The Devil's Due Read Online Free PDF

hold of Jack's hand and gripped Simon's arm with the other.
    Simon gave them all one last look to make sure all was well before putting the key into the hole in the watch and turning it. Seconds later, the electric blue light snaked out of the watch and up his arm. Almost instantly, all three of them were caught in its web and the world shook itself apart.
    ~~~
    It was just after three o'clock on April 5, 1933, when they arrived in Jack's small apartment on Franklin Avenue near the base of the Hollywood Hills. After a lengthy discussion on the safest place to arrive unseen, they'd all settled on Jack's apartment. Once the coast was clear, they'd leave and head for hotels away from his usual stomping ground.
    Jack's place was a charming one bedroom upstairs in the Spanish Revival-style complex that was so popular in Los Angeles in the late 20's and early 30's. As soon as the world righted itself, Elizabeth heard the sound of a piano through the thick adobe-like walls. Whoever was playing hit a sour note.
    “That's Billy, he's actually getting better,” Jack said, rubbing his temple. “Like you said; not as bad this time.”
    Elizabeth remembered the first time she'd time traveled. She thought her head was going to fall off her shoulders. “It gets easier each time.”
    Jack's apartment was small, but surprisingly clean for a bachelor's. The floor was a beautiful light-colored wood with a darker inlay around the edges. All of the doorways were arched and open. And the mid-day sun streamed through the windows in the kitchen and front room. Every inch of it had personality. Elizabeth wondered when apartments became like her old place, just a series of dull little boxes. “Jack, your apartment is adorable.”
    “Exactly what I was going for,” he said looking around skeptically.
    “Lookin' good, Junie!” a shrill woman's voice called from outside.
    Simon discreetly peered through the curtain sheers of the front window.
    “Don't worry, that's just Hilde,” Jack said.
    In the courtyard below, a woman with short shorts and a bikini top waved to a little girl who practiced her buck and wing under the eagle eye of her plump, hovering mother. Two middle-aged men wearing matching shirts and matching faces played what looked like a very serious game of checkers, while a third man lay on his back on the edge of the courtyard fountain with sketchpad in hand.
    “Is it always so busy?” Simon asked.
    Jack peered through the curtains briefly. “Yeah, that's pretty much the usual gang for a weekday. People without jobs have a lot of free time.”
    To Elizabeth, the Great Depression always conjured images of people in soup lines in New York or hardscrabble farmers in the Dust Bowl. It was easy to forget that every part of the country was affected.
    Jack walked across the small living room and into the open kitchen. He opened the door to the squat refrigerator that had a big cylindrical compressor on top making the whole thing look like a retro robot. He bent down and pulled out a bowl of something, smelled it, made a face and quickly put it back in and closed the door.
    “We should go as soon as we're able,” Simon said. “We need to get settled at the hotel. Pardon me, hotels,” Simon added with a frown as he lingered over the s in hotels.
    Jack rubbed his face. “Yeah, sorry about that, but it's better if I don't run into Ruth.”
    Jack had had an affair with a woman at the Ambassador Hotel and, Elizabeth had the feeling, timeline aside, Jack wanted to avoid seeing Ruth again.
    “Besides,” Jack said. “I don't need anything fancy like the Ambassador. The El Rey'll do me just fine.”
    Simon was about to argue the point, again, when Elizabeth shook her head at him, asking him silently to let it be. Elizabeth had a feeling it wasn't just Ruth that made Jack uncomfortable. With no money to his name, Jack had been beholden to Simon for everything. It was hard enough for him to accept the money he needed to live, without