(Season 10)

I'm pretty sure everyone knows I don't own Bones.

Oooooooooooooooo

Christmas had been pleasant at the Booth/Brennan household and Aubrey had been surprised when Brennan had handed him a present. He hadn't expected one and felt a little emotional when she'd given him the gift. No one had given him a Christmas present since his mother had died and it had touched him that Brennan had been so kind to him. He really appreciated the 'Chocolate of the Month' gift. Twelve months of chocolate meant he had twelve gifts coming to him during the year. It was a reminder that he had some friends and he wasn't alone. He noticed that Booth was a little jealous of his gift which made the gift even sweeter. "Thanks Dr. B. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome." Brennan noticed her husband coveting the gift and knew she'd buy him one next Christmas.

Now he had to find out what happened to Sophia Koskinen and started a search for the reindeer involved in this tragedy. Aubrey prayed that the Russians really didn't have anything to do with this death since the Finns were sure they were responsible and Edvin Hamalainen was making veiled threats. The last thing he wanted to happen was to be embroiled in an international incident.

After checking with the zoo and local veterinarians he found a few leads he could follow about the reindeer. He hadn't realized that there were several farms in Maryland and Virginia that raised reindeer and rented them out for Christmas and Christmas in July events. "You've got to be kidding me. Who knew you could rent a reindeer?"

Rubbing the side of his head, Aubrey knew this was going to take a while so he bought some chips and a couple of candy bars from the vending machine in the break room as well as a can of Coke and returned to his office. He was prepared to make a lot of phone calls and he could keep his energy up with his chosen snacks while doing it.

After making calls for about two hours, Aubrey was running out of places to look for reindeer. "Of course, someone could have lied to me about losing a reindeer for an hour or a day, but I'm not sure I can prove anything . . . Maybe I should talk to Hodgins. He's an animal expert, maybe he can find the reindeer for me. I don't know what I'm looking for. I mean, no one will admit they lost one or lost one for a day or so or have one missing . . . I hate cases like this one. Edvin isn't going to let this case become a cold case, but I'm not sure if I can find the reindeer and even if I do, it only proves that the reindeer might have killed Sophia. It's not like you can aim a reindeer at someone and use them as a murder weapon . . . can you? And why would the Russians use a reindeer to kill someone? Why kill Sophia? I think Edvin is full of shit, not that I can tell him that. This should be Booth's case not mine. Damn it!"

Oooooooooooo

Entering Angela's office, Aubrey noticed that the artist still had her little Christmas tree on her desk. "Hey Angela. I need your help."

Surprised to see the agent, Angela turned from her PC and stared at the agent. "Sure, what do you need?"

"Well, I'm sure you heard about Sophia Koskinen . . . I think I pronounced that right. Anyway, she worked at the Finnish Embassy and she was run over by a reindeer in the park next to the embassy on Christmas Eve. I need help looking for the reindeer and I was hoping you could use your computer ninja skills to see if you can use the cameras in the area to find it for me. Hodgins tried to track it, but he ran out of tracks in the middle of the park. He said the reindeer entered the park from the street in front of the embassy then ran across the park. I don't know if Sophia noticed it and went after it and it just turned into a tragedy or she was already in the park when the deer ran over her. I need to know if the deer was alone or with anyone and well . . . what happened to it. Where did it go?"

"Yeah, Jack told me about it . . . He uh . . . well, he played that stupid song . . . you know, 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer' several times yesterday. I threatened to divorce him if he didn't stop . . . the man has an odd sense of humor." Angela shook her head. She was used to Jack, but sometimes his humor was unfathomable. "Anyway, yes, I'll see if I can spot where the reindeer came from. It's not like he flew into the park. He had to come from somewhere."

Relieved he was going to get some help, Aubrey smiled. "Thanks Angela and yeah, your husband has a weird sense of humor." After he left her office, he walked down the hallway whistling until he got to the exit and realized that he was whistling "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer'. "Oh my God . . . just . . . The next time, Booth can handle his own stupid case. Reindeer my ass."

Oooooooooooo

Aubrey's faith in Angela hadn't been wasted. She had studied the feed from traffic cameras in front of the Embassy and the surrounding area and noticed a livestock truck pull over on 32nd Street with a flat tire. The owner of the truck had exited his truck, kicked the flat tire and shook his fist in a southern direction saying a few words that seemed to be curse words. After that, he walked around the truck, opened the tail gate, moved inside then came back out empty handed. Shaking his fist again, he'd slammed the gate closed unaware it didn't latch closed and stomped over to the cab of the truck. While he made a phone call the tailgate slowly swung open and a reindeer hopped out of the truck. Moving southwest, the animal moved past the embassy and out of sight. "Okay, well Aubrey will be happy I found the owner." Jotting down the license plate number of the truck, she watched the owner of the truck walk back around the vehicle, notice the opened tailgate and turned to make another phone call, gesturing wildly while he talked to someone. "If he doesn't learn to control his temper, he's going to have a heart attack and die young."

