A Year to Forget (The Accidental Time Travellers Book 2) (34 page)

“Which journalist?”  Abaddon asked.

“Sarah Salmond.”  Faraday replied.

Bobby was mortified.  He finished his drink quickly.  “I am going to call it a night.”

“I think that’s a good idea.”  Abaddon agreed.

“We should be getting home.”  Ethel said.

Faraday and David shared a look.  It was early enough yet.  As the others got their coats and left, Faraday moved over to the seat beside David.

“Do you reckon he’ll ever ask her out?”  Faraday asked.

David shook his head.  “He’s never even had a girlfriend.”

“He should ask her.  I never thought Jane would go out with me, but she did.”  Faraday followed this with a drunken smile.

“How are you feeling Faraday?” 

“I miss her.  Every day I see something that reminds me of her.”

“Have you had anymore of those dreams?”

“Yes, Nancy keeps on visiting me, but Jane isn’t ready to see me yet.”

“Do you think it really is her?”

“It could be, when Kennedy visited me in Dallas he told me that you were all in danger.”

“So you think it was the wormhole?” 

“It would make sense, Bobby doesn’t age and you don’t sleep.  Maybe I can talk to dead people.”

David nodded.  “Have you decided where you want to go?”

Faraday shook his head.  “I just can’t fathom how I could save Jane.  If I go back and save her from the car bomb, then I would never have helped Abaddon, and so I wouldn’t be able to enter the wormhole in order to save her.  If I go to the future and stop her from going to Loch Ness, then I wouldn’t go through the wormhole to find her.  It just makes no sense.”

“Well you have a point, but remember Nancy and Clint were Bobby’s grandmother and father.  He only went through the wormhole because he tried to kill himself after Nancy died.  But now he can never be born, so how is he here?”

Faraday took a sip from his beer as he considered this.  “So do you think this is some parallel time line?”

“I have no idea.”  David admitted.

“Do you think you can save Sharon?”

“Saving Sharon would not actually affect anything I have done.  If she doesn’t get on the helicopter, but I do, then I would still enter the wormhole and I would still have been transported back here.  And I would still want to get back so that I can be with her.”

Faraday nodded in agreement.  “Has Abaddon told you how much longer we have to wait?”

“He said we will both be gone by the end of this year.”

“Do you trust him?”  Faraday asked.

“What choice do we have?”

Chapter 84

Bobby was late in reaching his office the following day, it was around noon when he finally took his seat.  He had planned on finally studying through the COINTELPRO files that Hoover had kept concerning Bobby, Faraday and David.  He had been so busy trying to trace Jacob Cohen and authorising surveillance on Black Panther members, that he hadn’t had the chance to read them.  He opened the box that was placed on his desk, but before he could begin he was interrupted by the ring of the telephone.

“Hello, Bobby Stinson.”

“Bobby!”  Teddy Kennedy said frantically.

“Teddy are you alright?”

“Bobby the Kennedy’s are cursed.” 

“What’s wrong Teddy?”

There was silence on the line.

“Teddy?”

“Jesus Christ, Bobby.”

“Talk to me?”  Bobby said, beginning to worry.

“She’s dead Bobby.”

“Who?”

“Mary Jo, she’s dead.”

Bobby did not reply, he couldn’t remember who Mary Jo was.  “Who?”

“The girl from the party.”  Teddy replied hurriedly.

“What do you mean she’s dead?  You said you were just taking her home?”

“Bobby, I don’t know what to do.”

“Where are you Teddy?”

“I’m at the police station.”

“What happened?”

“I was driving”

“You idiot!  You were in no state to drive Teddy!”  Bobby interrupted.

“My driver was still eating when we left.”  Teddy offered by way of an explanation.

“Why didn’t you just wait?”  Bobby snapped.

“I don’t know Bobby.  I was driving towards the ferry but I turned onto Dike Road by accident.  It’s unpaved and unlit, I couldn’t figure out where we were.  We got to this bridge and the car went over into the water.”

“Fucking hell.”  Bobby interjected.

“The car landed upside down in the water.  I managed to swim free and I thought she had as well.  But when I got to the shore I couldn’t see her.”

“So what did you do?”

“Well I called out for her and tried to swim back to the car, but I couldn’t.”

“Okay?”

“So I rested on the shore for a little while.”

“You took a fucking break!  Teddy are you out of your mind?”

“I know, I don’t know why I did it.  I went back to the party.”

“Teddy why didn’t you just call the police?”

“Well I thought maybe she had escaped the car and gone back to the party.”

“Teddy, I honestly am struggling to believe this.”

Teddy was silent for a moment.  “So I got a couple of guys from the party and we went back to the water.  We all tried to swim down and save her but none of us could do it.”

“So did you call the police?”

“No I thought that she was probably okay, so I swam back to the hotel.”

“You swam?!” 

“Yes, by the time I got there I was exhausted, so I fell asleep.”

“Without phoning the police!”  Bobby yelled.

“Well I got up this morning and thought about phoning the police, but the car had already been found by a couple of fishermen.  The police got her out of the car, but she was dead.”

“Jesus, Teddy how could you have been so stupid!”

“I panicked.”

