Chapter 7 Chapter VII

Dr. Macmaster was an old man with bushy eyebrows, shrewd gray eyes, and a pugnacious jaw.He leaned back in the old armchair and studied his visitor carefully.He found that he liked what he saw. Calgary also has fond feelings in this regard.It was almost the first time since his return to England that he felt he was speaking to someone who understood his feelings and views. "It's very kind of you to see me, Dr. Macmaster," he said. "You're welcome," said the doctor. "I retired and got bored to death. Young people in my trade told me I had to sit here like a puppet tending to my feeble heart, but I don't think it's natural. Not natural. I listen to the radio, Nonsense - once in a while my housekeeper convinces me to watch tv, blah, blah, blah. I'm a busy man, running around all my life. I can't sit still. I'm tired of reading. So don't apologize for taking up my time .”

"The first thing I have to let you know," said Calgary, "is why I still care about all this. Logically, I think, I've done it, and what I've come to do—say what's on my mind. The shock, the unpleasant fact of losing memory, washing out the kid's personality. Then, the only sane and reasonable thing to do is to walk away and try to forget it all. Huh? Isn't that right?" "It depends," Dr. McMaster said. "Is something bothering you?" he said in the middle of the ensuing pause. "Yes," said Calgary. "Everything upsets me. You know, the news I bring isn't being received as I'd like it to be."

"Oh," said Dr. MacMaster, "that's nothing to wonder about. It happens every day. We rehearse it in our minds beforehand, it doesn't matter what we rehearse, ask another doctor, propose to a lady, Talk to your kids before school - when you actually say it, it's never what you think it is. You've thought about it, you know; everything you've got to say and usually you've thought what the answer will be .And of course, that's what disappoints you every time. You never get the answer you want. That's what upsets you, I suppose?" "Yes," said Calgary.

"What do you expect? To expect them all to be like you?" "I expect"—he considered it—"to blame? Perhaps. Indignant blame very likely. But grateful at the same time." Macmaster grunted. "And without gratitude, and without indignation like you think?" "It's kind of like that," Calgary said frankly. "That's because you didn't know the situation before you got there. Why on earth did you come to me?" Calgary said slowly: "Because I wanted to know more about the family. I only knew the accepted facts. A very nice and unselfish woman who did everything she could for her adopted child, a woman with a good cause, a good person. The problem was , I believe, a so-called problem child—a child who has gone bad. A bad boy. That's all I know. I know nothing else. I know nothing about Mrs. Argyle herself."

"You're absolutely right," said Markmaster. "You're pointing to the point. If you think about it, you know, that's always the interesting thing about any murder. What kind of a person is the murdered person. Everybody's always busy looking into The mind of a murderer. Mrs. Argyle, you may have thought, is the sort of woman who should not be murdered." "I think everyone feels that way." "Morally speaking," said MacMaster, "you're quite right. But you know."—he touched his nose—"didn't the Chinese say that love is enough to hurt? They have a point, You know. You do favors to people and make them feel miserable. You do favors to others and think you are good to them. You like him. But the one who is favored, does he treat you well in his heart? He really likes it Are you? He should be, of course, but is he really?"

"Look," said the doctor after a pause. "That's it. Mrs. Argyle is what you might think of as a great mother. But she's far too loving. There's no doubt about it. Or think so. Or really try to be so." "They were not her own children," Calgary pointed out. "No," said Markmaster. "That's the problem, I think. You just look at any normal mother cat. She gives birth to kittens, and to protect them, she scratches anyone who comes near them. Then, after a week or two, It started to resume its own life. It went out, hunted for food, rested away from its little ones. If anyone attacked them, it would still protect them, but it didn't concentrate on them all the time. He'll play with them a little bit; when they get a little too rough, he'll stare at them and berate them and tell them not to bother him. You know, he's back to his old nature. As they grow up , he paid less and less attention to them, and his mind turned more and more to the neighbor's handsome tomcat named Tom. This is what you could call a normal pattern of female life. I have seen many girls and women, The mothering instinct is strong and wants to get married, but mainly, though they may not be quite aware of it themselves - because of their urge to be a mother. And the baby is born; they feel happy, fulfilled. Their lives are back in balance state. They can be interested in their husbands at the same time, as well as local affairs and neighborly gossip, and of course their children. But all this is evenly distributed. Maternal instinct, purely physical Say, it's gratification, you know."

