The Victim

"At an auction," Harrison replied as he cast an apologetic glance at Veronica before ducking out of the room into the corridor.

"Tru got hold of you then?" Davis asked, with a sound of relief.

"Yeah," Harrison answered. "She said she couldn't get hold of you and called me instead. The connection was lost before she could give me your number though."

"I wouldn't have got the call anyway," Davis assured him. "I was woken up just before four this morning from a nurse, or at least someone who claimed to be a nurse, letting me know my cousin was in hospital. I rushed out and forgot my cell phone. Then got all the way to the hospital only to find it was a wild goose chase. I just got back and heard Tru's message on my machine."

"It took you that long to get to the hospital?" Harrison asked before realising that Davis was obviously not talking about the hospital near to the morgue at which he and Tru worked.

"It was out of town," Davis confirmed. "I think Jack had a hand in this."

"You do?" Harrison replied. He had not seen much of Jack recently but assumed that was because Tru was out of town. It stood to reason that he would not have much reason to be hanging around whilst she was away. It had even crossed his mind that he might have followed Tru out of town.

"Who else would pull a stunt like that?" Davis asked. "He's been keeping a close eye on Tru for weeks now. He'll know she is stuck on the plane and that the day has rewound. He knows she'll have been trying to contact me and decided to get me out of the way before she could manage it."

"I wonder why he didn't get someone to call me," Harrison wondered aloud.

"He probably tried," Davis pointed out. "But Tru got to you first."

"So do you want to come and take over here?" Harrison asked, half hoping that Davis would say yes and free him and Cassie to hang out for the day, and half hoping that he would say no. He didn't know why he wanted to carry on with the job of keeping Veronica Carter safe. Maybe it was because when he was helping Tru out with her rescues it felt like he had some sort of purpose and he didn't feel quite so much of a failure. Not that he dwelled too much on the dismal failures in his life. Life was far too short to be morbid and there was too much fun to be had. But there were a few occasions, seemingly more and more frequently, when he did stop to wonder what he was doing with his life.

"Can you carry on for a while?" Davis asked. "I'm going to go into the office and see if I can find out some more information on the cause of death."

"Okay, sure," Harrison replied. "I'll swing by later."

"Okay," Davis agreed. "Just one other thing. The time of death Tru gave me was mid afternoon."

"So I'll keep her safe until then," Harrison said with a determined nod that was, of course, completely lost of Davis on the other end of the phone.

Pocketing the cell phone, Harrison walked back into the auction room to see that Cassie and Veronica had found each other without his help and were chatting like old friends.

"Over here, honey," Cassie called out as Harrison cringed at the endearment. He forced a smile onto his face as Veronica turned around.

"Your wife has just been telling me all about the honeymoon," Veronica said with a smile.

Harrison groaned inwardly, dreading to think what Cassie had come out with in the short period of time he had been on the phone to Davis.

"You haven't been spending all our money?" he finally asked in an effort to steer the subject away from whatever lies Cassie had been spinning in his absence.

"Just a vase," Cassie replied. "It was a real bargain though."

"Not that ugly thing you were looking at earlier?" he asked. He knew that Cassie generally had good taste in furnishings but the vase she had been holding earlier had been truly hideous. He waited for her to tell him it was a gift for him, the final stab of revenge for his early morning pounding on her door.

"That's the one," Cassie smiled. "It's just perfect for us."

Veronica laughed and stepped away to make a bid on an item she wanted, leaving the "newly weds" to sort out their differences in taste.

"You didn't really buy that thing did you?" Harrison asked.

"It's for a client," Cassie explained. "I have one who is looking for particular pieces and that is just perfect. I phoned him and put in the bid on his behalf. It'll be delivered directly to him. You'll never have to lay eyes on it again."

"Good," Harrison breathed a sigh of relief. "So what else have you been telling Veronica?"

"Nothing much," Cassie smirked before hooking her arm through his and steering him towards some seats at the side of the room.

Sitting down they could keep Veronica in clear sight, without getting in the way of the rest of the people in the now crowded room.

