Bones

The GPS says it's right up here.

You don't even know how to use that thing.

The hell I don't.

We're here.

We just drove an hour through the woods to find more woods

that look just like the woods we drove through.

Eureka.

That's mud.

No, this is like, um...

Yeah, it's pretty much mud.

And it smells like rotten eggs.

Mmm, sulfur.

Very therapeutic.

And you expect me to believe you've never been here before?

A friend of mine told me about this place and swore me to secrecy,

but this is my first time.

In mud.

Come on in.

It's nice.

All right.

Something's poking me.

This mud is reputed to have amazing romantic properties.

I think I got it.

No, I think I'd notice if you got it.

whoa, geez.

This hot spring averages a temperature of 105 degrees,

but it can spike to near boiling, which is why we discourage bathers.

Especially those who illegally drive 4x4 vehicles into a National Park.

So someone was boiled to death?

Or had a heart attack or passed out, etcetera, etcetera.

The remaining flesh will have to be macerated.

What's that?

Uh, don't ask.

The flesh either has to be boiled off or eaten by dermestid beetles.

Bones, why can't you just say "cleaned"?

The sulfur encrusted the bone.

You see the staining?

So it's been there a long time?

Not necessarily.

So why do you even have to bring it up then?

Signs of blunt force trauma.

What's that mean?

That means he didn't pass out and boil to death on his own.

I'm going to need all of the mud.

Excuse me?

Get a tanker truck out here, and suck it up,

so we can filter it back at the Jeffersonian.

Humerus is 36.5 centimeters.

Medium build.

Late 20s, early 30s.

He's broken this bone before.

Is she serious about the mud?

Serious as a gas attack.

Heart attack, Bones.

Serious as a heart attack.

The description's too general to get anything from a missing person's report.

Triangular depression in the calvarium.

Anterior longitudinal one fracture.

Grazed cortical bone in C1.

There's a patterned impression in the bone.

How many times was he hit, and by what?

More than once by a... square pipe?

Does that exist?

In my experience, people hit people with anything they can pick up and swing.

He was attacked from behind?

What?

There's a vertical impaction fracture to his glabella and frontonasal suture.

Same weapon?

It doesn't appear so.

I've seen this before.

Really? Great. Where?

From sharpened stone weapons in "neandertall" skeletons.

I'm thinking not so relevant in this case.

The blow to the front of the head would cause a severe laceration.

There were no bloodstains around the mud bath.

Indicating the body was dumped there postmortem.

Zack, regarding the neanderthals...

"neandertalls."

What was the context of those killings?

Accepted scenarios indicate a single individual attacked by two or more assailants.

Then we're looking for two or more murderers.

Bones Season03 Episode10 The Man In The Mud

I'm not sure about time of death yet.

It was definitely a murder.

Definitely. Probably by two assailants.

What a shock for that couple, huh?

I mean, they slide naked into the hot mud bath

and a skeleton hand pokes her in the, you know...

- anus. - Bones!

What? It's a clinical term for that part of the body, Booth.

Dr. Brennan?

Agent Booth?

Would it be fair to say that you use work to avoid confronting personal issues?

- Oh, why? Because I don't want to talk about, you know... - The anus.

You really like that word, don't you?

Do you two ever discuss anything that's not attached to work?

Well, it's better than talking about, you know...

The anus?

What is it with you two?

Well, Sweets could be right.

I mean we talk a lot about work.

I talk about my kid.

Because he was almost kidnapped during a case.

Uh, my father-- we talk about him.

Because Agent Booth arrested him for murder.

Okay, what are you trying to get at here?

Your inability to share your personal lives.

I.. I thought that was obvious.

Okay, that was snotty.

I don't respond well to snotty.

After a case, sometimes...

we have a drink or coffee.

Booth has pie. I don't like pie.

You.. you really should just... give it a chance.

I find it too sweet.

Okay, there!

We talked about pie.

Nothing to do with work.

It is better when we discuss murder.

I'd like to see you guys in a social situation.

A situation where work is a taboo subject.

What, are you going to send us to a restaurant and watch through a one-way mirror?

I'm still not having pie.

No, an evening out with my girlfriend and me.

They need someone to buy them beer.

You want us to go on a double date?

Listen, why don't you just go on the internet like all the rest of the kids?

Okay, if it goes well, I'll withdraw my concern.

I'll release you back into your environment.

What are we, Brook Trout?

Fine.

Agent Booth?

Unless you think that's too much to prove?

Fine. I'll show him I have nothing to prove.

Bring it on, Sweets.

so far I have three old beer cans, an indian arrowhead,

73 cents in change and a partially melted sharpie.

The victim was braised like osso buco.

The flesh was falling off the bone.

I put time of death between ten days and two weeks.

I found stress fractures and degenerative changes in the facet joints.

Fits with the hypertrophy of the cervical muscles.

I found microscopic tearing.

But he had to sustain this position to cause that kind of wear and tear.

Death by yoga?

Is that skull ready for me yet?

It should be ready.

You can take it out of the boiler any time.

Or you could do that for me because I will never, ever do that.

There are fractures of the pelvis, compression fractures of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae.

Multiple metacarpal and metatarsal fractures...

what was he, a crash test dummy?

The injuries to the vertebrae, tibia, femur are consistent with landing on the feet after falling from ten to 20 feet.

Like jumping out of a tree?

The damage to the scapula and acromion resulted from a low fall

but forward movement from between 16 to 20 miles per hour.

Falling off a bicycle?

These injuries are more recent.

Fractured and scored patella and torn retinaculum.

Okay, even I didn't get that one.

Why would anyone want to kill him?

Sounds like he was doing a good enough job on his own.

Yes, okay, dr. Sweets, I'll ask him.

How is Wednesday night? Are you free?

Oh, what, to have our big double date with our psychiatrist?

Just one more evening and then maybe we won't have to see him anymore.

Fine. Wednesday is fine.

I can't wait.

Does he want me to get you a corsage?

Wednesday is fine.

We'll meet you there.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to meeting her.

Okay, bye.

This might be fun.

His girlfriend works with tropical fish.

- Tropical fish? - Yeah.

This is just weird. Where are we meeting?

At their ceramics class.

What? No. You're kidding.

No. Why would I be kidding?

He said it was a good idea to have a common activity.

Ceramics? I thought the whole point of therapy was to give us peace of mind,

not drive us crazy.

Hey, it's Angela.

- Hey, Angela. - Hey.

I did a rendering of our victim's face.

We're checking him against any reports of missing persons.

Oh, wait a second. That's Tripp Goddard.

Tripp Goddard?

A motorcycle racer.

Oh, I forget sometimes I'm talking to girls.

That would explain the wrist and neck injuries on Zack's report.

Have him confirm with dentals.

Yeah,I don't appreciate the "girls" comment.

Uh, Tripp won a huge motorcycle race about two weeks ago.

That fits time of death.

That would have been the super grand prix out in Virginia.

Tripp won in the final two laps after some kind of accident took out the front-runner.

Girls, huh?

It's not about the machine, it's about the man.