I’d forgotten how nice it was to wake up with someone of the opposite sex lying in bed next to me. It had been a good night. We’d both needed to unwind. Heather was right. A good romp in bed had been a great way to relax, and be normal for a few hours.

Heather had made it clear from the outset, that this was a one-off event. For some strange reason, that had made it all the more enjoyable.

I looked over and saw that she was still away with the fairies. I slid out of bed and headed for the kitchen and the coffee machine.

I was halfway through my second cup when a voice behind me said,
“Leave some for me! I’m going for a shower.”

Heather was up and about. That was both good and bad. Good that she was up. Bad in that today would more than likely be my first day as Steffi or the version of Steffi that Heather would get to bend and mold to her satisfaction. Heather had shown me how she worked when she had a target to aim at. My rehab had been a big target for her. At times, it had been painful but she got me through it. That was one of the reasons I'd let her come here with me, was that I wanted her to educate me in the finer arts of being Steffi but was far too scared to mention it at the time.

---

“You were deep in thought when I got up weren’t you?” said Heather as she poured herself some coffee.

“Yeah. Just thinking about the future and the stonking great mountain that lies ahead of both of us.”

“Well, Steffi… How is your German?"

“A little rusty but having been born on an Army base here, I was bilingual until we moved back to Birmingham when I was eleven.”

“I wondered why you chose here. It now makes sense.”

“Even if I have a Westphalian accent… That is noticeable in this part of the world. At least it isn’t as guttural as North German.”

“And?” asked Heather reading my mind.

“There aren’t a lot of brits living around this part of Germany. Yanks yes, but that is because this was part of the American Sector after the war. We as in the Brits were farther north. One place we were based was at Bunde when my father was with ‘Two Div Signals’. That is the second division of the Royal Signals.”

“You are a dark horse,” aren’t you?”

“Not really. As I said yesterday, keeping my cards close to my chest, is… Well, I’d like to think that it played a good part in keeping me in the shadows for as long as it did.”

“About those shadows? Any update on the arrests in the UK?”

“Yeah.”

I opened my laptop and showed her the page that I’d been looking at earlier.

The headline read, “How far does this corruption go?”

“You did keep some more data bombs in reserve, didn’t you?”

"Yes, there is. If I disappear or die, it will get released. There are a few politicians from all the major parties both in the West Midlands and in Westminster that will have to fall on their collective swords if it does get out. I have pictures of bribes being accepted and details of properties rented for their bits on the side so to speak.”

“You might be a pretty face but underneath you are a weasel.”

I laughed.
“Pretty? Hardly. At least not without some expertly applied makeup,” I replied looking at her.

“I’m hardly the person to do it. I was never keen on wearing a lot of slap. One thing about being a nurse is that in most areas, you simply can’t wear much more than some lippy.”

“I’ll need to go out soon. I have to visit the Post Office and collect my mail.”

“Are you expecting something?”

“I hope so but, in any event, there will be some to deal with. Since I bought this place, I’ve tried to get here every four months or so. My accident happened a couple of weeks before I was due to come over.”

“There was nothing about this place in your MI5 file.”

“But this place falls under MI6 does it not?”

“Yeah. But even so, there was nothing about Germany or trips here. All that it said was that you took a number of regular breaks to either France or Italy.”

I smiled back at her.
“That was true but was a diversion. Say, I flew to Venice for a weekend break. There is a hotel that would have records showing that I checked in and checked out as planned. Once checked in, I’d take the train here. The high-speed rail network in Europe is surprisingly good you know. I’m sure that you can fill in the blanks. If you time it right, you can get here from Venice and back in a day. The same goes for Paris. Trains to a station not that far from here run from the Gare de L'est which is just two minutes’ walk from where the Eurostar terminates. The people I associated with in Brum were under the impression that I had a bit on the side and those trips were for our clandestine meetings. A hint or two there and a hint there… I’m sure that you get the idea.”

Heather shook her head.
“You did string me along, didn’t you?”

I chuckled.
“No more than you, nurse come police officer come MI5 agent.”

“Touche!”

We both laughed at the temporary relief.

---

“That will have to do for now,” said Heather as she finished styling my hair almost two hours later.

I looked at her efforts in the mirror.
“That’s far better than I could have done.”

“Practice Steffi, practice.”

“I know and I’m going to get plenty of that while we are here.”

Heather didn’t reply.
“Are you thinking of bailing out?”

She shook her head.
“I was just trying to list all the things that I’m going to have to teach you. It is pretty long and I’m sure that it will get longer.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Shall we go out?”

Again, she hesitated.

“What’s wrong?”
“Do you think that we were followed?”

