15.

A name is a powerful tool. That was something he had grown up to know, despite the fact that he came from a place that valued and recognized the selfless acts and tried to live as docile as one could. However with two messed-up parents as his, Four valued that one lesson both his parents thought him that having a certain name could be used for many things. One of those things were to get audience with one of the biggest crime bosses in Chicago, but considering that the boss was his own mother was helping the matter.

Four held a stone-like expression on his face as that beggar escorted him through a hidden passage by entering the sewers. If he hadn't been out of opinions he wouldn't have never even considered seeking out his mother, but he was desperate to figure out what happened with Tris's parents and the only one who might know the reason was his mother. Still that didn't mean their reunion was going to be all happy and cheery, especially since he could never forgive her for what she did to him all those years ago.

Once they were reached the end of the passage, they entered underground city with tents and graffiti all over the place. The smell and dirt wasn't really helping the matter, but it was totally different from anything he has ever seen. They continued walking through a crowd of people, all dressed the similar way as the beggar, until they stopped in the middle of the room or place or whatever and he was face to face with a middle-aged woman with curly black hair and olive skin. She also had stern/angular features, a hooked nose, strong jaw, spare upper lip, stick-out ears, and dark eyes that almost looked black. To be frankly, he saw many of same traits on himself and it was no question whose child he was, even though he wished nothing more that he didn't share DNA with neither of his parents.

"Tobias," His mother stared at him with relief and what one would assume was happiness, but he wasn't fooled by her act since he already what kind of person she truly was behind that mask of hers.

"Evelyn," Four responded coldly, his arms were crossed against his chest as he stared at the woman. While did that he once again wondered why he was doing this in first place because all he felt towards this person was just betrayal and anger. "I need to talk with you."

Based on his tone they both knew that this was a business call, not a social call. Which she was sadden to learn as he walked passed her and bumped into her shoulder hard, but didn't stop and apologize just continue walking till she followed after him. The tension between the two of them were thick and heavy as they continued on to her office and shut the door behind them in order for them to speak in private. But it was needless to say that the reunion between mother and son was anything but a joyful event.

If things didn't start happening soon she was sure she was going to lose her mind in boredom. Seriously, there wasn't much she could inside a vaulted room with the only person in the room with happened to be a dead corpse that was starting to decay or something that made the entire room stink of death. She looked over at the body of Mr. Hawkes, considering if she was crazy enough to talk to herself or the body a few feet away from her. Neither option seemed flattering to say the least, but she was desperate for some kind of company and since there was a dead body was willing then she shouldn't really complain, right?

"Who did this to you, and why would they do it?" Tris asked, mentally groaning to herself how she started to sound like Christina when she was working on the autopsies. She would talk to these bodies like they were alive, which made her wonder how when her best friend did so it seemed sweet, but when she did it she sounded like a crazy person. She ran a hand through her hair, something that seemed to have been the millionth time she had done it just the last hour, and murmured to herself, "Great, Tris, you are making an accomplishment in life by talking and befriending a dead guy. You couldn't stick to the living."

Of course no one answered her, which was the only comforting thing about the whole situation, so she leaned her head back and met the hard wall.

She stared up the ceiling once again, this time not bothering to try counting the ceiling plates after she had already confirmed there were twenty-five plates after counting them the last ten times. She had almost given up hope that something could pull her out of her misery until she heard her phone ringing. Then she pulled out the cell phone out of her jacket and answered it without checking caller ID, and said almost pleadingly, "Please tell me you got something or at least have something interesting to tell me because I'm literally going out of my mind in boredom."

The familiar sound of Uriah's chuckle lightened her mood immediately as he answered, "Must be tough to be stuck without anything to do, especially since you can't really touch the scene in fear to contaminate the crime scene."

"You have no idea," She said honestly, as she looked at Mr. Hawkes that was literally staring at her with glassy eyes, which was starting to creep her out. "Now tell me something I don't know."

Uriah responded in a similar way you would think he was saluting her and said, "Sure thing boss, your wish is my command."

She rolled her eyes by his weird antics and waited for him to continue. Which he thankfully did shortly after that when he said more straight to the point, "Okay, so I followed up on the lead you gave me and began look for Abigail Green, our mystery woman, and found out she lived in Amity and her occupation was helping out at her family farm."

Tris nodded and asked, "What the connection with our victim?"

