And a Saturday bonus chapter, b/c Ch 21 was one of my favorites to write :)

Chapter 21

Booth walked into the Medico-Legal Lab and headed over to the forensic platform. He scanned his card and walked up the steps, looking around.

"Hey Wendell, have you seen Bones?" He called out as he walked over to join the interns still working on the remains.

Wendell looked up at Booth. "Um.... I think she's with Arastoo and the other interns."

"So, do we have cause of death yet?" Booth clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "I need something to work with here."

Wendell looked at Daisy, who appeared flustered. "We have some theories.... but you know, Dr. Brennan said we shouldn't jump to conclusions, and she's brilliant, so I think we should listen to her." She glared at the others, as if they were going to start spouting ridiculous theories at any moment.

Booth eyed her warily and then glanced over at Vincent and Fisher. "Ok..... what about you, anything?"

Vincent cleared his throat and looked down. "I have nothing to say on the subject."

Fisher sighed deeply and added, "Even in its darkest form, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Booth looked around at them, wondering what was going on. "Right - I'm just going to head over to Cam's office, where hopefully things are a little less weird."

He walked away shaking his head. The interns all breathed a sigh of relief.

"My nerves can't really handle this sort of intrigue," Vincent muttered.

Wendell shook his head. "Well brace yourself... I'm guessing one or both of them will be yelling by the end of the day."

Booth stuck his head in Hodgins' office. "Hey Hodgins, got any squinty details to pass on?"

Hodgins looked up - he too seemed a bit nervous. "Actually, I think Cam is up to date on everything. You should probably just check with her."

"What, no 'King of the Lab' revelations? Geez, what's with you guys today?" Booth shook his head and continued on to Cam's office.

Cam jumped when Booth called her name. "Seeley.... how was your meeting at the Hoover?"

He sat down and ran a hand over the back of his neck. "We think we have an ID on the latest victim, we just need to wait for dentals and DNA." He handed over the file.

Cam flipped open the folder and looked over the information. As she scanned the page, her attention was caught by one detail. Her head shot up. "She was an anthropology student?" When Booth nodded, she said quietly, "I take it that's probably not a coincidence."

"Sweets says no, there's a good chance that the killer is targeting female anthropology students as part of his fixation. Of course we won't know for sure until we ID the other victims, but my gut's telling me Sweets is on the right track."

Cam's stomach sank. This made the news she had for him that much worse. "So, I believe we also have something to go on with cause of death."

"Yeah, the interns were all acting jumpy and Hodgins said I could get the details from you. What's going on?"

"Coward," Cam muttered.

Booth leaned forward. "What was that?"

She sighed. "Nothing. The latest victim showed signs of being cut down with a machete, but that wasn't the cause of death. The throat was slashed while the victim was still alive."

Booth sat back as he processed this. "A machete, huh? Like, say, a guerilla army might use in Central America?"

Cam nodded - she should have known it wouldn't take him long to make that leap. "The other two victims were cut and beaten with a medieval battle axe. Dr. Brennan said it appeared that the ribs broke in such a way that they could have punctured the lungs of both victims, so that's the likeliest cause of death."

Booth stood up and began pacing the room, thinking it through. "Ok, so we have a machete and a centuries old battle axe. What's the connection? Why use such different methods of killing his victims?"

Cam hesitated for a moment and took a deep breath. "Dr. Brennan published papers on both methods of killing and the resultant wound patterns on the bone."

Booth stopped dead in the center of the room. "So what we have here is a killer who's obsessed with Bones, targeting female anthropology students, and then basing his method of killing on research papers Bones has had published?" His voice rose with each word, the last few being heard clear across the lab.

Four heads popped up on the forensic platform. "I think he knows," Wendell commented drily. He looked around at the others. "Batten down the hatches, it's about to blow!"