Ngaio Marsh - The Nursing Home Murder

“I… I… That is my suggestion,” stammered Phillips.

“Deliberately responsible or accidentally?”

“I am not a murderer,” said Phillips angrily.

“Then how did the tablets get into the measure-glass?”

Phillips was silent.

The inspector waited for a moment and then, with an unsual inflexion in his deep voice, he said:

“So you don’t understand the idealistic type?”

“What? No!”

“I don’t believe you.”

Phillips stared at him, flushed painfully and then shrugged his shoulders. “Do you want a written statement of all this?” he asked.

“I don’t think so. Later, if it’s necessary. You have been very frank. I appreciate both the honesty and the motive. Look here — what can you tell me to help yourself? It’s an unusual question from a police officer, but — there it is.”

“I don’t know. I suppose the case against me, apart from the suggestion I have just made, is that I had threatened O’Callaghan, and that when the opportunity came I gave him an overdose of hyoscine. It looks fishy, my giving the injection at all, but it is my usual practice, especially when Roberts is the anæsthetist, as he dislikes the business. It looks still more suspicious using a lot of water. That, again, is my usual practice. I can prove it. I can prove that I suggested another surgeon to Lady O’Callaghan and that she urged me to operate. That’s all. Except that I don’t think— No, that’s all.”

“Have you any theories about other people?”

“Who did it, you mean? None. I imagine it was political. How it was done, I’ve no idea. I can’t possibly suspect any of the people who worked with me. It’s unthinkable. Besides — why? You said something about patent medicines. Is there anything there?”

“We’re on that tack now. I don’t know if there’s anything in it. By the way, why does Dr. Roberts object to giving injections?”

“A private reason. Nothing that can have any bearing on the case.”

“Is it because he once gave an overdose?”

“If you knew that, why did you ask me? Testing my veracity?”

“Put it like that. He was never alone with the patient?”

“No. No, never.”

“Was any one of the nurses alone in the theatre before the operation?”

“The nurses? I don’t know. I wouldn’t notice what they did. They’d been preparing for some time before we came on the scene.”

“We?”

“Thoms, Roberts and myself.”

“What about Mr. Thoms?”

“I can’t remember. He may have dodged in to have a look round.”

“Yes. I think I must have a reconstruction. Can you spare the time to-day or to-morrow?”

“You mean you want to go through the whole business in pantomime?”

“If I may. We can hardly do it actually, unless I discover a P.C. suffering from an acute abscess of the appendix.”

Phillips smiled sardonically.

“I might give him too much hyoscine if you did,” he said. “Do you want the whole pack of them?”

“If it’s possible.”

“Unless there’s an urgent case, nothing happens in the afternoon. I hardly think there will be an urgent case. Business,” added Phillips grimly, “will probably fall off. My last major operation is enjoying somewhat unfavourable publicity.”

“Well — will you get the others for me for to-morrow afternoon?”

“I’ll try. It’ll be very unpleasant. Nurse Banks has left us, but she can be found.”

“She’s at the Nurses’ Club in Chelsea.”

Phillips glanced quickly at him.

“Is she?” he said shortly. “Very well. Will five o’clock suit you?”

“Admirably. Can we have it all as closely reproduced as possible — same impedimenta and so on?”

“I think it can be arranged. I’ll let you know.”

Phillips went to the door.

“Good-bye for the moment,” he said. “I’ve no idea whether or not you think I killed O’Callaghan, but you’ve been very polite.”

“We are taught manners at the same time as point-duty,” said Alleyn. Phillips went away and Alleyn sought out Detective-Inspector Fox, to whom he related the events of the morning. When he came to Phillips’s visit Fox thrust out his under lip and looked at his boots.

“That’s your disillusioned expression, Fox,” said Alleyn. “What’s it in aid of?”

“Well, sir, I must say I have my doubts about this self-sacrifice business. It sounds very nice, but it isn’t the stuff people hand out when they think it may be returned to them tied up with rope.”

“I can’t believe you were no good at composition. Do you mean you mistrust Phillips’s motive in coming here, or Nurse Harden’s hypothetical attempt to decoy my attention?”

“Both, but more particularly number one. To my way of thinking, we’ve got a better case against Sir John Phillips than any of the others. I believe you’re right about the political side — it’s not worth a great deal. Now Sir John knows how black it looks against him. What’s he do? He comes here, says he wants to make a clean breast of it, and tells you nothing you don’t know already. When you point this out to him he says he may have made a slip over the two tubes. Do you believe that, chief?”

“No — to do the job he’d have had to dissolve the contents of a full tube. However dopey he felt he couldn’t do that by mistake.”

“Just so. And he knows you’ll think of that. You ask me, sir,” said Fox oratorically: “ ‘What’s the man’s motive?’ ”

“What’s the man’s motive?” repeated Alleyn obediently.

“Spoof’s his motive. He knows it’s going to be a tricky business bringing it home to him and he wants to create a good impression. The young lady may or may not have been in collusion with him. She may or may not come forward with the same kind of tale. ‘Oh, please don’t arrest him; arrest me. I never did it, but spare the boy-friend,’ ” said Fox in a very singular falsetto and with dreadful scorn.

Alleyn’s mouth twitched. Rather hurriedly he lit a cigarette.

“You seem very determined all of a sudden,” he observed mildly. “This morning you seduced me with tales of Sage, Banks, and Roberts.”

“So I did, sir. It was an avenue that had to be explored. Boys is exploring, and as far as he’s got it’s a wash-out.”

“Alack, what news are these! Discover them.”

“Boys got hold of Robinson, and Robinson says it’s all my eye. He says he’s dead certain the Bolshie push hasn’t an idea who killed O’Callaghan. He says if they’d had anything to do with it he’d have heard something. It was Kakaroff who told him about it and Kakaroff was knocked sideways at the news. Robinson says if there had been any organization from that quarter they’d have kept quiet and we’d have had no rejoicing. They’re as pleased as punch and as innocent as angels.”

“Charming! All clapping their hands in childish glee. How about Dr. Roberts?”

“I asked him about the doctor. It seems they don’t know anything much about him and look upon him as a bit of an outsider. They’ve even suspected him of being what they call ‘unsound.’ Robinson wondered if he was one of our men. You recollect Marcus Barker sent out a lot of pamphlets on the Sterilization Bill. They took it up for a time. Well, the doctor is interested in the Bill.”

“Yes, of course,” agreed Alleyn thoughtfully. “It’s in his territory.”

“From the look of some of the sons of the Soviet,” said Fox, “I’d say they’d be the first to suffer. The doctor saw one of these pamphlets and went to a meeting. He joined the Lenin Hall lot because he thought they’d push it. Robinson says he’s always nagging at them to take it up again.”

“So that’s that. It sounds reasonable enough, Fox, and certainly consistent with Roberts’s character. With his views on eugenics he’d be sure to support sterilization. You don’t need to be a Bolshie to see the sense of it, either. It looks as though Roberts had merely been thrown in to make it more difficult.”