Chapter Three

Christopher Pelant was a genius, so he was already convinced that he knew what the next part would be before the words were spoken aloud. The best part about it was that Booth was actually playing right into what was Pelant's plan all along.

"I just need to know…why us?"

Pelant's face broke into a surprisingly sunny smile, marred only by the damage to his right side, damage inflicted by the man standing in front of him, arms once again crossed over his chest. He had been waiting for this moment for longer than anyone he had unwillingly recruited into his little game ever suspected.

His smile never faltered. "Do you really want to know? It's a long story, Agent Booth."

Booth reached behind him and grabbed another chair, sitting down to face the younger man. "Grab a seat, Christopher. I have all day."

"Are you wearing a wire, Agent Booth?"

"Not a wire anywhere. Want me to take off my shirt?" A bitter smile crossed Booth's lips. And anyway, why bother? I'm just going to kill you when this is done."

Pelant looked into Booth's hard, obsidian glare, judging his sincerity, and then nodded. "Alright then."

"Are you recording this, Angela?"

"Oh yeah."

"It all started in July of 2005." Now sitting in a folding chair across from Booth, Pelant leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees. "I was reading an article in a forensic magazine about the death of Gemma Arrington and the subsequent arrest of Judge Myles Hasty for her murder."

Booth didn't even try to hide his surprise. "That far back? Really?"

"Oh yes. I was fascinated by the forensic aspects of the case." Pelant smirked. "I mean, come on Agent Booth, let's be honest here. You were stalled with no evidence linking Hasty to the killing. Without Doctor Brennan you never would have solved it."

Booth nodded. "I don't deny it. Bones was brilliant on that case."

"Be that as it may, something happened there, am I right? Caused you decide against working together? I read Doctor Sweets' book, but he glossed over it."

An imperceptible eye twitch was all that Booth gave away. "We're talking about you and your twisted reasoning here. Just finish the story. I'm already bored." Booth adjusted his position, crossing one ankle over his knee and relaxing back in his chair again.

"Fine, fine. Now, where was I? Oh yes, July of 2005. After I read about the Arrington case, I looked into you and Doctor Brennan more closely. I became…interested, for lack of a better word, in your partner. I collected all the information available about her I could, which wasn't much. Of course…" He smiled, "For me, getting the information I want has never been an issue. I eventually learned all about her parents' disappearance and her rise to the top of the anthropology world, but it was never enough. You see, Agent Booth, I couldn't figure out what made her tick, what was going through that big, beautiful brain of hers at any given moment, and for me…that was a problem."

Booth leveled his gaze at the ceiling briefly before giving what almost looked like a genuine smile to Pelant. "Well, it looks like we finally found something we have in common there, Christopher."

Pelant closed his eyes for a moment. "I realize that now. But at the time I couldn't imagine how I could get her attention and draw her to me. Now, don't look at me like that, Booth. It wasn't sexual, not completely…although Doctor Brennan was-is a beautiful woman. It was mostly pure scientific inquiry. I wanted to put her under my microscope and…study her. And then, of course, destroy her."

An unnatural chill enveloped Booth as his adversary described his fascination with and ultimate plan for Brennan. Thankful the woman in question was safely miles away, he nodded at Pelant to continue.

Across town, Angela watched the exchange between the two men with a shudder. "Are you alright, Bren? Because I have to say, this is creeping me the hell out."

"I will be alright when this is over and Booth is safe." Brennan shook her head to clear her innate worry over her partner. "Let's just let him finish this."

"So, how did you 'study' her? You a stalker now?" Booth gave off an air of calm but inside the thought of Christopher Pelant following Brennan around for months made him sick to his stomach.

"Not at all, Booth. Once the two of you became partners it was fairly easy to keep an eye on her. On both of you, really. You were in the papers all the time. But after a few months, it just wasn't enough."

Dread wound its way down Booth's spine at Pelant's words. "What did you do?"

"Do you remember Kevin Franzen, Agent Booth?"

The name sounded vaguely familiar to Booth, but it was just out of his brain's reach so he shook his head.

"Really? One of the first cases you had? Franzen was convicted of killing Dave Hardy and then burning his body and leaving him on the scaffolding in front of the Washington Monument. Sound familiar now?"

Booth nodded tightly. He mostly remembered how pissed Brennan had been at both him and Michael Stires for the previous case. She had barely spoken to him unless it concerned the case at hand. "Yeah. We had motive, opportunity and Franzen's DNA was all over the place."

"Yeah, it was some of my best work, actually."

"What?" Booth's voice was low, betraying some of the horror he was feeling.

"I lived next door to Kevin Franzen. Real asshole. Played his music all hours of the day and night. Always throwing some sort of party. Best night of sleep I got in months was the night after you and Doctor Brennan came and arrested him for killing Hardy." Pelant recalled, dispassionately.

"Jesus Christ." Booth breathed.

"Oh, I assure you, your Lord and Savior had nothing to do with it whatsoever. And let's not be so dramatic. It was a means to an end. I wanted to see, close up, how the two of you worked together. And it was impressive."

"You played us and an innocent man is in prison now."

"Well, he was. Didn't you hear?" Pelant grinned at Booth's blank look. "Kevin Franzen was killed in prison six months into his sentence."

"You're a monster."

"He is a monster." Brennan's declaration came in tandem with Booth's as Angela looked from the screen in front of her to the woman next to her in awe.

"I will never understand how the two of you do that."