Corrector

by Blink, Bob

  “I’d like to see a map with the suspect incidents and these names,” Carlson said.

  Shaun grinned and laid the last sheet of paper he had brought into the room on Carlson’s desk.

  “I plotted the nine cases and the names here. I also added the dates of the incidents for reference.”

  Carlson looked at the familiar map, recalling each case that she’d either read about or personally visited. The cases which had a credit card and name attached were scattered randomly around the country. There didn’t seem to be a location factor at work.

  “Look at the dates,” Shaun urged.

  Carlson did as Shaun suggested. The man was right. The four cases where they didn’t have a match were the oldest of the incidents.

  “He changed names and cards,” Carlson concluded immediately.

  “That’s my guess as well.”

  “Can we search the older databases for a similar set of matches?”

  “It can be done, but it’ll take longer. There are a lot of names, and we don’t have a small list to start with. I’ll have to program some kind of search conditions and turn the computer loose.”

  “That’s task number one,” Carlson directed. “For the five cases where we think we have names, did you run these names and the associated credit cards through the computer records we obtained from the airports at the time?”

  They had acquired a massive list of names and cards from all of the airlines at nearby airports, but having nothing to check against, nothing had been found. Now they might have the key to learn where the individual was coming from or going to.

  “I did,” Shaun confirmed. “There were no matches. The vehicles were always rented at or near an airport, so it seemed natural to expect something.”

  “He might be using a different set of cards and identification for the flights. Perhaps even his own real ID,” Carlson mused. “As a second task, have the computers sort through all of the lists and see if there are any names, identical or suspiciously similar, between the databases from the different incidents.”

  “Okay,” Shaun agreed. “I’ll get on it right away. Anything else?”

  “Probably, but it doesn’t come to mind at the moment. This is great work, Shaun. I think you may have provided us with our first real lead.” She smiled at the younger man.

  Shaun Hansen flushed. Such a compliment from Susan Carlson was high praise indeed. He’d thought he might have found something, and was gratified that Carlson had felt the same. Now he was eager to get back to his computers and see what might come of it.

  Chapter 10

  Reno’s Meadow Wood Mall wasn’t the only place to shop in town, but it was one of the locations that offered a variety of stores and, more importantly, the only location that had a Sears store. While everything Jake read implied the Sears chain was on its last legs, he still liked the place for the tools they sold. The Sears tools were quality items and better yet they stood behind their product. He’d seen them replace without a quibble, items that were many years old and had seen abuse the tool wasn’t intended for. That type of customer service had made a believer out of him, and he remained a loyal customer. Today he was looking for something for Nate, who had both a birthday and a project that Jake intended to support.

  Karin was along for two reasons. Most importantly, at least in Jake’s mind, she was along to keep him company. That said wonders for the state of their relationship, as had their lovemaking the previous night at his place. In addition, she wanted to stop by the Disney store to pick up a gift for the daughter of a friend who had a birthday sometime during the coming week. They had parked his Silverado pickup near Sears, and then walked down the mall so Karin could make her purchase first. That gave them a chance to window shop, something important to Karin and less so to Jake, who always knew what he wanted before he came to the mall, and didn’t understand the female pastime of looking at things they didn’t need or didn’t really want to buy anyway.

  “I like those,” Karin noted, pointing at a pair of mid calf length leather boots in a window that cost four times what a pair of his best shoes would run. He knew she would never buy something that expensive, but was merely noting an item that appealed to her. He made a mental note against a possible future present, but had learned that pursuing items she pointed out wasn’t always the best way to select a gift. She tended to prefer cheaper, more personal items.

  They had walked almost the entire length of the mall when Karin pulled him into a small cul-de-sac hallway off the main drag. Part way down on the right was the store that sold toys based on the Disney characters and movies. This was foreign territory to Jake. He didn’t relate to the many toys displayed, but couldn’t help wondering that Disney could still make money, lots of it apparently, selling toys for characters that he’d watched as a kid. As they entered the store, a little girl and her obviously frustrated mother were looking at a large display near the entrance. A doll of a girl character dressed in blue with a large black horse were prominent, and even Jake could tell the little girl desperately wanted the toy. Jake didn’t know the name, but even he was familiar with the character, having seen countless short commercials of the girl shooting an old wooden bow and nailing the target. Somehow the strong will of the character struck a chord, and the determination of the little girl reminded him of the character as well. Unfortunately, it was obvious from the look on the mother’s face as well as the used appearance of her apparel that the toy wasn’t something they could afford.

  Jake followed Karin deeper into the small store. She seemed to know what she wanted, and before long had latched onto a long box that held a series of dolls. Disney princesses, Jake read as she turned the box over to examine the price. Karin seemed satisfied, although Jake thought the price a bit high for toy dolls. As Karin headed off to pay for the item, something Jake knew better than to offer to pay for as it was a gift from her, he passed a section that had more of the dolls like those at the entrance. Merida, he read the name of the character off the front of the box. He looked back toward the front of the store where the mother was still trying to coax her offspring to leave. Without thinking about it, Jake grabbed one of the larger boxes that held both the character and the big horse, then followed Karin over to the cash register. He placed the item on the counter, just as Karin was receiving her change.

