Chapter 2
Shoplifters

Detective Sergeant Julie Rowntree and Detective Constable Trudy Terry had been thrown together by North Yorkshire Police to form a specialist team based in York. The main reason they had been grouped together was because they were considered to be a pair of oddballs that other teams did not particularly want to include, Julie because she was a transgender woman, and Trudy because she was labelled as a ‘man-hating feminist dyke’ even though it was not true.

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Trudy and I had a relaxing weekend at the flat after the successful first week operating from the York Police headquarters , I showed her around York, the Minster, the museums, the shops, the riverside, and obviously the many cafés, bars and restaurants. We had even come to an arrangement regarding keeping the flat tidy, she did the cooking and left everything lying around, I washed up and put stuff away; she left clothes and other stuff lying around and I threw them all on her bed for her to sort out; she left cosmetics and toiletries all over the bathroom, I bought a bin to throw it all in; I thought she was messy and untidy, she thought i was a neat-freak. However, despite our differences in character we found that we enjoyed each others company and got on well.

It was a pleasant sunny summer’s morning, no Monday-blues, so Trudy and I decided to walk the mile or so into work instead of driving down, with all the traffic congestion around the city it did not take that much longer. Refreshed after the walk and with a cup of coffee to hand, we settled down to review the last of the four cases we had been allocated the previous week, a spate of shoplifting in one of the main shopping centres in the city.

There appeared to be a gang going around the specialist high-end shops working in pairs, at various times and in appropriate shops, working as a team of two women or as mixed couples. Usually one of the pair distracted the staff by asking for additional items to be brought out from the display cabinets, whilst the other pocketed one or more of the items left on the counter and left the shop before the loss was noticed. There was no pattern to their thefts except that it was usually high value, small and easily portable. There was usually decent CCTV coverage, but the thieves always seemed to know where the cameras were positioned and where they were directed and managed to avoid capture of their faces. By the time the shopping centre security staff turned up the culprits had totally disappeared, usually getting lost by going into one of the major department stores, with no video records of them leaving.

“How about hitting the shops Trudy, we haven’t had a visit yet from Wainwright with his patronising sarcasm, let’s get out before he ruins what has started as a beautiful week.” Detective Inspector Charles Wainwright had been a right pain from the day we arrived. He led the detective team at York and hadn’t accepted that Trudy and I were acting as an independent unit, responsible directly to County Headquarters, and he seemed intent on making our lives difficult.

We hopped on a bus back to the Castle in the City centre and went into the Castlegate Centre, which is a mixture of the Jorvik Viking Museum, department stores, major chain retailers, lots of specialist high-end small shops, and the usual cafe’s and bars, and went to the management suite to talk to the security people.

“Good Morning, I’m Detective Sergeant Julie Rowntree and this is Detective Constable Trudy Terry, we are looking into the recent spate of what seem to be organised and pre-planned thefts that you have reported. What I can’t understand is that this a a relatively new shopping centre and you must have up-to-date security systems, CCTV, panic alarms, constant communication with your ‘feet on the ground’ security team, surely when you have an incident you can react quite quickly, close down exits or at least alert your staff to look out for the thieves.”

“Our problems that this is a fairly open arcade with several entrances and lifts and stairs to car parks, to all intents it is an extension of the public street system, we just haven’t got the staff to effectively seal the place without causing major complaints from customers and tenants. Although all the shops have their own security and CCTV systems they are independent and do not link into our central system. Other than panic alarms, our systems only cover the common areas.”

“When you have had incidents have you not been able to follow the thieves on camera and see where they have gone?”

“Usually they disappear into one of the large stores and there are no images of them leaving again. We’ve even checked the stores’ CCTV and they just seem to go into changing rooms or toilets, which are not allowed to be covered by cameras, and then disappear into thin air.”

“Please pick out a few recent incidents and let us have copies of CCTV images from your system and whatever the shops’ coverage shows around the time it all happened, say 1 hour either side of the time of the thefts. And please provide a list of items that you know have been stolen, say over the last month. If you put it all on a USB memory, we’ll pick it up later, on the way home tonight.”

We spent an hour or so looking around the centre to get a feel for where things were and how it could all be managed and controlled. The security manager was right, it was not an easy place to lock down and control, it was too open and so busy that it would be easy to lose yourself in a crowd. We made our way back to Fulford Road headquarters to see what new cases were waiting there for us.

