(Season 10)
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I don't own Bones.
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Altoona wasn't a huge city, so it didn't take Booth and Aubrey long to find the bakery they were looking for. Once they were there, they entered the building and asked for Keith Miller. Much to their disappointment, Keith had left earlier that morning because of a migraine.
"Poor Keith, he's been plagued with migraines for as long as I've known him." Susan was not only Keith's boss, she was also a former high school classmate. "It usually takes him a day or two to recover."
Worried that Miller might be on the way to Bethlehem, West Virginia, Booth stepped out of the bakery with Aubrey on his heels and pulled his phone from his pocket. Glancing at Aubrey, Booth pointed across the street at the man standing in the doorway of a store. "See if he saw Miller leave and if he noticed which way he went."
While Aubrey was doing that, Booth called Sheriff Weist. "Yeah, this is Agent Booth. We have a possible name for the killer clown, Keith Miller. We're in Altoona looking for him, but I need to let you know the man isn't at work. He may be headed your way."
Thanks for the heads up. We'll be on the lookout.
"Someone will call you back with the make and model of his car in a few minutes." The call ended, Booth watched Aubrey hurry back across the street. "Well?"
"Miller got his car and drove that way." Aubrey pointed right. "Mr. Gale said he was cleaning his windows and he noticed Miller leave the bakery and drive away. He said that Miller didn't drive the normal route he normally takes to go home . . . and some bad news. Mr. Gale was talking to a reporter when Miller left the bakery. He said the reporter followed Miller."
"Damn it." Booth was pretty sure he knew who the reporter was. "Hannah."
Aubrey shrugged his shoulders. "Mr. Gale didn't get her name, but he said she was blond and pretty."
"Fuck!" Infuriated, Booth ground his teeth in frustration. Trying to control his anger, he pointed up the street where they had parked. "Come on. We'll go by his house just to make sure he's not there and if . . ." Interrupted by his phone, Booth answered it. "Booth."
Seeley, this is Hannah. I'm just outside of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. I'm following Miller. He stopped at a gas station and I'm observing him from another gas station across the street. He went into the bathroom and he hasn't come out yet. He took a small bag inside with him.
"How do I get to Ebensburg from here?" He was furious with his ex-girlfriend, but right now he needed to get to Miller as soon as possible. "I'm in Altoona."
Take Business 220 south until you hit 22 West and stay on 22. I don't know where he's going . . . shit. He just came out of the bathroom and he's wearing his clown costume. Hurry Seeley. She ended the call and got back into her car. This was bad, this was very bad.
"Damn it." Booth jammed his phone in his jacket pocket. "Get to the truck, Aubrey. Hannah is following Miller and he stopped in Ebensburg to change clothes. He's on 22. It looks like he's headed to Bethlehem after all." Racing down the street to his SUV, Booth jumped in as soon as the door was open and barely waited for Aubrey to get in and close the door before he started the SUV and entered traffic. Handing his phone to Aubrey, Booth kept his eyes on the cars and trucks around him as he tried to go as fast as he could. "Check my last contact and try to call Hannah back. Tell her to stay out of it. She's going to get herself killed."
He tried to do as Booth asked, but Hannah refused to answer the phone. "She's ignoring calls."
"Shit!" The last thing Booth wanted to worry about was Hannah. "Call the Pennsylvania and West Virginia State police and warn them about Miller. Maybe we can stop him before he gets to Bethlehem." Booth was certain that Miller was on the way to Ohio County to murder another child. "I swear when I catch up with Hannah I just might strangle her."
"After we catch the clown first though." Aubrey had his priorities and the clown had to be stopped. Booth could strangle the reporter afterward. He might even help.
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Hannah was careful to keep a lot of distance between herself and Miller's car. He was being very careful and was driving a couple of miles below the speed limit. He was also using turn signals and keeping proper distances from the vehicles in front of him. Hannah knew that Miller was trying to keep from the drawing the attention of the Sheriff's offices and the State Police. It made sense, the last thing he wanted to do was get a ticket for speeding. Not dressed as a clown anyway.
