A/N: Sorry this took me a while. I wanted to get my character roles just right, and I'm still working out a few more roles, along with more stuff that's going to happen in the future. Note: this is highly based on CSI: Miami. I love that show, and I used it as my model for all of the actions in this chapter. And this is going to start becoming HIGHLY futuristic. So review, disclaimer is in the first chapter!
Oh, and happy early Valentine's Day! Or Singles' Appreciation Day! And...Happy Friday the 13th!
"So what do we have here?" A much more mature Lieutenant Geoff Carte asked the coroner, a close friend of his, a much slimmer Sandrine "Sadie" Morson. Geoff had gotten more serious over the past few days. His fiancée, Bridgette Loews, had been kidnapped a few days ago.
"Gunshot wound to the temple, gun in her hand. She looks young."
"A suicide…any ID?"
"Don't need it. Come, you need to see for yourself." She beckoned Geoff to follow her inside the house and up to the bedroom to where Simone's fake body was.
"Oh my God, is that…?" Geoff asked out loud.
"It's Courtney all right. But here's the weird thing: it's not actually her. Apparently, this is the home of a Simone Peters." Geoff looked at the body, and then looked around the room. Sadie continued her monologue. "Simone has lived in LA all her life, at least, according to what I was briefed on. And we both know Courtney has never set a foot in LA."
"How can you be so sure that's Courtney?" Noah, now a crime scene investigator (CSI), asked the two reality show has-beens. Then again, he was one himself.
"She looks just like her dude." Geoff refuted. He still had a little bit of his old liveliness from his teenage days.
"We can't be absolutely sure until we test her DNA or pull up a full profile on her." Noah started snapping pictures of the bedroom. "For now, she's Simone Peters, age 26 years old." Noah snapped another picture. "Cause of death: suicide by gunshot wound to the temple. Now I need to take pictures." Geoff and Sadie left the room while Noah combed over the sprawl. He collected trace evidence and a little bit of the blood pooling around Simone.
Duncan was heading off to work when he turned on the radio. At first, it was nothing important, and then news of Simone's death was broadcast. Duncan almost slammed the brakes on his car in the middle of the road, but his eyes bulged when he heard the news. He was in a "mood" for the rest of the day, and the kids he was counseling didn't bother asking him what was with his mood, not even insulting him. Most kids had learned the hard way not to delve into Duncan's personal life, even teachers and staff knew not to ask Duncan too many questions. So Duncan continued on with the rest of his day without any questions.
Chris, or Bill, was out on another day in Japan. He too had heard the news of Simone's death, and although she was a biochemist, he was looking for Dana Anders. Chris thought it was just a coincidence. Oh, how wrong he was.
Geoff and Sadie were outside, waiting for Noah to finish combing over the crime scene. Before that, Sadie had gone in and taken the body to the white van to be autopsied on.
"Do you think we should tell Duncan?" Sadie asked him.
"Uh…I'm not sure. He'd go nuts if he finds out Court's dead."
"Maybe he's already found out. I'm sure the radio has already broadcast the news."
"Right. But I don't know, if we tell him, don't you think—"
"What, he'd kill himself? Oh, never thought of that."
"They haven't even been a couple for, what, eight years? They probably haven't seen each other during that time, much less call each other or care about how the other is doing. Even now, I still don't get why she broke up with him." Noah walked out of the large house. "I finished collecting what I need. The other CSIs are covering for me."
"I'll see you in the morgue Sadie."
"All right Geoff. Will I see you too Noah?"
"Maybe."
"Bye guys!" Sadie got in her van, turned the key in the ignition, and peeled away from the driveway, out onto the street, and then back to the morgue.
"Let's go dude." Geoff and Noah left to their van and peeled away from the house too.
In the morgue, Sadie was keeping the body in one of the sections of the autopsy room. Earlier on, she had pumped Simone's stomach contents and sent them to Trace. If Simone were sensible enough, she'd at least have some drugs in her body before killing herself…right? Sadie had her suspicions, but wasn't sure about how to prove them or if they were even true. It was just a nagging feeling.
Meanwhile, in the crime lab, Noah was checking the gun, and of course, found her fingerprints. However, there was a discrepancy: Simone didn't own a gun. He even checked the number (which took less time; computer speed had improved vastly), and the gun wasn't even registered in the system. When he found this, he sighed. What has this girl gotten herself into?
