Air Date 9/29/05

ACT 1
FBI SPECIAL AGENT SEELEY BOOTH and DR. TEMPERANCE BRENNAN wait for ZACK ADDY, Brennan's assistant. Booth is annoyed that Zack is holding them up. Zack chats with NAOMI from Paleontology. DR. JACK HODGINS explains to ANGELA MONTENEGRO that Zack and Naomi slept together. Since then, she hasn't returned his calls. After the topic fizzles out, they realize they need a murder to liven things up. As Naomi heads off, they hurry Zack out of the lab so the investigation can begin.

Booth explains the case as they drive. A body was found at Hanover Preparatory Academy. Zack wants advice about women while Brennan is miffed that Booth didn't say good morning. Isn't he supposed to do that? Booth tries to get the socially awkward scientists to focus. Many wealthy students attend the prep school so they might try to make this go away.

At Hanover Preparatory, Brennan and Booth prepare to view the remains. They meet SHERIFF KAREN ROACH. With her is LEO SANDERS, head of school security, and the headmaster, PETER RONSON. Karen worked with Brennan on another case but Brennan only remembers the bones. The school is nearing the end of a two-week break. The headmaster wants the remains removed before the students return.

Sheriff Karen shows them to a tree where the body of a young male hangs by his neck. Crows feast on the flesh. Zack begins to take pictures and video when the boy's head breaks free and falls from the tree. The body comes tumbling after.

ACT 2
At the lab, Brennan does an initial examination of the remains. The victim was between the ages of 14 and 17. He was wearing a necklace that suggests he was Catholic. Brennan sees something near the skull and pulls out a cochlear implant. The victim was deaf. The serial number on the implant should help identify him.

Booth speaks with Leo and Peter at the school. They haven't been able to determine if any students are missing because not everyone has returned from break yet. Peter promises to do a full role call tomorrow. However, he is worried about the press. "It's obviously a suicide. It's not as though we're asking you to forgo the glory of catching a murderer." Peter and Leo drive their point home. As a school with a reputation for carefully protecting its students, a murder would be very embarrassing.

At the lab, Booth set off all kinds of alarms on the Forensic Platform. He asks Brennan for an access card. Brennan also has a request: a gun. That's out of the question. Brennan shot someone. The victim is NESTOR OLIVOS, the son of a Venezuelan ambassador. Brennan notes an odd detail about the body. The hyoid is broken. This would be normal in an adult hanging but in a teenager, the bone is flexible and wouldn't break. As they discuss the case, both Brennan and Booth get a call.

In the FBI Major Crimes Unit, Booth and Brennan get a lecture from SPECIAL AGENT MICKEY SANTANA. They aren't moving the case along fast enough. All the "movers and shakers" at the school have been pushing for an answer. He turns to Brennan. Murder or suicide? Brennan contemplates. "My official finding is that Nestor Olivos is a victim of a homicide."

ACT 3
Booth drives while Brennan sits in the passenger seat. He thanks her. His gut told him this was murder. Brennan did not make her decision to please Booth. She declared the death a murder so their investigation could continue and they could find the truth. Booth is not a fan of Hanover Preparatory Academy. "I don't like people who think they're better than other people."

Booth and Brennan meet with Nestor's parents at their home. AMBASSADOR OLIVOS cannot believe the news. Her eyes fill with tears. His parents last heard from him through an email a few days after the school break began. Booth asks for a copy of the email.

At the lab, Zack taps Hodgins for advice about Naomi. Zack wants information, instructions and techniques. After all, Hodgins has slept with plenty of women. Hodgins is uncomfortable telling Zack what he wants to know.

In Booth's office, Booth and Brennan question the school's counselor, DR. THERESA PETTY. Peter and Leo sit by her side. Dr. Petty claims that Nestor was at risk for suicide. "He was alienated by culture, by language, by his handicap, by his own social awkwardness." Leo tells Booth and Brennan that no one noticed Nestor's disappearance because he was supposed to be vacationing with his roommate. He produces a note from Ambassador Olivos giving Nestor permission for the trip. Booth plans to question the roommate first thing tomorrow.

At Wong Foo's, Brennan meets the owner, SID SHAPIRO. He knows what people want to order. Angela, Zack and Hodgins squeeze in next to Brennan and Booth. They have news. "The grooves the rope left in the branch where Nestor was hanging are too deep for his weight," reports Angela. Hodgins has news too. Nestor died in or around that tree 10 to 14 days ago. Yet, the email Nestor sent to his parents arrived seven days ago.

At the FBI, Booth questions Nestor's roommate, TUCKER PATTISON. Tucker says that the other kids made fun of Nestor for being deaf. Tucker invited Nestor on his family's vacation but Nestor decided to go home to Venezuela. "An email was sent to Nestor's parents from Nova Scotia saying what a great time he was having. The only thing is that Nestor was already dead," Booth says. Tucker realizes he's caught. He claims that Nestor begged him to write the email. It was a cover so Nestor could be with the girl he liked. Tucker doesn't know who she is.  

Ambassador Olivos visits Brennan at the lab. She hands Brennan a DVD. It shows Nestor being able to hear for the first time after receiving his cochlear implant. "The child who has lived through this miracle would never take his own life," the Ambassador tells Brennan. Because of her job, the Ambassador's family has enemies. She sent her son to Hanover so he would be safe. She doesn't doubt that they would portray this death as a suicide even if it were not. Brennan promises to discover the truth.

