Edward Graves: Temporal Detective

Jessica wouldn’t say that jumping out of a window was her worst idea ever, but she would never do it again, that was for sure. She rolled out of the hedge as graciously as she could and cringed at each fresh scratch then landed on the ground in a crouching position. She dusted herself off and gave herself a once over and when she was satisfied that she was uninjured, apart from a dozen or so small cuts, she checked her phone but saw that there still wasn’t a signal. Cursing under her breath, she headed to the entrance of the building, hoping to borrow a neighbour’s phone and take refuge behind a locked door.

“Locked door!” she gasped. It suddenly hit her that the main door was locked at 6pm and it was now well after 10. She patted her dress hopelessly, knowing full well that she did not have her key tucked away on her person; it was hanging from a hook upstairs.

What’s more, she now saw the men making their way down the stairs and towards the glass door. Not knowing what else to do, she spun around and ran down the driveway and into the street. The rough pavement and then asphalt were killing her bare feet, but she pushed it back with the rest of the pain she was feeling, under the category ‘to be dealt with later’.

Once she was on the road it dawned on her that she didn’t actually know where she was running to. She took a glance at her phone and saw that she was still without signal. Not seeing any other course of action, she ran up to a door and began pounding on it furiously.

“Hello,” she called, “I’m being chased and need to call the police, please let me in!”

She waited, shifting her weight from one foot to another and anxiously looking back towards her flat.

She tried knocking again and then rang the doorbell. “Hello, please, this is an emergency!”

Nothing! No movement, no lights coming on, no muffled voices.

She couldn’t waste any more time so she continued running down the street and then made a left turn onto the adjacent street, a cul-de-sac with a laneway at the end. If she were lucky then they wouldn’t know that she’d turned into the cul-de-sac. If she were unlucky then at least one of them would check down there. But if she could just keep ahead of them then she could get to the Police Station in about five minutes. She just hoped that she could last that long; suddenly she wished that she hadn’t been ‘sick’ for every P.E class she had in high school.

She allowed herself to smile as she entered the laneway but then nearly screamed as two of her pursuers appeared at the other end. She came to a dragging halt with the rough concrete path threatening to tear the skin off of the soles of her feet, then spun around and started running the other way. Her heart sank when she saw the bald man standing there with his hands tucked casually in his pockets.

She came to a halt and her heart threatened to burst from her chest. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a blue light coming from below. She looked down and realised that it was coming from her chest – it was the necklace, glowing even brighter than before. Then before she could think twice about it, there was a shimmer of blue light as a figure began to phase into existence, coalescing from a blue blur, into a distinct figure. It was the Victorian man from the shop – now complete with Top Hat. He grabbed her hand and said, “Hello, I’m Edward Graves, time to run!” And with that he charged past the bald man, pulling Jessica along as they ran out into the street.

“What was that? Where did you come from? How did you do that?” she bellowed in rapid succession.

“Do you really think that now is a good time for a Q&A session?” the man yelled back.

“Point taken,” said Jessica

They bounded up the street like bats out of hell and despite the pain in Jessica’s feet, she never even considered stopping.

“Where are you taking me?” she yelled.

“Away from them,” said the man, calmly.

The silence of the night was shattered by the sound of gunfire and Jessica instinctively cringed as bullets whizzed past her. Bullets, real bullets! She’d never seen real bullets before, let alone had them shooting past her.

They ran for two blocks, with the gunmen never far behind them, until they ran into a small park and stopped. Jessica was thankful for being able to rest but she knew that the crazy gun people would be upon them any minute.

“What are we doing?” she asked, trying to catch her breath.

“I thought that we might talk to them,” said Edward Graves.

“Are you crazy? They’ve got guns,” she said.

The man shrugged, “True, but they’re terrible shots.”

She checked her phone again. “Damn it! Why don’t I have a signal?”

“Stasis Field,” said Edward. “They’ve frozen time for everyone except for us; or to be more accurate, they’ve cut us out of time temporarily.”

“That’s insane!”

“One man’s insane is another man’s Thursday afternoon.”

