From The Man on Death Row. Just Booth this time...
I knew it as soon as I saw her in my office. I knew my weekend was gonna be shot to Hell. Seeing Amy Morton is like seeing a banshee...there's only gonna be trouble in her wake. She brings trouble along with her wherever she goes.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like her as a person, and she's pretty...just one look at that tiny skirt she's wearing, and you can see why the desk guy downstairs gave her a pass to my office. So it's nothing personal. It's just that, you know, she's a defense lawyer, and we work on the opposite sides of the law, in my opinion. I build a case, trying to help the prosecutors to convict someone, and then she tries to tear it down so her client gets away with things. I know that's her job, and she does her thing, and I do mine, but I got tired of always arguing about things with her. Finally, I decided just to avoid her altogether, because it's a lot easier that way.
But here she is, in my office, trying to get buddy-buddy with Bones. That's definitely not good. I don't need Amy giving Bones any tips on how to fill out her gun applications. Bones does not need a gun. She's a professor, not an FBI agent. I'll be the gun...I'll be the muscle in the partnership.
Amy's in my office to tell me that Howard Epps is gonna be executed in 36 hours. No problem for me...I think the bastard's guilty of killing that girl, but Amy's his new lawyer, and she's trying to stop the execution. She brings up old evidence, and then she says I ought to go look Epps in the eye and decide what I think. I wasn't gonna go, but then I thought...no big deal, right? I got nothing to prove. I'll go see guy, and I'll be satisfied that justice is being served.
All the visit did was to poke at my nagging little doubts, all because of one pubic hair. I still think he's guilty, but it doesn't hurt to be 110% sure. So I went to see Bones, and I asked her for a favor. I asked her to look at the evidence again, just to be sure, because I know she's the best, and I know that once she starts something, she sees it through to the end.
She agreed to do this for me...not for Amy, not for anyone else...for me. It's hard to explain how that makes me feel. To know that one of the best scientists in the world is going to do a personal favor just for me…
Bones dove right in, asking for the evidence file, X rays, the ME's report...everything. She even went with Amy went to see the judge so they could get the body exhumed. Like I told Amy...Bones has a mania for the truth, but I didn't mean that in a bad way. What I mean is that the truth is what drives Bones to do everything she does. She can't even stand little white lies, you know? She won't quit until she has all the answers, even if she has to work all night long, or all through the weekend. She decided to do that for me even though she'd never even heard of Howard Epps, but she wanted to make sure we had the truth, so that I'd know for certain that we were right.
Of course, since it's Bones, there were a few problems. Cullen was less than pleased with the idea that Bones was helping Amy to look into a case that we'd already closed, and I guess I'm lucky I still have a job. The murdered girl's parents were upset, too, because they thought we were trying to get Epps out of jail. In reality, Bones didn't care about any of those things. All she wanted was to find out the truth.
So we looked at all sorts of stuff, even down to pollen that Bones found on the skull. That pollen led us to a swamp out in the goddamn middle of nowhere. We started digging, and we found two more bodies. Howard Epps had killed the victim in the case we were looking into, and at least two other girls. I was all for letting the bastard die, but Bones was right...those girls needed to have their stories told. Someone loved them...someone missed them...and someone deserved to have justice for those girls.
Amy, Bones, and I went to see Epps in jail, and he told us that basically we did exactly what he wanted. He had it all planned out as soon as he knew Amy was gonna be his lawyer. He knew she'd come to see me, and that I'd ask Bones to help. We saved his life, and after the trials on the two new murder counts, and all of the appeals, he might live several years longer. It made me sick. I wanted to throw up as I realized we'd been had...we played right into his hands. Amy was so upset she ran out of the room in tears. And Bones...when he reached over to touch her hand, she broke his wrist. It's my turn to tell the truth...I was so happy she did that I offered to give her my gun. I just wished she could have broken his goddamn neck.
Bones and I went to Sid's after that, trying to enjoy what was left of our weekend. I was beat, and I was still angry, wishing that I had never asked Bones to look into that case on Epps...wishing that the son of a bitch was dead, even if it meant those girls didn't have their day in court for their stories to be heard. Then Bones tells me that it matters...the truth matters because we're all interconnected. One person's death can affect all of us, and that's why she does what she does. I kind of laughed it off, telling her that she shouldn't practice her Nobel Prize speech too much, but the truth was….I was in shock. I was humbled. I was in awe. This brilliant woman did a favor for me, working all weekend on this case for free, simply because I am her friend, without asking for anything from me in return. I'm amazed. I just hope I can continue to deserve her friendship.