"Law and Disorder"
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: See: Chapter 1.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Lieu" = nickname for "lieutenant".
Chapter 4
"I've got twenty uniforms in there, and it's still going to take days to search that thing," Lieutenant Van Buren said as the two detectives and the Doctor entered the squad room.
"We told you," Briscoe reminded her.
"Hello again, Doctor," Van Buren said. "I hear you removed something from that filing cabinet this morning, and all the lights dimmed."
"Oh yes," the Doctor said, rummaging in his pockets and coming up with a component. "I removed the main space-time element."
"And why would you do that?" she asked. His eyebrows went up.
"Because," the Doctor said slowly, "that filing cabinet is actually a vehicle that can journey to any time or place in the Universe. There was no other way to guarantee that one of your officers might not succumb to the temptation to play around with the controls in there and send himself and the rest of his fellow officers on an unscheduled trip to parts and times unknown." Van Buren thought for a moment, and then nodded.
"All right, Doctor. Thanks for your vigilance," she said. He shrugged, and handed her the component.
"You can hold onto this if you like," he told her. Suddenly, a wheezing, groaning sound filled the squad room, and the Doctor spun around in shock.
The filing cabinet was still there.
Nothing new appeared to have been added to the squad room.
The Doctor's mouth opened and then closed, and he brought a hand up to his chin, lowering his head in thought.
"Hey, Doc – " Briscoe began. The Doctor's head jerked up, his eyes alight with sudden comprehension. He said something in that flowing liquid language that Briscoe and Green recognized from their victim's tape recorder; by his tone, it was obviously a curse.
"I don't know how I could have been so stupid," the Time Lord muttered, dashing towards the filing cabinet. Exchanging a puzzled glance, the two detectives and Van Buren followed to find him standing in the darkened console room, both hands resting on the control console. "Detectives, if you were Time Lords, where would you hide a TARDIS?" he asked.
"Search me," Briscoe said with a shrug. Green was actually thinking about the question.
"If I were a Time Lord," the detective said slowly, "I'd be hiding it from other Time Lords… who could track it on scanners in their own TARDISes… so I'd want to hide it near another TARDIS to confuse them… or in another TARDIS!" he finished triumphantly.
"Exactly!" the Doctor said with an approving grin. "The killer's TARDIS - and presumably the killer himself - were right under our collective noses all this time! Lieutenant, may I have that main space-time element, please?" Wordlessly, Van Buren handed it back to him and watched as he knelt and replaced it in a recess on the underside of the control console. Immediately, the lights came back up and there was a sound that made her think of a computer coming back on line. He stood, flipped a switch on the control console, and began to speak. "Attention, everyone," he said, his voice filling the console room and echoing through the corridors and rooms of the TARDIS. "This is the Doctor speaking. We're all going on a little trip, at the end of which I hope the lot of you can arrest the person who murdered Doctor Newton. In the meantime, just continue doing what ever you're doing now." He motioned to Van Buren, indicating that she should say something.
"This is Lieutenant Van Buren," she said, and paused for a moment, listening to her voice echoing through the TARDIS. "Just keep gathering evidence and we'll let you know if there are any new developments." She shrugged, not knowing what else to say, and the Doctor nodded. "Van Buren out," she finished, and the Doctor flipped a switch. "Where are we going?" she asked, as the Time Lord's hands flew over the controls.
"What is it they always say in the movies?" he asked without looking up from his work. "Follow that TARDIS!" he exclaimed, hitting a switch. The column in the middle of the control console lit up and began moving.
"They never say that in the movies, Doc," Briscoe informed him.
"Well, 'Follow that car!' didn't seem applicable to this situation," the Doctor replied with a shrug. A uniformed officer emerged from the doorway leading to the main corridor.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"No idea," the Doctor told him, peering at a monitor. "I'll tell you when we get there."
"Who is this guy?" the uniform asked his lieutenant.
"The Doctor," she replied, as though it were obvious.
"Who?" he asked.
"Theta Sigma," Green supplied.
"Thete to friends," the Time Lord said absently, still watching the monitor. Suddenly, as though just realizing what he'd said, he looked up. "But that was a very long time ago, and I prefer 'Doctor' now if it's all the same to you," he said in a pleasant but firm voice.
"Sure, Doc," Briscoe agreed. "Whatever you say." On the other hand, Green looked like he was wondering what he'd have to do to be invited to call the Doctor "Thete". There was a chime, and the column stopped moving.
"We've arrived," the Doctor said briskly.
"Where?" Van Buren asked. He consulted a readout on the console.
"Marna Locus IV. Ever been?"
