Alright I updated. :D Thanks for the reviews, please keep reviewing though, some feedback on my chapters is always nice and shows you people are still interested in my story.
Well then, here we go. Chapter 5.
In the next chapter I will finally start to make it more interesting. Or so I hope.
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The sun had vanished once again and darkness stroke the earth. Just half an hour ago it had started drizzling like mad as someone knocked onto the door.
"I'm coming." Al said opening the door. In the door, stood a pretty drenched Colonel Mustang.
"May I come in?" he asked politely.
"Oh of course." Al stepped aside leaving Roy space to pass past him.
"Where is your dad?" he asked looking around.
"He is down in the office." Al said and took the Colonel's coat.
"Thanks, Al. I'll come back to talk to you two later." She smiled down at him and patted Al's head gently.
The door of the office creaked and was followed by a loud noise of it falling shut.
"I indeed found data on a few people that have the initals A.R." Roy announced holding up a few thick folders.
"Thanks. I did not get out more of this letter, but it might be without value as soon as we haven't figured out about those graves. I'm sure by now that A.R. refers to a grave, to a deaceased person actually."
Hohenheim looked through the folders.
Roy went over to the desk full of papers. To his left was a pile of books with symbols on it. His hand brushed over the cover touching the imprints. He took another look on the mysterious letter.
"Do not bother to find any finger prints or anything. Those people are more accurate than any serial murder." Hohenheim said absent-minded stil searching through the data.
"I think I found something." The blonde held up one of those files up to the Colonel's nose.
"Why this one?" Roy asked taking the file and thumbed through.
"I remember hearing her name. She was one of those that they intended to experiment on. Yet it never came that far. They might have robbed her grave now and use her body for any other purpose. I heard there was something special to her case. I can not recall it though."
"If that's the case, go get ready, we will head there in the minute." Roy said throwing the file back onto the desk rushing to the office door.
"When the weather is this bad?" Hohenheim asked stiffling a yawn.
"When the weather is this bad our traces will be washed away." The raven haired man smirked.
Hohenheim chuckeled. "I guess you still have the bad boy inside you. Let's move then."
Tires slid in the mood as they pulled up to the cemetary's gate. Before Hohenheim could ask how they planned on opening the gates Roy had already reached into his pocket for the key tounlock the gates.
"This way please." Mustang ordered. Hohenheim did as ordered.
It did not take them long to find Amanda Roosevelt's grave.
Roy pointed his torch at the gravestone. "Deceased 1 year ago. Not too long ago then."
"Look at this." Hohenheim pointed onto the stone that was lying above the coffin. "See those scratches? Someone lifted this stone."
Roy nodded. Slipping in the mud and gravel they moved the stone away a few centimeters. A dark brown coffin with golden ornaments appeared. Hohenheim bent down to lift the lid. His eyes widened at the sight of an emtpy coffin. Rain dripped down his face. His lose hairstrands stuck to his face.
"Did it say anywhere in the report that she was beaten up so badly they could not burry her body?" he yelled trying to drown the noise the heavy rain produced.
"Yes I think it did say something about a heavy car accident. Why? What is in there?" Roy asked.
"A finger." Hohenheim retorted shutting the coffin's lid again.
"What are you trying to tell me?" asked Roy back in the car.
"I don't know yet. I need to translate more of the letter. I might just leave this task to my sons. I would like to ask you though, to find information about a certain Mr. Schank. He was one of those that was working on the A.R.-case. I believe he might know something. Once we have managed to find his location we will meet up with him and fill him into this. He is one of the last I can remember working on this case."
"But why is this case so important to us? I thought it's about finding Trisha?" Roy asked.
"I don't really know. But somehow she must be associated with my wife. Maybe there is some hidden similarity." Hohenheim wondered.
Hohenheim walked back into his home. He was tired, cold and hungry. The smile of his beloved little kids might cheer him up a little.
"Edward. Alphonse." He yelled upstairs.
The boys came running. "What's the matter? Any success with the research?" Ed asked.
"Well." Their dad began. "Somewhat. I have a fairly difficult task for you. Come with me."
