At eight the next morning Booth woke up after a pretty decent sleep. He got dressed and headed down to the Hoover. It was time to interrogate Kraus.

Sweets was already waiting outside the room when Booth showed up. 'Booth, hey,' he said. 'Thanks for the text, you ready?'

'Yeah, I really am.'

'How's Dr Brennan?'

'You know I'd prefer not to think about that right now, I might just reach over and strangle this guy…'

'Did you get the results from the Jeffersonian?'

'Yep, we've just gotta get a sample out of this guy.'

'Booth.' Sweets stopped him as he reached for the doorknob.

'What?'

'Remember what I mentioned to you, about these guys being sociopaths. Kraus has no moral compass, no sense of right or wrong, he uses and manipulates everyone around him, including you and me. This guy will say anything, truth or fiction to manipulate you.'

Booth opened the door and he and Sweets went in. Kraus was sitting handcuffed to his chair, watching them superciliously. They sat down opposite.

'Yoseph Kraus,' Booth said, looking at the file and spreading it on the table. 'I'm really very pleased to finally meet you.'

'You must be Booth,' Kraus said. 'I've never heard a woman scream the same name as many times as she screamed for you—'

Sweets grabbed Booth's arm as he raised it. Booth looked back at him angrily, and Sweets lifted his eyebrows to communicate 'Cool it'. Mouth stretching into a flat smile, he silently reminded Booth 'He's playing you'.

Kraus watched their interaction with interest. 'She was very fun to work with. So stoic. Wouldn't even cry the first few days. I got her to whimper for you, though…'

Booth was breathing so heavily, he was actually wondering if he should even be involved in this session.

'We have enough evidence to detain you indefinitely,' Sweets said, taking his cue from Booth. 'This will go to trial. The question is whether you want to help us along here, or if you're going to make this more difficult for yourself.'

'I assume you're referring to my associates,' Kraus said, his eyes twinkling creepily. He was enjoying this.

'We are,' Sweets deadpanned.

Kraus smiled happily. Which made Booth's skin crawl. 'What deal will I get then? Reduced sentence, out on bail?'

Sweets glanced at Booth. 'We don't negotiate with terrorists,' Booth said flatly.

'Oh,' Kraus said in perfectly pitched surprised. Every expression, every intonation seems false, thought Booth.

'We will keep it in mind, at the trial, whether you have been forthcoming and cooperative…or not,' Sweets returned. 'This isn't a barter system.'

'And I suppose you think I will assist you,' Kraus said.

It is impossible to read this guy, Booth decided.

'No, not really,' Booth countered. 'I'm going to bring your pals in with or without your help.'

'Really,' Kraus said silkily. 'I'd have thought you might be more focussed on helping your lovely friend. She really needs you right now.'

'And you'd know all about that, wouldn't you,' Sweets jabbed.

'Oh, well I will just say that I have a few little surprises in store for you.'

'What, like the PCP cap?' said Booth, putting on his poker face.

'Ah, so you found my little present.'

Booth schooled his features to be neutral, and rather than reply he just raised his eyebrows.

'Well you'd better keep your eyes open for my next little gift.'

'I don't think there is a next little gift,' Booth said leaning forwards. 'You've got nothing, and you want to scare us into cutting you a deal.'

'Ah, well the game's up, you've got me,' Kraus smiled. But Sweets had seen a flash in his eyes before he smiled, a tiny crack in the façade. He was bluffing.

Booth stared at the guy. He was amazed that Kraus could keep such intense eye contact, completely unaffected by his own monstrosity. He was trying to draw them both in, to get them to react and respond. It wasn't going to work.

'What did you do to her,' Booth asked quietly.

Kraus' eyes lit up in glee. 'She doesn't remember! This is wonderful, it's completely gone.'

'What's completely gone?'

'Booth,' warned Sweets.

But Yoseph reeled him in. 'He did it! McCullough did it. She'll never talk.'

Booth suddenly found himself getting up from his chair and punching Kraus in the nose and grabbing him by the head— Then Sweets was hauling him outside, with considerable difficulty because Booth was comparatively stronger.

'That son of a bitch,' Booth heaved, slamming his hand on the door.

'For at least part of that, he was lying—'

'But not that last thing,' Booth said. 'He's been waiting for this.'

'I wouldn't underestimate the… complexity of the lies this man is able to spin,' Sweets said. 'It can be next to impossible to tell whether or not he is lying at any one point. Most psychiatrists actually refuse to treat sociopaths, because their webs of lies can be so destructive and can drag their therapist in—'

'He said "she'll never talk". Or remember. Bones has trouble talking and remembering. He tortured her, he knows something. He might know everything, but we can't trust him.'

