Duncan waited and as soon as Connor and the others had left, he went into Richie's room and looked for Richelle's two bags she'd brought with her. He found them by the bed and all but tore them apart, digging out the contents to look for the money Connor had given her. He found a change of clothes, a Walkman with half a dozen tapes, a paperback copy of First Blood, a pack of chewing gun, half a pack of cigarettes, a couple cans of beer and half a bottle of champagne, on top of a few other things, but there was no sign of the $5,000, which meant that she had to be carrying it on her.
He tried to think how she could possibly be carrying $5,000 in cash and nobody would notice. Even if it was all in hundreds, which he doubted Connor was stupid enough to give her, where the hell was she going to carry 50 bills? If she had a wallet, it couldn't possibly hold that much money. It didn't make sense. None of it made any sense. Nothing had made one bit of sense since Connor showed up with that girl.
It didn't make any sense. Where did that girl come from? How could she look so much like Richie? And why in the hell was her name almost identical to his? And why? That was the real question behind everything. Why? Why was she here? What was it she wanted? Who, he even wondered, was she working for?
Duncan couldn't figure it out and so far all he was met with were dead ends, nothing on her name, nothing on her fingerprints, nothing, period. That to him was proof that there was something about the whole ordeal that wasn't kosher, if she had nothing to hide, he should have been able to find something on her.
He would swear that he had seen this movie before. The story always opened up the same way, an outsider comes in and starts taking over. So far that seemed to be proven true here; almost immediately after Richelle set foot into the shop, she already had Connor around her thumb, and then Richie, and then finally even Tessa. He was the only one left, and they had all turned on him. Duncan refused to believe it was a coincidence or anything else. There had to be some grand scheme behind it all and he was determined to find out what Richelle's sinister plan was before anything serious happened.
Richie and his sister laughed as they went around in circles touring through the zoo looking at all the animals, carrying half eaten ice cream cones in their hands.
As soon as Connor had dropped them off, they'd wandered around and first came across a carnival that was in town. They'd spent two hours playing the games and going on bumper cars, the Scrambler, a Trabant wheel, and a pendulum ride that swung them back and forth and then went upside down and stopped before repeating. Once they'd gotten their fill of that, they got out of there, got some ice cream and decided to head over to the zoo. Richelle had told Richie that would be the first place most likely for Connor to come and look for them, and he should be coming to pick them up soon.
"Are you sure Connor's going to come here?" Richie asked his sister.
"Trust me, he'll be here," she insisted, "Connor's weird, he has a thing for zoos, especially the lion cages."
Richie chewed up the last of his cone and looked around at the animals, "So what do we do while we wait?"
Richelle touched his arm and pointed over to the bear cage. "I've got an idea. You want to see something neat?"
"Sure, what?" Richie asked.
She had Richie follow her over towards the cage and they looked in at a big brown bear that went around in circles with its head swaying from side to side, the bones in its shoulders sticking out every time it moved.
"Now what?" Richie asked.
"Bend over," she told him.
Richie didn't get it but he did it, he bent down and Richelle climbed onto his back and told him to turn around so they faced the bear cage. He did, and watched as Richelle stretched out her arm with the remainder of her ice cream cone in hand, and held it out for the bear to take.
"He's going to bite your hand off," Richie told her.
"No he won't," Richelle told him, "Just watch."
She reached out further and managed to stick her hand, up to the wrist, in between the bars, offering the waffle cone to the bear. It noticed and got up on his hind legs and sniffed at the ice cream, then, lurched forward and grabbed it with its teeth at just the moment Richelle let go of it. She and Richie backed away from the cage and Richie put Richelle down and they both watched the bear as it ate and they applauded what had been no easy feat.
They heard someone else applauding and it was at that moment they turned around and saw Tessa and Connor standing behind them.
"How long have you been there?" Richelle asked.
"Long enough to see you doing your Fatty Arbuckle impression," Connor told her, "Don't you know it's illegal to feed the animals?"
Richelle pointed behind her to the bear's cage and asked, "Who's he going to tell?"
"Well did you two have a good time?" Connor asked as they walked up to the teenagers, "Being away from Duncan all morning?"
"We sure did," Richelle answered.
Richie found himself agreeing, "It's been great."
"Good!" Connor replied as he draped an arm over each of their shoulders, "I was hoping you would."
Richelle reached over and grabbed a handful of Connor's jacket and tugged on it to get his attention. "Connor," she said, "Do we have to go back to the antique store now?"
"Actually," he told them, "I thought before we went back there we might stop somewhere and get a couple of pizzas for lunch." He saw the way their four eyes lit up when they heard that and in spite of himself, he couldn't help letting out a brief chuckle, "How does that sound to you?"
"It sounds great!" they both answered simultaneously, then turned and looked at each other in surprise.
"Great," Connor said, "That just leaves the question of what to get."
