Chapter 7
What have you got against T-Girls?

it was a warm balmy autumn Saturday afternoon when Trudy and I set out to the riverside at Rawcliffe for the annual regatta on the river Ouse through the centre of York.The afternoon was a very mixed format, starting with a series of serious competitive sculling races by the City and the University rowing clubs with a few other invited crews, followed by a fun charity event, a bathtub/raft race with totally untrained crews in a variety of home-made craft, a lot of which would never stay afloat all the way to the finish.

All events followed the same approximately downriver route from Rawcliffe Landing to the west of the city, the racing crews finishing at the Rowing Clubhouse on the banks of the Memorial Garden by Lendal Bridge, the raft race continuing foe all 3 miles through the city centre, finishing at Fulford to the South, near our Police station. This year, as part of our community relations programme, the station had entered two teams in the charity event, one from the uniformed officers, and one from the detective team comprising Trudy, Susan, Barry and me. None of us were particularly boating types and were treating it all as a bit of fun team-bonding.

The four of us were to be on a raft that we had lashed together from six empty beer kegs and a few planks which we hoped would stay in one piece until the end of the course. We had settled on a team uniform of a caricature french style boating and naval uniform of a blue beret with a red pompom, red white and blue ribbons in our hair bunches, blue and white horizontal-striped boat-neck t-shirts, navy blue hockey skirts for us girls and matching shorts for Barry, and blue canvas plimsoles.

We met Susan and Barry at the riverside starting point and while we were making sure the raft was lashed together properly the serious rowing club crews held their series of races, They were well trained and fit, and after each race they rowed back upstream again to the start for the next of their races.

After few selfies and a line-up for a photographer from the local newspaper, soon it was time for us amateur fun-rowers and we all set of in a state of total confusion, heading downstream mainly due to the quite fast current on the river rather than by any expertise in paddling and controlling the raft. Somehow we managed to stay afloat and reasonably dry without bumping into anyone else and reached the halfway point at the city centre, where there was a large crowd of spectators on the riverside walks and on the bridges above us, all cheering us on and having a good laugh at our lack of ability and the state of some of the rafts.

We were having a great time, making our way out of the heart of the city approaching Tower Gardens and Skeldergate bridge when we noticed a lot of activity on the river bank with several police officers hauling what appeared to be a body out of the river. Even though we were off duty and having fun, we decided to pull over and see what was happening.

“ What’s the problem officer?’ I shouted to one of the constables on the shore.

“ Never mind Miss, please continue with your race, we have a serious incident here.”

“ Constable. I’m, DI Rowntree, I’ll ask again , what is the problem?” I said a bit more forcefully and with a tone of authority.

“ Sorry Ma’am , I didn’t recognise you in that outfit. We have just pulled the body of a young girl out of the river. We have called for back-up and are still waiting.”

“We’re coming ashore, give us a hand to get the raft tied up , and get somebody to clear the area of all the public as quickly as you can, this is now to be treated as a crime scene:”

After tethering the raft we scrambled ashore to have a closer look and I took charge of the scene. Luckily a SOCO ( Scene of Crime Officer ) arrived and gave us some forensic disposable coveralls, so at least we now looked vaguely professional rather than like refugees from a french hockey team.

“ Did anybody see what happened.”

“ No, the body just came floating down with the current, a member of the public noticed it and called us over. One of my colleagues waded in and grabbed her and brought her to the bank, he thought she might still be alive.”

“Trudy, as you can see she is just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, she might be a crew member from one of the rafts, see if you can contact the event organisers, None of the crews reaching the finish are to be allowed to leave until we have had the chance to question them to see if any of their people are missing.”

The forensic pathologist soon arrived to examine the body at the scene, before removing the body to the mortuary for an autopsy examination, and after a quick investigation she came over to give me her initial findings.

“ Ok Kathy, now you have had a look at her.what have you got for us, is it a simple drowning?”

“ Anything but, Julie, we obviously need to carry out a proper examination back at the morgue, but I expect to confirm that your victim was strangled and was dead before being put into the river. Secondly your body is not a young girl, well not in the truest sense, she is actually a pre-op transexual. She has quite soft features and the breasts seem to be natural tissue, not implants, so i assume she was at a late stage in transition. It is an easy mistake to make at first glance, she looks quite natural if you don’t look too closely.”

“ Do you think this is the crime scene, or is it just coincidence where she was found.”

