Widow's Son In The Windshield

"Widow's Son in the Windshield" Episode 3x01 Written By: Hanson Hart Directed by: Ian Toynton Transcribed by: Artemis_90

Disclaimer: The characters, plotlines, quotes, etc. included here are owned by Hart Hanson, all rights reserved. This transcript is not authorized or endorsed by Hart Hanson or Fox.

TEASER

(Open: Freeway at night with trucks and cars driving by.)

(Cut to: A car with three Sk8r kids: the driver, a girl and a boy in the backseat.)

DRIVER: What I'm saying is... in this world there are the 'visercal' and the 'ineffable'.

BACKSEAT GIRL: Nobody's totally UN-eff-able.

BACKSEAT GUY: Hah, Virgins are! I mean, you are like the total opposite of UN-effable.

DRIVER: IN-effable! And it doesn't mean what you think. It means like you can't describe it in words.

BACKSEAT GIRL: Describe what? "Life Sucks?"

(Car swerves)

DRIVER: You have zero vocab skills!

BACKSEAT GIRL: You're bitter, because you're the designated driver and we're not.

BACKSEAT GUY: Whoa, dude. What does that even mean, "designated"?

(Cut to: Freeway. Overhead shot shows a skull falling off the walkway bridge crossing the freeway, bouncing off a truck.)

(Intercut back: the S8ters' car.)

DRIVER: (Seeing something) What the hell was that? (A skull is suddenly embedded to the windshield. Car swerves off completely.)

Screams.

(Cut to: The Jeffersonian's Medico Legal Lab - Forensics Platform. There is a skeleton on a lighted table. Dr. Clark Edison, hoping to replace Zack Addy, is being quizzed Dr. Temperance Brennan and Dr. Cam Sayoran.)

EDISON: Male. Mid-30s. Attachment size suggests he was well-muscled, probably due to manual labor rather than, uh, weight training.

CAM: Okay. What killed him?

EDISON: The sternal ribs were subluxated, at both the spine and the sternum.

(FBI Agent Seeley Booth enters the Platform.)

BRENNAN: Indicating that he was ... crushed?

EDISON: Not crushed. Pinned. Smothered? Perhaps in an industrial accident?

BOOTH: This the guy Bones is checking out to replace Zack?

CAM: Clark Edison, meet Special Agent Seeley Booth.

EDISON: Hey what's up? Bones? Hey that's funny. That's what all my friends called me back in college.

BOOTH: Yah, I like him. You gotta a minute? One minute?

EDISON: Oh, are, are you going to a crime scene? Do you need me?

BRENNAN: I'll let you know.

(Bones and Booth go, leaving Edison and Cam alone.)

EDISON: Did I get it right?

CAM: Yes. Construction worker. Foundation collapse.

EDISON: But I'm not impressing her.

CAM: I'm still not completely certain what Dr. Brennan thinks of me.

(Cut to: Exterior - crime scene.)

BONES: Why am I here?

BOOTH: Y'know, you used to like come out to the field.

(They talk over each other.)

BRENNAN: No car fires, no tanker barrels ... BOOTH: You used to insist to me... BRENNAN: ... full of acid. No explosions... BOOTH: ... you were insistent... BRENNAN: ... Don't tell me you brought me out here for a car accident... BOOTH: ...Now you're just anxious to get back, y'know, I can barely get you out of your lab coat.

BRENNAN: Well, with Zack gone, I'm needed at the Jeffersonian.

BOOTH: Well that, that kid seemed pretty good, with the sublixicated sternacallum thing... (Disappointed at her lack of response) You used to correct me.

BRENNAN: Why am I here, Booth? (Sees the skull on the windshield) Ohhh... BOOTH: So, um, it's been three months since Zack shipped off to Iraq?

BRENNAN: Uh-huh.

BOOTH: How hard can it be to replace him?

BRENNAN: (Examining the skull on the windshield) Male. Caucasian.

BOOTH: Yah, I'm just saying. I mean, you at the lab; me at the field - we are not working at our full symbiotic potential.

BRENNAN: Late teens or early twenties. Completely devoid of flesh or odor.

BOOTH: It just seems like, maybe you don't want to work with me anymore?

BRENNAN: I work with you.

BOOTH: You know what I mean, Bones.

BRENNAN: How did this skull get here?

BOOTH: Ask our eyewitness. Come on!

DRIVER: My mom is gonna kill me.

BOOTH: Let's go, buddy.

DRIVER: I am not high!

BRENNAN: Neither am I. Why is he telling me that?

BOOTH: He had a car reeked of dope. So, tell her what happened.

DRIVER: I was driving behind a dump truck, and THAT came flying out off the back.

BONES: Do you think the rest of the skeleton is still in the truck?

DRIVER: No.

BRENNAN: Why?

DRIVER: Didn't come flying OUT, came flying OFF. It bounced.

BOOTH: Oh, bouncing skull!

BRENNAN: Perhaps you thought that because you are under the influence of tetrahydrocannabinol?

DRIVER: What?

BOOTH: Weed.

DRIVER: I wasn't high! I'm the designated driver, alright! I... Look, you piss test me if you want!

BRENNAN: It's possible. If the truck were traveling at certain rate of speed... the wind vortex or shear could occur, capable of flinging the skull like... (sees that Booth is distracted) What? What, Booth?

BOOTH: Bones? (He points behind her.)

BRENNAN: (Looks to where Booth indicates: the overpass, where some spectators are hanging out) But, why would anyone throw a skull off an overpass?

(Cut to: the Diner's counter. Angela Montengro and Dr. Jack Hodgins meet with Private Investigator Doug Doyley over a meal.)

DOYLEY: So your husband signed his name to the marriage license with an "X".

ANGELA: Yeah.

DOYLEY: So you married a guy without knowing his name.

