I. Pick out facts supporting the author’s view that it was indeed the strangest murder trial he had ever attended.

II. Write a 120-180-word summary of the text.

TEXT 10

I. Read the text and give your own title to it.

‘An extraordinary case, Holmes,’ said Inspector Lestrade, smiling,’ but quite simple, really. We made an arrest immediately.’

‘I see, said Sherlock Holmes, lighting his pipe. ‘Tell me about it.’

‘Well,’ Lestrade began, ‘first the people. Old Sir Clarence Forbes married his second wife - the present Lady Forbes - just a year or two ago: very attractive, long dark hair, and young enough to be his daughter. He has a son, too, George, who’s 22, and a bit of a disappointment to the old man. Which is why he made this rather strange will.’

Holmes raised his eyebrows. ‘Go on.’

‘Well, he clearly wants his son to get married and settle down,’ continued Lestrade. ‘The will says that when he died half his fortune is to go to his wife and half to the son - but only if the son is married.’

‘And if not?’

‘Then it all goes to the wife.’ Lestrade paused. ‘Well, to cut a long story short, the son is - or was - about to get married. To a local girl called Anna Young. The wedding was to be next month.’

‘Was?’ asked Sherlock Holmes.

‘Yes. This morning Anna Young was found dead - shot through the head - in Lady Forbes’ dressing room. The gun was in her hand, and there was a suicide note by the body. It said ‘’Forgive me. I can’t live with my guilt any more.’’

‘And what guilt was that?’ Holmes asked.

‘I’m coming to that. According to George Forbes, Anna had once had an affair with the family chauffeur - a man called Grimes. And it turns out that Lady Forbes wanted to get all Sir Clarence’s fortune for her self. She threatened to tell Sir Clarence about this affair if George didn’t cancel the wedding. And there’d no doubt that Sir Clarence would have stopped the wedding if he had known.’

‘And the chauffeur?’

‘Oh, he’s out of it. He was out in the car all morning and didn’t return till after lunch. Anyway, nowadays he’s more interested in Lady Forbes - and she apparently doesn’t discourage him. There was a bit of trouble between him and George the other day. They had a quarrel, and Grimes hit George and broke his glasses. Sir Clarence is out of it too - he was out in the car with Grimes when the murder took place.’

‘And why,’ asked Holmes, ‘do you say it was murder and not suicide?’

‘Well for one thing the gun was in the dead girl’s right hand, and we know she was left-handed. But the big mistake was the suicide note. We checked the handwriting, and do you know whose writing it was? Lady Forbes’! Of all the stupid mistakes to make.’

‘So who have you arrested?’

‘Lady Forbes! Who else? She denies everything, of course. She claims that she heard the shot while she was in the bath-next to the dressing room and that she put a towel round her and rushed out to find Anna on the floor. But she’s guilty, all right. She thought her threat to tell Sir Clarence wouldn’t work, and decided to stop the wedding properly- by killing Anna Young. She had plenty of time to fake the suicide, too.’

‘Hmm,’ said Holmes. ‘Tell me,Lestrade. Am I right in thinking that Anna Young was dark-haired?’

‘Why, yes,’ replied Lestrade, in a surprised voice. ‘But how did you know that? That’s got nothing to do with....’