Ten Years Ago

Chapter 4 : A Doctor's Consult

The mortuary was a peaceful place , thought Lavingham , where the dead would be silent and who had talked billions of times in their lives . Surprisingly everyone disagreed with this statement, and Lavingham never knew why . Once she had beaten up a corpse to prove how long bruises existed after the death of a person , and her colleague , Dr.Murray had protested it saying it was disrespectful to the dead people . Lavingham never understood this either .
She was at the hospital, and was looking for Dr.Finley . She found his secretary .
'Is Dr.Finley available at this moment ?'she said .
'No , I'm afraid. He's at the mortuary, and is in his case of something that I really didn't understand. You have to wait . And your name?'
'My name is Charlotte Lavingham and I don't "wait" . Where is the mortuary?'
'I'm afraid I can't allow you there .'
Lavingham gave a fishy look at the secretary.
'If I tell your husband that you spent a night with the doctor, will you allow me in ?'said Lavingham , smiling.
The secretary looked at her , bewildered and frightened.
'It's down the basement.'she said .
'Thank you .'said Lavingham , and went to the mortuary.
She found Dr.Finley there , simply staring at the corpse .
'I see you're on a case to show how a bacteria got into that body .'said Lavingham .
'Mm hmm .'said the doctor, without looking .
'There is a deep cut on her leg . You're thinking that , aren't you ?'
'What else ?'
'I say no . When the cut was made , it must have bled a lot . But there isn't much blood, is there ? So the cut must've been made after the death of this person . So , how did the bacteria get in ? Well , quite easy . Through a syringe , of course . A doctor whom he had consulted quite recently must've accidentally dipped his syringe in some dangerous bacteria and injected him . Of course , the doctor whom he had consulted due to various reasons killed him without actually knowing it himself.'
Now the doctor turned towards her .
'Amazing. Who're you ?'said he .
'My name's Charlotte Lavingham . I have a request .'
'Yes ?'
'Take all the credit .'
'Why ?'
'Because I need something in return.'
'And what's that ?'
'You're Dr.Finley , aren't you ?'
'Himself .'
'Ten years ago , you were appointed to determine the cause of the death of Lucinda Brown . Isn't that so ?'
'I've had so many cases . Yes , I can remember the Brown case . It was the most baffling cases in the world . Well , I have to check the report . Let's go to my office, and my secretary will find it .'he said .
They went to his consulting office, and his secretary looked at Lavingham as if she'd just eaten a dirty stocking .
'Miss Planks , kindly get the report of Lucinda Brown .'said he .
'Yes , sir .'said his secretary. She went to fetch it .
'Miss Lavingham, what is your profession ?'
'I'm a consulting detective, sir .'
'Hmm .'
'I believe on this case you had worked with Dr.Nighs , who passed away recently.'
'Yes . I did . He was an old , reputable man . I had always known that .'
'Ah .'
The secretary came with the report and handed it to the doctor. She left . The doctor looked at the report .
'Lucinda was poisoned with arsenic at about two thirty , the poison was in the glass of water , and the amount was two hundred and three milligrams . We assume she was alive before she was shot , as the amount of the arsenic indicates . However if she had taken five hundred milligrams, then she would've died before she was shot . As for the bullet , it had passed through the right temple and it went and hit the wall .'
'What do you mean by "if she had taken five hundred milligrams" ? Was there a confusion about the amount of arsenic as well ?'questioned Lavingham . The doctor looked petrified for a moment. Lavingham could make out this expression. She had seen it before .
'Of course .' she said . 'A stake of reputation.'
'What d'you mean ?'
'Something has been hidden from the entire world . Dr.Nighs got it wrong . You protected him , didn't you ?'
Dr.Finley sighed .
'Yes . Dr.Nighs proclaimed that Lucinda had swallowed two hundred milligrams of it , and was alive before shot . But I checked the body later on and confirmed that five hundred milligrams was swallowed by Lucinda and she was dead before shot .'
'Course . Then you thought of Nighs and his reputation was much more precious than yours. You made your move . You went and staked your rep by saying that you were wrong. Nighs knew , didn't he ? But he retired at that time , and you were demoted . Isn't that so ?'
'Yes . He was older than me .'
'You shouldn't have done that . Making a false proclamation is a crime.'
'I know .'said the old doctor. 'But I idolised that man . I saved his rep .'