(Season 10)

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The body of Beverly Li arrived at the Lab three days after Brennan had made the request to her family. The Jeffersonian Institute had taken care of the arrangements and had the body delivered as soon as it was possible with as much dignity as they could manage. While Brennan and Cam began their autopsy, Booth was trying to find a way to prevent another child from being murdered in the next week or so by the clown. Booth's gut was telling him that Bethlehem, West Virginia was going to be the next place the clown was going to visit and he needed law enforcement in that county to be on the alert.

Unable to sit in his office and wait, he and Aubrey drove to Bethlehem, West Virginia. Booth wanted to try to talk to the Sheriff of Ohio County in person and present him with the information he had from the eleven murders that had been committed so far. He hoped that Sheriff Weist would take him seriously once the evidence was presented to him. If not, Booth wasn't sure what else he could do.

The Sheriff was wary of both Agents when they arrived, but agreed to meet with them in his office. "Look Agent Booth, I appreciate that you might think there might be a killer clown running around killing kids, but if that's true, why hasn't it been in the papers?"

"It has been. Just not in the papers you read." Booth pulled several newspaper clippings from local newspapers who had mentioned a green haired clown being spotted in the area when a child's body had been found. The press in each newspaper had treated it as a joke and mentioned the killer clown movies that were so popular. He then handed the Sheriff a manila envelope containing a copy of some of the paper work filled out by detectives while investigating the deaths of the children. Booth didn't give the Sheriff all of the information he had, but he did give him what he thought would convince him that the situation needed to be taken seriously. "Eleven children in four years. Eleven counties, eleven jurisdictions. No one has put this together up until now because the murderer is operating all over the east coast, not just in one place."

As he read through the paper work, Sheriff Weist started to feel a chill run down his back. The whole thing was bizarre, but it looked like the FBI had been telling him the truth all along. "Why do you think he'll strike here next? Why Ohio County?"

Booth knew he had to be as patient as possible. He needed the Sheriff to believe him. Pulling some note cards from his pocket, he handed the one that listed the names of the towns where the children had been killed. "These are the places the children were killed. It isn't obvious until you list the towns together in one list."

"Fuck!" He read over the names and it was obvious why Booth had decided that the clown might come to his county. Still Weist hesitated. "Aren't there anymore towns named Bethlehem or Canaan in this country?"

He nodded his head and ticked off the names of the towns that might be targets next. Booth wanted the Sheriff to understand that Bethlehem was the most likely target. "There's a New Canaan, a Canaan Valley, a Bethlehem Township, Bethlehem, North Carolina and Bethlehem, West Virginia. So far, all the murders have been committed in northern states. He might drive down to North Carolina next, but I think West Virginia is the next likely target." He hoped the Sheriff was willing to at least consider the possibility.

Aubrey was getting impatient. "Sir, it's possible that the clown might hit another town, but are you willing to take the risk? We're trying to prevent a child's murder. Our computer expert has run all the data through her computer and she agrees with Agent Booth. It really looks like the clown is going to strike here in the next two weeks. We can't pinpoint the exact time, but he murders someone every four months and the anniversary of his last murder is coming up in nine days." He couldn't believe that the Sheriff couldn't see that he had a problem.

Sheriff Weist didn't want to appear a fool, but he just couldn't overlook the evidence. He now knew that the FBI Agents were being sincere and not looking to turn some murders into a sensational story on the front page of every newspaper in the nation. Clown or not, he had a duty to try to prevent a child from being murdered in his county. The question was how? "Okay, I get it and I believe you. What do you want me to do? This is a fairly large county and Bethlehem is just a small part of it. If we need to concentrate in just Bethlehem that's fine, but if we have to watch out for the rest of the county . . . well, there are 13 elementary schools in Ohio County. I can brief my deputies to be on the lookout for a green haired clown, but without a name or something else to go by . . . well, we'll be relying on luck."

Booth knew the Sheriff was right. "I think the target will be Bethlehem, Sheriff. I don't think we need to worry about the rest of the county. At least I hope not. I can have a couple of FBI Agents help your department by supplementing your patrols. We don't think you need to look out for the clown for at least a week. We could help you for a few days. Dr. Brennan and Dr. Saroyan at the Jeffersonian in Washington D.C. are working on trying to come up with evidence right now. If they can find something to point to a specific individual they'll let me know and then I can let you know. I'm hoping we find out who this guy is before he gets the urge to kill again, but it may not happen. He may kill another child before we can catch him."

"Alright." Sheriff sat back against his chair and thought about the situation. "I can contact Bethlehem Elementary school and talk to the principal. Let her know that she should warn her students if they're approached by a clown to run like hell and get to safety. I don't want to panic the kids, but that's the easiest way to protect the kids that I know of. The principal can explain it anyway she wants as long as she gets the kids to understand that they shouldn't go near any clowns right now." He knew he was going to get a bunch of calls from panicked parents, but he could deal with that when the calls came. "I'll have my deputies look out for any odd people, not just clowns in the next few weeks. I'm assuming it isn't someone local and that should help. I'll take those Agents if you're still offering."

