Backtracker (72 page)

"
Even if you don
'
t believe me,
"
Larry had said,
"
can you afford to take the chance that I
'
m not telling the truth? You may
think
I
'
m lying, but can you be totally sure that I
am
?
"

Totally sure.

No, Dave
couldn
'
t
be totally sure.

Too much. It was just too much.

With a long sigh, Dave slowly shook his head. Wincing, he stared at his friend, wondered what he should do next, what he
could
do.

Abruptly, Billy shifted, twitched one leg in the dirt. At the movement, Dave
'
s heart started to race; he fully expected Billy
'
s eyes to spring open at that inopportune moment, before a decision had been made or a plan conceived...but Billy
'
s eyes remained closed and he
didn
'
t
stir further.

Though his friend stayed still and silent, Dave took his flicker of movement as a bad sign, an indication that he would soon regain consciousness. There might only be a few minutes left before Billy came around; Dave had to make up his mind quickly.

Freshly agitated, he thought furiously, strained to make sense of the puzzle.
He ha
d
to decide,
had
to decide;
he
couldn
'
t
keep spinning his wheels indefinitely, hoping for inspiration to alight like a dove upon his brow.

Larry was a killer, and he would kill again, kill at least once more. Dave felt that
he had
to try to stop the guy; he felt responsible for whoever was next in Larry
'
s vicious sights.

Still...

As long as Dave
couldn
'
t
be absolutely
sure
that the killer had lied, how could he attempt to stop him? As long as there was the
slightest
chance that Billy would be harmed, how could Dave stand in Larry
'
s way?

He
couldn
'
t
.

He
had
to.

As long as there was the chance that Larry was
lying
, how could Dave just step aside and allow the killing to continue?

He
couldn
'
t
.

He had
to stop Larry. The faceless kid, all red and white and red...he
couldn
'
t
let that happen again.

And yet...

"
Will you be able to live with the consequences if I
'
m telling you the truth?
"

And yet, there was Billy. Dave
couldn
'
t
risk turning him over to a horrible fate, the lifetime of suffering which Larry predicted might be his. Larry had claimed that all the agony that
he'd
inflicted on others was the price of Billy
'
s salvation; if, indeed, Larry had told the truth, how could Dave let all those people have died for nothing? How could he
dare
condemn his best friend?

He
couldn
'
t
.

And yet, there was the faceless kid and Tom Martin and Ernie
'
s parents and the other victims and the victims yet to come. There was that
sight
in the other trench, all red and red and red and Larry was a
monster
even if he
was
a time traveler and
he ha
d
to be
had
to be stopped.

Dave had to stop Larry. Dave had to protect Billy. Each
duty was of equal importance;
neither could be neglected.

Stopping Larry; protecting Billy. Dave had to choose one or the other; certainly, he
couldn
'
t
do both.

He ha
d
to choose.

And yet...

Maybe...

Maybe...maybe he
could
do both.

Frowning with a new intensity, revived by a flicker of hope, Dave rose from the dirt and began to pace. As slowly as the ideas congealed in his mind, he moved from one wall of the trench to the other.

Maybe he
could
do both.

He ha
d
to stop Larry, end the killing; at the same time,
he
ha
d
to make sure that Billy
'
s future
wouldn
'
t
be adversely affected.

Larry had claimed that the killing was necessary to save Billy, change the course of history. Even if Larry had told the truth about his motive for the murders,
was
the killing necessary?

Maybe, there was another way to overrule fate.

Larry had said that his next victim was the guy from out of town who would have framed Billy for murder. Larry had explained that the guy had to die so that he could never come in contact with Billy. Perhaps, the out
-
of
-
towner could be neutralized by
other
means, though.

Judging from Larry
'
s presentation, Dave supposed that the guy
'
s encounter with Billy
wasn
'
t
scheduled to occur for at least several more years. Dave had no idea how old the guy would be at the time of the encounter, but he was certainly younger now, maybe five or ten years younger, maybe as much as fifteen or twenty years younger. Perhaps, then, just as it
wasn
'
t
too late to alter the course of Billy
'
s life, so too was it not too late to reshape the out
-
of
-
town guy.

