Inferencing · Level 3

For the last two nights he had been up late, desperately trying to make sense of his scanty, incomplete notes. Tonight he worked with increased urgency knowing that this was his last chance.

I helped a dazed Mrs Oliver to her feet hoping that my apologies might calm her anger. Although I had taken the corner beautifully, I had watched my board skidding across the street along with her oranges, potatoes and onions.

Driving along the motorway in the small hours of the morning, Murray was surprised to see a hitchhiker standing at the road side. Murray supposed that his vehicle had broken down somewhere and so, feeling sympathy for his plight at such an hour, stopped for him.

The hitchhiker pulled himself and his backpack up into the cab, and murmured his thanks. Replying to Murray's enquiry, he mumbled something about travelling with an acquaintance to find employment in the city. There had been a heated argument and his companion had childishly stopped the car and demanded that he get out and find his own way.

For the remainder of the journey the hitchhiker sat looking ahead clutching his backpack firmly. Murray let him out near the city centre.

Murray watched the TV news the next morning and heard the story of how, last night, a known animal activist was believed to have released a number of small, harmless animals including monkeys, rabbits and wombats from a zoo on the outskirts of the city.

The report went on to say that police were confidently following strong leads on his whereabouts. It was with a feeling of shock and disbelief that he saw on the screen, instantly recognisable, a mug shot of the culprit. Murray then heard that police believed there was an accomplice who had picked him up later on the city bound motorway and that they were last seen travelling towards the city in a truck.