Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Duncan dropped into the booth with a weary groan giving the girl who brought his coffee a brief smile of thanks.

When Jimmy had been invited to take part in a police conference on rural crime, in London of all places, Duncan had jumped at the chance to go with him and turn it into a short holiday for them. Three days of wandering around galleries and museums by himself later while the conference sessions overran derailing lunch and dinner plans and he was beginning to regret not just following Jimmy down for the weekend they’d added on after the conference..

A buzz from his phone alerted him to a text and after checking it he smiled. Jimmy had declared himself done and was wondering where he’d disappeared to. Sending him the name and address of the cafe he set the phone down and opened the paper he’d bought knowing Jimmy would be at least ten minutes away assuming he didn’t get himself turned around again.

‘Hey man. Looking forward to our "Adults only, no kids allowed night out"? I know I am.’

Duncan glanced up briefly as a good looking blond man slid into the booth with him then back down at the paper. ’Not interested.’

‘Jeez. Someone’s in a mood. Fran not putting out again?’

‘What?’ Duncan looked up at the American as he replayed the question in his head trying to make some sense out of it.

‘Fran? Your wife?’

Duncan stared at him trying to place the other man who he’d presumably met more the twenty years ago but either he’d changed a lot or he’d not made much of an impression on Duncan because he didn’t seem at all familiar.

The man seemed to find his silence confusing and frowned back at him. ’Hey you alright? Where is Fran anyway?’

‘Fran’s dead.’

‘Shit.’ A look of panic crossed the other man’s face and he pulled out his mobile and fiddled with the screen. ’When? What happened? Why didn’t you call us?’

’Ok who the hell are you?’ Duncan snapped finally having had enough of this farce and sure he’d never met the man before despite his knowing about Fran.

‘What?’ Putting the phone to his ear the stranger twisted around looking towards the door. ’Hang on there’s Rob now. Rob!’

The man got up headed for the door and Duncan took the opportunity to finish his coffee, gather up the paper then grab his phone intent on making his escape while his unwanted company was otherwise occupied. Hopefully he could meet up with Jimmy before he got this length and avoid whatever confused situation he’d ended up in.

‘Hey buddy.’ Came a new voice, the words said in an intentionally soothing tone and Duncan sighed as he looked up at the end of the table to find his previous companion had been joined by a taller dark haired man both looking down at him in concern and, of more immediate concern, blocking his way out. 

‘Look I don’t know who either of you are and I don’t know who you think I am so I’m just going to leave.’

They shared a confused look before the new man sank onto the bench seat across from him and leaned toward him earnestly.

‘Dave says you think Fran’s dead?’ He asked still in that artificially calm tone.

‘She’s been dead for more than ten years.’

‘Chris. Sharon and Fran went shopping this morning. I saw her at the hotel this morning.  before I went to my meeting.’

‘Chris?’ Duncan asked relaxing back in the seat a bit, finally having confirmation that it was a case of mistaken identity and not some forgotten acquaintances from his ancient history. 

‘Yeah. You Chris.’ The first man, Dave apparently, said waving his hands as he spoke, pointing to each of them in turn. ’Us Dave and Rob.’

‘I’m not Chris.’ Duncan smirked at them.

‘Yeah right.’ Dave scoffed.

Rob looked at him consideringly seeming to at least half believe him.

‘Heya.’ A woman walked up to the table and kissed Rob on the cheek without even looking up from her phone. ’Your sister texted to say the kids are still fine and you’ll never believe it but some pervert weirdo just came out of nowhere and kissed Chris in the middle of the street.’

‘Chris?’ Dave parroted looking between her and Duncan in confusion.

‘Yeah, don’t think he’ll be trying it on with anyone else by the time Fran’s finished with him.’

This afternoon was turning into a bad joke and any hope of Jimmy not finding out had probably just turned to dust.

‘So,’ Rob asked, ‘both Chris and Fran were with you?’

‘Yeah we ran into him by the tube.’  Both men turned back to look at Duncan as the woman continued on. ‘Oh for God sake she’s given Muireann your mum’s shitty old rag doll. She’ll have nightmares for years if she keeps it. Actually never mind her, I’ll have nightmares for years if we have to take it home with us.’

