Chapter 3



One of the first things that I noticed, was a plug in for the phone, which the elder me had connected while hooking up the back end. My new computer was able to do a 'Caller ID' very easily. I had to let the phone ring at least three times for it to run a trace. I was working off a satellite phone system, after all.

Twice now, I was saved from answering calls from England. I let my machine answer them, with a 'leave your name and number after the beep' message. One was from the ministry house in London, the other was from the hotel where Courtney worked. I guess they were checking to see if I was really dead. I didn't return their calls, of course, much as it pained me not to.

I still had to get the work finishing my shelter for the helicopter. That meant a heating system had to be installed. The temp got down to well below zero during the winter months, and I didn't want the machine damaged after I finally purchased it.

I sighed. Everything seemed to be happening at once, and I needed to go somewhere and relax. I also needed to think my future through very carefully. What did I want to do? I knew from personal experience that a previous future me had captured two people who he had then left tied up in my home, leaving me to dispose of them.

Try as I might, I had been unable to access anything that looked like a burglary and that had led me to the conclusion that time had indeed been changed, or my future had changed, anyway. Damn it! Messing with time was a complicated business! My future self had to be very desperate to risk changing my life so drastically.

Something my future self had not taken into consideration, was that I might not want or be able to disassociate myself with Courtney and the Avery-Smythes. After all, they did know my alternate ID, and I had no plans to make yet another one. I sighed. I needed a vacation, and by god, I was going to take one, too!

Come on, Tom... well, Benjamin, now... Think!

I had the ability to go back into time. I could go to a nice quiet place, and relax. I just had to do it somewhere in the past, thereby giving myself time to consider and think through all my options.

So that was what I decided to do. I set about preparing for an extended vacation in the past. What better a vacation, than to find out for sure about something that was causing controversy to this day, over a 100 years later.

Yes, I am talking about Lizzie Borden. Did she or didn't she? While she had been found not guilty by a jury, the prosecution had presented a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence. In this day and age, it would have gotten someone found guilty.

Lizzie had been born in 1860, and her mother had died early. Her father remarried. Lizzie and her older sister never got along with their stepmother. Bitter arguments had ensued over the money their father spent at the behest of his new wife.

The end result was, in 1892, both the stepmother, and the father had been killed. The elder sister had been out of the house, elsewhere. Her story had been confirmed. She was in the clear.

No, everyone had decided that Lizzie had in fact committed this murder. To explain away the fact that no blood had spattered on her clothing... why, she must have done it in the nude!

This would be a perfect vacation for me. I was a nosy son of a gun, and had already figured out one mystery: the Kennedy assassination. Here was another mystery that was crying out for me to come and solve.

I easily got some money from the period, and clothing. I took three fairly decent gems to the New York of 1891, and sold them. A ruby and two emeralds later, and I wound up with a couple thousand dollars. This would give me more than enough to live comfortably in 1892. I would only be in Fall River, Massachusetts. The place of the infamous murders.

I placed several useful items in the between, checked what I already had there, and added a few other items. I then bought a ticket through an agency to New York City. It was a long, long trip. I did take extra care.

I was going back to my home state, after all. What made the trip even longer was I was making the trip in the past. I took a train from New York's train station. I decided that I would travel in 1950's. That period's money had been easy to come by, as well as the clothing.

Still, all in all, the trip was not too bad. I made my way to within a few blocks of a local church. Even in the 1950's, there was more than enough energy gathered to move me to the where/when I wanted to go.

I already knew of a boarding house close by. When I arrived, it was just two days prior to the date of the murders. I spent those two days getting to know the area. I went on walks, and went to the local library.

There were horse drawn cabs, and if you had the money (which I did), you could rent a horse. I quickly found the street she lived on, and the house, number 92. I did some recon from that area that lets me get into anywhere, unseen.

I had been thinking of the 'almost here' area, which I can use. It is unseen by the rest of my fellow man, but is accessible to me. I decided it must be part of the 'between', but sort of like at the edge. A beginning of the between, near the reality of the main world, so to speak.

I wish there was someone I could talk this over with, but my future self, and my experience of the past, has made me triply leery of revealing anything to anyone at all. Still, this 'area' was useful in getting me into, and moving me around freely, in places I had no business being.

I quickly identified Lizzie, and followed her around the house a bit, and on her errands. I also checked out her past a bit. She had a nasty temper. She seemed to be a sweet loving girl one moment; but when thwarted, or denied something she wanted, she became angry.

I spent a day getting this information down on tape, and firmly in my mind. She and her older sister were very close. One moment she doted on her father, the next she would give him that, "if looks could kill" look. I wondered if she were schizophrenic. A multiple personality?

I went back to my boarding house, and ate a very nice meal that evening. I would hate to be a homemaker in that day and age. It was August, and very hot. I can only imagine how hot the kitchen must be!

We had pot roast, sweet corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, and homemade bread. Butter was available and it was not that yellow color we are so used to. It was actually the normal color of butter, which is white. For some reason, modern butter is colored yellow. Since I grew up on a farm, I already knew that, though.

The table conversation consisted of Mark Twain's writings, and the latest that had been heard about Tom Edison, and what he was doing in New York. I threw in a comment or two on Twain's books that had already been written. Then, after dinner, I excused myself for an evening 'constitutional'. i.e., I took a walk.

