7. The Heart Matters
Sweets buries the warden's pet blood hound but in the wrong spot - only to find enough human remains in one spot to make him think there might be many, many more remains of prisoners on the grounds. His feelings are not comforted by the fact that the warden is now ready to transfer Sweets out to the big house. Back home Brennan discovers that Sweets never checked into his hotel.
Sweets finished out his day doing work for Gerald around the grounds. It wasn't as hard of work as working in the field and the fact that the jobs changed broke up the monotony. Sweets couldn't shake the feeling he was being tested at something. Gerald on the other hand proved to be an idiot. He couldn't remember where he was sending Sweets half the time and put to rest the question in Sweets mind if Gerald knew the bodies were buried where they were. It became clear to him that as the new guy, he was not in on anything that was going on. Sweets also quickly noticed how much the other guards steered clear of Gerald, making Sweets wonder more about the newer guard with his side drug deals.
"Here they come." Gerald said as the trucks returned with the men. "You can get in line."
Sweets headed to the area where the men would disembark from the vehicles and while most of them got off the trucks slowly one person seemed more anxious to get to the front.
"Hey Dean."
"Oh man, you're alright." Dean said with a manly sort of relief.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"You weren't on the trucks, I thought maybe, like the other day."
"Oh, no, thanks." Sweets said, he hadn't realized how it may have looked, nor was he used to people being worried about him. Then again, he had been just as worried about anything happening to Dean too. "I guess a couple of guys have to stick together around here."
"In a totally non-gay way though." Dean clarified.
"Yes!" Sweets said quickly. "Very much so. I mean you're nice but…"
"No more explanation needed." Dean said and both men recovered from their brush with touchy feely conversation. "So what was going on, where were you?"
Sweets looked around, he decided it was time to talk to Dean.
"Let's play a game of cards." Sweets said and glanced over at the area where he had dug earlier. Dean's eyes followed but he got the idea. They headed inside where there were more people and less attention from the guards. The others dispersed to their activities and showers while Sweets and Dean moved to play a card game by their bunks.
Sweets lowered his voice but kept his body language as though it was casual, Dean did the same. Dean dealt the cards.
"So what's with the fresh dirt?" Dean asked putting down a card.
"That was my job today, burying the warden's dog."
"Warden got a lot of dogs? I see a few piles of dirt recently disturbed over there."
"I was hoping you'd notice." Sweets said laying down a card and taking another. "I got the dog in the ground but I also found some remains."
"What do you mean remains?"
Sweets jogged the cards on the table signaling Dean to not look surprised at what he was going to say.
"Human remains. At least three bodies."
"Could be old…"
"They're new." Sweets said. "Recent anyway."
"How do you know?" Dean asked, perhaps concerned Sweets was some sort of serial killer.
"It's a long story." Sweets said. "Nothing weird, but, just trust me, I know. And I also have a pretty good idea of who they are."
"How's that?" Dean asked.
"A couple of weeks ago I spent the day in solitary."
"Yeah I remember that." Dean said dealing the cards again.
Sweets was surprised, he hadn't really known Dean just yet but he guessed he had gotten just about everyone's attention when that happened.
"Right, well, remember Madere?" Sweets asked.
Dean nodded. "Yeah he went up to the big house."
"Well he didn't make it there." Sweets said. "I've got a suspicion that no one does."
Dean was silent for a moment and kept playing cards as he thought.
"You suspected this for a while?" He asked finally breaking the silence during the pretend card game.
"Yeah, I wasn't sure and…"
"You didn't know who to trust telling it to." Dean finished for him.
"Yeah." Sweets said.
"That's why you were asking about when I was leaving." Dean said.
"Yeah. I uh…"
"Thanks man, I appreciate it." Dean said. "But that's not the only thing that's bothering you."
Sweets laughed, he wasn't any better at poker than he was at hiding his thoughts.
"Yeah, well I don't know if the warden doesn't like me for nearly killing his friend or if he suspects I found the bones."
"And that's got you worried?"
"No, he wants to send me to the big house in a month."
"Not good."
Sweets shook his head. "No, not good."
"I'm heading to Georgia soon, I can get word out. Wait, do you think he's killing anyone off who leaves?" Dean was slightly more concerned now.
"He only seems to be taking people out that head to the big house."
"We need some copies of records, to prove it then." Dean said and glanced up to see Chet coming in the door, released from the infirmary.
"I'm open to ideas." Sweets said.
Dean laid down his hand, a full house. "Yeah I've got a couple."
"I checked and Bones is right, Sweets never checked into his hotel." Booth said ending his cell phone call.
"I'm checking his credit card activity." Angela said. "But I've got nothing for the last three plus weeks now."
"I seriously doubt that Sweets wouldn't use his credit cards for anything." Cam said.
