Chapter 8
Brennan breezed into the lab early in the morning ready to get to work, feeling confident she had properly compartmentalized her feelings. She donned her lab coat and walked to the platform. She laid out the bone fragments and began examining each carefully with the benefit of proper magnification and imaging. It wasn't until Wendell, Hodgins and Angela called hello as they came in for the day that Brennan realized her back was stiff. She stretched and went to get some coffee. She passed Cam on the way back to the platform.
"Cam, we have a couple of fragments that may yield DNA. I'll have Wendell bring them to you."
"Okay. I'll see what I can get." The lab started its usual buzz of activity and Brennan found it comforting. She and Wendell were able to identify which bone most of the fragments were from but there wasn't enough material to try to reconstruct anything. There weren't any duplicates making it possible that all of the bones came from the same person. There wasn't enough bone to bear any marks that would indicate a murder weapon. The bones were smooth and soft. Acid had dissolved them for the most part and the sand had polished them smooth. Unless Cam could get some DNA, it was unlikely that they could definitively identify these remains.
Hodgins was analyzing the chemical composition of the sand found with the bones and was running an elemental analysis on the bone fragments to see if they could at least match them as part of the same person. Brennan was frustrated. She stared at all that was left of some person, she should be able to help this person, give him/her back his/her identity. She examined each fragment, hoping that some small detail would jump out at her and help. Angela had dragged Brennan to her office for a quick lunch and some gossip about Hodgins but thankfully, didn't mention Booth. That was kind of odd actually, but Brennan decided she was better with odd than with talking about him.
It was late afternoon when Cam said she had some preliminary DNA results. Cam had already called Booth freeing Brennan from that task. Cam was explaining her findings when Booth sauntered in.
"The DNA is pretty damaged. I don't know if we'll be able to get a strong enough sample to analyze and even then it will be so small that it will be consumed in the analysis making it of little value in a trial. It is male and not inconsistent with Robert Newton but much of it is fragmented."
"So we do have a DNA match?" Booth asked.
"Not exactly, we don't not have a DNA match." Wendell tried to explain. "We can't rule him out but we can't say for certain that it is him." He shot Booth a weak smile. Nobody liked half an answer, the whole team was frustrated. They thoughtfully stared at the monitor for a minute as if it was suddenly going to tell them more.
"I'll keep trying but I think you're going to need a confession on this one Seeley." Cam smiled supportively and walked back to her office. It was another minute of silent staring before Hodgins bounded gleefully up the stairs.
"Elemental analysis of the bone fragments would indicate that they are all from someone raised in Virginia near where the fragments were found."
"So they could be from the same person, but you can't say for sure." Booth's growing frustration was evident in his voice. "We have bones that may or may not be from the same person, that person may or may not be Robert Newton and he may or may not have been murdered." Brennan stole a quick glance at his face, she felt even worse that she couldn't provide answers.
"Hold on there big guy, this person was disposed of. I found high concentrations of carbon, sulfur and nitrogen in the sand along with an extremely high concentration of chloride ion." There was a collective "oh". Booth looked at each of them waiting for an explanation but since they offered none he was forced to ask.
"Um, what does that mean?"
"It means that these remains were dissolved in highly concentrated hydrochloric acid and the acid and dissolved remains were poured into the sand pit." Wendell explained.
"That doesn't explain why the remains were so far down in the sand, though." Brennan commented, looking thoughtfully at the bone fragments. Booth felt his resolve weakening. She looks so beautiful when she is thinking that hard. Stop it! Focus! Booth tried to focus on the sand pit.
"So what if the killer..." Booth started.
"We don't know if he was killed." Brennan corrected.
"...dug deep into the sand," Booth ignored her.
"..dumped the acid," Wendell offered.
"...and then refilled the pit." Hodgins finished.
"That would explain why there was enough movement and friction by the sand to polish the remaining bone fragments." Brennan said.
"The killer probably didn't realize there was still a little bone left. I bet the scientists in that commune have pure hydrochloric acid." Booth wiggled his eyebrows at Angela.
"They wouldn't have it just lying around. Someone had to make this. But any well-stocked lab would have the resources to make enough to do this." Hodgins explained. "There won't be any evidence left over, it would be an easy clean up."