"In the case of Mrs. Argyle, the maternal instinct was very strong, but the physical need to have a child was not met. So her maternal focus never really relaxed. She wanted children, many children. No matter how many children she had Not enough. Her whole mind, day and night, was devoted to those children. Her husband was no longer important. He was just a pleasant abstraction in the background. Yes, the children were everything. They their food and drink, their clothes, everything that pertains to them. Too much has been done for them. What she did not give them and what they needed was a little kind and frank neglect. They could not go out into the garden like Ordinary country children play like children, no, they have to have all kinds of devices, artificially made things for climbing and stepping stones, a house built on a tree, and sand is brought over to build a beach by the river. They eat Not ordinary food, hey, the vegetables that those children ate were even sieved through a sieve until they were nearly five years old, and the milk they drank was sterilized, the water was tested, their calorie intake was calculated, vitamins Yes! You know, I'm not a layman talking to you. Mrs. Argyle never sees me. If she needs a doctor she goes to a reputable doctor in Harley Street. Not that she goes often. She A strong, healthy woman.

"But I'm the local doctor called in to see the kids. Although she thinks I'm a little loose with them. I tell her to let them eat some blackberries from the hedge. I tell her they get their feet wet, or the occasional A bit of wind and cold on the head can't hurt them, and children's body temperature rises to 38 degrees Celsius. It's not a big deal. There's nothing to make a fuss about before it rises to 38.6 degrees. Those children are pampered and cared for, and they are not doing them any good .” "You mean," said Calgary, "that it's no good for Jack?"

"Oh, actually I didn't just think of Jack. Jack was a burden in my mind from the start. He was a 'messy kid' as he is called now. That's as good an adjective as any other. The Argyles did their best for him. they did everything they could for him. I've seen a lot of kids like Jack in my life. When a kid like that turns out to be hopeless, his parents say, 'What if I wish I had been stricter with him when he was a kid,' or, 'I'm too strict, if only I'd been looser with him.' I don't think there's any difference between the two. Some of it's because there's no happiness Families that basically feel unloved and go bad. Some are just going to go bad anyway. I think Jack is the latter."

"So; when he was arrested for murder," said Calgary, "you were not surprised?" "Frankly, I was surprised. Not because murder was a particularly disgusting thought for Jack. He was the kind of young man with no conscience. But the kind of murder he did surprised me. Oh, I know he has a violent temper and all that. When he was a kid he used to rush at other kids and pin him to the ground or hit him with heavy toys or blocks. But usually they were a size smaller than him kids, and usually not mindless violence trying to hurt each other or get what he thinks of himself. If Jack did a murder, I would expect it to be the type where a couple of kids go out and raid; then, when the police When you hunt them down, kids like Jack say, 'Hit him on the head, bro. Let him taste it. Shoot him.' They all want to kill, they're ready to kill, but they don't have the guts to do it themselves. It's My opinion. As it stands now," added the doctor. "Looks like I'm right."