Compared to every other time that Harrison had helped Tru out, he was finding this occasion to be far easier than any before. There was no one trying to kill him and Cassie bought them both lunch without his even having to hint. Veronica and Cassie were getting on like a house on fire and Harrison didn't even have to try and make conversation with the middle-aged woman who it was clear he had nothing in common with at all.

Mid-afternoon came and went and Harrison decided to make a move to go to the morgue and meet Davis and Tru, who should now be back in the country. Giving Cassie a quick kiss goodbye he promised to be "home" in time for dinner, and left her and Veronica discussing various types of wall coverings.

The morgue was empty of bodies when Harrison arrived. He was relieved to find both Tru and Davis in the office and no sign of Jack. Though he didn't fail to notice that Jack was the topic of conversation and Tru looked as worried as he felt at the news that her counterpart had deliberately sent Davis out of town with a false report.

Tru looked up as she heard Harrison's footsteps and jumping up from her seat she enveloped him a tight hug.

"I've missed you," she said with a smile. "You're not starving without me buying your meals for you are you?"

"Nah," Harrison grinned back. "I'm managing to persuade plenty of other people to fork out for me, some far more easily than you."

"I'll have to tell Cassie to watch it," Tru suggested with a wicked grin. "She never struck me as a soft touch."

"So Veronica Carter is safe?" Davis asked from his seat at the computer.

"She was a little while ago," Harrison confirmed. "I left Cassie with her, she'd have phoned if anything had happened. We've all be hanging out and chatting all day. They're getting on great."

"That seems too easy," Tru frowned. "Didn't you see any danger or trouble or anything?"

"No," Harrison replied with a shrug. "Just a normal day."

"So no one tried to kill her and she didn't have an accident or anything?" Tru questioned.

"No," Harrison admitted. Now that Tru mentioned it, today had been rather too easy.

"I don't understand," Tru mumbled. "You must have done something to alter things or she would be here now."

"I don't know what," Harrison said as he sat back on one of the seats. "There is one thing though."

"Yes?" Tru asked.

"Your description was wrong."

"It might have been vague but I only saw her briefly," Tru explained.

"I don't mean vaguely wrong," Harrison interrupted, "her hair was red not white."

"It was definitely white," Tru argued.

"Not when I met her it wasn't."

"Maybe she was getting it done at the hairdressers but you stopped her," Davis suggested.

"Perhaps," Tru nodded.

There was no more time to speculate however as the phone rang out loudly. Davis picked it up and listened for a minute. Putting the phone down again he turned to Tru. "We have another victim coming in," he said with a frown.

"Veronica?" Tru asked.

"No," Davis replied. "This one's a man."

Harrison waited around in the morgue as Davis and Tru talked about what had happened to Veronica the previous day and he gave them as much detail as he could recall about what he had done since Tru's call that morning. They were still no closer to figuring out what had killed her when the sound of the doors opening heralded the new arrival.

Davis stood up and gestured for Tru to stay where she was. "If there's even a chance this day's going to rewind again, we need to talk about how to work this. You better wait here and let me have a look at this one alone for now."

Tru nodded in agreement and sat back to wait.

A few minutes later Davis returned to the room. "Daniel Winters, aged 48, a junior stockbroker, and from what you've said about yesterday, I'd say he died of the same cause of death as Veronica Carter."

"So you think the day is going to rewind again?" Harrison asked.

"Just in case it does, someone needs to stop me wasting so much time going out of town if Jack pulls the same stunt again as he did today," Davis turned to Tru.

"Right," Tru agreed. "I know where the phone on the plane is now so should be able to get to it quicker. I tried the morgue first today too. Now I know you're at home I'll try that number. What phone didthis nursedial you on?"

"My cell," Davis replied.

"Then I'll call on your home number so it will ring even if you're being duped on the other phone at the time," Tru stood up and walked to the door.

"What about me?" Harrison asked, feeling slightly left out of things.

"We'll need your help too," Tru pointed out. "We still don't know what has happened to alter things today so you're going to have to go and watch Veronica again, or she'll end up back here again."

"This is assuming the day rewinds again at all," Davis pointed out as he stood to one side to let Tru walk past him to where the body waited for her.

Harrison looked at Davis. Neither could do anything other than let Tru do what she had to.