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.

Chapter 3
At the Races

It has been a while since the last chapter, so here is a quick recap to refresh your memory.

Transgender 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. Despite lack of collaboration from other colleagues, the pair were proving successful in dealing with the cases that were thrown their way. Their latest cases are to investigate a spate of muggings and robberies at racecourses, and to find out what had happened to elderly inmates missing from a nursing home. If you still can’t remember, or missed the earlier stories, chapters 1&2 are still available.

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Trudy had now settled into the spare room at my city-centre flat and seemed to have given up the idea of finding somewhere for herself, which was ok with me as I enjoyed the company and chore-sharing after months of living alone after my transition adjusting to my new life. Although I was her boss at work, at home we were just two friends flat-sharing.

Over breakfast we decided two things; today’s visit to the races on the Knavesmire on the outskirts of York, was not the dress-up Ladies Day big event and that we would just go to carry out our surveillance for muggers and robbers in practical casual gear, dress trousers, shirt, light jacket, and flats, rather than the full glam look that was to be saved until tomorrow; secondly we decided that we needed extra pairs of eyes, as the main CID team had offered no assistance and been very dismissive and we would have to call on some civilians that we knew might help. We had been told by DI Wainwright “Go off and have a girly day all dressed up and enjoying yourselves while the real detectives do a proper job, I’m not going to waste the time of my team chasing rainbows with you two.”.

“Hi Michael, do you fancy a few days at the races, we need extra feet on the ground for surveillance? I know that you are still not working and it would be a big help to us, obviously all at no cost to yourself.” Michael Metcalf, an actor looking for a serious role, moonlighting as either street-entertainer ‘Mick the Mime’ or drag-artist ‘Lola Luscious’, had been assaulted and injured and we had caught his assailant last week.

“ Sounds fun, what do you want me to do?”

“ Tomorrow is Ladies’ day, and Trudy and I will be dressed in style as ‘Real housewives of Yorkshire’, it would be in character if you were to come as a ‘Hooray Henry’ escorting his arm-candy for the day, does your acting repertoire run to that?”

“ I can manage that, believe it or not I was RADA trained.”

“We are going to race the meeting on the Knavesmire today, but that is much lower key, if you want to come to get a feel for what goes on we’ll meet you at the entrance to the County Stand at 11:30, just wear any smart casual clothes, no need for anything fancy.”

“See you there, I look forward to it”

Trudy and I thad a long serious discussion before my next phone call as using a known criminal on a case carried a lot of risks and was totally against protocol, rules, and regulations.

“ Hi Josie, would you like to help us, it would mean that we could put in a good word for you with the court when your shoplifting case comes up, but no promises that you will not get punished. You might also have a bit of fun as well.”

“ Anything I can do to reduce the risk of going to prison is worth a try. What can I do?”

“ We are going to the races today and the rest of the meeting to keep an eye out for any criminal activity. Despite getting involved with your mother’s shoplifting schemes, we believe that you are a sensible and honest person at heart, and we need an extra person to keep a lookout for criminal activity, and you should be good at seeing people acting shifty, you’ve had a lot of practice yourself. Dress in something smart casual for today, skirt and top and jacket, or trousers if you prefer, which I somehow doubt since you have now come out as a cross-dresser. For tomorrow, which is the big social event Ladies Day, you need to dress up a bit, something classy, perhaps some of the top-brand stuff that you and your mother stole.”

“I’ll see you later, I’ll go and have a rummage through my wardrobe for something for Ladies Day.”

After we had made all the arrangements Trudy and I talked through our plans for the day while we were getting dressed and made-up.

“ I can see the point of using Michael,”said Trudy,” but I am still not sure what use Josie will be and how much we can trust hi….her.”

“ Like we agreed before, we need support , the two of us cannot look everywhere at once. You and I will be the ones making the running and decisions, the other two will help us blend in better. You pair up with Michael and play the parts of girlfriend and boyfriend. and I and Josie will pair up as mother and daughter. Couples will look less out of place than two individuals wandering around.”

“No disrespect, but I am not sure that I can fit comfortably into the role of girlfriend to a man who wears women’s clothes and make-up.”

“ Don’t be daft, you know that he is an actor playing a role on stage, just as he will be tomorrow as an upper-class creep. We will all go in together then go off in our pairs to get a feel for how the place operates. I think that today there will just be normal low-level crime, pickpockets, con artists, and such like, tomorrow and Saturday will be when the high-rollers and socialites will be out in force and that’s when anything serious will happen. So today just wander around, you’ll soon learn to easily pick out the type of person who is just ordinary having a day out for a bit of fun and probably losing a bit of money, and the type who look like they could be up to mischief.”

We arrived at the Knavesmire racecourse, collected our ‘all-areas’ passes from the ticket office and waited for Mick and Josie to arrive. As expected Josie turned up looking very much the stylish young woman in a tartan mini-kilt, scooped scarlet top and a leather blouson jacket, but with sensible wedge heel shoes. Not as expected, Mick arrived in his tomorrow’s role as a ‘Hooray-Henry’, but instead of the formal suit he would have on tomorrow, he was sporting a set of country tweeds, Tattersall check shirt and cravat. and brown Oxford brogues, looking like was going out on a grouse shoot.

“Hi Guys,” I said with a welcoming smile, glad you both could make it, and I see you have both entered into the spirit of things, love the outfits. Thanks for offering to help us, we need extra pairs of eyes and none were available from the station. Mick this is Josie, and Josie meet Mick”

Over glasses of wine in one of the bars Trudy and I outlined our plans to Mick and Josie for the day. “ Today is really a recce exercise, we will just wander around looking for any suspicious or threatening behaviour, we’ll stay in pairs, Josie with me, and Mick with Trudy. Trudy and I will direct where we go and what to do and keep in touch with each other, Josie and Mick just stay close to us, act normal and follow our leads, do not try to intervene if you see anything, just tell Trudy or me. Let’s meet up back here in a couple of hours, unless anything urgent comes up earlier”

The weather was glorious, just right for enjoying a day out, the sky was clear, the sun was warm and hazy but not overpowering, the ground was dry and firm and the racecourse and stands were full almost to capacity. Josie and I wandered around the stands and paddocks soaking up the atmosphere and even had a couple of small bets on the races.

The first race Josie picked an outsider ‘Lucky Lady’ because she liked the name, and I backed one of the favourites. Standing at the rails near the finish line the roar of the crowd cheering on their selections and the pounding of the horses’ hooves on the ground were deafening and when Josie’s horse somehow managed to cross the line just a nose in front of my choice she was jumping up and down really excited over her 22/1 win. Despite my words of caution all her winnings went on the next race, again on a choice where she liked the name ‘My Princess’ that also came in first at 28/1 and she was almost overcome with excitement. She needed to calm down.It was almost time for us to meet up again with Trudy and Mick so we went to collect our winnings, in her case well over £1000, and in my case an awful lot less, talk about beginners luck !

After collecting our winnings, on the way back to the bar Josie waited outside while I went into the ‘Ladies’. When I came out she was struggling with a man who was trying to snatch her bag, but when he saw me approaching he quickly ran off. Although she was physically unharmed Josie was obviously a bit shaken and she had managed to hold on to her money. An elderly lady came over and asked if we were alright and if we needed anything, and produced a small bottle of gin from her handbag. “Don’t worry, it is watered down with tonic, it might help to calm your nerves.” Josie took a small sip saying that she was not used to strong drink, thanked the lady, and we made our way into the bar, where we managed to find a table as someone was just getting up to go back out to the course for the next race.

A few minutes later Trudy and Mick came in smiling and holding hands and I thought to myself ‘Maybe she has got over being out with a drag artist.’

