Chapter 14 14 Doctor Willoughby

Hercule.After paying the fare and tip, Poirot got out of the taxi, checked the address in his notebook, carefully took the letter of introduction, went up the stairs and rang the bell.A footman came to the door and, after giving his name, told Poirot that Dr. Willoughby was expecting him. Poirot was shown into a small, cozy room, with bookshelves lining the walls, and two chairs by the fireplace, on which a serving glass stood on the mantelpiece.Dr. Willoughby rose to meet him. He was a lean man of fifty or sixty, with a high forehead, dark hair, and piercing eyes.After shaking hands with Poirot, the doctor invited the guest to sit down, and Poirot took out the letter from his pocket.

Ah yes. The doctor took the letter, read it, put it aside, looked at Poirot with interest, and said: I heard from Director Glowell, and friends from the Ministry of the Interior also said that, depending on your needs, please let me help as much as possible. Thanks to your attention, Poirot said: This matter is indeed very important. After so many years, is it still that important? Yes, but of course it's understandable if you've lost your memory. That's not true, I have a strong interest in a certain branch of the industry and have devoted myself to it for many years. Your father is said to be the authority in this regard.

True, it was his lifelong interest, and he had many theories, some of which proved correct and some of which were disappointing.I assume you're interested in mental illness cases? It was a woman named Dorothy.Peisi Dongkui. Um.At that time, I was still young, and I was very interested in my father's theories, but our views were often at odds.His work is very interesting and I am very happy to work with him.I don't know what you want to know about Dorothy.What happened to Pei Si Dongkui, who later became Mrs. Jallow. I think she is a twin.said Poirot. Yes, this was exactly the field my father was working on at that time.At that time, he was leading a project to track and record the daily life of identical twins, including twins who grew up in the same environment, and twins who grew up in very different environments due to various reasons. same.Like a pair of twins who almost never live together, but strangely always have the same thing happen at the same time.That's interesting, but I don't think you're interested in it.

really.Poirot said: What I am curious about is a certain part of a certain case. It is about the accidental death of a child. I see.I remember that it happened in Surrey (South East England), not far from Comberley, in a beautiful and pleasant setting.Mrs. Jallow was a young widow with two young children, whose husband had died in an accident not long ago, so she Insane?asked Poirot. No, not quite.She was devastated by the news of her husband's death and felt a strong sense of loss. Doctors thought she hadn't fully recovered and didn't like the way she was seeking recovery.She was not coping with her bereavement in the way her doctor suggested, and she behaved erratically.In short, the doctor needs someone to consult, so he asked my father to help.My father thought her condition was special and dangerous, and suggested that she should go to a nursing home for observation and special care, especially after the boy had an accident.According to Mrs. Jallow's description, when the two children were together, the older sister beat her younger brother, who was four or five years younger, with a shovel or a hoe before he fell into the pond in the garden and drowned.It does happen to the little ones from time to time, and the older ones sometimes push the pram into the pond out of jealousy, thinking: If only Edward or Donald hadn't been born, Mummy wouldn't have had so much trouble, or Mum would have treated me Good point, it's all out of jealousy.But there was no reason or evidence of jealousy in this case, the sister was not unhappy after the birth of the younger brother, but Mrs. Jallow did not want a second child.While her husband is delighted to have a second child, Mrs. Jallow is unimpressed.She went to two doctors for an abortion, but abortion was still illegal at the time, and no one was willing to perform the operation on her.The servant and the boy who brought the telegram testified that it was a woman, not the sister, who had beaten the boy.Another maid insisted that she saw through the window that it was the mistress who did it.She said: "I think the poor man didn't know what he was doing.Alas, she's been in a terrible mood since the master passed away.I don't know which part of the case you want to know.The final verdict closed the case as an accident, which was determined to be purely accidental, and the two children pushed each other while playing together.An unfortunate accident indeed, and the matter was shelved.Later, my father went to guide, talked with Mrs. Jallow, and conducted various tests such as quizzes and questionnaires, as well as questions and answers. After concluding that she did it, my father suggested that she receive psychiatric treatment.

