Sad cypress - Agatha Christie [64]
‘You told Nurse O’Brien in the morning that the morphia was missing?’
‘Yes.’
‘I put it to you that what you really said was: “I have left the morphia at home. I shall have to go back for it.”’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘You didn’t suggest that the morphia had been left on the mantelpiece in your cottage?’
‘Well, when I couldn’t find it I thought that must have been what had happened.’
‘In fact, you didn’t really know what you’d done with it!’
‘Yes, I did. I put it in the case.’
‘Then why did you suggest on the morning of June 29th that you had left it at home?’
‘Because I thought I might have done.’
‘I put it to you that you’re a very careless woman.’
‘That’s not true.’
‘You make rather inaccurate statements sometimes, don’t you?’
‘No, I don’t. I’m very careful what I say.’
‘Did you make a remark about a prick from a rose tree on July 27th – the day of Mary Gerrard’s death?’
‘I don’t see what that’s got to do with it!’
The judge said:
‘Is that relevant, Sir Edwin?’
‘Yes, my lord, it is an essential part of the defence, and I intend to call witnesses to prove that that statement was a lie.’
He resumed:
‘Do you still say you pricked your wrist on a rose tree on July 27th?’
‘Yes, I did.’
Nurse Hopkins looked defiant.
‘When did you do that?’
‘Just before leaving the Lodge and coming up to the house on the morning of July 27th.’
Sir Edwin said sceptically:
‘And what rose tree was this?’
‘A climbing one just outside the Lodge, with pink flowers.’
‘You’re sure of that?’
‘I’m quite sure.’
Sir Edwin paused and then asked:
‘You persist in saying the morphia was in the attaché-case when you came to Hunterbury on June 28th?’
‘I do. I had it with me.’
‘Supposing that presently Nurse O’Brien goes into the box and swears that you said you had probably left it at home?’
‘It was in my case. I’m sure of it.’
Sir Edwin sighed.
‘You didn’t feel at all uneasy about the disappearance of the morphia?’
‘Not – uneasy – no.’
‘Oh, so you were quite at ease, notwithstanding the fact that a large quantity of a dangerous drug had disappeared?’
‘I didn’t think at the time anyone had taken it.’
‘I see. You just couldn’t remember for the moment what you had done with it?’
‘Not at all. It was in the case.’
‘Twenty half-grain tablets – that is, ten grains of morphia. Enough to kill several people, isn’t it?’ ‘Yes.’
‘But you are not uneasy – and you don’t even report the loss officially?’
‘I thought it was all right.’
‘I put it to you that if the morphia had really disappeared the way it did you would have been bound, as a conscientious person, to report the loss officially.’
Nurse Hopkins, very red in the face, said:
‘Well, I didn’t.’
‘That was surely a piece of criminal carelessness on your part? You don’t seem to take your responsibilities very seriously. Did you often mislay these dangerous drugs?’
‘It never happened before.’
It went on for some minutes. Nurse Hopkins, flustered, red in the face, contradicting herself…an easy prey to Sir Edwin’s skill.
‘Is it a fact that on Thursday, July 6th, the dead girl, Mary Gerrard, made a will?’
‘She did.’
‘Why did she do that?’
‘Because she thought it was the proper thing to do. And so it was.’
‘Are you sure it wasn’t because she was depressed and uncertain about her future?’
‘Nonsense.’
‘It showed, though, that the idea of death was present in her mind – that she was brooding on the subject.’
‘Not at all. She just thought it was the proper thing to do.’
‘Is this the will? Signed by Mary Gerrard, witnessed by Emily Biggs and Roger Wade, confectioners’ assistants, and leaving everything of which she died possessed to Mary Riley, sister of Eliza Riley?’
‘That’s right.’
It was handed to the jury.
‘To your knowledge, had Mary Gerrard any property to leave?’
‘Not then, she hadn’t.’
‘But she was shortly going to have?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is it not a fact that a considerable sum of money – two thousand pounds – was being given to Mary by Miss Carlisle?’
‘Yes.’
‘There was no compulsion on Miss Carlisle to do this? It was entirely a generous impulse on her part?’ ‘She did