Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: A Minor Operation



Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: A Minor Operation

Cast of Characters

HENRIETTA ‘HETTY’ WAINTHROPP, a private investigator

GEOFFREY SHORECROSS, her partner

FRANK WAINTHROPP, Hetty’s brother-in-law

DCI ADAMS, Detective Chief Inspector of the Police Force

JOE DOOLAN, a criminal

TOMMY DOOLAN, his brother and partner in crime

DEBRA WOOLMER, a nurse at St Edith’s and St Clare’s Hospital

SISTER, the head nurse and Joe Doolan’s sweetheart

MARGARET BALSHAW, a car-boot lady

JAMIE BALSHAW, her son

Mrs Wainthropp goes to St Edith’s and St Clare’s hospital to have her __________ (1) removed. The detective agency she runs cannot afford a private room, so she is put in a __________ (2) with other patients instead. Geoffrey thinks she will have to stay there for only one day, but Dr Miller decides to postpone the operation __________ (3).

In the meantime, Frank Wainthropp is busy trying to sell his brother’s beans at __________ p/lb (4) in a car boot sale. Margaret tells him that nobody would buy beans at that price.

Back at the hospital, DCI Adams makes sure that criminal Tommy Doolan, there for a heart __________ (5), is well guarded. Adams then unexpectedly runs into Mrs Wainthropp, who is quite surprised to see him there since he seems to be as fit as a __________ (6). DCI Adams confides to Hetty that a lot of __________ (7) have occurred in private houses while their owners were staying at this particular hospital and that someone had phoned suggesting he check on the __________ (8). He adds that he hopes it will not take him long, since it is his __________ (9). Sister introduces DCI Adams to Nurse Debra Woolmer, telling him she will show him whatever he requires. When Nurse Woolmer and the Chief Inspector are left alone in the office, Nurse Woolmer unbuttons her coat, undoes her hair, and starts screaming.

At the car boot sale, Margaret is curious about Frank’s standing. Is he retired? Is he a __________ (10)? Frank lies to her by telling her that he runs a detective agency for his brother, now in Australia.

Nurse Debra Woolmer is going to __________ (11) against DCI Adams for attempted rape. Hetty Wainthropp refuses to believe that DCI Adams would try to __________ (12) anyone.

When Margaret finds out that Frank is a detective, she asks him to help her save her son, Jamie, from a life of crime. Jamie drives caravans around the countryside, sometimes __________ (13). Margaret asks Frank what he would expect her son would be paid for that kind of job and he replies, ‘__________ (14). Any fool can drive’. But Jamie is getting paid a great deal more than that.

Geoffrey visits Mrs Wainthropp at the hospital and tells her what Frank is up to. Hetty is not happy to know that Frank has moved into her __________ (15). Hetty is worried that DCI Adams’s career might be ruined if Nurse Woolmer takes him to court, so she asks Geoffrey to __________ (16) him.

Frank and Margaret follow Jamie to a caravan site. They are caught __________ (17) and Joe Doolan, owner of the caravan park, warns them that people who do that on his property tend to fall down and __________ (18). Margaret artfully comes up with the excuse that she wanted her son to meet her __________ (19).

Frank has by now dropped the price of his brother’s beans to 75p/lb. Janet, Geoffrey’s girlfriend, offers to help in their sale. She advertises them by shouting loud, ‘Prime produce! Get your beautiful beans! __________! (20) Picked today!’

Mrs Wainthropp finds out in a conversation with head nurse Sister that Nurse Woolmer has scratches on her arms and __________ (21). When asked if Debra Woolmer is __________ (22), Sister answers that she has no record of anything similar.

