Death In The Last Reel by Paula Harmon

Author:Paula Harmon [Harmon, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

My dear Madame Doctor Demeray,

Please accept my apologies for the late despatch of this letter. In the last weeks there have been outbreaks of both diphtheria and measles among my patients. In consequence, as you may understand, I have been too exhausted to write.

What I have to tell is brief. Having confirmed that life was extinguished, I and the police officer whom you saw accompanied the body of the young woman, Miss Norah Vale, and Mr Drummond, who said that he employed her, to l’hôpital Bon Berger. There I spoke with the pathologist, providing my observations and the statement of Mr Drummond as to her family history. I felt that these two things were not entirely in accord, but left it to the pathologist to undertake a post-mortem to establish the facts.

Thereafter I was neither consulted by the hospital nor approached by the police, and therefore assumed that they were satisfied as to cause of death.

However, now that the sickness among my patients is under control, and recalling your request, I telephoned to my colleague at l’hôpital Bon Berger and from him ascertained that the girl had been in possession of a letter from her estranged father. This, among other things, alerted her to heart disease within the family and said that she should be careful.

Since this gentleman was resident in a Paris hotel, my colleague put in a trunk call and spoke with him later that day to establish the nature of the hereditary illness. The father said that he and his young daughter had only recently been reunited, and expressed his distaste at the thought of her dissection while accepting that the police might deem it necessary. The hospital, being under pressure to treat the injured from a motor-car accident, was disinclined to undertake a post-mortem unless the police demanded one. I believe the police interviewed Mr Drummond, who revealed no reason for Miss Vale to be intentionally hurt, since she was universally liked but of no great importance to anyone (except perhaps her father in Paris). They decided that since there were no injuries on the body and everything pointed to a congenital defect, there was no reason to waste the hospital’s time. Her body was therefore released to the English church for burial.

I have since spoken with the pastor, who showed me where Miss Vale was laid to rest. He said that Mr Drummond was in attendance, but the father had been prostrated by grief and warned not to travel. The father had asked for his letter to be returned and said that he would pay for a small headstone.

Although both you and I were puzzled at the time, I hope that what I have discovered puts your mind at rest. Should you ever return to Neuchâtel, I would be more than happy to renew our acquaintance and compare the experiences of a busy London doctor and a busy country doctor. I suspect that I have the better view on my daily walk, and maybe the

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