After Mick had got the drinks for us, which Josie insisted on paying for out of her winnings, we told them what had happened.

“Obviously the attacker saw Josie getting so excited at the end of the race and followed her when she went to collect her winnings. that must be how they operate. Let’s keep an eye out for anyone who looks like they have had a big win and follow them for a bit” Trudy said, echoing my own thoughts.

“Hello again girls, are you both ok now?” was shouted at us from across the room, by the elderly lady who we had met earlier, who was coming over to us with a few equally elderly friends. “ We are having a super time, winning a bit, then losing it again, but it is a lot more interesting than sitting around all day staring at the walls. Is there enough room for us to join you at your table, there are no others free.”

“Yes sure we can all squeeze over. Are you all visiting York for the races for the day?” questioned Trudy, while Mick went to the bar to help one of the group get their drinks.

“No we all live just nearby, at Copmanthorpe, sharing rooms in my house. We met in what was supposed to be a care home, but was turning us into bored brainless shells so we left and are learning to live again.”

“Were you in Rose-acre?”

“Yes that’s right, do you know it? Horrible place ! The managers are only interested in getting their exorbitant fees and keeping everyone quiet and controlled, Care is not high up on their list of priorities, so we decided to make our escape and along with another four who are not here today have now settled in together in my house, which luckily had not been sold yet”

“You do know that everybody is worried about what has happened to you, don’t you, you just disappeared. your families are very concerned? I’m Julie Rowntree and this is Trudy Terry, we work for the police and have been looking for you, but don’t worry that we will make you go back, we didn’t like Mr and Mrs Rose either. Why don’t you at least tell your families that you are ok.”

“They are more worried about the monthly charges and whether they can sell our houses for their inheritance, rather than how we are feeling, but you are probably right, we should call them. But there is no way that we will go back there, we are now leading full lives again, we are all fit and well, we have no need for medical care and have each other for company.”

“You all seem to be up for an exciting time, would you like to help us on a case? You saw the attempted mugging on Josie earlier, we think that is typical of a whole string of similar attacks and we are out to get the people doing this.” I said having quickly made a decision. “The attacker has seen Josie and me and will run a mile if they spot us, but who would suspect that they were being followed and spied on by a bunch of 70 year-olds.”

“ That sound like a lot of fun, I always watch the crime programmes on TV and fancy myself as another Miss Marple.” said the leader of the group, the lady with the gin bottle, who introduced herself as Jane Stuart and her companions as other ex-inmates of Rose-acre, Betty Cartwright, Joe Riley and Charles Madeley. What do you want us to do?”

We gave them a brief low-down on what we were looking for, with strict instructions not to intervene if they saw an attempted mugging, as they had no authority and were not in the best physical condition to overcome anyone.

We had all missed one race while we were in the bar, but went off in our separate groups back to the stands for the next race. Jane and Joe paired up with Trudy and Mick, Betty and Charles came with Josie and me, both sets of us looking like family groups on a day out.

We did not have any more luck looking for muggings, although Josie’s luck with the horses continued and after the final race she was over £4500 up, from her point of view a really successful day.

Trudy and her team had better luck, Jane spotted the man who had attacked Josie, lurking near the betting kiosks waiting for any people collecting big winnings. Rather than identify themselves Trudy found one of the police constables on general crowd management duties, identified herself, agreed to get formal witness statements for the earlier attack, and left him to make the arrest. He was probably not one of the ‘Mr Bigs’, but at least it was one nuisance out of the way, and it proved my point about involving the group in our operation.

While Trudy took Betty, Mick, and Charles to a nearby hotel to relax and have a drink, Josie, Jane and I went down to the station to make our formal witness statements about the attempted mugging, identifying the attacker, who it turned out had a string of similar charges on record. I also arranged for another four ‘all-areas’ passes for Jane and her friends

On the way out of the station I was spotted by Inspector Wainwright who waved me over, so telling the others just to wait outside I went over to him.

“ I have heard what you have just reported, I suppose you think that you have done well ! Two detectives all day just to catch a known petty criminal, bit of a waste of scarce resources, don’t you think?”

“ Look Wainwright, you just get on with your job and leave me to get on with mine. You passed this investigation over to me because you and your team did not know how to handle it, my team has got a result, so let’s leave it at that, shall we? It would have been good to have had a bit of cooperation from you and your team, but you are more interested in point scoring and seeing me fail”

“ All right deary, don’t get your knickers in a twist and start crying, when you have to resort to that you have lost your argument."

I stormed off before he had a chance to continue, and before I said something very unladylike or slapped him.

By the time Josie, Jane and I met up with the others I had calmed down and was in quite a good mood.

‘My thanks to you all, you made the job a lot easier for Trudy and I, we wouldn’t have got the result without you all. Are you all up for a repeat tomorrow at ‘Ladies Day?”

“ You have to be joking to even ask, of course we will be delighted to help again, it has all added to the excitement of the day out.” said Jane on behalf of all her friends.”

“Ok then. a quick drink to celebrate today's little success, then let’s all get home and have a good sleep ready for tomorrow. If you four can find your own way home, we’ll drop Josie and Mick off in town and all meet up again here tomorrow at 11:00 to agree how we are going to play it.”

It took a bit longer to get ready in the morning, today was Ladies’ Day at the races and most of the racegoers, especially the women, made extra effort to dress up in their finery.

After a fancier hair-do and a lot more daytime makeup than usual, and wearing my best lacy undies to get me in the mood, I put on my white cocktail dress, bolero, pill box hat, and a totally impractical pair of 4” stilettos which would be difficult on the grassy areas around the rails, and for the first time really felt myself to be a glamorous attractive woman.

Trudy looked absolutely amazing in her new silk cornflower dress, pashmina and fascinator. I still hadn’t fully come to terms with my sexuality after my transition, and thought to myself that if I had met her before it all that things may have turned out differently.

Looking as we did there was no chance that anyone would consider us to be undercover police officers, we would just be another couple of excited ladies at the racecourse as much to parade around and show off our outfits as to actually be interested in the races.

We met up with the others in all bar at the Mount Royale,, which is a popular hotel with the racing folk, trainers, owners and top jockeys and pundits, and there were many well-known faces around.

Although the bar was busy we managed to find a space on the garden terrace and sat down for me to brief them at what had to be done today.

Jane and her friends were all very well turned out, the two women hadn’t gone as far as Trudy and I but looked very attractive for their ages in smart skirt suits, the two men were wearing lounge suits and collars and ties, and Charles looked very dapper with his carved oak walking stick. Josie arrived and found us, looking every inch a stunning young lady in a chiffon waterfall dress from a well known designer house, and matching 2” block heel strappy sandals, getting lots of admiring looks, her mother had a very good eye as to what to shoplift.

Mick was the last arrive, a true actor, making his late big appearance in a navy herringbone cashmere suit, white collared shirt with gold links on the cuffs, and a cornflower blue cravat and breast pocket handkerchief which were a perfect match for Trudy’s dress, carrying a couple of shooting sticks in case anyone needed to sit for a while.

“ Oh hello darlings, you are all looking gorgeous today, as always, I’m delighted to be with you all, you put poor drab me in the shade.” he gushed , and I thought “for God’s sake I know I said to be a ‘hooray Henry’, but don’t overact too much.”, but he brought a smile to all our faces.

At the course we spit into the same groups as the previous day and drifted around the stands for the first warm-up races, keeping each other at a distance but still within sight, and agreed to meet up again for the the feature race of the day ‘The Yorkshire Oaks’ one of the flat-racing Classics of the year. We all made our selections for the afternoon’s races and placed our bets, on my suggestion they were all doubles, trebles or accumulators where the winnings from one race are automatically added to the bet for the following race.

