Hickory Dickory Dock

Chapman. It's up to them to look upon certain happenings as a light-hearted prank of an irresponsible nature. I accept your assurance that you want to help in the solving of this girl's murder. Now please go on, and tell me about your third method." "Well," said Nigel, "we're comino, fairly near the bone now. It was a bit more risky than the other two, but at the same time it was a great deal more fun. You see, I'd been to visit Celia once or twice in her Dispensary. I knew the lay of the land there…" "So you were able to pinch the bottle out of the cupboard?" "No, no, nothing as simple as that. That wouldn't have been fair from my point of view. And, incidentally, if it had been a real murder-that is, if I had been stealing the poison for the purpose of murder-it would probably be remembered that I had been there. Actually, I hadn't been in Celia's Dispensary for about six months. No, I knew that Celia always went into the back room at eleven fifteen for what you might call lelevenses," that is, a cup of coffee and a biscuit. The girls went in turn, two at a time. There was a new girl there who had only just come and she certainly wouldn't know me by sight. So what I did was this.

I strolled into the Dispensary with a white coat on and a stethoscope round my neck. There was only the new girl there and she was busy at the Outpatients" hatch. I strolled in, went along to the poison cupboard, took out a bottle, strolled round the end of the partition, said to the girl, "What strength adrenalin do you keep?" She told me and I nodded, then I asked her if she had a couple of veganin as I had a terrific hangover. I swallowed them down and strolled out again. She never had the least suspicion that I wasn't somebody's houseman or a medical student. It was child's play. Celia never even knew I'd been there." "A stethoscope," said Inspector Sharpe curiously.

"Where did you get a stethoscope?" Nigel grinned suddenly.

"It was Len Bateson's," he said. "I pinched it." "From this house?" "Yes.

"So that explains the theft of the stethoscope. That was not Celia's doing." "Good Lord, no! Can't see a kleptomaniac stealing a stethoscope, can you?" "What did you do with it afterwards?" "Well, I had to pawn it," said Nigel apologetically.

"Wasn't that a little hard on Bateson?" "Very hard on him. But without explaining my methods, which I didn't mean to do, I couldn't ten him about it. However," added Nigel cheerfully, "I took him out not long after and gave him a hell of a party one evening." "You're a very irresponsible young man," said Inspector Sharpe.

"You should have seen their faces," said Nigel, his grin widening, "when I threw down those three lethal preparations on the table and told them I had managed to pinch them without anybody being wise as to who took them." "What you're telling me is" said the Inspector, "that you had three means of poisoning someone by three dim erent poisons and that in each case the poison could not have been traced to you." Nigel nodded.

"That's fair enough," he said. "And given the circumstances it's not a very pleasant thin, to admit.

But the c, point is, that the poisons were all disposed of at least a fortni lit a,eaeao or loner." "That is what you think, Mr. Chapman, but it may not really be so." Nigel stared at him.

"What do you mean?" "You had these things in your possession, how long?" Niel considered.

C, "Well, the tube of hyoscine about ten days, I suppose. The morphine tartrate, about four days.

The tincture digitalin I'd only got that very afternoon." "And where did you keep these things-the hyoscine hydrobromide and the morphine tartrate, that is to say?" "In the drawer of my chest-of-drawers, pushed-to the back under my socks." "Did anyone know you had it there?" "No. No, I'm sure they didn't." There had been, however, a faint hesitation in his voice which Inspector Sharpe noticed, but for the moment he did not press the point.

"Did you tell anyone what you were doing? Your methods? The way you were going about these things?" "No. At least-no, I didn't." "You said, "at least," Mr. Chapman." "Well, I didn't actually. As a matter of fact, I was going to tell Pat, then I thought she wouldn't approve. She's very strict, Pat is, so I fobbed her off." "You didn't tell her about stealing the stuff from the doctor's car, or the prescriptions, or the morphia from the hospital?" "Actually, I betold her afterwards about the digitalin, that I'd written a. prescription and got a bottle from the chemist, and about masquerading as a doctor at the hospital. I'm sorry to say Pat wasn't amused. I didn't tell her about pinching things from a car. I thought she'd go up in smoke." "Did you tell her you were going to destroy this stuff after you'd won the bet?" "Yes. She was all worried and het up about it.