20.

Four had quickly ordered her not to jump into conclusion that the killer we were looking for was in fact a cop, probably because he didn't even want to believe the possibility that someone from our side of the law was working against us, but nevertheless he asked or should she rather say demanded that she was going to go and look for the gun around the premises, possibly even check out whether there was other people at the party that carried firearms on them besides the police.

Tris was furious over doing a rookie job when she was just as capable as he was to go around and interrogate the guests discreetly. But then again the tension between them was smothering and anyone would have noticed that there was bad blood between them, which would not help the investigation the slightest. So she did what she was ordered and walked around the property, looking and searching every nook and cranny for that gun outside without any luck. Then she began her search inside, although she really didn't have much hope to find it there since it was a risky move to dispose a gun in public with so many people around, but then again it was like Four used to tell her criminals are generally stupid so they were always bound to make a mistake somewhere that ultimately gets them caught in the end. Unfortunately it didn't seem like the killer was stupid and was making any noticeable mistakes other than murdering someone at a public gathering like this, which kind of worked both to the killer advantage and disadvantage. Still despite the odds against her, she was determined to solve this case and put that bastard who did it behind bars. And just as she reached her decision she felt someone tapping her shoulder, making her turn in a swift manner and immediately took on a defensive stance. However she lightened up slightly when she saw who exactly had tried to get her attention and said politely, "Oh hello, Mr. Eaton. You scared me."

The older man chuckled lightly, although the laugher didn't carry the ease and playfulness you would expect from in situations like this. No, his laugher was stiff and mostly done out of professional courtesy, which was both familiar and yet uncomfortable considering how long she has known the man.

"Beatrice, it's been a long time," Mr. Eaton said politely, while sounding like a hard-ass stiff. "How are you and your brother?"

As much as she hated being called by her first name it really wasn't unexpected to be called it from him. Mr. Marcus Eaton was the city council leader as well as the council member representing Abnegation and he and her father had been close friends when she was growing up. When her parents died he even volunteered to take them in until she and Caleb were legal enough to take care of themselves, but both she and Caleb dismissed the offer and handled it on their own, something they haven't rejected to this day. Since then neither she or Caleb as far as she knew have had much contact with Mr. Eaton or Abnegation, but nevertheless she answered awkwardly, "We're both fine. How have you been?"

Marcus responded in the general that he was fine while not giving a direct answer to her question. It was just a typical Abnegation response that she in reality couldn't stand hearing, especially since she had grown up hearing those kinds of replies and thought she was through with them once she moved to Dauntless. They small-talked for a while, nothing important really and if there was some point of the conversation that was in the proximity of the murder that happened there she just switched the conversation somewhere else, which she did and said, "I didn't know you where going to be here tonight, although I should have guessed it since you are the city leader of the council."
"Actually that is just part of the reason why I'm here," Marcus stated as he looked around, searching for something or someone in the crowd. "I'm actually hoping to find my son. I heard that he was going to be here tonight and I was sort of hoping to talk to him."

Tris tilted her head confused, "Your son?"

Of course, she knew that Marcus had been married and had a son at one point, but from what she heard back in the day from her parents was that his wife died from childbirth and that his son ran away from home when he was sixteen or was he eighteen? She didn't remember exactly, but nevertheless she didn't quite see the connection or the reason to how his runaway son could be at a place like this, especially if he knew that his father was here and probably has done anything to simply avoid seeing him. Why would his son be here if he had done everything he could to avoid him up until now?

"Yes, Tobias. I heard that he came to Dauntless and worked for the police department," Marcus explained, not realizing that I had frozen on the spot after hearing his son's name. "Have you seen him?"

Her mind was going a hundred mile in an hour. No, this could not be happening. She was not standing there, listening to Marcus and learn that her boyfriend or rather estranged boyfriend at the moment was Marcus's son and that they had more common than he was willing to share with her. Four had promised her that he was going to tell her the truth about him and his past, though it never happen even after six months she still believed he would, but this was certainly not what she had in mind to find out about this. And what more was that she felt like a complete idiot for not realizing it before now. Marcus was similar to Tobias, particularly having the similar colored dark blue eyes. Although his hair was shaven close to his head like most men in Abnegation had, he was also tall and slim but not as tall as Tobias. Nonetheless it was without a doubt that those two was related, but it still didn't fix the fact that Four or Tobias hadn't mentioned this particular fact to her and now it was biting her hard in the ass.

