Chapter 1 haunted hospital
By March 1941, the war in Europe had posed such a threat to Atlantic shipping that the U.S. Navy established the Atlantic Fleet to support the Allies.After my nurse Aibo returned to Beishan Township, she was very worried about her husband, who was serving in the Navy, and doubted whether he would be able to return to her within eighteen months according to the draft regulations.It was a chilly Monday in my office and we were talking about news from the front, and the issue of the haunted hospital started in this conversation (Dr. ).
"Some people say that our country will be involved by the end of the year." I see no reason to object to her statement. "Is Andre serving on the ship?" I asked.Before being drafted, they ran a small hotel in Maine.Now that her husband is gone, Aibo and her son return to Beishan Town. "I suppose so, but their work is highly classified." My last nurse, Mary Best, was on the Navy draft list, which is why I arranged for Aibo to come back—would she be sent to Andre's ship?This kind of coincidence only happens in movies.She went to a naval base in San Diego. For the doctors stationed at my office in the wing attached to Pilgrim Memorial Hospital, the chance to chat with the nurses is a luxury.Sure enough, on this March afternoon, our conversation was interrupted by Lincoln Jones.A few years ago, he became the first black doctor in North Hills, which caused quite a stir at the time.I was thinking of thanking Lincoln and his wife, Charlene, for a sumptuous dinner last weekend for me and Annabelle, when I noticed that his face seemed to indicate that he was not about to say something light. "Sam, can I have a few minutes with you? I need your opinion on something." I asked Aibo, "What time is the next patient?" "You promised Mrs. Dougal to come to see a doctor in the afternoon, but there was no time requirement. She has a fever and can't go anywhere." So I followed Lincoln down the corridor. "Have there been more cold patients recently?" Lincoln asked. I nodded: "It's like this every winter. Do you have many patients in the hospital?" "A lot of critically ill patients, mainly elderly people. There are people in every ward anyway. But I want to talk to you about something else. There is a patient named Sandra Bright who claims that her ward is haunted." I couldn't help laughing out loud: "This ghost must be a newcomer!" We passed the nurse's desk and walked into Ward No. 76. This number gave me a feeling of deja vu, but I couldn't capture the memory for a while.If I thought that there was a frail old lady lying on the hospital bed, barely propped up on the pillows, I was very wrong.Sandra Bright is in her thirties and looks pretty.She sat by the window. "Hello," I greeted her, "I'm Dr. Hawthorne." Her flowery smile made me a little distracted. "Sorry, I can't get up. Dr. Jones says I've got a day or two to rest." "Appendix operation," Lincoln explained, "performed last Saturday afternoon by Dr. Truman, and is recovering well." "It would be better if there was no ghost." She said faintly. I couldn't tell if she was joking or serious.I pulled up a chair and sat across from her, and Lincoln sat down on the edge of the bed.In fact, I seldom sit in the hospital ward. Usually, I visit my patients before going to work every day, and stand at the end of the bed to ask them if they are sleeping well.Sitting in a chair and looking at the room from a lower vantage point made me realize how dead the ward was.It was a private ward with not a single picture on the walls except for a bed.In those days, of course, there were no TVs hanging from the ceiling.A bed, two chairs, and a small bedside table are all the furnishings in the room. "Why don't you tell me about that ghost?" I asked tentatively. She smiled and said, "Are you the resident psychiatrist here? Do you also think I might have a problem with my brain?" I laughed off the thought: "Pilgrim Memorial doesn't have a psychiatrist, and Dr. Jones just called me up to see if he could help you. Did you actually see a ghost?" She nodded. "Two nights in a row. After the operation on Saturday, they sedated me, but I woke up in the middle of the night. I felt the bed move, and then I saw a person, a hooded man. A figure, his silhouette clearly etched on the window in the moonlight. I began to say something incoherently, and the man disappeared, replaced by a nurse who greeted me. I fell asleep again , I think this may be a nightmare caused by the side effects of those drugs." "Very likely." I agreed. "But last night, the same thing happened again! The same figure appeared again, this time he was wriggling beside my bed, I thought I must have screamed, when I opened my eyes, the man was gone , only the nurse who kept comforting me in front of me.” "Could all this be your dream?" "Impossible, I was wide awake. I took a painkiller, not a sleeping pill. When I yelled, I closed my eyes, but it was only a split second. Then the nurse came to me Next to it, the moonlight shines in through the window, exactly the same as the night before." "Who's that nurse?" I asked. "Betty Langdon. She and Jenny Templeton were night nurses." I know both of them. They get off work at seven o'clock every morning. Sometimes I will run into them when I start my rounds very early.Betty had been at Pilgrim Memorial Hospital for about a year, while Jenny was only a few months. "I'll talk to them both," I promised her. "It's useless, they all think I'm lying. I even asked Betty to check under the bed, but there's no one there." "Relax and stop thinking about it," Lincoln suggested. "I can prescribe you a sedative tonight if you need it." "I just want to get out of this damn place and go home!" "Okay, there are no complications in your operation. Usually, patients with appendix surgery need to stay in the hospital for observation for more than a week, but I will talk to Dr. Truman to see if you can be discharged early on Friday." "But it's only Monday!" She seemed extremely reluctant to stay here for one more night, "Can't you help me change a ward?" "Recently, there are a lot of cold patients, and the hospital ward is very tight, but I will try my best to arrange it." I followed Lincoln out of Ward 76, however we soon learned that all the wards in this area were full.There are still some vacant beds in the obstetrics department, but we can't arrange them. "Perhaps a patient in a double room would be willing to switch with her." I suggested. "I'll ask." Lincoln agreed. I drove to Mrs. Dougal's house for a doctor's visit, and even though winter was dying, there was still snow in the sky.After my doctor's visit, I went home and changed for dinner at Marx's Steakhouse with Annabelle.It's a restaurant in the middle of town that just opened last fall.According to the usual route, I came to her clinic on time at seven o'clock to pick her up from get off work. "How's your cat and dog doing today?" I opened the car door for her. "Very well," she said, "but there's a poor snake, and we'll have to find a way to put it to sleep. I'm not good at snakes." "No one in Beishan Town is good at this!" Her animal clinic is called "Ark" and is located between North Hill Township and Cape Sean.Although it's only been open for less than a year, Annabel Lee Christie, the blond, brown-eyed girl, has already made a name for herself in two towns.We started going out together in the fall, and I'm growing in love with her now. When we got to the restaurant, we took our favorite seats and she asked, "How was your day?" I told her the ghost story about the hospital, and she was keenly aware that it was just an abnormal reaction of a patient who was anesthetized during an operation. "I think you're right," I agreed, "but I just remembered something about room seventy-six. A year ago a man was killed in this room. He was robbing a jewelry store." Later, he was injured by the police and was admitted to the hospital. But he tried to knock down the guard at the gate and escape, but was shot dead." "My God! I never thought that I would come to such a lawless place!" "Remind me to tell you