Maybe they wanted to punish me for the little extra time hopping I did on occasion? I knew I wasn’t supposed to use it at will, but I was a small female often chasing large male criminals. I used what I had to, to stay safe.

  Could that be it?

  I had time hopped to get ahead of the last arrest I made. But surely that wasn’t enough to warrant this treatment?

  Maybe it was something to do with the promotion? Had they given it to Phoebe?

  I followed the chief into his office and I closed the door without being told this time. The atmosphere surrounding us was intense enough to be clear that he wanted privacy.

  “Sarah, have a seat.”

  I sat down in one of the chairs opposite his desk, my tight chest.

  Maybe someone complained about me? I wasn’t the friendliest person. I didn’t even have a partner because no one else in the precinct could time hop.

  Were they jealous? Did they hate me for what I could do?

  Or maybe it was something totally different?

  I waited as patiently as possible, the questions whirling in my head.

  “Sarah. I am very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I have terrible news.”

  A cold chill passed down my spine, like the hand of death himself.

  This was a death notification speech, I knew the tone too well. I’d had to do it myself before, not too many times... luckily. But the chief had done this before and I’d heard him do it myself.

  Which meant it had to be an immediate family member. And I only had one of those left.

  My heart squeezed so tightly I gasped for air and blinked rapidly as my eyes filled with hot tears.

  No... it couldn’t be. There was only one person left in the world who I called family.

  And she was safe.

  Surely. Curled up somewhere sleeping off a hangover.

  Please God...

  “Your sister, Amanda, has been found dead.”

  Chapter 3

  Shock raced through me like a wall of ice hitting me with full impact. Freezing my face, my heart, my very veins.

  How? How had it happened?

  “Um...” I coughed to clear my throat, forcing my heart to beat again. My blood to run with warmth. Where was adrenaline when you needed it?

  “How did it happen? We have systems, strategies in place to prevent this. This is what we do, Chief.”

  “Yes. I know. But accidents happen. People act out in crimes of passion, spur of the moment things. You know our system is not perfect, Sarah. It never will be, as long as humans are spontaneous by nature. I’m so very sorry.”

  I shuddered at his tone. He wasn’t nearly angry enough on my behalf. He sounded forlorn, sad. And I didn’t like it. Not at all.

  “What actually happened to her?”

  “We don’t know yet. The investigation team is on the case, and you’ll be updated as soon as we know anything.”

  My head was beginning to clear, and in place of the sheer shock and grief, anger was beginning to bubble and brew.

  Someone had to pay.

  “Which investigation team?”

  The chief inhaled deeply, the pause before he answered too long.

  He didn’t want to tell me.

  “The homicide investigation team?” I prompted, knowing there had to be evidence of foul play in Amanda’s death.

  There was no way she was accidentally hit by a car.

  It wasn’t her style.

  Our mom used to say that Amanda came into the world during a thunderstorm, screaming her head off, wanting all the attention on her. And she’d go out in a spectacular fashion too.

  But this... this ridiculous waste of a life. It was not to be endured.

  And I didn’t need to suffer it.

  I was a Time Hopper, after all.

  I’d been too young to help my parents, but I could do something to save my sister.

  “Right.” I pushed myself to my feet. “I’ll jump into the loop now and stop her murder before it’s begun. Then we can catch the would-be assassin and arrest him... or her.”

  This was my job, and in this moment I was intensely grateful for it.

  I wouldn’t sit at home grieving my sister today, I’d be out catching her killer, and when I came back into the future, Amanda would still be alive.

  “I’m sorry but you can’t do that, Sarah,” the chief said as he stood up and faced me, his voice hard.

  Decided. Implacable.

  I knew that tone, and that look.

  And yet it didn’t affect me the way it normally would.

  I blinked a few times as I stared at him. Had he just denied my request?

  “Why not?”

  Surely he saw how insane denying me this was.

  “We can’t allow you to do that. You know that. The laws relating to time hopping are finite.”

  I wanted to laugh at him. Didn’t he realize how insane he sounded?

  I knew the rules, I’d studied them for years, and worked them for even longer.

  But this was my sister!

  “What are you talking about? I do this every single day. Stop a murder before it happens. It’s my job. It’s what I’m good at. It’s what you pay me to do.”

  Surely he saw the lunacy in what he was saying? The rules were there, of course, but they could be broken. I’m sure they could be. I’d just never tried it myself.

  The chief shook his head. “That isn’t true, Sarah. We don’t wait for the murder to happen, and then jump back to change the sequence of events. That would violate our time hopping treaties. The laws are very specific. We can only a stop a future crime from happening, prevention. Not choosing who lives and dies. We aren’t God.”

  Anger slid through my gut and coiled like a snake, deep in my body.

  I wanted to slap him in the face, but instead balled my fingers into tight fists.

  What he was saying was simply ludicrous. We played God every single day in this office.

  “Chief...”

  He cut me off. “I’m sorry, Sarah, but we can’t allow it.”

  I leaned forward, meeting the chief’s gaze as the anger boiled up inside my belly.

  “This is bullshit.”

