The Other Side of Midnight

"No, sir."

"Would you tell the jury why not?"

"At her husband's insistence she was taken back to their bungalow at the Palace Hotel."

"Did that strike you as peculiar, Doctor?"

"He said he wanted to look after her himself."

"So Mrs. Douglas was taken back to her hotel. Did you accompany her there?"

"Yes. I insisted on going back

to her bungalow with her. I wanted to be at her bedside when she awakened."

"And were you there when she awakened?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did Mrs. Douglas say anything to you?"

"She did."

"Would you tell the Court what she said."

"She told me that her husband had tried to murder her."

It was a full five minutes before they could quiet the uproar in the courtroom, and it was not until the President threatened to clear the room that the hubbub finally subsided. Napoleon Chotas had walked over to the defendant's box and was holding a hurried conference with Noelle Page. For the first time she seemed upset. Demonides was going on with the questioning.

"Doctor, you said in your testimony that Mrs. Douglas was in shock. In your professional opinion was she lucid when she told you that her husband tried to murder her?"

"Yes, sir. I had already given her one sedative at the caves, and she was relatively calm. However when I told her I was going to give her another sedative, she became extremely agitated and begged me not to."

The President of the Court leaned down and asked, "Did she explain why?"

"Yes, Your Honor. She said that her husband would kill her while she was asleep."

The President leaned back in his chair thoughtfully and said to Peter Demonides, "You may continue."

"Dr. Kazomides, did you in fact administer a second sedative to Mrs. Douglas?"

"Yes."

"While she was in her bed at the bungalow?"

"Yes."

"How did you administer it?"

"By hypodermic. In the hip."

"And she was asleep when you left?"

"Yes."

"Was there any chance Mrs. Douglas could have awakened any time in the next few hours, gotten out of bed without assistance, dressed herself and walked out of that house unaided?"

"In her condition? No. It would be most unlikely. She was very heavily sedated."