Louis struggled with being out of Hospital. Hospital had order and purpose which was his life or rather had been his life. He’d compartmentalised his work and social life for years and the order in the Hospital had been perfect for him. Once discharged, it took him a while but he managed to impose some sort of routine with his host Dawn. Dawn was by nature an impulsive person and as such, the antithesis of Louis.

It was a 'sort of routine' as it also depended upon the reliability of the women who'd volunteered to help him with his rehab. Some of them were just bad at timekeeping. Still, it mostly worked and, by the end of the second week and with his broken ribs healing quite nicely, he decided that it was time to get everyone together.

"Dawn, would it be possible to get everyone who's been visiting me both here and in Hospital together? I need to tell them something and, it is probably better that they all hear it at the same time."

Dawn laughed.

“You mean about your thing?”

Louis knew instantly what she was referring to.

“Yes,” he replied quietly.

“They all know. Helen told them at the outset. She wanted them to know so that if for some reason they had to help you dress and saw what wasn’t there, they would not freak out.”

Louis felt deflated. The only positive point was that he had been spared, the very embarrassing task of telling them about his injury.

“Did anyone ‘freak out’ as you aptly put it?”

Dawn laughed.

“That’s the strange thing. Not one of them did. They all felt even sorrier for you and far more determined to help you get yourself back on your feet."

While that was good news, Louis knew that there was one thing he had to tell them.

"Dawn, I'd still like to get everyone together. To say thanks but, there is something else that needs to be said."

Dawn looked at him seriously.
“I don’t like the sound of that. Is it that bad?”

Louis shook his head.

“It depends upon your point of view. It might change a lot of people’s opinion of me.”

Dawn knew he was serious.

“Let me sort it out. I’m sure that we can get something together.”

---

Despite Dawn’s best efforts, it was almost two weeks before she could get almost everyone together in the same place. Two of the others were going to be connected by Facetime as they were in Barbados and Antigua.

The day dawned and, Louis was understandably very nervous. Dawn had tried her hardest to get him to confide in her but, he was adamant that he had to tell everyone, at the same time. He was about to reveal his innermost secrets to a bunch of women, each of which, could if they desired, make what was left of his life a living hell.

"Are we ready, girls?" asked Dawn.
There followed the sound of 'yes we are', from the people on the call all speaking at once.

“Are any of you within earshot of someone who is outside our little group?” asked Dawn.
A chorus of 'No, we aren't' came from everyone.

“Good, here’s Louis.”

Dawn moved the camera to point at Loius.

“Firstly, I want to thank everyone for helping me out in my time of need. None of you needed to have lifted a finger to help me but you all did so thanks. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

“Get on with it Man, we are losing valuable time on the Courts,” complained Janice Long, who was in Barbados.

"As you know, the people who attacked me were under the impression that I'd had an affair with women such as yourselves. We all know that this was not true but, they made it impossible for me to have sex with a woman in the future. In plain language, they cut my dick off and took it with them. Reading between the lines from what the Police have told me, it was probably used as evidence so that they could get paid by those who hired them."

Louis swallowed hard and carried on.

“I have decided that Louis is no more. From now on, it is Louisa. So, ladies, there will be no more going to events with me on your arm. I know of a couple of very suitable gentlemen who could fill my boots, and I'll be happy to give their names to your husbands so that they can be vetted."

Louis swallowed again.

“As I said, I will be known as Louisa from now on. If any or all of you want to bail out now and have nothing more to do with me, then, I will fully understand. There are at least two of you that may have issues due to your religion. I understand, so don't feel that you have to be helping me because you have some duty to me. You don't. I understand."

“As I said, I am going to need a lot of help. Dawn can only do so much. I will not burden her too much. It isn’t fair.”

Louis paused.

“I think I have said all I wanted to say, so the floor is open to you.”

To everyone's complete surprise, Mary-Lou, who was in Antigua, started clapping. All the women on the call soon joined in.

When it died down, Mary-Lou said,
"It was to be expected. Louisa, when I was told about the extent of your injuries, I didn't need my degree in Rocket Propulsion to realise that you would have to become one of us. I'm in. I'll be back in England next week. If no one else helps out, then I'm the girl. Oh, and hubby says that he's onboard as well. I discussed what I thought might have happened with him the other evening. He was on board with whatever I wanted to do. It is left to us old girls network to make Louisa a success but, we have the backing of our partners and husbands. What about it, girls?"

One by one, they all came around. That included both Shireen and Toyah who being Muslim and Jewish respectively said that their partners had agreed to help. As Shireen put it,
"Louis was no longer in a position to make improper advances to me, not that he ever did, so why not help?"

