Sorry this one is so late. Many thanks to angel6 aka trinigyal and I hart booth for being the only ones to review since chapter 2... ;)
"I talked to every neighbour on the block," Matt said, sliding his notes across Booth's desk. "Everyone claims not to have seen a thing until the television crews started to arrive."
Booth picked up the notes that the young agent had made, reared back in his chair and propped his feet up on his desk. Matt Donnelly was a newer junior agent who had proved himself invaluable to Booth in the three short month since he'd arrived at the bureau. For fear of becoming nostalgic, Booth would probably be inclined to say that the kid reminded him of himself when he was young, perhaps that is why they fell into an easy friendship.
"Did you check to see if anyone in the immediate area has a record?" Booth asked, shaking himself from his musings.
"All the adults are clean as a whistle. One of the teenagers on the block has a battery charge against him."
"Details?"
"Ryan Anderson. Age seventeen -- sixteen when the charges were filed. Attacked his stepfather with a baseball bat when he found him fondling his little sister. Stepfather denied it. Kid got off with a warning, so I'm guessing the judge believed him, instead of the old man."
"Where's the stepfather now?"
"Out of the picture. Mother divorced him and has no idea where he's living, but is fairly sure it's nowhere near here."
"Any known sex offenders in the area?"
"None that showed up on our records."
"What about the search around the crime area?"
"We bagged some items. A couple of cigarette butts, an old sock, some chewing gum, a beer bottle, that kind of stuff."
"Make sure that they get to Jack at the Medico-Legal lab, see if he can get a DNA reading off of any of them."
"You got it. Anything else you need before I knock off for the day?"
Booth glanced at his watch. Quarter past six. Knock off hour for the day shift. There used to be a time when an agent on a murder case wouldn't have bothered to look at the clock, hell, he and Brennan were still like that. Those kind of agents were old school. Today, most agents had lives. They worked their shifts and that was it. They were probably better off for it but, then again so were the criminals.
"Guess that's it," Booth said. "Got a big night planned?"
"A hot date with a gorgeous red head who works with your doctor lady. What about you?"
"I'm gonna cut out now as well, Brennan and I need a quiet night."
They both knew that wouldn't happen. Between Brennan and Booth, they'd be lucky to eat and then get a few hours sleep after turning what information they had on the case inside out and back again. Booth dropped the notes on the desk as Matt left, then walked to the window and stared at the rain. It wasn't falling as hard as it had been when he and Brennan had gotten caught in it, but it was steady.
Temperance Brennan.
Standing at the window, staring at the rain all he could think about was how she looked soaked to the skin. He knew that she could still affect him in ways he had yet to understand. It wasn't simple, plain old-fashioned lust, though there was no denying their compatibility in that direction. Earlier that day driving her home from the park, she'd looked like a tiny, drenched, stringy haired waif and that frustrated him to no end. Crossing the room to his desk he picked up a picture he had taken of her and Parker. Tracing her laughing eyes, and beautiful smile he wondered what would happed if he made one mistake and let the killer sneak into their lives. The kind of mistake that Carly Winters had made. Had she trusted a stranger? D.C. was the kind of place where that could easily happen. Or was it someone Carly knew and trusted? A betrayed lover? Booth's gut feeling was that the killer had picked Carly randomly or from some search criteria only the killer understood. He'd stripped her naked , but there were no signs of sexual assault.
Still, Booth was positive the killer was male. The MO wasn't that of a woman. The knife, the nudity, even the marks on the breasts all indicated that the killer was a guy, either one strong enough to overpower the victim or charming enough to have convinced her to go with him willingly. And unless Booth had this all wrong, the guy wasn't done here yet by any means which meant he wasn't done with Brennan.