"The fishing rod. Your father found it onshore after you'd been rescued. You never brought it out with you."

"He did? I… I don't—"

"Why were you really out on the Loch, Dr. Wallace? Were you trying to prove something to your father?"

The courtroom began tilting in my vision.

"What was it you were really searching for?"

The judge leaned over to me. "Are you all right, Dr. Wallace? You've gone quite pale."

I wiped cold sweat from my brow. "It's a migraine. I get them sometimes. This one's real bad."

"You don't like to discuss your drowning incident, do you, Dr. Wallace?" Max cooed. "It's painful for you. It causes the migraines to worsen, yeah?"

I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded.

"Still, we must discuss this frightening chapter in your childhood in order to get to the truth, in order to determine your father's guilt or innocence. Let's go back to the water creature your father described under oath. He claimed it was at least fifteen meters long. That would give it the length and bite radius of a small whale, am I right?"

I looked up at him, the spots in my eyes nearly blinding me. "It was barbed wire that snagged my ankle, Mr. Rael. Not a whale or serpent or monster. Barbed wire!"

"And was it barbed wire that nearly swallowed you in half?"

"What?"

"It rose up after you, didn't it? You managed to twist yourself free, but it rose up after you, then snagged you a second time as you fled to the surface. Only this time it took you about the waist, just like it did poor John Cialino!"

My head erupted, and so did the courtroom. The two prosecutors were on their feet, yelling their objections in order to be heard over the crowd, while the judge whacked his gavel over and over, each earsplitting clap sending splinters of pain shooting through my brain as he futilely attempted to regain control of the proceedings.

It was a free-for-all, and I was at the center of the storm.

Barely able to tolerate the jabbing eye pain, I laid my pounding head upon the ledge of the witness box and swallowed great gulps of air, trying my best to quell the volcano of bile gurgling in my gut as long-dormant memories from my childhood continued to burst across my mind's eye.

Free! Race for the surface, faster… faster… A presence …rising from the depths beneath me! Swim faster! Ignore the pain, kick harder… A light! Get to the light… get to the light!

I clutched my head, pleading to the judge for mercy, "My lord, I need a recess."

Angus stood and yelled, "Order him tae lower his troosers, Maxie! His waist'll still be scarred by Nessie's bite!"

An officer of the court shoved Angus back in his chair as the judge beat his gavel again. "Another outburst like that, Mr. Wallace, and I shall have you bound and gagged. Mr. Rael—"