Chapter 2 Camp Concerns or Hodgins in the Hot Seat
The next morning found Brennan in her office earlier than usual. She had asked Booth to take Christine to school, so she could speak to Dr. Hodgins before the rest of the Jeffersonian staff arrived. The entomologist strode jauntily through the main doors of the lab, which quietly swished closed behind him. He was whistling quietly to himself, and wore an expectant grin as his latest group of Calliphora vomitoria were going to hatch this morning. He had bred these Blue bottle flies, one of the most common predictors of time of death in corpses, especially so that he could observe their first and second instar larval behavior, hoping to sharpen his already acute predictive skills on behalf of their involuntarily-deceased victims.
Seeing Brennan walking toward him, Hodgins greeted her amiably, "'Morning, Dr. B, how was your weekend? Michael is chomping at the bit for school to let out. I bet Christine is too,"
"Jack, I need to talk to you before the rest of the staff arrives."
Hodgins was surprised by Brennan's addressing him by his first name, something she rarely did.
"What's up?"
"The camp you are considering for Michael; how familiar are you with the people in charge of running it?"
"I know it very well, Dr B; I went there as a kid myself, since my parents and grandparents had been friends with the owners for years. Because of our financial status, my dad was concerned about possible kidnapping plots against me to gain access to his money by thugs demanding ransom in exchange for my safe return. He was very particular where he'd let me go. You think I'm a conspiracy nut, I'm a rank amateur compared to my father and grandfather, who was also alive until I was in grad school. They were sure people were after our money. That's why I just always kept it a secret. Their worry about its security made my childhood rather difficult at times. I hated their hang-ups."
"At least you always had people who worried about you," Brennan remarked wryly.
"What did you need to discuss that requires privacy, Dr. B?"
"Michael apparently told Christine about the Ohio entomology camp you want him to go to, and she wants to go to their spelunking session. I'm very concerned about that for two reasons. It's in the area where my parents operated in that bank heist gang, and our confinement in that car buried by the Gravedigger makes me reluctant to allow Christine to go crawling around caves. I find that considering that prospect brings back all my anxiety about our experience underground. I know it's not rational, but it makes me extremely agitated. I also need more information about this camp's security to evaluate whether Christine would be at risk from those thugs who were tracking my dad, Russ and me."
"Hey, hey, Dr. B, I know the kids want to go to camp together; if you're concerned about the one in Ohio, there are plenty of others in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky that we can check out for them. There are caves and insects throughout the Appalachian region. There's nothing sacred about the camp I went to if you prefer a different location."
"Well, I don't want to ruin your plans for Michael, Christine thought he was excited about going to the same place you'd experienced as a boy," Brennan said.
"Hey, no big deal, Dr. B, Michael is just as happy observing one species of spider as another, and they are plenty of cave spiders to examine. We can reserve the Ohio camp until we get the case involving your parents' bank gang connections solved, and all those criminals behind bars and then re-evaluate it for the kids," Hodgins assured her.
"That makes me feel better, Jack; thank you, I appreciate your understanding," Brennan said quietly.
"You know Angie and I worry about Michael too. Ever since Pelant left that skinned corpse hanging from the canopy of our bed and those ghastly flower petals strewn in Michael's crib, I can't be too protective of our son, even if it drives him crazy when he gets older. Let me check out some other camps and send you some information to look at," Hodgins replied.
"Maybe you should bring Booth and me printed brochures rather than emailing me websites. I don't think we can be too careful where our kids are concerned. Who knows who's snooping around the internet? Also, you might investigate annual statistics regarding the fecal coliform bacteria levels in lakes around the camps we're considering," Brennan suggested.
"You got it, Dr. B! Now I need to go check on my Calliphora vomitoria larvae, if you don't mind. I'll do some research on the camps this evening and let you know what I find."