Then Uriah went on explained the short version how Miss Green had been one of Mr. Hawkes's sexual liaisons and after the deed was done they never saw or heard from each other again. Tris listened, but quickly made the conclusion that the story seemed way too clean especially since that prescription bottle in his medicine cabinet stated that it was more than a casual one-time fling.

She stood up from the place she had been sitting and began once again looking around the room for prove that supported her theory that Miss Green wasn't telling the truth, while trying to keep the crime scene intact and as little as possible disturbed from her search.

"So what do you think? Do you believe her story?" Tris asked as she went through the trashcan that was hidden under the Mahoney desk and she hadn't looked through earlier. Mostly insignificant paper shreds from hand written notes or takeout orders, but at the bottom she hit the jackpot and found several opened packages of condom wrappers.

"Not really," Uriah replied. "I can't explain it, but she didn't seem like the type to be around such a hot-shot like our victim. And also the staff didn't mention anything about lots of female visitors coming and going either, which causes the question who is really telling the truth."

"Indeed," Tris answered back, almost absentminded since she was too focused on the evidence she had just found to listen. When she snapped out of it, she coughed awkwardly before she said, "Well…we can confirm this guy had a lot of female visitors based on the used condoms I found. So we can either assume the entire staff is lying to us or that our victim had been clever and gotten them inside another way than the front door."

In some ways it made sense that their victim would keep his personal life on a low profile, especially considering who and what exactly he was doing in the meantime, and adding the whole paranoid tendency of his was just the icing on the cake.

Uriah waited a moment; probably to sort through the information she had just given him before he asked with a low voice in order to keep others from listening in, "You're thinking that there is another entrance into the bedroom, but how is that possible? Everybody including the locksmith told us that there weren't one. Why would they all lie?"

Tris shrugged her shoulder, having absolutely no clue to the answer to his question, but answered stubbornly, "I don't know why, but it is good enough to assume right now that no one is telling us the truth. So I suggest that you push Miss Abigail for more information, after all neither you or I believe that she only met this guy once and left at that, especially considering we found her pills in his medicine cabinet, which ultimately ties her to the victim. So take her down to the station, check her story and alibi for the murder as well her background just to be sure. Try and get Zeke or Four to help you out, while I'm going to try and see if my theory is right by searching for a second entrance in here."

Uriah agreed on her plan, though he was more reluctant on the idea of a possible second entrance, but at least it allowed her to do something other than to sit around and wait to be rescued like some damsel in distress. A couple of words were exchanged between the two partners before they hung up and dived straight into the assignment they have been given out.

They were sitting across from one another with only a table separating them, but it was still at such close proximity that Four were at the brick of wanting to move away just to keep a larger distance between him and his mother. However seeing as it was him who was there to see her and request her help, he decided to ward against doing that for now until he saw a better reason to make a distance other than his personal issue with her.

His mother looked at him curiously before she had the guts to ask, "Not that I'm displeased with you being here, Tobias, but why exactly are you and what do you need to talk to me about?"

He glared at her, in honest opinion he hated his name for several reasons and the only one he would want to use his given name again was Tris, so hearing his mother saying it like he was still that little boy that lived in a broken home before his mother abandoned him and left him alone with a monster.

"Before we get into that matter, let me be frank about something," Four slammed his hand hard into the table before he lifted his finger and pointed at her while keeping the exasperated glare on her. "You might be the one who gave birth and raised me for nine years, but you lost the privilege to be my mother when you left me with Marcus. So you don't get to be all motherly with me now twenty-one years later and please refrain yourself from calling me Tobias. Right now I'm known as Four and I would appreciate you understand and respect my wishes."

She looked astounded by his words, but she closed her eyes and sighed wearily before she answered with more firmness, "Alright, Four. What is it that I can do for you, a homicide detective of Dauntless Police Department?"

Of course she would know what he did for living, shouldn't really be a surprise seeing as she run the criminal circle and had eyes and ears all over the five cities, but that didn't mean he really appreciated that she kept an eye on him and his life. But he wasn't going to get into that right now, so instead he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms and said seriously, "You must have heard about the two bodies that were found in the forest by the border between Amity and Abnegation."

"Can't say I haven't," She leaned back in her seat and folded her arms against her chest as she continued to stare at him with curiosity and pride. "So why are you interested in knowing? I thought it was pretty obvious that when two suspicious bodies are found at a scene that it is your job to figure out what happened and who has done it. As you made perfectly clear you don't need me to be your mother to tell you how to do your job."

