What Lies Beneath

by MR

PATIENT'S NAME: STANLEY RAYMOND KOWALSKI
ID NUMBER: 2001-336665748
AGE: 40
DOB: 10/5/60
ADMITTING PHYSICIAN: Dr. Kurt Hammett
ATTENDING PHYSICIAN: Dr. Cyndala Chu
ADMISSION DATE: 6/3/2001
ADMITTING DIAGNOSIS: Possible Psychotic
Break/Disassociative Disorder
CURRENT DIAGNOSIS: Fixed Delusion/Possible Dementia (?)

DOCTOR'S NOTES
6/4/2001
11:41 A.M.

Talked to Mr. Kowalski for nearly two hours this morning re: staff complaints. He continues to insist he needs the barricade. The idea that it was the 'real' Benton Fraser who was killed and that the 'Fraser Monster' who raped him did it is now a firmly fixed delusion. He believes this 'Fraser Monster' will be coming to finish the job by killing him because he knows of its existence.

He continues to maintain he has no memory of killing Constable Benton Fraser and I am inclined to believe him. According to the ER and hospital records from Cedar Sinai, where he was admitted the night of 5/29/2001 following the rape, his presentation was one of total disorientation; he did not know his name, where he was, or what had happened. He did keep asking for someone named "Dief" (I have since learned that Dief is short for Diefenbaker, Constable Fraser's pet, a wolf/husky cross that Mr. Kowalski is admittedly fond of). He underwent exploratory abdominal surgery, as well as surgery to repair several severe rectal tears. The ER doctor and surgeon agreed that he had been raped at least once, possibly twice. He spent three days at the hospital and then, for his own safety, was moved here. I gather he was kept fairly heavily sedated while in the hospital and our first conversation seems to bear this out; he was very groggy, with a speech pattern that resembled that of someone half-drunk or drugged.

Since then he has recovered well and is very easy to talk to, though he tends to be hesitant to discuss the rape in depth. This is normal; rape is a difficult subject for any victim to discuss, and more so for a man. The fact that someone he considered his best friend raped him certainly factors into it as well. I believe this may be where the delusion of the 'Fraser Monster' came from, his inability to reconcile his relationship with Constable Fraser with what happened.

He has readily admitted that he was in love with Constable Fraser and that the Constable returned his affections, but said he needed time to think things over. Having talked to several of his colleagues from the 27th Precinct, including his superior officer, Lt. Harding Welsh, this is born out. He and Constable Fraser were very close, having gone so far as to spend six months in Canada on some sort of adventure.

His attempts to erect barricades are causing discord amongst the staff. I am reluctant to sedate him however, as he isn't violent, and, I believe, presents no danger to himself or others. He is simply in the grip of a very strong delusion, that the 'Fraser Monster' will be coming back to finish what he started.

We have a therapy session scheduled for this afternoon; I hope to see if I can get him to further explain his concept of this 'Fraser Monster'. He knows that he is in a Mental Health facility and that the outer doors are kept locked at all times and the inner doors locked at night, yet he does not feel this would present any hindrance to the monster.

Hopefully, we will be able to get a few more pieces of this admittedly scattered puzzle into place.

Dr. Cyndala Chu

ADDENDUM TO NOTES:
6/4/2001
3:30 P.M.

I have just spoken on the phone to Lt. Harding Welsh and find myself troubled by the news I received.

The autopsy on the body of Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP, was completed today, and both the 27th Precinct Coroner, Dr. Morton Gustafson and State Coroner Dr. Jennifer McMillan agree that Constable Fraser was killed in a manor that is totally inconsistent with everything we know about Mr. Kowalski.

His throat was torn out. Dr. Gustafson and Dr. McMillan believe such an injury could only have been inflicted by some sort of large animal, though what kind remains unclear. For a time there was some suspicion that Constable Fraser's dog, Diefenbaker, might be responsible, but Lt. Welsh states that when they arrived at Mr. Kowalski's apartment the night of the murder, they found him in a fetal position in a corner of the living room with Dief curled around him. Lt. Welsh, a veteran policeman, told me personally that he has seen some gruesome crime scenes in his time but this was beyond anything he could've ever imagined. A vet has checked Dief, and while there was blood on him, it has been definitely identified as Mr. Kowalski's. No trace of Constable Fraser's blood was found on either Mr. Kowalski or Dief; the only two things in the apartment, Lt. Welsh says, that "didn't have Fraser’s blood on them."

I cannot in good conscience give credence to the idea of Mr. Kowalski being capable of such an act. Though wiry and muscular, he simply does not possess the necessary strength to do something this horrific. I am, of course, well aware that people in the throes of extreme psychosis can commit acts that seem impossible in retrospect. However the sworn statements of both Coroners, as well as the autopsy reports, would seem to rule out Mr. Kowalski as a suspect in the murder.

Which leaves us with a question for which we have no answer. Who or what killed Constable Benton Fraser?

Dr. Cyndala Chu

FIN

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