Disclamer: Due South and all associated characters are owned by Alliance and the Pauls.
Dedicated to Dean McDermott for making me laugh.
Notes: I know little to nothing about the legal system (except for what I've learned from Perry Mason) either here or in Canada,  so please keep that in mind.  Sorry for any obvious errors.
Spoilers: The Man Who Knew Too Little from Season One.  This occurs around the end of Season 3/beginning of Season 4 though does not involve any specific episodes.


Brother’s Keeper


“If released back into society, what will you do?”

“Well, I’d really like to visit my family.  I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“You’re from Canada, correct?  That might present problems with your parole, if we do in fact decide to release you.”

“That’s all right.  I have a brother here in Chicago.  He’s a police officer, actually.”

“Ah yes, I see here.  A Mountie?”

“Yes, Sir.”


----------------


“Canadian Consulate, Consulat du Canada, how my I direct your call?”

Ray nodded at Turnbull as he passed towards Fraser’s office.  The Mountie nodded back and returned to his phone conversation.  Dief looked up as Ray pushed the door to his partner’s office open.

“Frase, my man, you work too hard.”

“Good afternoon, Ray.  If you’d give me just a moment,” the Mountie said turning back to the form in his typewriter.

Kowalski sighed and flopped down in the only other chair in the small office.  The soft clacking of the electric typewriter continued at a fast pace.  Dief yawned showing off his large teeth.  Ray put his feet up on Fraser’s desk and crossed his ankles.  The typing stopped abruptly.  Ray smirked as the blue eyes across from him stared at his boots.  They lifted to look him in the eye.  Ray continued smirking as Fraser gave him a disapproving look.  The Detective sat completely still and didn’t say a word.  After a moment, Fraser sighed and went back to his typing.  

When he was finished, Fraser practically ripped the paper out of the machine.  He stood and stacked the paper on a similar pile of them at the corner of his desk.

“There, now, do you have a reason for being here, or is this a social call, Ray?” Fraser asked still staring at Ray’s boots.

“Prints came back on the Phillips case.  Guess what prints we turned up besides his and his wife’s.”

“Who?”

“His secretary’s.”

Fraser stared at the floor with a thoughtful glance.  Ray smiled and stood.  He could practically hear the gears turning in the Mountie’s mind.  Fraser reached for his hat.

He suggested, “I suppose we should go ask her a few questions.”

“That’s the plan.  Phillips had to have been having an affair with her.”

“We don’t know that Ray,” Fraser replied leaving the office.

“What other explanation do you have for her prints being in the guy’s bedroom?” Ray asked.

He followed the other man out towards the lobby with the wolf at his side.

“We’ll see.”

Ray rolled his eyes and glanced at Turnbull as they started to leave.  Ray stopped suddenly.  Fraser got a few steps ahead before he noticed that the Detective wasn’t following him anymore.  He turned on his heel.  Ray was standing in the center of the lobby staring to his left.  Fraser looked over to see Turnbull behind his desk.  The other Constable had gone pale with both hands lying flat on his desk.  He sat stiffly and his face held an expression of shock.

“Turnbull?  You all right?” Ray asked.

The man did not appear to hear him.  Fraser moved over to the desk and rested a hand on Turnbull’s shoulder.

“Constable?” Fraser asked shaking the man slightly.

Turnbull jerked as if shocked and looked up at Fraser with surprise.  He looked around quickly and noticed Ray also staring at him before turning back to his superior.

“Yes, Sir?  You wanted something?” he asked in a strained voice.

“Are you all right?  You’re white as a sheet.  Has something happened?”

“No!” Turnbull said rather too quickly.  “Nothing at all, Sir.”

Fraser raised an eyebrow and glanced back at Ray.  The Detective took the cue and stepped towards the desk himself.

“Yeah right, Turnbull.  Pull the other one.  What’s up?”

“Really Detective, there’s nothing,” Turnbull said and stood.

The other two men watched him collect himself and take a deep breath.

“It… it’s a personal matter, Sir.  Forgive me if it has interfered with my duties.  I assure you, I’m fine now.”

Fraser frowned slightly but nodded.

“Very well, come on Ray.”

Kowalski shot his partner a look, but followed him out the door.  He waited until they were safely inside the GTO before he spoke.

“What the hell was that?  He looked like someone died and you just brush it off, Frase?”

“Ray, you heard him.  It was a personal matter.  If he doesn’t want to talk to us, he doesn’t have to.  It would have been rude of us to continue to pester him for information.  It’s none of our business.”

Ray sighed unhappily.

“Let it go, Ray.  Besides, you know how emotional Turnbull can get.  For all we know he was upset over his favorite television program getting cancelled.”

“I guess.”


--------------


The large gate cranked open slowly.  Laurier had to resist the urge to charge out the opening.  He looked to his left at the other inmates that were being released.  Apparently, he wasn’t the only one.  Most of the men looked twitchy.  When the gate was completely open, the men around him started out at a quick pace.  Laurier took a deep breath and walked casually, as if getting out of prison was something he did every day.

Outside, some men gathered at the bus stop.  A handful had people waiting to pick them up.  There were a couple of tearful family reunions happening, but Laurier ignored them.  A dark sedan was parked down the street.  Laurier continued his casual stroll in that direction.  Sure enough as he came close to the car, the passenger window rolled down.

“You the Canadian?” a gruff faced driver asked.

“Yeah.”

“Butchie said to bring you around.  Hop in.”

Laurier nodded and got in to the car.  It would take a while to get into Chicago proper.  He stretched his long legs out and closed his eyes for his first nap as a free man.

----------


Butchie Marr had a concerning interest in the east side of Chicago.  Some would say that he owned the whole area.  Butchie considered those people smart.  Very few people ever disrespected Butchie and they were growing fewer by the day.  While being a powerhouse in the Chicago underworld, Butchie was not a pretentious man.  He kept the same small office that he had had at Wierenger’s Meat Packing Plant when he was a small time hood.  Often his men would ask him why he didn’t expand his working environment.  Butchie would always reply to this with a saying his grandmother had instilled in him: “It’s not what you own, but the strength of your character that makes you what you are.”  Butchie’s considered his strength legendary.  There was just one problem that seemed to plague him on a regular basis.  The Mountie.

Now while having grown up on the streets, Butchie was in no way a stupid man.  He read a lot.  Learning was something he admired.  When it came to his enemies, he liked to know everything.  So when The Mountie and his cop friend had started infringing his business, Butchie did his homework.  

Benton Fraser was an anomaly in the ranks of the RCMP.  He was a loner, a wild card.  No one seemed to know what to make of the dutiful and polite misfit.  He had very few friends, no women (despite his seemingly universal appeal), and was above board on all matters.

The cop, Ray Vecchio, was just your average Chicago flatfoot.  His arrest record was only so-so until The Mountie came to town.  Together the pair had taken on their share of underworld figures from Chinatown all the way up North to Canada itself.  

They seemingly always succeeded.  It was annoying.  Many of Butchie’s contemporaries had tried to take out one or the other of the pair and had all failed spectacularly.  In fact, the closest anyone had come to offing the Mountie was his own partner, Vecchio.  Apparently, it was some sort of accident when they were chasing a suspect.

Butchie knew that he had to know these men in-and-out if he was going to be the one to get rid of them for good.  He needed information.  He needed intelligence.  He needed ruthlessness.  He needed a Canadian.  Then, out of the blue, one of his recently freed lieutenants had told him a story about one of his cellmates.  The man was a Canadian, but not just any Canadian.  No, this man had been arrested by The Mountie.  Not only that, but the man was also the brother of the other Mountie that worked at the Consulate with Fraser, a twin brother, in fact.  It was a sign, a gift from heaven, and a way to get rid of The Mountie and his little cop friend.  Butchie was normally a patient man, but the months that he had had to wait for the Canadian’s release had been the longest of his life.  Today, though, was the day.  The Canadian was coming, and The Mountie’s number was about to be up.

------------

A speed bump woke Laurier from his nap.  He rubbed his eyes and scratched at his goatee.  The driver hadn’t said a word since picking him up so he knew that there probably wasn’t any point to starting up a conversation.  After a few more minutes they pulled up to a chain link gate.  A guard stepped out of the small guardhouse to the side and opened the gate.  He waived the car through and closed the gate behind him.  Laurier glanced over his shoulder at the closing gate and tried not to think about the big gate he had passed through that morning.  The gate led to a large warehouse complex.  Laurier glanced up at the sign that read: Wierenger’s Meat Packing.  

Absently, he thought back to the old fire house that Danny “The Bull” Brock had used as a headquarters.  He wondered how Danny and Norman were doing.  Well, if he were honest with himself he didn’t care about how Norman was doing.  They had never really got along.  His boss, Danny, though, had been good to him, or at least as good to him as a mob boss could be.  After the incident with the Mountie and that Ian guy, Danny had been extradited back to Canada.  Norman had had some warrants out for him in New York where he had done some work, so he was tried there.  Laurier was the only one of the three that remained close to Chicago.  A year later he’d gotten a letter from his little sis saying that his brother Ren had gotten a position with the Canadian Consulate in Chicago and guess who he worked under.  Laurier had laughed for days about that one.  Maybe it was fate or something.  He especially thought so when he’d been approached by one of Butchie Marr’s boys a couple of months before his parole.

The car came to a stop and Laurier got out.  He followed the driver up a set of stairs and came out in an office that over looked the main floor of the meat packing plant.  A short but stout man in his late forties sat behind the desk.  There were a couple of muscle guys on a couch facing the door.  The man rose and held his hand out over the desk.

“You must be…”

“Laurier, just call me Laurie or Turnbull,” he said and shook the man’s hand.

“Butchie Marr, good to have you.  First day out of the joint, you want anything?  Cappuccino?”

“That’d be nice, thanks.”

“Frank, go get this man a Cappuccino.   Have a seat Laurie.”

Laurie sat and watched one of the muscle guys try and pull himself out of the leather couch.  After a moment he left through the other door into the plant.  Laurie turned back to Butchie.

“It’s unbelievable.  You two are identical,” Butchie said with glee.

“You’ve met my brother?”

“No, no, but I’ve seen pictures of all of the people who work at the Consulate.  He stands on duty outside a lot so we have quite a few pictures of him.”

“How’s he doing?”

Butchie laughed at this and sat back.  Frank came back with Cappuccinos for the both of them and returned to his seat on the couch.

“You’re his brother wouldn’t you know?”

“No.  I’m sort of the black sheep of the family, as you can imagine.  My sister writes me though.  She told me he’d gotten the position here.  She made it sound like it was a big honor, but I suspect they just wanted him out of the country like me.”

Butchie chuckled, “Yeah, from what I’ve been told he’s a bit of a…. Well I wouldn’t want to speak ill of a man’s family in front of him.”

Laurier grinned and took a sip of his coffee.

“He’s an idiot, always has been, but he’s my brother.  I appreciate your courtesy.”

Butchie smiled and said, “You Canadians are a polite bunch.”

“I can be polite, until I don’t have to be.”

“I think you’re going to fit in around here just fine, Laurie.”

“So what exactly do you want me to do, Mr. Marr?”

“Call me Butchie.  I want The Mountie and his cop buddy dead.  The thing is, he’s kind of hard to kill, but I don’t have to tell you that.  You’re my ace, Laurie.  You can get close to them, take them by surprise.”

Laurie thought for a moment before he said, “You want me to pretend to be my brother?  Fraser’s pretty sharp from what I hear.  How do you know that I can pull it off?”

“Good question.  I like a man who’s cautious, it show’s you’re smart.”

“I don’t want a repeat of my last run in with them,” Laurie grumbled.

Butchie nodded.

“I don’t plan on you going in there cold.  This is going to take time, planning.  On Thursday the Consulate is getting a new paint job.  Now, The Mountie normally lives in his office.”

Laurie raised an eyebrow at this, and Butchie nodded with a wry look on his face.

“Anyway, like I said normally he lives in his office, but while the place is being painted he’s going to be staying with the cop.  I’ve got some of my boys going in with the paint crew.  They’re going to set up some surveillance.  We’re going to have hidden cameras and bugs all over that place.  I figure a week or so to get the routine down, and then we swap you for your brother.”

“And what about Ren?”

“I figure we’d leave that up to you.  Whatever you say.”

