“While we’re waiting for the file, let me see who of the staff was here when she was our patient.” Dr. Blackton typed away on his PC. “I’m afraid the list is rather long. Ten of the people who should have known her are still working here. Our longest working staff members are Thomas LeClerk, a nurse, and Dr. Healani Aoki, one of our psychiatrists. They’ve both been here for over ten years and have probably the deepest insights to offer.”
“Are they working today?” George was happy about Dr. Blackton’s willingness to cooperate and hoped his staff would show the same enthusiasm. Starting with the two longest-serving members was also a good idea.
“Yes, they are both on duty today. In fact, Dr. Aoki should be free at the moment. Mr. LeClerk’s lunch break is in an hour.” Dr. Blackton got up from his chair. “Let me show you the way to Dr. Aoki’s office.”
He approached the door, which opened to reveal Mrs. Miles with a file in her hand. It was brown with a huge red stamp declaring the person had been released. Dr. Blackton took the file and handed it to Geena, who clamped it under her right armpit.
“Thank you, Mrs. Miles. I’m showing our guests to Dr. Aoki and will be back afterward.” Dr. Blackton passed his secretary, who eyed him with utter disgust. Geena followed Dr. Blackton, ignoring the secretary as if she were air. George nodded at her, while Andi made an effort to evade her as much as possible. The dragon secretary was obviously not defending the boss but the lair.
7. Smoke everywhere
DR. AOKI’Soffice was on the second floor in the original building. The windows looked out into the grounds behind the building, where Andi could see several different gardens. His tiny informants told him one was a vegetable and herb garden, while the others were for different kinds of flowers. There also seemed to be a Zen garden with lots of stones, which the arthropods weren’t so happy about because, aside from some decent hiding spots, this garden didn’t provide any food.
On their way up, George, always intent on building and maintaining good relationships with people, was asking about House Cusabo.
“It’s such a unique name. Where does it come from? Or is it made-up?”
Dr. Blackton looked pleased about the question and cleared his throat, no doubt preparing for a longish explanation. Andi was ready to listen, though, because sometimes people told more than they intended to, especially when it was about a topic they apparently loved. “It’s not made-up, oh no. The name Cusabo comes from a Native American language that’s not spoken anymore. The Cusabo were a group of American Indian tribes who lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in modern-day South Carolina, most likely between what is now Charleston and south to the Savannah River. We know very little about them, and their language is completely extinct, I’m afraid. Only a few words, mostly town names, were written down in the sixteenth century. Most of the words lack translation, but scholars are sure by now that Cusabo was from a different language family altogether, one we don’t have access to anymore.” He sighed deeply. “Don’t you think it’s so sad, all the culture that was lost during colonialization?”
“Yes. It’s a shame. You seem to be very interested in the topic.” George’s tone held just the right amount of awe to make the director feel flattered. Andi could sense it in the pheromones he was emitting, bolstered by the way he swiped some invisible speck of dust from his jacket.
“I am. I love old languages and everything to do with the evolution of them. It’s such a fascinating topic. Ah, here we are!” Dr. Blackton knocked at a door on the right side of the hall they had trotted along while he’d held his lecture about ancient language. After the “Come in” from inside, Dr. Blackton introduced them to Dr. Healani Aoki, explaining briefly to her why they were here.
She greeted them with a professional smile, assured Dr. Blackton she would do her best to assist, and closed the door behind him when he left for the meeting they had kept him from. Dr. Aoki gestured to the chairs in front of her.
“Please, have a seat. What do you want to know about Kesha?” She furrowed her brows. “Or should I say Staff Sergeant Raport?”
Geena smiled at the woman. “Kesha is fine. We would like to know why she left House Cusabo. She was honorably discharged because of her PTSD and the leg she had lost, and according to our files, she responded well to the treatment. Do you have any idea why she ended it?”
