Disclaimer:Same old, same old. They're not mine. (If they were, believe me, we wouldn't have to wait for weeks to get a new episode!)
Hi y'all! Here I am again. Thanks to everybody who read and reviewed my fic. Really, thanks a lot. This writing thing is not easy for me, but still, it's a lot of fun and I'm glad that some of you are interested in my little story.
In the summary, I promised you some action – you might be wondering where that is. So before everybody gets bored, let's try to add some in this chapter. Enjoy!
As he finished that sentence, Brennan already stepped out of her office. She looked very content. "Oh, hi Booth! Guys, you won't believe what I found..."
Four pairs of eyes stared at her eagerly. Booth walked over to glance at the papers in her hand, but she quickly pulled them away, smiling."Bones, come on. Show me those. What did you find out?" Booth tried to grab the papers, but couldn't.
Temperance Brennan chuckled. "Okay, okay. See, Angela scanned the photograph, and I tried to match it with pictures of immigrants which are in the police files. And, as you might have noticed, I came up with something!"
Angela shook her head in surprise. "You mean, the little lady on the photograph has a police record?"
Zach frowned. "She's a criminal?"
That, of course, wouldn't really fit with the squints' idea of romance and love between two poor immigrants from South America.
Brennan nodded. "Well, actually, yes. She has a police record. Is she a criminal? Theoretically. Practically, she was arrested for working as a housekeeper without any work permit. Her name was Isabel Valdez. She fled to the US from El Salvador, about five years ago. She was charged with working illegally, but wondrously charges were dropped after it became clear that she had already been engaged to a legal US citizen, who himself had come from El Salvador a couple of years before. She married him soon after and is now Isabel Dias."
She finally handed the papers to Booth, who studied them with interest. He suddenly stopped, pulled a business card out of his pocket, looked at it and stared back at the paper.
"That is..." he started, shaking his head in disbelief. "Dias. Isabel Dias. Husband's name: Julio Dias. And here it gets interesting: when she was released on bail, her husbands brother actually paid for it. His name is Jose Dias."
The other's gave him a puzzled look. So far, none of what he said made any impression on them. Booth took the papers, and grabbed his car keys and coat, which he had put on a chair right next to him.
"Let's go, Bones."
Brennan hesitated. "Excuse me Booth, you're not making any sense to me. Why is it important that her last name is Dias? And why are you interested in her brother in law?"
Booth sighed. "Well, her brother in law happens to work as an accountant in one of the trading companies that I visited today. A little bit too much of a connection to be coincidental, don't you think? I'd say we drop by that place again and ask Mr. Dias if he knows anything about shipping human beings in wooden boxes."
Jack Hodgins gave a high five to Angela. "Conspiracy!" they both called.
Booth looked over to them, then to Zach. "I know he's a weirdo, but when did he infect her?"
Zach looked at him very seriously. "Research shows that people who spend a lot of time together tend to adapt some of their partner's oddities. As an anthropologist, I believe that they probably do that because..."
Brennan chuckled and interrupted him, as she saw Booth face turning slightly red. "Thanks, Zach, but we really have to go now." She pulled Booth towards the door. "Come on."
They headed out of the lab and to the car.
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The black SUV pulled up to the company's building again. Booth walked straight to office that he had already been in earlier. He found the manager with his coat on, ready to leave. The man looked surprised. "Agent Booth. Have you forgotten anything?"
Booth shook his head.
"I am looking for Mr. Dias. You said he would be there tonight, so I thought I would stop by with my partner. We have a couple of questions."
"Well, actually, he didn't come in tonight. When I called him to give him your number, he sounded pretty wiped out. Said he was sick and would have to take the night off. Tell me, Agent Booth, is there anything I should know? Mr. Dias has been my accountant for numerous years and I never had any reason to complain. I just can't believe that the FBI has any interest in him."
This time, Brennan answered. "Don't worry, Sir. He is not a suspect. We just need some advice concerning someone from El Salvador whom he might know."
The manager was still uptight, but agreed to give Booth and Brennan his employees adress. Booth wouldn't have had any difficulties to get it through the FBI anyway, so there wasn't any use to disclose that information. After all, he wanted to cooperate.
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The address lead Booth and Brennan to a pretty shabby part of town. They pulled up to a simple house in the end of a dirty road. They went to ring at the door, but nobody answered.
Brennan tried to look in one of the windows.
"If he's really sick, then he better be home, don't you think, Booth?"
"I doubt he really has any problems with his health. Looks more like somebody is trying to hide something and has absolutely no success in doing so. "
"You wanna kick the door in?" Brennan sounded delighted.