Laurie heard the hint, but let it slide.

“We’ll have to find some place to keep him.  I’ll talk to him.”

“You think he’ll go along?” Butchie asked.

“No, but I don’t think he’ll be a problem.  So once I’m inside, what do I do?”

“Here’s where all the study comes in.  You see, I can’t just wack ‘em straight out.  They’ve been digging in to some of my affairs.  I don’t want their untimely deaths pointing the cops in my direction.  I need you to get as much of their files and crap as you can.  That could take a while.  Then, once we have it all, you lead ‘em into a trap.  I want to take care of The Mountie personally.”

Laurie nodded.  Butchie seemed to be a planner.  That was good.  Danny never planned much farther than ‘shoot the guy,’ which was how Laurie ended up in prison in the first place.

“Sounds good.”

“Great.  Listen, I got you a really nice hotel suite and a car you can use.  Bobby!”  Butchie bellowed and the man who drove him stepped in.  “Take Laurie here to his hotel.  You need anything Laurie, and I do mean anything, you give me a call.  Bobby has the number.”

“Thanks Butchie,” Laurie said standing, and he reached over and shook the man’s hand.

“You deserve it.  Every man needs some comfort the first night out of the joint.”

Laurie followed Bobby back down the stairs to the sedan from before.  He stopped and took a deep breath.  The air stank like blood and the city.  It was nothing like Canada.  Bobby smirked.

“Free air never smelt so good, huh?” he said climbing behind the wheel.

“Damn straight,” Laurie replied and got in with a smile.

------------

The hotel was posh.  The steak he had in the dining room was even better.  Feeling satisfied, Laurie had the car Butchie provided brought around.  It was time to do some looking on his own.  He got directions from the front desk and took a drive over to see the Consulate.  He parked down the street and watched.  It was almost five and the surrounding buildings were spewing their workers.  

The Consulate doors remained still until around six when Constable Fraser arrived in a black muscle car with a blonde man that Laurie didn’t recognize.  The wolf was with him.  Laurie smirked and remembered the thing licking Norman’s face all the way across the boarder when they were all piled in that station wagon.  Fraser was met at the door by a pretty brunette.  The Mountie automatically went stiff.  The woman talked to him with crossed arms and a frown.  After his apparent dressing down, Fraser waived down a taxi for her.  She disappeared down the street and the two men entered the Consulate.  

A minute or so later, the door opened again.  A very familiar figure emerged dressed in red serge.  Laurie smiled and started the car.  He glided down the street and caught up with the Mountie at the corner while he waited for the crossing signal.  Laurie rolled down the window and leaned across the seat.

“Ren!”

Laurie watched the Stetson turn and, suddenly, he was eye to eye with his mirror image.  Renfield went pale and seemed to freeze.

“Ren!  Come on, I’ll give you a ride home.”

The man sighed and glanced around before opening the car door and climbing inside.

“Laurie…”

“Straight?” Laurie asked.

Ren nodded, but didn’t speak.

“Sis tell you I was getting out?”

“She called yesterday.”

“You didn’t come to pick me up, but that’s no real surprise.  After all, you didn’t visit me once the whole time I was in.”

“You know I couldn’t.  What do you want, Laurie?  Why are you here?”

“I have to want something to see my brother now?  Jesus, no wonder you never visited, if that’s what you think of me.”

“Right at the light,” Ren directed.  He turned away from his brother to look out the window.  “We haven’t spoken since… since….”

“Since the Depot.  I know.  I was there after all.  I wrote you.”

This seemed to surprise Ren because he turned to look at his brother.  Laurie smirked and turned where Ren had indicated.

“When?” the Mountie asked with a small voice.

“After everything.  I don’t expect you ever got them.  I didn’t know where you were stationed so I sent them home.  Hell, Dad probably burned them.  After a while, when you didn’t write back, I just stopped.  Sis must have seen the address, though, because she finally wrote me.  That’s how she always knows where to find me.  We keep in touch.”

The car was silent for several more blocks before Ren pointed out a building.  Laurie pulled up and stared up at it through the windshield.  The place was a dump.  For some reason this bothered Laurie.  He’d stayed in worse places before, but it didn’t suit his sweet natured brother.

“This is where you live?”

“It’s not so bad.  Laurie, where did you get this car?”

Laurier smiled.

“It’s not mine.  It belongs to a friend.  He’s letting me borrow it for a little while.”

Ren refused to look at him.  Instead, he stared at the Stetson in his lap.

Laurie sighed, “It’s not stolen or anything, if that’s what you think.”

“Why?” Ren finally said after a moment.

“There are a lot of whys between us, little brother.  You’re going to have to be more specific.”

There was a heavy sigh in the passenger seat.

“I always hated it when you called me that.  Only two minutes apart and yet you still have to rub my face in it.”

Laurie chuckled.

“Can I help it if you’re always lagging behind?” he regretted it the moment he said it because Ren sat up rigidly.

When Ren’s voice came, it was strained.

“Why are you here, Laurie?”

Laurier watched the cars pass by.  The street light they were parked under started to flicker on in the rising dusk.  He turned to look at the Mountie beside him.  The serge looked like the color of blood in the dim light.  After a long silence, Laurie took a deep breath.

“I miss you Ren.  I have the whole time.  I want my brother back.  Now that I’m stuck here in Chicago for a while, I thought maybe, just maybe, we could get back what we had without him hanging over our heads.”

“You should go home,” Ren whispered.

“I can’t, Ren.  I rolled over on Danny ‘The Bull.’  I cut a deal to get my sentence reduced from attempted murder to a bunch of weapons charges.  That’s the only reason I’m sitting here instead of still in that hole!  If I go back to Canada, I’m a dead man.”

“I’m a member of the RCMP.  I’m sorry, Laurie.  I can’t help you.”

“The RCMP is more important to you than blood?”

Ren didn’t answer.  Laurie gripped the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.

“So that’s it?  You’re a cop and I’m a crook, and that’s all?”

Ren opened the car door and got one foot on the pavement before Laurie gripped his arm.

“Ren!  I did my time.”

“You tried to kill someone and you got caught.  How many times did you not get caught, Laurie?” Ren asked softly and pulled away.

His brother was in the building before Laurie could make himself speak.

------------

Three days later, Laurie sat in front of a bank of television screens.  The bugging of the Consulate had gone off without a hitch.  Laurie and a couple of Butchie’s men were spending their days in an empty office suite down the street from the Consulate.  He studied the screens closely and took notes.

“That Inspector’s something, huh?” Gary, the tall lanky one, said.

Laurie glanced over at him were he was flopped in an old armchair.  He didn’t like the babysitters, but Butchie had insisted that Laurie not be so close to The Mountie alone.  Laurie didn’t think there was much danger seeing as how Fraser didn’t even know about him, but Butchie insisted.

“Yeah she’s something all right,” Laurie finally replied.

It was the first day of surveillance and Thatcher had already yelled at his brother twice.  Laurie wasn’t the type of guy that hit women, but he was thinking about making an exception for the Inspector.  Ren seemed to be a glorified secretary and this rankled Laurie more than he could say. He thought, ‘Mental note, Laurie, talk Ren into getting a new job.’

The top right screen showed the outside view of the Consulate.  Laurie watched the black muscle car pull up and the same blonde man get out.  He followed the man to the next screen as he entered the Consulate.  Ren stood from his desk.

“Good afternoon, Detective Vecchio.  Welcome to Canada.”

“Hey, Turnbull.  You doin’ all right today?”

“Very well, Detective, thank you for asking.”

Laurie frowned as the blonde headed down the hall to Fraser’s office.  He looked over his shoulder at Gary.

“Hey,” Laurie said catching his attention, “that Vecchio?”

Gary practically growled, “Yeah, punk sent my cousin upstate.”

Laurie started to speak, but kept silent as he listened to Ray and Fraser talk in The Mountie’s office.  He knew Vecchio, and this guy definitely wasn’t Vecchio.  Hell, he didn’t even look Italian.  Fraser called the guy Ray, and so had his brother.  Butchie and his men seemed convinced that this guy was Vecchio.  Something was funny, but Laurie decided to keep his mouth shut about it for the moment.  Perhaps the information could be useful later.  

There was a crash and Laurie’s eyes jerked over to the lobby camera.  Ren had knocked a tray off his desk sending files everywhere.  He couldn’t help but smile at his brother.  ‘Same old Ren,’ he thought.

----------

Butchie and Laurie sat at a quiet table in the back of an empty restaurant.  It was a Russian place and the food was heavy and filling.  Butchie loved to come there and his new partner seemed to like it well enough.  He was surprised at how thorough Laurie was about the job.  He’d taken extensive notes in the past week and had even asked for a copy of the RCMP manual.  He was reading it over an empty plate as they sat.

“That manual can’t be that interesting,” Butchie said between bites.

“If I know Ren, he’s probably got half of it memorized and I bet Fraser has all of it memorized.  God, this brings back memories.”

“Memories?”

“Yeah, I went to Depot too, you know.”

“Depot?”

“It’s the RCMP academy, where you learn to be a Mountie.”

Butchie sat back from his borsht in shock.

“You were going to be a cop too?”

Laurie laughed and put the book down.

“You don’t understand.  It wasn’t like I had much choice in the matter.  Our dad was a Mountie.  His father was a Mountie.  My great grandfather was the first Mountie in the family.  Four generations worth of cops, you don’t exactly go against that.”

“So what happened?”

“I told you, I was the black sheep in the family.  I didn’t want to be a Mountie, but no doing, dad insisted.  So Ren and I went to the Depot right out of school.  I got kicked out about two weeks before graduation.”

“Huh, you were the lucky one, then.  Do mind if I ask how you got kicked out?  It’s none of my business, of course,” Butchie asked hands raised.

Laurie ran his hand over the cover of the manual and looked up at him.  There was a distant look in the Canadian’s eye but it quickly disappeared.

“I stabbed one of the instructors.  Sgt. Cooper.  What an asshole he was,” Laurie said with a grin.

Butchie burst out laughing and slapped the table with one of his broad hands.  He couldn’t help but like Laurie.  The kid had spunk.  Plus, it didn’t hurt that he had more than two brain cells to rub together, unlike some of Butchie’s other help.

“So,” Butchie said pushing his plate away, “tomorrow’s the big day.  You ready?”

“I’m ready.  What about Ren?”

“You can take Bobby, Gary, and Frank and pick him up tonight.  I have a nice little out of the way spot where we can keep an eye on him.  Don’t worry.  The boys know that if they lay a hand on him I’ll let you slice ‘em to ribbons.  We’ll take good care of him, and after this is all over maybe you two can get a fresh start.”

“I hope so, Butchie, I hope so,” Laurie replied and turned back to the manual.

--------

Renfield washed his dinner things in the sink while a CD played in the background.  The country singer was wailing about lonely hearts and Ren could relate.  He dried his hands and took out his sketch book.  He always drew a bit in the evenings to release the stress of the day.  Once he had finished sketching he would take up the place where he had left off reading in his new Tom Clancy book.  He was pretty sure that the Deputy Director knew more than he was telling.  But that was in the future.  For now he would just draw and let the music flow over him.

An hour or so later, a knock at the door broke his concentration.  He looked down at his picture and was surprised to see that he had sketched his brother.  Ren frowned.  He thought the facial hair looked rather silly, but he supposed you could get away with that sort of thing when you were a bad guy.  There was another knock and Ren rose to answer it.

“Hello little brother,” Laurie said as he opened the door.

Ren glanced back towards the sketchbook before saying, “Laurie, I don’t have anything else to say to you.”

“Not now Ren,” the other man said brushing past him.  

Ren stepped back and finally noticed the three other men that had been standing in the hall.  They also pushed their way into his apartment.  Ren was escorted back to his couch by two of them, while one took a station at the door.

“Laurie, what is going on?” Ren demanded.

“Ren you can pack your bags, or I can.  Either way, you’re going on a little trip.”

“You’ve only been out a week and you’re already back in it, aren’t you?  For God’s sake Laurie!  Dad was right about….”

“Shut up!” Laurie shouted, cutting Ren off.  “Dad wasn’t right about anything!  He doesn’t know a thing about you, and he sure as hell doesn’t know jack about me!”

