Chapter 4 Four

Wilma.Nurse Staller has been suffering from insomnia.Like other nurses, she refused to take medicine.Especially when she realized that this insomnia was only caused by her inner conflict, she was even more reluctant to take medicine. She thought that if Linky knew about this, he didn't know what to say.Linky is her younger brother, one year younger than her.His adventurous spirit is beyond ordinary people, and his mind is full of extreme ideas about people, property, and human rights, which transcend traditional new concepts.Linke would probably think she was chained to a rich millionaire whose life had nothing to do with hers and who was just wasting her time.Linky was flying somewhere in the South Pacific, and the army needed nurses, and he kept writing to Wilma, asking why she couldn't go where she could use her strengths.

And that's just one side of the story, and her mother, who used to say to Wilma, Wilma, you're not like Linky.He was restless by nature and couldn't sit still for a moment.He's always happy to take a little risk, he likes it, it's just in his nature.There was nothing I could do, I knew from a young age that I had to be prepared for horror.Maybe one day, they'll come and tell me something happened, maybe all at once, maybe in a hesitant way: Maybe he blows a tire driving too fast, maybe he's doing aerobatics in a plane Something went wrong.I know it will be sudden when something happens, but this is what he wants, and I'm used to it.But you are different, Wilma, I want to rely on you, you are very solid, long-term vision, and have a sense of responsibility, my dear, please don't go, no matter what, having you at home is enough, I can't stand being alone.The world is rushing along, and if you don't have the mental support to feel like you're keeping up with life, you'll be pushed aside, or even trampled to the ground.

And that Dr. Kenward, patient but overworked.He also knew that his body was no longer as strong as it used to be, and could take on the night shift.Day after day, he had to deal with a never-ending influx of patients into his office.The symptoms are still old symptoms, the disease is still old, but the patient has a new face. Dr. Kenward once said: Wilma, you are the only one I can count on.The good nurses are gone.You don't have much to do with Banning, just keep a hypodermic in case he needs it.But don't think that what you do is unimportant.Let him be quiet and recover slowly, and he will soon be free from the pain.But here's his problem: Once he feels better, he'll think he's cured and drag his exhausted body through too much work, and then you'll have to wear a hypodermic and the records will be very important.The thing is, they can't find me in time, you have to concentrate on your work, other patients can go to the hospital or nursing home, but for him, he will die there.Remember, Wilma, I'm counting on you to work alongside me.

So Wilma.Staller lived in this mansion with a red tile roof. In her room, she could overlook the sea from the window.As a nurse, she has almost no work to do. Rather than treating the patient's physical illness, it is better to take care of him psychologically.Her patients had moved out, slept under the stars, ate an unbalanced diet, and flouted their doctors' advice.But relying on such treatment, the patient became stronger day by day. The only concession Clark made was to lengthen the call bell so that when he was outdoors he had only to ring the bell, and Wilma would be by his side, day or night.

Wilma was still wrestling with her inner conflict, and she couldn't lie down on the bed.Once you can't stand it and fall on the bed, it's like losing the goal of your struggle.She also knew what it meant to try to sleep.Trying to fall asleep is a chore, and sleep isn't always on call; it's only when one's mind is completely at ease with nothing to worry about. There are mosquitos in the house. Wilma frowned, a little annoyed. One part of her mind was trying to completely relax and rest, but another part was visibly irritated, and the constant buzzing of the mosquitoes was simply unbearable.She tried to locate the mosquito, which was clearly in the far corner.Alas, she still has to get up, turn on the light and kill it.Her current state of mind simply cannot tolerate a mosquito in her room disturbing her sleep.

She reached over to switch on the bedside lamp. Almost at the same time the mosquito stopped screaming.Wilma got out of bed, put on slippers on her delicate little feet, stared at the corner of the room, and frowned.She knew it would be like this, when the light came on, the annoying mosquito would hide and play dead, it was probably hidden in the shadow behind a picture, and when she found this mosquito, she would not sleep for the rest of the night Oh, now she has no sleep at all. Wilma picked up a fly swatter from the table next to the bed, and there were other things on the table, all of which were arranged by Wilma according to her professional habits, and everything was in order: a small alcohol stove for boiling water, A hypodermic syringe, a five-cell flashlight, and a small notebook to record the patient's movements.

