(The Nail in the Coffin)

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Out of the blue, they were on a case that was related to the serial killer that the McNamara Corporation had tried to protect. Brennan had started to call him or her the Ghost Killer and Clark and Cam went along with it. The victim had been savagely killed. Someone had stabbed her multiple times and Brennan was quick to notice that all of the fingernails on the victim were gone, replaced with real nails glued on each nail bed. Not fake nails.

"Who does that?" Booth thought it sounded downright bizarre.

Hodgins spent the time trying to collect all of the broken fingernails at the crime scene to make sure none were missed. Like Brennan he felt this was an important clue. "Didn't Trent McNamara, Lana Brewster and Chloe Campbell have missing fingernails and fractures on the superior aspect of the digital phalanx?" Hodgins knew the answer to this question, but he needed assurance he had that fact right. "This victim is missing all of her fingernails, I mean, I bet there's a connection, there has to be."

"Yes, all three victims were missing a nail on the third finger of the right hand. The fractures on these fingers are old. You can see the remodeling." Brennan was kneeling next to the victim near the oak tree where the victim's body had originally been strung up. Staring at the chin of the victim, she used her glove covered fingers and felt for any oddity that may lay in the bone and she found it. "Notice the forward prominence of the lower mandible. This is a rare genetic marker known as a prognathism. We saw it when we examined Trent McNamara's body . . . I believe this is Stephanie McNamara."

Shocked, Hodgins stared at the decomposed corpse and shook his head. "Why? If Trent didn't kill himself like you and I believe and someone killed Stephanie . . . is this being done by the serial killer that Giles McNamara was covering for? It doesn't make any sense."

"She was stabbed at least 16 times." Cam was finished with her initial examination. "The victim was stabbed in a rather vicious attack then strung up in a tree. The attacker wanted the body to be found." Cam had been certain that Trent had committed suicide. There had been no evidence to say otherwise, but now she felt that Brennan and Hodgins might have been right. Trent may have been murdered too. "I would like to reexamine Trent McNamara's MRI's and x-rays. We may need to revisit his cause of death."

Glad to hear that, Brennan nodded her head, stood up and removed her gloves. "Angela and I have also been looking through old murder cases, using a specific set of parameters. One being a torn fingernail on the right hand and another being the victim stabbed numerous times. I think there are a few more victims of the Ghost Killer that haven't been identified yet. At this moment, we believe it's possible that Carla Hopkins, Timothy Monroe and Michael Windsor were also the victims of the Ghost Killer. Angela has tried to see if there were any connections between these victims and so far, there doesn't seem to be any, but they each have a torn fingernail on their right hand, a broken digital phalanx and they were stabbed."

Surprised, Cam nodded her head in acknowledgement. "If this is the work of the Ghost Killer then his or her rage is growing. Sixteen stab wounds. This person is almost out of control."

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"So, Stephanie was drugged with alkaloid cytosine." Hodgins stared at the report in his hand while Brennan and Cam continued to examine the now clean bones on a table on the platform. "It's part of the Fabaceae family. You know peas, beans, legumes. It's also called sophorine. If you mix it with dimethyl sulfoxide it becomes an anesthetic. In this case, it looks like this was homemade so untraceable."

"The gardener at the McNamara compound was the last person to see Stephanie alive." Brennan didn't believe in coincidences. She knew that she and Booth would have to pay a visit to the McNamara compound and interview Donna Hastings.

While talking to the gardener at the McNamara stables, Brennan noticed some scratches on the inside of the door of the tack room. They were deep and there were signs of blood in the scratch marks. It was oxidized and therefore old. She also found a scrap of fingernail wedged in one of the scratches in the door and took it back to the Lab to be analyzed.

Booth found signs that Stephanie had been abducted while in the stable, but there was no proof that the gardener was involved. So far, they didn't really have a suspect, though Booth thought they needed to look further into the gardener's background. There was something going on that he didn't understand and he didn't like it. Why would the serial killer murder the children of the man that covered up his or her crimes? That didn't make any sense.

As the case was worked, Cam did DNA tests on the fingernails found on Stephanie's fingers and on the ground near the body and found that they belonged to nine different murder victims. All of the victims had been killed in various cities around the county and it was determined that Stephanie was in each city when the victim was killed.

"Stephanie McNamara was the Ghost Killer." Brennan wasn't surprised. Taking a look at the victims, four of them were known to Stephanie and one of them was her brother. During their investigation they had determined that Stephanie had been abused by her father when she was younger and the scratches and old blood in the tack room belonged to her. The abuse had warped her and she had killed her victims savagely as if she was trying to get revenge for what was done to her.

The investigation into Stephanie's victims led them to conclude that one of her victims, Maya Zinkow had been raped by Giles McNamara. Stephanie had killed Giles' victim and Giles didn't want it to lead back to him. The man had used his corporation and vast wealth to cover up that crime, not to protect his daughter but himself. Disgusted, Booth also found out that someone at the FBI had covered up Giles's crime by destroying evidence to protect him which meant that Stephanie was also protected for what she had done. Nine people were dead because of the cover up and Booth was determined to find out who the Agent was.

