What about those we were accusing? A defense attorney would cry foul in a minute if he learned his client was incarcerated as a result of some psychic vision! The accused himself would be hot to eliminate his accuser.
We were set to run renewed sessions on Saturday but on Thursday Martha telephoned in tears.
"It's all flushing down the crapper," Martha bawled. "Quinn will hardly speak to Howie and I'm furious at Quinn. I should have lied! Who in hell says honesty is the best policy?"
"Calm down and speak in your native tongue, will you? What happened?"
"Quinn kept pestering Howie to "go back" as he calls it, at least to his own life. You know Howie didn't want to do it. He's got this weird thing like if he sees himself, he'll self-destruct or something. You know why I didn't want him going there! My husband did a lot of work fixing the settings on when Annie died and kept pushing Howie. Then Quinn, the sneak, sent him there without telling him. I don't know what, if anything, Howie saw but he knew Quinn tricked him and he went ballistic. He almost quit for good but I calmed them down.
Other sessions were tried earlier but when Howie couldn't sleep, Quinn accused him of not working hard enough Martha said.
"My husband has taken time away from school he shouldn't have and is pressuring me to do the same at the hospital. That got me pissed off and Quinn accused me of always taking Howie's side. Then he said, 'you guys have this history when you were kids,' as if he was left out. I guess I looked funny, so he asked me outright, if we'd been lovers."
"God, Martha! You told your husband?"
"I said, no, we weren't lovers, I just screwed Howie one time for the hell of it!"
"Martha, Martha," I said. "When will you ever learn?"
"God, he's so anal! I get a little tipsy a hundred years ago when I hardly knew him and give away a party screw and now he mopes around with a mood as pleasant as an un-flushed toilet!"
"He's been working with this guy, not knowing you slept with him. That's got to be a shock."
"I know. I know. But if Quinn got drunk and slept with Betsy, like years ago, you'd understand and forgive her, wouldn't you? I'd sure forgive Quinn. Maybe he should go out and get laid so we're even and I can forgive him."
"Let's not go there, Martha. Tell me Howie doesn't know all this sordid business shit is going on."