"Are you kidding?" Van Buren asked. "I come here all the time!"
"Hmm." He turned a knob, and a viewscreen on the opposite side of the room slid open to reveal a desolate, barren landscape with aqua-colored skies, cyan-colored sand, and dark blue rocks.
"It's beautiful," Van Buren said softly.
"Yes," the Doctor agreed. "And deadly. The atmosphere's pure chlorine gas."
"So I guess we're not going out for a stroll," the uniform said.
"I would advise against it," the Doctor said.
"The killer can't go out there either," Green said. "Right?"
"I suppose he could," the Time Lord replied musingly. "If he used his respiratory bypass system and kept his eyes shut. Not much fun in that, though, is there?"
"Tough to see the sights with your eyes closed," Briscoe agreed.
"Now, where is that pesky TARDIS?" the Doctor murmured to himself, his head bent over a monitor. "Ah ha! There you are." He quickly set coordinates and the center column began moving again. "Short hop," he said at his companions' questioning looks. A tall blue rock suddenly appeared in the console room, and the console chimed. "Our killer's TARDIS."
"With our killer inside," Green added.
"That's the idea," the Doctor agreed.
"Sanders," Van Buren said. The uniform turned. "Go get more officers," she told him. He nodded and left the console room. The Doctor crossed the console room and rapped soundly on the rock.
"I believe the phrase is, 'Come out with your hands up!'" he called out. Nothing happened. Briscoe and Green came forward, their guns drawn.
"Why don't you let us handle this part, Doc?" Briscoe asked.
"Hmm," the Doctor said, drawing his TARDIS key from his pocket and inserting it smoothly into the rock. A door swung open, and he began to enter.
"Ladies first," Van Buren said quietly. She moved forward, her gun drawn and a determined expression on her face. The Doctor's eyebrows went up.
"By all means," he agreed. He followed the three police officers into the other TARDIS's console room. It was empty. Green hurried to the interior door, standing to one side and motioning for the others to join him. The Doctor knelt and removed the main space-time element from the control console. "Whoever the killer is, he won't be going anywhere now," he said as he stood up and pocketed the component. Van Buren nodded silently in approval and pushed the door open with one hand, Briscoe and Green covering her in case the killer was lying in wait with a weapon on the other side.
There was no one in the corridor.
Several uniformed officers of both genders suddenly arrived in the console room, led by Officer Sanders. Van Buren motioned them forward with a jerk of her head.
"Let's go," she said quietly.
"We'd better leave someone here to guard the main door so that the killer doesn't double back and escape into Eva's TARDIS while we're occupied with looking for him," the Doctor said. Van Buren nodded and made the assignment. Then, with the lieutenant in the lead, the odd assortment of detectives, officers, and one lone Time Lord entered the killer's lair.
"In here!" one of the officers called, and everyone hurried towards the sound of his voice. It was Sanders, they all saw, and he was holding the killer at gunpoint. It was a woman, tall and slender, with thick brunette hair that spilled down in dark waves over the shoulders of her skintight silver jumpsuit. Though her hands were raised, she stood tall and proud, her head held high and a defiant expression on her face.
"Well, well, well," the Doctor said softly. "If it isn't another old classmate of mine." She looked him up and down, her dark eyes narrowing.
"New body, Theta?" she asked, her voice dripping with scorn. "You're rather careless with them, aren't you? Though I must say it's a definite improvement over the last one. Those muddied genes of yours are a replication error just waiting to happen; I'm actually amazed that you've managed so many regenerations without some sort of nasty recessive lethal rearing its ugly head!" She gave him a malicious smile. "What a shame that would be."
"Charming as always," the Doctor replied evenly. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the Rani?"
"Nice ta meetcha," Briscoe said, striding over to her, capturing her hands and cuffing them behind her back. "Rani, you're under arrest for the murder of Eva Newton." He grabbed one of her arms, Green grabbed the other, and they began to lead her away. "You have the right to remain silent – "
"I remember when your mother died!" the Rani called out over her shoulder in a mocking voice as the two detectives led her from the room. "She was old, Theta. So old. Such a terrible shame! But of course she was only human, wasn't she?" This last was punctuated with a merry laugh. "Tell me, is it true that your father had to beg the Prydonians to let you into the Academy because – "
"You have the right to remain silent, bitch!" Green snarled at her, pulling her out of the room with more force than was strictly necessary, a glowering Briscoe following closely behind. Something in the detectives' eyes made her decide to exercise her right to silence immediately. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law!" Green continued. "You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights?" No response. Green gave her a rough shake. "Do you?" She nodded. "Good," he said, dragging her down the corridor. After they'd gone, Van Buren turned slowly to look at the Doctor. His face was unreadable; after a long moment, he took a deep breath and met her eye.