"But there would be traces of blood from an actual murder?" Booth said, thinking out loud.
"We don't know that the victim was murdered." Brennan said.
"Come on Bones, why dispose of a body unless you murdered them?"
"We've seen stranger things." Brennan quipped. "There wouldn't necessarily be blood evidence, the 'killer' if that's what we're going with, could just have delivered an organic poison or even just something to render the victim unconscious."
"Yeah, didn't think of that." Booth said. See, distracted, bad bad bad.
"Ick! I hate this job!" Angela walked back to her office unable to listen to anymore about the depths of human depravity. Cam rejoined them with a small shake of her head indicating there wasn't much more she could do.
"I need to question Mr. Newton's ex-wife and see what we can find. Let's go Bones." The sentence was out of his mouth before he had thought it. It was what he always said, it was unconscious. He tried to glance unnoticed at her but everyone was looking at him.
"I think I should stay here and see if there is anything else I can get from the bone fragments." Booth noticed her voice sounded smaller than usual.
"Dr. Brennan, these are scientists, you will need to translate. Booth will need your help." She wasn't letting those two pull away now. Embarrassing couch moment or not. Brennan looked wistfully at the remains and then with a slight nod walked to her office. Booth entered tentatively behind her and waited patiently for her to remove her lab coat. The comfortable banter and his usual help with her jacket was coldly missing as each of the partners desperately tried to avoid having any emotions. After an eternity she quietly walked past him, careful to avoid contact, and out the office door. The small of her back felt cold as they walked silently to his SUV.
They tried to pepper the excruciating drive with small talk but neither could say much more than a few words. They should be arguing about the value of motive and whether Robert Newton was as accepting of his ex-wife's new husband as Dr. Benjamin claimed. That should be leading to an argument about monogamy but the arguments they should be having and all the things they should be saying to each other hung in the air like a dense fog. It was stifling.
Booth tried to think of what he wanted to know from Robert Newton's ex-wife but the smell of Brennan's shampoo and her perfume kept him from completing a single thought. Brennan was trying to mentally examine the bone fragments from memory but Booth's face and that stupid charm smile of his kept pushing out the fragments. Brennan kept her face to the window, the tears that threatened were difficult to blink away. Booth glanced at her, wishing once again that he were the man he should be. He caught a glimpse of her tears. His stomach lurched and the stabbing pain returned to his chest, causing him to gasp.
"Booth, are you okay?" The concern painted on her face. Her tear-filled eyes moved to the hand that had reflexively clutched his chest. "Booth, what's wrong?" He didn't know how to answer her, he couldn't tell her what was wrong. How could he tell her that the tears in her eyes broke his heart, that swallowing guilt was physically painful?
"I'm fine, its just heartburn from breakfast. You don't have an antacid on you by chance?" He smiled weakly.
"Booth, chest pain is serious and should not be ignored." He was going to have to smile better than that or he was going to end up in the ER. He took a deep breath and tried a patented Booth-smile. It fell far short of its usual brilliance but he hoped it would be enough. Her breath caught in her throat and a tear spilled unwillingly. It was a pale smile, but it was still breathtaking.
"Hey, hey." he said as he pulled the SUV over, "I'm okay. Its okay." He pulled her into a hug before he realized what was happening. As angry as she is at me, she's still worried about me. I am a louse. Booth cursed himself. No, no, you don't want this, you don't need this. Sit up! Brennan told herself. Brennan's shoulders shook lightly and then she inhaled sharply and sat up.
"Are you sure you are okay to drive?" Brennan asked quietly, wiping her eyes.
"Nice try. I'm fine, and I'm still driving." Booth hoped he sounded as calm and happy as he meant to. Booth pulled back onto the roadway and continued the drive. Brennan glanced nervously at him, careful not to look at his face. Booth tried to engage her in small talk. They each tried to relax a bit with the futile hope that things were returning to "normal".
They drove through the commune, past the labs, and into a residential section with houses. After checking the address, they arrived at the home of Judy Benjamin, Robert Newton's ex-wife. It was a modest house, one floor with a small front stoop. The siding was white with dark blue trim pieces. There were flower boxes under the front windows and a neatly trimmed yard complete with the white picket fence. Brennan though it looked charming and tried not to imagine Booth wrestling with Parker on that lawn. Her stomach turned a bit as she thought, this is what Booth wants, what I can't give him. Her breath caught again as his hand went to the small of her back and he ushered her toward the door.
