Come on, Mom! Faster.
Party's not gonna setup by itself.
That's the thing, Declan.
If you would help...
Mom!
I'm sorry.
Crap. There's another party.
Not for long. I reserved this space, and if they think
that they're gonna stay here, I'm gonna give them a piece...
Jeez, Mom, that's how you tell someone off?
I told Christine that we're checking out a new library.
I hope she's not too disappointed
when we take her to the water park instead.
Are you kidding me? 97 slides, four waterfalls,
and the biggest dunkinator in the state.
I'm very much looking forward to it.
Tell you, I was kind of surprised about that.
So, what, we'll hit up Go-Kart World next?
No. Go-kart tracks are not known
for their high concentration of fecal matter.
What, there's... fecal matter in water parks?
They're known for it.
And studies show that early exposure
to E. coli bacteria is
beneficial to the development of children's immune systems.
Fecal matter, like, you know, poop, poo-poo?
The longer we stay, the more there will be.
You know what? I'll tell you what.
I think it's, uh... I think we should head to the library.
Looks like the weather's gonna change and...
Hmm. Oh.
Oh, this is yours.
This is mine.
Oh, look at that. Body was found in Rock Creek Park.
We should get there ASAP.
Well, I'm sure Aubrey can cover for you.
Nope, not this time.
- Why? - Why?
'Cause it's, uh, very important.
My text says nothing about that. That's because
it's very important we'll get your dad to take the kids
to the library and go read a book.
Books are good for the soul.
Livor mortis on the remaining tissue indicates
the victim's been dead ten to 12 hours.
- Why the balloons? - Well, 101, Aubrey.
To make sure the body's found sooner versus later.
Yeah. Got no I.D. on the corpse. Also, it's fresh.
Checked with missing persons. No one
- reported in the last 12 hours. - There's no
evidence of any blood in the vicinity of the remains.
And not in the corpse, either. It's largely exsanguinated.
Well, the victim was killed somewhere else and taken here.
I mean, look at the drag marks that lead right out to the parking lot.
Well, I got a schematic from the ranger.
Turns out that's the one lot in the park with no cameras.
Well, either the killer got lucky, or he planned ahead.
My informed guess is that it's the latter.
Size of the mandibular
rami indicates
the victim is male.
Yeah, and the gums are in bad shape.
Interproximal attachment loss is typical of a guy in his 60s.
The diminished tooth sockets are typical of an elderly man.
But the wear
on the molars and the incisors indicates
he was in his forties.
Looks like he has very poor dental care.
There are holes
on what's left of the shoes.
It seems like this guy has fallen through the cracks.
Why did the killer choose him?
Why draw all this attention to someone
who's completely down on their luck?
That is not relevant unless it helps us solve the case.
Let's get these remains back to the Jeffersonian.
Zygomatic arches indicate the victim was Caucasoid,
while the length of the femur suggests
he was approximately five feet ten inches tall.
And rats did this to him?
There's no predation from any other animals.
I've reviewed the X-rays.
There are fragmentation wounds
on the left clavicle, scapula and femur.
I've seen fracturing like this before.
There appears to be
shrapnel residue.
- IED? - Yeah, it could be.
Which means this guy might be former military.
There are multiple signs of trauma to the body.
All are consistent with battle.
This is unusual.
Both prepatellar bursae are swollen.
Doesn't "both" mean it's housemaid's knee?
I don't think this guy was a housemaid.
The condition arises from extensive kneeling.
It is most common in manual laborers.
Well, I've also heard of it
in the devoutly religious.
Nuns, monks, priests.
Not many priests have seen combat.
What's wrong?
I-I need to see the ossicles of the inner ear.
Magnify them.
There are fractures
on the stapes.
They've remodeled some time ago.
14 years.
How can you be so precise?
Because Booth has similar fractures.
I need to see your reconstruction.
Um, I'm-I'm nowhere near done.
Please.
Okay.
Can you fill in the hair?
Yeah. What color? Black.
It will be black.
Longer.
The eyes are blue.
The nose-- can you broaden the Alar side walls?
Wait. Isn't that...? That's Aldo Clemens.
Who is Aldo Clemens?
He married Booth and Brennan.
He was also the, uh, chaplain of Booth's army unit.
Booth said that when he was in trouble, Aldo saved him.
He owed Aldo his life.
