From: martin@abacus.mc.duke.edu (Michele Martin)
Subject: XOVER:The Witness pt5
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 15:12:39 -0500 (EST)

scene 7
Motel, Toronto
6:30pm
  
  "So no word yet from your friend?" asked Dr. Anne Lindsay as she stood 
in front of the mirror getting ready for their dinner date with her old 
schoolmate Dr. Natalie Lambert.  Anne had been rather surprised when 
Duncan had told her of his plan to go to Toronto on the spur of the 
moment in order to help out an old friend.  Especially since it'd been 
her vacation and she'd hoped they could spend more time together.  
Fortunately she'd remembered an old friend she'd wanted to look up and 
with a little persuading (okay, alot of persuading), she'd convinced 
Duncan to let her come along.  She'd called Natalie from Seattle to let 
them know when they were going to be in town and had managed to make 
dinner plans. Nat had warned her, however, that it was possible that 
their dinner could be interrupted by "the call of duty" at any time.  
Anne had understood, but so far there hadn't been any major changes of plans.
Unfortunately, Duncan's plans hadn't gone so smoothly.  He'd been 
expecting to hear from his friend all day. Anne wasn't sure, but she 
thought Duncan's tension had increased upon hearing about the rash of 
beheadings in Toronto.  Of course, that could just be a reaction to 
finding out that the city they were vacationing in was also home to some 
crazed psychopath.  At least he'd still agreed to go to dinner.  Anne 
really wanted to, well, to show him off to one of her old friends.
   It wasn't long before they were making their way out the door.  As they 
stepped out into the hallway, a voice called out, "Duncan!"

  Duncan was a little apprehensive about not being able to locate Conner, 
or Robert Greene as he was going by now, according to Duncan's Watcher 
friend Joe Dawson.  He'd sensed someone at the airport whom he'd thought 
was Connor, but upon hearing of the mystery beheadings in the news he'd 
began to suspect that it was someone else.  Even though he doubted anyone 
would be able to take Conner's head, he still wondered if one of the 
bodies in Metro Homicide's "collection" at the morgue might be that of his 
kinsman.  He really wasn't in the best of moods, therefore, for 
having dinner with one of Anne's old friends, but he really couldn't 
think of a good excuse not to go.  So he went through the motions of 
dressing for dinner, hoping that Connor would somehow get a message 
to him.
  As they stepped out into the hallway, he heard a voice call out his 
name that caused him to breath a heavy sigh of relief.  *Connor!  Finally!*
He caught himself before he blurted out Connor's real name. "Robert!  
There you are.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to catch 
up with you."  He and Connor gave each other a friendly embrace as 
Anne looked on rather amusedly.  Duncan then hurried to make 
introductions, and tried to think of a good excuse to talk to Connor 
alone.  However, he wasn't fast enough.  As Connor and Anne shook hands, 
Anne made a suggestion that Duncan was later to regret.
  "So, you must be the friend Duncan's been dying to find.  Listen, we're 
just about to meet one of _my_ friends for dinner.  Would you like to 
come along?"
  Before Duncan could interrupt, Connor replied, "I'd love to!" as he 
shot a wink at Duncan.  Duncan hoped, for Connor's sake, that his 
clansmen didn't have anything to do with the recent beheadings 
Especially since he recalled that Anne had mentioned her friend was the 
Medical Examiner for the local police.  And Duncan remembered the New 
York incident.  Of course, Connor had arranged his "death" after that.  
But if he was associated with the beheadings here in Toronto and someone 
did a check on him, the information from 1985 would surely come out. Then 
again, it was doubtful that anyone had a description of the "murderer" 
since most Immortals made very sure no one saw there fights. No one except 
the Watchers, of course, but since Duncan was one of the few Immortals who 
even knew they existed that wasn't surprising.  And a Watcher was hardly 
going to go the police and report a beheading.  Oh well.  Maybe if Connor 
hit it off with Anne's friend he cut out the jokes about Duncan getting 
all the good women.

7:00pm
Restaurant 
  Natalie arrived at the restaurant five minutes before Duncan and 
company.  She hoped that business would wait long enough for 
her to digest her food.  She had the sneaking suspicion that 
even though she'd made sure to leave all her notes in plain 
sight and had given detailed instructions to Grace, the station 
would still find a pressing need to get ahold of her.  She'd 
been tempted to leave her beeper at home, but that would've 
gotten her into entirely too much trouble. Especially if the 
FBI agents really needed to talk with her.  *Oh well.  At least 
I'll get a chance to meet Anne's new interest.  She sounded 
really excited about introducing us.  I bet she wants to gloat. 
Too bad I couldn't get Nick to come along.  Then again, it'd be 
really hard to explain why he doesn't eat anything.*  Just then 
she spotted Anne coming down the street with not one, but two 
men.  *Oh,no. I hope she's not trying to set me up!*  She waved to Anne 
as the group approached.  Introductions were made all around, and they 
proceeded inside.
    The restaurant was a little bit crowded, but they were 
seated after only 10 minutes or so.  They ordered drinks, and Anne and 
Natalie proceeded fill each other in on what they'd been up to.  Anne 
also told the story of how she'd met Duncan, and asked Nat if there was 
anyone interesting in her life.  Immediately she thought of Nick, but she 
gave a noncommittal answer.  Anne smiled knowingly, then decided to 
include the men in the conversation.
  "So, Mr. Greene."
  "Please. Call me Robert."
  "Robert it is, then.  How did you and Duncan become acquainted?"
  "Well, we have a mutual interest in antiques.  You might say we met over 
a very old sword."
  That statement perked Natalie's interest.
  "Would you consider yourself an expert about antique swords?" she asked.
  "I guess you could say that I am," Connor replied as he shot a 
meaningful glance at Duncan.  Duncan tried to hide a grin as he took a 
sip out of the water glass. 
  "Well this is fortuitous.  I have a question regarding an old sword 
that was found earlier this evening," Natalie continued.
  "Found?"
  "Yes.  You see, I work for the Coroner's office and I've been involved in 
a rather bizarre string of homicides.  I won't go into the details since 
it's really not an appropriate dinner topic, but suffice it to say we 
have reason to believe that swords have been involved.  Actually, we 
suspect that sword fighting  is involved, odd as that may sound in 
modern day Toronto." She almost mentioned that they had a witness to 
confirm this hypothesis, but decided it was best to keep that under 
wraps for now.  "Anyway, we'll be needing to consult an expert on ancient 
swords as part of our investigation.  Perhaps you'd be willing to help us 
out?"
  Duncan and Connor exchanged quick glances, and Nat thought he looked a 
bit uncomfortable.  Maybe he was put off by finding out she worked as a 
ME.  'Hi, I'm Natalie and I'm a coroner' was not among the world's 
great pickup lines, she'd found.  But then he smiled back at her and 
replied, "Sure, why not?  Though I don't know how identifying the sword 
will help you solve your case?"
  Nat shrugged.  "At this point, any lead is helpful.  This case has been 
driving my Captain up a wall."  At that point dinner arrived, and Nat 
decided to steer the conversation away from the gruesome events she had 
to deal with on a regular basis.  The look of relief on Duncan's face at 
the change of subject went largely unnoticed.