Calgary stared at the carpet, an almost worn-out pattern. "I didn't know," he said, "what I was dealing with. I didn't understand what it was going to mean to other people. I didn't understand that it could—it must—" The doctor nodded mildly. "Yes," he said. "Looks like that, doesn't it? Seems like you had to make them like that." "I think," said Calgary, "that's what I've really come to talk to you about. On the face of it, it doesn't look like any of them had any real motive to kill her." "Apparently not," agreed the doctor. "But if you get to the bottom of it—well, I think it's more about why someone would want to kill her." "Why?" said Calgary. "You really think it's your business, don't you?" "I think so. I can't help feeling it." "Maybe I'd feel the same way... I don't know. Well, what I'm saying is that none of them are really autonomous. As long as their mother - as I'll call her for convenience - lives for a day , they can't control themselves. She still has control over them, you know, all of them." "How to control the law?" "In terms of money she provides them. Provides them generously. The income is large. Divided evenly among them as the trustees see fit. But although Mrs. Argyle is not herself one of the trustees, as long as she lives, she Will still be carried out." He paused and continued. "It's funny on the one hand, they all want to escape. They try not to fit into the pattern she has for them. Because she does have a pattern, a very good pattern. She wants to give them a good family, a good education, a good income and a good career foundation she had picked for them. She wanted to treat them as if they were her and Leo Argyle's own children. Only of course they were not her and Leo Argyle's children. O'Argyle's own children. They have completely different natures, feelings, personalities and needs. Michael is now a car salesman. Hester has more or less run away from home to perform on stage. She is in love with a very bad man And she had no talent as an actress at all. She had to go home. She had to admit—and she didn't like to admit it—that her mother was right. Mary Durant insisted on marrying a man in wartime her mother warned her Unmarriageable Yuto. He is a brave and bright young man but a complete fool when it comes to his career. "Then he had polio. He was taken to Sunny Point for aftercare. Mrs. Argyle put pressure on them to live there permanently. The husband was more than willing. Mary Durant was against it desperately. She wanted Wanted her own home and a husband all her own. But no doubt she would have submitted if her mother hadn't died. "Michael: Another boy. Always a brawling young man. "He hates his biological mother for abandoning him. He has always hated it since he was a child, and he has never forgotten it. I think, in his heart, he has always hated his adoptive mother. "Then there's the Swedish masseuse. She doesn't like Mrs. Argyle. She likes the kids and Leo. She takes a lot from Mrs. Argyle. Maybe tries to be grateful but can't, but I hardly Thinking her dislike would lead her to strike her benefactor's head with pokers. After all, she could walk away whenever she liked. As for Leo Argyle—" "Yes, how is he?" "He's going to remarry," said Dr. Macmaster, "and with good luck. A very nice young woman. Warm, kind, agreeable and very much in love with him. A long time ago. How she feels about Mrs. Argyle, you Probably as good as I can guess. Of course, Mrs. Argyle's death simplifies things a lot. Leo. Argyle isn't the kind of man to have a wife at home and fuck his secretary at the same time, and I don't really think he would leave his wife." Calgary said slowly: "I've seen them both; I've talked to them; I can't really trust either of them—" "I know," Markmaster said. "Can't believe it, can you? But—one of the family did it, you know." "You really think so?" "I don't know what else to think. The police are pretty sure it wasn't done by outsiders. And the police may be right." "But which one of them?" said Calgary. Macmaster shrugged. "Just don't know," "You have no idea from what you know of them?" "I shouldn't have told you if it had," Markmaster said. "After all, what evidence do I have? Unless I'm overlooking some factor, none of them seems to me to be a possible murderer. No," he added slowly, "my opinion is that we'll never know The police will investigate and take all means. They will do their best, but after this period of time, there are very few clues, to find evidence—” He shook his head. "No, I don't think the truth ever comes out. There are cases like this, you know. Seen in books. Fifty--a hundred years ago, some must have been done by one of three or four or five case, but there is not enough evidence and no one can say which one." "You think the case will go like that?" "Er—" said Dr. MacMaster, "yes, I think—" He gave Calgary another sharp look. "And that's the scary part, isn't it?" he said. "Horrible," Calgary said, "because of innocent people. That's what she said to me." "Who? Who told you what?" "That girl—Hester. She said I don't know what matters is the innocent. That's what you were telling me just now. We'll never know—" "—Who is innocent?" The doctor finished for him. "Yeah, if only we knew the truth. Even if it didn't result in the arrest and conviction. Just know. Because otherwise—" He paused. "Well?" said Calgary. "Think for yourself," said Dr. Macmaster. "No—I don't need to say this—you've thought about it." He continued: "It reminds me of, you know, the Braver case—nearly a hundred years ago, I think, but people are still writing books about it; it looks exactly like his wife's, or Corker Mrs. Gurley, or Dr. Gurley--or even Charles Braver himself, though the coroner proved otherwise. All very reasonable speculations--but no one can know the truth. Therefore, Fro Lance Braver, abandoned by her family, drank and died alone, and Mrs Cox, exiled, with three young boys, lived to be considered a murderer, and Doctor Gurley's career is ruined—" "Someone was guilty - and got away with it. But someone else was innocent - and got away with it." "This shouldn't be happening here," Calgary said. "It shouldn't be!"