A/N: Thank you for the reviews and to those who have put this story on alert. I was really unsure how this story would be received but I'm glad some of you like it. Hope you like this chapter!

The conversation with Angela had left a bitter taste in my mouth. Over the next couple of days, I would replay the entire conversation in my mind and, each time, a chill would run down my spine, especially in the light of what I would quickly find out, hours later.

The way she had simply told me her thoughts on her friends' fates had given me goose bumps. But her reasoning was logical, I couldn't argue with it. If they were still alive, she had said, wouldn't they have been found by now?

Soon after my meeting with her, I gave Parker a call. I wanted his permission to visit his father's home. I didn't know what I was hoping to find there after all these years. All I knew was that I needed to get a feel of what the Booth's family life had been. The two of us agreed to meet the following day.

As I drove back home, I toyed around with different hypothesis. My first one, the most logical one, was that someone had not been happy with the two partners and had gone after them. Believing this theory, it would have been correct to assume that the parents, if not the entire family, were dead.

My second hypothesis followed a similar reasoning. It was possible that the two of them had been in danger and had been forced to go in hiding. However plausible, I quickly dismissed this one since it caused a certain problem: if they had gone into hiding, someone was bound to have recognized them somewhere, especially after 10 years.

The more I thought of it, the more convinced I became that I needed to look at the police's investigations files. A friend of mine had worked on the case back in the day. I immediately made him a quick call and was able to get an appointment that same afternoon. I turned around at the next intersection, despite the not U-Turn sign, and retraced my steps.

"You know I shouldn't be doing that," Ian told me as he walked me down to the archives, where the cold case files were being kept.

"I'm just going to take a quick look. No harm in that, right?"

Ian chuckled.

"I guess. But you won't find much. We didn't find much back then."

He was right. Less than an hour later, I was coming back up and wishing him a good weekend. I had read all the reports without finding anything new.

Back in my car, I decided to put the case out of my mind. There wasn't much I could do at the moment. Anyway, things always seemed to get to me when I least expected them. Maybe this time it would be the case.

Parker got out of his car. He was 20 minutes late but I didn't mind. I had walked around the house, trying to get a feel of the place. But after so many years, with the house being almost untouched, it proved difficult. Parker had definitely taken good care of the place. The grass was cut neatly, no weeds were sticking out of the ground, and there was even a nice garden surrounding the house. I was impressed that a 25- or 26-year-old could do something so beautiful.

He greeted me with a smile. In his eyes, I could see the apprehension. I thanked him for allowing me to visit his childhood home.

"Nice garden."

He smiled, sheepishly.

"Actually, my girlfriend made it. She thought the house would look less abandoned if it had life around it."

He led the way to the front door. As soon as we stepped inside, I could tell the house had been kept cleaned.

"I try to come here every weekend to dust and vacuum the place. I know it's ridiculous but I feel like maybe my dad could come home any minute now. I don't want the place to look like a dump."

He gave me a brief tour of the house and we sat down in the living room. I still had a few questions to ask him.

"Tell me about the last time you saw your dad. What did you do? Where were you? Did he say anything that seemed bizarre to you back then or even now? Maybe he said something that you didn't think much of at the time."

His eyes stared into the distance as he thought back to many years ago. It was a long time before he spoke again.

"We went to a baseball game, just the two of us. It had been a while since it just had been the two of us because Jackson was always there. Don't get me wrong, I loved my little brother, but I always had to share him with my dad."

"Didn't you have to share him with your sister as well?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't the same. Christine was independent. She didn't demand a lot of attention. Jackson did. He was always getting into trouble. Most of the time, if I was around, I would get blamed because I hadn't tried to stop him. Apparently, I had to "protect" him."

He paused before continuing.

"I was there when he broke his arm. Fell off the tree in the backyard. I didn't even know he had climbed there. We were playing hide and seek. Christine was counting and I went to hide. She managed to find me and we went to look for Jackson. He had climbed high in the tree. He slipped and came crashing down. He broke his arm and Bones had to take him to the hospital. My dad yelled at me for hours."

