Alarm Call

Originally Aired: April 23, 1957 A Case For Doctor Morelle #1, "Alarm Call," Dr. Morrell's morning is interrupted when his former secretary, Miss Frayle, arrives with an urgent request. She now works at the nearby Wigmore Hotel, where Baroness Beauville has been found dead in her suite. Miss Frayle escorts the doctor to the hotel, where assistant manager Mr. Winter explains that a waiter discovered the body around half past seven that morning. Upon examining the scene, Dr. Morrell finds the Baroness in her bed with a bottle of sleeping tablets nearby, the top left off. While Mr. Winter assumes it was a heart attack, Dr. Morrell suspects the barbiturate tablets may have induced a fatal coma, though he refuses to rule it suicide or accident. As Dr. Morrell investigates, the Baroness's French companion, Mademoiselle Rolland, arrives and is devastated by the news. The doctor then discovers a French novel inscribed to Anthony Winter with melancholy passages marked in pencil about loneliness and departed friends. When questioned, Mr. Winter reveals he met the Baroness in Geneva and that she helped him secure his current position. The situation grows increasingly suspicious as Dr. Morrell prepares to interview the waiter who made the grim discovery.