-Venus POV-
Booth was in the interview room with Jeremy and Ms. Farrell. I walked in as Jeremy says, "Of course. I'm at every pageant. Okay, you see what happens?" I then say, "Sorry Ranger, I had to go over some stuff with Jimmy over the phone." "It's all right, just take a seat. This here is Dr. Venus who is the current director of the Jeffersonian Institution who is assisting us on this investigation." I smiled at the two as Jeremy says, "Venus?" "Hello, sorry for coming a bit late had something important to do before, but don't mind me." Mrs. Farrell then says, "Look, I make him come... to carry Haley's changes and the props for her talent competition." Booth then says, "Well, you know, a lot of kids his age, they'd- they'd just refuse."
Jeremy then says, "Okay, so what? So then I'm a- I'm a bad kid because I'm a good kid?" "Mmm. What do you call this look?" I then look at Booth, "Ranger that is technically not a look." Jeremy nods, "She's right this is not a look." Mrs. Farrell then says, "Emo. It's called emo." "No, it's not." "It's short for overly emotive." "No, Mom. No, it's not. Okay? I like these clothes. I like this hair. It's not emo. It's not anything." I then say, "I think it looks good. Everyone has their own style that they like." "Thank you." I then ask, "Do you have a girlfriend?" This perks Jeremies interest a bit as he straightens up, "Who's asking?" The mom then says, "He does. She looks exactly like him." I nod, "Cute." Booth then asks, "Are you guys, like, real boyfriend and girlfriend?" "What do you mean? What? Do we have sex?" "I don't know. You tell me." "Why? Because if we don't, then I'm just- some pervert who's got a thing for little girls?"
Booth shakes his head, "Nah, I think you like older women like Dr. Venus here." I was shocked as I look at Booth, "What?" He ignored my statement as he continued and showed him a picture, "The day that this, uh, picture was taken, did you speak with Brianna Swanson?" "Yeah." The mother looked at him, "Jeremy?" "She was picking on my little sister." I ask, "Did you argue with her?" "No. We called each other names." Booth asks, "Are you wearing the same shoes that you wore that day?" He said no while his mom said yes. She then says, "He's worn the same thing every day for a year." Booth then ask, "Would you be willing to give us those shoes?" "No." I then say, "Could I just take a look at them right now then? I just want to check them out and see how they are made." He looks at me for a few seconds as he then looks away, "Fine."
He hands me his shoes as I take a look at them seeing that they weren't the right metal or type of shoes. I then hand his shoes back with a smile, "There, like I promised. I think we are good now Ranger." He nods as he dismisses them. We exit the room as I say to Booth, "Those weren't the right shoes." "Really?" I nod. He sighs as I told him that I was going back to the lab and inform Temp on what we found. I am back at the lab as I enter Temps office, "Hey sis, I am back from the interview and Jeremies shoes are not the right ones were looking for." "How do you know?" "First things first, the caps are plasticized chrome, not stainless steel. And secondly, they are to broad and round to have caused the damage... to Brianna Swanson's bones." "Tell Cam and Booth." "Already informed them."
Temp and I are on the platform looking at a ripped piece of paper with Cam as Temp says, "It looks like colored dots, but it's so faded." I then ask, "Could this be a candy bar wrapper?" Temp shakes her head, "I don't think Brianna was supposed to eat candy." Cam then says, "There were a lot of things I wasn't supposed to do as a kid. I still did them. I haven't changed much." Booth then comes over to us asking, "What's with the, uh, Milk Blast Bar wrapper?" I then question, "Milk Blast Bar? What's a Milk Blast Bar?" Temp shrugs as Cam says, "It's about the cheapest, worst ice cream bar you can get. Available only at Red Shed convince stores." Booth and Cam both starting sinning the theme song as Temp and I watched confused. "Red Shed What you need now and how.. Yeah!" They both laugh as Cam says, "I thought they stopped making them." "Yeah. I thought I just ate 'em all."
Temp then says, "Well, maybe we should determine how Brianna Swanson got ahold of one." Booth then says, "Brianna Swanson?" Cam then adds, "Hodgins found the wrapper with her remains." Booth dials a number and says, "Yeah, it's Booth. Listen, I need a search... for any Red Shed convenience store... within a one-mile radius of the Hyperion Hotel off 171. Thanks." He hangs up as we just watch him, "Look, I wouldn't have laughed so hard if I knew it was Brianna Swanson." I then say, "It's okay Ranger, you didn't know. Plus it's okay to have a nice laugh once in a while."