Meeting Rob’s eyes Duncan shrugged. ’I told you I didn't know you. I’m guessing the “pervert weirdo’s” my better half. Where are they?’

’Sharon? Where are Fran and Chris?’ Rob asked.

‘Outside. At the corner.’

‘Excuse me then.’ Duncan said sliding to the end of the bench.

The woman, Sharon, finally looked up from her phone and stared at him as she automatically stepped back to let him out of the booth.

‘What the hell?’

Duncan could hear her question followed by footsteps as the three of them followed as he left the cafe and turned right towards the nearest corner.

A few yards around the corner a baffled looking Jimmy was leaning back against a wall with a petite blond woman waving a finger in his face while a man puffing on an e-cigarette watched on.

‘The Me Too movement doesn’t mean you can just switch to harassing men! We should call the police and see just what they think of perverts like you!’

Hearing Duncan approaching the man glanced around and, despite knowing that there had to be a good reason for the identity confusion, it was still unsettling for Duncan to see his own face looking back at him. The amused smirk present on the other man’s face slipped as he caught sight of Duncan.

‘Oh fuck me.’

Duncan dredged up a smirk of his own. ‘I’m guessing you’re Chris and the screeching harpy is Fran?’

‘Duncan.’ The clear relief in Jimmy’s voice would have been funny if the rest of it wasn’t so surreal.

‘Screeching harpy?’ The blonde swung round to face him and stopped, her face creasing in confusion as she looked from him to Chris. ‘Chris?’

At his wife’s question Chris stepped up to her side and put an arm around her shoulders easing her back from Jimmy who glanced between the various people watching then moved away from the wall and stopped at Duncan’s side.

‘You OK?’ Jimmy asked, leaning close but not actually touching him.

Duncan glanced at him. ‘I feel like I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole.’

‘Oh this is brilliant!’ Dave called from somewhere behind him.

’No it’s just weird. Why the hell are there two Chris’s?’ Sharon asked.

‘There aren’t.’ Duncan snapped over his shoulder grateful when he felt Jimmy catch hold of his wrist and squeeze gently.

‘Then how did he know about Fran? And why claim she’d died?’ Dave objected.

‘Fran?’ Jimmy asked quietly.

‘Not only do we look the same, apparently we both married Frans. ’

Jimmy blinked for a moment eying the blonde woman before offering. ‘Our Fran is dead.’

‘Chris.. we’ll uh, we’ll just wait for you in the cafe.’ Rob offered turning away and steering the others with him.

Duncan could hear them objecting but moving away leaving the two couples to stand and stare at each other. It was honestly like looking in a mirror the similarities were remarkable. 

Finally Jimmy sighed and stepped forward offering his hand. ‘Jimmy Perez. Sorry about earlier.’

‘I’ll live.’ Chris shook his hand. ‘Chris Beasley. My wife Fran.’

Everyone looked at Duncan with Jimmy nudging him slightly before he sighed and offered his own name. ‘Duncan Hunter.’

‘Okay...’ Chris looked between them then trailed off apparently unable to think of where to start.

‘What did you mean “Our Fran”? What sort of screwed up relationship do you have?’ Fran interjected.

Chris turned his head to give his wife a hard stare. ‘Does it matter?’

‘Well..’ She waved her hands around vaguely. 

‘I meant the Fran we knew as opposed to you. She was our daughter's mum.’ Jimmy neatly sidestepped any further detailing to their complicated layers of relationship leaving the four of them in silence.

‘So this is awkward.’ Chris eventually said.

‘Just a bit.’ Duncan agreed, before offering. ‘I don’t know any Beasley’s and I’m an only child as far as I know.’ 

‘I’ve two sisters but don’t know of any Hunter’s in the family.’ Chris took a drag on his e-cigarette then huffed the vapour out his nose. ‘I was born in Edinburgh in 1968.’

Duncan made a face, looking alike was one thing being born in the same city and year was another. ‘November?’

‘Nineteenth.’ Chris confirmed a matching birthday.

‘And it just keeps getting weirder.’

‘Great,’ Jimmy sighed. ‘So now I’ve gone from trying to decide if I should investigate if that bloody sheep really was the first clone to wondering if I need to check for missing twins.’ 

‘Why would you investigate?’ Fran asked sharply.