“ She has not been dead long, probably about an hour or so, and in the water for most of that time, she could have drifted down river with the current from anywhere in the city centre really, but because, according to your guys first on the scene, none of the crews have reported seeing or snagging on anything, it is likely that she was put in the river not too far upstream. Let me get the body back to the morgue, i assume there will be a full inquest and that there needs to be a proper autopsy.”

“ Ok, do what you have do and let me have your report as soon as you can please.”

Trudy, and Barry had already gone off to talk to the various crews at the finish line, Susan had arranged for our raft to be taken out of the water and disposed of, so she and I got a lift from one of the patrol cars the short distance back to the station. We were still in our forensic coveralls, I thought it best not to go in wearing our french boating outfits. We were still the subject of the jokes about the Odd Squad, although they were now good-natured banter rather than nasty, but it was best not to give them any new material to play with, and stories of me in a short skirt and wet t-shirt would keep them going for days.

We all kept a spare set of clothes in our lockers at work, you never knew when they might be needed, so after changing into our normal slacks and jumpers, and collecting some stuff for Trudy and Barry we went down to join them to see if they had found out anything.

“ Well, Trudy, what have you found?”

“ Absolutely nothing, nobody noticed the body or any incident on the way down, at the moment we have no leads at all.”

“ Ok, take everybody’s details and let them go, we’ll go up to the rowing clubhouse to see if anyone there knows anything, although it is unlikely as they only race the first half of the course. See you back in the office later”

As expected, that it how it turned out, we had a body, no witnesses, no forensic clues yet, and no leads to follow up. When Trudy and Barry returned later we met to try to develop an action plan.

“ For a change we will work the two teams together. Barry, you run your team doing normal investigation procedures, talk to people again, check for missing persons, walk the riverside footpaths to see if you can finding signs of a struggle. Trudy, you follow up on the transgender side of it, See if any of our helpers Mike, Kathy or Josie are free to do a bit of poking about at the gay clubs and pubs in town, see if anyone recognises our victim. Get onto Professor Cameron at St James’ hospital in Leeds, he is the main gender reassignment specialist there and it is quite possible that as the victim was a long way down the transition path, that she was under his care. If he starts going on about patient confidentiality, remind him that his patient, if she was his patient, is dead, and if he is still unsure mention my name, he was the one who led the team on my operation and that may reassure him of our respect for discretion.

The next few days were humdrum police investigative work, interviewing peopleagain, waiting for the autopsy report, a reply from the hospital, or any reports of missing persons.

When the autopsy report finally came, it gave us our first lead. The victim’s DNA was on file and we at least had a name. James Harrison had previously been arrested for shoplifting, and after changing his name to Naomi Harrison, had been arrested for soliciting. That gave us a possible motive of a punter suddenly finding out that his call-girl was in fact a rent-boy, and Barry’s team started touring all the regular pick-up sites to interview the ‘working girls’ to see if anyone recognised or remembered Naomi. Professor Cameron confirmed that our victim was in fact Naomi and was able to provide next-of-kin details and a contact address, which was only about a half-mile upstream from where her body was found.

At Naomi’s home, which was part of a new apartment block facing onto the river on the opposite bank from the main city centre, Barry and I found the caretaker who took us up to let us into the flat. As it happened there as no need as the door was open.

We went in and found a young man packing a bag, who took one look at us and made a rush to get past us to escape. a well-placed boot to his ankle by Barry put him flat on his face and we sat him down for questioning.

“Ok, I’m DI Rowntree and this is DS Kidd, who are you, and why are you here?”

“I’m John Marshall, I have just come to get a few of my things that I left here last week. I was planning to move in with my new girlfriend, Naomi, when I found out that she was a tranny, really called James and was affording to live in this expensive flat by working as a prostitute for the punters who were into that kind of perversion. She disgusted me and I left, there was no way I wanted to be involved with someone like that.”

“ Well, you might like to know that her body was fished out of the river at the weekend, she has been murdered, and from your attitude towards her I think we need to talk further down at the station. Barry, take him down there and put him in an interview room, I want to have a look around in here, and I’ll not be too long.”