ANGELA: It was Fiji, okay? I was on vacation.

DOYLEY: No, no, I'm not being judgmental. I'm being just trying to ascertain the, the facts. Uhm, did you consummate the marriage?

ANGELA: Full moon. Tropics. Yeah. There was definite consummation activity.

HODGINS: We already looked in to having the marriage annulled.

ANGELA: Annulment requires consent from both the husband and the wife.

HODGINS: Which is why we need a private investigator - to find the "husband". So we can get married.

DOYLEY: Right. Well, I was going to need any description you can provide about your husband. Details, dates, photographs, ah who else was there?

ANGELA: Tall. Yes. Muscular. Black. That's all I got. You know what, I think his name had a "B" in it - or actually it could have been a "K". You know what, I can make you a sketch?

(Cut to: Medico Legal Lab - Forensic Platform. Bones is examining the skull as Cam enters.)

CAM: Well?

BRENNAN: There are scoring patterns here in the forehead, cheekbones, around the nose.

CAM: I meant Clark Edison.

BRENNAN: Who's Clark Edison?

CAM: The absolute brilliant forensic anthropologist who'd bite off his own arm to be your assistant.

BRENNAN: I haven't decided yet. Is that a problem?

CAM: No. I want you to be certain of your choice.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

CAM: It's just that you've turned down seventeen applicants already. It's a rarified discipline. Aren't many more candidates to check out... BRENNAN: I'll cover the lab work until I find the right person.

(Bones 'dials' Booth on the speaker phone, who is leaving a building eating a snack.)

(Intercut between Bones in the lab and Booth walking to his car.)

BOOTH: (Answers his cellphone.) This is good. Mhm, first time you called me in weeks.

BRENNAN: There's scoring on the skull.

BOOTH: Scoring?

BRENNAN: Yes, scrapes.

BOOTH: Yeah, I know what scoring means.

BRENNAN: The scraping is uniform in spacing but not depth, which suggests an ungual pattern.

BOOTH: What's an uncle pattern?

BRENNAN: No, ungual. Guh. Guh. UnGUAL. (To Cam) How do I say this in a way that makes sense to Booth?

CAM: (To Booth via speaker phone) Something chewed on the skull.

BOOTH: Oh! Like a bear or a dog.

CAM: Human, Booth. Doctor Brennan is saying human.

BRENNAN: In the vernacular, our victim's face was chewed off by a cannibal.

BOOTH: (Visibly loses his appetite) Great. (Throws the rest of the snack away)

(MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE)

ACT ONE

(Open: FBI Conference Room with Booth, FBI Agent Charlie and Federal Prosecutor Caroline Julian.)

CHARLIE: The ensuing accident was called in by a trucker who saw it in his rear-view mirror. Now the driver of the reefer-mobile ... CAROLINE: Reefer-mobile?

CHARLIE: ... identified said truck as the one from which the skull rebounded before said skull lodged in his windshield. The truck dumped its contents at a municipal landfill near Salisbury.

BOOTH: We need a warrant to shut down the landfill and comb it for body parts.

CAROLINE: You think a cannibal is making a habit of tossing body parts off of overpasses into passing dump trucks?

BOOTH: Well, we only got a head, so... the rest has got to be somewhere.

CAROLINE: Okay.

(Cut to: The Jeffersonian - Bone Room. Edison and Bones have put two separate skull x-rays side by side to show Cam.)

CAM: What am I looking at?

BRENNAN: It's called an osteoma.

EDISON: It's a type of bone spur that grows from the skull down to the sinus cavity.

BRENNAN: Clark found it when I gave him the x-rays to analyze.

CAM: An osteoma that size can cause headaches, infected sinuses maybe worse.

EDISON: Osteomas are every bit as distinctive as fingerprints or retinas.

CAM: We'll check with local Ear Nose and Throat Surgeons to see if the pain drove our victim to seek help. Nice job.

EDISON: Thank you.

(Cam leaves the room. Angela enters.)

ANGELA: The FBI forensics team just delivered like a million bone chips.

BRENNAN: From the landfill?

ANGELA: And Booth says there's more to come.

(Edison sighs as Angela and Brennan exits the room. They talk as they walk to the Forensics Platform.)

ANGELA: You are not gonna hire that one either.

BRENNAN: I haven't made up mind yet.

ANGELA: And when you don't hire him it just prolongs this lame excuse for you not to go out in the field with Booth.

BRENNAN: Why would I do that?

ANGELA: Because when Hodgins and I ran away from our wedding, we left you and Booth standing at the altar, and that iconic image totally freaked you out.

BRENNAN: No, it didn't.

ANGELA: Sweetie, this is not one of those things where you try to keep a secret and I ferret out the truth. This is where I tell you something that's true so you can catch up to your own reality.

BRENNAN: Angela, I have no idea what you are talking about.

ANGELA: Which actually proves my point. (Hugs Bones) I really I love you to bits and pieces, sweetie. I know, you love me back. We'll talk again when you catch up.

(Cut to: the Forensics Platform. Bones approaches Edison and Booth shifting pieces in a box.)

EDISON: Most of these are animal remains. Some are crockery and plastic.

BOOTH: So we get anything human?

BRENNAN: I'll have to go through and see.

EDISON: Well, I could do that Dr. Brennan.

BOOTH: Yeah, Clark could do that. Hmm?

BRENNAN: There's too many. This could take days even with the two of us.

BOOTH: Ah, come on. (Looks at Clark) Is that true?

EDISON: Huh? (Flustered) You're kind of putting me in an awkward position there.

BOOTH: Zack would have told me.

(Cut to: Diner - at night with Booth and Cam eating dinner.)

BOOTH: I mean, how hard can it be to replace one weirdo squint?

CAM: I'd hire Clark, but it's not my call.