Temp, Booth and I walk out of the Red Shed as Temp and I walk out with ice creams and Booth is putting his wallet away as Temp says, "Well, they carry Milk Blast Bars. That's a start." I hand Booth his ice cream as I say, "These are good." "Are you kidding me? These are God's food right here. So the F.B.I. forensic units are sweeping the culverts near the hotel. So I figured, you know, while we were waiting, we'd just go have a look around." Temp and I nod as we eat our ice creams.
We are now walking around with a flashlight for about ten minutes as Booth says, "Right there. There it is." Temp then adds, "Well hidden." I nod as I walk over and check, "Well, it is big enough to stuff a child's body into. There is something here?" I put on my glove as I put my hand in the dirty water and grab something and take it out. I took out a medal, "It's a pageant medal." Booth then says, "Looks like we got our crime scene, huh?" I nod as I say, "We will need to take this." Temp nods agreeing with me.
We are back at the lab as Zack and I look at the pipe. I then say, "Crushing and scraping injuries to the scapula... are congruent with Brianna Swanson being forced... into a culvert this size in a prone position." Zack adds, "The kicks to the back were the attacker's attempt... to force the body farther into the culvert where it couldn't be seen." We then hear Cam, "Little Miss Raspberry Blossom, Culpepper, Virginia." Hodgin then says, "There were remnants of blood on the medal before I cleaned it. I'm waiting to see if it belongs to Brianna Swanson." Cam adds, "It's dated 1976."
Angie then comes up the platform, "I got something. Okay. I don't know if this helps you. "Lisa Fisher, 1976 Raspberry Queen. Holly Walters, Raspberry Princess. Kristen Madigan, Little Miss Raspberry Blossom." I then say, "Temp look at Kristen Madigan. The mother who we spoke with at the dance school was named Kristen." Temp nods, "Kristen Mitchell." Cam then says, "Oh, my God. It's like that Texas cheerleading thing... where the mother took out her daughter's main competitor." I sigh, "I'll let Ranger know."
Zack, Temp and I are in the bone room as he says, "One, two, three, four. And she was kicked twice in the same place here, twice as deep. So five, six." I then notice something, "There's an asymmetry both of force and distance to these kicks." Zack adds, "The fracture pattern suggests a slight rotation to the blows." Temp asks, "How slight?" "About 30 degrees." "Left side only?" "Yes." Temp and I figured it out as she calls Booth, "Hey, it's me. Are you with Kristen Mitchell?... Okay, I need to know if her hips are even... Stand behind her, place your hands on her hips. Then move your hands up to her rib cage, gauging if it's an equal distance on each side." I then say, "Temp he can't do that, put it on speaker." She puts Booth on speaker, "Hey Ranger, you're videotaping the interview, right?" "Of course. We have to." "Then could you beam us some footage of her walking." "Okay. All right. Coming at you, Blueberry."
We waited for a few minutes as I got a ping on the computer, I pop it open as Zack has the remote and Temp tells him, "Okay, try and get a shot of her buttocks and freeze it." "Okay. I'm applying a biometric graph... right here." We look at it as it didn't match what we were looking for. Temp then says to Booth, "No. You might as well let her go, Booth." "Why?" Zack then says, "She has very nice symmetrical buttocks." I chuckle a bit as Booth says, "Well, yeah. I know that. But, um, what's that got to do with anything?" I speak, "Brianna Swanson's attacker has a thoracolumbar curve. Scoliosis." "Sure. Meaning what?" "Which means Kristen Mithcell is definitely not the killer." "Thanks."
Booth came to the lab as we walk and he explains, "Ariel Mitchell says that she showed Brianna her mom's medal the day of the pageant. Now, Brianna- she must've stolen it. We're- we're nowhere." I then say, "Well, we might've found the murder weapon." "The murder weapon? Okay, well, what is it?" Zack answers, "A fore-stop trammel." "A what?" "It's from the parking lot at the Red Shed convenience store." Temp then says, "The F.B.I. forensics team found minute traces of blood on it. We've brought it in here to compare the edging with the marks on the victim's chin. And we can see here- It's a match."