“No, it isn’t that. You just seem to have come alive this past hour. It is as if I have let a demon escape.”

I laughed.
“No demon, Heather dear, just a plain brown moth emerging from its larval stage."

“Why not a butterfly?”

“That my dear is reserved for you. I’m the plain Gypsy Moth while you are the Painted Lady.”

We both laughed as we got ready to go out.

---

“That was a good trip,” said Heather as we returned to the flat.

“I’m glad that it was useful.”

She held up a dress that I’d bought for her.

“Do you want me to wear this tonight?”

“I’d like it very much.”

Then she sighed.
“Your wardrobe is far more… vibrant than I’m used to?”

“Vibrant? I’ve never thought of it that way. I just bought things that I liked… and before you say it, I know that I don’t have any real sense of what goes with what from wearing it. Most of my ideas were gained from watching people at the Bullring or Merry Hill[1] buying stuff. What I do know now, is that a lot of what I have is for women a lot younger than the likes of us.”

Heather laughed.
“Speak for yourself. The right clothes can take years off a woman’s apparent age.”

“Or make her look like mutton dressed as lamb?”

“Speak for yourself.”

I sighed.
“While we were out just now, did you notice what sort of clothes that women of about our age were wearing?”

She didn’t answer.
“In case, you didn’t notice, they were simple practical clothes. It was good that it was raining and we had our coats on but I know that what I was wearing was not like everyone around us.”

Heather thought for a moment.
“Yes, you are right.”

“What I have is more for going out when as you say, you want to take years off your apparent age.”

“Then you will need to get some other clothes, won’t you?”

“As will you.”

Heather glared at me for a second. Then she smiled.

“A new start for both of us then?”

“Exactly,” I replied.

---

[eight and a bit months later]

“What do you think of the result?” I asked Heather as I switched off my laptop.

Jonjo’s trial that had been held at the Old Bailey in London, had just finished. He’d been found guilty of ordering nine murders over a period of six years. He’d been sentenced to a whole life term. Five members of his ‘crew’ had also received jail terms of at least 30 years.

“He got a small part of what he deserved,” she said softly.

“Do I detect a twinge of regret?”

“There is some because he is my flesh and blood, but the man is or rather was a mobster straight out of the Capone model.”

“Now he’s going to be taken back to Glasgow. Then the real circus will begin,” said Heather.

“You think that he’ll get off?”

“He’ll never stand trial there. If you think that you had a lot of dirt on a lot of people… then think again. There are people all over Scotland that owe him big time. Then again, there are a load of people with a score to settle with him. I'd back the latter to have someone shank him while he is on remand. It will show the underworld that no one, even Jonjo is above retribution if they go too far. That is one way out…"

“Escape then?”

“That or he’d die trying to. There is no way that Jonjo will ever serve a day of any sentence in Scotland.”

“That’s very a fatalistic point of view?”

“I grew up with the bastard trying to own me, didn’t I?”
“When I was sixteen, he wanted to sell me out to a rival leader just to get someone inside his camp.”

That was news to me.
“What did you do?”

Heather smiled.
“I went to the other gang and told them what was supposed to happen. It turns out that they knew all about it. They had a mole deep inside his gang.”

“What happened then?”

“I stole his wallet early one morning and simply walked away, or rather took the train to Manchester and got a job. As soon as I turned eighteen, I started training as a nurse in the Army. Even Jonjo got the message and a truce was called but I never forgot what he wanted to do to his very own sister.”

“To the rivalry with the other gangs?”

“Oh that… There was some ‘example making’ where a few foot soldiers on each side were sacrificed as in getting sent down to Barlinnie prison for at least a ten stretch. Then they joined forces only for Jonjo to get run out of Scotland a year later after he’d got the wrong end of the stick with my Pa and a copper talking footie. The dickhead never thought that if Da was ratting him out, he would not do in in a pub just across the street from Ibrox Park and in view of everyone.”

“How ironic…?”

"That was the only time in his life where he was outplayed. Mind you, was his very own fault for being so paranoid."

“Can we do anything to stop him… getting free?”

Heather shook her head.
“If my old boss is on the ball then he’ll be well aware of what may well go down before his trial.”
“And if he isn’t?”

Heather smiled,
“As they say, that is well beyond my pay grade.”

“Pay grade? You are not exactly in gainful employment at the moment, are you?”

“That’s true,” she replied laughing.

"I think that we need to get some air. Fancy a walk?

“Then… some Coffee and Torte at the café near the river?”

“Now why didn’t I think of that?” I replied grinning.

---

“Do you know what today is?” I asked Heather a few days later.

“No. Is it something special?”

“It is one year since you came into my life.”

“Oh… I forgot all about that.”

