September 25th 2006 – later that evening
The young policewoman stood in the doorway of the house. She looked out onto a lovely garden; a lawn and flowers. She looked inside and saw a piano at one end of the lounge. She looked down at her feet and saw several pieces of paper lying on the path. She picked up the piece nearest to her. It was sheet music. She couldn’t read it, but at the top of the page was one word she could read. That word was ‘GREENSLEEVES”. She put the sheet down again, exactly where she had seen it.
Inside the house, two policemen were asking questions. One of the policemen wore a dark blue uniform with silver buttons. He held his helmet in his left hand and wrote in his notebook with his right. The other policeman wore a dark brown suite – ordinary clothes, with a white shirt and a dark coloured tie. He was also asking questions and writing things in his notebook.
Sitting on the sofa, Gill St. John was frightened. She had never spoken to policemen before. The two policemen had stern faces – they looked very serious.
“Now, Mrs. St. John, when did you first notice your daughter was missing?” asked the plain clothes detective.
“When I came in to see what she was doing.” Gill answered quietly. She was still very upset and she was very worried about her daughter.
“I see,” said the detective, “and what time was that?”
“About – oh, I can’t remember.”
The policeman was kind but insistent – he wanted to know the answers to his questions.
“Try to think,” he said, “take your time, Mrs. St.John.”
Gill tried to think. “It was after five,” she thought, “a long time after.”
“I think it was some time after five thirty,” she finally decided.
The policeman was keen, he wanted to know the exact time.
“How long after?” he asked.
Gill thought again. She had looked into the oven and seen that the chicken was nearly done, and she had noticed that Annie had stopped playing the piano.
“It must have been about fifteen minutes after.” she said.
“So, about 5.45 then?” the detective replied.
“Yes, Gill said, “about that time, yes.”
The policewoman came into the room.
“Sergeant,” she said to the uniformed police officer, “There’s a woman here who says she saw something.”
“Keep her there, I’ll come out.” The uniformed policeman rose from his seat and left the room.
“Mrs. Smith says she saw two men carrying something large wrapped in a blanket out of this door at about 5.40.” said the policewoman as she looked at the woman at her side, and then at the sergeant.
“I’m sure I saw the thing move too,” Mrs. Smith said.
“Why didn’t you call us?” said the sergeant sternly.
“I just didn’t think,” said the woman, looking down at her feet. “I mean,” she went on, “you don’t expect a kidnapping in broad daylight, do you?”
The sergeant looked straight at the woman. “Who said anything about a kidnapping?”
The women blushed red, “Well, she said, sheepishly, “nobody, I just thought…” She couldn’t finish her sentence.
The sergeant and the policewoman looked quickly at each other, and then at the woman.
“You’ve been watching too much television, madam,” said the sergeant angrily.
Back in the house, the detective was still trying to find out the exact details and some background knowledge about Mrs. St. John and her daughter.
Mrs. St. John,” he said in a more serious tone, “Have you any enemies?”
Mrs. St. John looked alarmed, “What do you mean?
The detective knew she would react that way to that particular question, everybody did.
“I mean,” he repeated more softly, “can you think of anyone who might want to take Annie away from you? Where is Annie’s father?”
Gill St. John looked angrily at the detective. “He’s away,” she said, “out in the Atlantic Ocean, on a ship. He’s in the Royal Navy.”
“Oh, I see,” said the detective, “sorry!”
“There is one thing I want to tell you, she said, her anger leaving as quickly as it had come, “I was an eye-witness to a crime last month.”
“A crime?” The detective moved forward in his seat, “what sort of crime?”
“A murder!” she cried out.
Return to Part One - http://storiesforstudents.blogspot.com/2008/09/part-one-eye-witness.html
Students: Now what do you think has happened to Annie? Who were the two men that Mrs. Smith saw carrying something out of the house? Do you think there is any connection between Mrs. St. John witnessing someone being murdered and Annie's disappearance?
Version 1
I think the two men are the criminals of the murder which Mrs. St. John witnessed and they saw Mrs. St. John and followed her to her house. After they knew that she had a daughter they planned to kidnap the daughter as a hostage to force the mother not to tell the police about their crime, if she wants her daughter alive.
Version 2
Anny looked like a rich girl called Maria; they had the same shape. The two men were sent to find Maria and kidnap her. They were told that Maria liked to play music. They wanted to kidnap her and take her father's money . Anny wasn't lucky because the two men found her there, thinking that she was the rich girl, Maria. They didn't know that this was Anny . They put a small piece of cloth in her mouth to stop her from screaming out and then they took her outside, but one of the men dropped something that looked like a napkin. The boss of the criminals was clever and when he saw the girl, he was very surprised because Anny was similar to Maria , but he was angry at the same time because she wasn't Maria because the colour of her hair was different. So he sent another strong man to kidnap Maria. However, he didn't return Anny to her home because she had seen every thing. When the police were searching for anything in the garden, they saw the napkin, so a policeman brought a dog to search for any more clues to help them find out who had kidnapped Anny.
Write down what you think and send it to me at http://www.nicenet.org/
Robert L. Fielding<
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