Chapter 3
Pike's Peak, Saturday at 10:00 a.m. MST (12:00 p.m. EST)
"There are a lot of old mining tunnels around here since the gold rush back in eighteen fifty nine. That's why we put warnings up at the trail heads so the hikers will pay attention to their surroundings." Deputy Brockman said.
"So at first you thought our dead guy became trapped in a mini-cave-in?" Booth wondered.
"Exactly, but when we found that he had been actually buried we decided to call Denver." Brockman said.
"Deputy Brockman…" Brennan started.
"Please call me, Marty." He said. She smiled and started again.
"Marty, how exactly did you find the John Doe?"
"Just up here on the trail we found him standing straight up. That seemed odd to me considering the nasty winds we get up here. Also the snow storm dumped at least six feet of snow, so I figured he would have been bent over or something." He said.
"My thoughts exactly. Yet his femurs didn't show any signs of fractures or even chips." Brennan said.
"What are you thinking, Bones?" Booth asked.
"You call her Bones?" Marty gave a chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Brennan wondered.
"Oh nothing it's just that Dr. Saunders' first name is Leonard, but something he likes to keep private is his middle name." The partners gave him a look.
"His full name is Leonard McCoy Saunders." At this Booth gave a chortled.
"What?" Brennan asked.
"From Star Trek, Dr. McCoy." Marty said.
"I don't know what that is." She told him. Marty looked to Booth and the FBI Agent just shook his head.
"She lives a life without TV, I'm afraid." Booth said. The Deputy just shook his head and continued on the trail. The shin deep snow was very wet and it was beginning to seep through his pants.
"Well here we are." He pointed out. The bright yellow crime scene tape was surrounding a large part of the trail.
"It's full of snow." Brennan had a disappointed look on her face.
"Why wasn't a tent erected?" Booth asked.
"Up here in this weather a tent wouldn't last five minutes so we did something different. Agent Booth if you wouldn't mind." Marty indicated to the ground by the tape. Booth looked and discovered a blue tarp.
"Very smart." Booth said. Marty smirked and carefully walked around the edge of the hole.
"On three, one, two, three!" Both men pulled the tarp up and the snow shifted off of it a little bit. They repeated this a few more times until the y could remove the tarp all together.
"We lucked out it isn't snowing right now." The Deputy said. Booth nodded and watched as Brennan carefully climbed down inside the hole. She scanned around the area and tried to look for anything that seemed out of place.
"What are you looking for? We went over this place with a fine tooth comb." Marty wondered.
"I'm sure you did but Bones is the best in the business, if there is anything to be found she'll find it." Booth said. They watched in silence as she scanned the area.
"When you were digging did you find evidence of a struggle?" Brennan called up.
"No, we found drag marks and the CSI's took pictures. I'll have to take you over there when you're done up here." Brockman raised his voice so she could hear.
"That indicates our victim was already dead when the killer buried him in the ground. The ground froze and the bones froze to the dirt, that is what forced him to stand up but that wouldn't force the rest of the body to stand up. It would have slumped over. Unless…" Brennan stopped in mid-sentence.
"What is it, Bones?" Booth asked.
"I need to get back to the coroner's office immediately." She said as she started to move toward the slope to climb back up. Suddenly the ground beneath her gave way. Booth could see her slipping and he quickly jumped into the hole.
"Seeley!" She called out to him hanging onto the edge of the large hole that had opened up beneath her. The FBI Agent flopped on his stomach and grabbed her hands as the rest of her dangled into a cavern below. Marty slid into the hole and tried to help to pull the forensic anthropologist out.
"Hold on Temperance. I'll get you out of there." Booth tried to reassure her.
"Don't let go." She said. Suddenly, memories of the night on Brennan's balcony flooded back to the FBI Agent. Howard Epps had been hanging on for his life and he had failed to pull him back up. Epps fell fifty feet to his death. The nightmares plagued his sleep and now they were happening while he was awake.
"Booth!" A shout from Brockman snapped him back to reality and he pulled on Brennan's hands. Marty grabbed her forearms and the two men managed to pull her up until her head was out in the daylight. Booth grabbed her shoulders, while the Deputy hung onto her arms, and heaved with all his might and they fell backwards. He wrapped his arms around her and he could feel her chest slowly return to normal.
"Are you ok?" He asked. She just nodded.
To Be Continued…