Another week came and went during the investigation, leading the team closer to finding what happened to Angela's mother. Brennan worked long hours during the week, staying long after everyone else went home, studying the bones until they spoke to her. Daisy positively matched the murder weapon to a common pocket knife, looking at the damage done to the ribs. They also learned from the damage done to her hands that she had fought back and tried to defend herself. Hodgins discovered microscopic traces of common gravel on the skull and hands, indicating that she had fallen to the ground after the attack. Booth had also found the place where Lily had lived ten years ago and found no traces of foul play there. Everyone worked overtime to solve this murder to give Angela peace of mind. Booth was slowly interviewing people that Lily knew as an artist to see if there was any jealousy toward her work or bad blood between dealers who sold her art. But they came up empty handed since everyone seemed to love Lily Giovanni.
The fundraiser came and went without much incidence. Brennan gave her speech and got a few laughs from the audience from Booth's jokes. She was glad Angela had suggested going to Booth for help on that because it made her feel more at ease about giving the speech where she felt so uncomfortable. After the whole thing was over, she and Booth along with Angela, Hodgins, Sweets, Daisy, and Cam all went to the diner to have a late night cup of coffee, or ice cream in Angela's case. They discussed the fundraiser and how lame those things were that they were all required to attend. Daisy was the only person who found the positive…alcohol that was supplied through the whole thing. Of course, Angela made a sarcastic comment about being pregnant and having to put up with it sans drinking. However, the rest of the night was much better compared to the first half and Brennan thoroughly enjoyed the company of her colleagues who had become more of a family to her through the years.
Returning to work that next week, Brennan delved back into the case full force and examined the bones over again for anything she might've missed. The defensive wounds were concurrent with an attack that she hadn't been expecting. Booth came in and slid his card before coming up to the forensic platform.
"Heya Bones," he said, approaching her as she worked.
"Good morning Booth," she greeted, not looking up from the bones she was examining.
"So, I have something that might make your day," he said, holding out a folder in his hands.
"Okay, explain," she replied, not really knowing what he was talking about. But from the smile on his face, she deducted that it was good news.
"A friend of Lily's, named Margaret Fisher, said that she remembered Lily going down to a pawn shop about nine and a half years ago," Booth explained. "She mentioned that Lily was going to buy something for her next art piece from a pawn shop called Kiev Pawn over on Georgia Avenue."
"So she was getting something for a piece she was working on. What's the significance?" Brennan asked, not seeing where Booth was going with this topic.
"That was the last time Margaret ever heard from Lily again," Booth replied. "She tried calling her cell a dozen times, but no answer. When she didn't hear from her, she figured that Lily had skipped town and gone to Paris again. She'd done it once before."
"What about when she didn't show up for years? How did her friend not know something was wrong?"
"She did. She went to the police about three months after Lily disappeared, but they told her that a report had been filed nearly nine months prior by her husband."
"So her friend didn't know that she had been reported missing by her husband, even though she had just left the marriage?"
"Apparently not. Lily told Margaret that she was just separated from Martin for a while," he said, putting the folder on the table. "I say we pay a visit to this pawn shop and see if the owner knows anything about Lily Giovanni's disappearance."
"Let me finish up my examination of the remains and I'll come with you."
Brennan finished up her examination before removing her gloves and lab coat, going to her office to grab her bag, coat, and cell phone. She and Booth left the Jeffersonian and got into his SUV before driving toward Georgia Avenue. When they arrived, they parked close by and walked in. The owner looked to Booth right as he flashed his badge and looked a little jumpy.
"FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth. This is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan," he said, figuring introductions would be better than intimidation. "We're just here to ask a couple of questions that might help us solve a murder investigation."
"Sorry, guys in three piece suits don't usually come in here, so excuse my jumpy nature," the owner apologized. "What is it that you're needing?"
"How long have you run this place?"
"About thirteen or fourteen years, give or take," the owner replied. "I'm Marcus Kiev. My family started this business when I was about ten years old and I took over for my father."
