فصل 03

Chapter three

Doing Wrong

Hit the Floor!

Jenny and Robert Slater were on holiday in America. They were young and it was their first time away from home in England. They had a car and visited many famous and interesting places.

‘I want to see New York,’ Jenny said one morning. ‘Let’s go there.’

‘Mmm, I don’t know, love. Everybody says New York’s a dangerous place and there are a lot of very strange people there,’ her husband answered.

‘We’ll be careful,’ said Jenny. ‘Then we won’t have any problems.’

So they arrived in New York early in the evening and found a hotel. Later they went out and drove round the streets. They didn’t have any problems. ‘See,’ Jenny said. ‘Nothing to be afraid of.’

They had dinner in a good restaurant and then went to a cinema. They arrived back at their hotel at midnight. Under the hotel was a garage so they drove into it and left the car. It was quite dark there and they couldn’t see very well.

‘Where’s the lift?’ Jenny asked.

‘Over there, I think, near the door,’ Robert answered. ‘Come on, let’s go. I don’t like this dark place.’

Suddenly they saw a very tall young man with a big black dog. They were nervous and walked past him as fast as they could to the lift. The door of the lift opened and Jenny and Robert got in. Before the doors closed the man and the dog jumped in - three people and one big black dog in the lift.

‘On the floor, Girl!’ the tall man said. Jenny and Robert were afraid now, so they quickly got down on the floor. When the lift stopped at the next floor, they stood up, gave the man all their money and got out fast.

‘That man was a robber! Perhaps he had a gun. It’s dangerous here!’ Robert said. ‘Were going to leave New York now!’

Yes, you’re right.’ Jenny answered. ‘There are some dangerous people in New York.’

First thing next morning they took their room key to the desk and gave it to the woman. ‘There’s nothing to pay, Mr Slater,’ she said. ‘A tall young man with a nice dog came to the desk late last night and paid for your room. Oh, wait a minute - he left this for you, too.’ She gave Robert an envelope.

He opened it carefully and took out a letter. They read it together: Here’s your money and I’m very sorry you were afraid in the lift last night. “Girl” is the name of my dog.’

Biker at the Bank

Joe is a very lucky man - he loves motorbikes and he loves his job. He’s lucky because he rides a motorbike in his job in London. He takes letters and important papers from one office to another. There are a lot of cars and buses in London but Joe can ride quickly from one place to the next on his motorbike.

One morning a man telephoned Joe and said, ‘Please come to my office now’!’ Joe rode as fast as he could - it took only about ten minutes to get there. He ran up to the office on the fourth floor.

The man gave him a small envelope and a big bag. ‘Take this envelope and the bag to the National Bank on Oxford Street and give them to the cashier. Then bring the bag back to my office as soon as possible. Go on - quickly!’ he said.

Joe left the office and rode to the National Bank. He parked his motorbike outside the bank and went in. He gave the man’s bag and the envelope to one of the cashiers. The woman opened the envelope and read the letter - she looked carefully at Joe and read it again.

‘Please wait a minute,’ she said. ‘I must talk to my boss.’ The cashier went away and Joe waited.

Five minutes later a lot of policemen ran into the bank. ‘That’s him!’ one of the policemen said. They took Joe by his arms and pushed him into the police car.

‘What did I do?’ he asked. ‘What’s happening?’ The policemen didn’t answer.

Later at the police station one of the men gave the letter to Joe. ‘Here - look at this!’ he said, Joe took the letter and read it slowly: ‘Put all your money in the bag. I have a gun and I’ll use it.’

The Hair on her Hands

Late one night Harry Green was in his car in east London. He wanted to get home quickly. He remembered his wife’s words that morning: ‘Be careful in east London, Harry. There was a story in the newspaper about a dangerous man out there - the police want to catch him. He killed some people with a knife last month. in east London.’

There was heavy rain that night so Harry didn’t drive fast. Suddenly he saw an old woman at the bus stop. ‘She’ll get wet in all this rain,’ he thought. So he stopped the car, opened the window and spoke to the woman: ‘Do you want me to take you somewhere? You’ll get very wet there at the bus-stop.’

‘Mmm,’ she answered and got into the car. Harry talked to the old woman and asked her a lot of questions but she only said ‘Mmm’. Then he looked at her more carefully. She had a big bag in her hands - it was old and dirty.

‘She’s got big strong hands. and a lot of black hair on the back of her hands. That’s very strange,’ he thought.

Harry started to think: those big hands, all that hair on them. and then he remembered his wife’s words that morning. ‘What can I do?’ he thought. ‘I must get her out of the car. and that big bag.’

Harry turned to the woman and said, ‘I think I’ve got a problem with the lights at the back of the car.’ He stopped the car and asked, ‘Can you get out and look at them for me? I don’t think they’re working.’

The old woman got out and walked round to the back of the car. She left her bag in the car next to Harry. He quickly shut the door and drove to the nearest police station. He took the bag in with him - it was quite heavy, too heavy for an old woman. A policeman took him into a small room and Harry told him the story of the old woman with the hair on her hands.

The policeman took the bag, opened it carefully and looked inside. ‘I think you were very lucky, sir,’ he said. ‘Look at this!’ And he showed Harry a long heavy knife.

Hats On!

When all the good people are in bed at night the police go round the streets and watch the banks and shops and other buildings. One night after midnight Trevor Taylor, a young policeman, was in the street in the centre of town when he saw that one small shop had its door open. He looked through the door and he could see a lot of books, newspapers and cigarettes.

‘Perhaps somebody’s inside the shop,’ he thought, so he slowly pushed the door and walked in. He looked round but found nobody in the shop, so he called the police station on his radio.

Trevor was a heavy smoker and there were a lot of cigarettes in the shop. He quickly took a box of cigarettes and put them under his big policeman’s hat. Then he went through to the back of the shop but he didn’t find anybody there.

About five minutes later a man came running along the street and arrived at the door. ‘This is my shop,’ he said, ‘and I want to thank you for seeing the open door.’ He looked at Trevor and asked, ‘Do you smoke?’

‘Er. yes, I do,’ the young policeman answered.

‘Good! Here! Take three of these boxes of cigarettes - a small “thank you”,’ he said.

‘No, no, I can’t. I’m very happy to help you. It’s my job,’ said Trevor, ‘and I haven’t a place to put them.’

‘That’s no problem,’ said the man from the shop. ‘Put them under your hat!’

The Bank Robber’s Mistake

The head of the big bank in the centre of town telephoned the police at about three o’clock one afternoon. ‘Come quickly! We had a robber in here - he left only two minutes ago!’

It was very easy to catch this bank robber. When the police arrived at the bank, the cashier told them about the robbery. ‘It was all very sudden. this man came into the bank and walked over to my window. He pushed an envelope across the desk to me with some words on it: “Give me all the money. I’ve got a gun”.’

‘What did you do?’ asked the policeman.

‘I looked at the envelope for a moment. I was quite nervous. Then I gave the robber all the money in my desk. it happened very fast. He ran out with the money in a green bag,’ she answered. ‘Oh, here’s his envelope.,’ and she gave the policeman the robber’s envelope.

When the robber left the bank, he went home. It was half-past three. He turned on the radio and listened to the news but there was nothing about the robbery. But half an hour later, when a police car arrived at his house, he knew something was wrong. ‘How did you find me?’ he asked.

‘It was easy,’ answered one of the policemen. ‘The cashier gave us your envelope - with your name and address on it. So here we are!’