Jessica panicked when she saw their pursuers coming towards the park, slow and out of breath, but still persistent.

Edward stood tall next to Jessica with his hands resting softly on top of his cane. Jessica didn’t know whether he was incredibly brave or unbelievably stupid. Either way, she felt compelled to follow his example and so she stood by his side, doing her best not to tremble from pain, fear or cold.

The bald man wiped the sweat away from his forehead and then walked up to Edward and stared directly into his eyes.

“You’re interfering in Black Glove business detective,” said the bald man. “Unless you want to risk starting another war, I’d let us retrieve what is ours. Then we’ll be on our merry way and we can all be happy.”

Edward smiled and stared back at the man from under the brim of his top hat. “Here’s a counter offer Mr. Mordecai. How about I arrest you and your goons and take the Eternity Stone back to its rightful owners?”

The bald man sneered and leant in close, so that his nose was practically touching Edward’s. “Do you really want to do this detective?” he asked in a barely audible whisper.

“Why not? My schedule’s clear for the evening.”

The bald man, Mordecai, pulled out a revolver, planted it on Edward’s temple and pulled the trigger.

There was a loud bang that echoed through the still night.

“No!” screamed Jessica.

The body of Edward Graves flopped backwards and crumpled into a clumsy heap. He lay motionless as blood began to pool on the ground beside him.

Jessica’s legs started shaking and then gave way completely. She fell to her knees and desperately wanted nothing more than to throw up. With trembling hands, she reached out for the lifeless body by her side, but at the last minute she closed her fists and drew them close to her chest.

“You monsters,” she whimpered. She had hoped that her words would sound a little more fierce, but alas, her body had refused to cooperate.

Oddly, the men kept their guns trained on Edward’s body the whole time.

“Don’t drop your guard,” said Mordecai as he turned his gun to Jessica. “You’ve both heard the stories about him. Though, I’m fairly certain that even he can’t survive a bullet to the head.”

The only dead body that Jessica had ever seen before had been her Nan’s, when she was six years old. But while her Nan had looked peaceful, Edward looked mangled and distorted.

“Now, we may not have much time, so if you could be so kind?” Mordecai stretched out his hand impatiently, while shooting sidelong glances at Edward’s body. His other arm kept his gun trained on Jessica the whole time.

Now Jessica’s survival instinct kicked in. A man had just been killed in cold blood, right in front of her. She didn’t want the same fate to befall her, not for a necklace – no gem was worth a human life. Yet, Edward had seemed to think that this particular gem was. Why? Why would he die for a rock?

With shaking arms and hands, she slowly reached back and began to unclasp the chain from behind her neck.

“Yes, good,” said Mordecai, looking anxious.

Just as she was about to unhook the chain, something caught her attention. Out of the corner of her tear-filled eye, she could see a faint, blue light coalescing around Edward’s body.

Despite the grave peril of the situation, she turned her head with her arms still reaching behind her neck. The men tensed and Mordecai turned to see what was commanding Jessica’s attention. Then, the most unexpected thing happened - Edward’s body arched back as that same blue light raced up his body and then exploded from his mouth and eyes. He dropped flat to the ground with his eyes shut. A second later, he arched again and gasped, like he’d just taken his first breath after emerging from water. He sat up and grinned.

Mordecai and the others were stunned, giving Edward the chance to roll over and smack the gun out of Mordecai’s hand with his cane. He struck him on the back of his head and then shackled him with a pair of silver handcuffs. It all happened in one swift, smooth movement.

“I hate it when they play hard to get,” said Edward, shaking his head. “What about you boys,” he asked the remaining two men, “are you going to come along quietly or are you going to resist arrest?”

In the space of a second Jessica saw the other two men squeeze their triggers and open fire, before she felt Edward grab her and then pull her behind a brick BBQ. “Alright, resisting arrest it is then,” Edward called to them.

Jessica stared at him with her mouth open. “You – you – you were dead!”

“Technically speaking, yes.” A bullet sparked as it struck a brick above his head, causing him to cringe. “I might be again in a little while.”

“But how did you...how did you come back to life?”

“I’m a little bit immortal.”

