Luna followed Ezra’s instructions to Ryan Poole’s brother’s house. It was all the way on the other side of town. As they drove through, it became clear to Luna that Haskel had not lived on the nice side of town. The roads were easier to drive on, and the houses were bigger and prettier with all the signs of people living in them or ready for people to live in them.

The Poole house was a two-storied house with blue siding. It looked like an old Victorian house with a wrap-around porch, and there were flowers and ornaments all over the spacious front yard. Many houses had tall privacy fences around their backyards, but their house had a simple white picket fence, showing an empty backyard with grass that needed to be clipped. There was a two-car garage. Luna parked at the end of the driveway.

As Luna stepped back into the unbearable heat, she looked around the neighborhood. It was the same story as it had been with Haskel's place: everyone in the neighborhood stopped what they were doing to stare at the two police officers that had come to the Poole's residence.

Luna and Ezra strode up to the front door. The inner door was already wide open, and they could see into the living room. Everything was neutral colors inside, except for some patterned throw pillows on the corners of the sofa. Digital pictures lined the walls, as well as some watercolor paintings of flowers, and there were little statues of dogs and other cute animals on shelves and tables throughout the room. It reminded Luna of a little old lady's house, but the woman who appeared from around a corner was somewhere around forty years old.

The woman raised her eyebrows in surprise as she spotted two strangers, who had yet to ring the doorbell, standing on the porch. She wore a peach-colored blouse and white slacks, but she was walking throughout her home with bare feet. Her hair was bleached to hide the gray strands, but they were clearly visible in her darker roots. As she approached the door, it was easier to see that her eyes were dark and puffy, like she had not gotten much sleep in a long time.

"Hello?" the woman said in a soft voice as she opened the door, but her eyebrows were wrinkled in suspicion.

"Are you by any chance Audrey Poole?" Luna asked, giving her a gentle smile.

"Yes, I am."

Luna held out her hand to the older woman, and the woman's fingernails brushed against her palm as she grabbed her hand to shake it. Luna took out her badge from the inside of her windbreaker and held it so Audrey could see it before tucking it back inside.

"I am Lieutenant Pinkerton from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and this guy” —Luna hooked her thumb toward her android partner— "is Officer Ezra. We understand that your late brother-in-law knew a Mr. Haskel Cook."

Audrey raised her eyebrows in surprise, and she nodded.

"Yes, Ryan used to work for him. Did something happen with Mister Cook?"

"May we come inside and speak for a moment? It's rather warm out here."

Audrey nodded, giving a nervous smile.

"Ah, right, of course," she said. "Come in."

A cool breeze caressed Luna's face before she even stepped into the house. She felt every sweat-soaked spot in her clothing cool, and she let out a little sigh of relief.

"I was just about to make some tea," Audrey said. "Would you like something to drink?"

"I'm more of a coffee girl," Luna said as she sat on the couch—. "And don't worry about Ezra. It'll just fry his circuits."

The older woman’s eyebrows raised as she turned to Ezra.

"Oh, I didn't realize he was an android,” she said. “He looks so real."

“Thank you, Mrs. Poole,” Ezra said, politely touching the bill of his hat and nodding his head.

Audrey excused herself into her kitchen to make herself some tea and to get Luna some coffee. As they waited, Luna took a closer look at the digital picture frames as they flipped through pictures of Audrey, a man that Luna assumed was Audrey's husband, and a boy. All of the pictures of the boy that appeared were when he was older—at least twelve years old—and he was not smiling in any of them like he would have rather been anywhere else but there.

Luna could smell the coffee before Audrey came into the room with it on a tray, and she felt her heart flutter in excitement for just a second as she remembered it had been a couple of hours since the last time she had had a cup of coffee.

"I forgot to ask you how you liked it," Audrey said as she settled into a chair across from the two officers, "but I can get you some milk or creamer if you would like."

“Thank you,” Luna said, “but I like it black.”

There was a faint hint of vanilla in the coffee, and while it was a better taste than the crap at the police department, she hated flavored coffee. Still, Luna drank about half the cup before setting it onto the coffee table in front of them, suppressing a grimace at the unfortunate added flavor.

“You’re married to a Duncan Poole, correct?” Luna said, recalling the information Ezra had told her on the way to the Poole home, “Is he around?”

“He’s at work right now,” Audrey said, “but if you need to speak to him now, I’m sure he would be more than willing to come home early.”

“We can go to him.”

“All right, then, what do you want to know from me?”

“We found Haskel Cooke dead in his house just a few hours ago.”

Audrey’s eyes widened, and she spilled some of her tea, splashing the hot liquid onto her hands. She gasped, and she set down her teacup before she shook her hands to cool them.

“Dead? How could—I mean, what happened?” she asked.

“It’s our job to figure that part out.”

“Of course, if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“What exactly was Mister Poole’s relationship with Haskel?” Ezra took the initiative to ask.

“Ryan used to work for him. I didn’t know him well before he died, but he used to be good at building his own machines. That’s the reason Mister Cooke’s company hired him. He didn’t require much training.”

“Do you know the name of Mister Cook’s company?” Luna asked, leaning forward to take another sip of her coffee.

“Yes, it was—Oh, what was it? CyberShell,” Audrey answered with a snap of her fingers.

“Did he get along well with his employers?”

“As far as I know, he did, but I think my husband would be a better person to ask about that. Even my nephew would know better.”

“We can’t find any records of Mister Poole working for CyberShell,” Ezra said.