Ren watched his brother disappear into his small bedroom.  He could hear his closet door opening.

“What purpose could you have for kidnapping me, Laurie?” Ren asked exasperated.  His mouth dropped open in shock when his twin returned carrying both his uniforms.  “No.  You’ll never pull it off.  Constable Fraser will see through you in a minute.”

“Constable Fraser hardly knows you, Ren, and what he does know annoys him.  I doubt any strange behavior on your part will even phase him.”

Renfield looked away with a firm set to his jaw.  Laurie sighed dramatically.

“Oh please don’t tell me that you hero worship the guy that put me away!”

Ren’s head snapped back around to stare at his brother.

“What?” he asked.

“You didn’t know?  Fraser and Vecchio were the guys that nabbed me.  Small world, huh?”

“You’re going to kill them.  I won’t let you!” Ren yelled and lunged at his other half.  The two men on either side of him grabbed him and a cloth was forced over his mouth.  Quickly, his strength left him.  As darkness crept over his vision, he could see the sadness on Laurie’s face.

------------

Laurie tugged down on the serge that he had never gotten to wear.  He had grown up in a Mountie household and part of his mind was screaming at him for defacing The Uniform.  He felt dirty somehow even though the clothes were spotless.  ‘I can do this,’ he kept repeating in his mind as he walked toward the Consulate.  Laurie resisted the urge to rub his chin again.  It had been a long time since he was clean shaven.  Choosing last night to shave had been stupid.  He should have done it a week ago so that he would have been used to it, but it was too late now.  He’d just have to remember to keep his hands off of his face.

The door loomed before him sooner than expected and he stared at it.  His right hand gripped the paper bag like a life line as he lifted his left hand to knock.

Laurie heard the lock click over and the door opened.  Suddenly, he found himself face to face with Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP.  Laurie swallowed and grinned dumbly.

“Good morning, Sir.”

“Morning, Turnbull,” Fraser said turning away the same way he had done Ren every day the week before.

Laurie stepped through the open door and held back a relieved sigh.  The first hurdle was jumped, now for problem number two.  It wasn’t in the lobby when Laurie hung up Ren’s Stetson.  He walked towards the kitchen where Fraser had disappeared.  The moment he stepped inside, the wolf looked up curiously from his spot under the kitchen table.  Fraser was stirring something on the stove.

“I hope you don’t mind, Sir,” he said to Fraser’s back. “I was passing Mitchell’s Market on the way to work this morning and I got us some doughnuts.  I know how much Diefenbaker likes them.  I’m rather partial to them myself.”

Laurie took a knee near the animal and pulled one of the white powdery circles out of the bag.  The wolf gave a soft growl and glanced at Fraser.

Fraser whipped around and scolded, “Diefenbaker!  That’s no way to thank Turnbull.  He certainly didn’t have to buy you doughnuts.  In fact, I think he indulges you too much as it is.”

“I’m sorry, Sir,” Laurie automatically apologized as Ren was wont to do.

“It’s not your fault, Turnbull.  I know what a… what’s the expression Ray uses… a mooch he can be.”

Laurie ignored Fraser and stared the wolf down while waiving the doughnut in his face.  It could all go bad so quickly if the thing decided to rip out his throat.  Dief looked back and forth between Laurie and Fraser before slowly edging forward towards the doughnut.  Laurie handed the confection over and rubbed the furry head that was trying to get into the bag for the rest.

Laurie pulled the bag away and set out two more doughnuts for Diefenbaker on the floor.  He rose and looked over at Fraser who had again turned his back.

“I had better get to my station, Sir.  I expect the Inspector will be along any minute.  I’ll leave the doughnuts here, if you’d like one.”

“Thank you, kindly.”

Laurie walked back to the lobby and sat down at his brother’s desk.  He wiped his palms on the bottom of the serge.  That had been too close for his liking.  He knew that the wolf would be able to tell him and Ren apart, but he wasn’t sure if the thing would remember him from before.  Laurie was left with only one option, bribery.  He planned on plying the animal with enough junk food to keep it off his back.  Ren was a softie so hopefully Fraser wouldn’t notice much difference.  ‘Mental note, Laurie, don’t go anywhere in this Consulate without a Twinkie,’ he thought sourly.

The door opened and Laurie quickly took to his feet.  Inspector Thatcher swept in to the lobby.

“Good morning, Ma’am.”

“Turnbull.  Where’s Fraser?”

“Kitchen, Ma’am.”

Thatcher blew past him towards the kitchen and Laurie smiled to himself.  The Inspector was the least of his worries.  His only problem with her was resisting the urge to give her a good smack for all the abuse she poured on his brother.  Now, all he had to do for the rest of the day was sit back, answer the phone, and generally be innocuous.

----------

Around two o’clock the phone rang for the twenty eighth time, not that Laurie was counting.  He had no idea how Ren did it.  His brother held the most boring job in history.

“Canadian Consulate, Consulat du Canada, how may I help you?” Laurie asked with much less enthusiasm than he had that morning.  “Canada.  Yes, Sir.  The large country to the North of the United States, Sir.  No, Mexico is to the South, Sir.  Yes, I’ve never been there, but I hear it’s quite nice.  Yes, Sir.  You’re welcome, Sir.  Goodbye.”

Laurie hung up the phone and muttered, “Americans…”

A throat cleared and his head jerked up to see a pair of amused blue eyes looking at him over a pair of sunglasses.  Laurie stood up quickly.

He said, “Detective Vecchio, welcome to Canada.”

“Long day, Turnbull?”

Laurie sighed and sagged a bit.  He knew from his surveillance that Ray was one of the few people that actually bothered to have a conversation with his brother.  The more Laurie had watched the more he had appreciated the not Vecchio.

“Yes, Detective.  I’m afraid so.”

“I feel for ya, man.  Fraser in his office?”

“Yes, the Inspector has been quite adamant about paperwork today.”

The not Vecchio snorted and swaggered down the hall to Fraser’s small office.  Laurie watched him go and sat back down.  At least this guy was tolerable.   He still wondered about all the subterfuge.  Why on earth would someone want to pretend to be Ray Vecchio?  

After a few minutes the two men and Dief emerged.  Fraser straightened his uniform and carefully placed his Stetson on his head.  Ray rolled his neck like a boxer.

“Turnbull…” Fraser said glancing his way.

“Yes, Sir?”

“I’ll be liaisoning with Detective Vecchio for the rest of the afternoon.  Please tell the Inspector.”

Ray chuckled and said, “Well let’s get to it.  I’m sure the bad guys can’t wait to start shooting at us.”

“That’s not something to joke about, Ray.”

Laurie nodded at Fraser as the pair and the wolf made their way to the door.  Here they were going off to do, what ever the hell cops did, and he was still stuck behind the desk.  How did Ren keep from strangling the lot of them?

“Have fun,” Laurie muttered unhappily.

Ray stopped in mid-step and wheeled around to look at him with surprise.  Laurie quickly schooled a bland expression on his face.  ‘Mental note, Laurie, don’t underestimate the not Vecchio,’ he thought as Ray came back over.

“You all right, Turnbull?”

Laurie looked towards the floor and tried to think of something to say.  His mind was a blank.

“I’m sorry, Detective.  I guess I’m just a little restless.”

Fraser came back over with a curious look on his face.  Laurie tried to remain relaxed.  He’d made it through the whole day.  He couldn’t blow it now.  What would Ren do?  He had to get that sharp mind of Fraser’s off of him.

“Well,” a cold voice interrupted.  Laurie and Fraser automatically stood at attention.  “If you’re so restless, Constable, I’m sure I can find something for you to do,” Thatcher continued.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Laurie said quickly.  He knew that Ren was scared to death of the Inspector and he had to show that instead of his contempt for her.

“Constable Fraser are you leaving?” she asked and gave Ray a look of withheld disgust.

“Yes, Sir.  There has been a break in the Marshal case and the Detective and I…”

“Save it, Constable.”

“Yes, Sir.  We’re going now, Sir.”

Fraser turned on his heel and he and Ray fled out the door.  Laurie couldn’t blame them.  He glanced over at the Inspector with just his eyes.  She was staring at the door and tapping her foot.  Her head turned to take him in and he knew that the axe was coming.

“Turnbull!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

“We have work to do.”

---------

‘It’s almost five, it’s almost five, it’s almost five,’ Laurie kept repeating over and over in his mind.  He wasn’t sure he’d ever stood still for this long in his life.  People were milling around him, and all he could do was stare straight ahead.  He’d been there for two hours.  He’d had guard duty at Depot, but that was years ago and never for this length of time.  ‘Mental note, Laurie, don’t piss off the Inspector again.’

The black muscle car drove up at the curb a little ways to the left and Laurie suppressed the sneer he felt coming.  Suddenly, there was a scream off to the right somewhere.  He could see Fraser’s head jerk around to look down the sidewalk.  There was pounding of leather as someone came running towards the Consulate from the right.

Time seemed to slow in front of Laurie.  He wasn’t sure if it was the sudden activity after hours of nothing, or just an adrenaline reaction.  He watched Fraser start to run towards the Consulate.  Laurie could see a man running towards him carrying a purse from the opposite direction, and just as the man got near, the first bell of five o’clock rang in the clock tower down the street.  It felt like an out of body experience.  Laurie watched his left arm jerk out straight in front of the running man.  

Abruptly, time sped back up to its normal pace, and Laurie completed the clothesline that slammed the purse snatcher down on the sidewalk.  He stomped on the man’s chest with his boot to keep him down.

“You snatch a purse in front of a Mountie?  What are you, stupid?” Laurie whispered and pulled the bag from the man’s grasp.

Fraser came running up with Ray close behind.  Laurie looked at the amazed expression on their faces and wanted to scream.  It wasn’t like Ren wouldn’t have done the same thing.  The little old lady, whose purse he was now holding, waddled up.

“Here you go, Ma’am.  You’d better check the contents,” Laurie said and handed her the purse.

Ray bent down to cuff the guy and said, “You snatch a purse in front of a Mountie?  What are you, stupid?”

Laurie had to hold back a chuckle.  The woman kept thanking him over and over, but Laurie paid no attention.  He was staring at the thoughtful look on Fraser’s face.  That had to be bad.

Finally, The Mountie said, “Good work, Turnbull.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

They headed back inside the Consulate while Ray called it in.  The Inspector came out of her office.

“What’s all the commotion?” she asked.

“A purse snatcher, Sir.  Turnbull apprehended him.  Detective Vecchio has everything in hand,” Fraser said and sounded almost proud.

“Turnbull?” Thatcher said with disbelief.

Laurie couldn’t help himself and said, “Well, I am an officer of the law, Ma’am.  It was my duty to stop the crime.”

She had the grace to look abashed.

“Yes, of course.  Good job, Constable.  I think we’re done here today.  We’ll leave you to it, Fraser.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Laurie followed Thatcher outside.  A patrol car was already there to pick up the purse snatcher.  Ray nodded at them as they passed.  Laurie stepped to the curb and hailed a cab for the Inspector before heading home.  He walked all the way back to Ren’s apartment.  Once inside he quickly changed out of the uniform into his regular clothes.  Laurie snatched the keys to his car and was out the door in minutes.

--------

Ren threw his sketch book down yet again.  He had already wasted most of the day sketching and trying to find a way out of his prison.  It wasn’t really a prison so much as a tastefully decorated house.  Ren had been locked in the large second story master bedroom.  There was a large bathroom, a comfortable love seat, and even a small table for eating.  All the windows had been nailed shut from the outside.  They faced towards an empty lot behind some buildings with no windows so there was no way to signal for help.  The bedroom door was kept locked and even if he managed to get past it there were at least three men downstairs at all times.

The first few hours he had gone over all the windows and the door.  Then he had started sketching to calm himself down.  At lunch, they had brought him Chinese.  One man carried the food while another stood by the door with a gun.  There would be no overwhelming his jailors.  For some reason they seemed scared of him, and Ren couldn’t fathom why.

After lunch, he had watched some television, but had quickly become bored with it.  Laurie had been thoughtful enough to grab the book by his bed, so Ren spent the rest of the afternoon reading Tom Clancy.  He had been right about the Deputy Director.  Finally, dinner time came around and Laurie showed up with a loaded down tray.