He glared at her coldly. Seriously, he hated dealing with her, especially since she wasn't making the whole interaction any easier. Was it too much to ask for this woman to just shut up and listen instead of being such a pain in his ass? Apparently, but considering he was desperate enough to even come to her and ask for her help, forced him to swallow his rude and snappy remarks. So he continued asking, while pretending he hadn't her words and said, "We both know that you are pretty connected all over the place, having eyes and ears on everything that is going on, so I was hoping or rather I'm demanding that you will tell me everything you know about this as well as any other unsolved homicide case that has happened at that exact location."

His mother closed her eyes, nodded her head and thought seriously over what he was asking of her before she opened her eyes and simply stared at him. However he knew that look in her eyes, she had an ulterior motive about something and he was certain he wasn't going to like whatever she had in mind. She fidgeted with her nails, not out of anxiousness but rather out of boredom, and responded in a casual manner, "And if I did know something, what is in it for me? Why should I even tell you anything about what I know if there isn't anything in return for my information? What could you possibly give me that is worth my information?"

He smirked. Of course she would try and negotiate on terms in order to get something she had planned in store. His mother were manipulative and cunning regarding such things, but luckily he had a feeling something like this might happen so he came prepared with ammunition in case she decided to be difficult in her cooperation.

"I'm pretty sure that you will help and share what you know, without me having to try negotiate the terms and end up getting it blown up in my face later," Four stated matter-factly, while the smirk on his face remained as he knew that he was now in control over the situation. "Seeing as I'm here as a detective, not as your son, I know for certain that I can put together some evidence and shut your entire criminal network down for good. Might do the world a favor by doing that, but I'm going to let you decide whether we are going to do this the quick and easy way or hard way that includes making your life a living hell. So what is it going to be?"

Her eyes expressed shock over being caught off guard and certainly being bested in her own manipulative game of taking advantage of the situation, but there was also something deeper inside that she was desperately trying to suppress from appearing. Anger, something he could actually relate to her after everything she had done to him and for thinking that she could worm herself into his good graces again. Still she managed to contain it and replaced the burning anger to chilly coldness and asked, "All right, you have my attention. Tell me exactly what you know and then I will try and answer as many questions as I can, but I can't promise how much I know since it really doesn't interest or concern me the slightest."

It was at least something, he thought to himself as he nodded and accepted her response. Then he began summing up the cliff notes version of the many cold cases, without bringing up Tris and her parents in details since he didn't see any reason for his mother to know about that part. And as the conversation went on, he couldn't help but think that even though he had managed to best his mother's game and get her to do his demand that something was wrong. Like he was selling himself to the devil or something.

Though she was disgusted by the thought to pick up used condoms and wrappers from the trashcan, she knew she had to gather the evidence despite the fact that it might not prove to be any use to them. Still she put the evidence in separate plastic bags before she began her sleuthing, sticking her nose in places where it didn't belong. However she was sure that Mr. Hawkes would mind her sniffing around, especially since they were 'good pals' while being stuck inside what no matter how you looked at it seemed like a prison cell.

Carefully, she had lifted upside down on most of the furniture in the bedroom while trying to maintain the pristine state of the crime scene as possible. Even though it really wasn't a useful attempt seeing as the temperature in the room had gotten hotter and the air was thicker making it a lot harder to breathe without heaving for what you might believe was your last breath. Tris figured out the best way was to breathe through her nose rather than her mouth, which in normal circumstances was what she usually did, as she just finished looking through the bathroom after what seemed like the five hundredth time she has done it since she got trapped inside.

Tris was starting to get frustrated over her lack on success on finding this possible second entrance, which she was almost certain was there despite Uriah's disbelief, but it was proving to be a lot more harder than she thought to find it. So she lifted her head up towards the ceiling, closed her eyes and sighed heavily for a moment, then she made her way to the victim's closet, which was not surprisingly a walk-in-closet that was almost as big as her apartment.

"Damn rich people," She muttered to herself as she walked through the different sections that were sorted out from business attire to casual Sunday clothes. "Who needs so many clothes any way? Its like he is competing with Christina over how much money they waste on this kind of stuff."

