Beyond This Time: A Time-Travel Suspense Novel (44 page)

Dreama’s eyes narrowed and her hands rose to her hips. “Timothy, me and you can stand on the porch till sunup, and
not
talk about what you got inside. Or we can take care of business.”

“You’re not coming inside, Dreama,” Biggers said, his voice hard. “No need for somebody else to—”

“I came to help.” She ducked under his arm and walked into the foyer. “Now where y’all keeping the bodies?”

Biggers whirled around and watched open mouthed as Dreama entered the first exam room. “Jesus Christ!” he exploded. “Lettie Ruth! Lettie Ruth, get your butt down here!”

“Three ugly sons-of-bitches, ain’t they?” Dreama said.

He saw Lettie Ruth paused at the top of the landing. “Did you call that woman?” he asked.

“Stop hollerin’ at me.”

“Get on down here,” Biggers growled.

“Not ‘til you stop all that hollerin’,” Lettie Ruth said. “You got some temper, Timothy Biggers.”

“I haven’t lost my temper … yet,” he said. “Now get down here.”

“Timothy, you got to understand about all this. It’s not your business.”

“Come down here, please.”

Lettie Ruth moved slowly down the steps. “This is colored business.”

“Ain’t no color in my house,” he said quietly.

She reached the last step and stopped, placing her hand on his shoulder. “I know that, probably better than any person on this earth. But, Timothy, what’s layin’ on our floor is still colored business. I’m asking you to back down and let me handle it.”

He patted her hand. “You can’t handle it alone. It’s gonna take everyone in this house, colored and white, to pull it off. Three men don’t up and disappear without somebody, somewhere, knowing something. And I’m afraid we’re that something”

“Because of Billy Lee Mitchell?”

“He won’t be a problem,” Mitch said as he walked through the front door. “I’ve decided to take him on as my special project.”

“That boy is crazy,” Lettie Ruth warned. “Crazy mean.”

“And he won’t ever change,” Mitch said. “That’s why I’m devoting my energy to dealing with his personality flaws.”

“You think he’ll keep quiet after you deal with his flaws?” Biggers asked.

Mitch nodded. “I guarantee nobody will hear a peep out of him.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“No, but I know where he’ll end up. You take care of the others and I’ll handle Billy Lee.”

* * *

Kat sat up and rubbed her eyes. The full impact of her actions settled like a steel blanket around her shoulders. Because she’d flipped out her family and friends were in trouble. She needed to find a way to defuse all this before everything hit the fan. Maybe if she and Mitch put their heads together, they could come up with a workable solution.

She found Timothy and Lettie Ruth in the kitchen. “Hello,” she said hesitantly, remaining in the doorway. Earlier they’d talked about what happened upstairs and Kat felt they understood why she reacted in such a violent manner. But the facts still hung in the air between them—she’d killed two men. How could they ever forget?

“Hey, honey, come on in. I just put up a pot of coffee,” Lettie Ruth said, as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

“Are you sure?” Kat asked, looking at Timothy.

“Of course,” he said. “We can always use another pair of hands. Grab a broom and get busy.”

Grateful for their acceptance she went to work. In a short while they finished and were seated at the table with cups of steaming coffee.

“Have you seen, Mitch?” Kat asked.

“He and the woman took off little while back,” Lettie Ruth said.

“What woman?”

“The one who’s been sittin’ out front in that shiny black car.”

Kat thought for a minute, the only other woman Mitch knew in Maceyville was his mother. After all his lectures about interacting with family members would he—
had
he dared to make contact with Pamela Mitchell?

“Did he say anything about her? A name?” she asked.

“He seemed a bit secretive if you ask me.”

“Mind your own business, Lettie,” Biggers said. “He’s a grown man and if he has a lady friend, good for him.”

Lettie Ruth sniffed. “A lady friend with a baby is good for him?”

“A baby?” Biggers grinned. “Maybe she’s a real good lady friend.”

“I don’t think you ought to be making light of this. A woman with a baby got no business messin’ with a single man.”

“You’ve misjudged him,” Kat said defensively. “Mitch has family in the area. She’s probably a cousin or something.”

“Both of you take it easy,” Biggers said, picking through a plate of burnt meatloaf. “Her name’s Pamela. I delivered that baby girl six or seven months back.”

“Well why didn’t you say so?” Lettie Ruth asked.

“It’s more fun listening to you make up stories.”

Kat’s stomach knotted up. Mitch hadn’t
accidently
run into his mother. He’d gone looking for her. And now her partner was interfering with the past. She thought about the things they discussed about his early years, trying to figure out what he could be up to. She knew Pamela had left Billy Lee when Mitch was five or six-years-old, but he’d never mentioned a sister. If Kat were given a choice of one thing from his past that would push him into this insane action, she’d pick the sister. Something had obviously happened to her in the original timeline, and it appeared her partner was going to try and stop it from occurring again.

