Bagley, Desmond - The Spoilers Read online

  ' There was a pause tinged with incredulity, then a splutter. 'Now, look here . . .'

  'I'm sorry, Sir Robert,' Warren cut in. 'I suggest you come to see me at five o'clock today. I shall be free then, I think.'

  Hellier made his decision. 'Very well,' he said brusquely, and Warren winced as the telephone was slammed down at the other end. He laid down his handset gently and flicked a switch on his intercom. 'Mary, Sir Robert Hellier will be seeing me at five. You might have to rearrange things a bit. I expect it to be a long consultation, so he must be the last patient.'

  'Yes, Doctor.'

  'Oh, Mary: as soon as Sir Robert arrives you may leave.'

  Thank you, Doctor.'

  Warren released the switch and gazed pensively across the room, but after a few moments he applied himself once more to his papers.

  Sir Robert Hellier was a big man and handled himself in such a way as to appear even bigger. The Savile Row suiting did not tone down his muscular movements by its suavity, and his voice was that of a man unaccustomed to brooking opposition. As soon as he entered Warren's room he said curtly and without preamble, 'You know why I'm here.'

  'Yes; you've come to see me about your daughter. Won't you sit down?'

  Hellier took the chair on the other side of the desk. 'Ill come to the point. My daughter is dead. The police have given me information which I consider incredible. They tell me that she was a drug addict -- that she took heroin,'

  'She did.'

  'Heroin which you supplied.'

  'Heroin which I prescribed,' corrected Warren.

  Hellier was momentarily taken aback. 'I did n ot expect you to admit it so easily.'

  'Why not?' said Warren. 'I was your daughter's physician.'

  'Of all the bare-faced effrontery!' burst out Hellier. He leaned forward and his powerful shoulders hunched under his suit. That a doctor should prescribe hard drugs for a young girl is disgraceful.'

  'My prescription was , . -.'

  'I'll see you in jail,' yelled Hellier.

  *. . . entirely necessary in my opinion.'

  'You're nothing but a drug pedlar.'

  Warren stood up and his voice cut coldly through Hellier's tirade. 'If you repeat that statement outside this room I shall sue you for slander. If you will not listen to what I have to say then I must ask you to leave, since further communication on your part is pointless. And if you want to complain ..about my ethics you must do so to the Disciplinary Committee of the General Medical Council.* Hellier looked up in astonishment. 'Are you trying to tell me that the General Medical Council would condone such conduct?'

  'I am,' said Warren wryly, and sat down again. 'And so would the British Government -they legislated for it.'

  Hellier seemed out of hit depth. 'All right,' he said uncertainly. 'I suppose I should hear what you have to say. That's why I came here,'

  Warren regarded him thoughtfully. 'June came to see me about eighteen months ago. At that time she had been taking heroin for nearly two years.'

  Hellier flared again. 'Impossible!'

  'What's so impossible about it?'

  'I would have known.'

  'How would you have known?'

  'Well, I'd have recognized the . . . the symptoms.* 'I see. What are the symptoms, Sir Robert?'

  Hellier began to speak, then checked himself and was silent. Warren said, 'A heroin addict doesn't walk about with palsied hands, you know. The symptoms are much subtler than that -- and addicts are adept at disguising them. But you might have noticed something. Tell me, did she appear to have money troubles at that time?'

  Hellier looked at the back of his hands. 'I can't remember the time when she didn't have money troubles,' he said broodingly. I was getting pretty tired of it and I put my foot down hard. I told her I hadn't raised her to be an idle spendthrift.' He looked up. 'I found her a job, installed her in her own flat and cut her allowance by half.'

  'I see,' said Warren. 'How long did she keep the job?'

  Hellier shook his head. 'I don't know -- -only that she lost it.* His hands tightened on the edge of the desk so that the knuckles showed white. 'She robbed me, you know -- she stole from her own father.'

  'How did that happen?' asked Warren gently.

  'I have a country house in Berkshire,' said Hellier. 'She went down there and looted it -literally looted it. There was a lot of Georgian silver, among other things. She had the nerve to leave a note saying that she was responsible -- she even gave me the name of the dealer she'd sold the stuff to, I got it all back, but it cost me a hell of a lot of money.'

