Chapter 11 –
Disclaimer – I still don't own Bones and doubt I ever will.
Well this chapter is shorter than the last ones, but I wanted to get something up. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed you guys make my day. :)
This chapter doesn't have any BB interaction, sorry, but we are progressing with the case… woohoo.
So, go read, and then don't forget to review.
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After lunch the three returned to the lab. On the way to Wong Foo's, Brennan had called Angela and asked her to search missing person's to see if Mr. Johnson was even listed. Maybe that had mistaken the time frame of his death. However, by the time they returned all Angela had to report was that he was not listed anywhere in the database.
Booth had put a call into the FBI offices and had them pull up all information on Mr. And Mrs. Johnson and now had an address.
It was decided that Booth would go over and talk to Mrs. Johnson and see if she knew if her husband was missing, and if possible, get a DNA sample or pictures or something that the squints could use to make a positive ID.
Now, pulling up to the curb in front of the house, Booth could see a small boy about Parker's age playing by himself in the front yard. He thought he recognized the kid and assumed he was the Freddie that Parker had been talking about.
"Hi," Booth approached the boy. "Are you Freddie Johnson?"
The boy looked around nervously, glancing back at his house. "Um…"
As much as it annoyed Booth to a degree that he couldn't approach anyone anymore without people getting nervous, he was relieved to see that this kid has obviously learned about not talking to strangers.
"I'm looking for your mom, is she home?" Booth didn't wait for an answer, but headed up the steps to the front door. Freddie watched him nervously, before slowly following after him. By the time Freddie had joined him on the front steps Booth had already knocked and could hear someone making their way towards the door.
"Hello?" A woman answered the door. She was well put together, everything meticulously in place, not a single strand of hair doing what she didn't want it to do. She looked over at Freddie and reached out, pulling him towards her. "What do you want?"
"Hi, are you Mrs. Johnson?" Booth asked, pulling out his badge.
"Who's asking?"
"I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth with the FBI," Booth handed her his badge. "I'm trying to find Mrs. Johnson."
"I go by Ms. Carson now," the woman handed the badge back. "We split up."
"Oh, I didn't see any evidence of a divorce," Booth was stunned.
"Well, I haven't actually gone through with it yet," Ms. Carson confessed. "I was in the process of getting the papers drawn together when he left."
"Left where?"
"If I knew that, I would be divorced by now," she snapped in reply.
"Can you tell me the last time you saw him?"
"What's this really about?"
"Um," Booth looked over at Freddie pointedly and Ms. Carson seemed to have forgotten he was there.
"Freddie, why don't you go play in the backyard?" she directed him to the backyard. He looked over at Booth for a second.
"Are you really an FBI Agent?" He asked in awe.
"Yep."
"Wow, one of my friends at school has an FBI Agent for their dad," Freddie told him.
"I know," Booth laughed internally at the shocked look on Freddie's face. "I'm Parker's dad," he clarified.
"Parker's cool," Freddie nodded knowingly.
"Freddie…" Ms. Carson looked at her son and then pointedly at the back of the house.
"Sorry," Freddie's smile dropped away instantly and he slinked of to the back of the house, looking back a couple of times along the way.
Booth looked at his mom, "do you think I could come in?"
"Oh, sorry, yes, come on in," Ms. Carson stepped aside and waved him before directing him into a living room. The furniture still looked brand new in the room, and instantly it reminded Booth of the living room in the house he grew up in. It was only used when guests were over, otherwise it was off limits.
He sat down gingerly in a stiff high backed chair before leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "I'm sorry to inform you Ms. Carson…"
"You can call me Anne," she interrupted, settling onto the couch opposite him.
"Anne. A body was discovered out in Rock Creek Park and we have reason to believe that it is Mr. Johnson."
"A… a body?" Anne looked shocked.
"Yes, we haven't officially identified him yet, but that's where you come in. We were hoping that you would have something with is DNA on it, like a toothbrush."
Anne shook her head. "I'm sorry, but after he left I got rid of all his things. All I have left are a couple of pictures that I gave to Freddie. He may not have been a good dad, but I didn't think I should deny Freddie the pictures. He's much better off without his dad in his life."
"Do you think I could take the pictures? We can do quite a bit off pictures nowadays. Also, do you have the name of the dentist that Mr. Johnson used?" Booth asked, filing away the information she had supplied about Mr. Johnson's parenting skills.
Anne didn't answer right away, and when she did, tears were leaking steadily from the corners of her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm just in shock here. I, I just figured that Bruce decided he didn't want to deal with the whole divorce proceedings and ran off." She paused and seemed to mentally gather herself together before standing up. "I'll go get the pictures and the name of the dentist. Excuse me." With that, she left the room.
Booth had been sitting drumming on his knees when he heard a creak of the floor near the door way. Turning around, he saw Freddie pull his head back quickly.
"It's okay Freddie, you can come in," Booth told the boy who quickly scuttled into the room.
"Are you here about my dad?" Freddie asked coming to stand directly in front of Booth. With Booth sitting, they were now eye-to-eye.
"Uh, yeah, yes I am," Booth nodded.
"Is he coming back?" A hopeful smile lit up his face before it fell away again and he added sadly. "I miss him. I haven't seen him in almost a whole year."
"Um," Booth grimaced. How do you tell a little boy that his father is probably dead. Instead of following that train of thought, he decided to question him about his dad. Freddie was giving a distinctly different impression that Anne had. "Freddie, did you and your dad get along?"
"My dad is awesome." Freddie nodded enthusiastically. "He would take me to baseball games and played in the park with me and taught me to ride my bike and …" Freddie trailed off as Anne Carson returned to the room clutching a couple of pictures and a piece of paper with a name and phone number scrawled on it.
"Freddie, what are you doing in here?" Anne questioned the boy sternly.
He looked down, scuffing his shoe against the ground. "I wanted to know what you were talking about."
"It's okay Anne," Booth stood up, placing a hand on Freddie's shoulder. "Do you have that information for me?"
"Yes, here it is, I hope it helps," she passed the information over.
"Thanks, I'll let you know if we confirm the results," Booth took the results and crouched down next to Freddie. "And I'll see you around Freddie." He stood back up and held out a hand to Anne, shaking it politely before heading to the door. "Bye."
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Okay, that chapter was quite a bit shorter than my normal ones. But I wanted to get a chapter out before my sister and her friend arrive in about an hour. :)
Anyway, I will spend the next hour working on another chapter so that I can hopefully get something up for you guys in the next couple of days. I think I will aim to update every 2-3 days but keep the chapters closer to 1000 words instead of my normal 2000 aim.
So once again please review, review, review:) It makes my dad when I see the emails.
