Babs’ New Year’s Resolution 85 © Copyright Beverly Taff 2021 May

List of Characters.

Lola Smith Bab’s adopted trans daughter.
Callista Denton (Callie). Transgendered Duchess of Denton.
Margaret Denton (Maggie). Callie’s wife.
Molly Denton Callie’s grandmother
Ellie Denton Callie’s mother.
Bab’s Barbara Smith. Lola’s adoptive ‘Nana’
Olivia Smith Bab’s adopted daughter. (Excellent Artist.)
Angela Smith Bab’s newly adopted daughter
Erica Bab’s foster daughter.
Sergeant Bridie Davies Lady Police detective protecting the girls.
Sergeant Brian Davies. Bridie’s twin brother.
Inspector John, Heading up the anti-rape-gang operation.
Gareth Jenkins, Police office trained in firearms and protection.
Belinda Harrington Lola’s university girlfriend.
Aaron Talbot Surgical registrar – married to –
Shirley Talbot Lecturer at Local university.
Mickey Talbot Aaron and Shirley’s oldest son.
Jessica Talbot Aaron & Shirley’s middle daughter.
Bianca Talbot Aaron & Shirley’s youngest daughter.
Henry Denton Callie’s only son.
Charlotte Denton Callie’s only daughter.
Beverly Callie’s maternal great aunt (Ellie’s paternal aunt)
Wendy Smith Beverly’s Operations Manager for Hull
Louisa Wendy’s Daughter
Griselda & Mia Wendy’s younger twin daughters.
Susan Harvey Prosecution counsel advocating for Erica in court.
Han’s The German policeman’s son whom Erica really fancies.
Uncle Phillip CIA Agent.
Emily Jackson. Texan girl Kidnapped to Holland & Turkey
Sandra Jackson Sister to Emily kidnapped in Texas as a hostage.

Chapter 85

After Sandra had joined the other girls in protective custody, the group remained at the hotel for a week as more secure arrangements were made to ensure anonymity and secrecy. On the basis that the British girls had maintained their security in the UK it was decided to move all the girls to the UK were the Central American kidnap gang had less clout. There were mixed feelings about this insofar as the British girls wanted to stay in Texas while the two Texan girls wanted to see what the UK was like. Catching the various moods of the girls, Babs felt forced to explain.

“This is not some sort of vacation deal girls; it’s protective custody. You won’t be staying at Canal cottage because there are too many of you.”

“So where are we staying Nana?” Erica asked.

“You’ll see when we get there.”

On arrival at Gatwick airport, the girls were pleased to meet up again with their British police protectors namely, Sergeant Bridie and Inspector John while Officer Peggy remained attached at Uncle Phillip’s request. The Houston police did not want to be accused of dereliction if anything happened to the American sisters Emily and Sandra.

The arrangement turned out to be a large holiday cottage outside Cambridge with no previous connections to any of the British girls except for Lola’s being at Cambridge University. The group settled down to a life in the country with periodic visits to London for progress reports with the liasoning Houston police. Internet connections were deemed too insecure.

For Angela Erica and Olivia, London was almost old hat except for the risk of encountering old adversaries and they eschewed the offers of touring the sights. For the Texan sisters, the whole stay proved to be a veritable extended vacation except for the dreariness of tutored classes supplied by an American tutor who worked for a college that specialised in supplying education specialists to American expat children world-wide. She was okay as a tutor in most subjects but was a bit weak in maths. Fortunately for both Sandra and Emily, a saviour appeared in the shape of Lola.

Unlike many gifted mathematicians Lola was a capable communicator and both Texan girls found their heretofore dreaded maths lessons to be a delight.

“I just don’t get it,” Sandra told her sister one evening after Lola had explained an innovative technique for determining the essential factors when solving a complex mathematical problem. “She makes it so flippin easy just identifying the essential issue and cracking the thing wide open. Why couldn’t old Jonesy show us these tricks back in Houston?”

Emily nodded and grinned as she closed up her own exercise book with satisfaction.

“I’ve never looked forward to maths homework before but she makes it a pleasure.”

Both sisters tumbled down stairs to join the others for supper and then found Lola poring over a two page question posing a statistical hypothesis.

“Whassat?” Sandra asked.

“Part of my assignment.” Lola replied. “Statistical analysis techniques as applied to code breaking. It also helps to break into encrypted ransom-ware.”

“What? Like hacking? That’s illegal isn’t it?”

“Not when you are helping the victims recover lost data or access valuable, stolen information.”

“What you mean help the goodies?”

“Sort of.”

“Do you charge them; the victims that is?”

“Nah, I just get a kick out of defeating some clever bugger who thinks he’s going to rip somebody off.”

“If you catch them, d’ you hand them in to the police?”

“Some times. Sometimes it pays to not let them know you’ve busted them. Then you can track them secretly and find out a lot more about a lot more. Their efforts lead me to juicier prizes.”

“Jeeze it must be fun. Is that how you get your kicks?”

“Yeah. She’s bit of wierdo.” Erica interjected, “but she’s our wierdo. Her and Uncle Phil’s niece, that is.”

“She’s the transgendered duchess.” Emily explained to her sister Sandra.

