22.

Under ordinary circumstances Tobias would have tried to skip his 'pleasant' meeting with Eric, especially knowing that Tris was waiting for him and was far more interesting and lovely to around than his horrible boss, but he did piss him off by going behind his back. And besides, he wasn't going to let Eric punish Tris and the others for going along with his plans.

As he listened to the long and boring reprimands about respect and integrity or something along those lines, Tobias let his thoughts wander to the lovely blonde who was waiting on him on the other side. He barely managed to contain the smile on his face when he thought of the kisses and love-makings from the previous night, but he figured that Eric probably would only keep him longer if he realized that he wasn't really thinking about his actions from last night or how unapologetic he was on them as well.

So after what seemed like hours listening to Eric's crap, adding the few normal harmless threats about his career and how it would be wise of him to stop rebelling against him, which he never cared much about before and simply continued to rebel in the usual non-direct kind of way to make a point with the man, Eric finally let him go. However just as he was about to walk out of his office Eric stopped him. "Wait…"

Tobias turned, slightly confused but too determined to show it openly in front of Eric, and waited for him to continue. "What now, Eric? Do you have more reprimanding or insults for me or am I free to go and spend my day off with my girlfriend?"

"No, only a fair warning for both you and the Stiff," Eric answered smoothly, with the usual wicked grin on his face. "Don't start poking your noses in old cold cases. It's not worth your time or your effort to look into murders that hasn't been solved in years, and probably won't be solved for many years to come. So take my advice and focus your talents on present day murders and not ghosts."

In honest opinion, he thought that Eric's notion was ridiculous. Murders and crime in general should look in every direction and simply not just the past and the present. However he took the warning in stride, but was instantly replaced with confusion and suspicion over how his boss knew what he and Tris was looking into on the side. If Tris had been the room, listening to this, then he would be pretty sure that she was going to look more into the case, especially since she's being warned against doing so. Which is exactly why he was planning on doing the same with Tris once he left the office, because something told him that whatever Eric was trying to hide or at least keep them at bay on finding out might have an important relevance in the cold case with Tris's parents.

"Of course," Tobias finally answered, with the sake sincerity and respect towards Eric. "Now can I leave?"

Eric nodded and moved his attention back on the paperwork he was doing like the huge ass that he was and Tobias left the office.

Paperwork was easily done and filed, so Tris ended up waiting impatiently for Tobias to finish his talk with Eric and they could go back to the apartment and spend the rest of the day in bed getting reacquainted with each other. However it became very obvious that wasn't going to happen when Tobias showed up to her desk with his odd facial expression that she had only seen a couple of times during the time they had known each other, and it normally meant that that she should just drop her plans and expect to work overtime again.

"Do I dare assume that our plans are officially cancelled?" Tris stated, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed. Tobias nodded his head, with the same expression hanging on his face even though she wanted nothing more to shred it to pieces just to see the face of the man she had been with earlier this morning. "Yeah, sorry about that, but I think that this might be more important. In fact, it might have something to do with your parents case along with the other cold cases."

"Okay…and why is it so important that it can't wait till tomorrow?" Tris asked, finding his reasoning to be flimsy at best. She wasn't about to go deep into this case and lose herself in the process like the last time; even with Tobias the chances of that possibility were great, and besides, Christina had told her over and over since they met and became friends that she should enjoy life and not simply live a life with the purpose of solving murders. Sure, it was a big and common thing between her and Tobias, but she might want a life that was more than just blood and death. Hopefully with him, but only time would tell whether that future is a possibility.

Tobias sighed heavily, "Because Eric just warned me that you and I should stop poking into the past and cold cases since they are of no use to us. It about the recent past and the present that is important to him so it seems."

"Right…" Tris still not entirely convinced about this or what he wanted them to do about his discoveries. "And we both know that Eric is a huge douche, but that doesn't mean that we need to go against his back more than we already have. I mean, my parents' case is directly connected to your recent murder victims. So why the secrecy over a case that pretty much everyone in the department knows about?"

"Look, I can't explain why because I don't even know the entire reason," Tobias explained, putting his hands on her shoulders, hoping that she would simply trust and understand what he was trying to do without the important words to go along with it. "But can you go along with me on this?"