"That's easy," Richie started counting off on his fingers, "I want pepperoni, sausage, onions, peppers, Canadian bacon, extra cheese…"
Richelle made a face and stuck out her tongue, "Not me, not pepperoni, I hate pepperoni, I want black olives and artichoke hearts and pineapple."
"Well," Tessa said to Connor as they walked out to the car, "It's nice to know they're not completely identical."
"Hallelujah and praise God for that one," Connor dryly remarked, "I shudder to think which one we'd get a double of if they were."
"Okay, thank you," Duncan said right before he hung up the telephone receiver.
Connor wasn't the only person in New York that Duncan knew. He had a few contacts back east who worked in public records, social services, etc. He'd called everybody he knew in the state on the off chance any of them would've ever have heard of a girl named Richelle Ryan and fitting the description he gave them. Nobody there knew of any such girl. Now, he was aware that New York was a large state with millions of people in it, but still, as much as Richelle boasted to Richie about getting around the place, if it was true, somebody somewhere would have to see her eventually, and if they did, the odds were they would remember her. Duncan knew from only having to endure her presence for a few days, you don't forget somebody like that thing.
He felt a quickening and heard Connor's voice call out as the door opened. "We're back."
Duncan put the phone away and tried to act convincing as he went over to greet everybody home. He welcomed Connor back and kissed Tessa but got smashed in between Richie and Richelle, both of whom were carrying large paper bags that had been stuffed to the maximum capacity. As soon as they got around him, he turned back to Connor and asked him, "How did it go?"
"Fine," Connor insisted as he took off his jacket, "The kids are no trouble at all."
"Oh really?" he asked, looking to Tessa for further information, but she wouldn't help him.
Duncan saw Connor taking a small pill bottle out of his jacket pocket and trying to hide it. "What's that?"
The kids had already gone ahead into the kitchen so Connor told him, "Potassium supplements…Richelle's too stubborn to take them herself so lately I've taken to hiding them in her food, she has no idea."
Tessa poked Connor in the shoulder and when he leaned over towards her she suggested, "If we could get some sleeping pills, maybe you could do the same with Duncan."
Connor started laughing, "Tessa, I have an idea you and I are going to get along perfectly."
Richie and Richelle made quick work of putting away the junk food they'd gotten on the way home. Richelle dumped her bag upside down to get the last of its contents out and out poured a few candy bars and a large pack of peppermint gum.
"Do me a favor and put this stuff away in my bag, will you?" she asked.
Richie picked up the stuff and headed out of the kitchen, passing Duncan who was on his way into the room.
"So," he said, a large, phony grin on his face, though it was in vain because Richelle had her back to him, "Did you two have a good time today?"
"Why does everybody keep asking us that?" Richelle asked, "Yes, we had a good time, we had a swell time, I'd like to do this kind of crap everyday with Richie, we connect."
Richelle had been putting ice cream and leftover pizza in the freezer and hadn't noticed Duncan slowly creeping up to her until he was practically on top of her. So when his pleasant front broke away and he yelled at her, "You lie!" she about hit the ceiling, and turned around to find out what he was up to now.
"Guess what, kid?" Duncan said, his voice low and ominous, "Your game is up, I made a few calls to New York and guess what?"
"Connor!" Richelle looked past Duncan and called out to the living room, "Your cousin's going berserk again!"
"Nobody there has ever heard of you," Duncan told her, "Nobody's ever heard of Richelle Ryan, and nobody knows anything about anybody who fits your description."
"Well what the hell does that make you, Ben Stone?" Richelle asked, "Connor told you that much. Connor!"
The older MacLeod entered the kitchen, appearing calm and cool and collected, but anybody who knew him could see under that thin veil and see he was just waiting for trouble, "What's going on in here?"
"He's doing it again, Connor," Richelle told him, "Now he's been calling back home to check me out. Will you do something with him, please? The man is clearly demented, he's crazy." Richelle picked up a package Richie had left behind, a Ouija board they'd picked up in a toy store, "We're going to go hold a séance and see how Lope de Aguirre's enjoying the 7th pit of hell."
She walked past the two men and into the next room where she saw Richie and Tessa at the doorway, saying only, "They're fighting again."
"How long do you think they can keep this up?" Richie asked Tessa.
"If there's going to be blood, I want to see it," Richelle said.
Richie grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back, "Come on," he said.
"You know, Duncan," Connor said, "As long as I've known you, you've done some pretty unusual things, sometimes even downright stupid, but for the most part, I've stood by you, I've supported you on your decisions…but you're losing me here. You want to throw me a rope on this one? Why are you so obsessed about this?"
"Connor, that woman is a fraud, whoever she is," Duncan said.
"She is Richie's sister," Connor told him for the 20th time.
"She is not Richie's sister, she can't be!" Duncan insisted.
