Page 36 - Exercise 1

Page 36 - Exercise 1

John Ross, the film star, died yesterday. At ten past two in the afternoon there was a shot and John Ross was dead.

Was it an accident, or did somebody kill him?

When 1 arrived, John Ross was in the library. He was lying on the floor and he was dead. There was a gun next to him.

The gun was clean and there were no fingerprints on it.

I checked the room. The windows were open. There was an empty cup on the desk. There were fingerprints on the window, the cup and the handle of the library door. They were the fingerprints of John Ross and Wilson, the butler.

I checked the other rooms. There was some oil on the handle of the front door. In the living room, the television was on. In the dining room, there was a broken plate on the floor. In the kitchen, there were some potatoes in the sink.

There was a white handkerchief on the floor in the hall.

There were four other people in the house that afternoon; Wilson, the butler; Mrs Clare, the cook; Adams, the chauffeur and Mr Ross’s stepdaughter, Donna. Adams was outside. He was repairing the car. Mrs Clare was in the kitchen. She was peeling potatoes to make a cottage pie, and Donna Ross was watching television in the living room.

At two o’clock, Wilson took Mr Ross a cup of tea in the library. Mr Ross was sitting at his desk and he was cleaning his gun. Wilson put the cup of tea on the desk, then he opened the windows and he left the room. At ten past two, Wilson was setting the table in the dining room. When he heard the shot, he dropped one of the plates and ran to the library.