An attractive woman of about 50 with a warm smile greeted them at the door. She graciously welcomed them in before they could introduce themselves.
"Would you like something to drink? The drive from D.C. is a bit of a stretch, would you like to freshen up?" She smiled pleasantly gesturing toward a hallway leading to what they assumed would be a bathroom.
"Thank you, no. I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan." Booth was a little off his usual stride at her hospitality but he quickly recovered.
"Yes, yes, you are here to ask about Robert. Doug told me about the lovely couple from the FBI that had come to talk to him. He said you would be by after you had some time with the sand pit. Please sit down. I'll be right back with some lemonade." She strode happily into her kitchen while Booth took a seat on the couch and Brennan sat in an armchair. Mrs. Benjamin returned with a tray and set it on the coffee table, taking the armchair opposite Brennan. She handed them each a glass and waited for Booth to ask her a question.
"Mrs. Benjamin, how long were you married to Mr. Newton?"
"Call me Judy, and its Dr. Newton, he was a particle physicist with three PhDs."
"We didn't know he was a scientist, why hasn't any body mentioned that before?" Brennan asked.
"Robert wasn't a scientist anymore. He loved science but he couldn't stand the struggle for funding and the squabbles with other scientists over who should get credit for what. We were married for seventeen years. We divorced two years ago and I married Doug three months ago."
"Mrs. Benjamin, Judy," Booth flashed her a warm smile, "Dr. Benjamin has indicated that your divorce was..."
"Amiable" Brennan offered.
"...amiable." Booth looked at her. "After seventeen years together, he wasn't upset at you remarrying?"
"I know its difficult to understand. Robert and I didn't view marriage in the typical sense. We were against it as an archaic institution when we were young. We loved each other and that was all that mattered. He finished his last doctorate in 1954, there were strong financial and legal benefits to being married and living together absent of marriage was a cultural taboo. We relented, promising each other that it was not a bond of ownership or possession but a promise to always be partners and equals and to live our lives together. Over the years, our romantic love for each other took a back seat to the love and respect we had as colleagues and friends. I always wondered what would have been if we had been friends first and lovers second but that was not how it was. Three years ago I started working in Doug's lab and found that I felt a romantic spark for him. I was distraught. I didn't want to hurt my husband, he is, was, the best friend I've ever had. Out of the deepest respect, I talked to him and he told me that he was quite happy to divorce me if I had romantic feelings for Doug." Judy's eyes became moist and she swallowed hard. "He said that the promise we made was forever and even divorced, he would always be my partner and friend." Brennan and Booth sat quietly allowing the woman to compose herself. "I'm in love with Doug, but I've never had a friend like Robert."
"I'm sorry to have to ask this, but are you sure there was no jealousy or conflict between your current and ex husbands?"
"What rational reason would there be for jealousy? Jealousy is an instinctual response designed to protect a procreative relationship when there is a limited number of potential mates. Robert and I are past our procreative prime and in the absence of the hormonal response that accompanies a romantic relationship there would be no jealousy." Brennan nodded appreciatively, the explanation satisfied her.
"I'm sorry about having to be indelicate, but may I ask about alimony?"
"Why would that be indelicate? You need to understand our relationship in order to determine the kind of person Robert was and who may have wanted to harm him. I left him the money and the house save for my clothes and a few keepsakes. I make sufficient income, as does Doug, that I have no need of Robert's savings. I remain as the sole beneficiary of his estate, though as I said, I have no need of it."
"Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Robert?" Booth asked.
"No, no one. James was agitated with him over an experiment and I think Katie owed him some money, those are customary motives, but neither of them would hurt him. Its hard to imagine such an irrational act as murder in our little town. There would be nothing to be gained from Robert's murder."
"We don't know that..." Brennan started. Booth shifted and silenced her with a look.
"I assume that you haven't confirmed whether the remains found were Robert's or not? I understand, please let me know what you find."
"Uh, thank you for taking the time to speak with us, the lemonade was delicious, we will be in touch soon." Booth and Brennan walked to the SUV and climbed in.
"Well that was very...rational." Booth said glancing nervously at Brennan.