Chapter 12

Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, Colorado, Monday 12:00 p.m. MST (2:00 p.m. EST)

Booth and Gillette headed over to the nurses station while Brennan and Ryder waited for Sarah to wake up. It was evident from all the bruising that she had been beaten, the poor woman had been found locked in the trunk of her car. The deputies had had to rip out the back seat in order to check the trunk as someone had tampered with the lock on the outside rendering the key useless.

Brennan had requested to check the X-Rays and the doctor in charge assured her that she could take a look. The machines beeping all around reminded her of the time she spent in the hospital and the times she had come to see Booth when he'd been blown up. A shiver went down her spine and Ryder took notice.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"I'm fine." Brennan shook the thoughts from her mind.

"Is that your way of saying you don't want to talk about it?" Ryder pushed. The forensic anthropologist was given a reprieve when their partners walked into the room. Booth pulled Brennan aside and told her what was going on.

"The doctor says that she's touch and go. He believes she was beaten over the head with something heavy and that same object was used to beat the rest of her. The X-Rays will be available in a little while." He explained.

"So what now?" Brennan asked.

"Hopefully she'll wake up and we can find out what happened. In the meantime, we have to wait on Angela to see whose blood it is." Booth gave a tight smile. The two rejoined the Marshals.

"Now that Sarah is in the hospital, we have to put a guard here. Do you think the Denver police can spare a few deputies?" Gillette asked.

"Hopefully they can, in the mean time we have to hope she wakes up and tells us what happened. With all that blood in the car someone else is dead and she might be the only one who knows who it is." Booth said. At that moment, Brennan's cell phone rang and she quickly excused herself.

"Brennan."

"Hi hon; we received your laptop or what was left of it and we just finished running the prints that the Sheriff sent with them. One set belongs to Luciano and another set belongs to a Mark Johnson who lives in Idaho Springs." Angela told her.

"There were two sets of fingerprints? Why would two men need to trash my room?" The forensic anthropologist wondered.

"I have no idea but they really wanted to be thorough. You know Billy who works over in the tech department? He says it's unlikely that he'll be able to recover most of the hard drive." Angela said.

"Thanks, Ange. You have a blood sample coming your way; I need analyzed immediately. I'm also going to try to send you some X-Rays; I need Zach and Hodgins to see if they can't identify what was used to beat Sarah Kemp's head in." Brennan told her.

"Why not send her body?" The forensic artist asked.

"Well for now she's still using it." Her friend clarified.

"Oh, I didn't realize…" Angela didn't finish.

"It's all right. We're used to dealing with death. It was a logical assumption on your part." Brennan said.

"If that was supposed to make me feel better, it didn't. I'll talk to you later." For the first time, Angela hung up on Brennan. The forensic anthropologist seemed confused and turned around to tell Booth what she had learned.

Mark Johnson's Apartment, Idaho Springs 1:30 p.m.

"Mr. Johnson, this is FBI Special Agent Booth. Open up, I need to talk to you." The second warning went unheard, so he tried it one more time.

"Maybe he isn't home." Brennan said. He ignored that comment.

"Mr. Johnson! I'm giving you until the count of five before I'm coming in!" Again silence, so Booth tried the handle. He found it locked and decided to remove his Glock from its spot in his holster. Dr. Wyatt warned him about shooting things.

"1…" Nothing.

"2…" Still nothing.

"3…" Booth couldn't take it and the words 'four' and 'five' never made it out of his mouth. He aimed his Glock at the lock on the door and fired.

"That's twice, I've had to do that. I'm in so much trouble." The G-man mumbled under his breath. Brennan just stood there watching him.

"Stay behind me Bones." He used his foot to kick the door in and looked around the apartment. It appeared to be empty but his sniper skills reminded him to never take himself off alert. He swept through the kitchen and living room. Moving down the hall, he found the bathroom empty as well. That left the bedroom at the end of the hall and the bedroom right across from the bathroom. That's when he heard a noise coming from the master bedroom. Quickly he went to the door and pushed it in with his shoulder.

"Freeze! Put your hands where I can see them!" Booth shouted. The man stopped and put his hands up. Booth grabbed his handcuffs and handed them to Brennan. She quickly cuffed the man and spun him around.

"Are you Mark Johnson?" Booth asked as he holstered his weapon.

"No, I'm Mark's cousin, Jay. I was just here to get my stuff." The man griped.

"Uh huh. Come on buddy. Let's go." The FBI Agent grabbed Jay's shoulder and pulled him toward the door.

To Be Continued…

Hope this makes up for the short chapter last week. ;)