Claire?
Rating: PG-13
Not mine ~ they're just messing with my head. All of them!
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"Oh my God." Anita VanBuren struggled to find something else to say. Praying that her vocal chords would work and her brain would come up with some other words.
Jordan and Nigel looked at each other, totally confused. Finally Jordan broke the silence.
"Um, is there something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I feel like I'm looking at one." Anita immediately regretted the tone of her voice as she spoke. "I'm sorry. It's just. . . You look so much like someone who used to work in the District Attorney's office. Claire Kincaid. She was just amazing. Young, bright, full of life ~ not that anyone really knew that side of her unless she knew them outside work. You sound like her too."
"What happened to her?"
"She was killed by a drunk driver in May 1996."
"Oh my God. I'm so sorry."
"It's ok. It just shocked me how much you look like her. Dead ringer."
"Oh. Well, I'm Jordan Cavanaugh from the Massachusetts Medical Examiner's Office." Jordan held out her hand. Slowly Anita took it, her eyes never leaving Jordan's. Finally she broke from the handshake and shook her head, as if to clear it.
"Well, I guess I'd better get you to the body. The hotel's reserved, so we can get you there anytime. Do you have everything?"
"Yes, we're fine. Thank you." Nigel decided to take charge of the situation since Jordan seemed completely unnerved by Anita's reaction.
They drove through the city traffic. Anita's mind was whirling. She knew this couldn't be Claire. No matter how unhappy she was at the D.A.'s office, Claire had more sense than to fake her own death. There were too many variables that could go wrong. But it was creepy how much this M.E. from Boston looked and sounded like Claire. They'd get things straightened out eventually. In the meantime, Anita made up her mind that whatever it took, she could not let Jack McCoy anywhere near the rooms where Jordan and Nigel would be. Her own stuff she could deal with. Lennie's reaction she was pretty sure she could deal with. Jack's reaction? No way that could be predicted or controlled.
They got to Police Plaza and Anita quickly handed Jordan and Nigel off to someone from the NY M.E.'s office saying she'd come up to see how they were doing a little later. She needed to find Lennie ~ the only other person around who had really worked with Claire. Maybe he could make some sense out of all this. Thankfully he was at his desk finishing up some paperwork.
"Lennie? Can you come to my office for a minute?"
"Sure. Is something wrong?"
"Just come here."
Perplexed, Lennie set his pen down and pushed his chair back. He was the primary detective on the case of the girl Jordan and Nigel were looking at. No ID had been made. They weren't even sure that she was from New York. Could the Boston team have figured something out already? Taking a deep breath, he walked into VanBuren's office.
"Shut the door, Lennie."
"Am I in trouble here?"
"No, no. Nothing like that. I just need a sounding board."
"A sounding board?"
"Yeah. I just picked up the two M.E.'s from Boston. They're upstairs."
"Something doesn't feel right about them?"
"No, no. I've been assured they're fine. It's just that the woman. . ."
"One of those gender-neutral names?"
"Yeah. Jordan. She looks exactly like. . ." Anita's voice started to break. She took a deep breath and swallowed hard.
"Who? Who does she look like?"
"Claire."
"Claire Kincaid?" Lennie looked stunned. He was in the car that damn night ~ the drunk driver, the horn, the lights. The blood. He sat at the hospital with McCoy until. . .
"Yes. Longer hair, dresses more casual and sexier. But I swear Lennie, she could be Claire's twin. I just. . . I felt like I was going crazy. I mean, we were there at the hospital. We were at the funeral. Claire's dead. I know that. But looking at this girl."
"Can I see her?" Lennie wasn't sure what his reaction would be, but. . . "I mean, maybe I can spot a difference that you might have missed?"
"Sure. They should be up on the M.E.'s floor. Let's go. Maybe I am just imagining things."
"I didn't mean that. I just. . ."
"Lennie? It's ok. Come on. We'll go see how they're doing."
