He looked out of the front windscreen and felt a chill run through him. Almost directly in front of them were the two men who had held that heated conversation inside the shopping centre. The briefcases were gone, and they were walking to the back of an old blue hatchback.
Jake was hoping they would not look in his direction. They would most likely recognise him as the sandwich-holding man who couldn’t stop staring at them earlier on the food court. Both men glanced around them, but didn’t look carefully through any car windows, so they thought they were safe.
The men stood by the open boot of the car, pointing and gesturing with their arms. Jake realised that the event inside the shopping centre was merely a prelude to a trade that was happening in front of his eyes. This was where the real thing happened. Both men were standing and talking when the driver door of the car opened and a third man joined the conversation.
Jake instantly recognised him as a very nervous looking Detective Inspector Arnold. The trade was about to happen just in front of him. The briefcases reappeared, and one was apparently exchanged for the car and its contents.
The corrupt officer had picked the quietest corner of the quietest car park belonging to the shopping centre. Jake wondered why he had opted to complete the trade there. Surely he was always going to be seen by someone watching? Maybe there was some kind of security in doing dangerous deals in public places.
It seemed to be the same twisted logic as was used by people confronting family on daytime talk shows when revealing deeply held secrets. There was some unusual form of security in doing something dangerous when someone, anyone was nearby. He was not convinced that the same logic should apply to illegal trades. Surely witnesses did not provide any security for such events, but would in fact do quite the opposite.
Regardless of what Jake was thinking, it didn’t change what was actually going on. A police officer was corrupting himself before Jake and Amy’s eyes.
“Do you recognise him?” Amy asked, always able to read Jake like a book.
There was no point in lying about it. “Yes I do,” he answered. “He’s a local police officer.”
Amy thought he must be mistaken. “It must be some kind of sting operation or something,” she speculated.
“Sadly, it isn't,” Jake responded.
“And how would you know what it is, Mr Detective?” she asked with a cynical tone.
“I'm not the Detective, he is,” Jake responded with a similar tone to his voice. He then hushed his voice again and said, “I'll tell you later.” Jake turned his attention back to what was happening a few yards in front of them.
Eventually, after lengthy discussions, D.I Arnold ended up with a briefcase, and handed the keys for the old car to one of the other men. It seemed their deal for a crummy car and its contents had been completed until one of the men mentioned something to the policeman.
Mr Arnold suddenly got very agitated. He had clearly been told something that caused him to get very angry. Jake guessed he had not seen the heated debate in the shopping centre’s food court, and that he was told how the other party pulled out a gun in front of a large number of weekend shoppers. The officer started shouting at the other man, waving his arms everywhere. He was not at all pleased with his colleague and he was going to make sure he knew it.
Jake pulled his eyes away from the scene to discover that he was not the only one watching. The Brady & Sons van drove by. The red four-by-four owned by the Whites was also parked nearby, and he could see two people sitting inside. The last time Jake had seen those vehicles they were being blown up in front of his eyes.
His observances had now covered all of the people he had saved, or tried to save, over the past week. All of them had witnessed at least one half of the trade.
He had now seen everything that they had seen first-hand. Every one of those witnesses was going to report the suspicious activity they had seen, and in turn, they would end up dead or nearly dead within one week.
After the shouting match was over, D.I Arnold and one of the men walked away, and the other man opened the boot, closed it again without affecting its contents, and then climbed into the car and drove away. Jake followed suit and, before long, he and Amy were on their way home.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“So, you’re asking me to just pretend all of that didn't happen?” Amy asked, sitting in their living room.
“Not exactly. I’m telling you not to report it to anyone.” Jake responded.
“You're telling me that I should not report an illegal trade I witnessed because you are paranoid about some possible backlash,” Amy confirmed.
“It’s not paranoia. These people will hurt us if we report this,” Jake retorted. “It is very complicated, and the whole thing would take a long time to explain properly.”
“We could make a start right here. With your sudden fear of everything, it's not like we would be going anywhere,” she said. Jake could see no obvious way out of what would definitely be a very unusual and uncomfortable conversation, but seeing no apparent alternative, he started to explain.
“Last Friday, I returned home to find the worst scene I could possibly imagine. It was worse than any mock-up scene from a slasher movie or crime drama because this was real.” Jake could see Amy struggle to think of what Jake might have seen. He did not wait for her to ask him what he meant. He simply continued, “As I drove into our driveway I found you, Jason, and James lying in front of the house, dead.”
By then Amy's look of confusion turned to one of very obvious shock and concern for her husband. She seemed visibly concerned that he was going crazy. “You had all been shot from close range by hit-men just a few seconds before. The police could do nothing and I was devastated, obviously.” His voice was trembling as he recalled the scenes, and as the emotions he felt the other day rushed back to him.
