by Terry Segan
“It didn't take much convincing. They set up a small photo studio in the study of their house, something like yours but on a smaller scale. They didn't quite follow the rules though. Both the Frenchman and the shopkeeper who dispensed the slides told us the interviews must be completed before making matches—all the interviews. As I said earlier, Carney had only completed a third of his Suitor meetings.”
“Something has been nagging at me ever since you told me about Carney going back and being the one to save April from her abusive date. How did he go back only six months and meet her? All the slides send you back to Suitors much earlier. At least a couple of decades.”
Jimmy raked a hand through his hair. “At first Carney wouldn't tell me. I asked him for weeks how he’d gone back on such a short jump through time. He just said his slides were different than mine. Finally, giving up, I simply rejoiced in the fact that my friend and April were happy. After they completed their first match, the three of us drove out to a small winery north of San Francisco. It became a favorite of ours. After each special occasion, we drank a bottle from that vineyard.
“As much as we both loved Carney, sometimes his rambunctious personality overwhelmed us. Sitting and having a quiet conversation didn't make it onto the agenda. More and more April and I met for lunch while Carney was in class or at work. Finding new places to have afternoon tea was also something we shared.”
Astounded by this I asked, “You had an affair with her?”
“What?” He broke out of his reverie and looked at me with confusion in his eyes. I thought it was a reasonable assumption, despite being out of character. This man wasn’t the type to dally with another man’s woman. “Oh, no. Nothing like that. It was more like a brother and sister thing. We had a great relationship, but not on a romantic level. We both knew our boundaries and never crossed them. Besides, she loved Carney.”
Relieved, I waited for him to continue. Not that I was jealous. We both had relationships with other people before we met.
“Carney had known about us spending time together. It never seemed to bother him. At first.”
“Did they continue to place Betrotheds?”
“Yes. They placed four. When I asked him how the rest of the Suitor interviews were going, he said he hadn't completed any more.”
Placing a hand on my cheek in surprise, I asked, “He didn’t finish? But he knew the requirements. They shouldn’t have continued with matches until all the Suitors were interviewed.”
“I told him that several times. It seems he hadn’t told April all the rules to this business. The role of helping lonely women find true love exhilarated her, and she had no idea there could be consequences involved.”
“I can understand her excitement. Every time we help a woman go back, it gives me a rush. But we follow the guidelines of this whole process. No matches were made until all the Suitors had been interviewed.”
“I know. But no amount of talking would get Carney to change.”
“Were there any significant repercussions you could see?”
Jimmy placed a hand on my knee. “Not immediately.” His voice coarsened as he tried to hold his emotions at bay. “The changes in Carney were so subtle, neither of us noticed until it was too late.”
“What changed?” Jimmy’s foreboding tone scared me.
“He started dropping innuendos about our relationship—April’s and mine. Like he didn’t trust our innocent friendship, as he put it.”
He was jealous. Knowing Carney as he is now, it’s hard to picture him the way Jimmy first knew him. A bit of a troublemaker, but an upstanding guy. Had he ever been good though? Jimmy always looked for the best in people. Is it possible his loving nature didn't acknowledge Carney’s twisted ways until it was too late? Maybe that compounded his guilt. The thought that maybe he could have stopped all this before it began must be eating away at him.
On the other hand, would that have meant we’d never met? He would never give up the opportunity to meet me. He said as much many times. Could I ever make the choice to forgo our meeting to undo all the evil Carney wrought? Would I, given the chance?
Lost in my own thoughts, I didn't realize Jimmy started speaking again until he spoke my name and gently shook my shoulder. “Sorry, honey. My thoughts were drifting.”
He raised my hand to his lips then placed it on his knee, covering it with his own. “It’s all right. These last several months have taken their toll on both of us.”
I rested my head on his shoulder. We cuddled, both of us lost in our own thoughts. The lingering wood fire scent played lightly about the room.
“Shall I go on?” he finally asked.
Lifting my head up off his shoulder, I nodded.
“April tried to brush away Carney’s off-handed accusations. Most times, he seemed appeased. We did back off on our private lunches and get-togethers. Neither of us wanted to ruin the friendship the three of us shared. I missed her company. She was a great sounding board while I struggled to balance work and law school. April kept hoping I would meet my Photographer—so we could become a foursome.
“I even introduced her to my grandfather. She enjoyed meeting him, but my grandfather’s comment afterward will always echo through my mind.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, she was wrong.”
“What did he mean by that?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. Just repeated that she was wrong.”
“Wrong about what? Something she said?”
“The way Grandfather said the word it didn’t seem like he referred to their conversation. I think it was something about her. As if he knew how Carney and April met.”
I thought about this a moment. Jimmy was at least the third generation to be involved with the process. Maybe it went back farther than three generations, and his grandfather really did know more than he let on. Perhaps I should go back and talk to him about his son’s murder and meeting April. It technically wouldn’t be considered misusing the slides if it would stop Carney’s killing spree. Few matches used the third slide, good for one 24-hour trip. I could use one to go back in time to any date after his grandfather met April, if the location was close enough to San Francisco. Since Jimmy opposed the idea, this would have to be a secret journey. It bothered me to do something behind his back, but this might be the only way to learn more.
