A/N: This was written quickly and it's not beta read. I wrote it to fill the word quota on this year's NaNoWriMo. Before Selfie got cancelled, I thought it would be cute for the Tuesday night Henrys to meet. So I wrote it. Thanks for looking. Please enjoy.
"Coffee, black, and no surprise cookie, please," the middle-aged Asian man said to the cashier.
"Yes, sir," the woman said. "And whose name on this order, please?"
"Isn't there an order number? Why do you have to call out my name? What if I want some privacy?" he groused.
She had seen it all and just hadn't cared. "Sir, I don't care what name you use, and I certainly don't care if it's real. Make something up so we can give you your coffee when it's ready."
"It's just black coffee," he said pedantically. "All this time talking about my name and you could have had it done by now."
Stepping back and straightening her spine, the coffee shop employee whose name badge read Agnes said, "We are preparing fresh coffee to order because ours is the best in town. If you wanted fast coffee you could have gone to… McDonalds!"
"His name is Henry," a bubbly redhead with her phone permanently attached to her hand told Agnes. She then made small talk that smoothed over the situation quite well. If Henry had been in a charitable mood he would have acknowledged that despite her obsession with everything electronic, there were just some social situations that Eliza Dooley was uniquely qualified to handle.
When she was done schmoozing the cashier, Eliza guided Henry out to one of the tables near the sidewalk. He had seemed particularly grouchy and she was determined to find out what had happened.
"Was it your mom? Did your cat die?" she peppered with questions.
"No, and I don't have a cat," he said, still distracted.
"No, of course you don't. Then you might have something out of place in your ridiculously precise home," she said. Then Eliza looked at her friend wondering why he seemed so upset.
"Henry, we're in New York on an all expenses paid conference. Can you at least try to act happy? Loosen up and live a little."
"I got some bad news this morning. One of my friends has died, and police think it was murder," he said as he looked away from her, anywhere but in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry," she said, putting her phone down and starting to reach for his hand. She didn't quite make it, and Eliza Dooley stared at her fingers on the table next to his.
Before she could say anything, a thirty-something police detective walked out to the patio and sat down at the table beside them. Eliza could see the woman's badge at her waist, but she stared at her model-worthy cheekbones. If Eliza Dooley ever would get a girl crush on anyone, it would be her. Too bad she wasn't famous enough to make FitBrit jealous of her Instagame. Not that she would do that because it would just be copying Brit and Courtney Love. Who did that?
But Henry. Henry was hurting. And he was scooting his chair closer to her because this middle-aged man around Henry's age came up to them and sat at the table with the detective. He was dressed as conservatively as Henry Higgs but with a stylish flair that was missing from his wardrobe. Eliza deduced that it must have been the brown-haired man's scarf. He was seriously rocking the scarf.
When he opened his mouth to say something to his detective companion, the so very British sounds coming out of his mouth were enough to make Eliza laugh. Of course he was British. They were they only men who could get away with wearing a scarf like that and still seeming masculine.
"Blimey! Please guv'nor, may I have some more," she joked in a horrible amalgam of British things she had heard while scanning through BBC America.
Eliza almost watched this show Doctor Who once, but she'd gone off to party before the show came on. That one was supposedly very popular and British, but the young redhead would never know.
The man in question turned to look at her while Henry gave her a chastising glare. Eliza felt the center of attention, and not in the good way that she craved. Henry was looking at her like she had become tactless, especially after his friend's loss, but before he could berate Eliza, the waitress appeared with their orders.
"Henry?" she asked at the tables.
"Here," both men answered the waitress, causing them to turn and look at each other.
Higgs smiled charmingly at the other man, the smile he used for polite small talk and Larry at the office. The second Henry looked at Higgs and introduced himself.
"Dr. Henry Morgan. I'm more of a tea man myself," he said with an offered hand for a hand shake.
Henry Higgs stared at the offered hand thinking stupidly about all the bacteria that could be on that hand and how it could kill him. When the pause became uncomfortable, he snapped out of it and introduced himself.
"I work for a pharmaceutical company," he explained to the other Henry after introductions.
The waitress put Higgs's black coffee on the table between him and Eliza, and then she placed the green tea near the doctor and the detective.
Eliza was nothing if not an effective saleswoman, so she took the opportunity to ask, "What kind of doctor are you, Dr. Morgan?"
Instead of answering that he was a Time Lord or anything interesting like that, he said, "I am a medical examiner. This is Detective Jo Martinez."
Shrugging prettily, a move Dooley had practiced until it looked effortless, she said, "Well, since I can't sell you any drugs, maybe you can help my friend Henry. His friend was murdered."
"Eliza!" he hissed with mental pain and embarrassment. "I don't know that it's murder, but it might be."
Jo looked at the pair with compassion and to her own Henry. Then taking her cup, she asked, "May we join you?"
"Of course! The more the merrier," Eliza said in her party hostess voice.
Beginning the conversation with Henry Higgs, Detective Martinez asked, "What do you know of your friend?"
"We're here for a pharmaceutical convention. We were supposed to meet each other last night for drinks, but he didn't show up. When I picked up the first edition newspaper this morning, I saw that his body had been found over night," Higgs said grimly.
"Henry," Jo said to Dr. Morgan, "didn't you say that a new body came in this morning from the convention?"
"I believe so," he said thoughtfully. "Lucas is there, but I don't have a cell phone to call him."
"I do!" Eliza said with a smile that was like the sunshine coming out after a storm cloud. "What can I do to help?"
