The Hospital Murders

brain. Once inside her consciousness, they rolled around like brightly colored Christmas tree balls, and b

think it over,

y couldn’t help if a big story broke. They didn’t make the news. They ... th

Oh God! Oh God! ... N

The Call building gave the driver the dollar, and slipped unnoticed int

do. Somebody m

9

eventh floor. There was a vacant suite of offices on the corner; perhaps i

in the face, and then slipping back so that she couldn’t

four, and the last a nurse. The night he brought the last cigarettes. She hadn’t seen him sinc

under his lips.... A murderer couldn’t look at you so that you said you were sorry, even when you tried not to

ou make a city editor understand ... when you ha

94 with the whole world spread out below in orderly rows and streets. Just as the sun spread over

newspaper office taught that the best ideas came under pressure. She had gone out on enough murder stories

er stockings were straightened and her reddening eyes carefully and pa

d and was goi

nd iridescent white of orchids. She closed the d

the rows of windows and the long city vistas belo

eins, strained after the peering eyes which were hidden by a pair of binoculars. The dirty white hair drawn into a tightly furled knot, on th

at are yo

lars fell from her hands. Sally mov

told me you was on vacation. Did you have a nice time, dearie?” She reached toward the long leathe

re you

i-away, I jes’ comes here for a little while and takes in the city ..

y eased down into a window sill. Perhap

id you g

boy had got ’em off’n a dead German General, and you kno’ what fine things Germans makes 296 ... well, his buddy took ’em off’n my boy’s body

hu m’sorrow. Whin I gits t’thinkin’ ’bout my boy and wishin’ f’ gran’c

ory! “Vicarious livi

rd it and

ocks this side of Beeker Street is an awful nice I-talyan neighb-hood. It’s sweet t’s

like to take a

for his violin. Her face had now a deep, sweet warmth. Miss Ferguson had g

curve of her slender thighs as she lifted the thong carefully over her h

9

roudly by an

buck, you kin’ jes’ catch a piece of the bridge ’ro

with startling clearness. She looked for the University, and on out toward Sears, Roebuck and across the river. Then s

wond-er-f

they

glasses upon the Elijah Wilson four blocks uphill

the bricks were in the afternoon sun! The trees up W

nted to see what was in that cupola! She unscrewed the lenses to their full power. They

9

Sterling sitting at a small table. His hand h

Almi

e had been struck. Emma,

rie. If you looks too

look through these at the cupola of the Elij

justed them ... it seemed to Sally that

eaded man settin’ at a little table writin’ in a

he stiffly moved the dials, were filmy, but within seconds she had the lenses magnifying the cupola and

absorbedly in a small book. Behind him was the same big red splotch ... as if a bucket of blood 299 h

over and over, as the eyes of a bird fascinated come back to a snake. And upon his face, as he w

. There wasn’t so much distance under his ear and collar, where she had buried her nose. A

somebody else

s and while they fell, with the rapidity

ribly and to come right away and he came, then it wasn’t Cub. And if

d to know ..

and watch that man in the top of the 300 hospital till I come back.... Don’t take your eyes off of him for

, and Sally was halfway down the hall of the sev

aper office. The open door of a suite of legal offices flashed by. She

t a typewriter desk she

000. Hurr

t two weeks ago

spital operator’s, “L

dge Sterli

d away and th

’s ’phone doe

speaker, please. It’

rasping, which was penetrating eve

oct-terr Eth-err-ridge

the far wall hit her in the face ... Monday, the nint

ge Sterling

o room 708 in The Call

...? Where are you

e calm in

t of the hospital. I had t

oice seemed to be put on, and then

lf for a final e

n terrible ... I n

Salsci

708, C

the hall and toward the vacant suite. Her eyes we

ward the stooped back of Emma; then she swayed steadily toward a low Window sill and sat down. He

n both sides of two planks in the floor. One, two ... his voice was foggy and distant ... six, seven, ei

and the revolt brought energy. Within half a minute a

, did he? He di

s Ferguson. But whin I got him back in, agin, he was se

head. If he hadn’t moved, then perhaps ... but he might have heard the loud Speaker and gone