Geoffrey and Frank visit Hetty at the hospital. Geoffrey tells Mrs Wainthropp that he has been trying in vain to reach DCI Adams. Hetty is one-hundred-per-cent positive that DCI Adams would never risk his career and reputation for a sly __________ (23). Frank says he needs some assistance in a case he has taken for which the client has already paid him a __________ (24). Once her brother-in-law has left, Hetty wants to know if Geoffrey has seen Frank’s client. ‘Just a __________ (25),’ Geoffrey says. ‘She’s blonde. Just a bit. All her hair was __________ (26) on top, and she was wearing __________ (27) all over.’ Frank rushes back in yelling that he has seen Joe Doolan, the fellow who runs the caravan park, coming out of a room with a prison guard outside.

Janet, who is back at the Wainthropp’s, tells Frank that she has done all right at the car-boot sale. By this she means she has sold __________ (28).

A different doctor from Dr Miller examines Mrs Wainthropp’s leg. He asks Hetty if she has been walking about and she says, ‘I’ve been up on my __________ (29), yes.’ The doctor wants to operate immediately. Hetty wants a __________ (30).

Geoffrey applies for a job at the caravan site. He has brought no form or __________ (31) with him, but he is willing to work long hours, __________ (32), because he needs the money bad. He is offered to deliver a caravan at Heysham by nine o’clock the following morning. Janet takes two days off from her __________ (33) to go with him.

In Hetty’s opinion, DCI Adams has been __________ /__________ (34). Adams first suspected Nurse Woolmer was involved in the housebreakings, but there were three while she was __________ (35). The forensics can prove that Adams made contact with Debra Woolmer because they found her __________ (36) under his fingernails. Mrs Wainthropp says she saw Nurse Woolmer __________ (37) her fingernails so it is clear to her that this is a __________ (38). DCI Adams has not told his wife yet that he has been __________ (39).

When Geoffrey tells Janet that the Doolan brothers are paying good money for driving caravans to __________ (40) and the Continent, she suspects they might be __________ (41) things out of the country and they both start a search.

Hetty Wainthropp tells Nurse Woolmer and Sister when they are getting her ready for her operation that her husband, Robert, now in Australia, had bought valuable old things lately: bronzes that she must not __________ (42), pictures that they would have to __________ (43) separately. She has not told her neighbours to keep an eye on her house because she does not want them __________ (44).

After a meal of __________ (45), Janet notices something stuck between the floorboards. She tells Geoffrey it cannot be part of a ring because of its shape, that it is more like a clasp or a __________ (46).

Robert, Hetty Wainthropp’s husband, phones her when she is __________ (47) from the anaesthesia they have supplied her with. She tells Robert to call again when she is less __________ (48).

Mrs Wainthropp brings Nurse Woolmer round to confess that what she has said about DCI Adams is nothing but a load of __________ (49). Hetty saw Debra Woolmer removing evidence that could be traced back to her in forensic tests. She cannot understand why such a nice girl would want to do Sister’s dirty work. Nurse Woolmer says it is because she is a __________ (50). Sister helped her alter the patients’ __________ (51) so that she could take __________ (52) home to her sick mother, who could end her suffering by this means if her illness got really bad. In return, Sister asked Nurse Woolmer to help discredit Adams. Chief Inspector Adams had trapped Tommy Doolan and put him in prison. Joe Doolan wanted __________ (53). Sister knew who would be staying overnight in hospital and whose homes would be __________ (54). The stolen goods were then hidden under a __________ (55) floor in a caravan. Caravans were chosen because they were so __________ (56) that nobody would remember what they looked like.

Margaret visits Frank to let him know that she is at the car-boot sales most weekends and that a little help and company would be most welcome. Frank says it is __________ (57) to date one’s clients.

Mrs Wainthropp is worried that she might have been __________ (58) with her husband. DCI Adams’s boss, the Superintendent, has sent him to fetch Hetty and take her home as a display of gratitude for having helped catch the Doolans, which has done wonders to the police force’s __________ (59) crimes list. Hetty is rather reluctant to arrive home in a police car and tells Adams to __________ (60) her at the corner of Hill Street.

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