Ghost Detectives Bk. 01: Discovery

"And tell them what?"

He had already explained the situation to John over the telephone and wasn't expecting this reaction, "the attack!"

"Then what do you think will happen?"

He took a few moments to process what John had said. "They'll stop it I suppose."

"First, they won't believe us, secondly, they'll interrogate us and search our houses. We have not a shred of evidence, and if it does happen..." John thought for a few moments before speaking. "I don't really know what will happen but I do know it won't be pleasant for either of us or our families."

"You are saying we do nothing?"

"I'm not. What time did you say it will happen?"

"The article I read stated the time of the attack to be the morning rush hour; it's Saturday today, thirty days from yesterday."

"I will send an anonymous letter to the authorities, that's about all we can do."

"The press also, that should stop it from happening."

"Yes, them as well."

Together they used cuttings from old newspapers and magazines to carefully cobble a letter to the press and to the police warning them that there would be a terrorist attack within the month at Victoria underground station. There was nothing more they could do but wait to see what transpired. The following day the story broke and Victoria station was searched and the public informed to be on extra alert when traveling, with security beefed up around Victoria bus and train stations. Both James and John now felt that due to their action and the publicity and extra security in place, they had scuttled the intended attack believing any terrorist would be stopped long before they were able to bring their terror to Victoria.

Over the next two weeks James had a few more insights into the future but nothing of significance registered with him; still, he felt uneasy, something was missing. He couldn't say what the something was, but the words and pictures he held in his mind were fragmented and uncoordinated. Why some visions and not others, why some catastrophes and not others? What was he witnessing? Was he psychic? Was it just plain luck? No, he didn't believe that for it had happened far too often for plain coincidence.

The date soon arrived and they met at John's house turning the television on to the news channel. The screen flashed breaking news - suspected terrorist attack at Waterloo tube station, multiple casualties expected. They looked at each other in shock.

"No that can't be, it should be Victoria," shouted James, "I don't understand."

"Let us wait and see the true position. We don't know the extent of the attack yet do we?"

"We know it has happened."

More information started filtering through; the attack was a chemical bomb and casualties were expected to be high. It happened when the train was stationary at Waterloo. The platform was also affected. Pictures of the station shot across the screen and people were interviewed. The surrounding area swarmed with police and people wearing masks and white overalls were seen moving in and out of the station. Stretchers with attendants rushed the injured into waiting ambulances and body bags were loaded quickly into waiting vans. People were crying, relatives and friends were arriving asking about loved ones, some there just to stare, making nuisances of themselves. John and James were glued to the television as the drama unfolded.

"I know it was Victoria, this makes no sense. The article stated 55 dead with double that injured with other deaths expected."

"I have no answer."

"You and me both."

"With all the publicity, the attack must have been transferred from Victoria to Waterloo. I need to think this through. The attack happened, but the location changed, why?"

"I know I didn't get the location wrong."

"I'm not disputing that, but the publicity may have had something to do with it. Let's keep this among ourselves for the time being and see what happens over the next few days, don't even mention anything to my sister."

"I had no intention of mentioning it to Carolyn, what would I say in any event? I better be making my way home. We'll talk tomorrow."

Chapter Three

Over the next few weeks a lot more information came into the arena. The casualties were indeed the same as what James had predicted, the only difference was the location change of the attack, everything else stayed the same. Some believed the forewarning at Victoria station stood as a decoy to focus the attention away from the real target, Waterloo. If they hadn't given out the warning would it have been Victoria? And if that had been the case, it meant that their warning had changed the course of history, a sobering thought.

Another thing happened. A doctor was interviewed and he mentioned a high incidence of death due to accidents and heart attacks that had occurred over the last few days and this had John thinking. He needed to know the names of all these people and made a note of the doctor's name and from there it was relatively easy for him to see where he worked. He left it a day and phoned the hospital leaving a message asking if he could speak with him. Another day passed and he phoned again leaving a rather formal message and this time the doctor phoned back. John explained who he was and the research he had undertaken, linking it to space travel, careful to not mention anything overtly controversial. What he really wanted to know was the names and occupations of the people and his reason for thinking the way he did about their sudden demise.

Getting the names proved easy, that information was very much in the public domain and by cross referencing the names against where they worked and how they travelled a picture merged. It was more than a mere coincidence that they all travelled to work on the tube. The correlation wasn't perfect because eight people had no reason to travel, four were tourists and four lived nowhere near London. But interestingly, all were travelling at that time and had to either have passed through Victoria, or were on the station on that Friday, and now many of these people were dead within a few days of the terrorist attack. What it all meant John had no idea, but what he did know somehow all this was linked.

It was now a month since the attack and he phoned James and asked if he could call over. Later that day they were sitting in James' library discussing what they knew so far, which wasn't much.

"You must have some idea about the deaths."

"I have a theory but I have no proof, all what I tell you is theorising."

"I have had a couple of other predictions but I have no way of substantiating most of them. Small, like a marriage breakup, a near accident with a bus, not sure where, all mundane. I did have one significant happening and I wrote it down, see," showing him the date, "and it did happen as predicted. I wrote this down a month before it happened."