The mosquito would not move, so Wilma had to turn off the light and sit by the bed and wait. The mosquito remained silent. There was a light knock on the door. who?Wilma asked. Out of professional habits, whenever Wilma heard a knock on the door at night, she immediately imagined a series of possible situations.Who will be knocking at the door now?Could it be that the illness came on so suddenly, Banning?Clark can't even press a button so hard?who is that?she asked again. It's Nell.Sims' voice was a little creepy: Miss Staller, are you all right? Oh yes, of course it's fine.What's the matter?

nothing.I saw the light was on in your house, and thought something was wrong, Jim.Bradisson and his mother were a little uncomfortable. Wilma put on a nightgown and said: Come in, what's the matter with them? Nell pushed the door open and walked in.She wore a rather worn dressing gown, slippers that stretched out of shape on her feet, her fair, silky hair was curled with a curling iron, and her eyes were a little swollen from lack of sleep.She shuffled wearily into the room and said: They said maybe it was the wrong food. Is anyone else uncomfortable too? That's what I want to know too.I see your light is on.Are you really okay?

Oh yes, of course it's fine.What symptoms do they have? Are very common symptoms nausea, burning feeling.They say it's because of the food!nonsense!It's all nonsense.Actually it's because they eat too much, see how Mrs. Bradisson always talks about how much she weighs, but she doesn't do any work at all, just eats the greasy things, and never skips the sweet after dinner.If she can still eat it, she will definitely ask for another one.Know what I said to her the other day when she was struggling to pull her clothes on? Wilma barely heard what she was saying.She was hesitating: whether to let this thing run its course, or to do something about it.One thing was certain: she would not let them make a fuss about calling Dr. Kenward so late.

Know what I said to her?Nell.Sims said it again. What did you say?Wilma asked absently. Nell giggled and said: I said: Mrs. Bradisson, you gotta remember, you lost the fish and the bear's paw. How long has she been feeling unwell? I have no idea.According to her, it took about half an hour. Wilma said: I'll go and see what I can do. Wilma followed Nell.Sims walks along the long corridor to the north end of the small building, where Sims' suite is located.Lillian.Bradisson and her son, Jim, also have a living room with their respective bedrooms connected to it. Wilma heard the gag first, then the groan.The door to Mrs. Bradisson's room was open, and Wilma entered with professional confidence and said, "Mrs. Bradisson, I hear you are unwell. What can I do?"