  Karin looked at him oddly for a moment as the cashier rang up the sale. He pointed with his chin toward the little girl by the entrance, and Karin looked that way. She smiled as Jake accepted the large bag with his purchase and they headed back toward the entrance.

  As they passed the woman and the little girl, Jake paused briefly and handed the woman the large bag. She looked at him uncomfortably, uncertain what to do.

  “It’s alright,” Karin said softly to the woman. “It’s for your daughter. A gift.”

  Still uncertain, but encouraged by Karin’s reassuring words and smiling face, the woman hesitantly accepted the bag from Jake. He smiled and nodded, then turned away with Karin as the woman started to look inside. They were almost fifty feet away when Jake heard the childish whoop of delight behind him and felt a rewarding squeeze of his hand from Karin as they continued without looking back.

  Jake watched as the small forklift placed the boxed air compressor unit into the bed of his truck. He and Karin had driven around to the side of the store for heavy item pickup after making their purchases inside. They already had placed the pair of nail guns and the paint spraying system into the storage space behind the two seats in the cab of the Chevy. Once the compressor was loaded, they headed off, jumping on the nearby freeway.

  Nate lived in Spanish Springs on the northeast edge of Sparks in a sprawling single story house with a large backyard. The yard included a barn and a small corral for the two horses he kept. Behind the yard the country opened up into desert where he could ride if he didn’t want to load the animals up in the trailer and take them elsewhere. The barn had seen better days and Nate had been indicating he w
anted to rebuild sections of it this summer. That had given Jake the idea for the birthday present he and Karin had selected at Sears.

  Stepping out of the truck after backing into the driveway, Jake could hear voices in the backyard. It sounded like his friend had company. Reaching behind the seat to recover the packages, he handed the lighter spraying unit to Karin, then retrieved the pair of heavy nail guns and the long hose for the compressor. Together they walked along the side of the house and peered into the backyard. Nate was standing in the middle of the backyard alongside a shapely woman with short brown hair. Momentarily Jake wondered if Nate had met someone new, then realized it must be his brother’s wife.

  Nate’s brother was leading one of the horses with a pair of young girls sitting on the bare back clutching tightly to the mane as the horse walked slowly around the small corral. They screamed in delight as the large animal moved around in a wide circle under the careful control of the man who looked too much like Nate to be anything other than family.

  Nate heard them open the gate and looked their way.

  “Jake! Karin! Come in,” he said, gesturing as he spoke.

  They walked over to Nate and the woman.

  “This is Katie,” Nate said making introductions. “Katie, meet Karin and my good friend and shooting partner, Jake.”

  After exchanging the usual pleasantries, Jake handed the package he was carrying to Nate. “Happy birthday,” he said.

  Karin handed her items over as well.

  “There’s an air compressor in the truck for these,” Jake explained. “They’ll make that barn repair a lot simpler. Once your brother is finished, he can help us unload.”

  Katie and Karin disappeared together inside, returning in a few minutes with a couple of cold drinks. Jake accepted a cold bottle of Sam Adams draft and sat down in one of the chairs to watch the two girls on the horse.

  “What are their names?” Karin asked, seeing where Jake was looking.

  “The blond girl is Nate’s niece,” Jake explained. “Her name is Kelly. The other is a friend of hers. I don’t know her name.”

  It was true, although Jake suddenly realized who she was. The red hair gave it away. This was the young friend of Kelly’s who he had saved by flattening the tires of the drunk some weeks before. He suddenly felt odd. He’d never seen the girl, nor learned her name, but here was firsthand proof that what he did had positive consequences. The two children were obviously close and were having a ball today.

  “Matti,” Nate said from the chair to Jake’s right where he was sitting. Nate had overheard the conversation.

  Suddenly Jake had an idea how he might be able to broach the subject of his ability with Karin. He would start it slowly, and explain some of the positive aspects before widening the discussion into the darker issues.

  “It’s just about time,” Karin said as she turned on the television.

  They were at her place after returning from Sparks. They’d had a quiet dinner that Karin had cooked, and were settling in for the evening. Tonight was the drawing for the lottery. It wasn’t something that either of them usually paid any attention to, but the jackpot had grown to an unprecedented two hundred and forty million dollars, and even Karin had insisted on buying a ticket earlier in the day. That had required them to drive up to the California-Nevada border on the West Side of Reno. Now she wanted to see if her special numbers were indeed lucky.

  Jake felt his own tingle of apprehension as Karin sat down next to him and placed a paper and pencil on the coffee table in front of them to record the numbers. She looked at him and crossed fingers on both hands.

  Suddenly Jake leaned forward and retrieved the pencil, writing a series of numbers on the paper. He wrote 10, 41, 4, 8, 31, and then off to the right with an inch separation, added the number 51.

  Karin watched him as he wrote.

