Mystery Cases of Letitia Carberry, Tish. Mary Roberts Rinehart
Lewis who knew what to do. She is a large woman, and she simply took the little nurse into her arms and petted her into quiet. Finally, she coaxed her into the hall, and as the door closed behind them, the four of us sat' silent.
Aggie was sniveling, and wiping her eyes, and Tish turned on her in a rage.
"What in the name of sense are you bleating, about?" she demanded.
"The child's in trouble,"said Aggie. "I—I never could see anybody cry, and you know it, Tish,"
"I know something else, too," said Tish grimly, sliding her feet out of bed carefully; and reaching for her cane. 'That young woman knows more than she's telling. Tommy Andrews.' We're not through with this yet."
Now Tommy will always have his joke with Tish, and they differ on a good many subjects, politics, for one thing, and religion. Tommy not believing very much in a future existence, and maintaining that no medical man ought to—it made them more saving of life in this. But he has a great respect for Tish's opinion.
"You may be right," he said. "There must be some reason—, but whatever it is—it's not to her discredit. I'll swear to that."
"Listen to the boy!" Tish sneered, picking up the traveling clock and putting it back on the bedside table again. "That's what a pretty face will do. Suppose it had been Lewis, who stood there, crying into a starched apron and saying she couldn't leave—don't, don't ask her?"
"Why should she leave when she has you, dear Aunt Letitia?" asked Tommy, and Tish reached for the clock again.
Well, we talked the thing over, but we couldn't come to any conclusion. There didn't seem to be any matter of doubt that Johnson, having died peaceably and in order, had been carried to the mortuary and laid on the table, there to await the final preparations for burial. And the fact was incontestable that shortly after, the said Johnson, as Tommy put it, was hanging by the neck to the chandelier in a room fifty feet away and down eight steps. We all agreed up to that point. As Tommy said, the Question then became simply, did he do it himself or was it done for him?
Aggie was confident that he had done it himself.
"Why not?" she demanded. "Isn't it the constant endeavor of the people who have—passed over, to come back and prove their continued existence on a spirit plane? Shall I ever forget that the third night after Mr. Wiggins died—" Aggie was once engaged to a roofer, who passed over' by falling off a roof—"can I ever forget that a light like a flame of a candle rose in one comer of the bedroom, crossed the ceiling and disappeared in my sewing basket, where I kept Mr. Wiggins' photograph? Why should not Mr. Johnson, before deserting the earth plane for the spirit world, have come back and proved his continued existence? Why?''
Tommy lighted a cigarette and puffed at it. "Well," he said, "I should call it indecent of him if he did, and bad taste, too. Maybe he didn't think much of his body, bat it had lasted pretty well and carried him around a good many years. And to have his spirit cast off its outer garment and hang it to a chandelier— it was heartless! Heartless!"
Chapter III.
Another Roller Towel
Now Tish is a peculiar woman. Once she starts a thing, whether it is house-cleaning or learning to roller skate, she keeps right on at it She learned to skate backwards, you may remember, although she nearly died learning, and lay once twenty minutes insensible on the back of her head. And as Tish acknowledged later, she had made up her mind to find out who or what had hung Johnson by the neck to the chandelier.
So after Tommy had gone, she got into her roller chair and asked me to ring for Miss Lewis.
"What time do you go to your lunch?" she' asked her sharply, when she came.
"I don't eat lunch," said Miss Lewis.
"It's making me stout Besides, there's never anything fit to eat."
"Humph!" said Tish, "I guess the meals provided in this training school are above the average. I myself engaged the housekeeper. You'd better have lunch to-day."
"But—"
"At twelve o'clock," said Tish firmly. "Any nurse who takes care of me eats three meals a day."
Miss Lewis stood in the doorway, with her cap over one ear, and stared at Tish, and Tish glared back.
"I prefer not," she said defiantly, giving her apron belt a twitch.
"At twelve o'clock!" Tish repeated, and then Miss Lewis gave it up.
"Very well," she said unpleasantly. "Does 'it make any difference what I eat?"
"None whatever. And now send me the Smith woman," said Tish calmly. "And shut the door. There's a drought."
Miss Lewis slammed out. And whatever reason Tish had for wanting to get rid of her at noon, she deigned no explanation. In ten minutes Miss Smith knocked at the door and came in. She looked tired, but cheerful.
"Do you want me. Miss Carberry?" she asked.
"If you are not busy," said Tish in her pleasantest manner. "Sit down. Miss Smith. Lizzie, Aggie, this is the Miss Smith I told you about. You will pardon the curiosity of ,three old women, won't you. Miss Smith, and answer a question or two about last night?"
"Certainly." She looked surprised, and I fancied amused.
"In the first place," Tish asked, getting a pencil and sheet of letter paper from the table, "has any investigation been begun?"
"I think not," said Miss Smith. "There are always queer goings-on in a hospital, and besides, there has been a stir-up in the management, and things are at sixes and sevens. Two internes left last night, and the superintendent is pretty busy this morning."
"Indeed," said Tish, and wrote something down. "Where is the—er—body now?"
"It went to the anatomical board this morning. He had no relatives and no money. If he isn't claimed in a certain time, he'll be sent to the college dissecting room-"
Aggie shuddered.
"And now, Miss Smith," said Tish, leaning back in her roller chair, "would you mind telling me exactly what happened last night?"
"Not at all!" said Miss Smith, smiling. "We have a rule here that when a patient dies in one of the wards at night, the day nurses for that ward go with the body to the mortuary and prepare it for burial. The night nurse, having charge of several wards, can not easily leave. I am in charge of K ward, and Miss Blake is my assistant."
'She's not in K ward to-day," said Tish.
'No, she is relieving the hall nurse here for her off duty- Miss Blake is not well, and this is lighter."
"One moment," said Tish, "what is the K ward's night nurse's name?"
"Miss Durand."
"What time did Mr. Johnson die?"
"Shortly after midnight. It was marked twelve-ten on the record."
"And you were called at once?" I—think not," Miss Smith said slowly. "It was nearly one o'clock."
"Is that customary?" Tish demanded.
"Not usually," said Miss Smith, "but it is not extraordinary, either the night nurse may have been giving a fever bath, or something else she could not leave."
"You are very indulgent to the curiosity of , three old women," Tish said with her pleasantest smile. "Will you be amiable a little longer, and tell us what happened in the mortuary?"
"Well, really, nothing happened to me. Doctor Grimm had seen Johnson and pronounced him dead; he had been called from the operating room to do it, although Johnson was a medical case. The. night orderlies, Briggs and Marshall, took the body to the mortuary and waited with it until Miss Blake and I arrived."
"Briggs and Marshall,"