A/N: I'm back with this new chapter. I hope you like it!

Though I was sure the mysterious appearance of the pictures had given us a very important clue, it wasn't much to go on. If I were to believe the information given by the photographs, a man seemed to have stalked the family prior to their disappearance. But why? And who?

I lay in my bed, most of the night, mulling this new piece of information over. The possibilities were endless. He could have been the family member of a criminal they had put behind bars. He could have been an actual criminal on the loose who had chosen the family as a victim out of pure coincidence. I tried to plan my next move. First, it would be important to show the pictures to my friend at the police department. If the man was a criminal, my colleague was bound to have come across him. I would also need to speak with Angela and possibly her husband and everyone else who had come in contact with the Booths before their disappearance. Maybe they would be able to tell me more about the man in the pictures.

The night seemed to stretch on for days. Finally, sunlight tickled my face. I opened my eyes to find I had managed to fall asleep. My clock informed me I had only slept four hours. Oh well! It was time to get to work.

After a quick breakfast and a long shower to wash away the remainder of the sleepiness, I placed a quick phone call to Angela. She agreed to meet me at her house in the afternoon. I asked her if she would kindly give me the contact information for Dr. Brennan's former colleagues. I quickly wrote down what she told me before hanging up.

I first tried ringing a certain Dr. Camille Saroyan. My call went to voicemail. I introduced myself briefly and told her to call me whenever she had the chance. I placed two more phone calls before I finally reached a human voice. Dr. Lance Sweets told me he would be happy to meet me if I could stop by his office. I told him I'd be there shortly.

I didn't hold much hope in what I was about to do. After dropping by copies of the photographs to my colleague at the police department, who promised me to do his best to find the identity of the mysterious man, I made my way to the Hoover Building. Once again, for the sixth time that day, I introduced myself to the receptionist who told me to wait.

I didn't have to wait long. Before I knew it, a man was exiting the elevators and walking towards me. He extended his hand. I shook it.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Lance Sweets. It's a pleasure to meet you. Shall we go up to my office?"

I followed him to the elevator, making small-talk as we went. We stepped in and the door closed in front of us. We were alone in the little shaft.

"It really is a pleasure to meet you but I don't know how I can be of help to you," Dr. Sweets told me after the doors had closed. "Booth and Dr. Brennan disappeared and I have no idea where they went."

The doors opened. We stepped out and I followed him to his office where he closed the door behind us. I took a seat on one of the couches. He sat down across from me.

"I told the police everything I knew back then. They disappeared without a trace. Booth didn't tell me about anything suspicious or potentially dangerous going on in his personal life. Dr. Brennan and Booth were in a loving relationship and they had been married for five years when it happened. They had adopted a boy called Jackson a couple of years earlier. Everything was going well."

I nodded, unsure what to say.

"Like I said, I can't be of much help."

I smiled at him.

"Actually, you might be of assistance to me."

I took out the pictures.

"I want you to look at them carefully and tell me if anything strikes out."

I could tell I had piqued his curiosity. Dr. Sweets leaned over the pictures. I could see his eyes roaming the images in search of a piece of information they didn't know was there. I sat in silence. His office had the same grey-toned color found in every office in the building. His credentials hung on the wall behind him. I immediately realized he had graduated young.

"I see."

I looked back at Dr. Sweets. He was staring back at me.

"What do you see?" I asked him.

He held up a picture.

"This man appears in most of the photographs here, all except for one."

I nodded.

"I assume it was because he had taken it himself. But, of course, I have no way of truly knowing that. Do you know this man? Have you seen him before?"

Dr. Sweets shook his head.

"No, I'm afraid not. And Booth didn't mention anything about him either."

"Were you and Agent Booth close?"

The psychologist shrugged.

"I guess. Maybe. I don't know. We went out for drinks a couple of times a month. We talked about different things but he never told me he was being followed. Do you think this man is the reason why they disappeared?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm just looking at different leads."

"Where did you find these pictures? I don't remember seeing them ten years ago."

I wasn't quite sure how much to tell him. I hadn't done many cases like this one but I was sure the less I spoke, the better it would be. I chose to remain quiet on the origins of the pictures for the time being. I told him I wasn't at liberty of talking about that. He understood and dropped the subject.

We talked for a few more minutes before I thanked him for his time. He walked me back to the elevator and we said our farewells. My meeting with him still hadn't answered my questions but it had confirmed my gut feeling that this mysterious man was probably linked to the disappearance. However, the fact that, so far, none of the couple's friends had known about the danger irritated me. How come they had not confided in their friends? Unless they hadn't known they had been in danger before it had been too late? That was something I would have to find out.