some strange stories that happened here next time." "I've seen a lot," she reminded me, "even a cat has secrets." At this moment, Max Verdic came to our table with a warm greeting: "My dearest doctors, are you having a good time tonight?" On the top of the head, a small mustache is looming.He used to run a thriving restaurant in Boston, and I can't imagine why he'd sell that property and come to a small place like North Hills, though he mentioned it once, and it was a heart-wrenching incident. Divorce related.In any case, he brought high-quality consumption and delicious food to Beishan Town. "Today I was forced to kill a snake." Annabelle said angrily. "You should bring that snake, I can make a good dish out of it." "No, thank you! Your steak is already delicious." He pointed behind him and said, "When the weather gets warmer, I'm going to build a party room in the back, and we'll expand the kitchen a little bit, then we can host Christmas parties and small wedding banquets." He grinned at us and added, "You two can be my first couple." We mocked him with feigned annoyance, as if this was just his wishful thinking.He joked with us for a while before going to greet other customers who came to the door. "I didn't expect business to be so good on Monday night." I sighed. "Don't you know? It's St. Patrick's Day! Otherwise, why do you think I'm wearing green?" "I really didn't expect that today is a holiday," I admitted, "In the hospital, everyone wears the same color clothes..." The nurses' uniforms back then were white shoes and socks, as well as starched white uniforms and white hats. It must be worn as such at all times. "You're incredible, Sam! You've got to have someone tell you what day it is every morning." I didn't pick up her words, but commented on her outfit: "Anyway, I like how you look today, but you're not Irish." "My mom is. But St. Patrick's Day has no nationality." "Looks like I should take you somewhere where you can eat corned beef and cabbage." "Marx has put this dish on the menu as a special of the day, but I'll let it go. I'm not that Irish." It was a hearty meal, and by the time dessert arrived, we were 70 to 80 percent full.A glass of brandy ended the meal, and it was half past ten when we left the restaurant and returned to the car. "Where are you going now?" Annabelle asked. "Well, don't be surprised, but I want to go to the hospital to see how Sandra Bright is doing." "The woman who lives in the haunted house?" "Well, I just want to make sure she gets through the night." "No problem, I'll go with you this time. Next time we go on a date, I'll show you my cats and dogs." "Annabelle..." She took my hand playfully and said happily, "Let's go!" We arrived at the hospital at exactly eleven o'clock, just in time for the nurse's shift change. "Is Sandra Bright okay tonight?" I asked Betty.Another nurse, Jenny Templeton, was walking toward one of the rooms carrying a bedpan for a bedridden patient. "I don't know, doctor. I just went to work, but she seems to be asleep." I gently pushed open the door of Ward No. 76, for fear of waking up the patient.Annabelle remained at the nurse's desk chatting with Betty.In the room, moonlight streamed in through the windows, illuminating the head of the bed brightly.The patient seemed to be sleeping very peacefully. Just as I was about to leave the room, I suddenly noticed something unusual, so I stopped and stepped forward to get a better look. The woman in the bed is not Sandra Bright.And it's a dead man. Betty and Jenny immediately checked the records and found that Sandra Bright had been moved to Ward 65 during the day. "We were not informed," Betty Langdon grumbled, "that they traded Russ Hephagne." "For the past two nights, Miss Bright has been thinking that this room is haunted. It was she who asked to change the ward." Jenny Templeton, another night nurse, shook her head heavily and said: "Perhaps someone should tell Mrs. Heffine what happened so she won't agree to change wards." "Who is her attending doctor?" "Same as Miss Bright, Dr. Lincoln Jones. I think he arranged the ward change." "You'd better call him." Within twenty minutes, Lincoln arrived, apparently dragged out of bed by us. "What happened, Sam?" "You'd better come and see, Sergeant Len Si will be here soon." "Sheriff? What the hell happened?" I didn't answer, and led him into Ward No. 76.I lifted the sheet off the dead man so he could have a better look.He raised his eyes and looked at me in bewilderment: "You mean...she was scared to death by ghosts?" I shook my head and pointed to an extra pillow next to her head. "A beautiful woman who never forgets to wear lipstick even in the hospital." "A lot of women do that, to please themselves. Wait a minute—" He saw the lip marks on the pillow. "Is she smothered by this pillow, Sam?" "It needs to see the autopsy report to be sure, but I think the possibility is very high. The film shows that she has kidney stones." "That's right. If she doesn't improve tomorrow, Dr. Truman will operate on her." Annabelle poked her head out from the doorway and said, "Sheriff Lan Si is here, Sam." "Let him come here." The sheriff was my closest friend in North Hills, and as the town grew I knew his days in the office were numbered.When I came here in 1922, straight out of medical school, North Hills had neither a good steakhouse nor a brilliant jewelry store, and law enforcement was easier than it is now.There are already rumors that he will be contested in the general election in November, and I don't want to see this scene. "What did you discover again, doctor?" Before the others entered the door, the question came first, "Is it impossible to commit a crime with you again?" "No idea, Sheriff. A patient stayed here for two nights and claimed to see ghosts. Then another woman died here." He looked down at the corpse and asked, "What was the cause of death?" "See the lipstick marks on this pillow? She may have been smothered to death." "Smothered by a ghost?" I was noncommittal, and knelt on the floor looking for clues, but found nothing.Only the hot air from the stove blowing under the bed. "I'm going to talk to Sandra Bright, I hope she's still up." When I came to the door of Ward No. 65, I saw her sitting on the bed. "I heard voices, Dr. Hawthorne, is something wrong?" I didn't want to hide it from her, so I said, "The woman who moved to your ward died." "Dead! How did this happen? Did you have a heart attack from being frightened?" "We don't know yet. There may be a more natural explanation." But she firmly believed in her own judgment: "No mistake, she also saw ghosts, just like me." I sat down beside her bed. "Sandra, now that you're awake, I want to talk to you about the details of those two hauntings." I took out a prescription pad that I had been keeping in my pocket to record. "First, please briefly introduce yourself." She sighed and said slowly, "Actually, there's really nothing to say. I moved here from Albany a few months ago, and I have a job as a pastry chef here." "In Beishan Town? Which restaurant?" “Marx Steakhouse.” "We just had dinner there tonight! Max didn't tell us his pastry chef was in the hospital." "He probably doesn't want customers to know, because when I was in hospital, all the desserts were purchased directly from the bakery. He is a good boss and visits me every day. It makes me feel less lonely. My family Living in Florida, I haven't had much opportunity to make friends in North Hills." "Tell me about Saturday night." "Well, like I said last time, after the operation, I was in a daze, but I woke up because I felt the bed move. Then I saw the figure with the hood." "Is the room door closed?" "Yes, but the moonlight comes in through the window, so it's clear." "Can you tell the man's gender?" She shook her head: "I can only see a dark outline, it's like a nightmare." "Maybe it's just a dream." I said calmly. But she shook her head resolutely: "I blinked my eyes hard on purpose to make sure it wasn't my imagination. I didn't expect to see Nurse Betty when I opened my eyes. She was testing my pulse, and she told me that it