(The Signs in the Silence)

I really don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooooooo

Booth was working his way through his departmental budget when Angela called him and asked him to come to the Jeffersonian. She had found something that he needed to see pertaining to the Pelant case.

Once he was at the Lab he found Angela in her office with Brennan, Cam and Hodgins waiting for him. "Okay, what's up?"

Wasting no time, Angela pointed her remote at the Angelatron and began her presentation. "I cracked Pelant's password yesterday and I went through his folders to see what I should concentrate on first . . . the man was very organized. Anyway, I found a folder titled 'Gravedigger' and found a lot of folders in that folder. I opened each folder, read the titles of the files and moved on to the next one. Once I was finished, I went back to the folder titled 'Stooges' and read all the files in that folder. There are a lot of attachments I had to go through, but I can now tell you that Taffet did have several accomplices. One of them is stupid and used the internet to communicate with two of his partners in crime, which I guess means they were stupid too. None of them contacted Taffet on the internet. I imagine she would have killed them if she had known they was endangering her like that. The woman didn't have a sense of humor."

Booth nodded his head. "What's the name of the first idiot?"

"Detective Harold Kouns of the Arlington, Virginia Police Department. Apparently he took a bribe to look the other way while investigating the death of a city councilman and the murderer was never officially caught . . . I guess Taffet found out about it and he belonged to her after that. Anyway, the guy was given orders by Taffet when it was time to kidnap someone and he and the other two made sure to follow her plans to the letter. Those plans were very meticulous. Harold kept the plans on his computer and once Pelant found out about him and his connection to Taffet he hacked into Harold's computer and downloaded everything he could find. That is how he knew where Dorothy Schooley and Chester White were buried. Harold had those maps on his computer and Pelant just downloaded them . . . There are other maps with names on them too. I downloaded them and sent copies to Hodgins. That list of names you found on a map in Pelant's house shows where more of Taffet's victims are buried. I guess it's safe to say Pelant didn't kill any of them, they were the victims of the Gravedigger."

Interrupting his wife, Hodgins held up his hand. "Okay, I plan to go to each site on the maps and see if I can find the bodies. They're all buried in Virginia and Maryland. Going by the maps we have, there are six bodies out there waiting to be discovered. I guess the victim's families couldn't pay the ransom in time and Taffet just let them die like the Kent boys . . . like he was going to do to Dr. B and me, the bitch."

Aware that Hodgins was upset and getting more so by the minute, Angela placed her hand on his shoulder. "She's dead and she can't hurt you or Bren or anyone else ever again. Now that we have the name of three of her accomplices we can go after them too."

"Yeah." A little calmer, Hodgins smiled at Angela. "Yeah, you're right . . . anyway, Booth if you'll give me one of your agents to go with me to each site, we can get the ball rolling on recovering these poor people and return them to their families. Once I find them, I'll contact Dr B and Cam and let them know what I've found, then we'll get Marcus involved. This is going to take a while, but it's worth the time we're going to put into this project. If we can collect enough evidence when we recover the bodies we might be able to get enough to give to Ms. Julian and she can use it try for the death penalty for these bastards."

"Sounds good." Booth glanced at his watch. "Angela, send me what you have so far. I'll get Harris to look it over and I'll let Caroline know what's coming. I need the names of the other two stooges. I want to arrest them today, if possible along with Detective Kouns."

Slowly nodding her head, Angela sighed. "I'll send you what I have so far. One of the stooges is FBI Special Agent Barry Thomas and the other one is Lieutenant Andrew Winters of the Virginia State Police . . . I'm sorry, Booth."

Feeling a little sick, Booth stared at Angela in disbelief. "Barry Thomas has been an FBI agent for fifteen years . . . he's got medals for . . ." Drawing in a deep breath, he slowly released it and nodded his head. "Okay, it is what it is . . . another blackeye for the FBI. Damn it." Shaking his head, Booth wondered why his FBI had so many issues with corruption. First Agent Jamie Kent who almost killed him with a bomb in Brennan's refrigerator then Deputy Director Kirby and former agent Delaney and now this. "Good job Angela. Hodgins let me know when you plan to go out and I'll have Agent Lester Brown go with you. He's learning the business and he could use the experience dealing with cases like this . . . Okay, I'm going over to talk to Caroline . . . God help Barry. He's going to need it."

Once Booth was gone, Brennan sighed. "Barry is on Booth's hockey team . . . I'll talk to him tonight. He may need some comfort."

Angry that Barry was one of Taffet's accomplices, Cam felt her blood pressure rising. "The man has a family, a wife and two daughters . . . this is going to be devastating to them. I don't know how he got mixed up with Taffet, but . . . God this is bad."

Everyone agreed with Cam and knew that when the bodies were retrieved from their graves, everyone would have to be careful and they'd have to handle the evidence with great care. "We can't afford to make any mistakes people." Cam smiled at Angela. "Good job, Angela. This was brilliant work."

