Chapter 15

Crime Scene in the Woods, Tuesday 9:00 a.m. MST (11:00 a.m. EST)

It had taken most of the night to get the fire under control. Firefighters were still sweeping the edges of the blaze that had taken on a life of its own after destroying the car and spreading to surrounding trees. Before it was all said and done, almost four acres of trees had been destroyed.

Booth and Brennan walked up the path toward Sheriff Dippert. Angela had called to tell them that from the X-rays Zach and Hodgins believed that it could have been a tire iron that caused the impressions on Sarah Kemp's head but without the actual skull it would be impossible for a definitive answer. Brennan's new laptop had arrived and the postman had run it over to the hotel before the partners headed out to the crime scene.

"Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan." Sheriff Dippert nodded as the two reached him.

"What do we have?" Booth wondered.

"We have a car that was set on fire. In the trunk of the car, we found what appears to be left a body. I'm going to have the forensic team take the car back to their garage when you're done with the body." The Sheriff told them. Brennan only nodded and headed over to the popped trunk. She saw what was left of the body and knew this would be messy. I'm so glad I brought a set of overalls with me, she thought to herself as she pulled on her rubber gloves.

"So how did someone get a car up here?" Booth asked the Sheriff.

"The car is about a quarter of the way up an ATV trail. The part it went over wasn't bad terrain until it starts going up higher. Whoever was driving probably had to stop up here because the trail narrows." Dippert explained.

"Booth!" His partner called to him. The FBI Agent and the Sheriff rushed over to her.

"What is it, Bones?" Booth inquired, trying to keep his breakfast down from the horrible stench emanating from the trunk.

"I need to get this body out of here in order to approximate the height of the victim but I can say with certainty that it is a male. There are breaks that I need to reassemble to see if they were caused by the fire or beforehand. But it's obvious that it got incredibly hot inside this trunk which I believe means that our killer soaked the body in the same accelerant that he used to douse the rest of the car." Brennan told him.

"All right, I'll get the team to bring over a body bag. We'll get this poor bastard back to the coroner's office." Dippert looked as though he was about to throw up. Despite all his years as a Sheriff he'd never seen anything like this before.

Idaho Springs' Coroner's Office Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. MST (12:30 p.m. EST)

Brennan stood over the remains, examining the breaks and trying to determine what the actual cause of death was. Booth had gone over to the police station as Marshals Gillette and Ryder had arrived back in town and they needed to be brought back up to date. The forensic anthropologist hoped that Sarah Kemp would be all right but from looking at her X-rays she knew that the diagnosis wasn't good. The internal bleeding on the brain was very hazardous and the young lady was lucky that she was still alive when they found her.

Her thoughts drifted to Booth and yesterday's events. She wanted him to talk with her but after the hotel room search had turned up nothing, he was in no mood to talk. In fact, he had turned his back to her when they finally crawled into bed. She lay awake awhile wondering how she could help him but she didn't know how. The analytical part of her mind reminded her that she wasn't focusing on the remains on the table and she chided herself for it.

Booth stood next door at the police station receiving information and giving it trying to put all the pieces together.

"I've seen that look before." Marshal Ryder said to him.

"I just can't seem to wrap my head around what's going on. I mean Luciano seems to be very careful at times and at other times, he does odd things. For instance, he kills Henry Wasmund, who for some reason hadn't gotten to Sarah Kemp yet, and somehow forgets to grab his finger back. Then he finds Sarah, kills Dr. Saunders, and takes his intended victim away. However, instead of killing her, he beats her and leaves her in the trunk of her car with Mark Johnson's blood all over the passenger seat. Afterwards he shoots up a pizza parlor killing two people and injuring thirteen others. Then instead of leaving town, he puts a dead body in the trunk of a car, douses everything in gasoline and then sets the car on fire. The fire spreads to the nearby trees and causes three fire companies to battle the blaze. It just seems like the man has lost his marbles." Booth told her.

"It sounds like your guy was a little out of his element. You said that Wasmund was the go to guy for Luciano's dirty work right?" Sheila wondered.

"Yes he was." Booth said.

"All right, so Luciano has never actually gotten his hands dirty. That means when he killed people he wasn't sure what to do. I mean sure shooting or beating someone up isn't hard it's the disposing of the body that is difficult." She theorized.

"He tries to bury Wasmund but the ground is too hard. So when Sarah comes along he leaves her in the trunk. However, she is found alive so he knows he has to adjust next time. Killing people in a drive-by means he doesn't have to dispose of the bodies, so when it comes to the newest victim, he tries to make sure we can't identify him burns the car and evidence. It's a learning curve." Booth realized.

Hours had passed and Brennan was almost done putting the skeleton back together. She couldn't help the feeling that she was being watched but she shook the feeling off. There were only two people inside the coroner's office, her and the victim. Still she pulled off her rubber gloves and reached down into her case. Grabbing another set of gloves she made sure that her gun was inside the case. Satisfied she turned back to her work. That's when the door to the room busted open.

"So nice to finally meet you Doctor." The man said. He leveled his 9mm pistol at her chest.

"Why don't you step away from the table and tell me where my finger is?"

To Be Continued…