The Face with Two Skeletons

By: Tropicwhale

Disclaimer: Mine? Who's been saying that wonderful lie? oh...ignore them, they lie like rugs. Bones and all things associated with the show belong to other people...dammit.

Author Talk: MooMooTweetMooTweetCooTweetMreowBarkTweetTweetBarkMreooowBarkCoooMooMooBaaaaCricket

Seventeenth Chapter

Zack had a mild concussion in addition to a broken triquetrum and pisiform on his right wrist, three bruised ribs, and a broken fibula on his left leg. Angela had internal bleeding which was stopped in surgery, a broken wrist, and bruised pelvis. It took them each a week and a half plus a lot of Jell-o before they were released from the hospital on the same day. Hodgins volunteered to take Angela home and, since he insisted on going back to work, Dr. Saroyan drove Zack back to the Jeffersonian where Zack hoppled down to Limbo on his crutches intent on getting some work done on the skeleton from Alabama. Dr. Saroyan watched him go with a bemused smile then went to finish out some paperwork. She was stopped by one of Brennan's graduate students who was temporarily filling in for Zack to solve Anne Zerbrowski's death. "Dr. Saroyan?" the young man asked, hesitantly.

"Yes….Wallll-Wendell?" Cam winced at her near slip-up.

"Yes." the boy confirmed (and Cam winced again as her mind labeled the man "boy" indicating her age to herself). "I managed to remove the paint from the remains."

"Did you?" Cam was surprised. She had already admitted to herself that probably no one but Zack would be able to figure that particular puzzle out.

"I used to dorm with an art major and there was an incident with a cat skeleton of mine and some neon pink paint of his but I thought that the same process would work with this so I did a test swab on one of the smaller phalanges of the right foot…and it cleaned it so I asked Dr. Brennan if I could-"

"Wendell, the short version."

"The bones are clean."

"What did you clean them with?"

"A calcium hydroxide solution. I read in a dental journal that it was used to strengthen teeth bones and I know from working around the house that it's a active ingredient in some paint thinners…so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal." Cam nodded once.

"Uh-huh." There was an awkward silence in which Wendell shifted. "Was there something else or were you just keeping me abreast of what's going on in my lab?"

"Uh…there was something else."

"Good. Let's hear it."

"I think I found how she died." Cam tilled her head to look at the graduate student.

"Show me." Wendell nodded and led the way to the platform. Cam ran her card through the security check and Wendell jogged up to the skeleton only to stop short and wait patiently for Camille to catch up. Cam smiled at him in thanks and gestured to the now complete and disconnected skeleton.

"So…what I found…." Wendell started and picked up a rib. "Was when I sprayed and rubbed down the bones with the calcium hydroxide there were spots on the ribs that wouldn't go away…at first I thought that they were particularly difficult paint specks but then I realized that the more of the solution I used the blacker they got." Wendell put the bone under the magnifying glass that was attached to a monitor. Cam could see weird black spots on the bone.

"A bad reaction to the solution?" She asked. Wendell shook his head.

"One of the elements that make up calcium hydroxide is oxygen…when a high concentration oxygen comes into contact with blood cells the cells react, in certain cases turning black. When I started to clean the bones…I used a spray that was 5 parts water, one part calcium hydroxide then I used the same solution to fine tune the cleaning with a swab…the water must have regenerated the blood cells enough to cause the staining." Wendell removed the rib from under the magnifying glass and placed in another. The same staining was evident on that bone as well. "There's spots on most of the ribs in a sort of scatter shot pattern."

"So our victim bled internally enough to stain her ribs." Cam reasoned.

"It's more than that. Hemorrhaging would have been a lot less frequent staining. It stains randomly and would have also been on the back side of the ribs. There's a distinct circular pattern to this staining."

"Meaning?" Cam was starting to get the picture but she wanted confirmation.

"My best friend's dad used to go hunting…..one time he took us out to the firing range to show us how different deer shot worked…our victim was killed with birdshot from close to medium range." Wendell adjusted the microscope on one of the black dots. The bone was chipped. "It still would have left a huge gaping hole in her sternum."

