Previously...Booth hasn't heard much good about the Neptune sheriff. The worst stuff comes from when Vinnie van Lowe was a PI in town, but there's a fair amount of unethical behavior and skeevy treatment of employees coming from since the man was elected.
Booth suspects that if the man had been sheriff for more than a few months, there'd be more bad things to say. Still, he figures the good people of Neptune elected the man, and they're getting what they asked for. What they deserve, probably.
Plus, the man's keeping him waiting. Booth's never much cared for that kind of power play. It just makes him irritable.
When the sheriff finally emerges, hand extended, Booth shakes it a bit harder than is perhaps strictly necessary. "Nice to meet you, Sheriff," he says. "Glad you could make time to see me."
Van Lowe waves off the passive-aggressive comment. "Oh, no problem. Until you dropped this Lynn Echolls things in our laps, it's been pretty quiet around here."
Booth raises an eyebrow, but lets the comment pass as they enter the sheriff's office. "Yeah, well, I'm here to see what you guys have on that. It's a hell of a thing, huh? You think you've got it solved and it's easy, and then, bam, the whole thing falls apart 'cause one crazy rich lady decides to do things the hard way."
Van Lowe nods. "It really is. The department never questioned that it was a suicide. Why should they? Even under my predecessor, who wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, they had no reason to question that."
"I understand the son did, though," Booth says, flipping through the file. "First interview he says she'd never do anything like that."
"Yeah, but later you'll see he changed his tune," van Lowe says, smug. "Musta just been overcome with grief or something."
Booth narrows his eyes. "Overcome with grief. OK." He reads through the later testimony, then asks, "What's this about a tape? Doesn't seem to have come into evidence."
Van Lowe pulls the transcript back toward him, reads through it again. "Oh, yeah. Didn't seem to want to talk about it, did he? Can't blame the kid. I didn't work that case - he hired my competitor, Mars Investigations, to look into it." He picks up the phone. "Deputy Sachs, please come to my office. Deputy Sachs." Replacing the handset, he says to Booth, "Sachs worked the case. He should have an idea of what went down."
Sachs, a nervous-looking man with a mustache much too large for his body, enters the room. "Yeah, Sheriff?"
"Hey, Sachs, what you got on the Lynn Echolls case? You were in on the interview with the son, right?"
Sachs nods.
"What's all this about a tape?" Booth asks, jumping to the point.
Sachs looks surprised. "Uh, well, he mentioned it," he says, thinking.
Clearly, Booth notes, Sachs isn't the brightest crayon in the box either.
"But he stopped, right? And didn't want to say anything else. Couldn't find out what the tape was, what was on it, anything. He wouldn't say. Had to drop it, since we couldn't figure out what the relevance was."
Booth sighs softly. Idiots. How hard was it to see that the tape was important? Anything people don't want to talk about was clearly more important than what they would.
"Any idea who'd know more about this tape?" Booth asks, trying to cover his impatience.
"Uuuh," Sachs says, stumped.
"Keith Mars might know. Like I said, Logan Echolls hired him to look into things." van Lowe says. "He won't talk to me, but he might talk to Sachs here. Or you, Agent Booth."
Booth nods. "Get him on the phone," he says crisply.
Van Lowe nods, dials the number, then hands the phone over to Booth. "Mars Investigations," a voice on the other end says.
"Mr. Mars," Booth says. "This is Special Agent Seeley Booth. I understand your agency was involved in the first investigation of Lynn Echolls' death. Can you fill me in on that?"
There's a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. "My daughter handled that case as a favor to Logan. They were..." Long pause. "Friends."
"Friends," Booth says flatly.
"At that time, yeah. They dated, later, but that doesn't change the fact that I wasn't involved."
Booth frowns. "Anyway I can talk to her about it?"
"She's at school right now - I can maybe check the case file, see if she left any notes." Mars sounds dubious about the odds of that, though.
"Why don't you do that." Apparently the younger Mars isn't the most professional of detectives out there.
"Hang on, I'll go get it," Mars says. He's back in a few minutes. "She left notes. Says the tape came from some kids who were making a movie - freshmen. They caught Lynn's dive from the bridge on tape."
"Names?" Booth asks, pulling an index cards from his jacket pocket.
Mars surrenders them, then asks, "Do you need anything else, Agent Booth?"
"No, that's all for now, Mr. Mars. Let your daughter know I might need to speak to her."
"Sure, sure."
They exchange pleasantries and Booth hands the phone back to van Lowe, who has since dismissed Sachs.
"Thank you very much for your time, sheriff," Booth says, standing. He won't say the sheriff's been helpful, but the whole thing certainly could have gone worse.
"No problem, no problem." Van Lowe extends a hand, and Booth goes easier on him this time.
Booth's about to walk out the door when van Lowe clears his throat. "Uh, your partner."
Booth turns back, raises an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
"She's, uh, quite the looker, from what I hear," van Lowe says.
"She's an attractive woman," says Booth, suddenly prim. You'd have to be blind to miss the fact that Bones is gorgeous.
"Yeah, that too," van Lowe says. "You think she's got time to go on a date with yours truly? I don't wanna distract from your case, but I'd hate for her to miss out on Neptune's finest."
Booth stares for a moment. Really? Neptune's finest? God, he hopes not.
"Uh, we're pretty busy. With the case. Probably not."
Van Lowe nods in understanding. "Well, if you get a moment, let her know Vinnie van Lowe's interested, OK?"
Booth covers a laugh with a cough. "Sure thing, Vinnie. Sure thing."
