16.
For a moment she thought her heart stopped beating the moment she pushed the button and waited for the next thing to happen. Of course in her mind she was worried if there was a bomb or another trap set up and the button was the trigger mechanism for what seemed like the greatest apocalypse of all times. Fortunately nothing happened except that a hidden door by the wall opened and proved that her theory had been right regarding a second exit. Tris didn't waste any time to check out her finding, one reason was due to her curiosity and the other was due to the fact that she wanted nothing more than to get out of here and let professionals deal with the crime scene and forensic evidence while she did the actual putting together and solving the case.
She stopped by the entrance when she noticed a shiny glimmer from the floor, then she squatted down on her knees to take a closer look at what is was and quickly deduced that it was metal particles, similar or maybe even exact to the ones she found in the wound track of the victim. That was not all either because the traces of the particles wasn't laid out random instead gathered into one form of what seemed to be a footprint. And from what she remembered from the body the victim didn't have any trace of metal particles on his feet or his shoes as far as she knew, which could mean that it came from the killer.
Pleased over the revelation, she pulled out her phone and called Uriah, who answered the phone on the second ring and immediately jumped on it and said worried, "Tris! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do I need to call an ambulance?"
If she hadn't been in a serious mood she would have laughed at his annoyingly cute concern for her well being and told him that she couldn't possibly answer all those questions as fast as he asked them. However she was in a serious mood so she reassured him quickly that she was fine and unharmed as far as she knew before she continued on, "The button I pushed proved to be indeed the mechanism to the second entrance, which the killer most likely used before he killed off the victim and exited undetected. I also found trace evidence as well as a footprint that might lead us to our murderer."
"Seriously, that's great," Uriah said relieved. She could almost imagine him letting out a relieved sigh over that she was truly okay, because they both knew that if Four got the wind of everything that had just happened he was sure to punch Uriah till he was blue and yellow for allowing her to take such a risk on her own and without back up. "Take pictures of the evidence, take a few samples and then get out of the room and give us the exact location on your position and then we'll be there to pick up."
Tris nodded and confirmed that she agreed on that notion, but quickly included saying, "Look, keep the whole thing a secret for now because I'm not sure how much I'm going to rely on anyone of the staff or the locksmith on the other side of that metal door since there is no way that none of them couldn't have known about it, and also because I don't want to clue in the killer what we have discovered and risk that he will bolt before we had the chance to gather our ducks in a row."
"I get that, but Tris do you think that the killer is someone who is roaming around the crime scene?" Uriah asked concerned. She stopped for a moment to think about the question he had just asked, and honestly she would normally think that its unlikely that the killer was still there since they normally returned to the crime scene after they would have cleared it out to get rid of any potential evidence or something else they might have left behind and the police had missed it, but something in her gut told her that this killer wasn't fitting the typical profile of a cold-hearted killer. No, both the evidence and the way murderer had killed his victim indicated that it was too personal to be a simple coincidence, which meant someone close to him or someone in his life had to have motive to kill him.
After thinking about it she answered wearily, "We can't rule it out, Uriah, but personally I think that someone in Mr. Hawkes' life had a grudge or an issue with him and were apparently willing to kill him for it. We just have to figure out what and who it is."
Thankfully her partner didn't push the issue instead just informed her again to call them and give her exact location so they could get her and the body out of there. And promised that once she returned back to the station she could maybe have a crack on Miss Green when her lawyer shows up. Tris had no problem interrogating with a lawyer present, though she found them annoying and more than once interfering in their investigation, but what she seriously hoped for was not to deal with the worst lawyer among them because he was a jackass no matter how you tried to look at it and was willing to go my any needs necessary to get the result that he wanted. Though she was pretty sure he hadn't reached to murdering someone yet, but still who knows what the future will bring.
Nevertheless she ended the conversation and walked out the hidden entrance that led to an elevator. And when she reached the ground floor she found herself on the other side of a door that was hidden in the alley behind the building. It was cramped and smelled foully, which made her wonder how in the world the victim got his sexual partners to come through here to get to his place, but then again who was she to question and judge how the guys got what they wanted since as far as she knew the sex was consensual without foul play.
She pulled up her phone again and called Uriah and the rest again and gave them her exact location before she hung up and waited for them to arrive on the scene.
