AN: I know it's been forever, but I've been really busy. Hope you enjoy, please review. Thanks!!!

Dr. Saroyan walked into the Medico-Legal lab with an air of confidence, mixed in with a small amount of ticked off for her vacation ending a week too early. Actually, with all the death I have to deal with here, more like a year too early she thought. She walked up onto the forensic platform and greeted everybody. "Ok, let's get down to business. What's been going on in the case so far?"

Booth took this as his cue and stepped forward. "Our first body was found a couple of days ago on a high school football field. It was a complete skeleton, no signs of decomp, and burned into a bone was a code"

"The code was a cipher box" Hodgins jumped in. Booth looked a little annoyed, but he let him continue. "After deciphering it, the code read 'Let the games begin'."

"That was as far as we've gotten in that investigation when a new body showed up. It is still…meaty. A fresh kill, from the looks of it. It also had a code burned into it." Booth said

"We still haven't figured that one out yet, but the body is all clear for you to examine." Hodgins said

"And that's where you come in" Booth said with a smile, trying to work his Seeley charm on Cam. Unfortunately, Cam had seen it done one too many times, and she wasn't having it.

"Fine," she said "I'll be in the autopsy room. Call me if you need me." With that, she grabbed her bag and went to her office.

"She doesn't look very happy to be back" Bones said as she watched Cam walk away.

"Well, of course not. We ruined her vacation." Booth said, a little defensive "Not all people are like you, Bones. Some can't handle this death day in and day out. Some need a break, some need to get out and be in the sun and the fresh air, and away from rotting corpses."

Bones nodded, thinking, and turned her attention to Zack, Hodgins and Angela. "Have we identified our first victim yet?

"Yeah," Angela said, walking up with a small file in her hand. "His name is Patrick Gables. He worked as a clerk in a convenient store about twenty miles from the high school. "

"Thanks, I'll take this," Booth said taking the file from Angela. "I'll make some calls, see if I can find the family. You two" -he gestured towards Bones and Zack- "see what you can find about him with your, you know, bones stuff." With that, he walked out of the room.

"Anything about cause of death?" Bones asked, walking with Zack to the exam table.

"There are cuts on the anterior side of the xiphoid process of the sternum. There are matching cuts on the T-5 vertebrae. They look like they were made with a thick blade, non-serrated. I will look into matching the cuts with possible weapons," Zack told her.

"Very good, let me know when you find a match," Bones said, walking away. She walked up to Hodgins station. "Any news about the particulates from around the first body?"

"Unfortunately, there isn't much good news here. There were no particulates around the body that were foreign to the area that you found him in. And the water that was used to boil the flesh off the bones had no distinguishing characteristics," Hodgins said, looking a little let-down. He was so accustomed to the particulates he found making a difference in the case.

Bones nodded and said, "Well, hopefully, there will be some interesting particulates with the second body. What about the barcode on this body?"

"It's a code called Code 39. It's an actual barcode like the ones used in shipping. Unfortunately, there is no barcode that can read burnt flesh, so I have to break this by hand, and it's a painstaking process."

"Ok, well, let me know what you find. Don't forget to keep Cam up to date."

Booth walked back up onto the forensic platform. "He has no next of kin, so there is no family to talk to, which is a small blessing itself. Come on Bones, let's go question his coworkers."

"Booth, I'm needed here. You can't drag me off whenever you want to. Besides, you're better with the people stuff than I am," Bones protested.

"No you're not, these guys are handling it, and Cam is cutting open our second vic, so let's go," Booth said, again trying to use his Seeley charm. This time it worked.

"Ok," Bones said, "Let me get my coat."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Booth and Bones pulled into the parking lot of the Quik-E Mart off of Highway 27. "Well," Booth said, getting out of the car, "this is where the vic worked."

"It's very secluded. It would be easy for someone to take him if he was here by himself at night." Bones said.

Booth nodded and opened the door for Bones. The bell of the door gave a simple 'ding' as they walked in. A heavy middle aged man came out of the back room and stood behind the counter. "Can I help you?" he said with a welcoming smile.

"Yeah," Booth said, flashing his badge. "I'm Special Agent Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan. We need to ask you a couple of questions, Mr…."

"Harper. Bill Harper. I take it this is about Patrick?" he said.

"What makes you think this is about Patrick?" Bones asked.

