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The search for Lorna | |
Daisy Hamilton was a private detective. | |
She was thirty years old and had been a detective for the past two years. | |
Every morning she went to her office to wait for phone calls or open the door to clients needing her services. | |
Daisy wasn't very well known yet but occasionally people telephoned her from the advertisement she had put in the local newspaper. | |
One morning at about eleven o'clock someone knocked on her office door. | |
It was a fat lady who wore a fur around her neck. | |
"Hello, can I help you?" Daisy asked the lady. "Please come and sit down." | |
"Oh yes indeed! I need your help desperately. | |
Lorna, my little one has disappeared. I don't know what to do." | |
Daisy offered the fat lady a cup of instant coffee and awaited the details. | |
The fat lady sat down heavily and put her large red leather handbag on Daisy's desk. | |
"Please tell me everything - Mrs. ...?" | |
"Mrs. Edwina Humphries is my name. I am afraid they will ask me for money - I'm afraid Lorna has been kidnapped!" | |
"That's terrible, Mrs. Humphries. Does Mr. Humphries, too, think Lorna has been kidnapped?" | |
"My husband is not interested if Lorna has been kidnapped or not!" | |
"Really, Mrs. Humphries? But is your husband Lorna's real father?" | |
"I don't know what you mean. We bought Lorna together," replied Mrs. Humphries. | |
"You bought ............Mrs. Humphries, that's illegal, you know." | |
"No it isn't, not in India!" | |
"You bought Lorna in India?" | |
"Yes indeed! And she always keeps me great company, you know." | |
Mrs. Humphries opened her huge leather bag to pull out a handkerchief. | |
With horror Daisy saw a wiggling creature come out of that bag. | |
"Mrs. Humphries - move that away immediately!" screamed Daisy. | |
"What? Oh Lorna - I've found you at last!" said Mrs. Humphries."You hid in my bag - you naughty girl!" | |
"Mrs. Humphries. This is Lorna?" | |
"Yes, our Bengali swamp snake. Oh thank you my dear. No, I don't think I need your services any longer!" | |
As Daisy shut the door after Mrs. Humphries, she made a mental note to write in the advertisement: no animals, no snakes. |