“It has been a pretty good year, hasn’t it?”

“Not bad. You have come a long way Steffi, a very long way.”

“Are you happy here?”

“Yes… But I get the feeling that you are about to say something very important?”

“Sort of. About us?”

Heather sat and waited for me. This is one of the many things that I’d grown to love about her.

“I… I don’t want you to go away… ever.”

“Me going away? Where do I have to go other than here?”

“You were in the Bahnhof yesterday. I saw you looking at train times when I came out of the bookshop.”

"Bummer. Caught in the act. Yes, I was looking at the train times. We haven't been out of the city, since we came here. I was thinking of a trip to the Black Forrest.”

“That is a great idea.”

“You don’t sound all that convinced?”

“I was thinking about us.”

“Oh… that us?”

I nodded my head.

Heather reached over the table and took my hand.
“Aren’t we good?”

I didn’t reply.
“You want more don’t you?”

I nodded my head.
“I’ve been with you 24/7 for the past year. I never managed more than a month or so with a girlfriend before that. I like being with you.”

“I love you and have done for months.”

“Were you scared to tell me?”

“I was but… What about you?”

It was Heather's turn to think hard.

“It is a bit complicated,” she said eventually.

I said nothing. I couldn’t all sorts of things were flashing through my mind. Most of them were not good.

“I was… engaged to be married before I was assigned this case.”

“Oh fuck.”

“Do you remember that day you went off to god knows where?”

“Yeah. You went to Morecambe to meet your handler.”

Heather nodded her head.

“I met with him and told him that it was over between us.”

“What? You were engaged to your handler? Isn’t that against the rules?”

“Not exactly. I didn’t go there with intending to do that but I was well over an hour early so I parked myself in a café not far from where we were due to meet.”

“I remember you telling me that it was by the old railway station.”

"That's the place. I was just getting ready to leave when his car drew up nearby. He got out of the driver's door. That was good. What I didn't expect was that a heavily pregnant woman got out of the passenger's door and then after kissing him, she got in the car and drove it away.”

“That wasn’t good to see, was it?”

“That’s an understatement. I had it out with him at my meeting. I told him that it was over and that I was done with the department. He accepted that it was over between us but refused to accept my resignation.”

“But you said that you had quit?”

"I did. After she went off in the car with his partner, I called his boss. I told her everything and resigned on the spot. Her last words were, do what you think is right but persuaded me to hold back on the resignation. I did until the news about Jonjo broke. That was it. My work in the Polis and MI5 was done.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say that even when we got here and had sex, I was not even contemplating getting into a relationship with another man let alone one who has been living as a woman these past months. Then the other day, while I was in the railway station, I have to admit that I did think about leaving but… I couldn’t. I wanted to stay… for good.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I… I wanted to but somehow, I couldn’t. I’ve never felt like that before. I’m sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about. We have both been around the block more than once haven’t we, eh?”

“That’s true.”

“Where do we go from here? There is the little matter of the price on my head.”

“I’ve been thinking about that myself. There is only one way to stop it and that is to go and face my brother.”

"What? Us go to Barlinnie? Are you mad or something?"

Heather nodded.

“That’s exactly what I mean apart from you being your old self for one or two days.”

“I need to think about this.”

“Jonjo needs to understand that you didn’t rat him out. Why would you do that and get so badly hurt?”

“Jonjo will see it as nothing more than me giving myself an alibi.”

“You know who did rat him out don’t you?”

“I do. It took me a while but I worked it out. He’s back in CID in Liverpool. At least his name has appeared in reports of a trial at Liverpool Crown Court as someone who gave evidence in a case a month or so back."

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I didn’t know how. Everything here seems so far away from what happened in Brum a year and a bit ago.”

“You went through a lot before we met.”

"And a lot more afterwards, but I needed to be driven, as you did."

"That sounds very fatalistic?" asked Heather.

"Not fatalistic but the truth. There were times when I could happily have killed you but I got over it and here we are now."

There was silence between us. I broke it.

“I’m a bit scared of trying to be the old me. After so long being schooled as Steffi and, very successfully so, I don’t know how much there is of the old me left and that is all down to you my dear.”

“So, I’m to blame then?”

"No. Far from it. Your hard work has made me the person I am today. Still, a work in progress though, and having to become Tony even if just for a day or so."

Heather reached over and held my hands.
“I’m going nowhere unless it is with you.”

I smiled.
“I guess that we’d better plan our return to the UK then?”

“That’s your job. I’ll get busy with the schnitzel for tonight while you do it.”

[to be continued]
[1] The ‘Bullring’ and ‘Merry Hill’ are shopping centres in and around Birmingham.