To say he was exasperated was an understatement of the year. No, he was absolutely pissed at his mother for several reasons and quite honestly he was pissed with himself for being so desperate to go to her for help and actually considering listening to her advice regarding the unsolved cases including Tris' parents. Not that he thought his mother was right about her grave suspicion over Natalie Prior, which was still not explained as to why her mother seemed had such a problem with the deceased woman since from what he remembered about the her was that she was good and fair person and admired by many, while it was pretty understandable why his mother hated Jeanine Matthews who was one of the most influential in Erudite as well as the one politician who opposed the most to Marcus and the Abnegations control. Still whether it was a personal vendetta against Jeanine Matthews and Natalie Prior or it had indeed something to do with the case would only time tell him anyways, so why bother worrying too much about it unless he found something substantial to support his mother's suspicion?
When he returned back to the station, his mind still plagued by those unsettling thoughts about the case and his reunion with his mother, he got himself back to the office completely unaware that he was doing it in the first place and didn't realize it until the elevator pinged and the doors opened to the office hallway. His head lifted by the sudden sound and quickly caught on what was going on around his surrounding, so he left the elevator and entered the office while his eyes immediately began searching for his partner, who shockingly wasn't there by his desk to greet him. Four found it odd that he wasn't there and from the looks of it he wasn't in BRIC either, so where in the world was he?
There was no way he was down at the morgue, knowing Zeke preferred to stay as far away that he could from morgue. Zeke was used to the dead bodies and all that, but if you added the chemical smells and the entire picture of Christina cutting and picking out the insides of a dead person, well…it made him try and avoid the place as much as possible after a few certain incidents that led to him either fainting or puking his guts out. Of course he have ventured down there in the aftermath to everything, but both he and Christina had take precaution to the visits and made them less gruesome as possible at least in Zeke's presence.
Either way he asked one of the other detectives where his partner was, just in case they had actually had the time to notice his missing presence that is, and thankfully one of them had taken notice that both Zeke and Uriah were in the observation room and handling a suspect/victim. Four was actually surprised that there was already a suspect and that Zeke hadn't informed him of it, naturally it would have been hard when he was busy reuniting with his mother dearest, but still he would have at least expected a couple of texts or a missed phone call. Nevertheless he left the office and once again out to the hallway and in the direction of the observation room. It didn't take long to find him, seeing as he was alone in the room watching the glass window like he was a hawk watching her eggs. Zeke moved his gaze when he heard the door open and saw him.
"Where have you been?" Zeke asked, while he folded his arms against his chest and tried to appear intimidating towards him. "Do you know how worried I have been? You didn't call or inform me where you were going I almost thought I had to send out a squad car looking for you."
Even though his concern was understandable, Four found it slightly amusing that his partner would try and intimidate him and then act all 'mommy' on him like he was a reckless child. Both counts it didn't suit him very much since the guy couldn't be intimidating in the same level he was no matter how much he tried and really he was too old and stubborn to have a secondary mother, especially since his first mother sucked at the whole parenting thing as much as his dad. So he shrugged his shoulders and tried to sound lightly in his reply, "I was checking out a possible source who may or may not have given us a few new leads to check out regarding the case."
"Does that source live on Jupiter or something, seeing as you couldn't pick up the damn phone and just tell me where you were going?" Zeke almost exclaimed and now unfolded his arms. "Seriously, Four, you get pissed at Tris for going and doing stuff on her own, but you do the exact same thing and seriously makes everyone concerned about you and if something had happened to you."
Four could only respond by sighing heavily, realizing that his partner indeed had a point about how he handled it, but still he didn't really regret not bringing him along to meet his mother. No one should be unfortunate enough to be in her company, especially since the only reason he even met up with her was out of desperation and not because he wanted to chat up with her.
"Sorry," Four apologized. "I didn't think it would take that long and besides who I was seeing wasn't exactly someone I wanted anyone to meet ever."
Zeke's eyes narrowed by that last comment, thankfully didn't say anything about it much to his relief, and instead asked him what new leads his sources had been gracious to give to them. So Four gave him the cliff note version of the whole conversation, withholding the small pieces of information that surrounded around his mother and their relationship. Once he was done with his explanation he finally took the opportunity to ask about Tris, seeing as he couldn't before due to Zeke's actions. Just the sound of her name made Zeke jump up in fear and awkwardness before he began mumbling a poor excuse that she was fine. If he hadn't been an overly suspicious person about those certain things he might have shrugged it off and not said anything, but seeing as he was indeed that he asked calm and collected, "Zeke, did something happen with Tris that I should know about?"