Booth took out a picture of Lily from his jacket pocket and showed it to Marcus. "Have you ever seen this woman before?"
"Yes, she's an artist. Name's Lily Gio-something…she used to come in here all the time to buy little things here and there for some pieces she was working on," Marcus explained. "She stopped coming almost ten years ago and I wondered if she moved."
"Lily Giovanni. She's dead, Mr. Kiev," Booth said, putting the photo away. "She was found in a field. About nine years ago and brought to the Jeffersonian Institute where she was identified. A friend of hers said that she visited here shortly before her disappearance."
"Oh dear Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Marcus said. "I had no idea that anything had happened to her. The last time she came in was about nine and a half years ago to get a cheap watch for a piece she said she was working on. She purchased one of the ones I had and put it on her wrist so not to lose it before leaving. After she left, she walked out and turned left before going down the street…that was the last time I saw her."
Booth nodded. Brennan listened to the man and could see how guilty he looked for letting an innocent woman walk out of his store and possibly get murdered on the same night. After a minute, she heard Booth thank the man for his cooperation and that they would be in touch before walking out of the building. She followed and walked in the direction that Lily went. Brennan walked alongside Booth, wondering what he was doing.
"What exactly are we looking for now?" she asked, looking at him as they walked.
"If Lily was murdered the same night she purchased that watch from the pawn shop, it would be somewhere close by, right?"
"Possibly. I mean, she could've been murdered days later in another location entirely. We won't know that unless we find trace evidence." Brennan knew that the possibility of finding something concrete ten years later on a street was highly unlikely.
"It's worth a shot Bones," he replied.
She nodded and continued to walk up the street with him. They stopped near an alley and looked down it. Booth started to get that look in his eyes that said that he had found something. Looking around, he looked down at the ground. There was plenty of gravel around, which was found in the victim's skull and in traces in her hands. Brennan knew that gravel was very common in paved areas, but it was logical. Without warning, Booth went over to the nearest dumpster and began pulling it away from the brick wall that it was against. Brennan didn't understand what he was doing.
"Booth?" she asked, looking at him.
"Look down on the bottom on the pavement."
Her gaze went to the bottom of the dumpster where she saw the outside of a bloodstain. When Booth pulled the dumpster completely away from the wall, she shined her Luminol light and saw the traces of blood along with more bloodstains that were left behind.
"Booth…I need to send samples of this back to the lab to test it for DNA matching Lily Giovanni. And this is possibly a crime scene."
"I'm on it Bones."
Within thirty minutes, Booth had an FBI forensics team on site and the place roped off for investigation. Brennan called Hodgins down to take samples of the gravel and blood to take back to the lab to test for matches. The entire area was combed for any other clues that might've stuck around for ten years. As they worked Brennan began to think about what they could use logistically to help them solve the murder. From what they knew, Lily Giovanni was last seen in the pawn shop buying a watch, but she also knew from the case files that there wasn't a watch found on the victim when she was recovered. The only clothing was left in the same box as the remains of Lily and none of them contained a watch.
"Booth," she said, grabbing his attention as he talked to one of the other investigators. "The watch…do you think it would've had some sort of serial number or possibly an identifier on it that would set it apart?" She stood up from her crouching position.
"I dunno Bones," he replied. "We can go back and ask the pawn shop owner if there was anything about the watch that made it unique."
Brennan nodded in agreement. "Can we go right now? I've done all I need to do here."
"Yeah, let me just tell them to keep looking for clues and we can get going." Booth walked over and informed the other investigator that he was heading back to the pawn shop and to call him if he found anything else.
When they were ready, Brennan and Booth walked back down the street and into the pawn shop. The owner looked at them.
"I saw Police lights and heard the commotion down the street…did you find something?" Marcus asked.
"Yes, we might've found where Lily Giovanni was murdered," Booth answered in a matter-of-fact tone that Brennan had heard him use several times before.
