May 30, 2008

4:15 pm

"Calm down for two damn seconds and tell me what the hell you mean by cherries." Hodgins is nearly screaming by this point as he firmly grips his old colleagues by his shoulders. They're back in Zack's room, waiting for Booth and Brennan.

"A soap, a perfume, a hairspray? Something you put on your body. Something that makes everyone with a fifteen foot radius gag and choke and overall breathe nothing BUT cherries."

"Zack you're not making sense. I'm not wearing cherries," he sniffs his shirt "this is definitely Old Spice."

"Definitely." Angela repeats.

"No no no not you, the murderer. She loved cherries." Zack says as he crosses to the wall this his chalk drawings and inhales deeply.

"How do you know the murderer wasn't a he?" Angela asks, taking a seat next to her old friend. "Wow, that is very cherry."

"Yea, Iron-"

"Orian."

"Orian had access to your room. Didn't steal one of those master keys?" Hodgins raises an eyebrow but Zack just smiles, leading Jack Hodgins to believe his friend really might be crazy. At this moment, Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth enter the room, both looking stern.

"What do you have guys?" Booth asks, his hands on his hips, very authoritatively.

"Orian or that Michael Thomas kid, was messing with Zack's evidence. We think he might be a good suspect to reexamine." Hodgins says he considers for a second putting his hands on his hips but for some reason, refrains.

"Wait a sec, Zack's evidence?" Booth asks. And Zack breaks his smile to look away sheepishly.

"You didn't know that Zack had been conducting an investigation from the mental asylum?" Angela asks, like Booth and Brennan should have known. The both of them shake their heads and look to Zack who refuses to meet their glance.

"It was sort of behind-your-back kind of thing." his voice has gotten quieter. Perhaps under the slight intimidation of Seeley Booth or maybe from under the stare of Temperance Brennan, a woman he once called a teacher, a colleague, and the closest to a best friend besides Hodgins. But Dr. Brennan's eyes were not stern but soft. He can hardly let back a smirk and when Zack finally looks up from behind twisted curls of chocolate brown he catches her wink.

The next to enter the room is Dr. Lance Sweets.

"Who invited you?" Booth asks, turning to face the lanky psych squint.

"No one did, actually, I was unaware there was a little meet up. I came to tell Zack that he would be getting a new-"

"Not now Sweets, we are in the middle of an investigation." Booth puts up a hand to Sweets who's expression turns to surprise.

"Zack! But you didn't…not again…"

"What? No. It's not me."

"It's Michael Thomas, that schizophrenic friend of his. " Hodgins rolls his eyes. And Zack laughs.

"No…"

"Yes, who else wouldn't want you to investigate this case if you had a lead? Michael was just up here!"

"When? Where is he now?" Seeley reaches for his gun, readying himself for a chase.

"I don't know but you guys it wasn't him." Zack says. Sometimes, is can just be so frustrating when no one will listen let alone understand. But Zack was used to such frustrations and let his scene play out.

"If you don't know where he is, he might be on the run, I'll be right back." and Agent Booth is out the room in a flash. Hodgins and Angela breathe a sigh of relief like the case is close but Dr. Brennan looks on at her former student and Dr. Sweets remains tense.

"That's a lovely smell emitting from that wall." Sweets observes with a slight crack in his voice.

"Sweets, don't be weird. Booths on the trail of Oreo. The crazy kids gonna confess the game is over." Hodgins collapses on Zack's bed and closes his eyes in relaxation.

"Who is is, Zack?" Dr. Brennan finally speaks as she watches Dr. Addy carefully.

"Who else had access to your room besides that rat with the stolen master key?" Hodgins asks.

"Candace Clark." Zack is using his know it all voice he used to only use to piss Dr. Hodgins off but he just couldn't help it today. This was his case. He did it. He solved a case almost all by himself.

"What?" The word was heard from three the four corners of Zack's room from each confused colleague.

"Candace Clark already had a key. Candace Clark was the ex lover of a Benjamin Oshiro. Candace Clark was a jealous wreck. Candace Clark had military training and could snap a neck like Ben's. Candace Clark curled her hair the day that Ben died. Candace Clark used hairspray to do so, and a curling iron. Not that I've had any experience with such as device as I am all natural -believe it or not- but I'm pretty sure that it works with heat."

"Vinyl acetate." Dr. Hodgins mutters with surprise. Zack nods with a smile. Next he turns to Dr. Sweets.

"I hear you've been meeting with Candace about her mental state, Dr. Sweets. Would you like to come over here and sniff that wall?"

"I can smell it from here." Lance chokes.

"What is the scent?" Zack is beside him now. Closer than usual. Over the past week, with the help of Lilac of course, Zack had been able to step out of his comfort zone, standing besides Sweets was unlike him but he felt comfortable despite only knowing him slightly.

"Cherries."

"And from being inside her house for her psych evaluation, what-" he steps aside dramatically giving Sweets a full spot light. Zack enjoys the theatrics. And with his adrenaline so high, he could practically break out into song at any moment. "-is Candace Clark's signature perfume and favorite smell in the entire world?"

"Cherries."

"Cherries!" Zack beams. He can't help but dance. Sweets himself smiles in spite of Zack's glee. Hodgins and Angela give each other approving nods but Brennan's face remains uncracked.

"Oh, I must be coming down with something." she inhales as everyone stares at her. "It seems, you can smell that back wall from here, and I can't smell anything at all from my stand point."

"There must be a similar scent from a different point in the room," but Zack can't say another word before the door swings open and Candance Clark, her hair wild and out in front of her face, her make up running down her face in streaks and her clothing wrinkled as if she'd just been in a struggle, is revealed to the room. In one hand, she grips Lilac's paper engagement ring. In the other, a bloodied, kitchen carving knife.