“ Good afternoon Sergeant Rowntree, Trudy, Inspector Wainwright has been looking for you, I think he would like you to call in to see him.” beamed Sheila, the station receptionist, one of the main people on our side in the ongoing verbal scuffles with Wainwright.”

“ Give us a few minutes to settle in and get coffees and then call him to let him know we are back in the office, please Sheila.”

As expected 5 minutes later Wainwright swept through the door with the new engraved brass nameplate ‘The Odd Squad. Special Investigations Unit’, into our office and plonked himself down onto a spare chair, without being invited to do so. “ Where on earth have you been Rowntree, I’ve been looking for you all morning, expecting you to report to me on the progress you have made with the shop thefts, and to pass on some new cases for you?”

“ Please be civil when you come in here Inspector Wainwright, please call me ‘Sergeant Rowntree’ or even Julie if you are in a good mood. I didn’t realise that you expected me to report my comings and goings to you, I remind you that we are not on your team, but are working directly to Superintendent Scargill in Northallerton ! Our investigations into the shop thefts are ongoing, we will keep you informed when we have made significant progress or have cracked the case.”

“ May we have a word in private?” he growled, through gritted teeth, casting an eye at Trudy.

“ I would prefer for DC Terry to stay, we are working as a team and anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of her. Besides, when you are in such an angry mood, I do not feel safe in your company and feel more comfortable with someone else around.”

“ We’ll talk another time. I will not be spoken to like that.” he shouted, turning red, threw some case files on to the desk and stormed out.

“ Julie, you shouldn’t wind him up like that, you seem to trigger all the right buttons with him, but don’t push him too far, he can make life very difficult for us, his team are still very loyal to him, despite the pompous way he treats them.”

“As I told you before Trudy, it has been made very clear to him that we do not report to him, he is a bully, full of his own importance and can’t stand that. I am not going to let him intimidate me. If he is civil and polite to me I will be the same to him, but if he wants a fight he has picked the wrong girl.”

“ Ok , we’ll leave that for now but watch your back, because if he gets his claws into you, I’ll suffer as well. What has he left us anyway?”

“ Just a couple of case files today, you have a look through that one and I’ll take this.”

We spent the rest of the day reviewing the files and looking on the official records and on the public internet files for background information on the problems.

“What have you got then Trudy, anything interesting for us to get out teeth into?”

“ I like the look of this one. A couple of months ago at the race meeting over in Wetherby there was a wave of assaults and robberies, mainly against women. Intelligence reports say that this is expected to be repeated at the big Ebor festival meeting at the Knavesmire racecourse on the edge of the city later in the week. Obviously there will be the normal course security staff, and a few uniformed police there for show, but it has been suggested that some undercover officers mingling in with the big crowds might pick up on activities that would not take place in sight of officials. I’ve arranged with the course officials to provide us with passes for ourselves and a couple spare, covering all areas of the course including the grandstands and the main reception suites”

“ That looks more fun than mine. Relatives of residents at a care home on the outskirts of the city have reported that their elderly parents have disappeared from the home and that nobody there knows where they have gone. This has been going on for a few weeks now, and every week another one or two vanish. We can’t do much more on the shoplifting case until we get the CCTV records and the race meeting doesn’t start until Wednesday, so that leaves us with just the care home for the moment. Let’s pop out there and have a chat with the manager, and we’ll pick up the shopping centre CCTV on the way home.”

We drove out to the Rose-acre Residential Home with its welcoming sign on the gate pillars ‘Considerate care for the elderly’, wound our way up the drive through the extensive gardens to a large Victorian house that had obviously once been the proud home of an affluent local businessman and his family, but was now showing its age, with maintenance limited by a minimal investment, either because of too tight a budget or because of excessive profit taking and only carrying out the bare essentials.

We were met with by a smartly dressed receptionist, with a plastered-on smile. “Good afternoon Ladies, welcome to Rose-acre, have you come to consider trusting an elderly relative to our care? We live up to our mission statement ‘Considerate care for the elderly’ and treat our residents with the respect and attention they deserve. We can arrange to show you around our facilities if you wish.”

“Actually we are from North Yorkshire Police and we would like to speak to whoever is in charge here.” Trudy replied on our behalf, which turned the false smile into a real scowl.”

“ What is it about please.” she managed to get out, making it obvious that she was not pleased to see us, “ Everyone is busy at the moment, I am not sure who is available. What is this all about?”

“ Look dear, stop messing us about, I would like to talk to the manager, get them here immediately or I will arrange for some squad cars to come racing up your drive with lights flashing and sirens blaring, how do you think that will go down with your neighbours and the local press when they get to hear about it?”