Shaking off my current line of thinking, I forced myself back to the present conversation. “Tell me more about April and Carney.”
“Like I said, he started to change. After April and I backed off a bit, he seemed to relax. For a little while anyway. Then his jealousy came back full force. He started acting irrationally. Carney forced April to hurry through the next two matches, even though she was doubtful of both unions. We talked about them before the women were sent back. It was like Carney wanted to be in control of everything.”
“Did they have enough Suitors to make compatible matches?”
He frowned. “That was April’s hesitation too. She tried to hold off making any further matches between Suitors and Betrotheds she wasn’t sure of. She took her responsibility seriously. Carney wouldn’t have any of her hesitations. He told her the women would be better off going back than staying in their present situations. She gave in and moved forward. The first woman went back for the twenty-four-hour period but refused to return to her Suitor permanently.”
“It wasn’t the right match,” I said, stating the obvious.
“No. Everyone saw it but Carney.”
“So, the woman walked away, and the poor Suitor was left alone as his slides were spent. How sad for both.” I patted his hand. “It must have bothered you too.”
“Yes, honey. It bothered both of us, but April loved Carney and did as he asked. The second woman returned anxious to go back to her Suitor. When she went back to the past for the second and final journey, she never appeared in the photo. We never found out what happened. After that, April started to resist Carney’s pushing. She held her
ground and said both happened because he hadn’t finished the interviews. Her refusal to cultivate any additional Betrotheds angered him. During one of their arguments, he told her she wouldn’t even be involved if he hadn’t saved her from an otherwise mundane future.”
“Did Carney tell her how he manipulated their meeting?” I imagined the turmoil April would have been in at that revelation.
“No. He refused to explain, so she came to me. I danced around the truth and wouldn't tell her specifics. What would be the point? She was already in an awful state with Carney. Knowing about Tony wouldn't have helped.”
I was torn about what would have been the right thing to do. Jimmy had a point, though. What good would it have done since there was no going back and changing her past?
“Accusations and arguments weren’t the only things. Carney became physically violent. It started with grabbing her roughly from time to time, then he began hitting her. He was always apologetic afterward, but it didn't erase the bruises or the emotional scars.”
He got up off the couch and paced from one end of the room to the other. I could see Carney’s brutality still upset him. These events happened over thirty years ago but were obviously imprinted in his mind, as if they took place yesterday.
“Honey, come sit down.” I patted the cushion beside me.
Jimmy stopped pacing and looked at me. “Sorry. It’s just that…”. His voice trailed off.
“I know. This isn’t easy for you. Please, come sit back down. Finish it.”
Chapter 12
Jimmy sat on the couch beside me, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his palms against his forehead.
“April knew Carney would never willingly let her go but she knew she had to get away from him when he became more violent. We both feared for her life. He even took a swing at me a couple of times.”
“The misuse of the slides sent him to a dark place.”
“I guess you could say that. The fun-loving man I knew from the army was long gone and April, the jewel of his life, was no longer safe.”
“You helped her get away, didn’t you?” I asked.
“I tried. But it went horribly wrong.” Jimmy grabbed his wine glass and leaned back into the cushions. He took a long drink then closed his eyes.
How I wished I could erase the pained expression on his face. Putting my hand on his arm, I gently squeezed. “Finish it, honey. Tell me what happened.”
He looked at me and set the glass on the coffee table. “Both April and I knew she needed to get far away. It wouldn’t be as simple as leaving town. She needed to go where he would never think of looking. To another place…and time.”
“April used the slides to hide, didn’t she?”
“Yes. She thought Carney would never know since he hadn’t completed his part of the process. She took a set of slides for a Suitor he hadn’t interviewed. They were for New York City in the year 1948. World War II was over, and she could easily disappear. Her plan was to go to New York and secure passage to Egypt.”
“Why Egypt?”
“Two reasons. First, she’d taken archeology classes because she was fascinated with the Egyptian tombs. It would be easy to get lost in Cairo, maybe even get involved in some of the digs going on. The second was if Carney ever did track her to that time, he could never find her if she left the country.”
“That meant you would never see her again either.” I bit my lip with concern. Knowing how much he loved her, even as a friend, the thought of losing her forever must have tortured him.
He winced as if in pain. “It was the only way to ensure her safety.”
I nodded, and he continued. “Since the slides were for a Suitor who hadn’t been interviewed, nobody waited for her in that time. A contact of mine created the necessary credentials. April went back for the twenty-four-hour period to secure passage on a ship headed for Africa, using part of the twenty thousand dollars in cash we had amassed from that era. She checked into a hotel to leave the belongings she’d bought.”
“What a brilliant plan!”
