Hi thanks for the replies (and the threats lol) for the last few parts if I knew all I had to do was shoot her to get 24 reviews I'd have done it sooner lol Here's the next part.
Disclaimer: I don't own bones
Chapter 28
Obiter dictum - A thing said in passing
It was five days later when Temperance left the hospital against her doctors wishes. She managed five days before she finally snapped and demanded her release forms. Booth had visited her every one of those five days. They didn't always talk. Sometimes they just sat together, trying to rebuild the unconditional trust they had once shared. When they did talk it was about the case or the lab, it was forced and edgy. They never talked about Cam and they never talked about Temperance leaving. Never. Booth was there to collect her when she left the hospital, still bandaged from ribs to hips as a precaution. She watched as the SUV turned in the direction of the apartment and she turned to Booth.
'I don't want to go home.'
'Well where do you want to go?'
'Work. We still have to interview Hayley Peters and I think we've wasted enough time as it is don't you.'
He would have argued with her, told her how she should be resting at home, how she couldn't risk going back to the lab yet...but he didn't. He was forced to agree with her. The shooting had taken five days of their investigation from them and meanwhile the killer of three girls was still out there. Cross-state cases were never easy and Pennsylvania wasn't exactly close. Booth wanted this case finished, gone. And then when it was over he'd...he wouldn't do anything and she'd leave. He turned the car around and fifteen minutes later they were parked outside the Jeffersonian. Brennan helped herself from the car and headed towards the entrance, passing the guard and starting towards the stairs. Booth followed a few steps behind, making sure he is never close enough to want to touch her, to need to reach out and grab her, to never be close enough that he could smell the sweet berry scent of her shampoo or breathe in taste of her apple flavoured lip balm. She pushed the door at the top of the third floor open and stepped into the lab. It was slightly smaller than Brennan's own lab but was teaming with at least eight times more people. Temperance walked confidently over to a flustered greying man in a white coat who was standing in the centre of this chaos.
'Dr Gregory it's nice to see you again.'
'It's nice to see you too Dr. Brennan, you don't visit us up here nearly enough.'
He smiled and she returned the smile with her own, her first genuine show of emotion in days.
'So you're here to see Hayley Peters are you? I can't imagine what for, she's an excellent worker. She had a real aptitude for research.'
'Research?'
'Yes she's one of my new research assistants.'
Dr. Gregory led then to a small room off of the main lab. Booth followed at a distance, aware that he didn't fit in here, his comfort zone was bout three microscopes back. The smaller room contained just three desks, each adorned with an array of scientific equipment. Three girls occupied one corner of the room, staring down at a computer screen. They looked up when Dr. Gregory entered.
'Girls if I can just interrupt you, this is Dr. Brennan, she and her partner need a quiet word with Miss Peters.'
He turned to Brennan.
'We'll give you some privacy, Clare, Laura, come with me girls and we'll take a look at that Hibernian fungus together.'
The girls smiled at him and exited the room, leaving the smallest of the women alone with Booth and Brennan. She stared at them, her big brown eyes wide in wonder, chocolate curls falling to her shoulders and framing her round face.
'Hayley? I'm Dr. Brennan and this is my partner Agent Booth.'
'We're with the F.B.I.'
'What? I don't...what's happened?'
Brennan sat down on one of the three desk chairs in the room and motioned for Hayley to sit on another. Booth remained standing, letting his partner take the lead and biting his lip slightly in concern when she winced, a hand at her side, when she sat down.
'Hayley we need to talk you about Philadelphia, about this summer and about Tiffany, Freya and Evie.'
Hayley paled and repeated her question.
'What's happened?'
'Hayley I'm not sure how to tell you this but they're dead. Tiffany, Freya and Evie are dead.'
Hayley gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. She wrapped her arms around herself in a hug and took a few moments to compose herself before speaking in a cracked voice full of pain and emotion.
'Are you sure it's them?'
'We are.'
She was. On the day before she was shot Brennan had positively identified the third body as that of Tiffany Watson. Her first suspicions had been correct and Tiffany had died from a blow to the head although the pattern of the blow was different to Evie's and Tiffany had died almost instantly. Booth told her the family had been informed whilst she was in the hospital.