it. He had turned. Only his back and high shoulder ... bu

ders like that! Nobody e

which wasn’t right this was he. And if he sat in that chair another ten minutes sh

at that thought a

s that big-headed man to you? He ain’t nuthin

s carefully focused a

r seen him b

u lots of my frin’s done gone up to thet hossbittle and ain’t never bin heard frum since. Ef a body’s goin’ to die, he’s goin’ die, hossbittle or no hoss

ashed past Sally’s brain. Then it ceased to register, for the man at

Sally’s heart. His shoulders squa

0

k sickened her, horribly. It was only when he reached in a hip pocket and dr

he light again.... And his left shoulder rose ... and Sally Ferguson’s eyes floated h

of running feet and they sounde

erling’s voice as he said “Salscie!” stiffened he

tration Building as the long, lank body of

d jumped a

w Higgins stepped inside the door and it was he who caught

e you re

ached her his

ut into 305 her clouding ones and Matthew

on he

ing and she gasped, holding up th

ub! The

b Sterling lay her head against his chest, place his long arms under her br

r’s helper. And I seys....” Emma had found

Look! And tell

re directed

s neck before Cub said, “Tell me....” The expression on his

ar, turned upon the florid, gray figure of Matthew Higgins. And it was Higgins’ voice that brought Sally Fer

ook, his left shoulder is ... he is reaching for a hypodermic syringe and holding it

e Cub Sterling and Sally Ferguson turned around. He must reach Snod ... reach Snod. In t

on Hospital,

Number?

me. I don’

d the doorwa

son

tion was throug

nry Mac

of the placid op

r’s ’phone do

Ward B, Medi

ect ‘outside’

he running figure of Cub 307 Sterling toward the elevator shaft. Sal

p one. For God

red. “Who is he?”

Sterling jumped in beside the driv

traffic lights! Five dollars

Ferguson into the back s

wild, uphill sn

iggins

econds, that devil will b

ken eyes from the approa

know, Mr.

r. MacArthur to ...

Oh” was s

turned a

took a l

he and Sally caught Cub before he was halfway up the main staircase in the Administration Building. They reached the second floor and ran around the oc

mn

?” Higgins

w.... I’ve n

ams of late afternoon sun filtered through the cracks. The hospital was deathly s

ued wringing themsel

some way ... ano

down to the second floor again. Hi

where Rose Standish had kissed his interne

ed into the darkness. Matthew Higgins thick body brushed him aside. 309 The detective pushed onto the narrow landing an

discovery wa

the second floor and moaned. Fatigue.

r to Higgins’ side and

their shoulders against the flimsy panels. The match w

bell of an approaching ambulance; it hid

ere accustomed to the dark, the heavy breathing of the two men s

re she opened her eyes. Through the final scree

tpri

arrow, winding stairway. She could see Higgins’ match

1

ins rounded the turn. When she staggered up, again, Higgins ha

erling!” and then, “I

twisting stairs. They pushed on into it. The last three ste

lly stood upon thes

the white medicine case, a raised glass in hand,

ssimilar faces. It caught each feature, as it catches mountain crags and em

f Cub Sterling’s, except that they centered upon his own eyes with a blistering, venomous, cons

ed the glass, but even with his head thrown back, his eyes bored into and 311

! I smell peaches!” that

ani

his eyes still intent upon Sterling’s; then his body, li

and Sally stood, and the man fell so that his head just brushed the railing.

air forward and Matt

is

eness of the dead man’s stare. Matthew Higgins reached down a

for support, endeavored vainly to make his re

an’s hand heavily back upon the

ns ra

tor

1

snapped. His

ldy! It’

g and carefully repeat

... bone .

o’s

t through and Higgins b

thbone ...