was my pulse." The sound made her a little worried, so she came to check on the situation." "Perhaps the figure you see in the window is the nurse." "Impossible. I was skeptical the first night, but the second night the shadow reappeared, crawling on the floor next to my bed. This time I actually yelled and reported it to Dr. Jones this morning. " This is not different from the story she told earlier, which I think is more believable. "I need to talk to the nurses again," I said. "There is another question. After you came to Beishan Town, did you have any enemies with anyone? Did anyone want to harm you?" "Why, no way. I don't even have a boyfriend. Apart from Max and the rest of my colleagues, I don't know anyone. I work in the restaurant every night. How can I have time to socialize?" Jenny Templeton was standing at the nurses' desk, and I decided to talk to her first. She was a slender young girl, but she had a poised air, not very attractive, but a good hand at the sick bed.As we spoke, Annabelle also came over.I almost forgot about her. "Sam, I'm taking a taxi home. I have to be at the clinic early tomorrow morning." "It's so late, where's the taxi? I'll take you back." After speaking, I turned around and apologized to Jenny, "Sorry, I'll be back later." Annabelle felt a little guilty in the car: "I know that the hospital matter is very important to you, Sam, there is no need for you to leave for me." "Giving you a ride home by yourself is not my style of dating." I left her at the door of my house, and hurried back to Pilgrim Memorial Hospital, where the body had been taken away, and Sergeant Lan Si had finished questioning the nurses: "Doctor, it seems that this is another body for you together." Made impossible to commit crimes unless you also believe in ghosts." "Whose ghost could it be?" I asked innocently. "Frank Nomad, the robber who robbed the jewelry store. Remember this guy? One of my guys wounded him at the crime scene and he was shot dead by the police trying to escape from the hospital. I remember him dying Still struggling on the ground, looked at me and said my men shouldn't have shot at him because he wasn't trying to run away. He died after saying that." "Who was your adjutant at the time?" I knew about it, but not the details. "Ray Broll. You know him, don't you? Good guy. I did my research and Ray was justified in shooting." "Is the background investigation of the deceased Mrs. Heffine clear tonight?" "We are trying to get in touch with her family in New York. She was driving back to New York from Boston when she suddenly had kidney stones while driving." "No one in Beishan Town knows her?" "At least not as far as we know. Let's face it, Doctor, she was killed just because she happened to change rooms." "That is to say, the darkness caused the murderer to mistake the target." "Or there really is something like a ghost in this room. Because according to the testimonies of the nurses, no one has ever approached Ward 76 after their shift." So I went to talk to two more nurses, but their stories were the same as before.When it was almost eleven o'clock, they switched shifts with the nurses in front and began to prepare for the evening work. They hadn't been told about Mrs. Hephagne's room-swapping with Sandra Bright, and they didn't find out until I came to the hospital. "We are in charge of wards 61 to 80," Betty explained, "in order to ensure that no one is missed, we usually check the wards from the two ends to the middle. When you arrived at the hospital, I hadn't found the 70th ward. Ward Six." "You mean that the deceased was killed before eleven o'clock?" "No, because Maggie—she's the night nurse—she wrote down in the records that everything was fine in Ward 76 when she was off duty. If someone entered that room, we would never escape our eyes. So this Everything is just incredible!" "It is necessary to meet Maggie." I thought to myself. "Her name is Maggie Weller," she glanced at the clock. "She should be asleep now." "I'm going to bed too," I said. "I'll see her tomorrow." Out the door, another nurse, Jenny, caught up to me. "There's something I forgot to tell you," she said. "When I got off the elevator this evening, I saw a visitor just leave." "Oh? Who is that man?" "Max Verdic, owner of the steakhouse where I eat sometimes." Early the next morning, I found Ray Brower, the man who had killed the prisoners in Ward 76 last year.He is a fat black-haired man, the buttons on his uniform are stretched by his belly, and he looks like he will be ripped at any moment. "I had heard about the hospital shooting," I told him, "but I was in Cape Sean at the time, so the details were never clear." He adjusted his belt to a comfortable position and began to talk.We started this meeting at the sheriff's office, and after the conversation he was going out to patrol the town. "Well, you know about the jewelry store in Beishan Town." He didn't know that this was the hundreds of times he repeated the same story. The place, they still have some valuables in their store. Frank Nomad, this guy got his head twisted and planned to rob. He walked in the door, took out his gun, and started to sweep the goods in a cloth bag. He shouldn't Knew the store had the same silent alarm system as the bank. Other cops stopped him in the parking lot and after an exchange of gunfire he was shot in the left leg. They seized his gun, jewelry and some of the theft's paraphernalia His injuries were nothing serious, but they took him to Pilgrim Memorial Hospital where they removed the bullet and bandaged the wound. My job that night was to keep an eye on him as he was due to be sent to prison." "Isn't this a year ago?" "Well. March 3rd. I'll never forget that day. I've never killed anyone before." "Tell me what happened at that time." "Okay. It was past twelve o'clock in the evening, and I was sitting on a chair by the door of the ward. I guess he should be asleep. Just then, I heard some noises coming from the room." "What kind of sound?" He frowned, as if he was trying to remember: "I can't tell, it's like the sound of metal colliding, and the sound is not loud. I decided to go in and have a look, so I pushed open the door. There was no light in the room, but the bright moonlight shone through. Everything was clearly lit through the window. I saw him walking towards me with a dagger in his hand, and without thinking, I shot him in the chest." "Sheriff Lens said Nomad claimed before his death that he had no intention of fleeing." "Do you think there's any explanation other than running away? Later we found out that the dagger turned out to be a screwdriver, but if he stabbed me, I wouldn't live. We think it was one of the tools he used to steal, but in the It was missed by us in the previous search. Although he was wearing a hospital gown, his own clothes were also in that room." "Thanks, Ray. Your information was very helpful." I shook his hand and said goodbye. "Sergeant Lan Si said that this case may be haunted by ghosts. You wouldn't—" "Do you think he's coming to trouble you? No way, Ray. You can rest assured that this has nothing to do with you." I walked into the sheriff's office, and he was on the phone with his wife, Vera, about the murder.After hanging up the phone, he said apologetically, "She is a volunteer in the hospital and wants to know if there is any new development in the situation." "Have it?" "Only the autopsy report came out. Your judgment is correct. Mrs. Heffine was suffocated to death. I don't know if the murderer is a ghost or a person." "It must be human." "How could he come and go without anyone noticing?" "Aren't I looking into this?" I told him. "Do you think Ray Brower's actions last year were justified?" "Of course, although he shot in a bit of haste, he realized at the time that his life was in danger. I would have reacted the same way, Doctor." "He said that all the robbed jewels were returned to Zhao?" "Basically." "basically?" "Well, the manager of the store said an expensive diamond necklace was missing, but we didn't find it in the sack. He was implying that one of my men took it