by Jason Ayres
Kent wasn’t sure if Adrian was taking the piss or not, but decided to be gracious.
“Thank you, both of you,” he said. “That means a lot.”
“Now then, down to business,” said Hannah. “It’s very nice of you to come and visit us like this, but you did say on the phone this wasn’t just a social call and you had some vital information for us.”
“Well, it’s Kay who’s got the information, not me. I’ll let her explain.”
Kay briefly outlined what had happened on her version of Christmas Eve, going into great detail about exactly where and when McVie had attacked Anna. Hannah listened intently until she had finished, and now had some questions to ask.
“You say you witnessed all this. If that was the case, why have you left it until now, two days later, to come in and tell us?”
“I was terrified – traumatised, even,” said Kay. “I had a lot to drink that night and carried on drinking after I got home. Then I passed out and lost track of time.”
“You say you had a lot to drink. Is it not possible you imagined all this in a drunken stupor?” asked Hannah. “You also said that this man, McVie, is your landlord and he’s been giving you a hard time. Next thing you accuse him of being a murderer. How am I to know you haven’t just dreamt all this up as a way of getting back at him?”
“Richard said you would say that,” said Kay.
“I did,” said Kent. “But Hannah, listen to her, I’ll vouch for her.”
“Please don’t take this personally, Richard, but with your track record for jumping to the wrong conclusions, I’m not about to take your endorsement as gospel. Remember that lad, Charlie, you had in here a few months back? You reckoned he was a murderer, too, and look how that turned out.”
“So what are you going to do, then?” asked Kent.
“We’ll look into the background of Mr McVie and talk to him, as one of a number of leads we are following up. I can’t promise any more than that for the moment.”
“That’s not good enough!” exclaimed Kay. “He’s killed three times in just over a week. While you are following up your leads, he could be lining up victim number four!”
“I appreciate that, but you haven’t given us anything concrete to go on,” replied Hannah.
“Why don’t we just tell her the truth about how I really found out,” said Kay, more out of desperation than hope.
“She’d never believe you,” said Kent. “Who would?”
“And what is the truth?” asked Hannah.
“Don’t tell her, Kay,” said Kent. “You’ll be laughed out of the station.”
As far as Kay was concerned she had nothing to lose. She would make this stuck-up young policewoman believe her, and if she didn’t she would go and sort McVie out herself.
“What would you say if I told you I had a certain advantage in terms of time?” said Kay.
“What do you mean by that?” said PC Johnson, deciding it was about time he got involved in the discussion.
“What if I told you that I had a way of travelling back in time and I had used it to find out who the killer was?” asked Kay.
Johnson erupted into peals of laughter. “Oh, my, I’ve heard it all now! Time travel!” Turning to Kent, incredulously, he added, “And you believe this? No wonder they drummed you out of the force.”
Before Kent could reply, Hannah interceded. She had not shared Johnson’s mirth, instead maintaining a serious and professional look on her face.
“Adrian, I’ll handle this from here. Why don’t you go and make us all some coffee?”
Johnson left the room, still chuckling.
“Unbelievable!” they heard him say, as the door closed behind him.
“Right, now he’s gone I want to hear what you’ve got to say,” said Hannah. “If you really have travelled in time, I want to know how.”
“You’re not dismissing this out of hand, then?” asked Kent, scarcely able to believe that the level-headed Hannah was even entertaining the notion.
“Let’s just say I’ve got an open mind about this sort of thing,” said Hannah. “But before we go any further, let’s get one thing clear. Whatever is said between the three of us in this room from now on goes no further. We are strictly off the record.”
“Agreed,” said Kay and Kent in unison, both pleasantly surprised and intrigued by Hannah’s interest. Kent couldn’t believe for a moment that she was taking this seriously, but even if she did dismiss what Kay said, they would be no worse off than before.
Kay explained how she had travelled back in time to solve the crime, not leaving out any details. She was aware she was going against the angel’s instructions not to tell anyone else, but it couldn’t be helped.
“So, do you believe me now?” asked Kay.
Before Hannah could answer, Johnson returned with a tray of coffees.
“Thank you, Adrian, that’ll be all,” said Hannah. “Go and help out at the front desk for me, would you?”
“Whatever you say, boss. I’ll give you a call if I hear of any time-travelling police boxes turning up.”
Disappointed when he got no reaction to his joke, Adrian left them to it.
With him out of the way, Hannah said, “OK, I’m willing to trust what you’ve told me is true. I’m taking a big gamble with this, but we’ll bring McVie in for questioning and I’ll make sure we DNA test him, no matter how much he bleats about it. I could well end up with egg on my face over this, but I’ll take this risk this once.”
“Why?” asked Kent. “As soon as time travel was mentioned, I saw your interest perk up. Why didn’t you react like Johnson did? The vast majority of people would have.”
“Let’s just say I have had some experience with this sort of thing,” said Hannah.
“The angel’s visited you, too?” asked Kent. “Blimey, he gets around a bit, doesn’t he?”
