DRINKING BUDDIES
CHAPTER 14: FACE OF FEAR
Author's Note: I am posting this one right on the heels of the last chapter just to get it all out there. But don't panic; Booth will know what to do. I hope.
"Are you sure it was him?" Bones asked Angela. They stood huddled together just outside the door to the Royal Diner, Bones' hand gripping Angela's arm. What had been a moment ago a bright, sunny carefree day now carried a chill. Bones pulled at her friend's arm.
"Come on, let's pay the bill and then go tell Booth what you saw," she urged. Angela, pale and frightened, nodded silently and allowed Brennan to guide her back inside.
"You two all right?" the waitress wanted to know. She often waited on the Jeffersonian crowd but she'd never seen any of them so shaken. Her eyes wide, she followed them back to the table and laid the bill between them. Then she pointed at the same corner where Angela had just seen the man from the bar standing and watching them.
"Did you know that man?" She scratched at her hair net and stuck her pen behind her ear.
"You saw him?" Angela wanted to know.
"Young, tall, blond haired guy with wire framed glasses, right? Bodybuilder type. He's been hanging around here for two days. At first I didn't think nothing of it, but I take my break every two hours in the back dining room, and I sit by the window. He just wanders around that corner, walks up the block halfway then comes back down. He's always looking over here at the diner. He's been giving me the creeps. When you ran out after him just now I almost dropped my tray," she chattered excitedly.
"Eileen," Bones said, reading her name tag, "if you see him again, call me at this number, okay?" She pressed a business card into the waitress' hand with her cell phone number highlighted. Handing her a twenty, she gathered up her belongings and motioned to Angela that they had to leave.
"I guarantee if I see that bum again I'll call right away, Dr. Brennan," their waitress replied. She slipped Bones' card into her apron pocket.
Ten minutes later they were back at Booth's apartment. Parker was playing a game on the computer in Booth's bedroom and they could hear the alien battle sounds in resounding clarity. Booth shut the door to the bedroom and turned to Bones and Angela.
"Are you sure it was him?" His forehead was wrinkled in that familiar way that meant his protective FBI agent side had been activated.
"I only got a glimpse of him," Angela admitted. "But I'm pretty sure, yeah."
"Did he see you looking at him?"
"I don't know."
Booth walked to the window and back, thinking and frowning. "We get witnesses all the time who say they saw something and later we find out they couldn't have. You know, they tell us the perp had brown hair and was over 6 feet tall, and when we make the arrest he's short and blond. But this is you, Angela. You reconstruct faces for a career. With your eye for detail I'm going forward under the assumption that you really saw this David guy, even if you only got a glimpse. What do you remember about him from that night at George's bar?"
"Like what he looked like?"
"Anything. Everything you remember. I want to know what motivated him to stand across the street from that diner watching you eat breakfast. Was he just waiting for a bus? Does he live right around there and that's his usual routine? Or was he stalking you?" Booth was so intense that if she hadn't known him as well as she did, he'd have frightened her.
"Our waitress told us she has seen him wandering up and down the block watching the diner for the last two days," Brennan offered.
"Okay; see, that sounds a lot like stalking. What else?" Booth was growing more and more agitated. Unable to stand still, he paced the small room, drummed his fingers on the wall, and chewed his lower lip.
"He was tall, short reddish-blond hair, muscular build, glasses… and he didn't talk much. He seemed kind of awkward. He was good at darts, I remember. Marcus did most of the talking that night, actually. He was trying to antagonize Tempe the whole time. He was the one that kept handing her shots. He was a real peach." Angela looked away, pain once again taking over her eyes. Booth stopped pacing to give Angela a gentle pat on the shoulder.
"Hey, Angela; I'm sorry we have to go over this again. But it might be important. Did you get the impression that Marcus and David knew each other?"
"Well, it didn't strike me as odd at the time; after all, Tempe and I knew each other too, but yes. They had stupid little inside jokes that weren't funny to anybody but the two of them. Once David started talking real creepy about Marcus' taste for brunettes and Marcus got mad and told him to shut up. Yeah, I'd say they knew each other."
"Okay, that's not good. I'm going to call Burns and get this man's background checked out again. I can't believe we missed that. I thought Charlie Burns was more thorough than this." Booth was irritated.
"I'm going to go meet Jack; he's waiting for me at work," Angela said, digging in her purse for her keys. "Be careful, Bren," she added on her way to the door.
"Wait, Ange," Booth jumped up quickly and stopped her. "How do you know this David guy isn't stalking you? I'm walking you back to your car. I'll be right back, Bones. Keep Parker out of trouble, will you?"
"I love it when you go all FBI on me," Angela gushed. He strapped on his gun and slipped into his black leather jacket. Dark sunglasses completed the look. Angela was thrilled. Booth held up one finger signaling her to wait for a second and walked over to Brennan. He pulled off his shades and looked down at her.
"Bye," he whispered, smoothing a hand over her cheek. He seemed to have just realized that she could have been in danger back at the diner, and the thought had visibly shaken him. He gave her a quick kiss, just a peck, really, but Bones smiled, delighted. Angela hooted with glee.
"Wow, I never thought I'd see that," she crowed. "Come on, FBI; take me away!" She hooked an arm through his as they left.
About an hour later, Brennan was starting to wonder what had happened to Booth when her cell phone rang.
"Brennan."
"Bones, it's me. Sorry; I should have called you and Parker sooner. We had a change of plans. Jack wanted me to come in so I ended up driving with Angela to the Jeffersonian and Hodgins met us here. We looked into the interrogation notes from last week on David. Get this. The agent assigned to do the interview called the dating service to get his last name and address, went to his apartment and took his statement, decided he wasn't a threat, and that's where the investigation ended. New guy. He really dropped the ball on this one."