b stood straig

pharmacist of the Elijah Wilson. Bu

looked again at the inert b

nodded s

so that the wide part agai

e b

ey ran across the room and the sun took their gray and brown heads and played upon them. Through the

us beauty gave Sally the will to mount the re

1

o the horror-stricken air and a single fly entered, flew directly to the dead man’s face

h Wilson used for ward-addresses. The back was checkered and the pages ruled. It was open at a

over his

nt in Bed 11, Ward B, Medicine Clinic, a hypodermic of coniine. She opened her eye

d by an orderly whom I suspect as a detective. I got away ... but at last

savagely as he dropped the b

d him any

1

g said, “‘M

began reading aloud from the first page. H

n named Ethridge Sterling. He had studied at the Hotel Dieu and in New Yor

a young Bavarian girl, Gretchen Seinrich. She wa

hands. Matthew Higgins rested against a corner of the tab

ssion, and at the same time horrifi

ailed upon Gretchen Seinrich to live with him and she did so. I like

York by the unexpected death of his father. He promised to write.

she was still asleep he arose and wrote the note containing all of

I was con

birth, my mother determined to come to America and find my father ...

of Cub Sterling was more frightfu

gins was relentless

to come to America and then it took years of

he Great Dr. Sterling and ruin him, and by mistake 316 when she asked to see him, she was taken, instead, to his father-in-law, Dr. Jemis

h the dispensary door and handed over to a German Society for burial. The president of the s

customer. But what we learn in the first eight years o

d upon us, free, when necessary. I remember quite vividly when I was operated upon. Double hernia,

n and my case was turned over to an assis

” Cub’s voi

operation before. 317 I was his fir

e I really knew her and my

se my father was Dr. Ethridge

ities, I determined to ruin my father ... and began studying pharmac

worked upon his sentiment. It was he, and the excellency of my work ... and why not? I am the son of Dr. Sterling

tered the pharmacy of the Elijah Wilson, the sa

first I intended murdering the patients of my father, slowly, occasionally, over a period of years. Then I perceived if I waited

ears now, I have catered to that nickname. I shaved my center part to accentuate my bald spot. I pomaded my lo

r around this hospital who would

ls to stated places, the eyes of even a good observer become dulled into ‘seeing,’ w

er angularity, and the combing of my recently washed hair to cover my b

ught. When I am caught my f

Higgins was sti

1

erked up from his fol

It’s e

on’s voice o

iary of the m

ir movement disturbed the fly and he be

e drowned ou

ompleted it, because I filled, myself, the prescription to which I added Datura stramonium. The medicine was to be administered at midnigh

f my father’s and also un

she is

cond patient in Bed 11, Ward B, is now completed. I tripled the

hough autopsy is performed the condition of the organs will be s

virtue in which I have been lacking. It takes time to make a

rmic syringe, I have murdered the patient in Bed 11. My first traceable murder. Peters and Paton nearly caught me. If murdering ugly

aling morphia again. So ... even should she have recog

psy will reveal murder and begin, I hope, the suspicion. My plan is working splendidly! But why not? Fiftee

I can’t....”

ht was eerie. Cub Sterling put his arms around the girl and

woman, and my father had ordered a sleeping potion ... then he came by and asked me privately to make it bread pills. I did

terling helping his illegitimate

he student nurse nearly caught me. It was ex

e supply. I made it from the hemlock I gathered in the mountains of Pennsylvania when I was east on vacation. I had thought so 322 long about what to

o I found in a pullman seat in the Broad Street Stati

growing. My brother an

crib. I passed no one in the corridor.

. Dead

erves were

ub’s voice had bec

es

r has pneumonia and will die without the knowled

nty-four hours. If there is no patient in Bed 11, then u

s, my brother must

execute a daylight murder ... but year

to read it! Lil Parki

you put in

the pages. At the back of the book

er C

—goitre—E.S. & E.S.

—heart—E.S. & E.S. J

M.—operative E.S.

M.—nurse—E.S. Jr

—House & E.S. Jr.—failed t

Higgins’ heated brain, and the hysterical tears of Sally Ferguso

ins into instant action. He struck a match, tore the pages

g paper as Cub Sterling’s legs began unta

into Cub. “He’s dead and your father’s dying

h Cub had reviv

we stop T

snappe

own

s the room toward

he Attorney-General had just bought it.

Higgins pushed a chair

d slipped with the curling smoke out of

nd