Chapter 11 10

(ten) Jane Tomlinson was a stern-looking young woman of twenty-seven, fair-haired, of ordinary features, with a slightly set mouth.She sat down and said solemnly: "Mr. Inspector, what can I do for you?" "I wonder if you can help us, Miss Tomlinson, with regard to this very unfortunate incident." "It was shocking," said Jane. "It was bad enough when we thought Celia was suicide, and now it's murder..." She paused, shaking her head sadly. "We're pretty sure she didn't take the poison herself," Sharp said. "You know where the poison comes from?"

Jane nodded. "I suppose it's from St. Catherine's, where she works. But of course it looks like she committed suicide?" "There is such an intention, yes." "But besides Celia, who else might get that poison?" "Quite a few, if they will. Even you yourself, Miss Tomlinson, might manage to get your hands on it, if you really want to." "Really, Mr. Inspector Sharp!" Jane's voice was sharp and indignant. "Well, you go to the pharmacy a lot, don't you, Miss Tomlinson?" "I'm going to see Mildred Cary there, yes. But I never thought of going to the poison closet."

"But you might do that?" "Oh, come on, Miss Tomlinson. Let's say your friend is busy dispensing medicine. The other girls are at the outpatient window. It often happens that there are only two dispensers in the front room, and you can go around the middle of the room at will. Go behind your bottle rack. You can grab a bottle out of the cupboard and stuff it in your pocket, and those two dispensers never dreamed what you did?" "I am very outraged by what you say. Mr. Inspector Sharpe. It's—it's a disgraceful allegation." "But it's not an allegation, Miss Tomlinson. It's nothing. You mustn't get me wrong. You're telling me you can't do something like this, and I'm just trying to make you understand that it's possible. I There's no point in saying you actually did it. After all, why would you do it?"

"Indeed. You don't seem to understand, Inspector, that I am Celia's friend." "There are quite a few people who are poisoned by their friends. Sometimes we have to ask ourselves the question, 'When does a friend stop being a friend?'" "I don't have any trouble with Celia. I like her very much." "Have you any reason to suspect that she was responsible for the thefts in this house?" "No, really not. I've never been so surprised in my life. I always thought Celia was highly principled. I never dreamed she would do anything like this."

"Of course," Sharpe said, watching her carefully, "kleptomaniacs can't help themselves, can they?" Jane Tomlinson pursed her lips tighter, and then she opened them to speak. "I can't say I agree with that statement, Inspector Sharpe. I'm a conservative man, and I believe stealing is stealing." "You think Celia steals because she wants to?" "certainly." "In fact, pure dishonesty?" "I'm afraid so." "Ah! This is really bad." "Yes, it's always a distressing thing when you feel you've let someone down."

"As far as I know, there have been problems with coming to us—I mean, the police." "Yes. In my opinion, it is the right thing to do." "Perhaps you thought it was overdue anyway?" "I think it's the right thing to do. Yes, I don't think the man who did it should be allowed to get away with it." "You mean to say that someone who claims to be a kleptomaniac is actually a thief at all?" "Well, more or less, yes—that's what I mean." "It turned out to be the other way around, and it all ended happily, and Miss Austen was to ring the wedding bells."

"Of course, nothing that Colin Mackers did was surprising," said Jane Tomlinson bitterly. "I'm sure he's an atheist, a very nasty, unbelieving young man. My take is, he's a Communist." "Ah! Terrible!" Inspector Sharp shook his head. "He backs Celia, I think, because he doesn't have any real feelings about property. He probably thinks nobody can take whatever they want." "But, anyway, Miss Austin did admit it herself." "That was after she was noticed," said Jane sharply. "Who noticed her coming?"

"That—what's his name, Mister... Poirot." "But why do you think he noticed her coming out? He didn't say so. He just suggested the police." "He must have shown her that he knew. She obviously knew the game was over and rushed to make a confession." "And what about the ink on Elizabeth Johnston's papers? Has she confessed to that, too?" "I really don't know. I guess maybe." "You're probably wrong," Sharp said. "She vehemently denies doing anything like this." "Well, maybe so. I must say it seems very unlikely."

"You think Nigel Chapman is more likely?" "No, I don't think Nigel would do such a thing either. I think Mr. Akibombo is much more likely." "Really? Why?" "Jealous. So these people of color are jealous of each other and very hysterical." "That's interesting. Miss Tomlinson, when was the last time you saw Miss Celia Austin?" "Friday night after dinner." "Who went to bed first, she or you?" "I." "Did you not visit her in her room after you left the saloon?" "No." "And you don't know who might have put morphine in her coffee?—if that's how it was poisoned?"

