Bones Episode 3.06 Intern in the Incinerator

Nick and Phil, both janitors at the Jeffersonian, are in the building's smoke filled basement. They follow the trail of smoke back to the incinerator. And inside they find a charred body.

Brennan, Cam, and Booth are now in the basement. They've deduced their findings and decided the body was thrown in the incinerator between one and three A.M. Booth looks over the guest log of the building. Nobody checked in past 9:30 that night and nobody checked in before 8:00 that morning. It looks as if both the victim and the killer where Jeffersonian employees.

Brennan and Cam are in the autopsy room working on the burnt female victim. The body has numerous breaks and Brennan will have to determine which breaks came from the extensive heat and which came from trauma. Angela enters with the news that Dr. Harlan Bancroft is on his way over. According to Angela, Bancroft is "The supreme Honcho of the Jeffersonian." Angela looks to the skull, ready to start her facial reconstruction. What she sees is the skull coming to life, forming the face of the young female victim. Angela snaps out of it and hurries out of the room.

ACT ONE

Angela is in her office when Brennan enters. Angela knows the ID of the victim. It was a friend of hers, Kirsten Reardon. Kristin was an intern and daughter of Dr. Ted Reardon, an ex-employee of the Jeffersonian. Angela didn't put a composite drawing together yet but she knows, her gut is telling her the victim is Kirsten. She also knows that Kirsten was having an affair with a married man who was also an employee there. Angela makes Brennan aware of the situation, someone they work with and see everyday murdered this girl.

Booth is in the conference area with Dr. Harlan Bancroft. Bancroft is giving his full cooperation to the investigation, providing Booth with everything he needs. Booth tells Bancroft that the victim has been unofficially ID'ed as Ted Reardon's daughter. Bancroft admits to firing Reardon some time ago.

As Brennan sits with Ted Reardon in her office, Booth and Cam watch from a distance. Cam tells Booth that Bancroft may have fired Reardon because he felt politically threatened by the man. They leave Brennan to console Dr. Reardon. While walking, Cam mentions her father's sixtieth birthday party and that Booth has to accompany her to it. It seems Cam never mentioned to her family that she and Booth broke up. So she'll need Booth to pretend like they're together for the night.

Booth and Brennan are in the Bone Room. Brennan discusses the difficulty in having to tell someone their child is dead. She tells Booth that Ted knew nothing about his daughter dating anybody. Dr. Evan Klimkew enters having just heard of the death. Evan was Kristen's supervisor. She worked for him in the Authentication Department. They are in charge of authenticating acquisitions and it is a very competitive environment with the top intern earning the Bates Fellowship worth $75,000. Evan mentions that Kristin was the front-runner for the fellowship. An intern named Neil Tyler was her main rival for the prize. Booth notices the wedding ring on Evans finger and Evan notes that he's separated and not currently seeing anyone.

Booth and Brennan are in the Keep speaking with Neil Tyler. Neil's been working on authenticating the artifacts found in the bank vault. He mentions that Gormogon iconography has been found on a lot of the artifacts. The Gormogons are an extinct group from the 18 th century that worked at dissolving Freemason and Illuminati influence throughout Europe. Kristin and Neil were working on the artifacts last night. Neil claims Kristin stuck around after he left, and it's clear he's a bit resentful. Neil has to work to get where he's going, he's holding a second job while he works the internship. He needed the fellowship much more then Kirsten did. Booth notes the motive. Neil didn't know much about who Kirsten was seeing and it definitely wasn't him because he's gay. Brennan comes across a bag. It's Kirsten Reardon's purse and they grab her cell phone from it.

Booth and Brennan are walking and talking through the lab. Booth has Kirsten's cell phone and mentions the call history, with many of the calls going to the same number. Brennan brings up the fact that Kristen was going through Gormogon artifacts when she died. Maybe Gormogon killed her and if so that means Gormogon is one of them. Booth is upset that Brennan went and gave their serial killer a nickname. And from behind the large window they stand before, a body drops. The partners hurry off.

Booth and Brennan rush out to the parking lot and find Hodgins and Zack handcuffed by security. A small crowd is gathered around the dummy the two detained squints tossed off the roof. Dropping the dummy was a test meant to prove that Kristen Reardon was dead before her skull was fractured in the fall down the incinerator. Judging by the size of the skull fracture, Brennan gathers that Kirsten must have been dropped into the trash chute at its highest point of entry. The top floor, the suites floor, has a chute.

