After I had composed myself from thinking about the horrible way my family had been murdered, and the tears had stopped flowing, , Megan released me from her comforting hug.

“Anyway, if you are now ok, we have something important to discuss.Progress has actually been made at work, I have been tasked with setting up a team, as Senior Investigating Officer, liaising with the regional Drug Squad to investigate Chapman and his gang. This may shock you, I want you on my team working at the station with us.”

“What on earth am I supposed to do, I have no police training, in fact the total opposite, what can I contribute and how am I going to keep a low profile walking into your station everyday.”

“If you agree, you will be working as Rhiannon, not as Andrew. No-one, and I mean no-one, at the station including my bosses, will know your real identity, so being spotted going into the station should not be a problem. Your role officially is as the contact to keep in touch with our informant that has led to this investigation. As far as anyone is concerned, you met Andrew in a pub one night when he was drunk and he poured his heart out about the death of his family, you convinced him that he needed to make the drugs gang pay for their crimes and you got in touch with me, your cousin. I take it that you can use a computer and keyboard, everyone can nowadays. You will start off typing a statement, as if you have been told it by Andrew, telling all the details of his involvement with Chapman from day one, to bring everyone on the team up to date, then the others will investigate the claims and try to gather evidence with your help. Obviously you will be on the payroll as a civilian consultant after we amend your CV history to reproduce that of my real cousin, just in case anyone is nosey and goes to HR to look you up.”

“Is it realistic for me to work closely with a team of naturally suspicious police officers, who are used to dealing with liars and fraudsters, how long will it take them to find a chink in my story, or in my appearance and manner.”

“Your story will stand up to any serous investigation, I will fill you in with as much detail as I can get about Rhiannon, who is conveniently up in the Highlands for a few weeks and well out of the way. As for your appearance, by the time we finish with you, you won’t even recognise yourself. For the next few days spend as much time as you can with Lucy, listen to how she talks, watch how she moves and the gestures she makes, and copy everything as much as you can, you need to not only look like a woman, but behave like one too.”

“Isn’t there an easier way of doing this?”

“We could put you in what is known as a safe house, however historically they are anything but, one tiny slip and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. This way you will be, as the saying goes, ‘hiding in plain sight’, the investigating squad room is the last place anyone will be looking for you.”

“Ok, I committed to helping you, let’s do this if it is the best thing for me. What did you mean when you said that by the time you finished with me I wouldn’t recognise myself.”

“Just a few little enhancements to make you more obviously female. I had anticipated having to twist your arm to dress as a woman, and wasn’t sure that I could get you to agree, I didn’t think it would be so easy for me and that you would make the decision yourself. In the morning you have an appointment at a beauty parlour the other side of the county for laser treatment on what little facial hair you have, and hair extensions to give you a more feminine style. In the afternoon it’s a visit to a cosmetic surgery for breast augmentation, effectively two small bladders go under the skin and are pumped up with silicone to give you breasts that look as natural as any woman’s, but the procedure is totally reversible. They’ll finish of with liposuction on your waist and transferring the fat onto your hips and buttocks, which will all give you a more realistic feminine shape, allowing you to wear much more figure-hugging clothes, so there will be no doubt at all that you are a real woman.”

“That all sounds a bit drastic, why not go the whole way and remove my penis while you are at it?” I snapped back at her.

“That was actually suggested, half-jokingly, but I don’t think we need to go that far, unless you propose to let a man into your panties.”

“I think I’ll give that a miss, thank you very much.”

The following day was hectic, I arrived early at the salon for the beauty treatments, stripped off my clothes, dressed in a loose knee-length gown and put myself in the hands of the technicians. The laser treatment and the extensions were relatively painless and didn’t worry me too much.Those were followed by hair-colouring to a honey-blonde, streaking and restyling, nail extensions and colouring, and a full facial exfoliation and makeover. By the time they had finished and I got dressed, I hardly recognised myself, looking back at me was a young attractive woman, Andy was nowhere to be seen.