‘Jimmy’s an Inspector on Shetland.’

‘Inspector of what?’

‘He’s police Fran.’ Chris muttered.

Duncan had reached the point where he wanted to forget the whole thing. ‘From what your American friends were saying it sounded like you had plans for tonight. We should let you get on.’ 

‘Yes. We should go. Dinner reservations and all that.’ Fran gave them a forced smile and tugged at Chris’s arm.

‘You go on.’ Chris encouraged, then watched as Fran glanced back at them before she hurried around the corner before Chris turned back and held out a business card for Duncan to take. ‘Look, I know this is probably just a fucking fluke but my number and email’s on that if you ever need to contact me.’ 

Jimmy took the card when Duncan just stared at it. ‘Thanks.’

‘Got to go.’

Duncan waited until the other man had vanished around the corner then leaned his forehead on Jimmy’s shoulder for a few moments before letting Jimmy hug him close. ‘Christ, that was horrific.’

‘You weren’t the one threatened with castration.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Yep.’ 

Jimmy released him and they started to walk back towards the hotel and most importantly away from the insanity of the afternoon.

‘You aren’t really going to investigate are you?’

‘It's not actually a crime to look like someone else so I doubt it.’ Jimmy paused. ‘Might still need to check into the twin thing.’

End

Chapter Text

‘Inspector Perez? Governor Hallwood will see you now.’

Jimmy looked up the uncomfortable plastic chair he'd been directed to on his arrival at HMP Wakeley with nothing more to do than fiddle with his phone or stare at the scuffed toes of his boots to see the governor's secretary standing at the office door and got wearily to his feet. 

It wasn't quite noon yet but the trip down had been long and he was regretting now not being able to shift this to either Tosh or Sandy. Most of the time he didn’t like dumping busy work off to his subordinates just because he could but both Sandy and Tosh were involved in minor cases leaving him as the person easiest to free up to take a statement. 

‘Thanks.’

‘Go on in.' The secretary sat back down at his desk, ignoring him as he crossed to the door of the inner office.

The governor looked up as he came in with a vague smile and waved her hand at the single seat in front of her desk.

'DI Perez. I'm rather surprised to see you here.'

'You were notified of my visit request.'

'Yes but it is rather a long trip. There's no direct flight for you so I assumed you'd send a local officer.'

'I changed planes in Glasgow and it's better if the interviewing officer knows the case.' That sounded more professional than admitting that he’d been unable to convince the local force to send anyone any time soon as a minor cold case from the other end of the country or that he'd barely made the Southampton bound connecting flight and wasn't looking forward to his long wait in Edinburgh on the way back. 'I need to speak to one of your prisoners, Ashraf Gamal.

‘So I heard. I’m not sure what good it will do you. As far as I know Mr Gamal never made it outside of the M25 before he ended up here last month for credit card fraud.’

‘His prints turned up on items that were identified as having been taken during a break-in at Sandwick a year ago.’

‘That is plenty of time for goods to pass through various hands.’

‘These were found among items from several other burglaries in Scotland in a garage that Gamal rented from his mother's neighbour. With his conviction she called the police to get them to check the place out.'

'That does rather seem to connect him to the items.' A knock sounded at the door. 'That will be Officer Braithwaite to escort you. We’ve arranged for you to use a consultation room rather than the visitor's room to minimise disruption. Mr Gamal will be brought to you. I trust that will be adequate.' 

Whether it was adequate or not it was clear he was being dismissed as she turned her attention back to her computer before she had finished speaking.

’Right, thanks.' 

Jimmy stepped out of the inner office to find a uniformed prison officer standing by the secretary’s empty desk waiting for him.

‘DI Perez?’

‘Yeah.’

‘If you’d like to come with me?’ The officer led the way out of the office and through the heavy double doors that linked the administration block to the prison proper. ‘Good trip?’ 

‘Not too bad.’

‘You’re from Scotland? One of my colleagues, a Mr Meekie, is from the border area. Only been the once, we did a driving holiday there years ago.'

Apparently he’d got a chatty prison officer who was looking at him in expectation of a conversation. ‘I’m from Shetland.’