♪ Bones 12x04 ♪ The Final Chapter: The Price for the Past Original Air Date on January 24, 2017
♪ Main Title Theme ♪ The Crystal Method
== sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man
Aldo was a good man, Seeley.
You have my sympathies. Thanks.
You're right. Sympathy sucks.
What do we know?
Nothing that ties anyone to the scene.
Aubrey's digging for witnesses, parking tickets...
You think anything's gonna come of it?
I don't know.
I hear Aldo was in rough shape.
What was going on with him?
I don't know, Caroline.
I-I hadn't spoken to him for over a year.
If I know you,
you tried. You know what?
I'm not gonna let myself off the hook on this one, all right?
Anytime I needed anything, anything,
Aldo was always there for me.
I'm sure that goes for the other men in your unit, too.
What does that mean?
He took on all their troubles.
It could be he didn't want you
getting pulled in, too. Yeah, well, it's too late,
'cause I'm gonna find out who did this to him.
Of course you are.
This is a little Lepisma saccharina, aka silverfish.
So their diet consists of cellulose and polysaccharides,
basically anything you find in a house, so,
dinner is carpet, and dessert is curtains.
So, our guy's not from the park?
No. My guess is that he hitched a ride
from wherever the victim was killed.
You know, I'm gonna go have a little chat with him,
see if he can't help us find our way back there.
There are antemortem contusions
- on the right and left metacarpals. - Suggesting
Aldo Clemens was getting into a lot of fights.
I don't get it.
He was a priest.
Well, he left the priesthood after he came back.
Do you know why?
Booth once told me that, um,
Aldo never stopped believing in God,
but that his belief no longer comforted him,
not after what he'd seen, so...
how could he make it his life's work?
Ugh. Aubrey is worried about what this will do to Booth.
Yeah, the past is a rabbit hole.
I'm worried about him, too.
Aldo's spiral is, unfortunately, not an aberration.
Studies show that erratic, self-destructive behavior
is a common post-concussive syndrome
that can manifest years after the initial trauma.
I got concussed too, Bones, all right?
I was in the same explosion as Aldo.
I am aware of that.
Because of your brain tumor, I am also quite familiar
with MRI's of your cerebellum.
I'm not concerned
for your mental health.
I could've gotten him help.
Perhaps.
But that's in the past.
Moving forward, there is only one thing you can do for Aldo.
Look, if you're gonna tell me to forgive myself, please don't.
Forgiveness would be ineffective. Okay then, what?
I mean, what works? Revenge.
That's not me. I mean, there are rules.
You will follow those rules.
The act of bringing a murderer to justice is,
anthropologically speaking, a form of revenge.
You have suffered a loss.
Making the killer suffer for that loss will help.
Yeah, well, I hope so, Bones.
Because right now I couldn't feel much worse.
Hey.
You, uh, got something that could help with the case?
Because we could use it.
This is not about the case.
Where's this from?
Miami International Airport.
He used the name of a Dutch national
who's long since dead
so it took two weeks to work its way through
our fugitive facial recognition system.
He's made some changes to his face,
but if you're asking for an I.D.,
that's him.
That's my dad.
Treasury's been tracking and closing his accounts.
They've squeezed him to the point where he may be back
to dig up whatever remaining assets he has left.
He's running a hell of a risk.
Well, if it's about money, he'll risk it.
He may reach out to you for help.
That would be a mistake.
You sound pretty confident about that.
The man's your father.
And I already turned him in once,
so it'll be even easier the second time.
You know how Dr. B says that the bones don't just reveal
the victim's death,
they also reveal the victim's life?
Unfortunately, the only thing this body's revealing
is sadness, pain, and decline.
Oh, fractures from fights,
density loss from poor nutrition, drunken falls.
And this liver tells a story on its own.
Vesicular degeneration makes it pretty clear
he became a heavy drug user.
Well, he had all his teeth,
so it wasn't meth.
Well, heroin's the most likely candidate.
It has too short a half-life
to show up on a tox screen.
But if we could find his dealer,
that might be helpful.
Hold it, I've got an idea.
I thought these scratches on the proximal phalanges
were caused by rat predation.
I never asked, why eat the toes
when there's so much good stuff left on the body?
I might not have asked that one either.
Wait, are these scratches needle marks?
They're the right depth and appropriate length.
I'm hoping there's trace amounts of heroin on the bones.
Well, if so, it wouldn't metabolize
the way it does in the bloodstream.
Ask Hodgins to swab for particulates.
Tom Ellis?
Police?