“I don’t understand. We’ve always been here. None of that has happened,” she said in a caring tone, but looking perplexed.
“You’re right. It hasn’t happened yet,” Jake responded. “Let me explain. That evening, I shouted into the sky that I wanted to turn back time. I woke up the next day and it was the same day again.” Amy looked at him as if he’d just told her about a weird dream.
“So you repeated the day and stopped it all from happening?” Amy guessed.
“I did exactly that. But since then, every day I have woken up on the previous day. So, I have now learned a thing or two since then about why all of this stuff is going on.”
It seemed that Amy had no idea what to make of all of this. Every now and then her head would shake, and she would open her mouth to speak, but would decide against it, and continue to sit there in silence.
Jake was about to break the silence when Amy finally spoke. “Why?” It was one word in response to a monologue, but it was a valid question.
“You were not the only ones that someone had tried to kill during the past week. There were several others, all of whom witnessed the drugs trades today. I saw them all nearby,” he answered.
“Who came after these witnesses? What did they do with them?” It was starting to make a little bit of sense to Amy, but she still looked like she had a lot of questions. She had clearly seen the emotion with which Jake spoke and she knew he believed what he was saying.
“Remember the policeman I mentioned when we saw him get out of the car?” Amy nodded in response. “That’s the guy. He got a list of details of everyone who had reported anything that might lead back to him, and he had them targeted. He has already tried to kill me, and he has arrested me one day for interfering and ruining his plans.”
Amy looked horrified at what she had just heard. Not only was this man a corrupt police officer, but he was cold-blooded enough to start killing people who went up against him. This was one of the senior police officers in their quiet town?
Jake went on to explain why D.I Arnold was doing what he was doing. He mentioned the events of previous days and how he was blackmail
ed into his barbaric actions, but Amy still could not believe that someone would change from law enforcer to savage lawbreaker so quickly and so easily.
Jake had not given that point much thought in recent days, but it was true. He tried to enforce the law, his family were in trouble and he snapped. He wondered how he would fare in similar circumstances. If his family's safety was used against him, would he do whatever he had to in order to keep them safe? On that first day he relived he learned something of how far he would go to protect his family. Breaking the law was of little consequence to a passionate father when it came to protecting his family.
He started to think about the things he had done over his past week. He had been attacked several times, but he had responded in like manner when he had needed to. He came to the conclusion that no one could possibly predict how they would cope if put in a position of choosing between what was right, and what they loved.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The afternoon and evening had been quiet and peaceful. The rest of the day was such a change of pace to what Jake had dealt with over the previous days. If he was not rushing around trying to save someone's life, he was trying to make sense of an enormous amount of information he had been given.
He had time to think about the days ahead for him. He knew he had wake up tomorrow and no one would understand his situation again. Several people had heard his story and had understood, and had even been very helpful, but once again, he would be on his own.
He could not wait for this run of days to draw to a close. He needed a break from all of this, and there did not seem to be any respite for him from the incredible journey he was destined to make.
As he sat there in a brief contented moment, Amy walked into the lounge looking nervous. Jake felt his heart drop, certain of what he was about to hear before Amy opened her mouth to speak. “You said earlier that you've already saved us in the future?” she asked.
“I did. The guy I met yesterday explained that every repeat of a day replaces the previous version.”
“I still think the incident should be reported somehow,” she said, changing the subject slightly.
“There will be time to do that, but with any luck I can prevent the thing that started it all, and there will be nothing to report.”
Jake wondered how long Amy would be able to resist the urge to report an illegal trade that had happened right in front of her. She was a woman of conscience and stubbornness, and she had to sit on this information for longer than she felt comfortable doing.
Regardless of her thoughts of reporting the event, tomorrow would soon come, and Jake might be able to stop D.I Arnold from making a huge mistake with disastrous repercussions. Only time could tell what was going to happen, but Jake was certain that time was on his side, and not on the side of Mr Ironside and his various gangs. For them, there was nothing that could be done to stop the man they did not know existed from disrupting a plan they had already executed. For the first time since this thing started, Jake saw his reversal through time as a major advantage over his enemies.
CHAPTER 14
Friday 23rd January, 7:30am
Jake opened his eyes and was not exactly sure what day he was in. Yesterday was Saturday, and so he fully expected today to be Friday. He glanced around the room as the alarm went off, checking the daily calendar to his right on the bedside cabinet. He soon realised his assumption was correct.
He looked down at his bedside cabinet again, remembering the incident several days ago when he dropped it on the head of a contract killer standing next to his front door. This whole scenario had seemed so much simpler on that first relived day. Jake caught himself in a nostalgic frame of mind for events that were in fact several days in the future, and he wondered whether anyone else had ever fondly remembered future events in the same way.
