“You don’t need to worry about that anymore,” she said.“I’ve got it out of my system now, honestly. I just want to be friends.” Ithurt having to say these words, but it was the only way if she was to get himto trust her.
He seemed to relax after that and open up a bit, offeringsome observations on their unusual situation.
“You know, we’ve had a relationship that is probably quiteunique in the whole history of the world,” he said.
“How do you mean?” she asked.
“It’s really strange when you think about it,” he said.“We’ve both slept with each other, but we both haven’t, if you get what I mean.I’ve slept with another version of you. You’ve slept with another version ofme. But us two here talking right now haven’t slept with each other.”
“Weird, isn’t it?” replied Kay. “But I like it. All thesebillions of people in the world, and as far as we know, no one else has everhad the same experience.”
“So, now that’s out of the way, what’s next?” asked Kent,clearly keen to hear what she had planned for tomorrow.
“Well, that’s the other thing I wanted to talk to youabout,” said Kay.
She filled him on the backstory of her break-up with Alanand how he was dragging his heels over the divorce proceedings. She alsoexplained how she believed he had been hiding funds from her and how sheplanned to use one of her trips to investigate.
“That’s an inspired idea,” said Kent. “After I realised Icouldn’t change history, I never really explored the possibility of solvingmysteries within my own past. I had enough difficulty doing detective work inthe present, to be honest. That’s probably why I am now unemployed.”
“So what’s the legality of me poking around in his pastaffairs?” she asked.
“I’m not sure of the exact legal position of it all, that’smore for lawyers than policemen. I do know that opening other people’s emailsetc. can be considered an invasion of privacy, but that normally revolvesaround corporate spying or identity theft. As far as domestic cases go, in allmy years in the force, no one ever came into the station and accused their husbandor wife of such a thing. Besides, you’ll be in the other universe, so itdoesn’t matter even if you do get caught snooping around somewhere youshouldn’t.”
“Sounds like there’s nothing to worry about, then,” saidKay. “I can concentrate on the most important thing, which is to find theevidence in the first place.”
“That’s another thing I meant to bring up – the question ofevidence,” replied Kent.
“Go on,” said Kay.
“Well, even if you did find any evidence in the past, as Iam sure you must know by now, you can’t bring it back to the present to useagainst him. It’s difficult to see what you can effectively do.”
“What if I buried it or hid it somewhere, ready for me todig up when I return?” she asked.
“That wouldn’t work either,” he said. “You go back intoUniverse 2.0, remember? It wouldn’t be there for you to dig up in Universe1.0.”
“Of course it wouldn’t,” she said, mentally kicking herselffor making such an obvious mistake. “You must think I’m a right numpty for thatsuggestion.”
“Of course not,” said Kent. “You’re still learning andthere’s a lot to get your head around. Time travel is a complicated business.It wasn’t until at least my third trip that I really got to grips with it all.I didn’t even realise you couldn’t change history until after the second. Theangel didn’t bother to tell me that and I wasted a whole trip on a fruitlessgambling spree thinking I could make myself rich.”
“So it looks like I’m going to be relying on my memory,”said Kay. “That’s if I can even find anything.”
“Your memory is all you’ve got. It’s the one thing you cantake with you through time. What you need to do is to go back to a time when hewon’t suspect that you know anything,” said Kent. “Pick a date before you brokeup: that way you’ll be still living in your house and will have free rein toinvestigate.”
“That makes sense,” replied Kay. “I can’t go round therenow, he’s changed the locks. He did it the day after I moved out. That makes meeven more suspicious that he’s got something to hide. He clearly didn’t want megoing back there and poking around in his secret office. He pretty much lockedme out of there even before we split up.”
“You also don’t want him around while you are doing yoursnooping,” added Kent. “Make sure you pick a day when he won’t be there.”
“That shouldn’t be too difficult,” replied Kay. “He wasalways off on his business trips. That’s if they even were business trips. Halfthe time I suspect he was holed up in some hotel somewhere with that tart,Lucy. I’m convinced he was having an affair with her for months, if not years,before he kicked me out. That’s something else I can probably find proof of,now I think about it.”
“It sounds like you have got the makings of a decent planthere, then,” said Kent. “Part of me wishes I was coming with you. I misstravelling to the past now it’s over.”
“Well, I will tell you all about it when I get back,” saidKay, happy with the way the conversation had gone. “Shall we go back to the barnow?”
“Well, I really ought to be getting home,” replied Kent. “Itold Debs I was only going out for one. But then, when have I ever done that?It hardly seems worth coming out just for one, does it? And it is Christmas,after all.”
“Agreed,” said Kay. “I can only afford one more, though,that’s if I’m going to eat tomorrow.”
“I’ll get you one,” he said. “That’s what friends are for.”
Gratefully she accepted and they went to the bar. Hiscomment about them being friends had given her a warm feeling inside becauseshe knew he had really meant it. Real friends had been sorely lacking from herlife for a long
