11:47pm

The drive to the crime scene was pretty silent, aside from Connor giving the directions to Lily as she drove through the rain.

"So, Connor… have you ever worked with the police before-"

"Put on Knights of the Black Death", Hank interrupted as he leaned forward into the front of the car and changed the radio to his eccentric heavy-metal music. Lily decided to say no more (mostly because it was difficult to even hear herself think when loud screaming and electric guitar were the only noises in the car).

By the time Hank's car had reached the crime scene, Lily thought her eardrums had burst. The music seemed to have surprisingly calmed Hank down, because he appeared to be a lot more focussed and aware of things as he stuck his head from the backseat and looked between Connor and Lily.

"You wait here", Hank demanded to the android, poking him slightly in the chest. "We won't be long. Come on, Lily". Hank got out the car and walked around to the driver's seat. Lily gave an apologetic look to Connor as she got out herself.

"Wait, Hank. You're not letting Connor come too? He's here to help us, it's pointless for CyberLife to send us an android if we're never going to let him near any crime scenes". Hank appeared unimpressed. Lily looked back to Connor in the car, as she noticed he had climbed across the entire vehicle to sit in the driver's seat without her even being aware of him next to her.

"Man, he's like a fricking ninja!", she thought, stifling a laugh at the thought of Connor as a samurai warrior all in black robes.

"My instructions are to accompany you to the crime scene, Lieutenant", Connor said through the open window. Hank strode over to the android's head that was sticking out the driver's side of the car.

"And you've done your job perfectly, cause we're here now", Hank said sarcastically. "So stay there and wait for us to get back". Connor stared blankly at the lieutenant. "And for god's sake, keep the window shut! I don't want the inside of my car getting soaked!"

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. But I must insist, my instructions were-", Connor began before being interrupted.

"Listen, I don't give a flying fuck about your instructions". Hank pointed to the car seat. "I told you to wait here, so you shut the fuck up, and you wait here". Connor sat back in his seat like he was finally giving up on arguing.

Lily felt sorry for the RK-800, but she knew better than to try and deliberately piss Hank off. She leaned down to the window, and said softly so Hank couldn't hear, "I'm sorry, Connor. Just wait 'til we get back". The android stared at her, almost pleadingly, with his big, chocolate brown eyes. She felt her heart melt a little, giving him a look as if to say "There's not much I can do".

Turning away from the android, Lily followed Hank as a news-reporter approached him.

"Joss Douglas for Channel 16. Can you confirm that this is a homicide?", the nosy reporter shoved a huge microphone into Hank's face.

"I'm not confirming anything", he grunted before stepping across the holographic police-line. Lily noticed the small crowd of people huddled under umbrellas, clearly neighbours, residents and news-reporters trying to find out why the police was there. Passing through the group of people, the young lieutenant caught small snippets of conversation.

"Typical DPCD, they don't tell us shit!", one reporter said from under her umbrella.

"I didn't even know someone was living here"

"Apparently a deviant is the main suspect this time"

"Not another fucking robot going haywire!? That's the 3rd time this week!"

Lily followed Hank across the police line, giving a friendly nod to the android officer that was stopping people from entering the crime scene. He gave a little polite smile to her, before turning his attention back to his job. Lily felt a bit bad for the android, as he had to stand out in the rain with only his everyday police gear facing a disgruntled mini-mob.

XXX

Connor sat in lieutenant Anderson's police vehicle, his mechanical brain whirring as he thought.

*Conflicting orders… selecting priority*

The rain outside fell hard on the car, making loud noises as it hit against the metal roof like a drum.

*Follow Lt. Anderson and Lt. Dover*

Connor opened the car door, stepping out onto the residential sidewalk. The flashing police lights reflected off the wet road. He spotted Lieutenant Dover as she made her way through a small group of humans in raincoats watching the crime scene. Deciding she would be more lenient towards him accompanying her in the investigation than Hank would be, he followed her towards the glowing yellow police line.

An android police officer stepped in front of Connor, using his arm to block the way ahead to prevent the RK-800 from going any further.

"Androids are not permitted beyond this point", it said, staring at him officially.

"It's alright, he's with us". Connor turned his attention on the lovely, kind voice that was Lt. Dover as she beckoned for him to join her and Hank. The android police officer put its hand down, letting the RK-800 accompany the two humans he was assigned to work with, and enter the crime scene.