"Why not?" Connor wanted to know, "Why can't she be?"
"Connor, nobody in New York has ever heard of her," Duncan said, "She's a fake, she wants something."
"Well of course she does!" Connor snapped, finally losing it with his cousin, "Of course she wants something! We all want something!" he swung his arms every which way in an exaggerated manner as if trying to emphasize his point, "Richie wanted something too! He wanted a place to stay and enough food to eat and people who actually wanted him around! Richelle wants the same thing, Duncan, that's what I'm giving her! Are you so blind you can't see what's so plainly, painfully, in front of your face? Those two are exactly alike, they're one in the same, it's too much of a coincidence."
"That is exactly my point, Connor, it is too much of a coincidence. Too much of a coincidence that she could look so much like him; too much of a coincidence that they both have the same colored hair, the same kind of hair, the same clothes even! Where the hell did she even get that green jacket from?"
"I bought it for her in a shop in New York City!" Connor told him.
"It's more than that!" Duncan replied.
"Oh you bet your ass it is!" Connor screamed back at him, "Richie rides a motorcycle, so does Richelle, Richie likes to play the drums, so does she, they were both thieves when we met them! You know psychology as well as I do, you know that twins can be separated, raised apart from each other their whole lives and they still have the same characteristics, the same likes and dislikes, it's genetic! It's who they are!"
"Why did you really bring her here, Connor?" Duncan asked, the fight going out of his voice as well as his body, he slumped over in one of the chairs at the table, "For what purpose?"
Connor started to calm down as well. For a moment he stood in the middle of the kitchen all puffed up like a wet owl but he slowly let the air out he'd been holding in him and sank down in one of the chairs opposite Duncan. "I told you, I could tell they're too much alike for it to be coincidence. I had figured they were related, but I had to put the two of them together and see it for myself to actually know. And I'm convinced. From what I've seen of them in the last few days, I don't have a doubt now that they are twins. And if they are…" he choked on a laugh and repeated that word to himself, "if", then continued, "Since they are…I think we need to figure something out."
They heard Tessa clearing her throat from the doorway and turned and saw her standing there, obviously having heard everything, and trying to figure out where she fit into all of this.
"What is it, Connor?" she asked, "What do we need to figure out?"
Connor closed his eyes and rubbed his face for a moment, looking very tired all of a sudden, "I've been trying to think how to bring this up…I think it would be a good idea if Richie and Richelle got to spend more time together, so they can continue bonding."
"You mean extending your stay here?" Tessa asked.
"No," Connor replied, "I mean having Richie come out to New York to stay with us for a while."
The fight suddenly came back into Duncan as he all but leapt back to his feet, "The hell he will!"
"Come on, Duncan, let's not carry on like a couple of 2 year olds," Connor said shaking his head, "You know we're acting worse than they are."
"Connor!" Duncan said, "I am not going to let Richie move to New York so he can bond with that little psycho!"
"Well now wait one damn minute," Connor replied as he too stood up and faced down Duncan again, "Who said anything about you letting Richie do anything? He's 18, that's old enough to do anything he damn well pleases, and if he wants to move to New York with Richelle and I, that's his business and there's nothing you can do to stop him! Even if he wasn't 18 it wouldn't matter because you're not his family!"
"Oh!" Duncan screamed, "Oh! But you and that little nut job are, is that it?"
Tessa tried to referee the two men but she was drowned out over their shouting match. What none of the adults had noticed was that Richie and Richelle had come back to watch the fight and were getting an eyeful, as well as an earful, of what was going on; and both teenagers stood there in awe, their eyes wide and their jaws all but dropped as they listened to the ongoing melee.
"I don't believe them!" Richie told his sister.
"Neither do I," she added, "Connor's right, they are worse than us."
"For all I care," Duncan told Connor, "You can take that little nightmare you're so fond of and both of you can go back to New York, or hell for all I care. But I'll be damned if I'm going to let her stay here with Richie another minute!"
"Maybe I should!" Connor replied, "Because I don't want Richelle picking up any of the bad habits that you're rubbing off onto Richie!"
The two teenagers turned to each other when they heard that one. Split them up? Again?
"They can't be serious," Richie said.
Richelle looked to her brother and saw, despite his best efforts, the first sign of tears building up in his eyes. He was just about shaking, and she knew that she wasn't much better than he was.
"They're not," she told him, shaking her head, "They're not going to split us up, nobody's ever going to do that to us ever again." She grabbed Richie's hand and turned for the door, "Come on, Richie, before they see us."
They ran down the stairs leading to the shop, and ran out the back door and over to Richelle's bike. Hastily, they threw on their helmets and got on the motorcycle, with Richie driving, and they sped out of there like a couple of bats out of hell.
Richelle noticed how fast they were going, and also that they were swaying from side to side on the bike, and with her arms wrapped tight around Richie's waist, she could feel him trembling.