"Um…no," Zeke gave him a small smile, which was literally dropping of the normal confidence that he was oozing with. So he leaned a little closer to his face and asked again, "Are you sure?"
This time Zeke broke down and confessed everything that has happened with Tris from what Uriah had told him, which in many ways was the whole story about how she took once again a reckless and dangerous risk and was now on her way back to the station with the body and evidence from the crime scene. During the whole story Four wasn't sure whether to be pissed off or be relieved that she was okay and that she soon would be by his side. Honestly, his most noticeable emotion at the moment was anger than relief, but he decided to hand it out to both Tris and Uriah once they arrived rather than do it to Zeke, who in the end really had nothing to do with it other than trying to keep that little piece of information from him. However there was without a doubt that there was going to be words shouted at all three of them in due time, and one thing was certain some of those words were not going to be kind, but it seems that those might be the words they might actually need to hear in order for them to understand the graveness of their actions and trying to keep something like that hidden from him.
If she had to choose between facing Four or go through hellfire, then she might actually consider going through hellfire just so she wouldn't have to be smothered and yelled at by him anymore. When she first stepped into the office, looking all rattled and sweaty, her boyfriend walked right up to her the moment he saw her and wrapped his arms around her neck before he kissed her with passion that took literally her breath away and then the moment was gone and the reprimanding about her actions began. Tris knew that he was only worried and angry out of love and concern for her well being, but still he could at least stop the whole reprimanding thing he does that makes her feel like he is treating her like a child rather than his girlfriend.
"Honestly, Tris, do you hold any regard over how dangerous that could have been?" Four said exasperated, while throwing his arms in the air. Meanwhile she held her head down towards the floor, trying to not lose her temper with him. Unfortunately she had reached her breaking point as she lifted her head up towards him and responded back with annoyance, "I took a risk and I survived, can we just move past that now, please?"
"No, we can't," Four shot back and placed his hands on his side, trying to intimidate her into agreeing with him. Unfortunately she wasn't very intimidated by him, not in the way that he was going for anyway, so she scoffed and asked, "Why not? It's part of our job to take dangerous risks, I don't see why you are getting all upset about what I did when you are no better example."
Four took a step back, confused over the last comment before he asked with an annoyed voice, "What is that supposed to mean?"
She turned her gaze away from him. There was no way she was going to admit that he was just as regardless about the rules and his own safety as she was, especially since he had been MIA for several hours and no one had seen or heard anything for him during those hours. If he was worried and scared for her then she was just as worried and scared for him as well, but that didn't mean she was going to yell and scream at him for it when she saw perfectly that he was fine. However Four had different plans when he grabbed her chin, gently and also slightly forceful, and moved her head in order to look at her. Once she was facing him and staring into the depth of dark blue eyes, which reflected love and concern for her, he sighed wearily before he placed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.
"Look, I get that its part of your job and that you are able to take care of yourself," He sighed once again. "But that doesn't mean I won't get worried and angry about it, because I care about you so much and seriously you scare me sometimes how easy you can't disappear from me and I don't want to lose you for anything, not now that I finally found you again."
He didn't say the actual words, but she knew what he was trying to convey. He loved her, just like she loved him, but neither of them were ready to say those words out loud again in fear that doing so would make it all seem so real. Still it both warmed and broke her heart that she caused him so much hurt and pain, and wanted nothing more than to give him the reassuring words he wanted to hear, but they both knew that it only be a beautiful lie if she did say them.
Without anything else to say, she muttered quietly, "Okay. I care about you too."
He smiled at her before his lips fell onto hers, which she responded with joy, and they continued kissing each other until someone interrupted by coughing loudly to catch their attention. So when they broke away for each other they turned to see both the Pedrad brothers looking at them awkward and embarrassed to have the front row seat of the showing of their affection.
"Um…if you don't mind…Four…Tris and I need to go and interrogate Miss Green," Uriah said, who looked torn between being awkward and smug about catching them in the act during work hours. "It's kind of important that we get to talk to her, especially now that her lawyer is here and waiting for us."
She took the hint, though slightly sad that her reunion with Four was cut short, but she stood on her toes and reached for his ears and whispered, "We shall continue this later, okay?"
Then she pulled back and gave him a happy grin before she and Uriah left for the interrogation room, leaving Four and Zeke to their own devices whatever that was.
