"You're my new sergeant?" I repeated for the third time as we left Block Seven again.

"Yes." Alex's lips quirked. "Am I not what you were expecting?"

I supposed I should have realised he was my sergeant sooner. The moment I'd crashed headlong into him, it had just been written in Sod's Law.

"I'm not sure what I was expecting," I said, "other than to meet you at the police station later this morning."

"You're not what I was expecting. You're young. And..." His gaze darted to my hands, balled into fists at my sides. "Feisty. Although you don't look it now."

Drenched in rain and sweat, and with my heart rate back to normal, I was shivering. I shrugged and stuffed my fists in my pockets. "I'm sure I'll warm up once I've added a forensic suit to my layers."

Although it had stopped raining, the city was still dark: the weather simulator was mimicking the short days and long nights that had characterised winters on the surface. We took a shortcut down the road I lived on, sticking to the shadows at the fringes.

The flats in my neighbourhood still had their Christmas holograms turned on, showing Santa in his top-of-the-range turbo sleigh flying across the brownstone walls. A beggar was huddled against the bricks of the next block after mine, directly beneath a reindeer. He'd found a second-hand currency machine that looked older than me. I stopped and stared into the eye-scanner, giving him the money I'd been intending to spend on coffee before work.

It took us two minutes to reach Terra Road, which was now secured behind a reel of electro-tape. Decrepit flats rose towards the concrete sky. Houses were a long-lost concept in Britain's cramped cities.

A narrow alleyway cut into the middle of the road, and more blue-and-white tape had been strung around plastic cones in front of it. PRBs were working on the other side, searching the crime scene with the microscopic cameras in their eyes.

The tape stopped short of the doorways to two buildings on either side of the alley. One was unmarked, presumably a block of flats. A cluster of neon signs climbed up the other. Implants4U, Flash Café, Ryker's Repairs...

In the middle of the buildings, the electro-tape, and the PRBs, a woman was sprawled on the ground. I could only see the shape of her in the shadows, and I imagined that when the night had been at its darkest, she wouldn't have been visible at all.

Alex went to get an overview of the situation from the PRBs, while I zipped myself into a forensic suit and entered the crime scene.

Once my eyes had adjusted to the dim light of the alley, I realised it wasn't just PRBs with the victim. The body was being examined by a human woman. A different robot was standing at her side: sleek and white, with APT (anatomical pathology technician) stamped on its forehead. Both turned around as they heard our approach, and the woman's full lips curved into a smile. "Good morning, Amber."

"Cassia," I grunted. Good morning was a stretch with no caffeine. Alex was approaching, so I introduced him. "This is Detective Sergeant Alex Sullivan. Sergeant, this is Doctor Cassia Grant."

My older, married sister shook hands with Alex. It occurred to me that all I knew about the man I was introducing was his city of origin, Rosek, which was where my old sergeant had buggered off to with a promotion as a detective inspector. But I could tell from his powerful stance and the clear look in his eyes that he was no rookie to a gruesome crime scene -- which was just as well.

The victim might have once been beautiful: her skin was olive-coloured, her hair was curly and dark, and she had a smooth youthfulness about her face. But her throat had been slit, and she was lying in a stagnant pool of blood. Flaps of skin hung down her neck.

I positioned my ilenz over my right pupil and attached the electrodes to my temple. The device scanned the face of the victim immediately, and within seconds it was displaying her national profile -- visible only to the police and the government -- on my lens.

"Zoe Ackerman," I said.

The first page of her profile held basic data. Twenty-five. Worked at Castle Robotics, one of the biggest artificial intelligence companies in Britain. Married to Maxx Ackerman. There were plenty of news articles attached, and I followed one of the links just by thinking about it.

"I recognise that name," Cassia said. "There was a scandal recently. Didn't she marry her step-brother?"

I scanned the information in front of me. "That's right, last winter. I don't remember hearing about it."

"You live in a little world of work."

