Chapter 14: Dinner and Discussion

Booth replaced his wine glass and leaned back in his chair, relaxed. When he and Brennan had first entered the dining room of the inn and he'd seen the intimate table for two the Innkeeper had prepared for them, he'd felt a moment of panic, which surprised him. He certainly didn't want to make his partner uncomfortable by putting the two of them in such an atmosphere, but that wouldn't account for the sudden impulse he had to flee. Telling himself that it was absurd for there to be any awkwardness in sharing a meal alone with his partner when they'd done so countless times over the past six years, he'd approached the table and held Brennan's chair out for her. Bones had quirked her lips at him when he did this, but she sat down without comment.

Ignoring the romantic atmosphere, Brennan had just continued their conversation about the case, though her intensity had mellowed a bit, he thought, as they drank the delicious red wine and ate the wonderful dinner selections that the innkeeper prepared for them. Brennan had told Mrs. Avis that she was a vegetarian when they'd discussed having dinner at the inn, but that clearly had not put a crimp in the woman's style. She'd whipped up a vegetable stir fry for Bones that had the anthropologist eating with gusto.

"So, what are you thinking now, Booth, about Nathans? You can see that the hypothesis he postulated about being framed has become more logical with each piece of evidence we discover."

"I must have had more to drink than I thought, because I am almost coming around to seeing the logic in that argument."

Brennan smiled. Booth noticed how her blue eyes sparkled in the candlelight when she got that self-satisfied look on her face.

Abruptly, he straightened in his chair and cleared his throat.

"We are missing a motive for that, Bones. It is much easier to conceive of Nathans' motive for killing O'Malley, than to come up with a motive for someone going to all the trouble to both kill Jane O'Malley and also frame Nathans."

"Booth, motive is your area. I deal in evidence and logic. In that regard, much of the evidence that we have so far points away from Nathans rather than towards him. First, as I already mentioned, there is the fact that the body was moved. If Nathans killed her on the Senator's property, why not leave her there? It would immediately implicate the Senator, especially given that Jane was working on a story, probably scandalous, about him."

Booth nodded. "There is definitely something odd going on in that house. The Senator was pleasant enough while he was telling me that he never heard of Jane O'Malley, but he clammed up when I asked for information about meetings that he held for his colleagues on the weekends. He called them prayer meetings, but I doubt if that would interest a reporter like Jane O'Malley. My instincts tell me that we have either influence peddling or secret hanky panky going on, all in a bucolic setting. I hope we'll know more once Angela takes a crack at that notebook."

Brennan reached over with her fork and scooped a taste of garlic mashed potatos off of Booth's plate. He found he couldn't take his eyes off his partner as she chewed, swallowed and licked her lips with enthusiasm. "Those are really good Booth, are you going to eat any more?"

Blinking to clear his head - how much had he had to drink? - he pushed his otherwise empty plate towards Brennan. "Full. You go ahead."

She continued to recite the facts as she ate. "Then you have the fact that Jane disappeared the day that Jake showed up here. We'll have to confirm that with Mrs. Avis, of course, but why would he lie about something that we can confirm so easily? He said that she left a message with the inkeeper telling him to meet her in the back grounds of the Senator's house. He also said that when he arrived at the house, after dark, he saw a lot of cars arriving with valets doing the parking. All of which makes sense given what you learned about the weekend prayer meetings. Jake said that given the fact that he couldn't get very close to the house and all the security, he drove around looking for another point of access. However, when he realized he'd have to hike a good distance to get there, if he could elude security, and that he'd have to carry his camera equipment into what looked like an iminent rainstorm, he decided to meet Jane at the inn when she returned and accompany her the next day."

Booth chimed in, happy to be concentrating on the case once again. "Another point to confirm with Mrs. Avis - what time he returned and how he looked. If he took a boat out, he might have been wet."

"The guard said that it rained that night, so he probably would have been very wet if he'd had to take the time to load a body into the boat and then travel on the water to wherever a car had been left. That's not the point though, Booth. Not only would the murderer have left by boat, he would have either had to come by boat as well or somehow had a boat available at that precise location. Jake said he arrived here at around six pm which makes sense given when his flight arrived at Dulles that morning. And when he got to the inn, Mrs. Avis gave him the message from Jane. At that point, he wouldn't have known that the Senator's house was on the water. So, it doesn't make logical sense that he could have driven to the Senator's house to see the terrain, hatched a plan to kill his wife, driven around in the dark to rent or steal a boat, carried out the murder and then been back at the inn by eight, which is when he said he returned."

