sat statue-still, leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed protectively over her midsection. Her dark eyes were fixated on nothing in particular, but her stony gaze did not move.
As soon as Booth entered the room, Becky stopped her nervous tells, leaning across the table. "Why are we here, Agent Booth? We answered all of your questions." Her voice rang with conviction and authority, but it did not deter Booth in the least.
"I just have a few follow up questions to ask you and you'll be free to go."
Becky huffed slightly, and Shawna shifted, moving for the first time since she was brought in, putting a hand on Becky's arm. "Bex, its just a few questions."
She sighed, turning to her friend, "I just want to be done with all of this..." Becky's eyes glistened with unshed tears.
"Me too." Obviously deciding to be the strong one, Shawna leaned forward, resting her forearms on the table. "What do you need to know?"
Booth observed the interaction carefully. Something felt... off about Becky. He didn't allow the idea too much time as he asked his first question. "Why didn't you report Lynn missing?"
"Because she wasn't missing," came Becky's stark response.
"How so? She was reported missing by a neighbor who barely knew her. You three claimed to be best friends, so why on Earth did you not notice your best friend wasn't around?"
Shawna visibly flinched at Booth's accusatory tone. "Lynn tore her ACL about 3 months back in one of her private workout sessions with Coach. She said that he referred her to a specialist in Michigan and that she was going to live there for a little while as she recovered. As far as we knew, she was living in Port Huron with some cousin recovering from the surgery."
Private workout session... no witnesses. A specialist in Michigan... explains why no one knew she was missing, or had any idea she was pregnant. Does this cousin exist? But why would she be living in an apartment in Soho, then?
Becky decided to contribute. "I think it was like her Dad's... sister's... daughter? Caitlyn? Katie? Something to that effect."
"You didn't have contact with her during that time? If my best friend was laid up like that, I'd be sure to at least call."
Shawna nodded, "I called her a few times, but I always caught her when she was at rehab or napping or something. Her cousin was pretty protective, I guess. She said to email instead, because then she could respond whenever she awoke, or something alone those lines."
Becky nodded, "Same here."
Booth decided the emails needed looking into. He'd get Angela on it as soon as possible. "Do you know of where she's been living since she and her boyfriend broke up?" Booth asked, hoping to gain some sort of insight on the mysterious Soho apartment.
"She trades off between my apartment and Shawna's," Becky answered. "But I think she was at Shawna's most of the time." Was that a hint of venom in her voice?
"As far as you two knew, she didn't have an apartment anywhere else? Lived with anyone else?"
They both shook their heads, but it was Shawna who answered. "The only family who live near here is her brother and she hasn't seen him in years."
"Have you met her brother?" Booth wanted to gain perhaps a little bit of insight on the brother who was still on his suspect list, although he was steadily getting pushed to the bottom.
The two friends shared a look. "Dane Macken is what one would call perpetually angry," Becky answered, voice strong, almost eager. "If he and Lynn ever talked, it would always end up in a giant argument." She paused before saying, "Lynn told me he even hit her once, right when she moved out. She said that it was the best decision she ever made to get away from him."
Booth saw Shawna shift uncomfortably, but she remained silent. Interesting. Meanwhile, Becky was still talking about Dane Macken's inability to control his anger. "In school he was that way too. Detention was like his second home because he got in fights all the time... I think he's been to anger management before, but I really doubt that helped him. I'm pretty sure it was court-ordered because he punched a meter maid in the face. The guy is just really twisted. Always has been, always will be."
Booth sat with an interesting expression on his face- it was one of the cold, hard interrogator, but it was obviously slightly amused by Becky's near-ramblings about Dane Macken. "Is that all?"
She sat deathly still for a moment, like she'd frozen, before nodding. He directed his eyes to Shawna. "Do you have anything to add to that... interesting array?"
"Uh, no. He's not a good guy, Becky got that right." Shawna said, her face calm, but Booth could see her inner conflict over something. Normally during interrogation he would exploit those kinds of weaknesses, but he felt that the best course of action would be to let her stew over the issue that was plaguing her. If he'd judged her character correctly (a skill which he'd never questioned before the business with the brain tumor... he'd eventually recovered his skills, but the fact that he lost them for an extended period still scared him sometimes.) then she would eventually come forward with it.
Booth's head cocked imperceptibly as he studied the two of them. An interesting pair of suspects. Yes, through the duration of the interrogation he began to regard the two as suspects. They were obviously hiding something, it's whether or not that thing was malicious or not remained to be seen.
Booth decided to prod them a bit. See their different reactions. He was still trying to get a feel for how much they knew about the relationship between Lynn and the coach. In fact, he himself was trying to get a feel for the relationship as a whole... if it could even be considered as a relationship. Was Lynn willingly sleeping with Rahloes? Was he using her for... something? Was she using him to get playing time? That entire situation was a blank slate. "Did you notice anything... strange when she was with your coach?"
