We All Bleed

You're Off the Case

3rd Person

"We're what?!" Gavin exclaimed.

"The FBI is taking over," Fowler explained. "You four are off the Coordinate Killer case. There hasn't been any progress and there have now been over 15 victims. The FBI decided enough is enough and they're taking the case."

"We've almost cracked the case!" Hank insisted.

"You found one piece of evidence and a phony killer!" Fowler shouted. "You have nothing but a pile of bodies! Now get out of my office and turn the evidence over!"

Before Gavin could go off, Nines set a gentle hand on his boyfriend's shoulder. Gavin turned around and looked at Nines with anger for a split second before his face softened and he walked out with the other three.

"You know what? Just... take the day off if you want, I don't care," Fowler said as they started to leave. "Come back after the weekend."

The four sighed and all walked to their desks to get their things to go home.

"I'm going to go to the evidence locker," Nines whispered to Gavin. "Tell Hank and Connor to help you watch my back. And create a distraction."

"Okay," Gavin whispered, nodding his head. "I'll go warn them."

Gavin walked over to the desk, trying not to look suspicious. The whole DPD was crawling with FBI agents, he didn't want them to think of him as suspicious.

"Hey, we need a distraction so Nines can get in the locker room," He whispered to the other two. "I don't know what he's gonna do but he said he needed a distraction."

"How much do you love that shirt?" Connor asked quietly.

"What?" Gavin asked. "Uh... I mean it's old?"

Connor picked up the coffee cup on Hank's desk and spilled it down the front of Gavin's shirt. Gavin immediately understood what Connor was doing and started yelling at him. While all eyes were on them, Nines slipped into the evidence locker and rushed to put in his pin.

Nines started to look through the evidence they'd collected. There was the knife, a tablet with a video of the interrogation of Cameron Armstrong, Armstrong's fingerprints, and pictures of the bodies and the scenes themselves. Nines suddenly got caught up with the interrogation video. He quickly played the confession.

"Did you or did you not kill these people?" Nines had demanded.

"F-fine!" Armstrong shouted. "Yes! I did! All of them!"

"Did you hack the nearby androids to kill them?!" Nines had shouted.

"YES!" Armstrong shouted, now standing. "I DID IT, OKAY?! I-I-I was... I was the one who did it..."

Armstrong slumped back into his chair and hung his head before starting to cry.

Nines hadn't observed it before, but every time Armstrong admitted to something, he scratched his wrist. A nervous tic. He'd stuttered over every confession. He looked far more nervous than a serial killer would've. Nines had seen confessions from serial killers, they looked calm, composed. They were proud of their work. How had he never noticed that Armstrong wasn't the killer?

Nines scanned over Armstrong's face and looked into the database of criminals to find out where Armstrong had been imprisoned and where he lived. After he had his information, he snuck back out into the main room, where Hank was holding Gavin back. Nines rushed over and plucked Gavin out of Hank's arms before leading him out of the front door. Hank and Connor followed suit and they all walked over to Gavin's car.