Still unwilling to abandon his prime suspect, Booth asked a bit more petulantly than intended, "So, where does that leave us? Not the Senator, he's too old and fragile to manhandle a body. Did your guard do it? A property like that probably has a fleet of boats somewhere."

"He's not my guard, Booth," Brennan replied, taking another sip of wine while she pondered the question. "I guess it's possible. You should question him tomorrow. Unless he is not very intelligent though, I don't know why he would have been so forthcoming with information if he had committed the crime. He even gave me the notebook."

"Well, then, we're out of suspects."

"Angela thinks this seems like a crime of jealousy. Remember what Jake told us about Jane always inviting him to visit when she was either beginning or ending a relationship. What if she was ending a relationship?"

"We don't have any leads. We asked Ms. James and she didn't know anything." He paused, considering.

"What?" Brennan asked.

"That secretary or assistant or whatever you call her. I got the feeling that she knew quite a bit about O'Malley's business. Why would she know absolutely nothing about a personal relationship?"

Brennan tapped her plate in excitement. "You think she's covering for someone?"

Booth narrowed his eyes. "I think she knows more than she is saying."

"Well, whoever it was, the murderer had to have some way of knowing where Jane was going to be that evening. Aubrey said that she didn't know where Jane O'Malley was staying...but what if she did know? What if she knew and she told someone?"

Mrs. Avis arrived at their table at that moment to ask if they needed anything.

Brennan looked up, her mind churning with questions that would have to wait until the woman could speak to them later. Booth, however, couldn't contain himself.

"Mrs. Avis, I know we have an appointment to talk at nine, but I have one quick question now if you don't mind." Without waiting for a response, he plowed on. "Ms. O'Malley's husband Jake Nathans said that you gave him a message when he arrived detailing where he would find Ms. O'Malley."

"That's right, he was a very nice man." She raised an eyebrow in Brennan's direction. "Very good looking."

Brennan agreed. "Very symmetrical features."

Seeing Mrs. Avis' confusion, Booth continued. "Mrs. Avis, did Ms. O'Malley leave a message for anyone else?"

The Innkeeper thought for a long moment, then shook her head. "Ms. O'Malley left the message with me around lunchtime. I was rushing around at the time so jotted down a few notes to remind me for when Mr. Nathans arrived. She said he'd be in later in the afternoon. When he arrived around six, I gave him the message."

Disappointed, Booth thanked the Innkeeper and she hustled off. "If someone knew O'Malley was staying here, it seems the only way they could have found out where she was going that afternoon would have been to follow her and then, once it was clear that her stake out was by the water, to somehow get the use of a boat. We'll have to ask around at boat rental places tomorrow."

"I can do that while you talk to the guard, Booth."

"Sounds like a plan." He lifted his wine glass in a toasting gesture and Brennan clinked hers against it. Without intending to, Booth found himself gazing deeply into Brennan's eyes over the glasses. Their eyes locked and he found he couldn't muster the will to look away.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I thought of something." The intimate moment dissolved at the sound of the Innkeeper's voice and the partners turned their heads to focus on the woman once again standing by their table. "You asked if Ms. O'Malley left a message for anyone else, and I answered that. But that question reminded me of something I'd forgotten. Mr. Nathan's secretary called not long after Ms. O'Malley left and said that Mr. Nathans' flight had been delayed. The secretary asked if Ms. O'Malley had left any message for her husband because he might be so late he'd have to go directly to the meeting place. That made sense to me, so I read the notes I'd written down. Of course, then Mr. Nathans arrived when expected, so I forgot all about it." At that moment, someone beckoned Mrs. Avis from a neighboring table. "I have to go, duty calls! See you both at nine."

The partners turned their attention back to each other, this time all business.

Booth voiced what they were both thinking. "Jake Nathans doesn't have a secretary."

AN: Okay, as you can probably tell from the meaningful glances, my writing is influenced way too much by what is going on in the show. So, I am hoping to get as much of this done as possible before tomorrow's show when hopefully Hannah will actually be exiting (YAY!). Once that goal is accomplished for real, I anticipate losing my motivation for writing all of these alternate exit scenarios.