A Blueprint for Murder Page #2

and her imagination...

I was checking several years

ago, doing research on a story.

There was one case I re...

- What's the matter?

- Nothing. Forget it.

If you've got something

on your mind, spill it.

- I'm just a screwball, I guess.

- What were you going to say?

- Well...

- Well?

Okay. It was a murder case I looked up.

The victim had the same

kind of convulsions...

and kept screaming, "Don't touch my hands!"

- So?

- So, he died of strychnine poisoning.

Oh, man alive, Maggie.

Are you trying to say that Polly and

her father might have been poisoned?

This isn't one of your yarns.

You're dealing with real people.

Well, I only mean...

There is a similarity.

Don't try to tell us the doctors

wouldn't have recognized strychnine.

They didn't in the case I looked up.

And they apparently don't

know what killed Polly.

Let's see what the encyclopedia

says about convulsions.

- Why do you always have to dramatize everything?

- You are going off the deep end.

She sees a man take a pocketknife

out to sharpen a pencil...

and right away builds herself a murder case.

Don't both of you jump on me. I only mention

it as something that should be looked into.

Well, they list eight causes.

Tetanus would have required a cut.

Obviously it wasn't rabies.

- Epilepsy?

- No history of it in the family.

- How about tetany?

- Not according to Dr. Stevenson.

With all these others, like brain tumor,

there would've been early indications.

You know, there's one thing

it'd be pretty tough to rule out.

- What?

- Strychnine.

Strychnine? Are you serious, Mrs. Sargent?

Well, you do admit you don't

know what she died from...

and strychnine would

produce the same symptoms.

- Is this your idea too, Mr. Cameron?

- I don't know, Doctor.

There are so many confusing facts.

You told me it wasn't tetany, yet that's

what was put on the death certificate. Why?

Because that's what we were

treating the patient for.

She responded to the calcium

treatments, so we continued it.

As a matter of fact, I suggested an autopsy.

- Why didn't you have one?

- Because Lynne couldn't stand the idea.

- I see.

- I agreed with her.

Nothing could be gained by it.

Let me ask you one question. Just how

do you think the child got the poison?

Well, I don't know, but I don't see

how it could have been an accident.

I'm afraid I don't want any

part of this, Mr. Cameron.

All right. All right. I'm sorry

I brought it up. Shall we go?

It's preposterous to assume that anyone

would have wanted to poison the child.

- Oh, I don't know.

- Okay, then, who could have done it?

- Mmm, several people.

- For instance?

For instance, Lynne. Good day, Doctor.

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