He led them into his office. After Edward had shut the door Hohenheim reached for a necklace around his neck. A little key was attached to it. Slowly he approached a little box hid under a shelf. Carefully he locked it open. "See those books?" he asked. "They contain translations about various things. Now take this letter over there and translate as much as you can with these books. Keep in mind though, that there is no final solution to any of those symbols. There might be many meanings to it. We don't know what we are searching about, but I suppose it might be some hidden case. Either way." He brushed his hand over the wooden box dusting it off a little. "Report me any little detail, any symbol, any association you can come up with immediately. We'd better not waste too much time."
The boys nodded and grabbed one of those books. They were heavy but had some similarity to alchemy it seemed to them.
"Dad, don't those book have something to do with Alchemy. Just look at the circles and the symbols." Al pointed at a few of them and then back onto the letter.
Hohenheim's heart sank. "Yes yes you are right. I did not see that. Very well done." He stroked Al's hair. "I knew you two are smart." He smiled.
"What I do not understand yet is what those two have in common. I heard that the roots of this organization and experiments started with Alchemy, or at least had something to do with it. This might make our search easier though."
The doorbell rang. "I will go." He gestured them to keep sitting and made his way to the entrance door.
As he opened them a brunette woman in a mini skirt, dressed as if she was about to go out stood in the doorframe.
"Oh Good evening Mr. Huber." He smiled. "Come inside." He held the door open for her.
"I'm sorry to interrupt this late, but I thought since I was around already comong home from a friend's birthday party I might take a look inside. See I even still got some wine with me." She smile and showed him the bottle she had been holding all the time.
"Sit down." He led her into the living room and reached for two wine glasses out of a little shelf behind the couch.
"Noone at home?" she asked looking around.
"Oh. Heh, my sons are doing homework and my wife left for her sister's place for a while. You know, those family meetings." He put a fake smile on and served the glasses.
Hohenheim took a seat next to Amanda and started pouring wine into their glasses. Amanda sat facing the blonde man and eyed him closely. "You never told me anything about your work actually. What is it about? What were your journey's like?" she asked curiously brushing some creased out of her already so short skirt. Smiling she took the glass she was offered and they clinked glasses.
"Even though there is nothing to celebrate. Cheers."
"Oh I suppose there is. I met a smart man and am allowed to let his knowledge rub off on me." She smiled bright and took a sip of her glass.
Half an hour passed and Hohenheim told her about his journey the past year. Three quarters of the bottle had already been drunken up. Hohenheim was still by his senses, the brunette woman on the other hand appeared a little tipsy.
She giggeled and patted his shoulder as he finished telling her more about his life here with his wife and sons.
"Oh yes, they are so cute when they are young." She laughed falling forward a little every now and then.
"Oh." Hohenheim laughed and caught her as she lost balance and nearly fell onto his lap.
"I'm sorry." She stiffeled her laughter and looked up from the position she was in. "I have to say though, it's comfortable here."
Hohenheim smiled down at her and crinked his glass with hers once again.
"You even look really handsome if I'm looking up at you from down here." She giggeled. Slowly she lifted her upper body supporting it with her elbows.
Thunder roared outside as the silence grew inside. Amanda wrapped her left arm around his neck and tickled his neck playfully. Before Hohenheim had any chance to reject her attempts to get closer to him her lips had already pressed against his.
He was like frozen for a minute. She had similarities to Trisha.
When the information that the woman on his lap sliding her hand under his shirt was not his wife in fact, the blonde man gently pulled her hand out and released from the kiss.
"I'm married, Amanda. You might have grown to be a friend to me somewhat but that is everything and will always be everything. Excuse me." He stood up from the couch and paced around in the dimmed living room.
She giggeled once again. It was a pathetic giggle, almost mad. "I am sorry. I guess I lost control."
"Don't worry about it. Let's pretend it never happened." He gazed out of the window watching the rain drizzle onto the window sill.
"Yes. It never happened." She whispered fixing her hair that had fallen out of the firm knot. "It…never happened."