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Finding Bones	By : MariaTeresaQuintanar Category: 1 through F > Bones Views: 2697 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Bones, The Finder, or any of the other television shows mentioned. I do not make any moneys from this story.

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Chapter Nineteen

            Judge Ernest Harold was a barrel chested man that strode in with a swinging gate with his head held so high one would think he was seven feet tall. In truth, he was only of average height with average looks. He was, if anything, very mundane in his absolute average continence.
            Booth showed him over to the conference room and asked him to wait there for a moment while the others who were coming for the meeting arrived. Caroline Julian nodded towards him as she walked in, sitting down across from him followed in closely by the head of the judicial branch of his court division. He sat up a bit straighter at this, but he didn’t look any more nervous than any man whose boss showed up at an unexpected meeting was.
            Booth showed the judge’s clerk, Lucas Green, into interview and told him to sit tight there while they took care of some unexpected issues.
            “Am I in trouble?” the clerk asked him.
            Booth looked at the tall slim blond man with a grimace and said, “Nothing to do with you. Some paperwork got fucked up and we needed to speak to you about a case that came up for review. You know how it can be.”
            “Yeah,” he said, relaxing a bit. “Sure do. I get buried in the stuff daily. Bureaucracy! What are we going to do, huh?”
            “Yeah, goes with the work,” he said, nodding and closing the door. He told the agents watching the room not to let anyone in or out of it.
            Booth arrived back over to the conference room in time to hear Caroline explaining to the judge that certain anomalies had cropped up recently that gave many pause.
            “Anomalies?” he asked, looking around to the others at the table. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.
            “We were doing a standard evaluation of randomly pulled cases,” Booth told him. “Due to a complaint made about one of your past cases. When it turned out that the lawyer was correct as to what had happened, more of your cases were pulled and your boss—Judge Hastings was called in to precede with the next step in the evaluation process.”
            “I always do things by the book, Larry…”
            “That’s Judge Hastings,” the other man cut him off coldly. “I found seventeen cases that apparently you presided over and yet your court wasn’t in session on those dates at all.” Judge Harold broke out into a sweat at those words. “I could believe that you had paperwork during those times and these cases were seen to out of session, as it can be common place to due at times. But you weren’t in the county for those cases at all.”
            Caroline pulled out a paper and showed it to him, “And what’s worse is that your clerk wasn’t in the state either, as proven by this arrest documentation when he was pulled in on a d and d in Las Vegas.”
            “D and…”
            “Drunk and disorderly,” Booth murmured. “He was arrested for mooning the Strip from the pedestrian bridge over at Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd., sir.”
            Beads of sweat pearled on the man’s forehead, as he whispered, “There must be a mistake…”
            “We thought that might be the case as well,” Booth said to him. “We didn’t want there to be an innocent person put into a place that they didn’t belong because we didn’t do our due diligence, would you?”
            Harold’s face went beet red at those words. “Of course not!”
            “Which is the reason why all of your cases of the past year were reviewed,” Caroline told him and put three cases in front of him. “These three cases stood out even from the rest. You were not in the country so can you please explain to us how is it that you signed off on them and managed to put away these three individuals in a prison ward of a mental hospital?”
            “Well, obviously my clerk had something to do with this,” he told them. “He…”
            “And once again we come across the problem from before,” Booth told him. “He was in jail for two days before he got bailed out.” He handed over the paperwork to the judge. “And then there’s the whole business with the delayed paperwork. The three people were put into the mental facilities a full two weeks before the paperwork was even seen by a single person.”
            “That’s nonsense! Of course I saw those cases when I got back!”
            “Really? Because we have a lawyer for one Magdalena Darning screaming from the rooftops about how she was tossed into that prison mental hospital without due process,” Caroline told him. “What I don’t get is that even if what you said was the case that would mean that you found her guilty in absentia of yourself, a prosecution, a defense, or a jury.”
            Harold was clearly scared out of his head about what was going on. Swallowing thickly, he said, “That’s nonsense! I was there and I have to tell you that I recall it very well! The woman was highly disturbed.”
            “Really? So you met her?” Booth asked him.
            “Yes, I recall her. It was sad. Her killing her brother and mother the way she did…”
            “Who prosecuted the case?”
            He hedged and muttered, “I can’t rightly think of who that could be.”
            “Odd that you shouldn’t recall a lawyer that you more than likely have worked with on several occasions and yet you recall the case and the woman that was put into that prison mental hospital that you met for a total amount of time of…” Booth looked at the papers in front of him. “Forty-five minutes?”
