CHAPTER 9 - We all have our reasons
"Easy, easy," Angela told Hodgins as she helped him sit on the couch. Brennan sat across from them while Booth paced behind them.
"Tell us what happened," Brennan spoke first.
"I told Meg we'd have breakfast this morning, so we stopped at a restaurant and we ate. When we got out," he sighed. "We lost track of her for a second but she only got across the street."
"We were heading there to get her back, but then a couple of cars pulled up in the way. This guy came out of the one on Meg's side, and he took her. Then they drove off."
"In broad daylight," Booth commented. "He's getting careless. What kind of cars?"
"Black?" Angela shrugged. "The windows were tinted. I'm sorry, I didn't..."
"What about the guy who grabbed Meg, did you see his face?" Booth asked. Angela shook her head. Hodgins hesitated before speaking.
"I might know who he is..."
"How?" Booth asked.
"I got an e-mail yesterday in early afternoon. It said... 'I know where she is. Don't think I can't get to her.'" Booth stopped pacing.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Brennan asked.
"We could have traced it and..." Booth started.
"I did that," he told him. "I traced the e-mail, I looked into it."
"We looked into it," Angela corrected. Hodgins looked at her and she looked at him. He gave her a little nod.
"I don't believe this..." Booth was sounding more and more unnerved. "What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking I needed to step up and help."
"They got Meg, how is that helping? If they hurt her..."
"I know that, it's on me. I get it. No one feels as bad as I do about it, so please just drop it."
"What'd you find out?" Brennan asked them.
"Guy who sent the e-mail, his name is Travis Gilbert, he's..." Hodgins explained.
"Travis Gilbert?" Booth repeated. The other three looked up at him.
"Booth?" Brennan asked.
"Tell them what you found first?" he suggested. She nodded to him and turned back.
"Stanley Montrose wasn't Ellie's father. It's Patrick Pierce." Angela and Hodgins reacted in shock.
"Patrick's wife Lillian was born Lillian Gilbert. Travis Gilbert is her younger brother."
"Guess that settles who's got her," Angela spoke.
"And it gives me reason to bring Lillian Pierce in for questioning," Booth nodded.
"So it wasn't all bad," Brennan looked to Booth with a smile. He looked down, forcing back a smirk.
"Come on," he told her. She stood to follow him.
"What do you want us to do now?" Hodgins asked.
"For now, just do your job," Booth told him and Angela.
xx
As they drove away from the Jeffersonian, Booth and Brennan remained quiet, for lack of knowing exactly what to say or do, where to even start really. Brennan would sneak looks to Booth, and he'd do the same with her. When they caught each other in the act, they looked away. A moment later though, they were trying not to laugh. The former party rule stuck back - for now they'd do the job.
"You can't stay mad at them for what they tried to do." Brennan was the first to speak.
"They could have gotten themselves killed. The part that gets to me is they probably knew it."
"It was a risk they had to take."
"Well I don't know about that."
"It got us to Lillian Pierce..."
"Can we let it go? Look, we're here." They got out of the car and went to the door. They were surprised to have Lillian Pierce herself answer the door.
"I thought I might be seeing you," she let them in.
"Do you know why that is?" Booth asked.
"I'm not telling you where he is," she cut to the chase.
"So you are involved in this," Booth accused.
"Depends on your definition of 'involved.'"
"The kind where you end up in jail."
"I realize Patrick's methods may seem extreme, but he has his rights to her." Booth and Brennan shared a look.
"What do you mean?" Booth asked.
"He's had to watch her all those years, raised by a man he thought to be his friend, a decent man. Only he wasn't."
"Wait, who are we talking about here?"
"Meg..." Lillian replied, sounding obvious. Booth turned to Brennan for confirmation. She shook her head. Mrs. Pierce saw this. "What's going on?"
"Mrs. Pierce, Meg Montrose isn't your husband's daughter. Ellie Montrose was," Brennan explained.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Fairly certain though a paternity test might convince you better I'm guessing." Mrs. Pierce shut her eyes.
"Why don't you tell us what you know?" Booth got to the point.
"I don't know much," she insisted. "He never spoke of it too openly, not until recently. I had my doubts for years, the way he was around Meg. I would never say anything. Our business is our business, it's always been that way with us."
"When did he tell you?" Booth asked.
"A few weeks ago. Stanley yelled at Meg in front of him and the others on his floor of the company for having forgotten some thing or another. Poor girl cried her little heart out in a corner. From what he told me, he's known about two years." She paused. "Patrick always wanted a child. I couldn't have any... So when he found out..."
"So where is he?" Booth asked.
"I don't know, and that's the truth. My brother picked him up, early this morning."
"Does your husband own any property?" Brennan asked her. She nodded. "We'll need a list."
"The office will have that."
"Great. Now in the meantime, do the words "accessory to kidnapping" mean anything to you?"
xx
At the lab, Angela had been busy occupying Hodgins' mind by quizzing him on various insects. He was still riding the worry and guilt over Meg, but this helped.
"Okay, what's the longest species name that you know?" Angela asked him.
"Excuse me?" They looked up to find a man standing a few feet away from them.
"Yes?" Angela replied.
"Are you Angela Montenegro?" he asked her.
"I am," she nodded.
"I'm Michael Fisher," he introduced himself. Hodgins looked up.
He'd had Angela be the one to call him, still determined to hold on to 'his secret'. With what was happening, he'd forgotten Mike was coming.
"Hi," she nodded, and Hodgins could tell she was freaking out a bit as well.
