Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen Dr. Willoughby

Hercule Poirot got out of the taxi, and after paying the fare and tip, he confirmed once again that the address he had come to was indeed the address recorded in the address book, and then carefully took out a letter from his pocket to Cheng Cheng. No sooner had he climbed the front steps and rang the bell than he had received a letter from Dr. Laubie. A servant opened the door. He asked Poirot's name and said that the doctor was waiting for him. He was shown into a cozy little room, surrounded by books, with two lounge chairs by the fire, and some glasses and two ampoules on a tray.Dr. Willoughby rose to welcome him.The doctor, about fifty years old, thin and stooped, with a high forehead, black hair, and very keen gray eyes, shook hands with Poirot and asked him to sit down, who handed the letter to him. he.

"Ah, yes." The doctor took the letter, read it and put it aside, waiting for Poirot with some interest. "I've heard it," said he, "from Commissioner Galway. A friend of mine who works in the Home Office asked me to help you, too." "It is a great honor to make this request to you," said Poirot. "There are, indeed, some very important reasons, as far as I am concerned." "Is something still important to you after all these years?" "Yes. But of course, if you say that you have forgotten all about these unusual events of the past, I quite understand."

"I can't say that the thing is that, I've had a rather keen interest in a particular branch of my profession—you've heard of it—and it's been going on for a number of years." "I know your father was a Outstanding specialist in psychiatry." "Yes. He has been working on it almost all his life, and he has a lot of theories, some of which have since been proven correct and some of which have been disproved. I suppose you are now interested in a case of psychosis? " "A woman, and her name is Donochie Preston-Grey." "I understand that, as a young man at the time, I was interested in my father's ideas, although I didn't necessarily agree with them all. The work he was doing was interesting, and I had the same enthusiasm as an assistant. I didn't know you were interested in Dono What's interested in Kee Preston-Grey--after marriage Mrs. Gerlow?"

"As far as I know, she is one of the twins." "Yes. At that time, the study of twins was a subject of my father, and there was a pair of twins who were the objects of his pathological follow-up. They Some grow up in the same environment, while others have completely different experiences. Through this kind of research, you can find out how similar they are. Two sisters or two brothers, he (she) ) who are not living together at all, and still have the same thing happening at the same time. It's all — it's incredible. But anyway, as far as I know, it's not something you're interested in.”

"Yes," said Poirot, "but now there is a case—the accident of a child." "Yes, I think it happened in Salley, a pleasant place not far from Kemberley. Mrs. Gerlow was then widowed with two very small children, and her husband died in an accident. , the consequence of which—" "Her madness?" asked Poirot. "No, not to that extent. Her husband's death was a great shock to her and caused her a great sense of loss. From the point of view of the doctors who treated her, she was not recovering very well. The doctor disapproved of the way in which she had recovered, and she did not get over her loss as soon as he had hoped, but seemed to have had a very special effect on her. In short, the doctor wanted to hear an authoritative opinion, So I went to my father. My father thought the patient's situation was interesting, but at the same time he must have been a danger. He thought it might be better to keep her under the close care of a mental institution. And after the child's death After the incident, things got worse. There were two children—according to Mrs. Gerlow's account of events, it was the older child, the girl, who attacked her younger brother, who was only four or five years old, with a Hit him with a shovel or a hoe, and he falls into a small artificial pond in the garden and drowns. Well, you know, this kind of thing happens a lot among children. The reason for this, it is said, is Out of envy--'Mama would have had a lot less trouble if it wasn't for Edward, or Donald, or whatever it was called' 'or the old way was better for Mama'--it was all envy at work. Although in this case There seemed to be nothing unusual in the report, and no evidence of jealousy was found, and the child did not express displeasure with her newborn brother. On the other hand, Mrs. Gerlow did not wish to have the second child, although her husband did. , but she didn't like it. She went to two doctors and wanted to have an abortion, but no one agreed to perform this illegal operation for her at the time. According to a servant at the time, maybe a young man who sent a telegram to their house, it was An attack by a woman on the child. Not an older child. Another servant made it clear that she saw her mistress through the window, saying, 'I don't think the poor thing knew he was Why, just because she was in grief over the loss of her husband. 'Well, like I said, I don't know what you're trying to learn from this incident, anyway, the conclusion at the time was that it was an accident, or Said to be considered as an accident. The whole incident was said to be children playing together, pushing each other, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. , but my father, after much deliberation, decided to have a meeting with Mrs. Gerlow. He asked her some questions as he expressed his deepest sympathy to her. Finally he concluded that she was responsible for the incident, according to From his report, he thought it obvious that she needed psychiatric treatment." "Your father did conclude that she was responsible, did he?"