"Thanks Sheriff." Booth was relieved that he was going to get some cooperation. "I'll call you when I get back to the District and I have it set up. I hope this works. In the meantime, if we get the identity of the clown, we'll arrest him as soon as we can and I will let you know of the arrest."

The Sheriff stood up and offered to shake Booth's hand. "Thanks for driving up here and explaining what's going on. I needed to see the evidence and you gave it to me."

"You're welcome, Sheriff Weist."

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Because Booth was tired and had too much on his mind, he was willing to let Aubrey drive them back. As the scenery passed by, he tried to come up with a plan to deal with the clown if they failed to identify him in the next few days. As soon as he got back to his office, he planned on calling the Sheriff's office in Alexander County, North Carolina and try to get him to take the clown situation seriously. He had a gut feeling the clown was going to kill again and it was going to be in either Bethlehem, West Virginia or North Carolina. His money was on West Virginia, but North Carolina was also in the running.

Aubrey spotted a sign that Hagerstown was coming up and he planned to stop to eat. "Booth I'm getting off up ahead. We need to eat."

Although he wasn't really hungry, Booth nodded his head. "Okay."

Once off the exit, Aubrey followed some signs that lead to the 'Texas Roadhouse' and parked the SUV in the restaurant's parking lot. As he got out of the truck he glanced at his watch. "Damn 3:50, no wonder I'm starving." Hustling to the entrance, Booth followed behind and chuckled at the way Aubrey was practically running to the restaurant. Much to Aubrey's annoyance, they had to wait for ten minutes until the restaurant was officially open before they could enter the building.

After they were settled at a table and they had placed their order, Aubrey leaned forward on the table and spoke quietly to Booth. "I know you're going to miss your meeting tonight. Would you like to come by my place and watch a game? I can pick up some buffalo chicken wings or pizza and some beer."

The offer was kind, but Booth didn't want to accept it. He thought he might go to mass instead. "Nah, thanks though."

"Come on, Booth." Aubrey was worried that if Booth missed too many meetings he might slip. "It looks like it might be a good game and I don't really have a lot of friends since I'm the new guy in town. I could use the company." He hoped if he worded it like a favor, Booth might accept.

"Well, I guess I could watch some of the game." Booth really hated being alone, but he didn't want pity from Aubrey either. He hoped the offer was sincere and not just that the man felt sorry for him. "Pizza would be good . . . maybe a salad."

"Salad?" Aubrey had seen how Booth ate at the office and the only time his boss seemed to eat healthy was when he was around his wife. "Really?"

Booth shrugged his shoulders. "I've been eating too many frozen dinners lately. I need to eat better . . . I like salad."

"Well, I like salad too. As long as it has meat in it." Aubrey ate a wide variety of foods and tried to make sure he had vegetables and fruit in his diet once in a while. "Okay, pizza and salad it is."

The server dropped by and set their drinks down in front of them and left a basket of hot rolls which Aubrey quickly grabbed. "God I'm so hungry." Munching on his roll, Aubrey watched his boss sip some of his iced tea. Finishing his first roll, he buttered another one rather lavishly. "You know Booth, if you need some company you can call me anytime. You aren't alone in this. We're all rooting for you. I know that you'll get it right and you'll be home before you know it."

He didn't really want to talk about his gambling problem, but avoiding it was the same thing as pretending it wasn't a real problem and he couldn't do that anymore. "Yeah, thanks. I have a lot of work to do . . . Look I didn't thank you yet, but . . . thanks for handling Jimmy for me. I . . . uh, should have never let it get that bad, but I did and I appreciate you helping Bones. She didn't deserve what happened and you being there for her means a lot to me. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Aubrey knew that Booth was a prideful man and to break down and thank him and been hard for him to do. "We all make mistakes. The key is to learn from them . . . Like me. One time, a long time ago, one of my friends bet me that I couldn't drink as much as he could and like the idiots we were at the time we had a drinking contest. Damn I was so drunk I have no idea how I got home, but somehow, I did. When I woke up in my apartment it scared the shit out of me. I mean I drove home drunk as hell. I could have killed someone or myself. I was young and I was definitely stupid, but I learned from it. Now, I never drink more than a couple of beers at a time and I'm very careful to make sure a lot of time has passed before I drive home after the two beers. . . If I had killed someone it would have been a hard thing to live with and I never want to put that to the test again . . . You did something stupid and now you're paying the price for it, but you'll get past this and you'll make sure it never happens again."

"Yeah." Booth leaned back as the server placed a plate in front of him. Once he was gone, Booth picked up his fork and smiled. "Thanks Aubrey. I . . . thanks."

Aubrey knew that Booth was a little embarrassed, but he had hoped his little story would make up for the Gambler's Anonymous meeting his partner was going to miss. "You're welcome . . . Damn these ribs look good." Tearing some of the meat from the bone with his teeth, he moaned in pleasure.

Amused, Booth cut up his steak and paused before taking a bite. "Wow, want to be alone with your plate?"

"Nah, I'm good, but I'm not sharing." Aubrey used a napkin to wipe some of the delicious barbecue sauce from his lips. "Damn this is so good."

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