When he was not working he was sitting down reading the newspaper, he did not really have a social life as when people came to visit he always seemed to scare them away, he was either terrified of them or he was a hermit always wanting to stay in, attempting to work out the crossword or feed his dog.
He never had a car, as he never progressed from the front of his house. He wanted to keep himself to himself. The only contacts to the outside world were by letters or by his old fashioned telephone that he rarely used.
On Wednesday the twentieth of September he received a suspicious letter, one that he would never get sent, only saying on the front ‘You’ve Won…’ and on the back said ‘ Please do not return. Thanks.’ He decided to leave it alone and directly threw it straight into the bin.
The following week he received another letter saying the same on the back but on the front it said ‘URGENT’. Because of this he immediately thought that it was a bill that he never paid off. He ripped it open and read it diligently. It said, in a few words, that he had won a prize, a gold prize (which could have been a week in Spain, in a private villa, or a new car). As he had never won anything in his life he wanted to know what he had won, so he rang the phone number and was told that he had won a super sleuth weekend. He rushed into saying yes to the offer and never thought about any consequences.
Once he put the phone down, he checked the phone book for a taxi and he booked up a taxi for the following day, when he was going to depart from his house for the weekend. He also booked a place for his dog in a kennel for the weekend. He warned his buyers that they would have to wait for their crops as he was taking a break, one that he had not taken for twenty years.
The next day, the taxi arrived; he put his suitcase in and departed for the sleuth weekend. When he arrived at the mansion the taxi driver pulled up at the heavy, dark, creaking iron gates, at the front of the mansions grounds, which directly opened when he stopped. The driver carried on into the mansion and drove along the circle gravel driveway. He pulled up at the big wooden front door and John Smithe got out of the taxi, paid the taxi driver and stood in astonishment at the house.
The house was fifteen windows long and four storeys high. As he looked around at the house grounds he was amazed at the state of it, it was in such an immaculate form.
He knocked on the font door, then spotted the doorbell in the corner of his eye, and hammered it. There was a massive echo throughout the house and then the door widened. There was no one there to open it so he stopped and looked around, thought about entering then shrugged his shoulders and carried on walking into the house.
“Hmm. Juicy,” he sneakily murmured to himself. “Hello and welcome to ‘THE’ house, where mysterious things will happen,” exclaimed the owner of the weekend.
“Pardon what did you say? Where is my room for the weekend, where I can dump this bag” warned Smithe.
“Ah, hmm, yes, it’s just up on the fourth floor, chuck a right and is the fourth door on the right,” answered the owner.
“Thanks,” replied Smithe.
He clambered up the staircase to the first floor, caught sight of a strange painting, where the eyes followed him wherever he went. He then carried on to the second floor, the third and then the fourth. Checked the corridor. He went in to his room, stared at his surroundings, put his bag on the bed, and then checked for secret passages, cameras and bugging devices. He was then called down to the atrium to meet all his fellow inspectors. He counted that there were six of them, an old lady, named Violet, a couple, named Susan and Alan and another couple named Maria and Ben. They all seemed fairly cheerful to be there, and were already guessing the culprit.
They were beginning to get to know each other when the maid called them into the dining room. They were showed to their seats and Smithe was pleased with the cleanliness of the cutlery. They stayed standing until the owner, Mr Michaels, entered.
“Please sit,” Mr Michaels requested from the guests. “Dinner is served” he said “with the finest wine in Britain.”
“Where is the old lady, sorry, Violet?” Smithe asked.
“Oh! The meaty one,” he mumbled, “She had to go to her room, she was feeling smashed to pieces,” Michaels smiled looking pleased with himself. “ Here is your tea, please feel obliged to lift the lids.”
“Excuse me what do we have? Mr Michaels” Susan wanted to know.
“Yeah, it certainly does not look like proper meat to me.” Added Maria
“ Do not panic,” laughs Michaels, “you have a calf, Maria, Susan you have breast, Smithe you have intestines, Alan you have liver and finally Ben you have a kidney, a full one, please tuck in. Enjoy yourself because the weekend has just begun! ”
