I still don't own them, and I'm still getting nothing from this except all your wonderfully motivating reviews and the pleasure of writing. Thanks again to MintExpresso for being a brilliant beta reader.

It's back to the case with a vengeance, as we finally start making some progress on the case.

Brennan had her hair scraped back into a ponytail. She was wearing her dark blue jumpsuit, the logo of the Jeffersonian institute standing out on the left breast. Her dark Wellingtons were caked with mud, and her latex gloves smudged with a mixture of mud and bodily remains. There was a mark on her left cheek where she had brushed hair away from her face.

She looked beautiful.

Booth gave her one last glance over his shoulder as he headed reluctantly back to his SUV. He forced himself to consider the case. His first stop was at the station, to talk to Ted Harvey, who proved to be his usual belligerent self. "When can work recommence?" was his first question.

Booth ignored that. "Have your men finished a fingertip search of the area?" he demanded.

Harvey reluctantly confirmed that this was the case. "They found nothing," he said. "I told you there was nothing to find."

"Apart from another body," Booth pointed out. Harvey turned away, and Booth strode after him, grabbing him by the arm. "I need to know what's going on here."

Harvey glared at him. "Nothing is going on."

"Bullshit. You're constantly in the way of this investigation. If it had been down to you we'd never have found this third body. You'd have had houses built by now, and I have to ask why."

Harvey tried to shake Booth's hand off, but he had too firm a grip. "All right," Harvey said when it was apparent Booth would not let him go without an answer. He took Booth to an interrogation room, and perched on the edge of the desk.

Booth stood silently, hands on his hips, waiting for Harvey to speak. The investigator cleared his throat, looking extremely uncomfortable. "The guy who owns the construction company," he said at last. "He's a guy called Jack Rolland. I'm married to his sister."

Things were beginning to hint at sense. Booth remembered how Harvey and the guy at the building site had been arguing fiercely. He had had the feeling they knew each other, but he hadn't guessed at how well.

"So how does that make any difference?" he demanded.

Harvey looked down at his fingers, pulled nervously at his cuff. "I owe a lot of money. A lot of money. Rolland promised a payment if I could speed things up for him. If I don't – my wife will leave me. I can't handle it. I'm getting pressure on both sides. But I honestly thought there was nothing to find. Otherwise I wouldn't..." his voice trailed away. He stared down at his feet, refusing to meet Booth's eyes.

Booth shook his head in disgust. "I'm going to speak to your superior," he said, and walked out.

It took an hour for him to deal with the mess Harvey had created. The investigator was suspended pending investigation, and Booth found himself interviewing Jack Rolland, who denied all knowledge of the bodies on the site and insisted that he just wanted to get on with the building.

Eventually Booth arrived at the motel to question Charlie, whom he found under the hood of his car. "Darn thing drinks oil," Charlie snorted in disgust. "What can I do for you?"

He turned to see Booth standing there, and his expression immediately changed. "Agent Booth," he said formally. "What can I do for you?"

"I've come to ask you some more questions about these bodies found at the building site down the road," Booth told him. He waved a photo of Jason and his father under the motel owner's nose. "I've spoken to the father of one of the boys. He said they were staying here the night his son disappeared."

Charlie shook his head. "That's impossible, Agent Booth," he said. "I checked my records. There's no indication that a boy and his father stayed here at that time."

"I'd like to see the books myself," Booth said firmly, not trusting the previous officer to have been very thorough in his investigations.

Charlie argued with him heatedly, but eventually took Booth to his office and fished under the desk for his register. He flicked the pages through, back to the date when the Swifts were supposed to have stayed at the motel. As he had said, there was no record of a man and boy staying on or around the date in question. Booth peered more closely at the page. "Is this whiteout?" he asked.

Charlie looked at the page. "I don't think so," he said, unconvincingly.

"I'm taking this book in," Booth said. "I'll have this analyzed, find out what was written underneath. Who was working here at that time?"

Charlie thought for a moment. "That would have been Bessie," he said slowly. "She helped me out for a couple of months, before she and her family moved."

Charlie could not give Booth further details, insisting that Bessie had left no forwarding address, and in the end he gave up for the moment and left, taking the register with him. He headed back to the station to drop the book off for the forensics department, then went to the morgue where Bones was working with the body she had been recovering, anxious to see her again and to have a chance to discuss the case and find out what she had discovered.

Please let me know what you think so far - reviews always welcomed!