No, FBI. Special Agent Seeley Booth. This...
And I'm his partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan.
We're here to ask you questions about Aldo Clemens.
What'd Aldo do?
He died last night.
Well, if you guys are here, I assume it was murder.
You don't seem too upset about it.
I liked Aldo.
Hated having to fire him, but that's the way it goes,
right?
Why'd you fire him?
He was stealing from the tip jar.
You fought with him. His facial bones were broken.
There's extensive fracturing to the ribs.
You hit him so hard
your hand was broken.
Who told you about that?
It's poorly set, which I can see.
I also checked your hospital records,
because I do thorough research. She's good.
It was self-defense. He came at me.
Where were you yesterday?
I was working here at the bar.
I close up at 5:00 a.m.
You can check it out with any of my regulars.
Can you think of anyone who may have wanted to hurt Aldo?
He was spinning out of control.
He would've done anything for his next fix.
Who was his dealer? No idea.
Never saw him, didn't want to.
But I heard Aldo call him,
begging him, promising him anything.
He just didn't have the money.
If Aldo tried anything with him,
he might not have gone easy on him like I did.
There are fractures on the left fifth and sixth ribs,
the nasal bones, and the zygomatic process
of the left maxilla.
They're impact fractures, most likely caused
by Aldo's fight with Tom Ellis, which was a month ago.
There are additional fractures on the ribs
which appear to be more recent.
Take a look, Ms. Warren. Could those have been caused
by the same assailant? The amount of remodeling
indicates the damage is no more than two weeks old.
That is not consistent with what Tom Ellis
told Booth and me. But the directionality
of the wounds indicates a left-handed assailant.
Isn't Tom Ellis right-handed?
He is. Someone else is responsible
for these wounds.
If you're noticing a zip in my roll,
it's because I am officially extremely excited.
I swabbed the needle marks on the proximal phalanges.
I came up with heroin particulates.
Did you find enough particulates to run
a chromatographic impurity profile analysis?
Yeah. Nine whole micrograms.
Angela's running a signature profile now.
So, Aldo was shooting a cocktail of codeine,
phenobarbital, ascorbic acid, finely ground glass...
Glass? How does that happen?
It's actually a fairly common adulterant. What's interesting
is the high proportion of diamorphine hydrochloride.
That's the actual heroin.
It suggests Aldo's drugs came
- from a high-end dealer. - Oh, then
we should be able to identify him.
The DEA maintains this database
of known and suspected dealers in the area.
If we can just enter the proportions
that Hodgins gave us, we should be able
to narrow this down.
All right, well,
that's a lot better than where we started.
We can narrow that further.
How many are left-handed?
Uh, I don't think
that's included on the rap sheets.
Hmm. Bring up their photos.
The left clavicle on this one is higher than the right.
That's an indication of handedness.
Also,
his left deltoid is slightly more developed.
And he parts his hair to the right.
I mean, most lefties do that.
Jake Tompkins.
I'll call Booth and let him know.
So, this hood isn't exactly screaming "drug dealer."
You sure we got the right address?
Well, Tompkins is not your, you know, usual drug dealer.
He runs a very efficient business.
Well, I mean, he has to have slipped up somewhere.
Otherwise he wouldn't be in the database.
Well, he was charged, but he was never convicted, you know?
Like I said, he's very careful.
Yo.
Jake Tompkins?
FBI. Special Agent Seeley Booth.
Special Agent James Aubrey.
How can I help you?
Ask you a few questions. When was the last time
you saw Aldo Clemens? Sorry,
don't know him.
Look at the photo, Jake, okay?
Clemens was found dead this morning.
We know that you were his dealer.
Okay. I think we're done here.
I don't know anything about drugs.
And just so we're super clear on that,
I'm gonna go call my lawyer. Thanks.
Okay, you do that.
You call your lawyer, and he'll get you out in no time.
But that's when I get started.
What is that supposed to mean?
I'll be all over you. Whatever you do,
buy, sell, I'll be watching you.
That's actually called harassment.
It is. It's called harassment.
You really want to do that
to your business, Jake? Look, we're just after
whoever actually killed Aldo Clemens.
My hunch is killing isn't exactly your thing.
Answer some questions, I'll be out of your life.
I might have known this guy.
If I did,
I would have dropped him as a client months ago.
He run out of money? No.
They always find the money. Aldo...
had become a risk.
Some guy was following him, so I cut him off.