My group won a few of our doubles and trebles, but lost out for the accumulator on the third race, but between us we were doing ok. Trudy’s group appeared to be doing much better, at the end of each race Betty was seen to be jumping enthusiastically, cheering on the winner and telling everyone that her horse had won. For the main race, The Oaks, we went up into the Ebor restaurant in the main Grandstand, one of the more exclusive and expensive areas where a lot of the moneyed class were to be found.

As the horses were running up the finishing straight, even in the grandstand we could see the sweat on their backs and the breath coming out of their nostrils, and hear the pounding of their hooves on the turf.

“ That’s another winner for me, all my horses have won, what do I do now.” Betty jumped up and shrieked with a big smile on her face.”

“ Calm down Betty, you’ll give yourself a heart attack. Let me have a look at your betting slip and we’ll try and work out what you have won.” advised Trudy as she guided her back down into her seat.”

“ The accumulator looks like it is about £25000, and the various doubles and trebles will be about another £15000, it’s your lucky day, that should keep you all going for a while. That’s the main race of the day, so there will be a bit of a rush at the bookmakers, let’s sit and have a drink while the crowds thin down a bit and we will go down for your winnings in a while. Put your betting slip in your bag for safety, so you don’t lose it.”

When the crowds had thinned a bit we all went down to collect our winnings. Trudy and I led the way and the others followed a few yards behind. We heard a scuffle behind us and turned around to see a man struggling to run with Betty’s handbag, but he couldn’t get very far with Charles’s walking stick handle hooked around his ankle, fell flat on his face and was immediately sat on by Mick. They had the situation under control so we kept well back from them, and called up help from the course stewards and the duty constables for an arrest.

We did not want to be listed as witnesses, there were plenty of other witnesses around anyway. A good defence lawyer could argue that we set up the situation as entrapment, which it actually was, we had set up a trap and the robber had fallen into it.

We all met up later at the Mount Royale, Trudy and I had gone ahead and found a table in the garden and ordered drinks for us all. A bit later they all arrived, buzzing with excitement, more police had arrived and taken the robber back to the station to be charged, taken all their names and details, they had all collected their winnings and were ready to celebrate.

That all worked out well everybody and Betty should have won enough to keep you all for a while, how did you actually do?”

“ As you told us, we exaggerated a wee bit, I didn’t get the accumulator, I lost out on the fourth race, and my initial stake wasn’t that high, but I still walked away with just under £10,000, not bad for a £20 set of bets.”

“ Don’t forget, when you come down to the station tomorrow to give your witness statements, bend the truth a little bit, don’t mention that Trudy and I were with you, it was just you four and Mick and Josie who took him down when he tried to rob you, and when you see us down at the station you don’t know us, right !. See you all Saturday, we have to go and sort out the formalities for all this.”

Trudy and I left them there to celebrate, went home to get changed into our normal business clothes, cleaned off our makeup down to the usual bare necessities, became unrecognisable as the well-dressed pair that had been at the races, and went down to the station to interview the mugger. He vaguely fitted the descriptions we had on record from previous incidents and with being caught red-handed we had enough of a case to keep him locked up overnight for further questioning.

Friday we formally took witness statements from ‘our team”, and from other people who were there at the time. Before interviewing the mugger we had confirmation of DNA matches for the previous cases, and had got confirmation from other victims that his photograph was definitely their attacker, The case was virtually all wrapped up and he confessed to a whole string of similar attacks in most of the other racecourses in the area. As he would be pleading guilty it would not be necessary for all the witnesses to go to court and so our use of our decoy team would not be made public.

Feeling rather pleased with ourselves we were getting ready to leave when our ‘favourite’ colleague Inspector Wainwright breezed into the office.

“ I hear you got beaten to solving your case by a load of pensioners, an upper-class twit and a young floozy, Rowntree. You wasted two days of your time, you may as well have left it to the public, i hope you don’t expect to get the credit for all this.”

“Thank you for your supportive team spirit Wainwright, but for your information, we had spotted the suspect following people who were celebrating a big win and picking their pockets for the betting slips, and were already on to him, and when he made his attack it was us that called in the officials and police. We did not make the arrest ourselves as we didn’t want to break our cover as general racegoers, so I think that we will take the credit, thank you. By the way, the people involved in this attack are some of those missing from Rose-acre, they are all safe and well, so that is another case off your books. If you have nothing useful to say, we are leaving, goodnight.” Pushing him out of our office, we locked up and he stormed off muttering to himself in rather colourful language.

As our passes were still valid, we all arranged to meet up on the Saturday for the final day of the meeting and the big race, The Ebor Handicap, as spectators, off-duty. Trudy had a word with the course security people and told them to watch out for excited big winners and discreetly make sure that they at least got away from the course safely, and the rest of the day was ours to enjoy, with our new friends, particularly for the close friendship that was forming between Trudy and Mick.

All in all it had been successful week, two cases cleared, three enjoyable days with people we have come to think of as friends, the likelihood that with a good reference from us that Josie would get off very lightly, and with all of us, particularly Josie and Jane, making big winnings on the races.

To be continued

Chapter 4
Lots of Changes

The Monday following the race meeting, I was summonsed to headquarters in Northallerton to a meeting with Chief Superintendent Scargill.

“Good morning, L….er Julie, you did a good job with the high-end muggers at the races, with only the two of you involved. I am told that Inspector Wainwright and his team offered you additional officers, but that you turned down his offer as you preferred to work independently, but as it all worked out with the assistance from the public, we will leave it at that.”

“ I don’t know who told you that Sir, but I can make a good guess, but you have been given a totally false story.” I ran through the fact that I had involved some civilians I knew to help us as Wainwright was doing everything he could to undermine our team, and far from helping was actually being offensive and obstructive. I filled him in on the assistance I had received from Mick and Josie, and from Jane and her pensioner friends.

“ Very unorthodox and breaking just about every rule in the book, but it seems to have worked, who would suspect such a motley crew to be working on behalf of the police? Moving on, there are two things I want to talk to you about, separate items but related to some degree.”

“ I believe that like a lot of the force that you were a member of the freemasons, but obviously since your gender change you are no longer allowed to continue, how do you feel about the masonic lodges now?”

“To be honest, I never really tuned in to the Masonic Lodge activities, I was talked into joining as I was told it would help my career prospects, Since my gender change, I enjoy the company and friendship of the women I have met since my change much more than a lot of silly men dressed in funny costumes playing at being important, and I prefer the lifestyle in my new role as a woman. I don’t hold any grudges, but I am happier in my new life, why do you ask?”

“ We’ll come back to that in a minute. Secondly, I see that you have been involved with the Rose-acre Residential Home, what do you think of the set-up there?”

“ I didn’t like the owners Duncan and Amanda Rose at all, or the way they run the place, but there was no obvious illegal or suspicious activities going on. where are you going with this Sir?”

“This is all coming together quite nicely. This is all confidential and I am passing this on to you directly without involving Wainwright, in fact keeping him out of the loop altogether. You will be reporting directly to me on this one OK?”

“ You have me intrigued, please tell me what this is all about. And as for keeping Wainwright out of the loop nothing would give me greater pleasure, the man is an offensive women-hating smarmy bully.”

“ It is convenient that you already know Rose-acre Residential Home, as we have been asked to investigate it by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectorate who have some concerns about the number of apparently unconnected deaths among the residents, which have just been signed off by the visiting doctor as ‘Natural Causes’. Normally I would pass this on to Inspector Wainwright, but he is in the same Masonic Lodge as Duncan Rose and Dr Jones, and I am worried about a conflict of interest. In case you are wondering, as you probably can guess, I am also a Mason, but in a Lodge up here in Northallerton rather than one in York , and I have always been suspicious about unfair influence and how rumours about it undermines a lot of the good works that we do. I have never allowed it to affect any decisions I have taken in criminal cases. Obviously you and Sergeant Terry do not have the same allegiances and will look at things a lot more objectively, without any outside influence or prejudice.”