Angela attempts to learn how Nestor's hyoid was broken. She could find only one scenario in which this is an outcome. An added weight of 200 pounds would break the hyoid bone. This doesn't make sense, but it's the only option she can offer.
At Hanover Preparatory Academy, Booth takes Brennan to search Nestor's room. As they approach the room, a MAN comes toward them. When he sees Booth and Brennan, he bolts. Brennan runs after him. The man tries to attack her but she holds her own until Booth knocks him out. They check his ID. The man works for security at the Venezuelan Embassy.

ACT 4
At the Venezuelan Embassy, Booth and Brennan confront the Ambassador. She sent TOVAR COMARA to the school to prove that it could be infiltrated. Someone could have broken in and killed her son. His death is not a suicide. Booth reminds her that Brennan has already ruled the death a homicide. Comara tells Brennan that he doesn't believe insurgents killed Nestor. "They would make a statement. Not fake a suicide."

In Nestor's room, Booth asks Brennan to do her "anthropologist thing." Nestor spent most of his time in his room so there has to be a clue here. Brennan begins by going through Nestor's CDs. He liked certain music because he could feel the vibrations. Booth finds a broken CD in the trashcan. Yet, the case sits on the shelf. Inside is a new copy of the broken CD. Brennan notices that it is actually a DVD. They watch it. It shows Nestor making love to a girl in his room.

At the school, Peter tells Booth and Brennan that Nestor is not the only student to make a sex tape. They all do it. Booth asks for the tapes. At first, Peter refuses but Leo explains that they don't have them. They turned all of them over to Sheriff Karen. Booth also squeezes the name of the girl out of Peter: CAMDEN DESTRY.

Booth questions Camden with her mother, MELODEE DESTRY. Camden denies dating Nestor and her mother confirms that she is too young to date. Booth plays the tape. Camden and her mother are shocked at what they see. Their lawyer protests. Booth just wants the truth. Camden admits that she loved Nestor. She doesn't understand why he would make a tape of them together. She cries as her mother comforts her.
Brennan and Booth watch all the sex tapes they got from Sheriff Karen. Nothing unusual stands out until they see Melodee Destry, Camden's mother, having sex with Tucker Pattison.

ACT 5
Booth drags Tucker into the interrogation room again. He admits that he and Melodee slept together for a few months. In the tape, they are having sex on Nestor's bed. Why? Booth thinks it's because Tucker knew where the camera was hidden. Tucker claims that it was Nestor's idea. They made a tape and blackmailed her. Nestor would show her husband unless she paid $5,000. She did. They were going to do it again but Nestor killed himself.

At the lab, Hodgins reports that Nestor had Ketamine in his system. Brennan has a realization. "The Ketamine plus choking could have caused Nestor to regurgitate. Rope would hold the gastric juices in the upper throat weakening the hyoid." Angela runs the new scenario. The gastric juices would have damaged and cracked the hyoid within eight days. There is an explanation for the broken hyoid after all. Brennan now believes Nestor committed suicide. Booth does not agree. He storms out angrily.

Angela approaches Brennan at the lab as she stares at Nestor's bones. Angela agrees with Booth. Nestor did not kill himself. Brennan sees no other rational explanation. There is no proof that he was murdered. Angela thinks she might have some.
In Angela's office, Angela shows Booth and Brennan a snippet of video she found on Nestor's hard drive. Someone tried to erase it. In this clip, Nestor gives Camden a seahorse necklace. A blackmailer wouldn't do that. Nestor was a kid in love. Brennan notices something. Camden looks at the camera. She knew it was there. She was part of this. Booth has a plan.

Booth questions Camden while Tucker is in the next room. Camden is spooked by Tucker's presence. Why is he here? Booth and Brennan tell her that all she has to do is tell her side of the story. If it matches Tucker's, they can go. Camden says it was Tucker's idea to sleep with her mother. Melodee gave Tucker money to stay quiet so they got the idea to blackmail her. When they got even more money, Tucker wanted Camden to try. She made a tape with Nestor but felt bad about it. She really liked him. When they showed Nestor the tape he was distraught. That's why he killed himself. Booth arrests her. Nestor was going to expose their scam so they murdered him. There will be traces of her DNA on the rope used to tie him in the tree.

Booth and Brennan meet with Ambassador Olivos. They report that Peter and Leo will lose their jobs. The sheriff will resign. Tucker and Camden are in custody. Before she goes, Brennan tells the Ambassador that Nestor was a good man. He died trying to do the right thing. Booth is impressed with Brennan's empathy.

ACT 6
At Wong Foo's, Angela gives Zack the sex talk. She advises him to tell to Naomi that he knows nothing about "making love." Naomi will have to teach him. Angela assures him this will work. Booth and Brennan arrive at the restaurant. Booth is ticked that the Squints are invading his spot. He regulates them to one table. Everything else is his. Brennan joins him at "his" counter and confesses that he has a knack for instincts and reading people. In the future, she will rely on that more. Booth thanks her and tells her to go to her table. Before she leaves, she hands him a keycard to the Jeffersonian. Booth likes his picture.