Process of Elimination

Booth was impressed with how quickly the squints arrived on the scene, though once Cam informed him that they were watching it on the news he felt a little ill. This wasn't the first exploding head he'd seen and even without a bullet he knew came from a sniper rifle.

"Booth! Booth!" a familiar figured pushed through the raucous crowd and thankfully they parted for her. "I'm so glad you're okay. Are there any other victims?"

Booth thought about the innocent kids who'd been dragged along by their parents that might be scarred for life, not to mention Sweets, but shook his head, "Just Heather Taffet."

"Did you see the shooter?"

"No, I was looking at the crowd," he was slightly disgusted with himself on this point. "Next thing I knew her head was gone."

She looked over his shoulder at Sweets and asked about him and Booth assured her they were bringing in the trauma guy since the kid had gotten pieces of Taffet splattered all over him. Meanwhile Caroline bustled over, seemingly more worried about Sweets than the fact that they had a murderer on the loose. Not that a part of him didn't mind that Taffet would never bury another person alive but he didn't like people who made their own rules outside of the law.

Brennan, on the other hand, didn't like the FBI techs messing with her part of the crime scene and Booth had to make sure his people knew that the head went to the Jeffersonian and the body to the FBI.

"Where are you going?" Brennan all but skipped behind him as he moved away from the crime scene and toward a stone wall.

He swore as his eyes confirmed what his gut was screaming. The shot had come from a high-powered rifle, which meant the shot was made from further away than he'd originally guessed. Only a handful of people could've made that shot. More than likely, he thought as he scanned the city skyline, he knew the shooter.

B&B&B&B&B&B&B

Brennan spent the morning cataloguing skull fragments with Wendell while Booth spent it at the Hoover drawing up a suspect list. Unfortunately, as Caroline pointed out there were too many people who wanted Taffet dead and not much to go on. No one, including him, had heard the shot and it could be a while before Angela translated the "Shots Fired" data into something useful.

The other thing on his "To Do" list was check in on Sweets. Though he worked for the Bureau and had been out in the field with them in the past, Sweets was still fairly sheltered from the grisly side of their cases. When it came down to it, even Brennan had seen more in her world travels than Sweets had, and she'd made Booth promise that he would make sure Sweets was handling the trauma as well as could be expected.

When he first arrived at the door to Sweets' office he thought he heard someone else in there, but when he popped his head in Sweets was alone. He looked like hell and he probably wouldn't be getting sleep anytime soon so Booth took pity on him and let him think Booth bought his line about coming to grips with things. That Sweets wanted his door closed when Booth left was another indicator that he wasn't coping well and Booth made a mental note to send somebody else in later to check on him.

He dialed Brennan's number and she picked up on the first ring.

"Is Sweets okay?" she pounced on the issue right away.

He chuckled a little, plopping his feet up on his desk as he waited for his ancient desktop to boot up, "Your baby duck is fine, Bones. Well, as fine as can be expected. I'll send Caroline in too in a little bit."

That seemed to mollify her enough to switch over to the case. She relayed what the lab had gotten so far, while he took notes for the briefing he had to give and they made plans to swap notes over lunch.

"One more thing," he said reluctantly before she hung up. "I had to put Max on the suspect list."

There was a pause on the other end before she asked, "You think he could've done this?"

"Could've? Yes," he said carefully. "Did? No. But since the last time she was transferred I had to body-slam him to stop him from taking her out I had to go there. I'm sorry, Bones."

"No," she said a little too quickly. "No, Booth, you're just doing your job."

"Like I said, Bones, I don't think he did it this time, okay?"

"I understand," she sighed. "And while I too find it highly unlikely that he would risk taking matters into his own hands, such an act is within the realm of possibility; especially given his attachment to our unborn child."

"He'll stick around to watch Bean grow up," Booth assured her. "Count on it."