Who was following Aldo? You got a name?
I can't even tell you what he looked like.
He was some guy in a crappy car. I thought he was a cop.
He drove by a few times.
He never got out of the car.
Sorry. I wish I could be more help.
Yeah, well, actually, you know what, you can.
What are you doing?
This is one of those video doorbells
that record you, right? Yes, it is.
Do you know how much that thing cost me?
A lot. They're very expensive.
But it's good for you, because then it'll confirm your story.
Thank you very much for this.
Hey. Honey, let's go home.
It's late. Mm-hmm.
I'm almost finished. I'm gonna be done in a second.
Oh, no, you won't.
Do not tell me that you are operating on a silverfish.
Well, it's more like a scenic journey
through his digestive tract.
Okay. I'll be in my office.
Hold on, Angie. Look what I found.
Oh.
Wow, that's actually kind of beautiful.
Right? So, this is just the sort of saccharide
most silverfish love to munch on.
In this case, it's a highly magnified particulate
of professional grade acoustic foam.
So if that bug hitched a ride
on Aldo's body... We need to call Booth.
Uh, Brennan said Booth's busy.
What, too busy to hear about this?
Trust me, it's important.
Sergeant. It's been a while.
Yeah, too long.
I wish it was for a different occasion.
Yeah, me, too. Who killed him, Seeley?
I don't know, Dave, but I'm gonna find out.
Need my help?
No, I'm good. But either of you two, uh, ever hear from Aldo
before he, uh, went missing?
Not me. He wasn't easy to find.
All right, well, if you hear anything, just let me know.
It's my job now to take care of things, okay?
Sure, Booth, we'll sit and wait for that to happen.
You know what, Ted, I'm not here
to get into this with you right now. This is about Aldo.
Guess that's what it takes-- one of us dying
before he comes around here. Oh, come on, Ted,
you know he had nothing to do with Father Clemens' murder.
Yeah. What did Booth do to help him stay alive?
Not enough.
We all could have been more in touch with him.
He's the reason that we're all home.
At least for me, I'm grateful.
For what?
You moved on, started a family.
It wasn't that easy for the rest of us.
Look, Ted, I can't make up for not being around, okay? But I'm here now.
It's too late for that.
I'm done with you, like you were done with all of us.
It's very late.
I didn't hear you come in.
Well, I wanted to let you sleep.
It didn't go well with the men?
These guys saw hell.
You know, most of them are still paying the price.
You feel the effects of war, too, Booth.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I got lucky.
I got a great family and great life.
Got all this.
You're an addict, just like Aldo.
Yeah.
Unlike him, you got help.
Yeah. But you're in my corner.
That's the difference. Aldo had no one.
Hey. I just, uh, dropped off Jessica.
And, let me guess, you thought you might check in
to see what I'm getting from Tompkins' video doorbell.
Looks like it's rough going.
I thought those things actually worked.
They do. They record everyone that comes to the door.
But it's got such a small hard drive,
so, once it's full, it just records over itself.
So it's useless.
Well, no, not exactly.
Stuff doesn't actually disappear.
It just gets jumbled. I was able to plug in this
facial recognition software to isolate the times
that Aldo came to the house.
Is that him? I can't see it.
Oh, uh, that's because you're not looking at Aldo.
You're looking at what's behind him.
I'm trying to isolate the car that was following him.
Well, that's a few too many times
to be a coincidence.
Yeah, agreed.
Now we just have to figure out who was driving it.
Ms. Warren.
You wanted to see me?
I was reexamining the spinal column,
and I found these fractures on the C1 and C2.
They suggest that the vertebrae were severely displaced.
Which indicates a hyperflexion fracture.
The neck was snapped
at the C2 vertebra.
That would cause complete paralysis
of all muscles below the brain stem.
Yes. The lungs cease functioning,
resulting in a complete loss of oxygen to the brain.
Cause of death wasn't exsanguination.
It was this fracture.
Uh, Dr. Brennan.
Yes?
Didn't your father come back into your life
after spending years as a fugitive?
You're concerned about what Aubrey will do
if he finally comes face-to-face with his dad?
How can he live with himself
if he turns in his own father?
My father had abandoned me and my brother,
he was a fugitive from justice.
I... I certainly never anticipated
that we would manage to have
a positive relationship.
How did you make that happen?
By opening myself to the fact that...
his actions, while partially his fault,
were necessitated by events.
He's a much better man
than the one I had built him up to be.