I add, "The angle and force of the blow suggest Brianna fell forward, was unable to break her fall and caught her chin here. Broke her neck instantly." Hodgins then comes up, "Wanna hear about the steel?" Booth says, "In a minute. So she was carried from the curb to the culvert?" Hodgins corrected him, "Dragged. Wanna hear about the steal?" "How do you know she was dragged?" "Remember the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons I talked about?" I nod, "Yes, I remember." "Turns out that they weren't from roofing tar. They were from asphalt." Cam then asks, "So what you found on her jacket was from her being dragged?" "Exactly. Wanna hear about the steel?" I nod, "Yes I do?" "It wasn't from work boots. It is the exact same steel used in tap shoes." Booth then says, "It's from another contestant."
Temp, Booth and I are at the pageant backstage where all the girls get ready. Temp then says, "Okay, Booth, you're looking for a tap-dancing beauty queen with scoliosis." "Right. Gotcha. Wait. Half these kids have tap shoes." I nod as Temp says, "Well, we just need to examine the symmetry of their hips." "I'll go with the shoes. You both do your thing." I nod I then went up to a mother, "Hello, sorry to bother you. My name is Dr. Venus and I work at the Jeffersonian Institution, would it be okay if I were to check your daughter for any signs of scoliosis?" "Sure." The girl stands in front of me as I asked her to bend down a bit as I carefully checked. "All right, thank you for letting me check. She luckily doesn't have scoliosis." "Thank you."
I go to the next parent and ask and do the same thing. I finished checking as I hear a child yell, "Molester! Molester!" Booth and I look at Temp as she says, "No." Booth then asks, "What are you doing?" "I'm- I'm not a molester. I'm a forensic anthropologist." Booth then says, "Okay, F.B.I. business. Everybody just simmer down." The little girl then says, "She touched me on my rear!" "No. Back and rear have totally different connotations. Point of clarification. I touched her back." I walked over to them as a security officer comes over as well and asks, "What's going on?"
We are now in the security guard's office as he says, "Look, scientist or not, F.B.I. or not, she can't just go around feeling little girls." "What? I wasn't feeling like that. That make me sound like a pervert. Plus, she was doing the same thing." I sigh and shake my head, "No, I made sure to ask the parents for consent and explained to them what I was doing and looking for." Booth then says, "She was just examining really. Okay, listen, bud, we're after a murder here, okay? Dr. Brennan just got a little overly excited." I tried not to laugh on how Booth made it sound like as the guard asks, "How does feeling little girls solve a murder?" I answer, "One of them is the murderer." Booth adds, "Okay, look. I know that's hard to believe." "You know what? It's really not. So, what do you need? I mean, aside from the touching." I then says, "Would it be alright if we just watch them?" Booth nods.
We are now sitting through each of the girl's performance as they show their talents, one by one. I chucked as I see Booth was enjoying the performance as I then felt someone looking at me. I looked around the audience and landed my eyes on Jeremy who had quickly turned his head away from me. I nudge Temp as she nudged Booth as they also looked at him. Then we see his sister coming out and doing her performance. At the end of her performance, she turns around as we see that she has scoliosis and was tap dancing. Temp and I say it at the same time, "It is her."
We had them brought in the F.B.I. headquarters as we walked in the room as Jeremy says, "Oh, dude. Not again." The mother then ask, "I thought you said Jeremy was cleared." Booth says, "We know it's not Jeremy. We'd like to talk to Haley for a moment." "No. I don't want to." "This is a special day, Agent Booth. You're upsetting her." I sigh as Temp says, "Don't be afraid." Booth then says, "No, You know, she should be afraid." I walked over to Haley and bent on one knee as she held my hand and sat down, "I didn't do anything. I promise."
I sigh, "We know you didn't mean to, Haley." The mother then ask, "Honey, what did you do?" Booth also asks, "Yeah. What did you do?" She looks at me as I gave her a nod, "Brianna said she was gonna buy me an ice cream. But she just made fun of me. She said I was ugly. She said I'd never win anything." I nod, "That must've hurt your feelings." "I didn't mean to push her so hard. Honest." The mother gasp, "Oh, God. Why, didn't you tell me?" "The pageant was starting. I wanted to win." She starts crying and hugging her mother. I stand up and walked towards Temp and Booth and stand next to them as they family had their moment.
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DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN "BONES". IT IS OWNED BY JOSEPHSON ENTERTAINMENT, BY HART HANSON. I ONLY CLAIM MY CHARACTER VENUS BRENNAN. I ALSO DON'T OWN ANY OF THE IMAGES. THANK YOU.