Saturday morning, after a restless night going over everything in my head, I called Sally to ask if it was ok to pop round for a chat, to see how she was getting on and clear up a few work matters for me, as she was getting so close to her due date and would soon not be interested in office problems.

As it was a pleasant spring morning I decided to go dressed casual, light makeup, a calf-length denim skirt and a cotton scoop-neck half-sleeved top. It was the right image to put her at ease before hitting her with the bombshell accusation of passing on confidential information.

She greeted me warmly, and as she was obviously having difficulty moving around, I offered to make us coffees, if that was ok, and she settled on the sofa in the large kitchen/diner while I brewed up.

“Is Harry not around this morning Sally?”

“No, he had to go out.” She quickly replied rather defensively.

We chatted about minor office matters and she then asked about my night at the dinner-dance, which gave me the opening to raise the subject that I had really come to discuss.

I gave it to her straight including all the details of the row between Judy and Alistair and what had been told to me by Liz and Judy. The more I told her, the more ashen her face became and she burst into tears.

“Did you deliberately set up Judy with Alistair so she could pass on information from Liz?”

She just nodded unable to speak through her sobbing.

“Before that had you been passing information to Alistair?”

Again, she just nodded.

“Why?”

She took a deep breath, choked back her tears and once she started speaking out came a long story about how she had met Alistair at the dinner-dance, how he had charmed her, wined and dined her, and they had begun an affair.

“He soon started asking me about Cartwright’s proposed projects with a threat that if I did not cooperate he would tell my husband about the affair. At the time I was not in a good mood with James so I cooperated.”

“What was up with you and James, I thought that you got on really well together? Last night Alistair, in his anger, told me that he hoped that James would treat me better than he had treated you. What happened?”

“Not long after Helen his wife died I went with him to an evening reception organised by one of the construction companies who work for us. It finished quite early and as Harry was away on business and there was no rush to get home, we went for a drink together. Something triggered him off and he went very maudlin, talking about Helen, and using me as a shoulder to cry on. To cut a long story short, a sympathetic hug by me led to us spending the night together, which acted as a break in the dam of him holding his emotions in check.

The next day at work he told me quite bluntly that it was a big mistake, that it should never have happened and would not be repeated. In a way I was not too bothered about it, in fact I was glad as I was feeling really guilty for cheating on Harry and I could understand his emotional state. However a few days later he offered me a pay rise, which I assumed was a bribe for me to forget all about our night together. That really upset me, I felt that he looked on me as cheap and easy, not much more than a working hostess or even worse, a prostitute that could be paid off. I was so angry that I told him where to stick his pay rise and things were very frosty between us for a while. Later, after I started meeting Alistair I told him about it and that’s when he asked me to pass on information, I was so angry with James that I agreed.”

“It’s nothing to do with me, and tell me to leave if you want, but is your baby Alistair’s rather than Harry’s?”

“I’m certain that it is, at the time of the affair Harry was abroad for a month on business.”

“I assume that you told Alistair, and that he wasn’t interested in you anymore, which is why you had to help him rope in Judy and Liz.”

Again she burst into tears and just nodded.

The more I heard about Alistair the more ashamed I became of the way many men treat women, and just hoped that as Jack, I would never stoop so low.

All of a sudden she clasped her stomach and screamed.

“All this stress has started me off, my waters have just broken, please get me to hospital.”

I quickly grabbed up her maternity bag with all the essentials already packed for her to go to hospital, helped her to my car and drove crazily to the local maternity unit, booked her in and left her in the care of the midwife team. I was just leaving when she called out as they were leading her into the delivery suite “Please stay Jane, I need somebody with me.”

Despite my feelings for her as a cheat and a liar, I realised that she needed somebody with her and sat down to wait. After a few minutes one of the midwives called me in.

“We’ve got her settled now and are just waiting for baby to decide to appear, Sally has asked if you will go in and sit with her, she needs a friendly hand to hold.”

I felt anything but friendly, but she needed someone and it looked like I as the nearest, so I sat next to her bed and held her hand and chatted to try to keep her calm.

“Now you know the full story, what’s going to happen to me will I be sent to prison for fraud or something.”

“Forget about that for the moment, you have more important things to deal with. I’ll ring Harry for you, he should be here with you, not me.”

“He found out that the baby is not his and has gone away for a few days to think about what he wants to do.”

“Let me call him anyway, now it’s crunch time , if he loves you he will come.”

I called him, told him that Sally had been rushed to hospital and that he should be here for her, then heard the click as he cut the call. I shrugged my shoulders and Sally looked so disappointed.

I sat with her the rest of the morning, her contractions were getting more frequent and it was almost time for her. Suddenly the door opened and a man, who I assumed to be Harry, burst in, rushed over and kissed her gently on the cheek. At that point I decided to leave them to sort things out between themselves and went down the corridor to get a coffee.