Dr. Aoki looked thoughtful. She was—
Strange, her body chemistry altered, her sweat too sweet, sickly, Andi knew what that was, diabetes, such a vicious illness, she needed to have her shot of insulin and soon, it was bad, no deeper meaning though, not for the arthropods anyway, this blob wasn’t any different than all the others, taking up space, destroying the webs, upsetting the brood, they all did that, all the time, it was of no consequence what her body chemistry did, just made her easier to recognize, which was good, she was calm, their presence didn’t upset her, and why should it, after so many years, what was a year anyway, endless pulsing, up and down, in and out, there was something else, though, smoke, beekeeper smoke, that was important, wasn’t it, why, he needed to remember, the bodies—
“I wasn’t directly involved in her treatment. That was one of my colleagues, Dr. Fulton, who is now retired. We often conferred because we both specialized in PTSD and depression. We even wrote some articles together about which treatments worked best depending on the case. We also conducted a survey of the different antidepressants usually used in cases of PTSD. Kesha had allowed us to use her case in our studies. She was always open to try new therapies, saying if she could help others with it, her trauma wouldn’t be a waste of time.” Dr. Aoki smiled fondly. “She was a determined, strong-willed woman.”
“Then why did she stop the treatment?” Geena sounded as confused as Andi felt. This didn’t sound like somebody who just decided they had enough and left.
Dr. Aoki sighed. “I’m not sure. Everything I could tell you would be pure speculation on my part because I was on holiday when she asked to be released from House Cusabo.”
“You’re saying there was nothing significant leading up to her leaving? Did she have a fight with anybody, or did something happen?” George leaned a bit forward in his seat.
Dr. Aoki shook her head. “As I said, it’s all speculation. To me, it came as a surprise, and Dr. Fulton was definitely rattled by her decision. Kesha was either an excellent actor by pretending everything was fine, or whatever made her leave had enough of an impact to force her into making a hasty decision.”
“Was she good at pretending?” George glanced at Andi, who subtly shook his head. As far as the spiders were concerned, Dr. Aoki wasn’t lying. It was harder for Andi to read things when there were so many drugs around, altering people’s chemistry, suppressing or advancing natural reactions. Luckily for him, there were almost no patients in the center of the house, where the doctors had their offices, which made it easier to tune out the constant hum of confusing impressions that were sometimes just slightly off when the drug was working well or the dosage not high enough, or punching him in the face with how different something he thought he knew could be. It was like looking at a picture from Picasso, all those lines still forming a face, some of them even in the way the observer would expect, others so far off, it took a lot of imagination to give them context. Being connected to the arthropods meant he was already stretched thin when it came to imagination, and adjusting to the warped images he was getting because of the drugs was exhausting. Andi shuddered just thinking about all the mental gymnastics he would have to do to form a coherent picture.
“No. She was a very straightforward woman, with no time for nonsense. Which also made me wonder what could have rattled her enough to just leave.” Dr. Aoki shook her head. “As I said, none of it made sense, not then, and certainly not now, come to think of it.”
“And she never contacted you or Dr. Fulton again?” George gave Dr. Aoki his full attention.
“No. She was just gone.”
“How long do you think it took for her medication to wear off completely? And can you tell us how bad her state of mind would have been?” Geena tapped her index finger against her chin.
Dr. Aoki furrowed her brows. “To be honest, I can only guess. PTSD is a bitch with many faces.” She started typing on the keypad of her laptop. “She was on a combination of sertraline and venlafaxine and did trauma-focused psychotherapy, as well as EMDR.” Geena cleared her throat, and Dr. Aoki looked up from her laptop. “Sorry, that’s Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Both therapies are aimed at changing unhelpful beliefs about the trauma, as well as processing it and making sense of it. As I already said, Kesha had managed to process her trauma and to find a new meaning in it. She was doing so well, we were starting to lower her medication.” She put both hands on the desk in front of the keypad. The rings on her hand made a clinking noise. “Perhaps that was part of the reason she left, though she wasn’t that far down on them it should have made an impact.”
“What happens when somebody on these drugs goes cold turkey?” Andi could sense George’s distress when he asked the question. His partner’s time in Narcotics had left its mark, even if George tried to downplay it.Just like me.
“Antidepressants are never fun to wean off, and to just stopping taking them? That’s a nightmare. You have all the classics: flu-like symptoms, insomnia, nausea, imbalance, sensory disturbances, and anxiety or agitation. Especially the last three get amplified when the PTSD comes back in full force. As I said, Kesha was remarkably stable; her coping mechanisms were solid. My guess would be she was able to keep it together for about a week before she crashed.”