Whatever expectation she had imagined Abigail Green to be, it was far cry from anything she could ever imagine, especially considering what she did for a living. The woman, who was sitting on the chair next to the man who she could only assume, was her lawyer based on the stuffy black suit and goldfish expression on his face, was somewhat pretty and more or less elegant and sophisticated to say the least. Something that is extremely rare to find from someone from Amity. Her brown locks fell down to her shoulders like a waterfall while her hazel eyes to look at her with curiosity as well as slight concern, which was suspicious all in all in Tris's book as she sat down on the chair across from them while Uriah leaned against the wall and observed them. Abigail tilted her head with her showed chiseled features on her face when she asked, "As I have told your partner here, I had a one-night stand with Mr. Hawkes and after that I never saw him again. I don't see how you think I somehow is involved in his death."
Seriously, Tris thought frustrated to herself as the image of the woman she saw at first shattered into pieces. Beauty and elegance went straight out the window and was replaced by this annoying snobby woman instead, who apparently didn't see the questions and problems with that story she was giving her. Tris sighed wearily as she tucked a stray piece of her hair behind her ear and said as calmly and relaxed as she could, "Miss Green, both my partner and I are perfectly clear what you have told us as well as your primary relationship with the deceased, but there is evidence that indicate there might have been something more between you two."
Abigail shifted in her seat, obviously indicating she was uncomfortable or nervous about something, before she said nonchalant, "What kind of evidence?"
Though Tris remained calm and expressionless, she was actually smirking on the inside. Abigail obviously knew something more than what she was saying. The only question was exactly what she knew and how it connected to their murder. Then again it was part of her job to figure the missing pieces out anyways.
"We found used condoms as well as your medication in his medicine cabinet," Tris explained, keeping her gaze thoroughly at the woman in front of her. Her eyes were shifting in nervous haste as she swallowed deeply over the explanation. Tris was almost certain that the woman was about to talk when that goldfish of a lawyer interrupted and argued, "Just as my client stated she had a one-night stand with the victim, so it is obvious that there are evidence of her presence in the room, however there is no evidence that connect my client in the involvement of murder of Mr. Hawkes. And if you don't have anything else to say, I say my client and I take our leave and you can contact us again once you have more substantial evidence that prove your theory. Otherwise you are fishing detectives."
Tris wanted to argue back and force them to stay, but the lawyer had more than one point in his argument. However if that goldfish wanted more substantial evidence well then she was going to go and find some because there was something more to Miss Green that met the eye. So she let them leave and once she and Uriah were alone in the room he stated the obvious, "You let them go, why? We both knew that Miss Green was about to spill her guts and now that lawyer is going to make sure she wouldn't talk to us again."
She sighed tiredly and leaned back in her seat, "I'm well aware of that, but he was right that we don't have anything that is currently connecting her to the crime. We can prove her presence in the room, but not when she was or if there was any sign that there was a foul play from her side. What we have no is speculations, no hard evidence that ties her to anything, but we are going to do something about that right now."
Then she stood up from her chair and began walking out the room, followed closely by Uriah, as they made their way down to the morgue to see Matthew. Hopefully he had found something about the body or one of the crime techs had finished analyzing some of the evidence she had brought to them from the crime scene.
Once Tris and Uriah was out of site and out of hearing rate he turned to look at Zeke before they went back to the whiteboard where everything connected to the case and the cold cases were put up. Four made a mental note to himself to keep the next leads of information on board away from Tris, since he didn't want her to know about them digging into her mother's past as well as the old murder case. Of course Tris would have demanded to be put on the case if she had known, but he wasn't about to cause her tremendous hurt and pain without knowing for certain about what he might find.
He and Zeke was talking between themselves what their next course of action should be when Christina walked in with a file in her hand. The two them turned to look at her with questionable eyes before she said seriously, "I know it might not be new to you two, but based on my findings as well as the comparison to the other unsolved cases I can state that it has been done by the same killer."
"A serial killer?" Zeke asked, trying to find another theory than what Four and his mother had come to theorize about. However even before he had even spoken to Evelyn about who was behind the murders he was almost certain that it hadn't been done by a serial killer. His interpretation of the cases was they had been done professionally and coldblooded, like a professional hit from an assassin maybe?
Christina shook her head, "No, nothing indicates that the cases was done by a serial killer. Besides it doesn't fit the profile since most serial killers are desperate for attention that they kill for the thrill and later get caught in the end, but this seems more simple and clean. One target and one kill, nothing more."