I looked through the window into Sally’s room and everything looked fine, they were holding hands, smiling and chatting away and I turned to leave, At that point Harry noticed me and waved me to come in.

“Thanks for looking after Sally for me, it’s just as well you were there.” I didn’t have the heart to spoil their precious moments, by telling him why I was there and that I thought my accusations may have brought on her labour, and I left them, any dealings on her dishonesty could wait for another time.

I decided to try to clear things up in my head, there was so much buzzing around and I couldn’t relax and settle , so decided to find out if anything had developed after I left in a hurry last night.

“Hi Caroline, it’s Jane, from last night, can we meet somewhere to talk about what happened after I left?”

“Come on over to my house, it will be a lot better than meeting in a café or hotel, and we’’ll be able to talk a lot more openly. Martin is out playing golf and we will have plenty time to talk, I have a lot to tell you.”

She gave me directions and I was soon sitting in her conservatory looking out over the manicured lawn and perfectly cared-for shrubs and flower beds, with tea and cakes on the table next to us.

“Before we start, Sally is in hospital and probably having her baby as we speak. I visited her this morning and she went into labour as we talked about the problems at work, so I had to rush her in. Harry, her husband is in there with her now.”

“It’s good that he is with her, it must have been worrying for you thinking that it would all be down to you when you hardly knew her, After you left last night , I saw Alistair mouthing off at Andrew Hargreaves about something and went over to listen. Alistair was still quite angry and worked up, moaning about you, Liz, and Sally, and I caught the end of their conversation.

“Look Hargreaves, our arrangement is now off, nothing is going to come our way with the Bolton development, it’s all the fault of that stupid woman getting herself pregnant and then suggesting that the baby is mine.” Alistair was almost screaming said Caroline

”I assume that he was talking about Sally.”

“You’re right, and the baby is definitely his, Sally told me as I rushed her in to the hospital.”

“Then Hargreaves grabbed him. ‘I’ve heard of another scheme you might be interested in Alistair, I assume we can make the same deal as we did with the Bolton development, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. I am due to retire soon and another addition to my pension pot would do no harm.’ Then Ridgeley replied ‘I’m sure that we can come to an arrangement that would suit both of us Andrew.’. That seemed to calm down the atmosphere between them and they then went to speak to other people.”

“That’s brilliant Caroline, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear. I don’t suppose that there was anyone with you at the time, another witness to what was said would be useful.”

“She burst into a big self-satisfied grin, “ Even better than that, I set my phone running on record in my bag before I sidled up near to them. It’s a little bit muffled but you can easily make out the conversation and recognise the voices.” I listened to it, played it back again and could hardly believe what I was hearing, it was exactly what I wanted to hear.

“Please send it to me. I know that you will have lots of questions for me, but I really must go to have a talk with James. I promise to come back later and tell you more, you have been brilliant.” I quickly left and arranged to meet James at his house.

“This had better be good Jane, you have dragged me off the golf course, it’s the only me-time I have when I get away from the pressures of work.” James said but he was smiling as he knew that it had to be important.

He was getting impatient to reach the punch-lines of what I had discovered but he mostly kept quiet as I went through the events of last night and earlier in the day and played Caroline’s recording for him.

“We’ll deal with Sally and Liz later, but first things first. I was due to play a round of golf this morning with Joe Riley, the Assistant Chief Constable, so I know that he is free. I’ll get him to come over and you can go through it all with him again. You can tell him that I brought you in to find out what was happening, but I would keep Jack and his role as an investigative journalist out of the picture for the present if I was you.”

After going through it all again with the ACC , Joe Riley thought for a moment while he considered the best way forward. “Let’s keep the lid on this for the moment, I’ll get the regional Fraud Squad to look into their finances, phone call records. email patterns and things like that, I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg. You’ve done a super job Jane, if ever you fancy working with real investigative teams, give me a call, I’m sure we can fast-track you up the ladder.”

I left them to continue their discussions and made my way home, via the hospital where I stopped to check up on Sally. By now her baby had been delivered and she was sleeping, with Harry dozing next to her holding her hand. I left them alone, but checked with the nurse I had met earlier that everything had gone as planned and that the baby girl was doing well.

I returned to Caroline’s and without giving too much away, told her that the police were now investigating Ridgeley and Hargreaves for corruption offences and that her recording was enough for them to take it all seriously. I promised to come back andtell her more when things unfolded. It would be good to visit her again anyway, she was reliable and sensible, but good fun with it.

“Where’ve you been all day Jane,I was beginning to get worried about you.” Jenny said when I arrived home, before we were interrupted by my mother coming in from the kitchen.