Glad he had someone he could talk to about the reindeer, Aubrey found out who owned the livestock truck and drove out to the farm where the reindeer had come from. Since Angela had warned him that the truck owner seemed to be a volatile character, he took Agent Harris with him. Once they were at the farm, Aubrey drove over to the main office, parked in the parking lot and exited his truck. "I never knew there were so many farms in the area raising exotic animals."

A fatalist, Harris looked around and started to walk towards the entrance to the office. "You haven't been in the District long enough. Nothing surprises me anymore."

Entering the office, Aubrey glanced back at his truck. "This should be Booth's case."

Amused, Harris laughed. "Did he pull that 'I got a meeting I can't get out of routine?'"

"Well, yeah." Aubrey shrugged his shoulders. "He really did have one with Deputy Director Bishop."

"But he could have still handled the case afterward." Harris noticed a man sitting at a desk to the right of the door. "Sir, can we talk to you?" Holding up his ID and badge, he made sure the man had seen them before putting them back in his jacket pocket. "Are you missing a reindeer?"

Startled, Keith Costa stood up and nervously licked his lips. "Well, not anymore. We kind of lost one the day before Christmas Eve. I hunted around for him and I found him grazing on the side of the road at 30th Street and Normanstone Drive . . . I know I should have reported it, but I did find him and I sure didn't think it was a federal crime to misplace a reindeer."

"Misplace?" Aubrey shook his head. "It looks like your reindeer killed someone in the park . . . Did you notice any blood on one the animal's hooves?"

"Blood? . . . Killed?" Keith shook his head. "Reindeer aren't killers. They're deer. They eat grass and moss and . . . who did he kill and how do you know Howard killed anyone? He looked pretty calm to me when I found him."

Jotting down a few notes, Aubrey finished and looked back at Keith. "There was a woman in the park and it looks like Howard ran over her. He hit her with a hoof and it triggered a heart attack. I thought reindeer were considered pretty safe around humans. Regardless of the Christmas song, they don't usually go after anyone. At least, that's what my biology teacher told me when I was in school."

"Reindeer can run between 37 and 50 miles an hour. If your victim was standing in the path Howard was running on and say he didn't see her until it was too late then I guess he could have run over her. He does weigh about 250 pounds. It would hurt if he ran into you going that fast." Keith shook his head and sat down. "You can't make me destroy Howard just because he ran into someone. He's not aggressive or a killer. Kids love him."

"No one is talking about destroying Howard, Mr. Costa." Annoyed, Aubrey jotted down a few more notes while Agent Harris studied Keith. "You may not realize it, but security at the Finnish Embassy is blaming the Russians for the victim's death and we need to straighten that out before we have a diplomatic incident. The Finns aren't fans of the Russians."

"No shit." Keith shook his head. "Look, I'm sorry that Howard hurt someone, but it had to be an accident. If you want to look at him, you can. He's here. You'll see he's a sweet fellow. The kids love him."

Opening the door, Agent Harris waited for Keith and Aubrey to leave the building and followed them out to the paddock where Howard was. "We should probably get Hodgins to come out and look at the reindeer and his feet."

"Yeah, good idea." Aubrey was glad this investigation was coming to a close. He hadn't thought it would be possible to close it this soon.

Ooooooooooooo

Sitting in Booth's office, Aubrey finished going over his Reindeer case. "I let Edvin Hamalainen . . . I have no idea how to pronounce that guy's name . . . anyway he can stop blaming the Russians for Sophia's death. Hodgins found blood on Howard the Reindeer's hoof and he's really sure that Keith Costa is right and it was just an accident. Reindeer aren't known to just kill people. They're not like deer in this country . . . if you piss them off, they'll either gore you or beat the shit out of you with their hooves . . . Anyway, Sophia must have been out for a walk in the woods and she got in Howard's way and he ran over her. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Satisfied, Booth leaned back against his chair. "Good. The Deputy Director got three calls from Hamalainen today wanting to know what happened to Sophia Koskinen. He wanted to blame the Russians and Bishop had to keep telling him to wait and see what you found."

"Well, I'm glad this case is over because I'm tired of that damn reindeer song running through my head. It's insidious." Aubrey sighed. "I love Christmas, but there are some songs that should have never been written about that holiday."

"Yeah, I got to agree with you there." Booth glanced at his PC and noticed he had two new emails from Brennan. "Bones has been bugging me about your reindeer case. She hoped the case would be solved quickly so Hodgins would settle down. She says he's has been bugging everyone at the Lab playing that dam reindeer song since he got involved in the case and Cam has threatened to throw his stereo away."

Amused, Aubrey smirked. "I'm glad I don't work over there."

"Yeah, I'd have pulled my gun on him the third time he'd played that damn song." Booth loved Christmas, but there were limits even for him.

Ooooooooooo

Merry Christmas. I hope everyone has a great holiday.