John read what James had written and his eyes lit up. "You not only predicted the right candidate but the exact number of votes for each candidate as well, that's incredible. James, you have just seen into the future."

"Not really, it's not accurate all the time. I failed to predict the right location of the terrorist attack."

"They are not predictions, they are actual happenings. You say you are wrong about Victoria, but I'm not so sure."

"It happened in Waterloo, nothing unsure about that."

He looked at James without speaking for what seemed like minutes, but was only several seconds. "I believe it could well be our fault."

James gave a baffled look.

"By us informing the authorities we gave the terrorist a red flag to change locations."

"Changes nothing, I still had the location wrong."

"True, but the rest of it you had right even down to the number of casualties. If taken into consideration the number of mysterious deaths within a few days after the attack that adds up to very much near the number of actual casualties at Waterloo. I know the correlation is far from perfect, but equally it's far from coincidental.

"I have spent days researching all those mysterious deaths, and every one of them was on that tube train or on the station at Victoria on the day of the terrorist attack. There were a few I failed to trace but that is to be expected; still, the correlation is more, much more, than coincidence. I'll make a pot of tea to give you time to think."

James watched him leave the room but couldn't get passed the presupposition: if he were glimpsing into the future, what he saw was wrong. The location should have been Waterloo. John seemed to be suggesting that they were responsible for the location change because of their action, so they had effectively changed the future and all the people that were on or near Victoria station at that time, and would have been casualties, were now dead or most were. That meant the future had reasserted itself as if the attack had happened at Victoria station resulting in the deaths of those who would have died should the attack have happened at the original location. In that case, what about the other people that were killed in Waterloo? A shudder shot through him; by their action had a lot more people needlessly died?

John returned carrying a tray, poured the tea, and looked across at James waiting to hear him speak.

"The more you try to rationalise, the greater the enigma grows. Have I got it right? By our intervention a lot more people lost their lives."

"It's one line of enquiry I am following, but there are so many others that need to be explored."

"The deaths at Waterloo?"

"Collateral damage, their death changes nothing."

"I don't get it, if these people were still alive any one of them could have changed history, so that can't be correct."

"The only thing I can think of is that all those fatalities would not have changed the timeline of history should they have survived. The casualties were selected, how or why I don't know but it had happened, so the time line would not alter."

"Taking that forward, are you saying that the others, the ones that died after the attack under mysterious circumstances would have changed the timeline of history?"

"Yes, I suppose I am, unless you can think of a better suggestion?"

"You lost me way back. Where do we go from here?"

"I would like to see where you are when you are able to look forward into the future."

"That's easy, my house, normally dozing in my chair, but what about Carolyn, I don't want to bring her into this, you know how she worries."

"She's away next week for four days with our parents. I'll come over then and spend a few nights at your house."

"I forgot about her going to your parents' house. She did mention it last week, quite fortuitous don't you think?"

John gave a little chuckle. "Could be destiny."

James chortled. "Don't go there, we have enough to contend with without you bringing destiny in the mix."

The following week saw them both at James' house. The room was large and nicely furnished but nothing out of the ordinary. The full-length window, somewhat secluded, looked out upon a well-tended secluded garden. The chair James normally sat upon had large arms and a cushioned back. Two of the walls had bookcases overfilled with books. A table stood against the other wall, a settee sat in the centre of the room adjacent to another chair and several pictures adorned the walls.

James explained again to John that he got the visions seated in the chair either when asleep or when dozing. He had no control over what he was shown or what he was given to read, it just happened. The visions flash in front of his eyes as if it were on a television screen, but the difference was that what he saw, happened a few weeks later and what he read was printed in the papers if not actually word for word very near to it.

John walked around the room carrying a little handheld tool and pointed it at different corners of the room, but it gave off nothing meaningful. He concentrated his energy on the chair and window but again with the same results. He pointed it directly at the glass in the window and held it there for quite a while. He had a reading of sorts but nothing of any significance that made any sense.

"Most weird, there must be something. Go over it again."

James gave out a little sigh. "I have said already and have nothing more to add. I sit in that chair and it happens, what more can I say?"

John sat in the chair and asked him if he had any sleeping tablets. James knew Carolyn had some and he went into the bathroom, returning with two and a glass of water, giving them to John who asked James to leave him alone in the room for a few hours after first setting up a video camera and pointing it at the chair. James had plenty to do in the garden and left. John relaxed into the chair and after a while he felt drowsy and drifted off to sleep waking four hours later feeling groggy. If he dreamt, he couldn't remember a thing about it. He scrolled through the video cam which revealed nothing of significance and was at a loss of how to proceed. He saw James in the garden and tapped the glass in the window and gestured for him to come into the house. James entered and stood next to John waiting for him to speak.

"The visions must only work for you."

James shrugged his shoulders. "Do you think I have some form of special power?"

"Not sure, but you must have something. I saw and felt nothing."

"Where do we go from here."

"We monitor you when you sit in the chair through the video cam. Do you have any more of those tablets?"