Your father concluded that she did it? Yes.At that time, there was a school of therapeutic theory that was very popular, and my father also believed in it unswervingly.The theory, in simple terms, is that after a year or so of regular treatment, the patient can resume a normal life, which is beneficial to the patient.They can go home to live, and as long as they cooperate with appropriate medicine and the care of their relatives, their condition will gradually improve.To be honest, this method did have a few success stories in the early days, but not necessarily later.Several cases had unfortunate endings. After the seemingly recovered patients returned home to live with their families, husbands, and parents, they slowly relapsed, often leading to tragedies.One case particularly distressed my father, and it was a case of considerable importance in his research.There was a female patient who lived with her former roommate after being discharged from the hospital. Everything was normal at first, but after about half a year, one day she urgently called the doctor and said to him: I will take you upstairs and see what I did You will be angry, you will call the police, you will.But I had to, I saw the devil looking out of Hilda's eyes, I saw the devil, I knew what to do, I had to kill her.The girlfriend was strangled to death on a chair, and her eyes were gouged out after she died.The murderer later died in a lunatic asylum. She felt no guilt and always believed that it was her responsibility to destroy the devil.

Poirot shook his head sadly. The doctor continued: Yes, I think Dorothy.Pei Si Dongkui suffers from a dangerous mental disorder, and she is not a danger unless she is properly monitored.But the medical knowledge at that time was not like this, and my father didn't think so.After a period of treatment, when she seemed to be quite stable after a few years, she left the nursing home and lived a normal life under the care of a companion.She traveled and made friends, and later went abroad. to the Malay Peninsula.said Poirot. Yes, it seems that you have got a lot of information, she went to live with her twin sister in the Malay Peninsula.

Did another tragedy happen later? Yes.A boy in a neighbor's house was killed. At first, the murderer was suspected to be a nanny, and then a local servant seemed to be suspected as well.However, judging from the medical records of previous murders, it was undoubtedly Mrs. Jallow who did it again.There wasn't enough evidence against her at the time, remember a certain general Ravenk?asked Poirot. Yes, General Ravenk agreed to arrange for her to return to England for further treatment.Is this all you want to know? Exactly.Poirot said: I have heard fragments of it before, but most of them are hearsay and unreliable.What I want to ask is that this study is related to twins, what about the other one?Margaret.What about Pace Dongkui, later Mrs. Ravenk?Could she also have the same disease?

She has no history of any mental illness and is completely normal.My father was very interested in this and interviewed her once or twice.In the cases my father has seen, most of the twins who have been brotherly and brotherly from birth also happen together when they suffer from diseases or mental disorders. Do you mean from birth? Yes, in some cases twins can become hostile because one has overly protective feelings toward the other.Emotions can sometimes turn into hatred. Too much emotional pressure will arouse hatred, and an emotional crisis will arouse hatred between sisters. This case is likely to be the case.When Ravenk was a young lieutenant or captain, I guess he fell in love with the beautiful Dorothy.Peisi Dongkui.She was prettier than her sister, and she was also in love with Ravenk.They were not engaged at the time, but Ravenk quickly fell in love with Margaret, or Molly.He fell in love, proposed to her, and she said yes.They married when his career was on the rise.My father was convinced that Dolly was jealous of her sister's marriage, but still loved Alistair.Ravenk, so the hatred grows deeper.Later, Dolly seemed to forget everything and married another man.Her marriage seemed to be very happy, and she later became a frequent visitor to the Ravenkers, not only to the Malay Peninsula but also to other countries and their home in England when they returned.At that time, her mental illness had been cured, her mood was no longer depressed, and she had reliable nurses and servants to take care of her in her life.I believe, and my father often said, that Mrs. Ravenk still loves her sister very much. She takes good care of her and cherishes her. She hopes to visit her sister often, but General Ravenk is not willing.I guess maybe Dolly, Mrs. Jallow, was still in love with General Ravenk, which made him feel embarrassed, and I believe his wife thought that her sister had long since got rid of her jealousy and anger.

I heard that Mrs. Jarrow was staying at the Ravenkers' house about three weeks before the tragedy. Yes, that's right, she also died during that time.She often sleepwalks, and one day she ran out again in her sleep, walking on the deserted path on the edge of the cliff, and finally slipped and fell to her death.She was found the next day and was already dead by the time she was sent to the hospital.Sister Molly is extremely depressed and very sad, but I'm probably all you want to know about this and I don't think it leads to happy couples choosing to end their lives.Grieving the death of a sister or a wife's sister is not likely to seek guilt, and certainly not both.

Unless, Hercule.Poirot said: Marguerite.Ravenk is responsible for his sister's death. God!Dr. Willoughby said: Your inference is that Margaret followed her sleepwalking sister and reached out to push Dorothy off the cliff? I absolutely do not believe this statement.said Dr Willoughby. People's hearts, Poirot said, are unpredictable.