  'Did you prosecute?'

  'Don't be a damned fool,' said Hellier violently. 'I have a reputation to keep up. A fine figure I'd cut in the papers if I prosecuted my own daughter for theft. I have enough trouble with the Press already.'

  'It might have been better for her if you had prosecuted,' said Warren. 'Didn't you ask yourself why she stole from you?'

  Hellier sighed. 'I thought she'd just gone plain bad -- I thought she'd taken after her mother.' He straightened his shoulders. 'But that's another story'

  'Of course,' said Warren. 'As I say, when June came to me for treatment, or rather, for heroin, she had been addicted for nearly two years. She said so and her physical condition confirmed it.'

  'What do you mean by that?' asked Hellier. That she came to you for heroin and not for treatment.'

  'An addict regards a doctor as a source of supply,' said Warren a little tiredly. 'Addicts don't want to be treated -- it scares them.'

  Hellier looked at Warren blankly. 'But this is monstrous. Did you give her heroin?'

  'I did.'

  'And no treatment?'

  'Not immediately. You can't treat a patient who won't be treated, and there's no law in England which allows of forcible treatment.'

  'But you pandered to her. You gave her the heroin.'

  'Would you rather I hadn't? Would you rather I had let her go on the streets to get her heroin from an illegal source at an illegal price and contaminated with God knows what filth? At least the drug I prescribed was clean and to British Pharmacopoeia Standard, which reduced the chance of hepatitis.'

  Hellier looked strangely shrunken. I don't understand,' he muttered, shaking his head. 'I just don't understand.'

  'You don't,' agreed Warren. 'You're wondering what has happened to medical ethics. Well come to that later.' He tented his fingers. 'After a month I managed to persuade June to take treatment; there are clinics for cases like hers. She was in for twenty-seven days.' He stared at Hellier with hard eyes. 'If I had been her I doubt if I could have lasted a week. June was a brave girl, Sir Robert.'

  'I don't know much about the ... er ... the actual treatment.'

  Warren opened his desk drawer and took out a cigarette-box. He took out a cigarette and then pushed the open box across the desk, apparently as an afterthought. 'I'm sorry; do you smoke?'

  Thank you,' said Hellier, and took a cigarette. Warren leaned across and lit it with a flick of his lighter, then lit his own.

  He studied Hellier for a while, then held up his cigarette. 'There's a drug in here, you know, but nicotine isn't particularly powerful. It produces a psychological dependency.

  Anyone who is strong-minded enough can give it up.' He leaned forward. 'Heroin is different; it produces a physiological dependency -- the body needs it and the mind has precious little say about it.'

  He leaned back. 'If heroin is withheld from an addicted patient there are physical withdrawal symptoms of such a nature that the chances of death are about one in five -and that is something a doctor must think hard about before he begins treatment.'

  Hellier whitened. 'Did she suffer?'

  'She suffered,' said Warren coldly. 'I'd be only too pleased to tell you she didn't, but that would be a lie. They all suffer. They suffer so much that hardly one in a hundred will see the treatment through. June stood as much of it as she could rake and then walked out. I couldn't stop her -- there's no legal restraint.'<
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  The cigarette in Hellier's fingers was trembling noticeably. Warren said, 'I didn't see her for quite a while after that, and then she came back six months ago. They usually come back. She wanted heroin but I couldn't prescribe it. There had been a change in the law -all addicts must now get their prescriptions from special clinics which have been set up by the government. I advised treatment, but she wouldn't hear of it, so I took her to the clinic. Because I knew her medical history -- and because I took an interest in her -- I was able to act as consultant. Heroin was prescribed -- as little as possible -- until she died.'

  'Yet she died of an overdose.'

  'No,' said Warren. 'She died of a dose of heroin dissolved in a solution of methylamphetamine -- and that's a cocktail with too much of a kick. The amphetamine was not prescribed -- she must have got it somewhere else.'

  Hellier was shaking. 'You take this very calmly, Warren,' he said in an unsteady voice. 'Too damned calmly for my liking.'

  'I have to take it calmly,' said Warren. 'A doctor who becomes emotional is no good to himself or his patients.'