“How was work?  I see Constable Fraser hasn’t arrested you yet,” he said trying for venom, but sounding more desperate than anything.

Laurie chuckled.

“I don’t know how you do it, Ren.  That place is a tomb.  I was bored out of my mind up until I stopped that purse snatcher right before I got off.”

“Purse snatcher?” Ren said sitting down at the little table across from his brother.  It was almost like old times, but Ren pushed that thought aside.  “How did you stop a purse snatcher?”

“The guy grabbed it practically right in front of me when I was on guard duty.”

“In front of a Mountie?  What was he, stupid?”

Laurie laughed and fixed a plate for Ren.

“That’s what I said!  Then Vecchio runs up and says the same thing!  I almost cracked up.”

Ren smiled and then realized what he was doing.  He sat back and stared at the food.  Laurie watched him with a smirk.

“If I had wanted to poison you, Ren, I would have cooked it myself.”

Ren smiled and looked away.

“Still haven’t improved your culinary skills?” he asked.

“You were the cook.  I was the tree climber, which I’m still excellent at, by the way.”

“If you’d spent more time with Grandmother instead of climbing trees, you might be able to boil water.”

“Hey, I can boil water!  If I have instructions,” Laurie said with a chuckle.  “Besides, tree climbing came in handy after puberty.”

“Tracy MacIver and her second story bedroom, I remember.  You kept hoisting me off on her sister.”

“Hey, there was nothing wrong with Katie.”

“She was ten!”

“It was only four years difference.  Besides, she liked you.”

Ren crossed his arms and stared at the man in front of him.  They were so alike and yet completely different.  For the first time Ren began to wonder what kind of person Laurie was now.  There was still a bit of the roguish boy that had been his other half since they were born.  Things had changed after the Depot, though.

“I suppose you’re very different now,” Ren said finally.  “You’re nothing like that fourteen year old trying to dodge Tracy MacIver’s dad.”

“Not really.  Just add a few years, trade Tracy’s dad for the police, and there you have it, same old Laurie.”

Ren ate his meal in silence.  Laurie seemed to be thinking as well so the room was quiet enough to hear the television downstairs.  After they were done eating, Laurie straightened up the plates and knocked on the door.  One of the men came up and took the try without a word.

“I think they’re scared of me for some reason,” Ren said sitting down on the couch.

Laurie flopped down on the bed crossways.  He rolled over onto his stomach and faced Ren.

“Yup.  Mounties have taken on mythical qualities in this city thanks to Fraser.”

“You really did fool him?”

Laurie shrugged.  Ren sat back and stared at his brother.

“Are you staying here?” he asked.

“Well, I’m not staying at your place, no offense.  Besides, how often have we gotten to spend time together since….”

“I want to talk about that, Laurie.”

“I don’t.  You really don’t want to hear it.”

Ren picked up his sketch book and opened it up to a fresh page.

“Don’t move.  I’ll draw, and you’ll talk because I deserve an explanation about that, about all of this.”

-------

Laurie kicked off his shoes and rested his chin on his folded hands in front of him.  He always liked watching Renny draw which worked out well because Ren always wanted to sketch him for some reason.  Laurie had always thought that Ren did it to have pictures of himself, but when he had asked his brother, Ren had shaken his head.

“When I sketch you and when I sketch myself, we don’t look alike,” Ren had said.  Laurie had never understood that, but when he looked in his brother’s sketchbook he could always pick out which pictures were of him and which were of Ren.

“Which do you want to hear first?” Laurie asked.

“Depot,” Ren said quietly.

“You know I never wanted to be there.”

“Why?  You were so good Laurie!  You would have been an excellent Mountie!”

“I could have been an excellent lot of things, Ren, but I didn’t get the choice did I?”

“If this is about dad…”

“Renny, it’s always about dad.  He didn’t raise sons, he raised Mounties.  I wanted, I don’t know, more.  I know that’s hard for you to understand.  Being a member of the RCMP was all you ever wanted.  I just wanted to be my own man.”

“What does stabbing Sergeant Cooper have to do with that?”

“Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.”

Ren’s charcoal pencil stilled for a moment and then started moving again.  Laurie waited.  He could be patient when he wanted.

“Then why?” Ren finally asked.

“You don’t know how hard it was for me there, and I don’t mean the training.  I was an excellent cadet, but that was the whole problem.  There I was passing through with flying colors to become something I had grown to hate.  The whole while, you were struggling, and it was all you ever wanted.  It wasn’t fair, Ren.  I knew that you were going to be a good Mountie because you had the heart for it.  The heart I never had.  That didn’t seem to matter much to Cooper.”

“So he was hard on me, so what?  That’s no reason to take a knife to him!”

Laurie stared at the floor.  He didn’t want to go into this.  He didn’t want to hurt his brother more than he already had.  Ren was better off not knowing what had happened that night.

“Tell me Laurie,” Ren said causing Laurie to look up.

Laurie’s throat went dry.  He wanted a glass of water, but didn’t dare move.  He didn’t want to ruin Ren’s sketch.

“I don’t know if you remember that day.  He’d been really harsh with you.  You were practically in tears when we got back to the room.  I tried to get you to go get something to eat with me, but you said you didn’t feel like it.  You just wanted some time alone, so I left.  I started out towards the dining hall, but I ended up in front of Cooper’s office.  I knocked and he was in there drinking Irish coffee.  I think it was more whiskey than coffee.   Anyway, I pled your case.  I told him how much you wanted it, you know.  He laughed and said that you’d never be a Mountie.  He said you weren’t good enough.  He was going to talk to Superintendent Novak, get you kicked out.  I told him that you could take my spot and he got angry.  He said you didn’t deserve it, that you were holding me back, of all things.  The next thing I knew he was picking up the phone to call the Superintendent ‘for my own good.’  My pocket knife was in my hand before I could think.  I wasn’t trying to kill him, Renny, no matter what anyone says.  I was just trying to stop him.  I did want him to hurt though.  I wanted him to hurt for hurting you.  I went for the kidney first, it’s not like he needed it, but I tell you one thing, Ren, that man will never take another piss again without thinking about me.”

Laurie kept his eyes on the floor.  The room was silent again.  Somewhere during his story the sound of Ren’s charcoal scratching on the paper had stopped.  Laurie was afraid to look up, afraid to see the hurt in his brother’s eyes.  Finally, the silence was too much for him and he continued.

“So what with all the uproar and such, all the attention was on me.  They must have completely forgotten about you, which was a good thing because two weeks later you became a Mountie.  I guess I was lucky.  I could have gone to jail, but then everyone would know.  Things like that don’t happen at Depot.  I got my walking papers, and you got what you always wanted.   The only regret I have was that we stopped talking.  Of course, that was dad’s fault, not yours.  I told you that you didn’t want to hear this.”

Laurie finally looked up, but Renfield was looking away, the sketch forgotten.  Finally, the familiar eyes turned back to him.

“I wasn’t good enough.”

“Yes you were, Ren.  You passed.  You got your shield.  Cooper was just an obstacle that needed out of the way.”

“You could have killed him, even if you hadn’t meant to.”

“But I didn’t.  I’ve always been good at knowing just how far to go.”

Ren closed the sketchbook and sat it aside.

“And how far are you going to go with Ray and Constable Fraser, Laurie?”

Laurie rolled to his feet and stooped to pick up his shoes.  He walked over to the door and knocked.

“I’d better get some sleep.  I have work in the morning.  Good night, Ren.”

Bobby unlocked the door and let him out of the room away from Ren’s accusing stare.  He walked down the hall to a smaller bedroom.  Laurie flopped on the bed without bothering to change out of his clothes.  He stared at the ceiling and thought, ‘Mental note, Laurie, avoid heart-to-heart talks.’

-------

The second day of work was much the same as the first.  Laurie found himself counting down to the afternoon for Ray’s usual appearance.  That morning he had come to a decision.  The not Vecchio was the key to the pair.  Fraser was too shrewd to tackle.  Laurie needed someone on his side if he was going to get those files before Butchie got impatient.  Ray had shown more of an interest in his brother than anyone else.  He had also been quick to worry about him when Laurie had made his slip the day before.  All Laurie had to do was get Ray to feel sorry for him, and hopefully Fraser wouldn’t be the only one liaisoning.

Laurie positioned himself near the window and waited for the muscle car.  Fraser was currently outside on guard duty, and the Inspector had asked not to be disturbed.  He didn’t have to wait long because Ray showed up about one thirty.  Laurie watched him talk to the statuesque Fraser before turning towards the door.  He quickly ran over to Ren’s desk and laid his head down on it before Ray could get the door open.

“Hey, Turnbull.”

Laurie heard the man start walking towards the hallway before stopping.  ‘Gotcha,’ Laurie thought.

“Hey, you all right, Turnbull?  I think this is the first time I’ve stepped in here that you haven’t welcomed me to Canada.”

Laurie lifted his head and looked at the blonde mournfully.

“Welcome to Canada, Detective.”

“Okay, want to try it again, this time with feeling?”

Laurie sighed, “I’m sorry Detective.  I guess my heart’s just not in it today.  Feel free to inform Constable Fraser or the Inspector that I’m lack in my duties.”

“I’m not going to rat on ya.  You’ve been out of sorts ever since you got that phone call a week or so ago.  Now Fraser tells me to back off since you said it was personal, but I figure sometimes you’ve just got to get it off your chest.  So talk to me.  Frase isn’t going to move for another half hour or so, and I haven’t seen the Ice Queen around yet, so talk.”

Laurie wondered what phone call not Vecchio was referring to.  Probably his sis telling Ren that he was out.  So the news had upset his brother?  Somehow, that bothered Laurie.

“I’m sure you have more important things to do, Detective,” Laurie said reeling him in further.

“Call me Ray, and no I don’t.  Listen, you don’t want me to have to interrogate you.  I’m very good at it.”

“Very well, Ray.  It’s just, I find myself despondent with my work.  I like working at the Consulate, but sometimes it just gets tiresome.  Catching that purse snatcher yesterday brought it all home to me.  I’m a police officer.  I’m supposed to be helping people, fighting crime, not answering phones.”

Laurie stared at his desk with a slight frown.  He realized it was the same expression that Ren had been giving him the night before and the frown deepened.

“You mean, like Fraser,” Ray supplied.

“Exactly!  But, and I’m speaking in confidence now Detective,” he paused for Ray’s nod, “I don’t think the Constable likes me much.  There’s so much I could learn from him.  I suppose a ‘hardened Chicago cop’ such as yourself finds that silly.”

“No! No! I understand.  Frase is one of a kind, all right.  I learn stuff all the time hanging out with him.  Of course, most of it I don’t particularly want to know.  I mean, half his brain must be taken up with caribou stories, but I get ya.”

“He’s the Deputy Liaison Officer, and technically I’m supposed to be his assistant.  I’m here for the Inspector, of course, but I don’t do any liaisoning.  How am I supposed to learn if they won’t let me do anything?  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not as swift or as cunning or as wonderful as Constable Fraser, but I want to try, really I do!”

Laurie sighed and looked at Ray with what he hoped appeared as embarrassment.

“I shouldn’t go on like this,” he continued.  “You must think me a fool.”

“You’re not a fool, Turnbull.  I know exactly how you feel.  Sometimes I get so frustrated.  I mean, I know that we have to do the paperwork.  It helps put the guys away, but the whole time I’m doing it I’m thinking, ‘I could be out catching some scumbag right now.’  At least I do get to go out and catch some.  I don’t know how you do it day in and day out in this museum.  It would drive me nuts.”

‘Tell me about it,’ Laurie thought.

There conversation was interrupted as Fraser stepped in through the door.  He tilted his head curiously at Ray being parked up against Ren’s desk.  Laurie stood.

“Are you ready, Ray?  I just need to collect Diefenbaker.”

“Yeah sure, Frase.”

Ray watched The Mountie walk down towards his office before turning back to Laurie.

“Let me talk to him.  Maybe we can help you out.”

“I would appreciate that, Detec—Ray,” Laurie said shyly.

Fraser and the wolf, who he had given two slices of pizza and a toffee to that day, joined the cop in the lobby before heading out.  The moment the front door closed behind them, Laurie grinned.

“Sometimes, it’s just too easy,” he whispered and leaned back in his chair.

