Chapter 19 18

(eighteen) "Mr. Akibombo," said Inspector Sharp obediently, "what's the matter? Now please tell me." Someone had already drawn a chair to Mr. Akibumble.He sat facing the others who were watching him intently. "Thank you. Shall I start now?" "Yes, please." "Well, it's like, you know, sometimes I get that restless feeling in my stomach." "Oh." "Stomach. That's what Miss Sallie said. But, you know, I'm not really sick. That's good, I don't vomit." Inspector Sharp tried to hold back the medical details.

"Yes," he said, "very weak, I'm sure. But you wanted to tell us--" "It may be that I am not used to eating. I feel very full here." Mr. Ajinbangbo said, pointing to the correct part, "I thought to myself that I didn't eat enough meat, and I ate too much so-called sugar." "It's sugar," the Inspector corrected him mechanically, "but I don't understand--" "Sometimes I take little pills, soda tablets; sometimes stomach powder. It doesn't really matter what you take--belch and the air will come up." Mr. Akibumble burped out a real big belch, "belch Afterwards," he says with an angelic smile, "I feel better."

The Inspector flushed purple, and Mrs. Hubbard said authoritatively: "We understand all this. Now go on to the next part." "Well, the day. Well, as I said, this happened in the first few days last Sunday--I don't remember exactly which day. Very good spaghetti, I ate a lot and felt Very uncomfortable. I tried to do the homework assigned by my professor, but it was so full that it was hard to think through my head." (Akimbump pointed to the stomach again.) "It was in the common room after dinner, only Elizabeth was there, and I said to her, do you have any bicarbonate or gastric powder? Went back to her drawer and saw some there. I'll get it for you, she said, Patricia wouldn't mind. So she went upstairs and came back with a bottle of bicarbonate. Very little left, It was in the bottom of the bottle, almost empty. I thanked her and took it into the bathroom, and I poured almost the whole thing, about a teaspoon, into water, stirred it up and drank it."

"A teaspoon? Oh my God!" The Inspector stared at him with frightened eyes.Sergeant Cope leaned forward with a startled look on his face.Mrs. Hubbard said vaguely: "Rosputin!" "You swallowed a teaspoon of morphine?" "Of course, I thought it was bicarbonate." "Yes, yes, I don't understand why you are still sitting here!" "Then, I got sick, really sick. It wasn't just full. It hurt, the inside of my stomach hurt." "I can't figure out why you didn't die!" "Rosputin," said Mrs. Hubbard, "they've been giving him poison over and over again, and lots of poison, and it doesn't kill him!"

Archimbombo went on: "So then, the next day, when I was feeling better, I took that bottle, and the little bit of powder that was left over, and I showed the pharmacist, and I said, please tell me, what is it that I'm taking that makes me feel so sad?" "How about it?" "He said he'd come back later, and when I went again, he said, no wonder! It's not bicarbonate. It's bo--in--powder. Boric acid. You can put it in your eyes, yes, but If you swallow a teaspoon, it will make you sick." "Boron powder?" The inspector looked at him blankly, "but how did the boron powder get into that bottle? Where's the morphine?" He growled, "What a messy case!"

"And I've been thinking, please listen to me." Ajinbangbo continued. The inspector growled again. "You've been thinking," he said, "what have you been thinking?" "I've been wondering how Miss Celia died, and the man, after she died, must have been in her room and left the empty morphine bottle and the little piece of paper saying she killed herself—" Ajinbangbo paused, and the Inspector nodded. "So I said - who could have done it? I figured if it was a girl it would be easy, but if it was a man it wouldn't be so easy because he'd have to go down and up another flight of stairs and someone might wake up and hear his voice or Saw him. So I thought again, and I said, if it's someone in this house, but it's next to Celia's room—only her room is in this house over here, you understand? His window It's a balcony out there, her window is also a balcony, and she sleeps with the window open because it's hygienic. So if he's big and strong, he can jump over."

"A room in the other house next to Celia's," said Mrs. Hubbard. "I see, that's Nigel and--and--" "Born to Ryan Bate," said the Inspector, his fingers touching the folded paper packet in his hand. "Rain Bateson." "He's very nice, yes," said Mr. Akibombo sadly, "and he's been nice to me, but psychologically, no one knows what's under the surface. Is that right? It's the modern doctrine. Fairy Mr. de la Lal was very angry when his eye boron was missing, and when I asked him later, he said he had been told that it had been taken by Rain Bateson...”

"The morphine was taken out of Nigel's drawer and replaced with boron powder, and then Patricia Lane was sent over to replace what she thought was morphine with bicarbonate, but it wasn't morphine but boron Fan... um... I understand..." "I did you a favor, didn't I?" asked Mr. Akibombo politely. "Yes, indeed. We thank you very much. These words - er - don't say them to anyone again." "No, sir. I'll be very careful." Mr. Akibumble bowed courteously to all, and left the room. "Rain Bateson," said Mrs. Hubbard despondently.

"Oh no!" Sharp looked at her. "You don't want to be Rain Bateson?" "I've always liked that boy. He's got a bad temper, I know, but he always seems so nice." "A lot of criminals are told that," Sharpe said, gently opening the package.Mrs. Hubbard obeyed his gesture and leaned forward to look. On the white paper lay two short red curly hair... "Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Hubbard. "Yes," said Sharp thoughtfully, "in my experience murderers usually make at least one mistake."