"But how can that happen?" Bones was amazed. Working for a private foundation like the Jeffersonian, no detail was too small to escape their attention. Her interns all knew one mistake, one missed observation, was grounds for dismissal.
"Charlie Burns thought this new agent should be given something to cut his teeth on, and it happened to be your case. Charlie's looking into it personally now. Don't worry; he'll get it straightened out, I'm confident. Is Parker behaving for you?"
"Sure. We're watching a cartoon right now. It's very entertaining. Are you coming back now?"
"Actually I was wondering if you and Parker could drive my car over here to the Jeffersonian. Angela drove so I'm without wheels."
"Without wheels? Oh, I see what you mean. Okay, we'll be right over, as soon as Sponge Bob is finished."
By the time Brennan hung up, located Booth's keys and her purse, and found Parker's jacket, the credits of the cartoon were rolling across the screen accompanied by the Sponge Bob theme song. Parker clicked off the set and turned to his babysitter.
"That was funny, wasn't it Dr. Bones!" He was still laughing. Brennan marveled again at how alike Parker and his Dad were. Both of them could light up a room just by smiling. The positive outcome to all she'd been through was that she was finally aware of how lucky she was to have Booth and Parker in her life. She handed the boy his jacket.
"Your Dad wants us to come over to the Jeffersonian and meet him there. Come on, let's go."
"Is Max going to be there?" Parker and Max Brennan were good buddies now that Max was giving Parker private science instruction after school.
"Well, it's Saturday, so I don't think so. But there's a chance we'll see him. He does come in on weekends from time to time."
Parker cheered and followed her out the door, which she made sure to lock behind them. Booth's car was in the parking lot behind the building, so they went down the back stairs to the fire door that opened onto the alley. Bones had a brief flashback to that awful night last week when she and Booth had run out into this gravel lot at night on their way to the hospital. She felt a wave of nausea at the memory and forced the visual out of her mind.
"Can I sit up front?" Parker asked. "Dad lets me sit up front."
"Really? He's not supposed to allow that," Bones scolded while turning her back on him to unlock the door. "You are still of child seat age and height. I think it would be more appropriate if you sat—"
Parker let out a muffled cry that cut off almost immediately. Bones spun around to find David standing in the middle of the lot, eyes burning with anger, restraining the boy and holding a cloth across his mouth. The little boy slumped in his grasp and his eyes rolled back and closed.
"Get in, Dr. Brennan," he hissed, breathing heavily, pointing at the passenger side. "If I hold this anesthetic over his face too long, he might die, so do as I say." The man was angry and on edge; Bones feared doing anything that might cause him to harm Parker.
"Please, don't hurt him. I'm getting in, see?" She slowly, calmly did as he said.
"Fasten the seatbelt. Throw your purse in the back seat." The blond man adjusted his glasses and stood beside the car as she complied, careful to stay just beyond her reach. He'd seen what she could do when cornered and he wasn't taking any chances.
"Please, take the cloth off his mouth," she begged, staring in horror at the unconscious little boy in David's arms. "Please."
"Don't move." He laid the boy on the gravel, removed the anesthetic-soaked rag from his mouth, and pulled a syringe and a gun out of his pocket.
"Your turn."
"Bones should have been here by now," Booth said to Angela. He flipped open his cell phone and called hers with speed dial. After a minute, he hung up.
"That's odd," he mused. "She had her cell with her as far as I know."
"Here are the phone records and emails from Marcus' computer," Hodgins said, dropping a document on the lab table in front of Booth. "Hot off the press. Cam is already cross-referencing the recurring calls to see how many were made to David Grange."
Oblivious to Hodgins, Booth dialed another number and held the phone to his ear, listening. His forehead wrinkled with worry. Hodgins and Angela stopped what they were doing and watched as Booth's face grew anxious.
Suddenly Booth jumped and held the phone tighter. "Hey, buddy, it's Dad. Are you okay?"
"What? It's okay, Parker; don't cry. I can't understand you." Booth's face was pale and wild with fear. He put his hand over the phone for a second.
"Angela, Jack—I need to get back there. Now." The three began running for the parking garage while Booth continued to talk to Parker over the phone.
"Slow down, son. I'm on the way, okay? Can you walk? Hey; that's okay. You don't have to. Just sit tight. I'll be there real soon. No, no, don't hang up. Thatta boy. Keep talking to me." They were on the road in under a minute, Booth continuing to calm down his distraught son over the phone.
"Ange, do you have your cell?" Booth asked quickly, still on the phone. She was concentrating on driving as fast as she could and didn't respond.
"I do," Jack answered for her from the passenger seat.
"Parker says he can't walk. Call for an ambulance," Booth said tensely. He turned his attention back to his son.
"I'm glad you had your cell phone in your pocket, too. A bad man made you breathe something stinky? I'm so sorry, buddy. Yeah, we're turning down the street now. Look for me, Parker; I'm in Angela's car. Yeah, the Silver Lexus. You see us? Hey guess what? I see you, too."
Booth snapped his cell shut and jumped out of the car almost before it came to a stop. He was across the lot scooping Parker up into his grasp within seconds. On his knees in the gravel, rocking the boy back and forth in his arms, Booth was beside himself. Parker's little arms crept up around his father's neck and he held on tight. Two heads close together, blond curls and brown; they were both crying.
"Dr. Bones is gone," Parker sobbed. "She was here and then I got grabbed. When I woke up she was gone."
"Who took her?"
"I don't know," he said, crying harder. "I couldn't see him. He sneaked up on me."
"All right. I've got you. It's going to be okay," he soothed Parker. But inside, Booth wasn't at all sure it would be.
To be continued…