'Ah. Rather a long way from here then. We never made it further north than Dundee.’ The officer paused outside a nondescript door and opened it to reveal an equally nondescript interior, the sole furniture a table and a couple of chairs. Presumably it was normally used for lawyers meeting their clients.

Braithwaite waved him into the room and stationed himself by the closed door.

‘Distance or not. There was a break-in at a farmhouse. The farmer disturbed them and got stabbed. Some of the stolen items ended up in the hands of one of your prisoners.’

‘Oh I doubt Ashraf would have been involved with that. He’s a very polite boy.’

Jimmy gave the officer a look of disbelief as he sat down at the near side of the table.

‘I mean, not to say he isn’t a criminal but he doesn’t strike me as the violent type.’

‘Just likes skimming credit cards?’

‘Well.' Braithwaite trailed off with a shrug.

Jimmy dug out his notebook and phone to record the hopefully brief interview.

‘Can I get you anything else? Tea? Coffee? Water?’

‘No thanks.’

The door opened to admit the young prisoner but it was the officer who escorted Ashraf Gamal into the room who caught his attention and caused his stomach to swoop in disbelief. The man could have been Duncan’s identical twin, the only real noticeable difference being in their chosen style of beard. 

‘Sit down.’ The officer snapped, revealing an accent that had origins more akin to Hamilton than Hampshire, presumably the aforementioned Meekie. A second look confirmed it with the presence of a name badge hanging from his belt.

‘Here.’ Braithwate pulled out the chair opposite Jimmy for the prisoner earning a derisive snort from his fellow officer.

The officers retreated to the door but didn’t leave the room and Jimmy decided it wasn’t worth making a fuss, it was an informal fact finding rather than an official interview. He gave them a last glance to check he hadn't had been seeing things then turned to focus on the prisoner who was looking terrified.

It didn’t take long to ascertain that Ashraf Gamal had basically been doing a favour for his cousin Rashid by letting a friend store some items in the garage. He claimed he’d helped his cousin and friend move the boxes into the garage last November but had forgotten about them and the friend had never come back for them. After a bit more encouragement he eventually remembered the friend's name was Martin.

‘Martin Campbell?’

‘Might have been. He drove a beat up green car.’

Martin Campbell had been the main suspect for the Shetland team, his prints having been found at the Sandwick break in but the chances of retrieving the stolen property had vanished when Campbell and his green Vauxhall Vectra had been involved in a fatal accident on the M6 near Birmingham on the 20th of November.

Jimmy sighed and picked up his phone scrolling through the gallery to the photo he’d taken of Campbell from his arrest record.

Gamal stared at the picture for a minute then nodded. ‘Looks like him. You could check with my cousin.’

‘No.’ Jimmy closed his notebook. ‘That’s all I need. I’ll pass it back to the Met and they can decide what if anything they want to do about you and your cousin handling stolen property.’

The young prisoner stared at him in horror. 

‘How were we supposed to know it was stolen? He said he was moving to London and needed somewhere to store his stuff until he found a proper flat.’

‘By having an ounce of common sense?’ He sighed as Gamal just hunched further in on himself. ‘As I said, that’s up to the Met to decide.'

The Met probably wouldn’t do anything about the stolen good bar returning them but it let Jimmy draw a line under the robbery and his own involvement in the case. It would be a simple report needed to close the case.

‘Braithwaite, take Mr Gamal back to his block.’ The sharp command had him looking over at the officers again finding Meekie staring back at him.

‘But...’ 

Whatever objection Braithwaite wanted to make was overridden by Meekie, who didn’t seem to be aptly named, as he levelled a stern glare at Braithwaite.

‘Now.’ 

‘Yes sir.’ Braithwaite sighed and gently patted Ashraf’s shoulder as he let him out of the room. ‘Come on lad. Don’t worry about it now.’ 

Jimmy gathered his belongings ready to leave himself when Meekie closed the door again.

‘What’s your interest in me?’ Meekie had pulled himself up to his full height and glared at Jimmy as he spoke. There was none of the mild flirtation that would have threaded Duncan’s voice in the same words, just cold suspicion.

‘What makes you think I have any interest in you?’

‘Don’t. We're trained to keep an eye on things in here, that includes spotting behaviours that might indicate points of contention before they become an issue. Just because we aren’t out patrolling in the community like you lot doesn't mean we can’t pick up on things. So again, what is your interest in me?’

