Chapter Five
Tru looked across to Jack and signalled him away from Alan who was watching the two women where they had settled down to talk on one of the benches.
"Isn't this fun Tru?" Jack asked with a smile. "Us working together like this. Just like it should be."
"This is nothing like it should be," Tru replied. "I don't believe you know any more about why he's here than I do. You just don't want to admit it."
"Now Tru, really. Have I ever lied to you before?"
"Well, let me think. Hmm. Yes you have, frequently," Tru replied and bit her tongue to stop herself from listing each and every occasion that Jack had bent and reshaped the truth to suit his own purposes.
"Well maybe I've told the occasional little white lie in the past," Jack admitted. "But only for the greater good."
"For the greater good of Jack, you mean."
"Tru, Tru," Jack said with a shake of his head. "How many times do we have to have this discussion before you realise I'm right?"
"What makes you so sure you are?" Tru asked.
Jack smiled in response, a smirk that was becoming more annoying each time she saw it.
"Okay then," Tru said before Jack could respond with another pointless argument. "How do you know why Alan's still hanging around?"
"I told you, I heard a rumour about rewind ghosts."
"From who?" Tru asked, not expecting an answer.
"Now Tru, don't you be getting distracted now. Casper there is needing our help."
"What help could you possibly offer?" Tru asked.
"I can offer him moral guidance in the battle he faces," Jack said in a vaguely patronising tone of voice.
"Moral guidance," Tru laughed. "From you?"
"Just because you've convinced that what you do is right doesn't mean it is," Jack pointed out. "It's my job to keep you from destroying the fabric of the universe with your meddling."
"The fabric of the universe?" Tru questioned sarcastically. "I think the universe is safe enough for a while yet."
"You don't know that," Jack argued. "But that's beside the point."
"Yeah, speaking of which, are you going to get to it some time soon?" Tru looked across at where Alan was now standing next to his wife and girlfriend. She didn't think he would intentionally give them the slip but he might forget them if the women moved away from the park.
"My point," Jack paused for dramatic effect. "My point is that no matter what your opinion is of what I do, you have to admit that I believe what I'm doing is for the good of mankind. Just like you mistakenly believe what you do is."
Tru opened her mouth to interrupt but was halted by Jack raising his hand.
"Our differences aside," he continued. "Why would I have any interest in ruining our friendly ghost's afterlife? He's dead. That means I've already won so what difference does it make to me whether he goes to heaven hell or whatever?"
"Whatever?" Tru asked.
"Well I don't know about your opinion on the issue, but have any of the people who've asked you for help actually mentioned where they've been during the time they were dead?"
"No," Tru replied.
"We just need to help him move on," Jack said. "I've won so it makes no difference to me where he goes next."
"Okay," Tru said. She had to admit that his arguments were good ones. And it wasn't like she had any better ideas.
"Ah Tru," Jack said as he put an arm around her shoulders. "The two of us, working together, side by side, just as it should always be."
"Don't push it," Tru said as she shook him off and headed towards Alan who was now heading back in their direction.
"You're not going to believe this," Alan said as he reached Tru and Jack. "That deceitful pair are plotting to murder me."
He stood looking at Tru and Jack.
"Well what are you going to do about it?" Alan asked as the two of them stood their silent.
"Um, Alan," Tru started. "You're already dead."
"Now Tru," Jack said as he moved to stand beside Alan. "Don't you think that's a bit of a tactless thing to say to the recently deceased?"
"I just think that perhaps Alan's needs to rethink things a little. His life's not exactly in immediate danger from anyone."
"And you say I'm unfeeling?" Jack said as he looked sympathetically at Alan. "Does it matter that he's dead, he still has feelings that can be hurt."
Tru closed her eyes as Jack continued to reprimand her for her uncaring attitude. Her headache was starting to pound and the worse thing was that she had no idea when Alan would vanish from her life. This wasn't like any other rewind day. Who was to say whether he would leave at the end of the rewind day or stick around haunting her indefinitely?
She wondered if Jack knew the answer to that particular question and decided there was nothing to lose by asking him outright. He would probably lie but at least he would stop patronising her.
"Are we on a time limit here?" she asked as soon as Jack stopped to draw breath.
"A time limit?" Alan asked. "You mean I might just vanish at the end of this rewind day of yours?"
"Exactly," Tru replied. "Jack?"
Jack gave a non-committal shrug in response. "I told you before Tru, I only heard a rumour about this happening."
