A/N:
This is a disclaimer that Almost Human belongs to Fox, not myself. No copyright infringement is intended with this work.
Thanks to my beta reader lawsomeantics38 for improving this story.
Chapter One
One month after 'Straw Man'
"Why do you always eat noodles, John?" asked Dorian at they sat at Kennex's favourite noodle joint in the Koln Avenue District one evening.
"I don't always eat noodles but I do like them," mused Kennex as he chewed on a fresh batch of noodles. Before his partner could tell him the exact percentage of times he eat noodles, his phone rang.
"Kennex," he replied after swallowing his mouthful of food.
"Homicide at Richardson Avenue and 39th Street," the dispassionate voice of dispatch informed him.
"Show us responding," Kennex replied. He hung up then turned toward Dorian. The two quickly got back in his car and drove to the scene.
They soon pulled up in front of a large grey warehouse. In his experience as a cop, warehouses seldom held anything benign. That was the case here as he and Dorian soon found out. The interior of the warehouse had black walls and floors with several tables full of computers and other tech. There were racks with more tech along every wall. In front of them a man in his late sixties lay dead on his back. One of the MX's on the scene handed Dorian electronic paper that contained the case file.
"The victim has been ID as Richard Williamson, the founder of Williamson Technologies. He was shot twice at point blank range in the chest and head with a semi automatic rifle," Dorian informed him. Kennex put on his gloves and crouched beside the body to look closer.
"Any DNA or fingerprints?" he asked as he examined the clothes of Williamson.
"They used a DNA Bomb so forensics will be contaminated. But we do have the shells and gunpowder from the rifle," noted Dorian as he examined that evidence.
"What did Williamson Technologies produce?" Kennex wondered.
"Detective Kennex, I have identified face makers, retina scanners, security cameras, and tag scramblers as the technology in this facility," a MX informed him.
"Did Williamson have any family?" Kennex asked Dorian as he stood. His partner's face flashed blue as he retrieved the files.
"His younger brother, Thomas Williamson, died three years ago. His older sister, Amelia Kozlov, lives in the City. His ex-wife Cynthia Williamson died four years ago. His daughter, Sarah Williamson, moved to New York City and changed her name to Ava White after her mother's death. She has not responded to any communication from her father since then. John, that's not all," Dorian told him. Dorian paused and then projected two images of different women using the camera in his eye. Kennex moved closer and saw two different driver's licences. The woman on the left was blonde and blue eyed with a long nose, thin mouth, and a rounded chin. The woman on the right was a brunette with brown eyes. She had a shorter nose, thicker mouth, and a diamond shaped chin. In fact, the entire face and neck of the two women were different, he now realized as he looked closely.
"The woman on the left is Sarah Williamson while the woman on the right is Ava White," Dorian explained.
"That plastic surgery must have been expensive. There's minimal scarring," Kennex noted.
"Yes. Perhaps we should visit Sarah and ask why she felt the need for such a change to her appearance and name," Dorian stated as the images disappeared and his eye returned to normal.
"Yeah, and we should also ask her why she cut ties with her father. You got an address for Ava White?" asked Kennex as they turned and left the crime scene.
"Miss White lives at 137 Oak Road," Dorian replied.
"What does Ava do for a living?" Kennex wondered as he drove.
"Ava teaches pre-Wall American history at City University," Dorian informed him. Ava was probably very smart, thought Kennex. Places at universities for both students and faculty were fiercely competitive.
"Dorian, this is Stahl. Rudy is working on the computer found in the warehouse but the files were triple encrypted behind a firewall so it will take some time to reconstruct who the customers of Williamson Technologies were. I've gone into bank records and been able to find out that Williamson Technologies was doing very well. There are two bank accounts, one personal under Richard's name and another business account. There were both small and large deposits of cash and coin from various bank accounts to the business account, some of which I haven't been able to trace yet. So while some of his business may have been legitimate, it's a safe bet to assume that some of the tech was also sold on the black market," Stahl informed them via a phone call in the car.
"What about the bank account of Ava White?" asked Dorian.
"One moment. Ava's been earning a good living teaching but she wasn't living as lavishly as her father was. Have you been able to determine why there has been no communication between them since shortly after her mother's death?" Stahl replied.
"No, but we're about ten minutes out from her house. I noticed the warehouse had a biolock. Have you been able to figure out who had access to the building?" Kennex wanted to know.
"Williamson only had three employees: a driver, Aaron Simmons, and two technicians, Charles King and Sam Davis. The exterior security cameras were shot and destroyed by the perps before they entered the warehouse so we can't use facial recognition. The perps used the thumbprint of Simmons to gain access to the building. Two hours ago, the body of Aaron Simmons without his thumb was found murdered in the 18th District. The investigating officer in that case is Detective Dalia Caro," Stahl informed them.
"Thanks. We'll keep you updated," Kennex responded. Dorian ended the call a moment later.
"Aren't you going to call Detective Caro and tell her you have information relevant to her case?" Dorian wondered.
"She's not going to want to talk to me. But you should call Detective Caro and tell her about this case," Kennex admitted.
"So what's the past history between the two of you?" Dorian wondered.
"Don't you understand the meaning of privacy?" Kennex inquired. He'd never met anyone else as nosy as Dorian was.
"John, this is police business. Now spill," Dorian pressed. Kennex glared at him.
"Do me a favour and update your colloquial program to exclude pre-Wall slang," Kennex requested. He sighed and paused to consider his words before he resumed speaking.
"Dalia- Detective Caro- and I dated for a year when I was a sergeant. Our relationship ended badly," Kennex told him.
"Speaking of women, you might want to ask Ava White out on a date after this case is over. Though that ultimately depends on whether she killed her father," Dorian stated.
