Ok...ask and you shall receive. Don't hold it against me if I don't put any science in or anything coz…I'm a writer, not a scientist. Also I'm from England so if I make any references to places, I don't actually know what they look like. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this...I have a few ideas, but don't know if any of them will work out. So bear with me. Thanks for the reviews! And thanks to WOATCAPIITON for checking this chapter for spelling etc., and also for coming up with the new and improved title!


CHAPTER 2:

Tempe entered the office next morning, impatient to get to work. As she shrugged on her blue lab coat and headed to the examination table, she was surprised to see she already had company.

'What are you doing here, Booth?' She asked the FBI agent wearily, who, instead of answering, fixed her with an accusatory stare.

'You're late.' He said, casually leaning back against the table with his hands in his pockets. Brennan checked her watch.

'..I'm a half hour early.' She corrected him.

'And I always assumed you got here an hour early.' He straightened up as she snapped on a pair of gloves and shooed him out of the way of the boy they had found the night before.

'Are you here for a reason?' She asked from behind her hair, intent on the body of the boy, but as far as she could tell it was very similar to the first, left completely intact – apart from the missing parts – and only just starting to rot.

'Yes, actually, I am.' He drew a few pieces of paper folded together from the pocket of his jacket, and Brennan stood up, more interested as he passed it to her.

The paper, once unfolded, showed a young boy, smiling innocently. The slogan at the head of the page read: MISSING, CONNOR FINN, AGE 8, an address and a contact number. Brennan wondered if the kid in the picture ever imagined the happy photo would be used to advertise his disappearance. Or his murder.

She moved the page and tucked it behind the rest of the pile, and the next quickly followed it, and the next. Four in total, all sporting smiling boys between the ages of eight and ten.

'All these boys went missing in the past month. Two of them have been found, and they're lying on that table.' Booth nodded at the table next to them, where the two bodies lay. 'But we don't know which they are. Can you do some...DNA thingy to check it out?'

Brennan nodded, only half her mind on the question. I can't get Angela to match the skulls…there are no skulls. She thought, worry and frustration fighting for control over her calm, scientist's exterior.

'We can check out their families, see if the parents have anything to match a DNA sample...'

'Great, let's go.'

'But…' Something in her voice made him stop and turn around. The familiar crease had appeared between her eyebrows, that meant something didn't quite fit into place.

'What is it Bones?'

'Don't call me Bones. And there's something not quite right about this thing.'

'What?'

Brennan folded the flyers over and handed them back to Booth, who took them and stared at her quizzically, waiting for the light to click on behind her eyes. But instead she addressed him.

'It doesn't make sense. Why go to all the trouble of eliminating dental records, and fingerprints, but then dump the body in a bush?'

'Maybe it's a stupid murderer. You do get those.' Booth suggested, but Bones gave him an icy stare before withdrawing into her mind again. He could almost see the cogs clicking into place inside her brain.

'I suppose...maybe he wanted the bodies to be found. He could have been trying to scare somebody.'

'So he kidnaps three kids and lops their limbs off?'

'Actually, arms and legs would be limbs, we're talking about just hands and feet, Booth.'

'And heads. Don't forget the heads.'

'How could I?'

BBBBBBBBBB

'Ok this is it, Mr. and Mrs. J Finn.' Booth stated, reading the address of the flyer on the top of the pile. 'Let's go talk to them.'

'Ok.' Bones moved to open the door, but Booth grabbed her arm. She turned to face him.

'Let's me go talk to them. You just...look sympathetic.' Somehow her nod of obedience didn't reassure him like it should have.