She loved Christina as a sister and a friend, and would do pretty much anything for her, but there is one thing she would never understand or were willing to do ever again with her and that is to spend an entire day at the mall buying expensive clothes she didn't need. That was a new form of torture in her opinion, especially when her best friend made it to a point to try and dress her up like a little doll. She has never been the type to care about appearances since she really didn't see herself as the great beauty. Even though it was sort of surprising that she was Four's type and that he loved her despite her less flattering and disinterest in her appearance, and that he honestly didn't care whether she tried to look prettier or not since he loved her all the same, which she was grateful for. Still she knew that Christina never meant any harm in trying to doll her up, like when she had a date with Four or something, but she couldn't understand the whole concept over having so much stuff that you rarely ever used. Then again it was probably her Abnegation side that was talking.

Anyways she went through the different drawers and closet door, hoping seriously she found something that would support her theory, but after using an hour searching the place from top to bottom she was starting to lose hope that there might have been something about her idea how Mr. Hawkes kept his personal life so private as well as how the killer might have been able to enter the apartment and getting through the top-notch security on the place. Was it really just possible that she was wrong and that their victim's entire staff had just told them the truth and she was too stubborn to just accept it instead decided to send them on a wild goose chase? Then what about Abigail Green's suspicious answers were they also just lies or was she actually saying the truth?

It was times like this she seriously found her job a major headache, but nonetheless loved it too much to give up on it. Well…either that or she was more or less a masochist at heart, which she was certain wasn't the case and besides if Caleb thought being a masochist was reason for being a cop he would certainly nag about that reason until she would quit just to shut him up. Something she wasn't going to give her older brother the pleasure of doing despite him doing a consulting gig for the police from time to time, which was his way of looking after her than him wanting to help out the police.

Overlooking the closet, she thought to herself that if the victim was an eccentric and paranoid high-tech security guy as everyone claimed then he must have been clever in order to conceal his liaisons. The question was just how he would do that without anyone noticing or actually knowing about it. It was by then she took notice of something that she really hadn't cared much about before. The room was set up the typical fancy yet manly appearance with dark metallic colors, so why would a man keep an ugly porcelain doll a table in the middle of the room? Sure, it could be a family heirloom or something, but she actually doubted that any sensible man would be willing to put an ornament that ugly in his home no matter how much it was worth or who has given it to him. So she followed her hunch and lifted up the porcelain doll and found a flat button hidden underneath it.

"Gotcha," She grinned with triumph. Though she was proud over her discovery she thought closely whether she should push the button or not. Seeing as what happened the last time she pushed a button she had no idea what meant, there was no way she was going to take any unnecessary chances without letting Uriah and the others know what she was going to do. God knows what Four would do if he learned what she did without giving them any warning beforehand. Most likely have a heart attack, and she happens to like her boyfriend alive thank you very much, so he decided to pull up her cell phone and touched the speed dial to Uriah's number. A few seconds later the sound of her partner's voice responded with the familiar phrase, "Pedrad, I mean detective Uriah Pedrad."

It was normal that people confused the two brothers, seeing as they both used the same last name while they were on duty. Normally co-workers separated them by using their first names instead of their last name, but some times people got confused when they were trying to get hold of Zeke or the other way around.

She held the phone close to her ear as she said with badly hidden enthusiasm, "Hey, its me. Look I think I found the secret entrance."

The sound of something hard dropping on the floor followed her comment, and she could almost imagine her partner being so shocked that he dropped their paperwork on the floor making a mess for them to sort through later, but needless to say she had certainly gotten his attention.

"You're serious?" Uriah said taken back, which she almost chuckled since it was kind of cute how the easy-going guy was getting all riled up. However she forced it down and instead continued, "Yeah, I'm serious. And by the way I hope whatever you dropped wasn't the paperwork we had just finished because that would be a pain sorting through again."

Uriah chose to ignore that last comment and instead asked, "Never mind that for now, tell me rather what you have found."

She smiled as she gave him the whole explanation of what she had found and how she wanted to let him know what she was about to do before she went on with it. Once she was done explaining about her recent discovery, Uriah took upon himself to ask the dreaded question, "Does Four know?"

Not really wanting to answer the question she remained silent, but her silence worked as a confirmation that she hasn't and she was about to defend herself about the matter when she realized something, "Wait a minute, isn't Four with you back at the station?"

"No, I haven't seen him since I left the crime scene a couple of hours ago," Uriah responded with suspicion. "And I have been stuck here with Zeke trying to work with Miss. Green, who appears as a tough cookie to crack as she refuse to tell us anything and has already called in a lawyer present. So for now our hands are tied to what we can do, since we don't have the body or any of the evidence you collected to help us on the way."

