Part One: The Quandary Qualified
Detective Scott Lansing filled his first cup of coffee of the day and sat in the creaky chair behind his desk. He sipped the hot bitter brew eying the stack of reports all in that special red folder.
A detective for the past 11 of his 28 years on the force, he has worked just about all the cases a large metropolitan police department normally took in. His latest assignment, head of Q-Squad, was known by the rest of the department as the "quack squad" with Lansing being the "quack" investigator. This was supposed to be the career wind down to coast into retirement but it was the most frustrating of all. His squad of two uniformed cops, misfits who for one reason or another walked the fine line between suspension and termination, were responsible for complaints that bordered between the bizarre or had no evidence of a crime but needed some resolution.
The majority of these were easy, a man calls about aliens listening to his phone conversations, and 8 out of 10 times Lansing determined the individual needs mental health counseling – case solved.
Then there is the red folder. Lansing feared this was one case but not one complaint; Lansing had pieced together almost 14 complaints that all sounded similar but impossible. The red folder contained 14 reported cases of suspected rape by some ghost or phantom.
Suspected because none of the women in the complaint could say for sure they were raped. They were not drugged or kidnapped, they were in public and surrounded by people, yet....they all suspected they were raped. None of them could offer a reasonable explanation. Neither could Lansing.
Certainly one or two could be dismissed. However, now he had 14 women all with a similar story. Cindy Macafoy age 22, she is attending the University and was on her way to cheerleading practice when she stopped at Java Express at mid-day. She was waiting in line, when in a split second she went from feeling cheerful from feeling like she was abused. Feeling disjointed she stumbled out of line and took a nearby seat. Her vagina felt throbbing and wet, she then noticed her pantyhose had some stretch and tears that weren't there before. She immediately called 911 and the sex crimes unit then forwarded the case to Q-squad.
Lansing had 14 cases all with similar stories, waitresses, store clerks, students, all in public places. The women all met the same profile, ages between 18 and 30, all slim and good looking. He had little evidence to go on. Nine of the 14 women agreed to a rape kit and were examined by a doctor.
They had all had sex, but there was nothing to suggest it was not consensual, and no DNA, the rapist...if there was one, probably used a condom. Some of the women reported their clothing was somehow reversed or not buttoned correctly. Some of the other officers offered their opinion that it is some new stunt and that these women for some unknown reason (a gag or political statement), are conspiring together to conjure up this phantom rapist.
Lansing couldn't believe that all 14 women could come up with a logical reason to pull off such a stunt. In his interviews, he found them all too sincere and all too convincing. In fact, Lansing suspected that there were probably twice or even three times as many victims that did not file a police complaint. Maybe they couldn't believe it themselves.
Lansing worked out some possible theories which he posted on his wall:
1. The perp is able to conduct some sort of mass hypnosis on a group and raped the woman in front of everyone. 2.The perp drugged the woman, walked to a secluded spot, raped her and walked her back to where she was. 3.The perp is able to freeze everyone without them being conscious and then unfreeze them after he has done his deed. 4.The women have conspired together for some motive, perhaps as a political message about rape to back some new legislation.
All of these seemed implausible, yet once everything else is eliminated, whatever is left must be true. Today Lansing was going to interview a rape suspect who was arrested a couple of days ago. This was normal procedure even though he didn't think this was going to solve anything. He walked into the interrogation cell where Kim Jang was handcuffed to the table. Lansing sat across from him reading from the police report.
"So Mr. Jang, you raped the daughter of the woman in the next apartment... very neighborly of you." Lansing didn't look up from the report.
"She wanted it, she was always flirting and teasing me... she wanted me too." Jang blurted out. "I also understand you have quite the pornography collection in your home, about a 100 adult DVD's I see, guess you don't like regular TV much eh?"
"Yes, me like." Jang gave a perverted smile and a wink.
Lansing questioned Jang if he associated with other rapists, if he had raped anyone else but it was a dead end. Lansing asked him about his fantasies, and then he learned something new.
Jang went on to describe several Japanese porn DVDs he owned where the man had a magical stop watch. The person would walk into a public place and press the stop watch, stopping time and being able to do whatever he wanted. In the story-line of the porno's he had sex with several of the women while time was stopped. Jang had fantasied about obtaining a stop watch like that for him to use.
Lansing went to the property room, checked out some of Jang's DVDs and watched them. It was exactly as Jang described. Could such a device actually exist? It would explain every one of these cases. Stopping time, is it possible? Lansing decided to head to the University and find an expert that could answer that question.
Part Two: The Quantum Quagmire
Peter Nahin was walking around the mall sipping his Java Express coffee, he needed to be back at campus for a meeting, but he walked slowly with all the time in the world, just checking out any females he thought attractive.