“How can you be a little bit immortal? That’s like being a little bit dead!”

“Well I can still die, technically, I’m just better at shaking it off than most people.”

Two more bullets hit the concrete, one narrowly missing Jessica’s left foot. She yelped and drew her arms and legs in as tightly as possible.

“OK, I guess the questions can wait for later.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“So what do we do now?” she asked.

“We wait for them to flank us,” said Edward as he looked around at the ground.

“You mean you want to wait for them to get a better shot?”

“Are you a Cricket kind of girl?”

“Excuse me?” said Jessica.

“I was always more of a batsman myself, but I used to have a decent bowling arm too. At least Don always said so.”

Jessica shook her head, “What are you talking about?”

Edward held up two rather solid looking rocks. “What I’m saying is, how’s your over arm?”

The two men reloaded their weapons as they made wide arcs towards the BBQ, coming around on either side. Their boss was on his knees, motionless and shackled; it was like he was in a trance. They exchanged signals and on the silent count of three they made their move.

“Now!” yelled Edward and Jessica hurled her rock at the head of a greasy-haired man with a pencil-thin moustache. She scored a direct hit and the man’s head flew back with an audible crack. He dropped his gun as he brought both hands to his nose; blood gushing everywhere.

Jessica lunged at the weapon and stood up, holding it firmly in both hands. It felt lighter than she had expected.

“Hands up,” she said, mustering every ounce of machismo that she could.

The man laughed with a mouth covered in blood, “You don’t even know how to use that thing.”

“No, but I do,” said Edward, “so I’d listen to her if I were you.” He had shackled the other man and was now holding out another set of silver cuffs.

The man stood in defiance but then reluctantly put his hands behind his head and dropped to his knees. Edward closed the handcuffs around his wrists and the man suddenly went completely still, his face locked in a permanent sneer. It was disconcerting to Jessica.

“Wipe that stupid look off your face,” she snapped.

“He doesn’t have a lot of say in the matter,” said Edward. “They’re Time Restraint Cuffs, they lock the wearer into a single second of time. He can’t move or even think right now, all of this is happening at super velocity from his perspective.”

“Right,” said Jessica, a little confused.

Edward extended a hand and said, “I think that we can get rid of that now.”

Jessica looked down at the gun in her hand and slowly passed it to Edward, who took hold of it like a dirty sock, emptied it of its bullets and stuffed it into his pocket. “Guns are despicable things, I despise having to touch them, let alone use them.”

Now that the immediate danger was over, Jessica felt all of those suppressed aches and pains rise to the surface. She hunched over and gripped her knees and then leant back against a sturdy Gum Tree and just slid down until her backside was planted firmly in the dirt. She didn’t care that she was going to ruin her expensive new dress.

A breeze began to rustle through the trees and Jessica quickly became aware of just how exposed her arms and legs were.

“The Stasis Field’s been broken,” said Edward. “Mordecai was the one keeping it up.” He noticed her shiver so he immediately removed his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. “It’s been that kind of night hasn’t it?”

Jessica looked up at him and ran a hand through her hair, she wanted to yell or cry or vent her emotions in some way, but she felt too tired to do any of that. “What’s all of this about?” she asked.

Edward sat down next to her and took off his hat, placing it in his lap. He had a head of thick, brown hair which was neatly styled with gel or oil of some kind. But the style and length seemed slightly different to what it had been at the shop.

He gently took hold of her hands with one hand and with the other, he touched her chin softly. Then he held up the glowing, azure necklace. “This is what it’s all about,” he said.

“What’s so special about a necklace?” asked Jessica, “And while you’re at it, why is it glowing?”

Edward smiled, “I’m afraid it’s rather a long and fantastic story, you probably wouldn’t believe me.”

“You’d be surprised by what I’m willing to believe right now,” she said.

He thought about it for a while, with the blue light of the stone dancing across his face and bringing out the equally brilliant blue of his eyes. “Alright, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you. This necklace, specifically the gem hanging from it, is called the Eternity Stone.”

“Alright, keeping up with you so far,” she said.

“I’m a private detective of sorts and I was hired to retrieve it after it was stolen from a museum.”

