A Series of Unexpected Events

Chapter 2

Cam gripped what she liked to call the "Oh Shit" bar as Michelle screeched into the parking lot of the Jefforsonian. "Look out for-!" she cut off and put her head into her hands as her daughter said, "I KNOW, mom!" and slammed on the brakes as the family of four passed in front of them. "Oh, why did I ever let you drive me to work?" she mused out loud. "Because I got my license?" Michelle said excitedly. "Doesn't mean you're a good driver... But at least we're here, no more heart attack for me." She got out and gathered her purse and lab coat. "Do you need a ride home?" "NO! I mean, ahem- no thanks, Jack can probably take me. Drive safe, ok? I'll see you after work." She shook her head as her daughter drove away, and started heading to her office.

She set her purse on her desk and collapsed into her chair. 'How did she get her license?' She asked herself. She sighed and pinned her ID on, ready for whatever D.C. had to throw at her. "Hey, we've got a body," Angela said, peeking in the door of her office. "Thanks, Ange!" Cam stood up and grabbed her lab coat.

"How much is there for me to work with?" Cam asked as she approached the table, slipping on a pair of gloves. "Just this," Hodgins said, holding up a meticulously cleaned fingernail. "That's all that was on the body?" she asked, surprised. "It wasn't on the BODY," the entomologist said, "it was in the envelope NEXT to the body." He held up a letter and an envelope. "A letter? This sounds pre-meditated. Should we expect more bodies?" Cam asked the group. 

"That's for me to decide, you guys stick with the icky stuff. What have we got so far?" Sweets asked. "I'm working on a facial reconstruction now," Angela said, snapping a picture of the skull. "I've found a nick on the third left rib and a compression fracture near the temporal suture, which seems to have resulted in many hairline fractures." Brennan added. "As previously noted, a letter containing a fingernail was next to the body. Seems like a letter to us, though, not the victim. Signed, 'The one you ignored.' Ooh, mysterious," Hodgins said, handing the letter to the psychologist, "work your magic, my friend," he said with a laugh.

"Look at this, Dr. Brennan," Arastoo said, pointing at the victims left femur. "Hodgins, swab this groove and the nick on the rib for particulates, please," Brennan said, "I've seen this type of injury before," she took off her gloves and headed for her office. "Yes ma'am, right away, ma'am- why did she have to be so damn mysterious?" Hodgins said, shaking his head. "Who knows, it's Dr. Brennan. Angela, please hurry on that facial reconstruction. Arastoo, keep examining. I'm going to see why I can get off this finger nail." Cam said, and headed for the lab.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Cam took of her goggles, frustrated. She'd been examine this fingernail for 2 hours now. No flesh, no polish, no make up, no NOTHING. This murder had to be pre-meditated. She had a feeling. Who cleans ONE fingernail this well and left it in a letter? She stripped off her gloves and put her head in her hands. She felt so useless wit oohing else to do. She heard a knock. "Find anything?" She shook her head and sighed. "Hey. It's ok. You know what? Let's go get some lunch, take our minds off the case. Sound good?" Angela asked with a smile. Cam nodded. "Yeah, just let me go see what Dr. Brennan and Dr. Hodgins found."

Hodgins pointed at the screen, where the mass spectrometer results were displayed. "The rib had a mixture of steel and blood. The compression fracture had small splinters of scarlet oak, and the groove on the left femur revealed a couple of small hairs." Cam's eyes widened. "Did you say blood and hair? Finally, I can contribute to this case!" "The sample of blood is too small to analyze, and it was used up in the mass spec.. and the hair is cat hair." Cam gave Hodgins a murderous look. He just shrugged. "So cat hair- do we know what species? There could be someone in missings persons who has a pet cat on file," Cam asked. 

"Unless they tamed this cat from birth, it's not their pet. The hairs in the groove belong to a member of the panther tigris family." Cam looked curiously at the results again. "A tiger? Well this case is starting to get interesting. Unfortunately, I was hopeful to have something to work with, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so- lunch, Ms. Montenegro?" She held the door open for Angela and they headed for the car.