‘I’m not. You just look like someone I know, it was a bit of a surprise.’

Meekie puffed up indignantly.

‘I hardly think I'd have any connection to people you would know.'

Jimmy rolled his eyes. ‘I don’t only know criminals. You don't have family from either the Shetland or Edinburgh regions then?'

'My life,’ He spat. ‘is none of your business.'

'That's fine.’ Showing him one of the many pictures he now had of Duncan with him and or Cassie would be the easiest thing but with the suspicious glare he was still getting he was reluctant to let Meekie see any part of his family. Deciding he didn’t want to talk to Meekie any longer he got to his feet and gestured at the door.. ‘If you don't mind, I've a long trip ahead of me and I'd like to get started.'

Giving him one last glare Meekie did an abrupt about face and, jerking the door open, led the way out of the room and escorted him in silence right to the door of the security room leading out to the visitors car park rather than just to the administration block again. 

As he dropped into the driver's seat of his hire car Jimmy pulled his phone out and hovered a finger over the contacts icon when he looked up and saw Meekie glaring at him from the open doorway of the security office. 

Opening the camera app he took a picture just to prove he wasn’t seeing things before starting the car and pulling forward toward the gate which opened at his approach then pulled out of the prison and turned back along the road to the airport. Driving until the prison vanished from the rear view mirror he looked for somewhere to pull over before finding a field gate and stopping.

Lifting his phone he eyed the signal bars, a bit low but probably doable, then hit the button to call Duncan.

‘Jimmy.’ Duncan greeted him warmly and Jimmy felt himself relax at the normality of it.

‘I’m just calling to see if there’s anything you want from the Duty Free since I’ll be spending most of my day in airports.’ 

As an excuse to call your partner it was dreadful. Duncan must have agreed by the conspicuous pause on the other end of the call before he said.

‘You do remember we own a bar and have access to as much alcohol as we want at wholesale prices? What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing?’

‘Uh huh. Want to try that again?’ Jimmy could hear Duncan shifting around and the background noises faded as he found somewhere quieter to take the call.

Rolling his eyes to stare at the ceiling. ‘You know anyone by the name Meekie?’

There was a moment's silence while Duncan at least humoured him in thinking about the name. ‘Doesn’t mean anything to me. That who you went to meet?’

‘No.’

‘So why the question?’

‘Remember London and your apparent twin?’

‘Thought you’d decided there wasn’t any twin mystery after you made Sandy check for any cases of a twin going missing. Why? Chris Beasley turn up in the prison?’

‘I did and no, he didn't. However I think I might need to check for triplets when I get back.’

The silence was long enough this time that he thought he’d lost the signal then. ‘Jimmy, make sense will you?’

‘There’s a prison officer here.’

‘In a prison really?’ 

‘Fuck off.’

‘Ok sorry, What about the officer?’

‘He’s a sanctimonious prick but he’s the spitting image of you.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’ Jimmy flicked over to Whatsapp and sent the picture. ‘See for yourself.’

‘You don’t seriously think it’s some sort of hospital mix up do you?’ Duncan did sound a bit thrown by the picture.

‘It's either one hell of a coincidence or I’m beginning to think it’s like that book we passed round when we were at school.’

Duncan laughed ‘You may need to be a bit more precise. I remember a lot of things being passed around. Very little of which I can think might apply here’

‘The one with the alien kids. Blonde hair, weird eyes.’

‘The Village of the Damned? No, that's the film Midwich Cuckoos?’

‘Yes that one.’

‘Oh thank you very much.’

‘What?’

‘I’ve gone from it being a weird coincidence that we met someone that looked like me to being part of an alien invasion?’

‘That’s not what I meant!’ He protested. ‘And two people. Though I’m not inclined to keep in contact with this one.’

'Ah so you didn't snog this one?' 

'One, it was never a snog. Two, I thought Chris was you.'

'Uh huh.' The tone was probably supposed to be sceptical but came out far too amused, Duncan was never going to let that go claiming it was too funny. 

‘Duncan…’ 

‘Just come home Jimmy. There’s no mystery here or at least not one to be solved easily.’

‘Ok. I should get in around 6.'

'I'll be there.'

End 

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