"Not at all." "Have you ever seen morphine in this house or in anyone's room?" "No. I don't think so." "You think so? What do you mean by that?" "Well, I'm just skeptical. There was a ridiculous bet." "What bet?" "A—oh, two or three boys arguing—" "What are they arguing about?" "Murder, and the method of murder. Especially poison." "Who joins the debate?" "Well, I think it started with Colin and Nigel, and then Ryan Bateson joined in, and Patricia was there too..."

"Can you remember, as close as you can get, what they said at the time?" Jane Tomlinson thought for a while. "Well, I think, it started with the discussion of poisoning, saying that the difficulty was in getting the poison, and the murderer was usually found out from the sale of the poison or the lead that had access to the poison. Nigel said it wasn't likely at all. , he said he could think of three ways anyone could get their hands on the poison and no one would ever know. Ryan Bateson said he was bragging. Nigel said he wasn't bragging and he was going to prove it to him Patricia said of course Nigel was quite right. She said that Lane or Colin could probably get the poison from the hospital whenever they wanted, and so could Celia. And Nigel said he didn't mean that at all. He Said that if Celia took anything from the pharmacy people would notice, sooner or later they would find out, and Patricia said no, if she poured out what was in the medicine bottle and put something else Will not be detected. Colin laughed and said that if that was the case then there would be very serious complaints from patients very soon. But Nigel said of course he was not referring to the special occasion. He said that he himself, was neither a doctor nor Not being a dispenser, without any special chance, can get three different poisons in three different ways. Wren Bateson said, 'Well, then, what's your method?' Nigel said , 'I can't tell you now, but I'm going to bet you that I'll get you three deadly poisons in three weeks.' Wren Bateson said he'd bet five pounds on Nigel not." "How's it going?" said Inspector Sharpe as Jane stopped. "Well, nothing came of it for a while, I think. And then, one night, in the saloon, Nigel said, 'Now, boys, look—I'll do what I say,'" he said. Dropped three things on the table. He got a tube of ohiosine lozenges, a bottle of foxglove tincture, and a small bottle of morphine tartrate." The Inspector said abruptly: "Morphine tartrate, is there a label on it?" "Yes, St. Catherine's. I do remember, because I happened to see it." "What about the other two?" "I didn't notice. I don't think it was in the hospital." "How about going down?" "Oh, of course, a whole bunch of words, and then Ryan Bateson said, 'Forget it, if you commit murder, they're going to track you down from these things in no time,' and Ni Jill said: 'Absolutely not. I'm a layman, I'm not connected to any clinic or hospital, no one would associate me with these establishments. I didn't buy it from a pharmacy,' says Colin Markner : 'Well, you really can't do that. No pharmacist can sell you those three things without a doctor's pharmacy.' Anyway, they argued for a while, and finally Ryan said he threw in the towel and was willing to pay. He Said, 'I can't pay now because I'm kind of short on cash, but I will; Nigel has confirmed his point.' Then he said, 'What are we going to do with this criminal stuff?' Nigel grinned Said we'd better get them out of our hands before anything happened, so they poured out the whole tube of ohiosine lozenges on the fire, and the morphine tartrate at the same time. The bottle of foxglove tincture to the toilet." "What about the empty bottles?" "I don't know what to do with the bottles...I think maybe they just threw them in the wastebasket." "But the poison itself is ruined?" "Yes, I'm sure it is. I saw it with my own eyes." "That—when did it happen?" "About, oh, exactly two weeks ago, I think." "I understand. Thank you, Miss Tomlinson." Jane hesitated, obviously wanting to talk more. "You think it might matter?" "Possibly. Hard to say." Inspector Sharpe pondered for a moment.Then bring in Nigel Chapman again. "I just heard something very interesting from Miss Jane Tomlinson," he said. "Ah! Who did dear Jane spread the poison on you? Me?" "She was talking about poison, and about you, Mr. Chapman." "Poison and me? What the hell?" "Do you deny that some weeks ago you made a bet with Bateson concerning some means of obtaining poison by means which could not be detected?" "Oh, that!" Nigel suddenly understood. "Of course there was! It's odd I never thought of that! I don't even remember Jane being there. But you don't think there could be any meaning to it, do you?" "Well, who knows. You admit it, then?" "Oh, yes, we were arguing about that subject. Colin and Wren were both on top, so I told them that with a little bit of ingenuity, anyone could get the right poison - in fact I said I can think of three different ways, and I'll confirm my opinion, I say, and carry out