Louis/Louisa was very much taken aback by this show of solidarity. He'd expected at least half to back out for one reason or another.

"Ladies, thank you very much for the vote of confidence but, there is a long way to go."

Mary-Lou came right back and said,
"I've told my other half that any plastic surgery you need will be pro-bono or, he can spend the rest of the year sleeping in his car. Louis saved my bacon more than once when he was still making other women into film stars.”

That raised a good laugh amongst the girls. Even Louis/Louisa joined in. The ice had been broken, which was what he'd wanted all along.

---

The vote of confidence that the girls had shown in him helped in his rehab, and then begin the long process of becoming Louisa.

Louisa had no illusions that it would happen overnight but, each of the women in her life took charge of one aspect of her education. As, Louis, she'd had a view of just one part of what is needed to make women who they are. Now she needed to get the big picture or, as Mary-Lou said, 'details darling, details'.

In between, five bits of plastic surgery on her body, and classes in deportation, dress, makeup, speech, and life Louis gradually disappeared from view, and Louisa rose from the ashes of Louis and began to act and behave like his teachers.

Her big coming-out event was scheduled for Valentine’s Day. This was almost nine months since the attack on Louis. Several of the girls referred to Louisa as their ‘baby’. She was in most respects but gradually, the baby grew up and a week before the big day, Louisa made her first shopping trip on her own.

Her task was to buy a suitable outfit for the big reveal. Shireen and Toyah were around to observe the event from a respectable distance. Due to work and family commitments, they have been less involved with the 'Educating Louisa' programme than the rest so they were ideally placed to see the foo-pahs both large and small that Louisa would inevitably make on her first solo trip into the big bad world of London shopping.

Her first foray into a shop went well. Louisa overcame her embarrassment and was measured properly for a bra. She chose some delightful underwear and got top marks from her observers.

The problems started when she went into the first shop to try on a dress. The owner of the shop was a man, a gay man.
For the first time, she would have a man who wasn’t a doctor or a nurse touching her.

When Louisa realised this, she bolted out of the shop and ran down the street in a blind panic.

Louisa was crying when Toyah found her. She was also shaking a lot.

Toyah and then Shireen took it in turns to comfort her. When Louisa had recovered a bit of her, composure the trip was abandoned. The three of them retreated to Janice Long's apartment in Chelsea to recover, and plan their next move.

It soon became clear to everyone that Louisa has developed a deep phobia about men touching her.

“So, Louisa is a Lezzie then?” said Dawn Barnes.

Despite the crudeness of her description, it was probably accurate.

"Better to have found out now than during her first date, isn't it?"

Then Shireen asked,
“Do you fancy any of us?”

Louisa was in a bit of a spot. She thought for a bit before answering.

"You are all my friends. Well, my only friends. I would not want to ruin that but getting a crush on any of you. I didn't, when I was Louis, and I won't do it now. I don't want to lose any of you as a friend."

None of those present said anything.

Louisa thought again and said,

"I love all of you to bits for what you have done and are doing for me. But I simply have no interest in having a fling with any of you. That was how I managed to be an escort, and I would not dream of doing anything more than a bit of flirting with any of you. You are all far too dear to me for risking any or all of my friendships.”

That seemed to change everyone’s attitude towards Louisa.

Privately, a couple of his rehab team admitted to thinking about possible male partners for Louisa. The shopping trip catastrophe killed any of those ideas stone cold dead in a flash.

Louisa was still recovering from the event when a development in the search for whoever had put out the contract on Louis surfaced. This came with a visit from Inspector Thomas from Scotland Yard.

“We thought that you should know what has happened in the investigation,” explained the Inspector.

“Last week, we arrested three men in conjunction with a series of jewellery robberies that have taken place in the past three years in West London and Southern England.”

“I think I remember reading about one of them. One of the ladies I escorted was at one of the houses for an event a week before the theft,” replied Louisa suddenly interested in what the Inspector was saying.

“Yes. That is true. Thanks to your list of your clients and other information we received from other agencies, we have been observing two men for the past few months.”

Louisa knew who at least one of them was.

“As I said, last week, we arrested three men just one day after another robbery at a large house just outside of Winchester. They were charged a few hours ago and will appear at Southampton Magistrates Court tomorrow morning. The initial charges are just related to this latest robbery but, one of them was foolish to leave a good amount of evidence at his mistress's home that not only incriminates him but the others in all the other robberies."

He took his phone out of his pocket, and after a bit of fiddling, he showed Louisa a picture.

“Do you know this man?”

It only needed a glance for Louisa to recognise the picture.

