Bones Episode 7.06 The Crack in the Code

ACT ONE

It's barely light out as a docent trainer takes her trainees around the National Historical Museum. Her tour comes to an abrupt halt when she notices her trainees looking at a horrifying, gooey skull and spine lying at the feet of a statue of Abraham Lincoln. There's a message painted in blood: "Where is the rest of me?"

As Booth and Brennan drive to the crime scene, Brennan goes over the real estate section, but the couple is still having no luck finding a house that meets their needs.

Cam and Hodgins are already at the National Historical Museum. Blowfly eggs in the skull's orbital sockets help Hodgins determine time of death at around two days ago. Cam determines that the message on Lincoln is written in human blood. Booth and Brennan join them, and Brennan immediately notices something strange about the victim's vertebrae. The killer took apart the spine, detaching all the intrasegmental, anterior, posterior, and supraspinous ligaments, and reassembled it. Is the murderer sending a message?

ACT TWO

Angela, Cam, and Brennan examine the skull and spine back at the Jeffersonian. Brennan determines that the victim is a Caucasian female in her 20's. Angela notes that a slimy "string" holds the vertebrae together. Cam runs a test on the string and the results show that it's made from human intestines. Wendell Bray arrives to inform the women that the serology results came in and the message written in blood came from five different people.

Booth shows Sweets the security video of exterminators cleaning the museum. After the exterminators are out of frame, a laser pointer burns out the camera. The two hypothesize that the killer leaves the remains, writes the message, and leaves before anyone can spot him. Sweets adds that the murderer must be a manipulative person with a high IQ who enjoys attention. The murderer may even have prior offenses. Booth gets a call: Sam Sachs, one of the exterminators, has a felony record.

Wendell recites the order of the vertebrae to Hodgins, who writes it down. There are broken processes on the vertebrae. Hodgins believes it is a code.

At the FBI, Booth and Sweets question Sam Sachs. He's on edge since Booth will not let him smoke in the Interrogation Room. Sam has a record for burglary and vehicle theft. Sam assures Booth he is a changed man and takes his job very seriously. Sweets realizes that Sam does not fit the high IQ profile. Booth asks about the blind spot on the security camera, which he suspects Sam knows about since he cannot go very long without a cigarette. Sam agrees to tell Booth about the blind spot as long as he doesn't get in trouble.

Angela has completed her reconstruction, but shows Cam that she cannot find a match through Missing Persons. Cam gets an email with the DNA results: the blood came from five different FBI agents in the D.C. Field Office.At the FBI, Booth runs into Caroline Julian, who is in a scuffle with journalist Ezra Krane. Booth confronts Ezra, who says his source told him the victim's spine was tied together with human gut. Caroline and Booth have no comment and want the name of his source. Ezra won't tell them so they send him packing. Caroline tells Booth he needs to solve this murder and fast!

ACT THREE

At the Diner, Brennan read the Real Estate Section. Sweets urges her to stay in the Lab since the murderer is still at large. He understands the pressure Brennan is under as he feels the same pressure to find Daisy a birthday gift. Brennan is not impressed and continues her house hunt. Booth joins them. He found all five FBI agents alive and well. The killer obtained their blood from a FBI Blood Drive a few weeks ago. Booth also wants Brennan to stay out of the field so she acquiesces.

Hodgins is having trouble cracking the spinal code. He has tried numbers, letters, and rearranging the code in reverse order. Angela tries to lend some support. Hodgins realizes that the murderer wants them to understand his message, so the code must be simple. Back to the drawing board...

Caroline checks in with Booth. He discovered an old breath mint container from the evidence bags that the murderer made into a homemade laser. The diode is made of an old DVD player, and the switch from a toaster. Caroline tells Booth she'll get the records for every tech savvy guy that hates the FBI for the last five years.

At the Lab, Brennan tells Wendell that the isotope profile for the victim's tooth enamel indicates that she was from Denmark. Brennan and Wendell still need to figure out cause of death. Wendell shows Brennan a particulate he found on the anterior aspect of the T4. Brennan also notices hairline fractures on the neural arches, which could be due to a high velocity injury. Wendell thinks it may be a gunshot wound, but Brennan needs the rest of the bones to make a proper hypothesis. Brennan sends Wendell off with the particulate to give to Hodgins.

Booth finishes up a phone call with his real estate agent who has found a house for Booth and Brennan. Sweets informs Booth about a hacker named Christopher Pelant whose file came in from Caroline. Last year, Pelant took down the Department of Defense network and in 2009, he took down the Senate website. Sweets shows Booth a screen grab of the website which contains an image of Capital Hill with the question: "Where's the website?" Sweets tells Booth there's one problem with Pelant...

