The Case with Nine Solutions полностью

As I expected, hyoscine was the poison. That fits in with Hassendean’s journal entry and with the hypothesis I made before. Hassendean, like most people at the Croft-Thornton, had access to the hyoscine in the store. The over-dose which he used gave me some trouble at first, but I think that’s cleared up. All the available evidence shows that Hassendean was a careless and inaccurate worker. From his notebook, I found that he used the abbreviation gr. for "gramme," whereas Markfield uses gm. It seems probable that Hassendean looked up the normal dose of hyoscine in a book of reference, found it given in apothecaries’ weights as "1/100 gr.," and copied this down as it stood, without making a note to remind him that here gr. meant "grain" and not "gramme." When he came to weigh out the dose he meant to give to Mrs. Silverdale, he would read "1/100 gr." as the hundredth part of a gramme, since in laboratory work the metric system is always used and chemists never think in terms of grains. Thus Hassendean, weighing out what in his carelessness he supposed to be a normal dose, would take 0.01 grammes of hyoscine. (The reference books state that serious poisoning has been caused by as little as 0.0002 gramme of hyoscine). As there are fifteen grains in a gramme, his quantity would be fifteen times the normal dose, which fits fairly well with the amount found in the body. He had no reason for killing Mrs. Silverdale, provided that the hyoscine obliterated her memory of that evening’s proceedings; and it seems most improbable that he deliberately planned to cause her death.

Miss Hailsham obviously does not wish to see Hassendean’s murderer caught; and therefore her identification with "Justice" is more than problematical. She may or may not have an alibi for the time of the bungalow affair, since she admits going to a dance in her car and coming away almost immediately. One may keep her case in reserve for the present.

Markfield’s car, GX. 9074, is alleged to have been in in an accident that night. The man who complained about it might provide a clue to Markfield’s movements, if we can lay hands on him.

The man who appeared at Fountain Street Police Station, fishing for a reward in connection with the bungalow affair, can hardly be anyone but one of the two watchers at the windows. Unfortunately, unless he chooses to talk, we have no power to extract information from him. Flamborough states that he can lay hands on him at any moment, as he is well known to our men.

Written after the receipt of the code advertisement.

This "Justice" is an ingenious fellow. First his trail was covered by using letters clipped from telegraph forms; now he resorts to advertisements, so that we do not get his handwriting. However, he betrays his knowledge of the internal affairs of the Croft-Thornton, which is a bad mistake since it limits the circle of inquiry.

Written after the interview with Renard.

I don’t care much for Mr. Renard. He poses too much as the honest fellow rather puzzled by the course of events. His evidence, certainly supplied a fresh motive for Silverdale in the rôle of murderer. But Silverdale will not fit into the Heatherfield affair on any reasonable basis; and the tragedies at Heatherfield and at the bungalow are obviously interconnected. It’s a nuisance that Silverdale won’t tell us where he spent the night of the murders. It might save trouble if he did so.

"Justice" seems to be making a fool of himself. The fact that he forged Mrs. Silverdale’s writing in the advertisement addresses limits the circle still further. We now know: (a) that "Justice" must have learned of the bungalow shooting almost as soon as it was done; (b) that he knows hyoscine was in the Croft-Thornton stores; (c) that he is in possession of specimens of Mrs. Silverdale’s writing.

Markfield might fill the bill.

Other possibles are: Miss Hailsham, Miss Deepcar, and Silverdale himself.

Written after the Whalley murder.

So Flamborough has let Whalley slip through our fingers!

My impression is that Whalley was murdered elsewhere and taken out in a car to be dumped into the ditch where he was found. The man behind all this is clever, and wouldn’t go in for an open-road murder in which he might be interrupted by a motorist coming round the corner.

The tourniquet was obviously intended to mislead us, or it would never have been left beside the body. The Heatherfield tourniquet was a makeshift thing which indicated no one in particular; this new one, with its pressure-tubing and banjo-string, seems constructed specially as evidence. The tubing suggests the Croft-Thornton chemical work; the banjo-string points to Silverdale, since I learned from Ringwood that Silverdale was a banjo-player. Both these points would be familiar to Markfield.