Luna and Ezra looked around the house, and even with Ezra’s enhanced android vision, they found nothing that indicated that someone had forced themselves into the house. There were no unusual scratches on the doors or windows, and the only ones that had been left unlocked were the back door and the side gate into the backyard.
Luna told Ezra to take a closer look at the victim’s body, and then she went upstairs to take a closer look at the office where they had found the deactivated android. The space was large but cramped with all of the different types of equipment. Haskel's desk had only three drawers on one side, and the bottom-most drawer had been left ajar. Frowning, Luna stuck her fingers in the gap between the drawer and the desk so she did not disturb any fingerprints that may have been on the handle, and she pulled open the drawer.
It was rare to find paper outside of museums. Paper still existed, but it was mostly for artists experimenting with different mediums. Everything in the world was usually saved digitally, but inside Haskel's drawer, there were binders and folders full of paper. She grabbed the first binder on top, and when she looked through it, she only found some art prints in plastic sleeves. There were a few more binders just like that, and then, she found plastic folders in the bottom. It was mostly old documents from CyberShell: invoices, paychecks, and contracts.
Then, Luna came across a little pamphlet. It was made of thick paper, and its backside was facing up until she turned it. There was a picture of a young man with dark hair, and dark blue eyes, and above his face were the words "In Loving Memory of Ryan Poole" printed in black ink. She set down the folder in which she had found it, and she opened the sympathy card. It had a poem that was printed into almost every card of these types, and there was a quick note from Poole's wife, talking about how loving and caring he had been in life. The date of death had been five years ago, which was before Cyberlife had gone out of business.
Luna thought of all the names that had come up while investigating the company, but she had never heard of a Ryan Poole in connection to the company. Holding the card, Luna went downstairs, where she found Ezra standing idly and waiting for orders, and he turned to her, raising his eyebrows when he noticed the card in her hand.
"Have you found something, Lieutenant?"
"There's this sympathy card for Ryan Poole," Luna said, and she held it up to Ezra so he could see the face and how his name was spelled. "Look him up for me."
Ezra nodded, and then his eyes flashed a blue light.
"Ryan Poole had a wife and son. His wife has moved to several places since then, but their son actually lives with his aunt and uncle—Poole's brother and sister-in-law. They live nearby."
"They live here in Heritage?"
"Yes, Lieutenant, but it may take some time before I find anything that links Cook to Poole."
"You might not need to look for it. Let's wait for the local police to show up, and then we're definitely going to be paying a visit to the family. And don't talk about this to the locals just yet," Luna added as she put the sympathy card into an inside pocket of her windbreaker. "It's our investigation, not theirs."
Ezra tilted his head, and he frowned at her. Other than that, he said nothing in protest.
"Of course, Lieutenant."
“Did your scans help you find anything?” Luna asked.
“The bruising on the neck seems to match with the hands of the android, and she had come from behind him. It was likely she had attacked him while he had been sitting down, and everything got flipped while he struggled against her.”
Luna nodded, and she looked at the gruesome scene before her. All that was left to do was wait for the local police to arrive. They decided to continue to take a closer look at the house.
Once an officer did arrive, Luna worked with him to talk to the neighbors, but none of them had noticed anything suspicious. They did not seem to know much about Haskel, either. He was someone who had kept mostly to himself, and because he had not been much of a problem to everyone else, they had paid him little mind.
Once the interviews were done, Luna and Ezra went back to their patrol car, and then they left to find Ryan Poole’s family.
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