Fall River was a beautiful place, really. Huge trees line the streets, and people were already out walking. Some were arm in arm, some alone. Kids were playing and laughing. It was a Norman Rockwell time, if I ever saw one!

I decided to travel around this time a bit, and I already knew the date of the murders, so I went back to my boarding house. I informed my landlady that I would be checking out tomorrow. I said I was going to catch a train, earlier than I had expected. She became concerned, but I just said I was homesick. She said she understood.

I went upstairs, and looked at the mattress of the bed. I could only hope it didn't have any critters in it. Still, the place was clean, and the other guests were wearing good clothing. I don't think the landlady let in anyone of the 'wrong crowd', so to speak.

Everyone turned in pretty early, although there was a small area that catered to the after dark crowd. My landlady, Mrs. Cotter, did not approve of late night carousing, and said that the house was locked promptly at 8:30, and that no one was admitted after 9PM. Borders who found themselves coming back after that could find another place to sleep. No refunds would be given.

I liked this feisty lady!

I left right after breakfast, the next morning. We had eggs, bacon, more homemade bread, and butter. There was milk, coffee or water for those who wanted them. A choice of preserves, or honey was there for the taking, also. Unlike a modern house, no one tried to read a paper or did anything except eat. The conversation was minimal. Most of the borders were concerned with their daily cares, or what they would soon be doing.

I went upstairs after breakfast, and retrieved my small 'period' suitcase, which contained a couple changes of clothes, long underwear, extra socks, and another pair of period shoes, but more sturdy ones. I came back down and settled with the landlady.

I told the landlady I had enjoyed my stay, and would mention her establishment as the place to stay, to my friends. She hmmph'd at me, but I could tell she was pleased with the compliment.

I took my leave of her, carrying my valise, and walked quickly to a quiet out of the way place I had seen yesterday, and placed my case into the 'between' for storage. I then "looked" into the future. I watched for the next day. I saw it and then I 'time dived' to the 'almost there', and arrived out of sight.

I quickly made my way to the Borden house, and observed it until Mr. Borden left for his daily errands. I went in, and then fast-forwarded through the day until I came upon the time of the murders.

First of all, Lizzie Borden, while much maligned and spiteful, did not directly kill her stepmother. She did watch it happen, though. Yesterday, I had observed her trying to buy a poison, and fail.

She had been followed out of the pharmacy, and approached by a guy who said he could take care of her 'problem', for 300 dollars. As soon as he did the job, he wanted to be paid, then he would leave town on a train, the next day.

I had my camcorder handy, and taped the murder, while Lizzie watched from a safe distance. Lizzie informed him that he would be paid tomorrow. The man said he wanted his money now, which was what was promised. Lizzie replied she did not have the entire sum at the house, and she had not been able to get to the bank as of yet.

The guy left, a bit disgruntled. He returned following Mr. Borden in, and locked the door behind him quietly. He watched as Lizzie lied to her father about her mother getting a note about a sick-call on a friend, and helped her father to a couch to nap.

Shortly after that, while Lizzie was upstairs in another part of the house, the man then killed Mr. Borden. When Lizzie returned to the room, she was shocked to see the guy dressed in some of Mr. Borden's clothing, and waiting for her.

They had a short fierce conversation concerning payment. The guy settled for 172.00 dollars that was on hand, and left. I think Lizzie was surprised to be alive, but she only briefly showed sorrow at her father's death. Her stepmother's death had not bothered her at all. Talk about your 'woman scorned' syndrome!

So that was what happened to Lizzie Borden's parents in Fall River, Mass. While she had not actually done the deed, she was in it up to her eyebrows, over her mother's murder. However, she was not involved except as a shocked discoverer of her father's death. Of that she was totally innocent.

I then went forward a bit, and followed Ms. Borden as she was arrested, and then as she spoke to her attorney. That law firm is still in practice today, and the confidential files are still sealed and filed away in the firm's offices, somewhere. The gist of it is this. She explained that she had not killed anyone. She refused to accept a plea, or to plead anything but 'not guilty'. After all, she was not responsible for her father's death, why should she take a guilty plea on it?

The attorney tried to get her to change her mind, saying he could site extenuating circumstance in her mother's case. However, since she had failed to report the crime immediately, it would be difficult.

She said she was responsible for her mother's death, but not her father's, and she refused to be blamed for something she did not do. Since the charges were already leveled, and her good name smeared; she would plead not guilty to it all, and let the chips fall where they may.

Everyone knows what happened after that. She was found not guilty, and spent the remainder of her life living in the comfort provided by her father's money, until her death in 1927. I did go and check on her and her sister once, to discover why her sister had moved out from the mansion they were sharing.

Lizzie finally broke down and told her older sister that she had arranged to have her mother killed, but that she had not had the entire bulk of the payment at hand, and the guy went berserk, killing their father as well. Lizzie loved her sister, and wanted her to know she was not responsible, once and for all!

Well, her sister had moved out immediately, and never spoke to Lizzie again after that. Lizzie had made several overtures over the remaining years, but those were met with silence. The sisters both died in 1927, Lizzie from pneumonia, and her older sister, ten days later, from a fall. All in all, it was a sad situation.

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Edited by TeNderLoin

Volentrin

Chapter 4