-------

Ray started the GTO but didn’t put in into gear.  He could feel Fraser’s stare, so he turned to look at the man.

“Something wrong, Ray?”

“I hate to see him like that, you know?”

“Who?”

“Turnbull.  He’s always so, I don’t know, chipper, but now he’s all down in the dumps.”

Fraser looked out the windshield thoughtfully and said, “He has been acting strange lately.”

“I think he’s finally fed up with being a secretary.  That whole thing with the purse snatcher yesterday really got to him, I think.”

“How so?”

“Well think about it.  You’re a cop.  You’re trained to take guys out, but instead you spend all day cleaning the Royal Bedroom and getting yelled at by the Ice Queen.  Plus, you have this other cop, who you totally want to grow up to be, going out and catching bad guys right in front of you, kind of rubbing your face in it.”

Fraser ran his thumb over his eyebrow.

“I don’t think it’s quite like that, Ray.”

“Oh, I think it is, Frase.”

“Well there’s nothing we can do about it.  I mean it’s his job.  If he’s unhappy, he can always ask for a transfer.”

Ray grabbed his keys, shut the engine down, and slammed himself back into the seat.  Fraser looked over at him with surprise.

“I don’t believe you!  Every little widow, orphan, or bum comes across your path you’re all raring to help, but the guy that works under you can’t even get the time of day.”

“It’s not like that, Ray!”

“Then by all means, Fraser, tell me what it’s like.  Come on!  You just don’t like Turnbull, but you won’t admit it.  Heaven forbid Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP not like someone.”

“Ray, Ray, Ray.  Turnbull’s just….  He’s not….”

“He’s not your ideal of what a Mountie should be, so you think he doesn’t deserve to be one.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, but you were thinking it.  Did you ever think that he could become your big ideal of what a Mountie should be if you showed him how?  Frase, you and I both know that man idolizes you.  You’re his commanding officer or whatever.  It’s your job to show him how.”

“Technically my job is to….”

“Fraser!” Ray said warningly cutting him off.

The Mountie sighed and looked at him.  Ray crossed his arms and waited.  Fraser could be stubborn, but nothing beat a Kowalski for stubbornness.

“All right, Ray, but I think this is a bad idea.”

“Noted,” Ray said starting the car and heading for the precinct.

--------

Ren finished his novel shortly after breakfast.  He had no interest in the television again, but there wasn’t much else to do.  After lunch he was even too restless to sketch.  Ren’s mind kept going back to his conversation with Laurie the night before.  It enraged him that everything he was led to believe about the incident had been a lie.

He had been told that Laurie had tried to murder the Sergeant.  No one had mentioned why.  They wouldn’t let him see his brother after it had happened.  Laurie had been shipped home, but Ren couldn’t leave so close to graduation.  By the time everything was over and Ren had returned home, Laurie was gone.  No one spoke of him.  As far as his father was concerned, Renfield was that only son they had.  Ren’s father had told him that Laurie was a bad seed.  All the family’s hope rested on his head now, etc. etc.  Of course, there was no way he could be as exemplary as Laurie had been.  While Ren loved the RCMP with all his heart, he had always been a bit of a klutz.  Thankfully, he had grown out of a lot of it, but every now and again when he was nervous things tended to go pear shaped.  Ren had been the dreamer of the two.  Laurie was always the practical one.  They balanced each other out well that way.  

Ren had always hoped that they would get stationed together.  Instead, he had to go it alone.  It was hard to be without Laurie.  They had been inseparable for so long, taking up each other’s slack, playing to each other’s strengths.  His first assignment had been in Toronto.  It didn’t last long.  Neither did the next assignment, or the next.  After being transferred a whopping twelve times in ten years, no one wanted him.  Then he had happened upon the position in Chicago.  It seemed a god send.  Getting out of Canada to get a new perspective on life appeared to be a good idea.  When he had looked up the personnel posted at the Consulate, Benton Fraser’s name had come up.

He didn’t think there was a Mountie alive that didn’t know about Robert Fraser.  The man was a legend.  Then there was his son, Benton.  Ren had heard about him at the Depot.  They said he could track a shadow, and that no one knew the Northwest Territories better.  Fraser had chased one assailant across three hundred kilometers and brought him back through one of the worst storms on record as if it were nothing.  People still talked about him bringing in the Mountie that had conspired to murder his father.  While the old regime considered this a sin and had sent him packing, almost all the younger officers respected the name Benton Fraser.

Ren had the opportunity to learn from the best.  He had to get over Laurie.  He had to make his rather disappointed parents proud.  The transfer was sent the first thing the next morning.

Of course, things hadn’t exactly worked out has he had planned.  Ren lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.  Fraser had been everything Ren had hoped for, which meant that he didn’t have much time for him.  The legendary son of the legendary Mountie thought Ren was about as capable as an infant, but he was determined to stick it out.  He was going to get himself together and be the Mountie everyone expected of him.

Ren supposed it was fate that Laurie would suddenly reappear in his life at this particular moment.  His first day on the job, pretending to be Ren, and he had caught a purse snatcher.  It was just so typical.  The room had grown steadily darker as Ren lay lost in thought.  The door opened and caught his attention.  Again, Laurie was there with dinner.  Ren watched one of the thugs close and lock the door behind his brother.

“How was your day?” Laurie asked.

“Boring.”

“I brought you a couple more books.  I figured you’d be done with that other one.  Deputy Director knew more than he was saying, huh?”

Ren smiled.  How was it that Laurie always managed to make him smile?  They hadn’t seen each other in ten years and yet it was like they hadn’t missed a day.

“Yes,” Ren replied to the question.

“Well,” Laurie said handing him several more books, “he’ll probably clam up in these too.  I looked over the books you had at your place to make sure I didn’t get one that you’d already read.”

“Thank you.”

Laurie laid out the plates of food on the small table.  Ren just sat on the end of the bed and watched him.  His brother was nervous, but was trying to pretend that he wasn’t.

“What are you so nervous about?” Ren asked making Laurie jump.

“How did… Who am I kidding?  It’s you, of course you know.”

Ren took his spot at the table from the night before.  Dinner was some sort of chicken dish and it smelled wonderful.

“Well?” he asked.

Laurie looked away and said, “I just figured that you weren’t talking to me after last night.”

“I can hardly be mad at you for telling me the truth, big brother.”

He knew that the name would make Laurie smile, and he was right.  Laurie looked him in the eye finally and grinned.  Ren began eating his dinner and tried not to think about the future.  He had been empty and alone for ten years.  He was going to enjoy being whole again for as long as he could because Ren knew that after this was all over, one way or another, he would lose his brother for good.

-------

“… and I believe that it will be beneficial not only for Turnbull but also for our working relationship with the Chicago Police Department,” Fraser finished his rather long speech.  He had rehearsed it twice that morning while preparing for work.  Diefenbaker seemed to think it was a lost cause, but as usual he ignored the wolf’s opinion.

Thatcher was staring at him as if a dodo had landed on his head.

“You want to take Turnbull with you on your liaison trips with Detective Vecchio.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“For God’s sake why?”

“I believe I just explained, Sir.”

“No, you just gave me a long winded line of bullshit, Constable.  Now explain yourself.”

Benton sighed and for the hundredth time that morning wondered at the things he’d do for Ray.

“Apparently, he’s unhappy, Sir.  After the incident with the purse snatcher the day before yesterday, he’s become dissatisfied with remaining behind a desk.  He would like to flex his sleuthing skills, Sir.”

“I wasn’t aware he had any, Constable.”

“Well, he is a member of the RCMP and received the same training as you and I, Sir.”

Thatcher stared at him and tapped her fingers on her desk.  Fraser stared straight ahead at a point just above the top of her executive chair.  Finally, she rose to her feet and he looked her in the eye.

“You promise to take full responsibility for him and his actions?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“He is to have merely an observational role.  I don’t want complaints from Lt. Welsh on lost suspects and the like.  I certainly don’t want to hear about him leaping on the back of moving vehicles, or whatever else it is that you do Constable.”

“Understood, Sir.”

“Very well.  You’re dismissed.”

“Thank you, kindly, Sir.”

Fraser stepped out of the Inspector’s office and shut the door quietly behind him.  He turned to find Ray and Turnbull watching him eagerly.  They rather reminded him of a pair of geese waiting for their egg to hatch.

“Well?” Ray asked impatiently.

“He is merely to have an observational role.”

“Yes!” Turnbull cried and slapped a smiling Ray on the back.

Ray snickered, “Don’t get too excited, buddy.  That means you get to sit in the backseat the whole time with the wolf.”

This statement seemed to bring Turnbull up short and Benton watched him glance over at Dief.  For some reason, the Constable had been edgy around Diefenbaker for the past few days.  Perhaps he should have a discussion with the wolf.  Dief was probably guilty of something that Fraser had yet to find out about.

“Well, perhaps we should go before the Inspector changes her mind,” he said and motioned to the door.

In the GTO, Fraser turned in his seat to address Turnbull.  He saw the man sitting close to the window as far away from Diefenbaker as he could manage in the small space.  Benton glared a ‘we’ll talk later look’ to his four legged partner.

“All right Turnbull, I’ll get you up to speed.  We are currently working on a case of stolen property and illegal smuggling.  We believe that the Tonelli brothers are using dump trucks to transport stolen merchandise around the city.  Ray has tracked down a small construction company that may be providing the trucks.”

“Well I wouldn’t have been able to track it down if you hadn’t found that weird bolt at the last robbery,” Ray said.

“Thank you, Ray, but it was a simple matter of tasting the concrete powder on the bolt and then tracing its use in the construction world.  Not many other trucks use J-27 Locksley bolts.  You and Frannie did the hard work looking up all those companies.”

Fraser turned to observe a strange look on Turnbull’s face, but it was quickly replaced with his usual nescient expression.  For the second time that day something tickled in the back of Fraser’s mind.  He tried to grasp hold of it, but couldn’t get a handle on it.  Perhaps he was having one of Ray’s hunches.

“Well here we are, kids,” Ray said pulling in to a parking lot.  “Turnbull, you and Diefenbaker stay in the car.”

“I don’t see why I have to, if you’re only going to question them.  I’d like to observe.”

“Well, ya see, people have a tendency to start shooting at us when we question them.”

“Ray,” Fraser interrupted, “he is here to observe.  I’m sure Turnbull will stay out of the way.”

The other Constable nodded fiercely.

“All right, all right, just quit giving me the dutiful Mountie eyes, both of you.  If bullets start flying, you hit the deck, okay?”

Benton shook his head and said, “I doubt we’ll have any problems.”

Turnbull nodded and followed Fraser as they walked around back to a large open structure where several construction vehicles were parked.  There were stacks of lumber and cement blocks all around.  A squat man chewing on a long gone out cigar was yelling at some men standing around a backhoe that was sitting next to a running front end loader with a bucket full of gravel hoisted into the air.  Fraser noticed some suspicious bulges under the men’s jackets.

“Hey,” Ray yelled, “you Tom Snyder?”

“Yeah, who’s askin’?”

Fraser looked at his partner worriedly and said, “Um, Ray….”

“Not now Frase,” Ray said and flipped open his badge for the other man. “Chicago PD.  I’d like to ask you a few questions about your dump trucks.”

“Ray.”

“What?” Ray asked right before Fraser tackled him behind a large stack of two by fours.  Several bullets slammed into the wood above them sending splinters down onto the pair.

“They have guns, Ray.”

“Yeah, I kinda noticed there, Frase, thanks.  Where’s Turnbull?”

-------

Laurie had noticed the men’s jacket bulges about the same time as Fraser had.  He carefully kept a stack of cement blocks between himself and the men.  The moment the first guy had gone for his gun, Laurie ducked.  He could see The Mountie tackle Ray behind some lumber.  They were currently pinned down.  Laurie watched Ray dig around in his jacket and pull out a pair of hideous glasses before returning fire.  Fraser was looking around franticly until he noticed Laurie.  The Mountie nodded and Laurie nodded back.

He couldn’t believe he was in the middle of a gun fight with no gun.  How did Fraser do it?  ‘Mental note, Laurie, get a big gun.’  He waited until most of the men were reloading.  Laurie burst to his feet and ran towards the other two.  With a quick roll, he was safely behind the lumber.

“Nice move,” Ray said with a smirk.