"Why would you suggest that?" wondered Kennex as they entered Ava's yard through the gate in the green fence. The exterior of the green one-storey bungalow in front of them looked to be well maintained. Two small flower beds were in bloom on either side of the veranda and the small front lawn looked recently mowed.
"Ava responded to your online dating profile two days ago. I wasn't planning on mentioning it at first given your bad date with Samantha, but I thought you might want to try dating again," Dorian replied.
"Let's find out who killed Richard Williamson first," snapped Kennex.
"John," said Dorian sharply before Kennex could ring the doorbell. Dorian walked over to a small glass table on the veranda where there was a vid chip and a tablet that lay on top of the table. Once Kennex had stopped beside him Dorian inserted the vid chip into the tablet and pressed play. A movement later the interior of a dark room showed a woman gagged and tied at her wrists and ankles to a chair. A gloved hand grabbed her brown hair and tipped back her head to better face the camera. The wide brown eyes of Ava White looked back at them.
"Hello, Amelia. I want you to deposit 900 thousand coin into the business account of Williamson Technologies or Ava here meets the same fate as her father. If you follow my instructions, you'll see your niece alive again," instructed a deep male voice. The video abruptly ended. Kennex shared a concerned look with Dorian. The sooner they found Ava the better, he thought.
"Do you have an address for Amelia?" he asked Dorian. His partner nodded.
"Amelia Kozlov lives at 47 Kelvin Way." he told Kennex.
"Let's go talk to her. You should also have a team of MXs sent here to see if they can find any evidence of the kidnapping," Kennex said. Dorian nodded.
The women in her early seventies who answered the front door of the apartment held the collar of one of the largest grey dogs Kennex had ever seen.
"Patrick, stay. Can I help you?" she asked.
"I'm Detective Kennex and this is Dorian. Are you Amelia Kozlov?" Kennex asked as he showed her his badge. She moved aside to allow them into the apartment.
"Yes. Come in. You'll have to excuse Patrick here. He's Ava's dog and so I don't normally take care of him. She was supported to pick him up from the vet during her lunch hour today. But when they called me in the afternoon to say that she'd never arrived, I knew something was wrong. Ava is almost always on time," Amelia explained.
"May I see your phone?" Dorian asked. Amelia let go of Patrick to give him her phone. Patrick approached Kennex. He hesitantly held out a hand which was subsequently sniffed by the dog.
"The vet called you at 12:46 PM today. Your last call to Ava was at 6:47 PM last night. What did you talk about?" Dorian wanted to know.
"Just mundane things, like what play she wanted to see and what book she was reading. What's happened to her?" Amelia replied. Kennex showed her the video on the tablet. Afterwards Amelia closed her eyes briefly and hung her head.
"I don't have that amount of coin detective. What am I going to do? I can't lose Ava," she declared haltingly.
"We'll do everything we can to find her, Mrs Kozlov. Do you know if your niece had any enemies or any debts? Were there any changes to her routine lately?" Kennex asked.
"The only thing new in her life was Ava agreeing to be a bridesmaid for her friend, Heather. Ava's always been frugal with her money so I can't imagine her running up debts. As for enemies Ava got along with everyone as far as I knew. There was nothing that…," abruptly Amelia trailed off.
"You remembered something just now. What was it?" Dorian asked.
"Maybe she was right," Amelia replied.
"What was Ava right about?" Kennex demanded.
"When her mother Cynthia died four years ago, Ava was made executor of her will. She must have seen something unusual in her mother's bank accounts and confronted Richard about that. That would explain why she moved away to New York City a week after the funeral. When she contacted me again a month later, the only thing I recognized about her was her voice. When Ava explained why she'd moved, changed her name, and had extensive plastic surgery, I thought that she was running from her problems rather then facing them. My niece can procrastinate for a long time if she doesn't want to face something," Amelia explained.
"What did Ava fight about with Richard?"
"She told me she suspected that he was doing business with criminals. But apparently he had warned her to keep quiet about it or there would be consequences. Ava was afraid that he might put her under some form of surveillance to make sure that she didn't go to the police. That's why she went to such extraordinary lengths to change her life, detective. She figured that if she lived her own life apart from her father, he might leave her alone." Amelia told them.
"Order the MXs to do a sweep of Ava's home for listening devices Dorian," Kennex ordered. Dorian's face flashed blue for a moment and then he nodded.
"How did Richard react to Ava distancing herself from him?"
"When he first found out he was distraught. He told me that he was phoning her regularly but that she wasn't answering her phone. When the reality of their estrangement became clear to him I think it rendered him numb. I always told him that he should continue to make an effort to reconcile with her. But Richard insisted that Ava be the one to come to him first. Ava didn't want to do that. Both of them were too stubborn to back down," Amelia recounted.
"Mrs Kozlov, if there's anything further about Ava you can think of, please contact us," Dorian replied. Amelia nodded. Kennex and his partner left the apartment and headed to the precinct.
"I'll phone Detective Caro now, shall I?" wondered Dorian in the car. Kennex nodded.
"Caro. Who is this?" came the voice of his ex-girlfriend.
"I'm Dorian, Detective Kennex's partner. We're investigating the death of Richard Williamson," Dorian explained.
"Please send your case file to my MX, number 491. I presume you want me to help you out with this case?" Caro replied.
"Yes. Williamson's daughter has been kidnapped so time is of the essence," Dorian stated.
"I understand. I'll check in with Captain Anderson and Captain Maldonado so they are aware of the situation. I'll meet you at the precinct. Kennex, try not to shoot my MX," Caro responded.
"You heard about that, huh?" Kennex asked.
"The whole police department heard about that incident. Though I can't say I was surprised. You've never been fond of androids. I'll talk to you both soon. Goodbye," Caro concluded.