Small Town Crime

Graham Harrison was an ambitious young policeman from the big dry, so he was disappointed with his first job on duty in Parley; all he had to do was patrol the older part of the town, instead of hunting for bank robbers, gangsters and terrorists. Sergeant Maidment, who had lived there all his life, advised him to walk around quietly and be friendly. He explained that most of the inhabitants of those streets were too old to commit any serious crimes, and warned him not to interfere unless it was really necessary.

As Graham turned into Harcourt Road, an old-fashioned street with a row of terraced houses, he wondered if he would ever have the opportunity of distinguishing himself in a small provincial town like Parley. But then he saw a crowd of people on the pavement. Two middle-aged women were fighting. One of them was bleeding from a bad cut on the forehead; she had her hands round her opponent’s throat and was trying to strangle her. The other woman was screaming. Some of the neighbours were trying to separate them, but a small boy stood in the doorway of his house, laughing and cheering.

Graham ordered the women to stop fighting. He took their names and addresses and asked the neighbours how the fight had started. It seemed that Sarah Handcastle, who lived at number 14, had accused Jean Morris, who lived at number 10, of knocking on her door several times while she was doing her ironing and then running indoors again. Jean denied it. On the contrary, she accused Sarah of knocking on her door. Then Sarah had thrown the iron at Jean and hit her on the forehead. Sarah admitted that she had attacked Jean but she refused to apologize. Graham offered to take Jean to hospital but she said she didn’t need treatment. In the end, they agreed to go indoors and one of the neighbours invited Graham to have a cup of tea. Once the street was quite again, he went to report to Sergeant Maidment.

The Sergeant listened to his report, and then he smiled. “Well, Sarah Handcastle and Jean Morris have hated one another since they were girls,” he said. ‘In those days in a town like Parley, most men married the girl next door, so they both had their eye on Charlie Walker. But he married Nora Bames, from Windsor Street, instead, So if Sarah and Jean hate each other, they hate Nora even more. When Charlie and she celebrated their silver wedding last week, Sarah and Jean complained to us about the row and threatened to take Charlie and Nora to court. Charlie rang me up and begged me to sort it out. I managed to calm them down, the Walkers apologized for making a noise, and that was the end of it. But it spoilt the party.

“I don’t suppose you ever played a game as a boy of trying the knockers of two terraced houses together with string. If you rap one and run away, the person who opens the door automatically pulls the string and knocks at the other house. Hasn’t it struck you that the houses concerned were number 10 and number 14 Harcourt Road? No wonder young Jimmy Walker was laughing and cheering in the doorway of number. But I expect he had cut the string by the time you arrived. He’d already had his revenge!”

Task 2. Answer the following questions:

1. How many policemen were there in Farley?
2. Where was Graham Harrison from?
3. Why was he disappointed with his first job on duty in Farley?
4. What did Sergeant Maidment advise him to do?
5. Was there an opportunity to distinguish oneself in this provincial town?
6. What scene did he see in the street?
7. What did the ladies accuse each other of?
8. What did he offer to the old fighting ladies?
9. What case did the sergeant explain him later?
10. What game was played there?
11. Did anyone in the street guess (догадаться), what it was?

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20