The Nursing Home Murder

‘Not too brilliant.’

‘Well—take him to bed,’ said Phillips.

‘And take that tray away,’ added Thoms irritably to Jane who still stood at his elbow.

She turned her head and looked into Phillips’s eyes. He seemed to avoid her gaze and moved away. She turned towards the other table. Her steps grew more uncertain. She stopped, swayed a little, and fell forward on the tiled floor.

‘Good God, what’s the girl up to now?’ shouted Thoms.

Phillips strode across the theatre and stood staring down at her.

‘Fainted,’ he said behind his mask. He looked at his bloodstained gloves, pulled them off and knelt beside her. Sister Marigold ‘Tut-tut-tutted’ like a scandalized hen and rang a bell. Nurse Banks glanced across and then stolidly helped Thoms to cover the patient and lift him back on the trolley. Dr Roberts did not even look up. He had bent over the patient in an attitude of the most intense concentration. Two nurses came in.

‘Nurse Harden’s fainted,’ said the matron briefly.

They managed to get Jane to her feet. She opened her eyes and looked vaguely at them. Between them they half carried her out of the theatre.

The patient was wheeled away.

Phillips walked off into the anteroom followed by Thoms.

‘Well, sir,’ remarked Thoms cheerfully, ‘I think the usual state of things has been reversed. You are the fierce member of the party as a rule, but today you’re a perfect sucking-dove and I damned that poor girl to heaps. I’m sorry about it. Suppose she was feeling groggy all through the op.’

‘I suppose so,’ said Phillips, turning on a tap.

‘I’m sorry about it. She’s a nice girl and a good nurse. Attractive. Wonder if she’s engaged.’

‘No.’

‘Not?’

‘No.’

Thoms paused, towel in hand, and stared curiously at his senior. Sir John washed up sedately and methodically.

‘Unpleasant game, operating on your friends, isn’t it?’ ventured Thoms, after a pause. ‘And such a distinguished friend, too. Jove, there are lots of Bolshie-minded gentlemen that wouldn’t be overwhelmed with grief if O’Callaghan faded out! I can see it’s hit you up a bit, sir. I’ve never before seen the faintest tremor in your hands.’

‘My dear Thoms, there’s nothing the matter with my hands.’

‘Oh—I’m sorry.’

‘Nothing to be sorry about.’ He took off his gown and cap and brushed his hair. ‘You’re quite right,’ he said suddenly, ‘I didn’t enjoy the operation.’

Thoms grinned good-naturedly and then looked sympathetic.

The door opened and Dr Roberts came in.

‘I just looked in to report, Sir John,’ he began. ‘The patient’s condition is rather disquieting. The camphor injection helped matters at the time but the pulse is still unsatisfactory.’ He glanced nervously from one surgeon to the other and polished his glasses. ‘I must confess I feel rather anxious,’ he said. ‘It’s—it’s such an important case.’

‘All cases are important,’ said Phillips.

‘Of course, Sir John. What I meant to convey was my possible over-anxiety, occasioned by the illustriousness of the patient.’

‘You speak like your books, Roberts,’ said Thoms facetiously.

‘However,’ continued Roberts with a doubtful glance at the fat little man. ‘However, I am anxious.’

‘I’ll come and look at him,’ answered Phillips. ‘I can understand your concern. Thoms, you’d better come along with us.’

‘I won’t be a minute, sir.’

‘There’s something about his condition that one doesn’t quite expect,’ Roberts said. He went into details. Phillips listened attentively. Thoms darted a complacent glance at the mirror.

‘I’m ready,’ he told them.

He turned to Roberts.

‘That’s a rum-looking old stethoscope you sport, Roberts,’ he said jovially.

Roberts looked at it rather proudly. It was an old-fashioned straight instrument of wood with a thick stem, decorated by a row of notches cut down each quadrant.

‘I wouldn’t part with that for the latest and best thing on the market, Mr Thoms,’ said Roberts.

‘It looks like a tally-stick. What are the notches in aid of?’

Roberts looked self-conscious. He glanced deprecatingly at Phillips.

‘I’m afraid you’ll set me down as a very vain individual,’ he said shyly.

‘Come on,’ said Thoms. ‘Spill the beans! Are they all the people you’ve killed or are they your millionaire patients?’

‘Not that—no. As a matter of fact, it is a sort of tally. They represent cases of severe heart disease to whom I have given anæsthetic successfully.’

Thoms roared with laughter and Roberts blushed like a schoolboy.

‘Are you ready?’ asked Phillips coldly.

They all went out together.

In the theatre Sister Marigold, Nurse Banks, and a nurse who had appeared to ‘scally’, cleaned up and prepared for another operation, an urgent bronchoscopy, to be performed by a throat specialist. Jane had been taken off to the nurses’ quarters.

‘Two urgent ops. in one evening!’ exclaimed the matron importantly; ‘we are busy. What’s the time, Nurse?’

‘Six thirty-five,’ said Banks.

‘Whatever was the matter with Harden, Matron?’ asked the scally.

‘I’m sure I don’t know, Nurse,’ rejoined Sister Marigold.