BOOTH: No, no, but it is. You've given Bones enough time. Just hire the guy.

CAM: Usually when you get all blustery, its 'cause you think something's your fault.

BOOTH: Yeah, well. You know... I did arrest her father for murder. She could be having trouble with that.

CAM: Yeah. Exposing a parent to the death penalty can have a chilling effect on a partnership.

BOOTH: Well look, I asked Bones if, if, if that was a, a problem; she said no.

CAM: Well, I gotta wonder if deep down anybody is that rational.

BOOTH: You're not reassuring me here, Camille.

CAM: If you are looking for reassurance, find someone who's not such a good friend, Seeley.

(Booth's cell phone rings.)

BOOTH: Booth. Yeah, okay. On my way. (To Cam) We've got an identity.

(Cut to: Forensic Platform - night. To Booth and Cam, Bones is comparing two separate skull x-rays side by side on a digital screen.)

BRENNAN: This is from the skull on the windshield. These are x-rays from an Ear Nose and Throat Specialist on M Street.

BOOTH: Okay, so we're sure this is Gavin Nichols?

CAM: Well, the osteoma is a perfect match. It's him.

BOOTH: Prodigy violinist disappears; and a month later his skull winds up bouncing off a garbage truck.

CAM: Obviously we are looking for someone who really really hates classical music.

BOOTH: Look at this. Final performance was at the Library of Congress. (He shows her a photo of Gavin Nichols from an FBI file.) He met with well-wishers, arranged to meet with his girlfriend for drinks at the Hay-Adams, never showed, and nobody ever saw him again.

BRENNAN: And a violin worth three million dollars.

CAM: A twenty-two year old willowy kid, walking around with three million bucks under his arm?

BOOTH: Hey, I'm telling you, easy pickings.

BRENNAN: (Very skeptical) A cannibalistic violin thief who eats faces?

BOOTH: Yeah, it's a stretch. But uh, see uh how this is: us working together - very symbiotic.

BRENNAN: You said that already. What is it? The word of the day?

BOOTH: I'd uh like you to be there when I uh question the girlfriend.

BRENNAN: Can't. I found microscopic grit on the base of the skull.

BOOTH: Microscopic grit! That's Hodgins' territory!

BRENNAN: Yes, and Hodgins works for me, so that makes it my territory... CAM: (interrupting) Take Angela. Let her do that thing where she looks at photographs and read people's minds.

BRENNAN: No, actually, what she does is read minute facial indicators... CAM: Joke, Dr. Brennan.

(Cut to: FBI Interview Room with Booth and Amelia Trattner who has brought a scrapbook of Gavin Nichols. As Booth questions Amelia, the scene is intercut back in forth with Angela who is in the control room behind a two-way mirror and communicates with Booth through an ear piece.)

BOOTH: How did you meet Gavin Nichols, Ms. Trattner?

AMELIA: I'm a cellist with the National Symphony. Gavin guested as first violinist three years ago.

ANGELA: Check out the photo of them kissing: huh, mega-tongue action.

BOOTH: (Indicating the picture of the kiss) How long did you, uh, know him this way?

AMELIA: Within a couple of weeks of our meeting.

ANGELA: He was barely shaving then. What is she doing, playing squeeze and squish with a nineteen year old?

BOOTH: 'Squeeze and squish'?

AMELIA: I beg your pardon?

BOOTH: With a nineteen year old?

AMELIA: Gavin pursued me. His taste ran toward older women.

BOOTH: Ms. Trattner, do you think, ah, Gavin was killed for his violin?

AMELIA: No. No one does. You can't sell it anywhere. And we would know by now if they were trying to ransom it back.

(Angela sees something in another photo and enlarges it.)

BOOTH: Can you think of anyone who'd want him dead?

AMELIA: Every violinist in the world.

BOOTH: Why?

AMELIA: No one had seen left hand technique like Gavin's since Franz von Biber. His little finger was insured for ten million dollars.

(Angela focuses on the expression of Amelia looking at Gavin.)

BOOTH: Great. Thank you, Ms. Trattner. Thank you for your cooperation. You, you can leave now.

ANGELA: Wait a minute, Booth.

BOOTH: Wha - one moment.

ANGELA: Check out her face, in the quartet photo.

BOOTH: Just one more uh question, I'm sorry. Ah, what's gonna on here?

AMELIA: It was impossible not to watch him when played.

BOOTH: You don't look impressed, you look sad.

ANGELA: Like she lost something.

BOOTH: Like you've lost him.

ANGELA: Because she knew he was going to die.

BOOTH: Like there was someone else.

ANGELA: There was?

BOOTH: There was someone else in his life. Someone I need to know about.

ANGELA: Brilliant, Booth. You are brilliant. Okay, this time, I... BOOTH: (To Angela) Shh!

AMELIA: What?

BOOTH: Sorry. Nothing. Just, quietly... Who was it, Amelia?

(Amelia turns to another page and points.)

AMELIA: Ask her.

BOOTH: Rona Sumner?

ANGELA: Who's Rona Sumner?

BOOTH: Wife of Leo Sumner, Deputy Director of the Secret Service.

ACT TWO

(Open: Medico Legal Lab, Hodgins' area.)

HODGINS: The particles we found in the skull are pink syenite. It's the Cadillac of granites.

BRENNAN: How did it get in the skull?

HODGINS: I dunno know. But pink syenite is relatively rare.

BRENNAN: Well, how did it get there?

(Bones and Hodgins walk towards the Forensics Platform, where they access the computer with the geological results.)

HODGINS: Dunno. At first, I thought it was a Brazilian stone called Sienite Balma but trace amounts of magnetite and this, this is crucial -chalcocite - led me to the Omineca Tectonic Belt in British Columbia, Canada - and voila!

