A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Amo, for her fabulous review! Thanks for making me think about things! And to everyone else who read and reviewed, thank you so much, I truly appreciate it!
Chapter Nine: The Interrogation, Part 1Booth yawned and rolled over, his arm hitting the mattress where she should have been. He rubbed his eyes and glanced at the clock. 6:15. He didn't hear the shower running so he knew she wasn't there. 'I hope she isn't at work yet.' He thought to himself, although it wouldn't surprise him if she was. It was just her way of dealing with things.
He lifted back the covers and got out of bed, taking a brief glance in the mirror as he trudged to the door. Patting his hair down, he headed out of the bedroom only to see Russ coming down the hall.
"Hey." Russ said softly.
He was about to reply when he heard her voice coming from the kitchen. They walked together and found Temperance sitting at the breakfast bar, talking on the phone.
"You did that Zach?" she asked, sounding surprised. "No, you don't understand I am not mad. Just what made you think of making a cast of those bones?"
Whatever Zach replied made her nod her head and smile slightly. "I want to compare the bodies side by side and since we have casts of the three, it will make it easier. I will call the coroner and have them exhume my mother and fathers' remains."
"Wait, what?" Russ said, coming forward. "You can't dig up mom and dad."
"Hold on Zach." She said, pulling the phone away from her ear. "Actually I can. If you want to stop being a missing person and contest it then be my guest." She put the phone back to her ear.
"Yes, Zach I want to start a full examination all over again. Perhaps we can find something that linked one to the other. Booth and I will be in later, we will be here at his apartment interrogating Russ. Tell Angela we may need her at some point. Thanks Zach. Bye."
"So…" Booth said, rubbing his hands together. "Exhumation, interrogation….pancakes anyone?"
"Pancakes?" she queried.
"We have a lot to do, we need our strength." He replied, leaning over and giving her a soft kiss on the lips.
"Ahem." Russ said, breaking them apart.
"Sorry." He replied, flashing a smile and moving over to the stove.
"Exhume Mom and Dad?" Russ said, turning to Brennan.
"It's logical. All of the bodies were examined at different times. We didn't make a correlation between them." She replied.
"How about McVicar?" he asked, pouring ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
"You're right." She replied. "We should probably exhume him too."
"I'll call the coroner after breakfast." He said.
There was thick tension in the air as they sat and ate their breakfast in silence.
"I've got Parker today." He spoke up.
"I thought you didn't have him until tomorrow." She replied.
"Yeah, well Rebecca called. He has a birthday thing tomorrow so I don't get to have him. I am going to pick him up from school this afternoon and then drop him off at the birthday party tomorrow afternoon." He said bitterly.
"I'm sorry Booth." She said. "I know you wanted to spend time with him this weekend."
"Yeah, well…" he replied. "What can I do? At least I get to see him."
"That's not fair!" she said angrily. "She shouldn't do that to you."
He smiled. "Thanks Bones."
"So why don't I go call the coroner and get the exhumation started?" he asked, flashing her a look as he strode out of the room, leaving her and Russ alone.
She sighed. Clearly, Booth was giving her space to talk to Russ but she wasn't sure that she wanted to.
"Listen, Tempe…" Russ started. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you."
"But you still feel that way right?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Russ ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "Well…." He said, trailing off.
"It's not the yelling that hurt me Russ, it's that you think I am responsible for Dad's death." She said bitterly. "But you know what? We have a case. So let's just get through this and then you can go your way and I will go mine."
"My way will be jail Tempe." Russ commented.
"I know that." She replied.
They sat in silence, neither of them looking at each other, both waiting for Booth to come back to diffuse the tension between them. Russ drummed his fingers on the coffee table.
"What did…" Russ started hesitantly. "What did Dad say about Mom?"
She flicked a glance over to him and saw the pleading tone in his eyes.
"I don't want to talk about her." She said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Russ nodded and glanced over at the ticking clock on the wall. He should have gotten up early and left. He couldn't stand this. But he knew he was staying because of his father. Dad wanted him to be here, so he would be here.