“Thank you for being open with me, I know that you are are supposed to be discreet about your membership, but I do have some knowledge of what goes on from my former life. What exactly do you want us to do?”

“You’re the detective Julie, sniff around and see what you can find out. Either confirm that you can find nothing suspicious, or clear up whatever is going on.”

“Ok, but have I got your permission to continue to be ‘very unorthodox and breaking just about every rule in the book’. I would like to use my unofficial team if it is appropriate, and would like to treat them as listed informants, which will mean slipping them backhanders if they do a good job.”

“That’s ok, make sure that they are on record to keep the books straight, and don’t go mad with the backhanders. Finally before you go, don’t worry too much about Wainwright, his card is marked and I am already keeping an eye on him.”

I couldn’t wait to get back to Fulford Road Station to talk this all through with Trudy and decide how we could go forward. We had just settled down with a coffee and were about to start when we were interrupted by Wainwright swaggering in through the door.

“ I hear that you have been up to Headquarters to see Scargill, what was all that about?”

“Your spy network is still working well, it’s a pity that it is not as efficient out on the streets as it is within the force ! My meeting was all personal, nothing that you need to know about. And, by the way, next time you come to our office will you please knock on the door before bursting in, I would like to be treated with a bit of respect.”

“ Don’t forget that I outrank you, even if you are not in my chain of command, just because you are Scargill’s favourite, doesn’t mean that you can overstep the mark.”

“ Unless there is anything particular you wish to discuss, please close the door on your way out, and leave Detective Terry and I to get on with our work.”

“ You really shouldn’t wind him up like that Julie, the boy’s club in his team are very loyal to him, and they can make life difficult for us. They could make a complaint about anything they feel like and it will always be their word against ours and there are a lot more of them.”

“ Anyway, down to business. We have been asked to investigate some recent deaths up at our favourite care home, Rose-acre. They were all certified as ‘natural causes’ but the frequency and circumstances of them has raised suspicions that there might be more to it. Also, and you’ll love this, Wainwright is in the same Lodge as Duncan Rose and his tame doctor David Jones who certified the deaths, and, reading between the lines, he cannot be trusted to carry out an impartial investigation.”

“ Oh, goody, a chance to have a go at the closed-shop old-boys club, where do we start?”

“ Just remember Trudy, this is an investigation into Rose-acre, not into the influence of Masonic lodges. go into this with an open mind. We don’t want to be accused of prejudice, apart from anything else it will not help your career prospects if you are seen as anti-masons. A good place to start will be with a meeting with the CQC inspector.”

“ Hi, I’m Julie Rowntree and this is Trudy Terry. We believe that you have raised some concerns about Rose-acre residential Home, what exactly are your worries?”

“ Pleased to meet you, I’m Alan Shepherd and my role is to visit and inspect residential and care homes for the elderly, for vulnerable adults, and for young people, to ensure that standards of facilities and care are maintained. On a recent visit to Rose-acre, most things were on an acceptable level, if not to a particularly high standard. The home is a residential home, it is not a medical care home, most of the residents might be elderly, a little frail and not too mobile, but in general there are no major underlying life-threatening or life-limiting conditions. While there was nothing obvious, I just had a feeling that some of the recent deaths there were unexpected in apparently reasonably fit residents. We have done all the routine checks of Rose-acre’s medical records, drug registers and staff backgrounds and it all seems very organised and complete, in some ways too organised and complete. I have no particular cause to take matters further but something just does not seem right about the place.”

“ I know what you mean Alan, we were not very comfortable with the atmosphere in the place either, when we visited a few days ago. If you were investigating this yourself, what signs would you normally look for?”

“Excessive medication use, signs of physical abuse, bruising etc, poor hygiene practices, disgruntled or uncaring staff, things like that.”

“ If anything comes to light what powers do you have?” Trudy asked. “Can you close the place down or disqualify the owners from working in the care industry?”

“ Where we can, we try to improve the conditions or practices, closing down a care home can cause all sorts of problems for the residents, many of them look upon the place as their home with their friends and are not comfortable being moved somewhere else.”

Back in the office Trudy and i set our minds to trying to find a subtle strategy to investigate further.

“ If we go in guns blazing it will only get their backs up and everyone will just clam up and hide things, we need somebody on the inside. The Roses know us and will recognise us easily, even if we tried to disguise ourselves, I think that this needs the help of our unofficial back-up team. By the way, Scargill knows about Mick, Josie, Jane and her friends and we have his approval to use them if we need to.”

“ Those places are always looking for staff, there is a high turnover rate in the industry, the wages are not wonderful, and the management are often pushy over extra working hours and additional duties. I wonder if Josie is available and willing to work there for a bit.”

“Give her a call and if she is happy to help let’s meet her somewhere in town, I don’t want her coming into the station. I think it would also help if we had someone in with the residents. Give Jane a ring and see if she or any of her friends are prepared to either go back in to Rose-acre or at least visit regularly to see old friends that they had made.”

Later that afternoon we met up with Josie and Charles Madeley. Josie had really settled into her new role as a girl, she was stylishly dressed in a loose summer skirt and blouson top, subtly made-up, with her hair styled and waved, looking totally natural, and she carried herself so gracefully that there was no indication at all that she was still physically a boy. Charles was as dapper as we had seen him at the races in a tweed jacket, plain black trousers, black Oxford brogues and a formal shirt and tie.

“ Thanks for coming. I assume that you are both available for a few days and willing to help.”

“ I’m fine, college is on a half-term break, what is this all about.?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do at the moment, we are in a nice comfortable routine at Jane’s now, a little bit of excitement will give us all something to talk about in the evenings.”

“ Unfortunately I can only give you both part of the story, but we are suspicious that there is something not quite right going on at Rose-acre. Charles, we would like you to go in to visit some of your old friends there, just have a general chat, see how they are all feeling and if there are any concerns. Josie, we would like you to get a job as a care assistant there to see what you can overhear or find out. Obviously Charles knows a lot about Rose-acre, and can fill you in with more about backgrounds, routines and staff duties, so that when you go in to see them you have an idea what you are supposed to know about. When you see each other in there, except in an emergency, you are not to recognise each other, or talk to each other, any more than you would with other residents and staff. Let's now review it all in more detail about what exactly we want you to look at.

As we had expected the Roses were only too happy to take on Josie, after all her background story was that she was a student looking for casual work and that she had experience looking after her disabled mother for many of her teen years and was physically fit and capable of giving physical and mental support to the residents. She started work there a day later, and even in a shapeless trouser and tunic uniform and with her hair in a high pony-tail still managed to look attractive and smart.

However when Charles turned up he was met with a lot of hostility from Amanda Rose at reception.

“What on earth are you doing back here and where have you been, you are not really welcome here.”

“This is not a prison, although you sometimes make it feel like one, as far as I am aware your residents are free to come and go as they please and to meet with anyone they wish to, and do not need your permission. In case you have forgotten or do not wish to know, for many years I sat on the council and am still in contact with many people there, particularly in the Social Services Department, would you like me to tell them that you are refusing to let me meet with my friends?”

“ Go ahead, but I hope that you have not come here to cause trouble or to encourage anyone else to leave.”

Charles marched past her into the day room and went over to talk with some of his old cronies.

“How are you all getting on now and what is going on here?”

