Her thoughts were preoccupied with the day ahead. What wouldthe angel make of what she was planning to do? As far as Kay could see, itwasn’t breaking any rules, just as her quest to get her house back hadn’t.Wanting to get started as quickly as possible, she got straight up and startedto get dressed.
With bathroom functions concluded and two cups of coffeeinside her, she again faced her youthful reflection in the wardrobe mirror.There was no point trying to hide her intentions: she may as well just comestraight out with it.
“I only want to go back two days this time,” she began. “Ayoung girl was murdered in this town on Christmas Eve and I want to find outwho, did it. Is that OK?”
“There’s no reason why you can’t do that,” replied theangel, as Kay had hoped. “You are not the first to make such a request.However, you are going to need to be very careful.”
“How do you mean?” asked Kay.
“Remember, as soon as you arrive back there, you arestarting an alternate timeline. Everything you say and everything you do couldpotentially change things from that moment onwards. If you really want to findout who committed this murder, you can’t risk doing anything that might changethe natural course of events leading up to it.”
“I have already thought about that,” said Kay. “I am goingto speak to Richard when I get back there and work out a plan.”
“That just emphasises my point,” replied the angel. “Just bytalking to him, you are making a change. What if he was the murderer? He mightdecide to kill you instead, and then where would you be?”
Kay dismissed this suggestion without a second thought.
“There’s no way it could be him. I’ve known him most of mylife and there’s no way he’s a murderer, not in this universe or any other.”
“Are you sure about that? They do say it’s the ones youleast suspect,” said the angel.
“Well, I’ll take that risk,” replied Kay. “It was partly hisidea that I do this anyway, I hardly think he would have suggested it if he wasthe killer. As for changing things by talking to him, that doesn’t worry me.He’s an old hand at this time-travelling lark by now. He knows the rules andwants to find out who the murderer is just as much as I do. He won’t doanything to jeopardise that.”
“Well, I shall be keeping a close eye on you to see how youget on,” said the angel. “Are you ready to go?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” replied Kay. “Let’s get thisshow on the road.”
Complying with her request, the angel sent her on her way.The room dissolved as she took her short temporal trip back by 48 hours.”
“I thought I’d seen the last of this place,” she said outloud as she once again found herself looking around her gloomy little flat. Shewas back where she had started two days ago, on Christmas Eve. It felt like alot longer than that. From her perspective it was, considering the extra daysshe had spent away time-travelling since then.
She remembered what the angel had said about not alteringthings, but what about things that had nothing to do with Anna’s death? Shedid not see any point going through the exact routine she had on Christmas Evebefore. There was no need to go back to her old house to evict Alan and Lucyall over again. That was done and dusted in her original timeline, and therewas no need to re-enact it.
Not following that path surely would not have any impact onwhat was going to happen to Anna. The events were completely independent ofeach other. Unless by some unlikely twist of fate Alan was the murderer, Kaydidn’t see how he could be, as he would have been safely tucked up in bed withLucy in The Oxfordshire at the time of Anna’s death.
Her thoughts turned again to the ill-fated Anna. Kay wantedso much to see the girl again one last time, but how could she look her in theeye, knowing the grisly end that awaited her? She simply couldn’t face it.Every gut instinct would want to warn her or to drop some hint to help her gethome safely.
But that would defeat the whole object of coming back here,and for what? To give her a few more hours of life in a universe that was soonto be deleted? No, she had to keep her distance from Anna, at least until thetime of the attack.
How else could she spend the day? She certainly had nointention of going to work. She hadn’t gone in her original timeline, riskingbeing sacked, so she certainly wasn’t going in this universe where it didn’tmatter.
The best thing she could do would be to stay out ofeveryone’s way until the evening. This meant either getting out of town orstaying in the flat all day. The latter wasn’t exactly her idea of fun but withbarely two pennies to rub together she could hardly go off enjoying herself.
The one thing she definitely did need to do as soon aspossible was to have a conversation with the Kent of Universe 2.0. Hisexperience and advice would be invaluable.
Kay was trying to remember how much she had told Kent abouther time-travelling at this stage. Keeping track of the days was getting veryconfusing and she was in danger of tying her brain up in knots with all thetoing and froing through time. She needed to clarify in her mind whatconversations had taken place and when.
She sat on the bed and thought it through. Today wasDecember 24th so it must have been the previous night that she and Kent had hadtheir tête-à-tête following her return from the day of the ball. That was fine,then: she could relax. They would have discussed enough by that stage for thereto be no difficulty getting him to believe her.
She hadn’t seen him on the original version of ChristmasEve, so that would need to change. She knew he had been in the pub in theevening because he had enquired about her absence, but she couldn’t wait untilthe evening. She