She dismissed him politely, giving him some reasonable excuse that she could even remember and walked away to find Four. She didn't care if she seemed odd or rude at the moment. All she felt at that moment was just anger and hurt that was so close to what she felt two days ago when she learned of what Four had done behind her back. These feelings were intense and she wasn't sure if she could handle another blow like this again, so she hoped for Four's sake that he doesn't screw it up anymore than this. If he did then she wasn't sure there was anything left that could salvage their relationship and more importantly her trust in him.

After talking to the victim's wife as well as Jack Kang without giving off too much information about the investigation or sounding suspicious over why he wanted to know exactly about the victim and his life, Four was exhausted. It was bad enough that he had to use his strength to be polite and make small-talk with a bunch of people he couldn't care less about other than facing them in a professional circumstance, but to use the draining strength to solve a homicide without getting the full capacity was both exhausting and more importantly frustrating. And it most certainly didn't help that he managed to piss off Tris even more than he had done before by sending her off to do a rookie job instead of having her help him with statements and careful interrogations. So it's apparent that he wasn't going to win boyfriend of the year with his current track record.

Just as he stood there, thinking about it with a heavy and tired heart, he felt someone coming up to him. However before he had the chance to see who it was that someone grabbed his right ear and started to drag him away from the party scene, while he yelped in pain and kept on saying over and over, "Ow, ow, ow."

However the person who was dragging him away didn't stop or ease the grip on his ear and continued on walking with quick and almost stomping manner. He noticed quickly whoever it was, was significantly shorter than him and wore a perfume that smelled like Lilies of the Valley. Adding those clues together he managed to deduce who it was easily, especially since there was only one person who was both short and wore that kind of perfume and also was not afraid to get close enough to him and simply drag him away like he was a pet. His conclusion was confirmed when they went inside a dark and empty janitor's closet and locked the door behind them. The light switch was turned on a second later and he saw Tris standing there with her hands on her hips, looking more furious than he has ever seen her before.

"What?" He asked, confused to what else he could have done to piss her off. Sure, sending her to do a rookie's job and quickly shoot down her theory that the killer was a cop was by no definition something that would please her, but that wasn't enough for her to track him down and practically glare at him like he was a perp.

Unfortunately her facial expression just turned even darker as she said, "I had an interesting chat with someone you might know. Marcus Eaton, ring any bells?"

Oh, crap. This was not happening. His girlfriend was not standing there, telling him that she learned the truth about him, especially from someone other than himself. He was praying that this was just a nightmare and that when he woke up this moment was definitely not happening, but who was kidding? Of course this was happening and at the worst timing too with him and Tris having a turbulent relationship at the moment.

He had promised her even before they restarted their romantic relationship that they both was going to be open and honest with each other and not keep any important secrets from each other. One of these secrets included also his hidden and well-kept past. However he couldn't bring himself to do it, even after being together for six months, but Tris didn't push it and simply waited for him to be ready to tell her the truth. And he really appreciated her patience and understanding, but meeting Marcus and get the few details from him was enough for that patience and understanding to run out. Leaving him to face the consequences from his fear and reluctance to tell the truth. And from the looks of it he had the work cut out for him since Tris was clearly upset and angry from the whole ordeal, and if you add the crap from before you get a recipe for disaster.

In a desperate attempt to avoid the disastrous conversation, he tried making up an excuse and argue, "Please, Tris. Can't we talk about it later? Somewhere quiet and most definitely not close to anyone's earshot."

"No." Her voice was strong and unlike anything he had heard before very icy. It brought shivers up his spine over how cold she sounded and wasn't budging the slightest.

Nonetheless he reacted as calm and collected as he could, even though he was just a mess both mentally and emotionally at the moment. Took a deep breath before he leaned against the door and replied with a slight edge, "Figures that he would try and approach you. Knowing him being the coward he is, he would try and trick someone to tell him where I was and then ambush me at the worst possible timing."