"It's not like Patrick to miss work. He loved his job. He's one of those social types, ya know? He loved to talk to anyone who came in." Harper said.

"When was the last time you saw him?" Booth asked.

"About a week ago. He left around 11 that night while I was closing. He was supposed to open the next day around 6am, and I was going to come in around 8. When I got here, the store was still locked up, and I haven't seen him since."

Suddenly, Brennan's phone rang. She excused herself and went outside to answer it.

"Did he have any enemies? Any disagreements between him and any of the customers?"

"No, everyone loved him. Like I said, a social type. Loved to talk to people, and people loved to talk to him."

"Thanks," Booth said, handing him his card, "If you can think of anything else, let me know."

"Will do."

With that, Booth walked out to meet Bones.

"Yeah, ok. We'll be there in about half an hour. Good work." Bones said and hung up the phone. She looked at Booth. "Hodgins figured out the code. He says we need to get there as soon as we can."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Booth and Bones walked into the autopsy room. Cam was standing on one side of the autopsy table, with Angela, Zack, and Hodgins standing on the other side. The second victim was covered from the waist down in a sheet. The body was still intact. Cam must have waited to start her autopsy.

"So, what's the news?" Booth said as he and Bones walked up to the table.

"I figured out the code," Hodgins said excitedly. "It says, 'Let the dead speak'"

"But the dead don't speak," Bones said. "Because they're dead."

"It's a riddle, Dr. Brennan," Cam said. "It means that the clue we need is probably in the mouth of throat."

"Oh, well then, what are we waiting for?" Bones asked, looking at Cam.

Cam nodded and bent over the body. She opened the mouth and looked into. She squinted, but she didn't see anything. "There's nothing in here," she said. "Are you sure that's what it said?" she asked, looking at Hodgins.

"I'm positive." Hodgins said.

"Wait, I have an idea," Bones said. "The mouth is not the only part of the body that one uses to speak. The act of speaking involves the vocal chords, trachea, and lungs. So what we're looking for can be in any one of those places."

"Good idea," Cam said. She adjusted the light above her to point towards the throat. She made an incision on the side of the throat. She filleted open the throat so she could see the trachea.

Angela looked sick. "Ok, this is my cue. Call me if you need me." She walked out of the room.

As soon as she could see the trachea, she could see what they were looking for. There was a bulge in the trachea that was about 3 inches long. "Bingo baby," she said. She cut the trachea opened and saw what the bulge was. It was a key. She grabbed it with a pair of hemostats and held it up in the light.

"That's it?" Booth asked.

"Yeah, but it looks like there's something etched into the side of it." Cam rinsed the key to clean it off. She walked over to the magnifier, with Bones, Booth, Hodgins, and Zack in tow. She placed it under the magnifier.

"It looks like it says Morris." Hodgins said. "Do you think that's our second victim's name?"

Booth shook his head. "No, it's probably the name of the building that that key belongs to." He stood with his hand up to his chin, thinking. "Wait, I recognize that name. The Morris building is an old abandoned office building on the outskirts of downtown."

"Sounds like you and Brennan should go check it out." Cam said.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Booth and Brennan pulled up next to the old building.

"How are we going to get into the building? Angela said that the key goes to an office, not the front door." Bones said.

"If the killer managed to get in, then we can too." Booth said as he walked around to the back of the building. One of the doors was propped open. Booth pulled out his weapon. He looked at Bones. "Listen, stay back, and be careful," he said.

Bones nodded as they walked into the building. "We're looking for room 105," Bones said. They walked down a hallway, with Booth still holding his gun. They reached room 105. Brennan put the key in the lock, turned it, and the door opened with a creaking sound.

Bones and Booth walked in, and for a while both of them were quiet. The walls were covered with pictures of Bones. There were of pictures of her walking in and out of her apartment, pictures of Bones and Booth eating at the diner, and other pictures of Bones going about her day to day business. All of them looked like they were taken from a distance.

"Oh God," Booth said. "I hate the serial killer's wall-of-creepy."

Bones walked across the room. "Booth, look at this." The opposite wall was covered with the pages from Bones' book. There was a message painted on top of the pages. It said 'Welcome Dr. Brennan'.

"Please tell me that that is written in paint," Booth said, looking more worried by the minute.

"No Booth," Bones said. "I think it's written in blood."