for himself, and I think he might take the opportunity to report it to the insurance company. claim." "How much is that necklace worth?" "Fifty thousand dollars. God knows how he can sell such expensive things in Beishan Town. In short, the insurance company compensated the loss of the store, and this matter is over." "Maybe Nomad hid the necklace in the ward, and his ghost is going to retrieve it." The sheriff shook his head: "Doctor, you are most familiar with these rooms. Such simple furnishings, even a toothpick can't be hidden. Just in case, we searched the bed and toilet thoroughly, but we didn't find the missing necklace." "Did you check the toilet sink?" "That's the first place to check." "Okay, I'll see you later." "Have any ideas, Doctor?" "There are many." While I have grasped most of the truth, there is still one final piece of the puzzle.So I went to Marx's Steakhouse, partly to have a light lunch, but more importantly, I wanted to see Max Verdic, because he might be able to help me complete the final piece of the puzzle.Marx enthusiastically ushered me in, and I said casually, "I didn't expect your pastry chef to be hospitalized." "Sandra? She had acute appendicitis, but she's almost recovered." "I hear you went to see her last night." He nodded: "It was past visiting hours, but I couldn't leave the restaurant early because yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and I could only get out after the guests dispersed." "I understand. A patient died yesterday in the same room as Sandra Bright." "I also heard that someone had an accident, but I didn't expect it to be that room. I visit her every day, and then I hear her nightmare about the haunted room. When I went last night, the doctor had changed her to another room. gone." "But the nurses should know about changing rooms, right?" "Of course, Maggie told me, a clever girl." After lunch, I called Lincoln Jones and learned that Maggie Weller started work at three o'clock every afternoon.I start to wait.Soon, she walked towards the nurse's duty counter from the end of the corridor, while using a small hairpin to fix the white nurse's cap on her hairline. She was young and intelligent, and Marx's description was accurate. "Hey, Dr. Hawthorne," she greeted me. "I'm waiting for you, Maggie." "About last night? Betty called to tell me, poor Mrs. Hephagne. It's too bad, she just has kidney stones!" "When was the last time you saw her alive, Maggie?" "Before I leave work every day, I check the ward again. So it must have happened near eleven o'clock." "Are there any strangers on this floor? Or some people who shouldn't be here?" "It was past visiting hours and Sandra Bright's boss came to visit her from the restaurant around 10:30 and I told him not to worry. He even helped her for a walk in the hallway , but this is not in line with the rules of the hospital, so I drove them back to the room as soon as I found out." "Did you check on Mrs. Hephagne when this happened?" "Oh yes! No one has been in her room since I checked." "She was awake? Did she speak?" "Say something." "Is there no one else hiding in the room?" "Of course not! I even check the toilet before leaving get off work every day." "Thank you, Maggie." With that, she returned to her work station. Standing at the nurse's desk, I glanced at the corridor that stretched to both ends.A nurse on day shift came out of the room with a pile of dirty sheets under her arms. She pushed open the door of the laundry path and stuffed the sheet into it.The other end of the laundry path is connected to the laundry room downstairs.I felt the need to investigate there, so I took the elevator down two floors, and there was a mountain of change sheets and towels in front of me. White, white, everything is white.I quickly spotted the dark blue terry cloth robe at the bottom though.As soon as I pulled the dress out, it did have a hood.Something clicked out of my robe pocket and I looked down. It was a screwdriver. "The ghost you want to catch is here." Fifteen minutes later, I put the folded terrycloth robe on Sergeant Lansi's desk, with the screwdriver beside the robe. "Where did you find these things, doctor?" "Hospital laundry room. The murderer crumpled up the clothes and threw them in the laundry lane. Is this the screwdriver that Frank Nomad had in his hand when he was shot by Adjutant Broll last year?" "It's exactly the same!" He went to a file cabinet and took out a folder from it. "Because the case was closed, all the deceased's belongings were returned to the family members, but I kept the photos of the evidence," he said on a document. After a moment, he said, "Here's a picture of that screwdriver." He placed the picture next to the tool I found. "It's the same handle," I said with certainty, "and here's a little dab of paint on this wooden handle." "It seems you're right," he agreed. "Maybe we've really encountered a ghost this time." "Don't talk! You said that these evidences have been returned to the family members. Who are his family members?" "He's got a daughter somewhere out west. I should have an address here. Glenda Nomad, a mailbox in Omaha." "When did you return the things?" "Just a few weeks ago." "A few weeks ago," I repeated, the last piece of the puzzle finally falling into place. "In this case, I usually wait for a year, because sometimes the family will go to court and sue us for manslaughter or something. But this time they didn't do it, so I put the deceased's clothes in a box and sent it to her daughter. You think we're going to contact Omaha?" "No need, she's in Beishan Town." A group of irrelevant people gathered in Sandra Bright's ward at this moment.The first is Sandra herself, and the second is Max, who comes to visit his subordinates every night.In addition, I asked Lincoln to arrange for all three nurses to be present.Maggie Weller was already on the evening shift, while Betty and Jenny arrived at the hospital early.Plus the sheriff and I, seven of us squeezed into a room. "I knew it very well from the very beginning," as soon as I said it, I felt that the scene was like a detective gathering all the suspects in a movie and was about to announce the final truth. It was a man or a ghost, and his purpose was to find something. I remember that the jewelry thief was also shot dead in the same room. Later, I learned that there was still a necklace that was still missing. It seemed that this was the murderer's The goal. But the question of time bothers me. Why didn’t Sergeant Lan Si and his people find the necklace that year? Why did someone suddenly act again after a whole year?” I paused, watching the expressions of the audience.Seeing that no one spoke, I continued: "Adjutant Broll once mentioned that the weapon in the gangster's hand was a screwdriver, not a dagger as he thought at first. The importance of this fact has been ignored by me until I在疑似凶手穿过的袍子口袋里找到了这把螺丝刀。劫匪弗兰克·诺马德在临死前告诉警长他并没有打算逃跑，当时他已经胸口中枪，完全没有必要撒谎，因此我们愿意相信他说的是真话。既然他并没有逃跑的企图，那么他拿着螺丝刀干什么？副官是因为听到了房间里的金属碰撞的声音才推门而入的。所以诺马德只不过是在用螺丝刀拧螺丝。” “但我们找过那个房间的每个角落，医生。”警长抗议道。 “每个角落是每个角落，但你们忘了地板下面。床底下有冷气孔，螺丝刀正是用来掀开金属栅格，项链就藏在那里。” “这……我们倒真没想到。”警长懊恼地说。 “诺马德的女儿刚开始来到北山镇的时候也没想到。她非常了解自己的父亲，因此知道项链一定被藏在什么地方了，只是父亲并没有来得及告诉她具体地点。直到一年后，警长从北山镇给远在奥马哈的她寄去一个盒子，里面装了她父亲的遗物。当她看到那把螺丝刀时，就意识到那个被她忽视的地方了。问题是，眼下正是流感高发时期，医院里人满为患，七十六号病房一直有病人住着。星期六晚上，她等来了一个机会，因为珊德拉在手术后，被注射了大量的镇静剂。但人算不如天算，珊德拉忽然醒了过来，并且看到一个戴着兜帽的鬼影。” “为什么要穿连帽衫？”马克思·弗迪克问道，“从你刚才所说的来看，凶手应该是一个护士，她为什么不穿着护士服？” “因为白色制服太显眼了，即使在黑漆漆的房间里，只要有月光也能看得分明。她必须确保自己在床边行动时不被发现。不过你说得没错，凶手是一名护士。兜帽也进一步验证了这一判断。除了制服，护士帽也需要掩盖起来。” “她把帽子摘下来不就完了？”蓝思警长问。 “不行，因为她们工作的时候必须戴着护士帽。她已经做好了病人醒来的准备，那时她只要和平时一样，做一名护士——只要将长袍从肩膀褪下，任其落在地上，这时她便是一名身着制服的护士。” 所有的眼睛都注视着贝蒂·兰登。 她脸色苍白，身子不断地颤抖。她一面紧张地舔着嘴唇，一面朝墙壁退去：“我只是听到她的叫喊声才进来的。” “不对，”我说，“你已经在房间里了。第二天晚上，珊德拉让你检查床底。如果是别的护士把长袍扔在那里，你为什么没有报告。昨天晚上，你又回到病房，在病人还没来得及发出求救前将其闷死，可你甚至没注意到黑暗中的病床已经换了人。于是你有了充裕的时间找到冷气口里的项链，然后将栅格恢复原样。你是快到十一点动手的，当时你已经来到这一楼层，只是还没到交班的时候。玛姬刚刚检查过这个房间，你知道她不会再次返回了。这也可以说明为什么你不知道病人交换房间的事，因为在本该查看下午报告的时候，你正在七十六号病房里忙得不可开交呢。一开始你告诉我说那个病人在睡觉，后来你却说当我到达的时候，你还没检查过那个房间。” “珍妮，”她勉强地张口说道，“是珍妮干的。我在这里都工作了一年了。” 我点点头：“一年前你父亲刚刚过世。这么说起来，确实是珍妮的可能性更高，但你却干了件蠢事。你的护士执照需要一个假名，于是你简单地把姓的六个字母换了个顺序。格兰达·诺马德变成了贝蒂·兰登。”
