(The Bullet in the Brain)

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I don't own Bones.

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The bullet shattered Heather Taffet's head into hundreds of pieces and left everyone around her prone body stunned. There had been a chance that The Gravedigger would be assassinated, so security had been upgraded to try to prevent it. Booth had done what he could, but he had known that if someone really wanted to kill Taffet then it would be extremely difficult to stop it.

Taffet had been responsible for the deaths of a lot of kidnapping victims over the years and some of her victims had been children. If there was one thing Booth knew, kidnapping and killing kids could drive parents to extreme behavior. He knew for certain that if anyone ever murdered Parker he would make that person pay for his crime and not through the justice system. He believed in law and in justice, but he knew that the murder of his son would be his breaking point and he assumed that he wasn't the only one that felt that way.

Although there was no one to mourn the passing of Heather Taffet, Booth and Brennan knew that they needed to find her killer. Their biggest fear was that the killer might not be done with his or her revenge. As they worked the case, it didn't take long to determine that the murderer had to be a professional sniper. The shot had been done at such a great distance that Booth could eliminate anyone with just an average knowledge of guns. He also had to consider the fact that the owner of the apartment where the shot had been fired had been murdered. It seemed a little bit too cold blooded to Booth for that to have been done by a grieving parent. Taffet's murder had been done by a professional sniper and the list of people in the country that could have performed that feat was a small number which included Booth. It was certain that he knew who the killer was personally, he just needed to figure out just who that person was.

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During their investigation, they worked their way through a list of suspects until they were left with Jacob Brodsky. Determined to do his duty, Booth confronted Brodsky on a piece of land off of I-64 near Spottswood, Virginia. After confronting the killer, he chased him through the woods, twisted his ankle and was hurt when Brodsky blew up a building near the path they were running on. Booth had tried to bring himself to kill his adversary when Brodksy returned to check on him, but he couldn't shoot him if there was any doubt that the sniper hadn't killed Heather Taffet. He had struggled to pull the trigger and when Brodsky turned his back towards Booth, that was that. He couldn't shoot a man in the back.

As Brodsky walked away from Booth, he paused, turned slightly and stared at Booth over his shoulder. "I served under General Storm's command and I know what happened to his nephew. I also know that King's Company had something to do with his death. I won't tell you how I know, but let's just say that William King's men aren't all disloyal to their brothers in arms. Two of King's men killed Gale Storm."

"Why are you telling me this?" Booth still had his pistol aimed at Brodsky, but Jacob was careful to keep his back towards Booth.

Jacob laughed. "Because I'm not the evil person you think I am. I'm doing God's work getting rid of the evil that walks among us." As he walked away, Jacob half expected Booth to shoot him in the leg to try to stop him, but unsurprisingly the Agent didn't do it. He had been right. Booth could never take the shot unless he saw a face, unless he knew for certain that his target was guilty.

Brodsky knew that Philip Jarvis was in the Ukraine at the moment, but Butler Hyde wasn't and he was going to pay for what he had done to Gale Storm. As for William King, well betraying Strickland Storm was the line no one who had served with him should ever cross. King was a dishonorable man and he would die a dishonorable death.

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The body was found lying at the feet of the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. The FBI had jurisdiction and turned the body over to the Jeffersonian since they had a backlog at the Hoover. In a few days, after Cam had performed an autopsy and determined that the man was murdered Angela was able to identify the body as that of Butler Hyde and she called Booth. "That body that was found at the Lincoln Memorial was Butler Hyde. He works for King's Company."

"Damn it!" Booth knew who had killed Hyde and why. "I'll be over in a few minutes. Get Bones, Cam and Hodgins we need to talk."

Once he was in Angela's office, Booth stared at the picture of Butler Hyde and shook his head. "We knew that Philip Jarvis killed Gale Storm and we knew he didn't do it alone . . . When I confronted Brodsky . . . before I let him walk away . . . he told me that he knew about Gale Storm being murdered . . . Brodsky served under General Storm's command. He told me that he knew who had murdered Gale because he was told by someone in the King's Company organization. I think Brodsky killed Hyde because he betrayed General Storm by murdering his nephew. That means that Philip Jarvis may be next. He's in the Ukraine, but I think we need to find a way to get him back here before he's murdered. Brodsky will kill him if he gets the chance to do it."

