(The Conspiracy in the Corpse)

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Her tests complete on the bone marrow that she had removed from Cooper's remains, Cam found foreign DNA and showed the report to Brennan.

"From a transplant?" Brennan knew that Cooper had been on a bone marrow transplant waiting list before he died.

Slowly shaking her head, Cam gave her forensic anthropologist a grim smile. "He never had one. I think it's the assailant. When someone tried to inject the antacid into him, he fought back. Cooper must have known something was wrong and he wasn't going to let whoever had the needled inject him. The assailant scraped himself during the struggle and then accidentally injected his DNA into Cooper without knowing it."

"The cells kept growing while Cooper was in a coma and formed a small tumor before he died." Brennan was satisfied and knew that they probably had proof that Durant was responsible for Cooper's death. The facts pointed towards Durant as the murderer of Howard Cooper and this would be the final bit of evidence to prove it. "Can you match the DNA to Durant?"

Disgusted, Cam placed the report back on her desk. "No, it's not in the system."

"Then we'll have to find a way to get a sample of his DNA." Brennan decided to talk to Booth and let him know what was going on as soon as possible. He might know of a way to get the DNA sample and avoid a legal fight with Durant in court.

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Quietly standing the doorway of Sweets' office, Booth studied his young friend. He knew that Sweets believed that Aubrey was his replacement and that his services as a profiler were no longer needed by Booth or anyone at the Lab, but Booth wanted to prove to Sweets that he was wrong. "Sweets, I was wondering if you'd take a ride with me over to the Lab. We have a situation that you might be able to help us with."

Surprised, Sweets turned in his chair and stared at his friend. "My help? I thought I was out and Agent Aubrey was your partner."

"Bones is my partner, Sweets. She always has been and she always will be." Stepping further into the office, Booth closed the door behind him. "Aubrey is here to help with my investigation into a few deaths and the attack on me because we're pretty sure there is a traitor or two here at the Hoover. I've been keeping you in reserves. I didn't want the traitor or the person that controls him to come after you. I know you didn't like it when Aubrey came on board the team, but he has his purposes and so do you."

"Oh, I thought I was being replaced." Sweets stood up and ran his hand down his tie. "I mean you didn't explain what was going on. You were attacked in your home and suddenly you didn't want me to go into the field with you anymore . . . Did you think I was one of the traitors?"

"Shit, Sweets. Why the hell would I think that?" Irritated, Booth knew that Sweets had had too much time to think about what was going on. "I was attacked in my home by paid mercenaries. Luckily for me, Danny Beck and two of his friends were at my house when it happened . . . This is connected to the McNamara case we've been working on. Those guys that attacked me worked for Kings Company. Remember that company did a lot of shady work for the McNamara Corporation and King's Company was connected to Gale Storm's death? Ever since we arrested Wayne Kitchen, we've been discovering more and more things that are pretty grim. You remember that Wayne Kitchen was being blackmailed to do what he did?"

The younger man nodded his head. "Yes, of course. He wouldn't say anything during his trial. In fact, he was silent during his whole trial. He never said a word."

"Right, well we think we know who the blackmailer is." Booth sat down on the couch near the door and crossed his legs. He was tired and he knew his day wasn't close to being over. "Kitchen was linked to William King. The McNamara Corporation was also linked to Kings Company and we found out that just because William King was dead that didn't stop Kings Company from operating. Adam Peterson is running the company now and he's connected to the blackmailer who used Kitchen and King . . . We think that a man named Glen Durant is the blackmailer and I'm here because I need your help before we make a move against him."

Curious, Sweets moved across the room and sat down on the chair facing Booth. "Go on."

"I don't know how much American history you know, but when Herbert Hoover ran this place, he accumulated a lot of damaging information on very important people. He didn't stop there. He also gathered information about lawyers, corporations, judges, sheriffs . . . the list is pretty long. When he died Hoover's papers were supposed to be destroyed, but we think one of his aides stole them or made copies. He moved that information out of this building and hid it somewhere. When he died, he left the data to his stepson, Glen Durant. He's a physician and works for Bethesda Presbyterian. I found out that Durant was the one who hired Kings Company to have me killed. We also suspect he was involved in the death of a man named Howard Cooper. Durant has been blackmailing a lot of people to manipulate them to do his bidding. I don't know what he's trying to do, but the Director of the FBI and the CIA thinks this is some kind of coup against our government and we need to stop it. To do that we need to stop Durant and I don't dare go after him until I find those Hoover files. He has so many judges in his pockets that I can't be sure who is on the take or not. We have a list of who we know are beholding to Durant, but I don't trust the list. I don't think it's complete."

