S01E06 – The Man in the Wall
Author Notes: I change the character highlighted on each scene. Words in italic are their thoughts. Words underlined are other character's thoughts.
Main characters in each scene are Temperance Brennan (The Dance Studio and The Dog), Seeley Booth (The Meth and The Main Suspect) and Zack Addy (The Third Person and The Cover).
Chapter Three
In which another corpse is found.
George Warren's Dance Studio
Washington D.C.
Booth and Brennan entered the ballroom where Eve Warren's brother, George, was conducting a hip-hop class ('Aren't you coming, Zack?' 'There is not enough money in the world that would make me want to go to a dance studio, Seeley.'). The man wearing a blue tracksuit crossed the room:
"What do you want?"
The FBI agent flashed his badge:
"Special Agent Booth, FBI. This is my associate Dr. Brennan."
The woman in question kept her focus on the class:
"What do you call this?"
"The Krump. The kids, they come here, they dance. They don't gangbang. So what do you want? You didn't come here for a dance lesson." – He led them to his private office, where a little girl was playing. – "Hey, Maya. How you doing, baby?" – He picked her up and took her back to the ballroom. – "Come on now, we're gonna go outside and you're gonna play with the rest of the kids, ok? There you go."
Maya run off, awkwardly but sure. George then sat and motioned for the two field agents to do the same.
"I'd like to ask you a few questions about your sister Eve."
"What's she done now?"
"When was the last time you saw her?"
"About six weeks ago when she dropped of Maya."
No one has seen or heard from her in over six weeks? That's highly suspicious. And the obvious possibility is that she died.
"Just dropped her off and left?" – Booth gave a small shrug. – "Just like that?"
"Told me she needed me to watch her for a couple days, left me some money."
"Do you, um, happen to have a, I don't know, recent photo that we could take?"
In response to the FBI agent's request, George picked up a frame off his desk and took out the photograph:
"Evie said she had cleaned herself up. Said she was turning her life around, and I believed her." – He handed the picture to Booth. – "She never came back. That little girl out there, that's her daughter. She's like a daughter to me too."
"Didn't it bother you that Eve never came back? I mean, didn't you go look for her?"
I mean Jared is annoying but I always make sure to know where he is.
"I learned to let her go. I mean, Eve, she's had a lot of problems. Drugs, hanging out with the wrong people. I mean, if I track her down and she takes Maya before she's ready—I'm not letting nothing happen to that little girl."
"Did you know Roy Taylor?"
"Met him. DJ Mount, I like his stuff. He's pure; I play it for the kids."
"We have reason to believe that she was with him the night he was murdered."
That piece of information seemed to shock the man in blue:
"Murdered?" – Booth nodded. – "And you can't find Evie?"
Brennan shook her head as her partner said 'No'.
"Oh, man. She told me she loved him and that she and Mount were gonna take Maya away out of DC, give her a better life, the one we never had."
"You said she left you some cash."
"Yeah, for Maya."
"I'll buy what you have, two dollars to one."
George couldn't care less about the proposition, feeling so much sadness:
"Sure, whatever, man."
Forensic Platform
Jeffersonian Institute
Zack was looking onto a microscope when Booth walked up the platform.
"You really shouldn't sneak up on a person using a microscope, Seeley." – Zack said without lifting his head. – "They could startle easily and end up losing an eye."
"Sorry."
"It's okay. Hodgins said that the methamphetamine on these bills matches the meth found with DJ Mount behind the wall."
"That's all?"
"Actually his exact words were 'You may want to tell your man to have the stooges at the FBI who are experts due to the so-called drug war, to run a comparison.'" - The squint raised his sight from the lenses to his lover. – "Not that I am complaining, but why are you here?"
"I wanted to bounce some ideas off of you."
Zack smiled:
"At least this time you waited until Doctor Brennan left."
"Yeah, my guess is that Eve was with Mount the time that he was murdered. So, how about this? DJ Mount rejects Eve because of her questionable past. So, uh, hey she gets mad, she wants to leave with some money, so" – Zack gave him a look. – "What?"
