Hickory Dickory Dock - Agatha Christie [37]
The inspector said sharply:
“Morphine tartrate. Any label on it?”
“Yes, it had St. Catherine’s Hospital on it. I do remember that because, naturally, it caught my eye.”
“And the others?”
“I didn’t notice. They were not hospital stores, I should say.”
“What happened next?”
“Well, of course, there was a lot of talk and jawing, and Len Bateson said, ‘Come now, if you’d done a murder this would be traced to you soon enough,’ and Nigel said, ‘Not a bit of it. I’m a layman. I’ve no connection with any clinic or hospital and nobody will connect me for one moment with these. I didn’t buy them over the counter,’ and Colin McNabb took his pipe out of his teeth and said, ‘No, you’d certainly not be able to do that. There’s no chemist would sell you those three things without a doctor’s prescription.’ Anyway, they argued a bit but in the end Len said he’d pay up. He said, ‘I can’t do it now, because I’m a bit short of cash, but there’s no doubt about it; Nigel’s proved his point,’ and then he said, ‘What are we going to do with the guilty spoils?’ Nigel grinned and said we’d better get rid of them before any accidents occurred, so they emptied out the tube and threw the tablets on the fire and emptied out the powder from the morphine tartrate and threw that on the fire too. The tincture of digitalis they poured down the lavatory.”
“And the bottles?”
“I don’t know what happened to the bottles . . . I should think they probably were just thrown into the wastepaper basket?”
“But the poison itself was destroyed?”
“Yes. I’m sure of that. I saw it.”
“And that was—when?”
“About, oh, just over a fortnight ago, I think.”
“I see. Thank you, Miss Tomlinson.”
Jean lingered, clearly wanting to be told more.
“D’you think it might be important?”
“It might be. One can’t tell.”
Inspector Sharpe remained brooding for a few moments. Then he had Nigel Chapman in again.
“I’ve just had a rather interesting statement from Miss Jean Tomlinson,” he said.
“Ah! Who’s dear Jean been poisoning your mind against? Me?”
“She’s been talking about poison, and in connection with you, Mr. Chapman.”
“Poison and me? What on earth?”
“Do you deny that some weeks ago you had a wager with Mr. Bateson about methods of obtaining poison in some way that could not be traced to you?”
“Oh, that!” Nigel was suddenly enlightened. “Yes, of course! Funny I never thought of that. I don’t even remember Jean being there. But you don’t think it could have any possible significance, do you?”
“Well, one doesn’t know. You admit the fact, then?”
“Oh yes, we were arguing on the subject. Colin and Len were being very superior and high-handed about it so I told them that with a little ingenuity anyone could get hold of a suitable supply of poison—in fact I said I could think of three distinct ways of doing it, and I’d prove my point, I said, by putting them into practice.”
“Which you then proceeded to do?”
“Which I then proceeded to do, Inspector.”
“And what were those three methods, Mr. Chapman?”
Nigel put his head a little on one side.
“Aren’t you asking me to incriminate myself?” he said. “Surely you ought to warn me?”
“It hasn’t come to warning you yet, Mr. Chapman, but, of course, there’s no need for you to incriminate yourself, as you put it. In fact you’re perfectly entitled to refuse my questions if you like to do so.”
“I don’t know that I want to refuse.” Nigel considered for a moment or two, a slight smile playing round his lips.
“Of course,” he said, “what I did was, no doubt, against the law. You could haul me in for it if you liked. On the other hand, this is a murder case and if it’s got any bearing on poor little Celia’s death I suppose I ought to tell you.”
“That would certainly be the sensible point of view to take.”
“All right then. I’ll talk.”
“What were these three methods?”
“Well.” Nigel leant back in his chair. “One’s always reading in the papers, isn’t one, about doctors losing dangerous drugs from a car? People are being warned about it.”
“Yes.”
“Well, it occurred to me that one very simple