Third girl - Agatha Christie [39]
‘Nothing. Nothing has been done to me. But I’m afraid that they might —’
‘Might what?’
‘Shut me up.’
Dr Stillingfleet raised his sandy eyebrows and looked at her.
‘Well, well,’ he said. ‘You seem to have some very curious ideas about doctors. Why should I want to shut you up? Would you like a cup of tea,’ he added, ‘or would you prefer a purple heart or a tranquilliser? That’s the kind of thing people of your age go in for. Done a bit yourself in that line, haven’t you?’
She shook her head. ‘Not — not really.’
‘I don’t believe you. Anyway, why the alarm and despondency? You’re not really mental, are you? I shouldn’t have said so. Doctors aren’t at all anxious to have people shut up. Mental homes are far too full already. Difficult to squeeze in another body. In fact lately they’ve been letting a good many people out — in desperation — pushing them out, you might say — who jolly well ought to have been kept in. Everything’s so over-crowded in this country.
‘Well,’ he went on, ‘what are your tastes? Something out of my drug cupboard or a good solid old-fashioned English cup of tea?’
‘I — I’d like some tea,’ said Norma.
‘Indian or China? That’s the thing to ask, isn’t it? Mind you, I’m not sure if I’ve got any China.’
‘I like Indian better.’
‘Good.’
He went to the door, opened it and shouted, ‘Annie. Pot of tea for two.’
He came back and sat down and said, ‘Now you get this quite clear, young lady. What’s your name, by the way?’
‘Norma Res —’ she stopped.
‘Yes?’
‘Norma West.’
‘Well, Miss West, let’s get this clear. I’m not treating you, you’re not consulting me. You are the victim of a street accident — that is the way we’ll put it and that is the way I suppose you meant it to appear, which would have been pretty hard on the fellow in the Jaguar.’
‘I thought of throwing myself off a bridge first.’
‘Did you? You wouldn’t have found that so easy. People who build bridges are rather careful nowadays. I mean you’d have had to climb up on to the parapet and it’s not so easy. Somebody stops you. Well, to continue with my dissertation, I brought you home as you were in too much of a state of shock to tell me your address. What is it, by the way?’
‘I haven’t got an address. I — I don’t live anywhere.’
‘Interesting,’ said Dr Stillingfleet. ‘What the police call “of no fixed abode”. What do you do — sit out on the Embankment all night?’
She looked at him suspiciously.
‘I could have reported the accident to the police but there was no obligation upon me to do so. I preferred to take the view that in a state of maiden meditation you were crossing the street before looking left first.’
‘You’re not at all like my idea of a doctor,’ said Norma.
‘Really? Well, I’ve been getting gradually disillusioned in my profession in this country. In fact, I’m giving up my practice here and I’m going to Australia in about a fortnight. So you’re quite safe from me, and you can if you like tell me how you see pink elephants walking out of the wall, how you think the trees are leaning out their branches to wrap round and strangle you, how you think you know just when the devil looks out of people’s eyes, or any other cheerful fantasy, and I shan’t do a thing about it! You look sane enough, if I may say so.’
‘I don’t think I am.’
‘Well, you may be right,’ said Dr Stillingfleet handsomely. ‘Let’s hear what your reasons are.’
‘I do things and don’t remember about them…I tell people things about what I’ve done but I don’t remember telling them…’
‘It sounds as though you have a bad memory.’
‘You don’t understand. They’re all — wicked things.’
‘Religious mania? Now that would be very