Chapter 3
As Angela headed to get Mr. Schneider, Brennan walked toward Booth and Hodgins. When she reached them she quickly told them to come upstairs to the rooms. Brennan was just opening the door when Angela appeared with Mr. Schneider. Once they were all in the room, Mr. Schneider started to explain why he had asked Brennan to come this weekend. Apparently he is under suspicion of murdering a former student whose body was just found buried on the grounds of the school. There is no direct proof of his guilt but he is under surveillance. The murder was over fifteen years ago and he was hoping that Temperance could help solve the crime along with her partner Agent Booth. The student went to school at the same time as Brennan was at school. He thought that this reunion would help solve the murder because the actual killer could be here this weekend.
Booth asked him what was the name of the girl and why did the police suspect him.
Mr. Schneider said that it was Jill Hollingsworth by her dental records but that the police cannot figure out how she died. It is only that he had been her tutor since she was having trouble in school and he may have been the last person to see her alive.
Booth said. “Bones I’ll see if I can get the police to let you look for the cause of death. Also maybe Hodgins can get some evidence from the particulates from the body. Meanwhile Angela and I will mingle with the other people here to see if anyone remembers this girl. By the way what is our cover story for being here? You are here for the reunion but why am I here with Angela and Hodgins.”
Bones was looking a little embarrassed as Angela said. “Well Hodgins and I are here for a couple’s weekend with our friend Brennan who is here with her husband. Hodgins and I will be in the next room and you two will be here.”
Booth smiled as he said. “Well this won’t be the first time we’ve had to pretend we are married. Pretty soon everyone will think we are married.”
Both Angela and Hodgins laughed at the thought but Bones gave Booth a firm look.
Mr. Schneider thanked them all for their coming to his aid and left the room.
Booth couldn’t resist in teasing Bones by asking what side of the bed she wanted after Mr. Schneider left.
Bones gave him a look that would have killed anyone else.
Angela and Hodgins smiled at this little repartee between the two of them.
Booth then made a few calls and got permission for Bones to look at the remains
Bones then handed the schedule she received about the reunion activities to Booth so that he could plan a way of checking for suspects at the reunion. He saw that there was a golf event that he could join in and check on the other players, there was also a one on one basketball that he could do as well. Angela saw that there was a way for her to mingle with some of the women to get information.
Booth said he was going to the local FBI office to check for any information about Jill Hollingsworth. He then said to Bones. “I’ll come back early tomorrow and take you to the morgue.”
Bones asked. “Aren’t you going to get any sleep?”
“I’ll get a nap tomorrow while you’re at the morgue and later we can all compare notes on what we find.” Booth responded.
“OK” answered Bones.
As Angela and Hodgins left for their room, Booth left for the FBI office. Angela did tell Booth in the hallway about some of the people she had already met and that they may have something to do with Brennan being standoffish of people.
After everyone had left, Brennan alone in the room started to get tears in her eyes as she remembered the torment she had in school with these people. She was not going to let them see her with her guard down but she was glad that Booth was there because she needs his support more than ever now. She decided to take a relaxing bath to put her at ease and go to bed early as Booth would be back early to take her to the morgue.
Booth came back around 5 am and he quietly entered the room in case Bones was still asleep. He had brought two cups of coffee in case. He saw that she was already up when he came in the room. He tapped on the bathroom door to let her know he was there. She poked her head out and said. “I’ll be out in a minute, Booth. What did you find?”
“There was not much on file. I have your coffee, Bones”
“Thanks Booth I need that”
After they had their coffee they went down to the coffee shop for breakfast together as they usually have breakfast each morning. Booth then drove Bones to the morgue and left her to examine the body.
When Booth got back to the hotel he checked in with Angela and Hodgins who had just finished their breakfast.
“Hodgins, Bones is already at the morgue checking the body.” Booth said.
“Good then I will go over there now to help while you two see what you can learn here.” He replied.
Booth turned to Angela and said. “I’m going to sign up for the golf game and after I will go to the gym to check on some of people there. Where are you going to be so that we don’t duplicate any work?”
“I’m going to see to the art exhibit for the class reunion and hang out in the terrace to meet some of the women who came.” Angela responded..
Booth went to the reunion desk and asked about signing up for the golf game. The man at the desk said. “Let me take you name.”
“My name is Seeley Booth and I am here with my wife for her reunion.”
“Mr. Booth I have someone no one will partner with because he is a professional golfer would you mind being paired with him?”
“No not at all. It would make the game interesting.”
“Well then I have partnered you with Bruce Tifton and you two will tee off in 30 minutes.”
“Thank you.” Booth then walked to the golf shop and rented a set of clubs. As he came to the first tee, he saw a group of ladies all gathered around a man who was in good physical shape and was obviously Bruce. He introduced himself and they teed off. As they progressed around the course, Booth kept up with Bruce and at times had a better score. This seemed to irritate Bruce that he was not beating Booth. Booth began to question him about high school and about the other people at the reunion. Booth learned that Bruce was the school’s jock and all the girls had wanted him at one time or another. In fact he could get any of them now if he wanted. Booth could not contain himself but he had to ask. “What about Temperance Brennan?’
“Who?” Bruce asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“Temperance Brennan, she was a quiet girl who was more in her books than people.”
“Oh her, she was friends with another girl by the name of Vickie Stuart and I think she was gay and so I did not pay any attention to her.”
At this point Booth had only wanted to keep even with Bruce to get answers but now he was going to slaughter him at his own game and by the end of the eighteen holes Booth had beaten him by three strokes.
