(The Pinocchio in the Planter)

I really don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooo

Once Angela had gone through the material Agent Harris had given her, she decided to organize the information and try to see if there was a pattern in what Pelant had been interested in.

There were obvious things like several murders out of The District, the murder of a CEO who died in a gruesome manner and a list of The Gravedigger's known victims plus her assassination by Brodsky. Angela wanted to know what linked these things together and why Pelant appeared to be obsessed with Brennan.

The fact that Brennan and Booth had been kidnapped by the Gravedigger and survived seemed to have fascinated Pelant and she noticed that the news articles he had collected about Brennan and Booth had started after Brennan and Hodgins had been rescued from their underground tomb.

There were also news articles that mentioned people who had been kidnapped and were never heard from again and Angela felt that Pelant had assumed that the victims might have been killed by the Gravedigger.

Concerned that Pelant had been obsessed enough with these things to tape them up on a bedroom wall in his house, she assumed that he was either involved in some of these events or was going to use the information in some way in the future. Whatever the man had been up to, she felt that Pelant had seemed to be focused on Brennan and her successes in helping Booth solve cold cases.

The fact that Pelant had found a way to remove his ankle monitor and went where he wanted to any time he wanted to bothered Angela. That freedom meant a convicted terrorist had not been monitored like the courts had expected and Angela wanted to know what Pelant had been doing and where he had gone when he was free from his monitoring device.

After spending several days studying the clippings that had been found on the wall and doing research online, she felt she should talk to Harris and see if he wanted to bring Booth in to this mess. What she had found out about Pelant was complicated and his obsession with Brennan was sinister.

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Entering Angela's office, Harris found Angela in the back of her office standing in front of her Angelatron. "Hey, I'm here. Booth is in a meeting, so I'm going to look over what you have and then let him know when I get back to the Hoover."

"Fair enough." Angela faced her wall monitor and began her presentation. "Okay, I looked over everything you gave me and once I had it organized into meaningful groupings, I began to research the news clippings." She changed the photo of Pelant on the screen to a copy of a police report covering the murder of Jeremiah Waverly the murdered CEO of Transtech. "I know Agent Holtz was handed this case and it's still unsolved, so I'll start here . . . Jeremiah Waverly was murdered in his swimming pool. What the murder weapon was wasn't obvious at the time, but I looked over a list of the materials found in Pelant's house and one of items that was found was a bang stick . . . divers use them to protect themselves from predators like sharks. The fact is a bang stick blows big holes in soft tissue. If someone attacked you with one, it could kill you and if they used it repeatedly on your body . . . well, you'd end up with a body that looked like Waverly's . . . The bang stick is being tested by Hodgins right now. He wants to see if he can connect it to Waverly's death . . . That was a terrible way to die and if Pelant killed Waverly with it then . . . well, he was a monster."

Swallowing, Harris nodded his head. "Poor guy . . . Um, what about the deaths in the other states. I want to know why he was interested in those particular cases."

"Good question and yes, I did some research and . . ." Using her remote, she showed a picture of Pelant standing in an airport waiting to board a plane. "This is Pelant at The Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport . . . for a man being monitored and supposedly under house arrest . . . well, lets just say that monitoring company should be sued and put out of business . . . This picture was taken last year. A hiker's body was found in Echo Canyon Trailhead a week after Pelant was seen at the airport . . . Right now, that case is unsolved. The body of Tina Bishop was partially eaten by animals, but what remains that were found were found in the same shape as the body of Jeremiah Waverly. It's obvious that she was killed with a bang stick too . . . I think we had a serial killer moving around the country and we didn't know it."

Disgusted, Harris crossed his arms against his chest and glared at the news article about the hiker and knew that Booth was going to be furious. "Why Tina Bishop? What was so special about her to get Pelant's attention?"

Angela brought up a picture of Tina Bishop. "She worked for Transtech . . . the company that Jeremiah Waverly owned . . . Pelant may have had a vendetta against Transtech . . . Tina was an engineer at that company."

Slowly shaking his head, Harris knew that Caroline Julian was probably going to go after the monitoring company that was supposed to be watching Pelant and that company would be lucky to survive. "And the other murders out of state?"

Angela used her remote and showed Pelant in various airports around the country. "He used aliases when he traveled, but he didn't try to hide his physical identity . . . I've connected him to six deaths out of state. The six that were murdered all worked for companies that supplied materials to the Army . . . it looks like all of the deaths were apparently done with a bang stick. If Hodgins can't get DNA from Waverly from the stick he still might find someone else's."

"Great, good job . . . Um, have you had time to look into the Gravedigger information?" Harris knew that they were probably about to close five murders out of state and the murder of Jeremiah Waverly, but he needed to know why Pelant was interested in the Gravedigger and why he was obsessed with Brennan. Plus, that picture of Brodsky had Booth worried.

