THIEVES.............. Part ll : ANTICIPATION.....

(begun Sunday 15th June at 5.15pm..)

Could this overly-cynical toad fail to find anything untoward surrounding what is now sadly, a commonplace event in this country?

Or will my fertile and paranoid imagination leap once again to the wildest of conclusions? *shrieks...

My objective is to wait, and already my patience is sorely tried....

A second chance encounter with the charming Missus Moodliar/Naidoo/Pillay, the mother of the bride so to speak, raised my blood pressure to boiling point within seconds...*falls over laughing...

At our first meeting, I believe she bellowed that she was angry with My Hero's dogs as they hadn't done the job they were supposed to do in protecting the property....*snorts....

At this latest encounter, her rage had transferred itself to little Penny who, Missus Moodliar advised me forcefully, had clearly let the thieves onto the property.

Before we continue, let us look at the bright side of the matter....*beams..

The two little girls were neither shaken, nor even remotely stirred by the entire proceedings, AND a massive upgrade can be achieved in replacing all the stolen items...

Why - as I write, there is a happy gathering taking place on the front deck by der Bunker, and I hear Bali laughing merrily with his chommies....

The moon is already high in the darkening night sky and the beautiful bright light is back on, over in the children's dormitory at the Convent....*shrugs..

When I went up at 5.00pm to open the gates, (the same time I bumped into Missus M) both Nobby and Pepsi were again shut out on the road, to Nobby's obvious dismay....

The small gate installed at the bottom of their stairs, specifically to keep the dogs from running into the road, appears to be for decorative purposes only....*puzzled....

I'm actually trying to be methodical here....(No, don't laugh!) by drawing up a list of questions pertaining to Friday's drama...*grins...

Though the Courageous couple sound to have recovered amazingly swiftly from such a sobering disaster, my curiosity knows no bounds....

A collar-and-tie wearing gentleman carrying a file of papers arrived next door at about 4.00pm on Friday.... he only left a few minutes before 5.00pm...

Certainly not the Fingerprint squad, and my next guess would have to be the Insurance man. If this was so, and with the huge amount of ongoing crime, it is impressive to see the speed of response to claims...*cackles... A same day service!

Later:

The muffled sound of music carries from der Bunker. Only the hardcore stayers are left? *trembles for the dogs...

I wonder idly how Missus C holds it together.... She can't predict from one minute to the next how mon Capitan will behave....*sighs.... Despite her brains and obvious nerves of steel, it must prove tiring at times...

I am fascinated to find that the avuncular vodacom3g now appears to communicate more with the posters on mybroadband, than the site-owner himself...*grins... At least on the version I am shown.....

I for one, am delighted that it is now out in the open ,and any possible secrecy abandoned....

Monday 16th June at 5.10am:

Less than 5 minutes after I noisily settled down on the verandah just after 4.00am, the sounds began....*curious...

A rhythmic ticking - One, two, pause and repeat ad infinitum.... Dayem!!!! Had I previously blogged the word rhythmic when I'd meant to say erratic? Surely not! *starts laughing....

Bali gets an A for effort, and for making me laugh well before sunrise! After listening for some five minutes, I cackled audibly and said "you stewpid boy" at which point there was an embarrassed silence and the ticking vanished for good....*roffels....

Try as I may, my descriptions of the sounds made by his eavesdropping technology, are difficult at best to describe. Though well tried, my Controller's efforts fall way short of the mark...*grins..

Strange it is though, that his own personal wireless song is now silent... I've no doubt that once my snores fill his earpiece, it is activated...*shrugs.... Why the coyness?

My list of questions pertaining to the 'theft' now covers both sides of an A4 page...*cackles... The operation was an auspicious one whichever way you look at it, and has a last-ditch air to it... *sighs..

In most cases, when a doctor is shown to have made a foolish or even fatal error, the medical fraternity have closed ranks to protect him/her... Much as the online law representatives have done about my obsessed Controller....*grins...

Do they find his close affiliations with the Utterly Lawless cute? Understandable? How they condone his behaviour is one of life's great ongoing mysteries and not an answer I anticipate stumbling over in my lifetime...*smiles..

I remembered to look up the word brave as promised.... After much thought I must conclude that the word applies ONLY to little Penny the Pawn.

If indeed the thieves fooled her into actually opening the gate for them (as yet a murky area), she would have been justifiably terrified of losing her job if she admitted it, and panicked into lying.... IF indeed she opened the gates at all...

That the two little ones were involved, makes it a dangerously emotive issue, and one filled with pitfalls and traps laid for idiots....*winks... I know my Tormentors well do I not? *shows it's teeth to the Captain of Courage.....

As I sit here writing by candlelight (my current preferred choice of illumination), I am strangely grateful for these ongoing distractions....*smiles..

The problems looming in the Real World are best not dwelled upon, though it is getting harder to avoid them...*shrugs... Face them I shall when the time comes...

Hopefully with the courage that my Master brutally found buried deeply within my whinging and manipulative being.... *bows to the Foul King....

Long has it been touted as Foolishness and Stupidity - I think you know better....*cackles...

Deserving of a mention, I now ask you to go back to last Thursday - a day prior to the thieves arrival... I was bustling about getting ready to go out shopping and Penny had just arrived...

She asked me whether the Balliram dogs were due to be collected by Scotty's Dog Parlour that day, and I thought, and replied no, I didn't think so...

Missus Courageous had inexplicably given Penny the remote on Wednesday afternoon, and had said it was to let the dog Groomer in and out the next day. Penny and I both agreed that Missus C had made a mistake, and I thought no more about it until now. *gags.... I have no idea why I feel it so necessary to share this small event with you, but share it I have done....

Later:

I've just verified with the GameWrecker that the usual noisy beating sent by the DarkLord each morning to our TV as it is switched on, has been noticeably absent for the past few days. Would that we could be more specific on whether that too has ceased since the drama on Friday...*sags...

On whose advice are these slight changes being made? Whose placating tones and promises have caused my Master to alter his ceaseless bullying? No Error 691 or Server not Found since Friday 13th either...

A sense of deadly anticipation again surrounds me....*chortles....

You will have a while to wait - So far I have merely speculated. Part lll will hopefully give a clearer picture of the Zone's version of The Mousetrap. *falls over laughing....

Peace.....

PS: My Master feigns indifference to my publishing this, and as I rose to come through to the PC, his remote was chirruped loudly and the driveway now stands empty. Up to the Hill or No. 6 Garbutt Road? *grins....

---oOo---

Monday 16th June 2008 at 3.34pm.

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.