Later in the clubhouse gym, Booth was doing some cardio exercises to keep himself in shape and to talk with other people there, when a number of ladies asked him if he was the man who had beat Bruce Tifton at golf. It was obvious that they were more interested in him rather than the fact that he had beat the pro golfer at his own game.
Two of the ladies even asked him to join them for dinner; their names were Barbara Williams and Debbie Harcourt. Another woman by the name of Peggy also had checked him out.
While he was in the gym he met Tiffany and Thomas, Tiffany said she was Bruce’s wife and Thomas was her brother. Thomas just gave him a look and asked. “Who are you with because I don’t remember you from school?”
Booth answered. “I’m here with my wife for her reunion.”
At that Tiffany had gone to the other women and let them know that he was here with his wife and they all had a look of disappointment. They then whispered amongst themselves as to who his wife was. But before they could ask him, Booth had left the gym in search of Angela to find out what she discovered. He found her and they went up to his room to discuss what each of them learned.
Angela started first by saying. “It appears that the girl who was killed was a very quiet girl because not too many people remembered her. Also I found out more about Brennan’s friend Vickie. It appears that the following out was over the man name Bruce Tipton the man you played golf with”
“Well my gut is telling me that this Bruce character may have something to do with the murder. He still thinks of himself as a jock and ladies man.” Booth said.
“You’re right because what I learned from the people I’ve talked to is that he was the big man on campus at the time and he had a reputation of doing all of the girls at school. There was an incident that involved Brennan and her friend Vickie. It seems that Vickie was tricked by him into having sex when he told her he had already done it with Brennan and that Brennan had told him that Vickie was gay. This is why there was a fight between them. Brennan could not get Vickie to understand that she had not had sex with him. This was around the time her parents disappeared and Vickie was her only friend in school.”
“This may explain a lot as to why Bones does not relate well with people. What else did you learn?”
“There were some allegations of rape but every time this Bruce character had an alibi provided by one or more of the women I met yesterday. It is almost like they are all in this together.”
“Well let’s see what Bones and Hodgins find out from the corpse. Meanwhile I am going to get some shut eye before they get back.”
“Booth thanks for coming. I know that Brennan needs you here now.” Angela said as she left the room.
Booth took a quick shower and climbed into bed to rest until Bones came back.
At the morgue, Brennan was looking over the remains and noticed a number of marks on the skeleton that indicated the girl was strangled and dragged to the gravesite, but she also fought back her attacker before she died. Hodgins found chalk powder around her body like the kind that is used on a football field which suggests that she may have been killed there.
When they returned back to the hotel, they went up to their rooms to let the others know what they had discovered. Hodgins and Brennan went to his room first and Angela was waiting for them, they told her what they found and Angela let them know about Bruce’s reputation.
Brennan said. “I better tell Booth what we found and maybe we can figure out who did this.”
“Sweetie, Booth is probably still asleep since he has been up all night. You may want to wait until tomorrow and then we can all work together as to who did this because it sure sounds like Bruce is the killer.” Angela said.
“OK but I had better get some rest myself. See you two tomorrow.”
Brennan then went to her room and saw that Booth was sound asleep. She quietly slipped into the room and put on a tee shirt and sweatpants to sleep in. She curled up on the couch and tried to sleep, but the couch was very uncomfortable. She considered she should just get another room but that would be suspicious, the pragmatic approach would be that she sleeps on the bed with Booth because all they are doing is just sleeping. And having come to that conclusion she climbed into bed. She quickly went to sleep.
Booth woke the next morning with Bones curled up against his back and her arm around his torso. He gently put his hand over hers and could feel her cuddle closer to his back with her head resting between his shoulder blades. He wanted to just stay this way until she woke up because this was what his wish has been for some time. He went back to sleep enjoying the closeness of Bones until she awoke.
As soon as she started to stir, Booth pretended to still be asleep so Bones could get up first. While she was in the bathroom he quickly got up and dressed.
As she emerged from the bathroom, Booth asked her about the body and what she had discovered. She told him about the struggle and how the girl was killed. She also mentioned the chalk dust that Hodgins had discovered.
Booth then told her what he had found at the local police station. He had found that there had been a number of reported rapes and attempted rapes that had been made against Bruce, but each one of them had been dismissed because he had solid alibis at the time. In fact one of them was made by Brennan’s old friend Vickie.
”Booth, Vickie is supposed to be here at the reunion maybe you can talk with her and find out about what happened.”
“Bones, let’s go get Angela and Hodgins and we will all look for Vickie because I have a gut feeling this could be our clue to the murder.”
Bones just gave him a look when he said gut but knew that his gut was usually pretty accurate.
They went to get Angela and Hodgins and explained that they needed to find Vickie in order to find out more information. Angela suggested that they all try different areas of the hotel and meet back later in Brennan’s room with any information that they find. If they locate this Vickie they will try to bring her with them to the room.
Booth was looking into the various exercise facilities of the hotel and asking people who had name tags for the reunion if they knew of a Vickie who was an old friend of his wife. He did not want to let anyone know that he was FBI. In one of the rooms he noticed that there was a nun playing table tennis and she had a name tag but it showed her name as Sister Mary Magdalene.
Booth asked. “Sister do you happen to know of a person named Vickie Stuart?”
“Yes, that was my name before I joined the convent.”
“Do you remember a Temperance Brennan?”
“Yes, she and I used to be friends but we had a disagreement and I never saw her again.”
“Sister, would you be willing to talk with her now?”
“Oh yes, I would like that very much.”
When she said this, Booth quickly called Bones and told her to meet him in their room. He also told her to call Angela and Hodgins because he had located Vickie Stuart.
TBC