"I feel like we should figure out who the fuck that was but I don't really know how to do that?"

"...Maybe we should talk about it once we're on a street car out of here? Or on the plane. Let's not stick around?"

"Yes, let's go." Lacie is kind of shaky.

They get on the streetcar and head to the airport.

"Did anybody know what that language was?"

"I've never heard it before."

"I didn't think humans could make those sounds."

"I didn't recognize it but there's a lot of languages I wouldn't recognize."

Zoe gives Mordred first aid for his nose. 

Lacie asks around with her occult contacts and finds out that the thugs were staying at a local hotel, the Hotel Savannah. The person gives her a note they'd kept from when they first checked in, nine years ago:

Thank you for your kind hospitality. 

We will be staying here indefinitely. 

Please have our baggage picked up from the Savannah Airport ASAP.

"It was just so bizarre," the person says. "That language doesn't sound human."

What a great hotel not to have stayed at.

Frank Kearns uses his contacts at the airport to discover that their flight had been booked from Bangkok to Ireland, then from Ireland to Nova Scotia to Savannah, and were paid for by someone named Daniel Lowman living in Bangkok.

"Well, I still want to go to LA."

"Let's stick to the LA plan, yeah. If nothing else I'd rather not try to navigate a foreign city with this little lead time."

Meanwhile-- 

Mordred, his face bandaged, walks into Joy Grove and signs the visitor's log. 

Not under his actual name, of course. He's going by Jamison Brown.

The nurse looks up at Mordred cheerily. "Hello, there! Who are you seeing?

The nurse's eyes are flicking up and down like she's trying to get a sense of who Mordred is.

He's talked to nurses like her before: underpaid, overworked, and out for themselves more than for the hospital. He could probably bribe her if he tried but he'd like this to look like a perfectly normal visit to the extent that it can.

"I'm from the university, I've heard about Doctor Keaton's work and I've been asked to look at the records."

The nurse thinks about it for a minute, decides that she is not being paid enough to question this and besides Dr. Keaton would get mad at her if she questioned a distinguished guest, and says, "Right this way, sir. Shall I tell Dr. Keaton you're here?"

"No thank you, I'd rather not interrupt him unnecessarily."

"All right," she says. She looks at Mordred's nose. "Trouble with a patient?"

"No, fortunately. Clumsiness earlier today."

"Well, I hope your luck turns," she says, and escorts him to the file room.

Nice.

His goal is records that prove that Douglas Henslowe isn't violent, and also records that prove the same of Lev Aarons. He'll take pretty much whatever he can learn, though.

Joy Grove Asylum Patient Progress Record

Name: Douglas Henslowe

Date of Birth: 06/11/1882 

Sex: M

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 167 lbs

Color: White

Admitted: 19/11/1924

Discharged:

Next of Kin: Mrs. Virginia Henslowe

Address: 23 Old Hope Road, Savannah, Georgia

Doctor: Dr. Keaton

Assistant: Snr Nurse Hampton

Nov 1924: Admitted. Severe delusions/psychosis.

Jan 1924: Group writing exercises. Outbursts/sedation.

May 1926: Confrontation therapy w/LA. Outburst/restraint/sedation.

Jan 1928: Medication therapy / group. Calm.

Mar 1933: Discharged into family care. Settled, medication provided.

Jan 1934: Readmitted. Unable to regulate his own meds.

Aug 1934: Confrontation therapy w/ LA. Outburst/restraint/sedation.

Oct 1934: Confrontation therapy w/ LA. Outburst/restraint/sedation.

Notes:

-Artist. No delusional behavior until 1923 when he begins “traveling” pursuing “enemies.”

-Paranoid behavior worsens until psychotic break Aug 1924. No obvious cause for psychosis. Possible folie a deux with traveling companions?

-Paranoia, delusions, violent outbursts, hallucinations. Not safe to leave hospital.

-Links with patient LA- richly entwined delusions focused on Los Angeles 1924

-Confrontational therapy- allow interactions. When medicated, little more than vague recollection of wary anger. Any reminder of the farm or August 13 causes violent outbursts from DH directed towards LA.

-1934 session, unmedicated. Violent outburst from DH; LA rushed DH screaming “you tried to kill me but I’m still here” over and over.

-Hypergraphia. Indicates unconscious conflict: id/superego? Psychosis permits indulgence of id’s violent fantasies w/ superego approval.

-DH seems superficially charming, pleasant, sane to outsiders. Conceals psychosis to achieve goals (e.g. being released). Psychopathic tendencies? Common in hospitalized population.

-DH and LA chapter on book? Could be my ‘Glimpse of Madness.’

Joy Grove Asylum Patient Progress Record

Name: Lev Aarons

Date of Birth: 24/05/1892

Sex: M

Height: 5’5”

Weight: 105 lbs

Color: White

Admitted: 24/03/1925

Discharged:

Next of Kin: None known

Doctor: Dr. Keaton

Assistant: Snr Nurse Hampton 

Mar 1925: Admitted. Severe delusions/psychosis.

Dec 1925: Hydrotherapy. Outbursts/sedation.

May 1926: Confrontation therapy w/DH. Outburst/restraint/sedation.

Sep 1928: Psychoanalysis. Calm. Possible breaktrough?

Mar 1930: Insulin therapy. Calm. Recovering? Speaks little of delusions

Jan 1932: Electroconvulsive therapy. Calm.

Aug 1934. Confrontation therapy w/ DH. Outburst/restraint/sedation.

Oct 1934. Confrontation therapy w/ DH. Outburst/restraint/sedation. 

Notes

-Homosexuality and neurosis in early life. Possible anal retention? Complicated defense mechanism for loss of love from father, etc.

-Psychosis begins after LA commits murder in Aug 1924. “Thing” attacks so LA does not experience blame-- externalization of guilt.

-Math savant. Extremely high intelligence quotient. Source of elaborate defense mechanisms?

-Links with patient DH- richly entwined delusions focused on Los Angeles 1924

-Confrontational therapy- allow interactions. When medicated, little more than vague recollection of wary anger. LA rarely resists attacks from DH.

-1934 session, unmedicated. Violent outburst from DH; LA rushed DH screaming “you tried to kill me but I’m still here” over and over.

-LA renewing demands to speak to George Ayers from UCLA. Attempts to contact Professor Ayers still meeting with no response. Possible delusional relationship?

-Refuses to eat pork. Possible neurosis-- perhaps cathexis? Explore in psychoanalysis.

-DH and LA chapter on book? Could be my ‘Glimpse of Madness.’

Fuck, Mordred hates psychiatrists.

These records do not in fact prove that Henslowe isn't violent and can be safely released. That's.... not great. Aarons looks promising, though!

...Actually, he'd like to know who's paying for Lev Aarons to be here, since he has no next of kin and is a New York Jew who went to school in Los Angeles. He digs up the hospital accounting records and sees who's paying for Lev.