Booth and Sweets go to Christopher Pelant's House. Pelant hasn't left his house in the past six months due to the terms of his parole. He's had no access to computers or the Internet. Pelant wears an electronic tether that pings every 38 seconds to make sure he is in his house. What's more, Pelant hasn't been to the National Historical Museum since he was in 6th grade. However, Sweets believes he fits the profile and Pelant knows Ezra Krane. Pelant stands his ground: he isn't a criminal, he's a hacktavist. Sweets spots a computer from the 1960's in the corner of the living room. Pelant explains that he keeps it to remind him of better days, but it doesn't work. The fan cable is fried. Booth gets a phone call that confirms Pelant hasn't left the premises.

Angela and Hodgins have made no progress on the code. Hodgins suggest they read the code with the broken processes acting as spaces. Angela tries to look at the code just for the numbers. She recognizes the first set of numbers, 20166, the Dulles zip code. Hodgins recognizes 481 as a Justice Department phone prefix. He realizes the C4 vertebrae was only broken on the ride side. They read it as a C. Angela realizes there is a C Street, and pulls up a map of the address. It's the Justice Department Archive Building. There are still four more digits they can't place, but Hodgins knows that they've solved the code!

Booth and Sweets go to the Justice Department Archive Building. They find the room that matches the code, but it's locked. Booth punches the other four numbers of the code into a security panel and they gain access to the room. Booth and Sweets find blood on the floor and eventually locate the rest of the victim's dismembered body on top of a filing unit.

ACT FOUR

Booth and Sweets go through the files. They're all marked "Investigation Suspended." Sweets reads the names to Booth, who recognizes them as FBI Informants. These informants were not prosecuted for their serious crimes. Sweets admits if he was one of their victims, he would want to call attention to the files too. Sweets is interrupted by a message on his phone: he's won a bid on a scooter for Daisy in the U.S. Marshall's Asset Forfeiture Auction.

At the Lab, Brennan shows Wendell microfractures and pitting on the posterior of the victim's ribs and sternum. Wendell is puzzled by this information, and wonders if the victim exploded from the inside. Hodgins hurries in to the Bone Room to join them. Hodgins has tested the particulate and it's camphor. Wendell notes that camphor is used in fireworks. Hodgins and Wendell want to test this theory.

Caroline drags Booth into the FBI Conference Room to watch Ezra Krane on TV. Ezra states that a source told him the victim's remains were discovered in a file room to unveil the wrongdoings of the FBI. Caroline is furious. Sweets enters, having finished going through the informant files. Daniel Cassutto was an informant who ran an estate scam. One of his victim's committed suicide in front of his daughter, Sophia Berman. Berman is the head of IT at a hospital-a perfect location to dissect a body.

It's experiment time at the Lab! Hodgins brings in a meat-covered skeleton in a wet suit. The meat is to simulate the victim's soft tissue, and the wet suit represents skin. Wendell puts an explosive in the chest cavity, which should help to determine the unusual damage on the victim's bones. Cam joins them to watch behind a plastic partition. Hodgins lights the fuse and BOOM!

Sweets and Booth meet with Sophia Berman. She explains that Daniel Cassutto wiped out her father's pension, insurance, and life savings. She reported it but the FBI didn't do anything. She went to her father's house to take him out to dinner, and he shot himself in the head. Booth asks Sophia how she knew Cassutto was an informant, and she tells him that a few days after her father's death, Ezra Krane called her. He wanted to do a story on FBI corruption, but at the time, the story didn't have enough juice.

Booth interrupts his talk with Sophia to take a call from Angela. Angela has ID'ed the victim as Inger Johannsen. She was housesitting for a family that was out of town for a couple months. Booth hypothesizes that the killer wanted a girl that no one was going to miss. Booth asks Angela to text him the address where she was housesitting.

Taking a cue from Sweets, Booth thinks he may have found a house for Brennan and the baby at the seized property auction. He and Sweets arrive at the house the victim was watching. They aren't able to find anyone at home so they go around to the backyard. They head toward the pool and notice that the Jacuzzi is filled with blood. There are words painted on the fence: "This won't stop."

ACT FIVE

Booth and Brennan drive home after a long day. Booth informs Brennan about his auction find. To Booth's surprise, Brennan is on board, even though a criminal previously owned the house. Brennan explains that the Dani of New Guinea used to vanquish their enemies and then live in their huts as a symbol of their mightiness. Booth is ready to move forward with their mighty hut.