BRENNAN: There's no indication in the skull that he was struck, so how did it get there?

HODGINS: I dunno know. But not a lot of pink syenite quarried in British Columbia has been shipped to D.C.; none at all in the last hundred years.

BRENNAN: Perhaps the skull was dropped on a stone floor?

HODGINS: I dunno know, but I discovered half a dozen sources. A bridge, some garden walls on private estates, and an entire bank building.

BRENNAN: Send the details to Booth.

HODGINS: Yeah.

BRENNAN: (Leaves, but turns back) Hodgins, the reason that I'm not going out in the field with Booth is that I haven't found a replacement for Zack.

HODGINS: There was no replacement for Zack. I mean, you know, he was good with bones. Excellent at math. He was pretty brilliant in making contraptions. And when our experiments blew up it was easy to pin the blame on him. In my book, all that makes Zack irreplaceable.

BRENNAN: Exactly, which is why I'm stuck on the lab. Not some other reason.

HODGINS: They only thing you can do is forget about replacing Zack. And find somebody who can just, just help out around here.

(Cut to: the FBI Conference Room, with Booth, Caroline, and the Sumners.)

RONA: Yes. I was intimately involved with Gavin Nichols.

BOOTH: Mr. Sumner, I have to ask, were you aware of your wife's infidelity?

LEO: What you really want to ask, Agent Booth, is if I killed the boy for bedding my wife.

CAROLINE: I have a far more interesting question: Why didn't you come armed with the biggest, baddest lawyer in town?

BOOTH: I'm more interested the killing question.

LEO: I did not murder Rona's fiddle player.

RONA: Leo and I have no secrets from each other.

CAROLINE: What you would like us to believe is that because your husband knew of about this dalliance, there's no motive for jealous and murder.

RONA: Gavin wasn't my only, I'll use your word, 'dalliance'.

BOOTH: Did Mr. Sumner know all about them?

LEO: Like Rona said, 'no secrets'.

RONA: Would you like names? To see if Leo murdered them as well?

CAROLINE: That would be peachy.

BOOTH: Just tell us about Gavin Nichols.

RONA: Every salacious detail?

LEO: Hit the highlights, honey.

BOOTH: I get it. That's the part you like, huh? The play by play... RONA: I'm heavily involved in arts patronage. After I put the funding to get Gavin his violin, we slept together. We met perhaps once or twice a month after that, a total of eleven times.

BOOTH: When was the last time you saw him?

RONA: The night he disappeared, at the Library of Congress.

CAROLINE: Agent Booth meant sexually.

RONA: The night he disappeared, at the Library of Congress.

BOOTH: No. Not buying it. Sorry, I don't, I don't feel them. Don't feel them, see... don't feel... CAROLINE: What Agent Booth means is that unless you can prove that Mr. Sumner knew about your affair with Mr. Nichols. This all could've been a story you cooked up after killing him.

(Rona looks at Leo, he nods. She takes out a disc.)

RONA: We thought you might want proof.

(Cut to: An AV Room. Booth and Caroline are watching the contents of the disc.)

BOOTH: Ha o'kay, so the kid and the cougar are bumping the uglies.

BOOTH: He just doesn't enjoy hearing about his wife's s*x life, he gets off on watching.

(Rona and Gavin are in bed, and Leo is seen to be watching and filming them. Rona is aware of Leo of filming.)

CAROLINE: Which explains why he didn't bring in a lawyer.

BOOTH: They didn't murder the kid.

(Cut to: Medico-Legal Lab. Booth enters and Cam meets him.)

BOOTH: Where's Bones?

CAM: You arrested the Deputy Director of the Secret Service for voyeurism?

BOOTH: Yeah. Bones' in her office?

CAM: That is awesome and really, really stupid. You got to love a self-destructive man with values.

BOOTH: Where's Bones?

BRENNAN: Right behind you.

BOOTH: Oh great, look, listen I got Charlie to check out all those places with the red rock.

BRENNAN: Pink syenite.

BOOTH: There's only one place that uses the pink rock in its foundations. It's an old deserted bank on the Anacostia River.

CAM: Bingo, baby.

BRENNAN: Why 'bingo, baby'?

BOOTH: I checked into the ownership of the place.

BRENNAN: Why, 'bingo, baby'?

CAM: Shell companies owning defective titles, blah, blah.

BRENNAN: I don't get the significance.

BOOTH: It's deserted, isolated. It's a fortress.

CAM: Serial-killer heaven.

BOOTH: Look, I want you to come with me.

BRENNAN: I've got work to do here.

CAM: Uh, Dr. Brennan, if this building has been used for some sort of ritual cannibalistic killing as indicated by a skull which has been gnawed upon, a trained anthropologist's eye could be crucial to the case. Rationally speaking.

(Cut to: The abandoned Capital Mutual Bank. Day.)

PROPERTY GUARD: Bank's been closed for years. Door's always locked. Never a light. Nothing.

BOOTH: No squatters?

GUARD: Made them sturdy back in the day. I mean look at this place.

BRENNAN: It is clean. No dust. Nothing.

GUARD: D.C. Building Conservancy is fighting to keep the place as an historical site. Maybe if you told me what you were looking for I could help you out.

BOOTH: Ah you know, blood stains, butcher instruments, ... BRENNAN: Any place where human remains would've come in contact with granite.

GUARD: You are not gonna find nothin' like that up here.

BOOTH: Up here?

BRENNAN: Up here?

(Cut to: The Bank's underground basement where the vault is situated.)

GUARD: Old vault. Cut right into the foundation of the place.

BRENNAN: Hermetically sealed. Insect proof. Constant humidity. It's ideal.

BOOTH: Yeah well, we've got to get inside.

PROPERTY GUARD: Heh, you want me to kick down the door?