The flat was part a typical modern development, ground floor with views over the river, clean and tidy, bare and functional with not many personal touches, the only exceptional area was the bedroom which was decorated in vivid reds and purples with exotic pictures on the walls, obviously a working area to bring clients back to, and from the quality of the place, Naomi obviously played the upper end of her market. There were no obvious signs of a struggle, no overturned furniture, no bloodstains, nothing broken. I would get the forensic team down to have a look, but I wasn’t hoping for much from them.

Back at the station I called the team together for an update.

“Barry and I have Naomi’s ex boyfriend downstairs. He doesn’t like the fact that he was taken in by a cross-dresser, even if she was transitioning,’ disgusted and perversion’ were words that he used, and he had a key to her flat. He must be high up on our list of suspects. We will be interviewing him further when we are finished here. Her flat was modern and clean, facing the riverside, and would not be cheap. she must have been doing alright for herself. Anybody else found anything, Barry first?”

“ My team have been talking to the working girls at the usual pick-up sites. Naomi was not a regular, a lot of the girls had seen her around but it seems she worked the clubs and regular clients rather than the streets and was a bit more upmarket. Nobody could really give us anything useful.”

“ That sounds like it is over to you Trudy, did you find out anything in the clubs and bars?”

“ I went round a couple of the gay clubs and drag reviews with Mick and Kathy. Mick is known on the scene from doing his drag act and Kathy was comfortable going in with us, although she does prefer to be treated as just another woman, rather than a trans-girl. People were relaxed with them and were reasonably open in telling us what they knew, much more than they would have been if I had gone in waving my warrant card. It seems that Naomi was not interested in casual cheap pickups, she usually went for visiting businessmen, and seemed to be quite successful at it. Susan has been looking into her background.”

“ I’ve been into her bank records and she was building up a nice savings pot, regular substantial credits, usually in cash, but a few by bank transfers that we are still looking into. The forensic report is in, she was definitely strangled and was dead before going into the water. There were no major signs of a struggle, although she had a large bruise on the back of her head, so it looks like she knew her attacker. From the current flow rate on the river, it is possible that she was put in the water near her flat. I have asked the forensic team examining the flat to also have a look on the nearby riverbank for any signs. I have also asked for phone records on the off-chance that any of the regulars contacted her recently.”

‘Good work everybody, keep following it all up. Right Barry, let’s go and see what young Marshall has to say for himself.”

“ Right Mr Marshall, as of now , you are the main suspect for the murder of Naomi, so I suggest that you are open with us about your relationship with her and were you were last Saturday.”

“ I was out with the lads a couple of months ago, I had just broken up with my girlfriend, Tracey, and started chatting to Naomi at the bar. She was expecting somebody but was quite happy to chat for a while, and we arranged to meet up again. We got on well and she was a real looker , so I was quite happy to be with her, but her friend soon turned up and she went off with him. At first i thought it must be her father or something, he was definitely too old for her. We saw each other a few times after that, out for a drink, going the local multi-screen, all the normal dating things.

Last Thursday I went back to her flat with her and was amazed how well she lived and thought that I was onto a good thing with her. After a heavy kissing and petting session I was ready to go to bed with her, when she dropped the bombshell that she was still in transition, as she described it. I felt sick humiliated and disgusted and we ended up having a big row, shouting at each other. She told me that I was lucky to be there with her, she could easily be earning a good few hundred pounds instead with people that appreciated her special talents. That just made it worse, I couldn’t take any more, so I just stormed out and that was the last I saw of her.”

“ Sick, humiliated and disgusted ? Enough to want to kill her to get revenge or to stop her doing the same thing someone else. You also said she was perverted, are you transphobic Mr Marshall?”

“ I never really thought about it, it’s not something that really comes into my life. Like most blokes I make jokes about gays and drag acts, but have never really been in a situation personally before.”

“Where were you last Saturday?”

“ In the morning I met for a coffee with my sister Jane and my ex-girlfriend Tracey, who she knew from her schooldays. My sister was trying to get us back together. When I told them that I was off girls for a while, they asked why, and I told them all about Naomi/James. They were even more disgusted than I was, they had come across a transgender girl at school and there had been big rows there about access to changing rooms and toilet areas and such like and the poor girl was subject to all sorts of bullying. Tracy was particularly wound up about it, and said she thought that people like that should not be allowed to live among decent normal folk. After I left them , I met up with some mates and we went for a few drinks before going to watch the match at City’s ground.”