the way I think." "Then you really did it?" "Yes, Mr. Inspector." "What are those three methods?" Nigel tilted his head slightly to one side. "Aren't you asking me to blame myself? Of course you should warn me first as usual?" "Ah! What about the second method?" "It is not yet time to warn you, Mr. Chapman. But, of course, there is no need for you to incriminate yourself, as you say. In fact, you have every right to refuse my questioning, if you like." "I don't know I want to say no." Nigel thought for a moment, a smile on his lips. "Of course," said he, "what I have done is undoubtedly against the law. You can arrest me if you like, but, on the other hand, it is a murder, and if it has anything to do with poor little Celie If I had any connection with my son's death, I thought I should probably tell you." "That's a really sensible point." "Okay, I say." "What are these three methods?" "Uh," Nigel said, leaning back on the quilt. "It's always in the papers, isn't it, about how the doctor dropped some dangerous drug in the car? People are warned, aren't they?" "yes." "Well, I figured out a very easy way to go out into the country, stalk a GP, and when the time comes—just open the car door, check the doctor's purse, and grab what you want. You know, in these In the country the doctor doesn't always take his bag into the house. It depends on what serious patient he has to see." "How about it?" "Well, that's it. That's the first method, that is. I had to follow three doctors before I found a suitable, casual striker. When I did, it was easy. The car was parked behind a remote farmhouse. I opened the car door, checked the purse, took a canister of dioxin hydrobromide, and that was it." "Ah! What about the second method?" "Actually, the second way is to just coax dear Celia a little. She's pretty unsuspecting. I feel you she's a stupid girl, she has no idea what I'm doing. I'll just talk to her about the doctor's prescription and then asked her to write me a prescription for foxglove tincture like a doctor. She complied rather unsuspectingly. And then all I had to do was find someone in the telephone directory who lived in London. A doctor's name in a remote area, put his initials on the prescription, or a somewhat vague signature. Then I take that prescription to the busiest pharmacy in London, where the pharmacist is unlikely to be familiar with the doctor's signature Well, I had no trouble at all getting it. Digitalis is heavily used for heart attacks, and my prescription was written on a hotel post-it note." "Very clever," said Inspector Sharpe dryly. "I'm incriminating myself! I can hear it in your tone." "Is there a third way?" Nigel didn't answer right away.Later he said: "Listen to me. What is my crime?" "Stealing medicine from an unlocked car is theft, counterfeiting prescriptions..." Nigel interrupted him. "Not necessarily a forgery? I mean, I'm not getting money for it, and I'm not actually forging any doctor's signature. I mean, if I write down a prescription and sign H.R. James, you can't say I'm faking the name of any particular Dr. James, can you?" He continued with a wry smile, "You know what I mean. I'm automatically putting my neck Stretched out for you to chop. If you want to be serious - er - I obviously have to admit it. On the other hand, if..." "Yes, Mr. Chapman, on the other hand?" Nigel said suddenly excitedly: "I don't like murder, it was cruel, horrible. Celia, poor little one, didn't deserve to be murdered. I want to help. But can it help? I don't see how. I mean, to tell you about some of my petty crimes?" "The police are flexible, Mr. Chapman. It's up to them to see something as an inherently irresponsible prank. I accept your word of assurance that you want to help solve the murder of this girl." .Now go ahead and tell me your third method." "Well, now we're talking close to the bone. It's a little riskier than the other two, but it's a lot more fun at the same time. You know, I've been to the pharmacy once or twice to find Celia. I know the terrain there ..." "So you can steal the pill bottle from the cupboard?" "No, no, it's not that simple. From my point of view, it would be unfair. And, by the way, if it was an actual murder—that is, if I stole the poison for the purpose of murder—maybe Someone will remember I've been there. Actually, I haven't been to Celia's pharmacy for about half a year. No I know Celia always goes to the back room at quarter past eleven for coffee and biscuits The girls took turns, two at a time. There was a new girl there who had just started working, and of course she wouldn't recognize me right away. So I did. I put on a white coat, neck With a stethoscope on my head, I wandered into the pharmacy. As long as the new girl was there busy with outpatients. I wandered over to the poison closet, pulled out a bottle, walked to the end of the stall, Said to the girl, 'What concentration of epinephrine do you have here?' She told me, I had some, and I asked her if she had any aspirin, because