(After 'The Recluse in the Recliner')

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In Angela's office, Booth sat on the chair next to the wall opposite the monitor and waited for everyone to enter the room. One by one, Brennan, Danny, Cam, Hodgins, Aubrey and Angela assembled in front of the monitor. "Okay Angela. I think we're ready. Fire away."

The remote in her hand, Angela turned to face the large monitor fixed on the wall. "Okay, I think we finally have what we've been looking for. First Pete, our very friendly hacker contacted Danny and let him know what Corbet Frye was working on before he retired from The Department of Homeland Security. Pete noticed the obituary for Corbet Frye in the paper and I guess he became suspicious and did a little investigating. He found something very interesting. When Corbet retired, he handed over what he was working on to Elton Winters who also works with John Hepburn. Hepburn is the analyst that Deputy Director Carla Jackson has been monitoring. She's let Hepburn work on cases hoping that he would lead them to more traitors at Homeland Security since Wayne Kitchen didn't cooperate with the Justice Department, but I think that was a mistake and she's going to realize that very shortly."

Filled with anger, Angela tried not to take it out on her friends. "The bullet that killed Corbet Frye came from a gun owned by John Hepburn. Hodgins went back to Frye's house and found Hepburn's fingerprints on the doorknob on the back door. I'm not sure why Hepburn touched anything without gloves, but he made a mistake. I guess he closed the back door when he forced Corbet to come with him. Also, when he shot Barney, Corbet's dog, the bullet hit a tree trunk and I guess Hepburn either couldn't find it or he didn't bother to look. This man is an analyst not an agent, so he just might not have thought about it."

Hodgins raised his hand. "Booth, you're going to need to get a warrant for Hepburn's gun as soon as possible. I don't know if he still has the gun, but if he does, I want it."

"Got it." Booth was counting on the analyst to still have the gun since he was the registered owner of the gun and would probably be reluctant to throw it away. "He probably thinks the bullet is lost and no one will find it."

"I think you all know by now that Durant was the one who hired Kings Company to try to kill Booth." Danny rubbed his wrist above his healing hand.

Booth kept his eyes on the monitor. "I talked to Danny earlier about what Pete had found and I think Frye's death was a warning to Elton Winters to keep his mouth shut about Glen Durant's connection to William King and Kings Company."

Certain Booth was right, Danny felt that they may have finally got their big break. "I think we have who we're looking for . . . Angela, did you have any luck with Foster's data? Can you connect Durant with anyone on that list?"

"Howard Cooper . . . He died 16 years ago, supposedly from leukemia." Angela paused to look at Brennan then back at the monitor. "Howard Cooper might be ground zero for us. Foster focused a lot of attention on Cooper. He thought Cooper was the key to what looked like a massive case of corruption in the government. Foster used the information he got from the McNamara Corporation and compiled quite a list of blackmail, threats, graft, bribery . . . I'm amazed he wasn't caught sooner . . . I checked into Cooper's work history and he kept getting promotion after promotion in the EPA even though he wasn't qualified. He must have been a good little soldier for whoever he was working for outside the EPA until he made the mistake of denying a permit for Sanderson Chemicals to build a new plant. Someone didn't like that and Cooper died a few days later. His autopsy says he died of Leukemia, but the timing is very suspicious . . . There are a lot of pictures of Cooper and Durant together at conferences. Foster had about a dozen of those on his chip, so he was starting to focus on Durant before he was killed . . . Cooper seemed to be the fair haired boy at the EPA and his life was golden until he got sick and died in a hospital where Durant worked."

His head snapping around, Aubrey stared at Booth. "I don't believe in coincidences."

"Neither do I." Booth stared at the picture of Howard Cooper for a few seconds. "I think we should get a warrant for Cooper's body. We need to know if he really died from leukemia or not. I know a judge that will give me one if I can show just cause. If Durant was willing to hire someone to kill me then killing someone else probably didn't bother him . . . We have enough to go after Durant and Hepburn, but I want to bring down the people on Foster's list too, so we need an airtight case . . . Anything else, Angela?"

Slowly nodding her head, Angela used her remote and a picture of Hugo Sanderson appeared. "Hugo Sanderson owns Sanderson Chemicals. The company does business not just in this country but in foreign countries and he has been known to use Kings Company for security at his plants overseas. I found records in Foster's chip about some shady business practices in Malaysia. I'm sure that country would not be thrilled if they knew about the short cuts Sanderson Chemicals takes with environmental restrictions and job safety. Foster thinks that Sanderson is being blackmailed because of this and a few other things that have involved his company. If Durant is the blackmailer, he couldn't allow Cooper to get between Sanderson and his permit. Cooper died at the hospital where Durant worked and he was there the night Cooper died."

"If I can examine the body, I can prove whether or not Cooper died of leukemia or if he was murdered." Brennan turned her attention towards Cam. "I am working on a case for the United States Army at this time. I would like Clark to take over the identification process for me. I will make sure to verify his findings, but I would rather concentrate on Cooper when we receive his remains."

"Good idea." Cam stared at the picture of Sanderson and wondered how many people were under the influence of the blackmailer. "If we're allowed to exhume the body, I recommend we work as fast as we can. There are a lot of powerful compromised people who will probably try to stop us. We are about to stir up a big hornets nest."

Aubrey pursed his lips then muttered. "Well, I've got a pretty big stick and I don't mind using it."