“OK so far, nothing too weird.”

“A museum in the future,” said Edward.

“Ah,” said Jessica.

“By a time-travelling criminal,” he continued.

“Right.”

“Those men were also time-travellers and work for a criminal organisation called The Black Glove Society,” continued Edward. “They’re the ones who hired the thief who stole the Eternity Stone, but he double-crossed them and ran off with the stone and his payment.”

“OK so why is it glowing?”

“The stone is time-sensitive,” said Edward, “meaning that it reacts to Chronon Radiation, which time-travellers such as myself tend to be soaked in.”

“Time-travellers such as yourself? So you’re an immortal and a time-traveller,” she said. She had a distinct feeling that she should have been questioning all of this, or be getting excited or scared or something. But honestly, she felt too tired and sore to muster up much of a reaction at all.

“Hang on, if the stone was stolen by a time-travelling thief then how did it end up here?” she asked.

“Good question,” said Edward. “How did you come into possession of that necklace?”

“It was given to me by a guy I went on a date with...oh.”

Edward patted her hand, “Oh, indeed. Would you mind telling me the name of this young man?”

She felt a little hesitant but then realised that she didn’t owe Sean anything, especially if he was the reason for her being chased by gun-wielding maniacs.

“His name is Sean Hendricks,” she said. “Do you think that he has something to do with all of this?”

“Well I don’t want to worry you,” said Edward, “but I think that you may have gone out with a thief for hire from the forty-ninth century. But never mind, I’m sure that that doesn’t say anything about your judgement of character.”

“I knew it, I just knew it!” said Jessica.

Edward raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

“Well I didn’t know it exactly, but I had a feeling that there was something up with him. I didn’t even want to go out with him; he just kept coming in to the shop to ask me out every day for a week! I only agreed in the end so that he’d finally stop.” A thought struck her, “Does this mean that he gave me this necklace so that these Black Glove guys would come after me?”

“More than likely,” said Edward. “He covered his tracks pretty well when he came to this time period, but not well enough. I was able to track him down and, evidently, so were those Black Glove agents, but he was probably tipped off that he was being tracked down. He knew that if we found our way here then we’d be able to find him by tracing the unique radiation of the Eternity Stone, so he gifted it to you to create a decoy.”

“So he could sneak away, what a little parasite!” It would be an understatement to say that Jessica was disappointed with the results of her first ever date. “So is that why you were in the shop today, because you were tracking Sean?”

Edward cocked his head, “I’m sorry, what shop?”

“Horizon Books,” she said, “the bookshop where I work. You came in today and bought some books, acting really odd.

“Are you sure it was me?”

“Hello, how many Victorian dandies do you think are wondering around the Western Suburbs of Sydney?”

“Fair point,” he said then crossed his arms and stroked his chin, “that is interesting. It seems that you and I are destined to meet again at some point.”

“Well, you said...”

“No, don’t tell me anything about what I said. That was a future version of myself that you encountered and as such I can’t know anything about it.”

“I get it,” she said as she rubbed her eyes, “paradoxes, gotcha!”

“You seem to be taking this talk of time-travel rather well,” said Edward. “Most people would have doubts.”

“Well I saw you appear out of nowhere surrounded by blue light; time-travel’s as good an explanation as any,” she said with a shrug. “Besides, I’d like to think that a lifetime of over-exposure to Science-Fiction and Fantasy have left me, not only with an over-active imagination but also an open mind. Trust me, as soon as I get over the all of the near-death terror, I’ll be going full fan-girl on you.”

Edward just laughed and muttered, “Indeed.”

They just sat there in silence for a few minutes as she let everything sink in. The feelings of anger and betrayal that she felt towards Sean; the fear and desperation that she had felt while being chased by the Black Glove; and finally the hope and wonder that she felt knowing that time travel was real.

“Say,” said Edward, disrupting Jessica’s thoughts, “how would you like to help me bring this low-life boyfriend of yours to justice?” asked Edward.

“Oh boy, nothing would give me more pleasure,” said Jessica. “But he’s not my boyfriend!”

