Good Cop, Dead Cop

Louis wrinkled his nose at the prospect and whistled through his teeth "No Shit" he muttered.

"Nope" said Ken grinning, "none at all, being dead means I don’t get to eat nothing anymore so I guess that daily ritual is clean out of the window."

He paused for a moment, "I guess you could call that a downside, no more food and no beers after work. The coldest thing in the fridge will be me. Although I gotta say I’m sleeping a lot better these days."

Louis shook his head in disbelief. "Y’know Ken, I can’t believe you’re taking it so well. I mean sure you were always an easy going sonofabitch, but you’re dead for God’s sake. Doesn’t that make you feel bitter or even just a teensy weensy bit negative?"

Ken didn’t answer straight away. "I guess I felt a little bitter when they were preparing me in the tubes. I gotta admit I didn’t really know what was going on but when they slipped the implants into me I kind of felt better about the whole thing."

"Implants!" Louis’s voice had risen to a pitch that signalled disbelief.

"Uh-huh, I bypassed breast enlargement and went for the whole brain augmentation thing. The way the doc explained it to me was that when you die, especially when you die in my kind of circumstances, there’s a lot of opportunity for brain damage. The implants pretty much look after the damaged parts of my head and keep my moods and behaviour in check. I suppose you could say they give me a sense of well being, although I’m not what you would typically class as a "well" individual."

Louis eyed the traffic which had begun to move at a more acceptable pace. He had forgotten about the oppressive heat such was his interest in the current afterlife state of his partner.

"I can’t say I understand it Ken, I can’t even say I agree with it either. I mean bringing the dead back to serve and protect. I mean sure this is the 21st Century but this reminds me of one of those old horror flicks from the old days".

"It was bound to happen" said Ken casually. "The Police force has one hell of a job recruiting new blood these days, pardon the pun. Nobody in their right mind wants to do the job and robots are still too expensive and unstable to use on a grand scale. So why not take someone who already has the training and give them another shot at the job?"

Louis closed his eyes briefly in disbelief, "I’m telling you Ken, we’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one."

Ken nodded albeit a little stiffly.

"It’s a shame you can’t eat no more" said Louis smiling, "I found a real good place that’s just opened a few blocks south. I guess I’ll have to eat your share of the donuts now huh?"

Ken didn’t reply.