‘Where’s Security now, that’s what I want to know!’ Georgina folded her arms across her chest and scowled.
‘They’re probably securing the crime scene,’ I told her. ‘That’s what professionals do.’
‘We need to call somebody,’ Georgina said. ‘The F.B.I. has jurisdiction. Isn’t that what George Whatshisname said?’
‘Warren, and it’s David. Yes, I believe that’s what he said.’
‘Whoever did this is going to pay.’
I had to agree with that and, if he valued his genitals, he’d better hope the F.B.I. found him before we did.
After ten agonizing minutes, Dr Springer rejoined us. ‘We won’t know until the blood work comes back, but I’m almost certain your daughter was drugged. From her symptoms, I’m guessing Ketamine, possibly Rohypnol or GHB, commonly known as date rape drugs. Ketamine can cause paralysis, loss of time, memory problems, distortions of sight and sound, among other symptoms. I think you should be prepared for Julie not being able to remember much about what happened to her.’ He paused to let this soak in. ‘The good news is that there is no evidence that Julie was raped. She has bruises on her upper arms, and on her thighs, but there’s no sign of vaginal trauma. Your daughter is still virgo intacta.’
Georgina began to weep again, more quietly this time. ‘Thank God, oh, thank God.’
‘Is there an antidote for Ketamine?’ I asked.
The doctor shook his head. ‘She’ll have to sleep it off, I’m afraid. Wait for the drug to pass out of her system. We’ll keep her under observation here for a while to make sure there are no problems with her respiration. This can be an issue when she wakes up, particularly if she begins to vomit. And once your daughter does come out of it, Mrs Cardinale, you’ll need to see that she drinks plenty of water.’
Georgina nodded. She understood. ‘Can I stay with her?’
‘Of course.’ He tucked his pen into his pocket. ‘One more thing.’
‘What’s that?’
‘She’ll need a change of clothing. I asked the nurse to bag up the clothes that Julie was wearing in case they’re needed as evidence.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, feeling grateful that the doctor seemed to know what he was doing. ‘Can we see Julie now?’
‘Certainly.’
Back in the examination room with Julie, with the privacy curtain pulled around us, I eased my iPhone out of my pocket and tapped the camera app.
‘Hannah! What the hell are you doing?’
‘I’m taking pictures, Georgina, for evidence.’ I photographed Julie’s face, smoothing her hair back to get a better view of the bruise on her forehead. I took pictures of the marks on her arms and on her thighs. I captured a close-up of the broken fingernail – our girl had put up a fight – and the torn underwear.
Better to be safe than sorry, I thought. If the ship’s security was not our friend – if Dr Springer’s test results mysteriously vanished… I tucked the iPhone into my pocket and patted it protectively. Julie’s insurance policy.
‘What do we do now?’ Georgina asked, stroking her daughter’s hair.
‘We wait until Julie wakes up; hopefully she’ll remember at least some of what happened.’
FOURTEEN
‘A ship on the high seas is as good as lawless.’
60 Minutes, ‘Ships of Shame,’ April 8, 2012
When Julie finally awoke, it was nearly dinnertime. The first thing she asked for was a glass of water.
They had transferred her to a hospital bed, so I cranked up the headboard. She managed to take a couple of sips from a water bottle, while I busied myself adjusting the pillow more comfortably behind her head. Julie patted the sheets, lifted the blanket, then gazed around the room in apparent confusion. ‘Where am I?’
‘You’re in the ship’s clinic, Julie.’
‘Why? What happened?’
‘We were hoping you could tell us that.’
Julie closed her eyes, squeezed them tight and rocked her head from side to side against the pillow. ‘I don’t remember.’ She took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘What happened to my clothes?’
Georgina leaned a hip against the edge of the mattress and laid a hand on her daughter’s arm. ‘They found you down in the recycling area, near the ship’s kitchens, Julie. Do you know how you got there?’
Julie rubbed her forehead and winced. ‘No! I’ve never been to the kitchens.’
‘We came to pick you up at the Tidal Wave after the pizza party, but you weren’t there. What did you do after the pizza party, Julie? Please think!’
Julie screwed up her face until her eyes almost disappeared. ‘It’s kind of a blur. I remember that it was early, so Katie and I decided to go to the bar and get a smoothie or something.’
‘Julie, you have to tell me the truth. You weren’t drinking again, were you?’
Julie’s eyes grew wide. ‘Alcohol? No, mom, honest! I had a coconut smoothie, I swear! Katie had a Coke.’
I glared at my sister. Upsetting Julie wasn’t going to get us anywhere. ‘The doctor suspects that somebody put a drug in your drink,’ I said, trying to defuse the situation. ‘Something that made you pass out. Did you see anybody do that, Julie?’
Julie sucked in her lower lip and shook her head.
‘Did you leave your drink unattended?’
‘No, never.’ In spite of the direction of the conversation, she brightened. ‘Nobody could put something into the drink anyway, Aunt Hannah, because it was in a plastic glass with a cover on it, you know, with a little hole for the straw!’
‘That leaves the bartender, I suppose, or one of the waiters,’ I suggested.
Julie folded her arms and frowned. ‘No way. Not Wes. Not Ally.’
Wes had to be Wesley, but who was Ally? The female bartender we talked to wore a name tag that said ‘Kira.’
‘His real name’s Aloysius,’ Julie explained when I asked. ‘He’s from the Philippines.’ She turned to Georgina. ‘He’s really nice, Mom, and he sends all his tip money back home to his mom. She lives in Olongapo, near where the naval base used to be.’
Dad had been in the navy, so I knew all about ‘Gapo,’ a city on Subic Bay near the naval base that the U.S. had turned back to the Philippine government following the Vietnam War. From what I understood, it was now covered with volcanic ash from the eruption of nearby Mount Pinatubo in 1991. What surprised me was that Julie knew so much about Gapo. Clearly she’d spent time chatting with Ally.
‘When you left the bar, did Katie go with you?’ Georgina asked.
Julie looked blank. A single tear rolled sideways down her cheek. ‘I don’t know.’
‘What I want to see is the security camera footage,’ Ruth said. ‘That should tell us who was sitting with who and when. I wonder when we can talk to Officer Martin? Surely he’s had a chance to review the tapes by now.’
‘He told me he’d be looking at the tapes and getting back to us as soon as he had anything to report, and I trust him to do that,’ I said. I felt as if I’d lived a hundred years since that morning, and now that Julie was safe, all I could think about was sleep. ‘Georgina, if it’s OK with the doctor, I think we should get Julie back to her own bed. And I don’t know about you all, but I’m not thinking too clearly just now. We could all do with a little sleep.’
In the middle of the night, Julie was shaking me awake. ‘Aunt Hannah, I remember something.’
I sat up in bed, not sure for a moment exactly where I was. I squinted at my niece in the dim light. ‘Where’s your mother, Julie?’
‘She must have taken a sleeping pill. I tried to wake her up, but she just groaned and rolled over. I have to tell somebody before I forget.’
‘Sit up here next to me, then, sweetie. I’m listening.’