"For your own safety and the safety of your officers, make certain she is thoroughly searched," he said in a quiet voice that shook only a little. "Strip searched. Every nook and cranny, as they say. And even then, be very careful of her." Van Buren nodded. Without another word, the Time Lord strode through the crowd of police officers and out of the room.
"Here we are," the Doctor said quietly as the center column came to a stop and a soft chime sounded. Despite efforts from both Briscoe and Green to engage him in conversation, he hadn't spoken at all during the journey back to Earth and the 27th Precinct. Van Buren laid a hand on his velveted arm.
"Thank you for all your help, Doctor," she said warmly. He nodded without looking at her and pushed a knob on a curved stick into the console. Immediately, the main doors swung open behind them. Several uniformed officers with the Rani in tow appeared from the interior of the TARDIS. The Time Lady's dark gaze fell upon the Doctor, who had both hands on the console and was leaning against it, his head bent over a monitor. She started to say something, but a quick glance at the expression on Detective Green's face quickly stilled her tongue. She cast her eyes downward in apparent meekness and allowed herself to be led away. With a glance at Briscoe and Green, Van Buren followed. The Doctor hit the door switch and began setting coordinates.
"What's our next stop, Doc? Jupiter?" Briscoe asked. The Doctor hit a switch, setting the center column in motion, and looked up at the detective.
"You wouldn't like Jupiter much," he said shortly. "It's entirely gaseous."
"Sounds like Lennie after lunch at Taco Bell," Green said, hoping for a laugh or even a smile from the Time Lord. He was disappointed. The large blue rock disappeared and the center column stopped with a chime.
"Everybody out," the Doctor said, hitting the door switch.
"Where are we?" Briscoe asked.
"Still back at your precinct. I've just moved this TARDIS so that the Rani's TARDIS isn't inside it."
"Why?" Green asked, as much for curiosity's sake as to keep him talking.
"A TARDIS in a TARDIS is a recipe for eventual disaster," the Doctor replied, bending to remove the main space-time element from under the console. He pocketed the component and left the TARDIS without another word. The two detectives exchanged a look, and then followed.
"Let me handle this, Ed," Briscoe said quietly to Green. He moved ahead to catch up with the Doctor as they exited the TARDIS. "Hey Doc," he called. The Time Lord kept walking, apparently heading out of the squad room. "Doc! Doctor! Damn it… hey Thete!" The Doctor stopped walking and turned, his face expressionless. "Yeah, I thought that'd get your attention," Briscoe said, finally catching up with him. "C'mere." He motioned for the Doctor to follow him. "Hey Lieu," Briscoe said to Van Buren, "mind if we use your office for a minute?"
"Be my guest," she replied. Briscoe waved the Doctor inside and followed, closing the door. The Time Lord folded his arms across his chest and watched with detachment as the detective leaned casually against the desk and gave him a penetrating stare. Finally, Briscoe spoke. "Know anything about Judaism?" The Doctor shrugged.
"A bit."
"My dad was Jewish, and I was raised Jewish," Briscoe continued. "But my mom was Catholic. Know what that makes me?" The Time Lord shrugged again.
"A detective?" Briscoe was tricked into a laugh.
"It makes me not really Jewish… at least not under Jewish law. See, Judaism is traced through the maternal bloodline." The Doctor blinked.
"That's ridiculous," he said, and immediately realized that he'd insulted the other man's religion. "I'm sorry. What I mean is – "
"I know what you mean," Briscoe said. "Our actions and our beliefs are more important than what kind of blood flows through our veins… or they should be."
"Muddied genes," the Doctor murmured just loud enough for Briscoe to hear. "After all these years, it still stings."
"So do 'kike' and 'Jew boy'," Briscoe said with a shrug. "I'm a cop and you're a Time Lord. We suck it up and move on."
"You don't understand, Detective Briscoe," the Doctor said quietly. "I'm not supposed to feel stung. I'm a Time Lord; I'm not supposed to feel much of anything. That I do is my failing."
"I thought you were a Gallifreyan, not a Vulcan!"
"What's a Vulcan?" the Doctor asked curiously. Briscoe laughed.
"Listen, Doc, I remember that speech you gave on the phone yesterday to that mope who was bugging your daughter. I remember all the things you told him you'd done, and I also remember you saying later that your people have some pretty strong feelings about noninterference. My guess is that while the exalted pureblood Time Lords are sitting around on their fat asses eating peeled grapes, you're running around saving the Universe. Am I right?" The Doctor shrugged.