So there's a chance that could happen for Aubrey?
Statistically, there's always a chance, Ms. Warren.
There's been another sighting.
Where?
Uh, it's a financial record.
Tell me, is there any difference
between a latte and a latte macchiato?
Wait, wait, wait, I don't understand
how a financial record is a sighting.
We'll get to that.
With a latte, you add your espresso shot
to the steamed milk, the, uh, the macchiato,
it's the reverse.
And you taste the difference? Absolutely.
I don't buy it.
So...
where was he seen?
Well, we have good evidence,
but not eyewitnesses, from a wire office in Atlanta.
There was a transfer for $9,000
from an overseas account that's tied to an alias
previously used by Philip Aubrey.
All right.
Small office, high volume.
Clientele is primarily alien laborers.
And the amount transferred is just a hair
under the FDIC notification threshold.
That's definitely him.
Now he's got cash.
He may go under.
He's here for a reason.
He's making his way north.
He'll surface.
Aubrey.
Hey, so I was able to filter out most of
the visual noise from the doorbell video.
Did you find the vehicle that was following Aldo?
Yeah, I'll send you a link.
It's a '97 Intrepid.
Did you get a plate number?
I couldn't from this angle, so I went through
all the traffic cams in the area.
The car belongs to Ted McKinney.
He's former military.
He actually served in Booth's unit.
Booth's not gonna like this.
Me either, Cher.
That is not something I wanted to see.
If you think I killed Aldo, you're nuts.
I don't know what to think.
Why were you following him?
That's my business.
Well, you're in here, so it becomes my business now.
You really think Booth's the guy for this?
They have a history.
I can't think of anyone better.
Recognize that car?
It might be mine.
It might be yours.
Oh, I think it's yours,
'cause that is you inside of the car.
Following Aldo.
That's not true. "That's not true?"
Come on. Ted, look at this.
I can pull all these video stills up.
Come on, we have enough here to build a case.
Do you want to tell me what's going on?
What happened that night?
Okay, I needed him.
I needed someone and he wouldn't even talk to me.
I understand, all right?
You felt abandoned. No one was there for you.
No one was there to listen, not even Aldo.
Like I didn't even exist.
Look, just tell me...
what happened that night, okay?
I can help you, no matter what you did.
I didn't kill Aldo.
I did something worse.
What's worse than killing?
I went looking for him in Bellevue.
He started to go there to buy his drugs.
I didn't know what I was gonna do.
Then, as I'm watching him, someone pulls up.
The driver gets out and jumps Aldo.
Who was it?
I don't know.
Come on, Ted, look at me.
You have to remember who this was.
It could save you.
Whatever happens, I deserve.
Because I froze.
I didn't help him.
Aldo got taken and I just let it happen,
like-like I wasn't even there.
McKinney served with Aldo
and those men trust each other with their lives.
How could he just watch Aldo get taken
and not try to help? I don't know,
but Booth believes he's telling the truth.
Did McKinney see anything that we can use?
Nothing specific.
No plate numbers, no physical characteristics.
But he did say
that it was clean, precise, perfectly executed.
Perhaps someone else with military training.
Well, which means
it's possible one of the other men in his unit is responsible.
You think? Well...
they carry anger, they are taught to kill.
There are many recountings,
starting with ancient Greeks, of returning warriors
murdering those they are closest to.
Dr. Brennan?
What is it, Ms. Warren?
There's something you really need to see.
I re-examined the impact fractures on the left eighth
and ninth ribs.
How did your perception of the fractures change?
It didn't. They're exactly the same.
But,
look at these rat bites
on the anterior plane of the affected sternal ribs.
They are deeper and closer together
than the other rat bites
which you've catalogued.
That's what I thought.
They appear to be both peri and antemortem.
Did you run an immunohistochemical test?
I did.
It came back positive for fibrin clots
and new bone deposition.
There is only one
very likely interpretation.
What do you think that is?
That the victim was alive
while the rats were eating his torso.
That is, indeed, the most likely possibility.
I've seen a lot of things, but this?
For the rats to get inside the ribs like that,
it's... truly horrifying.
There's no better word for it.
Note... the contusions on the anterior
sternal seventh and tenth ribs.
I catalogued those as defensive wounds.
That is understandable.
The pattern is also consistent with a cage
being pressed up against that section of the torso.
It originated in the Middle Ages.
The cage would be filled with rats
One end of it is heated,
so the animals are forced
to burrow into the body of the still-living victim.
