Chapter 17

When I got back to Mrs. April Hawthorn and presented my bill for $347.39, I was surprised at her reaction. She insisted that I had not charged her enough; she wrote me a check of $1000 and said that she wished that it could be for more, but she was a little strapped for cash until she could get her husband's financial affairs under better control. In the meantime, she was going to spread the word among her friends that they should contact me first any time they needed my type of services. I thanked her profusely and bid her good day.

I deposited the check in my business account and took the time to get Alice Clark on the list of people who could write checks on it. Alice didn't want to take that responsibility, but I pointed out that there could be times when bills needed to be paid and I wasn't around to sign the check. This convinced her, but I wondered how long it would be before she realized that it was a meaningless argument for somebody who could time travel like we could.

Talk about generating paradoxes! I got $50,000 from my future self's account to finance my stock purchases in the FU. I bought the stock in the David Smith persona so that there would be no trouble with age limits. I was well on my way to establishing David Smith as a real person. I wanted to make David Smith my public face in FU and keep Bruce McLoud private as much as possible.

I had not been able to think of a way to speed my way through highschool; I was just going to have to suffer through. I had made a real mistake by going to war when I did; it made the life of a teenager a real bore. How could I get excited by a football game when I had been in combat and responsible for the lives of a squad and then a platoon of men? The only thing that made it possible to stick with it was the way Brenda enjoyed her life as a teenager. I was so deeply in love with her that I could do anything in order to stay at her side.

I did spend more and more subjective time in Atlanta as David Smith just so I could keep my sanity. April Hawthorn's endorsement did gain me much needed business and started keeping Alice so busy that she began to lose interest in her soap operas, though nothing interfered with her knitting.

Now that I was spending more time in Atlanta, I noticed that Alice began to look younger and I asked her about it. She admitted that she had ordered her health maintenance program to make her look and feel younger, but to do it gradually so it would not cause other people to notice. I congratulated her on her caution and good sense; I could hardly wait to see the finished product. I knew that I could jump ahead in time and see the finished product, but I thought that would be cheating!

We got a call from Bob Tomlinson at the Atlanta PD asking for help with the crime syndicate investigation. They were having trouble locating some of the hiding places for the syndicate's business records and wanted my help in searching. They were willing to pay a consulting fee, so I was eager to help. I had found a lawyer I felt that I could trust, so I asked Bob to have their legal department contact him to work out a contract. In the meantime, I'd see what I could do.

I asked Alice and she jumped at the chance to take on this investigation as her own. I would be her front man, since the PD didn't know her, and I would help her at any time, but the case would be her responsibility. I called Bob and asked for a list of the places that needed searching; he said that he would send over the list by courier that afternoon.

We decided that Alice would work as a routine receptionist during normal office hours and as an investigator at other times. She already had a bedroom of her own in the EU, so she could sleep there any time she needed to. With her ability to time travel, she could do her investigating at any convenient time, even during the time her other self was working in the office. I did caution her to keep accurate records of her hours spent as an investigator so that she could get proper credit, and pay, for that time. Also, I warned her to be sure to get plenty of rest; even though she was now immortal, she could, and would, still get tired.