On highway 22, Booth was driving above the speed limit and he was hoping to catch up with Miller before they got to Bethlehem. Aubrey had been busy and got the make and model of Keith Miller's car as well as the license number. After he got that information, he passed it on to the State Police in Pennsylvania and in West Virginia and let them know that Miller was probably on the way to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the FBI didn't want that to happen. Once those calls were done, he called Sheriff Weist to make sure he had Miller's information too.
He had been worried about which route Miller was going to take to Bethlehem, but before Booth had to choose 119 south to 70 or 22 to Pittsburgh then on to Bethlehem, his phone rang and Hannah was on the line.
He's taking 119 south. If you're behind me you need to hurry up. We just passed Crabtree. Much to the annoyance of both men, she ended the call.
"Damn it, what the hell is she doing?" Booth appreciated the heads up and he had Aubrey pass that on to the State Police, but his anger with Hannah was growing with each mile. "She's going to get herself killed and I can't stop it."
Before they had gone another mile, a State Trooper came up behind Booth, turned his emergency lights on then off, waving for the agent to keep moving. Grateful they now had backup, Aubrey rolled down his window and waved his hand outside the window. Rolling the window back up, Aubrey placed Booth's phone on the console. "Maybe we have a shot of catching him before he gets to West Virginia. God, I hope so."
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A Pennsylvania State policeman and a Westmoreland County Sheriff's Deputy caught up with Miller just west of New Stanton, Pennsylvania. Hannah was a mile or so back from Miller and was startled when both a State Police car and a county car passed her with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Wisely, she slowed down and waited to see how this was going to play out.
At first, Miller had sped up and then slowed down after traveling just two miles, eventually moving onto the shoulder of the road and stopped. The police cars stopped a few yards away and blocked the right lane and the shoulder behind him. Hannah pulled onto the shoulder and then over on to the grass next to the shoulder as close as she could to the State Trooper without making the officer anxious and waited to see what would happen. She pulled her camera across the passenger seat and started taking pictures while she waited.
Miller sat in his car for several minutes as the police tried to get him to leave his car. The man stubbornly refused to get out of his car and the police officers didn't like it. They both withdrew from their cars and stood behind their open car doors with their guns aimed towards Miller's car. They weren't sure if Miller was armed and they weren't taking chances.
In the meanwhile, the State Police Car that was following Booth, turned on his emergency lights, passed Booth's SUV and sped up. Booth increased the speed of his truck and followed the trooper down the highway, his emergency lights now flashing. "They must have caught up to Miller. Call Hannah."
Her phone rang and reluctantly Hannah placed her camera down and answered it. "Miller is pulled over and there is a State Police car and a Sheriff's car behind him. The cops are standing outside their cars with their guns drawn, but Miller refuses to get out of his car . . . Oops, another State Police Car just showed up. He's behind me and he's stopped traffic from passing the scene. I can't believe how many idiots have passed by so far. They're asking to get shot."
"Hannah, this is Agent Aubrey. Booth's driving." Aubrey glanced at Booth and he could see the clenched jaw on his boss. "You need to stay in your car. Don't leave your car . . . where are you?"
Don't worry, I'm not getting out of my car . . . We had just passed New Stanton when the police showed up . . . and another county mounty just showed up. I'm hanging up. You better hurry."
The call ended and when Aubrey tried to call back she refused to answer it. "I'm going to kill her before you do, damn it." Disgusted, Aubrey placed the phone back on the console. "How far do you think we are from New Stanton?"
"I don't know." Booth kept on the tail of the State Police Car and hoped they got to Miller before any shooting started. "I've only been through this area once and that was to Pittsburgh not New Stanton."
