I know it's been a long time since I updated this story. I apologize, school has been crazy! Please R&R and let me know what you think! Enjoy!
Booth walked into the morgue the next morning. Brennan had hitched a ride with Dr. Colfax. This Thing of Ours remains had been exhumed in the early morning hours. Booth and Brennan had decided that the reporters might have been on to something when they wrote the article on the famous horse's mysterious death. Brennan wasn't really going to jump to conclusions or conjectures. But Booth already was about the case. There were too many hinky and strange things that had happened with the case over the years. Booth had picked up a couple of papers that had been faxed over to the police station. He set the papers and a carrier holding three coffees down on the stainless steel table as he leaned up against it. He looked down to see Brennan and Dr. Colfax on the tiled floor. In front of him was a blue tarp covering the white tiled floor. On top of the blue tarp was the skeleton of a horse. Booth could tell that it took the two of them hours to complete it. It actually looked like a horse, well minus everything that made it look like a horse to the average person. Booth had seen enough bones to know this was exactly laid out atomically, horse or human he knew what it looked like.
Brennan looked up from a bone and smiled at Booth, "Morning," She set the bone back down and got up slowly. She stretched and winced as her back readjusted, she walked up to Booth.
"Coffee?" she asked pointing to one of the hot coffees.
Booth smiled, "Yep, just how you like it." He said handing on to her, "I can tell you're having a good morning."
Brennan lifted the lid off her coffee, letting the steam escape quickly. She looked at him confused, "How do you know that?"
Booth laughed, "You have just spent the past couple hours resembling a horse skeleton. You're working with bones."
"I love working with bones, it is my profession."
Booth nodded, "I know, you just-"he stopped himself dismissing the thought, "You know what? Never mind, have you two found anything?"
Brennan wrinkled her noise. She was obviously not pleased with Booth's question, "Not exactly. We just finished putting all of the bones in the correct positions."
Booth walked over and handed Dr. Colfax his coffee before returning to Bones's side, "So no luck with anything?" he asked annoyed slightly.
"Like I said before, we have just started to look over the bones. So we can't give you an answer to that yet." She paused, "Have you found anything worth looking into?"
Booth turned towards the paper work he had gotten from the fax, "They euthanized the horse when he was seventeen years old."
"Booth, this information is known."
Booth looked at her slightly annoyed, "Would you let me finish?" he asked not really asking her to give him permission. Brennan stayed quiet waiting for him finish, "Yes but from what…" he asked as he fumbled through the paper work again looking for the terminology he was looking for in the documentation.
"A shattered fetlock." Brennan finished looking at him confused, "I know you wouldn't have brought up that information without a purpose. I just don't understand why."
Booth furrowed his brow, "Don't you find it odd that a seventeen year old horse breaks its fet- whatever?"
Brennan looked at her with her signature confused face.
"Depends on the situation." Dr. Colfax piped up. Booth actually for a moment had forgotten that he was in the room with them.
"What do you mean?" Booth asked taking a sip of his still too hot to consume coffee. He put the coffee back down so he wouldn't be tempted to sip it again.
"I would like to see the original radiographs." Dr. Colfax instructed, "That way I can compare them to what I discover on the bones."
"Sure thing." Booth said pulling out his phone to make a few calls.
Brennan noticed that Dr. Colfax was picking up a bone from the front right leg. He had pulled off his glasses and was examining the bone very closely.
"Find anything pertinent?" Brennan asked as she brought a coffee over to the veterinarian.
"Thanks," Dr. Colfax exchanged the bone he was looking at for the coffee, "Tell me what you see."
Brennan looked at him appalled, "I don't work for you, Dr. Colfax."
Dr. Colfax smiled, "I'm not quizzing you Dr. Brennan. I want you to tell me what you think about this bone."
Brennan felt herself slightly blush. She didn't like being caught off guard. She quickly regained her composure. She pulled a pair of blue gloves from the box the veterinarian had brought with him. She pulled then over her hands before taking the bone from Colfax. She squinted like she always did when she was perplexed, which didn't happen often, "There is remodeling on this bone."
"I noticed that too but from the remodeling it looks to me like the injury was older." Colfax stated, "I'm not an expert on bones like you are, that's why I asked for the radiographs. I can get a better idea from that. I look at live horses mostly." He said with a small chuckle.
"I would also like to look at the radiographs." Brennan concurred without looking up from the bone, "I would agree with you that the remodeling is older too." She then looked up, "Have you noticed anything else that is peculiar?"
"The shattered fetlock is sound." He said pointing to the other fetlock. He stated pointing to it, "You can see the surgery that was performed on it." He said showing the work that had been done on the injured leg, "Other than that not really."
"I concur."
Booth came in a few moments later with a file filled with radiographs, "Here you two go!"
Booth said with a smile.
"That was fast." Dr. Colfax replied as he took the manila folder from Booth. He pulled the first image out of the folder and hung it up to view it. He scrunched his eyes as he looked at the other fracture that didn't seem to go along with the report.
"There is definitely remodeling. It's definitely an older injury."
Brennan looked over the film that was up on the screen before looking back at the vet files, "There isn't any documentation of that This Thing of Ours had an injury on that leg."
Dr. Colfax raised an eyebrow, "I don't think that's a coincidence."
"We shouldn't draw conclusions on this without more evidence." Brennan stated looking up from the vet files.
"I agree, but a horse with this kind of injury would have needed medical attention." Dr. Colfax began, "A fracture on the face of the knee like this would have caused the horse to drag its toe. You should have agent Booth look into this a little bit more."
"I'll discuss it with Booth." Brennan searched the veterinarian's face, "You really believe that this has something to do with the murder of the groom?"
Dr. Colfax shrugged, "In the horse industry there is a lot of shady business, just like there is in any industry. People will go to great lengths to cover things up. I think it's totally worth a shot to look into what we found. The owners of this horse didn't have the greatest moral compasses."
Brennan looked at him confused but without asking him what it meant she and Dr. Colfax went on to look at the other X rays that had been sent over.
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