"Thank you for allowing me to join you, Miss Dover", Connor spoke gratefully as he approached Lily and Hank. The named lieutenant smiled at him, saying "No problem, Connor", whereas the latter of the two irritably glared at the android.

"What part of 'stay in the car' did you not understand?", Hank demanded.

"Your order contradicted my instructions, Lieutenant". Lily turned her head, looking between the two who were staring at each other.

"Let him stay, Hank. He's obviously committed to doing this. Who knows? He may even figure something out that we might miss". Hank rolled his eyes in resignation.

"Fine", he crossed his arms stubbornly. "But you don't talk, you don't touch anything and you stay out of our way, got it?"

"Got it", Connor repeated quickly.

Lily walked towards the building, taking in her surroundings. It was an old bungalow with white walls that had clearly yellowed over time and had the paint cracking and flaking off. As she put one of her brown ankle-boots on the rotted wooden porch, the step creaked and groaned under her weight.

"It's in a pretty suburban area, so the incident is probably a domestic dispute" she tried to theorize to herself.

Connor watched Lily as she examined the exterior of the house. He thought she must be very committed to her job if she would readily take on such a case on her Friday night, especially out of her own free will when she could simply go home and relax.

He looked up at the dark, rainy night sky. He cared little for the rain, it didn't affect him at all so he'd never had a reason to really acknowledge it before now. Connor looked back at Lt. Dover, he wondered if she might catch a cold from standing in the elements for too long.

*Software Instability: Corrupted Drive at 3%*

However, his thoughts were interrupted when Hank and Lily were greeted by another police officer, who Connor found out (by scanning and analysing the man's face) was the Detective Ben Collins.

"Evening, Hank", the chubby, white-haired detective called. "Lily" he nodded to her with a smile, which she returned. "We were starting to think you weren't going to show", Detective Collins turned back to Hank.

"Yeah that was the plan until Lily told this asshole where to find me", he half-joked, gesturing to Connor.

"So…", the Detective turned to stare at Connor, eyeing him up and down. "You got yourself an android, huh?"

"Oh, very funny", Hank groaned, shaking his head, irritated. "Just tell us what happened", he changed topic as he and Lily began to follow the Detective into the house. Connor joined them as he trailed after Lily, not wanting to be left behind.

"We had a call around 8pm from the landlord. The tenant hadn't paid his rent for a few months, so he thought he'd drop by, see what was going on", Collins explained. "That's when he found the body".

XXX

Lily gagged as soon as she had entered the house.

"God, that smell!", she exclaimed, pulling the front of her police jacket over her nose in an effort to block out the horrible stench.

"It was even worse before we opened the windows", Detective Collins said with a grim expression. Hank went over, kneeling down in front of the rotting corpse of what appeared to be an overweight, middle-aged dark-haired man.

"Who is he?", Hank asked, pinching his nose.

"The victim's name is Carlos Ortiz, he has a record for theft and aggravated assault", Collins informed the trio.

Connor scanned around the bungalow, it was in a state of disrepair with litter lining the floor, pieces of broken furniture scattered about, plus beer bottles, soda cans and takeaway boxes were balanced on every available surface. He could hardly believe some humans lived in such a state, although the home appeared it belonged to someone who had just been incredibly untidy instead of someone who had been struggling with poverty.

The corpse that lay on the floor, black eyes half-open, pasty skin peeling off, looked horrendous. The body's pallor was white as a sheet, the wretched odour of foul decay seeped from the rotting dead man. There were far more than four dozen knife wounds that had pierced the victim through the wobbly flesh of his gut. Carlos Ortiz's horrifying, glazed-over eyes followed each person around the room as if even in death - even when dead and slumped on the floor of his own house - he was still an unsettling, unnerving figure.

"According to the neighbours, he was kind of a loner. He stayed inside most of the time, no one hardly ever saw him. He did get a lot of unusual visitors though, shady looking people"

"Well… state he's in, probably wasn't worth calling everybody out in the middle of the night. Could've waited until morning", Hank said dismissively. Lily watched as Connor bent down, examining a knife on the floor that had bloodstains on the blade. After a scan he was able to identify that there were no fingerprints, and that the blood belonged to Carlos Ortiz.

"How long has he been there?", Lily called to Detective Collins, who had gone as white as the corpse that laid in the middle of the room.