Zeke scoffed and turned his gaze on him and said begrudgingly, "I guess your theory might be right."
Four responded by shrugging his shoulders, meanwhile Christina looked between them with confusion written on her face and asked, "What theory? Have something happened while I was busy with the corpses?"
"I got some leads from a source of mine, who told me that these murders were professional assassination and from her guess it was from someone in the council."
"But that…" Christina started to say before her words were lost in her mouth. So Zeke stepped in and completed the sentence by saying, "Insane, I know. And it gets better because his so-called source gave us the leads to check on both Jeanine Matthews and Natalie Prior."
Hearing that last name made her turn to glare at him and said hissed, "Are you aware how screwed up that idea is? It is one thing to investigate her parents murder behind her back, but it is a totally different thing to check into her mother's background. Tris is going to be furious and this time I'm not sure if the result of that is going to be pretty."
Four understood her frustration and wariness, and in many degrees he agreed with her on the matter, but no matter how much he disliked the idea to look into and suspect Tris's mother he couldn't rule her out due to his personal relationship with Tris. It was part of his job to look into and clear out any potential suspects, and the faster he looked into it then the faster he might be able to cross her off his list and continue working on the case with an eased mind.
"Look, I will deal with should it come to Tris discovering this, but in the meantime I want to get my ducks in a row and find out if her mother had something to do with this or not," Four said finally then he began ordering their assignments. "Until then Zeke, you look into Jeanine and the rest of the council members just to be sure. You might find something that clue us in on why these people were killed in the first place. Christina, go with the crime techs and go through the logged evidence we have on the other cases, it might be a goose chase but could lead to something."
Both Zeke and Christina nodded before they went their separate ways to do the jobs they had been assigned, even though it was pretty clear that they thought that he was really playing with fire by hiding and doing this investigation behind Tris's back. Leaving him with the last job to look into Natalie Prior's background as well as anything that might look suspicious or have a relevance to the cases. Though he hadn't expressed it to Christina or Zeke, he was well aware the mistake he was probably making my doing things the way he did, but if he had to make a decision to keep her emotional state stable until he had something then so be it. He wasn't going to put her through unnecessary and incredible pain for something he had no proof was true. Ignoring the horrible feeling that was growing in his stomach he reading through the listed information about the Prior family before the murder happened.
Tris was glad to find Matthew hovering over the dead body of Mr. Hawkes, no matter how wrong it sounded at the moment. With him finally doing his autopsy examination they might have a chance to connect Miss Green to the murder, especially since there was no way her primary examination was going help them much other than giving them a badly idea of a possible cause of death and metal particles in the wound track. So she jumped right on it and asked the medical examiner, "What can you tell us?"
Matthew placed his arms on the table before he shifted his weight and turned his gaze on the body once more and replied, "Pretty much what you described to me back at the scene, however I can tell you that it was unexpected attack since there were no defensive wounds and his wound indicated that he was struck only once before he bled out."
Tris nodded and folded her arms, "Could he have been intoxicated or been on drugs before he was killed?"
That would explain how someone could have easily overpowered the man and killed him, and it would have helped Miss Green to kill him since the chances for overpowering Mr. Hawkes while he was sober was unlikely.
"I have done a tox-screen and I'm still waiting for the results to come back," Matthew said before he leaned towards the head and neck area and pointed his fingers at the wound track. "I have also taken pieces of metal particles out of the wound and sent it to Trace and I can assume it came from the murder weapon."
"Can you tell us what the murder weapon is?" Uriah asked this time, while Trish looked at Matthew expectantly for answers that she sought out. Too bad that Matthew was like Christina in the matter that she didn't guess or assume anything on that manner as he shook his head and responded, "Not unless you have a weapon for me to compare it to, but I can tell you that it was made by a sharp clean blade that would most likely leave metal particles behind."
"Oh, that narrow it down to every other metal tool blades that you can find in any workshop," Tris said annoyed. Then she ran a frustrated hand through her hair and muttered quietly to herself, "God, I hate this 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 previous author's notes, 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.
But I have to say I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update this story before now, the whole last month had been incredible busy for me with school, my job and trying to squeeze in writing in the meantime. However I hope that I will have time to at least write one more chapter this month, but I can't promise anything. So please be patient and understanding.
Anyways keep giving me reviews, favorite and/or followings, and the next chapter will be out as soon as its done.
xXrebelgirl07Xx