Monday, June 16, 2008

THIEVES...... Part 1. : THE BACKWATER...
(begun on Saturday 14th June @ 3.35am....)
It started off as a pretty ordinary day yesterday. I'd had lunch watching the Weakest Link and at some point trundled through to the loo in time to see the red taxi hooting at the gates next door to drop the girls off from school...
At 1.00pm I started up the computer to type yesterday's blog, when I heard my handbell being rung quietly and Sophie went ballistic....
Penny and my Master's two little girls were at my courtyard door...
How did you get in the top gates? I asked twice - horrified that I might have left them unlocked....*grim....
What she told me in her shocked and trembling state, was a confusing story which I will try and piece together for you here, and the rest will have to wait till I see her next week.
While I was comfortably sitting munching in front of the TV before 1.00am (as could be verified by either Bali, Freddie or those on the Hill fascinated by my every move), Penny heard their front gate bell... Two guys had called to her from the top to let them in. She refused.
Bear in mind here that Bali has a good many people visit his property, plus what appears to be a different gardener each week...Penny would most certainly be used to strangers coming to the gate on legitimate business....
They continued to call out to her, and eventually she went up to the gate where I'm guessing, they gave her a fairly plausible story. Whether she bought it and let them in at this point, I don't know. Personally, I don't think she did. There will be a clear record of this on the monitors. *shrugs...(the monitors that Collin Balliram will swear were switched off)
She says she told them again she could not let them in, and went back down the stairs. As she got to the front door, one of them was standing next to her....
That's how quick they are ja..... I saw for myself, a little guy climb over Cyril's wall in a flash, when the gates were playing up some days ago... Astonishing speed it was and Cyril's walls are even higher than Bali's...*shrugs...
Penny says there had been a car idling on the road when she went up to speak to them.
Basil had been working in his front garden at the time and insisted that he'd heard and seen nothing untoward.
I checked this out and found that he would not have been able to see a standard saloon car from where he was working behind the enormous sisal plant border....
Anyways, the two guys now had the gate remote, so that when the school taxi dropped the little girls off, the thieves must have gotten Penny to open the gates and let them in....
They then got all three to sit quietly inside as they proceeded to clean out the house....
Penny apparently, said they kept asking her where the jewellery was kept. (You should be paying close attention here), but I will have to check with her on that one...
After they left (no details yet), she took the girls to the hole in the fence where I post through the Terrible Twins, and somehow the three of them managed to crawl through onto my property and ring my handbell...doubtless too terrified to use the gates in case the criminals were watching....
Remarkable when you consider that Penny is a tiny woman...
The two children were completely unfazed when I let them in... Even Sophie's bad behaviour didn't upset them...
I sat them down in front of the TV, and the eldest said she knew Missus C's work number and rang... No reply....*weird...
So, I called the Master's cell number and got no joy there either... then Missus Courageous' cell with no luck....
Finally, I rang der Kommissar's lovely secretary, and asked her to tell him that I had Collin Balliram's children and maid, they'd had a breakin and could he do something...
Bizarre it was then, when Navi called back minutes later to say der Kommissar didn't know where Collin lived and needed the address...*startled....
I have on two occasions at least, in the past, seen der Kommissar slow down to greet either one or the other Balliram as they drove through their gates...
Not something I would easily forget - but I understand that the pressure of work could cause temporary amnesia....*nods...
It is common knowledge that everyone at the Station is familiar with the Captain of Courage and his work, including those blessed to visit the Hill regularly for updates on the Government Wireless Project...*grins...
Seconds later, Missus Courageous called my landline, sounding very flustered.... Why had she not picked up the original call? *shrugs...
I filled her in, and she said she would get home...
At this point the eldest had the remote,and had found the Cartoon channel, while the littlest was contentedly munching her sweets....*absolutely amazed....
Only Penny struggled to keep it together and shook like a leaf....
We went over a short while later to find the gates open and a couple of SAPS vans pulled in....
They took Penny down into the house to question her, while I hung about with the girls...
The Captain of Extreme Courage walked into his driveway looking grey and drawn... Missus C arrived not long afterwards... I had already been down and spoken to the chaps interrogating Penny. To remind them to treat her kindly.
I then spoke to Basil who had come out onto his verge to see what the fuss was about. He saw and heard nothing apart from the school taxi 4x4 arriving.... (clearly high enough to be seen over the garvies..)
Missus Courageous rang much later that afternoon. She it was who said the thieves had kept asking Penny for the jewellery... I had never seen her flaunting fancy trinkets and was surprised enough to say so....
She said she didn't have much and only wore it for special occasions. That she had taken it all out for a wedding? sometime back and left it out for the children to play with.... *coughs..... I have to guess this would have been on a Saturday when Penny was working?
Thick as I am, her remark was pointed enough for me to immediately ask whether Penny was now a suspect ...Pfft...
The Police consider this to be so, she replied... Well ja, that's their job isn't it...*shrugs...
I then said that if they had ANY doubts about Penny's honesty, to let me know, as I had two other people who were looking for a maid... Why mess about and play games? *shrugs...
I hadn't heard the three dogs performing at any stage and when I asked her, Penny had said the thieves had been stroking and patting the dogs...*sighs...
Desperate as they are for human contact, I am not surprised by this at all...
So now I wait to hear the full story from Penny when next I see her... when she is calmer and we can sit together and make some sense of it all....*waits....
If all the monitoring devices had been switched off deliberately you have to wonder why....
I don't for a minute believe they were. I am of the opinion that there is a good record of exactly what happened up at Bali's gates one way or the other....
Peace....
To be continued........
---oOo---
Finally published Monday 16th June 2008 at 1.09pm.