Chapter 10

The Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab Wednesday at 1:15 pm

Brennan took a sip of her bottled iced tea and looked at the file that was on her desk. She and Booth had just met Dr. Gallagher. He was a nice personable fellow who had been in the business a long time. He had said that he was on his way out, which could only mean one thing, that file was confirmation of Lily Tollar's DNA.

"Bones, I've been thinking." Booth broke her train of thought.

"What have I told you about that?" Dr. Saroyan said from the doorway.

"Nice to see you too Cam." The FBI agent smirked.

"Dr. Brennan did you fail to mention something earlier about that exhumation?" Cam ignored Booth's comment.

"No. Why what's going on?" The forensic anthropologist wondered.

"Oh maybe because security is holding a very angry woman who claims that we have no right to dig up her cousin. You said there was no remaining family." Dr. Saroyan told her.

"I said there was a good possibility of no remaining family. Have security bring her in here. Booth and I would love to talk to her." Brennan corrected her. Cam narrowed her eyes at the forensic anthropologist but said nothing as she left the room.

"Good job Bones. You keep this up and you'll be out of a job soon." Booth shook his head.

"What? I told the truth. 'Good possibility' is what I said." Brennan defended herself.

"Anyway we should talk to the nurses that attended to Lily Tollar and see if they can remember her. It's a slim chance but we're grasping at straws." Her partner told her.

"Sounds good but I want to look at Michael Hill. Can you cover the questioning and then hopefully by the end of the day we'll have more answers." She suggested.

"All right. Parker is going to be over at my place tonight, don't forget." Booth said. Brennan nodded as two security guards arrived with a woman about five foot four with red hair. She was thin and wore a khaki knee-length skirt with a maroon top.

"Thanks Bob and Tom." The two men nodded and left the room as Brennan stood up.

"Why did you dig up Mike?" The woman's tone was harsh.

"Ma'am, I'm Special Agent Booth of the FBI and this is my partner, Dr. Brennan. A recent case has brought evidence to light and we hope that your cousin can help." Booth tried to be nice.

"Why wasn't I informed?" She asked. Booth took a deep breath and answered her question.

"According to the record, Michael Hill didn't have any cousins left. You are not his cousin and I cannot discuss an ongoing case with a non-family member." At this the woman turned from Booth and looked at the floor. She knew she had been caught in a lie.

"I'm not his cousin, you're right. I'm his sister." The words hung in the air.

"You're Sherry Tollar?" Brennan asked.

"Yes." She answered.

"Ma'am, I need some sort of proof that you are in fact who you claim to be." Booth said.

"Would a social security number do? Or a driver's license?" Sherry asked. The FBI agent nodded. Mrs. Tollar dug around in her purse and pulled out two wallets. The second one she handed to Booth and then she opened the first one and laid it on the table in front of her. The driver's license pictures were close with a younger picture of her, she had pulled out.

"Is this Lily and your husband, Charles?" Booth asked.

"Yes." Sherry answered but didn't elaborate.

"We exhumed your brother because someone posing as him sold his house and the new owner found skeletal remains in the basement." Brennan went ahead and explained.

"Were they my Lily's?" The woman asked.

"Yes, we confirmed her DNA not long ago." Brennan told her. To the partner's surprise, Sherry only nodded.

"I know she was gone, I just knew it." She sighed.

"Forgive me but you don't seem that upset that your daughter is dead." Booth said.

"I am upset. My stomach is churning as we speak but the only way for me to even grieve properly is to see that bastard rot in prison." Tollar explained.

"You were declared missing fifteen years ago." Brennan stated.

"I don't know who did that. But one night I came home from work and Lily didn't come to the door as she always did. I went to unlock the door and found it open. I know I shouldn't have gone into the house but I feared that something had happened to Lily. Once I was in the kitchen, I almost slipped and fell on something on the floor. It was blood. I ran around looking for Lily but I didn't find anyone. I tried to call 911 but the phone line was dead. Then I heard noises coming from the basement. My husband was coming out of the cellar, the only place I hadn't looked, covered in blood. He lunged at me and I headed for the door. The next thing I remember is waking up in my car, the sound of rushing water woke me. My car was filling up with this nasty, filthy water. I managed to break the back window and I swam to the top. After that, I changed my name and went to live in Virginia Beach. Since my husband thought I was dead, I decided to become Lisa Tasker." Sherry told them.

"Your husband declared the two of you missing. Why would he do that?" Booth asked.

"I don't know." The woman answered.

"Why didn't you call the police?" He asked another question.

"They couldn't figure out who killed my brother, I wasn't about to have them feed me to my husband." Sherry said.

"But they would have had him on attempted murder and murder charges." Brennan cut in.

"At the time, I assumed it was Lily's blood. I had no proof. I still can't understand why he would kill Lily in the first place." Tollar explained.

"He abused your daughter. The hospital records prove it. Two broken radii and a broken clavicle, the bruises shaped like handprints, and you think he wouldn't kill her? He even admitted that your brother broke up a fight between you and your husband and told him to stop hitting you. Even if he somehow accidentally killed her, the abuse formed a pattern. How could you not see it coming?" The forensic anthropologist lost it. Booth's eyes were wide when she finished her tirade. He fully expected Sherry Tollar to haul off and hit his partner but she didn't.

"Charlie promised he'd stop. We moved into my brother's place after he died because Charlie said it was bigger than our apartment. He talked about getting a dog and having a yard to play in. After the accident with Lily's shoulder, he promised to never do it again. Like a fool, I believed him. For almost four years we were so happy and then I came home and found that… I just didn't know what to do." She told them.

"I apologize for my partner but we still have a lot of unanswered questions. Do you know which body of water your husband put the car in?" Booth asked.

"No, I didn't recognize it." Sherry said.

"How about the house? Was your husband ever added to it as an owner?" The FBI agent continued.

"Yes we had him put on in case something happened to me, then he and Lily would still have a place to live." She replied.

"Do you recognize this man? He was posing as your brother." Booth pulled out a copy of the sketch that the artist had done from Mark Dykstra's description. Sherry looked at it and thought about it.

"No, I don't directly although he does look familiar." The small paragraph under the drawing said the man was between six foot two and six foot five, average build with dark brown hair. The moustache and beard were the same color. He had green eyes and there was a scar on his chin.

"Almost sounds like my husband except for the scar, the facial hair, and the eye color." Sherry said almost jokingly.

To Be Continued…