Chapter 9 Chapter nine

Doctor Ferguson was a man of about sixty, of Scottish descent, and of a reckless disposition.Looking at Poirot with alert eyes from under his bushy brows, he said: "Ah, what's your business? Sit down, please. Watch out for the legs, the wheels are a little loose." "Perhaps I should say in advance," said Dr. Ferguson, "that any little thing in a place like this is going to go viral in no time. The woman writer who brought you here is trying to frighten the police officers here as if you were the best detective in the world." We. That's more or less true, isn't it?"

Poirot replied: "I am partly visiting an old friend, the former Superintendent Spence, who lives here with his sister." "Spence? Well, good job, Spence. Bulky, gutsy, good old-fashioned cop, not greedy, not violent, not stupid. Definitely reliable." "You deserve the praise." "Well," said Dr. Ferguson, "what did you tell him, and what did he tell you?" "He and Inspector Raglan have been good to me, and I hope you will be the same." "What can I do," said Ferguson, "I don't know anything about the case. The party was still going on, and a kid was drowned with his head in a bucket. It was vicious, but I tell you Well, child killings are not uncommon these days. I have been called to see murdered children many times over the past seven to ten years. Too many times. No one cares, the asylum is full, they come out, there is nothing unusual in their speech or behavior, but they are looking for prey and enjoying themselves. But usually they don’t commit crimes at parties, I think they have too many opportunities to start , but even a schizophrenic murderer loves novelty."

"Who killed her, do you have any idea?" "Do you really think I can answer such a question? I must have evidence? I don't understand how I can speak." "You may guess," said Poirot. "Anyone can guess. If I were to see a doctor, I'd have to guess whether the person had measles, or oyster poisoning, or a feather pillow allergy. I'd have to ask questions about what they ate and drank. , what kind of pillows they slept on, which children they played with. See if they stood in the crowded car with Mrs. Smith's or Mrs. Robinson's children, who had measles; etc. .Then I said what is going on, of course it is only a possibility. Let me tell you, this is how you see a doctor, you can’t rush it, you have to figure it out.”

"Do you know this kid?" "Of course I do. She's my patient. There are two doctors here; myself, and Moral. I happen to be the family doctor of the Reynolds family. Joyce is a very healthy child. Take care of the children." A common ailment, nothing serious, eating too much and talking too much, too much talk is not harmful to her, eating too much made her suffer from a disease formerly known as biliary disease, which occasionally flares up .She had mumps and chickenpox. Nothing else." "You said she had this habit. Maybe she was talking too much on some occasion?"

"That's why you came here? I've heard it said, you mean she got killed by talking too much?" "It can be a motivation, a reason." "Oh, yes, that's right, but there are many other reasons. Nowadays, nerve stimulation is generally used as the answer. How should I say, it is often declared in court that whoever gets what she dies can get nothing. Nobody hated her, but I don't think you need to look for the cause in the child these days, it's somewhere else, in the murderer's mind, in his insanity, or in his wickedness, or in his eccentricity, or whatever, I'm not a psychiatrist, and sometimes I get tired of hearing the phrase: 'Ask for a psychiatrist's report.' A lad sneaks into somewhere, breaks a glass, steals whiskey or silver, decapitates an old woman Headshot wounds and so on, there are people who will ask for it. Now it doesn't matter what the facts are, just ask for a certificate from the psychiatrist."

"But in this case, who do you think is likely to need a psychiatrist's report?" "You mean those who were in the house when the crime was committed that night?" "right." "The murderer must have been there, wasn't he? Otherwise there wouldn't have been a murder, would there? He was among the guests, among the helpers, or he'd gotten in through the window beforehand, maybe he'd been there before." There, poke around, maybe get acquainted with the bolts in that house, take a good look at your boy, he's trying to kill, it's commonplace. There was one in Manchester, and the truth didn't come out until six or seven years later. The boy was only thirteen years old and wanted to kill someone, so he killed a nine-year-old child, stole a car and drove to a small wood seven or eight miles away, burned her body, and then slipped away. As far as we know, he hasn't done anything bad since then until he was twenty-one years old, tell you, we've only heard him say it, and maybe he's still doing it, probably. Well, maybe he just has a penchant for killing people. Don't think he's already killed a lot of people, or that the police have been looking for him. But every now and then he'll have the urge, which the psychiatrist's report says was during periods of insanity. Murder, I was trying to make the point that this case was one of a kind, that's the thing anyway. Thank goodness I'm not a psychiatrist, I have some friends who are, and some of them are sane; That said, they should all see a psychiatrist for a diagnosis themselves. The guy who killed Joyce was probably from a respectable family, well-mannered, and good-looking. People can't dream that there is anything wrong with him, and grabbing one after another A red apple with a lot of sweet juice, when you bite into the core, suddenly your evil heart suddenly arises, like a beast wagging its head and tail at you? Many people have this tendency. It should be said that there are more people like this now than in the past.”

"And you have no suspects?" "I can't just stretch my neck and casually identify who the murderer is without evidence." "You admit, however, that someone at the party must have done it. There's no murder without a murderer." "There are some detective novels that abound, of course, and perhaps your lovely lady writer describes them that way. And in this case, I admit, the murderer must have been at the scene, perhaps a guest, some helper, or Anyone who jumps in through a window is easy to do if you have carefully studied whether the window is bolted beforehand. Maybe some crazy person suddenly finds killing people at a Hallow's Eve party a new and exciting thing. You have to start from Let’s get it here, right? See who’s at the party.”

Eyes under bushy brows blinked at Poirot. "I was there myself," he said, "and I was a little late, just looking around." He nodded vigorously. "That's a question, isn't it? Like a newspaper announcement: 'Among those present—one is a murderer.'"