项链终于找到了，化名贝蒂·兰登的女子也坦白了全部的犯罪事实。案子结束后的一段时间内，我面对的唯一问题便是安娜贝尔·克里斯蒂。不过这个问题也得到了解决。复活节那天，我向她求婚了。 “我愿意！”她落落大方地给了我一个热情的回答，“我们什么时候举行婚礼？” “我已经四十四岁了，安妮。这事儿不能拖太久。” “那就今年吧。赶在圣诞节前，我们可以在马克思的饭店举行婚礼，到时候让珊德拉来做结婚蛋糕。” 我们找到一本日历，翻到十二月的一页。“第一个星期六怎么样，十二月六日？”我建议道。 她笑着给了我一个吻：“一九四一年十二月六日，听起来是个好日子。”
Notes:
"Some people say that our country will be involved by the end of the year." I see no reason to object to her statement. "Is Andre serving on the ship?" I asked.Before being drafted, they ran a small hotel in Maine.Now that her husband is gone, Aibo and her son return to Beishan Town. "I suppose so, but their work is highly classified." My last nurse, Mary Best, was on the Navy draft list, which is why I arranged for Aibo to come back—would she be sent to Andre's ship?This kind of coincidence only happens in movies.She went to a naval base in San Diego. For the doctors stationed at my office in the wing attached to Pilgrim Memorial Hospital, the chance to chat with the nurses is a luxury.Sure enough, on this March afternoon, our conversation was interrupted by Lincoln Jones.A few years ago, he became the first black doctor in North Hills, which caused quite a stir at the time.I was thinking of thanking Lincoln and his wife, Charlene, for a sumptuous dinner last weekend for me and Annabelle, when I noticed that his face seemed to indicate that he was not about to say something light. "Sam, can I have a few minutes with you? I need your opinion on something." I asked Aibo, "What time is the next patient?" "You promised Mrs. Dougal to come to see a doctor in the afternoon, but there was no time requirement. She has a fever and can't go anywhere." So I followed Lincoln down the corridor. "Have there been more cold patients recently?" Lincoln asked. I nodded: "It's like this every winter. Do you have many patients in the hospital?" "A lot of critically ill patients, mainly elderly people. There are people in every ward anyway. But I want to talk to you about something else. There is a patient named Sandra Bright who claims that her ward is haunted." I couldn't help laughing out loud: "This ghost must be a newcomer!" We passed the nurse's desk and walked into Ward No. 76. This number gave me a feeling of deja vu, but I couldn't capture the memory for a while.If I thought that there was a frail old lady lying on the hospital bed, barely propped up on the pillows, I was very wrong.Sandra Bright is in her thirties and looks pretty.She sat by the window. "Hello," I greeted her, "I'm Dr. Hawthorne." Her flowery smile made me a little distracted. "Sorry, I can't get up. Dr. Jones says I've got a day or two to rest." "Appendix operation," Lincoln explained, "performed last Saturday afternoon by Dr. Truman, and is recovering well." "It would be better if there was no ghost." She said faintly. I couldn't tell if she was joking or serious.I pulled up a chair and sat across from her, and Lincoln sat down on the edge of the bed.In fact, I seldom sit in the hospital ward. Usually, I visit my patients before going to work every day, and stand at the end of the bed to ask them if they are sleeping well.Sitting in a chair and looking at the room from a lower vantage point made me realize how dead the ward was.It was a private ward with not a single picture on the walls except for a bed.In those days, of course, there were no TVs hanging from the ceiling.A bed, two chairs, and a small bedside table are all the furnishings in the room. "Why don't you tell me about that ghost?" I asked tentatively. She smiled and said, "Are you the resident psychiatrist here? Do you also think I might have a problem with my brain?" I laughed off the thought: "Pilgrim Memorial doesn't have a psychiatrist, and Dr. Jones just called me up to see if he could help you. Did you actually see a ghost?" She nodded. "Two nights in a row. After the operation on Saturday, they sedated me, but I woke up in the middle of the night. I felt the bed move, and then I saw a person, a hooded man. A figure, his silhouette clearly etched on the window in the moonlight. I began to say something incoherently, and the man disappeared, replaced by a nurse who greeted me. I fell asleep again , I think this may be a nightmare caused by the side effects of those drugs." "Very likely." I agreed. "But last night, the same thing happened again! The same figure appeared again, this time he was wriggling beside my bed, I thought I must have screamed, when I opened my eyes, the man was gone , only the nurse who kept comforting me in front of me.” "Could all this be your dream?" "Impossible, I was wide awake. I took a painkiller, not a sleeping pill. When I yelled, I closed my eyes, but it was only a split second. Then the nurse came to me Next to it, the moonlight shines in through the window, exactly the same as the night before." "Who's that nurse?" I asked. "Betty Langdon. She and Jenny Templeton were night nurses." I know both of them. They get off work at seven o'clock every morning. Sometimes I will run into them when I start my rounds very early.Betty had been at Pilgrim Memorial Hospital for about a year, while Jenny was only a few months. "I'll talk to them both," I promised her. "It's useless, they all think I'm lying. I even asked Betty to check under the bed, but there's no one there." "Relax and stop thinking about it," Lincoln suggested. "I can prescribe you a sedative tonight if you need it." "I just want to get out of this damn place and go home!" "Okay, there are no complications in your operation. Usually, patients with appendix surgery need to stay in the hospital for observation for more than a week, but I will talk to Dr. Truman to see if you can be discharged early on Friday." "But it's only Monday!" She seemed extremely reluctant to stay here for one more night, "Can't you help me change a ward?" "Recently, there are a lot of cold patients, and the hospital ward is very tight, but I will try my best to arrange it." I followed Lincoln out of Ward 76, however we soon learned that all the wards in this area were full.There are still some vacant beds in the obstetrics department, but we can't arrange them. "Perhaps a patient in a double room would be willing to switch with her." I suggested. "I'll ask." Lincoln agreed. I drove to Mrs. Dougal's house for a doctor's visit, and even though winter was dying, there was still snow in the sky.After my doctor's visit, I went home and changed for dinner at Marx's Steakhouse with Annabelle.It's a restaurant in the middle of town that just opened last fall.According to the usual route, I came to her clinic on time at seven o'clock to pick her up from get off work. "How's your cat and dog doing today?" I opened the car door for her. "Very well," she said, "but there's a poor snake, and we'll have to find a way to put it to sleep. I'm not good at snakes." "No one in Beishan Town is good at this!" Her animal clinic is called "Ark" and is located between North Hill Township and Cape Sean.Although it's only been open for less than a year, Annabel Lee Christie, the blond, brown-eyed girl, has already made a name for herself in two towns.We started going out together in the fall, and I'm growing in love with her now. When we got to the restaurant, we took our favorite seats and she asked, "How was your day?" I told her the ghost story about the hospital, and she was keenly aware that it was just an abnormal reaction of a patient who was anesthetized during an operation. "I think you're right," I agreed, "but I just remembered something about room seventy-six. A year ago a man was killed in this room. He was robbing a jewelry store." Later, he was injured by the police and was admitted to the hospital. But he tried to knock down the guard at the gate and escape, but was shot dead." "My God! I never thought that I would come to such a lawless place!" "Remind me to tell you some strange stories that happened here next time." "I've seen a lot," she reminded me, "even a cat has secrets." At this moment, Max Verdic came to our table with a warm greeting: "My dearest doctors, are you having a good time tonight?" On the top of the head, a small mustache is