“ Right, we want the names, addresses and phone numbers for you, and, if you have them, of your sister, your ex, and your mates, and you are free to go for the moment. You have been formally cautioned and that stands, Please do not leave the city without telling us, and we would prefer if you did not meet or make contact with with any of the others.”

Back up in the office we told the rest of the team what we had got from John Marshall.

“Barry, you and/or team do the normal checks with the friends that he went drinking and to the football with, we need to confirm his alibi, and keep in touch with the forensics team to see if they have turned up any clues, fingerprints, DNA etc. Susan keep checking the bank and phone records, see if you can link any of them. Trudy, you and I are going to visit the sister and ex-girlfriend.

“ Right Jane. we are investigating the murder of your brother’s ex-girlfriend Naomi. We understand that you were with him on Saturday morning, correct.”

“Too true we were. I was with him and Tracey, and he told us all about that pervert leading him on, Naomi was a tranny hooker, who was probably trying to fleece him of his money, you just cannot trust a weird creature like that.”

“ So you don’t think much of transgender people then, what have you got against them, if they keep themselves to themselves and just get on with their lives, where is the harm in it.”

“ You must be joking, of course I don’t like them or trust them, people like that should not be allowed, fooling everybody into thinking they are something that they are not. No matter what drugs they take or what surgery they have, they will never be real women.”

Trudy noticed that I was getting angry and flushed at these comments and took over before I exploded with Jane, to give me a chance to get myself in control again.

“ Ok, you don’t like transgender people in general, what about Naomi in particular, had you ever met her.”

“ Just once, I saw John and him out in a bar in town, but it was only a quick chat and I didn’t get a chance to find out about the real him.”

“ So you didn’t realise at the time that Naomi was a t-girl and you just thought that John was happy enough with her.”

“ He was an idiot, what man could not tell that a girl he was with was really a boy. The pervert needed sorting out for John’s sake.“

“ When John left you were did you go?”

“Tracey and I went window shopping in town, but we didn’t buy anything, I was still upset about the way that John had been fooled and Tracey was quite worked up and annoyed, we weren’t really in the mood.”

“ That’s it for now, but we will probably want to talk with you again.We are off to see Tracey now, but if we find that you have called her before we get there, to try to agree a story, you may be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, so please do not call her.”

In the car on the way to Tracey’s I thanked Trudy for taking over the questioning from me.

“That’s ok , boss, I could see that her bigotry was winding you up, and if I had been you, I probably would have gone for her. Look on the bright side, somebody who is so transphobic and who thought her brother was an idiot for not being able to pick up on Naomi, wasn’t able to pick up on you either, it shows how much of a natural woman you have become. She was a nasty piece of work that one, let’s see if her friend is just as bad.”

Just in case Tracey, John Marshall’s ex-girlfriend, was as bigoted and nasty as his sister I let Trudy lead the interview.

“ Could you tell us where you were last Saturday, the day of the regatta.”

“ I was with my Friend Jane and her brother John in the morning and in the afternoon went shopping with Jane.”

“ When you were with John what did you talk about.”

“ Mainly about his latest girlfriend Naomi who had turned out to be a transgender prostitute. He was devastated disgusted and really angry with her.”

“ What did you think when you heard about his new girlfriend.”

“ Nothing to do with me really, but I felt sorry for him, fancy being led on like that, by a boy pretending to be a girl.”

“ Nothing to do with you? We understand that you and John were girlfriend and boyfriend for a long time, what did you think about getting passed over for ‘a boy pretending to be a girl’, surely that must have riled with you.”

“ None of my business if he was stupid and blind.”

“ Did you ever meet Naomi?”

“ No I wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him in the street, and I am not sure if I would ever want to meet a pervert like that.”

“We’’ll probably be back to see you again. you do realise that many people would be offended by some of the language you have used, don’t you?”

“ That’s their problem, if they want to tolerate weirdos , good luck to them.”

When we returned Susan came in with a big grin on her face.

“ You’ll never guess whose name has come up on the phone records, you are going to just love this.”

“ Just get on with it Susan, you are like the cat that has got the cream.”

“ DI Wainwright has been a regular caller, maybe he is in the closet as liking people like Naomi. I have asked forensics if there is any trace of him being in Naomi’s flat and am waiting for an answer. The place had been thoroughly cleaned but there were still a few identifiable prints and DNA traces.”

“ Wow” gasped Trudy, ” Never mind about links to this case, maybe if he likes rent-boys it is why he gave you such a hard time Julie, a normal aggressive defensive attitude.”