"Yes. There was a popular therapy at the time, which my father agreed to use, that the patient relaxes after an effective course of therapy and lets himself go through a long period of time, a year or more, on his own. Return to normal. This is done in the patient's best interest. Then they can go home with appropriate care -- while continuing to take their medication, while going through those -- usually close relatives watching them carefully -- to lead a normal life. I think that this treatment was successful in the first few cases, but then there was a marked difference, and in a few cases it turned out to be an unfortunate one. After the patients showed obvious signs of healing, they were sent home to their former living environment. Their families, whether husbands, mothers and fathers, were slowly relieved, but often at this time, tragedy or similar Tragedy struck. My father was dismayed by a case - and an important one in his medical career - of a woman who came home all right, with her friends The relationship was the same as before, everything seemed so pleasant and happy. But five or six months later, she was so distraught that she had the doctor called. When the doctor came, she said, 'I should take you upstairs because you Will be very angry at what I've done, and I'm afraid you're going to have to call the police, I know it's bound to happen, but you see, I was ordered to do it, and I saw the devil out of Hilda's eyes and I did see the devil there, so I knew what I should do, and I knew I should kill him.' The woman was dead, in a chair, strangled, and before she died Finally, the eyes were severely injured. The murderer finally died in the lunatic asylum. Until then, she did not realize her criminal behavior, and still insisted that she was ordered to do this, and destroying the devil was her mission. ’ Poirot shook his head sadly.

The doctor went on: "Yes, I think that in a peaceful way Donochie Preston-Grey suffered from a derangement which is dangerous and yet people Thinking that she would be safe as long as she was well taken care of. I would say that this view was hard for me to accept. My father saw the fact that it was later noticed at the time. A crime was committed. Later, she once again appeared to be fully recovered and left the mental institution, living with and under the care of a delightful nurse who looked like her maid. Madame Gerlow went about and made many friends, and before long she went abroad." "To India," said Poirot.

"Yes. I know you've got some accurate facts. Yes, she's going to her twin sister in India." "And another tragedy followed?" "Yes. A neighbor's child was attacked. At first it was a nurse who was suspected, then a local servant, a litter-bearer, but from a spiritual point of view it was undoubtedly Mrs. Gerlow's fault. Of course, I Knowing that no evidence has been found against her, but I think the general—I've forgotten his name—" "Ravenscroft?" suggested Poirot. "Yes, yes, General Ravenscroft agreed to arrange for her to return to England for further psychiatric treatment. Is that what you want to know?"

"Yes," said Poirot, "I have heard part of it. But I should say that what I have heard is almost 'heard' in itself, without any basis. I would like to ask you Yes, it's a twin case, what about the other twin? That's Margaret Preston-Grey, who later became General Ravenscroft's wife, she's like that Anyone affected by the same madness?" "She never had any medical records of this, on the contrary, she was absolutely normal. My father was very interested in it, visited her once or twice, and explained to her that he often found that in a pair of early intimate twins The same disease or mental disturbance." "You mean, just early life?"

"Yes, under certain circumstances, a feeling of hatred can grow between twins, resulting from a love which at first belonged to only one, and then falls on the other, and the result of transference may make the love The emotion degenerates into an emotion close to hate, and this transformed emotion is usually hidden deeply, and it is only possible to trigger or awaken it when the emotion is in extreme tension or when the emotion is in crisis." "I think the problem is that General Ravenscroft was only a lieutenant or a captain, or whatever, and he was young anyway, and he and Roanoke Preston--Grey fell into a She was a very pretty girl at the time, prettier in fact than her twin sister, they were not formally engaged, and it was not long before Captain Ravenscrott turned his attention entirely to one of the sisters. On the other was Margaret, or Molly--as they called her. He fell in love with her, proposed to her, and she returned his love, and soon the two were married, and There's a good explanation for this - he's on business. My father has no doubts about the other twin sister - that Dolly is deeply jealous of her sister's marriage, and she's still deeply in love with Ali Ster Ravenscroft. But she took it anyway, and was married to another man after a while—a perfectly happy marriage—on the surface. After marriage she was frequently She visited the Ravenscrotters regularly, not only when the latter lived in the Malay Peninsula, but also after they moved to another country and returned to settle in their homeland. At that time, she obviously Is recovered again, without any emotional trouble, and she is living with a very competent nursing staff. I believe - and my father always told me that, Mrs. Ravenscroft is Molly, still Loyal to her, she cared for her, cared for her, loved her, and I think she wished to see her more often than she ever came to see her, but General Ravenscroft was not enthusiastic about it. I think it somewhat unbalances Mrs. Dolly-Gerlow, who is still deeply attached to him, but it seems to me that General Ravenscroft, too, has been distressed and feels Very tricky, though I believe his wife was perfectly sure that her sister had shaken off the emotions of jealousy and resentment." "I know that Mrs. Gerlow had been living with them both about three weeks before the tragedy. "

"Yes, it happened, and she herself died tragically at that time. She was a known sleepwalker. She left the house one night and something happened, and she took a path with no way to go, so she She fell off the edge of a cliff. She was not found lying there until the next day, and she was taken to the hospital, but she never regained consciousness. Her sister had a nervous breakdown and was always frowning. But I To say that, well, maybe that's what you want to know, I don't think that's what led to the ensuing double suicide of the Ravenscrotters - they were a really happy couple , the grief of the wife for the death of her own sister and the husband for the death of the sister-in-law is hard to make both of them decide to commit suicide, and what is certain is that it will never lead to suicide by both of them." "Unless...maybe..." Heck "Margaret Ravenscroft was responsible for her sister's death," said El Poirot. "Dear me!" said Dr. Willoughby, "you must not be implying—" "Was Margaret following her sleepwalking sister, whose hand pushed Donochie off the cliff?" "I utterly reject any such reasoning," exclaimed Dr. Willoughby. "My God," said Hercule Poirot, "who knows?"