(Cut to: later, still in front Bank Vault door where the FBI specialists are trying to open it.)

BOOTH: When I put your old man in jail, you said you understood.

BRENNAN: Don't start again, Booth. We'll be together as soon as I replace Zack.

BOOTH: Yeah, how's that going by the way?

FBI SAFE CRACKER: We're in!

BOOTH: They cracked it!

(They have a little difficulty opening the heavy vault door. Booth has his gun out, Bones her flashlight.)

CRACKER(s): Here we go. A little bit more. Okay. Easy.

(Booth and Bones enter the vault.)

BOOTH: Maybe you're mad at me sub-consciously.

BRENNAN: What? I don't believe in that.

BOOTH: Look, something's changed between us. You can at least admit that so we could figure it out.

BRENNAN: Yeah, I would. Yes, if I actually believed anything had changed.

(As they enter the inner cage, there's an ominous beeping and a blinking red LED.)

BOOTH: Get down!

(He tackles her and he falls on top of her to the floor, but the expected explosion doesn't happen.)

BRENNAN: Why are your eyes closed?

BOOTH: I thought we were going to get blown up.

BRENNAN: It's just a transmitter.

BOOTH: Oh, now whoever owns this place knows we're here.

BRENNAN: I'm curious. In an explosion, how would shutting your eyes help?

(Booth and Bones get up and start exploring.)

BOOTH: Huh? It just does. Okay, Bones. It just does. Now be careful, we don't know what else is in here.

BRENNAN: There's a phrase in ancient Greek burned on the back of the vault door.

BOOTH: Well, what's it say?

BRENNAN: I don't know- its in ancient Greek.

(They look around the vault. Brennan notices the items strewn around the vault.)

BRENNAN: Dead languages. Egyptian art. Pythagorean mathematics. Hebrew Scriptures. Gnosticism. Kabala. Alchemy. Druidism. Astrology. Angela can tell us for sure, but I think these artifacts are museum quality. Whoa. Bingo baby! Found Gavin Nichols' violin!

(In a different area in the vault, Booth freezes at a sight.)

BOOTH: Bones!

BRENNAN: What, Booth? What did you find?

BOOTH: I... I don't know.

(Brennan approaches where Booth is. There is a strange skeleton posed in an arc with arms reaching above in front of a decorative shield as large as the vault door.)

BOOTH: What is it? Silver?

BRENNAN: Not all these bones are silver. It's possible we just found more of Gavin Nichols.

ACT THREE

(Cut: The underground vault, now better lighted. Caroline is questioning Hodgins, Angela, & Cam who are making an on-site observation with Booth and Bones.)

CAROLINE: That's Gavin's violin. What else you got?

HODGINS: This altar is made of the same pink syenite we found embedded in Gavin Nichols' skull.

CAROLINE: Where's the rest of him?

BOOTH: Probably tossed it into dump trucks from overpasses.

BRENNAN: All of the bones found here show teeth marks.

CAROLINE: Somebody kidnapped a fiddler and served him for dinner in an old bank vault stuffed with museum pieces.

ANGELA: (Indicating the shield where the skeleton is posed) I think this is high medieval. Spanish. Possibly Calabrian in origin.

HODGINS: Oh ho whoa, 12th Century Calabrian? You know what that means? (Blank stares from everyone else) The Order of Alcantara? You people have no idea of the reach of the Illuminati, do you? (Eye-rolling from everyone else) I tell you what else, this whole bank is an original vortex point on the triangular grid, designed by the infamous architect of D.C., Pierre Charles L'Enfant; Not to mention, the way the skeleton is displayed absolutely suggest... CAROLINE: (interrupting) Okay, okay we get it. This is the lair of a cannibalistic secret society.

HODGINS: Hey you know what - you don't want my answers? Don't ask me the questions.

BRENNAN: Someone is replacing the silver bones in the sculpture with human bones. There's no way this manubruim and this sternum came from the same person.

CAROLINE: We got a multiple murder?

ANGELA: Is she pleased?

CAROLINE: Hell, you could go your whole career without catching something this... juicy. Who had access to the building?

BOOTH: The Building Conservancy.

CAROLINE: Run those people. Look for priors. Childhood cat-skinning, all that.

BRENNAN: I'd like permission to move the contents of this room to the Jeffersonian.

BOOTH: It's a bank vault.

CAM: There's room in the basement.

CAROLINE: I think this more like 'bring the mountain to Mohammed' situations.

(Cut to: Interior, the Jeffersonian, Angela's Office where the PI is reporting to Angela and Hodgins)

DOYLEY: You were married by John Kakala who is the head man of a hamlet called Nakavala on the island of Vatulolo during a feast in honor of the shark-god, Daquwaka.

ANGELA: Uh, doesn't sound wrong.

HODGINS: Can't this headman tell you who Angela married?

DOYLEY: He's dead. Town was wiped out by tsunami two years ago. The ah island is deserted and no one wants to talk because the place is ah haunted and uh cursed.

HODGINS: Of course it is.

DOYLEY: Do you happen to remember any Australians?

ANGELA: Okay, look they have this local drink called kava that is really - Anyway, when it comes to memory, no. Not so much. Which is probably why when I tried to sketch him, I only came up with this.

(She hands him a picture of a face, which is really more abstract and not at all discernible.)

HODGINS: Handsome. Why Australians?

DOYLEY: Well on or around the day of the marriage license the uh, there was a tramp steamer of out Adelaide. The Innocent City may or may not have been docked on Vatulolo.

HODGINS: Let's ah track that steamer down.

DOYLEY: It's gonna cost.

HODGINS: Not an issue.

DOYLEY: Thanks. (He leaves.)

ANGELA: You having second thoughts?

HODGINS: You kidding? Hey! This is great. Like we are on some epic adventure.

