He stepped back from immersion with a groan, rubbing his face. He'd wasted time and money on getting interrogated for an hour, and the hard pull out had caused a timeline crash. They couldn't replay any points of that immersion; they'd have to start a new one to look into that timeframe again.

" What the hell, it crashed," Christel complained. " Did you do something?"

" Sheriff caught onto us," Allen excused himself weakly.

" Really? Here I was, thinking he was stupid. Guess he had me fooled."

He stretched, and looked around.

" Did you manage to get anything done?" Allen asked.

" Yes- is there a water cooler in here? I'm thirsty," Christel said, half-paying attention.

" 1,000 standard credits to have one put in," Allen told him. " But it won't come til tomorrow."

" Damn," Christel cursed. " Where was I...? Right. The cattlehand. He kept rambling on about dairy production and keeping thieves off the land, the feud with the Carey family. He did confirm the incident happened as described. A lot more graphic than I would've liked about it. He said they were showing the boy around the pasture, and the older sister tagged along."

" Anything different?"

Christel paused, brow knit as he internally compared the accounts.

" Yes. Joseph Perlmutter said his sister cried and screamed, and their father covered her eyes. Avery Niemeyer said... She just stood still, and didn't make a noise, and then her father covered her eyes, and made Dewey take her and Joseph back to the house."

" The older sister, hmmm..."

Allen leaned against the wall for a moment, thinking.

" I'm going to go to the main lounge to get a drink," Christel said. " I need something to get the taste of stale beer out of my mouth. Blegh."

" We'll go back in when you get back?"

" Yes."

Return......Next