It took everything I had to maintain my composure.

There were two men standing over you. They both had computer

terminals open on their laptops. There were wires connected from

the computers to the various parts of your disassembled body.

"Almost finished up here, sir." One of them said.

"Good, good," the inspector replied. Then, turning to me "This is

Mrs. Walsh. You might remember her from the meeting you had with

her husband. She is an android. I'm not sure if you knew that part.

We'll have her testimony shortly."

"I see," I said again, feebly, and while swallowing back vomit.

"Of course," the inspector continued, "All this is more of a

formality. We don't expect to find much. If an android really wants

to get away with something, they can always buy some black market

encryption protocols and hide what they want from us. Never hurts

to have a look though, right?"

I nodded automatically. I couldn't take my eyes off you Judy.

What was left of you.

"Humans, on the other hand. Humans like me or..." he paused here,

his gaze scrutinizing me, his mind gradually putting the final

pieces of the puzzle together, "...you, or anyone, really. They

always slip up. Luckily for us, androids can't usually get away

with much on their own. They typically need some kind of unwitting

accomplice. For now, at least. I suppose they'll eventually evolve

some kind of backdoor for bypassing the parts of their protocol

that restrict violence, crime, murder, and all that. When that

happens were all screwed. Don't you agree?"

He was just toying with me by that point. I knew he had figured

most of it out now. I should have never come to your place. It

was the final, damning mistake in a lifetime of missteps. There

was no crawling back from it now.

Even though I could see everything clearly now, something still

drew me to you, Judy, I longed for you. There was still some

perverse hope operating in some part of my brain.

"Will you put her back together when you are finished?" I mumbled.

"What's that?" the inspector asked. "Put her back together? Why,

yes, of course! No point in throwing away a perfectly good piece of

machinery. She really is a beauty, isn't she?"

He walked toward the table and straitened out the folded, rubber

face. I almost lunged at him when I saw him caressing your cheek.

"Of course, she'll have to undergo a full reboot. Wiped clean. No

memory, no bad code."

My heart dropped.

"If we do find anything about her husbands murder in her database,

there are some procedures for prosecuting 'software' these days.

Can you believe it? Well, it's the only way to hold these rogue

androids to account. But the framework, the bodies, they become

'innocent' again once they are rebooted. They can go back to their

lives. Be sold to new owners. Be repurposed, whatever. They are

never sent to prison or anything like that. But she'll be put back

together, yes. With care."

I couldn't take it any more, I got outta there as fast as I could.