“ Since you, Joe and the others left it is all a bit dull to tell the truth, and we have had a couple more people die on us, a bit unexpected, but when you get to our age it can happen anytime. They are getting a lot more bossy with us and if anyone complains about it, they are not very popular with the Management, in fact that was probably the cause of the heart attacks that killed Harry and Alice, they had been complaining about the lack of staff, the quality of the food and the general cleanliness of the place.”

Speaking to some of the others, Charles was given more or less the same story, it did not seem to be a particularly happy place.

Josie had settled into her duties with a youthful enthusiasm, and had quickly fallen into the routine, it was mainly being attentive and supportive to the residents trying to keep them cheerful, and keeping the place tidy, the residents were generally capable of looking after themselves. She knocked on the door of Mrs Rose’s office behind reception and after a short delay the door was opened and a middle-aged man hurried out, red-faced and looking flustered, and Josie went in to see Mrs Rose smoothing down her skirt and blouse, and looking equally flustered. Even to young Josie it was obvious that she had caught them in the middle of a bit of a romantic session.

“I was just reviewing the medical case notes of some of the residents with Dr Jones, he usually calls up here once a week to keep an eye on things and comes to deal with any medical emergencies. What can I do for you?”

“ I’m told it is time for the daily drugs trolley, do you want me to deal with it or does it have to be one of the more senior staff?”

“Legally you need medical training to issue drugs, but I’m busy and it is all routine and not too serious, so just do it please, here are the keys for the drug cupboard, and you will find the schedule of what to issue to whom on the back of the door.”

We all met up that evening and we drove to a pub out of town to review what had been learnt.

Julie and Trudy were alarmed by Charle’s report that some of the recent deaths were unexpected and came from what the Roses would consider to be troublemakers, and asked him to keep visiting to see if there were any more rumours and to find to exactly when the recent deaths occurred.

The were more concerned however at the casual control of drugs, allowing an untrained 19-year-old to access and administer drugs, even though most of them were relatively mild for normal older-person ailments.

“ Be careful with the drugs Josie, it is easy to give the wrong dose. There should be a drugs register in the cupboard with them, it should list stock levels and usage, see if you can have a look at the last two months and see if there are any unusual withdrawals.”

“ That should be easy, the records are actually stored on a computer and I should be able to copy them onto a USB memory stick.”

“ Take care the pair of you, I don’t trust the Roses.”

We took Josie and Charles home, went back to our apartment and reviewed what we had discovered.

‘My detective’s ‘nose’ tells me that there is something funny going on at Rose-acre Trudy.”

‘I agree, the unexpected deaths of complainers, the casual control of drugs, and the apparent relationship between Amanda Rose and Dr Jones, just seem a lot of linked circumstances. Where do you think we go from here?”

“Let’s see what happens with Josie and Charles tomorrow. If it starts to look like our suspicions may be right, I am not too keen on them staying in what could be embarrassing or dangerous situations and we might pull them back. Tomorrow Trudy see what you can find out about Dr Jones, and see if we have any records of any interest in the deaths at Rose-acre, although if they were signed off as ‘natural causes’ by a doctor, I can’t see us or a coroner having taken an interest.”

In the morning when Trudy was looking into things I went to see Superintendent Scargill to update him on our investigation.

“ It’s early days yet but my ‘nose’ tells me that this may turn into a murder investigation. I realise that rules and regulations require the Senior Investigating Officer in murder cases to be Inspector rank or above, you may want to appoint someone to take over the case.”

“ Just keep working on it Julie, I’ll have a think about it and let you know. In your old life you were an Inspector and have all the certificates, so it should not be a problem, I can always get you a temporary promotion if necessary. I would like you to see this through, particularly if the Masonic Lodge link comes into play.”

Meanwhile Charles turned up at Rose-acre again and was met by both Mr and Mrs Rose who were not pleased to see him.

“What do you want Madeley, you can’t just keep turning up here upsetting the residents and our routines.”

“ Oh, I think I can and if you want to talk about this I am quite happy to phone my friend, the Assistant director of Social Services. Rather than discuss this publicly in reception can we go to one of the offices, talk this through and come to an agreement."

As had been agreed, when Charles had lured them away, Josie had the opportunity to go into the office, and access and copy the files of the drug records. Luckily the computer had been left active and she was able to get what she wanted without needing a password. When she was finished she rang the main entrance doorbell which was the signal to Charles that he should finish the conversation and go to meet his friends.

When I got back to the office Trudy had a big smile on her face.

“ It looks like our Dr Jones has a bit of a weakness for the Ladies, he has twice been accused of inappropriate behaviour with patients and left his last post after a scandal involving one of the practice nurses. Nothing was ever followed up and there were no claims of violence or rape or anything like that, just a breach of professional conduct.”

“That’s good, well discovered, did you got anything on the deaths at Rose-acre?”

“ Nothing much, as we thought, because they were certified as ‘natural causes’ by a doctor, the coroner just accepted it and there was no follow up or post-mortem. For all the recent deaths the bodies were cremated, so even if we had grounds for doing so, there is no way we can check. One thing though the coroner was concerned about the number of recent deaths there and requested a review of the operation of the home by the CQC”

Later we met up again with Josie and Charles to see what they had found out.

“There is talk among the residents that the charges are going to be increased, apparently the Rose’s finances are looking a bit shaky, and people are worried that they may close down Rose-acre.”

“ It’s just as well then” chipped in Josie “ that not only did I copy the drugs records, but I also have got all their financial records on the USB stick, you may find something in amongst that lot.”

“Well done the pair of you, this is working better than I hoped. Keep a low profile for a couple of days, while we look at what Josie has brought us. Josie just keep doing your normal duties, Charles keep away for a while, too many visits will look suspicious.”

“ No problems with me, I am on nights for the next few days, so it should be pretty quiet, and I might even be able to catch up with some of my college work.”

“ Ok, I really appreciate your help, take care and I’ll call you in a couple of days.”

“Trudy, you look at the drugs records and I’ll take the finance stuff, I did spend a bit of time with the fraud squad so I may have a better idea what to look for there.”

The next two days we were glued to our computer screens, and never left the office during working hours. The only distractions were the usual sarcastic interruptions from Wainwright who was determined to find out what we were up to.

“Hello girls, you seem busy, have you got nothing you need to be out in the world investigating. If you need something to fill in your days, I am sure that my team can throw you some scraps to get your teeth into.”

“That’s ok Boyo, we have some serious investigation going on here, it is confidential and if you need to know more phone up Superintendent Scargill. Can we help you with anything before you go.”

Trudy smiled at me as he left. “ What’s with the ‘Boyo’?”

‘If he can be patronising by calling us ‘girls’, ‘Boyo’ was the nearest name for him that I could think of, my Irish grandmother used to use it in a slightly insulting rather than a friendly manner. how are you getting on, have you found anything funny yet?”

“ The records seem pretty well kept, and there are no unusual withdrawals around the dates of the recent deaths. I have noted however that there is a regular issue of sedatives and sleeping pills every night, it looks like they make sure that the residents are no bother during the night shift. How about you?”

“ It does look like Rose-acre is in a bit of a tight spot, they are running with a pretty low bank balance. It has been a lot worse since Jane and her friends left and their fees were stopped, but it has been sailing close to the wind for some time. I have noticed that there seem to be very high regular payments to Dr Jones, more than I would expect for routine visits. I think Amanda Rose may be squirrelling money away so that she can leave her husband and run off with Jones, it appears that she keeps the accounts and does the annual tax and Company returns, so he probably doesn’t even know what is going on. This is more of a matter of trust and good practice, rather than fraud, but I am going to check their tax records to see how it is recorded and submitted.”

A call came in from Josie saying she need to speak with us.

