The Visitor

A story about a deceiver. This happened.


The Visitor

George heard the front door softly click on the latch, and muffled footsteps in the hall.  He eased his aching bones out from the armchair to see what the noises were.  To his great surprise, he opened the lounge door to see a well dressed middle aged man smiling back at him. 

“Sorry to startle you, Sir, you see, your front door was open, and I just saw some young lads running off down the road and I came to see if you needed help”.

 “Oh dear” thought George. He had heard of some houses being targeted by burglars in the street, and in broad daylight, too.

The gentleman looked at George’s worried expression, “Are you OK, Sir? Shall we take a look around, to make sure that nothing is missing?” George relaxed a little, glad that there were still some decent people left to check on the elderly. Together they went from room to room, George checking on his meager amount of money tucked in draws, and in the tin on the dressing table.

Once they left the main bedroom, the gentleman told George to go ahead and check the spare room, while he took a look in the kitchen.

When everything seemed to be in place as usual, George offered the chap a cup of tea. They sat and chatted for a while, until the gent made his excuses about getting back to work.

“What a pleasant chap” thought George to himself, as he tided up the kitchen.

He had been lonely since his wife passed away last year and the house seemed so silent without her. He was glad for a chance to natter and put the world to rights.

Later that evening, while pottering around in his dressing gown, he sat at the dresser to say goodnight to Vera, or rather to her photo, in it’s silver frame, when an icy cold finger ran down his spine. The silver frame, and its precious photo of Vera were gone! He quickly checked the draws, and the cash tin, all-empty even her wedding ring had vanished.

He thought back to his visitor that morning and groaned. He had practically shown him where he kept everything of value, and might as well have told him to help himself.

“There’s no fool like an old fool.” He thought to himself, his hands shaking as he picked up the telephone to call the police.