Lying on her pillow, weak from vomiting, Mrs. Bradisson looked at Wilma with bloodshot eyes and said: I'm poisoned, I'm going to die.It was as if my whole body was on fire.She took the glass with trembling hands, which was filled with about one-third of the water, she gulped it down, and then said to Wilma: Can you fill the water up for me, please? Nell.Sims takes the cup to the bathroom and places it under the faucet. Nonsense, she said, it's not what you eat at all, it's how much you eat.No one else in the house felt uncomfortable. Both my son and I were poisoned. nonsense! Mrs. Bradisson said: I'm so glad you're here, Miss Staller.I've called Dr. Kenward and he said he'll let you see it and he'll be here right away if you think it's necessary.I think you'd better call him. Oh, I think we can handle it.Wilma said confidently that no matter what causes the stomach upset, you will be fine, and you will be fine in about fifteen to twenty minutes.Maybe we can find a solution to stomach pain.Is your son not feeling well? He is not as heavy as me.His and her faces were contorted and deformed by the pain.She lay down weakly, with no strength left in her body. Wilma said: "I'll go in and see Jim and see how he's doing. Jim.Bradisson's symptoms were clearly the same as her mother's, but he was stronger and more conscious.Look, Wilma, he said, I think you'd better call Dr. Kenward at once. He's too tired now, Wilma explained, and I don't want to bother him at night unless it's an emergency.It is very common for people to have severe indigestion reactions due to food poisoning. Jim.Bradisen whispered: "I've had food poisoning before, this time it wasn't food poisoning.This is another toxic substance.My mouth seemed to be full of metal shavings, and I was so thirsty, something didn't feel right to me, an extreme thirst.My stomach belly hurts so much I can't even touch it.Wilma, we're poisoned. Wilma tried to calm down her voice and asked: Are there any muscle spasms? Bradison said suddenly: Oh, yes, I almost forgot if you didn't mention it. I have a little cramp in my calf, but that's okay.It must have been because I had walked too much this afternoon.My mother and I went hiking, and she made up her mind to lose weight. Bradisson smiled slightly.As much as he loved his mother, he also saw the futility of her insane and occasional weight loss.All she did was to whet the appetite.He said, of course I followed suit.So Nell.Sims ate fried chicken and my mom and I gobbled it up too.I'm afraid I'm going to throw up again.OMG, this is worse than seasickness. Wilma said: Well, I'll call Dr. Kenward, I'm afraid he's coming anyway. Bradisson rushed to the bathroom.Wilma went downstairs to call Dr. Kenward.She said to Dr. Kenward: I'm afraid you must come. Is it just plain severe stomach pain?he asked on the phone. She put her mouth close to the microphone and said: It is a symptom of arsenic poisoning.The condition is typical, and even the muscles in the legs have spasms. What always amazes Wilma is that Dr. Kenward can be half asleep when answering the phone, but once encountering an emergency, he can suddenly become more awake than anyone else, as if he had already been sitting in danger and waiting for the emergency. Same as the phone.It will take me about twelve minutes to arrive. He said, observe the symptoms, you probably don't have iron medicine for dialysis, right? No. All right, gastric lavage, hold on, I'll be right there. Just after ten minutes, Dr. Kenward arrived.For the next forty minutes Wilma was as busy as ever.Without further ado, Dr. Kenward first performed gastric lavage, fed the patient iron oxides to generate soluble iron-containing arsenite, and then washed the iron-containing compounds out of the body with water.The effect of the treatment was immediate, and at two o'clock at night the two patients were able to rest. Dr. Kenward shook his head secretly, beckoning Wilma to come into her room and talk about the patient's current condition. Wilma sat on the edge of the bed, yielding the comfortable chair to Dr. Kenward.Wilma didn't say a word, and Dr. Kenward lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, sat in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief. As Wilma and Dr. Kenward had experienced countless times when they were monitoring patients at night, they were nervously waiting for the results of the treatment together.At this moment, the doctor has used all the medical methods he can.But before going home, he prevents the patient from having another attack and treats it. At such moments, he is like a professional boxer, fully relaxing himself during the interval between games. He was so preoccupied with the quick effect of the treatment that he couldn't relax at all, but at least for now he could stretch out in the chair, relax his muscles as much as possible, and soothe the nerves that were so tense. Did you eat fried chicken?asked Dr. Kenward suddenly. Yes. Mrs Sims has a board and lodging contract with the people who live here, doesn't she? Yes.I don't know how.Mrs. Sims charged for board and lodging, and Mr. Clark covered the overrun.It's