Ghost Ship

The ballast gates opened, and the ghost ship’s hull filled with water. The weight dragged the ship’s hull deeper into the water.

Tom grinned. “All right, let’s go.”

The chief asked, “Where?”

“Back to Vernazza, of course. There’s work to be done…”

Chapter Eighteen

Inside the cockpit of the police helicopter, the pilot reported that a small, modern fishing boat left the Azzurra sea cave.

Standing at the helm was a tall guy, most likely a tourist, out for a day on the water.

The pilot took note of the vessel, but dismissed it as being irrelevant, because it was merely a quarter of the size of the ghost ship.

And had an open wheel house, with no canopy or covered section below its decks.

Chapter Nineteen

Sam Reilly watched Catarina enter the apartment again.

Her face was even more striking than he remembered, but it was set with worry.

“What is it?” he asked. “Did you have any luck?”

“I did. I got the blood tests and the suitcase,” she said, handing him the metallic case.

He took it and glanced at the case, wanting to open it right away, but decided to wait. He needed to know what she had found.

When she didn’t say anything, he asked, “What is it? What did you find?”

“Your blood results came back with a combination of benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and opioids.”

Sam looked up. “Great. Does any of that explain my amnesia?”

“I think so.”

“So, does that mean, when they wear off, I’ll start to remember things?”

“It might, but probably not as fast as you’re hoping.” She sat down next to him and took his hand. Her face was full of concern and otherwise unreadable. Her eyes darting away, trying to avoid his gaze, as though she was undecided about how much to say or in what order to say it.

“There’s something else?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“All right. So tell me.”

“Do you know anything about Electric Convulsive Therapy?”

Sam’s lips parted in a smile. “No. I can’t say I do.”

“It’s predominantly used as a last line of treatment options in patients suffering from severe depression, mania, psychosis, and catatonia by altering the blood chemistry in the person’s brain.”

“Okay, if you say so,” Sam said, waiting to see where this would go.

“That exact cocktail of drugs found in your system is commonly used during ECT.” She waited for his reaction to the news. Finding none, she continued. “The barbiturates are used as an anaesthetic sedative to make you unconscious and unaware of the procedure, whereas, the benzodiazepines are muscles relaxants designed to help minimize the seizure and prevent injury, and the opioid, blurs your perception of any residual pain.”

“You think I had ECT?”

She nodded. “I’m pretty certain you did.”

“So I’m crazy?” He felt a lump in his throat that made him want to choke. His face was crestfallen. “Is that it? I’ve escaped an insane asylum and gone on a killing spree?”

“I don’t think it’s like that at all.”

“It sure seems like the most plausible option. Maybe I should call the police now, before I have the chance to kill anyone else?”

“It’s okay, I don’t think you’re suffering with a mental illness or that you’ve just escaped from an insane asylum.”

“Then what?”

She paused. Took her time and made her words deliberate. “The most common side effects of ECT are confusion and memory loss. Immediately after treatment, you may experience confusion, which can last from a few minutes to several hours. You may not know where you are or why you're there. Rarely, confusion may last several days or longer.”

“But it comes back?”

“Some of it, but not all. Some people have trouble remembering events that occurred right before treatment or in the weeks or months before treatment or, rarely, from previous years. This condition is called retrograde amnesia, or in your case, global amnesia. You may also have trouble recalling events that occurred during the weeks of your treatment. For most people, these memory problems usually improve within a couple of months after treatment ends.”

“Well, that rules out any chance of me getting my memory back before I need to be at The Hague in the next couple days.”

“Probably.”

She looked worried.

Sam said, “What aren’t you telling me?”

“You’re right. I’m keeping something from you and you have a right to know. Worse than that, you need to know.”

“Go on.”

“The hospital I work at in Levanto performs ECT. I checked the register. There was one male person who had ECT performed last night. The register said his name was Pinco Pallino and under diagnosis, was simply the words, ongoing treatment, and the medical authority for the procedure was by a Dr. Tal dei Tali.”

“Okay… so what does that mean?”

Catarina looked sympathetic. “First off, Pinco Pallino, is the Italian equivalent of John Doe, used in the place of a patient’s name when their details aren’t yet known. But ECT is used as a last line of treatment options, in patients with long term mental health problems, untreatable using traditional drug therapy and counseling.”