Tris continued to glare at him, and impatiently waited for him stop going around the bush and simply explain to her and not wanting to hear excuses or delay the conversation to later. When he didn't answer right away, she snapped at him and said, "Just tell me the truth. No more hiding, no more secrets or most importantly no more deluding yourself into thinking that you are protecting me from knowing when we both know that isn't true. The only one right now you are protecting is you!"

At least she was clear on what she wanted, as frustrating and scary as that was, but in the end she did make a valid point. He was deluding himself by thinking that he was protecting her when in reality it was himself he was protecting. So without he sighed, while continuing to appear agitated and said, "Okay…I'm Tobias Eaton and as you figured out I'm unfortunately Marcus Eaton's son."

"Unfortunately?" Her expression lightened up slightly, but only to express the clear confusion over his response. It really wasn't a surprise that she was confused since no one really knew the truth about his background as well as the real persona his father had behind closed doors.

"I guess you heard rumors regarding him as well as me back when you used to live in Abnegation?"

"Some, even though nothing really conclusive, but there were rumors that you ran away from home and your mom died in childbirth," Tris answered, not at all confident about the information she was laying out on him, but then again the information she provided was furthest from the truth. It was probably fabricated lie courtesy to his daddy dearest. Just thinking made his eyes roll. However before he had the chance to respond to her answer, she continued saying more quietly, "There were some other rumors too, although I don't remember much about it since my parents just mentioned it once in passing, but they told me that you left home because your father was mistreating you."

"That's one way of saying it," He mumbled as he crossed his arms against his chest. "If you mean mistreating as physically abusing me. Then yeah, he was mistreating me. Severely. But do you know the tip of the iceberg is? My mother isn't really dead, pretty much alive and up with her own tricks, ruling she just abandoned me and left me alone with him voluntarily. She is my mother, but chose to stop being that like it was an easy decision and instead became one of the biggest crime bosses in Chicago."

At the end of his response something snapped emotional with him. Leading it to him give in to the total agitation and frustration over everything. He was normally emotional detached, something that he took pride in in most cases, but at that moment he was at the brick of cracking up in tears after releasing all those emotions that he had locked inside for years.

Meanwhile Tris just gasped in shock over the information that was relayed on her. Her back leaned against the wall across from him. Her head was facing the floor, while her mind was processing what exactly he had just told her, and he expected that once she turned up to look at him he would receive pity and sympathy from her, which was definitely not what he wanted from her ever. If there was one person in the world he didn't want to change her opinion of him, then it was Tris. However she surprised him instead when she silently lifted her head, being completely a void in her expression, walked up to him and simply stared deeply into his eyes with loving and comforting eyes before she carefully wrapped her arms around his neck. Then she whispered quietly and sincere, "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry? You have nothing to be sorry about," Four said in the same manner, though confused and slightly hurt that she was apologizing to him. He was afraid she indeed pitied him for having such a horrible childhood, and hoped nothing more that she really wasn't. "It's not your fault that I had a crappy parents and an equal bad childhood. Besides I moved on from all of that and then met you. No matter how hard and difficult our relationship can be, Tris, you are my family. Just like I'm your family, at least I hope I'm your family."

He gave her a shy smile, hoping that it would somehow reassure her as well as thaw her icy and bruised heart. Of course, he knew that he wasn't off the hook from everything that happened between them before, but he needed to convey his feelings. As hard as that could be for him sometimes, but he was willing to fight for her.

That is why his heart was in euphoria when she answered lovingly, "You are my family, even more than Caleb, and I love you, Tobias."

Whether it was because she said those three important words or the fact that she for the first time since they reunited again used his given name instead of his nickname/alias, it made him feel like the luckiest man alive.

"I love you too." He said in the same loving manner and smiled gently at her. There was something inside of him he could not withhold, so that he leaned down and kissed her on the lips with love and passion. Tris responded back immediately and followed his lead by literally taking their breaths away. Once they pulled away to catch their breaths, Tris said almost breathlessly as she heaved for oxygen, "I'm still angry with you for both what happened before tonight as well as you not telling me the truth about your past before, and I'm not forgiving you yet either."

"Understandable," He simply responded, even though he couldn't stop the small grin from appearing on his face. Tris nodded and continued saying, "We are going to talk about this later, somewhere quiet and we are most certainly not going to be disturbed, however we need to solve this case first, okay?"