Geoff was testing the suicide note to see if there was any trace left behind whatsoever. Firstly, he saw that it wasn't a "proper" suicide note. Who writes that they don't want to be found if they kill themselves in plain sight? Not only that, there were three words underlined in the suicide note: look, for, and me. Geoff put two and two together, and concluded that Simone wasn't really dead. However, he found out just as Noah calmly opened the door.
"Sadie wanted you to test the stomach contents of Simone. I'll take the DNA swabs to prove it's her."
"Dude, I don't think she's dead."
"What? Of course she's dead. We have her body."
"No, look at this suicide note." Noah went to Geoff's side and looked down at the note. "Notice how her signature has certain words underlined? Look at what those words are." Noah examined the note, and Geoff waited anxiously for Noah's reply. If Noah were shocked, he didn't show it.
"She's dead. She probably underlined those words on accident. We have her body. It's about as real as can be. There's no way she's still alive. However, there is something very strange about this case."
"What?"
"The gun used isn't hers."
"She probably borrowed it from someone then."
"No, it doesn't belong to anyone. The number is unique, but it's not registered in the system. So it's either directly off the manufacturing line, or someone doesn't want to be tracked."
"This just turned into murder, didn't it?"
"Not quite. Not until we know the full story behind Simone Peters. Test those stomach contents, and I'll be testing the DNA. You come to me if you need me. I'll be in the room next door." Noah left. Sometimes, that dude acts like he's boss. But Geoff still believed that Simone wasn't really dead. He looked at the tub of bile and stomach acid left for him. Noah knows I get nauseous when I see vomit. But then again, he'd faint and go into seizures if he smelled it. Which was entirely true; Noah's allergies and ailments were just as bad as they were in his teenage years. So Geoff heaved a sigh and held his breath while opening the tub. He took out a syringe and 30 test tubes to begin the tedious process of testing the contents of the liquid. Noah had taken out the Q-tips he had collected of Simone's blood and started cutting the cotton ends with the red stain on them. Those tips were then placed in their own individual test tube, and started testing them. Thanks to rapid advances in technology, DNA searching no longer took the month or so it normally would; instead, it only took a half hour. Near the end of the half hour, Geoff had just finished testing the stomach contents and left to show the results to Noah. He's going to be in such shock when he sees THIS.
"What is it Geoff?"
"Dude, you've gotta see this!" Geoff shoved the printout into Noah's arms.
"Be a little bit more careful next time?" Noah rolled his eyes before looking down at the paper. "Hm, that's strange, no drugs in her body? There's just…stomach acid and bile? What, she didn't eat any food?"
"Oh yeah. According to this, Simone hasn't eaten any food—ever. This is the bile of a newborn clone." Noah's eyes widened at this.
"A clone? But—"
"They're illegal in California, right? Well, they're legal in the other 49 states, excluding Washington DC." After the Bush Administration, genetic engineering, such as cloning, was made legal in the USA. With this came new advancements, including the perfection of clones. And there was only one company in the world that was in charge of clones: Mann Corporation.
"There are no visible marks on her body that indicate she's a clone. Usually, there'd be at least something, like a blemish or a serial number to indicate that she's a clone. There was nothing on the body, at least, not in plain sight."
"Well, this is the indicator that she's a clone! That means you owe me an apology." Noah glared at Geoff.
"Fine. I'm sorry I doubted you. Okay, what matters is that we've been dissecting a CLONE all this time. This still doesn't explain why the gun isn't registered in the system and where in the world the real Simone is." Then the computer beeped. There was a match to the DNA. Simone's profile was pulled up, and Noah noticed a red string of numbers flashing next to her name. "Wait, what's that?" Noah pointed to the numbers. Geoff, however, knew exactly what it was.
"Oh…crap. This case just got ten times weirder—and harder to solve."
"Why?"
"That's not Simone we're looking at. Wait for an hour or two and we'll have the men in black knocking on our front door." Noah didn't understand any of what Geoff had just said.
"Translation?"
"By accessing this profile, we've just contacted the FBI." Noah's eyes widened for the second time that day, and stared at the screen with Simone's picture and the red string of numbers flashing next to her name.
A/N: Sorry if there's any inaccurate information. I tried to portray it as how I saw it on the show, and although that's not how real life works, it's the best I can get. Anyway, the rundown! What does the FBI want with Geoff, Noah, and Sadie? How is Duncan taking Simone's "death"? Will Chris get suspicious of this "death"? Where's Simone? Will she ever wake up? And what the hell do clones have to do with this fanfic?! All that and more, coming up NEXT!!! Review please!