“Thanks,” Laurie said and looked down at the man’s ankles.  “I don’t suppose you carry a spare, Detective?”

“Yeah sure,” Ray replied.  Laurie reached for the cop’s jeans leg and pulled it up to reveal a .38.  He quickly tugged it out of the small holster and checked the chambers.  Fraser looked at him with surprise.

“You can’t use that, Turnbull.  It’s illegal.”

“I’m aware of that, Sir, but they probably aren’t.”

“Let it go, Frase. I’d certainly feel better with a gun in this situation.  I don’t know how you do it.”

“Yes, your courage under fire, Sir, is quite commendable,” Laurie said peeking over the boards to check the men’s positions.  The wood again exploded into splinters causing Laurie to duck quickly.  “They’ve moved over by that front end loader with the gravel.  I have an idea.  Ray would you lay down some cover fire, please.”

Ray nodded and said, “On three. One.  Two.  Three!”

Not Vecchio sprung up and started firing all his rounds.  Laurie, in a crouch, stepped over Fraser and around the end of the lumber.  He pulled up the .38 and with careful aim fired one shot.  Fraser was suddenly right on top of him, looking over his shoulder.  They watched as Laurie’s shot hit a handle on the loader causing it to dump the large load of gravel on top of the four armed men.  The gunmen went down in a cloud of dust.

“Damn that was a good shot!” Ray crowed and pumped his fist.

Laurie stood and handed the .38 back to its owner.  Fraser was staring at him intently.

“It appears I found some use for it, Sir,” Laurie said with a small smile.

“Well done, Turnbull, but I’m not quite sure it was legal for you to discharge a firearm without a permit.”

Ray shook his head and said, “Legal shmegal, if anyone asks, I made the shot.”

“No, Detective Vecchio, Constable Fraser is right.  I’ll go wait in the car,” Laurie said softly and headed back towards the muscle car with his head low.  He had no doubt that the moment he was out of earshot, Ray would let The Mountie have it.  It was all he could do to keep from smiling.

-------

Laurie sat in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the 27th precinct feeling uneasy.  Maybe it was just the ex-con in him, but sitting around so many cops had to be unhealthy.  He glanced back over at Ray and Fraser.  They were sitting at Ray’s desk pretending to ignore one another.  Laurie had been right about Ray.  After Ray’s back up had shown to arrest the men and forensics had showed up to go over the dump trucks, the pair had returned to the car.  The ride back to the precinct had been completely silent.  Even the wolf sensed something was up because he curled up in the seat and hid his head.

Laurie went over his options.  While it was fun tearing the duo apart, he had to remember that Butchie wanted the both of them along with their files.  Laurie sighed and got to his feet.  Sometimes being bad was just a pain in the ass.  Laurie held Ren’s Stetson in front of him and hung his head apologetically.

“Constable, Detective, I’d like to apologize for my behavior.  It was completely inappropriate.  I can see that it has caused a rift between you two and I never wanted that.  You are such a good team.  Chicago needs you.  I’m sorry.  Constable, feel free to censure me any way you feel is appropriate, and Detective if you’d like to file charges against me for firing your weapon, I’d understand.”

“I’m not going to file charges against you, Turnbull.  You saved our asses,” Ray said giving Fraser a pointed look.

Laurie peeked up through his eyelashes at Fraser.  The Mountie licked his lips with the tip of his tongue.  After a moment he rose and stood at attention in front of Laurie.  He quickly copied Fraser’s stance and stared straight ahead.  Fraser snapped a salute which Laurie returned.

“Good work, Constable.  I apologize for my behavior.  It was unbecoming of a superior officer.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Laurie said reverently without managing to throw up.

“Renfield,” Fraser said to Laurie’s surprise, “why don’t you stay here with Ray and let him show you Chicago arrest procedure.  I’ll head back to the Consulate to check in with the Inspector.  If either of you should need me, please call.  Diefenbaker, let’s go.”

Laurie watched Fraser leave before taking his seat next to Ray’s desk.

“Renfield?” Ray asked.

“It’s my name.  What was all that about?”

“Renfield,” Ray repeated with bewilderment. “Oh, that?  That was your boss trying to save face after acting like a doofus.  Well, that and leaving you and me to do all the paperwork.  Sneaky isn’t he?”

Laurie grinned.  He could almost get to like Ray.  It was too bad about that whole dying soon thing.

-------

Ren was most of the way through one of the new books Laurie had brought him.  He kept checking his watch.  It was well past the time that his brother had brought dinner the two nights before.  Ren hadn’t really thought much about Laurie getting caught since that first morning.  Now he was quickly growing impatient.

What if Fraser did discover his brother?  What would happen to Laurie?  What would happen to him?  Did the thugs downstairs have orders to get rid of him if something went wrong?  Laurie wouldn’t let that happen, would he?  Ren shook his head.  His twin had already proven the lengths he would go to protect him, but would Laurie protect him over saving his own skin?

Ren threw down the book.  Suddenly, he wasn’t as interested in conspiracies now that he was living one.  The Mountie reached over to his sketch book and flipped through it.  It was practically new.  Ren went through sketch books pretty quickly.  He had bought his current one a few days before his sister had called about Laurie.  Not surprisingly, the thing was filled of pictures of his brother.  Ren stopped on the sketch that he had drawn of Laurie the night he had confessed about the Depot.  It wasn’t finished, but the expression on Laurie’s face was unmistakable, loneliness.  Ren knew the expression well.  It was the same one he had been seeing in the mirror for the last ten years.

“God, Laurie, what have you gotten us into?”

-------

When Laurie pulled up to the house, he noticed a big Cadillac parked in the driveway.  He tried not to groan.  It had been a long day and he really didn’t want it to be longer by dragging things out with Butchie.  He grabbed the bag of food for him and Ren out of the passenger seat and headed inside.

Butchie was seated at the dining room table talking with Frank.  Laurie set the bag down on the end and took a chair next to the mob boss.

“Laurie, I was starting to worry.”

“You’re not going to believe why I’m late.”

“Tell me.”

“I was in the police precinct doing, get this, paperwork, like some sort of flatfoot.”

Butchie and Frank chuckled.  Laurie could see the other boys coming into the dining room effectively blocking his exits.

“Yes, I heard about the trouble you got into.  Word on the street is that now we’ve got two super Mounties running around town.  I don’t suppose I have anything to worry about, do I, Laurie?”

“I am not now, nor will I ever be a cop, Butchie.  Actually, this whole thing worked out rather well.  Since I was down at the 2-7, I found out where Vecchio keeps his files.  I’m pretty sure I can get them tomorrow.”

Butchie smiled and rested his hand on Laurie’s shoulder.

“That’s good to hear.  I knew I didn’t have to worry.  After all, there’s a lot riding on this,” Butchie said and glanced at the stairs behind them.

Laurie clenched his jaw.  It wasn’t an obvious threat, but he got the picture.

“Everything’s going as planned.  You just be ready to receive The Mountie and the cop sometime tomorrow after I get a hold of those files.  By tomorrow night this will all be over.  Your little problem will be solved, and Ren and I can start fresh.”

Butchie nodded and removed his hand from Laurie’s shoulder.  Quietly the other boys backed off into the living room.  Laurie got to his feet and picked up the bag.  Ren was probably worried, and suddenly, he wasn’t the only one.

-------

Ren looked up as the door opened.  He let out a relieved sigh when Laurie came in holding a take out bag.  Laurie looked upset as he sat out their dinner things.  Ren couldn’t help himself and he closed the distance between them.  A hand on his shoulder caused Laurie to turn.  He smiled at Ren and reached up to squeeze the hand.

“It’s okay, Ren.  Everything’s fine.”

Ren bit his lip and gave his brother a crushing hug.  Laurie hugged him back tightly and that’s when he knew something was wrong.  His brother had never been a big hugger even when they were kids.

“Everything’s not fine.  What’s going on, Laurier Turnbull?”

“Ooo… the full name, I’m in trouble now.”

“I’m serious, Laurie.”

“Everything’s riding on tomorrow, is all.  After tomorrow, this will all be over.  You and me, we can start a new life, just the two of us.”

“I like my life fine,” he said, but didn’t sound convincing even to himself.

“Ren, I’ve lived your life for the past three days.  Trust me when I say it’s not fine.”

“What about Fraser and Ray’s lives?”

Laurie sighed and turned away.  He rested his hands on the table.  His head was bent down and for a moment it reminded Ren of a painting he had seen at St. Michael’s Catholic Church.  “Alone in prayer” it was called.  Laurie’s voice drew him back to the present.

“Fraser and Ray will just have to fend for themselves.  It’s not a nice world, Renny, and I never claimed to be a nice person.”

“You think that we can just go live a big happy life after you’ve sent them to their deaths?”

“Ren, I’ve had a really long day of do gooding, so you’ll excuse me for being a bastard tonight, okay?”

Ren sat down solidly on his chair at the table and crossed his arms.  He knew it was just a petulant front, but he didn’t have much else.  Laurie smirked at him and finished laying out dinner.  When he had taken his place and begun to eat, Ren spoke.

“Do gooding?”

“I knew you couldn’t wait long.  You’re too curious, Ren.  I guess that’s why you’re a Mountie.”

“All right you smug bastard just tell me what you did today.  Pull a kitten from a tree?  Saved a baby from a fire?” Ren replied huffily.

Laurie leaned back and laughed.

”You’re jealous!  Oh come on, Ren.  You know I don’t want to be a Mountie.  You can have it, believe me!  As for what I did today, well, you know that yesterday I convinced Ray that I, or well you, wanted to be a part of the whole liaison thing.  This morning Fraser convinced the Inspector to let me, er you, ride along with them.  So we get to this construction company.  Apparently they were trafficking in stolen goods or something.  Anyway, the moment Ray opens his mouth to say Chicago PD, four guys open fire on us.”

“They shot at you!”

“Yeah.  I was behind this pile of cement blocks and Ray and Fraser were pinned down behind some two by fours.  So I go running over to them, bullets whizzing everywhere.  I grabbed Ray’s back up gun…”

“But you can’t use a gun, RCMP doesn’t have any jurisdiction, it’s illegal.  Besides which you don’t have a gun permit, nor could you get one being a convicted felon,” Ren interrupted.

“Ren, they were trying to blow our heads off, I didn’t much care.”

“Oh, right, sorry.”

“Anyway, if I can continue…. Where was I?”

“Bullets whizzing everywhere, you grabbed Ray’s back up gun and…?”

“Right. So I peek over the boards and see that they’re using this loader for cover.  Only its front bucket is full of gravel.  It’s just sitting up there in the air waiting for a truck or something to dump it in.  They start blasting away again, and nearly ventilated your hat.  So I get this plan, right.  I tell Ray to cover me and I slip towards the end of the lumber.  Ray stands up and it’s, blam, blam, blam! I step out of the side of our cover, take aim and one shot, boom!  I nailed it.  Right on the loader’s controls.  The bucket upturns and drowns the guys in gravel, thus saving the day.”

Ren stared at the very smug Laurie in awe.

“You mean, you saved Ray and Constable Fraser’s lives?”

“Yeah, gotta love the irony, huh?”

Ren smirked the way Laurie always did and said, “You know what’s even more ironic?  It sounds to me like you enjoyed it.  You enjoyed being a Mountie.”

Laurie who had bent down to take his first bite paused in mid-chew.  It was Ren’s turn to laugh at his brother.

“I did not!  I could have gotten killed today, you know!”

“I knew you had it in you.”

“Shut up!”

Ren chuckled and started eating his dinner.

-------

Laurie stepped into the 27th precinct and took a deep breath.  ‘You can do this,’ he repeated to himself.  His palms were sweaty again just like the first day he had walked up to the Consulate.  ‘Mental note, Laurie, they’re just dumb cops.’

Laurie walked over to Ray’s desk and was happy to find it empty.  He had listened in to a phone conversation at the Consulate between Fraser and the not Vecchio.  They were planning to meet for lunch somewhere.  Unfortunately, their place of choice didn’t allow animals.  Fraser had asked Laurie to keep an eye on Diefenbaker while he was gone.  As soon as The Mountie was out the door, Laurie had prepared things and had left for the station house.

He quickly opened the filing cabinet behind the Detective’s desk.