            “There is a way to clear this all up, I’m sure,” Judge Hastings said. “That is if you’re willing to do so?”
***
            Caroline, Judge Hastings, and Booth put the judge’s clerk through the same issues that they had the judge. And much like the judge, he had agreed to view the line-up as well.
            The four of them stood behind the one way glass as the line up of five different women strolled into the room. The woman officer guiding them, snapped out orders to them as they went. Stopping them, she went over to the front of the line and used her radio.
            “All here and accounted for,” she called in.
            “Take your time,” Booth told him. “No sense in rushing things, seeing as this is only about paperwork and the potential lack of due process.”
            This had the young man swallowing thickly before turning back to look at the women in front of him.
            “It was a while ago…”
            “Nine months, two weeks and three days isn’t that long ago,” Caroline said waspishly. “But I do have a question though, how is it that you even saw her considering you were in lockup yourself over in Nevada?”
            He looked to them sharply. “Uh…”
            “Two days for a d and d,” Booth murmured. “But really, if you can pick her out of the line up.”
            “Number three!” he rushed out. “I’m sure of it!”
            “Are you sure?” Judge Hastings asked him. “Absolutely sure?”
            “Yes, sir,” he replied. “I couldn’t forget her face.”
            “Good to know,” Caroline said. “Let’s get our people together, shall we?”
            Judge Hastings sat at the head of the table with Caroline to his right. Booth was standing at the door and the two men sat facing towards it and him.
            “What is this about?” Judge Harold demanded.
            “This is about injustice,” Caroline said as the two women that had been picked out of the line up came over and stood in front of them. “These are the women you both chose from your lineups. Trouble is that not only couldn’t you agree on which one of the women it was, but neither one was the actual woman that supposedly was so memorable.” Both men were sweating up a storm now.
            “You can’t say…”
            “I can for a fact say that neither one of these women are Magdalena Darning,” Caroline told them. “Seeing as my step-brother was her father and I’ve known that girl most of her life, I should say that I know what the girl looks like by this time, don’t you think, Agent Booth?”
            “Yes, ma’am, I do believe you would,” he said coolly just as Maggie came over and took off her hat. Walter joined them. “As would her husband, I’m guessing.”
            “I’d know my Maggie anywhere,” he said, turning to face her. “Hi, Sunshine.”
            “Hi, Walter,” she murmured, coming over and sitting down in front of the now sweating men. “So just how many silver coins did you sell your souls for?”
            “You killed…”
            “My brother is alive and well, as you know as he was the one to pay you two off,” she said. “As is my mother. She’s in an assisted living center in Chino, California. She’s been there since 2006 with a rapid form of Alzheimer’s. Or was the last time I was able to check.”
            “She’s there alright,” Booth said. “I checked. She doesn’t know which way is up, but she’s there.”
            “You had me thrown into a prison mental hospital without due process on a crime that never happened,” she murmured, swallowing thickly. “The amount of anger I have stored really knows no end in this regard.” She stood up, looking to them both. “I hope you both are offered the same consideration you two gave me.” They blanched at her words. “It’s the best curse I can think of.” She took Walter’s hand and the two of them walked out of the room.
            Once they were far enough away as to know that neither one would be overheard, she asked, “Do you have my change of clothing?”
            “Yes,” he replied. “You have a copy of the evidence?”
            “Yes,” she murmured. “Did you make the phone calls?”
            “Yes.”
            She slipped into the restroom with the change of clothes, coming back out again looking and feeling like herself once again. He smiled at her.
            “Ready?” he asked her quietly.
            Taking his hand into her own, she kissed the back of it. “Are you?”
            He leaned down and kissed her mouth lightly. “We’ll get through this just like everything else.”
            She nodded. “Let’s get this done, shall we?”
***
            Booth and Brennan were following the couple. Seeley made sure that there was always two cars between them and the cab Maggie and Walter were in.
            “Why are we following them like this?” Brennan asked him. “It seems odd to be following them when we could have all gone there together. It certainly would have saved on gas.”
            “It has to look like she had no hand in it,” Booth told her. “Her uncle may be cool with us, but the rest of them don’t know us from a hole in the ground. All they see is that we’re the cops and they’ll flip. But if we do this just the right way, we get ourselves her brother without stepping on toes and Maggie doesn’t get into trouble too. It’s a win-win.”
            “But what if that doesn’t happen?”
            His hands gripped the steering wheel hard and said, “I’ll get you out of there as fast as humanly possible. Walter will do the same for Maggie.” He flicked a look over to her. “But I doubt that will be the case.”
            “As do I,” Brennan said. “From what little she’s spoken about her family, I get the feeling that Maggie is very important within her family’s dynamic. Her name gives her power politically. And if they don’t respect the name, they most certainly respect what she can do.” She was quiet a moment. “I would not want to be her brother at this moment.”

TBC...
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Finding Bones