The air was thick when they stepped outside, heavy with the type of fog Harry hadn’t seen in years. Then the rain came, a great slanting sheet that hung on the wind like the blade falling onto the executioner’s block. He zipped his jacket up as far as it would go, looking at Amy in her thin suit and wondering if they should head to his flat for sturdier clothes.
But she didn’t seem bothered by the conditions.
‘This is time pushing back on us because we tried to get close to your partner’s death.’
Water dripped down Harry’s forehead as he spoke.
‘What?’
The weather chilled his skin, but it wasn’t as cold as the look she gave him.
‘I told you the elements wouldn’t let us get near to what happened to Chuck.’
His mouth was open so wide, the rain was gathering under his lip.
‘You’re saying time is a force that will push back against any changes?’ He peered at her through the fog. ‘And it’s causing this bad weather? Is that because you’re someplace you shouldn’t be?’
She grinned as she slapped him on the shoulder.
‘I’m messing with you, Harry.’ Her dark hair glistened in the rain. ‘This is just bad weather. Where are we going?’
‘To the Met,’ he said. ‘They should have the CCTV footage of Chuck’s death.’
‘Why would they give it to you?’
He was surprised at the question. ‘Because I was his business partner.’
‘Indeed. But if they don’t think it was an accident or suicide, they might consider it was foul play. So then they could wonder if you’re in the frame for that.’
He thought about that. ‘I’ll tell them it’s connected to a case I’m investigating and I’d like copies of both videos.’
Amy narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Let me guess – the other investigation is my murder?’
Harry nodded. ‘A former partner owes me a favour. She’ll do what I ask.’
‘Okay.’ She pointed across the road. ‘Are you taking me on another walk?’
He glared at her as he made a phone call. ‘No. We’ll take a taxi.’
Thirty minutes later, they were walking into the headquarters of the Met Police at New Scotland Yard. Harry glanced at his reflection in the glass as they stepped into the reception. He’d dried out during the journey, but there were still drops of rain lingering in his ears. And some of that fog appeared to have taken up rent inside his skull. He shook his head to clear his mind as he went to a familiar face at the desk.
‘Hi, Jodie,’ he said as he smiled at her through damp lips.
She returned his grin. ‘Hooky, you old dog. Have you come crawling back for your job?’
They laughed together and he found it hard to believe it had been six months since he was last in this building.
‘Maybe next week, Jodie. Is Caroline here today?’
Harry hadn’t seen Caroline Diaz since he’d left.
‘I’ll check for you.’ She picked up a phone, but didn’t dial it. ‘I’m sorry about Chuck, Harry. Such a terrible accident.’
Accident? Do they know something I don’t?
He moved from the desk and sat with Amy in the reception.
‘Your old colleagues have a high definition copy of my murder?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Okay, but you haven’t thought this through, have you?’
‘What do you mean?’
She leant in close, her cheek brushing against his and making Harry’s chest feel as if it was full of candy floss.
‘Why does Jodie keep glancing at me?’
He looked up at his former colleague just as she turned her head from them.
‘She probably thinks you’re my new girlfriend.’
Amy touched his knee. ‘Well, as flattering as that is, I don’t think it’s the reason.’
‘She’s on her way down to see you, Harry,’ Jodie shouted.
‘What’s the reason, then?’
She sighed. ‘For a clever man, you can be dumb.’ She put her hand on his shoulder and turned his face to hers. ‘This former colleague of yours coming here to talk to you; I assume she’s watched my murder several times.’
Icy fingers clutched at Harry’s heart as he realised what she meant.
‘Christ, when Caroline sees you….’
She let go of him. ‘We’ll tell her I’m my sister.’
Harry rubbed at his chin. ‘Hang on; she knows you’re a time traveller, so it shouldn’t be confusing.’
She laughed so loudly Jodie looked over again.
‘Are you sure?’
‘No, I’m not,’ he said. He touched her arm. ‘There’s a pub around the corner. You wait there and I’ll meet you when I leave here.’
The disappointment in her eyes stabbed him in the heart.
‘Okay, if that’s what you want.’ She got up. ‘But don’t take forever. I’m easily bored and there’s no telling what I’ll do if I’m left on my own for too long.’
He watched Amy wink at Jodie as she went. His breathing was just about returning to normal when Caroline stepped towards him.
‘Is this about Chuck?’
That was it – no warm greeting or asking Harry how he was.
It was to be expected.
‘Sort of. I need a favour from you, Caroline.’
Diaz glanced across the reception as if she was working undercover and didn’t want anybody seeing her talking to Harry.
‘Favours are in short supply around here at the moment.’ She didn’t add the words, especially for you, but Harry knew she was thinking them. ‘The politicians are calling for reform in the Met again and it hasn’t gone down too well.’
‘It needs reforming, Caroline. You know that.’
‘Bad apples are everywhere, Harry, but they’re in the minority.’
‘The majority protect the minority.’
DI Caroline Diaz looked ready to leave. ‘What do you want?’
‘Is the Amy Croft murder case still open?’