ANGELA: Adventure?

(They kiss)

(Cut to: Interior - the Forensics Platform. Camille and Bones approach Clark, Angela, and Hodgins.)

BRENNAN: These are the bones we found on the altar.

CAM: Can you confirm that any of these are Gavin Nichols?

EDISON: To be 100% positive we'd have to check DNA.

CAM: Alright. Let's get that going.

(Booth enters and sees the whole gang there.)

BOOTH: Hahaha. Bones, I mean, you see what going on here, right?

BRENNAN: What are you talking about?

BOOTH: You, you're getting all of them to help you now.

ANGELA: Booth, the vault is filled with priceless artifacts.

CAM: And probably materials stolen from other victims.

HODGINS: It's going to take months to sift through all that evidence.

BOOTH: No, this is enabling. You're enabling somebody with a mental problem.

BRENNAN: Zack!

BOOTH: No you! You! Bones! You're the one with the mental problem.

(Bones points behind Booth, and the rest of the squints looks. Dr. Zack Addy enters in civilian clothes although his hair is closely cropped and he is carrying a military style duffle.)

ANGELA: It's Zack! It's Zack. (Runs to hug Zack.)

HODGINS: Woo-hoho!

ANGELA: What are you doing here?

ZACK: Can I, can I move back in the place above your garage?

HODGINS: Are you kidding? Of course! Come here. (He hugs Zack.)

BRENNAN: Welcome home, Zack! (She hugs Zack.)

BOOTH: Did you get wounded or something?

ZACK: No, they just sent me home.

BRENNAN: When can you start work?

BOOTH: (To a resigned Clark Edison) Nice meeting ya, bub.

ZACK: If you didn't fill my job, who's that guy?

EDISON: Nobody. (He takes off his gloves and leaves the Platform.)

HODGINS: Man, you look like crap.

CAM: Well, Iraq's not a vacation.

ANGELA: I think you look very rakish. Are you starving?

ZACK: Actually, what I'd like is get into whatever you were talking about before Br. Brennan's mental problem.

(Cut to: the Bone Room with Zack examining the skull.)

ZACK: It's hard to concentrate when you're all staring at me.

(Camille, Angela, and Hodgins leave Zack and Brennan in the room.)

BRENNAN: They're happy to see you.

ZACK: The depth of teeth scoring on the skull suggests that it was cooked.

BRENNAN: Meaning the victim was dead when his face was eaten. Which is good, I guess, given the alternative.

ZACK: I'm seeing an interesting pattern in the scoring.

BRENNAN: From the windshield?

(Zack magnifies a picture of the skull in the digital screen).

ZACK: It appears so, but if you kind of un-focus your eyes and allow patterns to arise from what looks like chaos... here... here... here.

BRENNAN: I didn't notice that.

ZACK: This scoring is different from both the gnawing marks and the damage caused by crashing through the windshield.

BRENNAN: (Magnifying even more on a score mark) What is that?

ZACK: I dunno.

BRENNAN: Did you run it through the x-ray diffractometer?

ZACK: And also x-ray micro-fluorescence. Neither showed trace evidence of anything left on the bone by whatever etched that grooved.

BRENNAN: That's our answer then.

ZACK: But the answer was 'nothing'.

(Cut to: Interior - FBI, Booth's office)

BOOTH: So our, uh, cannibal has a diamond tooth?

BRENNAN: Well, not the entire tooth: a diamond inset, left lateral incisor. It left a distinctive mark on the skull.

BOOTH: So if someone in the Building Conservancy or the cleaning crew has a diamond in his tooth - that's our guy! You got him!

BRENNAN: I'd like to be in on it when you interrogate him. (Booth looks astounded and pleased.) What?

BOOTH: You would?

BRENNAN: Why are surprised?

BOOTH: Wait, are you serious? I, I've been trying to get you out of the lab since Zack left.

BRENNAN: Well Zack's back, so here I am.

BOOTH: That simple?

BRENNAN: Why? Did Angela say something to you?

BOOTH: No. Angela? Why? What?

BRENNAN: I told you, that this wasn't about psychology.

BOOTH: Fine, fine, hah. Hey, you know what I say, huh? Welcome home Zack!

(Cut to: The Interrogation Room. Booth and Brennan have found a suspect, Jason Harkness, a creepy teen.)

BOOTH: No, it's not just because you have a diamond tooth.

BRENNAN: You don't know why you are here, Jason?

JASON: It seems like that part should be your responsibility.

BOOTH: Think about it. You're a smart boy, Jason. You went to private school.

JASON: Six of them. Got kicked out of every one.

BRENNAN: Yeah, for attacking people in their sleep.

JASON: I got counseling. I'm cured.

BOOTH: So, you did your little community service mopping floors for the historical society people. How the hell did you get in the vault?

JASON: At the old bank?

BOOTH: He just doesn't really strike me as the kind of guy who would sit beside a vault all night listening to tumblers through a stethoscope.

BRENNAN: He probably found the combination while he was cleaning up somewhere.

JASON: Nobody can get in the vault. It's what you call impregnable.

BRENNAN: Not true. This is the transmitter we found in the vault.

BOOTH: Normal guy... comes across a treasure in an vault; Starts, what, selling it off. You went a whole different way.

(Bones removes a wax cylinder and unrolls it to Jason.)

BRENNAN: Could you bite this please?

JASON: No.

BOOTH: Dr. Brennan was only being polite. We have a warrant for that tooth, Jason. So, either you bite, or I'll make for you.

JASON: What do you need it for?

BRENNAN: The diamond in your incisor left a mark on the skull.

BOOTH: In the skull that you gnawed on.

JASON: Its not like chicken or pork, you know. People always say that. It's more like beef. The face is a little sweeter, more tender. The younger the person, the better. Except for babies. Babies tastes kind of like fish.

