ALIVE [Connor]

[11] Deviant

(A/N): Hey guys, I'm aware that the chapter Broken ft Markus does take place around 9pm on this same night. But for the purpose of this story, I've pushed those events back a bit so that they happen a little later on in the night and correspond with Isla's Partners/Interrogation timeline. This will also apply for the following chapter!

Also, glad you are enjoying the story so far!

***

November 5th. 2038.

PM 11:59:39

"Carlos Ortiz was a guy who liked to party. He was a frequent abuser of drugs, namely the infamous substance known as 'Red Ice'."

Isla paused briefly, jaw tightening at the sheer mention of the poison tumbling from her lips. For a moment, she closed her eyes and looked away, to allow for the visual of Leo Manfred's sallow, sunken face to cloud her vision.

I stopped loving you, Leo, the moment you realised that recreational substances meant more to you than my own damn feelings.

"...Those familiar with the drug will be aware that it does, indeed, contain traces of thirium - otherwise known as the 'blue blood' which powers an android's biocomponents." Isla unfurled her balled fists, prising her eyes open to spy Connor gazing her way. If it were not for the busy haze of the room, she could have sworn that he was attempting to offer some kind of mutely consoling look.

She pressed on in determination, now that even Hank had switched his attention towards her, in the wake of her initial hesitation. "Ortiz is also suspected to have spent inappropriately long hours down at the Eden Club, and yet he still couldn't shake the anxiety that his own android was spying on him."

"Ortiz attacked the deviant," Connor added, lingering beside Isla as they both paced around the crime-scene with Hank in toe, "Using a bat, it started in the kitchen. The android retaliated, grabbing a knife from the block--"

"--It acted in self-defence. The murder weapon had no fingerprints on it, leaving two assumptions. The killer was either wearing gloves--" Isla went on, wiggling her hands still encased in the latex forensic gloves, "--Or was most definitely a deviant android. We're assuming the more obvious latter--"

"--There was a struggle. The android continued it's violent advances toward Ortiz. It, now dented by the bat, seemingly 'chased' the victim out of the kitchen and into the living room--"

"--He tripped over one of the dining chairs in his rapid scrambling to get away from the deviant. He barely made it to the far end of this room--"

"--Before the android stabbed the victim twenty-eight times. It had no intention of stopping, it wanted to kill," Connor confirmed as the trio paused right over the corpse of Ortiz, gazing down at the fly-invested body. "The android murdered the victim with the knife."

"Okay, so that theory's not totally ridiculous," Hank concluded, trying not to sound too impressed and keeping a relative space between himself and the stinking corpse. "But that doesn't tell us where the android went. And it also doesn't justify the fact that you two are still the worst duo I could possibly put together."

"Jealousy is an awful thing, Hank," Isla teased, folding her arms and grinning at the way Hank rolled his eyes, "Now, if I was a deviant who had just been damaged by a bat, where would I go?" She slowly glanced around the room, as though half-expecting the android to pop out from behind the open fridge door.

"It lost some thirium," Connor spoke his thoughts aloud, just as Isla's eyes settled upon him. 

"Right..." She started steadily, squinting a bit as though trying to understand exactly what he was getting at.