Changing the picture on the Angelatron once more, she brought up the list of Gravedigger victims that Pelant had kept on the wall and next to it another list of missing people kidnapped from and never heard from again. "Now the list on the right is a list of people that disappeared that Pelant seemed to be interested in. It looks like he felt they were connected to Heather Taffet . . . There were two maps in the pile of material you gave me and the names of two of the missing were written on them . . . I talked to Cam and Hodgins about it and they think it's worth investigating. When he has time, Hodgins is going to go out to the areas shown in the maps and he's going to take a ground penetrating machine with him. If there are kidnap victims buried in these areas then Jack and I would like to know how Pelant knew about it."

"Booth has always said that Taffet had help with her kidnapping projects. It didn't make sense that a small woman kidnapped him, carried his unconscious body from his apartment and carried him out to a decommissioned ship and stuffed him in a minisub . . . maybe whoever her co-conspirators were said something on the internet and Pelant found it . . . Pelant despised the government and Taffet was a federal prosecutor. No way he was working for her or with her." Harris studied the lists in front of him. "I plan to contact the families of the missing people on this list and see if they were contacted by the Gravedigger . . . They probably didn't involve the police at the time, but we know the Gravedigger made that part of the deal. Give her the money, keep the police out and they'd get their loved one back . . . Some of these people may not have been able to raise the cash in time and . . . well . . . It's possible that they might have been afraid that the Gravedigger would grab another family member if they ratted her out . . . Pelant was a genius when it came to computers and maybe he found something about the Gravedigger by accident . . . or on purpose. Who knows? We need to find whatever computer he was using, because he couldn't have done what he did without one . . . When you get a chance, Booth would like you to see if you can find it . . . Maybe he left some clues on the internet or in some of the paperwork we found in his desk . . . I don't know. It's a big job, but we think you have a chance if anyone does."

Flattered, Angela smiled. "I'll try, but I'm sure he covered his tracks as much as possible. I'll have to think about it."

"Okay. I'll let Booth know what you have and I'm sure he'll contact you . . . We're still looking for Brodsky and the fact that Pelant was interested in him may have been what got him killed. It makes sense if you consider where Pelant's body was found."

"But how would Brodsky know that Pelant was interested in the Gravedigger and him? . . . Pelant was convicted of hacking into the Department of Defense databases and putting military lives at risk . . . what is the connection to Brodsky though? Brodsky is a decorated war veteran and considers himself a patriot so he would have never worked with Pelant . . . still, It's odd and a little confusing." Angela knew she'd have to look into that. As far as she knew, Brodsky was an assassin but not a computer genius. "Brodsky is a hired assassin . . . Pelant may have been interested in what Brodsky was doing and Brodsky found out about it . . . How I don't know, but . . . well, it's weird but possible."

Harris made a few quick notes in his notebook and placed it in his jacket pocket. "Thanks Angela . . . Let me know what you find out about the bang sticks and I'll pass on what you told me to Brian and Booth . . . Pelant was one sick bastard if he did what it looks like he did. As for his connection to Brodsky . . . we'll have to wait and see I guess."

Ooooooooooooooo

Back at the Hoover, Harris found Booth in his office. "Booth, Angela is going to send you an email in a little while. It looks like Pelant may have killed Jeremiah Waverly and several other people while he was supposed to be under house arrest. That bang stick we found in his house might have been the murder weapon. Hodgins is examining it and he'll get back to us about it when he can . . . Those murder victims Pelant was interested in were employees of companies that did business with the Defense Department . . . Angela has pictures of Pelant in various airports around the country at around the same time as the murders and with the bang stick, we may be able to close at least six open murder cases, seven if we count Jeremiah Waverly."

Disgusted, Booth leaned forward on his desk. "I've already told Caroline about what's going on and she's just waiting for us to nail down our proof . . . The monitoring company is about to feel the wrath of Hurricane Caroline."

"God help them." Harris sat down and sighed. "Hodgins is curious about the maps we found on the wall with the names of two of the missing people Pelant was interested in. He's going to go out to where the maps say they may be and see if he can find the bodies . . . we have to assume they're dead since they were reported missing and they haven't reappeared . . . Angela thinks Pelant was obsessed with the Gravedigger and that might be why he was interested in Brodsky since the man killed her."

"And it's possible that Brodsky killed Pelant but I need something to prove it either way . . . what a mess." Booth leaned back against his chair. "I still want to know why he was obsessed with Bones . . . Bones thinks he was interested in her because she's the best forensic anthropologist in the world and he might have been afraid of her . . . I think she's right."

Harris glanced at his watch and stood up. "I think so too . . . I have some reports to finish and an interview with Garry Wayne in an hour. Lester and Park found him a couple of hours ago and brought him in. The jackass was hiding at his cousin Larry's house."

"Good." Turning back to face his PC, Booth found Angela's email and opened it.

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