  'A nice, detached, professional attitude,' sneered Hellier. 'But it killed my June.' He thrust a trembling finger under Warren's nose. 'I'm going to have your hide, Warren. I'm not without influence. I'm going to break you.'

  Warren looked at Hellier bleakly. 'It's not my custom to kick parents in the teeth on occasions like this,' he said tightly. 'But you're asking for it -- so don't push me.'

  'Push you!' Hellier grinned mirthlessly. 'Like the Russian said -- I'm going to bury you!'

  Warren stood up. 'All right -- then tell me this: do you usually communicate with your children at second hand by means of letters from your secretary?'

  'What do you mean?'

  'Six months ago, just before you went to America, June wanted to see you. You fobbed her off with a form letter from your secretary, for God's sake!'

  'I was very busy at the time. I had a big deal impending.'

  'She wanted your help. You wouldn't give it to her, so she came to me. You promised to write from America. Did you?'

  'I was busy,' said Hellier weakly. 'I had a heavy schedule -- a lot of flights . . . conferences . . .'

  'So you didn't write. When did you get back?'

  'A fortnight ago.'

  'Nearly six months away. Did you know where your daughter was? Did you try to find out? She was still alive then, you know.'

  'Good Christ, I had to straighten out things over here. Things had gone to hell in my absence.'

  They had, indeed!' said Warren icily. 'You say that you found June a job and set her up in a flat. It sounds very nice when put that way, but I'd say that you threw her out. In the preceding years did you try to find out why her behaviour had changed? Why she needed more and more money? In -fact I'd like to know how often you saw your daughter. Did you supervise her activities? Check on the company she was keeping? Did you act like a father?'

  Hellier was ashen. 'Oh, my God!'

  Warren sat down and said quietly, 'Now I'm really going to hurt you, Hellier. Your daughter hated your guts. She told me so herself, although I didn't know who you were. She kept that damned patronizing secretary's letter to fuel her hatred, and she ended up in a sleazy doss-house i n Netting Hill with cash resources of three shillings and fourpence. If, six months ago, you'd have granted your daughter fifteen minutes of your precious time she'd have been alive now.'

  He leaned over the desk and said in a rasping voice, 'Now tell me, Hellier; who was responsible for your daughter's death?'

  Hellier's face crumple* and Warren drew back and regarded him with something like pity. He felt ashamed of himself; ashamed of letting his emotions take control in such an unprofessional way. He watched Hellier grope for a handkerchief, and then got up and went to a cupboard where he lipped a couple of pills from a bottle.

  He returned to the desk and said, 'Here, take these -- they'll help.' Unresistingly, Hellier allowed him to administer the pills and gulped them down with the aid of a glass of water. He became calmer and presently began to speak in a low, jerky voice.

  'Helen -- that's my wife -- June's mother -- my ex-wife -- we had a divorce, you know. I divorced her -- June was fifteen then. Helen was no good -- no good at all. There were other men --'was sick of it. Made me look a fool. June stayed with me, she said she wanted to. God knows Helen didn't want her around.'

  He took a shaky breath. 'June was still at school then, of course. I had my work -- my business -- it was getting bigger and more involved all the time. You have no idea how big and complicated it can get. International stuff, you know. I travelled a lot.' He looked blindly into the past. 'I didn't realize. . . .'

  Warren said gently, 'I know.'

  Hellier looked up. 'I doubt it, Doctor.' His eyes flickered under Warren's steady gaze and he dropped his head again. 'Maybe you do. I suppose I'm not the only damned fool you've come across.'

  In an even voice, trying to attune himself to Hellier's mood, Warren said, 'It's hard enough to keep up with the younger generation even when, they're underfoot. They seem to have a different way of thought -- different ideals.'

  Hellier sighed. 'But I could have tried.' He squeezed his hands together tightly. 'People of my class tend to think that parental neglect and juvenile delinquency are prerogatives of the lower orders. Good Christ!'

  Warren said briskly. 'Ill give you something to help you sleep tonight.'

  Hellier made a negating gesture. 'No, thanks, Doctor; I'll take my medicine the hard way.' He looked up. 'Do you know how it started? How did she . . .? How could she . . .?'

