Unexpected Guest Asks to Use the Phone, Explained：nothing to hide

What's really going on

Nobody at the house wants the stranger inside, and the way they fumble the simplest question gives them away. They insist no one came in, then instantly reverse; the visitor clocking it is what makes the scene tense. "There seems to be some kind of disagreement," he observes, a polite way of saying he doesn't believe a word of it. They steer him away from the phone, park him in the library, and offer a fallen chandelier as the reason for their nerves. The man at the door, meanwhile, keeps testing them: he mentions an abandoned car, the Hoover call, and finally 'murder,' then claims he only said it to get the door opened. Whatever the truth, the panic in the room reads like people guarding a secret.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• A visitor sees more than the guests want him to.
• By any chance makes a nosy question sound polite.
• Just in case hides a nervous exception in plain words.
• Legal jargon becomes a weapon through a locked door.

発音のポイント

• Good evening — The d in Good drops, linking straight into evening.
• come in and — Come in and runs together, with the d almost silent.
• hold on — Hold on links into hol-don without a pause.