“Are you okay?” Ava asked, seeing my distress. “Yeah, sorry. I’m claustrophobic. I don’t usually use the elevator.” Heart pounding, I stepped into the car. I wasn’t going to make her get out. I pressed the button and clenched my fists. “It’s two floors,” she said. “For a distraction.” She kissed me. We passed Fran on the way to my door. She glanced between us and smiled knowingly. “I guess it’s time to turn off my hearing aids,” she said cheerfully. “We’ll keep it down,” I promised. And we did. There were no complaints from the neighbors. Ava was gone in the morning when I woke. A quick check showed nothing was missing, not that I expected there would be. I have enough women that I don’t know spend the night, so there’s a spell on the place to keep people from taking things. Back at work, I continued my re-creation. Originally, the software I used had been created as a drawing aid to replace the wooden manikins artists use to help visualize a person’s pose. Then people started using it to create digital images, and it evolved. Some still use it as a drawing aid, others used the figures to add to digital paintings. Some people used it to make digital comics, illustrations, or stunning works of art. The people in the chat room recommended it to me for the crime scenes when I complained about the cadavers. That scene had needed a crowd, so I ran out of manikins, and anything else I could use as a substitute. This was so much better. I could use as many figures as I needed. “Sean, we need you to come down to forensics,” Ruben requested. My eyes narrowed. Ruben and his buddy Marcus didn’t like being forced to work with someone who wasn’t human. They chose to welcome me with pranks. “Why?” I asked. Marcus had been the main prankster, but I didn’t trust either of them. “Sam has some questions about your last video.” I followed cautiously. Sam was their supervisor. He’d put a stop to our prank war. He’d be seriously pissed if they started up again and used his name as bait. “Sean, these measurements don’t match our notes,” Sam explained. I saw it wasn’t the video, but the raw scene file. “You do realize you’re working with metric, right? See the CM?” “I see it. I know. We changed it, thinking you used the wrong one, and it’s only four of them that are wrong.” “Let me look at it.” I sat and checked the different camera options. “Wasn’t there a chair here?” I asked. “Yeah, we moved it so we could see under it.” “The measurements that are wrong are connected to that chair. You aren’t measuring points in space. You’re measuring from the edge of one item to another. Move one item and the measurement changes. If you click here, you can hide the chair, so you don’t need to move it.” I fixed the chair and made it invisible for them. “Thanks. You young folks get this electronic stuff faster.” Sam patted my arm. “Young?” I asked as I stood. “I know you’re older than I am. But I’ll bet for an elf, you’re still young. Your brain still works like a young man. If you ever make it to middle-aged, you’ll understand.” “It just takes time. I’ve had centuries to practice. I’ve worked with masters, elf, and human. There have been a few who were born talented, but most put in hard work to learn what they know, practice to be able to do what they can. It took me a century to learn to be able to draw.” “A hundred years? Really?” “I really wanted to be able to draw. It takes time, but you’ll learn this.” “Yeah, if I live another hundred years.” “Maybe sooner. This isn’t as complicated, at least not the basics.” “Maybe. Oh, hey. This murder and the scene you’re working on now may be related.” “How? This gal was strangled. The other was stabbed after an argument way across town.” “It doesn’t seem likely. But both had some unknown substance on them. The lab boys are still trying to identify it.” “So it could tie them together, or it could be a coincidence.” Sam nodded. “It depends on how rare the substance is.” I nodded. All that kind of stuff was beyond what I knew. I was still learning. “They think it might be organic,” Rubin piped up. “Maybe it’s Sean’s blood. He’s rare. Maybe he should give the lab a sample.” “You want my blood?” I snapped. “Talk to the military.” I stalked out.