"Something like that."
"Actions and beliefs, not blood. Remember? And if you didn't feel much of anything, you'd be just another Time Lord sitting around Gallifrey on your fat ass eating peeled grapes." Something about that last bit – the mental picture, perhaps – earned a small smile from the Doctor.
"My ass is not fat," he said quietly.
"Keep hanging around with cops and eating doughnuts for breakfast every day and see what happens!" The Doctor's lips twitched as though he were holding back a laugh. Briscoe stood and clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, Doc, let's go," he said. "And remember: Suck it up. Don't let that bitch's mishegas get to you, because that's exactly what she wants." The Doctor nodded gravely.
"You know, my mother's name was Susan," the Doctor said. Briscoe paused, his hand on the doorknob. "Susan Myerson."
"Why, that makes you a better Jew than I am, Thete," Briscoe said mildly, and this time the Doctor did laugh. "You ready to go see Studley?"
"Who?"
"Andrew Parker. The shlemazel who was shtupping Eva Newton."
Their trip to the museum proved to be a waste of time. They were told that Andrew Parker had departed the previous day shortly after learning of his co-worker's death and had not been heard from since; presumably he was in shock and/or mourning. However, a secretary had helpfully provided the address the museum had on file for him.
"Whaddya know," Briscoe had said without surprise upon seeing it. "The Village, right near Washington Square."
They were in Briscoe's car, circling Parker's apartment building looking for a parking space when the Doctor let out a yelp of surprise.
"The Eye!" he exclaimed, sounding excited. "It's here!" Briscoe hurriedly located a spot and parked the car.
"You think Parker has it?" Green asked as they exited the car and headed for the apartment building. The Doctor nodded.
"Apartment 315," Briscoe reminded them as they entered the building. They located the steps and took them two at a time up to the third floor; apartment 315 was only two doors down from the stairs.
"Mister Parker!" Briscoe called, pounding on the door while holding his badge up to the peephole. "It's Detective Briscoe and Detective Green. Are you in there?" After a moment, the door opened and Parker appeared. He was wearing a bathrobe and slippers and was in need of a shave. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and he peered owlishly up at Briscoe, squinting. "We met at the museum yesterday," the detective reminded him helpfully.
"Oh yeah," Parker said, not sounding particularly enthusiastic. The Doctor didn't bother waiting for an introduction.
"You have the Eye of Rassilon!" he said excitedly. Parker's eyes widened in surprise, and then he squinted in the Doctor's direction.
"Are you Theta Sigma?" he asked. The Doctor blinked.
"Yes… yes I am," he replied.
"Oh thank God!" Parker said with feeling. "Come in, all of you," he invited, motioning them into the small apartment and shutting the door. "Let me find my glasses," he continued, squinting around until he located them on a coffee table next to an orange tabby cat who sat licking her paw. He went to a bookshelf and pulled down a small pink globe resting on a black marble base. "Take the damn thing," he said, offering it to the Doctor. "I don't want it!" The Doctor glanced at Briscoe and Green.
"Could one of you take it?" he asked. "I don't want to touch it. If I do…"
"What'll happen?" Briscoe asked curiously.
"It will come alive and show us all of Time – past, present, and future."
"I wouldn't mind that," Green said. The Doctor shook his head.
"No one should have that knowledge. It's too dangerous."
"All right, I'll take it," Briscoe said, doing so. "Where should I put it?"
"I think I have a grocery bag under the sink you could put it in," Parker said, going into his kitchen, where they heard him rummaging. "Yep," he said, returning to the living room with it. "Here it is," he said, offering it to Briscoe.
"I'm putting the most dangerous object in the Universe – which turned out to be a pink snow globe – in a Key Food bag," the detective said as he put the Eye into the plastic bag and tied it shut, "It's only ten o'clock in the morning and that's not even the strangest thing that's happened so far today!"
"Welcome to my life," the Doctor said wearily. Parker motioned for them to sit on the sofa, taking a seat across from them in an easy chair. Another cat, this one a calico, immediately jumped into his lap and made herself at home. Parker stroked her absently as they talked.
"You don't know how glad I am to see you, Mister Sigma!" Parker told the Doctor.
"Doctor," the Time Lord corrected quietly.
"Oh… I'm sorry," Parker apologized. "Doctor Sigma."
"No, just Doctor, please." A small brown cat just out of kittenhood jumped up on the sofa and found the Doctor's lap. "And what made you think I would be coming?" he asked, petting the cat, who purred with contentment.
"Eva said she was going to contact the High Council and ask them to send for you," Parker replied. "You're the only one she trusted to take the Eye back to Gallifrey."
