"The website on my phone indicates that Dr. Harrigan, Deborah Wallace's cosmetic surgeon is one of the best on the east coast." Brennan said looking at the small screen of her new phone on the way to said Doctor's offices on the other side of town. They had dropped Sweets off at the FBI building to continue his psychological analysis of the victim.
Booth gave her an amused glance as he momentarily took his eyes off the road to look at her. "Hey, you finally upgraded to modern technology and got rid of that archaic thing you called a cell phone. Is that an Iphone?"
"Why yes it is." She said her eyes lighting up, holding up the phone so he could get a better look at it through his peripheral vision. "My battery kept dying on the old one and the young sales clerk at the store said batteries will do that after awhile and since they didn't make the batteries or the phone anymore, I should just get a new one." Brennan stated as she started to play with some of the buttons on the phone.
He shook his head, a grin splitting his face."I don't get you. You won't buy a TV but you'll let some young kid sweet –talk you into buying a phone with features you'll never use."
She continued to talk animatedly. "There are many interesting and useful applications. For instance, did you know that there is an application for just about anything? Even on forensic science?"
"You better watch out Bones or you'll be out of business. You could always have a "Bones" App created. Want a sexy forensic anthropologist? There's an app for that." He joked as he rounded the next corner.
"I find that scenario highly unlikely but I am happy that my physical attributes please you." She countered and eyed him with an appreciative look as he tried to loosen the tie around his neck. "But back to Dr. Harrigan. I assume being one of the best, he has no need for money so murdering Ms. Wallace despite the fact that she owed him a considerable amount wouldn't be sufficient enough reason to kill her."
"You're forgetting one thing, Bones. The more money you have, the more money you want. It's greed, pure and simple." At least he hoped it was. It would be neat and tidy, just the way he liked it.
"That is not true. Look at Dr. Hodgins for example. He is very wealthy and I have never seen a desire in him to want more. In fact he was so ashamed that he had all that money, he kept it a secret for years."
"Yeah but, Hodgins is a squint. Squints don't think like normal people." Booth sighed then willing to concede that money may not be a motive. "Okay, so maybe not money…then it would have to be for another reason. Considering the state the body was found in, I will guess that the motive was very personal. I think even Sweets would agree with me on that." He could already feel the familiar rush of adrenaline spread through his veins at the prospect of interviewing a suspect.
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Before they got a chance to open their mouths to identify themselves, the receptionist greeted them with a warm smile.
"Ms. Wallace! How wonderful to see you again. I am sure Dr. Harrigan would love to see you. Hang on, let me get him for you."
"But…" Brennan tried to interrupt until Booth shushed her.
"Element of surprise Bones." He said out of the side of his mouth hoping she'd listen to him.
"You're quite lucky. Dr. Harrigan has a few spare moments. You can just go back to his office."
"Thank you." Brennan responded not wanting to give herself away by saying she didn't know where his office was.
After a few wrong turns they found their way to Doctor Harrigan's plush office. He sat at his desk reviewing some patient files as they walked into the room. Noticing the intrusion, he looked up at the pair, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. He was a striking looking middle aged man with dark hair graying just a bit at his temples.
"You're not Deborah Wallace." He said getting up from his chair, walking around his desk to stand before them. His gaze was so intense on Temperance as if he were inspecting her features, she took a slight step backwards.
"How can you be so sure?" Booth asked him feeling all of the surety that this was their killer seep right out of him. Unless Dr. Boob Job was a real cool cucumber, this wasn't their guy.
The Dr. rolled his eyes. "Please. I know my work. This woman clearly has never had any work done. So since you are not Deborah, who the hell are you?"
Booth displayed his I.D. for him. "Special Agent Seeley Booth. This is my partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan. We'd actually like to ask you a few questions about Deborah Wallace."
"I'd like to help you but I am bound by Doctor Patient confidentiality."
