Chapter 2

Dr. Brennan pulled on her gloves and joined her partner who was talking to law enforcement at the scene.

"...tried to question them but they are like robots, they have no emotion."

"Officer Sommers, this is my partner, world-famous anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan." Booth glared at the cop hoping he would understand what Booth was trying to say. Fortunately he did.

"Pleasure to meet you Dr. Brennan. There are a lot of scientists here, you'll feel right at home."

"Except one of them may have murdered someone."

"Uh, yeah...well, here are the fragments we found." The young cop looked like he wanted to run away, Booth knew the feeling. Brennan took the evidence bag from him and opened it. There were four tiny pieces of bone inside. She looked closely at each and turned them gently in her experienced hands. They were stark white. They felt smooth, too smooth. She had felt tens of thousands of bones through gloves, there was something off with these. They looked thin and soft, damaged. They were damaged but she could tell they were human.

"Its two pieces of a skull and two pieces of a long bone, humerus maybe. They have been damaged. Probably by acid. It is unlikely that there is any soft tissue in that sand but there may be more bone fragments. We should get Hodgins out here to help the forensics team sift through the pit. We need to test the sand before they start digging. I don't know if acid damaged the bones before they were thrown in there or if the sand itself is acidic. The friction from the moving sand will destroy whatever Bones are left. This will be arduous." She pulled her gloves off and starting talking on her phone.

"You heard the lady, everyone away from the sand until our Bug-and-Slime Guy gets here!" Booth called to the investigators on-scene. "Bones, they have a guy that says there is someone missing from this Walden Group commune-thing. We should go talk to him." Brennan looked apprehensively at the people milling around the sand pit but acquiesced and followed Booth.

They approached a short man with light brown hair and a friendly smile. He reminded Brennan of her father, though he was considerably younger.

"Bones," Booth whispered, "he looks like a younger version of your dad!" Brennan shot him a look meaning that he should be quiet. "Excuse me sir, I'm Special Agent Booth with the FBI and this..."

"Dr. Brennan! I'm Dr. Tiernan Shannon. I attended the speech you gave last year at the Jeffersonian. I was particularly intrigued with your theory on identifying bullets my markings left on the bone. Have you had much success in your research?" The pleasant man had a slight Irish accent and his blue eyes sparkled as he spoke. He looked more like Max Keenan with every word and was obviously taken with Dr. Brennan.

"Dr. Shannon, you are doing research in structural evolution of primate skulls. I read your paper. I really haven't has as much time to devote to research as I would like lately." She glanced at Booth.

"Ah, busy with the FBI. I understand. You know, when you are done with the crime scene here, I have a crushed gorilla skull that I would love your insight on."

"I'm afraid that Dr. Brennan will be heading back to D.C. later tonight." Booth said, louder than he meant to. "What can you tell us about the missing scientist?"

"Oh, yeah, um. Robert Newton was a mediator here." Brennan couldn't quite stifle a snicker. "I know, isn't that funny?"

"What, what's funny?" Booth looked from scientist to scientist.

"Booth, you know, Robert Oppenheimer and Isaac Newton..." Booth still looked confused. "Never mind." The scientists shared a bemused look. "A mediator? What, besides the obvious, did he do here?"

"What do you mean the obvious?" Booth was quite flustered at being confused. He was used to being confused at the Jeffersonian but there he had Angela to translate. He was all alone here. Brennan and Shannon both ignored him.

"He mostly refereed games and contests. There was the occasional squabble over equipment but there wasn't a whole lot for him to do. Except for arguments between Dr. Benjamin and Dr. Wickman. They are always fighting and we finally had to call Robert to come help."

"Oh, I get it, so Mr. Newton was like a cop?" Booth looked pleased with himself that he could follow the conversation again. Brennan looked at him for a second and went back to Dr. Shannon.

"Could you tell us where Dr. Benjamin and Dr. Wickman work?"

"Sure, they both work at the physics labs. Dr. Benjamin is an Electrical Engineer working on a perpetual-motion generator and Dr. Wickman in a particle physicist working on a fusion chamber."

"Ah." Brennan nodded knowingly. "Thank you Dr. Shannon. Could we have your number so that we can contact you if we have any further questions?"

"Anything you need Dr. Brennan." Dr. Shannon said a little too enthusiastically while he retrieved a business card from his wallet. Booth was flustered by the conversation but now he was shaken by the looks exchanged between the scientists. He stepped between them before himself before he could think.

"Thank you Dr. Shannon." Booth towered over the man but he calmly handed Booth the card smiling pleasantly.

"It was a pleasure to meet you Agent Booth. Best of luck." The man flashed another broad smile at Dr. Brennan and got on a bicycle. He rode serenely toward the town. Booth turned to see Brennan smiling warmly at the retreating scientists.

"We should get a picture of this Robert Newton guy..." Brennan let out a small snicker at the man's name. "...and talk to those energy geeks." Booth shot her a slightly annoyed look.

"We aren't leaving the scene until Hodgins and Wendell get here." Brennan walked quickly back to the SUV and opened the back. She dug a magnifying glass out of her bag and pulled on some gloves. She sat in the back of the truck and started to examine the bone fragments closely, casting furtive glances at the sand pit. Booth sighed and wandered off to talk to Officer Sommers about getting a missing person's file on Robert Newton.