He observed them carefully. Becky seemed to lock up for a fraction of a second, and what he thought was a flash of annoyance in her eyes. She proceeded to do her best to look natural, leaning back in her seat before sighing slightly. Shawna's demeanor changed from the guarded edge she'd taken on, and seemed to be openly pondering the question, obviously wanting to help in any way possible. Maybe her guarded facade was only to protect her remaining best friend from lying her way into prison.
"No more than usual," Becky said, somewhat flatly. "There's always pre-season tension between those two."
Shawna glanced at Becky. Booth saw the same conflict in her eyes before she turned back to the stone-faced agent, nothing but resolve in her gaze, "I don't think they were getting along very well."
Booth regarded her carefully. There was nothing but truthfulness in her tone, openness in her eyes. "Why?"
Another sideways glance at Becky. "Lynn told me... that she was leaving Manhattan College."
Becky's eyes widened, "What? She didn't tell me!" Her tone was incredulous, hurt.
Shawna's lips thinned. "She only told me the night before she left for Michigan. She told me that she was sick of people not taking the sport and the team seriously, always partying and stuff. She said that she just wanted to be around people who treated softball as seriously as she did. She wanted to go to Arizona State. They offered her a full-ride scholarship! They're ranked first in the nation! And Manhattan? We're down near two-hundredth. I couldn't blame her for wanting to leave." She turned to Becky, "She didn't tell you because she knew how much you wanted to go there, how much you wanted that scholarship."
"So she'd rather just leave me in the dark?" Booth could see Becky was fuming. "She was my best friend too, you know!"
"She was going to tell you, she just... Can we not do this now?" Shawna pleaded, mindful of the federal agent's presence mere feet from them.
Becky's eyes closed. She said nothing as she turned from Shawna, icy gaze now fixated ahead.
Booth closed his eyes, trying to absorb the myriad of information that was just hurled in his direction. The moment was brief. "Okay, you two are free to go. If you think of anything, give me a call."
After the pair left the precinct, Booth was approached by Detective Flack. Booth was wary of the morose detective. A brief conversation with Angela said that he lost someone close to him recently, but she wouldn't tell him any more than that, saying she didn't want to give information that wasn't hers to share. It made Booth mightily curious about the empty desk facing Flack's.
"I got something on the apartment," he stated, handing a lease agreement to Booth. "Turns out, it's leased to a Brandon Richards."
"Brandon Richards?" Another name meant twice as many complications with the case, and Booth did not want to have to deal with another suspect.
"Yeah, but here's the thing- Mr. Richards has been out of the country for the past year; apparently, he and his girlfriend are trying to relocate to Australia, and are waiting out a dual-citizenship issue with Customs in Sydney." Booth made a sound of acknowledgement as he studied the document.
"So the landlord was okay with them just not living there?"
"Not exactly," Flack said, walking over to his desk and sitting down. Booth didn't miss the pained look in his eye when the detective's gaze fell on the empty desk. "Landlord wanted them to find another person to take over the lease. Richards brought up the idea of a sub-lease, and the landlord was okay with it."
"Okay, who did he sub-lease it to?"
"One Mr. Daniel Phillip Rahloes."
Booth glanced up. "You're kidding," he said. They finally had some form of solid evidence against Rahloes, and the FBI agent had to restrain himself from giving Detective Flack a giant hug.
"Richards is sending a copy of the sub-lease agreement to us, so you'll have it pretty soon."
Another piece had been added to the growing puzzle that was this case. Booth hoped they'd be able to discover what exactly they were looking at in regards to the case, but he had no doubt that Bones would find him a keystone sooner or later, and this case would finally be over.
My concessions:
a) Army medals. I've tried to be as realistic as possible in regards to their awarding. If I got any aspects wrong, please let me know. I hate misrepresenting the military in any way shape or form. I'm not affiliated in any way with the United States armed forces, but my family has been for years, and I hold great respect for those who serve. (And we don't really hear much about Booth's military past anymore... it saddens me, so I've included some in here, for others like me. And for those who couldn't figure it out, the Bronze Star was awarded after the incident with Teddy Parker, which the show left kinda undeveloped. In fact, most of Booth's military history is a mystery. Hm.)
b) Apartment leasing and sub-leasing. Some aspects may be skewed. (what can I say, I'm just a chid. It's the new kid... Has no one ever watched the Bones bloopers before?)
c) Manhattan College softball. This story takes place around 2008, but I used rankings from 2011...
d) irresponsibility with the Manhattan softball team. I'm just using a generalization to make the story work. No offense intended.
Wow, a lot of Bones-y joke references in this. Booth and Zack's 'guy thing' :) And sorry about the length. Its a little shorter than I'd originally planned, but writers block is preventing me from adding more. Pray that some inspiration is thrown in my direction :P
Here's Stella and Angela's (simplified) timeline of events for everyone to enjoy and... yep. this is a pretty complex case, so it's good to lay stuff out there.
Conception: Late February
Supposed ACL injury: April 30, 2008
Breaks up with boyfriend: Sometime in mid-May
Supposedly leaves for Michigan: June 4, 2008
Estimated time of death: Around July 9, 2008
Reported Missing: July 16, 2008
Body Discovered: July 30, 2008