The FCPD had gone under some serious changes since I was last there, for starters, the amount of officers walking around had been doubled. There was also the addition of the charging stations for the SB Mk12s, and the Box-Man portrait that had been hanging in the main hall had been partially taken down.

“The men were taking down the portrait when Keith came in, he made them stop, but couldn’t get them to put it back up, so it's been sitting there all day.”

I turned to see Liz, the current Inspector on the police force, and the only mother Leo and I had growing up. Of course she wasn’t our real mother, her appearance could tell you that much, and even though she had only been around when we were kids she was basically part of the family.

“I’m guessing we have you to thank for them even listening to him.”

“Yeah, well, they’ve always had a somewhat relaxed job, because of Box-Man, then he had been suspected of working with the Johnsons and it tore them apart. They weren't willing to trust anyone that they didn’t know personally, so when Keith came in, well, you can probably guess.”

“And since Box-Man was suspected, they’ve had to double their forces, cause they can’t rely on his help any more.”

“Yep.” She sighed, then almost as an afterthought nodded towards the charging stations, “Plus we have them now, but well, my dad’s novels always had me wary of AI, and now I have to work with them, It’s just, alot.”

“I’m afraid the information I have will only worsen the situation.”

“Well, might as well say it.”

“Well, ok, I mean you know I’m.” I made a small, motioning gesture to the portrait.

“Yes, of course I know, what about it?”

“When I was observing the investigation of the ‘crime scene’, I noticed that one of the officers there was using an ID that belonged to one of the officers that had died in the Kurtlin bank robbery.”

“Did you see who it was?”

“Partly, and they did kind of look like the officer whose ID they were using, but I wasn’t able to actually scan them.”

“So there's a mole in our midst as well huh.”

“I don’t think so, but someone is trying to sneak into the investigation, for what reason I’m not sure.”

“Hm, you should probably tell Keith this, if he doesn’t already know.”

“That’s what I had come here to do. Where exactly is he?”

“Down where Chief Burdingham’s office used to be.”

“Thanks.”

------

I walked down the hall toward where the chief’s office used to be located, before the precinct had gotten a renovation. As I walked down the hall, I could feel people watching me. I glanced at the officers working at their desks as I passed, partially looking for whoever used the false identity, and partly searching for familiar faces. A few people meet eyes with me, but quickly look away and go back to their work.

I sighed, and turned my gaze away from them and instead found myself stopped in front of a memorial. I stood there for a moment, as I read down the list of names to which it’s dedicated to. I stopped when I reached the name of the officer whose ID I saw last night. Carlos Espenoza. I trace the name with my finger, feeling the grooves in the metal.

“Did you know him?” 

I nearly jumped out of skin as I glanced beside me to find a girl had snuck up on me. Alarmed, I stepped back from her, startled that she managed to sneak up on me. 

“Pardon?” I asked, as I glanced around for any sign of where she came from.

“Did you know him?” She inquired again, as she stood on her toes to get closer to my face and narrowed her eyes.

“Uh, no.” I answered, as I let my hand drop to my side. “Or well, not personally. Why do you ask?”

“I just thought you might have, because of the way you were looking at his name.” She replied, as she placed her heels back on the ground and turned to once again face the memorial.

“The way I was looking at his name?” I frowned.

“Yeah.” She said softly, as she reached a hand up to trace the name like I had, a sullen look on her face. “You had this look like… like you’d failed him.”

I stared at the girl for a second, not sure what to say. When I said nothing in return, she turned and shrugged.

“But that’s probably crazy, right?” She spoke eagerly after a moment. “Like you said, you hardly knew him.”

“Uh, right.” I quickly answered, surprised by her sudden change in tone.“Totally crazy.”

“Well I’ve better get going.” She said after checking her watch. “I’ve got an interview with the chief of police that I can’t miss.”

“Goodluck?” I offered, unsure of what to say.

“Thanks, though I doubt I’ll need any.” She flashed me a smile before she remembered something and handed me a business card. “Oh, I nearly forgot. I was hoping I could get an interview with you sometime this week, about your opinion as a civilian on the new automated officers. I’m interested to see what Brian Turhe would have to say, especially now that his grandfather has come out of retirement.”

I blinked, surprised that she knew who I was, before I glanced down at her business card and raised an eyebrow at the name Riley Atro. This girl was the famous journalist from the papers? I had to admit I had been expecting someone well, a bit more masculine. When I looked up from the business card to say something, Riley had vanished, probably on her way to interview Chief Burdingham.

I slipped the card into my pocket, and glanced at the memorial one last time before I walked away to see my grandfather. When I arrived I found him on the phone, arguing with someone. 

“Yes, yes, yes. I’ll stay safe.” He glanced up from where he was seated and motioned for me to take a seat. “Uh, huh. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Well as nice as it was catching up I’ve got work to do. Uh, huh. Talk to you later. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and set it down on the desk beside him, before he turned his attention to me.

“So, what information have you dug up?”

“Oh you know, nothing.”

Keith lowered his reading glasses to look at me, “Nothing.”

“Yep, absolutely nothing, however I did manage to figure something out when I talked to Leo.” I moved into the chair in front of his desk and almost put my feet up on the table before stopping myself. “I told Leo what we were trying to figure out and asked if he could try and make a puzzle that would fit with what happened so far, and then kind of fill in the blanks.”

“And what did he say?”

“Basically the same thing as what happened, though he said that the Automaton could use the whole ‘SB Mk12 must mean he’s working with Darwin Devices’ to divert him from whatever he has going on.”

“Makes sense, I had started to think that the similarities between them were a bit too big. Then again the fact that they were revealed to be joining the police just happened to be on the day that Box-Man was suspected of working with the Johnsons is still a big coincidence.”

“True. Then the other thing that he said was that the Automaton could put fake officers in the investigation, with a terminated ID in a fake database, so that t-”

“The original would be classified as terminated while the fake ID could still claim to be from the real database.”

“Yeah.” I said, a little annoyed that I hadn’t been able to explain it myself, but it was gone before I had realized it.

“Good work,” He said, “Now we’ll just have to find out where this fake database is.”