"Well since you won't tell me who told you, why don't you go call them and ask them about all this? Do something useful."
"Okay," Jack replied with another shrug. He reached into his jacket for his cell phone and wandered a little way down the path.
Tru strained to hear what he was saying but he had moved out of earshot. She decided to use his absence to her advantage.
"Listen to me Alan," she said hurriedly, never taking her eyes off of Jack's back. "Jack doesn't have your best interests in mind. He's a cold-blooded killer. But he apparently knows more about why you're here than I do so we've got to work with him. But for your sake you're better off not trusting him."
"He said you'd say that," Alan said. "Your brother told me to ignore him but it was a little difficult to take him seriously when he was looking away from me and at the shrubbery at the time."
"Yeah well take me seriously then," Tru said as she looked away from Jack and straight at Alan. "You cannot trust him at all."
"I've just found out the two women I love are plotting to kill me," Alan said with a glare back towards the bench. "People I can trust are a little thin on the ground."
"You can trust me," Tru said with another wary glance at Jack.
"Seems to me you two need to work out a few things," Alan commented and he too looked over at Jack who was now heading back towards them.
"Find out anything useful?" Tru asked as soon as he reached them.
"Really Tru, anyone listening to you would think you just wanted to pick my brains and get rid of me."
"Anyone would be right," Tru replied. "So what did your contact say?"
"He said that rewind ghosts are very rare."
"Really?" Tru said with a great deal of sarcasm. "We've been rewinding for over a year and never seen one before and your contact says they're rare. Wow. Thanks. That's very useful."
Privately she gloated that Jack had let slip that his contact was a man. It wasn't much to go on but it was certainly something to remember. Especially if he slipped up later and said 'she'. It might be the little bit of information that could catch him in a lie.
"My contact did say one other thing," Jack said, and paused again. Tru knew that he was enjoying knowing something that she didn't and she refused to rise to the bait by prodding him again.
"My contact said that we would never know where it is that Alan disappears to when he does leave. Apparently he'll just vanish and there'll be no way of knowing what has happened to him."
Tru mulled over Jack's words. They made a certain kind of sense. She had asked Harrison once whether he remembered being dead but like the rest of the events of the day the memory had gone from his mind. She had known that, of course she had. But even so she had had to ask. She had wanted to have some assurance that Luc was at peace, wherever he was.
But assurances were not to be and all she had was her faith. Somehow she was not surprised to discover that she would have to rely on her beliefs this time too.
Her mind told her that Jack could be lying again. But her instincts told her that he was telling the truth.
Alan would disappear and she would never know what had happened to him.
"Right," Tru said as she looked at the two men in front of her. "Are we going to go talk to the two women there or not?"
"No," Alan said with a shake of his head. "I think I know what it is I have to do before I leave."
"Well?" Tru prompted.
"I have to make sure that they don't kill anyone else," Alan replied.
"But they didn't kill you," Tru pointed out. "You fell down the stairs. Didn't you?"
"Oh yeah," Alan nodded. "Been meaning to fix that carpet for months. That's not what I meant. I meant that their plan to kill me could inadvertently kill someone else instead. I think that's why I'm still here. To make sure that they don't carry things through and hurt someone else by mistake."
"A mission," Jack said with a grin. "What do you suggest Tru? You're the expert on saving lives."
"You mean you're not going to go make sure they do kill someone else?" Tru asked.
"Now Tru, I thought we'd gone through all this. I don't kill people. I preserve fate. Alan was the only body to turn up in the morgue yesterday so therefore they can't have succeeded in killing anyone else. We have to make sure that they don't succeed again today."
"But just by leaving them alone things should stay the same," Tru pointed out.
"Do you want to take that risk?" Jack asked. "Who's to say we haven't already changed things? The smallest thing can have the most devastating consequences. It's what I've been telling you all along."
"We haven't spoken to them at all," Tru replied. "We can't have changed anything without interacting with them."
"You don't know that," Jack said with a shake of his head. "We weren't here in the park yesterday. They might think we're undercover police officers and alter their plans enough to cause someone else to die. We've been looking over to them enough for them to have noticed us.
Tru looked across to the women again and saw that Jack was right. The women were casting anxious glances in their direction.
"Okay," Tru said with a sigh. "But how do we know that interfering now won't make things worse and that someone else won't end up in the morgue."
"We don't," Jack replied.
