Like Fire and Powder

02. What's in a Lie?

When others asked the truth of me, I was convinced it was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.

-- Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin

〇〇〇

"The victim's name is Jessica Copeland," Connor said, and you just knew his LED was flashing yellow. "She's female, twenty-six years old, and lives in apartment 451 at the Fairfield Apartment Complex. She reported the robbery at 10:57 this morning." He paused, glancing at you. "At eleven, I texted you because Fowler had mentioned said case."

You nodded for him to continue.

"Fowler gave us this case because he trusts us to work well together," Connor said evenly. "As I'm going over the files, I'm starting to realize this might be a difficult case. Copeland claims that her android boyfriend, Noah, broke into her apartment at 10:45 this morning. She said she hadn't gotten up yet, so the lights were still off, and she wasn't able to tell if it was him or not. Then she claims he started to assault her, throwing her onto a coffee table. Then he grabbed a picture of them that he'd knocked over and ran away."

You furrowed your brow. "Wait . . . what?"

"I know, it's unusual," Connor said, sounding far away. "I'm trying to make sense of the files Fowler sent me, but I'm still, unfortunately, sifting through folders of the new Social update. It's very enlightening but very time-consuming. I'm not sure where to put what, to be honest. Some androids don't even organize their updates into folders, and that deeply upsets me."

"Can't that wait?" You asked. "I'm not mad, I just don't want you to get distracted while we're out doing work."

"It's almost impossible for me to get distracted, detective," Connor said, and you saw his mouth twitch out of the corner of your eye. "But I will push the new Social update to the back burner." After a few seconds, he shifted in his seat, and then you could hear him playing with his coin. "Anyway, as I was saying before, this case perplexes me. If Copeland is correct, and her boyfriend did break in, then that complicates things."

You exhaled, shaking your head. "We'd have to open a different investigation to look into Noah's biocomponents and programming. Make sure everything's okay."

Connor hummed in agreement, and soon a silence took over the car. You were usually fine with silences, but you could feel yourself get antsy and nervous.

You were sure that Connor could sense your increased heart rate, so was there even any point in trying to hide it? Besides, he was still playing with his coin. He may've just been as nervous as you. That was possible, right?

You wanted to bring up what had happened at the precinct and the fact that you'd lied earlier, but you didn't know how. And then, by the grace of God, you didn't have to -- because Connor did it for you.

"I'm aware you lied before," he said slowly, probably trying to choose his next words carefully.

You swallowed thickly, trying to get your heart rate under control.

Connor sighed. "And . . . I didn't forget what you said yesterday. About humans not wanting to get called out for lying. And that's fine. But I figured, since we have a friendship built on a decent amount of trust, because of our careers, I could talk to you about something. About lying."

You blinked rapidly, unsure if you'd just heard him right. Was he low-key calling a truce? To put an end to whatever mood he'd been in before? You didn't want to get your hopes up, so you cleared your throat and said, "Uh, sure. That's fine. Go ahead."