The Mirror Crack'd - Agatha Christie [36]
‘And does it make all the difference?’
‘Well,’ said Gilchrist, ‘it makes a difference. It does its work. It calms you or it peps you up, makes you feel you could do things which otherwise you might fancy that you couldn’t. I don’t prescribe them more than I can help, but they’re not dangerous taken properly. They help people who can’t help themselves.’
‘I wish I knew,’ said Dermot Craddock, ‘what it is that you are trying to tell me.’
‘I’m trying to decide,’ said Gilchrist, ‘what is my duty. There are two duties. There’s the duty of a doctor to his patient. What his patient says to him is confidential and must be kept so. But there’s another point of view. You can fancy that there is a danger to a patient. You have to take steps to avoid that danger.’
He stopped. Craddock looked at him and waited.
‘Yes,’ said Dr Gilchrist. ‘I think I know what I must do. I must ask you, Chief-Inspector Craddock, to keep what I am telling you confidential. Not from your colleagues, of course. But as far as regards the outer world, particularly in the house here. Do you agree?’
‘I can’t bind myself,’ said Craddock. ‘I don’t know what will arise. In general terms, yes, I agree. That is to say, I imagine that any piece of information you gave me I should prefer to keep to myself and my colleagues.’
‘Now listen,’ said Gilchrist, ‘this mayn’t mean anything at all. Women say anything when they’re in the state of nerves Marina Gregg is now. I’m telling you something which she said to me. There may be nothing in it at all.’
‘What did she say?’ asked Craddock.
‘She broke down after this thing happened. She sent for me. I gave her a sedative. I stayed there beside her, holding her hand, telling her to calm down, telling her things were going to be all right. Then, just before she went off into unconsciousness she said, “It was meant for me, Doctor.” ’
Craddock stared. ‘She said that, did she? And afterwards — the next day?’
‘She never alluded to it again. I raised the point once. She evaded it. She said, “Oh, you must have made a mistake. I’m sure I never said anything like that. I expect I was half doped at the time.” ’
‘But you think she meant it?’
‘She meant it all right,’ said Gilchrist. ‘That’s not to say that it is so,’ he added warningly. ‘Whether someone meant to poison her or meant to poison Heather Badcock I don’t know. You’d probably know better than I would. All I do say is that Marina Gregg definitely thought and believed that that dose was meant for her.’
Craddock was silent for some moments. Then he said, ‘Thank you, Doctor Gilchrist. I appreciate what you have told me and I realize your motive. If what Marina Gregg said to you was founded on fact it may mean, may it not, that there is still danger to her?’
‘That’s the point,’ said Gilchrist. ‘That’s the whole point.’
‘Have you any reason to believe that that might be so?’
‘No, I haven’t.’
‘No idea what her reason for thinking so was?’
‘No.’
‘Thank you.’
Craddock got up. ‘Just one thing more, Doctor. Do you know if she said the same thing to her husband?’
Slowly Gilchrist shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I’m quite sure of that. She didn’t tell her husband.’
His eyes met Dermot’s for a few moments then he gave a brief nod of his head and said, ‘You don’t want me any more? All right. I’ll go back and have a look at the patient. You shall talk to her as soon as it’s possible.’
He left the room and Craddock remained, pursing his lips up and whistling very softly beneath his breath.
Chapter 10
‘Jason’s back now,’ said Hailey Preston. ‘Will you come with me, Chief-Inspector, I’ll take you to his room.’
The room which Jason Rudd used partly for office and partly for a sitting-room, was on the first