He sighed disappointed, he wanted nothing more than to just talk and deal with the issues between at that moment, but he knew that she was right that they would need to finish this case before they could have this serious talk and mend fences between them, and to do that they couldn't be talking about it in a janitor's locker room when they both were feeling very emotional and stuff.

So they pulled away, both feeling awkward and embarrassed about the moment that had just happened, and turned away in order to avoid looking at each other. He wasn't sure exactly what Tris was doing in that short time period when he wasn't looking at her, but moments later she asked for his attention and he turned to see her. However he was surprised when she saw her, looking so beautiful as she was, holding a gun with an old washrag and said sheepishly, "I guess I found the gun we were looking for?"

Tris hadn't gone out of her way to search and look for a gun in the janitor's locker room, but in one desperate attempt to calm her nerves that was pretty much out of control after everything that had happened with Tobias and his past she opened one of the boxes on the shelf and saw the gun lying there. Naturally she picked up the gun, while not tampering with the forensic evidence, and showed it to Tobias and he instantly went back into 'Detective Four' mode. He took over the hold of the rag and the gun and turned to look at it closely. Smelling for gunshot residue, which also would indicate whether the gun was shot recently or not, he turned up and said, "Have been fired recently, so it could be our gun. Christina has to check it and compare it back at the lab, but I think this is our murder weapon."

Then he turned the gun over and see if there was any serial numbers on the gun, which was one of the best way to track down the owner of the gun and hopefully the killer as well, but Tobias clenched his teeth together and said, "The numbers are filed off."

"We still might have DNA evidence or finger/handprints," She tried to take a positive stance on the situation, which was totally unlike her, but it was better that one of them were hopeful than them both being pessimistic. "Don't lose hope now."

"I'm not," Tobias replied in a deadpan manner. "But I think there might be a way to recall the numbers. There is this technique that my old mentor Amar once told me and actually demonstrated to me in passing. Hopefully we have the stuff that we need back at the lab, but nevertheless it might take time for it to appear."

Honestly, that was the best news they have received on the case all night. And if they were extremely lucky they might catch this scumbag just in a few hours before the party is over and then life could return back to its normal messy course.

"What are we waiting for, an invitation? Let's go," Tris said sarcastically, while moving her hand indicting that he was supposed to hurry up. Tobias just rolled his eyes, muttering something about documenting the piece of evidence and took a few pictures of the gun and where it was found with his cellphone before they left the janitor's locker room together.

Strange how easily the former tension between him, Tris and Christina lifted significantly after he and Tris finally lifted up some steam on their issue. More him than her, but nevertheless they could now be in the same room together without giving the indication that one of them wanted to strangle the other one. And from the looks of it, it seemed like Christina was more than happy over the recent development between them and was not afraid to voice it out the minute he and Tris stepped into her lab.

"Thank god, you have made up," Christina literally exclaimed pleasantly. Both he and Tris said simultaneously, "Not exactly, but we are working on it."

Christina just rolled her eyes on their remark, obviously didn't for one second believe what they were saying, but nevertheless she was happy so she ran over to them and hugged them both. First hugging Tris and then turned and hugged him. Tris responded by giving a small smile and hugged her best friend back; meanwhile he just froze on the spot he was standing on and felt as uncomfortable as hell. He might have known Christina a long time and most of the time tolerated her more than any other person and medical examiner, but he did not like or want hugs from her or anyone else. Well, besides from Tris that is.

Christina probably realized this as well and quickly pulled away and went directly back to the body and the investigation, "I put a rush on the lab results, and the stuff we found on the body was just as we suspected steel wool and plastic. Most likely from a plastic bottle, which means in other words ingredients for a homemade silence. And other than blood alcohol under the legal limit there were no other drugs or medication in the victim's system. Not that I expected much since the guy was killed by a gunshot."

Tobias was about to argue, not at all liking the indication that due to the clear murder and murder weapon she didn't need to look thoroughly, but he was interrupted by his cellphone that was ringing loudly in the dead quiet room. He answered it right away and didn't even bother to check the id and said, "What?"

"Nice to hear from you too," Zeke said with teasing manner. "As much as I love you for getting me stuck with working overtime as well as doing evidence inventory…"

The entire line was filled with pure sarcasm and annoyance over the fact that he had to work longer and doing what else on the list of things he found completely boring with the job. It probably didn't help that he was stuck working with Uriah, who he wasn't on good terms with at the moment.