"Ms. Wallace is deceased." Brennan told him bluntly. She watched the doctors face visibly pale. Damn. Booth said she was too blunt. Perhaps she should have phrased it better. She actually thought deceased was a kinder word than dead, though.
"When?" Dr. Harrigan asked sitting slowly back down in his chair.
"We have estimated she was murdered somewhere between late Friday night and early Saturday morning." Booth informed him, sitting in a seat at the opposite side of the doctor's desk while Temperance took the opportunity to look around the room. She noted the various medical degrees from sub-ivy league Universities on the wall along with some before and after pictures of his patients. The one of Deborah Wallace seemed to be larger than the rest and received a prominent space on the wall.
"Wait. You think I murdered her?" Dr. Harrigan asked in disbelief.
"That's what we're here to find out." Booth said removing his notepad from his inside pocket and made a show of flipping some pages over, his hand held his pen over the empty page poised to write.
"This is ridiculous. There is no way I would ever harm Deborah. She was my star patient."
"Star patient? Can you tell us what you mean by that?"
The doctor sighed heavily. "Look, you probably did some research on me before you came here and discovered I am considered one of the best in the field. But that wasn't the case two years ago."
At his sudden hesitation, Booth had to prompt him to continue. "Go on."
" I was good, don't get me wrong but I was nothing like the man you see here today. People…women mostly…came here with the usual requests; breast enhancements, tummy tucks, face, lifts, nose jobs…well you get the picture. Then Deborah Wallace walks into my office with a picture…a picture of you, although I didn't know it at the time." – He managed to look apologetic – "She wanted a complete facial reconstruction and I don't know… I was greedy I guess for the notoriety. "
"You assumed that if you were successful, it would boost your career." Brennan stated finally sitting in the chair besides Booth.
Dr. Harrigan's face tinged pink. "Essentially yes. And it worked. When word got out, I had to turn patients away."
"But she owes you a considerable amount of money. Surely you couldn't forget that."
"She was on a payment plan. One I didn't enforce with any regularity. She paid what she could, when she could. We mutually benefitted from each other. And before you ask..no I didn't sleep with her."
From his days as a gambler, Booth knew everyone had their "tells". It could be a shifting of the eyes, a drumming of the fingers on a surface, a crossing of the legs but as far as he could tell this guy, this doctor had nothing. There were no outward signs of any deceit. In fact he sat with his hands clasped in front of him on the desk and his eye contact never wavered. He barely even blinked.
"While we're on the subject, Dr Harrigan. I realize it was two years ago but did Ms. Wallace ever mention a boyfriend…a lover?"
Dr. Harrigan was silent for a moment. "Now that you mention it, I believe she may have. An FBI agent, think. Andy? Perhaps you know him Agent Booth?"
"He obviously hasn't read any of my books." Brennan mumbled under her breath to Booth who put his hand over his mouth to try and hide a grin. "Do you know of the drug Suxamethonium Chloride?" Brennan asked cocking her head to one side in innocent inquiry.
"You mean suxamethonium? Sure, I have."
"Have you ever used it on a patient?"
"No. Not in my line of work. It's really used only for emergency medicine. The side effects are too risky for me."
"Do you mind if I take a look in your pharmaceutical cabinet?"
"That's fine. I'll have Allison, my assistant, show it to you."
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"Not our guy." Booth said on their way out to the car. "His alibi will check out. I can almost guarantee it."
"And the only paralytics I found in his cabinets were various non-depolarizing blocking agents not polarizing ones like suxamethonium is . He probably uses different ones dependent upon the expected duration of each individual surgery."
"Thanks for clearing that up for me Bones." Booth chuckled.
"You're quite welcome." She smiled. "So...what now? Would you like to go back to my apartment to satisfy some biological urges? I find sex can be very therapeutic especially in recovering from the disappointment that we didn't grasp our guy yet." She said suggestively caressing his thigh with her hand, leaning into him ever so slightly.