Booth is in the Autopsy Room with Cam. Cam tells him that Kristin was stabbed through her aorta and left lung which would

ACT 2

Hodgins, Angela, and Zack are in the lab when Cam enters. Zack has figured out that Kirsten was killed by a single stab wound through the back. Angela doubts that Kyle Aldridge could be the Gormogon killer and Cam wants the team to forget about Gormogon and concentrate on finding Kirsten's killer. Hodgins is running some studies on a fragmented rib belonging to Kirsten. And in the meantime, he's analyzed some ashes from the incinerator. In it, he's found traces of Cedars libani, a Lebanese fir once used in Mesopotamia to mask the smell of burning flesh.

At the FBI, Booth and Brennan walk and talk. Booth wants Brennan to interrogate Aldridge because the man thinks Booth is stupid. Booth gives Brennan a couple pointers to take into the interrogation room.

Brennan enters the interrogation room, where Dr. Kyle Aldridge is seated. From the Observation Room, Booth watches with Ted Reardon. Brennan tricks Aldridge into admitting to his affair with Kristen. But that's all he's saying without the presence of his lawyer.

Booth is at the lab with Cam. They are on their way to pretend like they're still a couple at Cam's father's birthday party. Cam's sister, Felicia arrives to pick them up. And while Cam is off grabbing her things Felicia kisses Booth.

Angela and Hodgins are walking and talking through the lab, with Angela playfully comparing Hodgins to Gormogon. Hodgins tells Angela that the results of his fragment testings are in. A flake of 800 year old copper found in the rib bone tells Hodgins that the murder weapon was an artifact. Angela hops on her computer and searches the Jeffersonian database. She comes across an 800 year old copper spear tip. It was checked out of the Gormogon vault two weeks ago, to Dr. Kyle Aldridge.

Booth, Brennan, and Hodgins are in the vault with Dr. Klimkew. Hodgins runs a test on the spear tip. It is not the murder weapon, and Hodgins goes to replace it amongst the other artifacts. Klimkew tells the partners that he caught Aldridge and Kristen making out one night. And from the other room, Hodgins can be heard screaming for help. They run in to find the body of Kyle Aldridge hanging amongst the artifacts and the silver skeleton.

ACT 3

Cam has just finished the autopsy of Kyle Aldridge. Brennan enters with the news that Kyle, reportedly, sent his wife a suicide note by e-mail. In it, he admitted to the affair and the killing. Cam knows that Kyle didn't kill himself. Had he, his hyoid would had been broken by the silk cord used as the noose. She has no idea what his cause of death is.

Brennan brings the investigation back to Gormogon but Cam still isn't convinced it was him. Neither of these recent murders fit the m.o. of Gormogon. Cam brings up the possibility of the murderer being Ted Reardon.

Hodgins enters with the silk cord, which is itself an artifact. The cord held the killers DNA on it as the killer wrapped it around his own arm as leverage in hoisting the body and in doing so ripped small amounts of hair and skin off. Once they find the killer they'll be able to do a DNA match. Brennan notices something on Aldridge's X-ray. The skeletal muscles are pulling away from the bone. This leads Brennan to succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant, which in high doses could cause the heart and lungs to stop. Brennan knows that succinylcholine is one of the earliest anesthetics known to man. She knows this because it was written in Ted Reardon's book.

Hodgins arrives in his area of the lab to find Booth waiting. Booth tells Hodgins about Cam's sister kissing him and Hodgins what's to know how he's going to break it to Cam. Booth has to tell her because if he doesn't her sister will.

Booth is in the interrogation room with Ted Reardon. He questions Reardon in regards to the murder of Kyle Aldridge. Reardon has a strong motive, being that Aldridge was a political enemy who slept with Ted's daughter and possibly murdered her. Booth is understanding and he confronts Reardon with the true cause of Aldridge's death, succinylcholine. It's a substance Reardon knows plenty about having, literally, written the book on it. Booth has Reardon roll up his sleeves in hopes of finding the rope burns caused by the silk cord. Reardon shows off his forearms which are clean.