“Teddy you killed that poor girl.  Have you told your brother?”

“Not yet.”  Teddy replied.

“I honestly have no idea what to do.”

“I spoke with my attorneys and they told me I would receive a suspended sentence.  I gave a statement to the police, I think we could keep this quiet.”

“Teddy the media will be all over this.  You drunkenly crashed the car with a girl who isn’t your wife, and you fled the scene!”

Teddy was silent.

“I mean for Christ’s sake Teddy, your wife is pregnant!”

“I didn’t call for a lecture Bobby!  I need advice!”

“You need advice?  Stop sleeping around, stop getting hammered and don’t drive when you are drunk.  You will have to step down as Attorney General.”

“Come on Bobby, there is no need for that.”

“Do you really think your brother will allow you to continue in the post?”

“I made a mistake.”  Teddy tried.

“Teddy this has nothing to do with me.  The police are dealing with it and your brother will decide your fate.  Don’t expect me to defend you.”  Bobby slammed down the receiver in his rage.

Chapter 85

David Lewis stood silently beside Clint Hill as they watched the professionals at work.  Stanley Kubrick and Howard Hughes were rushing around the studio putting the finishing touches on the set.  The set was undoubtedly impressive, but there were a few issues that David had pointed out. 

There were wires everywhere.  He had mentioned this to Stanley, but he had been ignored.  They were to be used to allow the astronauts to perform the long jumps that would be possible on the Moon, due to the lower level of gravity.  The black screens around the set had no stars on them, Howard Hughes had explained that it was impossible to chart the position of every star, and if they made a mistake, the video would be discovered to be a hoax. 

They were shooting the video high in the Hollywood hills.  The astronauts had been required to stay in the studio since Apollo 11 had been launched, they hadn’t even been allowed to tell their families that they were heading to Hollywood, rather than the Moon.  The astronauts were still in the makeshift living quarters that had been arranged for them.  David had been amazed to see that Stanley Kubrick had written a script for the astronauts, it was he who had coined the historic saying “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

David was unsure as to how to react to Stanley, he seemed like a nice enough man but he held some odd beliefs.  He was in his early forties and had dark brown hair with a dark brown beard.  He was a Jewish man, but he had actually mentioned during their first meeting that he thought Hitler had done almost everything right.  Hitler had come up in conversation after the announcement that Wernher Von Braun had been given the death sentence, for war crimes and treason.  Stanley also seemed to be critical of America in general, which made David wonder why he had agreed to help stage the Moon landing.

David watched on as Howard Hughes and Stanley Kubrick bickered about the lunar module.

“We have to make it look as though there is a crater underneath the module.”  Howard instructed.

“That wouldn’t happen Howard.  The Moon is solid rock.”

“But it is covered in a layer of dust, when we walk on this, we leave footprints.  It would look insane if there were footprints but no disturbance where the module has landed.”

“When a plane touches down it does not cause a crater.”  Stanley argued.

“People will expect a crater.”  Howard argued.

“Well we can explain it away.  All we have to say is that with lower levels of gravity, we didn’t require as much thrust when we landed.”

Howard was silenced by this reasoning.  Both men began walking towards Clint and David, Howard tripped over one of the fake Moon rocks, but managed to stay on his feet.

“Are we ready?”  Clint asked eagerly.

Both men nodded.

“I’ll go and get the stars of the show.”  David said.

He walked away from the three men and out of the studio, it genuinely did feel as though the studio was the Moon.  It was incredibly realistic.  He walked to the astronaut’s living quarters and knocked on the door.

It was Michael Collins who opened it, he was not dressed in his space suit, as he would not be walking on the Moon, he was to be the astronaut that stayed aboard Apollo 11.  But he still had to be kept out of sight.

“Are we ready?”  Michael asked.

David nodded.

Michael held the door open for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who were both dressed in space suits.  They walked slowly through to the studio, they seemed slightly nervous.

Everyone took their positions, David stood beside Clint and Michael, as Howard and Stanley directed Buzz and Neil.

David watched on excitedly as Armstrong uttered those famous words, and saw as they planted the US flag.  He knew in advance that the flag would wave, but there was little point in bringing this up to Hughes or Stanley, they wouldn’t listen to him.

Chapter 86

David, Bobby and Faraday were sat watching the broadcast of the Moon landing.  David had received praise from Kennedy when he had first watched the footage.  Although David had not directed the filming, he had played his part in this historic moment.

Bobby and Faraday watched open mouthed as the television showed the footage of the astronauts jumping around on the Moon.

“You can see the wires.”  Faraday commented.

“I told them that.”  David replied.  “Watch closely in just a minute you will see the rock that Howard tripped over.  It was a prop with the letter “c” on it, the “c” was supposed to be hidden but he turned it when he tripped.  I told them that as well, but they wouldn’t listen.”

The three men watched in silence as the rock did come into focus.  “Oh dear.”  Bobby commented.

“Why are there no stars?”  Faraday asked.

“Apparently they would make it evident that it’s a fake.”

“But doesn’t it look more fake without stars?”  Faraday asked.

“There aren’t clouds on the Moon, so surely the stars would be very visible.”  Bobby commented.