'They...I...I only saw them a few weeks ago, just before I came here.'
'Would you say you were close friends?'
'Yeah, I mean I was the newest member of the gang, I studied for a different major to them but I'd say we were close, especially me and Tiffany. She was like a sister to me...of course we didn't know she already had a sister.'
'Tiffany dint talk about Freya?'
'She didn't talk about any of her family. We didn't even know Freya existed until she showed up at Evie's house and moved in with them. She was only there for a few weeks but she was nice I liked her. She was older than us but it didn't matter she was just another one of the girls.'
'Did she talk about her family?'
'Not really and to be honest it suited me and Evie fine if they didn't mention their parents. Evie didn't have a family and for me there's only my mum so it wasn't something we really talked about anyway.'
'Can you tell us about the last time you saw the girls.'
'I haven't seen Freya for about two months, her and Tiffany had a fight so she left. Tiffany was really upset; she rang home and everything looking for her.'
'Do you know what the fight was about?'
'I'm not sure, one day she was there the next she wasn't.'
'What about Evie and Freya, when did you last see them?'
'A few days before I left. We went to dinner together. Everything was fine.'
'Did anything odd happen?'
'Not that I can think of.'
'What about Jason Howard, what can you tell us about him?'
'Jason? He was Tiffany's boyfriend but I think they were having difficulties. About a week after I moved here Jason came too. He said it was over with Tiffany. We're...we're together now.'
'Together as in...?'
'We're an item, he lives with me.'
Booth and Brennan exchanged glances.
'Can you tell us where Jason might be now?'
Hayley glanced at her watch.
'He'll be at home, he doesn't start work till after five.'
'Thanks Hayley, we'll be in touch if there's anything more.
The drive to Hayley and Jason's apartment was a quiet one. This time it was Booth that led the investigation, knocking on the door and flashing his badge to the young man that opened it. Once they were sat in the apartments small living room Booth began his line of enquiry.
'Jason we need to speak about Tiffany Watson.'
'I'm not with Tiffany anymore.'
'We know Jason but...but I'm afraid she's dead.'
'Tiff'? Dead?'
'Yes I'm sorry. When was the last time you saw Tiffany?'
'Err a few weeks ago now, before Christmas. We broke up and then I moved up here to be with Hayley.'
'Was the split amicable?'
'Yeah, we'd both seen it coming for a long time, I think in the end we were both relieved it was all over.'
'Did you have any connection to Freya Watson?'
'Tiff's sister? I met her a few times but we never sat down and had any meaningful chats if that's what you mean why?'
'She's dead too Mr Howard, along with Evie Lloyd.'
'I don't believe this, Tiffany, and Evie we're two of the nicest people you'd ever meet, and when I met Freya she was nice enough. Who'd do a thing like this?'
'That's what we're trying to find out Mr. Howard, that's what we're trying to find out. What was Tiffany's relationship like with her family?'
Jason seemed to prickle, his voice raising slightly.
'Tiffany didn't have a relationship with her family. They shipped her off to boarding school when she was just a kid. They tried to buy her love.'
'But they didn't with Freya?'
'No they didn't and I got the impression that Freya held that against them. Not Tiffany but her parents. She resented the fact that they lavished their money and attention on Tiffany whilst she was left to fend for herself. Then again I suppose they had reason to buy both Freya and Tiffany's love didn't they, well Mr. Watson certainly did.'
'What do you mean?'
Jason looked up.
'He wasn't Tiffany's dad, not Freya's either. Mrs Watson was married before; I think her husband died, cancer or something. I'm not sure. Anyway the girls were really little, Tiffany was only like three. Back then she was Tiffany Lake but then her mother remarried and Freya and Tiffany's names changed too. Andrew Watson took on both girls. He provided for both of them but he always made that extra effort with Tiffany, she was definitely his favourite from what I heard. She didn't remember her dad, unlike Freya, so she was a clean slate for Andrew and she grew up calling him daddy.'
Booth and Brennan said their goodbyes and went home for the day, the plot had thickened considerably. Now they had suspects an Andrew Watson was at the top of the list.
