She flopped her bosom, took a snort of air and continued.
"The patient in Bed 11, Ward B, was admitted Sunday as a patient of Dr. Ethridge Sterling, Senior, under the observation of Dr. Ethridge Sterling, Junior...."
"Yes, Miss Kerr. But the thing I wish you to report upon is the nursing-staff angle...."
"Miss Kexter, my white nurse on Ward B is one of the finest women I have ever met in the nursing profession. And she had been most surpassingly brave through this entire ... investigation.... I think it has come to that, now...."
"Yes. Stood second in her class. She has under her five student nurses into whose records I have gone most thoroughly ... and who have been cruelly grilled...."
"Miss Kerr," Dr. MacArthur interrupted, "we have all been cruelly grilled as you call it. Please try to realize that it is not because we suspect your department ... any more than any other ... that we are questioning you."
"Dr. MacArthur," she bit her lips, "my department has been my life; when it is criticized...."
"We know you do! And so does everybody else concerned," Dr. Harrison interposed. "Really Miss Kerr, please stick to what has happened. Your niece has night duty on Ward B, I believe?"
"She says you gave her orders about what to say to the patients about the death. Did you?" Cub Sterling had forgotten his manners and become bitterly stern.
"Did you talk to her over the telephone?"
"Of course not. How should I know of the death?"
She inflated entirely and said with a defiant calm:
"Doctor Ethridge, I just answered that question."
"Then how do you explain her statement, Miss Kerr?"
A sudden terror flicked her china blue eyes. She dropped the lids instantly and replied with studied slowness:
"The child has been through such an ordeal, she was rattled."
Bear Sterling shifted, Dr. Harrison stroked his beard, Dr. MacArthur frowned and took up the questioning before Cub Sterling had regained his composure.
"Who has charge of the hypodermic syringes on your floors, Miss Kerr?"
"At _all_ hours, Dr. Sterling. _Night_ as well as day," she defied.
His two words nicked her composure. She questioned shortly:
"Why aren't you questioning my night supervisor?"
"She was not available when your niece discovered the murder, and therefore her testimony would have no value."