50. Kidnapped
Hoover building, small viewing room
Tom Harkness stared at a small monitor displaying a conference room. The figures on the screen were familiar to him, Seeley Booth, Dr. Brennan, and Jenny and Kayla Sinclair. He observed from the closed circuit television as Jenny Sinclair unwrapped her fresh wounds to tell Booth and Brennan the story of what he could only assume was the worst night of her life. He had only met Jenny a few times while he and Mark Sinclair had been putting the case together against Peterson, but he was certain she would not have opened up to him. Certainly not as fully as she was with Booth and Brennan. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something seemed to click between the two women. It seemed deeper than their shared experience of personal loss. Maybe it was an iron will underneath it all, and maybe, he thought with a mental shrug, he would never figure it out. Twenty-seven years of marriage and two daughters had taught him that sometimes women were just impossible to fully understand.
Harkness saw something else through the monitor too. Booth and Brennan were somehow more than they were the night he tracked them down at the park. If Harkness were a betting man, a vice he had given up years ago, he would have wagered that the two of them were an item. He certainly hoped so, at least. Booth had seemed completely smitten with his pretty partner, and the more he watched her the more he understood Booth's fascination.
Harkness glanced over at a man sitting beside him, watching the same scene unfold. He was a slim, academic type who had introduced himself as Dr. Lance Sweets. Harkness had never met him before, but had heard the scuttlebutt about the genius shrink. Sweets tapped a few notes into his PDA, but Harkness had the distinct feeling Sweets was paying more attention to the parters instead of evaluating the Sinclairs.
Something Jenny said snapped him from his musings, and he had to replay her words in his head to absorb their full weight. ". . . and then Mike zapped Mark in the back with a stun gun."
"Bastard," Harkness muttered to himself as Jenny described how Jones had made her and Kayla carry Sinclair's still quivering body to a windowless van.
Hoover building, small conference room
"He made us climb in the back with Mark. I thought the stun gun knocked him out until he moaned when we hit a pothole. I don't know how long we were in the van. It felt like a long time, but maybe it was only about an hour. I'm sorry, I can't be more specific."
"Don't worry about it. You're doing great," Booth said encouragingly.
"When the van finally stopped, he made us get out and leave Mark. We were in front of a little run-down house. It seemed more like a low-rent suburb than someplace in the city. Clapboard siding, peeling paint, chain link fence. I think it was white, or maybe gray, and I remember the yard wasn't completely overgrown. Just run down. There was a detached garage, I remember that, and a floodlight."
"And a dog," Kayla said. "I think it was a Doberman."
Booth nodded encouragingly, "Did you happen to see a mailbox or a street number?" Both Jenny and Kayla shook their heads in a negative gesture. Booth then glanced at his partner, sensing she wanted to ask something.
"Do you remember hearing anything when you were in the van, even a change in the road noise?" Brennan asked.
"We, we passed a couple of sirens," Kayla said. "I think one of them was a fire truck. And it was near the house they took us to."
"How can you be sure?" Brennan asked.
"Well, I was scared, but I didn't want to cry. I couldn't see out of the van, so I couldn't count telephone poles or bridge supports," she said.
Seeing their puzzled expressions, Jenny interjected, "Kay used to be scared of riding in the car when she was little. Her grandparents—Mark's folks—They were killed a car crash when she was six. They were hit head-on by a drunk driver. Anyway, we used to get her to count telephone poles on the side of the road to keep her mind off the other cars coming at us in the other lanes."
"Anything would do," Kayla said. "But I couldn't see anything, so I counted heartbeats. I counted my heartbeats between the sirens. I remember hanging onto those numbers. Stupid, huh? Thinking a few numbers might save us?"
"That's not stupid at all, Kayla," Brennan said. If you still remember those numbers, maybe we can calculate how long you were in the van. From that we can extrapolate a range of distances traveled, and if we can match that to a fire truck call, we might be able to find where you were held."
"You can do all that just on how many heartbeats I counted?"
Brennan hesitated, her lips formed into a moue, a word forming on the tip of her tongue, then she bit her lip and gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head. "My team can. They're very good at their jobs."
Hoover building, small viewing room
Lance Sweets pushed his chair back from the table he shared with Harkness and shook his head. He had seen Booth's eyes narrow at Brennan's hesitation and assumed he made the same intuitive leap. "That's going to be another long and uncomfortable session with Dr. Brennan," Sweets thought to himself. "Perhaps I can find a way to tell Zach she still thinks of him," the young psychologist's internal monologue continued.
"If you'll excuse me, Agent Harkness, I think they seem to be coping pretty well. Are you going to stay for the rest of the interview?"
"Yea, I suppose I am," Harkness replied.
"Well, I guess I'll see you at the next interview. I've got a ten o'clock session. Let me know if you or Agent Booth think I need to review the rest of this interview. But based on what I've seen so far, I don't think that'll be necessary."
Harkness repressed a laugh and said, "I'll do that, Dr. Sweets. Good to meet you." Harkness never took his eyes away from the small monitor.
"Same here." With that, Sweets withdrew from the small room down the hall from where Booth and Brennan continued their interview with the Sinclairs.
Hoover building, small conference room
"All I know after they took us in the house, is that the van drove off. I heard the engine. Strained to hear it really, as it drove away. After that, I don't remember much until yesterday. It's all a hazy blur. Takeout food and drugs is all I remember. I never saw Mark again," Jenny concluded.
"They didn't give us any shots yesterday, just some pills," Kayla said, filling in the gaps for her mother.
"Probably so you could ambulate without much assistance," Brennan replied. "I'm going to get all this information to my team at the Jeffersonian. Kayla, would you be willing to spend a little time with some of them this afternoon and tell them everything you remember about that ride and anyone you remember from the house?"
"I think I can do that," Kayla agreed.
"Thank you. We have an artist who may be able to draw a sketch of anyone you remember, and the rest of the team will get to work on your heartbeat calculations," Brennan said.
"Mom, what will you do while I'm there?" Kayla asked her mother with concern.
"Don't worry, Kay. You go on with Tempe. I've got a funeral to plan and family to call. We're so far out of witness protection now, I don't see the need to hide anymore. I wouldn't trust them if they offered their help again anyway."
Brennan had a surprised look on her face as she said, "Oh, no. I think you misunderstand. I won't be there, my team will. I'll be with Booth interviewing the suspects in custody." Seeing Jennifer's eyebrows rise, she looked to Booth who gave her a cautioning look in return. "But I can take you over and introduce you to everyone."
Booth relaxed only when Jennifer leaned back and gave Brennan an approving nod. "Bones, why don't you go ahead and take Kayla over to the Jeffersonian. I'll make sure Mrs. Sinclair has everything she needs for this afternoon and set up for our interrogations this afternoon."
Brennan nodded and retrieved a business card from her pocket. She handed it to Jennifer and said, "Call me anytime."
"Give me your keys, Booth. We drove in together this morning."
He squinted at her momentarily, but relinquished his keys without further comment.
"I'll call you," she said, then ushered Kayla out the door with a final wave back into the room to Jennifer.
Booth changed his mind about commenting as she was leaving and called after her, "No siren!"