“That settles it then,” said Edward as he sprung to his feet and dusted off his trousers. He extended a hand to help Jessica to her feet. “Go home and get some rest,” he said, “tend to those cuts and bruises; have a lovely bath, a nice cup of tea and a good night’s sleep. I’ll be in touch tomorrow.”

“How exactly will you get in touch?” she asked.

He smiled, “I’m a detective, I’ll find you.”

Jessica started to take the coat off but Edward raised a hand to stop her. “Keep it,” he said. “I’ll retrieve it tomorrow, you shouldn’t be walking home in the cold unprotected. I would usually escort you, but unfortunately I need to deal with these three first.” He indicated the three men, all still motionless in their shackles.

He placed his hat back on his head and spent a moment adjusting it and then corralled all three men into a tight group. “It just occurred to me,” he said, “we haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Edward Graves: Temporal Detective, at your service.” He removed his hat again and bowed.

“Oh well, I’m Jessica Lazarus: Bookseller, pleased to make your acquaintance.” She did a mock curtsy, well as best she could in the dress that she was wearing.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Lazarus,” he said. “Until we meet again on the morrow.”

With that, Edward and his three prisoners began vibrating into a blur of blue light, before disappearing completely. Then Jessica was left alone to make the journey back to her unit.

Her unit was one of four in a squat, modest brick building on a quiet street littered with squat brick buildings, nestled in the Western Suburbs of Sydney. Her second-floor flat, No. 4 was a cosy, one-bedroom affair complete with a kitchen, bathroom and lounge room, with a communal laundry located downstairs. Her mother had been very vocal in her disapproval of Jessica’s moving out of home, but when she turned eighteen, nearly a year ago, she finally convinced her to let her leave the nest. Despite this independence however her mother, Dianne whom lived only fifteen minutes away by car, still called her daily to check up on her.

When Jessica got home she only wanted to do two things: take a bath and then collapse onto her bed. She toyed with the idea of skipping the bath seeing as she’d had a shower before going out. But she needed to relax and she was desperately looking forward to feeling the hot water on her sweaty skin and aching muscles.

She walked into the bathroom, undressed, then reached down to the bath and turned the hot water on, ignoring the cold water tap altogether and then stepped in. She let out an audible sigh as she lowered her right foot into the water, wincing as it made contact with the cuts on her soles. It felt incredibly refreshing to have the near-scolding liquid smother her taught muscles, taking the edge off of her aches and pains. She felt that with her freshly washed body she could face anything.

She lowered her head back and let the water cover her hair and ears, stretching her legs out until her feet were touching the tap at the other end. As she absorbed all of the healing warmth into her body, she began to reflect on her night.

Time travel is actually possible! She thought as she began to dab at her cuts with a damp face cloth. She thought about all of the documentaries she’d seen about time travel and whether or not it could be possible. She thought about all of the books that she’d read and movies that she’d seen; for more than a century people had been speculating about what it would be like to travel through time and now it turned out that it already existed. How did he do it? Was there some kind of machine? Was it some kind of natural, innate ability?

She looked over at the blue frock coat that hung on the bathroom doorknob. She had a billion and one questions to ask when Edward returned.

She sat up with her wet, red hair cling to her back and began to wash the cuts on her arms, legs and feet. “Time travel is real!” she gasped suddenly, “That’s fantastic!” Once she was happy that she wouldn’t get any infected cuts she laid back down in the water. “Everything I thought I knew about the world is absolutely wrong, isn’t that marvellous?” she squealed.

After a few minutes she climbed out of the bath, let the water out and then dried off. She wrapped one towel around her body and another around her hair. After she applied some antiseptic to her various cuts, she slipped into her pyjamas and walked out onto her small balcony. She looked up at the stars and just stared, a smile still etched onto her face.

Despite the date with a con-artist and then being chased by mad time-travelling gunmen, I think that this has been the greatest night of my life, she thought. Because tonight I’ve learned that there is more to the universe than what we can see and hear around us; there is still some wonder out there.

That night Jessica fell into a deep sleep and for the first time in a long time, she had dreams; sweet, real dreams.