“Do you know where he went?” Kat asked.

“Not for sure, but I’d guess he took them home,” Lettie Ruth said.

“Then you expect him back soon?”

“Mitch is gonna be tied up for a while,” Biggers said. “He has a couple of things to tend to this morning.”

“Like what?” Kat’s blood seemed to slow in her veins.

“He took Pam and Carolyn to the bus station—”

“How come you know so much?” Lettie Ruth interrupted.

Biggers raised his eyebrows. “Men talk to each other, just like women. Mitch told me.”

“Then why is he takin’ her?”

“That’s his business. None of mine, and most certainly none of yours.”

“You said he had a couple of things to do,” Kat said. “What else?”

“He’s planning on spending some quality time with Billy Lee Mitchell.”

Kat’s hand trembled as she placed her cup on the table. “Timothy,” the doctor looked at her and she tried to keep the panic out of her eyes and voice, “what did he say?”

“He told me, Kat,” Biggers said, staring into her eyes. “He told me.”

“Everything?”

“Everything. And I found it to be a damn interesting discussion.”

“What you two talkin’ about?” Lettie Ruth asked in an annoyed tone.

“Like Alvin says, Lettie Ruth, it will all come out in the by and by,” Biggers said.

Kat nodded. “For now, let’s get back to Billy Lee.”

“He said we didn’t have to worry ‘bout that boy,” Lettie Ruth said, obviously pleased to be included in the conversation again.

Kat bit her bottom lip. “Why don’t you have to worry?”

“Mitch is going to convince him to keep quiet,” Biggers said.

“And he said no need for us to get all worked up, ‘cause Billy Lee wouldn’t never talk about what went on today,” Lettie Ruth said.

Kat’s eyes filled with tears and they ran down her cheeks. “He’s going to kill himself,” she whispered.

Lettie Ruth took her hand. “No, honey, Mitch will be just fine. He’s going to take care of Billy Lee.”

“If he does that, then he won’t be…”

“Won’t be what?” Lettie Ruth asked.

“He won’t
ever
be.” Kat knew her words didn’t make sense to her aunt, but it didn’t matter. She had to find her partner before he did anything stupid. Killing Billy Lee Mitchell in 1963 would guarantee James Andrew Mitchell would not be born in 1965.

Excusing herself, Kat raced to the second floor. She stood in the middle of the television room, her heart hammering in her chest as the fear grew. The room had been cleaned, all signs of the earlier violence erased. She remembered looking at the Arson/Fatality list right before Louis was shot downstairs. Where had she put it? She turned her pockets inside out—nothing. She bent down and peered under the furniture. Where was the damn list?

“Lookin’ for this?”

She jumped when the male voice spoke from behind her.

Alvin Rayson stood in the door, the crumpled sheet of paper in his hand.

“I found it in the hallway earlier. Didn’t look familiar, so I figured it belonged to you or Mitch.”

Kat held out her hand. “Yes, it does. Thank you, Pastor Rayson.”

He looked at the list. “Interesting piece of paper you got here. Did you know it changes from time to time?”

She sat on the sofa. She didn’t have an answer for this man. Should she explain to him about time-travel and future daughters? “I know it changes,” she whispered.

Rayson sat beside her, his scent so familiar she could barely keep from throwing her arms around him. “Care to talk about it?”

“Some things are for the knowing and some for the telling.”

He held up the list. “This one is for the telling, Kathleen. Peculiar things been happening since you arrived and I want an explanation.”

“You don’t want this explanation, sir, and someday you’ll thank me for being so evasive.” She held her hand out. “May I please have it?”

“What interests you on this peculiar list?” Rayson asked, still holding on to the paper.

“If you won’t return my property, will you at least read the last entry out loud?”

He ran his finger down the names. “Says here, Louis Smith.”

Kat sagged against his shoulder, her breathing ragged. “Then there’s still time,” she whispered.

“Don’t be so sure, it read different a few minutes ago.”

She sat up and stared at him, her eyes hard. “How different? What did it say?”

“Said Billy Lee Mitchell. But that name’s gone now and I want to know why.”

“Ask me again in thirty-seven-years, Pop.” Kat snatched the paper out of his hand and raced from the room and down the stairs.

“You can count on it,” Rayson shouted.

=THIRTY-FOUR=

APRIL 06—SATURDAY—4:00 A.M.

Mitch realized his
original plan of simply blowing his father to kingdom come wouldn’t work. That approach would cause even more problems for Tim Biggers and the clinic. He needed to figure out a way to draw suspicion away from his east Hollow friends.