A quick phone call and one minute later we were in the office of the manager and owner Mr Duncan Rose.

“ Good afternoon Mr Rose, I’m glad you can spare the time to talk to us. Before we start can I suggest that you improve your receptionist’s people skills, she turned from sickly sweet to difficult, sour and bitter in an instant when she found out that we were not potential clients.”

“ I’ll pass on your comments to my receptionist, who is also my wife, but whether she will take any notice is anybody’s guess, she does not take criticism very well.” he replied with a wry smile. “How can I help you?”

“ As you are aware several of your residents have left recently and disappeared into thin air, can you give us a bit more background please? Were they particularly ill, or upset or disgruntled about anything?”

“As you say there are now eight of our residents who have left, we have no idea why, or where they have gone, all we know is that over several days we found their rooms empty and their few belongings had gone. I am not aware of any reasons why they should suddenly decide to leave like that, nor have their relatives, but you are welcome to talk to our care staff, they are closer to our residents than I am. Obviously we, and you, are primarily gravely concerned for their welfare, but this is affecting us quite badly, their relatives have all cancelled their payments and we have almost half our rooms empty, but still have staff wages to pay, we want to get this sorted or we may not survive.”

“ Thank you Mr Rose, please arrange to send us what details you have of family, former addresses, and any known medical problems. I realise that you have already passed on a lot of this information, but I want to make sure that nothing has been forgotten or lost. If it is convenient, could you give us a quick tour so that we can get a feel for your facilities?”

After the tour we made our way out with a parting shot by Trudy to the receptionist/manager’s wife. “Nice to meet you, we hope to see you again soon.” She was definitely starting to learn from my sarcastic backchat to Wainwright.

Sitting in the car before leaving Rose-acre we reviewed what we had seen. “ What do you think Trudy, would you consider binging your elderly relatives here?”

“ I think my parents would rather be knocked down by a bus than move in here. The place is definitely looking a bit seedy and is badly in need of a bit of decorative care and attenion. Most of the residents seemed drugged up on sedatives, sitting staring into space, bored to tears, and the staff seem business-like but not particularly caring or interested. Did you see the activities schedule. ‘Chair-aerobics, bingo, sing-along with songs from the 1940s, and most of the time allocated to watching TV, with retirement to bedrooms at 8:00pm’. It is no wonder that so many of them have left, or probably better described as escaped. Duncan Rose and his shrew of a wife seem more concerned about the loss of income than the loss of people in their care.”

“ You might be right, escaped is a better word. The fact that they have left one-by-one says to me that they are leaving for somewhere else better, rather that being the victims of crime. Let's get the data from Rose-acre and see if we can find any common ground between them. We’ll go down to Castlegate to pick up the CCTV images to look at tomorrow, and then go straight home.”

We collected the memory bank from the shopping centre security and while we were there went down to one of the arcade cafés for a cappuccino and a danish pastry.

“We are going to the races at the end of the week, Wednesday is reasonably informal, but Thursday is ‘Ladies’ Day’, a big social event worked around the race meeting, and that is a bit dressier, it normally requires a posh-frock, hat, and heels. You are a jeans and tee-shirt girl Trudy, do you have anything a bit classier, or should we have a look around the shops while we are here?”

“You definitely did the right thing coming over to our side, your thinking is more girly than mine. However you are right, At university it was either sloppy casual or ‘out for the night on the pull’ sexy gear, I don’t have anything that you would call classy, and as for a hat, other than my school uniform beret I can’t remember ever wearing one, I can dig out some FM stilettos though.”

I already had a dressy off-white cocktail dress with matching bolero that would do, so it was mainly looking for an outfit for Trudy. After traipsing around the department stores we found a specialist ‘Ladies’Wear’ shop that had a delightful imitation silk cornflower cocktail dress, that fitted Trudy like a glove, along with a cashmere and silk pashmina as a back-up if it turned chilly. She usually wore sloppy casual stuff so I was surprised at what a shapely figure she showed when wearing a figure-hugging dress, It was a bit on the pricey side but it was the sort of dress that would never really go out of fashion and could be in the wardrobe for many years to come. We managed to find in the same shop a pair of hats to match our outfits, mine was a small pillbox with birdcage veil, and Trudy preferred a low-key fascinator with feathers. If we were successful with solving the problems at the racecourse I would find a way to swing the costs onto expenses, but otherwise we could live with the cost ourselves. A bit of joint shopping therapy had cheered us up after what we had seen at Rose-acre.