“Not exactly,” said Hannah. “I’ve never heard of this angel before today. My experience is more to do with going forward in time, rather than backwards.”
“Well, this is an unexpected development,” said Kent. “Mind you, the angel did tell me once that with regard to time travel in this town, that there was a lot of it about.”
“It only happened to me once,” said Hannah. “But I know of others it has happened to as well, but I would prefer not to go into details about that. In my case, Richard, you were indirectly involved the night I time-travelled. You might even remember it.”
“When was it?” asked Kent.
“It was only a couple of months ago,” replied Hannah. “It was just before that unfortunate business with the missing girl. Do you remember that a couple of nights before I went missing?”
Kent racked his brains, trying to remember, but couldn’t recall anything.
“You’ll have to give me more than that,” he said.
“OK,” said Hannah, hoping to jog his memory. “Do you remember that night when you sent me and Adrian down to the railway line to investigate some yobs spraying graffiti around? Adrian had to come back to the station alone because he couldn’t find me after I went to look for the kids who were doing it.”
Kent remembered now. “Yes, I do. I was late getting down the pub that night because we were trying to find out where you had gone.”
“Well, you’ll probably also remember that when I got back here we had an argument about what time it was. That’s because it was much later not only than I thought, but than what my watch was telling me. Something happened to me down at the railway line and I was transported forward about three-quarters of an hour in time.”
“I gave you a right bollocking over that, didn’t I?” asked Kent.
“You did. But it doesn’t matter now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth at the time?” asked Kent.
“At the time I didn’t know what the truth was,” replied Hannah. “I was as confused as you were. But if I had known, would you have believed me?”
“To be fair, probably not,” said Kent.
“I would probably have reacted like Adrian did just now. But a lot’s happened since then.”
“Right, well now that we’ve established that we all believe in time travel, let’s move on,” said Hannah. “I’ve got a killer to catch.”
“Lucky you,” said Kent. “I waited all those years for one to come along, then you get one in your first month on the job.”
“It’s hardly lucky is it?” said Hannah. “Three girls have died, remember?”
“He didn’t mean it like that,” said Kay.
“I know he didn’t,” said Hannah. “You always did speak without thinking first, Richard.
“Putting my size nines in it, Debs says,” replied Kent.
“As for you Kay, I want to thank you,” continued Hannah. “Were you aware that there is a reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest? I will see to it personally that if this all holds up, you will get it.”
Kay wasn’t sure how she felt about that. It felt a bit like taking blood money, profiting from Anna’s death in such a way, but she couldn’t deny the money would come in handy. During her long talk with Maddie on Christmas Eve, her daughter had told her how much debt she had already run up in her first term at university. The reward money would go some way to helping her out, as well as funding some plans Kay had of her own.
“Thank you,” she replied. “Now go and nail that fucker.”
“We will,” replied Hannah.
She was true to her word. As Kay watched the evening news on the BBC, with Maddie by her side, the news of McVie’s arrest was breaking.
As Maddie flicked through the special double edition of Radio Times, Kay relaxed with a feeling of a job well done. For the rest of the evening they watched Christmas movies, shared a bottle of Baileys, and scoffed their way through a whole tin of Celebrations.
Kay still hadn’t decided where she was going on her final trip the next day, but she didn’t really care anymore. She was just happy to be safely back at home with Maddie, secure in the knowledge that McVie was behind bars.
Chapter Twenty-Two
February 2019
Kay and Maddie lay side by side on sunbeds next to the swimming pool. It was February half-term and Kay had whisked Maddie away from Durham University for a much-needed week of winter sun at a hotel in Tenerife.
Kay loved going on holiday at this time of the year. Summer holidays were all well and good, but nothing could beat a good strong dose of warmth and vitamin D during a long English winter. Maddie was lapping it up, too, unlike the goths of Kay’s generation who had generally stayed out of the sun.
As Maddie streamed music from Spotify and read her Kindle, Kay thought about just how much her life had changed of late. It had been just seven weeks since Christmas and she certainly hadn’t been idle.
The day after Boxing Day she had seen the angel for the final time. She had decided to take the angel’s advice, forget the serious stuff, and go back and enjoy a special day from her past.
Accordingly, she found herself arriving back on the date she had chosen, March 4th 1993. She had chosen to go back to the date of her first gig, that amazing night she had enjoyed at the Equinox Club in Leicester Square seeing Saint Etienne.
The night was every bit as good as she remembered, and she made sure she soaked up every second of it. It wasn’t just the concert that was amazing, but also spending time with Angie and Becky, the two friends who had gone to the gig with her.
On her return, she again asked the angel about future crime-solving time travel opportunities. Reluctantly agreeing to consider it, the angel gave her a password to summon her one more time in case of an emergency, stressing not to waste it on anything trivial. She also declared that she would have a right of veto over anything Kay might be asking to do.
Kay was more than happy with that and had not even considered calling the angel since. She was keeping that offer firmly under lock and key until it was absolutely needed.
McVie was charged and on the advice of his solicitor decided to plead guilty. It was pointless doing anything else. The forensic evidence the police made his conviction 100% certain. He had no defence whatsoever and in January was jailed for life.