“As you know, i have been working night shifts the last few days, and am concerned about some of the things that are going on. Every night, with their late-night drinks, the residents are given a double dose of sleeping pills to knock them out and keep them quiet, as I have been the only one on duty. I have been told by Mrs Rose that if any of them do wake up and use the call button that I am to turn the system off and ignore the calls.”

“Is there a log on the call system Josie, can we find out if it was turned off on the nights of the recent deaths?” Trudy led our side of the conversation

“I think I can do that, give me the dates, I am on my own again tonight so should be able to get on the computer without any interference.”

“ We don’t think that we can prove any direct involvement with the heart attacks causing the recent deaths, but if the alarm systems are turned off and there is an excessive use of sedatives then it looks like serious negligence and malpractice. On another tack, what is the relationship like between the Roses, do they seem a happy couple?”

“ Anything but, she is always criticising him telling him how she would run the place differently, and that she could make the place more successful without him. She also seems very close to Dr Jones, he is always ringing her up and is on the phone for ages, and she doesn’t like being interrupted when he is calling.”

“ You are doing a super job Josie, keep at it for a few more days until your college term starts, we think we should be able to wrap this up soon.”

The Rose-acre tax returns were also on the memory stick and comparing them, the formal accounts, and the day-to-day double-entry records of spending and income, we found glaring discrepancies. There were no records of payments to Dr Jones declared other than routine examination and call out charges, and large amounts shown as ‘specialist consultancy on business, medical and ethical issues’, obviously Mrs Rose’s hide-away for her payments to Dr Jones.

“ What do you think Trudy, do we have enough to get a warrant to formally look through their records, obviously we cannot use as evidence anything that Josie has found for us unofficially.”

“ Let’s talk to Alan Shepherd at the CQC again, to see whether the medical malpractices we have found are enough to start an investigation by him and we could then follow on behind them and coincidentally discover the financial irregularities.”

After discussions with Alan, where we outlined the apparent misuse of drugs, lack of staff overnight and disabling the alarm systems, he felt that he had grounds for a full investigation, and arranged to go in to Rose-acre. He was accepted with resignation by Mr Rose, but Amanda was openly hostile and was refusing to cooperate. A quick call to us and we turned up with a search warrant allowing us to access and copy all their computer records and to remove their computers for detailed analysis.

As we had already seen most of the relevant information unofficially from the copies obtained by Josie. and had identified other items from emails and social media accounts, we were soon back for a formal meeting with the Roses

“ There are two strands to our investigation, separate but interlinked. First is medical and duty-of-care malpractices, and secondly financial irregularities. The first is mainly the responsibility of the CQC, and Alan Shepherd will be following that up with you and you will be subject to professional-body punishments.

“However we have found emails between you, Amanda, and Dr Jones agreeing to unusually large doses of sedatives overnight to keep residents quiet and suggesting that it would be useful to turn off the call-system alarms overnight, ‘If anyone is dying does it matter if they were ignored for a few hours. I am sure that any delays will not need to be recorded on the death certificate.’ That is criminal neglect and is a matter for the courts. At the moment there is only evidence against you Amanda and Dr Jones, Mr Rose is not yet implicated. so when we are finished here you will be formally arrested and taken to the station for further questioning. Amanda was fuming, glaring at us and coming out with the usual rubbish “You have no proof, get me a lawyer, i will have you sued for false arrest”and stood up to leave the room, but we had a uniformed officer at the door, so there was not much she could do.

We have found evidence of financial irregularities, tax fraud, and misuse of public funds, as several of your residents are here at the local council’s expense. The most significant items are regular large payments to Dr Jones, hidden under the heading of specialist consultancy. These are backed up by emails of a personal and intimate nature between you and him suggesting that you would filter money from the business ,and built up a pot of money to allow you to leave your husband and run off with him. Leaving aside the morality, that is defrauding your business and your husband may wish to take action to recover some of those funds.”

Duncan Rose looked confused and angry at these revelations, either he was an innocent party in all this or he was an Oscar-winning level actor.

“ This is not supposed to happen,” screamed Amanda, David told me that he had agreed with your Inspector Wainwright that the police would not be sticking their noses into our business, and he was well rewarded wined and dined to keep him onside.”

“ I would like to talk about that further down at the station, please go with the Constable and we will see you down there soon. Constable, please ensure that she is kept in isolation, in particular Inspector Wainwright is not allowed to talk to her under any circumstances, if he tries to pull rank delay him, let me know, and I will get the chief Superintendent to have words with him.”

When they had left Trudy and I had a long talk with Duncan Rose. He assured us that he had no idea what Amanda had been doing with staffing levels and drugs issue problems, and eventually we believed him. Obviously he had no idea that she was diverting money from the business to her slush fund with Dr Jones and regretted that although he had financed the purchase and set-up of the care home and was nominally the owner and manager, he had left day-to-day operational duties to her.

“ Obviously the CQC inspectors will have a lot to say to you about how the place is run, that is not our main concern. However you need some independent oversight of what is going on. I suggest that you set up a Board of Trustees, perhaps involving your ex-residents Jane Stuart and her friends. Since they left you they have enjoyed a much richer quality of life and I am sure that they have some ideas to improve how you operate here. I think that will go down well with the CQC and allow you to stay open. Depending on what your wife and Dr Jones have to say to us, we will be back with more questions for you, you are still a ‘person of interest’.”

Back at the station we were met at the entrance by Wainwright. “ Who do you think you are, giving instructions as to who I can see in my station ?”

“ If I were you, I would say no more. I have reasons to believe that you have been involved in corruption and will be facing disciplinary measures, if not criminal charges. When I get a chance to get to my phone, I will be calling Chief Superintendent Scargill and it would not surprise me if you were suspended immediately pending further enquiries. Now please let me through.”

“ Damn you, you perverted bitch, you will get your comeuppance, just wait to see who comes out on top.”

As expected, Wainwright was suspended and sent home. Investigations into his possible corruption were passed on to the Police Standards Department and other than any direct involvement with the case against Amanda Rose, we were not involved further with the case against him.

Interviews with Rose and Jones made the whole situation a lot clearer, in her anger she confessed that people had been left unattended to die so that she could minimise night-duty staff, and that Jones had falsified the time of death on the Death Certificate. it was now really just a matter of tidying up the loose ends and preparing the case for the prosecutors.

“ Julie, Charles Scargill here. you have given me a bit of a problem. The detective team in York are now leaderless, and need a new inspector, at least on a temporary basis while Wainwright is investigated. Are you up for it? You have got all the certificates and have previously held the rank, know the station and the people and should slot in with no problems.”

“ Thanks for that Charles, but a couple of points. Firstly, Wainwright has poisoned his team against me from day one, It needs to be made clear to them them I am in charge and any contact with Wainwright will count as a disciplinary offence. Secondly I would like the Odd Squad to continue as a separate unit under my control, and will need a sergeant to run it and and another detective to assist. Unless there is any reason to prevent it, I would like Trudy Terry to be promoted to that role. As a graduate on the promotion fast-track route, I am sure that the Sergeant’s exam will not be a problem to her.”

“ It looks like you have got it all planned out, I will come down to York tomorrow to talk to Wainwrights team and to Detective Terry and we’ll sort things out. Meanwhile just tell his team that Wainwright is under investigation by Professional Standards and that there is to be no contact with him.”

Things were definitely looking up for the Odd Squad now !

To be continued.

Chapter 5
Ghostly goings-on

In the morning, i called the team together and was just about to give them an introductory chat, when Chief Superintendent Scargill arrived and took over.

“ As you are all aware Inspector Wainwright has been suspended whilst he is being investigated by Professional Standards. Until the matter is sorted out one way or the other, Sergeant Rowntree is being reinstated to her previous rank of Inspector, and will be in charge of all detective teams at the station. I am sure the you will all give her all the support she needs. I will leave her to brief you further.” and with that he left me to it.