Part of Jake wondered whether he would continue to rewind through time if he had succeeded in saving his family yesterday. The rest of him knew that he would not have woken up on this day unless he had something to do. He had been unable to prevent the trade yesterday, and he was also not entirely convinced that he had been able to persuade his wife let the matter rest. He could see genuine concern in her eyes, but it was possible it was out of concern for his sanity, rather than concern for the safety of the family.
He thought about other mothers he knew. Most would freak out at the mere suggestion of their family being unsafe. Amy was not such a mother. Knee-jerk reactions were not in her nature. Instead she considered problems from various angles before deciding on anything. He feared she would view his concerns rationally as some kind of paranoia, and do the seemingly logical thing in reporting yesterday's trades to the authorities. It seemed that despite his greatest exertions, some things would likely not change as the days rewound. With Jake still moving backwards he clearly had some other, possibly greater task to perform than those of previous days.
He dragged himself out of bed and went about the usual routine to get ready for the day, which was much more difficult than he had anticipated. His family would be expecting him to go to work, as would the bosses of Nannotek. He could call and find an excuse for not going in today, but he did not know what else he would do if he went somewhere other than to work.
Perhaps he needed to find D.I Arnold and convince him not to follow the instructions of Mr Ironside. That was not likely to be an easy task, nor did it seem like a conversation he wanted to have. He had no idea what had happened to Mr Arnold that would force him into his future course of action, so he therefore had no idea how he could possibly stop it from happening.
He could talk to D.I Arnold until he was blue in the face, but unless he knew the leverage Ironside had over him, there was little he could do to convince the police officer to follow a different course of action.
He was growing weary of waking up every day without knowing what he was supposed to do next. At least when the days followed the standard forward-moving pattern he could learn with the passing days. Unfortunately everything he did on a given day was always undone again before he had even dragged himself out of bed. It was almost demoralising enough for him not to bother.
As he thought that, he remembered again why he had found himself travelling gradually back in time. The survival of his family was at stake. Not only that, but many more families would be ruined by the events over the coming days. From what he had learned, it seemed likely that a chain-reaction would affect many other people, and possibly an entire community.
He was the only one who could stop this whole thing from happening. There was no one else who could do this if he failed to do it. Everything he loved and held dear would be affected if he gave up now. He also remembered that his own future looked grim when he considered that he would either end up in prison or he may even end up dead. Even when he did not consider his own plight, he had a family's lives to fight for. That was all the motivation he needed to get himself moving.
Jake needed to believe that he was able to make a difference. It seemed that whatever cosmic force had landed him in this situation also believed in him to succeed. He believed that he would not be in his present predicament if there had been nothing he could do to stop the upcoming tragedy.
He decided that he should treat the day as any normal day until he discovered what he could do to change the future. All he knew was that Ironside seemingly forced D.I Arnold into a drug trade to take place on the following day. He did not know how, and he did not really know why. All he knew was that there would be reasons for all of this, and that he needed to find out what those reasons were.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There was no getting away from the fact that Jake did not like his job. Even with his mind working overtime to figure out his next move, he was still bored. Nothing in his office or even in the building was likely to stimulate any interest for him anymore. This place just did not inspire him after the week he had experienced. He still saw his life moving in a different direction as soon as time beg
an to move in the right direction again, and everything returned to normal. That new direction would undoubtedly lead to a change in job and maybe a change in career.
Jake was not about to leave work to go and pursue a career in some death defying sport, but he needed something more interesting in his life than his mind-numbing desk job. He sat and considered the contrast between the two incarnations of the previous week.
During one of those weeks, the highlights involved wearing a new tie to work. Nobody commented on the tie, but he liked it. Other high points had been the feeble winding up of colleagues, and other mundane events. Compared to the newer version of each of those days, that was as dull as someone’s life could get. In this newer version of the past week he had saved several lives, and had tried to save others, as well as being shot at, being involved in more than one major car accident, being injured in several different ways, and he had even been arrested for a murder that he had not committed after being on the run from the law.
Jake was never likely to have another week in the rest of his life as adventurous as this one had been, nor did he want a week like this every week. It was far too exhausting. He considered both extremes and concluded that some kind of unexplored happy medium must exist which could fill his working life.
He thought of his days sat behind his desk doing very little and wondered how he would cope with the complete antithesis of that. He had seen TV shows involving government agents involved in remarkable death defying feats to help prevent the latest threat to their country. He could see his own reflection in the glass of a picture frame on his desk and could not picture himself saving the day like these gun-toting macho men.