"I doubt that Jarvis will be willing to come back to the States to stand on trial for murder and the Ukrainian government may not be willing to send him back since we don't have extradition with that country." Brennan stared at the picture of Butler Hyde. "I thought Brodsky is a paid assassin. I doubt General Storm paid Brodsky to commit murder. He has cooperated with us in the search for his nephew's murderer. Why not wait for us to make arrests?"

He considered what Brennan said and finally shook his head. "I don't think he'd do it either. Angela can you check his bank accounts and see if he's made any big withdrawals from his accounts lately? Also, check the accounts that belong to his son, Gerald.

"Sure." Angela sat down at her computer. "If you want to wait, it shouldn't take me more than a half hour."

Glancing at Brennan, Booth nodded his head. "Bones and I will go to the diner for some lunch. We'll be back in an hour."

The meeting over, Cam and Hodgins followed Booth and Brennan out of Angela's office. Pulling Cam to the side, Hodgins spoke quietly. "I hope General Storm didn't do it. It will kill Booth if he has to arrest him for collusion. He really respects Strickland Storm."

"I hope so too." Cam was worried about her friend. It was bad enough that Wayne Kitchen was a traitor. Booth didn't need any more of his heroes to fall. "This has been the craziest mess we've ever been involved in. I hope we wrap this up soon."

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Wayne Kitchen had known that sooner or later he was going to pay for what he had done, but he had hoped it would be years from that point in time. He knew that he should never have tried to protect Hanssen from his fate, but he had been his dear friend and they had tried to do God's work for such a long time. The FBI Agent had come to believe that the world could end with a push of a button and that new alliances needed to be built to stop it. Hanssen had approached the GRU and started to sell details of US strategies in the event of nuclear war and developments in military hardware. Kitchen had found out what Hanssen was doing and had seriously thought about turning him in to the FBI, but Hanssen had talked him out of it. Somehow, he made Kitchen believe that he was doing God's work, as a path to stop the destruction of the world. Hanssen explained that the money he got from the Russians was to do good works and Kitchen wanted to believe him. He had looked away when he shouldn't have and then when he was in too deep he had had Felicia Evans killed by some of William King's operatives to stop her from exposing Hanssen and his dealings with Russia. He'd had a reporter killed to let Hanssen to continue to save the world, but he knew that his soul was irrevocably stained. He had done an evil thing and he couldn't take it back.

Hansen had told him that if he was exposed, he would not tell anyone about his link to Kitchen, but there was a chance he would be found out anyways. When Robert Hanssen was arrested and tried for treason, no one had come after him and Kitchen was relieved. Now he knew that had been a temporary reprieve. He had been blackmailed to do awful things after Felicia Evans had died. He had betrayed loyal men and women because he had been told he must and he had even had a few people murdered using King's Company. He had a lot to answer for when he died of that he was certain, but he had done what he did to protect his family. He had been told that if he betrayed his blackmailer his entire family would be wiped out and he believed it.

Sitting in the Hoover, Kitchen appeared to be calm as he watched Booth and Caroline Julian enter the interview room. "Agent Booth. It's been a long time."

With a tight rein on his emotions, Booth sat down and faced the man who had saved his life so many years ago in Iraq. "Do you know why you're here?"

Kitchen shook his head. "No, not really. The arresting officer mentioned murder, but who I supposedly murdered he wouldn't say."

Impressed with how calm Kitchen was, Caroline leaned back against her chair. "We have proof that you are connected to the deaths of Felicia Evans, Gale Storm and Bud Abbot. We exhumed both bodies of Felicia Evans and Gale Storm and they didn't die like their initial autopsies said they did. They were both assassinated. We can prove that Gale Storm was killed by Philip Jarvis of King's company. The detective that ran the investigation into his death was a cousin of yours and he was paid to mismanage that investigation. William King paid off his debts and Detective Chute pinned Storm's murder on a junkie . . . William King was a school friend of yours, so we do know how this all connects. Felicia Evans was killed by Butler Hyde. Some of his DNA ended up in her wound. Hyde worked for William King too. Philip Jarvis was probably involved in Felicia Evan's death. We'll know when we talk to him . . . Bud Abbot was your liaison with an organization that is involved in an attempted coup of our government."

