Free The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh Page B

perform himself. Peritonitis was found. The anæsthetist was Dr. Roberts, engaged for the job because the usual man was unavailable. Phillips says Roberts used all possible care and he can find no fault in that department. Thoms, the assistant, agrees. So do Sister Marigold and the two nurses. Before he began, Phillips injected hyoscine, his usual procedure for all operations. For this injection he used tablets he brought with him, saying that he preferred them to the solution in the theatre, as hyoscine is an extremely tricky drug. ‘All care taken, no responsibility accepted,’ one feels moved to remark. He prepared the syringe himself. At the end of the operation a concoction prettily named ‘
Concentrated Gas-Gangrene Antitoxin
,’ used in cases of peritonitis, was injected. The serum, together with a large syringe, was laid out by Nurse Banks before the operation. It was a commercial preparation kept in an ampoule from which she simply filled the syringe. Nurse Harden fetched the syringe and gave it to Thoms, who injected the stuff. Meanwhile Roberts, the anæsthetist, had got all hot and hectic about the patient’s heart and had asked for an injection of camphor, which was prepared and given by the elder nurse. They then tacked up the tear in the tummy and away went the patient. He died an hour later, presumably, one longs to say, of heart-failure, but my medical friends tell me that’s as good as saying ‘he died of dying.’ So we can only murmur humbly ‘he died as the result of an operation which, apart from this little incident, was a howling success.’ ”
    “Well,” said Fox, “so far they all agree.”
    “Yes, but did you notice that where it came to the bit about Jane Harden fetching the syringe with the anti-gas, as they call it for short, they all went rather warily. She herself looked pretty sick when the coroner asked her about it. Here it is:
    “ ‘The coroner: I understand you brought the syringe containing the anti-gas, to Dr. Thoms?
    “ ‘Nurse Harden (after a pause): Yes.
    “ ‘The Coroner: There was no unusual delay, or anything of that sort?
    “ ‘Nurse Harden: I–I did hesitate a moment. The syringe was already full and I paused to make sure it was the right one.
    “ ‘The Coroner: Did you not expect to find it prepared?
    “ ‘Nurse Harden: I was not sure. I–I wasn’t well, and for a moment I hesitated and then Nurse Banks said it was the large syringe and I brought it to Dr. Thoms.
    “ ‘Sir John Phillips, recalled, said that the delay was of no significance. Nurse Harden was unwell and had subsequently fainted.
    “ ‘The Coroner: I understand you were personally acquainted with the deceased?
    “ ‘Nurse Harden: Yes.’ ”
     
    Alleyn laid down the report.
    “That’s the incident,” he said. “It’s all perfectly natural, but I smelt high tension among the expert witnesses, whenever it was mentioned.”
    He waited for a movement and then said slowly:
    “That incident would never have come out if it hadn’t been for Thoms.”
    “I noticed that, sir. Mr. Thoms let it out during his evidence and then looked as if he wished he hadn’t.”
    “Yes,” said Alleyn dryly.
    Fox eyed him cautiously and then went on:
    “That girl must have been in a pretty good fatigue— in the light of what we know, I mean. There was this man to whom she’d been writing — the man she’d gone off with, as far as we can tell. She’d reckoned on some sort of permanent understanding, anyway, according to her letter, and when there was nothing doing she’d said she’d like to kill him and — there he was.”
    “Very dramatic,” said Alleyn. “The same line of chat, with a difference, may be applied to Sir John Phillips.”
    “That’s so,” admitted Fox. “They may have been in collusion.”
    “I’m entirely against any sort of speculation until we get the analyst’s report, Fox. I have not interviewed any of these people. As you know, I thought it best to