looming.He used to run a thriving restaurant in Boston, and I can't imagine why he'd sell that property and come to a small place like North Hills, though he mentioned it once, and it was a heart-wrenching incident. Divorce related.In any case, he brought high-quality consumption and delicious food to Beishan Town. "Today I was forced to kill a snake." Annabelle said angrily. "You should bring that snake, I can make a good dish out of it." "No, thank you! Your steak is already delicious." He pointed behind him and said, "When the weather gets warmer, I'm going to build a party room in the back, and we'll expand the kitchen a little bit, then we can host Christmas parties and small wedding banquets." He grinned at us and added, "You two can be my first couple." We mocked him with feigned annoyance, as if this was just his wishful thinking.He joked with us for a while before going to greet other customers who came to the door. "I didn't expect business to be so good on Monday night." I sighed. "Don't you know? It's St. Patrick's Day! Otherwise, why do you think I'm wearing green?" "I really didn't expect that today is a holiday," I admitted, "In the hospital, everyone wears the same color clothes..." The nurses' uniforms back then were white shoes and socks, as well as starched white uniforms and white hats. It must be worn as such at all times. "You're incredible, Sam! You've got to have someone tell you what day it is every morning." I didn't pick up her words, but commented on her outfit: "Anyway, I like how you look today, but you're not Irish." "My mom is. But St. Patrick's Day has no nationality." "Looks like I should take you somewhere where you can eat corned beef and cabbage." "Marx has put this dish on the menu as a special of the day, but I'll let it go. I'm not that Irish." It was a hearty meal, and by the time dessert arrived, we were 70 to 80 percent full.A glass of brandy ended the meal, and it was half past ten when we left the restaurant and returned to the car. "Where are you going now?" Annabelle asked. "Well, don't be surprised, but I want to go to the hospital to see how Sandra Bright is doing." "The woman who lives in the haunted house?" "Well, I just want to make sure she gets through the night." "No problem, I'll go with you this time. Next time we go on a date, I'll show you my cats and dogs." "Annabelle..." She took my hand playfully and said happily, "Let's go!" We arrived at the hospital at exactly eleven o'clock, just in time for the nurse's shift change. "Is Sandra Bright okay tonight?" I asked Betty.Another nurse, Jenny Templeton, was walking toward one of the rooms carrying a bedpan for a bedridden patient. "I don't know, doctor. I just went to work, but she seems to be asleep." I gently pushed open the door of Ward No. 76, for fear of waking up the patient.Annabelle remained at the nurse's desk chatting with Betty.In the room, moonlight streamed in through the windows, illuminating the head of the bed brightly.The patient seemed to be sleeping very peacefully. Just as I was about to leave the room, I suddenly noticed something unusual, so I stopped and stepped forward to get a better look. The woman in the bed is not Sandra Bright.And it's a dead man. Betty and Jenny immediately checked the records and found that Sandra Bright had been moved to Ward 65 during the day. "We were not informed," Betty Langdon grumbled, "that they traded Russ Hephagne." "For the past two nights, Miss Bright has been thinking that this room is haunted. It was she who asked to change the ward." Jenny Templeton, another night nurse, shook her head heavily and said: "Perhaps someone should tell Mrs. Heffine what happened so she won't agree to change wards." "Who is her attending doctor?" "Same as Miss Bright, Dr. Lincoln Jones. I think he arranged the ward change." "You'd better call him." Within twenty minutes, Lincoln arrived, apparently dragged out of bed by us. "What happened, Sam?" "You'd better come and see, Sergeant Len Si will be here soon." "Sheriff? What the hell happened?" I didn't answer, and led him into Ward No. 76.I lifted the sheet off the dead man so he could have a better look.He raised his eyes and looked at me in bewilderment: "You mean...she was scared to death by ghosts?" I shook my head and pointed to an extra pillow next to her head. "A beautiful woman who never forgets to wear lipstick even in the hospital." "A lot of women do that, to please themselves. Wait a minute—" He saw the lip marks on the pillow. "Is she smothered by this pillow, Sam?" "It needs to see the autopsy report to be sure, but I think the possibility is very high. The film shows that she has kidney stones." "That's right. If she doesn't improve tomorrow, Dr. Truman will operate on her." Annabelle poked her head out from the doorway and said, "Sheriff Lan Si is here, Sam." "Let him come here." The sheriff was my closest friend in North Hills, and as the town grew I knew his days in the office were numbered.When I came here in 1922, straight out of medical school, North Hills had neither a good steakhouse nor a brilliant jewelry store, and law enforcement was easier than it is now.There are already rumors that he will be contested in the general election in November, and I don't want to see this scene. "What did you discover again, doctor?" Before the others entered the door, the question came first, "Is it impossible to commit a crime with you again?" "No idea, Sheriff. A patient stayed here for two nights and claimed to see ghosts. Then another woman died here." He looked down at the corpse and asked, "What was the cause of death?" "See the lipstick marks on this pillow? She may have been smothered to death." "Smothered by a ghost?" I was noncommittal, and knelt on the floor looking for clues, but found nothing.Only the hot air from the stove blowing under the bed. "I'm going to talk to Sandra Bright, I hope she's still up." When I came to the door of Ward No. 65, I saw her sitting on the bed. "I heard voices, Dr. Hawthorne, is something wrong?" I didn't want to hide it from her, so I said, "The woman who moved to your ward died." "Dead! How did this happen? Did you have a heart attack from being frightened?" "We don't know yet. There may be a more natural explanation." But she firmly believed in her own judgment: "No mistake, she also saw ghosts, just like me." I sat down beside her bed. "Sandra, now that you're awake, I want to talk to you about the details of those two hauntings." I took out a prescription pad that I had been keeping in my pocket to record. "First, please briefly introduce yourself." She sighed and said slowly, "Actually, there's really nothing to say. I moved here from Albany a few months ago, and I have a job as a pastry chef here." "In Beishan Town? Which restaurant?" “Marx Steakhouse.” "We just had dinner there tonight! Max didn't tell us his pastry chef was in the hospital." "He probably doesn't want customers to know, because when I was in hospital, all the desserts were purchased directly from the bakery. He is a good boss and visits me every day. It makes me feel less lonely. My family Living in Florida, I haven't had much opportunity to make friends in North Hills." "Tell me about Saturday night." "Well, like I said last time, after the operation, I was in a daze, but I woke up because I felt the bed move. Then I saw the figure with the hood." "Is the room door closed?" "Yes, but the moonlight comes in through the window, so it's clear." "Can you tell the man's gender?" She shook her head: "I can only see a dark outline, it's like a nightmare." "Maybe it's just a dream." I said calmly. But she shook her head resolutely: "I blinked my eyes hard on purpose to make sure it wasn't my imagination. I didn't expect to see Nurse Betty when I opened my eyes. She was testing my pulse, and she told me that it was my pulse." The sound made her a little worried, so she came to check on the situation." "Perhaps the figure you see in the window is the nurse." "Impossible. I was skeptical the first night, but the second night the shadow reappeared, crawling on the floor next to my bed. This