Later that night in her tent, Margaret sat down in front of her mirror, thinking sadly to herself. Yes, the day has been eventful. And it's my fault that Nurse Curtis is dead. No matter that she was an idiot and was a drunk and irresponsible. She was my nurse! I was supposed to protect her from this, but instead, anger got the better of me. She walked out and was murdered.
Her nurse – a degenerate in many ways, but a nurse of hers nonetheless – had been found dead after being missing for a little more than a day. Winifred Curtis had been shot in the heart and her head was taken off, almost sliced into two so that the tongue could be cut out. Klinger, Rizzo and Igor had found the body after following a trail of blood that started behind Rosie's and ended in the woods, where their temporary latrine usually was.
Tsking over the grey strands in her hair again as she thought, the major sighed and stared at herself in the mirror. She was most tempted to brush them away with some dye, like she used to do when Frank Burns was romancing after her (and even when she was married to Donald Penobscott, appearances counted), but the time was not the best to think about looks and how old she was getting without the life she always dreamed about. She was more concerned about her nurses, more concerned that another one of them would be killed the same way. There was somebody out to get the women at the 4077th and she was sure about it.
But what Margaret Houlihan could not be sure about was who it could be. The camp's personnel didn't seem suspect to anything like murder, but the Army would not see it that way and she knew it.
BJ and Hawkeye…they'll be looked it first. They've been known to be pranksters and the Army would think that they pulled some sick joke and it went wrong. But I know they wouldn't. They harmlessly hurt people, unless it's Charles. Then, it actually becomes fun.
A knock was then suddenly heard behind Margaret. It sounded urgent and fast, as if the person on the other side needed to desperately talk to her without anybody seeing him or her.
"Come in!" Margaret called out, picking up her hairbrush finally and giving her soft tresses their well-deserved combing. Concentrating on that activity, she did not notice the man that had come in behind her until she noticed his reflection in her mirror a few minutes after as he closed the door behind him.
"I thought you would want me to tell you the news instead of somebody else." The tall figure of Hawkeye Pierce entered Margaret's eyesight. Turning around to look at him, dropping her hairbrush and gasping at the sound of his voice, Margaret listened to him continue. "You have to know what happened, Margaret. And I thought I should tell you and nobody else."
"What do you mean?" she asked in a snap, startled and then confused at the intrusion.
Hawkeye walked towards her and then took the seat in the chair next to her, an angry scowl still on his face, still etched into the old wrinkles that the war had given him. "Margaret, didn't you hear? Don't you know about the report?"
"What report, Pierce? I've been here or at my shift all day today after hearing about one of my nurses being killed. Do you really think that I have the time or the energy to hear about some rumor about a report that might not even involve me or my nurses? I have much more important worries to think about than some stupid report."
"I think you might be interested." Hawkeye's scowl turned soft and sympathetic suddenly when he realized that she did not know what happened when he, Klinger and BJ were eavesdropping in Colonel Potter's office. "Margaret, don't you understand that you're in deeper trouble than you think?"
There, he had said it. He had blurted out what he and the others had heard from Colonel Potter's office concerning the autopsy and initial investigation of the body of Winifred Curtis and the crime scene.
Margaret turned to face Hawkeye. "Again, Pierce, I am confused. What do you mean about a report?"
"I was spying with BJ and Klinger," Hawkeye admitted, "and we were overhearing things in Colonel Potter's office. A medical examiner came to the 4077th when you came off your shift and would have reported to you too, except for what he found."
"But why wouldn't he?" Margaret demanded of him, angry to hear that something had happened and she was not there to see it or be informed about it, as was her position as head nurse.
"Because he and the MP's have found evidence that you murdered Winifred Curtis."
Margaret's head spun, shocked to hear those words, words she never thought to hear. "W-w-what?" was all she could stutter, all she could manage to say.
"I knew that you would want to hear it from me first," Hawkeye rushed out, nervous enough that he was in the suspect's tent. He knew that Margaret wasn't capable of doing such a deed, but the evidence all pointed to her. It was unbelievable, even to him.
"How would you figure?" Margaret's shock then turned to rage, her hands making motions of anger as she stood up and screamed. "I could have been called and somebody else could tell me. I could have been asked to go Colonel Potter's office. I could have easily defended myself. He knows that I didn't do it and neither does this camp! I wouldn't –"
"Margaret, Margaret…" Hawkeye managed to stand up and push Margaret back into her seat, sitting back down himself. "Most of this camp knows that you didn't murder this nurse, but it looks bad for you. I'm not supposed to tell you, but nobody else will, not even Colonel Potter."