"What do you want me to do." Fascinated, Sweets was grateful that Booth trusted him and was willing to let him help. "Name it."

Satisfied that Sweets was on board, Booth stood up. "I want you to help me find those files."

Standing, Sweets buttoned his jacket. "You can count on me, Booth, always."

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Pete had studied the data, studied Foster's files and read the reports Angela had passed on to him about the autopsy they had done on Cooper and what Cam and Brennan had found. He knew that the team at the Lab were trying to link Glen Durant to Cooper's death in an effort to bring him down. The fact that Durant had ordered a hit on Booth and his family was all the proof that the hacker needed to go after Durant. The thought of mercenaries attacking that house to kill Booth and Temperance and their child infuriated Pete and he could not allow Durant the chance to evade justice or to try to order another hit on that family, his family.

He only had one problem. Danny Beck had assigned men to guard him from a distance and though the CIA operative assumed Pete didn't know about it, Pete thought it was a foolish assumption on the part of the CIA. He had a plan and he needed to be able to move freely to get the job done. That meant he had to get rid of his bodyguards. Cautiously, he went over several options and decided on the easiest one. If his plan was too complicated, it would allow for errors and Pete didn't want to take chances. This thing with Durant had to end. He was tired of the situation and he wanted to protect Temperance and her family from any chance of harm.

Using a burner phone Pete had bought for emergency situations, he contacted Max and told him what he needed and why. He was confident that Max would come through for him because the life of his daughter and granddaughter were in possible jeopardy and the old con man wasn't someone to take something like that lying down.

At approximately 2:45 p.m., Pete heard a knock on the front door and opened it. Ushering the pizza delivery man inside, Pete closed the door and while the 'delivery' man placed the pizza box on the floor, removed his wig and jacket, Pete removed his bathrobe, slipped the wig and jacket on and smiled. "The computer is in the basement. Don't go outside for any reason, don't answer the door if anyone knocks and let the answering machine handle any calls I get. I have several games that you might be interested in on the bookshelf near the computer table. Fuck with anything else and I'll end you."

Amused, Pat chuckled, slipped on the bathrobe, picked up the pizza box and walked over to the basement steps. "Don't worry, Pete. I'm not into the shit you are. Max promised me pizza, beer and games. That's all I need for my day off."

"Beer is in the fridge downstairs. I'll be back around ten tonight. Be ready to leave then." Opening the door, Pete stepped outside. Glancing back, he spoke loudly as he closed the door behind him. "Thanks for the tip man." As he made his way to Pat's car, he kept his eyes on the ground while whistling a rather obnoxious tune. Once he was in the car, he started the engine, backed down the driveway and was on the road in less than one minute. So far so good.

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Once they were assembled in Angela's office, Booth sat on the chair near the PC and sipped some coffee from his travel mug. On the way to the Lab, he and Sweets had stopped by the Royal Diner and picked up some coffee and pastries for everyone on their team. It had been a long morning and no one had taken time to get lunch.

A pastry in one hand and a remote in the other, Angela turned on her wall mounted monitor and began to show some of the timelines she had come up with using Foster's data as well as what she and Pete had dug up. She had come to the conclusion that Durant had begun his blackmailing scheme right after his stepfather passed away and she could prove it. "I was right about Durant. As you can see the doctor had those Hoover files right after his stepfather died. It's obvious if you line up who he was blackmailing with the data that Foster dug up and some of the fragments of Hoover's files that made it into several reports at the FBI . . . We need to find those files as soon as we can. They are the key to what has been going on with the McNamara Corporation, Kings Company and the treason committed by Wayne Kitchen."

Staring grimly at the pyramid of faces on the monitor that represented the people that were being blackmailed by Durant, Booth nodded his head and placed his coffee cup on his knee. "I agree and that's why I've invited Sweets to join us. I'm hoping he'll use his profiler mojo to help us find that stuff. We need those files before we can go after Durant. If we don't, some corrupt piece of shit judge will let him go. It won't matter that we have proof that he paid Kings Company to have me killed and that his DNA was found in Cooper's body. Some judge will find a way to make it inadmissible and Durant will come after all of us. No one is safe until we find those files."

