Chapter 16 sixth scene

Twenty minutes later, a car pulled up in front of an old three-story sandstone house on Eleventh Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues—a quiet, upscale building a few streets from Washington Square. old community.Mr. Jerry Lane got out of the car, looked up, and saw a black and white sign on the window on the first floor: He climbed the stone steps slowly, rang the doorbell outside, and a black maid in uniform came to open the door. "Is Dr. Miriam here?" "This way please, sir." The maid led him into a half-filled waiting room adjoining the corridor, which smelled faintly of medicine.The waiting room was filled with about half a dozen patients, and Lane sat down in a chair by the front window and waited patiently to be called.

After waiting idly for an hour, a well-groomed nurse opened the sliding door in the inner room and came to him: "You don't have an appointment, do you?" Ren fumbled through the card case: "No, but I think Dr. Miriam will meet me." He handed her a plain personal business card, and she opened her eyes wide.After a short walk back through the sliding door, old Dr. Miriam himself, in a long clean surgical gown, came out after the nurse. "Mr. Lane!" said the doctor, walking forward quickly, "Why didn't you let me know you were coming? The nurse told me that you have been sitting here for an hour. Please come in, come in."

Ren murmured, "It's okay," as Dr. Miriam walked into a large office, from where he could see the consulting room next door.The office, like the waiting room, is neat, clean, and old-fashioned. "Sit, Mr. Wren, what brings you here? Ah—are you uncomfortable?" Ren chuckled: "It's not for personal reasons, doctor, I've always been obnoxiously healthy, and the only sign of my old age is that I always brag about how far I can swim..." "It's all right, Miss Fulton," Dr. Miriam said suddenly, and the nurse went out and closed the sliding door tightly, "Speak, Mr. Wren." Although his tone was kind, he still let you know that after all He is a professional and every minute counts.

"Yes," Ryan protected his cane with both hands, "Dr. Miriam, have you prescribed a vanilla potion for the Hit family or anyone related to the Hit family?" "Hmm," the doctor snorted.He leaned back on the back of the swivel chair, "I see, still tracking that vanilla smell. No, I don't." "Are you sure, doctor? Perhaps you don't remember. There may have been cases of hysteria, or what I understand to be called hypothermia." "No!" Dr. Mirian's fingers slid along the edge of the notepad in front of him. "Then can you answer this question. Has anyone in the Hatter family, perhaps within the last few months, received from you a prescription for a dermatological disease containing a medicinal herb called Peruvian balsam?"

Miriam was very shocked, his face flushed, and then he leaned back on the seat, his blue old eyes were full of surprise: "It's impossible—" He opened his mouth, stopped immediately, stood up suddenly and said angrily, "I refuse to answer the question about My patient's question, Mr. Wren, it's no use for you—" "But you answered it, Doctor," said Wren kindly. "It was York Head, I suppose?" The old doctor stood motionless at the desk, staring down at his notebook. "Well," he murmured reluctantly, "yes, it's York. He came to me about nine months ago with a rash on his arm, just above the wrist joint. It's a small thing, but he seemed very Mind, I wrote a prescription for an ointment that contained Peruvian balm - also called black balm - and for some reason he insisted I keep it a secret - he's sensitive about this kind of thing, he said, and asked me not to tell anyone, Not even his family... Peruvian balm, I should have thought..."

"Yes," Ryan said coldly, "you should have thought earlier that we could save a lot of trouble. He never came again?" “Not for that reason, he came to ask me about—something else. I asked him once how his skin was and he said it still happened periodically, he used the ointments I prescribed him and made his own, I Think—he has a degree in pharmacy and bandages his own arm." "Bandage yourself?" Dr. Miriam looked upset: "Well, he said that once while he was applying the ointment, his daughter-in-law Martha happened to walk in and had to tell him about the problem with his arm. She was sympathetic and seemed to be After that, she sometimes helped him bandage his arm."

"Interesting," Ryan asked in a low voice, "then, as far as Heite and Martha are concerned, there is no so-called daughter-in-law issue." "I don't think so. He didn't care that she knew, and he told me she was the only one in the family anyway, and he said he could trust her." "Well... Martha. In a sense, he and she were the only real outsiders in that family at the time." Wren paused, and then quickly asked, "What caused York Height's skin disease ,doctor?" The doctor blinked: "The blood problem, in fact, Mr. Wren—"

"Would you mind giving me a copy of the original prescription?" "Of course I don't mind," Miriam replied with a sigh of relief.He reached for the blank prescription and laboriously wrote with a thick pen that was as old-fashioned as his office. When he was finished, Ryan took the note from him and glanced at it, "There is no toxic thing." ,I think?" "of course not!" "I'm just asking this as a precaution, doctor," Ryan said in a low voice, putting the prescription in his wallet. "Next, can I see the medical record card you made for York Height..."

"Eh?" Dr. Miriam blinked again, very quickly, and a flush of red flooded his waxy ears. "My record card?" The privacy of my patients... Really, I've never heard of such a thing! I'm going to—" "Doctor Miriam, let us come to an understanding. I can fully understand and appreciate your position, but you understand that I am here as an appointed representative of the law, and my sole purpose is to arrest a murderer. " "Yes, but I can't—" "There may be other murders. It's your job to assist the police. You may have valuable information that we don't know about. What's the point of professional secrecy?"

"Impossible," murmured the doctor, "is against medical ethics." "What about medical ethics?" Ren's smile disappeared suddenly, "Should I tell you, why can't you tell me? Medical ethics! Do you think I can't even see because I can't hear it?" There was a warning look in the doctor's eyes, but it was immediately covered by his drooping eyelids: "What the hell are you..." He stammered, "What do you mean?" "What I mean is very clear. You refused to disclose Heite's case to me because you were afraid that I would find out about the scandal of the Heite family."