Tris didn't like the fact that Four has gone AWOL and that neither Uriah or Zeke she thinks knows where he is, but she trusted him to know what he was doing and would most likely be back hopefully some time soon. And if she was wrong then she would just have to find him regardless if he was in trouble or not, but first thing first she needed to get out of here. So she sighed tiredly before she finally decided, "Okay, keep working on the case and I will see if I can get out of here. And do me a favor; keep a few officers on the scene, just in case something happens with the locksmith. I'm not sure if he is involved or not in this, but as things are looking with this entire case I'm not taking any chances who is innocent and who is not."

Uriah agreed on her notion, but asked her to be careful since she was without back up and no one to help her in case pushing that button blew up in her face. Of course she responded that she was going to try and that she hopefully would see him some time soon and that she would call once she was out and then they would just work from there. They ended the conversation shortly after that and she put her phone back into her pocket. Without anything holding her back she took once last sigh before she pushed the button and waited for what to happen next.

Four had not realized the time when he had been sitting there talking with his mother, talking about the homicide cases, but he had already spent at least three hours and he was worried if Tris was okay or not since he hadn't heard anything from Zeke or Uriah, and they both knew that he would go insane if something were to happen to her. However making his mother shares her knowledge was like pulling teeth. Incredibly hard and painful process as she wasn't the most willing participate, but once he was done giving her the cliff notes of the unsolved cases she leaned back and explained in a tired manner, "I can't really tell you much other than what you already know, but over the years I have taken a certain notice that there are questionable rumors going around regarding Abnegation and its leadership in the council. I don't really remember anything specific right now, but based on what you told me someone is targeting people from Abnegation like they know something. Something that is worth killing in order to keep it from appearing."

Four's expression turned darker as his thoughts roamed around what exactly would the Abnegation know that could pose as a threat to anyone. Sure, Marcus had his secrets and lies that he would want to keep quiet from the council that was made up of politicians from each of the five cities, but he couldn't imagine Marcus putting a hit on his own people. The man was too much of a wimp to kill anyone and he wouldn't dare hire a hit man to do it. So who else would feel threaten by Abnegation?

"If you ask me who I would start to look into," His mother continued with a grim expression. "I suggest you look into Jeanine Matthews, since she is the one person on the council who doesn't approve of Marcus and the Abnegation's control."

Jeanine was one of the representatives of Erudite as well as one of the biggest scientists in Chicago, though she was known for her curiosity and snobbishness. He wasn't exactly sure of her motives for doing anything, but he would just have to look into it. Either way he got something out of this reunion, that the motive wasn't as personal as the evidence and as he believed it to be. Now he needed to figure out what exactly could be important enough to kill all of those people in cold blood, leaving nothing but bodies behind.

He stood up from his seat, not bothering to say any last words or goodbyes to his mother and was just about to leave when his mother said quietly, "I'm sure you know that by continue working on these cases you are bound to face your father again. And if you can barely stomach seeing me, then seeing Marcus will be worse just so you are warned."

He rolled his eyes, thinking that she didn't need to state out the obvious to him since he already knew, but still he was going to continue doing this even if he was less than trilled seeing his dad again. Exasperated, he sighed loudly before he asked, "Anything else?"

Not expecting her to say anything, at least not something that wasn't important to the case, but she surprised him when she answered exasperated, "Yes, one more thing. I believe you also should look into Natalie Prior."

He turned his head, shocked over her admission, before he asked the important question why he had to do that. She only shrugged her shoulders and replied simply, "She has always been a very suspicious person, appearing to know more than what she is letting on, but that's just my opinion. If you are afraid to look into it because of that girlfriend of yours then I must say I'm disappointed in you."

Hearing her say those words, insulting Tris like she was dirt underneath her shoe, made him furious as he glared at her with burning rage and said, "Don't dare bring her into this. For your sake you are going to leave her and me alone or else I will do a lot more harm to you than what you did to me by leaving me with that abusive monster of a father."

And before she had the chance to apologize or giving him any weak excuse he left and began heading back to the station, while thinking that approaching his mother had indeed been a terrible idea despite the results he received on the case.

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Thanks again for the amazing response I have been receiving, hope you guys like this chapter.

Like I stated in my last author's note, I'm not sure how often or when I will be able to update on the story due to school and such. However I will continue writing on it when I have time to spare and release it when I can. So please be patient and understanding about the matter.

Anyways keep giving me reviews, favorite and/or followings, and the next chapter will be out as soon as its done.

xXrebelgirl07Xx