“Hey Turnbull!”

Laurie jumped and turned to find a short brunette smiling up at him adoringly.

“Hi, Frannie,” Laurie said reading the tag on her shirt.

“Is Fraser with you?”

The tone of her voice told Laurie all he needed to know.  He smiled his most goofy smile and tried to look dumb.

“No, I’m afraid not.  He and Detective Vecchio are having lunch.  I promised Ray that I would swing by here on my way and pick something up for him.  I thought it would be on his desk, but I can’t seem to find it.”

“Oh, what are you looking for?”

“Um it’s some kind of file.  The Marr file, I believe.  Apparently, Constable Fraser has a lead,” Laurie said and sighed a sigh of adoration.  He was happy to see that Frannie did the same.

“Well it would be in here,” she said reaching for the drawer in the filing cabinet above where Laurie had been about to search.  “You know, Ray really isn’t supposed to take these out of the office.”

“Oh, well I wouldn’t want to get the Detective in trouble.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.  I won’t scream on him.”

“You mean squeal.”

“Scream, squeal, yell, whatever.”

“Thank you, Frannie.  I’m sure Constable Fraser will be most appreciative.”

“Really?  You think so?  Oh! I gotta get my nails done!” the flighty woman said and headed quickly in the other direction.

Laurie took the file in one hand and tipped his hat at a few of the other detectives on his way out.

-------

The Consulate was quiet when Laurie returned.  It was time to call Butchie.  Laurie expected Fraser and Ray back any moment.  He quickly checked the Inspector’s office.  She wasn’t back from her meetings yet.  Everything was working out fine.  He picked up the phone.

“Butchie, it’s Laurie.  Yeah, I got them.  No, they should be back in a minute.  Don’t worry, I’ll get them there.  You just be ready on your end.  Oh, and have the boys bring Ren over.  I think we’re going to leave as soon as I deliver them.  Yeah, thanks.”

Laurie sat down behind Ren’s desk and looked around the empty Consulate.  He thought about Ray.  He even thought about Fraser, but mostly he thought about Ren.  Laurie leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling.  It wouldn’t be long now.

Fraser and Ray turned up about ten minutes later.  Laurie had easily worked himself up into full Ren hysteria.

“Oh! Ray thank goodness you’re back!”

“Hey Turnbull, what’s wrong?”

“There was a call from Ms. Frannie.  Apparently, someone named Schoke has been trying to get in touch with you.”

“Schoke?  He’s my snitch in Marr’s camp,” Ray told Fraser.

“Ms. Frannie said that he was very upset.  He said that something big was going down at the Meat Plant, whatever that is.”

“Wierenger’s,” Fraser said with a frown.

“We’d better get across town.  If we can catch Marr in the act of something, we might have enough to finally take him down.”

“Yes,” Fraser said and looked thoughtfully at Laurie, “was that the entire message?”

Laurie didn’t like the way Fraser was staring at him.  He nodded quickly.  What did he have to do, draw them a map?

“Come on, Frase!” Ray said half way out the door.  Fraser stared at Laurie a moment longer before nodding and quickly following his partner.

Laurie rolled his eyes and went to the window.  As soon as the muscle car was gone, he slipped out and jumped into his own car.  It wouldn’t be long now.

-------

Ren adjusted his Sam Brown one more time.  Laurie had said that today was going to be the day.  Ren had dressed in his spare uniform.  If anything was going to happen, it was going to happen with him in his serge.  He was a Mountie above all things.

Ren heard the lock turn over and said a quick prayer.  Two of the thugs were standing outside the door with their pistols at the ready.

“It’s time,” one of them said and motioned to the hallway with his gun.

Ren stood and carefully placed his Stetson on his head.  He nodded at the man and made his way out of the room that had been his home and his prison.

-------

Laurie pulled up to find the muscle car empty.  He paused outside of his car to adjust the Stetson and serge.  He quickly climbed the stairs to office and took a breath before stepping in.  There were two plain chairs facing Butchie’s desk.  Fraser, hatless, was tied up in one, and Ray in the other.  The ropes looked tight.  The two muscle guys were sitting on the leather sofa much like the first night he had seen the office.  There was another man by the door he had entered and one standing beside the desk.  All were armed.  Butchie was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Butchie?” Laurie asked the man by the door.

Ray turned his head and Laurie watched the Detective’s mouth drop open.

“He’ll be here in a minute,” the thug said.

Laurie nodded and made his way over to lean on the desk in front of the two men.  Ray was still trying to come to terms with everything.  Fraser, on the other hand, appeared perfectly calm.

“TURNBULL!” Ray yelled finally in utter disbelief.

Laurie smiled, but before he could explain, Fraser spoke.

“Yes and no, Ray.”

“What?” Ray asked.

“What?” Laurie asked.

“While he is a Turnbull, he isn’t the Renfield Turnbull that we’ve gotten to know.  I should probably introduce you.  Ray this is Laurier Turnbull, Renfield’s twin brother.”

Laurie tilted his head back and gave a belly laugh.  It took him a moment to compose himself, but finally he managed.

“When did you know?” Laurie asked.

“I suppose it was the first day you switched places with Renfield.  Diefenbaker didn’t know you.  Of course, it didn’t make sense at the time.  I didn’t understand exactly what was happening until I dug into Turnbull’s record yesterday while you were at the station with Ray.”

“Damnit, I knew I should have gone back to the Consulate with you.  I knew something was up, but I was too cocky.”

“I’d disagree with you.  You did an admirable job impersonating your brother considering you hadn’t seen him in ten years.  Your only mistake was being too accomplished.  It’s not surprising though considering your record at the Depot.”

“I didn’t do anything that Ren couldn’t have done.  You know, I don’t think I like your low opinion of him.”

“Did Sgt. Cooper have a low opinion of him?”

“Yes, and see what happened to him?  You’re something else, Fraser.  You’ve known this whole time and you haven’t done a thing.  Not to mention you walk into an obvious trap.”

Fraser looked at him with a serious expression and said, “For three days you were an exceptional Mountie.  I just thought you might have learned something.”

Ray looked over at his partner.

“Frase, when this is all over remind me to smack you.”

“I’m with him,” Laurie said and crossed his arms.  “So you looked up my record, huh?  Did you bother to check my record here in the States?”

Fraser shook his head.

“Ah, I suppose it’s just vanity for me to think that you’d remember.  Let’s see how do I jog that memory?  A few years back, Danny ‘The Bull’ Brock, Ian MacDonald.”

Fraser’s eyes opened wide in recognition.

“There!  Now you remember.  I don’t expect you to remember, Vecchio,” Laurie said and winked at the suddenly pale detective.

Fraser said, “There was a certain familiarity when I met Turnbull and I couldn’t place it.”

“Yeah well now you know.  You met me before you met Ren.  I got out of jail last week.”

Ray looked back and forth between Laurie and Fraser.

“You put Turnbull’s twin brother away?”

“It would appear so, Ray.”

“This is not a detail you forget, Fraser.”

“I’m sorry, Ray.”

The door to the meat packing plant opened and Butchie stepped in.  He nodded at Laurie who quickly stepped away from the boss’ desk taking a position behind Fraser.

“I asked you to deliver them, and so you have.  Where are the files?” Butchie asked.

“Down in my car.  Where’s Ren?  I haven’t seen him.”

“That’s where I was.  The boys just drove up with him.  He’s down near your car.  Al, take Laurie down there and bring me back those files, would you?”

Laurie stared at the mob boss for a moment before he said, “I don’t need an escort.”

“Humor me.”

Laurie nodded and started to turn away, but stopped.  He bent over behind Fraser’s shoulder to speak into his ear.

“By the way, you are a shitty boss,” Laurie said softly.  Somehow he didn’t think Fraser would mind seeing as how he pressed Ren’s pocket knife into The Mountie’s hand.

Laurie went back out the outer door and down the stairwell.  Ren was standing next to a dark sedan and was flanked by two men.  Laurie had to admit that he looked good in the serge.  He stopped in front of his brother and it was very much like looking into a mirror.  Only, a mirror would never look so disappointed.  The man Butchie had called Al lifted his gun up.

“Where are the files?” he asked.

Laurie held out the car keys without looking away from his brother.  He motioned to the man on Ren’s right with his eyes.

“They’re in the trunk.”

Al took the keys and stepped over to open the trunk.  He had to put his gun in the front of his pants.  The lock turned.  The trunk slowly opened.  Suddenly, there was a low growl and a flash of white.  Diefenbaker barreled out of the trunk of Laurie’s car with a vengeance.  Al didn’t have a chance.  At the same moment, Laurie decked the man on Ren’s left, while his brother elbowed the man on the right following up with a quick chop to the back of his neck.  In three seconds, all three thugs were unconscious on the ground.  Laurie smiled until the wolf turned to face him with a growl.

Laurie held his hands up and said, “Now, I know you’re mad, but this is not the time.  You either behave and help us save Fraser and Ray, or it’s back in the trunk.”

Dief whined softly but walked over to nuzzle Ren’s hand.  Ren knelt down to pet the wolf.

“How did you get him in the trunk in the first place?” Ren asked.

“It wasn’t easy and involved half a case of snack cakes.”

“I knew you’d have a change of heart.”

“Ren, they were going to kill us.  I suspected that bastard would try and double cross me, so I planned accordingly.”

“Is that all?”

“Nobody threatens my brother.  It’s not my fault that the message hasn’t gotten across the boarder yet.”

Ren smiled and said, “You look good in the Uniform.”

“So do you.  Now we need a plan.  I was thinking the Fastlane Market Plan, divide and conquer.”

“Laurie!” Ren stood and whined.  “These are armed mobsters!  This is nothing like distracting Mr. Wong to steal candy at the Fastlane.  We aren’t ten anymore!”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I’ve used the Fastlane Market Plan throughout my criminal career and it always works!” Laurie yelled back pointing at his brother.

“Fine!  What do you want me to do?” Ren asked.

Laurie bent down and picked up the thugs’ handguns.  He offered one to Ren who shook his head.  Laurie rolled his eyes and glanced around.

“Okay, you take the wolf, since he hates me, and go up the outside steps.  There was one guy by the door.  I’ll go through the meat plant and come in the other door to cover the two guys on the couch.  That leaves Butchie.  Hopefully, Fraser’s cut through his ropes by now so he can worry about the big guy.  We go on forty.”

“Cut through his ropes?”

“I slipped him your pocket knife.”

“You did have a change of heart!” Ren cried happily.

“Just shut up and start counting.”

Ren smiled.  The brothers looked at each other closely before beginning to count in unison.

“One. Two. Three.  Four….”

-------

Butchie looked at the two men in front of him after Laurie had left.  It was a real shame that the guy cared so much about his brother.  Butchie knew that he couldn’t let a witness like Ren live, and if Laurie wasn’t going to go along, well it was a real shame.  He had liked Laurie.  The kid had had promise.

The cop was staring daggers at him, and that made Butchie smile wider.  The Mountie though looked cool as a cucumber.  That was okay, when he was bleeding the color of his jacket, he wouldn’t be so cool.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Butchie said finally.

“Whoopee,” the cop said deadpan.

“Now, now, Detective.  That’s no way to act.  You two gave me a good run, but you finally lost.  There’s no shame in that.”

“You wouldn’t have us if it weren’t for your little Benedict Arnold.  You should be real proud having to pull in Canadians to do your job for you,” Ray spat.

Butchie replied, “Well I figure it takes a Canadian to catch one.”

He stared at The Mountie who had tilted his head thoughtfully.

“I suppose I should be flattered, Mr. Marr.”

“You should.  You’ve been a real thorn in my side, Mountie.  This city was a fine place until you showed up with your ‘Thank you, kindly’ and your ‘truth, justice, and the Canadian way.’  You just can’t be for real, man.”

“Oh,” Fraser said with his head still tilted almost as if he were listening to something, “I’m very real, and I’m not alone.”

Suddenly, both doors burst open with a combined shout of “Forty!”

-------

Laurie leveled his guns at the couch. The two goombas were trying to get their guns out and get up at the same time, and not having much luck with either.  

