“You don’t look fine.”
“I am. I swear. Just… a little tired is all.”
“Then you should go lie down.”
Frustrated, she says, “Denny. The man.”
I take a breath, then nod. “Yes. I got a name.”
“What is it?”
“Doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t know him.”
“Well, of course, I wouldn’t know him. But so what?”
I frown. “Vincent Kane. Happy?” I glance at Iffy. “The name familiar to you?”
She stares off for a moment, thinking, then says, “Never heard of him.”
“So, who is he?” Ellie asks.
“Why don’t we talk about it later? Right now I want you to get some rest.”
“I don’t need a rest.”
“Oh, really? Then why are your eyelids half closed?”
“You’re worse than dad.”
I know our experiences with our father were not the same. Ellie was his favorite. Her death took whatever happiness was left in him with it. From that moment on, he and I were just doing time together. So from her point of view, there is some warmth in the accusation, but for me, it is damning.
After a few moments of awkward silence, she says, “Maybe I am a little tired. I think I will lie down for a few minutes.”
The sudden tension I’ve been feeling ebbs as she starts walking toward the hallway. I know she realizes she’s stepped across a line, but she doesn’t fully understand why so it’s easy enough for me to let it go.
Just before she disappears, she stops and looks back. “Thanks for lunch. That was fun.”
I notice a brief flicker of excitement in her eyes. Most of her time is spent either in the apartment or at the hospital, so perhaps going somewhere new for lunch hasn’t been such a mistake after all.
Once she’s gone, I tell Iffy about my trip to Kane’s house.
She is as unnerved as I am by the circled dates on his calendar, especially the one on April 4.
“And you’re sure he’s not one of your friends?”
Friends is not exactly the word I’d use to describe other time travelers, but I say, “He’s not. There are pictures of him when he was young. He grew up here.”
“So what’s his deal then? Why is he interested in you?”
These are the same questions swirling around my mind, but I’m no closer to any answers now than I was at Kane’s house.
“Can you stay with Ellie for a while?” I ask.
“Where are you going?”
“If I can’t get into his house, maybe I can get into his car. There’s got to be something there that will help us understand what he wants.”
“You’re not going to confront him, are you?”
“Of course not.”
She stares at me, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“He’ll never see me,” I promise.
I previously witnessed Kane arriving in the Gaslamp Quarter and following us to lunch. What I didn’t check is what he did after we left. So I return to there, arriving in the same alley I used before, only closer to the time we finished eating.
I find a good spot where I can watch the action unnoticed and then wait. No more than ten minutes pass before I see Iffy, Ellie, and me coming around the corner. I observe the brief conversation where I tell them I’ve seen Kane — though at the time I didn’t know his name. We then split, Iffy and Ellie heading for the bus stop, and Earlier Me hurrying over to the alley where I had arrived a few minutes ago.
To avoid any unnecessary conversations, I make sure I’m not seen by Earlier Me. He isn’t off the street for more than thirty seconds when Kane strolls around the corner. About halfway down the block, my follower suddenly halts, his gaze focused on the bus stop where Iffy and Ellie are waiting. There are four other people standing near them, none of whom — as Kane’s obviously just realized — are me.
He scans around, and even looks behind himself as if expecting to find me standing there. There’s no missing his sense of panic, and I can’t help but get a little pleasure from this.
A bus is approaching the stop. When Kane looks back toward Iffy and my sister, he notices it, too. This seems to only deepen his confusion. After a few seconds, though, he makes a decision. He takes one last look around before rushing across the street to his car.
To the honks of annoyed motorists, he makes a sweeping U-turn as soon as the bus has passed by and falls in behind it. I wait until they disappear and then make a jump back to the apartment, making sure to arrive several minutes before the version of me returning from Kane’s house will get there.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve seen multiples of me many times, and have even interacted with them on occasion, but I find that unless absolutely necessary, it’s best to avoid surprising myself. I head out to the street and make my way to a place where I can keep an eye on the bus stop where Iffy and Ellie will be arriving.
Before the bus even gets there, though, I see Kane’s car. He passes the stop and then takes a parking spot almost directly across the street from my building. He sits in his car for a few moments before finally getting out. He looks left and right, his gaze even sweeping past my position, but I’m tucked in the shadows beside the entrance to another apartment building, making it impossible for him to pick me out. He then jogs across the road and disappears down the side of my building.
I check my watch. The girls won’t be entering the apartment for another thirteen minutes. The walk from the bus stop will take only four minutes at most, meaning the bus won’t be arriving for about nine. Depending on how long Kane is away from his vehicle, this might be my opportunity to search it. I keep an eye on the spot where he’s disappeared, expecting him to return at any moment. So when the bus arrives without his reemergence, I’m curious as to what he’s been doing.
I slink farther back into the entryway to prevent Iffy and Ellie from accidentally spotting me. When they’re gone and Kane has still not returned, I decide to put off checking his car for the moment, and instead, find out what he’s up to.
Avoiding the street, I pass all the way through the complex and the parking area in the back to the alley that runs behind all the buildings. Carefully, I move from place to place until I am only one structure from my building.
Kane had walked down the side of my building using the long driveway that serves our covered parking in back. Since it’s still daytime, most of the slots are empty, making it easy for me to see that Kane isn’t there.
Thinking he might be somewhere along the driveway, I slowly lean around the edge of the wall for a look. It’s deserted. He must have gone through the back breezeway into the courtyard of my building; either that, or we’ve crossed paths and he’s already back at his car.
As I step out of cover, intending to sneak over to the parking area of my complex, I catch movement at the top of my vision and hear a shoe scrape against something rough. Ducking back behind the building, I hear the thump of something heavy landing on the roof of my building’s carport.
A few more scrapes followed by someone taking a deep breath and then what I assume are feet landing on asphalt. As the person begins jogging down the driveway toward the street, I allow myself to peek after him.
Kane.
He’d been on our roof. But why?
I watch him run across the street and out of sight. Using the chaser’s calculator, I figure out a location number that will put me on the roof of my complex without having to climb, and touch go.
There are certain things a chaser does flawlessly, such as if your destination is at ground level but there’s a surface that covers it — like a sidewalk or a road — the device will compensate for this, and you will arrive feet solidly placed. Where it has issues is with artificially elevated locations. If your location number is even just slightly off, you’re in trouble. That’s why getting the calculation right is so important.