"I was supposed to fly in last night, but there was something I needed to take care of with the store."
"That's fine..." Angela spoke a little faster than she'd meant to.
"Is something wrong?" Mike asked.
"Uh..." Angela started, but Hodgins stood with a wince.
"Something happened that we need to talk to you about."
xx
An hour later, Booth and Brennan were pulling up to a warm-looking little cabin. When they got out, an agent approached them.
"What'd you find?" Booth asked him.
"Not sure, but we believe Ellie Montrose was held here... killed here." Booth looked to Brennan.
"I'll go take a look," she told him.
On the ride over, one by one the other properties had been cleared - nothing to note. "Put out the word. We need to find Pierce and the girl," Booth told the agent.
When he was done with the agent, Booth went inside the cabin, following the action to a cut padlock and a door leading into a basement. He found Brennan crouching by a corner of the dank room. The whole place reeked of that scent he'd had to deal with again and again as he worked with Brennan. The room was equipped with a single bed and a chair that shackles, a table covered in worrisome stains, a small kitchen, and a phone on the wall.
"Probably didn't let her roam free around the room on her own," Booth started. He approached the shackled chair - one side was gone. "But then she managed to free one hand, called her sister... and he killed her for it."
"I did notice some wear on the left wrist," Brennan commented from her spot. After a moment she turned to face him. "This was definitely the place."
"Got people searching through the rest of this place for some clues, but I don't think there'll be any..."
"Any sign of the murder weapon?" she asked. He shook his head. "What do we do now?" He had a thought.
"Stanley Montrose would have property too. Patrick Pierce will know them. He could use one of those, thinking we wouldn't look there."
"Okay," she went to stand, gloved hands still in the air. He moved over and took hold of her arms to help steady her up.
There was a pause as they stood there, looking at each other. Once more they found themselves falling victim to being lost in a moment requiring no freedom. It was becoming impossible to ignore. But like a forgotten partner, the job wedged itself in with the putrid odor.
"Okay... here we go..." Booth nodded, with a discreet smile just for her.
"Yeah, let's go..." she returned it.
xx
"How does one person own so many non-business properties?" Booth shook his head as they drove away from their third dead end check.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Brennan's phone rang. She looked to find it was Angela.
"How's it going?" she asked.
"Nothing since the crime scene. Is everything alright?" Brennan asked, noticing something in her friend's voice.
"Well... so far it's been... calm. How long that'll last..." her voice trailed.
"What's going on?" Booth looked at her.
"Michael Fisher's here. Meg's uncle... Hodgins is explaining the situation to him."
"Is he going to be a problem?"
"I don't know, don't think so... He looks like a really decent guy, I can see why Meg chose him for us to call."
"So what's the issue?"
"Well you know that streak some people - a few of them around us - have of... rushing in for the rescue all white knight-like? He kind of looks to be the type."
"And you're afraid he'll go and get himself killed?"
"Him or Meg..."
"What is it?" Booth asked Brennan.
"Hold on," she told Angela, pulling the phone down to turn to Booth. "Meg's uncle's at the lab. Angela thinks he might want to go out there looking for her." He held out his hand for the phone. Brennan gave it to him.
"Can't you distract him?"
"Yeah, and if he was a thirteen-year-old girl that might work. As it is, he's a guy whose sister just killed herself and whose niece has been kidnapped by some Fortune 500 psycho. What am I supposed to do?"
"You're an artist, you can figure something out..." he shrugged.
"Oh yeah, thanks," Angela replied sarcastically before hanging up.
"Alright, maybe fourth time will be the charm."
'Fourth time' was the Montrose summer home. They were pulling up the road to the house when the call came in to Booth's phone.
"Agent Booth, sir, we had a call come in. A man fitting Patrick Pierce's description was seen in a store..."
"What'd he buy?"
"Shackles."
"Damn... Where's this store?" After he hung up, Booth pulled the car over. "Do you have that list of Montrose's properties?" She pulled it from her bag and gave it to him. He read it over. After a moment, he paused. His finger went to one of the entries. "There, that's the one."
"How do you know?" Brennan asked.
"There's a store just a few minutes away from Stanley's father's old office building. He owned it now. The place was shut down years ago, but I guess some things warmed that ice rock he called a heart. Pierce was seen at that store... buying shackles." They drove off.
"Why would he tie her up like that if he thinks she's his daughter?"
"Maybe she didn't like his pitch. She's being rowdy so he needs to contain her. Girl's got fight in her. That's good..."
"Or it can be bad. Ellie tried to do something and look where it got her," she pointed out.
"Then let's make sure we get there before that happens."
xx
"Are you sure?" Hodgins asked the man on the phone. Angela had followed him as he excused himself when he got the call. "Thanks, I owe you one," he hung up. Angela gave a questioning look. "I think they got it. They got the spot."
"How do you know?"
"What can I say, I've got connections."
"Yeah, so I've heard," she smirked. "This time though... You're calling Booth," she poked at his cell phone. "No more under the wire. You're bruised enough as it is."
His reply was a smile and the dialing on his phone. "Yes, Miss M."
"Thanks, H." He focused on the phone as Booth answered.
"Why was I waiting for you to call? Let me guess, you know what we've got," he spoke.
"I know I messed up a little before, but you've gotta let me help out just this once. Make up for the rest..." There was a pause.
"You will listen to everything I tell you. If I say hang back, you hang back."
"I got it," Hodgins nodded. There was another pause.
"Alright." He hung up.
"And we're off," he nodded to Angela.
TBC