“That’s Roland… Roland Gardener. I escorted his wife to a couple of events. He was fully on board with me escorting her.”

Then Louisa smiled.

“He is Canadian. He was away in Canada on business when I escorted his wife.”

“That is correct,” said the Inspector.

“I can’t believe that he is behind the attack on me,” exclaimed Louisa.

"He isn't. Of that, we are almost certain, but he is one of those under arrest."

Then he showed Louisa another photo.

“I don’t know him.”

"That is Roland Gardeners 'goto’ man. His name is Henrik Fortuna. He’s another of those under arrest.”

Then he showed her another picture.

Louisa shuddered when she saw it.

“That’s the man that did… did this to me.”

“Thank you for that. We already knew that but needed your confirmation. Mr Fortuna had a good number of incriminating Text messages on his phone. A Text message exchange between him and this man just before and after your attack plus a photo of you lying on the ground is pretty damming evidence. Mr Fortuna has done a deal with us to make sure that the third man gets sent down for life."

“What’s this man’s name?”

"Oh, sorry. His name is Costa, Miguel Costa. He's Mexican and has worked for the Cartels in Mexico and also in Canada. He's a hitman, pure and simple. We had no idea that he was in the country, but we collared him as he tried to get on a ferry to Dublin three days ago.”

Louisa thought for a moment before asking,
"But who ordered the hit on me? If it wasn't Roland Gardener, then who?"

He then showed Louisa another picture.

“But that’s John Peterson? He was my boss at the agency.”

“Yes.”

“Oh shit,” exclaimed Louisa.
“The Office Summer Party. That must have been when it all kicked off.”

The inspector didn’t say anything.

“His wife, Sophia, got drunk and came onto me in a big way. All sorts of pictures appeared on Social Media of her kissing me. I was summoned into his office and given a formal warning about my behaviour.”

Then she thought again.

“But I never spoke to her again? I don’t understand?”

“Sophia kept a diary. You were targeted because she used your name as a cover for her real lover. What we understand is that he found the diary and went berserk. She ended up with a real beating that put her in hospital for close to a week, but that wasn't enough. He wanted revenge on you personally. His wife had tried to warn you, but he threatened her with being committed if she spoke to anyone. Your boss was in a perfect position to provide details of houses that had changed hands in recent years to the gang. Naturally, those details included the location of safes and even strong-rooms in those properties. His contacts in the gang put him onto Mr Costa, and the rest is history."

“Do you have enough evidence to convict him?”

“We do. We have evidence of two transfers of large sums of money to an account in the Cayman Islands. Mr Costa is known to use it both before and after the attack on you."

Louisa breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The Inspector smiled.

“There is something else that you should know.”

Louisa looked at him, slightly surprised.

"Sophia Peterson wasn't drunk. She was off all booze, on medical grounds and was only drinking tonic water. Now that her husband is in custody, she spilt the beans. We interviewed one of the waiters who worked that evening. He has told us that her husband gave him something that her husband called an 'aphrodisiac'. It wasn't. Her drinks were spiked with something that made her appear drunk.”

“Eh?”

"We don't know all the details yet but, it is clear that he knew about her use of ‘Louis’ as an alias before the office party, so he engineered everything that transpired. For some weird reason, he just wanted to see his wife and you in a compromising situation. It was after that event that he put into action his plan to take you out of the picture permanently.”

The Inspector let that sink in for a few seconds.

“He put out a contract on you a week before the party. The instructions were not to do anything before he was out of the country the following week. The almost perfect alibi, or so he thought."

Louisa sat back.
“All that because his wife used my name instead of her lover’s real name?”

“That’s it in a nutshell.”

“Who is the lover?”

He smiled.

“Your brother.”

Louisa sat down, shaking.

"My brother? He was killed in Kandahar, what…? Eight years ago?"

“That’s what we thought. However, we have evidence that he’s still alive and in London.”

No one said anything for several seconds.

Eventually, Louisa said,

“This is not good. Not good at all.”

“Why? Why do you say that?” asked the Inspector.

"He and I had a huge falling out before he went overseas. He defrauded our parents out of around fifty grand. He was always getting into trouble with the law. After he joined the army, he was ok. That all changed after he did a tour to Afghanistan. He came back a different person. His whole attitude was that the world owed him a life of luxury, but I didn't believe a word of it. Twin brothers often know this sort of thing. I thought that he would leave the army and strike out on his own, but then I caught him dipping his hands into our parent's savings as if it was his very own nest egg we had this big bust-up. He escaped having to face our father by going back to Kabul. Then a month later, we received the news that he’d died when a missile hit the Helicopter he was travelling in when going on a mission.”

