They got to the scene, it was swarming with FBI techs, the fire crew, bomb squad, and curious onlookers from the neighborhood. Booth and Brennan went to the guy that seemed to be in charge of the mess. Booth flashed his badge and told the man that Brennan was with him. They passed the yellow tape and Brennan kneeled at one of the sets of remains.
"Any other things that shouldn't be there?" he asked her.
"Trauma sustained corollates with a bomb, I don't see any other damage." She stood back up. "Hodgins ought to have first look when they get here." They waited for a few minutes until they saw the Jeffersonian van role up. Cam followed it in her car. Hodgins carried all sorts of equipment to the victims.
"Blast residue." he said as he took a sample with a swab. He studied it, then stuck it in a evidence vial. He continued his work as it was Cam's turn to look over the body.
"I agree with Brennan she looks like she died as a result of the bomb." Booth muttered some long profanity laced phrase.
"What about the other guy." he asked.
"Same. He sustained a little less damage though." FBI techs were at the bodies taking pictures. Others were holding back the onlookers. One girl through all of it was crying, "That's my sister!" over and over. Booth picked up on it and ran to her.
"You're Marilyn's sister?" He asked her. The girl nodded, face tear stained. He lifted the tape for her and she went under it.
"Look, I want to place you under protective custody." She remained silent. "I know it must be a lot to deal with losing your two siblings within days of each other. But I think you may be in danger so..." The girl looked up at him.
"I think I know why they're after my family." He wrapped a comforting arm around her.
"I think you should try to relax and calm down. We'll talk when it's a better..." he searched for the right word. "situation." She nodded as he guided her to a sidewalk curb for her to sit.
"I'll get you some water." He grabbed a local cop and asked him to watch the girl until he came back. Brennan ran over to Booth.
"I turned around and you were gone. What happened?" Booth poured some water from a bottle into a styrofoam cup.
"Turns out there is an other Longeria and she thinks she knows why someone is picking off her family." He turned to face Brennan. "There is something way more serious then the average murder going on Bones, and I'm thinking the fact that he was a journalist has something to do with it." They started walking towards the girl. "I want you to talk to her try to get some information I have to talk to some other people about this ordeal." They reached the girl. "Hi, This is my partner Doctor Brennan, she's going to talk to you and take care of you and then I'll be back in a few minutes where we can discuss our next move, is that okay?" The girl nodded, still quiet. He handed her the water and nudged Brennan to the girl. "I'll be back in five." and he headed off to talk to some people.
"What's your name?" Brennan asked.
"I'm Chanel." Brennan sat next to her on the curb.
"I'm Temperance." there was a pause between them. "I'm sorry about your family." Chanel snorted.
"All because of that damned story." She said to herself. Brennan's interested peaked at that.
"What story." She took a sip of water and sighed.
"My brother. He was a journalist. Usually petty stories that fill the empty pages of the paper you know. Not that he wasn't an excellent writer, it was just his preference. One day, calls my sister up with news. He's onto something real hot. Senator corruption. And I'm not talking some little thing where nudges a bill to get a vacation. I mean serious corruption. Problem was that the guy was so untouchable. Untouchable to the point where he can get people murdered." her voice cracked on 'murdered'. "The guy is involved with selling information." Brennan's face didn't register anything. "to terrorists." Brennan's eyes almost fell out of her head. "problem is that we don't have enough hard evidence. The occasional reciept, rumour here and there. We all know what this guy is doing, just can't prove it."
"What good comes out of selling information to terrorists."
"For America? Nothing. For that senator, Lots and lots of money, and perks, and a campaign that he doesn't have to put a dime towards."
"Well, even though I'm no expert in motive that sounds like a very good reason for killing Michael."
"People do crazy things when they have power."
"Why did he only do petty stories usually?" Brennan asked her. Chanel had a small sad smile on her face.
"He didn't think he was good enough. He always cut himself down. He was so insecure so he never had any relationships. Just once. The girl was crazy about him too. But he thought she wasn't happy and ended it. He kept to himself. Always him and his laptop ready to go, chomping at the bit for some meaningless story about the biggest cake or some ridiculous thing like that. We all love him though. Except it's just me left now. Crazy how someone can lose who they love most in split seconds." Brennan could relate. She felt a tug at her heart. She blinked away some threatening tears and reminded herself to stay objective.
"That man that your sister was with. Who was he?"
"I'm not even sure. But my best bet is that he was a customer." Brennan stared. "Oh jeez..." Chanel laughed a little embarrassed laugh. "Not that kind of customer! She was an artist who did portraits and paintings of people. I always thought that wouldn't go anywhere but she had a nice place." She glanced at the ruins of the building behind her. "Well, it was a nice place." At that moment Booth walked over. He was looking at his notes that he had just taken. He stopped to look at Brennan pull Chanel close into a hug. He felt his stomach flip looking at his partner. He approached them.
"Well it looks we did all we can do here on the scene. Chanel, I'd like to take you to my office back at the FBI so we can discuss giving you some protection." He turned his eyes to Brennan. "Coming with?" Brennan nodded yes and the two women got up off the curb. Booth directed them to his truck. After Chanel got in Brennan pulled Booth aside.
"I got a lot of information out of her. Turns out alive humans are informative too." Booth looked to the sky, prayed for strength to deal with squints and continued.
"Such as?"
"An exceptionally good motive." Booth's facial expression read 'try me' Brennan accepted the challenge. "How is a corrupt senator selling information to terrorists that Michael was onto for a motive." Booth's jaw dropped.
"A member of the US Congress was selling information to the Middle East?" Brennan shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm not sure if it was a terrorist organization overseas like Al Queda or some internal American terrorist organization, but I guess he's getting a lot of money and other perks, including a pratically cost free campaign for next election." Booth's face turned stoney. Obviously extremely pissed at the idea of a corrupt senator threatening the wellfare of the country.
"I will get to the bottom of this." He said with a stone hard face.