I was so drunk and my head hurt. She gave me some, I swallowed Go down and hang out. She never suspects that I'm not a doctor or a medical student. It's a child's trick. Celia never even knew I'd been there." "A stethoscope," Inspector Sharpe asked curiously. "Where did you get the stethoscope?" Nigel suddenly grinned. "It was born to Ryan Bate, and I took it away." "From this house?" "yes." "This shows that the stethoscope was stolen, not Celia." "My God, no! Can't see a kleptomaniac stealing a stethoscope, can you?" "What did you do with it afterwards?" "Well, I had to pawn it off," said Nigel apologetically. "Isn't that a little unbearable to Bateson?" "He was very intolerable. But I didn't explain my method to them, I didn't mean to, I couldn't tell him. But," said Nigel cheerfully, "I took him out one night shortly afterward and let him Had a great night." "You are an irresponsible young man." "You should have seen their faces," Nigel said, widening his grinning mouth, "telling them that I had managed to When I got them." "What you're telling me is that you have three different ways of harming someone with three different poisons, and that in any one of those ways, the poison can't be traced back to you afterward." Nigel nodded. "That's fair enough," he said. "And it's not a very pleasant thing to admit in this situation. But the point is, the poison was all disposed of at least two weeks ago or earlier." "That's what you think, Mr. Chapman, but it probably isn't." Nigel stared at him with wide eyes. "What do you mean?" "How long have these things been in your hands?" Nigel thinks about it. "Well, that tube of Hiiosine was about ten days old, I think. Morphine tartrate, about four days. I just got the tincture of foxglove that afternoon." "Then where do you keep these things—that is, ioxin hydrobromide and morphine tartrate?" "In a drawer of my cupboard, under some of my socks." "Does anyone know where you put them?" "No. I'm sure they don't know." At this time, Inspector Sharp noticed that his tone was slightly hesitant, but he did not pursue it further for the time being. "Did you tell anyone what you did? Your method? How you got those things?" "No. At least—no, I didn't tell anyone." "You said, 'at least,' Mr. Chapman." "Well, I didn't actually. In fact, I was going to tell Patricia, and then I thought she wouldn't agree. She's very serious, Patricia, so I just babbled and dismissed her." "You didn't tell her about stealing medicine from the doctor's car, or prescriptions, or stealing morphine from the hospital?" "I actually told her afterward about the digitalis, about writing a prescription, getting a bottle from the pharmacist, about going to a hospital disguised as a doctor. I'm sorry Said Patricia wasn't surprised. I didn't tell her about stealing the drug from the car. I guess she'd heard it and let it go." "Did you improve her after you won the bet you were going to destroy these things?" "Yes. She was very worried, nervous. Insisted that I return things and things like that." "It never occurred to you yourself to take this course?" "My God! Of course not! That would kill me; that would get me in endless trouble. No, the three of us just threw things in the fire and flushed them down the toilet. , without causing any harm." "That's what you said, Mr. Chapman, but the injury may well have been done." "How is it possible, if those things are thrown away as I said?" "Has it ever occurred to you, Mr. Chapman, that someone might have seen where you put those things, or might have stumbled upon them, and that this person might have poured the morphine out of the bottle and put something else in it?" "My God, no!" Nigel stared at him. "I never thought of such a thing, I don't believe it will happen." "But, it's a possibility." "But it's impossible for anyone to know." "I should say," said the Inspector dryly, "that in a place like this one may know a lot more than you can believe." "You mean, peeping?" "good." "Perhaps you are right." "Which student is likely to be in your room at any given time under normal circumstances?" "Well, I share a room with Ryan Bateson. Most of the boys go in there. Of course, not the girls. Girls can't come into our bedroom. That's the rule. Pure life." "They're not allowed to go according to the rules, but I suppose they might go anyway?" "Any one may go, during the day. For example, in the afternoon, when no one is around." "Has Miss Lane been to your room?" "I hope you don't mean what you say. Patricia sometimes sends back the socks she mended for me. That's all." "Mr. Chapman, you do understand that the person most likely to easily pour out the poison in the bottle and replace it with something else is yourself?" Nigel looked at him, his face suddenly grim and haggard. "Yes," he said. "I've only just realized. I might have done that. But I had no reason to kill the girl, Mr. Inspector, I didn't. But then again--I'm quite aware that it's just my own words, no matter what. Without evidence."