“Well hello Jane, I was shocked when Jenny finally told me all about you, but she didn’t say that I now have two beautiful daughters, come and give your mum a hug.”

“Oh Mum, I can’t tell you what I have been doing, it will all come out in public soon. For various reasons I have had to act as a woman for the last few weeks and Jenny and her friends have been amazing in making me convincing.”

“And they have done a good job too, you certainly look and sound the part. While I still have the chance I would like to get to know my new daughter better. I was worried that I had not heard from you and came to see Jenny to check if she knew where you were, and it all came out. Get freshened up both of you, we are going out for a meal, drink, and a long chat, I don’t know about you but I definitely need it all.”

As she asked me lots of questions about how I felt appearing as a woman, was I comfortable working among women, how long had I been dressing as a woman, whether I was comfortable wearing the clothes I had on and using makeup, she kept staring at me with a look of wonder in her eyes. She was not critical or angry, just totally bewildered at how I was now presenting myself, but she seemed to accept that there was nothing she could say or do that would alter what I was doing.

“At least I now know that you are alright and can stop worrying. But I think we’ll keep your father out of this, I suspect he won’t be as tolerant and understanding as me.” As she left she gave me a big hug and kiss goodbye, something we hadn’t done to each other for a long time.

“Ok Jane, now Mum has gone, what have you been up to all day?”

I gave Jenny updates on my discussions with the sisters, Sally, and Caroline, and what they had done, keeping the names of Alistair and Andrew to myself. Joe Riley had asked me to keep most details under wraps so as not to compromise the investigations.

After the events of the day, I needed to unwind and clear my mind and suggested that Jenny phone the girls see if any were free for a quiet girls night out. Susie and Linda already had plans but Babs was happy to join us.

“ Hi princess, Jenny zapped the photos over to me last night, you looked a treat, you’re really wasted as a boy you know.”

“Thanks Babs, er I think.”

You looked gorgeous dressed up and with all Susie’s good work on you, I bet you felt really special.”

“I did, especially when James and I had to process into the main room, arms linked. I felt like a bride must feel on her wedding day, all eyes were on me, the centre of attention.”

“It’ll be a shame if you never get to feel that for real Jane.”

“ I don’t think that will ever happy Babs, remember who I really am.”

“ Like I said before, you are wasted as a boy.”

“Anyway I’m here to talk about anything else but what I have been up to, anything exciting happen in your life today?” I jumped in to change the subject. We had a pleasant night down at the local hotel, chatting about all sorts of inconsequential things, tv programmes, news of the day, how fit the guys at the bar were, where to go next time all the girls were together again, and general gossip about people we all knew, all the while knocking back a couple of bottles of wine between us.

That night I had a really deep sleep, getting to grips with my investigation had really relaxed me.

I woke up early on Sunday, feeling fresh and full of energy despite all the wine the previous night, grabbed a light breakfast of yoghurt and fruit salad, washed down with coffee, had a quick brush of my hair and checked that my face was fit to be seen in public, threw on a jogging suit and went out for a run. That early nobody else was to be seen and it felt good to be out in public as natural as Jane as I could practically be. When I got back, feeling a bit flushed from the run, Jenny had managed to drag herself out of bed and I made her a light breakfast of scrambled egg and toast with a whole pot of coffee to get her back into the world of the living.

“Morning sleepyhead, it’s a glorious day out there.” I breezily greeted her as she ambled into the kitchen, to which she replied with a grunt and a groan. After a cup of coffee she was a little more sociable.

“What have you got planned for today Jane? After last night I am not in the mood for anything stimulating, I might just go back to bed for an hour or two.”

“First off, I am going to call James Cartwright to see if there are any updates from the police. Then I think it’s about time that I had a meeting with Mike Bradley my boss at The Post, I’ll give him a call to see if he can drag himself into the office on a Sunday, the place is normally fairly dead, everybody works online from home nowadays.”

“ Does that mean that you are about to break the story?”

“ It might be the right time to start leaking some details. James told me that the police had Hargreaves and Ridgeley down at the station for interview, and were intensively looking into their finances. No charges had yet been made, and in police-talk ‘ they were helping with enquiries’.”

Reverting to my natural Jack voice, at least in pitch even if some of the phrasing and stressing was tainted by my weeks of femininity. I arranged to call in to the office an hour later. I had two choices, either go in dressed as Jack even though my hair was a very feminine colour and style, and my eyebrows had been fully arched by Susie, or appear as Jane, which would no doubt come as a shock to him. I decided that Jane would be the lesser of two evils, but that I would tone down the clothes and makeup to a minimum, after all it was a Sunday and other than if they were going to church, most people dressed-down.