The afternoon session at the surgery was a lot less pleasant, Even though I was given local anaesthetics to minimise the pain, I was still totally conscious during the processes and fully aware of what they were doing to me, every time anyone approached me with a scalpel I had visions of Joe Chapmen attacking me with a knife. The breast augmentation, liposuction and the buttock filling left me bruised sore and tender, I was glad Megan had advised me to wear loose-fitting clothes that would not rub or press on my sensitive skin. I was ever so glad when it was all over and couldn’t wait to get home, into comfortable clothes, and lie on my bed to recover.

“Stand up and let me have a look at what they have done to you.” Megan demanded when she returned. “Now you should know why us women are always looking at our profiles in a new dress asking ‘Does my bum look big in this’, and your breasts look amazing, a lot better than they would be with forms or ‘chicken fillet’ enhancers. I’m told that although you will have a bit of bruising for a few days, it should not be too painful and that you should be ok for light duties around the house. If you feel up to it, tomorrow go and spend a lot of time with Lucy and start learning to act like you now look.”

Still a bit sore but manageable I walked round to Lucy’s, or rather staggered in an ungainly manner as I hadn’t fully got used to my new weight distribution from from my breasts and buttocks.

“Hi Lucy, I told you I would come round when I could, is it convenient to come in?”

She didn’t need to be asked twice, she appeared glad of the company.

“I like the new look Rhiannon, it’s a lot brighter and more for your age, I’m getting a bit old for a lot of these new fashions, but I still try to look my best. You’l have to tell me where you had your hair done, I’m not too happy with my current hairdressers now that they have changed their stylist, and have been looking for someone new.”

I spent almost the whole day with her, gossiping about the beauty treatments I had, but obviously not what had been done to me at the surgery, her complimenting me on my new hairdo, although she was either to polite to mention the changes to my figure or didn’t even notice. She was a one-woman neighbourhood-watch knowing everything about the neighbours and what was going on with them all, who was having affairs or marital problems, who were the people that it was best to avoid and who were friendly and helpful.

“If you don’t mind me asking, you seem to have arrived in a bit of a rush, are you running away from someone?”

“You could say that.” It was obvious that she wasn’t going to let it drop and I needed to come up with a story. She saw that I was hesitating to reply and followed it up herself.

“Man trouble is it?”

“Isn’t it always?”

“Men are only good for two things dear, all the heavy stuff in the house and garden, and sex, and most of them are not as good at that as they think.” she offered with a twinkle in her eyes

“You’re right, most of the time that is more hassle than it is worth, sometimes I think that we would be better of without them. Let’s not get too bitter Lucy, I’m sure that you had a lot of good times with your partner in all the time you were together.” She went a bit weepy-eyed at that and I felt she wanted a bit of time with her memories and left to go back to Megan’s house.

I had only just got in when Megan arrived back home.

“Between recovering from yesterday and listening to Lucy most of the day, I haven’t had the time to prepare dinner Megan, do you fancy a takeaway or fish and chips.”

“Fish and chips sounds good, will you go down and get them while I have a shower?”

“I was hoping to sit down and have a rest, I am still tired from all the prodding and poking yesterday, but I should be able to manage the Chippy.”

On the way back with our meal, I was followed home by three youths making lewd and suggestive comments about my bum and my boobs, I was worried that they were going to go beyond words and attack me so I quickened my pace to try to get away from them. Unfortunately between my stiffness and soreness from the medical procedures and the heels I was wearing, I couldn’t really run, and didn’t have the confidence to face up to them.

As I approached the house, one of them rushed forward and grabbed my arm from behind. “You know what darling, pretty girls like you shouldn’t be on their own on the streets at night, let me see you back to my place, we can have a good time there.” I panicked, hit back with my elbow, causing him to let go of me, but making me drop the bag of fish and chips, and rushed up the steps to our door, leaving them laughing and walking off with our meal. I was never so grateful to get through a door and back into the safety of the house.

“What’s up Rhiannon, you are all flushed and sweaty.” Megan looked concerned at me shaking and about to burst into tears.

“I was followed home by a bunch of stupid sexist young lads making lewd comments and I thought that they were going to attack me, I just rushed past them, unfortunately dropping our meal as they grabbed at me, not saying a word as I knew that it would only provoke them to continue. I was frightened and left in a hurry before it got physical, leaving everything behind.”