They went to the elevators and up to the floor occupied by the Medical Examiner's office. Anita asked the receptionist where the Boston team had gone and was directed down the hall to the autopsy room where the girl's body was. They got to the door and Lennie peered in the window. Anita had made sure that there were sets of scrubs available for them, not knowing if they'd bring their own. But she'd assumed from the name that Jordan was a guy and as a result, her scrubs were way too big. She'd made do, rolling the waist up and tying it with string. But even in the baggy scrubs, there was no mistaking who she looked like. Lennie saw it instantly too.
"Holy mother of God! If I hadn't been there when. . ."
"So you see it too?"
"How could I not? Good lord she. . ."
Nigel had looked up and noticed the two standing at the door. He got Jordan's attention and she looked up and towards the door. When she saw Anita and someone else standing there, she motioned them in. Lennie took a deep breath and opened the door.
"Detective Lennie Briscoe, this is Dr. Nigel Townsend and Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh from the Massachusetts Medical Examiner's office. Lennie was the lead detective on our case here. Jordan and Nigel worked on the Michaelson girl's body in Boston."
"Nice to meet you, mate." Nigel held out his hand, but noticed that Detective Briscoe was too lost in looking at Jordan to really notice him. This was freaky enough for him. He couldn't even imagine what all this must be doing to Jordan. He overheard the conversation she'd had on the phone with Garret once they got to Police Plaza. . .
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"Garret? We're here. ~ No, we're not checked into the hotel yet. We came straight to Police Plaza to get a look at the girl. ~ No, I wanted to call you and let you know we got here alright. ~ What? What do you mean I sound weird? ~ Well, yeah. Something kinda freaky's going on. ~ Lieutenant VanBuren picked us up at the station. But she got all weird when she saw me. She said I look just like some chick who worked in the D.A.'s office here who was killed in a car accident in 96. It made me feel really weird. ~ No, no. Don't worry. I won't let it affect how I do my job here. ~ Do you want to talk to Nigel? ~ Ok. Hang on."
She handed the phone to Nigel.
"Hi Garret?"
"Hi Nige. The train was good?"
"Yeah. It was fine."
"Are things as weird as Jordan's feeling?"
"I think so. . ."
"Keep it short Nige. I don't want Jordan getting any more paranoid than this could make her."
"Right."
"Ok. Keep eye on her. And see if you can find out anything about this person she looks so much like."
"Ok. Will do."
"I mean, I've known Jordan since before 96, so I know she couldn't be this person. But it would just be. . ."
"Right. I know." He lowered his voice and prayed that she wouldn't overhear him. "It's just really freaky the way they're looking at her like she's a ghost." Jordan motioned to finish up, that they seemed to be ready for us to look at the body. "Garret, I've gotta go. They're ready for us."
"Alright. Keep me posted. Both of you."
"Yes, sir. See you soon."
He handed the phone back to Jordan and they moved into the autopsy room.
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Nigel made up his mind to do a computer search on this Claire person as soon as they got a free minute.
Jordan turned to Lennie. "Nice to meet you."
"Is this telling you anything?"
"Not yet. We're just going over the trace and the files now. Tomorrow I think I'd like to go over the autopsy. Maybe do some stuff on my own. If that's ok."
"Hey, whatever you can give us to get this animal. Does it look similar to your case?"
"There are definite similarities. But I can't be sure yet."
"Alright." Lennie had not taken his eyes off Jordan the whole time. Nigel could tell she was trying to ignore it and keep going with her work. But he saw that she was getting more and more frustrated by this whole 'you look just like Claire' thing.
"Say, I'm a bit hungry, and I'm not sure how much more we can do tonight until some of my test results come back. Is there somewhere we could go and eat?"
"Sure. I'm finished for the day. Lieutenant, how about I take them to eat and get them checked into their hotel?" It would give him a chance to talk with this woman and find out more about her. He watched them roll Claire's lifeless body to the hospital morgue. He knew she was dead. But. . .
"Sounds good Lennie." Anita could almost read his mind. She knew what he was thinking and knew that he would get the information he needed.