“Right guys, that was the official version, and now for reality. You all know that Inspector Wainwright is under investigation as a result of possible evidence that I, and my other team that you refer to as “The Odd Squad, discovered. You have all worked with him for some time and I would expect you to have a lot of loyalty towards him and possible antagonism towards me. Although you could say that he and I are not the closest of friends and colleagues, I remind you that he is innocent until proven guilty, and also remind you that any contact with him is forbidden during the review and will be severely dealt with in accordance with standard disciplinary rules.

Secondly you are all aware of my personal details and background, but that is all past history and I expect you to treat me with respect and make no further reference to it to me after today.

My old team will still be independent from you all, but still answerable to me, and will be run by temporary Sergeant Terry, who will be confirmed in post subject to passing the Sergeant’s exams in the near future. Any cases where we are hitting a brick wall with conventional methods will be passed to her to see if a more unorthodox approach will fare any better.

For the rest of this morning my office is open for frank discussions on a one-to-one basis if any of you have any problems with the above or wish to discuss anything. If those problems cannot be resolved between us I am quite happy to recommend transfer to another station and team. This afternoon I will need a briefing on current cases from the two sergeants in the team. Thank you for listening, and despite this official lecture of a start, I look forward to working with you all. Right let’s get back to whatever you were working on.”

After settling in in my new office, and clearing away any personal stuff of Wainwrights, There was a knock on the door and my first of my mornings discussions started.

“ Good morning Ma’am, I’m Detective Constable Susan Haworth.”

“ Before we go any further Susan, it’s boss, or guv’nor, as you used to refer to Inspector Wainwright, or even Julie when we are not in a formal review meeting, I hate the term Ma’am, it makes me sound like the Queen, and please tell that to the others. What can I do for you?”

“ First, no names but some of the team were very close to Wainwright they have worked with him for years and may be difficult and not open with you about their cases. I am fairly new here and because I am young and a woman have never really been accepted into the lad’s culture of the team. Unless you particularly want to keep all of the few females on your new squad, I was wondering if you needed another detective to work with Sergeant Terry.

Second, just to let you know that I for one have no problems with you having become a woman, one of the guys I was at Uni with did exactly the same and we are still quite close friends.”

“ Thanks for the warning Susan. Depending on what anyone else has to say this morning, and what Sergeant Terry thinks about it, I am sure that we can arrange a transfer for you. I’ll let you know.”

The rest of the discussions with the others were rather neutral. Some of the team were big fans of Wainwright and thought that he was being unfairly treated, but were prepared to see how it all went and in the meantime were happy to stay in the squad. With others he was not so popular and was seen as an arrogant sarcastic bully, and they were glad to see him go. Not one was going to request a transfer, but I had my suspicions about how much of team players some of them would be.

I took Susan over to what was now Trudy’s office and left them to discuss how they could work together, they hit it off well and the Odd Squad was back in business.

I spent the next few days getting to grips with what my new team was working on, and other than passing some work to Trudy I left her to work on her own initiative.

————————————————————————————————
Trudy’s story

I sat down with Susan and went through how we operated differently to the main detective squad, and amused her with the tales of using our unofficial team of helpers. Mick, Josie, Jane and her friends. Some of the methods we used were unorthodox and could even be claimed by smooth-tongued lawyers as entrapment, but it had worked for us.

The first case Julie had given us was a death threat made to a famous soap-opera and television drama-series star who was performing at the Theatre Royal in the city. The second was a large apparent rise in drug use at the University. Both cases had hit brick walls and despite intense interviews and surveillance had not provided any leads, in both cases there was no cooperation or willingness to help from the other people involved or around.

We arranged to go over to see the theatre director , Sean Marshall to get the background to the threats.

“ Good morning Mr Marshall, DS Terry and DC Haworth, Trudy and Susan if you prefer. We understand that our colleagues have been here already and have only managed to get vague details, and a bit of forensics, but that nobody seems to know anything, or someone is keeping back information. Tell us the story again please, and assume that we know nothing.”

“ We are rehearsing a production of ‘Ghost’ as a run-up to the Christmas Pantomime, ‘Cinderella’, with essentially the same cast. The lead actor on both productions, as Sam in Ghost and as Prince Charming in Cinderella, is Jack Cartwright who you may or may not recognise from a lot of television drama productions, a bit of a heartthrob to a lot of young women.

Two weeks ago when he got back to his dressing room after rehearsals there was a message scratched into the glass of his mirror, “ You will soon be able to play Sam for real when you are turned into a ghost, watch your back.” and a Ken doll with a knife stuck in it was left on his chair. Your guys came in, talked to the cast, nobody had heard or seen anything or knew of any reason for anyone to particularly dislike him.”

“Is he popular with the rest of the cast and team, when I have seen him on the chat shows he always seems a bit self-centred?” Susan asked despite my instructions to leave the questions to me and just sit and learn.

“Most of the well-known actors we get in our productions are very down-to-earth and get on well with all the cast and back-stage people. Jack is a bit of a Prima Donna, or more correctly Primo Uomo, and can get a bit full of himself, but nothing nasty just a bit intolerant of lesser mortals, but I don’t think that he has particularly upset or had a go at anybody since he has been here with us.”

“ Do you mind if we talk to everybody again, are they all in for rehearsals?”

We were interrupted by one of the team rushing in to the office.

“ We have a massive problem Sean, Carly has been rushed to hospital with severe stomach pains, probably appendicitis, and we don’t know how long she will be out of action for. This could upset the whole routine of rehearsals, she plays such a major part in a lot of the scenes. You need to sort out a replacement. to make it worse her understudy just had a row with Jack Cartwright and has flounced out.”

“ Calm down Kathy leave it with me, I will be with you in a few minutes to see what we can do when I am finished here.”

“ What was all that about?” I asked.

“That was Kathy Starling, my ASM, Assistant Stage Manager, she gets a bit stressed and carried away at times. Carly Jackson, is one of the lead cast members, she is playing Oda Mae Brown the psychic, you may remember Whoopi Goldberg played the part in the film. It’s a major role and I will have a big problem getting a replacement urgently at this point in the season, most well known actors are already booked up for the panto season. Are we going to be long, I need to get this sorted.”

“ This might seem like a daft idea, but I may be able to help and it will help us too. with our investigation” I suggested. “ There is someone who works with us who is a professionally trained actor, who could stand in for rehearsals and even for one or two shows if you think they are any good. Two problems, Mick is a man, and he is white, but while he is looking for more fulfilling work he does a drag act as Lola Luscious which I am told is very good, I am sure that he could play the part really over the top, just like Whoopi Goldberg. It would also allow us to have somebody close to the cast and crew, they might be told things that people are reluctant to tell the police. What do you think?”

“ It’s a bit different but it could work, but it would be only temporary until Carly is back with us. But I would have to see them first to make sure that they are capable of taking the role. I need to calm the cast and crew down at this moment, could you send Lola in to see me this afternoon.”

“ We will contact Mick to see if he is available, and we will drop him off at the stage door, but we won’t come in, we wouldn’t want him linked to the police. we will leave you now to sort out your problems.”

“ Mick, are you free to help us with an investigation, it is an acting role in the Theatre Royal, but you would be performing as Lola not as Mick, will you do it.”

“Tell me more, it could be the foot in the door I am looking for.”