"Did your father get angry easily?"

"Not with me. But after Jackson came to live with them, it was different. He changed. He looked stressed all the time. Thinking back, I now realize that my little brother had been a handful."

He paused again.

"Sorry, we were talking about a baseball game. Yeah, that was the last time I saw my dad. We watched the game, ate some food, and then drove back home. I can't remember what we talked about though. I think we talked about Jackson. He apologized for yelling at me and said that my brother would need his cast for another month."

Suddenly, he frowned as though he had remembered something very important.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't know why nobody thought of that before. I don't think the police knew."

"What?"

"Jackson still had his cast when they disappeared. He still had a couple days to go before he could take it off."

The implications of that new piece of information hit me like a tidal wave. I looked into Parker's eyes to make sure he wasn't lying. He stared back into mine, realizing himself, I'm sure, what this information meant. I immediately took out my phone and typed in a memo: Call hospital about cast. I turned back to Parker.

"Okay, here is what we are going to do. I would like your help. We will go through every drawer, every closet, every cupboard in this house until we find some clue that could help me figure out what happened."

"You really think we will find anything?"

I shrugged.

"I don't know, but we have to try."

We both got up and decided to start with the second floor. Quietly, we walked up and separated at the landing. He went straight for his parents' bedroom. I headed right towards the children's room.

I opened the first door into a very pink bedroom. Christine's "Brave" comforter stared back at me. I remembered watching that movie with my nieces back in the day where Pixar was still cool to them. For the life of me, I couldn't remember the main character's name.

Christine's bed was done, as though no one had ever slept in it. I saw down on it and looked around. She didn't have many decorations. Ribbons won at soccer tournaments and swimming lessons hung on the walls. A bookshelf stood in the corner, filled with children's books. I didn't know whether or not she had read any of them. A white dresser stood in the other corner. I decided to start with that.

The dresser contained the young girl's clothes. I looked under every piece of clothing but found nothing. I checked behind and between the books on her bookshelf. Empty. Everywhere I looked, I found nothing of importance. After twenty minutes, I closed the door to her room and searched Jackson's room.

The young boy's bedroom was definitely smaller. Decorated in dark blue with stars painted on it, the bedroom was any astronaut's dream. A solar system hung from the ceiling, his comforter followed the same theme. I called Parker into the room. He chuckled.

"He loved his stars. He'd beg Dad and Bones to go outside after dark just so he could look at them. He said his other Mommy and his other Daddy were sitting on one of them and looking at him."

I was impressed that a four-year-old could think of such a thing.

"Dad was a religious man. I think he told him that one night and it stuck to him."

"Was Jackson happy with your family?"

Parker nodded.

"Yes. He knew he was adopted. Bones made sure he knew where he came from. He would say that he had two Mommies and two Daddies. He told everybody. Made people uncomfortable at times. But Bones and Dad didn't mind. At least he knew the truth. He still loved them. Sometimes, he would go weeks without talking about his birth parents. Did you find anything useful?"

"No, but let's keep looking."

Parker went back to his parents' bedroom and I resumed my search. I had no idea what I was looking for, to be honest. FBI agents and other investigators had searched this house thoroughly but had found nothing. We were quickly heading in the same direction. I had been about to give up and head downstairs when I heard my name being called out from the other side of the house. I left the bedroom immediately.

I found Parker standing in his parents' bedroom holding some brown envelope between his hands. He was trembling when he turned to me. His eyes were widened in shock.

"This wasn't here."

Even his voice shook.

"What do you mean?" I asked, even though I was sure I knew the answer.

"This," he replied, handing me the envelope.

Curious, I opened it. Several pictures of the family had been stuffed inside it.

"This wasn't here when they searched the house ten years ago. This is new."

We stared at each other in silence for several seconds.

"Someone came here."