"Wow, that's quite an imagination you have there." Kitchen leaned forward and rested his arms on the table in front of him. "Yes, William King is a friend of mine and yes he paid off my cousin's debts as a favor to me. Hell the man is wealthy and he wouldn't miss the money. If Donald botched Gale Storm's murder investigation then you need to talk to him not me. I work for Home Land Security and we don't do murder investigations. I don't know who Felicia Evans is and I don't know who Philip Jarvis and Butler Hyde are. Never met them. I did know Bud Abbot and I was shocked when proof showed up that he was connected to Deputy Director Kirby's dirty operations. It's a shame he died in jail. Still, he did make a lot of enemies out of career criminals, so being murdered by one of them wasn't much of a shock. As for an attempted coup, I work for Homeland Security. That is the opposite of a coup."

His eyes hooded, Booth pushed a copy of the letter that had miraculously appeared on Anglea's computer across the table and sat back waiting for a response.

Recognizing the letter, Kitchen shrugged his shoulders. "No date, no signature. My kid could have typed this mess up on his computer. Yes, I knew Robert Hanssen and I was shocked when it turned out he was a traitor to this country. It was just unbelievable."

A smirk on his face, Booth pushed another letter across the table. It was in an evidence bag and it had a catalog number. Pulling it towards him, Kitchen read it.

I Butler Hyde, do hereby swear that I killed both Felicia Evans and Gale Storm. I was paid by William King to do it. Wayne Kitchen, a Deputy Director at Homeland Security asked King to kill Evans and Storm and make it look like a loon or a serial killer killed them. I did what I was asked to do by King. King and Kitchen are working for an organization that wants to restructure our government. I'm sorry I got involved.

It was signed Butler Hyde and there was dried blood splattered on the paper. Booth cleared his throat. "Hyde was murdered two days ago. The blood on the paper is his. That is his handwriting."

Kitchen shrugged his shoulders. "It's not admissible in court." Caroline took her IPad from her purse, pushed a few buttons and turned it to face Kitchen. The video was clear and there was no mistaking what was seen or being said.

"King ordered me to kill Felicia Evans and Gale Storm. His friend, Wayne Kitchen needed it done and it had to look like it was part of some other crime. King said Kitchen was mixed up in some treasonous shit with Robert Hanssen and Evans knew about it. Storm found out about it and he had to go too . . . We had a guy working at Langley take care of Storm's emails so no one would find out about the proof he had against Wayne Kitchen."

"What was the name of the guy at Langley?"

"Timothy Crane . . . So, the death penalty is off the table if I testify against Kitchen?"

Caroline's voice could be heard. "Yes. You will serve life for each death. Not concurrently."

Philip Jarvis shrugged his shoulders.

Cornered, Kitchen clasped his hands together and snarled at Booth. "I saved your life and this is how you pay me back?"

Booth stood up and left the room. Caroline shook her head and stood up too. "Booth is an honorable man, but you know that. He's also good at his job and that's why you tried to get him to sign up for Afghanistan. You were afraid that he might be called into to investigate Gale Storm's death if he stayed."

Sighing, Kitchen stared at the open doorway. "You do know I'll never make it to trial. I'm a dead man from this moment on. I just haven't stopped breathing yet."

"You could turn state's evidence against whoever blackmailed you to kill Gale Storm . . . We'll protect you." Caroline hoped the man took the deal.

Without mirth, Kitchen laughed. "Like you did Bud Abbot? I can't testify. My family will be killed. The people who've been blackmailing me will do it if I say one word about them . . . I won't make it to trial anyways, so don't worry about it."

"You were a hero in Iraq." Caroline found it hard to believe that such a man could fall so far.

"Yeah, that was a long time ago." Kitchen rubbed his eyes. "I made a lot of mistakes and the biggest one was being Robert Hanssen's friend. I let him bullshit me about what he was doing. I knew it was wrong, but somehow he made it sound like a holy mission. I wanted to believe that he was doing God's work . . . that I was doing God's work, but once Evans was dead I knew that wasn't true, but I couldn't bring her back to life. I couldn't fix it . . . I was a fool and I'm going to pay for that."

Nothing else to say, Caroline left the room. Once in the hallway, Caroline patted Booth's arm. "He isn't the hero you knew, Cher'. He's a murderer and you did your job giving Gale Storm and Felicia Evans justice. Kitchen brought all of this on himself. Nothing he did is on you."

"Yeah, I know." It made him sad that such a good man could do such evil things, but he saw it all of the time. His own father had shown him that evil could come in many forms. "I wish he would give us some names. Whoever is blackmailing him is going to get away with it."

"For now." Caroline would report everything to her boss and they would try to be vigilant. "We know they exist. We need to be cautious from now on. I hate to say it, but don't trust strangers. Don't trust anyone except those eggheads at the Lab and me of course."

"Of course."

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