"And the artist said he didn't find the sternum. That follows."

"It was most definitely murder though. You don't hit somebody with birdshot at this close range without wanting to cause damage"

"Great…" Cam sighed, frustrated and a little upset.

"Dr. Saroyan?"

"It means Zack was right. He's a suspect."

"But Hodgins said that he was nearly blown up."

"Exactly…and something tells me that Zack isn't one to go and try and blow up himself." Cam started to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to call Booth and Brennan and tell them that they're looking for a killer. Try and figure out how they cleaned her bones."

"Boiled." Cam stopped and stared at the abrupt answer. "Dr. Hodgins found microscopic particulates of water that wasn't from the calcium hydroxide solution and I found signs of scrapping. It was like someone was using a dull edged object to scrap the bones clean."

"Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"Uh…I got caught up in the black spots on the ribs. Sorry." Cam rolled her eyes. She may classify as a squint but sometimes scientists just really got on her nerves.

"Alright. Just don't let it happen again."

"Yes, ma'am." Wendell seemed appropriately chastised so Cam was satisfied. She walked away and on her way back to her office ran into Hodgins. And by run into she saw him across the room sneaking into the lab where he and Zack had a bad habit of doing illicit experiments in.

"HODGINS!!" The bug doctor started guiltily and turned to face his boss with, Cam supposed, was his version of an innocent smile….of course it read as a cocky ass grin but Cam never worried about those sorts of details. Cam took her time in getting to him. When she was close enough to spit in his eye she crossed her arms suspiciously. "What are you doing?" Hodgins' cocky/innocent grin grew in wattage. Cam didn't buy it.

"So maybe I was testing a combination of chemicals that might have been in the bomb that blew up my garage and my best friend's home."

"Maybe?" Cam repeated, skeptical.

"It's possible." Hodgins said evenly and mimicked Cam's pose by crossing his arms. Cam considered that she would never want to play poker with Hodgins. Booth, Brennan, Zack maybe….but not Hodgins and definitely not Angela.

"Hodgins….how stupid do you think I am?" Hodgins was smart enough to see the double dead end in that question. A vindictive part of Cam's mind went 'good' very softly.

"I'm not sure how to answer that question." His cockiness slipped just an inch.

"How about leaving the investigation of the explosion to the FBI?"

"That group of incompedants? They'll screw it up."

"Hodgins….."

"I'm better than them." Cam closed her eyes to ward off the tension headache that threatened her sanity every other time she had a conversation with Hodgins. Grown men shouldn't be allowed to whine like that. She opened her eyes and looked at him directly.

"Hodgins…I'm going t say this once. NO." She started to walk away then stopped. She turned around to look at Hodgins. "Did you find anything else out about Anne Zerbrowski's remains?"

"They were boiled in salt water." Hodgins shrugged.

"Salt water." Cam confirmed.

"Yeah…there were marginally large salt deposits all over the skeleton. Also? The artist didn't sand his work, there was a lack of sand particles plus, according to Brennan, the bones are the proper consistency, no signs of being sanded. There are some spare particulates that don't come from the paint or the lime that Wendell used as remover that the computer is still tracking down. I might be able to trace how the bones ended up in that particular dumpster from the spa she was last seen at."

"Wendell also said that the bones were scrapped clean with some sort of dull object to clean the bones off after boiling." Hodgins' eyes lit up.

"Interesting."

"See if there are any particulates that might match the scrapping tool. By the way, Wendell also discovered that our victim was shot. He found stains and chipping typical of birdshot on the ribs." Hodgins looked very interested.

"Seems like this kid can give our Zack a run for his money."

"Let's hope it never comes to that." Hodgins nodded. He and Cam both knew that Zack wasn't capable of murder but it looked like they would have to prove it to the rest of the world.

Author After Talk: of course Zack would rather they search for the truth instead of defending him but who cares what Zack thinks? Also? I came this close to being arrested last night....by campus police.....I'm just saying.

Tropic