There must be hundreds of bites.
Which indicates
that Aldo Clemens was tortured for an extended period of time.
McKinney said that Aldo
went to buy heroin in Bellevue.
And if he's telling the truth...
He's telling the truth.
...then he wouldn't have
any trouble finding product. It's low quality,
but there's plenty of it and the dealers aren't too picky.
Has no one here read the report?
Yeah, we read it. Your close friend
was tortured with rats.
That is something we need to discuss.
Look, what do you say? I was hoping
you would have the words. For something like this,
there's not much you really can say.
We just... we move on.
And we keep looking till we find this guy,
and we don't stop.
That was just right, Seeley, I knew you would have it.
I've been reading about this kind of torture.
They say it still exists in the Balkans
and parts of the Middle East.
Yeah, I heard of it.
Your unit served in both. McKinney was there.
No chance McKinney did it.
Look, the guy doesn't have a alibi.
He's impulsive and he's angry.
He's too angry to have done it.
I agree with Booth.
This was controlled. It took planning.
McKinney's not capable of that.
Take a look at this, huh?
Look at those tire marks.
They're fresh. Yeah.
McKinney was parked there, a half block away.
Then it makes sense that these tire marks
are from the car that took Aldo.
The tracks run north.
There's a highway on-ramp three blocks away.
No way he took it. How do you know that?
Because he's planned.
He thinks of everything. He's calculated, okay?
There's no way he's gonna take the highway.
I mean, there's surveillance cameras all over the place.
That explains why we have
next to nothing to work with. Ah, not true,
we know how he thinks.
What does that get us? We know that he takes
the road less travelled, Aubrey.
We find that road, we find him.
And we don't stop, got it?
So let's keep looking.
Let's find him.
So, I used Booth's theory that
whoever took Aldo based their route on avoiding surveillance.
Every turn they took was weighted towards
avoiding cameras and crowds.
That is elegant.
But what happens
when there's more than one equal choice?
Yeah, well...
it gets less and less useful. This is now out of control.
Well, at least it gives us a general direction.
Hey, I swabbed the perimortem striations on the ribs.
The rat bites? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
So, rat teeth never stop growing.
Which means they're always having to gnaw on something
just to keep them the right length.
Good to know.
What were they gnawing on? I don't know.
I found, uh, particulates of lead paint,
so maybe they were gnawing on some cabinets, looking for food.
When was lead paint banned?
1978.
So-so, we've got professional-grade
acoustic foam and lead paint.
We need to be looking for a sound studio built before 1978.
Somewhere northwest of Bellevue.
Right, but it would have to be near Rock Creek Park,
because they had to get that body back there by morning.
That's still a few square miles.
Well, if it's a studio,
it's likely to be abandoned.
That looks like an industrial park.
Well, it was,
but now it's slated for demolition.
I'll call Booth.
Looks like this is where he set up shop.
Look at all this stuff.
Booth?
Yeah?
Look at this.
There's parish records.
News clippings about Aldo.
Discharge documents...
This X-ray is not Aldo's.
It's of somebody else.
How do you know?
There's a stellate-shaped wound
directly above the right squamosal suture.
Gunshot? Yes.
The extent of the damage
indicates a high powered rifle.
Perfectly placed. Not too many people can make that shot.
The writing is Cyrillic.
Serbian.
That is correct.
Where are you going?
Over here.
Going behind door number two.
Look at this.
This is not good.
Oh...
This is blood.
Aldo's?
We can't be completely sure,
there are tests...
Look at that, Bones. Look.
That's the cage.
Cam will want to do blood spatter analysis
as soon as possible.
Bones.
I need to finish...
No, look. Look!
Booth, that's a bomb!
We got to go, now.
Crews are still battling the blaze
at an abandoned office complex in Anacostia.
The cause of the fire is undetermined,
but fire marshals suspect the strong possibility of arson.
Booth says it was an IED.
Yeah, but do IEDs usually take this long to burn off?
No, Booth saw Jerry Cans of gas.
My hunch is it was powered by a petroleum gel.
It sticks to everything and burns at over 2,000 degrees.
Which means there won't be much left.
Close to zilch. Whoa, Dr. B.
Oh, my God. What are you doing here?
My work.
W-We can handle this.
You should be home.
Yeah, at the very least,
you shouldn't be watching this.
It must have been terrible, huh?
It was unpleasant.