  He gave me a soft smile, which didn’t help the swirling red haze in my vision. Was he mocking me? Because that’s how it felt.

  “Take a few days, Sarah. You’re entitled to bereavement pay for the next week. It will give you time to organize the funeral and grieve. You’ll need to be available for questioning, as well.”

  Words that would probably get me fired sat on my tongue. Heavy and hot, like bullets in a loaded gun.

  But I held my temper, by the thinnest margins.

  Instead, I turned and stomped out of his office, making loud, angry noises with my riding boots.

  “Sarah... I...” Marty walked towards me at my desk as I grabbed my bag.

  I shook my head, not wanting to hear him. I threw my bag over my shoulder and ran towards the front door. I had to get out of there. I had to go home.

  This time Suzie stepped out from behind her desk.

  “Sarah... I’m so sorry...”

  Angry tears blurred my vision as I put my head down and charged for the door without answering her.

  What the hell was this shit?

  Why was the chief stopping me from saving my sister? Why? It would be so easy. I could just go back to last night and make sure she never went to that stupid bachelorette party.

  I’d bring her home with me. Feed her whatever food and alcohol she wanted.

  I’d massage her polished feet. I’d tell her jokes and hold her tight.

  Anything to keep her alive.

  Angry, hot tears slipped down my cheeks as I walked faster.

  Going nowhere. Just needing to clear my head.

  I WALKED AROUND THE city, up and down streets I knew too well. I’d worked at the same police precinct since I graduated five years ago, and I patrolled these areas. Run in them during my lunch break.

  I could do laps in my sleep, which was what I needed.

  Familiarity. A way to calm the raging beast inside me.

  I pushed my grief down as far as I could.

  I refused to grieve for a sister who could be brought back from the dead with a simple time hop.

  Well, whether a backwards hop was easy or simple, I wasn’t sure, but it couldn’t be that much different to going forwards, surely?

  I just needed more details of her death to truly prevent it from happening. Knowing my sister, if I jumped back in time and made her stay at my place all night, she’d sneak out sometime during the night, and eventually what had happened... would still become reality.

  And I couldn’t have that.

  So to prevent it EVER happening, I needed to know the how, the where, and most definitely, the why.

  I turned a corner, crossed a main road, and made my way through Central Park. There was a chill in the air and I shivered.

  I should have grabbed my bike.

  Ah, well.

  I took out my cell phone from my bag. I needed more information about what happened last night, and the police, my co-workers, weren’t going to help me.

  So, there was only one way of getting it. I had to speak to someone who was there last night.

  I hit the speed dial button to Nicole, my sister’s best friend.

  A chick who was as crazy as Amanda.

  “Hello?” Nicole’s groggy voice came through the phone and I suddenly remembered it was barely ten in the morning on a Saturday. The middle of the night as far as these party-goers were concerned.

  Ah well, too bad. I had more pressing concerns.

  “Nic! It’s Sarah. I just got the news about Amanda. What happened last night?”

  There was a gasp of silence, then a sob.

  “Oh... Sarah. I am so sorry.”

  She sounded it. But that wasn’t what I needed.

  “Yeah, yeah... I need to know what happened Nic. Where did you guys go last night? What time did Amanda go missing?”

  If I had a timeline I could work out when to time hop to, and where.

  The longer I stayed in an alternate time line, the worse the side effects, thus the short lifespan of the investigators that hopped forward to bring us home intel.

  “Um... I don’t really know anything, Sarah. I wish I did. I miss her already... so much...” Nicole began to cry and frustration clawed at me.

  That was not helping anyone.

  “Nicole, stop. Please. I’m trying to find out what happened so I can hop back in time to save her. But you need to give me details! Specifics.”

  Nic’s sobbing stopped immediately. “Oh, Sarah. Do you really think you could?”

  There was so much hope in her voice it brought tears to my own eyes, but I ruthlessly pushed them away.

  “I don’t know.” Of course, I can! “But if I have any chance of saving her, then you need to help me, Nic.”

  “I wish I could.” She sobbed again. “But I... I drank too much before we went out. Stacey put me in a taxi around midnight and Amanda was still dancing. I saw her just before I left.”

  Well, you’re no help.

  “Thanks, Nic. I’ll call Stacey.”

  I hung up before Nicole could tell me not to.

  Stacey was the bride-to-be and would probably have a massive hangover this morning. But there were more important things to worry about than Stacey’s feelings.

  The phone rang out and finally went to voicemail. But instead of leaving a message, I hung up and tried again.

  They all had my number. Amanda’s friends always needed someone to contact when she needed to be saved, or picked up, or bailed out.

  And here I was. At it again.

  “He...lllooo?” the groggy voice answered the phone and I jumped at the chance to get her.

  “Stacey! It’s Sarah.”

  There was a long pause. And I waited.

  “Oh... hey...”

  “Have you heard about Amanda?” I asked, the apparent lack of understanding of why I was calling concerned me.

  There was another pause, then a sigh. “Yeah...” She sounded sad. And drunk.

  Probably drowning her sorrows.