"She has a lot of family who need to be informed." I navigated back to the first page. "And she's left behind a daughter. Five weeks old."

"I'll go through this quickly, then." Cassia's voice quietened. "Time of death was between eight and ten last night. You can see the cause for yourself. Both carotid arteries are cut."

"Nasty." I turned my gaze away, deepening my range of vision back to the opposite side of the electro-tape. A small crowd of onlookers were starting to gather at the top of the road. One civilian at the front had been taken aside by a uniformed officer.

Alex followed my gaze. "That's Ryker James. He found Zoe and called it in."

I brightened. "Okay. Let's have a quick chat with him, and then we'll find Zoe Ackerman's family before this news hits Xplora."

***

We ditched the crime scene and our forensic suits and approached Ryker James. He was a muscular man, dressed in just a t-shirt and jeans despite the season, but I supposed it was a sensible uniform for a day of hard labour -- I'd now twigged that he must be the owner of Ryker's Repairs. It gave me a good look at the silver cybernetic implant that was his right arm. He tensed and flexed his metal hand in a habitual manner, as if he'd never quite got used to it.

Impatience took control of my mouth when we reached them, and my only greeting to the constable was a nod. My gaze fixed on the civilian. "Ryker James?"

"Yes." He spared an incredulous glance at my outfit. My idea of dressing smart was to balance out my leather jacket and jeans with a v-neck jumper and collared light-up blouse. "You're a police officer?"

"I'm Inspector Rames; this is Sergeant Sullivan. The constable should have noted your address and Xplora account number so that we can arrange for an official statement to be taken later, but I'd like to ask a few questions now. You called this in?"

"Yes. I saw her when I turned onto the street."

"What time was that?"

"About six, I think. I like to start working early."

"Do you know who she is?"

Ryker turned his head away and started tensing and flexing his metal hand again. He rubbed the back of his neck with the other. "Zoe Ackerman."

I frowned. "You knew her personally?"

"She's my ex-fiancée. I was supposed to marry her last summer."

The breath rushed out of my lungs. Oh.

"Where were you last night?" Alex asked. "Between eight and ten."

Ryker smiled humourlessly. "I thought you'd ask. I was at home."

"Can anyone confirm that?"

"No. I live alone."

"No robots?"

"Not at home, but one in the workshop. It can confirm what time I left."

"Good," I said, although I doubted that would be very helpful. "What was your current relationship with Zoe Ackerman?"

"We didn't have one. We were civilised if we happened to meet, but that wasn't often. This isn't the kind of neighbourhood a Castle-Ackerman would usually be seen in."

Castle-Ackerman. Now that I had the full family name, I did remember some of the news articles that had been circulating last winter. The family were headed by the owners of Castle Robotics and Ackerman Electronics, the biggest technology firms in Britain. Once major rivals, the two companies had become partners when then-heirs Daniel Castle and Elena Ackerman had married. Zoe Castle and Maxx Ackerman were children from their previous relationships. Then they'd had two more.

"When did you last see Zoe?" I asked.

Ryker shook his head. "I don't know. Months ago, maybe, and it was always just in passing."

"So you wouldn't have noticed if there was anything different about her behaviour?"

"No. But she always seemed all right to look at."

"Did she have any enemies?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

Alex was watching him carefully. "What was her relationship like with her husband?"

"I have no idea." Ryker's tone turned sour.

"You were jealous?" I asked.

"No. She jilted me at the altar because she'd loved Maxx all along. To pine after her would be hopeless."

In my peripheral vision, the crowd at the end of the road was growing. Before me, Ryker's face was shutting down like a robot. To go any further would be to really grill him, and I didn't have time for that. Rumours about a murder on Terra Road would already be circulating.

I stepped back. "Thank you, sir. If the constable has your details, you're free to carry on."

Ryker walked away.

I turned to Alex. "Get a PRB to speak with Ryker's robot, then send some officers to break the news in the main Castle-Ackerman household. I want to find Zoe's husband."