Chapter 3 – Rewind

"Hey Harrison." Tru answered her mobile as she hurried down the busy street. "How did it go?"

"Not good."

Even over the noise of the traffic Tru could tell that her brother sounded far more down than he had that morning when she had left him to go and speak with Cassie.

"So what happened?" she asked, unable to bear the suspense.

"Well she didn't deny she was on a date," Harrison told her. "She said that our relationship wasn't going anywhere and that we should break up."

"Nice of her to break up with you after being caught cheating," Tru couldn't resist blurting.

"Well it's over now," Harrison sighed audibly. "Do you want to get something to eat when you get off work later?"

"Sure," Tru answered.

"You don't have plans already?" Harrison asked.

"Nothing that can't be changed for my favourite brother. I'll grab some takeout and come over as soon as I'm done at work, okay?"

"Okay," Harrison agreed. "See you later."

He rang off and Tru hurried on down the street to run some errands before heading in to work.

Two hours later she arrived at the morgue and saw immediately that there was a new arrival waiting for her.

"Who do we have?" Tru asked Davis as she hurried into the office to hang up her coat and ready herself for work.

"Female, Caucasian, early twenties, brought in from the river, apparent drowning." Davis rattled off the impersonal details as he opened the purse he had found in the woman's jacket. "Cassie Mitchell, a waitress over at Den's Diner."

"Cassie Mitchell?" Tru turned around in the doorway.

"That's right." Davis looked up. "Do you know her?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Tru answered as she came back into the room. "I know a Cassie Mitchell but she's an interior designer, not a waitress."

Tru walked across to where Davis stood waiting for her. He stepped aside in order that Tru could see the woman lying before them. "It's her," Tru confirmed.

"You go and sit down," Davis advised. "I'll get someone else to come in and assist this time." He headed into the office assuming that Tru was following behind him.

Instead Tru remained where she was for a moment. Not long, but just long enough for Cassie Mitchell to turn her bruised face towards Tru and speak the now familiar words.

"Help me."

Suddenly the world began to spin and Tru felt the initial shock slip away as time re-set itself and she woke up to the sound of her alarm clock ringing out that it was nine o'clock that morning once more.

Sitting up in bed with a gasp Tru reached for the alarm clock and shut off the intrusive ringing.

So many questions ran through her mind that for a moment she couldn't even bring herself to get out of bed.

What had happened to Cassie since speaking with Harrison that afternoon?

If she had drowned, where had the bruises on her face come from?

And the most disturbing question of all. One she couldn't bear to think about for more than a second or two; had her own actions that day in speaking with Harrison somehow caused the death of the young woman?

A fleeting thought crossed her mind that maybe she should leave Harrison's cheating girlfriend to her own fate. But as fleeting as it was it was also disturbing. Realising with a shiver that it sounded like something Jack would have said, Tru reached for the phone determined that something would go right for her brother this time around.

"Harrison?" Tru asked when a groggy sounding voice mumbled into the phone at the other end. "You need to be getting up and going for your job interview," she reminded her younger brother.

"Job?" he answered vacantly before suddenly repeating the word loudly as realisation struck. A crash from the other end made Tru shake her head in wonder. It sounded like he'd dropped the phone.

"Thanks Tru," Harrison called into the phone. It sounded like he was moving about the room and not holding the phone. "Hey wait a minute." His voice came through clearer this time and he had obviously picked up the phone again. "This is one of those days isn't it? I never told you about the interview. How did it go? Did I get it? What questions was I asked? Come on Tru...spill."

"Don't know Harry," Tru answered. "Yesterday you overslept and missed it completely."

"Oh." Harrison sounded disappointed at not having the advance warning of what he was going to be asked.

"Sorry," Tru said. "Good luck though."

"Thanks Tru," Harrison answered before ringing off.

"Right," Tru told herself as she got dressed. "Now to find out what an interior designer is doing working as a waitress."

She wondered if she should call Harrison again and try to get more information out of him. But she didn't want to cause him the same pain she had the previous day all over again. Considering how upset he had sounded over the break up she didn't want to think of his reaction to finding out that it was his girlfriend who was going to die today. She hoped that she could sort things out without letting Harrison know.

Then if she managed to save Cassie, they could sort out his love life. If she couldn't save her then he need never know about her two-timing him.