“Don’t even think about it boys.  Throw them out on the floor carefully.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ren lay out the other guard with a neck cracking punch.  Diefenbaker jumped up on top of Butchie’s desk and growled menacingly.  Laurie nodded towards the guns on the floor and Ren stepped over to take them.  Keeping one gun on the pair on the couch, he turned to look at Butchie.

“Now you honestly didn’t think that I’d let you kill Ren and me did you?”

“I underestimated you, boy.  You can bet it won’t happen again.”

“Well so did these two,” he said gesturing to the seated men, “and look where that got them.”

“Oh, I think I estimated you just right, Laurier,” Fraser said standing up and pulling the cut ropes off of his wrists.  He held up Ren’s pocket knife as evidence.  Laurie rolled his eyes but sent a quick smile Ren’s way.  Fraser bent over to cut Ray’s ropes.

Then, time began to slow again, just as it had in front of the Consulate that day with the purse snatcher.  Dief’s head turned to watch Fraser free Ray.  Butchie’s fist came and connected with the wolf’s neck knocking him completely off the desk.  Butchie’s other hand came up slowly with a gun. Laurie couldn’t get a shot.  Fraser and Ray were blocking the way.  His feet moved before he could think.  Two strides and he was flying through the air at Fraser.  He heard Butchie’s gun go off and time rushed to catch up.  In a flash, Laurie was on the floor beside Fraser.  Ray still seated and partially tied stared down at them in shock.

Ren threw one of the pistols in his hand like a rock and Laurie heard an exclamation from Butchie right before a second shot and Dief growling again.

“Jeez!  Fraser!  Frase!  You okay!” Ray was yelling, trying to get out of his seat.

The Mountie beside him looked stunned before answering, “I’m fine Ray.  Marr?”

“Dief’s got him now.  Turnbull knocked the gun out of his hand.  Would somebody get these damn ropes off of me!” he cried looking straight at Ren.

Constable Fraser rolled over to look at him and Laurie tried to laugh.  For some reason his gut was on fire.  The Mountie looked down at him and went pale.

“Oh dear.  Ray call an ambulance, Laurier’s been hit.”

“Laurie!” Ren said and was instantly on his knees bending over him.

Laurie tried to tell him it was okay, but he couldn’t seem to get his voice to work.  It hurt too much, and breathing seemed to set his lungs on fire along with his side.  ‘Mental note, Laurie, don’t get shot again, it really hurts,’ he thought with a grimace.  He could see Ray, now armed and rope hanging from his wrists, pulling Butchie over to the couch with the other two morons.

“Serves him right!” Butchie said.

Ray’s “Shut up you or I’ll kick you in the head!” was the last thing Laurie heard before everything went black.

-------

He opened his eyes and tried not to groan.  Everything was sore.  A quick glance around him confirmed he was in the hospital.  There was something warm on his hand.  He looked over to find that it was Ren’s forehead resting there.  Laurie slid his hand out from under it and ran his fingers through Ren’s hair.  His brother looked up with worry filled eyes.

“Hi, what’d I miss?” he croaked.  Ren immediately reached for water and held the cup while he drank.

“Butchie and his gang are going away for a long time.  Lt. Welsh came to thank you personally, but you were still out.  Inspector Thatcher said that if you really had been a Mountie she would have to write you up for a commendation.   Apparently, I’m getting a real one.”

“You deserve it, little brother.”

“Not as much as you.”

“So that’s the good news, give me the bad.”

Ren frowned and said, “Welsh came back the next day to let us know that you had violated your parole and Butchie’s been talking up your part in the scheme to kill Constable Fraser and Detective Vecchio.  The Assistant State’s Attorney said they didn’t know what charges they were going to bring yet.  They are going to wait until you are better before talking to you about turning evidence against Mr. Marr.  Also, some more RCMP officers were here.  They are considering bringing charges on you for impersonating a Mountie and bugging the Consulate.  Since it’s Canadian soil, they might actually have a case for espionage.”

Laurie sighed and closed his eyes.  He rested for a moment before speaking.

“With Danny in jail in Canada wanting me dead and Butchie in jail here wanting me dead, it really doesn’t matter where they lock me up, I’ll still be dead.”

Ren bit his lip and held tightly to Laurie’s hand.  He went back to sleep almost immediately.

-------

Laurie woke up the next day to find Ren gone and Constable Fraser in his place.  The Mountie nodded at him when he opened his eyes.

“Hey,” Laurie said, unsure of what to talk about.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been shot.  How are you?”

Fraser smirked and replied, “I’m well, thanks to you.  That was a very brave thing you did.”

“Not brave. Stupid.”

“It was stupid to save my life?”

“Fraser, no offense, but I don’t even like you.”

“I don’t think that’s true.  It might have been when Ray and I arrested you, but not now.”

“Just because you read some file from years ago, you think you know me?”

“No, I know the man I worked with, the one that stopped that purse snatcher, the one that made that shot that saved our lives, the one that took a bullet for me.”

“I’m not a Mountie.  I never wanted to be a Mountie.”

“Yet, it’s funny how good you are at it.  When I was little, I wanted to be a Mountie, just like my father.  Not because I believed in the ideals of the RCMP, or because I wanted to help people.  No, I wanted to be a Mountie because my father was a Mountie and I thought that if I was one, he’d make time for me.  So when I was old enough I joined the Depot.  I did everything I could to be the best Mountie I could be, for my father, but later I discovered something.  My being a member of the RCMP wouldn’t change who my father was, but it made me what I am.”

“That’s a nice story.  What the hell does it mean?” Laurie asked.

“Sometimes when you’re lost in the woods, you’ll come across the path of your destiny anyway.”

“You’re a strange man, Constable.”

“Tell me about it,” a voice said from the doorway.  Laurie turned to see Ray leaning against the frame.  “Did he give you an Inuit story?”

“No.”

“You’re lucky,” the Detective said.

“If he stays any longer, I’m sure I’ll hear about the caribou soon enough.”

Ray grinned and pulled a chair over to the opposite side of the bed from his partner.  Fraser acted insulted, but a twinkle in his eyes told otherwise.

“So there’s just one thing I want to know,” Laurie said looking back and forth between the two.

“What?” Fraser asked.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked looking at Ray.

The men stared at each other across the bed with their mouths agape.

“Uh….” Ray said ineloquently.

-------

A week later, Laurie could get in and out of bed by himself and walk around a bit.  Ren had been there everyday.  The Inspector, despite Laurie’s subterfuge, had granted him leave.  Laurie couldn’t understand why everyone was treating him like some sort of hero.  It wasn’t like he had meant to save Fraser, it had just happened.  Whenever he mentioned this, most people just laughed or thought he was being humble.  After a while, Laurie gave up on the whole thing.

Fraser stopped by often in the evenings when the Consulate closed.  Sometimes Ray would come with him, but the Detective didn’t have much time to spare thanks to their bust of Marr’s gang.  The pair still hadn’t explained who Ray really was.  They merely told him to keep the whole thing under his hat.  Laurie told them that now that he was a civilian again, he didn’t have a hat, and Ray had threatened to kick him in the head gunshot or no gunshot.

It was strange.  After spending so much time alone and in jail, suddenly, Laurie had his brother back and two new friends.  Well three if you counted Diefenbaker, which he didn’t.  Fraser had told him that the wolf was carrying a grudge after having been locked in the trunk.  Laurie had told him where the wolf could stick it, and Fraser had looked stunned for a moment.  Then he had asked if that was anatomically possible to which Laurie had laughed.

The Assistant State’s Attorney had paid him a visit along side two senior RCMP officers.  There had been much arguing about exactly where he would go and what kind of sentence he would have.  Ren had been present and had insisted on a lawyer which shut them up fast.  Then Laurie had smirked, told them that it didn’t matter to him where he went, and then told them they could all go to hell.  Ren wasn’t amused, and neither were his guests.  At least it got them to leave.

It wasn’t until a day or so after their visit that two gentlemen in suits showed up.  They promptly kicked Fraser and Ren out of the hospital room and had locked the door.  For a moment, Laurie had worried that they were sent by either Butchie or Danny to take care of him, but they relieved him of that notion by showing him their identification.

“Mr. Turnbull, I’m Todd Allen we’re with the CSIS.”

Laurie asked, “Canadian Intelligence?  Get out!”

“No, really.  This is my partner Agent Bishop.  We’d like to discuss an opportunity with you.”

“This isn’t some elaborate way to sell me Amway is it?”

Bishop snorted, “While we appreciate your humor, Mr. Turnbull, this is a serious matter.  Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“Yeah the RCMP was in here yesterday yelling treason.  The Assistant States Attorney, who has nice calves by the way, seems to think I’m just your regular run of the mill scumbag.”

Allen replied, “You’ve observed a government facility for a little less than a week and infiltrated it flawlessly.  You survived a fire fight in which you entered unarmed.  You took out a half dozen armed killers and brought one of the biggest mob bosses in Chicago to justice.  Not to mention your testimony a few years ago that helped incarcerate a Canadian mob boss.  You’ve saved three officials’ lives on two separate occasions.  You’ve shown ingenuity, courage, ruthlessness, and panache.  Your knowledge of RCMP procedure from your days at the Depot has integrated exceptionally with your personal knowledge of the underworld.  To be quite frank, you’re exactly what we’re looking for at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.”

“Panache?” Laurie asked amused.

Bishop smirked as Allen tightened his jaw and shifted uncomfortably.

Bishop said, “We’re here to recruit you, Mr. Turnbull.”

“Is that so?  Call me Laurie.  You want me to be some sort of spy?”

“We don’t spy, Laurie. That’s what Americans are for.  We keep Canada safe.  We also think that you could help us do that,” Bishop clarified.

“What about all the charges against me?”

Allen replied, “Oh they will be dropped, but we’re going to use the RCMP charges to bring you back to Canada incognito.”

“And if I don’t want to be in the CSIS?”

Bishop gave a mean grin and said, “Then I foresee you having plenty of time on your hands in the future.”

“So it’s jail or super cop?  Gee, which shall I decide?” he said wryly.

“You’ve made a wise decision,” Allen said standing a little straighter.

“Yeah, well I have panache.”

The Agent’s posture immediately dropped again and his partner appeared to be holding back a chuckle.

Two days later, Laurie was led out of the hospital in handcuffs.  The two RCMP officials seemed rather pleased with themselves.  Laurie couldn’t wait until they got across the boarder to rub their stupid faces in it.  

There was a line of people waiting for him as he was escorted down the hall.  Renny was the first.  Laurie stopped and looked him in the eye.  He didn’t know what to say.

Ren, in his serge, hugged him tightly and said, “I love you, Laurie.”

“I love you too, little brother.  Don’t worry.  I’ll be in touch this time.”

Renny nodded and wiped the tears off his face before standing at attention.  He could see the officers down the hall frowning fiercely.  Laurie wanted to kiss his brother for that.

The next one in line was Fraser.

“I’d shake your hand, but…” the Mountie said.

Laurie jingled the cuffs behind his back and smiled.  The smile quickly left his face as he leaned in to Fraser, nose-to-nose.

“Take care of my brother, or you can catch the next damn bullet yourself.”

Fraser nodded when Laurie pulled away.  Fraser was a good guy, and a great Mountie.  He wouldn’t have to worry about his brother.  Ray was next in line.

“You know, you messed with my head.  I don’t like that, Laurie.”

“Oh like it was hard.”

The two men grinned at each other.

Laurie leaned forward again and whispered, “I will find out about you.  You think Fraser’s bad when he’s got his teeth in something, you don’t even know.  After all, I owe Vecchio a good sock in the mouth.”

Ray didn’t reply, he only raised an eyebrow in challenge.  The cops with Laurie started to tug him along.  A little ways past the three men, Inspector Thatcher stood with her arms crossed.  She nodded at him as he passed.

“Catch you next time, toots,” Laurie said over his shoulder as he passed her causing her head to jerk around and give him a death glare.  He laughed as the RCMP officers took him into custody.

Laurier Turnbull was pushed into the back seat of a sedan headed towards home.  For the first time in years, he thought about Ian MacDonald on his way to trial and hoped there was no one coming to meet his car like he, Danny, and Norman had done Ian.  They drove into the night towards the bridge that would lead him to Canada.  Laurie wondered what his dad would think and laughed.  

‘Mental note Laurie, sometimes when you’re lost in the woods, you’ll come across the path of your destiny anyway.’



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