TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.3 - Of Her Impact

PART 14b: DOUBLETAKES 4

"Officer Strickland, all I know is what I was told over the phone,” explained Mr. Clayton, "Someone said that the case of the missing jewellery would be solved if I got you and Ms. Peabody back here, in an empty lobby, at ten minutes to ten."

“This is pointless," snapped Ms. Peabody. "It's obviously a ruse set up by the thief so that she has a chance to escape. If you'll excuse me, I have other affairs that need tending to."

"Ms. Peabody, please,” Strickland said. "At this point, we're a little short on leads and manpower for a search. There's no harm in following up on this, is there?" He glanced at his watch. "Though I must confess that if nothing happens in the next few minutes, perhaps we should be on our way..."

Beth Parker chose that moment to walk through the front doors of the hotel. Her appearance was greeted with varied degrees of surprise on the faces of the people present. "Hold it right there," the officer advised her, approaching quickly. "Why have you returned? Are you turning yourself in?"

The strangely clothed blonde at the door bit her lip. "What?" Beth inquired softly. She turned. "Ms. Peabody, what’s going on? I took that long walk as you suggested, and am afraid that I got lost. Is it too late to discuss our Lyon Estates company?"

Ms. Peabody met Beth's gaze evenly, finally shaking her head slightly. "I can't figure out if you're even stupider than I thought, or are finally doing something smart by giving yourself up."

"I'm not sure I understand you," Beth said. "After everything we went through last year, are you really going to let me get arrested? Is this really how you're going to conclude our association?"

Officer Strickland frowned. "Ms. Peabody, do you know this girl?"

There was a pause before Ms. Peabody shook her head again. "Aside from the time I saw her steal my jewellery, I have never seen this girl before in my life."

"Then it's true," Beth choked out. “What that boy told me, it's all true. God, I've been so naive!"

The law enforcement officer glanced from Beth to Ms. Peabody and back. "Unless you have a real alibi for about 4pm today, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come with me," he concluded, stepping towards Beth.

Mr. Clayton had already moved around to block the doorway; which meant he was caught quite off guard when it then opened behind him.

"All right," Carrie announced. "I give up! I'm turning myself in," she declared, striding into the lobby. Her arrival elicited both surprise and confusion.

Mr. Clayton rubbed his eyes. "There's two of them!" he declared.

"Great Scott," exclaimed the officer, looking back and forth between them. "Er, Ms. Peabody, these two girls do seem remarkably similar. Can you say for certain which one of them was involved in the theft?"

The woman struggled for a moment to regain her composure as she looked back and forth between Carrie and Beth, ultimately raising a finger to point at the latter. "It's her! This new girl looks too young."

"What are you talking about?" Carrie retorted. “I’m the one who confessed to the crime.”

"All right, hold on a second here," Strickland said. "Let's keep this orderly... first of all, ladies, let me get your names for the record."

"My name is Carrie," said the girl in the blue hairband.

"And I'm Beth," Carrie asserted.

"That's a lie,” Ms. Peabody objected. "Officer, they must be working together, they've reversed their names."

“You said you'd never seen me before," Beth murmured. "So how do you know what my name should be?"

Ms. Peabody opened and closed her mouth. “Because! It was that other girl by the door who identified herself as Carrie McFly earlier today," she countered.

Carrie spun. "Mr. Clayton,” she challenged. "The girl Ms. Peabody is referring to, the one who was here earlier, what was she wearing?"

"Euh, well, dark pants, pink top, blue hairband... what that girl has on right now I believe," he answered, indicating Beth.

Carrie nodded and turned back to Ms. Peabody. "In other words, the girl currently claiming to be Carrie is wearing exactly the same thing as the girl who was claiming to be Carrie before. To know that my companion here is, in fact, Beth... well that would imply some former association with her."

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"Childish nonsense," Ms. Peabody sputtered. "Officer, these two are obviously in league together. I want you to arrest them both!"

"Now hold on a minute here," Strickland replied slowly. "That is a potentially interesting point they've raised."

"I know more," Carrie noted with a smile. "Ms. Peabody has been behind several scams running in nearby towns. She was lying low here. This whole missing jewellery business has been an attempt to get poor Beth out of the way long enough for Peabody to finish tying up loose ends before fleeing the country."

"I don't have to stay here and listen to this. You have no proof of anything you're saying!"

"Actually, I do," Carrie responded smoothly. "First of all, there's currently an airplane ticket among your possessions. I also have a financial statement, which shows that a lot of money, including Beth's, has been routed to an account in Switzerland. Plus I have a list of five names, all of whom will probably make good witnesses at trial."

Carrie pulled the papers from the waistband of her 1950s skirt and handed them over to the officer, inwardly praising the detail of the articles that her future self had produced.

