The Hands Of Time

Chapter 10: November 1, 2010

8:09am

Irvington, NJ

As Jace parked the tan '88 Ford Bronco in his usual spot in the City Market parking lot, he thought about how different things felt from the last time he was here on this day. When he had saved Candy from being killed in the other reality, the sun had been shining and it'd been unseasonably warm for the beginning of November. Now in this current reality, the rain cascaded from the sky in buckets and the gloom of the day seemed to match his overall temperament.

The plan that he and JP had come up with was fairly simple: wait until Candy left for work then get into her apartment, snoop around, and find out what he could. She was the common factor in he and his mother's deaths, so there had to be something with her that was amiss.

"Maybe Candy is Casper," JP had suggested as they sat going over strategy.

The thought of Candy being a notorious serial killer had made Jace laugh harder than he'd laughed in a long time.

"Candy?! Casper?!" Jace had asked incredulously. "As much as she loves them, she can't watch the gory scenes in a horror movie without covering her eyes, I highly doubt it."

"Just a thought." JP had responded before they'd gotten back to business.

Candy always left for work at 8:20 sharp every morning. She worked right on Morris Avenue in Union so it didn't take her long to drive the short distance. Luckily for Jace that Candy forgot to get her apartment key back from him. He figured that the same key should open the same door no matter what year it was, unless she'd went and had the locks changed of course, but Jace gambled on the chance that she hadn't.

As if on cue, Candy came out of her building at exactly 8:20am wearing the same pinstriped gray suit and black blouse that he'd found her dead in, the same one that she'd broken up with him in yesterday/ten hours from now. She went to the driver's side door and put her key in to unlock it when all of a sudden she stopped, turned, and stared directly at the old truck that Jace now sat in. Jace stared right back at her through the Bronco's tinted windshield and mentally dared her to approach.

He didn't know where JP had gotten this vehicle from, but it was a good idea to use an inconspicuous car for this sort of work. Candy stood there and stared for a few moments as if she could sense that Jace was sitting right there. She then got into her Maxima and started the engine before proceeding down Stuyvesant Avenue.

Jace sat in the truck for about ten additional minutes to make sure that Candy didn't come back to the building for anything she may have forgotten. After being sure that she would stay gone, Jace exited the Bronco and darted across Stuyvesant Avenue to Candy's building. He was in luck this morning because the front door that was normally locked was held open by a discarded Aleve bottle of all things which allowed him to quietly slip in.

After making his way up the stairs, Jace went to Candy's apartment door. Though she'd left almost twenty minutes ago, the scent of her perfume lingered on the air like a dream. Jace inhaled deep and thought of all the good times that they'd shared. Feeling his eyes beginning to water up, Jace quickly put the key into the lock and gave a brisk right turn of the doorknob before entering the apartment and closing the door silently behind him.

For the next hour and sixteen minutes, he went through Candy's living room, kitchenette, and bathroom like a CSI technician. He looked for anything strange and out of the ordinary but all that he found was normal and ordinary.

"Shit!" Jace swore out loud. He just knew in his gut that Candy knew something about he and his mother's murders, he just didn't know what or what it was exactly that he was looking for. As he stood in the middle of the living room with his hands on his hips, Jace then realized that he wasn't anywhere near finished.