"Alright. Give me about 15 minutes to get cleaned up and changed and I'll meet you. . .?" Jordan moved towards the door, trying not to trip over the way-too-large scrubs. "Can we stop off somewhere and let me pick up a smaller set of scrubs? I didn't bring any and. . ."
"Honey, I'll take care of it and have some in the morning." Anita was trying not to laugh. "I'm sorry about that. We just assumed from the name. . ."
"Hey, it's ok. Smalls?"
"Not a problem."
"Can you find your way downstairs? I need to put the finishing touches on my paperwork and then I'm all yours." Lennie seemed to be relaxed and excited about this chance to play host.
"Sure. We'll see you in a few minutes."
Jordan and Nigel got cleaned up and met Lennie downstairs. He took them to dinner at a small café in the West Village. Jordan had never been one to talk a lot about herself, especially with strangers, but she said enough to convince Lennie that she was not Claire. Nigel listened intently to the conversation, trying to learn more about this person Jordan so resembled.
"So you've lived in Boston your whole life?"
"Yep. Well, brief stints in Chicago and Los Angeles in the late 90's. My dad was a cop ~ a detective. Now he owns a bar."
"And you're a Medical Examiner."
"Yeah. I was going to be a heart surgeon, but then I figured out that this ~ speaking for the dead, so to speak ~ was what I was supposed to do. Well, with some help from some friends." She kicked Nigel gently under the table, and he looked at her across the table and smiled.
"That's great. Just great."
"Will you excuse me for a minute, please? I need to use the restroom." Jordan excused herself from the table and headed towards the back of the restrurant.
Nigel and Lennie watched her walk away. By this point, he was convinced that Jordan really was Jordan. Not only did dates tie her to Boston when Claire would have been in New York, he'd looked closely at her forehead. There was no scar where he knew Claire's head had been stitched up. He didn't care how good plastic surgeons were, there was no way they could have completely hidden that scar. And he knew that Anita would come around too. There was no denying how much Jordan looked like Claire, but they were definitely two different people. He believed it. Anita would believe it. But what about. . .
"Detective Briscoe? What are you doing on this side of town?"
"Oh shit!" Lennie thought as he turned his head. "McCoy! How are you doing?"
"Working too hard as always. Who's your friend?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. This is Nigel. . ." Lennie realized that giving Jack a last name might cause problems, especially for Jordan just in case they couldn't get her out without Jack seeing her. Just in case. "He's from the Boston Medical Examiner's Office. They're trying to tie the guy we're holding for my case to the Michaelson case in Boston."
"They?"
"Oh. His co-worker went. . ." Lennie looked at Nigel, hoping that he'd figure something out.
"You know, she wasn't feeling well. I think I'll go and see if I can convince the hostess to go and check on her." Nigel wasn't sure what Briscoe was trying to tell him, but he got the distinct impression that the detective did not want Jordan returning to the table.
"That sounds like a good idea. I'll pay the bill and meet you at the car. We can get you all checked in and she can get some rest." Lennie prayed that this would work. He and Anita needed to figure out how to keep Jack from seeing or working with Jordan. They both knew he'd been overworking lately, and in his exhausted state would he listen to reason if he saw someone who looked so much like Claire? "Counselor? I'll see you later?"
"Of course. Enjoy your evening." Jack wasn't stupid. He knew that Lennie was trying to get rid of him. But why? Oh well, he'd talk to Lennie later.
Lennie met Nigel and a very confused Jordan outside the café and they began to move towards his car. Nigel broke the ice first.
"Do you want to tell me what that was all about?"
"McCoy? I. . . I just needed to get Dr. Cavanaugh out of there."
"Why? Was he like sleeping with this person I look like?"
"In a manner of speaking. . ."
"Lovely." Jordan rolled her eyes at Nigel.
The trio froze as they heard footsteps behind them. The footsteps stopped short and Lennie heard Jack's voice.
"Oh God! Claire?"
. . .to be continued. . .
