Liz stared at Erica. She'd had spent months on her murder case, she knew that face as well as her own. She opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out.
"I know the feeling." said Erica.
"Wh..., who...how...," there were about a hundred questions spinning around in her head but she couldn't get one to come out of her mouth.
"I spent about a week doing that after they sent me back here. I can imagine what you're going through."
"Sent me back?" Back to what?"
"Back to when would be the better question."
"I need to sit down." Liz sank onto the bed. "Start explaining," was all she could think to say.
"I met Jim in my first year as an undergraduate. I was interested in Electrical and Computer Engineering and that was his specialty. I was assigned to his research team. But I suspected early on that his heart wasn't in his research. One day soon after that I was sent for some lab supplies and I got lost in the building. I knew if I could just find my way outside I could get my bearings, so I was looking for an exit. I noticed a light coming from under one of the doors so I decided to swallow my pride and ask for help. I knocked first but no one answered. I opened the door but there was no one there. The room was in use though and there was a lot of modern equipment in there. I was curious though. It was strange for this lab to be so isolated. I went over to one of the computer monitors and saw there was a spreadsheet open. It was labeled "Horse Races." Now I was really curious. Each sheet had the name of a different race track and the one that was open had a listing of the winning horses sorted by date. I went into the documents folder and saw spreadsheets labeled "Lottery," "Baseball," "Boxing matches," "Football." I could only wonder why someone would waste their time on statistics. Nothing could be more boring to me. Something about the names of the spreadsheets bothered me, though I couldn't put my finger on it. As I stared at the screen the door to the room opened behind me. I spun around, looking as guilty as I felt. The man that walked in was Jim, only aged by about 50 years. He looked startled, but wary. He glanced over my shoulder and saw the monitor and then looked angry. I felt frightened, but tried to act stupid. He didn't buy it for a second. Before I could even scream he had grabbed me by the arm and shoved me into a storage closet.
"I was in there for a few hours. I couldn't come up with a reason for this bizarre behavior. Then I heard someone entering the room. He hesitated outside the door as if debating whether to open it, but he did. It was the old man. He was trying to act composed, but now I wasn't buying it. I bolted for the door but it opened before I could lay a hand on it and there was Jim Crowson. He didn't pretend to be calm. He started firing questions at me about why I was there and what I saw on the computer. I knew I was in deep trouble and my guts told me to run. The next thing I remembered was waking up back in the storage room with a pounding headache. He must have knocked me out cold. As I lay there trying to sort out this absurd situation it dawned on me that both of them were dressed oddly. It was their clothes. They were both dressed in outfits from past decades. Jim looked like he would have been at home in the 70s and his grandfather maybe the 50s.
"I heard them arguing outside the door. The grandfather was berating Jim for his stupidity in leaving the room unlocked. Jim couldn't believe I had stumbled on the room at all. Then they started discussing what they would do with me. I heard Jim say they could send me back to the island until they came up with a plan. I had no idea what that meant.
"The door opened up, again, and Jim pulled me into the room."
Erica paused and got up and crossed to the window.
"And then?" Liz asked.
"Then I saw a light flash, and I woke up here."
"That was roughly 2 years ago."
"Believe me, I've been aware of every minute."
"Why haven't you tried to escape?"
"Escape? I don't know how long you've been on this island, but you may have noticed that this is not your normal kidnapping."
Liz felt that sick feeling return in her stomach. "You've had a lot more time than I've had. What have you figured out?"
"They've figured out the secret of time travel. It isn't the where, it's the when. This is 1951.