"I'd say about a good three weeks, but we'll know more once the coroner gets here", he explained. "There's a kitchen knife over there, probably the murder weapon".

"Any sign of a break-in?", Hank questioned as he stood up from staring at the body.

"Nope. The landlord said the front door was locked up from the inside, and all the windows were boarded up. The killer must've gone out the back way", Collins coughed, trying to not be sick from the terrible smell.

"What do we know about his android?"

"Not much", Collins' eyes flickered over to Connor who was still looking at the knife on the ground. "The neighbours confirmed he had one, but it wasn't here when we arrived".

"I-I gotta get some air", Collins coughed, holding his handkerchief over his mouth and nose, muffling his voice slightly. "Make yourselves at home, I'll be outside if you need me"

"Thanks, Detective", Lily called after him gratefully, lightly brushing her hand over a desk. She examined a few leaflets scattered on the dusty surface; one of them was bright purple and read, "Eden Club - Come join us".

Lily felt a little bit sick, and not from the disgusting stench of decay that the dead body reeked and flooded the whole house with. She had walked past Eden Club a few times (as Lily luckily lived in one of the more prosperous districts in downtown Detroit) but never had gone in. Even if she didn't know much about androids or how they worked, she still saw them as equals and thought it was really horrid and de-humanising to force them to work as prostitutes.

Backing away from the desk, but making sure not to step on anything, Lily stared at the TV, noticing a little clear plastic bag (among the rubbish around the electronic-set) that was overflowing with what looked like red crystals.

"Connor", she turned to the android that was examining an overturned chair. He looked up at her, giving Lily his full attention. She felt a little hesitant to disturb him when she knew he was probably in the middle of something, but as Connor immediately turned towards her, his gaze intense, she felt like he hopefully would be happy to help out.

"Can you come here and scan this, please?", she beckoned for him to come near.

"Find something?", Hank asked, looking over.

"I think so", she replied as Connor came and knelt down next to her. Pointing to the blood-red crystals, she asked, "What are these? Can you find out from analysing it?".

Connor nodded his head, and Lily watched as she saw his LED light briefly flicker between yellow and blue, before he said "Acetone, Lithium, Thirium, Toluene and Hydrochloric acid. Also commonly known as-"

"Red Ice", Lily and Connor said at the same time. She smiled at him. "Wow, you're programming must be pretty advanced if you can analyse something just by looking at it". Realizing that it was a compliment, Connor felt his face heat up a little at her words.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Dover", he said genuinely, looking deeply into her eyes. Lily felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach for a moment, before correcting Connor.

"Just call me Lily, please, Connor", she tried her hardest not to blush. "If we're going to be working together, I'd like us to be able to talk to each other informally". She paused. "Anyway, I already call you by your first name"

"I suppose", he thought for a moment. "But that's because I don't have a second name"

"I guess you're right", she grinned softly. Looking over his face, she could have sworn Connor was smiling at her. Even though his lips and mouth hadn't moved, his eyes were so full of light and warmth that it looked like he was smiling with his gaze alone.

"Maybe he doesn't know how to smile?", she thought to herself as she could feel her blush creep her cheeks slightly.

Due to their close proximity, Connor could pick up the smell of strawberries and vanilla; Lily's perfume. He was so near her, that one move in her direction would lead to him having physical contact. It made his heart jump a little bit.

*Software Instability: Corrupted Drive at 5%*

"Why is he looking at me so intently?", Lily wondered. As she suddenly noticed how close she was to the android, she noticed her heart starting to beat faster.

"So, the victim did drugs, right?", Hank's voice suddenly broke the moment between Lily and Connor.

"Correct", Connor said in his professional tone. Lily brushed her hair out of her face, blushing more after the moment.

"Seems our friend Carlos liked to party", Hank added.

Getting up off the ground, Connor's eyes wandered to a small pool of blood on the floor. He moved closer to the evidence. Lily watched feeling both grossed out and fascinated at the same time as Connor dipped two of his fingers in the blood, before lifting them to his lips and smearing the thick, red liquid onto his tongue.

Lily felt a chill going down her spine. It was weird, gross and a little creepy what Connor had just done; but there was also something else about his action that made her shiver in… a good way. It was almost slightly seductive about the android when he so carefully licked his fingers…

"Ew, Jesus! What the hell you doing!?", Hank gagged when he saw that the android was licking the evidence. Hank's angry voice woke Lily up from her embarrassing thoughts and made her return her attention back on her two partners.