"Thank you." Angela stared at the information on the screen. "Now we just need to pin down who killed Pelant. It was probably one of these three. Taffet was dead when Pelant was killed so it has to be one of these characters. That would make more sense that Brodsky doing it."

"I agree." Brennan studied the information with Angela. "There may be a clue in Pelant's files. Somehow one of these men found out that Pelant was aware of their activities and they decided to kill him. Why they chose to place Pelant's body at the Vietnam War Memorial will probably be answered when we find the killer. Booth was very angry that the memorial was desecrated like that, but he thinks it was a message being sent to someone. We may eventually find out what that message was and to whom. I assume that there were more than three accomplices and you just don't know their names."

Moving through some of the files with her remote, Angela nodded her head. "Yeah . . . Barry mentioned he had a pal working in forensics at the Hoover that could help him do something . . . He didn't mention a name, but I will try to track down that pal's name . . . This is just going to upset Booth further."

"Yes, it will." Brennan shook her head. "Booth loves the FBI and the fact that there have been agents that have betrayed that organization upsets him. He is very patriotic and wants to be able to count on everyone he works with . . . Perhaps this will finally allow the Director to clean up the Hoover."

"God I hope so." Cam shook her head and left the room. She needed to work on the autopsies of Dorothy Schooley and Chester White. She needed to also prepare for the coming deluge of Gravedigger victims. I guess I'll have to bring in some of Brennan's interns to help. Maybe all of them. Budget or no budget, we have a big job to do and we will do it right.

Ooooooooooooooo

That evening, Booth entered Brennan's apartment, removed his tie and stuffed it in his jacket pocket then removed his jacket and carried it into the guest bedroom. Once it was hung up in the closet he placed his gun and badge in the safe and sat down on the edge of the bed. Lost in thought, he didn't hear Brennan enter the room.

As she entered the guest bedroom, Brennan noticed her partner sitting on the bed. Concerned, she walked across the room and sat down beside him. "I'm sorry Barry disappointed you."

His hand seeking her hand, Booth squeezed it gently and sighed. "He tried to make excuses . . . Taffet found out he'd been part of Kirby's crew and blackmailed him and another agent . . . Special Agent Peter Manning. I was sure we hadn't found all of Kirby's crew and . . . well, we probably have them all now. Barry doesn't know how Taffet found out about Manning, but she did and Manning was afraid of her. He helped Barry kidnap the Kent Boys so he and Barry have been charged with kidnapping and murder. Barry said he was tired of the deceptions anyway. Nothing was ever enough for Taffet and the constant threats against him and his family had been wearing him down for years. He'd even considered killing himself, but he's Catholic and suicide is a mortal sin. Of course, he considered killing Taffet too, but he was afraid his family might be killed if the rest of her crew figured out that he was the one who did it. He thought when Brodsky killed Taffet he was safe, but I guess he didn't count on Kouns' stupidity and Pelant's hacking skills and his hatred of all Federal employees."

Brennan leaned over and kissed her lover's cheek. "I made a salad for dinner and I baked you a chicken . . . I thought we needed a lighter meal than lasagna tonight."

Releasing her hand, Booth placed his arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek. "Thanks . . . maybe we should go to bed early. I think we both can use the rest."

"I think that's a good idea." Brennan stood up. "Let's eat dinner, watch a little television and then go to bed . . . I know you're sad, Booth, but what Barry did has nothing to do with you. He made his bed and he must . . . something in it." She watched Booth to see if he would respond.

"He has to lie in it . . . He was my friend and it turns out he was the one that kidnapped me and dumped me on that damn boat. I almost died because of him . . . I'm not sad. I'm angry. He and Manning kidnapped me and Winters and Kouns kidnapped you and Hodgins. I'm sorry you went through that Bones I really am, but it's over. The guys that did that to you are going to die for what they did . . . It's over. It's really over this time."

Curious, Brennan placed her hand on his shoulder. "Did he confess to the murder of Christopher Pelant?"

"No, he confessed to everything else, but he said he didn't kill Pelant. Barry said he'd never heard of Pelant until the guy was murdered and his body was found at the Memorial." Booth sighed. "Kouns isn't talking, but Manning confessed to my kidnapping and the kidnapping of the Kent Boys. Andrew Winters has lawyered up and hasn't said anything either. Barry thinks Kouns might have killed Pelant. He said that Kouns told him someone was trying to blackmail him after Taffet was murdered. He was pretty angry about it. Kouns told him that it was bad enough having one master, he wasn't going to have two. I'll have to check into that."

Pulling on Booth's arm, Brennan encouraged him to stand. "Come on, Booth. Let's eat and go to bed."

Glad he had someone like Brennan in his life, Booth stood up, pulled her into his embrace and kissed her. "Thanks Bones. I'm okay . . . we're okay."

Returning his kiss, Brennan placed the palm of her hand over his heart. "We are okay, Booth."

Oooooooooooo

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