The Rehabilitation of Tris Prior | ✅

Chapter 2

Tris' POV

I follow Matt around like a loyal lap dog. He is the one who knows where the DOA is. Earlier today a group of hikers found the human remains of a person embedded in a tree trunk. Now, we have no idea how it got there, but it is my job to figure it out. I know this might sound macabre but I can't feel other but excited to figure this mystery out.

We spend almost an hour doing preliminary work on the crime scene before the body with trunk and all is loaded into the truck and driven to the lab where I will start my analysis. I could already determine that the victim is female, Asian, in her mid thirties and pregnant. I feel sorry for her and her baby. Both deserved to live. The baby deserved to be born. I will call my uncle Joe later and ask him to light a candle and pray for them. As for me, I need to find out who she was, when she died, how she died, but more importantly who caused it.

I ride in Matt's car and I can see he isn't his usual cheerful self. He wants to tell me something, I know because he always stays silent like this before telling me something bad. I wonder what it is, but I've learned over the years to give him his space until he is ready. But whatever it is it must be big.

"Here we are," he says.

"You wanna come in for the juicy part?" I ask him, knowing full well that he would rather cut his own foot off rather than stay with me in the lab and watch me perform an autopsy.

"Hell, no," he immediately answers.

"Alright, your loss. See you later?" I ask.

"Maybe. I have some paperwork that needs to be done. I'll call you later," he says.

"Alright. If I find something out about our DOA I'll let you know. Love you," I say and close the door but I can still hear him say "Love you" back.

I walk into the lab where Dr. Morgan and Lucas already look fascinated at my murder victim.

"You guys wanna help me find a killer?" I ask and they both grin widely.

We spend the next five hours analyzing, prodding, taking samples before actually removing the body from the trunk. We carefully place the body on the table and take as many pictures as possible to document every step of our medical investigation. It takes us another two hours before we can finally close her up for the day and go home. We can't do anything anymore today anyway. Lucas sent all the samples we took to the lab specialized in these sort of things and we expect them back tomorrow no later than noon.

I gather my things and Lucas offers to give me a ride home. I'm thankful for it, because I really don't like taking the sub and Matt hasn't called me back yet. Maybe he has a lot of work and in that case I don't want to add to his stress level. But maybe it has something to do with what he wants to tell me but didn't find the courage to do yet. In any case, I will find out soon. But for now I'm happy I'll be home soon.

Lucas leaves me in front of my building and we say goodbye. He offers to pick me up tomorrow morning, but I refuse politely. Since it's still warm outside I will take advantage of it and walk to work. This will change once the winter comes. I wave goodbye and enter the building. I climb the stairs to the second floor and unlock my apartment door. The first thing I see opposite from the front door is the picture of my parents on the small table in front of a mirror.

"Hi mom, hi dad. I'm home," I say. I know it's stupid. They can't hear me, but it makes me feel like they are somehow still here with me. I take off my shoes and enter my living room. I turn on the TV searching for some music channel and then walk into the kitchenette where I start preparing my dinner. Nothing fancy, just some pasta.