time I actually yelled and reported it to Dr. Jones this morning. " This is not different from the story she told earlier, which I think is more believable. "I need to talk to the nurses again," I said. "There is another question. After you came to Beishan Town, did you have any enemies with anyone? Did anyone want to harm you?" "Why, no way. I don't even have a boyfriend. Apart from Max and the rest of my colleagues, I don't know anyone. I work in the restaurant every night. How can I have time to socialize?" Jenny Templeton was standing at the nurses' desk, and I decided to talk to her first. She was a slender young girl, but she had a poised air, not very attractive, but a good hand at the sick bed.As we spoke, Annabelle also came over.I almost forgot about her. "Sam, I'm taking a taxi home. I have to be at the clinic early tomorrow morning." "It's so late, where's the taxi? I'll take you back." After speaking, I turned around and apologized to Jenny, "Sorry, I'll be back later." Annabelle felt a little guilty in the car: "I know that the hospital matter is very important to you, Sam, there is no need for you to leave for me." "Giving you a ride home by yourself is not my style of dating." I left her at the door of my house, and hurried back to Pilgrim Memorial Hospital, where the body had been taken away, and Sergeant Lan Si had finished questioning the nurses: "Doctor, it seems that this is another body for you together." Made impossible to commit crimes unless you also believe in ghosts." "Whose ghost could it be?" I asked innocently. "Frank Nomad, the robber who robbed the jewelry store. Remember this guy? One of my guys wounded him at the crime scene and he was shot dead by the police trying to escape from the hospital. I remember him dying Still struggling on the ground, looked at me and said my men shouldn't have shot at him because he wasn't trying to run away. He died after saying that." "Who was your adjutant at the time?" I knew about it, but not the details. "Ray Broll. You know him, don't you? Good guy. I did my research and Ray was justified in shooting." "Is the background investigation of the deceased Mrs. Heffine clear tonight?" "We are trying to get in touch with her family in New York. She was driving back to New York from Boston when she suddenly had kidney stones while driving." "No one in Beishan Town knows her?" "At least not as far as we know. Let's face it, Doctor, she was killed just because she happened to change rooms." "That is to say, the darkness caused the murderer to mistake the target." "Or there really is something like a ghost in this room. Because according to the testimonies of the nurses, no one has ever approached Ward 76 after their shift." So I went to talk to two more nurses, but their stories were the same as before.When it was almost eleven o'clock, they switched shifts with the nurses in front and began to prepare for the evening work. They hadn't been told about Mrs. Hephagne's room-swapping with Sandra Bright, and they didn't find out until I came to the hospital. "We are in charge of wards 61 to 80," Betty explained, "in order to ensure that no one is missed, we usually check the wards from the two ends to the middle. When you arrived at the hospital, I hadn't found the 70th ward. Ward Six." "You mean that the deceased was killed before eleven o'clock?" "No, because Maggie—she's the night nurse—she wrote down in the records that everything was fine in Ward 76 when she was off duty. If someone entered that room, we would never escape our eyes. So this Everything is just incredible!" "It is necessary to meet Maggie." I thought to myself. "Her name is Maggie Weller," she glanced at the clock. "She should be asleep now." "I'm going to bed too," I said. "I'll see her tomorrow." Out the door, another nurse, Jenny, caught up to me. "There's something I forgot to tell you," she said. "When I got off the elevator this evening, I saw a visitor just leave." "Oh? Who is that man?" "Max Verdic, owner of the steakhouse where I eat sometimes." Early the next morning, I found Ray Brower, the man who had killed the prisoners in Ward 76 last year.He is a fat black-haired man, the buttons on his uniform are stretched by his belly, and he looks like he will be ripped at any moment. "I had heard about the hospital shooting," I told him, "but I was in Cape Sean at the time, so the details were never clear." He adjusted his belt to a comfortable position and began to talk.We started this meeting at the sheriff's office, and after the conversation he was going out to patrol the town. "Well, you know about the jewelry store in Beishan Town." He didn't know that this was the hundreds of times he repeated the same story. The place, they still have some valuables in their store. Frank Nomad, this guy got his head twisted and planned to rob. He walked in the door, took out his gun, and started to sweep the goods in a cloth bag. He shouldn't Knew the store had the same silent alarm system as the bank. Other cops stopped him in the parking lot and after an exchange of gunfire he was shot in the left leg. They seized his gun, jewelry and some of the theft's paraphernalia His injuries were nothing serious, but they took him to Pilgrim Memorial Hospital where they removed the bullet and bandaged the wound. My job that night was to keep an eye on him as he was due to be sent to prison." "Isn't this a year ago?" "Well. March 3rd. I'll never forget that day. I've never killed anyone before." "Tell me what happened at that time." "Okay. It was past twelve o'clock in the evening, and I was sitting on a chair by the door of the ward. I guess he should be asleep. Just then, I heard some noises coming from the room." "What kind of sound?" He frowned, as if he was trying to remember: "I can't tell, it's like the sound of metal colliding, and the sound is not loud. I decided to go in and have a look, so I pushed open the door. There was no light in the room, but the bright moonlight shone through. Everything was clearly lit through the window. I saw him walking towards me with a dagger in his hand, and without thinking, I shot him in the chest." "Sheriff Lens said Nomad claimed before his death that he had no intention of fleeing." "Do you think there's any explanation other than running away? Later we found out that the dagger turned out to be a screwdriver, but if he stabbed me, I wouldn't live. We think it was one of the tools he used to steal, but in the It was missed by us in the previous search. Although he was wearing a hospital gown, his own clothes were also in that room." "Thanks, Ray. Your information was very helpful." I shook his hand and said goodbye. "Sergeant Lan Si said that this case may be haunted by ghosts. You wouldn't—" "Do you think he's coming to trouble you? No way, Ray. You can rest assured that this has nothing to do with you." I walked into the sheriff's office, and he was on the phone with his wife, Vera, about the murder.After hanging up the phone, he said apologetically, "She is a volunteer in the hospital and wants to know if there is any new development in the situation." "Have it?" "Only the autopsy report came out. Your judgment is correct. Mrs. Heffine was suffocated to death. I don't know if the murderer is a ghost or a person." "It must be human." "How could he come and go without anyone noticing?" "Aren't I looking into this?" I told him. "Do you think Ray Brower's actions last year were justified?" "Of course, although he shot in a bit of haste, he realized at the time that his life was in danger. I would have reacted the same way, Doctor." "He said that all the robbed jewels were returned to Zhao?" "Basically." "basically?" "Well, the manager of the store said an expensive diamond necklace was missing, but we didn't find it in the sack. He was implying that one of my men took it for himself, and I think he might take the opportunity to report it to the insurance company. claim." "How much is that necklace worth?" "Fifty thousand dollars. God knows how he can sell such expensive things in Beishan Town. In short, the insurance company compensated the loss of