  “All right, then you need to help me. I’m trying to piece together what happened last night so that I can time hop back to save her.”

  I was expecting the same reaction that I’d gotten from Nicole. Instead she said,

  “I don’t know anything Sarah.... I don’t.”

  I gaped for a moment. How did she not know anything? She was there. She could give me time and location, at the very least.

  I stifled the growl of frustration that rose.

  Why wasn’t anyone wanting to help me? First my chief, now this? Her own friends?

  I would have thought they’d be jumping on this white horse with me, wanting to save Amanda.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know anything, Stacey? It was your party. She was your friend. How can you say that? And why the hell didn’t any of you call me?”

  They’d always called me. Always.

  Even if they could help Amanda themselves, I’d always been the easy option.

  Cleaning up their mess.

  “Sarah, I don’t know what to tell you.”

  I tore at the air with angry fingers, forcing my voice to stay calm.

  “Give me something, Stacey. Tell me what you know. Give me a place, a time. Anything. I need to find her killer so that I can stop him!”

  There was a long pause then Stacey said, “You need to talk to Geoff Wolfe, Sarah. I can’t help you.”

  I stopped. What was she talking about?

  “Geoff Wolfe?”

  “Yeah.” The phone clicked into silence.

  “What the?”

  Stacey had hung up on me.

  She hung up! And I was left gaping at the phone.

  Some friend you are, for fuck’s sake.

  Though, she had given me a lead.

  “Geoff Wolfe... Geoff Wolfe...” I’d heard that name before. Somewhere. It tickled in the back of my memory. From a case, a long time ago.

  But which one?

  My brain wouldn’t work with its usual calm, so I turned around and made my way back to the precinct.

  I had a lead. And I was going to make sure I followed it up.

  I walked into the station with my head held high. I was the grieving family, the victim. I would not hide.

  Suzie, our receptionist, ran forward once again. And this time, I didn’t avoid her. “Sarah, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  She hugged me tightly and I held firm against the need to give in to my sadness. Now was not the time.

  “Thanks, Suze. The chief told me to take a week or so, on bereavement leave. Can you arrange that for me?”

  Paid days off while I sorted all this out? Yes, please.

  “Oh, of course!” She ran back around the desk and started tapping on her desktop computer.

  And then an idea occurred to me.

  “Hey, Suze, can you do me a quick favor while I go grab a few things from my desk? Can you look up an address for me? I need to add it to a file I was working on, so whomever covers my shifts this week can follow up.”

  That was a good enough excuse.

  “Of course!” Suzie rushed to open a new search for me.

  I gave her Geoff’s name as casually as possible and went into the cubicles to collect my running clothes that I left at work. Then needed a wash, more than anything.

  I glanced at my desk, at the few personal possessions I had.

  A picture of my sister and I. My massive purple coffee mug. I left them there, after all, I’d be back soon.

  This time as I moved through the precinct, I allowed people to hug me. They offered their condolences and gave me strange, sad smiles.

  It didn’t mean anything to me. Because I was going to fix everything and then this day would never happen.

  “See you guys in a week or so.”

  “Let us know when the funeral is, please. I’d like to go.” Tommy said. A guy I’ve known for years and would never have pegged to be a person to support me at a time like this.

  But he was. And for a moment I let appreciation fill my soul.

  “Thanks. Will do,” I lied easily.

  There would be no funeral. My sister was alive in another alternate universe, and it was time to make that one and this one, parallel once again.

  I took my bag and keys and made my way back to Suzie at the front desk.

  She slid a piece of paper across the desk.

  “Here you go, Sarah. I found an address and a phone number. Do you want me to pass it on to the next detective or...”

  I grabbed for the information, and folded the paper in half.

  “No. I’ll take care of it. Thanks, Suze.”

  The light of understanding dawned in her eyes, then she simply nodded and smiled. “Any time.”

  I took an extra moment to smile at her, finally feeling a small sense of support from those around me.

  And she wouldn’t tell on me. I knew she wouldn’t.

  I went straight to my bike, loading my stuff into the storage case I had mounted behind the seat. Then I took out the piece of paper Felicity gave me.

  A local number.

  Perfect.

  I switched my phone to silent and called the number I’d been given.

  Geoff Wolf. Where had I heard that name before?

  A voicemail answered and a pleasant male voice with a slight English accent said his name, nothing else, and the beep sounded.

  To leave a message or not?

  Couldn’t hurt, I suppose.

  “Hello, Geoff, this is Sarah ... of the ICPD. My sister was... killed last night and I was told to call you. Please get back to me at (212)555-7890. Thank you.”

  I hung up and slipped my phone into the back pocket of my work pants.

  The last thing I intended to do was go home and arrange my sister’s funeral. I had a lead, and I was going for it.

  I hopped onto my bike and instead of going home, I rode the twenty minutes to the address Felicity had given me.

  When I arrived outside an abandoned, run down shop, I checked the address again.

  199 Fecoma.

  I glanced up, sighting the worn numbers on the building in front of me. One-ninety-nine.

  Yes, definitely the right address.

 

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