“My niece had a P. M. several ... about ... a week ago ... and went to a street fair and won it. She brought it to me....”
Higgins seated himself carefully in a chair beside her desk and said:
“Half an hour ago the doll that your niece won was lying in her top bureau drawer!”
Without intending to do so, her china blue eyes raised to his and he shot past her protective covering into her unprepared ear:
“Is morphia quicker than cocaine?”
From inside, without intention, she answered:
“Yes. Much.”
Then she realized what she had said and opened her lips to make a statement about “depending upon the condition of the patient....”
Higgins did not allow her to utter the words. Once an addict has acknowledged the habit, he knew she was powerless to refrain from talking about it.
“What’s the shot you use?”