Hodgins shows Cam a magnified sample of an 800 year old piece of bronze. This matters because copper, such as found in Kirsten Reardon, is an ingredient in Bronze. It's possible that the copper found in Kirsten was an unalloyed fragment off a larger bronze piece. Hodgins mentions that it would take a very long time to test all the bronze weapons in the Jeffersonian. Angela steps in:

In front of the Angelator, Angela shows Cam, Zack, and Hodgins the skeleton of Kirsten Reardon. A line drawn in represents the angle of the stab wound on her. It is at a sixty seven degree angle starting at her shoulder and exiting through her abdomen. The killer would have to have been at least six foot eight and three hundred pounds to accomplish this. And since nobody working at the Jeffersonian fits that description, the team starts thinking of possible alternatives.

Angela presents the scenario of Kirsten lying down on the table being impaled. Bancroft enters with his conclusion, the death was accidental. Bancroft provides his theory of the two lover's arguing and Kirsten accidentally impaling herself causing Aldridge to panic and discard her body. Bancroft tells the group that Aldridge had arranged to meet with the Federal Attorney, most likely to confess. Cam tells Bancroft that Aldridge was murdered. Bancroft warns the squints to watch their backs, especially Angela. If there's a killer out there he'll be coming for her next as she's been most instrumental in unraveling the case. Bancroft exits leaving Angela feeling threatened.

ACT 4

Booth, Hodgins and Brennan are in the lab where Hodgins has just finished searching all the bronze weapons matching the criteria. He's still got nothing. The group is stumped on how the weapon could have got in and out of the building with the Jeffersonian's high level of security. Brennan has it. The mail. Mail can be sent to the Jeffersonian without having to go through customs or security. And the Authentications Department is responsible for logging all incoming authentication packages.

Hodgins attempts to log into Kirsten Reardon's logs and is denied access, as is Brennan. Booth uses Cam's password to get them in. Hodgins searches through Kirsten's logs and finds that she was working on a few thirteenth century Luristan Bronze pieces. Booth has reason to believe those pieces may have been smuggled. It's just a theory, but Brennan is going to have Zack check all the Luristan Bronze pieces Kristen was working on as her possible murder weapon.

Cam is in the Autopsy Room when Booth enters. Booth tells Cam that Felicia kissed him. And Cam is upset. Felicia enters ready to go to lunch with her sister. Cam calls her out and the two argue. Booth tells Felicia the truth, the date was a set-up. And Felicia fesses up too, telling Cam that she only kissed Booth to get back at Cam for being so perfect all the time. And the two squabbling sisters find some common ground, being over Booth. Cam and Felicia leave for lunch, leaving a confused Booth behind.

Zack is in the Ookey Room showing Brennan a photo of a bronze antelope with huge spiked horns. It is most likely the murder weapon. The horn leans at a sixty seven degree angle. Brennan wants to run a DNA test on the statue. Only problem is the statue isn't there.

Cam is in the conference area with Bancroft. She tells him what's going on. The bronze antelope was mailed to a P.O. Box in Arlington. The Jeffersonian is being used to smuggle artifacts. Cam tells Bancroft that Booth and Brennan have arranged to have the Arlington post office staked out the following day. Bancroft exits and Cam gets on the phone.

Booth and Brennan are staked out in front of the post office. Cam is on the phone with them. Cam tells the partners that she just told Bancroft the news and, like they expected, he wasn't happy to hear the FBI already knew. With the seed now planted, Bones and Booth will sit back and wait for the killer to show up and collect the statue. Booth thinks its Bancroft but the one who soon shows up is Dr. Klimkew.

Booth and Brennan have Dr. Klimkew in the interrogation room. The Bronze Antelope is before him. Klimkew admits to the smuggling ring but not to the murders. But he soon breaks. Klimkew tells Booth and Brennan that he was there when Kristin died and that it was Aldridge who did it. Klimkew doesn't know why though. Aldridge blackmailed Klimkew into helping him dispose of the body, saying that if Klimkew didn't help Aldridge would expose his smuggling ring. But there's still the question of who killed Aldridge. Booth grabs Klimkew's arm and pulls up his sleeve, exposing the rope burns. Klimkew is the killer.

Booth and Brennan are wrapping up the day with a few shots in Booth's office. Booth knows that Brennan, along with the rest of the squints, was hoping the killer was Gormogon. They didn't want to see the killer as one of them Brennan feels betrayed and Booth promises to never betray her. And the two partners take another shot.