“Welcome to the world of womanhood Rhiannon, we all get that from time to time. Thankfully it very rarely goes beyond that, but we all get scared, come here and get a hug, you look about to burst into tears.”

When I calmed down, not wanting to go out again in case the lads were still there, we ordered a takeaway which arrived not long afterwards. We had our meal and then sat down with a glass of wine to unwind.

“What happened to you earlier is just the sharp end of it all, when you start in the office next week you will find some of the lads giving you an undisguised good looking-over and you will probably get some mild innuendo or comments about our roles in the office. Just ignore it all rather than getting into arguments with them. Don’t let them turn you into their gopher or tea lady, stand up to them but do it with a ‘don’t be stupid’ smile on your face.”

“Surely they are not as bad as all that.”

Men can be such patronising pigs, I have lost track of the number of times I heard it said that I only got my promotion so as to meet the diversity quota requirements for senior female officers, despite the fact that I have a Masters degree in Criminal Law and have already passed my exams for promotion to the next level of Superintendent. You will have to deal with things like that in the squad room.That is what I meant about spending time with Lucy and learning how us women react to things. We don’t usually let men know how we feel about some of their comments, as we have grown up we have learned to ignore them or bite our tongues in frustration. Men can be such insensitive idiots at times, and I have reacted a few times, usually getting the comment thrown back at me, ‘My, we are a bit tetchy today, are you on?’, as if that is the only reason to be irritable.”

“Hey, come down off your soapbox, remember who you are talking to.”

“Not you of course, you are different to most men,”

“Too true I am Megan, particularly after yesterday, they are not that many around like me.”

“That’s not what I meant, you helped out your mother when you were younger, you have been happy to cook meals for me, you have got the place looking cleaner, tidier, and more organised than it has been for ages. You were sensitive enough to Lucy’s feelings to spend some time with her, despite your hard-man image you are really quite a softie, I wish there were more like you. Over the weekend we need to go shopping to get you some office wear. Trousers, which most of us wear, will now sit a lot better on you since the work on your figure, if you prefer, but I suggest that you wear a skirt or dress to stress your femininity.”

“I’ll bow to your knowledge and experience, you know a lot better than I do.”

We went to the local mall on Saturday morning and it was a totally different experience for me. Usually, as Andy, I went into a shop, looked through the racks, found something half-decent at a reasonable price, paid for it and left. However this was not good enough for Megan. We went into at least six shops, tried things on, rejected most of them for various reasons, usually by Megan on grounds of taste or fit.

I had bought a few pairs of trousers that fitted me snuggly, showing off my now female figure and some plain black or navy blue A-line skirts which Megan felt appropriate for office wear, along with several pairs of shoes and handbags. At Megan’s insistence I had my ears pierced and bought some costume jewellery, earrings, bangles and locket chains before we finally went home after one of the most varied and expensive shopping trips I had ever had.

By the time we left the shopping centre I was completely fatigued, physically and mentally.
Although I had prepared meals for the freezer during the week, we both felt that we would prefer a takeaway, and I offered to go down for fish and chips again.

“Are you sure that you feel ok about it after what happened last time, do you want me to go?”asked a concerned Megan.

“I can’t let those little idiots control my life, I will have to go out sometime, tonight’s as good a time as any. If those lads are there again I will just have to face up to them, but at least I will be prepared this time, with that deterrent spray you got for me. As it happened, the lads were not about and I made it to the fish shop and back without any bother, giving me a bit more confidence again. As Andy I would have squared up to them, giving them a load of verbals, but for some reason as Rhiannon I didn’t have that same bravado and thought that any threats from me would just be laughed off.

Sunday was all taken up with preparation for me starting work with Megan the next day, updating me on the state of their investigations, what my role would be and what would be expected of me. For a change there were no discussions of improving my presentation as a woman, Megan told me that I looked and acted just as naturally female as most of the other women at the station, in fact even more so than many of them.

To try to get myself in the best condition for what I was about to face, I had an early night in bed, but it was a waste of time, my mind was buzzing with lots of thoughts about what I was getting into and how I would be received by the rest of Megan’s team.

To be continued.