the store, and this matter is over." "Maybe Nomad hid the necklace in the ward, and his ghost is going to retrieve it." The sheriff shook his head: "Doctor, you are most familiar with these rooms. Such simple furnishings, even a toothpick can't be hidden. Just in case, we searched the bed and toilet thoroughly, but we didn't find the missing necklace." "Did you check the toilet sink?" "That's the first place to check." "Okay, I'll see you later." "Have any ideas, Doctor?" "There are many." While I have grasped most of the truth, there is still one final piece of the puzzle.So I went to Marx's Steakhouse, partly to have a light lunch, but more importantly, I wanted to see Max Verdic, because he might be able to help me complete the final piece of the puzzle.Marx enthusiastically ushered me in, and I said casually, "I didn't expect your pastry chef to be hospitalized." "Sandra? She had acute appendicitis, but she's almost recovered." "I hear you went to see her last night." He nodded: "It was past visiting hours, but I couldn't leave the restaurant early because yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and I could only get out after the guests dispersed." "I understand. A patient died yesterday in the same room as Sandra Bright." "I also heard that someone had an accident, but I didn't expect it to be that room. I visit her every day, and then I hear her nightmare about the haunted room. When I went last night, the doctor had changed her to another room. gone." "But the nurses should know about changing rooms, right?" "Of course, Maggie told me, a clever girl." After lunch, I called Lincoln Jones and learned that Maggie Weller started work at three o'clock every afternoon.I start to wait.Soon, she walked towards the nurse's duty counter from the end of the corridor, while using a small hairpin to fix the white nurse's cap on her hairline. She was young and intelligent, and Marx's description was accurate. "Hey, Dr. Hawthorne," she greeted me. "I'm waiting for you, Maggie." "About last night? Betty called to tell me, poor Mrs. Hephagne. It's too bad, she just has kidney stones!" "When was the last time you saw her alive, Maggie?" "Before I leave work every day, I check the ward again. So it must have happened near eleven o'clock." "Are there any strangers on this floor? Or some people who shouldn't be here?" "It was past visiting hours and Sandra Bright's boss came to visit her from the restaurant around 10:30 and I told him not to worry. He even helped her for a walk in the hallway , but this is not in line with the rules of the hospital, so I drove them back to the room as soon as I found out." "Did you check on Mrs. Hephagne when this happened?" "Oh yes! No one has been in her room since I checked." "She was awake? Did she speak?" "Say something." "Is there no one else hiding in the room?" "Of course not! I even check the toilet before leaving get off work every day." "Thank you, Maggie." With that, she returned to her work station. Standing at the nurse's desk, I glanced at the corridor that stretched to both ends.A nurse on day shift came out of the room with a pile of dirty sheets under her arms. She pushed open the door of the laundry path and stuffed the sheet into it.The other end of the laundry path is connected to the laundry room downstairs.I felt the need to investigate there, so I took the elevator down two floors, and there was a mountain of change sheets and towels in front of me. White, white, everything is white.I quickly spotted the dark blue terry cloth robe at the bottom though.As soon as I pulled the dress out, it did have a hood.Something clicked out of my robe pocket and I looked down. It was a screwdriver. "The ghost you want to catch is here." Fifteen minutes later, I put the folded terrycloth robe on Sergeant Lansi's desk, with the screwdriver beside the robe. "Where did you find these things, doctor?" "Hospital laundry room. The murderer crumpled up the clothes and threw them in the laundry lane. Is this the screwdriver that Frank Nomad had in his hand when he was shot by Adjutant Broll last year?" "It's exactly the same!" He went to a file cabinet and took out a folder from it. "Because the case was closed, all the deceased's belongings were returned to the family members, but I kept the photos of the evidence," he said on a document. After a moment, he said, "Here's a picture of that screwdriver." He placed the picture next to the tool I found. "It's the same handle," I said with certainty, "and here's a little dab of paint on this wooden handle." "It seems you're right," he agreed. "Maybe we've really encountered a ghost this time." "Don't talk! You said that these evidences have been returned to the family members. Who are his family members?" "He's got a daughter somewhere out west. I should have an address here. Glenda Nomad, a mailbox in Omaha." "When did you return the things?" "Just a few weeks ago." "A few weeks ago," I repeated, the last piece of the puzzle finally falling into place. "In this case, I usually wait for a year, because sometimes the family will go to court and sue us for manslaughter or something. But this time they didn't do it, so I put the deceased's clothes in a box and sent it to her daughter. You think we're going to contact Omaha?" "No need, she's in Beishan Town." A group of irrelevant people gathered in Sandra Bright's ward at this moment.The first is Sandra herself, and the second is Max, who comes to visit his subordinates every night.In addition, I asked Lincoln to arrange for all three nurses to be present.Maggie Weller was already on the evening shift, while Betty and Jenny arrived at the hospital early.Plus the sheriff and I, seven of us squeezed into a room. "I knew it very well from the very beginning," as soon as I said it, I felt that the scene was like a detective gathering all the suspects in a movie and was about to announce the final truth. It was a man or a ghost, and his purpose was to find something. I remember that the jewelry thief was also shot dead in the same room. Later, I learned that there was still a necklace that was still missing. It seemed that this was the murderer's The goal. But the question of time bothers me. Why didn’t Sergeant Lan Si and his people find the necklace that year? Why did someone suddenly act again after a whole year?” I paused, watching the expressions of the audience.Seeing that no one spoke, I continued: "Adjutant Broll once mentioned that the weapon in the gangster's hand was a screwdriver, not a dagger as he thought at first. The importance of this fact has been ignored by me until I在疑似凶手穿过的袍子口袋里找到了这把螺丝刀。劫匪弗兰克·诺马德在临死前告诉警长他并没有打算逃跑，当时他已经胸口中枪，完全没有必要撒谎，因此我们愿意相信他说的是真话。既然他并没有逃跑的企图，那么他拿着螺丝刀干什么？副官是因为听到了房间里的金属碰撞的声音才推门而入的。所以诺马德只不过是在用螺丝刀拧螺丝。” “但我们找过那个房间的每个角落，医生。”警长抗议道。 “每个角落是每个角落，但你们忘了地板下面。床底下有冷气孔，螺丝刀正是用来掀开金属栅格，项链就藏在那里。” “这……我们倒真没想到。”警长懊恼地说。 “诺马德的女儿刚开始来到北山镇的时候也没想到。她非常了解自己的父亲，因此知道项链一定被藏在什么地方了，只是父亲并没有来得及告诉她具体地点。直到一年后，警长从北山镇给远在奥马哈的她寄去一个盒子，里面装了她父亲的遗物。当她看到那把螺丝刀时，就意识到那个被她忽视的地方了。问题是，眼下正是流感高发时期，医院里人满为患，七十六号病房一直有病人住着。星期六晚上，她等来了一个机会，因为珊德拉在手术后，被注射了大量的镇静剂。但人算不如天算，珊德拉忽然醒了过来，并且看到一个戴着兜帽的鬼影。” “为什么要穿连帽衫？”马克思·弗迪克问道，“从你刚才所说的来看，凶手应该是一个护士，她为什么不穿着护士服？” “因为白色制服太显眼了，即使在黑漆漆的房间里，只要有月光也能看得分明。她必须确保自己在床边行动时不被发现。不过你说得没错，凶手是一名护士。兜帽也进一步验证了这一判断。除了制服，护士帽也需要掩盖起来。” “她把帽子摘下来不就完了？”蓝思警长问。 “不行，因为她们工作的时候必须戴着护士帽。她已经做好了病人醒来的准备，那时她只要和平时一样，做一名护士——只要将长袍从肩膀褪下，任其落在地上，这时她便是一名身着制服的护士。” 所有的眼睛都注视着贝蒂·兰登。 她脸色苍白，身子不断地颤抖。她一面紧张地舔着嘴唇，一面朝墙壁退去：“我只是听到她的叫喊声才进来的。” “不对，”我说，“你已经在房间里了。第二天晚上，珊德拉让你检查床底。如果是别的护士把长袍扔在那里，你为什么没有报告。昨天晚上，你又回到病房，在病人还没来得及发出求救前将其闷死，可你甚至没注意到黑暗中的病床已经换了人。于是你有了充裕的时间找到冷气口里的项链，然后将栅格恢复原样。你是快到十一点动手的，当时你已经来到这一楼层，只是还没到交班的时候。玛姬刚刚检查过这个房间，你知道她不会再次返回了。这也可以说明为什么你不知道病人交换房间的事，因为在本该查看下午报告的时候，你正在七十六号病房里忙得不可开交呢。一开始你告诉我说那个病人在睡觉，后来你却说当我到达的时候，你还没检查过那个房间。” “珍妮，”她勉强地张口说道，“是珍妮干的。我在这里都工作了一年了。” 我点点头：“一年前你父亲刚刚过世。这么说起来，确实是珍妮的可能性更高，但你却干了件蠢事。你的护士执照需要一个假名，于是你简单地把姓的六个字母换了个顺序。格兰达·诺马德变成了贝蒂·兰登。”
项链终于找到了，化名贝蒂·兰登的女子也坦白了全部的犯罪事实。案子结束后的一段时间内，我面对的唯一问题便是安娜贝尔·克里斯蒂。不过这个问题也得到了解决。复活节那天，我向她求婚了。 “我愿意！”她落落大方地给了我一个热情的回答，“我们什么时候举行婚礼？” “我已经四十四岁了，安妮。这事儿不能拖太久。” “那就今年吧。赶在圣诞节前，我们可以在马克思的饭店举行婚礼，到时候让珊德拉来做结婚蛋糕。” 我们找到一本日历，翻到十二月的一页。“第一个星期六怎么样，十二月六日？”我建议道。 她笑着给了我一个吻：“一九四一年十二月六日，听起来是个好日子。”
Notes: