Pt. 3
The trip back from the crime scene had been silent at best. Nick was still trying to wrap his mind around seeing his own face looking back at him, walking away from his on another pair of legs. As far as he knew he had no living relatives, no cousins who might resemble him, no family at all he could call on except his mother Kelly – who wasn't available at the moment.
Hank watched his partner out of the corner of his eye, frowning. "I'll run the license plate on that bike" he said as they entered the precinct. "Maybe we can figure out who your double really is."
"Or maybe we could just ask him" Nick said, staring in disbelief at the figure lounging at their shared desk. Anyone walking by would have sworn that Detective Nick Burkhardt was seated in front of his computer, eyes closed with his arms crossed across his chest and his long legs propped up on another chair. Capt. Renard was standing behind the chair, an annoyed look on his face, a look that changed to astonishment as Nick and Hank entered the room.
"What the…" Renard snarled, putting his hand on the man's shoulder.
The stranger's reactions were quick, faster than Nick had seen even among the assorted Wessens he had dealt with. In the blink of an eye, the man's eyes had opened and he had grabbed their captain's wrist, flowing out of the chair to break the captain's grip on him. "Don't touch" the stranger's voice – Nick's voice – said quietly.
"Hey!" Hank called out, moving quickly to Renard's side. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Keeping from being manhandled " Nick's double said, raising one eyebrow as he stared at Renard. "If you wanted my attention, all you had to do was talk to me – preferably from in front where I could see you."
"Just who the hell are you?" Nick asked, moving to stand in front of his duplicate.
"Nico Ainsley. I'm a detective in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. And you would be?" Nico looked his doppelganger up and down, his expression amused. His double's physical resemblance wasn't as striking to him up close as it had been in the park. There was something still so "innocent" about the man – something Nico hadn't had in a while.
"Nick Burkhardt. This is too freaking strange." Nick also took the opportunity to examine his counterpart closely. They were almost identical – almost. Nico was slightly taller, slightly leaner, slightly tanner with longer hair. And if that wasn't enough, he was dressed better, with a silk shirt, and expensive leather jacket and boots. Nick frowned as he looked into Nico's eyes, seeing "something" different in them, but not sure what. He couldn't be sure if the man was Wessen or not but there was something there that needed explination.
"Detective Ainsley – I'm Capt. Renard." Sean Renard's voice was cold. He was not a man accustomed to being pushed off and the young Canadian's reaction had annoyed him greatly.
"My apologies" Nico said, not sounding in the slightest bit sorry. "I don't like being touched by strangers. It's an old phobia of mine from when I was military." He smiled, showing very white and very straight teeth. "Can we begin again?"
"What can we do for you, Detective Ainsley" Hank asked, suspiciously.
"I'm here at the request of a small community in the Territories. A few days ago six of their teenagers disappeared from the town with no trace. One of their family members found information on Portland in their daughter's room. They suspect the kids have run off to be with someone here in your city. The oldest of the teens is 16 but the youngest is barely 12 so you can see why they are concerned."
"Why haven't we heard about this before now?" Renard asked, still suspicious of this stranger in their midst.
"The community is religious – much like your Amish communities. They tend to keep to themselves and try to have no communication with anyone not of their faith. I think that if one of the kids hadn't been about to age out of their version of foster care they might never have said a word at all. They would have written the kids out of their church's history and told the parents that they had no such youngsters. But the kid coming out of foster care had sent notes to one of my fellow officers asking for help in re-locating out of the community and when he didn't show up for their appointment…"
"Then your guy went looking for him" Nick finished his statement somberly. "But that still doesn't answer why the Captain hasn't heard anything about this. Shouldn't there be some notification out asking other jurisdictions to be on the lookout for them?"
Nico sighed. He hated to lie, especially since it meant he'd have to alter reality to cover his words, but this situation was leaving him no choice. "Probably the notice was hung up somewhere. In any event, I'm not here in an official capacity. The officer who took the first report is a friend and since I was coming this way anyway I told him I'd look around." He pressed the thought of this being a "normal" situation into the heads of the mortals in front of him, frowning as he found at least two minds that were somewhat resistant to his words. The captain was not exactly what he was presenting, hiding a face Nico could just barely see under the man's façade, a face he thought he recognized. His duplicate, Nick, was also surprisingly resistant to taking the story in, though he allowed the words into his mind eventually. "Interesting" Nico thought. "I'll have to look into this…"
That was when things went from odd to really odd.