  “What’s that?” she asked as he sat back, setting the pencil down.

  “The winning number,” he replied.

  “I hope not,” she replied, comparing his number to her own. “I don’t have any of those numbers. Why did you write them out of order like that?”

  “That’s the order of the draw,” Jake explained.

  “Sure it is. Now you can tell the future.”

  “In this case I know.”

  Karin looked at him oddly.

  “Jake, you’re giving me chills. You sound so positive.”

  Just then they were interrupted as the drawing began. The first number came rolling down the tube, and Karin gave Jake a wide-eyed look as it was shown to be number 10.

  “That’s spooky,” she said.

  The numbers continued to roll down the tube and in a few minutes the correctness of Jake’s prediction was displayed.

  Karin looked at the numbers and then at Jake, her own lotto ticket forgotten.

  “You knew? How is that possible? Did you know when I bought my ticket?”

  Jake nodded. He had, or at least he had known after he back-tracked from tomorrow once he had made his decision to tell Karin.

  “You could have won? Why didn’t you get a ticket? You have to tell me how. The lottery isn’t rigged is it?”

  “I don’t want to win,” Jake explained. “I don’t want the attention it would bring.”

  “I know you have money, but to pass up winning. I don’t understand.”

  “How do you think I made my money?”

  “You said you made some lucky investment choices,” Karin replied.

  “They weren’t lucky. I knew in advance that the stocks I bought were going to go up. Just like those numbers.”

  “You are implying you can tell the future?”

  “Not in general, but selectively, I can know what will happen.”

  Then he told her a little about his ability. How he’d first learned of it and generally what he could do.

  “That’s not possible Jake,” she said when he finished.

  “How do you explain the numbers,” he said, pointing at the list on the coffee table.

  “I can’t,” she admitted, “but no one can do what you are claiming.”

  “Remember the little red-haired girl we saw with Kelly today?”

  “Matti,” Karin said, supplying the name. She’d always had a better memory for names than he had.

  “Matti,” he agreed. “She was run over and killed by a drunk in a runaway car.”

  “My God! Today? After we left?”

  “A number of weeks ago,” Jake said. “Nate mentioned it to me after it happened. Kelly was really upset and Nate wasn’t sure what to do to help his brother.”

  “How could she have been killed weeks ago? We saw her today.”

  “I back-tracked and stopped it from happening.”

  “Back-tracked?”

  “That’s what I call it when I send my memories back to myself. Knowing what happens, I can sometimes make adjustments that changes events.”

  “You’re saying that Matti was killed, but because you were able to back-track as you call it, you made it never happen?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And that’s how you know the lotto numbers?”

  “I back-tracked from tomorrow morning. I saw the result, and passed the information back to myself.”

  “If you are telling me the truth, you can change the future.”

  “Not the future future. Just kind of the local future around us.”

  “Why don’t you tell anyone about this? Think what you could do?”

  “Think what they would do to me if it became known. Everyone would want me to change something. Scientists would want to study me. I’d no longer have a life.”

  “Have you done the kind of thing like Matti before?”

  “I’ve influenced a number of events. I have a mind full of futures that never happened now.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Earlier this summer when Nate and Zack and I went to Yosemite, I stopped a couple of boys from being swept over the wat
erfall. Last year an earthquake was going to collapse an elementary school in the Midwest. I called in a bomb threat to get them to evacuate the building. Everyone was outside when the quake struck.”

  “I remember seeing something about that. They said it was a miracle that everyone had been outside. Why didn’t you just tell them about the quake?”

  “It would be taken as a crank call. I’ve run into that a couple of times. No one will believe an unidentified caller claiming to know something like that.”

  “What else?”

  Jake told her about the one incident where his attempt at getting authorities to stop a potential sniper had actually worked out.

  “You said you came back from tomorrow.”

  “I didn’t ‘come back’. I simply transferred my memories from then.”

  “Then you know about us tonight. Did we make love?”

  Jake smiled. “We did. That doesn’t mean we will necessarily now. I’ve changed things by telling you this. Before, you didn’t know. I can tell you are really uncomfortable and uncertain now.”

  “Can you just hold me tonight? I need to think about this? If I have a test for you, will you do it for me?”

  “Absolutely. That’s what this is about. I need for you, of all people, to know the truth about me. There’s no way we can go forward without you knowing.”

  Chapter 11

  Jake slowly lowered the side panel in the Silverado’s camper shell that served as storage for clothes and other items he might want frequent access to during his trip. He was just about packed and would be ready to leave first thing in the morning. He’d decided to get a full night’s sleep before heading east on Highway 80 across the barren wastelands of Nevada. That part of his drive would be the most boring and he’d be glad to have it behind him. Driving at night had a certain appeal, but he knew he’d been spending too many long days stewing about the situation and needed some rest. His rubbed his hand across the growing stubble of his beard. He wasn’t used to it as yet, but had decided to let it grow after he’d skipped shaving a couple of days. Not having to shave would be a benefit while he was out in the wilds.