In the same world as the Beethoven and Vermeer affairs, rogue policeman Francis Patrick Delehanty uses his own resources to travel back to the scene of the first homicide that he dealt with as a rookie cop.
Have you thought this through, Lieutenant? You see a murder in progress. You’re a cop. Do you try to stop it? But you’re not a cop in that timeline, are you? Your lieutenant’s badge is no good there. Are you acting extra-legally? The only badge around belongs to a rookie cop name Delehanty who doesn’t have a clue about what’s going down. And what if you don’t try to stop it? Are you culpable? In that timeline or this one?

Variants

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  1. “A Snitch in Time” by Donald Moffitt, in Analog, January/February 2011.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Donald Moffitt