Cold Hard Courage

[6] - Blood

[Tobias Eaton]

Peter and Michael enter the warehouse, both wearing formal wear. Why?

" Why are you two all dolled up? " I ask. " Lying to the world about everything now, huh? "

Peter walks over, removing his jacket. He rolls up his sleeves and punches me in the face with sheer force. I spit up blood onto his shirt.

" Actually, we were just coming back from your funerals. Uriah really is so upset about it. 'Rest easy brothers, we'll take it from here,' and all that sappy bullshit. " Peter says, rolling down his sleeves. " Oh, but Four I saw your wife there. She was looking pretty hot. I think I might try and ask her out in a couple of weeks. "

My blood boils and I want to punch him. But I know I can't. I can't risk it.

" You don't dare touch her. " I say. " She'd never date you. "

Peter shrugs.

" I don't know. With a new baby at home, she might decide that she wants a date night sometime to get away from Graham's crying. " He says.

My heart starts to pound in my chest. I have 100 percent confidence that Tris will stay faithful to me at least when it comes to Peter. But what about other men? Will she stay faithful then? I don't know. I hope so.

[Shauna Wilks]

After the funeral, I returned to work to grab some of Zeke's things. I walk to his desk, grabbing the pictures, cards, and books from his desk. He has cards and letters pinned up on the walls. A picture of us together. My heart feels empty as I box them up. Suddenly, a hand lands on my shoulder. I spin around, spotting Peter.

" Hey, " He says. " I'm really sorry about Zeke. "

I nod, sighing.

" Thanks. " I say.

I spot blood splatter on his shirt. I cock an eyebrow.

" What's that from? " I ask.

He looks down at his shirt.

" Ah, I had a bloody nose after the funeral. Must've gotten blood on my shirt. " He says.

He unbuttons it, revealing his white t-shirt underneath it. I sigh, walking out to my car. My phone begins to ring as I place Zeke's belongings in the trunk. It's Tris.

"Hey."
"Hey, Shauna. I was wondering if later tonight we could meet up and just talk. Get all of our emotions out of the way."
"That honestly sounds amazing right now, Tris."
"I'm just super sad for the both of us and thought we could use some girl time. Meet at my place say like 6:00ish?"
"Sounds good. I'll see you then. Oh, wait!"
"What?"
"God."
"What, Shauna?"
"Peter showed up still wearing his clothes from the Funeral. But they had blood on them."
"Seriously? What happened?"
"He says it was a bloody nose."
"That's strange. Well, I'm heading to go see Lauren and Amar. I'll call you when I'm out."
"Okay, talk to you then."
"Bye."

Even Tris finds it strange that there was blood on Peter's clothes. There's gotta be something else.

[Beatrice Eaton]

I stand in the coroner's office. Amar and Lauren stand cross-armed in the corner, whispering to each other. A man wearing scrubs enters the room, holding a plastic bag. He approaches Amar and Lauren and starts a conversation with them.

" Excuse me! " I exclaim. " Can any of you tell me why I was called here today? I have a kid to get home to. "

The man in scrubs turns around.

" I'm awfully sorry about that, Mrs. Eaton. My name is Matthew. I work in the Coroners office as you can probably tell. I'm one of the Crime Scene Investigators. We called you in with some suspicions on your late husband's case. " He says.

I cock an eyebrow. Suspicions? Like what?

" What do you mean? " I ask.

He hands me the plastic bag. Within it is a piece of the car seat from Tobias' squad car. It's tinted red from the blood. My stomach rises into my throat. I look away from it.

" That's a piece of the seat in your husband's car. Now, according to Detective Hayes' information, that seat should be saturated in both your husband's blood and Zeke Pedrad's blood. But, upon further investigation, we found this... " He says.

He hands me a manilla envelope which I open. At first when I remove the document, all I notice is how many tests were taken. Then one highlighted line grabs my attention.

Pig's blood.

I lift my head, raising an eyebrow.

" Notice anything particular about that paper? " He asks.

I nod.

" There's Pig's blood on this seat. " I say.

He nods.

" Exactly. We use pig's blood very commonly in our lab because it is very similar to that of humans. But when we checked the upholstery, we only found pig's blood. " He says. " We couldn't find a trace of DNA in that car that places either Tobias or Zeke there. "

I swallow.

" What are you getting at? " I ask.

He looks at Amar and Lauren.

" We believe that Tobias and Zeke aren't dead. " He says. " This is an extremely private investigation and we could all be penalized heavily for dealing in such heavy things. But if it proves us right or wrong, we are willing to try anything. "

My heart does a backflip in my chest. My Tobias may still be out there. Graham may still have a father out there somewhere. Suddenly, a conversation I had with Shauna on the way here pops into my head.

God.
What?
Peter showed up still wearing his clothes from the funeral. But they had blood on them.
Seriously? What happened?
He says it was a bloody nose.

" Holy shit. " I say, standing from my seat. " I think I may have a lead. " I say.

You just have to get the shirt from his locker and we can see if it's true or not.
How are they gonna do this?
They keep a blood sample of every registered cop for this exact reason.
I hope you're right.
Of course, I'm right. We just need that shirt or all our evidence goes out the window.