Luna’s service vehicle was an unmarked maroon vehicle.

Most vehicles these days had self-driving capabilities built into them, and that was especially true for service vehicles. Luna had opted to disable the autonomous driver to keep herself distracted from thinking too hard about things she had been trying to forget for the past several years.

"You're an excellent driver, Lieutenant," Ezra said.

"You still have to be able to drive to get into one of these things," Luna said.

"Of course, but I noticed as we were driving that you broke no traffic laws. That means you are an excellent driver."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Do you mind if I ask you a personal question, Lieutenant?"

"That depends on how personal."

"Well, I got the impression that you aren't comfortable having an android as your partner. Was I wrong?"

Luna flipped the switch on the dashboard that allowed an AI to take over driving the car, and she leaned back in her seat.

"I don't hate androids," she said, "but when you grow up surrounded by them like I did, you either come to love them or get sick of them."

"I assume it's the latter for you."

"Again, I don't hate androids. Not anymore, at least, but when Colonel Try—I mean, Adler—told me why I had been selected to have a prototype, it brought up some bad memories. That's all there is to it, really. Sorry if I came across as feeling 'uncomfortable,' as you put it."

"Ah, I see. Then maybe we will get along just fine."

"Sure."

"Do you mind if I ask you another personal question?"

"Is it about the name I gave you?"

"Yes."

"Then, no, no more personal questions."

"Understood, Lieutenant."

With that, Luna turned off the autonomous driver, and they continued their way to the Hoosier Robotics' Recycling Plant. Ezra opted not to ask any more questions during the ride, and Luna was glad that it was just a short trip in the silent vehicle. As she drove around the building, she noticed two enormous robots standing in the middle of the parking lot, and she realized that they must have been the combat prototypes that Tryhard had mentioned.

There were other police vehicles parked near a set of three semi-trailers, and Luna parked near there. As soon as she and Ezra opened the door of the vehicle, the intense summer heat filled the car, and Luna considered letting Ezra take over the case while she sat in the car and stayed cool.

An officer already on the scene approached them. They had long blonde hair tied into a tail, and they had large breasts hidden behind their uniform shirt. "Deutsch" was printed onto the shirt.

"Officer Sasha Deutsch," Luna said as the officer approached. "I hope we're not too late."

The officer raised an eyebrow.

"You remember my name," they said. "Most detectives I've met don't bother to remember our names."

"I try to remember people who invite me to dinner."

Luna gave Sasha a wink, and their face turned beet red.

"This is Ezra. He's my new partner," Luna said to change the subject.

"Oh, nice to meet you, Officer Ezra. The scene's just this way."

A wave of cool air struck Luna as soon as Sasha opened the door, but the relief was bittersweet as she took in the inside of the building. They were in a long, wide hallway. The smell of metal filled her nose, and on the floor, there was a small puddle of blood, and there was a wide smear of the stuff that disappeared into another hallway. There were also two different sets of footprints in the puddle, and there was a small trail of them alongside the smear.

"Whose prints are those?" Luna asked, pointing at them.

"We're not sure yet, Lieutenant," Sasha said. "None of the employees who came in today have any blood on their shoes, and the prints don't match any of theirs."

"I can do a quick scan to determine the type of shoes, Lieutenant," Ezra suggested.

Sasha squished her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Oh, I forgot to mention he's a robot," Luna explained, hooking her thumb toward Ezra.

Sasha's face went from confused to surprised, but then she went right back to being confused. Ezra walked in between them to get a better view of the footprints. The irises of his artificial blue eyes lit up, illuminating the space, and after just a second, the light faded. He turned to Luna.

"It appears these are footprints from very cheap shoes found at department stores," he said. "One is a wide ten from the women's department, and the other is a size thirteen from the men's department."

"That doesn't really tell us much," Sasha observed.

"Maybe it'll be useful down the road. Come on. Let's—"

Ezra stooped down, and he stuck a finger in the blood. Then, he licked his finger clean.

"What the hell are you doing, Ezra?" Luna said, planting her hands on her hips.

"I can test for blood type," Ezra said.

"With your mouth?"

"Yes, Lieutenant."

"That's—That's just weird."

"I'm sorry to make you uncomfortable again, Lieutenant, but determining blood type is important to the investigation."

Luna glanced at Officer Deutsch, and she had a look of horror on their face that Luna imagined was on her own face.

"Whatever," Luna said, shaking her head. "Just don’t tamper with the crime scene."

"Of course, Lieutenant. The test results will be finished in just a few minutes."

The three of them followed the trail down the other hallway, but they did not have to go far to find the body of a man lying face down on the ground and covered in blood. Even without turning it over, they could see that the left side of the skull had been smashed.

"Have you gotten all of the pictures necessary for the crime scene?" Luna asked.

"I got what I could, but we decided to wait until you got here to turn over the body to see the face. There's a lot of space in this building to look at."

Ezra crouched beside the body, and he pointed at the neck.

"There are fingerprints right here," he said.

Luna crouched beside him to get a better look for herself. Just like he had said, there were two finger imprints in the blood on the throat.

"It looks like someone was trying to check for a pulse," Luna said.

"I will take a quick scan of it," Ezra said, "and then I can run it through a matchmaking program to see if we can find who left them. It will take longer than the shoe scan had."

"*That* would be very helpful."

Ezra's eyes lit up again as he took another scan of the fingerprints, and when the light faded, he volunteered to turn over the body. The victim was stiff from rigor mortis, keeping the arms on the chest, but the left eye dangled from the socket and flopped onto the temple. His left cheekbone, eye socket, and nose had been smashed flat. There was also a large laceration in the throat that explained a large amount of blood in the hallways.

"It looks like this guy crawled over here," Luna said, "but I don't want to imagine what it must have felt like for him."

"I can do another scan of his face and try to reconstruct the full features and run that through a facial recognition program," Ezra offered.

"Yeah, do it."

Ezra did a scan of the victim's face, and then they stepped aside to let Officer Sasha Deutsch take some more pictures on a thin tablet with the letters "IMPD" printed on the back of it. Once they were done, they stuck it back into their back pocket.

"You ready to see more of what we've found," Sasha asked, "or do you need more time to look around?"

"I think we can move on," Luna said.

"Good. Just this way."

Sasha motioned for the two detectives to follow them down the hallway.