Chapter 11 – We don't know much, do we?

Booth walked through the automatic door into Brennan's House of Reason and looked around. He had to admit that the place was impressive. He especially liked it at night like now without the hustle and bustle of activity and the constant hum of people going about their tasks. With the lights dimmed, the whole lab seemed like a wise old soul deep in contemplation about the events of the day as if it were regenerating itself for the next day.

He could see a light in her office and moved in that direction. The closer he got the more anxiety he felt which was crazy because he had made this walk countless times and really wanted to be there. "Shake it off," he told himself, "this is Bones you are going to see. Everything will be fine." This was definitely one of those times that he appreciated the fact that she was such a rational individual. She would not react like most women post-argument who might try to milk the situation with coy remarks and silly rebuttals. Bones was just not like that. She may not always be honest about what she was feeling but if she was mad, you could be absolutely certain that she had a reason. The only problem was that because she was not like other women, he really had no idea what to expect.

He couldn't see her at first and his heart sank a little, but finally spotted her head in front of the couch realizing that she must be working on the floor. As he got closer, his anxiety dissipated. She was sitting amongst various piles of papers with her hair in a ponytail looking terrific in the soft glow of the office's backlit walls and warm lamplight. He was taken by her natural beauty and stopped at the door to watch her, unwilling to disturb the peaceful image in front of him.

After several minutes, she turned to face him as if she knew he was there. Time stopped. Those eyes were full of thoughts and he suddenly felt like everything made perfect sense. This was his life and this was as good as it gets.

"Would you like a spring roll?" she offered.

"Don't mind if I do." He took a spot on the floor opposite her and scanned the papers on the floor. He had no idea what she was working on, but it didn't appear to have anything to do with their case.

"Booth, I …"

"Don't go there Bones. I am sure that I deserved it. In fact, I feel honored to be on the receiving end of whatever it is you want to give me." His face unconsciously broke into a huge charm smile and he raised the half-eaten spring roll in her direction.

"Don't go where Booth? I am not going anywhere and I don't understand what you are saying."

If he didn't know her better, he would think that she was trying to play him. "I just thought that you were going to say something about our, um, conversation earlier."

"You know, you can be quite annoying sometimes."

"Too true—especially when I am around you."

She ignored his sarcasm. "Don't you think it would be a good idea to hear what someone has to say before you interrupt and guess at what they are going to say?"

He suddenly realized that he may have put his foot in his mouth. "I am sorry, please continue."

"I am afraid that we are at a stand-still on the Barton case. The remains were in the woods for too long. The prolonged exposure to the elements and seasonal changes has made it almost impossible for us to find evidence. Hodgins scoured the soil samples as well as all the particulates from the clothing, remaining flesh, and bones and has been unable to come with anything useful. He did say that he found some minute traces of nitrogen but that could be associated with almost anything."

"Hmm, I guess that we will have to do this the old-fashioned way."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means that we cannot rely on all of your fancy equipment for this one. We are going to have to consider the people involved as our primary source of evidence. We will have to do this as if science and technology didn't exist."

"Do you mean that you wish to proceed without me?"

"No way Bones, never. We will just rely a little more on my expertise rather than yours."

She looked him squarely in the eyes. "You did deserve it Booth even if you don't know why." He thought that he had dodged that one, but now he knew, just as he suspected, that the case was not the only thing on her mind. He thought that it was best to leave it alone for now, but was worried at her ability to read him so well—the truth was that he didn't have a clue why she was so mad earlier.

"OK, so what do we know?"

"Well, we know that the Bartons were last seen by Mrs. Marks as they left for the park on a Saturday"

"July 22, 2000." he interjected pulling the file out and laying it on the floor in front of him.

"We know that they did not take transportation and that they have been dead for eight years so something must have happened to them on their way to or from the park in Alexandria because they never returned home. We know that Mrs. Marks assumed that they left her."

Checking the file, Booth added, "She filed for divorce 30 days later claiming abandonment and was married to their mutual friend, Dr. Steven Marks, in January 2001."

"Is there any other family?" Bones asked trying to read the file upside down.

"Richard has a sister. I spoke to her this afternoon. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She really did not have much to say except that she hated Elizabeth. She never got the impression that Richard had any intention of leaving her though. She said that she spoke to him pretty regularly but hadn't seen him a number of years before he disappeared. She barely knew Adam beyond sending birthday and Christmas presents. She could not think of anything that would prompt someone to kill him."

"We discovered that very few people in the neighborhood remembered them, never mind had any theories about their disappearance."

"We can say the same for his colleagues in the Capitol Building."

"We also know that their remains were discovered in a remote area of a National reserve in Western Virginia."

"Basically, we don't know much, do we?"

"I guess we don't, and you know how much I hate that." At this, he caught the first hint of a smile that evening. They were finally getting somewhere—even though, they were not getting anywhere.