"What the actual fuck, Connor? That's disgusting!", Hank shouted at the android.

"I'm analysing the blood", Connor said nonchalantly like it was the most normal thing in the world. He pointed at the pool of red liquid, "I can check samples in real time".

"I'm sorry, I should've warned you beforehand", Connor added when he noticed that Hank had turned a pale shade of green. Lily laughed at the look on her partner's face.

"Having trouble keeping down your whiskey, Hank?", she teased. Hank gave a sour look in her direction, before addressing Connor again.

"Ok then… just…don't…", Hank was unsure on what to say. He glanced at Lily who was biting her lip, trying to contain her laughter. "Just don't put any more evidence in your mouth, you got it?", he gestured to the android, as if he was talking to a child.

"Got it", Connor blinked in agreement.

"Fucking hell, I can't believe this shit", Hank grumbled to himself. Connor looked at Lily as Hank walked away; seeing she was close to bursting into a fit of giggles, he questionably gazed at her.

"Excuse me, Miss Dover-"

"Lily", she corrected automatically. Connor swallowed nervously.

"Lily", he repeated. If he wasn't an android he would've sworn that he felt himself blush deeply! "Excuse me, Lily, but what is it that has provoked such a reaction from you?"

"I've never seen anyone annoy Hank like that before", she grinned at him. The android gazed at her smiling, joyful face; he had never ever seen a human smile at him before Lily had, but he found himself to like it very much.

"Still, I think it would be best that you don't lick anything else while we're here; at least, not in front of Hank", Lily winked playfully at him, before returning back to work. Connor felt his metallic heart pump fast, the inside of his body feeling unusually warm.

*Software Instability: Corrupted Drive at 7%*

He suddenly became aware that one of the humans who was collecting forensic evidence was staring at him, but not in a friendly way. Connor quickly straightened his tie and walked to the next room after he had realised that the entire room of DCPD officers were glaring at him. The android found himself in the bungalow's kitchen, and after examining the knife rack and managing to link where the murder weapon had come from, Connor heard voices coming from the back door of the house.

XXX

"So, you think our guy came out this way?", Hank asked, folding his arms as he examined the backyard.

"Yeah, it's most likely. All the windows were boarded up, all the doors were locked, unless the deviant obtained ghostly abilities like walking through walls, I'd say they would've left here", Lily explained.

"Well, I gotta say I agree", Hank shrugged. "Apart from the weird shit about the 'ghostly abilities', it's the only probably way".

"Excuse me, Lieutenants". The pair turned at the polite, soft voice as Connor came out from the house and stood on the porch with them, addressing them both.

"What is it Connor?", Hank asked tiredly.

"With all due respect", Connor looked directly at Lily, making her blush a little. "I have reason to believe that your theory is wrong"

"Oh, what makes you say that?", Hank leaned against the porch wall.

"There are no footprints in the mud, aside from Officer Collins' size 10 shoes", Connor pointed to the ground, and lo behold, there was only one trail of footprints leading away from the house, except they were only about an hour or so old.

"Well this did happen weeks ago", Hank theorised.

"Yeah", Lily chimed in. "The tracks could've faded, especially with all the recent rain"

"Not with this particular type of soil, if so, it would've retained a trace", the android explained. Lily and Hank looked at each other. "I don't think anyone's been out here for a long time"

"See?", Lily teased, nudging Hank with her elbow. "I told you letting Connor come with us would be a good idea. If we didn't have him, we would've gotten the facts of this case completely wrong". Lily leaned forward and patted Connor on the shoulder, an action that made him gaze at her intently as she smiled at him, before turning back to Hank.

"Well, I suppose there is still the possibility that if the android did get ghost powers or whatever, it probably would be able to levitate, and it could leave without any trace of footprints, but obviously ghosts aren't real", Hank rolled his eyes at Lily, who giggled as they returned inside the house.

In Lily's wake, Connor's nasal sensors could detect her scent as it hung in the air. It was so sweet and so good, it even managed to slightly mask the smell of decomposition. Following her and Hank, the android joined the rest of the DCPD in the crime scene; although for once his mind wasn't on the task at hand.

*Software Instability: Corrupted Drive at 11%*