"Knock it off, Zeke," Tobias said exasperated. "Just get on with it and tell us what you have found."

"Yes, your highness," Zeke replied curtly, something that Tris chuckled lightly over. And even though he couldn't see him, Tobias knew that he was gloating over the fact that at least someone found him amusing. "Okay, so according to his financial records he was doing okay. Nothing suspicious on money going in or out for that matter, but if you want I can go deeper to see if there is anything. However in my personal opinion it will be a waste of time, but knowing you there is a big chance you are going to ask me to dig anyways."

Tobias rolled his eyes, "Yes, please that would be great. Especially since it's your job and we need to be thorough about this. Neither you nor me want Eric on our ass and accuse of sloppy police work."

Zeke snorted on that remark, but didn't argue on not looking more deeply into the victim's financial records. Then Tobias asked for him to pass the phone over to Uriah and Will to hear how things were going on their end. Almost immediately Will jumped straight to the point and said, "We have been looking through the victim's emails as well as any news from the papers and online."

"Did you find anything?"

"According to his emails, he was in contact with most of the members. However his most frequent contact was Jack Kang, apparently the victim was still involved with the council and its activities despite being retired, and based on the content of those emails the victim suspected there was embezzlement operation going on within the council due to large numbers of money from the council treasury was missing."

That was fascinating and certainly a motive to kill the man. If there was indeed someone inside the council who was embezzling money from the treasury then he might find the victim as a threat and would take the necessary means to get rid of him. And what easiest way to that is to kill him at a public event, filled with cops and use a murder weapon that directly links back to the law enforcement. Perfect plan to blame the unfortunate event on the police, however it seems like the killer made a couple of mistakes when he executed his plan and that was he didn't predict that the body would have been discovered this quickly or finding the murder weapon either.

This whole new information got Tobias thinking, "Okay, so we can assume that the killer is on the council or works for one of the council members. You and Uriah continue looking and see if there the victim might clue in on whom he suspected, meanwhile we will try and get the serial numbers from the gun and see if it matches to anyone in the council's circle. Better yet try and find out who exactly had access to the treasury and see if it matches whoever we might get."

Uriah and Will confirmed the order and the phone call ended. Tobias turned his attention back on Christina and Tris ordered them to get started on analyzing that gun and seriously hope that luck was on their side.

Tris didn't have much background in forensic. Other than having Caleb as a brother and expert in some of the fields of forensic, the things she knew regarding that area was mostly what she learned from the academy and her own experience over the years. However she was curious as Tobias putting on a white lab coat and took the gun of the evidence bag and placed it on the table before he went and retrieved an oily substance. Whatever it was it had a difficult name to pronounce and he reassured her, with Christina's blessing and authorization, that it could work and most certainly wouldn't contaminate the leftover evidence. Especially since they had already printed and processed DNA and fingerprint/handprints from the gun earlier.

"According to Christina, the lab found little evidence that could be usable and more importantly used to determine positive id, but with the little they found there was no match in the criminal database,"Tris explained as she sat there and read the file Christina handed over to her before going back to the morgue, with Tobias working across from her dealing with the gun.

"Did you check it against the council members? There should be database that lists everyone working for the state and the council," Tobias said, not fully concentrated on the conversation more on the gun as he was dealing the oily substance over the area where the serial numbers were filed off. Tris sighed heavily, "Yeah, but again due to the little evidence it really couldn't limit the list and give a definitive answer."

"Hopefully with this we might be able to track the killer down with the serial number on the gun," Tobias poured the substance over the filed area and slowly the numbers appeared as clear as day. A smile appeared on both of their faces and Tobias said confidently, "Let's bring this sucker down."

"Right behind you," Tris responded back as they practically to the closest computer and immediately check out those serial numbers. Once the numbers were typed into the computer and the search engine worked its magic and a couple of minutes later the computer pinged and they had a result.

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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.

Again I used a clip from Rizzoli and Isles season 1 episode 4, regarding the stuff that was used on recovering filed off serial numbers on firearms. I personally have no idea if this works or not, but I put it in there anyways because it worked well with the story.

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

xXrebelgirl07Xx