(The Maggots in the Meathead)

Thank you for reviewing my story. I appreciate it.

I don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooooooooo

Max had thought over how to handle the CIA and came up with a plan that might protect him while giving them what they wanted. After he bought a phone using his Art McGregor ID, he contacted his old friend Pete Jackson.

"Pete, the CIA came to me with an offer I can't ignore. They want the four pages and the audio tape that belonged to Agent Harper . . . They're threatening Russ if I don't play ball.

Fuck! . . . Alright, what do you want me to do?

Grateful that Pete was on his side, Max sighed. "I can't fly back now, the CIA might try to use me further in this mess. The shit is going to hit the fan when my daughter finds out as it is, but I'd like to keep that damage down to a minimum. I'm going to give the CIA what they want, but I'm not going to make myself a patsy. Make a couple of copies of the pages and the tape. I need you to mail the original pages and the original audio to Danny Beck care of CIA Headquarters in Langley. I need one set of the copies to go to Tom Jones at the same place. Wear gloves when you're making the copies. Make sure you don't leave any finger prints or DNA on the paper or tapes. You know what to do. I think you should mail them from anyplace other that Washington D.C. I don't want the CIA to know about you . . . got it? Maybe disguise who you are when you mail the envelopes. Cameras are everywhere now."

Yeah, I got it. What do you want to do with the second set of copies?

"Oh, we'll keep them. Once the originals are handed over we won't have any control of them, but having a copy would protect us just in case some alterations are done to the originals."

You don't trust the CIA?

"Ha! Would you?" Max wasn't in the mood to trust anyone at the moment. "Who knows what they're up to?"

Yeah . . . Okay, I'll get this taken care of in the next few days. When are you coming back?"

"About three weeks." Max sighed. "Whatever Danny Beck and Tom Jones are planning to do . . . I plan to be in Europe when it happens. You keep your head down. Don't try to call me. We're on radio silence for the next few weeks.

Got it.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Listen Cher', I have some interesting news for you and I wanted to make sure you heard it from me." Ms. Julian stormed into Booth's office, dropped her brief case on one of the chairs in front of Booth's desk and sat on the other one. "Congressman Abbot is being arraigned this afternoon. He's going before Judge Hank Lutrell. The charge is accessory to murder amongst other things. He's being arraigned with Special Agent McBride. We never could prove those two were part of Kirby's gang of dirty agents, but a good citizen stepped forward three weeks ago and gave the justice department some pretty damning evidence. We looked into it, checked its authenticity and found it to be credible."

Stunned, Booth leaned forward on his desk. "I know Abbot was one of Kirby's friends, but McBride wasn't Kirby's friend . . . He was a friend of Abbot though . . . What kind of evidence are we talking about? Abbot is a sitting congressman so it better be pretty damn convincing."

Grimly, Caroline slowly nodded her head. "You know that diary that Max Keenan gave you that belonged to Special Agent Augustus Harper?" She saw Booth's eyes widen in surprise. "There were four pages missing from it, plus an audiotape. We knew about the missing pages, but not the tape. An anonymous upstanding citizen happened to find those pages and tape in a safety deposit box that belonged to his dead father. He had no idea how it got in the box and why his father had it, but he had read through the pages just to see what they were and once he did he recognized that he might have something very important on his hands. He sent them to me and once I read the pages and listened to the tape, I took them to the Attorney General."

"So, you don't know who sent them to you?" Booth didn't like that part of it. It sounded contrived and he wondered if this was Max's doing.

Aware that Booth was suspicious, Caroline shrugged her shoulders. "Might be a child of one of the gang members that Max did business with. They're all dead now except for Max. Maybe when Max took the diary he gave some of the pages and the tape to a friend for safe keeping. I don't know, but I would like to bring Max in and have a talk with him."

His eyes mere slits, Booth stared at the small picture he had on the desk next to his PC of his girlfriend. "Max . . . yeah, I think that can be arranged. He just got back from England a couple of days ago. He's been gone for a little over three weeks. He's supposed to come over for dinner tomorrow."

"So that means it probably wasn't Max that sent the envelope." She was certain that Max had not sent it, but at least that was confirmed. "The envelope was mailed from Cincinnati, Ohio. Max's last bank job was in Dayton in 1978."

"Yeah, I know." Booth poked his tongue in his cheek and thought about the situation for a few seconds. "Okay, I'm going to bring Max in and talk to him. I want to know why he held those pages and tape back."

Caroline nodded her head in approval. "Good. I want to be there when you talk to him."

"You got it." Booth was angry. Max knew that Abbot was trying to destroy his partnership with Brennan and yet he didn't mention the pages or the tape.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

Max had known that this was going to happen. By handing the pages and the tape over to the CIA, he had set himself up, but hadn't had a choice. He had over three weeks to work on his story and he was confident it would take care of the situation. The last thing he needed was his daughter shutting him out of her life because he hadn't given her the complete diary. "So, why am I here?" He leaned back against his chair and rested his hands on the table in front of him.

Her face expressionless, Caroline glanced at Booth who was sitting next to her and then turned back to face Max. "I received an envelope in the mail three weeks ago from an anonymous source. The envelope contained four pages of Special Agent Gus Harper's diary and an audiotape . . . you had custody of the diary and the audio tapes and gave them to Agent Booth four years ago . . . why didn't you hand over the complete diary and all of the tapes?"