weird, even the whole family is weird. Eat a lot of fried chicken? a lot of. Is the fried chicken all served on one big plate? No, there are two plates. There's a plate at the end of the table where Mrs. Bradison and her son are sitting, isn't it? Yes. Dr. Kenward said thoughtfully: Probably there is something wrong with the fried chicken. Are you talking about poisoning? No, I'm talking about the length of time between taking the poison and showing symptoms.Fatty foods delay the onset of symptoms.The question now is, since the food has been poisoned, why are other people okay?Are you sure everyone only eats what's off their plate? No, the plate is passed around, and everyone takes what they want to eat from the plate. Dr Kenward said: "They all said they hadn't eaten anything after dinner.The poison, then, must have been mixed in the liquid. Is it arsenic? no doubt.Mrs. Sims checked other people, and no one felt unwell, vomited, so So, you must have checked Banning?Kenward asked aloud anxiously. I checked, I tiptoed to the cactus garden, he and Yan Dinger were sleeping soundly in the sleeping bag? Are they also eating at the same table? No, they eat out half of the time, Yan Dinger is an authentic camp cook. Dr. Kenward said: Although this is not the treatment you prescribed, it is effective anyway, as long as it works.The more I disapprove of what they're doing, the more excited these two guys are like schoolkids skipping school.The battle is only half over.They do things that I don't allow them to do, and they get a kind of spiritual encouragement.Now, can you think of a way The sudden change of expression on Wilma’s face made him stop talking, what’s wrong?Wilma, what is it?asked Dr. Kenward. It's the salt shaker. What happened to the salt shaker? When Wilma cleared her mind, her words flowed like broken beads: it is the salt shaker. Jim and his mother are salt lovers. They have developed the habit of eating salt. They add salt to everything they eat.Mrs. Sims simply prepared a salt shaker for them. Every piece of chicken they ate had to be wrapped in salt. They must be the only ones at the dinner table who would sprinkle salt on the fried chicken, because the chicken was just right in saltiness. Dr. Kenward wrung out his half-smoked cigarette, got up and said: Let's go and see the salt shaker. They tiptoed through the corridor, and there was silence in the empty building.They went down the stairs to the dining room.In the sideboard, Wilma found the salt shaker.Dr. Kenward poured some salt into the palm of his hand, and put the bottle into his pocket. I think there is something wrong with the salt shaker, he said, but we need to go back and analyze it.Wilma, you're right, this salt shaker is the easiest way to kill other people.Don't say anything right now, we've got to turn it over to the D.A.I would like to know a little more before reporting, Jim.Bradisson will definitely accuse Banning.Clark was poisoned.How does this mother and son compare to the others? Jim was all right, Wilma said hesitantly, he had nineteen thirty-four jokes on his repertoire. Gentle jokes are dull, rough ones a little far-fetched.In a word, it doesn't seem very witty.But in general, he still wants to be nice to people.If he hadn't pretended to be supercilious, he should be popular with everyone. How is his mother? Wilma shook her head and said: Her vanity, selfishness, and obsession with her son was unbearable.She has many little tricks, such as lying to herself, telling others how she is on a diet, what can and cannot be eaten, and then pretending to be confused after eating the second meal, talking about how she put on the diet. I forgot all about it.Or, for example, sneaking another piece of cake when she thought no one was looking, as if eating the cake in this way wouldn't make her gain weight.She is in her fifties, but she only admits that she is thirty-eight and pretends to be twenty-eight. Does she have enemies? I think so. But the main problem is still in the mining business, isn't it? Yes, especially that scam case. Do you know what's going on? do not know much.Of course they don't talk about it in front of me.There was a bit of friction between them.peteSims forged a bonanza and sold it to Jim.Bradisson.I guess Pete really did something bad. He was an old scoundrel, a drunk who went on and on.Do bad things and always blame the split personality.In addition, the management of the company also had some troubles.This big family is not harmonious, but they still maintain their face, at least in front of me. How about that mining broker? It's Hayward.Small?He is indeed a very lively man, but I don't trust him.He's charming and a nice businessman.By the way, he was very nice to Nell.Sims' daughter, Dorina, was interested, but he was twelve to fifteen years older than Dorina. Did he do business with Bradisson? He has been looking for ore for the company. Dr. Kenward said: Well, I have to report to the authorities.I'll wait until tomorrow morning to contact the District Attorney, you have to be careful.I take this salt shaker with me as evidence.You watch the patients and don't give them anything