When we got home I pulled out my dress and bolero to make sure they were clean and wrinkle free, and modelled it for Trudy to make sure it still fitted in all the right places, changed back into casual leggings and sloppy jumper, phoned for a pizza delivery, and we settled down for the night.
We generally did not discuss work at home, just switching off, but both of us were a bit uncomfortable with what we had seen at Rose-acre so that kept creeping into the conversation, usually triggered by something on TV. It was a case that originally had not appealed to either of us, but we were now determined to make sure the escapees were fine and find out what caused them to leave.

Trudy spent most of Tuesday morning going through the CCTV from the shopping centre, while I worked on the missing list that had been sent through by Rose-acre. There were no visits from our least favourite DI, so we had a quite pleasant morning.

“ Come and have a look , Boss, I think that I may have got something here !” called Trudy excitedly. “I started off looking at a robbery at a jewellers when an expensive ring was stolen by a young woman, taking advantage of the sales assistant helping a middle-aged woman who had fainted. The Mall CCTV showed the two women meeting up later, carrying shopping bags and going into the one of the big stores and they were then caught on the store’s system picking out a few skirts and trousers, and going into the changing rooms. I looked for them to come out again, which never happened, so I phoned security and they confirmed that there is no way out of there other than via the sales floor which is covered by cameras.”

“ OK, but from the grin on your face that is not the end of the story, go on.”

“ There had to be a logical answer, so I then looked at who had left around the the same time and found a couple of women coming out that I couldn’t trace going in. Obviously our two suspects had disguised themselves whilst they were in there and came out wearing completely different clothes and altered hair styles, obviously wearing or changing wigs, but they handed back the items they had taken in with them, proving it was the same people.The mall cameras showed them going into the multi-storey car park and driving off, and, would you believe, I was able to pick out the car registration plate. I think we may have our girls.”

“Excellent work Trudy, have you got an address to go with the car registration?”

“ Of course I have, are we going round to see what we can find.”

“ Let’s arrange for a uniformed officer to meet us there, we don’t have enough yet to get a search warrant, but if your suspicions are correct I want to leave an officer there while we go for one, so that they can’t get rid of any evidence.”

We rang the door bell at the registered address for the car, a 1930s mid-terrace house on the edge of the City, and it was answered by a slim young man with his hair tied back in a pony-tail, who looked ever so nervous when he saw the PC in uniform behind us.

“ DC Terry and DS Rowntree, may we come in to talk please? Is there anyone else at home.” Trudy introduced us showing our warrant cards.

“ Mam, the police are here, they want to talk to us.”

We heard the back door slam and The PC quickly went through to the kitchen to find it empty. He went out looking for ‘Mam’ but there was no sign of her, she had obviously done a runner, leaving ‘Son’ to face us alone.

“ It looks like you are the fall guy here, your mother doesn’t seem to want to help us. and has left you to pick up the pieces. We are here investigating thefts that we believe were carried out by your mother and an accomplice, and the fact that she has run away makes us sure that she was involved. The last theft was carried out with the help of a young woman, about your age, have you any idea who that might be?”

No answer, but ‘Son’ looked extremely worried and upset.

“Looking around this room, you and your mother seem to be doing alright, new furniture, large flat-screen TV, you have a lot of nice stuff here. Do you mind us having a look around in the other rooms? If you say ‘No’, it won’t take long to get a search warrant, so you may as well just let us get on with it. For the record can you give us your name age and occupation please, and the same details of your mother and anyone else living here.”

“Go ahead, do what you have to. I’m Josie, that’s Joseph, Carmichael, I’m 19 and I’m an art and design student at the local college. My mother is Mary Carmichael, age 42, and she is currently unemployed and on benefits.”

Trudy and the PC went around the house to see if there was any sign of any of the stolen property, and she came back 10 minutes later looking very smug delicately holding a sapphire and diamond dress ring, very like the description of the one on our list.

“ I think we may have found the ring, and I think we may have also found the accomplice. Josie, can you please tell us why there is quite a collection of dresses, feminine underwear, make-up, and wigs, in your room, have you been going out with your mother on her shopping trips.”

Josie burst into tears and suddenly decided to start talking to us in a rather high-pitched feminine tone.