(Jason bites on the wax cylinder.)

ACT FOUR

(Open: Medico Legal Lab - the Forensics Platform. Nighttime. Cam and Zack.)

CAM: Have you been to bed yet?

ZACK: Iraq is from a different time zone. I can't seem to sleep right now. Fibula and tibia of the right leg are from the same person. Left femur from a different person. Three phalanges and one metacarpal, essentially an entire little finger, are yet from another person, probably the violinist.

CAM: How can you tell?

ZACK: Pressure indicators consistent with years of practice. Manubrium and gladiolus originate from two additional separate people. And this floating rib, an anatomically superfluous rib by the way, is from yet another human being.

CAM: Ten bones from six separate victims.

ZACK: Yes.

CAM: Obviously, Jason Harkness was collecting parts from different people to create ... what?

ZACK: I don't know.

CAM: There's potential for a lot of victims here.

ZACK: But we caught him.

CAM: Yes, WE did, Zack.

ZACK: Dr. Brennan always says that catching the bad guys is only part of it. The rest is knowing absolutely everything about the evidence.

CAM: Why did they send you back from Iraq?

ZACK: I failed to assimilate. Despite my accomplishments, I was detrimental to a military team approach.

CAM: You're very good for our team approach.

ZACK: The army psychiatrist told me that I should question why the Jeffersonian is the only place that I can fit in.

CAM: All due respect to the army psychiatrist, but that's a helluva lot more than what some other people get. Go home, Zac-a-roni, get some rest.

(Cut to: Diner)

DOYLEY: Do you recognize any of these men? (Shows a very grainy black and white photo of sailors on a ship).

HODGINS: How is this any better than Angela's sketch?

ANGELA: That's him! I mean, he, he fits the general silhouette.

(Hodgins stares at the man she pointed. The photo cannot discern his face.)

HODGINS: You forgot to mention that he was a giant.

DOYLEY: Well, this may or may not be the crew of the Australian tramp steamer, Innocent City. It was scuttled six months after you were married.

HODGINS: His hands are like snow shovels.

DOYLEY: The, the man that you are pointing to is known as Birimbau to his crew mates.

ANGELA: That's it - his, his name is Birimbau.

DOYLEY: 'Birimbau' is obviously a nickname. It's a Brazilian flute. Did he, did he speak Portuguese by any chance?

ANGELA: Yeah, he most definitely had an accent.

HODGINS: Ha, ha look, look, look at this man! How hard can it be to find a guy like that? Probably can see him from the space shuttle.

ANGELA: Did Birimbau die when his ship sank?

HODGINS: Oh that would be great. No. No. What I mean is we can have him declared dead.

DOYLEY: He, he didn't die.

HODGINS: Too bad.

DOYLEY: Last time I found him, he was ah signed on to a Liberian oil tanker bound for Tierra del Fuego.

ANGELA: Oh, okay. That narrows it down. He's a sailor, he's maybe Brazilian, and he's named after a flute.

HODGINS: You, you know what else narrows it down: He's a titan - half man, half god. I mean, I can see why... why you've... I mean I totally, I do, I get it.

ANGELA: Hodgins, stop it.

DOYLEY: Look do I, do I keep looking, because um if you wait three years, you can declare him dead.

ANGELA: Do you want to wait three years?

HODGINS: Do you?

ANGELA: Definitely, absolutely not.

HODGINS: Me neither.

ANGELA: Okay.

HODGINS: Keep searching, Mr. Doyley.

(Cut to: the Jeffersonian - in the middle of the night. No people seem to be around. Booth and Bones enter rushing.)

BRENNAN: Zack? Zack!

BOOTH: Well, what did he say?

BRENNAN: He said he needed to show us something immediately.

BOOTH: Show us what? (They approach the Forensics Platform.)

BRENNAN: I don't know. He didn't say; that's why we're here.

(They see Zack prone atop an examining table.)

BOOTH: Look out! Zack! Zack. Zack?

ZACK: Oy! Why are you listening to my chest?

BOOTH: Because I thought you were dead.

ZACK: Why?

BOOTH: Why? You are lying on a stainless steel table for dead people.

ZACK: I got tired.

BOOTH: New rules, okay? Sleeping is for couches and beds, stuff like that.

BRENNAN: (At one of the computer monitors) Oh. My. God!

BOOTH: What?

ZACK: I thought you'd want to know.

BOOTH: What?

BRENNAN: You compared depth, apogee, and dimension?

ZACK: Yes. Three times.

BRENNAN: And there's no way it that it was a case of pre- and post- diamond inset?

BOOTH: What? What? What?

ZACK: The newest bones, the phalanges and the skull, bear only the gnaw marks of Jason Harkness.

BRENNAN: One bone, the femur, was gnawed upon by Jason and a second person. See the distinct second pattern?

BOOTH: So Jason invited, ah, a guest over for dinner?

ZACK: Oh, I don't know how to answer that.

BRENNAN: No, Jason was the one invited.

BOOTH: How do you know?

BRENNAN: Well, the oldest bones were gnawed on by another person with no diamond in his incisor.

BOOTH: Another person. Not Jason.

BRENNAN: There's someone else out there; probably someone older who pulled Jason into this. (To Zack) Good work, Zack. (To Booth) See why he should've never have left?

(Cut to: Interior, DC Jail, waiting area, later that night when Booth and Brennan have been denied immediate access to Jason. The are left in a waiting area.)

BOOTH: (Sarcastically) Great, thanks!

BRENNAN: Show them the badge again.

BOOTH: Uh, they don't see why we have to see Jason in the middle of the night. Shift changes in two hours. Hell, they could make us wait till morning.

BOOTH: You know, you weren't upset because Zack was gone.