"Wait, are we thinking something may have happened to Sweets?" Hodgins asked out of disbelief and not wanting to believe it could be true.
"Well I'm pretty sure he didn't go on a cash only sabbatical." Angela said in annoyance. She knew she should have followed her instinct that something was wrong.
"I'm putting an APB on Sweets and his car." Booth said picking up his phone again.
"Don't bother, about the car anyway." Angela said still typing since Booth had mentioned the car. "I've got it."
"Where?" Cam & Booth asked simultaneously.
"Jackson County Louisiana Impound Yard." She read on the screen. "It was brought into police inventory three weeks ago."
"So you're telling me Sweets has been missing for three weeks?" Booths said, mostly thinking out loud.
"And none of noticed or knew?" Angela said with a sadness in her voice. "Yeah, looks that way."
"Louisiana, Jackson County, why is that familiar?" Booth said, thinking to himself.
"I can cross reference any of the cases we have worked on from there." Angela suggested.
"Okay yeah." Booth said. "I'm calling the local office there to find out why Sweets car ended up in the impound yard."
"You've got the plan?" Dean asked Sweets under his breath as they waited in the food line.
"Yeah, but I don't like it, it's dangerous if they catch you." Sweets warned.
"Well if I get caught it's me in the box this time, you don't need to be going another round with the warden or he's likely to move your transfer date up to tomorrow."
Sweets couldn't argue with that. They moved forward in the line but they could hear grumbling going on.
"What's going on?" Dean asked trying to see ahead.
"Just keep moving or you'll get nothing!" The man doling out the portions shouted.
Dean and Sweets quickly found out with the rather small helping of mush that was handed out.
"The cook on strike?" Dean asked.
"Smart mouth huh?"
Dean shook his head and looked at Sweets. "My mouth usually gets me in trouble."
Sweets got why it was Dean was usually so quiet.
"It's just a noticeable change in cuisine." Sweets commented to the man. "Sort of went from crap to crappier."
"Your mouth has problems too huh?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, well my sarcastic thoughts seem to be bleeding into my speech lately."
"Well if you two don't keep moving you're both going to be bleeding on the floor.
"From the cooking?" Dean asked and Sweets tried not to laugh as they left with their trays for the table.
Dean mentioned it first. "What do you think is up? I mean the food was never something to write home about but…"
"I know, did they run out of money or something?" Sweets picked at the pile of goop before him. "Guess we don't need to worry about that though if this works."
"Say when." Dean said eyeing the goop the same.
"Anytime because here comes Chet." Sweets said earning an eye roll from Dean who abruptly began to breathe heavy and clutch at his chest.
"Dean are you okay?" Sweets said in a slightly raised voice.
"I don't know, it hurts." Dean grabbed at his chest. Sweets didn't have to call for help, luckily this time guards came quickly.
"What's going on here?" Lee asked.
"He's having a heart attack!" Sweets said feigning much concern. "He needs help quickly!"
"We don't have a doctor in house." The guard said to the other.
"Call 911." Frank said.
"There's no time." Sweets said. "I used to be a doctor on the outside. If we can get him to the infirmary I can help."
Dean kicked up his chest pains a notch causing the guards to stop thinking the situation thru and soon they were on their way.
The guards laid Dean down on the bed and Sweets picked up a stethoscope and began to listen to his heartbeat. He then opened a needle and looked around for a vial or something. Dean's eyes widened at the sight of the needle and Sweets' intentions. Sweets turned the bottle so that Dean could see it was nothing more than saline. The guards looked at the needle Sweets had in hand, Lee looked slightly faint.
"I'll tell the warden." Lee said looking for a reason to leave.
"No, he's at that charity ball." Frank reminded him.
"It's under control now." Sweets said standing so they couldn't see him insert the needle into the mattress instead of Dean's arm as his body relaxed. Sweets went back to listening to the heartbeat. "Yes, it's steady now. He'll need to rest and be left alone or he could crash again."
"Right, well one of us needs to stay." Lee said.
"Did you hear that?" Sweets asked but no sounds were around. "Yeah no hurry to get back, the others seemed pretty upset about the food but I doubt a room of hungry criminals would do anything questionable."
Lee & Frank looked at each other and immediately bought into it. "Let's go. He's sleeping it off he'll be fine. Besides where's he going to go?" Frank said leaving with Lee and Sweets.
Sweets got back in time to eat his pile of mush, now cold before it was time to head back to his bunk. He laid on it and stared at Dean's empty bunk, hoping the plan would work, worrying what that he had gotten him involved too much. No matter how many criminals Sweets was surrounded by, the evil deeds they had done, he couldn't completely shake who he was, someone who cared. It was a long night for Sweets, one filled with worry.