Maybe, Larry could be persuaded to adopt this alternative. Though
he'd
been adamant about the necessity of killing the guy,
he'd
also pointed out that the final murder would be
insurance
, extra protection which might never be needed. If Larry
'
s story was true, his theories accurate, Billy
'
s life had already been straightened out; the other murders had eliminated the prime movers of Billy
'
s downfall, and the final execution would just be icing on the cake. That being the case, maybe Larry
could
be talked out of killing again, talked into
trying to change the
out
-
of
-
towner instead of expunging him.

If Larry had told the truth, if Dave could convince him to spare the next victim
--
the
last
victim, according to Larry
--
the whole deadly fiasco could be resolved satisfactorily. Dave
'
s twin duties would be accomp
lished: he would prevent Larry
from killing again, and he would still be able to protect Billy
'
s future.

Of course, Dave
wouldn
'
t
hesitate to run to the police if things went sour. He
couldn
'
t
go to them immediately, because they would surely want to apprehend Larry instead of allowing Dave to negotiate with him; however, if Larry
wouldn
'
t
agree to spare the out
-
of
-
towner, if he broke his promise not to try to hurt Dave or Billy, if he admitted that the time
-
travel tale had been a hoax, Dave would bring in the cops. Once he confronted Larry, getting away from him and getting to the police could be a problem; Dave decided that he would just have to handle it when the time came, though.

Meeting Larry face
-
to
-
face would be another bridge that Dave would just have to cross when he came to it. After seeing the kid in the trench, he was terrified of Larry Smith; the thought of going anywhere
near
him thrust a frigid bolt up Dave
'
s spine, made his stomach clench and twist. Dave
didn
'
t
know
how
he could quell his fear sufficiently to approach and negotiate with Larry, behave as anything other than a babbling, frightened idiot. Still, he would have to find a way to manage; he would have to trust that the urgency of the situation would somehow inspire and strengthen him.

If the plan worked, all the strain and risk would be worthwhile. One way or another
-
by his consent or by police intervention
-
Larry would be stopped from killing. If Larry
'
s story had any basis in fact, Billy
'
s fate would be secure though no one else would die; if there had been nothing to Larry
'
s story to begin with, Dave
wouldn
'
t
have to worry about Billy at all.

The killing would stop. Billy would be safe...or would he?

What if Dave brought in the cops and they stopped Larry but
he'd
told the
truth
?
Would that not leave the chance that the out
-
of
-
towner might someday threaten Billy?

Yes; there would be that chance. Still, Dave thought that he could deal with it.

According to Larry, all the killings after the first one were just insurance. With the death of the girl whom Billy would have impregnated, Billy
'
s destiny had already been revised; supposedly, the other murders were just meant to guarantee that there
wouldn
'
t
be a resurgence of the destructive pattern.

While Dave hated to leave any uncertainty about Billy
'
s future, he thought that leaving the out
-
of
-
towner alive was a chance that he would be willing to take. Larry had already collected a lot of insurance by murdering Steve Kimmel, Ernie
'
s parents, Tom Martin, the kid from the youth center; perhaps, no more insurance would be needed.

Dave decided that it would be an acceptable risk. If the out
-
of
-
towner
wasn
'
t
killed, there might still be some danger to Billy, but Dave would make every effort to minimize it; he could keep track of the guy, steer Billy clear of him over the years or at least until he was sure that Billy could no longer be harmed by him.

Though he believed that it
wouldn
'
t
be disastrous to prevent the out
-
of
-
towner
'
s murder, Dave would still have to avoid summoning the cops until they were absolutely necessary. If he contacted the police as soon as he could, they might apprehend or kill Larry before he could reach his out
-
of
-
town victim; as a result, Dave might never learn the intended victim
'
s identity...and, not knowing who the guy was, Dave
wouldn
'
t
be able to shield Billy from him in the future. If he wanted to safeguard Billy
'
s fate, Dave would
have
to go after Larry instead of going directly to the authorities.

Pacing slowly in the cleft, Dave glanced down at his unconscious comrade. Abruptly, he realized that there was a complication which he
hadn
'
t
yet addressed, a question which had to be answered.

What would he do with Billy?