Booth turned and looked at the closed door. 'I should never have gone in there, I should have known better.'

'Booth, don't berate yourself for doing everything you can.

'I can't… I can't leave Bones like that. With parts of her memory missing, or not talking, or... I just, can't let that happen.'

Sweets nodded after a moment and could only agree. 'Yeah. Totally . You're right. You shouldn't take that from Kraus. Look, we'll get the other two, and then we can cross-examine them separately to get the real story. But all we can do right now, is just get the DNA and lock him up.'

Booth looked at his hand, where a short black hair was in between his fingers. 'I guess I should take this to the lab,' he said.

'Yeah, that'd be good. Productive. I'll get some other agents onto Kraus, we'll get something true out of him eventually. I'll let you know as soon as we have something solid.'

Booth nodded, still carefully holding the hair, then took out an evidence bag from his pocket. Sweets looked surprised. 'I thought you hate those things as much as wearing gloves,' he said.

'Yeah, well without Bones here I have to try and think like her,' Booth said. 'I'm gonna get going. You work on the psychopath.' Booth clapped Sweets on the shoulder and headed downstairs.

'"You work on the psychopath,"' Sweets repeated as Booth held up a hand to wave goodbye. 'Why does it feel like I got the short straw in this deal?'

.

Cam and Hodgins were engrossed in a computer screen when Booth swiped himself onto the platform.

'Hey, how's the DNA going?'

'Well it's looking pretty good to match Kraus' profile. Is that a sample?'

Booth gave her the evidence bag. 'Yep. I got it when I punched him in the face.'

Both Cam and Hodgins looked impressed. 'Was that your interrogation technique?' asked Cam.

'Nah, just something I throw in once in a while, spice things up… How's all the evidence from the crime scene?'

Booth followed Hodgins to one of the benches where everything was spread out and labelled. 'We've analysed the DNA from the blood, the skin fragments on the ropes and the gag,' he said, trying to say this as gently as possible. 'Well… this was definitely where Brennan was held.'

Booth nodded, staring at all the labelled evidence, each piece representing something horrible Bones had gone through. Things she may never remember, never be able to talk about. Booth couldn't stop going over in his mind what Kraus had said. That Brennan wasn't going to talk, that she couldn't remember. Booth just wanted her to be awake now, so he could take her home. He was going to be there for her no matter what. If she wasn't able to do her job, if she lost everything… the two of them would need each other. Booth would take her everywhere with him for the rest of his life if he had to. He wasn't going to abandon her.

'I'm putting this through now, it'll be a couple of hours to get the results,' Cam said, indicating the evidence bag.

'Great, thanks Cam.'

'Booth, there's something else,' Hodgins said after a moment.

Booth looked at him with a 'what the hell now?' expression.

'From the insect activity in the fecal matter and the deterioration of the skin fragments, I have to conclude she was not kept in that cell for the whole time. She might have been here for a couple of weeks, based on insect activity I'd say the sixth and seventh weeks she was away. But outside that window of time, she wasn't there.'

Booth stared at him, not knowing whether this was a good or a bad thing. His gut was telling him it was bad. 'She was moved around, held in different locations.'

Hodgins looked apologetic. 'I'm sorry. I guess, the other places might have been better…'

Better than a pitch-black hole in the earth, tied up, starved, with rats and spiders and insects, being tortured by a psychopath. Just about anything would be better than that.

But what was really playing on Booth's mind now, were the missing pieces of this puzzle. It probably would be possible, eventually, to work out what had happened to Bones in those two weeks in the pit with Yoseph Kraus. They had soil samples and DNA and the metal torture kit and Kraus in custody.

Booth had seen Bones at the crowded mall escorted by Kraus just before the two weeks she spent with him. Right here in D.C., he thought with venom. She had been out in the sunshine, as if Kraus were testing her out to see what she would do in a public setting. And the next day she was thrown into a pit.

Booth couldn't help think that Bones had responded too well to being out. She wasn't as broken as Kraus was expecting. What happened to her in those final two weeks with Kraus must have been horrific, but what concerned Booth even more was the mystery of the five weeks preceding.

Broadsky had planned all along to return Brennan to Booth. If he hadn't, she would have just been killed. But Booth felt sure that if Bones had been ready, she would have been returned to him that day at the mall. The final two weeks were tacked onto the end to make sure the thing was done properly. It seemed like an afterthought.

Where did McCullough fit into this? Where was Broadsky? It seemed strange that they even thought about releasing her without physical and chemical torture, so the last two weeks were probably a repeat or continuation.

They had assumed she would be broken enough after five weeks. Five weeks he knew absolutely nothing about. What exactly happened to her?