to eat, and after I report to the D.A., around eight o'clock in the morning, I'll let you know if I give them food or not. After Dr. Kenward left, Wilma looked into the room and saw that the two patients had rested before returning to her room and lying on the bed.She felt drowsy all at once, strange, she thought, trying to sleep but not being able to.In the past, whenever she had a patient to attend to and she had to doze off, she would doze off right away in bed and sleep with one eye open seemingly completely relaxed, but actually a little alert.Falling asleep is very easy the only thing to be careful is not to sleep too deeply just go into a state of unconsciousness and then stop and take a break but always be on the alert that even the slightest noise is not a patient but a mosquito buzzing.That's the sound, I forgot to find that mosquito somewhere in the room. The strange mosquito never flew close and buzzed for a second or two. The sound seemed to be quieter. It came again. Maybe the mosquito was a little sleepy too. Did the mosquito sleep?why not?But the mosquito was drowsy and very tired. Wilma woke up suddenly, determined to drive the annoying mosquito out of the room.She reached for the flashlight and waited for the sound of mosquitoes to reappear. She heard that annoying sound, turned on the flashlight, and the low mosquito sound suddenly stopped again. Wilma jumped out of bed suddenly, the behavior of this mosquito was a bit weird.Mosquitoes usually tweet and circle around a place, gradually approaching the target.This mosquito doesn't seem to like light, maybe it will be able to determine its position by waiting in the dark. Wilma turned off the flashlight, walked to the window, and stopped to stare. In another hour or two, it will be daylight.A bright moon hangs low in the night in the western sky, and the light and shadow of the moon are reflected on the calm sea. Just after the fifteenth day, the moon is not very full.The moonlight shone on Wilma's face and sprinkled on the sea, as if a path leading to a fairyland had been built; the whole house was enveloped by the moonlight, adding a bit of tranquility.Maybe on the other side of the sea, Linky is flying in the blue sky in a plane.The air seemed to be stagnant, only the quiet and clear moonlight, the mirror-like sea below, and something moving in the yard under the dark shadows here and there. Wilma's eyes fell on a mass of dark shadows, and she stared at it firmly. It wasn't a shadow, but an object moving. It was a bent person who didn't move now, obviously afraid of being caught. Stare at it, pretending to be a black shadow.But where he was, there was clearly nothing else that could leave such a shadow. Almost without thinking, Wilma unlatched the window, pushed open the window, and turned on the flashlight. Under the soft golden moonlight, the flashlight emitted a clear beam of white light, which just missed the crouching figure, and Wilma moved the flashlight towards him again. In the darkness, Wilma saw two orange-yellow dots with blue centers flashing in front of her eyes.Then two crisp crackles shattered the tranquility of the moonlit night.Two bullets had just gone through the window pane just above Wilma's head. The man ran as fast as he could, across the moonlit open field, into a shadow, through the woods, around the stone wall Wilma.Two thoughts flashed through Staller's mind.One was the safety of her patients.The man was running to the cactus garden, if he came across Benning.Clark, Banning's heart may not be able to bear it. The other was that the glass shards all over her head made her very angry. When the bullet passed through the window glass just now, all the shattered glass fell on her head. Now Wilma heard the whole house start to move, people walking barefoot on the floor, and people asking loudly what happened.She had to go see Lillian quickly.Bradisson and her son. Banning.Clark shouted angrily: Hey! There was another orange flame flickering in the shadow near the gate of the tall building, and it seemed that another shot had been fired. Almost at the same time, there were also two flashes of fire in the cactus garden, bang, bang, the sound of a large-caliber pistol, which must have been Clark's .45 caliber pistol. Wilma saw Banning.Clark's thin figure, wearing only his trousers, ran out of the cactus bushes and chased the guy in the direction where he was fleeing. She forgot her fear all at once, her professional intuition prevailed again, don't run away, she said in a commanding tone, it's too dangerous, go back to bed.I'm going to call the police, where is Yan Ding'er? Banning.Clark looked up at her, what's going on?This bastard shot me? He also shot me twice. He was a thief.Where did Yan Dinger go? Here it is.Salt Dinger.Bowles replied, walked into the moon field and was struggling to fasten the belt of the overalls, Banning, you'd better get dressed. Only then did Banning realize how badly he was dressed, oh my!After he finished speaking, he ran back behind the cactus like a frightened rabbit and walked away. stop running!Wilma yelled angrily, it's not like I haven't seen underwear.