Unit 2 / Reading 1

Judy Faringdon is dead. The police say it was suicide. Nobody knows why, but at the age of 32, she's about to be buried in a Los Angeles cemetery. The neighbours are shocked. Judy was a likeable young woman who certainly had problems, but they can't believe that she killed herself. Darleen Jones, her next-door neighbour, says Judy enjoyed her work and had lots of plans for the future. ‘I saw her on the day that she died. She was very cheerful. It's so strange!'

There is something about this death that I cannot understand either. Because two days before she died, Judy rang me up to make an appointment. She wanted to talk to the press. She didn't come to the appointment, and when I investigated, I discovered she was dead. An overdose of sleeping pills. Suicide? Do people often make appointments with journalists and then go and kill themselves? I don't think so.

When I talk to the police, they say people sometimes behave very strangely. Judy was divorced and she lived on her own and she was depressed, so they say it's not very surprising that she committed suicide. Besides, they add, Judy lived in a very quiet suburb, with plenty of trees, nice houses, and friendly shops. Not a suburb where people get murdered every day. But I'm a reporter, and I have a suspicious nature. I simply don't believe them. I think Judy Faringdon was murdered.

I'm interested in this case. I want to find out the truth. Here at The Limit, when we don't know the answer to something, we investigate until we find it. Why is it so important to know the answer? Because if Judy was murdered and we find the reason for her murder, perhaps we can prevent other murders.

Judy was divorced and her ex-husband lives in Australia with their daughter Jessica. I saw a photograph: she's a pretty girl of four with curly blond hair and bright blue eyes. But every day now, those eyes cry for her mother.

A four-year old child cries for many reasons. A cut, a pain, a disappointment. It's easy to deal with those tears. But when a little girl cries because she knows that her mother is dead, I don't know what to say. I simply want to cry as well.

I promise you, the readers of The Limit, that this investigation will continue, until everyone knows the truth about the death of Judy Faringdon. Perhaps the police are right. Perhaps it was suicide. But here at The Limit, ‘perhaps' is not a word that satisfies us. At The Limit we believe that you, our readers, have a right to the word ‘definitely'.