"Oh Lord have mercy," Marcus replied, making the sign of the cross on himself. "Had I known…I would've done something…maybe could've saved her. God forgive me. Right after she left, I closed up shop and went home. I should've stayed longer."
"It's not your fault, Mr. Kiev," Brennan said. "You couldn't have known something was going to happen." Logically, Brennan was right. The likelihood of knowing something horrible was going to happen to another human being was almost nil.
"Mr. Kiev, we need to know if there was anything special about the watch that Lily bought that night. Was there anything unique about it that would set it apart from other watches?" Booth asked.
Marcus thought about it for a moment, as if sifting through the watches he'd sold in his mind. It had also been nearly ten years since that night, so details might've been a little fuzzy. That would only be natural and Brennan knew that. But she hoped he might remember something about that watch that would set it apart from others.
"Oh…" he finally said, his face lighting up as he remembered. "That watch was very different. It runs backwards from any other watch that I've seen. It was an old gold Rolex watch that had been dropped in water, so it never ran properly again. There was an engraving on the back though…some phrase I never translated. It was Latin though and said something about God. I do know that much."
"Thank you Mr. Kiev," Booth said, writing the information down in his notepad. "We will be in touch."
When they were finished, Brennan followed Booth back to his SUV before climbing into the passenger seat and buckling her seatbelt. They had gained some valuable information and gotten one step closer to solving this case. She knew that they would have to wait for DNA results from the blood to determine if it was Lily Giovanni's and if the gravel from the scene matched the traces found on the remains. The DNA results would take at least five days to be done and Hodgins would have to run the samples of the gravel through the mass spec to see if they were any sort of match. Until then, they would have to wait and continue to sift through all the evidence that they had and re-evaluate things once again. It was a slow and tedious process, but the science of it comforted her. Figuring things out with science was how she helped people.
"I'm thinking that whoever murdered Lily Giovanni wasn't someone she knew," Booth said, breaking the silence.
"You think this was some random act of violence taken out on an innocent woman?" she asked.
"I think it was some low life thug who thought he might get lucky and score some cash and possibly a valuable or two," he said. "What if he approached her and tried to take the watch, but she wouldn't let him?"
"The shop owner said that the watch was basically useless and invaluable. Why would she put up such a fight for something she could easily replace?" Brennan didn't understand the logic in losing your life over something as petty as a watch.
"That may have been cheap to you or I, Bones, but to her…it was probably a prized find for her art."
"She died for her art?" Brennan asked, trying to understand the point Booth was getting at.
"Yes, she did," Booth replied, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Well…we aren't even conclusive as to what happened that night, so we cannot say that she was robbed or that the murderer didn't even know her," she retorted. Brennan hated positing scenarios of what might've happened. She liked the facts. Cold, hard evidence that proved what happened to victims. Booth, however, liked to think things through aloud and come up with ideas that he could run through his mind. However, she'd gotten used to it over the years and had even tried it on occasion herself.
"We'll figure it all out," he said after a moment. "It might take a while, but we will. That's what we do Bones."
Brennan smiled and looked out the window of the SUV at the passing scenery. Even though she had been solving murders for years, this one felt different in a way that she couldn't quite put together. She couldn't decide if it was because the victim was someone personal to her best friend or if it was because her perspective on things was changing because of what she was living now as opposed to before she went to Maluku. Her heart was in the work because this was Angela's mother and she knew what that was like to not know what happened to your mother. But it was also different because she allowed herself to care and not be as emotionally detached from the case. Temperance Brennan never allowed herself to be attached emotionally to any case before, aside from her own mother's, so she knew that she was different. Whether or not Booth had been the catalyst or Angela's mother was unknown to her. But she had a strong feeling that it was a mixture of both.
A/N: I really appreciate all the views and follows/alerts you guys have given! This story means a lot to me as it's the first Bones story I've written, so all the reviews are amazing motivation to keep going. Review and let me know what you think so far!