“ It was all Mam’s idea, she has always been involved in a bit of shoplifting, mainly basic essential items from the supermarkets and discount shops. My father left her when I was a child and she has struggled to keep things together. But about two months ago she decided that she wanted to go more up-market and that I had to help her. We worked as a pair, one or other of us distracting the sales staff while the other made off with something. We started in the smaller clothes shops, where she would take clothes into the changing rooms, decide which she wanted to keep and return the rest, the staff were always either too busy, or too distracted by other things to check the returns properly.”

“ Why do you have all the girls’ stuff Josie.?” interrupted Trudy.

Mam decided that I was hanging around looking bored and lost in some of the shops and that it looked suspicious, and that it would look more normal and be better if I went with her dressed as a girl, and insisted that I do it unless I wanted to leave home. I have always been quite slim and short for a boy and was able to look convincing when dressed up, nobody seemed to notice anything strange about me. Two women going into the changing rooms together seemed a more normal thing and we made a point of letting the sales staff outside hear us talking to each other as we tried on the clothes, making us appear as typical shoppers. At first I was uncomfortable and self-conscious wearing girls’ clothes but soon I began to enjoy these shopping trips especially when I went with her dressed as a girl as I have got to feel at ease wearing skirts and dresses, and it became more of a way to get a decent set of clothes for myself, rather to sell the stolen stuff on down at the market. We gradually moved more upmarket going for designer clothes, quality jewellery, and accessories. I think you probably know the rest.”

Joseph, we would like you to come into the station with us for a formal interview and an official reading of your rights. Before we go, please show us any stolen items that are still here, including the clothes you stole, we will need them as evidence.”

“ Most of the stuff in the house is either stolen or has been bought with money from selling stolen goods, so take your pick. Will I get the clothes back, I wear them most of the time now, I have got used to wearing them and it has just become normal and usual for me. I almost live full time as a girl now, except when I am going to college, and even there when I am wearing boys’ stuff I am still often mistaken for a girl. We were going out as a woman and son team this afternoon which is why I’m dressed like this”

“ I expect that you will end up in jail after this all goes through and I think that it would not be a good idea taking the clothes with you where you will be going.”

By the time we got back to the station, Josie’s mother had already been picked up and was waiting in the interview room for us. At first she denied any involvement in crimes and said that she only ran away because she was frightened when she saw 3 strangers at the door. However when we confronted her with Josie’s statement, she broke down and confessed to a string of thefts, minor as well as valuable, over the years. She was kept in custody, but Josie was temporarily allowed out on bail as his involvement was only recent and under pressure from his mother.

Trudy took him home and was asked to make a coffee for herself whilst Josie had something to do. Soon Josie returned, and to her surprise Trudy was faced with an attractive late-teen girl, well but subtly made-up, in a thigh-length mini-skirt and low-cut cropped top. “This is how I like to look now and you should be able to pick me out on any CCTV records from the shops.” Although Trudy totally accepted me, it was still a shock to see someone else obviously going down the same path as I had.

“You do look good Josie, but some words of advice. appear in court as a male, you may get sent directly to prison, and I can assure you that you would not want to turn up looking like that.”

Back in the office, Trudy re-looked at the CCTV images, to confirm that Josie and his mother were around at the time of the other thefts, wrote up the case notes, and we were able to close the file on another case.

“ What do you want to do about the missing care-home residents boss, do we leave it until after the races, there’s not much of the day left to take it any further?”

“ Just look over the files again, see if any of them still have a property registered in their name, they might have decided to return home. If it was me, I’m sure that I wouldn’t want to stay in Rose-acre.”

We were just about to leave at the end of the day and had cleared our desks when we had a visit from DI Wainwright. “Good afternoon part-timers, I see that you are about to leave early whilst us real detectives stay on and do some proper work. I’m told that you are off to the races tomorrow, try to stay on the job, don’t go enjoying yourselves too much.”

“ If you and your team did your jobs properly, there would be no need for us to be there, and it would help surveillance if we had more people available from your team, however it seems that we’ll have to manage with just the two of us, but we are probably as effective as your whole team of men anyway. If you have anything useful to say, get on with it, otherwise we are off now.” The man really wound me up with his sarcastic patronising attitude and I just couldn’t stop myself being just as nasty back to him.

As normal when he came to our office, he stormed out slamming the door behind him looking like he was about to explode or have a heart attack, or even both.

“ Come on Trudy, let’s escape while we can, we’ll leave the Rose-acre case until after the race meeting, I have a feeling that the escapees are all safe somewhere and it is not too urgent.”

To be continued.