He covered her hand with his own and squeezed, feeling himself begin to throb at her proposal. He wanted to. He really wanted to turn his SUV around and break all speed limits to get to her apartment where he could take her any way he wanted her but his gut dictated that they needed to solve this murder and fast. "That's catch our guy, Bones. Catch. And as much as I would love to go back to your place and make love to you." he said stressing the love part of his sentence. "We are not quite finished for the day yet. Now we go interview her co-workers at the…" he pulled put a piece of paper from his pocket "… National Museum of Natural History"
"Hmm, I suppose it's quite obvious why she chose to seek employment there all things considering. Okay but when we are done…"
"When we're done…baby I am all yours."
"I'm holding you to that and don't call me baby." She crossed her arms over her chest not willing to admit she secretly liked the rather possessive endearment. She couldn't put a particular scientific name to the feeling but it did odd, wonderful things to her insides.
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The whole day was a bust as Booth would clarify it, Temperance thought as she diligently wrote her notes up for the day. Deborah Wallace's co- workers –for she refused to call her Kathy Reichs – had offered up no useful information. She had been a model employee, kept to herself and no one knew much of her personal life except she was dating an FBI agent named Andy Lister. Apparently no one there had read her books either, Temperance scoffed. Unless…maybe there was an Andy Lister. Oh, no one by the actual name of course but perhaps there was a man in her life that she named after her character. But then why would she have a fake skeleton who was obviously "Andy"? No the pieces didn't fit, no matter how many different ways she tried to reason it out.
"Ready to go Bones?" Booth asked walking into her office. "I'm in the mood for Thai tonight."
She looked up at him and smiled. "I hope that's not all you're in the mood for."
"Well, I could always go for dessert afterwards." He teased. "And I'm not talking pie."
He knew better than to touch her here, in her office with the door open where anyone could see but his hands itched to do just that as he watched her place a wayward tendril of hair behind her ear before lithely standing from her chair and grabbing her coat. Booth crossed the room to her, taking her coat from her arm and holding it so she could slip her arms through the sleeves. He gently removed her hair that had gotten caught under the collar and took the opportunity to caress the back of her neck.
"You keep that up and we'll never leave my office."
"Well this is touching." Caroline Julian, the formidable US Attorney's office prosecutor said placing her hand on her hefty hips as she eyes her two favorite crime fighters. She glanced up at the ceiling and back down at them causing both Booth and Brennan to glance upwards.
"Is there anything on the ceiling?" Booth asked.
"Just looking for the mistletoe Cherie. " She said with a saucy smirk.
"What are you doing here Caroline?"
"I have a case for you. So whatever you're working on now…put it on the back burner."
"What do you mean?" She turned to Booth, sensing his sudden taut appearance and the grim line that replaced his earlier smile. "Booth, what does she mean?"
"It means she wants us to stop working our current case."
"No" Temperance replied, her shoulders straightening getting ready for the argument that was about to ensue. "I can't just stop in the middle of a murder investigation."
"You can if the orders come from the top, Cherie. Believe me I wouldn't do this if I could help it."
"What do you mean, the top? Just what is this about?"
"Cullen gave me a direct order to get you two on the case ASAP. Apparently, he is too much of a chicken shit to ask you himself. If you pardon my expression." She smiled sweetly and sighed, resigned to deliver her orders. "Okay, here it is, Cher's. The bodies of a federal judge and his wife were found murdered and Cullen would consider it a personal favor if the two of you would take on the case."
"If you already identified the bodies, I don't see why you need me." Brennan told her.
"Those weren't the only bodies, Dr. Brennan. But we're losing time. I'll explain more on our way to the grave sight."
"Grave sight?" Booth asked suddenly going still.
"Yes, Agent Booth. Grave sight."
"Just how many bodies were found?" Temperance asked as they made their way out of the Jeffersonian.
"Five." Caroline said dourly. "Six bodies and seven graves, all lined up nice and neat. The last one was empty and I want to see this bastard get caught before he tries to fill it."
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Next up: we get a glimpse of our killer (s?)