Careful not to spill his coffee, Hodgins leaned against the brick wall next to Aubrey and used his pastry to point at the monitor. "One of his first blackmail victims seemed to be the coroner who took care of Cooper's autopsy. The coroner claimed that Cooper died of Leukemia. No medical tests were done as far as I can tell and Cam said that shouldn't have happened."

"No blood work, no tests of any kind." Cam had been furious when she had seen the autopsy report. "It wasn't an autopsy at all and no one questioned it . . . well, we have proof that Cooper was injected with an antacid that was invented by the Sanderson Company. That antacid which has never been approved for use in humans entered his blood stream and had fatal consequences since Cooper was taking chemo for his leukemia. We also have that tumor in his body that has Durant's DNA in it. The only way it could have got there was if Durant had injected it into Cooper's body. He obviously didn't mean to do that and it probably happened while Cooper fought for his life, but it's there and that means that Durant can be tried for murder . . . We need those Hoover files. I don't want Durant getting away with Cooper's murder."

"Or anyone else's murder." Aubrey was disgusted. "This man is responsible for a hell of a lot of deaths. Plus paying for someone to attack Booth in his home, risking Dr. Brennan and their baby . . . that's so over the top it just boggles my mind that he thought he could get away with this shit." The younger agent hadn't known Booth or the squints very long, but he admired their professionalism, their dedication, their obstinance and their bravery. He had never worked with people like these and he hoped he'd be assigned to Booth's team permanently. He knew he could learn a lot working with a man like Booth.

"The Hoover files were accumulated by J. Edgar Hoover." Sweets started to speak. He wanted to focus on the files themselves and not Durant. "The Director used those files to blackmail very powerful men, men who would have crushed him if they could. The FBI decided to get rid of those files as soon as Hoover died, but it looks like his aide, Desmond Wilson made copies or stole some of the files. We won't know which until we find the files . . . Wilson was dedicated to Hoover, he believed in what Hoover was doing and he wanted to continue to use those files. When he died, Durant inherited the files and continued Hoover's work . . . it's like a cult. The High Priest continues the work of his God . . . Booth said that Hoover blackmailed people to manipulate court cases, criminal investigations . . . to control politicians to make sure that certain bills passed and other's failed. He was mostly interested in making sure the FBI got all the money they needed from Congress and to make sure that oversight was limited. Those files meant that he could remain the Director of the FBI for as long as he wanted to be . . . he was the man behind the curtain."

Booth interrupted his profiler. "Many members of Congress had ties to organized crime back in the 50's and 60's and if Hoover went after the Mafia the congressmen might try to unseat him. The Mafia was pretty powerful back then. He also didn't investigate corrupt politicians for the same reason. He was eventually forced to go after the Mafia, but it wasn't done willingly . . . All those files, they were used to keep Hoover in power and the FBI fully funded because he equated the FBI with himself."

"And Durant has been using those files, to try to manipulate the government." Brennan crossed her arms against her chest. "He has no ties to the FBI, so his mission is different from Hoover's mission. He is trying to control what happens in this country. For what purpose, I'm not sure, but murdering people to get what he wants is part of his modus operandi."

"But he's still the high priest of Hoover's files." Staring at his empty coffee cup, Aubrey felt a chill run down his spine. "I don't think I've ever heard that Hoover had people killed. He was power hungry, but not evil . . . Durant has turned into some kind of fanatic . . . a dangerous fanatic."

Something clicked in both Brennan and Booth's mind and they both spoke at the same time. "Hoover's office."

Puzzled, Cam turned to look at the couple. "Hoover's office doesn't exist anymore."

A slight smirk on his face, Booth stood up and stared at his partner. "Bones knows . . . The Jeffersonian has a replica of Hoover's office . . . right here in this building. Where else would Hoover's acolyte keep his sacred files?"

Booth had meant to be sarcastic, but Brennan knew it was close to the truth. Durant was Hoover's acolyte. "I think we will find the files we're looking for in Hoover's office. It's logical."

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