A Fishy End

Chapter 21

Jessica looked at her phone. It was nearly seven p.m. Michael was at work, and Jacob was upstairs watching a movie before bed. No one would interrupt her.

Which was good, because if Michael found out about it, he'd have a cow. Probably with good reason, she admitted to herself. But she couldn't help it, and goddamn it, she was only looking out for him.

She was sure something was up with Dr. West. There was no way on God's green earth that the woman was on the level. Divorcing her husband, sure. That was pretty much inevitable, in Jessica's opinion. Dr. James Harvey had figured out what a conniving woman she was and dumped her. And Michael had as well, with some prompting.

But moving away to restart her life and just happening to end up in Des Moines, down the block from them? There was no way Jessica was going to buy that one.

She needed to know what was really going on. She had tried to do some digging on her own, but she wasn't really tech-savvy enough. So she'd hired someone who was. It was the first time she'd ever hired a private investigator, and she didn't quite know what to expect.

The phone rang. A New Jersey number. It was seven sharp, six o'clock Massachusetts time. She answered.

"Mrs. Crighton?" the voice said. It was high and feminine. "This is Blue, your PI."

"You're the PI?"

"Want to hear my Mike Hammer impression?" Blue asked.

"What?"

"When people hire a PI, that's what they automatically think—that the PI will be some retired cop who talks like Mike Hammer."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend," Jessica said.

"It's fine," Blue said. "But let's get to business. You're paying by the hour, and there's a lot to cover."

"Have you found something out already?"

"You betcha," Blue said. "Let's just say it's special."

"How so?"

"We hit the motherlode with her," Blue said with a laugh. "There were a lot of records. Just between you and me, she's not too stable."

"I could've told you that."

"I figured as much," Blue said. "You don't hire a PI unless you have a reason, not that it's any of my business."

"No it's not."

"But the not-too-stable part, that's not my opinion either."

"Really? Whose is it then?" Jessica asked, her curiosity rising.

"Her psychiatrist for one. Bipolar, more correctly. She had a nervous breakdown about a year and a half ago. Diagnosed with bipolar mania and Axis Two personality traits. Are you at all familiar with psychiatric diagnoses?"

"I'm a nurse, I work OB, but I did take psych in school. I don't know a lot, but I do know this much—medical records are not public."

"No, they're not. But divorce records are, and when your divorce is as ugly as was Mr. and Mrs. Harvey's, let's just say all those private records get dragged out and subpoenaed, and then they become public record."

"Ugly divorce? Can't say I'm surprised."

"Very ugly, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. But let's start with Axis Two. I've a hunch that's mostly why you contacted me."

"Okay. Axis Two. What does that mean?"

"It refers to personality disorders. In this case, a long history of manipulative behaviours and unstable relationships."

Jessica laughed out loud. "Yeah, we've been down that road. She was my husband's last girlfriend before me, and she really screwed up his life. Twelve years later, she now shows up on our street claiming to have no idea that we lived here and that she was just trying to restart her life. I just want to know what she's really up to. My husband, bless his heart, still has blinders on when it comes to her. It's up to me figure this out."

"I hear you. Men can be dumb-asses, in my opinion, especially when it comes to women," Blue joked. "As far as Dr. West, I can confirm the starting-over bit. The divorce left her with next to nothing. The nervous breakdown even less."

"What do you mean?"

"Questionable mental stability. That came from the medical board, when they took her license to practice here in Massachusetts."

"She lost her license?" Jessica said with a gasp.

"Apparently one of the features of her mania was delusional thoughts. Are you at all familiar with HP Lovecraft?"

"HP? Don't they make computer stuff?"

"Not that HP. Lovecraft, he's a writer. Wrote horror stuff back in the early part of the twentieth century. One of the first gothic horror writers."

"I'm not much of a reader," Jessica admitted. "What does this have to do with Melissa West?"

"Nothing and everything. Specifically, have you ever heard the name Herbert West?"

"Doesn't ring any bells. Is he related to Melissa West?"

"Yes, they're related. Did you ever see that cheesy movie in the 1980s, Re-Animator?"

Jessica laughed. "Actually, I did. That was one of the first-date movies that Michael brought over for us to watch. You're not suggesting that's a true story?"

"Actually, yes and no," Blue explained. "It's not a true story obviously. But it's based on the ravings of an actual madman. It seems back in 1910, a man named Dr. Herbert West went crazy. He was held in the Arkham Asylum here in Massachusetts. He claimed to have developed a serum that could bring people back to life. No one paid much attention to him, except for a little-known horror writer, our good friend HP Lovecraft. Lovecraft visited him several times. He later retold the story of the doctor's ravings as a piece of fiction, called Re-Animator."

"And Melissa West?"

"A distant relative. She discovered the connection and became more than a little obsessed with her infamous ancestor. She managed to use her tenuous connection to the doctor to claim most of his personal effects from the Arkham Museum. When she had her nervous breakdown a few months later, she claimed to have discovered the formula for the serum amongst his writings. She even claimed that it worked."

Jessica stared out the window. She wasn't quite sure what to say. She was almost starting to feel a little sorry for Melissa West, an unfamiliar feeling when it came to that woman.

"Still with me, Mrs. Crighton?"

"I'm still here."

"Well, it seems right about the same time as her nervous breakdown, and her confession about Dr. Herbert West, the Board of Medical Examiners was contacted about some discrepancies in morgue sheets. Nothing was ever proven, but even the suspicion that she might've been experimenting on recently deceased individuals was enough to get her medical license suspended."

"But if her license has been suspended... she's practicing medicine here in Iowa!"

"Medical licenses are up to the state, and honestly it's not that uncommon. I'm seeing it a dozen times in my own practice. A doctor has a malpractice suit in one state, loses his or her license, gets one in another state, and starts over."

Jessica and the PI named Blue talked for a while longer. Blue had a great deal more information—during the course of the divorce, both sides had subpoenaed an unbelievable amount of paper. Pages upon pages of financial documentation. Melissa had also subpoenaed her husband's online accounts, proving he was no angel either. He'd had a half dozen or more affairs on her over the years. Neither Melissa's financial situation nor her husband's infidelity mattered to Jessica. She had her answer. Now she just had to figure out what to do with it.