She sat, looking down at the table, tracing the lines in the wood with her fingers. She didn't want to be here, she needed to be at the lab where she belonged. The answers were there. Yes, she knew that Russ would provide some of the answers but she preferred to learn the truth from something that didn't talk back to her, didn't look at her as if she was doing something wrong.
He waited just outside the kitchen, having long ago called the coroner and the appropriate people. Cullen had reluctantly agreed, really having no choice, since they weren't working on any other cases. The silence emanating from the kitchen disheartened him. When he had read Max's letter, he silently agreed with him. It was true, Temperance had him but she needed Russ too. He knew, even if she didn't, that she would never be able to live her life with this much guilt and regret. If they were going to be happy, she would have to deal with all of this eventually.
He cleared his throat and entered the room. "So…" he said.
"Are we ready to start?" she said, lifting her head and looking at him.
"Yeah." He said, sitting down between them. He grabbed his notebook and flipped it open.
"Start from the beginning." She ordered.
"Bones…" he chastised.
"What Booth?" she asked. "I'm not going to be all nice because he is my brother. We need answers and he has them."
"What do you want to know?" Russ replied with a stony face.
Booth looked at both of them and wondered if they realized that they were both wearing identical expressions on their faces. As much as she denied it, he knew Temperance was more like Russ then she knew.
"After I visited you, Dad came to you. Start there." She said, trying to keep her voice steady.
Russ nodded slightly. "He must have been listening to our argument. You know the one we had right before you left?"
She nodded.
"After you left, he came to see me. Just strolled into the house like it hadn't been fifteen years since I saw him. He said he needed my help to convince you to stop looking. I was mad, I told him to get out but he kept coming and…." He broke off. "He needed me. You don't need me, you've got this fabulous life you created for yourself. I could help him be safe."
"Why didn't you just tell me?" she asked. "You came to my office with him and lied to me Russ, straight to my face."
"He told me that the FBI was involved, Tempe. And you were with Booth." He said. "Besides I knew that you would just try to put Dad in jail. He didn't deserve that."
"Russ, he robbed banks and killed people." She said angrily. "Are you saying he didn't deserve to be jailed for that?"
"I don't know." Russ said, shaking his head. "All I know is that he was my Dad and I was going to do my damndest to help him."
"But yet you came to me for help. You told me that someone was watching you, Russ." She replied. "Why would you get me involved?"
"He had left." Russ said simply. "I hadn't talked to him in a month and I felt like something went wrong. So I came to you."
"Then what happened?" she asked.
"Dad contacted me, said there was trouble and that I should try to convince you to stop looking, so I did." Russ replied. "When that didn't work, he posed as the priest to try to convince you to stop."
"Right." She said simply, recalling the events of several months previous.
"Were you there? When he killed Kirby?" she asked.
Russ bowed his head. "Yes, but I didn't…."
"Didn't what?" she insisted.
"Bones." Booth said softly, putting his hand over hers to signal her to stop talking.
"I was in the apartment waiting for you and then… there was a noise. I rounded the corner and came face to face with Dad, who immediately pushed me against the wall." Russ said. "Dad motioned for me to stay where I was and then rounded the corner. Then I heard…they fought and when Dad came back he said he was dead."
"He was stabbed repeatedly." Booth mentioned.
Russ nodded, his face turning pale. "We carried the body out to the truck. There was no time to clean up. We drove to the hotel and I helped him get the body to the roof. Then he made me go back to the car."
"While he gutted and burned him." She said.
"As we drove back to the seminary, Dad called you and said he had information for you." Russ said. "I dropped him off and went off to get some stuff he asked for.."
"What stuff?" she interjected.
"Just supplies that we needed. Some cash and food." Russ replied. "When I drove back up, you were there and you know the rest." He paused, waiting for her reaction.
The ring of Booth's cellphone and he excused himself to go answer it.
"Well?" Russ asked.
"What am I supposed to say Russ?" she replied. "You helped Dad kill someone."
"I didn't kill anybody!" Russ protested.
"No you just helped him get rid of the body." She retorted.
"What was I supposed to do Tempe?" Russ asked. "I didn't have a choice."
"There is always a choice Russ." She said, getting up from the table and moving over to the fridge for something to drink.
"Yeah." He said softly, looking over at his kid sister. "There is."