"Take it easy, Richie," she told him, "Don't kill us now!"
Over the roar of the engine, she could hear his ragged breathing as he tried to compose himself, she looked past him and saw his hands, which were clenched around the handlebars, were shaking despite his attempts to still them.
Richelle didn't need to look at the speedometer to know that they were going at 50 miles an hour. She had done it enough times to recognize the number just by how fast everything around them was zooming by. It was just fortunate for both of them that there wasn't much traffic right now, if they had to swerve to the side to avoid hitting somebody, they'd both wipe out, no question.
"How could they do that to us?" Richie asked, surprising his sister with his sudden break in silence, "How could he say that?"
"I don't know," Richelle answered, trying to sound calm for both their sakes.
They were getting off the main road now, and in fact it looked like they were getting out of Seacouver entirely, or at least just the city part of it. They had turned off onto a road that wasn't paved well and looked to still be mostly gravel and rocks and dirt. Along the sides of the road were tall weeds that the sun had burnt brown and gold, that they now gave off the illusion of looking like wheat crops were growing there. There weren't any cars or trucks on that same road as far as the eye could see, so in that regard they seemed to be okay. However, that thought was shaken loose from Richelle's mind when she felt the bike jerking from side to side beneath them.
"Richie, calm down!" she told him, "If you get us killed now, I'm never speaking to you again!"
It was then that she saw a large dip in the street ahead, like a whole piece had been broken out of the road.
"Richie, watch out!" she screamed, but it was too late.
Tessa had listened to Connor and Duncan squabbling with each other like a couple of children for the last 15 minutes and she had had enough of it. She got between the men and started screaming herself, yelling at them to shut up and calm down.
"There has to be a better way to solve this problem than just by screaming at each other," she said.
"Unfortunately," Connor replied, "It would seem Duncan is too uncouth to know any other way of going about it."
"Don't start again, please!" Tessa told him.
They were interrupted by a loud screeching noise that had all of them covering their ears.
"What the hell is that noise?" Duncan asked.
Connor knew. "That police scanner I got at the second hand store!"
"Where did you put it?"
Connor led the way into the living room and showed it on a stand behind the couch. He was about to turn the volume down when voices started coming through on the scanner. A police report that there had been a motorcycle accident a mile south of the highway, and that paramedics were needed for two teenagers who had been involved in the crash. The three adults upon hearing this message, all looked to one another grimly and realized that the kids weren't there.
"Duncan," Connor said, "Which way is the highway?"
Duncan pointed behind him, "That way."
"And which way is the hospital?" Connor asked.
Duncan pointed to the right, "That way."
"Then we better hurry if we want to get out there before the ambulance takes them away," Connor said, already running to the door, with the other two following close behind him.
Duncan and Tessa raced out to the highway in the Thunderbird, Connor followed behind them in his own car. They turned south off the highway and quickly came upon a mess of blue and red lights and cars and vans scattered everywhere. The two cars stopped and the three adults got out, making their way past the reporters, passersby and the police to find out what had happened. Connor pointed over to the ambulance and they saw Richie and Richelle both being strapped onto gurneys.
Tessa's heart jumped in her throat and Duncan felt his stop when he saw Richie, who was a mess of blood and bruises and he wasn't moving at all. Connor looked and saw Richelle lying near Richie on another gurney, blood running down her arms and her neck was turned at such an angle that it looked broken, until she went into a fit of convulsions, then her whole body moved.
"What happened?" Duncan all but screamed at the first cop he saw.
"Man was driving through here, saw the wreck and called it in on his car phone," the officer answered, "Apparently these two were speeding through here on their bike when they hit the pothole. The girl was riding on the back and was thrown off the bike when it flipped, she rolled into the weeds. The guy wasn't so lucky."
"That's lucky?" Tessa asked.
"Look, I don't know what business this is of yours…" the officer started to say.
"We're their parents," the three of them answered.
The officer did a double take and said, "Well whoever of you has the boy…his leg was pinned under the bike until we got here and got it off of him…medics think his foot might be broken, they don't know yet."
"Oh my God," Tessa said.
Connor and Duncan looked and saw the medics loading both Richie and Richelle up in the ambulances and then closing the doors.
"We'll find out what hospital they're taking them to," Connor said, "And go from there."
"How did this happen?" Duncan asked, "What the hell were they doing out here?"
Connor looked to his cousin and responded, "I think we know."
Duncan looked back at him and without saying anything, realized that Connor was right.
The sirens and flashing lights went on and the ambulances pulled out of there and sped off for the hospital. Connor, without a further word to Tessa or Duncan, ran back to his car and followed after the ambulances to find out where Richie and Richelle were being taken. It took Duncan and Tessa a moment longer to pull themselves together before they got back in the Thunderbird and followed after them.