BONES AU - PART THREE "The Cannibal in Question"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kevin took a moment to respond. "...Isn't that your house, Max?"

Max shrugged. "Yeth. It is. But there are other people that live in the area too, of courthe."

Kevin shook his head. "Yes, of course. I'll pass this along to the investigators. Is there anything else?"

Max started to register the question before. "I could have fudged the factth. Could have left my neighborhood out, y'knowth."

Kevin nodded, realizing his small mistake. "Yes, but that would have raised suspicion if someone had double checked your results."

"If you need me, I'll be at my thtation. Helpingth." Max said sourly before leaving.

***********************************************************************************************

Malo was sitting at the counter of the diner when Scott and Joe sat on either side of him. He smiled. "Well, hello! This is a surprise!"

Joe half nodded. "Yeah... Hey, Malo, uh, where were you after the explosion?"

"Well, I was with you two!"

Scott shook his head. "No. You were with us when the explosion occurred."

Joe nodded. "I meant after."

"Well... Let's see. I ran to call 911."

"Where?"

"Dr. Hoying's office? Why?"

"Then what'd you do?'

"Then I went to the door to show the EMT's where to go."

Scott raised an eyebrow at this. "Hmm... you didn't come in with them."

"No. I find it's best to stay out of the way of the professionals in those situations. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot one thing."

Joe perked a little. "What's that?"

Malo looked at him with an unamused expression. "I went down to the vault and I stole the silver skeleton because I'm Gormogon's apprentice, obviously."

Joe groaned. "That's a confession. You know, I can lock him up for 72 hours."

Malo scoffed. "You're gonna lock me up... for sarcasm?"

Scott nodded. "Well I think you should."

Malo looked between them, sensing their seriousness. "Wait. You guys actually think that I'm Gormogon's apprentice?"

Joe shrugged. "Well, somebody is. That way I can lock you up, check out your story and not worry about you running off to Germany."

"This is just flat out wrong."

"Better safe than sorry."

"No. You're projecting, Agent Hobbs. You have a reasonable hostility toward Gormogon but you have no outlet for those feelings so you're using me –"

"Look, am I gonna have to break out the cuffs?"

"You know what? Yeah. You are gonna need your cuffs cause I'm not about to make this easy for you." Malo huffed.

***********************************************************************************************

Max decided to blow off some steam at the I. C. U., where Mitch was sleeping in a chair, Kirstie in her bed. Max pecked Mitch's cheek, waking him up with a smile.

"Hi." Mitch said as he rubbed his eyes.

"How'th Kirthtie?"

"Oh, he's in a lot of pain but he won't let me push the pain killer button."

"She'th thcared of polka dots but thcreaming agony is just an interethting phenomenon." Max said, which made Mitch snort.

Kirstie half opened an eye. "Drugs give me bad dreams."

Max smiled and looked over. "Well, hello to you too, Kirthtie!"

"I'm walking somewhere and suddenly someone takes me by the hand and I look and it's the skeleton. And the skeleton's on fire and my hands hurt..."

Mitch frowned. "Take the pain meds, Kirstie, really."

"I've been thinking about the explosion, Max. No one could have switched the chemicals. I locked up the container when I left the room." Kirstie said as Max pressed the med button. "I had the only – key.. You - would know but you - I'm afraid the pain killers work pleasant on my intellect..." Kirstie drifted off to sleep again from the medication.

Max shrugged. "Thomtimeth you have to helpth a friend out..." He pressed the button again.

***********************************************************************************************

Scott was in his office on the computer when Kevin came in. "Don't you think it's time to go home?" Kevin asked.

Scott looked up in surprise. "Oh! Ah. Sorry, Kevin. I seem to be a bit anxious."

Kevin shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It's going around. Max came to talk to me and I almost jumped out of my skin. What's keeping you so late?"

"Looking at the tissue we used for the DNA test? The victims DNA alleles and the roots were destroyed. And the mer alleles were altered. Then, I remember, when I first looked at the jaw bone, it seemed lighter in color than I expected."

"Who would do that?"

"We would. Standard procedure for skeletal remains when we put them away for storage. We have over 10,000 sets of remains waiting to be identified. What better place to hide a skeleton?"

"How do we sift through 10,000 sets of remains?"

Scott shrugged in response.

((Wow this one is short SORRY))