BRENNAN: Yes, I was!

BOOTH: Okay, yeah, but you were more upset over the fact that I didn't stop him from going in the first place. I mean, look I could've said to him, Zack, 'Iraq is no place for a guy like you'.

BRENNAN: And he'd never have left. You could have stopped him. Why didn't you do that?

BOOTH: Whatever Zack's deal is- okay his weirdness - whatever you want to call it... BRENNAN: I call it genius.

BOOTH: He's a... man. He's a, uhm, he's a strange man, but he's a man who wanted to serve a larger purpose.

BRENNAN: This is some alpha male rite of passage?

BOOTH: No.

BRENNAN: You mean, go to war?

BOOTH: Wrong. No. Zack needed to leave the nest. The same way you did when you wanted to leave the lab and see the world for the first time. And I helped you do that. How could I stop Zack from doing the exact same thing in his own way?

PRISION GUARD: Agent Booth?

(Taking them to Jason's cell.)

GUARD: So we came in to wake him, this is what we found.

BOOTH: Oh my god.

(They see Jason naked in his cell, dead by a dagger in his chest, but arranged in the same pose as the silver skeleton found in the vault.)

GUARD: We are going on full lockup.

(Cut to: Basement of the Jeffersonian. The multiple rooms of the underground vault and its contents are being meticulously transferred to an enormous space. Hodgins descends to the space where Cam, Booth, Bones, Angela are there already as are many other squints.)

HODGINS: Booth says you need me?

BRENNAN: I noticed that Jason Harkness arranged his suicide.

CAM: If it was suicide then someone provided him with the dagger.

BRENNAN: His body is arranged in the same position as the silver skeleton.

BOOTH: So Hodgins, you think that's a coincidence?

HODGINS: Ha ha huh! So suddenly you think my insane conspiracy ravings are legitimate?

(Booth and Bones answer almost together.)

BRENNAN: No.

BOOTH: Yes.

BRENNAN: But obviously, there are other insane people out there who have the same ravings and we need your insight.

HODGINS: Mhmm. Alright. Alright. Both the body and the silver skeleton are in the attitude of what the ancient Greeks called 'pharmakos' means 'scapegoat' or, or 'sacrifice'.

BOOTH: So, what? Like he was being pulled into the sky against his will?

BRENNAN: You mean, aliens?

HODGINS: One definite possibility. Yes. Also the 'Rapture'. Now as I tried to tell you before, most secret societies have this figure deep in their origins. For Freemasons, it's known as the 'Widow's Son'.

CAM: Interesting. Gavin Nichols lost his father when he was twelve.

HODGINS: A widow's son.

BOOTH: Right, so Jason Harkness killed himself to keep his secret society, secret.

HODGINS: Or was sacrificed. Hey all the signs point to it.

BRENNAN: Strictly speaking, the evidence so far indicates only one other murderer.

CAM: This entire vault is filled with evidence, who know where it will take us?

HODGINS: Deeper that you can imagine. Probably get us all killed. Just so you know... (He goes to leaves)

BOOTH: Thanks man. No no, Hodgins. Really... thanks man.

HODGINS: Yeah man. Be safe.

(Cut to: Exterior. Bones and Booth walk near the Reflecting Pool around sunrise.)

BRENNAN: The ancient Greek section translated the motto at the back of the vault door, 'will no one help the Widow's Son.' (They both sit on a bench.) Hodgins was right. This killer's part of something bigger.

BOOTH: Here's your coffee. (He offers her one of two cups he has, but she continues on the case.)

BRENNAN: Gavin Nichols' violin was in there. I bet there are belongings from other murder victims too. We have to catalogue every item in that vault.

BOOTH: Hot coffee. (Offers the cup again.)

BRENNAN: After we do the visual and microscopic examination of each human bone in the silver skeleton, we'll take samples and do an in-depth auxiological breakdown. We really have a lot to do.

BOOTH: Yeah, starting with coffee. (He forces her to accept the cup.)

BRENNAN: An isotope profile will allow us to narrow down possible geographical hits...

(She starts to lift hot cup to her lips. But Booth abruptly covers her coffee cup with his hand just below her lips, in essence she is kissing his hand.)

BOOTH: Hey, it's hot!!! (She brings the cup down.) You were gonna burn yourself, Bones.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

BOOTH: (He takes his hand away from the cup.) Listen, this whole serial-killer, its not gonna be our usual case.

BRENNAN: Why?

BOOTH: Why? Because its big and he's bad.

BRENNAN: I don't see what difference that makes!

BOOTH: Cause you have to slow down, right. Take a breath. You have to realize that this is not a sprint, its gonna be a marathon. Marathon, Bones, coming from the Greek meaning 'really really really long run'.

BRENNAN: It's not how the word 'marathon' originated.

BOOTH: Look, there's something else I gotta know, and it's important. We solid?

BRENNAN: You and me? Yeah!

BOOTH: No, not just you and me. Squints, too. Zack is back for good. Angela and Hodgins have their head back in the game. Cam, she's locked in.

BRENNAN: Why are you asking me this?

BOOTH: Because. You and me - the center.

BRENNAN: (Nods) And the center must hold.

BOOTH: Right. So, are we gonna hold?

BRENNAN: Yeah. We'll hold. We're the center.

BOOTH: The center. (She holds out her hand. He cautiously takes it. And she shakes it.) Ha hah.

BRENNAN: What's funny?

BOOTH: Ha, I thought you were going to kiss my hand again.

BRENNAN: I did not kiss your hand. You put it over my coffee cup.

BOOTH: Huh, felt like you kissed it.

BRENNAN: No.

BOOTH: No?

BRENNAN: Nope.

CARD: DEDICATED TO OUR FRIEND, MARIO JACKSON (1961 - 2007)

(End Credits)