Subsequently, Kay received the £25,000 reward money. At first she felt wrong taking it, considering that Anna had had to lose her life in order for her to receive it. But Kent convinced her she was entitled to it after all she had been through, taking McVie’s knife in place of Anna in Universe 2.0. And Anna would have died anyway, so it was hardly blood money.
The first thing she did when the money came through was to get her teeth fixed up. That wasn’t cheap – with eight teeth missing, it ran to thousands but it was worth it.
She joined a gym, left the booze and fags behind for good, and started eating healthily. The change in her appearance in just a few short weeks was astounding.
She signed up for an Open University course in journalism, keen to revive her earlier travel and writing plans.
She also decided to keep her job at the shop for the time being, keen to save as much money as possible which wasn’t difficult now she was rent- and mortgage-free. Now she had her new teeth she was even allowed back on the tills again.
Alan agreed to a quickie divorce – he didn’t have much choice – and that was progressing nicely. She expected to have her decree absolute by the end of February.
As for Kent, his life was moving forward, too. Craig announced in the New Year that he was planning to sell the lease on the pub. Shortly afterwards, Kent announced that he and Debs were going to buy it, and run it as a combined pub and restaurant.
With a full smile and confidence restored, Kay plucked up the courage to seek out Robert, the man she had met on her Valentine’s night out in London the previous year. Trying not to act too much like a stalker, she found out where he lived and followed him to Tesco’s one day, where she ‘accidentally’ bumped into him in the bakery section.
Striking up a conversation, they got on just as well as before. When he suggested going for a coffee, she eagerly accepted. That was in late-January. By Valentine’s Day they were dating, enjoying a lovely meal out at a country pub just outside Oxford.
During the meal he asked her if she wanted to come to the Monaco Grand Prix with him in May. As part of his job, he got to attend three or four Grand Prixs a year, and for Kay, a lifelong fan, this was a dream come true. She had only been to a Grand Prix once before, at Silverstone as a kid, when her dad had taken her to see Nigel Mansell win.
Two days after Valentine’s Day, she and Maddie had flown out to Tenerife, where they had spent a lazy week basking in the sun. It was the last day of the holiday now, and Kay felt relaxed, happy and ready to get on with her life.
She was unrecognisable from the person she had been less than two months ago. During the holiday, she had plenty of admiring glances from the men by the pool, and more than a few trying to chat her up in the evenings.
All of these offers she had rebuffed. She had high hopes for her future relationship prospects with Robert, and certainly wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise them.
Things were looking up for Maddie, too. She had met a lovely young man from Newcastle while they were away, and they had arranged to meet up when she got back to Durham. Kay was pleased to discover that he seemed nothing like Glen or any of the other idiots she had endured. He reminded her more of the younger Kent.
It was fair to say that her experience with the angel had changed her life for the better. Kay felt proud of what she had achieved, even if it had been with the help of this mysterious divine intervention.
A little kick-start had been all she needed, just a helping hand to pick her up off the floor and give her the energy to dust herself down and start again. She knew she could easily have squandered the gift she had been given but she hadn’t. She had used it wisely.
Now she felt like she could achieve anything. She may have been forty-three, but as far as she was concerned, she was as good as twenty-th
ree again. There was still time to do everything she had wanted to do then. This time she would get it right.
Observing her from a sunbed on the other side of the pool, the angel smiled, pleased at another job well done. He was no longer projecting himself in her younger image but was now here in his true form and his real body, that of a man in late-middle age.
The angel never gave away anything about his true identity to the people he helped. It amused him to appear as an all-powerful being, appealing to his egotistical nature.
In truth, he was a mere mortal just like them, but coming from the future, with several decades of advanced technology available to him, it wasn’t difficult to make himself appear omnipotent.
He hadn’t been entirely honest about the nature of the alternate universes Kay had visited. Long a believer in the multiverse theory, he had proven without doubt that alternate worlds could exist as a result of his earlier time travel experiments. He now knew how to create copies of the existing universe, but he certainly didn’t have the power to delete them, nor would he want to.
After years of further experiments, he had now discovered how to travel not only between universes, but to different points in time within them as well, hence his claim that he could be in any place at any time.
His work with Kay, Kent and the others was merely part of these experiments. His latest research was into the effects of transferring consciousness from an individual in one universe into another. Advanced developments in the field of measuring electrical activity in the brain also gave him a degree of insight into their thoughts.
By telling them the universe was merely a temporary copy, his intention was to allow them to act freely, unconstrained by the usual rules that governed people’s behaviour. He wanted to see what people would do, given free rein.
Then he could study the effects their trips back in time had, not only on their own lives, but also on the world as a whole. How different might their lives be, and what ripples would flow out from the changes his subjects made?
Kay had been a fascinating subject. Unknown to her, all the different versions of herself she had created in the other universes were alive and well, with the exception of the one that McVie had killed. If she had known this, perhaps it would have been some consolation to her to know that in that universe, Anna was alive and well.