And losing the opportunity to
examine vital evidence makes it more so.
Right. Well, I uploaded the photos that you sent.
My theory
is that Aldo Clemens died on that table.
Why torture him so horribly,
but end it with a relatively quick, humane death?
Maybe he got the information he wanted.
Maybe.
But there's a cruelty to this killer, it doesn't fit.
I agree.
Cause of death was a transected cervical spinal cord.
We need to understand how that was done.
Okay, well, all we have is a bloodstained table
and a few strips of duct tape.
I have enhanced the stains here.
Well, the largest concentration of blood will be
where the rat cage was fixed to the ribs.
Can you align the body accordingly?
Yeah, I'll center the stain
on the eighth and ninth rib.
The remaining tape matches up with the arms and legs.
Uh, this doesn't make sense.
The skull would need more range of motion
for the spinal column to be transected.
Okay, let me recreate the fracture to the C2.
You're right.
His skull would have had to go
right through the table.
The body is in the wrong position.
Was that tape torn?
I'm sure this is important.
But why? Because if I'm the killer
and I want to get a dead body off my table,
I'd cut the tape.
It was torn.
Which suggests Aldo tried to break free.
So perhaps he was killed somewhere else.
They're at the sound studio, combing through the wreckage.
What's left? What's left
is you could fit into a beer can,
that's what's left.
So we're back where we started.
Who is this guy?
And why did he target Aldo Clemens?
Yeah. Hold on.
Yeah?
There's one possible explanation for
how Aldo died.
Well, look, does it get us any closer
to finding out who killed him?
Well, let me show you what we have.
All right, hold on.
What do you got?
From the position of the body
and the fractures, the killer couldn't
have snapped Aldo's neck while he was restrained.
So what's left?
The most likely explanation
is that Aldo killed himself.
He was fastened to the table
by duct tape,
but he managed to loosen it.
Not enough to escape,
but enough to give him
some range of movement.
If he pushed himself back onto the table,
he could raise his upper torso,
which made it possible for him to generate
a whiplike motion.
And sever his spinal cord.
I don't know.
The man was once a priest.
And suicide is a cardinal sin.
It wasn't a suicide.
Booth, the facts clearly indicate that it was.
A sacrifice, it was a sacrifice.
"Sacrifice"?
He was trying to protect someone.
♪ If you figure me out ♪
♪ You better keep your mouth shut ♪
♪ You can see I'm livin' in my orange tree now ♪
♪ And if you figure it out ♪
♪ I will come down and show you my face ♪
Look, so, um,
sorry that I haven't been exactly present.
Oh, well,
we've all been working hard.
I haven't been that available, either.
No, I'm talking mentally present.
I've been distracted.
Oh, yeah, it's--
it's about your father.
No, I-I understand.
You must be worried about what happens when they find him.
I am.
It's not as cut and dry as I thought it was gonna be.
Well, I'm glad you're seeing that now.
Look, there's something else
that I've been thinking about.
I want you to know that...
I'm not him.
Uh, I know that, Aubrey.
He left his wife, he left me.
You know, I would-- I would never ever do that.
What are you saying?
I'm saying that...
when I commit to something,
it's real.
That I'm serious about us.
Did I say the wrong thing?
No.
Of course not, Aubrey...
...but there's a lot going on.
I know.
And when it's all taken care of,
I'm gonna feel the same way.
I know this is difficult, Booth, but...
...you're gonna get through it.
Yeah,
sounds like something Aldo would have said.
He was right.
Yeah, but this is different.
Bones, he, um...
he died...
'cause he was trying to protect me.
What do you mean?
You know that X-ray
that we saw in the sound studio?
I know who that was.
There was no name on it. I looked for that.
He died of a gunshot wound in the head.
Center core.
3,000 feet away.
I'm the one who made that shot.
That is a ridiculous assumption.
There are other snipers capable...
Bosnia.
1995.
The general-- remember, I told you about him?
The warlord that you had to shoot.
You saved a lot of lives doing that.
I killed him...
I, uh...
I killed him right in front of his own son.
He's got allies and family.
This is about revenge.
You-you can't know that, Booth. It was just one X-ray.
I mean, Aldo knew that I was the shooter.
He killed himself
so he wouldn't have to give me up.
That's one possibility. There are others.
It's the only thing that makes sense, Bones.
And whoever this is, they're not gonna stop
until...
What should we do?
Just be ready.
== sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man
What's that mean?