Dr. Morgan turned his equally animated smile on her. The red haired woman was pretty, very pretty, and much too young for him though she would never guess it. The thought occurred to him that this was the type of spirited person his son Abe would like.
"Is it possible that someone at the convention might have murdered Mr. Higgs's friend?" he asked the young woman. "Maybe you can think of something that will help the police solve the case."
"I didn't even know Henry had friends other than me," Eliza shared in a whispering tone.
Higgs looked at her with a hurt expression on his face, and she let her jokes stop. She looked awkwardly contrite at the others, not sure of how to proceed.
"We were just going to take a drink before our conference," she said with an unsure laugh.
"I don't know if I can concentrate on anything," Henry Higgs admitted. "I keep wondering what happened. Was it corporate espionage that became murder? Was it something simple like a diet without healthy salads? I don't know."
Dr. Morgan gave Eliza's phone back to her. "I will examine the body myself later. I can discover more then, but I am of no use to you without the body."
Jo nodded her assurance to them. "He's very good at his job. We may be closer to learning what happened to your friend, whether or not it's murder or natural causes."
"But the newspaper-" Henry started.
Jo Martinez leveled him a look. "I am sorry, but sometimes the newspaper writes things before they can be verified."
Henry Higgs muttered something about a decline in journalistic values, and Henry Morgan agreed with him completely. The two women looked at each other in surprise with their Henrys bonding over their crotchety values.
Martinez finished her drink as the two men talked and exchanged some fashion tips, especially about waistcoats. When they smiled at each other, Jo joked to Eliza that it was like watching puppies play.
The detective asked Eliza for her business card and made sure it had her cell phone number on it. After they exchanged information she said she would try to call them if they learned anything new about the case. Jo then took her Henry back to the medical examiners office, leaving Eliza and her Henry at the coffee shop.
Dr. Morgan had been working on the body most of the afternoon, the fact that he had jumped it out of order with the rest of the bodies became less of a problem for him the more he worked with Detective Martinez.
"Henry, what did you find?" she asked, seeing his look of triumph on his face.
"Murder," muttered Hanson under his breath because it was always murder.
"I can tell our Mr. Higgs that his friend was not murdered," Henry said smugly to Jo, Lucas and Hanson.
Clarifying his point, he explained, "These stab wounds look like they were fatal, but they were not the cause of death. The decedent had evidence of arterial blockage due to poor cholesterol. I conclude that this death was not a murder by impaling, but impaling done after the victim had already died of a stroke. As Henry stated, his friend could have eaten more healthy salads."
Lucas looked at Doctor Morgan as if he was his hero and asked, "How did he get the injuries?"
Hanson flipped his detective's notebook open to share the details, "The hotel where he was found had a walkway over a high atrium. He was found underneath it."
"Yes, and while a fall can kill someone who isn't dead, it can't kill anyone who is already dead as this man was," Morgan declared with a flourish.
"Thank you," Jo said, slapping Eliza's business card against her hands. "Please excuse me."
Stepping out to call Eliza with the news of the examination, Martinez was surprised at the sound the woman made. She was just too chipper, and Jo hadn't had nearly enough coffee to tolerate it.
"Miss Dooley, Dr. Morgan completed his examination. Is your friend Henry around?" Martinez asked efficiently.
After Henry was put on the phone, Jo told him what they had learned and tried to assure him that though the loss was tragic, no one had purposefully harmed his friend.
"Thank you, detective," Henry said as he disconnected the call with her and allowed himself to flop back down on Eliza's comfortable bed. Even though it was the late afternoon, she was wearing the silly unicorn pajamas that she had gotten from Sam Saperstein during the retreat before Henry got his promotion.
He had a regimented life, and Henry Higgs never expected his friend to die so young. He was relieved that it was a death of natural causes, though even those could have been prevented. He realized that he needed to take a tip from the woman who was beside him making sure he still had ginger ale. All work and no play would make Henry a very dull boy.
"Eliza," he started to say.
"Yes, Henry?" she asked back as she set down the bottle of ginger ale.
"You're VIP," he said with a soft and tired smile.
"Awww," she cooed at him before sitting beside him. "I think I might have something that would cheer you up."
"I'm going to be sad over this for a while," Henry protested.
"I know, but let me help take your mind off of it. Dr. Morgan gave me a business card to an antique shop his dad runs. Let's go see it!"
"Now?" Higgs asked.
"Yes, now. You've got to do something that will make you happy, Henry. Maybe you'll find something that will look beautiful in your glass house. Let's do something happy, okay?"
Giving in to her demands, Henry went to his room to put his work suit on while Eliza changed into a mini skirt paired with printed tights, ankle boots to make Lucy Liu's Joan Watson jealous, and a top that reminded people that while the items in Abe's antique shop might be ancient, her breasts were not.
Jo and Henry walked through the front door of Abe's Antiques later that afternoon to see Abe dickering about the price of one of the lamps with Henry and Eliza. Detective Martinez looked in disbelief from them to Dr. Morgan beside her.
"I gave her Abe's card," he explained.
Abe, seeing his father, paused the explanation to call out, "Henry, come here! Tell him about the lamp. He did all the research on the piece."
"Hello, detective," Eliza said brightly as the other woman noticed she had a different outfit from the morning.
"I didn't expect to see you again, Miss Dooley," Jo said.
"I had to cheer Henry up. He's so old, so I thought I'd bring him to where he feels comfortable," Eliza said.
Jo couldn't tell if that was a joke or not, but Dr. Morgan seemed to feel comfortable with all the old things around him, too.
"It must be the thing about men named Henry," she said to Eliza before going to greet Abe.