Luna had spent her entire life in big cities. She had lived in Los Angeles when she had been young, and then her mother had dragged her to Chicago, where she had first become a police officer. Then, she had gone to Indianapolis. While it was not anywhere close to being the same kind of city as Chicago, Indy was still a big place full of a lot of people.

The small town of Heritage was nothing special. Luna had seen flyers of some places that boasted about beautiful scenery and festivals, and there were a few places of some kind of cultural significance. Heritage was the kind of place where nothing happened. They had a few grocery stores, department stores, some churches, and a flat piece of land they called a “park,” despite its lack of trees, playground equipment, and even benches. Other than that, there were only houses, many of which were marked condemned, and Ezra informed her that was because of a flood that had come through the town a decade ago.

“Ten years ago?” Luna repeated, frowning as they passed by an entire neighborhood of houses with long-faded Xs and numbers painted on the front doors.

“According to the information I have found, yes.”

“This area mustn’t be too appealing to people, then.”

"That seems to be the case."

"How are much farther to Cook's place?"

"Just a few blocks over, Lieutenant."

Right next to the neighborhood of abandoned houses, there were some rather nice homes. Most of them seemed to be cookie cutter homes that had been remodeled into more unique structures, but at least there signs of life with children chasing each other through the yards and older people digging through their gardens.

The house at the address of Cook's last place of residence was one of the nicer houses with two stories and an attic. He had not worried about landscaping as much as his neighbors had, but he did have some yellow annuals spilling out of hanging baskets on the porch. There were some sun-bleached frog statues along the privacy fence surrounding the backyard. A blue sedan sat in the garage, which had been left open.

Luna parked the patrol car at the end of the driveway. After sitting in the air-conditioned car for so long, the heat was once again a shock to the system, and she remembered why she liked to avoid going outside the station as much as possible during the summer. Wearing so many layers of clothing was not helping her tolerance of the weather.

Luna took a look around the neighborhood. There were already people stopping what they were doing to stare at her and Ezra. Some people inside their houses were pushing aside their blinds and curtains to peek at them. Their patrol car might have been a plain maroon vehicle with no markings, but Ezra's uniform made it obvious that the police had come to Cook's residence. They were all curious about what was going to happen.

As long as none of them got in the way, having an audience was no problem for Luna.

They pushed past the overhanging plants, and they took a peek through the long window next to the door. The curtains were wide open, allowing them to see into the living room. There were a couch, a large TV, and fancy bookshelves displaying topsy-turvy sculptures, but they saw no people.

Luna leaned toward Ezra to whisper to him:

“Go around back and watch for anything strange.”

Ezra nodded, and he stepped off the porch and walked around the house. Luna gave him a few seconds, and then she rang the doorbell. There was an annoying buzzing sound rather than a pleasant door chime. She waited a minute, and then she tried to the doorbell again. When someone failed to answer, she left the front of the house.

Luna peeked through every window she passed as she went to the garage, but most of them had curtains that were difficult to see through. She looked around the garage, crouching to look under the car. Tools lined the walls, and the car was plugged into the wall to charge. Other than that, nothing of note was there. She moved to the privacy fence, looking either for a way to go inside the backyard or something to help her look over the fence.

"Oh, there you are, Lieutenant."

Luna frowned as she heard Ezra speaking from above her, and she craned her neck to find him standing high above her. His hands gripped the top of the fence as if he needed help to keep himself balanced. He did not have his usual smile on his face.

"You're a lot taller than I remember," Luna said.

Ezra was tall, but Luna was only a few centimeters shorter than him. Now her eyes were level with his chest.

"There's a bench right here that can support my weight," he said. "I found the gate on the other side, and it had been left unlocked. I took the liberty to take a look around."

"You find anyone back there?"

"There is something suspicious.”

Luna nodded. She jogged to the other side of the fence, where she found a wooden gate wide open and swaying in the light breeze. The backyard was just as plain as the front yard had been. There was a picnic table made of stained wood, a propane grill, and an empty but large above-ground swimming pool, but again there were no people.

Ezra was standing on the back porch, and he turned to her. When he saw he had her attention, he motioned toward the back door. The outer door was made of glass, and with the inner door wide open, she could get a clear view inside the kitchen.

The kitchen was spacious with so much counter space that some chefs would be envious, but in the adjacent dining area, the table and chairs had been flipped on their sides. A hand with the palm up could be seen lying on the floor, but the rest of the body, assuming it was attached to a body, was hidden behind the overturned table.

Luna tried the door handle, and it had been left unlocked. She rushed into the room, sticking her hand into an inner pocket of her windbreaker in case she needed a weapon, and she looked behind the table. A man laid on the floor, wearing a plain T-shirt and jeans. One hand rested on his chest. Purple bruises circled his throat, and his lips were blue. Glassy green eyes stared at the ceiling.

Without saying anything, Ezra ran through the house to check for any intruders. Luna crouched over the body, comparing its face to the images of Haskel Cook that she had seen, and there was no doubt that it was him. She cursed aloud, shaking her head.

Ezra returned to her side once he was finished looking around the house.

“There is no one alive here, Lieutenant,” Ezra said, “but I did find an inactive android in one of the other rooms.”

“An inactive android?” Luna repeated, standing without turning her eyes away from the victim.

“It did not respond to me when I tried to interact with it.”

Luna commanded Ezra to show her, and he guided her upstairs, taking her to the first room on the left. It was a small study filled with a computer and several large monitors. At the desk, a petite girl sat in the chair, and she faced the door. Her chin rested on her chest, and her straw-blonde hair obscured her face.

Luna brushed aside the hair, revealing emerald green eyes. She snapped her fingers in front of her face, but there was no response. It was easy to pull the android forward so that it was easier to reach the back of her neck. There was an invisible seam that ran straight down the center of the back of the neck, and Luna dug her nails into it to expose the white plastic shell underneath.

“There are some scratches in the plastic around the cable ports,” Luna said.

Luna waited for Ezra to take a picture of it. Then, she dug into her pocket for her phone and a cable, and she connected them to the android. However, as she attempted to dig through the files on the android, she discovered there was nothing to find on the android.

Luna cursed aloud as she disconnected from the android and shoved her phone and cable into an inner pocket in her windbreaker.

“It’s just like that security android at HRB,” she said.

“All of its data has been erased,” Ezra said.

“Yes, and that means that someone definitely has a vendetta against the people who ran Cybershell. Call the local police. They’ll be pissed if we talk to the locals without them.”

“I already took the liberty of doing so.”

“Great, then make sure our department knows that Brooklyn Sanchez is probably in extreme danger, and she’ll need to be brought in for further questioning.”

“Of course, Lieutenant.”

“And help me take a look around the house for evidence of forced entry.”

“Right away, Lieutenant.”