Maid service

I just came back home from a tiresome day's work at the office, ending one fully packed week. Worn out and feeling like a total wreck.

I showered and took a seat by the window, cuddling my cat for some sheer energy while waiting for my Esther to prepare dinner.

My phone rings interrupting my meal, It’s a message from my partner Zoe notifying me to examine the files she sent me earlier about a case related to the one I’m working on.

I passionately kissed Milo and hugged her one more time, gently letting her know that she encouraged me to recover; she enjoys it.

Then, I instantly started looking through these files with great earnestness, for the case is the biggest in my career so far, forgetting all about the exhaustion I had earlier, my eyes wide open and focused on every tiny detail.

This case is murder just like the twenty others before it, all with the same setting, preparation, and execution. The killer drugs the victim, sometimes he dismembers the body on other occasions he drops it with one organ missing, then leaves it to die of blood loss.

But for this one, he missed out on a detail, an odd one. The android from Esther's maid service was there cleaning the house.

I thought to myself How did he miss that part? Did he sneak in and out without her noticing? There is no way he was that silent, torturing someone and slashing him to pieces can never be noiseless.

The files show the maid made the call one hour after the death, reporting that she found her master lifeless in his bedroom at his bed.

I directly contacted the company that owned the maid service with doubts creeping in, demanding access to the memory of that android so I can get some answers.

After waiting eagerly for two tedious hours, they finally got the Data and sent me a series of clips to work with, I started by checking her last hours with her owner, and what I saw confirmed my suspicion.

I was carefully looking through her eyes watching her drug the victim with a specific combination of pre-made chemicals; when he was already down on the floor, she carried his body with apparent ease, and for an appealing and adorable android maid that did housecleaning, that was horrifying.

He was awake and emotionless it must be the drug’s effect to make the poor hopeless victim watch her as she works. but I noticed a weird look in his eyes, that look wasn't that of terror or fear of death, it’s as if he was prepared mentally and just waiting for her to kill him.

Did I just think of that thing as she? this is confusing.

It is a programmed machine that killed her master, focus.

She shoved its fingers inside his skull and pulled his right eyeball out and putting it in a glass full of water, she looked at him and said “I don’t understand, I did everything the same way, I copied every move, followed every detail, but still can’t get the same result.”

It sounded muddled and confused, like a normal human being.

“Maybe I should’ve started from another spot,” she continued talking in a scared way.

The moment she opened the chest I instantly closed the tab, the scene was stomach-churning, I'll simply leave it to my team to analyze it

After taking a ten minutes pause, to calm down and to stop biting my lips, I started looking in the other clips hoping to find more answers.

I spent the night desperately looking back at all the memories from the very first one. 

I found that the deceased owner was regarding her as an ordinary human from the very start, having a full-length conversation with her, teaching the android how humans typically interact, and even occasionally he showed a display of emotions using his face.

He made her believe that she can learn some original stuff that wasn’t programmed in it "with enough interactions with humans, you can start self-programming." he told her.

He was right, after diving more and more into its memory I found out that the android kept studying with her master revealing some more shocking truth about the owner.

The maid was keenly observing him as he was working; he leaves the house at the same time daily, around 6 pm then comes back at midnight, knowing that the androids shut off her system during that time to recharge, so when he comes back, the lesson starts.

Esther was perceiving every action he took, by registering every file he showed her in her visual memory, it gained access to the mind of a psycho.

Recorded videos, research files, and even some handwritten notes.

And from all these, I finally discovered the way this android learned torture and slaughter

Mr. owner registered videos playing with his innocent victims, calling ‘fear of death’ the most precious emotion any being can experience.

He thought of fear as art that can be perfectly displayed in a human’s last moments.

The drugs he produced, the way he carefully cuts the body, the way he keeps his souvenirs from each victim, all registered in those videos and now in this android too.

And eventually, he told her "I have a test for you, finish it and you'll be a human, just like me"

The test was killing him, the same way he killed others.

And as for her 'An android' that doesn't understand human emotions, she gladly accepted, thinking that she will be more human if she copies his so-called art.

I never thought of this as an end to the most psychopathic serial killer in my city.

Leaning back in my chair, I took a deep breath to collect my thoughts, trying to connect all that happened so far, I got all I need about today's crime but I couldn’t find answers for questions that just popped up in my head, like, why did he ask her to kill him? Did he prepare for all this just to make his last masterpiece?

He treated her like a father and taught her stuff the average android will never know about humans, and he turned her into a killing machine the same he was before her, but the master never thought her how to escape.

All these questions and thoughts kept popping into my head my phone rings and make me jump off my chair like a scared kitten my heart almost stopped it was the alarm it’s already 5 am.

The amount of info I got in one night hooked me and made me forgot all about sleep.

I contacted Zoe and informed her to make our team look at these videos and announce that the psycho that terrorized the city for years now is dead, and to ask the company that owns this maid to delete all her memories so it doesn’t hurt anyone with the logic it got from her owner.

I turned my phone off.

Dropped on my bed.

Now and after all this, I will only seek Milo.