The people in the storyIntroduction
К, our clever detective, has three important questions: X murdered Sir Michael Gray, so 1 How Aid X murder Sir Michael? 2 Who was X? 3 Why did X murder Sir Michael? Katrina Kirby is a detective, but people call her 'K'. She wants to find the answers to these important questions. This is her first case. Can you help her? This is a detective story with a difference. We invite you, the reader, to help К solve the case. There has been a murder in a big country house in England. One of five people murdered Sir Michael Gray. Sir Michael Gray was in his study at the time of the murder. The study was locked from the inside. The window was locked from the inside, too, but someone murdered him. Who did it? How? Why? Louis Alexander was born in London in 1932. He completed his studies at London University in 1954 and then taught English as a Foreign Language in a number of different countries. He is best known as the writer of English language courses like New Concept English (1967), Look Listen and Learn (1971), Follow Me (1980) and Direct English (1993-1998); practice books like For and Against (1968); grammars like the Longman English Grammar (1988); and readers like Dangerous Game (also a Penguin Reader). He and his wife, Julia, live in London. The people in the story
This is a murder story. This man was murdered. His name was Sir Michael Gray. He was fifty-five years old. He was very rich. He was the boss of Cavell and Company. Look at this woman. She is young and pretty and she is very clever. She is a detective. Her name is Katrina Kirby. People call her'K'. She wants to find the answers to some important questions. This is her first case. Can you help her? K, our clever detective, has three important questions: X murdered Sir Michael Gray, so 1 How did X murder Sir Michael? 2 Who was X? 3 Why did X murder Sir Michael?
HOW...? WHO...? WHY...?
Who was X?
There was a murder. There were five other people in the house a the time. One of them was X. Who was it? Lady* Elizabeth Gray, Sir Michael's wife. She is forty-eight years old. Colonel William Fawcett, Sir Michael's friend. He is fifty years old. He was in the army years ago, but he isn't in the army now. Miss Angela Everett, Sir Michael's secretary. She has been Sir Michael's secretary for a year. She is twenty-five years old. Andrew Cavell, Lady Elizabeth's brother. He is forty years old. He is one of the bosses of Cavell and Company, too. Mrs Nancy Flack. She is the Grays' housekeeper. She has been with Lady Gray's family for forty years. She is sixty years old. ` *Lord/Lady: title of a man/woman from an upper-class family.
What happened?
The date: November The time now: 10.15 The place: A large country house in England
Sir Michael had dinner with four of the other people at eight o'clock this evening. Then he went to his study. The time was nine o'clock. He locked the door from the inside. He shut the window, too, and locked it from the inside. At 9.30, the housekeeper, Mrs Flack, took some coffee to his room. She knocked at the door. Sir Michael didn't answer. She knocked again and shouted. He didn't answer, so she called three of the other people. They knocked at the door, too, and shouted, but Sir Michael didn't open it. They broke down the study door and went in. They saw Sir Michael's body on the floor. Sir Michael was dead. Lady Elizabeth called the police. The time was 9.40. The police arrived at 9.50 and К arrived with them. Now it's 10.15 and К is in the study. Sir Michael's dead body isn't here now. The police took photographs of the study and photographs of the body. Then they took the body to the police station. A police doctor has already looked at the body. The police already know the answer to three important questions. 1 Sir Michael didn't die of poison. He drank some whisky at 9.20, but there wasn't any poison in the whisky and here wasn't any poison in Sir Michael's blood. 2 X killed Sir Michael with something sharp through the heart. 3 Sir Michael died at 9.25. A policeman telephoned К from the police station. 'We know three things,' the policeman said. 'The first thing is: it wasn't poison. The second thing is: it was something sharp — through the heart. The third thing is: Sir Michael died at 9.25.'
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