After chatting for an hour or so the girls prepared for bed. The morrow was a Saturday and the Texan sisters were anticipating a trip up to London with the British girls and the police escorts..

The weekends made up for the week-day home-studies academic grind.

That first week however, Lola however, went into college in Cambridge to re-affirm her relationship with Belinda. Then in the following weeks Lola and Belinda often accompanied Sandra and Emily into London for the weekends to act as guides around the many sites and museums. Erica, Angela and Olivia usually shunned London but were pleased to receive frequent weekend invitations to Denton Hall to see Callie and Maggie in their glorious ducal home. Occasionally the Texan girls accompanied them when Lola spent time with Belinda.

Eventually the court date in the USA was set and the girls found themselves once more Texas bound.

ooo000ooo

Unlike the German hearings, where the case was heard by a panel of judges, the Texan court case was heard before a full jury. The counsels for the gang leaders fought tooth and nail while they picked over every possible legal argument they could find. Inevitably Lola’s transgenderism was brought up and Lola was at first amused that something she deemed to be totally irrelevant had been picked on to try and discredit her evidence.

As the lawyer’s interrogation intensified, Lola’s anger deepened and her responses became more combative until the judge warned her to be more respectful towards counsel. To which Lola responded by suggesting that counsel should show her the same degree of respect and not keep referring to her transgenderism. She then went on to ask the judge if she thought that transgenderism made a witness less honest. This blunt question exposed the cultural differences between the UK and Texas.

Transgenderism was pretty much accepted in the UK and transgendered people lived openly in their chosen condition. In Texas it was apparent to Lola that transgenderism was still a cultural and religious issue. As she openly asked the judge if she thought that her evidence was compromised by being transgendered, a suppressed gasp rippled through the jury.

Lola's boldness was an unexpected lightning strike at core Texan prejudice and when she answered the judges observation about her possibly living a lie, Lola bluntly stated that she couldn’t be living more honestly. She had never disguised her transgenderism when asked and she bluntly told any boy or girl who approached her with a view to a relationship.

When Lola openly explained that she was currently in a relationship with another girl at university, there was another uncomprehending gasp from the court. The judge realised that there was a huge cultural gap associated with societal acceptance between the UK and Texas. The matter of Lola’s transgenderism was closed down very quickly when Lola bluntly observed that she thought that her liberty and the pursuit of happiness were being denied in Texas by transphobic interrogations in the court. Her allusion to her having more freedom in the UK than in the USA caused some discomfort to the Texans for it exposed the degree of their prejudices.

At the end of her interrogation, Lola concluded that her performance in the witness box had ended in a draw for she had no way of knowing what the jury thought. However when Sandra’s turn came, the jury allowed their full weight of prejudice to favour Sandra’s evidence. A good-ole’ Texan girl attacked and kidnapped by ‘dirty foreigners’ was something they could truly get their teeth into and no amount of counsel’s endeavour to discredit a ‘Texan rose’ was going to circumvent that.

When the extent of Lola’s intervention was revealed and the psychiatric consequences of her rescuing Sandra were discussed by the lawyers, it left the jury feeling a little uncomfortable about the court’s treatment of the previous transgendered witness.

The next two witnesses were of course Olivia and Angela who’s evidence served to compound even further the extent of the kidnap / rape gangs crime. Two of the jurors were black and the race ticket inevitably added gravitas to the case. One particularly notable moment occurred when one of the prosecution lawyers unexpectedly produced Olivia's original sketches for the German court.

“And these are your drawings that you made for the court in Germany to help with identifying the gang.”

“Yeah!” Olivia affirmed in her loud estuarine accent.

Angie and Lola smiled inwardly as Olivia elaborately exaggerated the broad cockney vowels.

“Yeah! I done ‘em myself din’ I; when that nice German copper asked.”

Copies of the sketches were handed to each juror as a clever ploy to overcome any racial prejudice in the jury and demonstrate that Olivia and Angela were not just ‘dumb niggers’!

“And can you prove these were your handiwork?” The counsel pressed.

“You bet I ca-an!” Oliva boasted. “Gim’me a pen and paper.”

Naturally, the pen and paper were immediately to hand and within a couple of moments Olivia had dashed off a perfect likeness of the judge. Then’ in the corner of the portrait’ she sketched a few lines to make a perfect comical cartoon of the female judge made up of the letters ‘O-L-I-V-I-A to represent her signature.

The judge was at first flattered, then amused, then mightily impressed by Olivia’s artwork. She handed it to the usher to show the jury, where the same amused but impressed reactions were obtained.

The whole thing was of course pure theatre but it served to show that the so-called 'London niggers' were more than just black scum. It also served to advertise Olivia’s art while demonstrating that a brilliant artist and cartoonist might have been lost forever to the gang’s sex slavery.

‘Truly, the kid could draw.’

These juristic guilt feelings were compounded in the second week when Sandra’s sister Emily was called upon to describe her experiences at the hands of the gang in Amsterdam and Turkey.
This evidence was then reinforced by Erica’s evidence and the jury were at boiling point when they were eventually sent to deliberate on their verdict.

The upshot was that a clear verdict of guilty was declared on every count and the judge was left with a free hand in sentencing. The death sentence was not long in coming for the murder of several girls in previous instances that Emily’s evidence corroborated.

ooo000ooo