"Roy Taylor doesn't seem like a guy that would leave Eve just because of her past. And according to her brother she was trying to get better for her daughter." – Booth nodded and the squint continued. – "The real question is where she went after Roy Taylor was killed."
"You know what? I'm gonna turn you into an investigator yet."
"I am happy where I am, Seeley. With my bones and forensics."
The FBI agent smiled and kissed his lover briefly.
"Oh, and there's another thing I wanted your opinion on. How does Michigan sound for our vacation?"
"You want to meet my family? Really?" – Zack blushed a bit before whispering. – "No one else ever thought I was enough to want to meet them."
Booth that as a cue to hug his lover:
"You are."
More than enough.
"I forgot about your bat-like hearing." – The squint smiled.
"Yeah, you did. Now let's go see what Angela has for us."
Angela Montenegro's Office
Jeffersonian Institute
The artist was working on her computer as Brennan, Vincent and Wendell looked the animation. The blond squint kept feeding Angela information for her digital scenario:
"The damage to his C-4 vertebrae was the result of his head being twisted so far to the right."
"He was moving this way, towards Eve." – Vincent pointed to the screen.
Booth entered the room with Zack following:
"My bet is he was chasing her."
Brennan just raised an eyebrow:
"And that's based on?"
"The money and meth. She left that corridor carrying money saturated in the same meth that killed Mount. She was moving fast."
"She didn't even stop when her belly ring got ripped out."
"Money's a pretty good reason to get chased. Only question is, why wasn't he facing her?"
"It got tight back there. Fifteen centimeters. Eve ripped out her belly button ring here." – Angela pointed at the screen before typing more information. – "And then left a smear of blood until the corridor widened, here."
Bones exhaled forcefully:
"Oh, god."
"What?"
"That just…makes me a little sick."
"You pick dead bodies out of mass graves and yanking out a belly button ring makes you sick?"
"Okay, okay, okay. Moving on. I've shot a lot of people in my time and I gotta admit, that whole belly button thing makes me nauseous too."
"Thank you."
"Anyway. At this point, Mount must've looked behind him but kept going. Then the passageway narrowed, so he couldn't turn his head back toward Eve."
"Then there's no way she could've shoved the meth into his face. Eve didn't kill him."
"A third person surprised them." – Vincent completed the scenario his blond squint posed. – "That is the reason he turned his head. To look."
"Mount's body prevented this third person from getting to Eve, so she escaped." – He cared about her. – "But he got to Mount, shoved the meth in his face, and killed him. As Seeley would say, 'the real question is who the hell is the third person?'" - Everyone in the room (minus Booth) just stared at Zack. – "What is the problem? He would put it like that."
Interrogation Room
J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI)
Booth and Zack ('Do you mind if I accompany you? They keep giving me odd looks ever since I attempted to mimic your manner of speaking.' 'If you ask me, you nailed it.' 'Thank you, Seeley.') were talking to Hall's bodyguard, Oakes.
"Why the hell you pick me up, man?"
"I think you know why I brought you in."
"Yeah, right."
"Do you realize you just sounded like a sixteen year old?"
Booth smirked at his lover's remark about the bodyguard and continued:
"I waited for you to contact me, explain your situation, but you didn't do that. That's not polite. What are you? DEA? Metro cop?"
"I'm Special Agent Ronald Oakes. My orders were not to break deep cover for anybody. Out of deep regard for my FBI brother, I gave you the nod."
Zack had to bite his lip in order to refrain from laughing. Booth just chuckled:
"That's bull. I made you, now you're making excuses."
"You got any keys for these cuffs?"
The not-undercover FBI agent and the squint had a silent conversation; with Booth glaring to indicate that he wasn't exactly keen on that idea and Zack tilting his head as if to say 'Don't be so evil.' Then with the younger of the two men giving a little smirk, meaning 'If either he or Hall is the killer we can rough him up. That should teach him not to be so arrogant.'
"Fine. Your way." - Booth got up and walked around to uncuff Oakes. – "You know, I need more than a nod, man. You know, I'm conducting a murder investigation. Now, I need to know what you know."