"Interesting," Strickland acknowledged, scanning over the documents. "As a matter of fact, Ms. Peabody, I have been keeping my eye on you the last few days. We don't get many rich folks around these parts, and you've been making a lot of phone calls. I believe I will look into this... very carefully."

"You meddling little tramp," Ms. Peabody snapped at Carrie, fire in her eyes. “Where did you get all of this information?!"

Carrie pursed her lips. Now came the tricky bit. "I am receiving it through divine intervention. For you see, I'm a guardian angel."

Mr. Clayton did a double take. "You're... you're an angel," he repeated disbelievingly.

"Oh well, see, that does it, case closed, this girl is insane," Ms. Peabody retorted.

Carrie haughtily brushed some hair back off her shoulder. "On the contrary, I shall now prove it by departing from your plane of existence," Carrie asserted. She moved to knock on the hotel doors. "Frank!"

***

'I can't believe I'm going along with this,' Frank thought to himself as he entered the lobby. 'I really can't... I'm not even positive that the machine has regained sufficient power... but at this point, what else am I going to do?' Frank smiled wanly at everyone before setting the device down on the floor next to Carrie, keeping a hand on the lever.

"Now then officer, I trust that I can leave this matter in your very capable hands?" Carrie concluded.

"Er, yes, but... just a moment here,” Officer Strickland objected. "I must insist that you not leave the area just yet. You may be required as a character witness. The situation has not yet been fully resolved.”

Carrie smiled. "It will be. You can say you got those records from an accountant by the name of Tiff Bannon." She crouched down next to the time machine and took in a deep breath. "My work here is done. So... 'bye now!"

Carrie gave a little wave, reaching back with her free hand to yank down on the lever, along with Frank. There was a bright light, a popping sound and the both of them disappeared.

***

"What on earth?" gasped Mr. Clayton, running over to the spot where they had been, before rubbing his eyes in a daze. He then proceeded to open the main doors and peer outside. "They're gone. Oh man, oh man. I'll never be able to repeat this story to anyone, they'll think I'm nuts."

Ms. Peabody hmphed, edging back towards the stairway. "Well, if the show is over, I'll be on my way."

"Not so fast," Officer Strickland challenged, regaining his composure. "As I said, this information will be looked over in detail. And regardless of its, er, source, I'd say your future is looking pretty grim! Mr. Clayton, please restrain Ms. Peabody in your office until I can verify some of this, and contact the requisite authorities." Clayton nodded, moving to comply. “Meanwhile Miss Beth, you'd better come with me, there are some questions to... Beth?"

Beth was still staring in awe at Carrie and Frank's point of departure. "She really was an angel then," the blonde choked out. "Both of them were. I mean, she said it before, but I never really believed it. My God, I actually had angels looking out for me! It's... it's almost enough to restore one's faith in humanity. Isn't it?"

She slipped off the hairband she'd been wearing and looked down at it. "If only I'd had some way to thank them."

***

Somewhere back in the woods, Frank absently shuffled his deck of cards. By his calculations, they still had an hour or so until the time machine regained enough power for their next trip. "You know Carrie," he said, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Oh, what NOW, Frank?" Carrie asked. "I mean, despite the fact that some of the evidence was deemed questionable, Ms. Peabody will still be convicted and given a jail term of 25 years. Mr. Clayton will take Beth on as a worker in his new hotel, allowing her to raise enough money to launch herself on a little singing career. Despite our theatrics, our research indicated we'll barely be a footnote in the time period. And if your question is going to get us into another quasi-religious debate, I'd rather not go there again.”

"It's not any of that," Frank retorted.

Carrie folded her arms. "What then?"

"It's this... based on what we learned, it was Beth Parker's own fault she was taken advantage of, owing to her being too trusting of the wrong person. Meaning I wouldn't have expected you to have much sympathy for her. Yet you still helped her, all the while knowing that she couldn't give you anything in return. Why?"

Carrie frowned at that. “She had me tied up. I needed a way to get her off my back," she replied. "Besides, I got to put on quite a performance too."

Frank peered closer, trying to see Carrie’s expression in the darkness. "That's the only reason...?"

"Frank, if you don't shut up, I'm going to make you walk funny for a week," Carrie grumbled.

Still, much as she hated to admit it, Frank had a point. It wasn't exactly like her to shell out such time and effort without expectation of a personal payoff. However, by putting something right that might have otherwise gone wrong... it did give Carrie the strange feeling of a job well done. Why was she resisting owning up to it?

She had even sacrificed her preferred hairband, all in the name of confusing that arrogant Ms. Peabody. Of course, a hairband didn’t matter, not in the grand scheme of things. Right?

Carrie was still reflecting on what had motivated her actions an hour later, when she and Frank activated the time machine - and failed to reach their present day.