"How?! Tell me!"
"Well, now that the evidence has become rumor around the camp, your detractors have a reason to hate you more and feed into it. Even the nurses who don't like you will use it to their advantage. And I know that there are many of them who are not pleased with you. None of them seem to be."
"Why are you so serious now, Pierce? Where's your jokester side? Have you lost your taste for jokes after seeing a dead nurse that nobody liked, somebody that even you couldn't even take to the supply room? Tired of being insulted and being told that you have a disease from dating too many women?"
"I'm just the messenger from the Swamp, how-de-hoo! We drew some straws and talked and I volunteered to go when nobody else would. Now, would you have preferred the MP's to come in here and accuse you of the crime and take you away without knowing what was going on?"
Margaret calmed down, embarrassed and humbled all of a sudden. "I can see your point. I'm sorry, Hawkeye. I didn't know, I didn't –"
"Well, now you know." Hawkeye stood up. "Now, I better get going before the trigger-happy goons come back around here and see your light on and two voices talking about her."
"Can't you just tell me what the evidence is?" Margaret asked as she, too, stood up and put her arms around the doctor's shoulders to get his attention again. "There must be some reason why I'm being accused of this crime."
"Margaret –"
"Tell me, Hawkeye. I can't be in the dark. I can't defend myself if I don't know anything."
"All right, all right. I can't see a damsel in distress like that and walk away." With Margaret following as the lead, Hawkeye sat down, his voice just a shade quieter than before. "As you know, the body was shot and the head cut open to take out the tongue. The evidence against you…well, first off, you were the last person to see her alive."
"And I was trying to be nice to her," Margaret pleaded.
"Margaret, I know you're innocent. I'm just the messenger, remember?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry."
"Yes, now…you were the last one to touch her, to see her alive, according to the nurses in the tent. There was no weapon found that split open her head, but Lieutenant Curtis was killed by a single bullet to her heart before her head was cut open to remove her tongue. The medical examiner, upon hearing about the nurse's behavior and how she alienated herself, thought that whoever did it was trying to symbolize silence and how the murderer did not like her choice of words and her talking."
"And?"
"The murder weapon found…the gun that killed Nurse Curtis was yours. It only had your slender fingerprints on it."
"What?!" Margaret stood up again, outraged.
"Margaret, calm down before we get caught here together. Now, shut up." Hawkeye then paused, continuing when the other was quiet. "It's the same gun you mentioned and reported as missing last week, I know. It was your father's, if I remember correctly."
"I am calm!" The major sat down again, panicking when she heard about her missing weapon being found at the scene of the crime. "See?"
Hawkeye looked at her, knowing that the next outburst was ready to come out when the time came. "Ok. Stop interrupting me then. Now, onto the next piece of evidence that points to you: viola, your hair. It appears that a huge chunk of it was tied together and stuffed into what was left of Nurse Curtis' mouth, as if to shut her up before she died. Your blood was also found at the scene of the crime, or, I should say, your blood type was found at the scene of the crime. You had motive and anger. You don't have much love around the camp except for close circles, but not to that level of hatred."
"That's impossible!" Margaret yelled.
"Margaret –"
"Don't 'Margaret' me! You know that I'm innocent."
Hawkeye then saw the major break down for the first time in a long time in real tears. She usually had the tears of frustration when she was with Frank Burns, so he felt genuine pity towards her instead of anger. Granted, earlier, he was still pissed off about being in Korea and hearing of yet another senseless murder, but seeing his favorite nurse in a heap of molted fear put a stab in his heart. He felt remorseful, as if regretting all the pranks he pulled on her, and sighed.
"There, there, Margaret…it'll be ok," Hawkeye began uncertainly as he took Margaret's wet and gooey hands into his clean and warm ones. "We'll clear your name up and make sure everybody knows you're innocent."
"But nobody will after this," she sobbed.
"Shh, we have to," he reassured her. Soon, though, his uncertainty turned to annoyance as the PA told them that some late night wounded were in the compound.
"What are we going to do then?" Margaret continued to cry, slowing down as Hawkeye pulled her up. "I might be –"
"Don't think about the negative, but the positive," Hawkeye replied, knowing that there was more evidence against her, but he didn't tell her that. It seemed a little futile at the moment. "Come on, let's go."
Margaret smiled, her tears gone as the doctor wiped them away for her. Then, taking Hawkeye's hand when he offered it, she got up and walked out the door of her tent. As the two separated, Margaret found herself running in the direction of the action…
…only to see four MP's in her way, their guns raised to shoot at her if she moved.