“ Let’s get him in, but I am not sure if it would be fair of me to interview him, to get a balanced view I want you Trudy to deal with him with Barry, but tread carefully, he was in the job a long time and knows all the tricks.”

“ Susan, Trudy and I met the Sister and ex-girlfriend, and don’t trust either of them. The sister was very anti-transgender and the girlfriend was a lot more subdued about it at first, but I think she soon showed her true nature. Both of them were very annoyed about John being led on by Naomi. Check CCTV for the shopping areas for the afternoon of the murder for any sign of them, and see if there is any at the entrance to the apartment block too.”

Trudy and Barry were soon facing Charles Wainwright across the desk in an interview room.

“ Thanks for coming in Mr Wainwright.”

“ It’s DI Wainwright, please give me the respect that deserves.”

“ You are suspended so I think we will stick to Mister Wainwright today. This however is nothing to do with the disciplinary investigations, that is not our responsibility.

You will have heard about the body of a young girl found in the river last Saturday, What is not public yet is that the victim was a pre-op transexual , who was working as a prostitute, presumably to build up funds for her transition. She went by the name of Naomi Harrison”

“ What’s that got to do with me?”

“ It would appear that recently you have made several calls to her phone, can you please explain that.”

“ I can’t recall the name at all, if I contacted her it must have been to do with cases I was involved in.”

“ Come off it Charles,” interrupted Barry, “ I have done searches on all current cases in your old department and Naomi’s name does not come up, and anyway some of the calls are after you were suspended.”

“ As we said, Naomi was working as a prostitute, Have you ever used her services?”

“ Don’t be insulting, of course not, what sort of a person do you think I am?”

“ That’s what we are trying to find out. If you didn’t know her and never used her services, can you explain how traces of your DNA were found in her flat.”

“ I want a break, now. Please get me a solicitor before I say anything else.”

When the interview was resumed a couple of hours later after his discussions with his solicitor, Wainwright was in a much more cooperative frame of mind.

“ Alright, I did know Naomi, but it is not what you think. She is the child of a friend of mine, but I never met her before she started to transition, I will give you the family details and they can confirm everything. When she moved to York he asked me to keep an eye on her and I called regularly to make sure she was safe, she was working in a very risky situation. I visited her apartment a few times just to make sure.”

“ Where were you at the time of the murder last Saturday.?”

“I was up at the golf club all day, I spend most of my time there now that I am not working. There must be lots of people there who could vouch for me.”

“Just before came in, we have been told that you were recorded on CCTV entering the apartment block, the day following the murder, what have you got to say to that, why were you there?”

“ I heard on the grapevine about the murder, I still have some contacts that will speak to me. I went there to check that there was nothing that could link me to her.”

“You were in there about three hours, that doesn’t sound like just collecting a few bits and pieces. That place had been professionally cleaned by someone who knew what they were doing, was that you?”

“ Ok, I did go in and clean the flat, but I did not harm or murder Naomi, as I said, I was just keeping an eye on her for a friend. I panicked when I heard about the murder and only wanted to remove any links between us. You know what it is like, you thought that I was a client of Naomi’s, and everyone else would think the same, I didn’t want any more questions about my character and personal life influencing the disciplinary proceedings.”

We will obviously need to check your story with Naomi’s parents and with the golf club. At the moment you are being formally charged with obstructing the police in their enquiries. If it turns out that the apartment was the murder scene, it could get a lot more serious. Obviously we will have to report this to the disciplinary team, and they will review it alongside your other activities in determining your position in the Police Force.”

“ Can we keep this quiet for the moment until decisions are made about my future, and not feed the gossip mill around the station.”

“ I’ll have to discuss it with Inspector Rowntree. you gave her a really hard time when we first came here and I couldn’t blame her if she put notices all around the station. However I am sure that she is a lot more reasonable person than you have been. and will not be vindictive. You are free to go , but I remind you of the terms of your suspension that you are not to have contact with any of your former colleagues here, particularly the person who advised you of the murder inquiry.”

Trudy and Barry reported back to me on what Wainwright had said. despite how offensive he had been to me, I was inclined to believe him. However, cleaning up a potential crime scene, along with his other corruption charges meant that it was highly unlikely that he would be reinstated in the force. For once I felt sorry for him, a long career would come to an end in total disgrace.