Dr. Miriam did not lift his eyelids. Ryan softened, and a faint smile came back to his lips, but it was not a triumphant smile, but a sad smile: "Actually, doctor, it is simply unbearably clear why Louisa Ka Bian was born blind and dumb, and tends to be deaf..." Doctor Miriam turned pale. "Why Barbara Hayter is a genius...why Conrad Hayte is prone to rages, why he wastes his life drinking...why Jill Hayte is beautiful and dissolute, vicious, cruel and greedy..." "Oh, stop it, for God's sake," cried Dr Miriam, "I've known them all this time—watched them grow—to fight for them, to live like a dignified human being. same right..." "I know, Doctor," Wren said softly, "that you have exercised the most arduous virtues of your profession. At the same time, benevolence itself demands heroic means. 'Very sick,' as the Roman Emperor Claudius said, 'Unable to be cured by extraordinary measures.'” Dr. Miriam slumped into a chair. "It doesn't take much work," continued Wren, in the same gentle tone, "to see why they were all half-mad, savage, and different, and why poor York Height killed himself, which, of course, came from Egypt Millie Hitt. Now I have no doubt that she caused the death of her first husband, Tom Kabian, and gave him the disease before he knew what he was in. ; she also infected her second husband, York Hatter, and passed that nasty germ on to her children, and her children's children. . . . Necessary, and during this emergency period, all moral considerations should be temporarily forgotten." "yes." Ren sighed: "Dr. Schelling didn't find any traces during the autopsy, so I assume you probably had treatment?" "It's too late to save others by then," Miriam murmured.He stood up without saying a word, and walked to a locked filing cabinet in the corner of the office with heavy steps. After the lock was opened, he rummaged through a certain file, and then took out several large index cards.He handed these to Lane in silence, then sat down, pale, not making a sound the whole time Lane read the cards. The notes are densely packed, and the contents are all surprisingly similar.During the reading, Ren nodded from time to time, and the sad expression on his smooth and young face deepened. Mrs. Eheit's medical history traces her illness from the time Dr. Miriam began to see her thirty years ago, when Louisa Catchan, Barbara and Conrad Heit had all died. Birth, medical records go back to her death.The record was depressing, and Lane pushed it aside with a frown. He rummaged through the cards until he found York Head's.His records were comparatively less exhaustive, and after a quick glance at the long list of notes, Ryan concentrated on the last item, dated one month before Hayt's disappearance last year: Age 67...155 lbs, good...5'5" height...blood pressure 190...poor heart condition...clear skin... Wassermann's reaction (syphilis serum test) - positive. Next Ryan looks at Luisa Kabian's card, the last entry dated May 14th of this year: Age 40...148 lbs (on the heavy side)...5'4"...early lung disease...eyes, ears, throat - hopeless? ... neurasthenia intensifies ... Wassermann's reaction - negative. Watch out for the heart... number 14 Diet Prescription. The last time Conrad Height saw Dr. Miriam was, according to his card, on April 18 of the previous year: Age 31...weight 175lbs (bad)...5'10" height...in general condition...poor liver...enlarged heart...concluded alcoholism... Wassermann's reaction - Negative... Worse than the last visit... I prescribed a quiet life, although I knew it was useless. Barbara Height, according to the last entry on her card, came to see Dr. Miriam at the beginning of the tenth of last year at the latest: Age 36...weight 127 lbs (poor)...5'7" height...anemia increasing...liver prescription...fair general condition...better if anemia improves... Wassermann's reaction - Negative... Marriage is beneficial. Jill Haight, February 24th of this year: Age 25...Weight 135 (slightly underweight)...Height 8'5'5...Obviously exhausted...Nerve tonic... Early palpitation hyperactivity? ...slight alcohol intoxication...jaw, right wisdom tooth abscess - note... Wassermann's reaction - negative. Jackie Haight, May 1st of this year: Age 13...weighing 80 lbs...4'8"...careful observation...late puberty...below normal physiology... Wassermann's reaction - negative. Billy Hitter, May 1st of this year: Age...weight 32 lbs...2'10" height...excellent heart, lungs...appears normal, strong in every way...observe. "Sadly," remarked Mr. Jerry Lane, returning the cards together to Dr. Miriam, "I find you have no record of Martha Hayter." "No," Miriam replied dully, "she was doing prenatal check-ups with other doctors twice and never came to see me for some reason, but she brought her two children to see me for regular check-ups. " "So she knows?" "Yeah, so it's not surprising that she hates and despises her husband so much?" He stood up, obviously disgusted by the interview, and there was a certain expression of determination on his aged face that made Ray En had no choice but to stand up and pick up his hat. "What do you think about the attempted poisoning of Louisa Cabian and the murder of Mrs. Hatter, Doctor?" "I wouldn't be surprised if you found out that the person who murdered and poisoned was a member of the Heite family," Miriam said indifferently. He walked around the desk and put his hand on the door, "Ren You may have the means, sir, to apprehend, try, and convict criminals, but let me tell you this," they looked into each other's eyes at a distance where they could almost hear each other's heartbeats, "no one with scientific or general knowledge, would At any moment, any member of the Heite family is required to take any moral responsibility for this crime. Their brains have been distorted by terrible biological genetics, and they will end up in a bad end." "I sincerely believe that no one will." Mr. Jerry Lane finished speaking and walked away.