Louisa paused to gather her thoughts.

"According to the Army, there was a massive explosion mostly from the explosives they were going to use to blow up a Taliban supply route. There was little or nothing left of those on board. Our parents… well, they took it hard. I didn't believe that he was dead. That thing that twins have again. Now you tell me that he’s the reason that I was attacked?”

“That’s the scenario given the information we have at the moment.”

Louisa muttered a load of very nasty swear words under her breath.

Finally, she said,
“Do you know where he might be?”

"So far, we know that he's in London. As yet, that is it. We have circulated the most recent photo of him to all Police Divisions in the Capital as well as Thames Valley, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Bedfordshire and Essex Constabularies.”

"That will do nothing. If I know my brother, he's changed his appearance. I would bet that he looks like a Muslim. Shaven head, beard and traditional clothes."

Everyone looked at Louisa in astonishment so Louisa explained the background to her statement.

“Before he went to Afghanistan for his first tour, he read the Koran and studied Muslim culture. He even asked me to go to visit a Mosque with him. He said that if he was going to be a peacekeeper, then the very least he should do was to try to understand their society.”

An eerie silence fell over the room.

“You know that I’m going to have to pass this information on to the Security Services?”

"As you see fit. Your next question may well be about, could he be responsible for the incident with the Surface to Air missile? The answer is yes. Every time I thought about his death, I got an image of him watching the chopper going down in flames. He was always causing trouble, but somehow it was never his fault, and he never got caught, but he was always easily led. I don't see him going over to the other side a big problem for him. Just tell him what he wants to hear and, he'd be your best friend… Until the next time, that is."

Louisa hesitated before saying.
“My brother was injured by an IED on his first tour. Nothing more than a flash wound but I knew it when it happened. A lot of twins are like that. I never felt a thing when that helicopter was supposed to have exploded. That has always led me to believe that he was still alive but I never had any proof so I never said anything. What you said was a surprise but not altogether a shock if you get my meaning.”

“That is a very sanguine description of your flesh and blood,” said the Inspector.

Louisa smiled.
"I lost count of the number of times he tried to get me to take the fall for him when he was the instigator. One time he stole some things from a shop in town. He scarpered with the loot. The Police nabbed me as I walked down the street. I fitted the description perfectly. The problem was that when he did the dirty deed, I was in the process of having a filling at the dentist. They let me go once the dentist had checked my teeth. Even so, he sweet-talked his way out of getting prosecuted. We were both banned from that shop for life. That's why, when I fell out with him for the last time over taking money from our parents from then on, he was my brother in name only.”

“What about John Peterson? What’s going to happen to him?”

“He is in custody. We will charge him with conspiring with others to rob thirty-two properties over the past three years. We will probably add conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and GBH on his wife. The latter is all recorded on CCTV. Putting her in hospital will earn him five years in prison at the very least. There are other charges, that need not concern you. These will be presented to his legal team in the next few days. It would not surprise me that he gets at least fifteen years even with a guilty plea."

“But he knows that I’m still alive?”

“It appears that he does. He does not care one way or the other. He got what he felt was his revenge on you for his deranged mind telling him that you were sleeping with his wife. She's left him and gone into hiding. The last time we spoke to her, she felt sure that he was going to come after her. Her phone went dead and hasn't been on the network since then. Her last known location was in Wrexham, but that means nothing as I’m sure that you are only too aware.”

Louisa started to say something but stopped.

Then she said,
“That’s the reason no one in our little group could contact her. She’s the only one of the women that I ever escorted who has not either helped me directly or sent their best wishes for me. What you have said, Inspector fills in those blanks."

“I wonder…” muttered Louisa.

“If it is true that my brother has become a Muslim, she could be with him and, if so then to fit in, she could be wearing Muslim dress. Wearing a Hijab or a Niqab, she would appear as just another Muslim woman. If she acted properly in that role, then it would be the perfect cover. That way they, could travel as a couple, and no one would question it. But that is all supposition on my part so, I could be very wrong."

Deep down, Louisa hoped that she was indeed very wrong. She and her brother had always been like chalk and cheese. The bad set of genes went to her brother. That fact was clear to the whole family by the time they were five. Still, they lived in hope that time would make them both good people. They had even gone a year without speaking to each other. That was because of the grief that Louis had received due to the behaviour of his brother.

An awful lot more questions remained unanswered. Louisa was happy with one thing. That was the confirmation of Louis’s feelings that his brother was still alive. Finally, someone had the sense to see beyond the obvious and believe her claims that his brother was still alive.

The fact that her brother might seek revenge against her was worrying.
[to be continued]