“Cupola, Friday, May 13th ... 1:00 A.M. I have just committed my first murder upon the patient in Bed 11, Ward B. I know I have just completed it, because I filled, myself, the prescription to which I added Datura stramonium. The medicine was to be administered at midnight. The dose should, with the heavy bromide I included, have acted in an hour. It is unexpected and therefore not likely to cause an autopsy.
“The patient is one of my father’s and also under the care of my brother.
“And she is now dead.”
“Cupola, Sunday, May 15th ... 1:00 A.M. The murder of the second patient in Bed 11, Ward B, is now completed. I tripled the prescription dose of Digitalis. It was to be administered at 12 M.
“She is a patient of my brother and observed by my father. Though autopsy is performed the condition of the organs will be such as not to suggest chemical analysis. Therefore I am protected.
“So far suspicion is not aroused, but patience is not a virtue in which I have been lacking. It takes time to make a reputation and time ... to ... my candle is almost gone....”
“Cupola, Tuesday, May 17th ... 1:15 A. M. I have just returned from Ward B where by the use of coniine administered with a hypodermic syringe, I have murdered the patient in Bed 11. My first traceable murder. Peters and Paton nearly caught me. If murdering ugly women is so much pleasure; a pretty woman.... Tonight I began an intriguing custom. I left upon the crib of Bessie Ellis a Ma-ma doll.
“Miss Kerr was on the ward at the time. She is stealing morphia again. So ... even should she have recognized me, she will deny all knowledge. Most fortunate!
“The staff meeting yesterday, at which my brother escaped all censure, forces me into action. This autopsy will reveal murder and begin, I hope, the suspicion. My plan is working splendidly! But why not? Fifteen years’ patient study are behind it. I am tired and it is late.... Seeing Peters and Paton was luck....”
“My eyes ... I can’t....” Sally wailed.
Matthew Higgins took the book from her hands; the fading light was eerie. Cub Sterling put his arms around the girl and drew her into his lap. She began to shiver and Higgins read:
“Cupola, Wednesday, May 18th ... 1:30 A.M. The Gods are on my side. I have just murdered Rose Standish. She was a pretty woman, and my father had ordered a sleeping potion ... then he came by and asked me privately to make it bread pills. I did ... plus an African sleeping drug. Ah! the murder drugs are so fascinating and Heddis searched for the obvious potions, only.
“Ah, luck! Ah, irony! Bear Sterling helping his illegitimate son to ruin his legitimate one.
“Rose Standish was asleep by midnight. The student nurse nearly caught me. It was exciting! She will testify against my brother.
“Yesterday I was called before the staff to check drugs after Heddis settled upon coniine. It is all so damnably easy. Of course no house sold the supply. I made it from the hemlock I gathered in the mountains of Pennsylvania when I was east on vacation. I had thought so long about what to use. Something which we did not keep in the pharmacy. I used to think something untraceable ... and then when I met Heddis I saw he would discover....
“Then coniine came to me. Out of a volume of Plato I found in a pullman seat in the Broad Street Station coniine came to me. Coniine, such a word! Coniine!
“The suspicion is growing. My brother and my father are panicky.
“I put another doll upon Bessie’s crib. I passed no one in the corridor. Rose Standish was a pretty woman....”
“Crazy. Dead crazy!”
Higgins’ nerves were jumpy too.
“Anything else?” Cub’s voice had become relentless, now.
“Yes?”
“Cupola, Wednesday, May 18th, Noon. My father has pneumonia and will die without the knowledge of my brother’s ruination unless I act quickly.
“There must be a daylight murder within the next twenty-four hours. If there is no patient in Bed 11, then upon the patient in a corresponding bed upon another floor.
“Before he dies, my brother must be under arrest....
“It will take careful planning to execute a daylight murder ... but years of careful planning prepare one....”
“God! It makes me sick to read it! Lil Parkins, the best woman....”