By the time her friend knocked on the door she had already started to cook supper. / Her friend stayed to eat supper.
Her friend left shortly after 9 p.m. / She had just said goodbye to her friend when the phone rang.
She had just finished speaking to Uncle Bill on the phone when there was a knock on the door. / Her neighbour wanted to borrow some sugar.
She invited her neighbour in and they chatted until about ten. / She had just said goodbye to her neighbour when the phone rang again. It was her friend, who had forgotten her handbag.
She had just put the phone down when her husband, her son and friend came in. / They had all been to the cinema.
After they had had coffee and talked about the film, they all went to bed.
The detective story
A murder was committed last night. An old lady was found dead in her living room. She had been hit on the head with a frying pan, and jewellery worth £10.000 had been taken from the house. The murder occurred between 7 and 10.30 p.m.
One of the principle suspects is Annie Hudson, the district nurse, who has a key to the old lady’s house, and who lives ten minutes’ walk away.
The cards contain details of Annie’s movements that evening. Read them together, and try to work out if she could have committed the murder or not.
Since the cards have been shuffled, the events will be in a muddled order.
Turn up one card at a time from the pile, and talk about what happened and when it happened: what happened before it, what happened after it.