Caroline calls Booth while he's driving home. She wants him to bring in Ezra Krane for questioning. They both believe that he is withholding information to obstruct their investigation.

After Hodgins and Wendell determined that the victim did not die from explosives shoved down her throat, Wendell joins Angela in her office. She uses a laser scanner to scan the bones into the Angelatron and highlight the skeletal trauma. Angela has her machine compute the trajectories to find the murder weapon. The trajectory lines intersect, and a gun appears on the screen. The two are puzzled by the answer since there was no gunshot wound. Suddenly, there are error messages on the screen as the server begins to shut down. Smoke and fire pour from the computer vents as Angela tries to put them out with an extinguisher.

Booth brings in Ezra Krane, demanding he divulge the name of his source. Ezra tells Booth he doesn't fit the profile of their murderer. However, Booth thinks Ezra needed a big story so he decided to create one. Ezra won't give into Booth's scare tactics but he has no alibi for the morning the remains were found at the museum and the day of the FBI Blood Drive.

Hodgins and Wendell show Cam the murder weapon: a bang stick. The boys test it on a watermelon in a Plexiglas box. It immediately explodes. Wendell explains that the murderer shoved it into the victim's abdomen and fired, which explains why there was no gunshot. Angela tells everyone that the computer problems were caused by malware that shut down the computer fans. The fans are supposed to turn on when the CPU reaches 75 degrees, but the malware added a zero to make it 750 degrees. Angela tells them that the malware originated from her computer, and Hodgins adds that couldn't be possible unless Angela downloaded something. Angela explains she only uploaded scans of the bones. Could they be carrying a virus?

Angela brings the scanned bones to Brennan, who takes a closer look at them. Brennan brushes a dye to the rough area found on the bone and finds a fractal pattern, which caused the virus when the bones were scanned. Brennan wonders who could have done this.

Booth and Caroline join Cam, police officers, and Jeffersonian techs at a crime scene outside the D.C. Press Club. A dead man dangles from the top of a flagpole. Cam helps them lower the remains. The face of the man has been blown off. Caroline informs Booth that the security cameras had been disabled. Cam takes a look at the remains and notices powder burns at the base of the skull, which are similar to the ones on Inger Johannsen. She takes a swab to have it tested. Cam pulls out the dead man's wallet to discover the new victim is Ezra Krane. Cam notes that the body has been dead for less than four hours, making it more likely they will catch the killer.

ACT SIX

Cam and Angela anxiously wait for the remains to arrive at the Lab. Hodgins has results from the swab. He found traces of thorium dioxide, which is used in gas lamps and vacuum tubes. Angela recalls the old computer Booth told her about at Pelant's house. Finally, Caroline arrives with disappointing news. A series of miscommunications caused the body to be rerouted through the city and then cremated as medical waste. Everyone is disappointed that they won't get the remains. Cam wonders if Pelant is smarter than their team.

Brennan and Booth drive to the FBI. Brennan doesn't believe that Pelant is smarter than her, but that Pelant is very resourceful. Booth admits that Pelant did get gunpowder for his bang stick that didn't leave any tracks. Brennan explains he could have used putrefied urine. Booth feels some things that stink can be turned into something valuable, almost like their mighty hut.

Booth and Sweets bring Pelant and his old computer into the Interrogation Room. They've determined the computer is missing a vacuum tube. Pelant tells Booth that he can't replace it since he isn't able to use the Internet. Sweets says that shouldn't be hard since he was able to put a virus on bones. Pelant corrects Sweets: it wasn't a virus but a worm. Pelant is confident that the records will show he has never left his house. Booth and Sweets can charge him with murder, but no jury will rule in their favor when he hasn't gone anywhere. It's quantum indeterminacy. Booth tells Pelant he will go down for his crimes. Before Booth and Sweets leave, Pelant tells them to give Hodgins his regards. He knew he would enjoy the spine code.

Wendell carefully puts away Inger and Ezra's remains. While Pelant is at home, taking apart an electric toothbrush to make more gadgets.

Booth takes Brennan to the mighty hut... but the house is a mess. It's leaking, there are broken walls, and loose boards. Booth thinks Brennan is displeased and apologizes for thinking they could live here. However, Brennan loves the house because she can see its bones. Booth is thrilled and shows her the baby's room. Brennan and Booth are happy in the midst of the rubble that surrounds them. They finally have a house!