I was glad that the door to our office complex was locked and that I needed to use my passkey to get in, it meant that there was only a minimum staffing level. I nervously made my way upstairs and walked through an empty main office, normally a hive of activity, to Mike’s private office, warily knocked on the door and went in.

Mike looked up to see an unfamiliar attractive young woman, smartly but casually dressed in a flared loose skirt and boat-neck top.

“Can I help you dear, we are not really working today and you shouldn’t have been able to get in.”

“I sat down opposite him, placed my bag on the floor next to me, looked him directly in the eye, and took a deep breath before speaking.

“Mike despite what I look and sound like it is me Jack Carter, although it will be better if you call me Jane for the moment.” He had a look of amazement on his face, his eyes wide, his mouth open as his chin dropped, and looked at a loss for words, so I just continued.

“I promised you a big story and I’m here to deliver it. I’ve been working undercover for the last few weeks and for various reasons it has been necessary for me to present as the woman you see before you.”

“It’s not another transgender story is it, there seems to be one splashed in the papers every week now, and quite frankly I think our readers are getting bored with them.”

“How about a corruption scandal at the council, is that different enough for you?” His eyes lit up and I had his full attention. Teasingly, I got up and went to the door. “ Mike this is as confusing and difficult for me as it is for you. I’ll give you a moment to have a think while I go and get coffee, I assume the machine is left on over the weekend. I felt his eyes boring into my back as I walked down the office to get the drinks, returned and sat down again.

“Let’s rewind Jack,,,,, sorry Jane. Give me a quick outline. And then go back to the beginning and tell me all the details.

“The bottom line is that I am told that, as we speak, Andrew Hargreaves the council Chief planning Officer. And Alistair Ridgeley a director of Acumen Developments are being interviewed by the Fraud Squad in relation to abuse of confidential information, bribery and corruption, and possible blackmail and extortion. It’s early stages but there is enough evidence to hold them at least on the blackmail charge while other enquiries are going on.”

“Give me a moment Jane, I want to have a confidential chat with one of my regular informants down at the station, and it’s best if you do not know who it is. Take your coffee and find a seat in the office for a few minutes.”

Five minutes later he came over to me, beaming like as if he had won the lottery. “It’s all been confirmed. There is a limit to what we can publish at this stage but they can’t stop us printing most of what we, sorry what you, already know. Monday morning’s paper is already set up, it’s rare for a major story to break on a Sunday and with not many of the staff in today it’s too late to reset the pages, but if we can knock something together between us today we should make tomorrow’s later afternoon edition.”

For the next hour or so, I gave him all the details as he scribbled away memory-jogging notes. I left nothing out, including the personal involvement of Liz, Judy and Sally. At the end he took a deep breath.

“What a story Jane. For tomorrow we’ll just run the headline and the bare facts, without naming names, until charges are made we run the risk of being sued for libel and defamation of character. The corruption of the women is a human interest follow up story, that can wait for the moment. How do you want to play your involvement, do you want the byline credit to Jack Carter or do you want to continue investigating as Jane Harrison?”

“Let’s keep it as ‘Staff Reporter’ for a while, I think there is more to get from my sources, and they all know me as Jane, if I suddenly turn up as Jack, or Jane’s name is listed and I am outed as a reporter, my relationship with them would be stretched a bit.”

“That’s another story for the future, how Jack morphed into Jane to get the story. I know I said that the readership was getting a bit bored with transgender stories, but you have a novel twist on it to tell. I am amazed at how you have turned out, you are more attractive, feminine, and if I can say so without being sued for sexual harassment, more of a woman than a lot of the female staff here.”

We agreed what to include and for the next two hours I typed a draft of the story. As discussed with Mike, nobody was actually named, but merely hinted at, and there was regular use of the word ‘alleged’. There was not enough to go on at this stage to take over the whole front page, but the main banner headline. ‘SENIOR COUNCIL OFFICER IN CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION’ said it all, with a summary of the details and a promise that The Post investigation would reveal much more later. After a couple of revisions and edits from Mike, he was satisfied that there were no legal issues and that the story would run in the noon edition.

“Right Jane, that’s enough for today, you’ve done a great job. I know it’s a cliché, but us reporters have a reputation as drinkers, let’s go and celebrate, this could be the making of your career.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m not dressed for anywhere fancy, let’s just go down the road to the usual watering hole.”

“You’ve been living as a woman too long Jane, you even think like one now worrying about how you are dressed. You are fine as you are, let’s go.”

In the bar, Mike treated me as he would any other woman, going to the bar for the drinks, sitting opposite me so that we were looking at each other as we chatted, and even standing up to hug me goodbye as I left for home. I now saw him differently to the slightly grumpy patronising boss that I had in my mind before today. From now on working with him would have a much easier relationship between us.

To be continued.