In the case of Maya Zinkow, a teacher at Maya and Stephanie's school was set up as Maya's murderer. Apparently, Giles McNamara knew that someone had to pay for the death of a fifteen year old girl and he didn't care who it was as long as it wasn't him. Dr. Herman Kessler served 20 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. The coroner who did the autopsy on Maya had also been the one who had done the one on Lana Brewster. Leslie Dollinger had barely done a real autopsy of Maya's body. Leslie mostly set up the evidence to point the finger at Dr. Kessler and the poor man was convicted and jailed. Dr. Kessler didn't take that lightly and started investigating Maya's death by accumulating records of the trial and any information he could get of the McNamara family. It had taken him years, but Kessler had determined that Stephanie had killed Maya and once Kessler was released from prison, he verified his data through court records and then killed Stephanie for revenge. He also killed the judge who presided over the case. It turned out that two years after the trial, the McNamara Corporation used some shell companies to fund Judge Palter's bid to become a congressman. The judge won the election and he had been a congressman ever since. Kessler knew that he'd been railroaded and killed Palter as part of his revenge.

Booth and Brennan tracked Kessler down and the murderer tried to commit suicide. He didn't want to go back to jail. He was tired and his mission was over. When he leaped from the platform above them, Booth shot the rope severing it and thus saved Kessler's life. The murderer didn't think it would last. "They'll never let me live anyway. You should have let me die."

Booth didn't know who 'they' were, but he needed Kessler to stay alive. Booth wanted the people who had covered up the McNamara's horrendous deeds and he wanted Kessler to help him. Kessler was certain that whoever was involved in the cover up would kill him and Booth vowed not to let that happen. He wanted the scum found in the FBI and in the Justice Department who allowed Giles and Stephanie McNamara to continue to live their lives the way they wanted to. Stephanie continued to murder and no one stopped her. Booth couldn't let that stand.

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Danny met Tom at a bar near the Hoover. "Something's up." The CIA agent had talked to his boss earlier and decided to give Tom Jones a heads up as soon as he could. "We have someone working at The Department of Homeland Security that is looking into a few things for us and she noticed a request for some information about Booth. She's been monitoring four people over there that had connections to Wayne Kitchen. Someone in the IT department is helping her and that's how she found out about the request for information on Booth."

"She knows who made the request?" Worried, Tom took a sip of beer and placed the bottle back on the table.

"Yeah she does. She passed it on to her boss and to me." Danny was afraid that things might start to escalate. "We know there was lot of interest in Booth while Wayne Kitchen was being investigated, but it seemed to calm down once Kitchen was in prison, Congressman Abbot was dead and King died in the plane crash. Our 'informer' at Homeland Security said it was pretty quiet and all of a sudden, Booth was mentioned again two days ago. Now you know he and his people discovered the identity of the Ghost Killer a few days ago. The Ghost killer was murdered and while they were investigating her murder Congressman Palter was killed by the man who killed the Ghost Killer. A tangled a knot I know, but the Congressman's death has freaked someone out."

Tom sipped some beer then held the sweating bottle in his hands. "Wayne Kitchen's blackmailer?"

"We think so." Danny wished they knew who that was, but they were starting to get a handle on some of things that were happening around them. "Both Congressman Abbot and Palter had large sums of money deposited in their election campaign funds. We know that was done by Giles McNamara who used shell companies to fund the campaigns of these two men. They'd been in office for a few terms and now they're dead. The evidence proves that Giles wasn't the blackmailer, so that means that whoever it is, is very unhappy and he might not like that Booth has been involved in the fall of a few powerful men lately."

The door to the bar opened, a young man entered the room and walked over to the pool tables. "And we know that someone at the FBI helped cover up the rape committed by Giles McNamara and they're probably connected to whoever this blackmailer is." Tom was afraid that someone might decide to go after Booth. "They can't just murder a Federal Agent and get away with it. Not someone in the limelight like Booth. Everyone would notice and there would be hell to pay by someone. Whoever the blackmailer is can't be that stupid."

"Exactly." Danny didn't really want the glass of Scotch sitting in front of him and shoved it to the side of the table. "If they go after him, they'll have to destroy his reputation when they do it. The man is a war hero. As an FBI Agent, he and his team have brought down three serial killers, four if you want to count the Ghost Killer, five if you want to count Jacob Brodsky. He and Dr. Brennan have solved cold cases that were practically frozen. She's a famous novelist and her fans talk about Booth on social media because they think he's Agent Andy in the Kathy Reichs novels. It would have to be pretty bad to bring him down. I'm going to need you to keep watching him during the day and I'm going to have someone else watch him at night . . . It seems that whoever blackmailed Kitchen has to be worried sick that his little organization is being dismantled. It would be the smart thing to do to go after Booth."

Finishing off his beer, Tom placed the bottle in the middle of the table and stared at it for a moment. "I need you to keep me informed about what your mole in Homeland Security finds out. I don't know who I'm guarding Booth against and that means I can't trust anyone."

"I think that's what you should be doing. Don't trust anyone, Tom."

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