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Explain it to ain,” Re?”

“It is htly to keep the bow on course Though their destination showed no lights, its bell toas nicely silhouetted against the night sky

Fro five hundred yards from its flared tip to its base, and three hundred yards at its waist where a narroalled canal bisected the island from west to east, save for a sandbar in the center

“Don’t get technical on o As far as I’ht It isn’tuntil the sun comes up”

After drinks with Maria they’d ed to find an open boat rental office The owner had only one craft left, a twelve-foot open dory with an outboard h not luxurious by any lia was only three oon, and there was little wind

“Don’t tell ht into Maria’s stories,” Sam said

“No, but they weren’t exactly cheery”

“That’s the truth”

In addition to having served as a duhout its thousand-year history Poveglia had been home to monasteries, colonies, a fort and ammunition depot for Napoleon, and most recently in the 1920s, a psychiatric hospital

In frightening detail Maria had explained that the doctor in charge, after hearing the patients coan to conduct crude lobotoruesome experiments on the inmates, his own brand of medical exorcism

Legend had it that the doctor eventually began seeing the saht he cli patients returned the doctor’s body to the bell tower and sealed the exits, ento him forever Shortly thereafter the hospital and the island were abandoned, but to this day Venetians reported hearing Poveglia’s bell ringing or seeing ghostly lights

Poveglia was, Maria told them, the most haunted place in Italy

“No, I don’t buy the part about the ghosts,” Remi said, “but ent on in that hospital is well documented Besides, the island’s closed to touris”

“That’s never stopped us before”

“Just trying to be the voice of reason”