"Not yet. Let's take a look at the back yard."
Booth put the hand on his gun while they carefully made their way around the house. Before reaching the back yard, he pulled his weapon and peeked around the corner. Brennan was right behind him, jealously watching, but she decided against bringing up the "I want a gun for myself"-subject. After the death of Howard Epps, Booth had talked her into turning in the gun she had managed to get for herself. 'Stupid me.' she thought.
The back yard was empty, and as the curtains were closed, they couldn't get a glance at the inside of the house.
They decided to walk back to the front door. Booth rang the doorbell once more, but, after there still was no reaction from the inside, decided to get into action. He pulled out his cell phone, calling for backup. Then he turned to the door.
"Get out of the way, Bones."
She did. He stepped back, gathered strength and gave the door his best kick. The wood cracked easily, due to the bad shape the whole house - including said door - was in. He repeated the kick and the door just broke. Booth reached through a hole to turn the door knob, his gun pointed to the inside.
The door opened, revealing the inside of the house. It was dark, and Booth tried to turn on the lights, but they wouldn't work. Somebody seemed to have turned off the electricity. He and Brennan slowly entered and checked room by room. The house didn't look abandoned. It was clean, and somebody obviously had spent some time decorating. More of a classical family home, than a criminal's hiding place. When they were in the kitchen, they suddenly heard a noise from upstairs. Brennan cringed. Booth turned around to her.
"Stay behind me, Bones. We're gonna get that guy."
"Booth, what if there's more than one?"
He drew a loud breath. She was right. He reached to his ankle, pulling out a small caliber gun that was hidden there and giving it to her.
"Listen Bones, only for self protection. If you manage to shoot me from behind, I'll kick your ass."
Brennan took the gun, looking thrilled. All the nagging finally paid off. She had no intention of ever giving him back that little toy.
On the outside, they could hear sirens coming closer.
Suddenly, the situation got out of control. Somebody rushed down the stairs, through the living room and jumped through the back door. Booth ran after him. Brennan tried to follow, but he wouldn't let her.
"No Bones, you stay. Wait for the police. Check upstairs." He speeded away. Brennan went up the stairs carefully pointing her gun in front of her. In the first room, she found a woman and two children. They were obviously unarmed and scared to death. The children were crying. Finally, the police arrived. Brennan ran down the stairs.
"Somebody escaped. Booth went after him. There's a family upstairs, but they don't look dangerous." She was already running towards the back door. "Leave them. We have to help Booth."
She raced through the back yard into the alley behind. She could make out some footsteps in the dust that lead her to turn right. Three cops followed her closely, as she ran through the alley, desperately looking for her partner. She was breathing heavily.
At the end of the alley, they arrived at an abandoned building, which, at some time, probably had been a small factory. Brennan had already passed it, when she heard two shots coming from the inside.
She turned around in shock and tried to run inside. Before she could enter, she was caught by one of the cops.
He grabbed her shoulder. "Careful. You can't just run in there! You don't even know what's inside."
She pulled herself away from his grip. First, she wanted to yell at him, but she quickly realized he was right. She ganged up with the three cops. They shielded her as they slowly went inside.
What had looked like a three story building from the outside, actually was a large hall on the inside. There was an open second floor, like a metal balcony that was going all around the walls and could be reached through some metal stairs on their left. She could hear footsteps above her head. The group ducked behind some cardboard boxes. It was hard to see something, as it was already starting to get dark outside, and the dirt-stained windows hardly let through the little light there was left.
Brennan felt her heart beating in her chest.
There was another gunshot.
"Booth?" she yelled.
"Bones! Stay down there." She heard his voice with relief. He was ok. She moved one of the cardboard boxes so she could look up to the balustrade. Her eyes were getting used to the dim light. She could see Booth, he was up there, slowly moving with his gun at the ready.
Suddenly, she saw a shadow crawling up behind him.
"Booth! Get down!"
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion from there.
She could see Booth, turning around, firing off his gun.
He wasn't fast enough. The man in the shadow had already aimed too well.
Brennan saw sparks flying as another gunshot pierced the air. Booth grabbed his chest, obviously hit. The cops fired at Booths opponent who had taken shelter behind a wall. He shot again in Booths direction. The agent dropped his gun while he tried to maintain balance.
Brennan could hear herself scream. She tried to reach the stairs, wanting to pull him back from the railing, but she was too late. Booth desperately tried to find something to hold on to. His shirt was stained with blood. He stumbled towards the edge.
Then he fell.
Whoa! Is this the end? How will Brennan deal with what happened? Who was the shooter, anyway?
Stay tuned for another chapter. I'll update as soon as possible!