"I'm flattered."
"Why did she want to do that?" Green asked suddenly, leaning forward in his seat. "I thought they sent the Eye here to hide it!"
"Yeah, well someone found it!" Parker said. "And they killed her to get it!"
"Why didn't you tell us any of this yesterday?" Green asked. Parker gave him a look.
"If I had told you she was a Time Lady who was killed for an alien artifact she'd been sent here to protect, would you have believed me?"
"Good point," Green allowed.
"We have a suspect in custody," Briscoe said. "Calls herself 'the Rani' – that name ring any bells?"
"No," Parker replied with a frown, shaking his head. "Eva kept talking about someone named Roe."
"Rho," the Doctor said quietly. "Rho Nu. The Rani." Parker blinked.
"Nu?" he asked, looking stunned. "Eva was Eta Nu. They were related?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"Do all of you people have names that sound like frat houses?" Briscoe asked the Doctor.
"Oh, they have other names too," Parker told the detective. "With about a thousand syllables that you can't remember and weird sounds that you can't pronounce!"
"You have one of those?" Green asked the Doctor, who nodded silently. "What is it?"
"Never mind," the Time Lord said firmly.
"You're no fun, Doc," Briscoe told him.
"I know," he said. He turned his attention back to Parker. "Why did she give you the Eye?"
"I insisted," he replied. "She was so worried that it was going to fall into the wrong hands. I told her no one would ever look for it here. Who would think someone like me would have something like that?"
"Someone like you?" the Doctor asked.
"Look at me, Doctor," Parker said. "Have you ever seen a more insignificant person in your life? People usually just ignore me. Eva was the first woman who ever…" His voice broke and he used a finger to wipe at his eyes behind his glasses. "Look at that picture on the table next to you," he invited when he'd regained his composure somewhat. The Doctor picked it up and inspected it. It showed Parker – small, balding, nerdy – with his arm around a taller woman with long ash blonde hair and beautiful, delicate features. They were an apparent mismatch, the bookish-looking little nerd and his tall blonde bombshell, but their eyes shone with identical happiness where they stood silhouetted against the sun setting behind a Ferris wheel on the beach. "That was taken last summer at Coney Island," Parker said. "We'd just gotten off the Ferris wheel where Eva had kissed me and told me she loved me. That was the happiest day of my life."
"I never knew her in that body," the Doctor murmured, his fingers touching the glass over the photograph. Briscoe's cell phone rang, and he excused himself to the next room to answer it.
"She took me everywhere. We watched history happen. She always said that she loved to see the look in my eyes when we watched a momentous event happen or met a historical figure. We visited King Tutankhamen's court; we sat in the audience with Mozart when one of his greatest pieces was performed for the first time in public; we attended Queen Victoria's coronation; we dined at the White House with President Lincoln, and we were in the audience at Ford's Theatre when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. And she took me other places, too. We walked on other worlds whose suns' light haven't yet reached the Earth, and visited alien civilizations both more primitive and far in advance of our own. But there was one place she refused to take me."
"Where?" the Doctor asked, still staring at the picture in his hands.
"Her world, Doctor. Your world. Gallifrey." The Doctor's head came up. "She said that her people wouldn't approve, wouldn't even understand, and that she wouldn't subject me to their scorn and their mockery and their condescension. She said that I had taught her the most important thing she'd ever learned, how to love, and that she couldn't repay that with the reception she knew I'd get from the Time Lords." He met the Doctor's eye. "She said she'd seen it happen before." The Time Lord nodded silently. "She said she'd stay here with me, even allow her body to age in time with mine. Her one regret was that she couldn't give me children, but I told her it didn't matter to me as long as I had her. We were even going to get married." He shifted the cat on his lap to dig around in the pocket of his bathrobe, producing a small box in the distinctive light green of Tiffany & Co. He pulled the lid off the box and removed the smaller velveted box inside. "I spent my whole savings on this," he said, opening the velveted box on its hinges to display the sparkling diamond ring. When he spoke again, his voice broke. "It was worth it." Briscoe came back into the living room, flipping his phone shut.
"That was Doctor Rodgers," he said. "The M.E.'s office is releasing Eva Newton's body today." He looked at the Doctor. "I guess you'll want to claim it." The Doctor shook his head.
"No," he said in a soft voice. "Mister Parker should claim her body; he was her fiancé." He set the picture of the happy couple back on its table and rose to his feet. "Come on," he said quietly to Parker. "You've got to get yourself together and make yourself presentable. We're going to take her body back to Gallifrey, and God help the person who dares slight you in my presence."
Continued in Chapter 5
