Crime Time

We descended the basement stairs leaving Quinn alone in the kitchen. The women once again remained close by. The basement area was considerably larger than Quinn's small cabin lab-room, noticeably so with fewer plants and absent the desk. Due to the closeness of the neighbors, I was fearful of noise causing Howie problems. If I thought Howie might have difficulty napping, I was dead wrong. I detected his rhythmic breathing within minutes. There followed the familiar tossing and turning, telling me the dreams had begun. I took careful note of the time and movements, all of which lasted twenty-one minutes. He woke abruptly, a smile blossoming on his face.

"It works!" he said. The women, hearing him, poured into the area, with smiles as broad as his. We all climbed the stairs as Quinn greeted us.

"That was fast," he said, the only one of us not expressing jubilation.

"Tell us where you were," Betsy begged, hardly able to contain herself as she turned on her tape recorder.

We sat around the living room on a long sectional sofa while Howie remained standing as he began. Quinn joined us, looking more interested than earlier.

"It wasn't the same place or time as my earlier dreams. I was in a city but it was night. I saw a license plate on a parked car; it was Maryland and 1938. I never discovered the name of the town. I walked down the entire block but there weren't any people. I saw a light on in a large house so I . . . just walked in. The light was coming from under a closed door at the end of a hallway. I pushed through." He turned away, embarrassed. "It was a bathroom! I backed out in a hurry!"

We spent the next hour quizzing Howie to try and determine the location he "visited" with Martha taking copious notes while the questions flew. When we exhausted the subject, Betsy rose and took the floor.

"I have a couple of questions," she said, glancing at her notes. "Why is the time and location different? What's different about our test?"

"The location is the big difference and there are fewer plants," I said.

Martha frowned. "We don't even know if the plants have anything to do with it."

"That's easy," I answered. "Remove them all and see if it makes a difference."

Betsy turned to Quinn. "Is there any difference in the power?"

"No, not really. There are two elements to each of the source units. Think of them . . . like frequency and intensity, although that's far from the correct terms. I set both similar to my New Hampshire test but frankly; I didn't pay much attention to precise accuracy." He added with a smile, "You know my feelings on this entire game."