"I gave Booth what I had." Max kept his face as bland as possible. "I didn't have access to the four pages you're talking about or the tape, so I couldn't give them to him. I didn't think it was that important anyway. The diary proved that Kirby was a murdering traitor and it gave you the names of most of the agents that had worked with him. They're all in prison, so what does it matter?"

"Who did you give the pages to?" Booth was sure that Max was feeding them a story, but he'd go along with it for now. "Why did you give them to someone else?"

With a shrug is his shoulders. Max leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "When Christine and I first looked through the diary we realized that what we had was very dangerous. I wanted to give the diary and the tapes to the FBI, anonymously of course, but Christine was afraid that it would be our death warrant if we did that. She was sure our family would be wiped out including our kids if the wrong people got the evidence. If you've read the diary you know how vicious Kirby and his crew were. Life didn't mean anything to those bastards. I put the diary and the tapes in a safety deposit box, but Christine thought it would be a better idea to take some of the pages and one of the tapes and give it to someone for safe keeping. I knew a guy . . . I guess he's dead now, but at the time the plan was if me or my family were killed he was to forward the pages and the tape to the Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times. Maybe make a copy and send it to both. It was going to be our revenge. I lost contact with my friend on purpose. I didn't want him to be connected to me in anyway. I guess when he died, his kid sent you the pages and the tape."

It sounded plausible to Booth or well rehearsed. Knowing Max, he was inclined to suspect the later. "What was your friend's name?"

Max shrugged his shoulders. "He's dead. You can't talk to him and no way I'm involving his kid. He was never part of the business."

"You withheld evidence." Caroline was not happy with Max. "You should have told us about the missing pages and the tape and who had them. Now a corrupt FBI Agent has been elected a congressman and that is pretty embarrassing to the voters who voted for him."

"So what?" Max thought her reasoning was flawed. "People should be careful who they vote for. So the great state of North Carolina is embarrassed. They'll get over it. It's not like corrupt congressmen haven't been elected before." His story was holding up and that was all that he cared about. "Those papers were my insurance policy. If someone screwed with me or my family, then they would pay for it. Simple, but effective. I'm a great believer in an eye for eye."

Booth stood up and walked over to the door. Caroline followed him and once they were in the hallway, crossed her arms against her breasts and glared at Booth. "I don't believe him, but we don't have a way to prove it, the couillon."

"I don't think it's a big deal. We have the pages and the tape and Abbot and McBride are going down." Booth was relieved. Abbot had been worrying him and now Abbot was toothless. Whatever he had been up to was stopped and his partnership was safe.

She was annoyed. Very annoyed. "Max has too many secrets. Who knows what else he knows. We don't even know if the eight tapes we have are all of them. Merde, that man is giving me heartburn."

Caroline wasn't the only one who was annoyed. "I'm not sure how Bones is going take this. She already doesn't trust him. I'm pretty sure Max is in deep shit right now."

"Good!" Caroline smiled. "I'm glad to hear it." Pointing at the door to the interrogation room, Caroline growled. "Let him go, but wait an hour before you do it. It's the closest to jail he's going to get."

Amused, Booth smiled at the prosecutor. "Will do . . . I might even wait two hours."

Oooooooooooooooooooooo

He met his girlfriend for dinner at the Royal Diner. "So, we let Max go. Abbot is in jail and Hank refused to let him have bail. Whatever Abbot was up to is stopped now. His career is over. Even if he goes to trial and by some miracle he's found not guilty, he'll have too much baggage against him and no one will vote for him again. A reputation as a corrupt FBI Agent is not great for a law and order candidate."

Brennan was fuming. "Max had no right not to at least tell us about the pages and the tape. He withheld evidence." Her anger was palpable.

"He said it was insurance if he or his family was killed. He wanted to be able to get revenge even if it was from the grave." Booth's phone rang and he answered it.

Cher', Abbot is dead. He was killed about an hour ago, by a prisoner that Abbot had testified against five years ago.

A cold feeling swept across his back. "Abbot is dead, Bones. Someone murdered him." He turned his attention back to Caroline. "How about McBride?"

He's fine so far. The Warden put him in solitary confinement the minute he found out that Abbot was dead.

"They both should have been in solitary to begin with." Booth was angry. "Its standard policy when a policeman or former policeman is put in jail to keep them out of the general population."

The warden will have to explain that when I talk to him . . . A congressman killed in prison. Merde!

The phone call ended abruptly and Booth placed his phone back in his jacket pocket. "Someone's head is going to roll. Caroline is pissed."

"Do you think Max had anything to do with this?" Brennan was worried. Her father was capable of anything including murder.

"Probably not." Booth sipped some of coffee and placed the cup back down on the table. "What would be his motive? Kirby is dead and his gang is in jail. Abbot and McBride weren't a threat to anyone while they were in prison . . . Abbot was killed by a prisoner out for revenge."

She hoped that was true. "When he comes to dinner tomorrow night we need to talk to him. He must tell us if there are any more tapes or documents that he has hidden away. How can I trust him, if things like this keep happening?"

"I don't know, Bones, but he did protect Parker." Booth was torn. He didn't really trust Max either, but he wanted to.

Ooooooooooooooooo

Let me know what you think of my story. Thank you.

A/N: To Guest, I am glad you are enjoying this story. I update it every Monday morning.