‘The so-called time traveller?’ She laughed. ‘It’s not on our priority list. We’ve got terrorists, agitators, serial rapists, drug gangs, people traffickers, and all the random murders and petty crimes to deal with.’ Caroline scrutinised Harry. ‘And SD deal with alleged temporal crimes.’
Harry offered her his phone. ‘Can you put a copy of the CCTV footage on there for me? And the video from Chuck’s death at the Tube station?’
Caroline laughed at him. ‘Is this entrapment? You want me to commit a crime?’
‘You owe me a favour, Caroline.’
His former partner glared at him for a full forty-five seconds. Then she snatched the device from Harry and returned from where she’d come.
Harry watched her, wondering how long it would take to transfer the files and scrutinise everything on Harry’s phone.
It took twenty minutes.
Diaz threw the mobile at him, Harry catching it in one hand.
‘Thanks, partner,’ he said.
‘Don’t come back, Harry,’ Diaz said as he left.
Harry said goodbye to Jodie and went to the pub.
When he entered, Amy was sitting in a booth with a pint of cider waiting for him.
He sat and took a large gulp from it. ‘You know what I like to drink?’
She sipped at her drink. ‘Mary Hazell told me. I think she’d studied you for months before you got the invite into the TA.’
The place was busy, with people standing at the bar while others dropped money into flickering glittering machines. Amy leant towards him, the flick of her hair distracting Harry from what he was going to say. Blood burst out of his heart, speeding through his veins like a cheetah chasing an antelope.
I’m trapped inside my own Pandora’s Box.
‘Studied me how?’
Her eyes sparkled with the knowledge he was desperate to acquire.
‘I guess she searched for you on the internet.’
She settled into her seat and he felt the pressure in his bones lessen.
‘Why would she do that when she could have gone back in time and watched everything I’ve ever done?’
Amy nearly spat cider all over him. ‘I’m surprised you got through the door with such a big head.’
‘You know what I mean. Instead of staring at bland details about me, all she had to do was take two or three trips into the past to see what I’m like.’
She raised her pint to him. ‘You don’t have any bland details, Harry, and who’s to say Mary or one of the others didn’t take a pill or two to spy on the younger you?’ The bubbles in the glass rose to the top. ‘I’m tempted to try that myself.’
He downed half of his cider before removing his phone.
‘Are you going to watch this with me?’
Amy moved over to sit next to him. ‘Scrunch up, partner.’
Her body leant into his and he knew he’d be on his second pint in about five minutes. He found the footage from the Tube and prepared himself for watching Chuck die again. There was no sound to the clip, which lasted one minute and twenty seconds, from Chuck entering the station to him jumping onto the track just before the train arrived. Even though it was mute, Harry could hear the screech of the wheels and the cries of the other passengers echoing in his head.
They watched it six times before he’d had enough. He dumped his mobile on the table and finished his drink.
‘He killed himself; it’s clear as day on there.’
She grabbed his phone. ‘Can you send the clip to my phone?’
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Does it have a wireless connection?’
She grinned at him as she took the mobile from her pocket.
‘It’s from the future, Harry. It can get you to the moon and back.’
Amy placed both phones together and he watched her press something on her device. While the data transfer was happening, he went to the bar and got two more pints of cider. By the time he’d returned, the transfer was completed and she had her face pushed into the screen.
He sat and put the drinks on the table as music erupted behind him. It took him a few seconds to realise it was some bloke murdering a version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.
‘Did you watch the clip again?’ he said to her.
‘Three times. I ran it through special software I have; it’s much better for slowing down individual frames than anything you have now.’
She held the phone out to him, but he left it hanging there.
‘What you’re doing here: sitting in this pub, running the video through software which shouldn’t exist at this time; aren’t you changing the past by doing that?’
Amy pulled the mobile from him and put it on the table. Then she drank from her second pint.
‘Do we need to talk about spiders again?’
Harry shook his head and sipped at his drink.
‘I’m just trying to get my mind around this whole can’t change history thing.’ He wiped cider from his lips. ‘You must admit it hurts the noggin’ just thinking about it.’
‘Noggin? I don’t think we have that word where I come from.’
‘Maybe you’ll take me there sometime,’ he said.
‘Maybe,’ she said, ‘maybe. Now, do you want to see what I’ve found?’
Of course he did. This time, he went and sat next to her, squeezing against her so he could feel the heat coming from Amy’s body.
Then she showed him the clip again. Harry had seen plenty of death up close and personal in his life, but repeatedly watching Chuck jumping in front of that train left a gaping hole in his chest.
‘I see nothing different.’
‘Yes, but look what happens when I slow it down and run it through the software frame by frame.’
He did, and it didn’t take long to see what she meant: in the frames just before Chuck jumped, there was a sparkling blink of light in each one.
‘Is that a lens flare or a fault on the camera?’
Amy stopped the clip. ‘It could be, but I don’t think so. I believe it’s the reason your partner died.’
Harry tore his gaze away from the final image of Chuck.
‘What is it?’
She pointed at the light on the frozen frame.
‘That’s a time traveller appearing and vanishing in an instant. They pushed Chuck onto the track: this is murder.’