"I'm 15 months on the task force investigating the links between the urban music business and gang activity."
"That's why you got next to Randall Hall."
"Randall Hall is a clean alias. You ran him, right?"
"Yeah."
"Came back clean?"
"You know it did." – Zack was not in the mood for a show and tell.
"Exactly. His real name is Terrence Baskin. Now, we know that he's pushing meth through that club, but we can't get enough to touch him. Our informants disappear. They either get bought off, or they get killed."
"What about the murder?"
"The night that DJ Mount disappeared, Hall got ripped off for a mountain of meth and a ton of cash."
"DJ Mount ripped off Hall?"
"No, it doesn't scan. Mount was into Jesus, not chalk."
It was Eve.
"Hall killed DJ Mount?"
"Nah. Hall's people do that type of stuff for him. So if anybody asked, why did you have me arrested?"
"Weapons beef."
"So I don't get my gun back."
"No."
"We meet up again, if you get an excuse, hit me."
"Oh…that…you can count on it." – Booth shared a smile with Zack.
Basement Club
Washington D.C.
In the club's lounge, Booth and Zack were questioning Hall while Oakes was sitting at a table reading a newspaper.
"I've been investigated for year. Why you think they never got me on anything?"
The agent and the squint each had a hypothesis for that fact:
"Because you're so smart?"
"Because you never write anything down?"
"Because Terrance Baskin is my past. I am 100% clean now. This is my life now, this and my record label. Not crystal meth, not gangbanging."
"Yet much of the iconic quality of urban music lies in the perceived or actual rivalry between the principal artists."
Randall sat down on a stool, with a grin:
"Where did you find him?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Was the rivalry between Mount and Rulz strong enough to lead to murder?"
('We have to make him think that he's not the main suspect, Seeley.' 'So who do we use as our "main suspect"?' 'Rulz.')
"Sure, they were both capable. Add in the fact that Mount was sleeping with Rulz's girlfriend, Eve. Yeah, in fact, Rulz built himself a studio around that time. Poured cement for the pad a day after they disappeared."
"So?"
"I'm saying…Mount's dead, Eve's gone missing. You might want to consider that." – He turned to Oakes. – "Let's go."
He's involved personally. He wouldn't hand his star DJ on a platter if he wasn't.
After the pair left, Booth gave his lover a stricken look:
"We need to find a way to find a body buried under a slab of cement."
"And we don't have enough grounds for a warrant."
"A look around the premises maybe, but no way to tear it up."
Zack appeared thoughtful for a moment than he remembered something:
"Let me make a phone call."
DJ Rulz's Office/Studio/Loft
Washington D.C.
In the parking lot outside Rulz's studio, Tootie, a big mastiff-type dog was unloaded from the back of a truck by her handler Maggie. Brennan and Zack smiled knowingly.
"Tootie has traveled the world finding dead bodies."
"Does Tootie always drool like that?" - Tootie whined and Brennan shot Booth a look. – "What, I'm gonna hurt her- his feelings?"
"Tootie is the best cadaver dog in the world, Agent Booth."
"It's true. If you were a dead body, you'd want Tootie looking for you."
They entered Rulz's studio.
"How can it smell anything buried under a building?"
Brennan praised the dog:
"Once I saw Tootie find a dead body wrapped in plastic under concrete, after four years."
It's impressive.
"Tootie can smell decaying blood on a tooth six feet underground. I mean, so what? He drools a little. What's up with that?" – She glared at the FBI agent. – "You know, your eyes are kinda close together, but I don't comment."
"I apologize."
"Is he sincere?"
"Yes."
"All right then, we accept."
Tootie suddenly started to whine and lay down.
"Good boy, Tootie. Tootie found it."
Zack sensed his lover would say something and beat him to the punch:
"Lying down is his indicator. Tootie found it, there's a body under here." - Brennan drew around Tootie to mark the location. – "You should get a warrant to bring in a jackhammer for the floor. I'd start digging here."