“ Assuming Wainwright is telling the truth and not playing us, that leaves us in limbo again with no hard suspects. Susan, have you found anymore from the phone records or from the forensics team?”

“ Before that , I have been through the city centre TV and can’t find any trace of Jane and Tracey in the shopping areas on that Saturday afternoon, but that’s not conclusive as there are big gaps in coverage. However There was a female visitor to the apartment block early that afternoon, unfortunately the images are not good, the bright suns blinding the cameras at the time, but it could be Jane or Tracey. Just a bit earlier there was a short call to Naomi from a pay-as-you-go phone, up to now I have not been able to trace who it belongs to.”

“ I think we need to speak to those two again, Barry get them brought in , keep them separate, do not give them a chance to think up another story between them. Barry, you lead the interviews along with Susan, be a bit brusque and verbally aggressive with them, I’ll watch from the observation room through the one-way mirror.”

“ Jane, we want to go through your story again in relation to the afternoon Naomi was murdered. Can you tell us what shops you visited. “

“ We just wandered around the shopping streets, mainly Parliament Street and Coney Street, window shopping, we didn’t really go in to any of them.”

“ That’s strange because both those areas are heavily covered by CCTV and we cannot find any images of either of you, can you explain that?”

“ No, we must have just got lost in the crowds, there were a lot of people about.”

“ You have said that you and Tracey were together all afternoon, are you sure about that?” What would you say if I told you that we have CCTV images from Naomi’s apartment block showing what appears to be you going there at lunchtime by yourself.” Barry asked, chancing his luck as we had no proof it was her.

“ It couldn’t have been me, I have never been there.”

“Can we have a look at your phone please, we would just like to check what calls you have made recently.”

“ Go ahead, feel free, I have got nothing to hide.” she smirked as she fished the phone out from all the normal clutter in her handbag. As expected there were no records of calls between her and Tracey, she had obviously deleted the records, as it was unbelievable that the two had not been in contact

“Ok, we are now going to interview Tracey, let’s see if she sticks by the story too.”

Barry and Trudy got very much the same story from Tracey, in fact almost word for word, it was fairly obvious that they had agreed the story between them. However when she went to give us her phone a lot of the stuff in her bag fell out, amongst which was a second phone. That was the breakthrough for us, as when we checked it the number matched the one that had called Naomi just before the assumed murder time, and the record of the call was still in the log.

“Tracey, you made a call to Naomi, a few minutes later the CCTV showed someone resembling you at the door of the apartment block, and records show that the door lock was released from Naomi’s flat at the same time. That is a lot of coincidences, don’t you agree?

“ I told you, I have never met James or Naomi or whatever the weirdo is called and have never visited those apartments.”

“ In that case can you explain how traces of your DNA were found on the bathroom door handle in Naomi’s flat.” Again Barry was flying a kite to see what reaction he got.

At that Tracey’s face went ashen and she broke down, bursting into tears. “What do you expect, being dropped by your boyfriend is bad enough, but being dumped for a tranny rent-boy is humiliating. I went there to have a go at the perverted bitch. To get in I told him that I was a friend of John and had come to collect some of his things for him. When I first seen Naomi, I couldn’t believe how pretty a girl he looked, even just wearing casual shorts and t-shirt, and could see why John had been attracted. Feeling disgusted and ashamed at being bettered by someone that was not even a real girl, I lashed out, she fell and hit her head and in a rage I just put my hands around her neck and squeezed. I dropped her down the rubbish chute to the basement, and was able to get the body out and into the river without being seen. I thought that the body would just be seen as someone who had fallen from one of the boats”

At that point I entered the interview room and told Barry to charge her with murder. I was glad that I had kept my distance, if I had been doing the interview I don’t know how I would have reacted to her bigotry. We followed up by charging both Jane and Charles Wainwright with ‘Conspiracy to pervert the course of justice’. as well as wrapping up the murder case, it now looked like Wainwright was finally out of my hair.

There were two reasons for the team to be on cloud nine that night, we had successfully cracked our first major crime under my control, and now that Wainwright was sinking deeper into trouble my temporary position as an Inspector was confirmed as a permanent appointment. Susan and Trudy had linked well together as a team and Barry was happy and comfortable to become a permanent link between the two teams under my command, and he was glad to go out with us girls to celebrate, despite a few jokey comments from some of his colleagues.

To be continued.