"I'll take two after lunch."

James settled into the chair with John resting back with a book on the settee waiting for James to drift off to sleep. For a while nothing out of the ordinary happened, then James stood up, walked towards the window, stepped straight through the glass and disappeared. John jumped up off the settee and hurried toward the window and tried to follow but couldn't. He ran out of the room and into the garden looking around but James was nowhere to be seen. He returned to the house checking every room but still no James. He returned to the library, retrieved the camera and played it through and it showed exactly what he had originally observed. There was nothing else for him to do and he sat back on the settee and waited.

Three hours later James returned through the glass, sat back down in the chair, eyes closed, as if he had just slept there for the last few hours and had not moved. John waited. Twenty minutes later James stirred, opened his eyes, stood and looked towards John. "Anything of interest happen?"

"I have loads to tell you. This is madness."

John decided to hold back a bit before he disclosed what he had witnessed, "another vision?" he prompted.

"I dreamed I walked around my garden and then into town. Called into the supermarket and strolled around the aisles. I didn't know old Joe Dowell had died his funeral passed me on the High Street."

John remained non-committal, giving nothing away. "He had been ill for quite a while and I would have attended the funeral if I'd realised."

I waited until the cortege passed and went into the library to read the papers."

John prompted further, "anything of interest?"

"A rape outside Peaches' pub at around 11.30am four days ago but they have no obvious suspect."

John homed in on this. "That's the third rape over the last twelve months. They need to catch this guy and castrate him."

"I'll hold the knife," said an angry James. "Scum like that should be strung up by the goolies and left to hang until it drops off."

"I'll sharpen it for you. Any other interesting news?"

"A landslide in Haiti killing over fifty people. M4 closed last week for 10 hours due to a lorry overturning near Reading causing chaos and gridlocking everything for most of the day. Lottery rollover."

"Do you remember the numbers?"

James had to think for a few seconds. "I know the first three were 5, 9, 14, not sure of the other numbers; oh yes, 23, 8, 9 or 19, not sure and 1, the bonus I think. Redundancies in the factory out by Jumbly Road where they make motor parts, they are moving the plant to China. Loads of news on Parliament, a scandal with one MP, but that's nothing new, and a fire somewhere is Scotland, can't remember where exactly."

John debated whether to tell him about his disappearance but decided to check something out first.

"Do you think I saw into the future?"

"I think it's more than that. I think you were actually there in the future."

"Can't be I was sitting in that chair."

"Are you sure?"

"Come on, you were here and witnessed me in the chair asleep."

John, despite what he had earlier thought, decided to come clean and enlightened him on what had happened, but first he made a quick phone call.

"I disappeared through that glass? Why didn't you follow me?"

"I tried. You walked into the future James. Not sure how many days but I don't think it's more than a few weeks. What happens there happens here within a short period of time. Joe is still alive but near the end, that was the phone call I just made to check."

"This is really screwing me up." His eyes sharpened. "We can stop the rape from happening and catch the culprit, it will happen in a few days and we know the time and place. Why do you think that I was able to go forward but it wouldn't let you through? Let me see the video."

It was exactly like John had said. He stood, walked over to the window, and disappeared. "Wait a moment, how did I get back. I stepped into the future, therefore, I must have somehow stepped back into the present."

"What did you do after the library?

"I walked home."

"There's you answer. You walked home and instead of entering by the door, you returned through the window."

"I remember being in the garden and then waking up in my chair."

"The window is exactly that, a window into the future and you seem to be the only one that is able to walk through it."

"I didn't notice anything different. Don't you think I should have noticed changes?"

"You didn't notice because it was only a few weeks into our future and you were familiar with all that you saw, but there were changes. Joe is the one which stands out; as of now he is still alive and the rape has not, in our present time, happened. I suspect that if we analyse all that you did notice in greater detail numerous changes would show up. You were unconscious, so you were labouring under your subconscious mind so the pictures you saw were already imbedded there so you were not looking for change."

"Why do I have to fall asleep first. I don't understand why that should be the case."

"If I am correct, I don't think you do. You would never think to walk through a glass window if you were awake, but asleep your subconscious mind has no such restrictions. Go and try. Go to the window and take a step forward, I bet you will be able to just walk through."

James laughed. "Either that or you'll be taking me to the hospital to remove glass from my body."

"Go on, give it a try now, walk forward a few steps turn and walk straight back." James looked at John unsure and apprehensively walked to the window. "Look, if there is resistance from the glass you will feel it and you stop."

James turned to look back at John for reassurance and stepped forward four steps, turned, and walked back four steps. He felt nothing strange but knew he'd walked through solid glass and now back through it again and stood exactly where he started. He asked John to try it. He shook his head stating that he had tried it the first time James had walked through and the window stayed solid.

James felt uneasy. "What does all this mean?"

"You, for reasons unbeknown, are able to walk into the future whereas I cannot, that is the simple answer, why that should be I don't know." He did have a theory but he needed to research it further before mentioning it to James and briskly informed him he needed to go back to his house for the rest of the day.