Oooooooooooooooooo

The exhumation was granted by Judge Hank Latrelle and Cooper's body was exhumed the next day. Working as quickly as they could, Cam and Brennan took samples of blood, bone marrow and tissue. Wendell cleaned the bones after Cam had finished her autopsy and worked overnight to make sure he was ready for Brennan early the next morning.

As meticulous as she could be, Brennan examined the bones paying attention to the bone's fragility. She came to the conclusion that Cooper did not die of leukemia and that forced her and Cam to look for other reasons for his death.

In the meantime, Aubrey tried to track down the security tapes and records used at Bethesda Presbyterian when Cooper died. Sixteen years was a long time, but he had hoped that the hospital still had them. Of course, luck didn't hold and he found out that they only keep the tapes for five years and the records for seven years. Interestingly enough, he found out that the head of security at the time was Jerold Norsky. After he left the hospital Norsky began working for Unitech a subsidiary of Sanderson Chemicals. This keeps getting better and better.

Determined to see where that led, Aubrey decided to look at Norsky's work history and was stunned when he found Norsky's earlier career was in law enforcement. "Oh shit! I can't believe this." The agent knew he had something that would interest Booth and Danny and felt like a little reward was due. "Maybe some maple bacon donuts from Astro Doughnuts & Fried chicken." Salivating, he swallowed hard. "Oh, maybe some spicy garlic wings to go with them."

While Aubrey dreamed of Maple bacon donuts, Booth got a call from his friend Judge Latrelle.

Heads up, Booth. A family member of Howard Cooper showed up in my office a little while ago trying to get me to release Cooper's remains back to him. He says that digging up his cousin's remains defiled him. I told him and his lawyer that I will give the lab 48 hours then I will have the remains returned to him. That's the best I can do, Booth. The lawyer is some hot shot from Davis, Hudson and Wright. He's threatening to go to the Court of Appeals to reverse me, but I told him that Cooper was part of a murder investigation and he can try. I don't know if I'll be overruled or not. I think it would be best if you think I will. You may have 48 hours but I think that is pushing it.

"Thanks for the heads up, Hank." Booth knew he'd have to give Brennan and Cam a heads up as soon as this call ended. "I appreciate the call."

Hey, just try not to piss off anyone else for a little while. That attack at your house scared the shit out of me.

"It didn't do me any good either." The call ended. Booth called Cam to prepare her. "Hank says you may have 48 hours before you have to give Cooper's remains back to a relative for reburial. He thinks he may be overruled by the Court of Appeals so I wouldn't count on 48. Get what you need now while you still can and document everything."

Ooooooooooooooooooooo

Because the bones were fragile, Brennan had frozen them per immunohistological protocol. Using what time she had left she sliced sections from a few bones and put them under an electron microscope. She was looking for toxins and felt this was the best way to do it. Since time was of the essence, Clark joined her in the examination room while Wendell observed and tried to help where he could.

"It looks like he was injected with a cimetidine derivative, some kind of H2-receptor antagonist." Brennan thought about the repercussions of that in a man with Leukemia.

Puzzled, Clark frowned at what he was seeing in the microscope. "Why would someone inject Cooper with an antacid?"

Hit with an epiphany, Brennan nodded her head. "It's quite ingenious. The cimetidine would interact with the vinca alkaloids in the chemo drugs that Cooper was getting."

Shocked, Clark turned his attention upon Brennan. "My God, you're right. That would make a standard chemo treatment lethal and the cimetidine has a half-life of two hours once it metabolized which is why it didn't show up in the adipocere covering the body."

"Someone knew what they were doing." Wendell was appalled that a man going through hell with leukemia would be murdered in his hospital bed.

"It's a brilliant way to get away with murder." Disgusted, Brennan removed the slice of bone from the microscope, placed it in a plastic case with the other slices and handed the case to Wendell. "Make sure you place this in one of the refrigerators in Hodgins' office. Make him sign for it to maintain chain of custody. I have no intention of giving this to anyone that shows up with an order to return the body . . . I don't plan to allow the murderer to get away with what he did."

Not surprisingly, the antacid used to kill Cooper turned out to be an experimental formula developed by Sanderson Chemicals. It had proven to be dangerous and was never approved for use in human bodies.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo

As soon as Booth was back from a meeting with Stark, Aubrey met him in his office. "I found out that the head of security at Bethesda Presbyterian was a man named Jerold Norsky. Hold on to your hat, in his younger days, he worked for the FBI and was close to J. Edgar Hoover . . . this can't be a coincidence. Durant's stepfather was an aide to Hoover and now we find out that the head of security where Durant worked was also a Hoover man. Durant is the blackmailer. I don't think Hoover's files were destroyed like they were supposed to be. I think his step-father gave them to him and Durant has been using them."

In full agreement, Booth leaned forward on his desk. "It all fits. We need those files. When we arrest Durant, we need to make sure he can't pass those files onto someone else. Right now, too many people with political clout are under the thumb of Durant. They'd make sure Durant walked away from this somehow. I have a meeting this afternoon with Director Darouse and Danny. I'm going tell them what we have so far. Go over to the Lab and talk to Bones and Hodgins. Maybe they have an idea where we can look for the files."

"Got it." Aubrey knew that if they didn't find those files, they might all be in danger. Durant was a murderer and he wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone that dared to come after him. He had already tried to come after Booth. Who knew who would be next? "I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"I plan to be at the Lab this afternoon after my meeting. I need to find out what Bones and Cam have found examining Cooper's body. Their time is running out."

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