Disclaimer (since I realized I rarely, if ever, do these): I own nothing other than my car and computer, and looking at my credit card debt, it's obvious I'm not making any money off of this.
This one is for my ever wonderful Jacey, and our ridiculous discussions in the wee hours of the morning.
Chapter 31—Bite
The pair entered the crime scene, ducking carefully under the police tape while Booth flashed his badge at the officer on duty.
Stepping into the entryway, it was apparent to Booth that the house belonged to an older woman. Brennan, preferring to draw her conclusions from the body and not personal effects, kept her eyes away from the pictures in the hall and the delicate doilies draped over the back of the sofa.
Following the officer who was leading them to the remains, Booth looked around the living room, which was crowded with wire cages. Each cage contained a large ball of fluff in shades of white, gray, and mixture of the two.
"What are those?" Booth wondered aloud, wrinkling his nose against the strong smell that permeated the room. "Cats?"
"We haven't figured that out yet," the officer told him, looking back at the agent. "We were wondering if she was maybe breeding something she shouldn't have been."
"I think they're angora rabbits," Brennan told him, looking at the cages.
"Those are rabbits?" Booth asked, noticing the balls of fur were matted and dirty. "I didn't know rabbits could have fur that long."
"It's actually a combination of wool and hair, not fur. They obviously haven't been cared for properly," Brennan explained, "their fur is usually soft and fluffy if they are taken care of."
"If the woman has been dead as long as the coroner estimated, I'd be surprised if they are still alive," the officer told her, turning into another hallway and leaving the rabbits out of sight.
"They're obviously still alive," Brennan told him. "The smell would be much worse if the rabbits were dead and decaying in their cages, it wouldn't just smell of feces and urine."
Booth fought to keep down his smile at the officer's surprised look.
"Coroner estimated the woman to have been dead for near a month, if not longer," the officer told the pair. "How could the rabbits have lived that long without food or water?"
"We'll just have to look at the evidence and see what it tells us," Brennan replied off-handedly, turning her attention to the commotion in a doorway at the end of the hall.
"What happened here?" Booth asked one of the officers who were standing in the doorway of what he assumed to be the master bedroom.
"Neighbor hasn't seen the old bird in a few weeks," the officer told them, "so she called the cops to check it out when no one answered. I was the one who got the call and came over. Found the body just there," the man gestured behind him into the room. "She's been dead a while. See for yourself."
Brennan followed her partner into the room, moving directly to the corpse and leaving Booth to canvas the room for any clues or details that would be pertinent to the case.
"Female, approximately seventy-five to ninety years of age, apparent death by asphyxiation," she rattled off, studying the body and seeing the broken hyoid bone. "There also appear to be inconsistent marks on the bone…" she trailed off, thankfully noting the gnawing marks were clearly not human and it would not be another body to add to their serial killer case. "Probably rodent, but I'll have Zach confirm back at the lab."
"Like rats?" Booth asked, looking around the room as if the offending creature would be sitting in a corner.
"Not necessarily rats," Brennan told him, still studying nearly skeletal body. "Guinea pigs, hamsters, and squirrels all belong to the rodent family as well."
"You seen anything loose in here?" Booth questioned the officer who was still hovering near the door?
"Nope, nothing," the man said, pulling his gaze away from Brennan's figure and back to informing the agent of the specifics of the investigation thus far. "Although the bedroom window is open a little," he gestured, "so I suppose something could've crawled in and out.
Booth looked over to where the officer had pointed and saw that the window was indeed cracked open. It was locked in position not to open any wider than an inch or so, which negated the possibility of a home invasion.
While Booth ran possible scenarios in his head, his gaze dropped lower on the wall from the window to the dark corner between the dresser and the wall. There was something in the corner. He had seen the dark shadows move.
Brennan saw Booth freeze, intently watching the corner. Keeping one eye on his alert behavior, she continued making observations on the body.
She saw when he pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and move to the corner to shine the light to see what was there.
"Great," Booth said, the beam of light landing on a dark gray ball of fur. "There's a loose rabbit in here, and it's still alive" he told anyone who was listening, reaching in to pick up the animal.
Grasping the animal by the loose skin at the nape of its neck, Booth lifted the rabbit from the corner before adjusting his grip on the animal wouldn't fall.
"Shit!" Booth yelled suddenly, dropping the rabbit and clutching his other hand tightly.
"What happened?" Brennan and the officer asked in unison, their attention on Booth and not the ball at his feet.
"Stupid thing bit me!" Booth told them, fighting down the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes.
"I guess that's what you get for eating that bunny jerky yesterday," Brennan grinned at him. "I told you not to eat it."
"It was rabbit jerky that my dad sent me. I was being polite. But that doesn't mean anything today, that damn rabbit bit me!"
"Oh you big baby," Brennan rolled her eyes, tossing her purse from the floor to Booth. "There's a first aid kit in there and you can clean it out."
"Thanks, Bones," Booth said, cleaning out the wound on his finger and giving the ball on the floor a nudge with his foot. "Stupid rabbits. That was why I never had a pet when I was growing up."
