Alex grabbed a couple of glasses from the cupboard and opened the first of the bottles of wine he had brought with him; silently handing one to Beth and pulling his chair round to get a better view of the screen.
“Ready?” Asked Beth; looking at Alex.
“Yep, let’s see what is going on here.” Replied Alex.
Beth loaded what she now considered to be the possessed document and sat back to stare at it; the word count had changed again from that morning.
“It’s changed again.” She said “It was higher this morning.”
Alex pulled his net book out and opened the document that Beth had sent to him; the word count was significantly different. They looked at each other and then both looked at the two screens.
“Let’s look at this page by page.” Said two voices in perfect unison.
The first pages were all historical details and were therefore completely unchanged, but as they moved into the present time pages it was clear that something was indeed afoot.
“He’ll be filming in Cornwall next week.” Said Beth,
“Not according to this version.” Replied Alex, “Look, he wasn’t due to be filming there till next month.”
“Who else is appearing in that one? We can see if there is any info online for them and cross-reference it.” Beth suggested, but then noticed Alex was already checking something.
“The schedule was changed; the writers had finished tweaking the script ahead of time.” He said without looking away from the screen.
“That will be the reason for the latest word count change then.” Stated Beth; she was becoming far more accepting of the strange phenomenon as the details were showing up as truth, somehow, something or someone wanted her to know where Jude Law was going to be; Beth intended to make use of this but she still wasn’t sure how.
They continued to compare and contrast the two documents and found some more changes to the schedule but as the wine bottles emptied, their focus on the screens became less effective.
**************************************************
Saturday morning arrived; the sun shone brightly and caused a fair level of wincing from Beth and Alex; as did the coffee machine and the toaster.
“Remind me that red wine does NOT agree with me,” groaned Alex, “I could murder a ciggie right now.”
“You gave up though.” Replied Beth
“I know, but there are times like this that I regret that decision.”
They sat in companionable silence, sipping tentatively at the hot coffee until Alex asked,
“What are you going to do with this info then?”
“Well, I’m not definite, but someone or something seems to want me to know where Jude is, so I’m guessing perhaps I should be there too…” Beth replied.
“You can’t just take time off work to follow him around though; Caroline would just love an excuse to have a go.”
Beth thought about her boss, a short woman of Greek origin; she had been brought in from another office and had taken an instant dislike to Beth but had not been able to get rid of her because the work was always of the highest standard.
“I’ve got some holiday time available, I just need to book it for dates that he will be reachable.” She said, raising her eyebrows at Alex’s expression.
“Not given this much thought at all then?” He responded in a somewhat sarcastic tone that only a good friend could get away with.
“Hey! You brought the wine; I always plot best after multiple drinks! You KNOW that!”
“OK sister! Sheesh! Did you already work the dates out or can I help?” Alex winked at her as he poured another coffee.
“No, not yet, I figured you’d want to help.” Beth responded, a small grin tugging at the corner of her mouth.
Several hours and even more coffees later, Beth and Alex had worked out the best dates for her to request some of her holiday, allowing plenty of time for the request to be made, questioned and ultimately approved; they had also fitted some emergency ‘sick days’ into the plan just in case Caroline wanted to be awkward, (although there was no way Beth would use them unless absolutely forced to it.)
“So, now we must wait for the approval of the little witch and you can go snag yourself a hottie!” Alex chuckled at Beth’s face.
“For that comment, you get to cook dinner.” Beth winked as she said it, she knew Alex loved to cook and he was so much better than her at it too.