“It seemed flawless. I was nervous about her using a set of slides from their own stash, but she refused to use one of mine. She feared a misuse like that would work against me. I didn't care. I wanted her safe.”
My phone in the office rang. We both froze, and I decided to let the answering machine get it. Fearing who it might be, I didn't want to be interrupted. I needed to know what happened.
Jimmy asked, “Did you want to get that?”
“No. Keep going. How was April able to leave for twenty-four hours without Carney suspecting anything?”
“She pretended to go on a trip to Napa with a girlfriend. She’d done that before, so it went unnoticed—or so we thought. The first journey went smoothly. When April came back, she was flush with excitement and couldn’t wait to tell me all she’d accomplished. I was glad for her.
“On her second and final journey, I used the third slide to meet her there. Since it allowed me to set a date between one and four weeks after her final arrival, I could time it just right to see her set sail—or so I thought. She insisted on doing this by herself, but I knew she wanted me there.
“When it was time, my slide landed me in a discreet corner of Central Park beside a duck pond. I arrived in time to see Carney holding her.”
“What! How did he find out? How could he be there if you used the third slide? His interview slide would have been a week before her first journey, and that only had a twenty-four-hour time frame.”
“I don’t know how he did it, but he was there. I arrived close enough to see the fear in April’s eyes.” Jimmy’s tone became louder. “As he gripped both her hands, his face was contorted with rage. She screamed and begged him to let her go. I saw her feet digging into the ground as she tried to pull away from him. He said he was taking her back.”
The agony in his voice raised goosebumps on my body. I rubbed my arms for warmth.
“At the last second April pulled one hand free and tugged to release her other arm. That’s when Carney disappeared—taking her right arm and shoulder with him.”
“What!” I gripped the edges of the couch cushions, imagining what Jimmy just told me.
Tears shone in Jimmy’s eyes. “He didn’t have a close enough grip. It was horrible. Like her arm and shoulder were sheared off by cut glass. And the blood.” He bent forward with his head in his hands. “There was so much blood. I reached her as she crumpled to the ground writhing in agony.” He raised his eyes to meet mine. “Sami, it was awful! This beautiful woman turned to carnage.
“Her face turned white. Blood gushed out, turning the grass around her a muddy brown. Her eyes were wide open. I saw her light go out.” Jimmy raked his hands through his hair and lowered his head. Tears streamed down his face.
I wrapped my arms around him, tasting salt on my lips as our tears mingled.
No words of comfort could ease the pain or erase the vivid images of April’s death. I held onto Jimmy, rocking him as I would a hurt child. How many times had he replayed that scene in his head, beating himself up knowing that if he’d arrived a few moments sooner, he might have saved her? Maybe that was April’s penalty for misusing the slides. If it was, it seemed unjust considering the way she was dragged into this life.
His voice muffled in my shoulder; he continued in a monotone. “I held her as long as I could. A crowd gathered. There were police. My hands were sticky as the blood dried on them. The rest was a blur. I held her until they pulled me away. I couldn’t bear to let go, but they made me.”
“Who, honey?”
“I don’t know. The crowd. The police. The ambulance crew. It doesn’t matter. They took her. When the police questioned me, I couldn’t speak. Down at the station, they tried for hours to get me to tell them what happened. How could I explain it?
“Several hours later, I found myself back in my apartment. I don’t remember how long I sat there. I woke up on the floor the next day, my clothes covere
d in blood—April’s blood.”
“You went to Carney’s place, didn’t you?”
Jimmy withdrew from my arms. “I wanted to kill him.”
“But you couldn’t do it.”
“I would have! But the house was empty except for April’s belongings. He had taken everything of his including all the slides and the holder. I haven’t seen him since. Or at least until he switched his photograph for Amanda’s Suitor.”
“Did you ever try to get more information out of your Grandfather? Did you tell him what happened?”
Sitting back, he wiped the tears from his face. “No. The man lost enough when he lost his son. I couldn’t go to him with this. Besides, what would it matter? April was dead.”
“But, honey, he’s got to know more than he told you. How many generations has your family really been involved? I find it hard to believe there aren’t more. Three of you took this on—that you know of. And what about Carney? Was his family involved? Is it simply passed on from generation to generation?” I stopped, realizing I was assaulting him with questions.
“I can’t deny that I haven't thought of all this too, but Grandfather is dead and whatever knowledge he had is gone.”
“You know that isn’t true.”
“No, Sami! I can’t allow it!”
I sat straight up and stared at him. The lash of his words stung. He’d never spoken to me like that before.
Shock replaced the vehemence on his face. Softening his voice, he said, “I’m sorry, honey. I don’t know where that came from.”
I put my hand on his cheek, still damp from tears. “I do. What happened to April is not your fault. You know that. Whether you have a family history and Carney doesn’t, it’s the Frenchman that brought both of you into this at the same time. It was Carney who pulled April in. Not you. You need to let go of the guilt and focus on stopping him now, in the present.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I know you. You thought about going back again to save April, even if it meant you’d be trapped. What stopped you?”