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--- lesson 58 A spot of bother |
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--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below. |
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--- What did the old lady find when she got home? |
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The old lady was glad to be back at the block of flats where she lived. |
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Her shopping had tired her and her basket had grown heavier with every step of the way home. |
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In the lift her thoughts were on lunch and a good rest; |
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but when she got out at her own floor, both were forgotten in her sudden discovery that her front door was open. |
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She was thinking that she must reprimand her home help the next morning for such a monstrous piece of negligence, |
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when she remembered that she had gone shopping after the home help had left and she knew that she had turned both keys in their locks. |
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She walked slowly into the hall and at once noticed that all the room doors were open, |
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yet following her regular practice she had shut them before going out. |
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Looking into the drawing room, she saw a scene of confusion over by her writing desk. |
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It was as clear as daylight then that burglars had forced an entry during her absence. |
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Her first impulse was to go round all the rooms looking for the thieves, |
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but then she decided that at her age it might be more prudent to have someone with her, |
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so she went to fetch the porter from his basement. |
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By this time her legs were beginning to tremble, so she sat down and accepted a cup of very strong tea, while he telephoned the police. |
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Then, her composure regained, she was ready to set off with the porter's assistance to search for any intruders who might still be lurking in her flat. |
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They went through the rooms, being careful to touch nothing, |
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as they did not want to hinder the police in their search for fingerprints. |
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The chaos was inconceivable. |
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She had lived in the flat for thirty years and was a veritable magpie at hoarding; |
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and it seemed as though everything she possessed had been tossed out and turned over and over. |
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At least sorting out the things she should have discarded years ago was now being made easier for her. |
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Then a police inspector arrived with a constable and she told them of her discovery of the ransacked flat. |
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The inspector began to look for fingerprints, while the constable checked that the front door locks had not been forced, |
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thereby proving that the burglars had either used skeleton keys or entered over the balcony. |
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There was no trace of fingerprints, |
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but the inspector found a dirty red bundle that contained jewellery which the old lady said was not hers. |
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So their entry into this flat was apparently not the burglars' first job that day and they must have been disturbed. |
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The inspector then asked the old lady to try to check what was missing by the next day and advised her not to stay alone in the flat for a few nights. |
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The old lady thought he was a fussy creature, |
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but since the porter agreed with him, she rang up her daughter and asked for her help in what she described as a little spot of bother. |