  Warren shrugged. 'She didn't say much. It was hard enough coping with present difficulties. But I think her case was very much the standard form; cannabis to begin with -- taken as a lark or a dare -- then on to the more potent drugs, and finally heroin and the more powerful amphetamines. It all usually starts with running with the wrong crowd.'

  Hellier nodded. 'Lack of parental control,' he said bitterly. 'Where do they get the filthy stuff?'

  'That's the crux. There's a fair amount of warehouse looting by criminals who have a ready market, and there's smuggling, of course. Here in England, where clinics prescribe heroin under controlled conditions to Home Office registered addicts, it's not so bad compared with the States. Over there, because it's totally illegal, there's a vast illicit market with consequent high profits and an organized attempt to push the stuff. There's an estimated forty thousand heroin addicts in New York alone, compared with about two thousand in the whole of the United Kingdom. But it's bad enough here -- the number is doubling every sixteen months.'

  'Can't the police .do anything about illegal drugs?'

  Warren said ironically, 'I suppose Inspector Stephens told you all about me.'

  'He gave me a totally wrong impression,' mumbled Hellier. He stirred restlessly.

  That's all right; I'm used to that kind of thing. The police attitude largely coincides with the public attitude -- but it's no use chivvying an addict once he's hooked. That only leads to bigger profits for the gangsters because the addict on the run must get his dope where he can. And it adds to crime because he's not too particular where he gets the money to pay for the dope.' Warren studied Hellier, who was becoming noticeably calmer. He decided that this was as much due to the academic discussion as to the sedation, so he carried on.

  The addicts are sick people and the police should leave them alone,' he said. 'We'll take care of them. The police should crack down on the source of illegal drugs.'

  'Aren't they doing that?'

  That's not so easy. It's an international problem. Besides, there's the difficulty of getting information -- this is an illegal operation and people don't talk.' He smiled. 'Addicts don't like the police and so the police get little out of them. On the other hand, I don't like addicts -- they're difficult patients most doctors won't touch -- but I understand them, and they tell me things. I probably know more about what's going on than the official police sourc
es.'

  Then why don't you tell the police?' demanded Hellier.

  Warren's voice went suddenly hard. 'If any of my patients knew that I was abusing their confidence by blabbing to the police, I'd lose the lot. Trust between patient and doctor 20 must be absolute -- especially with a drug addict. You can't help them if they don't trust you enough to come to you for treatment. So I'd lose them to an illicit form of supply; either an impure heroin from the docks at an inflated price, or an aseptic heroin with no treatment from one of my more unethical colleagues. There are one or two bad apples in the medical barrel, as Inspector Stephens will be quick enough to tell you.'

  Hellier hunched his big shoulders and looked broodingly down at the desk. 'So what's the answer? Can't you do anything yourself?'

  'Me!' said Warren in surprise. 'What could I do? The problem of supply begins right outside England in the Middle East. I'm no story-book adventurer, Hellier; I'm a medical doctor with patients, who just makes ends meet. I can't just shoot off to Iran on a crazy adventure.'

  Hellier growled deep in his throat, 'You might have fewer patients if you were as crazy as that.' He stood up. I'm sorry about my attitude when I first came in here, Dr Warren. You have cleared up a lot of things I didn't understand. You have told me my faults. You have told me of your ethics in this matter. You have also pointed out a possible solution which you refuse to countenance. What about your faults, Dr Warren, and where are your ethics now?'

  He strode heavily to the door. 'Don't bother to see me out. Doctor; I'll find my own way.'

  Warren, taken wrong-footed, was startled as the door closed behind Hellier. Slowly he returned to the chair behind his desk and sat down. He lit a cigarette and remained in deep thought for some minutes, then shook his head irritably as though to escape a buzzing fly.

  Ridiculous! he thought. Absolutely ridiculous!

  But the maggot of doubt stirred and he could not escape its irritation hi his mind no matter how hard he tried.

  That evening he walked through Piccadilly and into Soho, past the restaurants and strip joints and night clubs, the chosen haunt of most of his patients. He saw one or two of them and they waved to him. He waved back in an automatic action and went on, almost unaware of his surroundings, until he found himself in Wardour Street outside the offices of the Regent Picture Company. He looked up at the building. 'Ridiculous !' he said aloud.