Tris thought about it. She might not understand or like what he was suggestion, but she trusted him both as a partner and as a lover. He wasn't trying to hurt her or do something that she wouldn't approve of, just simply wanted to find the truth, which was what made them a perfect team in the first place. In the end she closed her eyes and said, "All right, let's do whatever you think we should do. What is your plan exactly?"

A tiny smile appeared on his face, which she in return responded to and smiled back with curiosity, and said almost sneaky, "You and I are going to take a trip down to the basement and to the storage room where the archives are located in order to look at the original case files and stored evidence. In order to gain some better perspective of the entire case rather than reading just the notes from the case file I think we benefit of looking at the original notes and evidence from back when the murder occurred, don't you agree? Who knows maybe we discover something that the detective attached to the case missed?"

Tris couldn't argue about that. He pulled away and she stood up, retrieved her shoulder bag, and then the two of them headed to the elevator and down to the basement.

If he had to choose between the morgue and the basement where the archives were located he would pick old files and evidence bags over a dead corpse any day. Tobias had always liked the smell of old books, and compared to a decomposing body he had even a better reason to love it, especially since the basement held that similar smell of old books like one would find in an old library. Tris had a similar interest as well, but her current main interest was the several shelves filled with boxes of different cases. Her eyes were huge with curiosity that she barely keep her attention on where she was walking until she slammed right into his back when he stopped.

"Sorry," Tris muttered, slightly embarrassed based on the growing redness on her cheeks. "I have never been down here before and I guess I got carried away."

Tobias smiled, finding her even cuter now that she admitted something she probably wouldn't have explained to anyone else besides him. "No need to apologize. My reaction the first time I came down here was similar, although my mentor Amar teased me a lot about it since he knew where I came from and thought it was hilarious to see a grown man acting like a kid in a candy store."

She rolled her eyes, clearly finding the whole conversation ridiculous and annoying, but didn't do it to insult him or hurt his feelings or whatever. She simply wanted to move on and get focused on their true purpose for visiting the archive- and storage room. "So tell me, if the old cold cases were investigated by the Abnegation Police Department then why would Dauntless have the old case files?"

"All the case files and evidence were shipped from all of the former police departments over to Dauntless once it was decided that the rest of the departments were going to closed down," Tobias explained, while his eyes began searching the right box that contained the information about her parents' murder. "Now, let's see…case 172, 173…no here it is, case 175."

He pulled out the box and laid it down on the floor. He followed down, along with Tris, to sit on the floor and slowly opened the box and began to remove the contents of the box. Not surprisingly there wasn't much inside the box, just crime scene photos and witness statements along with the undetailed statements from the few friends and neighbors. However there wasn't much in the statements that was going to be of any help to them.

"Remember how Marcus mentioned that my mom and Jeanine had a fight sometime before she was killed," Tris said suddenly, interrupting his train of thoughts. He looked up from the report from one of the leading detectives on the case back in the day. "Yeah? What about it?"

"It may be nothing or it may be something, I don't know, but look at this," Tris moved closer to him and showed him an old appointment book. "This was my mom's old appointment book, which I know is strange considering the fact that people from Abnegation only own the bare minimum, but nonetheless it stated on the day she and dad died that they were going to meet someone just a few hours before prior to the murder."

"Does it say who they were supposed to meet?" Tobias asked.

She shook her head, "No, the name is too smudged and faded away to decipher it. Maybe we should bring it to the crime lab and see if they can do something about it? I mean, this case is pretty old and weren't processed through the technology that we have today. So there might be chance to recover the name and that person might tell us what my parents might have gotten themselves killed over."

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

I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to update this story, I know that many of you have been waiting to know what happens next, which I would like to thank you guys for continuing to love and support my story despite the long wait. But the reason for the long wait was due to school but also due to that my motivation and creative sense had diminished slightly and I had no idea what to write, but I'm picking this up again now. So hopefully it wouldn't be so long waiting time till the next chapter.

I also want to apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but it has been a while and I reached the conclusion that it easier for me to write shorter chapters than the long ones. And besides, the short ones is quicker to update, so maybe the next chapter will be sooner than expected.

And to answer a question I received from a reviewer the last couple of months. Yes, Tris and Four had sex and they did have sex before they broke up. I believe that I wrote a small flashback scene that gave the indication of that, but I can't remember which chapter.

Like I stated in my many 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, even now when school is out I have stuff to do including writing on other stories. However I will continue writing on it when I have time to spare, and have the idea how the story should proceed, and then 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