I looked at my watch. It was almost time for my meeting with Angela and her husband. I climbed in my car and programmed my GPS for the couple's home. The program informed me it would take me 30 minutes in the actual traffic. I was delighted. I wouldn't be late.

I was immediately impressed by Angela's domain (for lack of better word). Of course, I would soon learn that all of this actually belonged to her husband. I buzzed the interphone outside the gate. A buzzing informed me I had been granted access and the metallic doors opened in front of me. I slowly drove up the driveway to the main house, passing green lawns filled with flowers.

Angela was waiting for me at the front door. Dressed in ordinary clothing, she looked very different from the last time I had seen her. She led me to the living room where her husband was already seated. I took a seat once again on a very comfortable couch, the married couple sitting across from me. I congratulated them on the beautiful décor before getting right back to business.

"Some new piece of evidence was found yesterday," I informed them. "At least, what I think is new piece of evidence."

I set the photographs on the coffee table. The couple leaned over.

"There's a man," Angela immediately said.

"Where?" her husband asked.

"Here," she replied, pointing at the mysterious man. "And here too. He's on almost all the pictures."

She looked up at me.

"Do you think he had something to do with their disappearance?"

"Do you know who he is?"

Angela shook her head.

"No, but…"

I frowned. My heart began to race. Was I about to get yet another piece of the puzzle?

"But what?"

Angela looked back at the pictures, then to her husband, and back to the pictures. I sat in silence, waiting.

"But… I mean, it's true that I don't know who he is but he looks familiar. Jack, don't you think he looks familiar?"

Her husband Jack shrugged.

"Not really."

Angela looked at me.

"I think I've seen him before."

"Really?"

I could feel my pulse quickened in anticipation.

"Yes… it was…"

She stopped again. I held my breath.

"It was just a few days before they disappeared. We went grocery shopping together. He was standing just behind us in line. Brennan dropped her debit card and he picked it up for her. I remember because Brennan just yanked the card out of his hand and had this… this… look on her face."

"What kind of look?"

"It was like she was disgusted by the man but there was nothing wrong with him. He was clean and polite. He wasn't offended by her disdainful expression. He just chuckled and told her to have a nice day."

I was impressed by Angela's recollection. Yet, something nagged at me. The anecdote seemed ordinary, something that could have happened to everyone. Why did Angela remember this scene so well? What did her friend tell her afterwards that could have caused her to remember the man? I asked her. She simply laughed.

"I have a good photographic memory," she said as though it was self-explanatory. "I just remember people's face."

I guess I would have to settle for that answer.

"You really think this man would have something to do with her disappearance? I mean, she didn't look scared of him. She simply acted like she wasn't very fond of him."

"And that's not surprising because Dr. Brennan wasn't fond of a lot of people," Jack added.

"To be honest, I really don't know what to think."

A noise behind me made me turn. I looked up to find a tall young man standing just outside the living room.

"This is our son, Michael," Angela explained.

I couldn't immediately tell the boy had inherited his mother's Asian's looks. His black hair and almond-shaped eyes betrayed his connections to the family. However, his attitude didn't resemble his parents'. Ignoring me, he walked over to the coffee table. His eyes fell on the pictures. I examined his reaction. But the one I saw completely surprised me.

In a split second, the man was sprinting out of the living room. I turned to his parents to find the same surprised expression on their faces. In a heartbeat, I was on my feet and in pursuit of the teenager. I could hear his mother called out his name behind us.

He was fast but I was taller and stronger. I caught up with him a minute or two later. I grabbed the back of his shirt, spun him around, and slammed him against the stone wall that separated the yard from the street. We were both breathing hard from sprinting across the lawn.

"Why are you running?" I demanded.

"I don't talk to cops," he replied.

He tried to pull away but I held him tighter against the wall.

"Good thing for you that I'm not a cop."

"Leave me alone."

He tried harder to free himself. I held on as best as I could. He was stronger than I had expected.

"I said leave me alone! I didn't even want to have anything to do with this."

"What do you mean you didn't want to have anything to do with this?" I grunted, slowly losing my grip on his shirt.

"Let go of me and I'll tell you."

I shook my head.

"How do I know you're not going to run away again? Tell me what you know."

Michael sighed loudly.

"I told her I didn't want to have anything to do with this but she didn't listen."

"Who? Who's she?"

I loosened my grip on him. He had stopped fidgeting. His eyes stared into mine.

"Christine."

A/N: Now, I want to hear your theories. Who do you think the mystery man is? Do you think he's the reason the Booths disappeared? Do you think Christine really is still alive? I want to read what you think. :-P