Information about the book
The intrusion had been coated with a dreamlike, almost hallucinogenic veneer. Now that the sun was up it seemed as though it had never happened at all, as if the entire episode had been imagined. Harlan, in particular, was having trouble sorting through and accepting what the elderly man had told him. It was not just that his life had been threatened when he was a child and that his family had, in fact, made the connection that he thought they had missed, it was the suggestion that there was a flaw in his theory. An oversight that, potentially, could cost them dearly.
Reece, on the other hand, was perturbed by the invasion at first, but his concern waned as the hours slipped by. Inevitably, his focus turned to the afternoon ahead and the events that were to come at the Kodak. Alex, for his part, simply ran out of steam. Whether no longer able to cope with the increasingly warped landscape that had become his life or simply because there was nothing more to say on the subject save for the aimless and circular wonderings of men standing in the shadow of something they could not fully comprehend, he had fallen asleep at the kitchen table where he was now mindlessly buttering the bread plate through his toast. ‘So why did the truck driver ram the train anyway?’
‘To murder one of the passengers . . . his ex-girlfriend. According to the investigation report she had left him a few days prior to the incident and it seems he wasn’t able to accept it. On the day of the crash she had taken out a restraining order against him. I imagine that’s what set him off.’
‘Did they both die?’
‘She did. He was miraculously thrown from the truck and suffered only a broken leg and a concussion. He’s currently serving a fifteen-year sentence. If he keeps out of trouble he could be back on the street in a few years. He takes the lives of five people and he’ll probably be a free man before his fortieth birthday.’
Alex put his head in his hands, still trying to get his mind around the story and its uncanny timing. ‘Why was your wife on the train that night? Especially at that hour.’
‘Lauren was an English lecturer and once a week would run literacy classes for immigrants down in the valley. She’d been doing it for months. It was a great passion of hers.’
Reece reached for the laptop on the table in front of them, his finger hovering over the Enter key. ‘Harlan, how many more times do you need to see this?’
‘Just once more. To be sure.’
Reece hit the key and the Oscars show started back to life. He listened for the umpteenth time as the popular comedian, Brett May, joked about the pen being mightier than the sword, but that it was still no match for a scud missile. He then read out the nominees for the Best Adapted Screenplay before slowly opening the envelope. ‘And the Oscar goes to,’ he chimed, winking into the camera, ‘Reece Cole for Malevolence.’
Reece watched as his younger self rose from the audience and marched exuberantly up the stairs. With eyes that danced with genuine surprise, he accepted the Oscar and then stepped up to the microphone. He was about to speak when a shadow fell across his face. ‘I know how this is going to sound,’ he said, smiling and frowning simultaneously. ‘But I really feel like I’ve been here before. Although, I know I don’t have one of these little guys at home . . . so that can’t be right.’ The audience laughed and he then rambled off a few disjointed thank yous, congratulated his fellow nominees before turning to the nearest camera and blowing a kiss to Ruby.
‘You can stop it, Reece,’ Harlan said, averting his eyes. ‘All the measurements are correct. I couldn’t be more certain.’
Alex swallowed a piece of cold toast as though it were wrapped in razor wire. ‘So how exactly is Reece going to do this?’
‘The difficult part will be getting onto the stage. The rest should be fairly straightforward. The Oscar podium sat on the white midline that runs across the main stage. I’ve worked out that it’s positioned to within an inch of twenty feet from the midpoint of the line which is denoted by a small blue circle the size of a golf ball. So all you’ll have to do, Reece, is measure twenty feet from the blue dot to the right of the stage, as you face it, and that will be where the podium was set up. If you’re lucky, you might even see an impression in the wood. The podium itself is twenty five inches long and fifteen inches deep. So once you’ve measured out the distance, you then take a perpendicular line backwards eighteen inches and make a mark on the stage. That is where you were standing. To ensure juxtaposition, you’ll have to lie down on the mark and spread your limbs.’
‘And then he just needs to . . .’ Alex said, unable to voice the words.
‘Precisely.’
‘Provided, of course, that our new friends don’t do the job first.’
‘They won’t,’ Reece intervened. ‘If they wanted us dead, they would have seen to that last night.’
‘Forgive me if I don’t share your optimism, Reece. For all we know they’ve just gone home to fetch bigger guns.’
‘You’re forgiven,’ he said, suppressing another yawn. He leaned back on the couch, his eyes glazing over. He was drawing on his memories of the Kodak and the auditorium itself. ‘What time’s our meeting with the manager, Alex?’
‘Three o’clock.’
‘Are you still happy with the plan?’ Harlan asked.
‘I am. It’s still our best option.’
‘Would you like to go through the train . . .’ he hesitated, ‘. . . details again?’
‘I don’t think it’s necessary. Everything is very clear to me. I know exactly where it happens and I’ll have enough time to get there.’
‘I know you have combat experience, Reece, but that was some time ago. Are you confident you’ll be able to immobilise the driver?’
‘From the photos you’ve shown us he can’t be more than five foot eight and two hundred pounds. He’ll be unarmed, drunk, sitting in his truck, waiting for the train. He’s not military-trained and, as far as we can tell, has done nothing significant of a physical nature. Subduing him shouldn’t be a problem at all.’
‘What are you going to do to him?’
‘It’ll depend on the circumstances and what he does when I confront him. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.’
‘You realise that whatever you’re going to do will need to persuade him to leave the girl alone for good. If you don’t, he’ll just find some other way to kill her. If he goes after her somewhere else and more innocent people get hurt, then their blood will be on our hands.’
‘I know. I’ve already considered that. Leave it to me.’
‘All right,’ Harlan nodded, resisting the urge to probe any further. ‘Well, I think that’s it. Can you think of anything we’ve missed?’
Alex shook his head. ‘You mean apart from what our uninvited guests said about there being things that we’re not aware of? I remember hearing the word sacrifices.’
Harlan shrugged as if that were no longer of significant concern to him, although it clearly still was. ‘Nothing’s changed. I’m still completely confident that our plan will succeed. They may just have been trying to scare us.’
‘Well, in that case, I think we’ve covered everything. As assisted suicides go, this has to be the smoothest one I’ve worked on.’
Reece looked at his friend, sighed, and then summoned the ghost of what might have once been a smile. ‘Asshole,’ he mouthed.
Alex bowed slightly, and shoved more barbed-wire toast into his mouth.