Aubrey had never been in the western part of Pennsylvania before, so he had no idea where he really was. Picking up Booth's phone again, he looked for a map app and found it under a folder titled 'Useful Stuff'. Clicking onto Maps, he tried to see how far they were away from Miller. "We're coming up on New Stanton right now." He looked up and watched the State Police car weave around some cars that refused to get into the right lane. "Idiots." Once they were on the other side of New Stanton, the younger agent closed the app and placed Booth's phone on the console. "Not long now."
Soon blue and red flashing lights could be seen in the distance. Once they were closer and caught up with stopped traffic, the state trooper slowed down and moved on to the right shoulder of the highway with Booth following closely behind him. In a few short minutes, they were behind a parked State Trooper car and both the State Police car that had been his escort and Booth stopped and parked their cars.
Leaving the SUV, both men ignored Hannah who was staring at them from the safety of her car. Booth and Aubrey both pulled their FBI ID from their belts and held them in one hand as they approached the scene. Flashing his badge and ID to the State Trooper parked on the shoulder not too far from Miller, Booth pointed at the clown's car. "Has he said anything?"
The trooper shook his head while he still faced Miller with his gun drawn. "Nope. We've ordered him to get out of his car, but he refuses. I'm not sure what he hopes to accomplish. We aren't going to let him go."
"May I speak to him?" The trooper nodded his head and handed him the mic that would carry Booth's voice over the car's speaker. "Keith Miller . . . you might as well just get out of the car. We just want to talk to you."
Everyone saw the driver's side window on Miller's car roll down. "You'll shoot me, I'm not stupid."
"We won't shoot you if you get out of the car now." Booth really hated situations like this. You never knew what would work and what wouldn't work. "We will shoot you if you stay in the car much longer. Right now, we just want to talk to you . . . this doesn't have to end badly. Just get out of the car and put your hands up. No one wants to hurt you."
"I didn't do anything!" Miller was starting to sound a little panicky. "You have no right to pull me over and aim guns at me. I'm just driving down the highway. I didn't do anything wrong."
Booth was afraid that Miller was going to get himself killed or get someone else killed. The idiot. "Keith Miller . . . We know who you are and where you live. We know where you work and we know what you've been doing for the last four years with the kids. Just get out of the car. You can't run. There isn't anywhere to run to. Come on . . . use your head. If you cooperate this might not end badly for you or us. Just open the car door, put your hands out first and up over your head, then get out of the car . . . we won't sit here forever waiting for you. You have to know that."
The car door suddenly opened, but Miller made no move to get out of the car. "How do I know you won't shoot me? . . . if you know what I did then maybe you want me to die."
The door being opened was probably a good sign that Miller wanted to end the situation. "We aren't murderers, Miller. We enforce the law. We don't break them . . . Just get out of the car. No one will shoot you."
The clown hesitated then slowly got out of the car and stood facing the police. "I don't have a gun. Don't hurt me."
A little impatient, Sheriff's Deputy Stewart shouted to Miller. "Hands up."
Miller nodded his head and moved his hands up equal with his neck. "Don't shoot me." As Miller stepped away from the car, Deputy Stewart, one of the state troopers and Booth started to move towards the clown.
Booth's mouth was suddenly dry and the hair on the back of his neck was standing up. He knew that he could get people killed because of his insane fear of clowns, so he decided to let the other's handle arresting Miller. He was as close as he wanted to be to the clown. Aubrey took his cue from Booth and stayed back as the deputy and the trooper moved closer to Miller. Both Booth and Aubrey had their guns out, not aimed at the clown, but at the ground. At the moment there were two law enforcement officers between Miller and them and they didn't want any accidents to happen.
Much to everyone's horror, Miller lowered his hand and grabbed a gun from his belt behind his back. Everyone tried to react before the clown could aim his gun and shoot, but shots were fired at the police just a moment before the police returned fire.
Hannah leaped out of her car, recording the action with her camera, her heart racing as shots were exchanged between Miller and the officers standing in front of him. She had a job to do and she was going to do it.
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