Just after lunch we picked Mick up at his flat, and I almost cried with laughter when I first saw him. He wasn’t quite in full drag make up and outrageous costume, but he was very over the top and although obviously a man in women’s clothes he was fit to be out in public. He was wearing an emerald green lurex sheath dress that finished mid-thigh with heavy padding underneath to give him, a bit of a figure, in fact a lot of a figure , knee-high wedge heel black leatherette boots, and big hair, a black wavy wig. I had been out with him a few times, but It was the first time I had seen him dressed as a woman, I wasn’t sure whether I was repulsed or attracted by the sight, but I thought that he definitely looked like he could play Oda Mae.
————————————————————————————

Mick’s story

We took a taxi to the theatre and they dropped me at the stage door, I had decided to play it all very camp, strutted inside and marched up to the doorkeeper. “Lola Luscious to see Sean Marshall, be a sweetie and let him know I am here.”

On the way to the office, I smiled sweetly in response to all the questioning stares I was getting, and was soon in with Sean Marshall.

“Mr Marshall, can we just do this as Mick Metcalfe, or I can keep playing it camp as Lola if you prefer.”

“I think that you have proved your point, tell me about yourself and what you have done.”

“ I studied at RADA and graduated two years ago, but have struggled to break through into a theatre company. I have played supporting roles in serious and musical theatre, and keep the wolves from the door by acting as Lola Luscious at the local drag and gay club, and as ‘Mick the Mime’, the street entertainer.

I have recently worked on some undercover jobs with the police which have combined my acting skills along with a bit of a sense for the unusual. DS Terry has told me about your problem and I think that if I could join your cast for a while as Oda Mae Brown, I might be able to help to get to the bottom of this. Do you want me to do a stage audition to see what you think?”

I have forewarned the cast of your audition and although only ‘Sam’ and ‘Molly’ will have any say as to whether they want to work with you, you will probably have all the others watching in the background. Obviously you will not do it as a Whoopi Goldberg homage, just play it as you see fit. It should probably only be for rehearsals anyway to let the rest of the cast develop their roles. With a bit of luck Carly will be back for opening night, the punters pay to see names they recognise not understudies.”

I quickly read through the scene where Oda Mae realises that she can actually communicate with the ghost of Sam instead of the normal sham seances she took part in. I went on stage with Jack Cartwright as Sam, and played out the scene. Obviously I was not word perfect but we got through it all, with me really overacting Oda’s hysterics. When it was all over there was a stony silence, before Jack slapped me on the back and shook my hand, which started a round of applause from the others.

“ That’s fine with me, you will fit in for the rehearsals, and could even understudy for the show, what do you think Sean? The role is bit of a comedy role anyway, and a bit of drag won’t do it any harm.”

“Come back to the office Lola and we’ll talk through the details.” Sean said with a happy smile.

“ That went really well and you should be ok and be trusted to have a nosy around. If you are still around for the actual performances, I don’t want to bill you as Lola Luscious, you can either do it as Michael Metcalfe, or under any other stage name you prefer, and if you can tone down the drag Act a bit it would sit better in a serious production. Apart from that, you gave a polished performance out there and obviously know what you are doing, would you consider joining our staff repertory company.? Don’t give me an answer now, have a think about it. Go out and mix with the company, give them whatever background story you like, gay or straight, drag act or serious actor. Welcome to the team !”

I did as he said, cleaned off the extremes of the make-up and the long false lashes, changed into skinny jeans and a woollen top and went out to meet everyone. I Introduced myself as Michael rather than Lola and made it clear that I was just playing a part earlier and we got on with rehearsals. On stage I was in Oda Mae mode, but off stage talking to people I was just my usual self. I tried to mix in with everyone and after a while someone mentioned to me about the death threat which gave me an opening to discuss it with people.

The general reaction I got was that although Jack was a bit full of himself, he wasn’t too bad with people and nobody thought that he had done anything nasty enough to deserve a death threat. Because I was still wearing my wig and hadn’t totally cleaned off the makeup, the girls and women were happy to chat to me and give me the gossip on the rest of the cast and crew. The only name that kept coming up as having a dislike to Jack was Kathy Starling, the ASM, so I thought that I had better have a talk with her. We were on a break in rehearsals, so I got myself a coffee and went over to join her.

“ Are you on your own, I am still trying to get to know everybody, and they all seem to be collecting in their own little circles of friends? Have you been with the company long.?”

“ I’ve been here about a year, as ASM, as a way, hopefully, of getting a part in one of the productions, you must know how hard it is. It annoys me when you have a lot of jobbing actors trying to make a career, and TV so-called-stars just waltz in and take all the good roles, and I just get left behind. I have been heard to say that to people and that makes me not the most popular person around, but I get by.”

“ Are you talking generally, or about Jack Cartwright in particular?”

“ Mainly just in general, but he is a prime example of what I mean, he is not a great actor, but was just in the right place at the right time for the TV role and things have taken off from there. Any one of the crowd he hung around with could have played the part better.”

“ You sound like you knew him before.”

“ Er…no, not at all , I just know the type. Anyway we cannot sit here gossiping, break time is over, let’s get back to work.”

After we had finished, I took off the wig and cleaned my makeup and made myself presentable as Mick to go home, when I heard a loud cry for help from Jack’s dressing room. As I opened the door I was roughly pushed aside by someone rushing past, and looked in to see Jack sprawled on the floor.”

“ Are you ok, do you need a doctor?”

“ I will be fine, just give me a minute. It is lucky you arrived when you did, I had just come in and suddenly felt a blow on my shoulder, someone attacked me from behind with a wooden club, I shouted, you opened the door, and they rushed off.”

“ Did you recognise them? I’ve heard that you have received threats. Did they say anything to you? Do you want me to call the police, in their hast they may have left something which would let them be identified.”

Trying to remain undercover, rather than call Trudy directly I dialled the police non-emergency number,101, and asked to speak to the York detectives looking into threats at the Theatre Royal and was soon connected to Susan who came out to investigate with a forensic team. They found the wooden club and were able to get some decent fingerprints and DNA traces from it which were sent off for analysis. Susan took statements from Jack and me, drove Jack to his hotel and we went back to Julie and Trudy’s flat for a review of what I had found, rather than to the station so as not to link me to the police.

“ Are you ok Mick, you didn't get hurt did you?” asked a concerned Julie.

“ I am fine, just a bruise where my arm hit the door frame, and Jack Cartwright will maybe have a sore shoulder, but otherwise no harm done this time.”

“ I’m glad you are working with us on this Mick, it is useful having someone on the inside.”

“ It has been useful for me to, I have been asked to join the rep company, this could be the career break I have been looking for.”

“ That’s really good news, I’m pleased for you. Has it all been any use to our investigation?”

“I have found a few things which might interest you, Jack is a bit up himself, but is generally well liked, and he has been very pleasant with me, but the ASM Kathy Starling seems to dislike him and seemed a bit shifty when I asked why, you may want to look into her. She also seems to have a thing about ‘Stars’ jumping in and taking all the good roles.”

“ Trudy , Susan, do a check see what you can find out about her. Mick, see if you can get a bit closer to her and try to find out why. Good work for the first day Trudy, I am very busy getting to grips with the cases of the other team, so I will just leave you to run the show.”

Trudy took me home and stayed for a while, chatting over a glass of wine, or two. I was beginning to like her a lot, and if we could get over her doubts about me working in drag, which was now possibly going to be less of an occurrence with me having a straight acting job, we could possibly have a future together.

The next morning, I arrived at the theatre and everyone seemed to know about the attempted assault on Jack and wanted to congratulate me on turning up on time to save the day. If Jack had been unable to continue, with two of the three stars no longer available, the show and the whole season, would have been in doubt. Jack was particularly grateful and said that as well as supporting me joining the company, he would have a word with his agent to see what he could do in getting me a part in his next TV show.

We kept on with rehearsals, and it was late afternoon before I had a chance to have a chat alone with Kathy.

“ It was lucky for Jack that you turned up when you did, somebody has obviously got it in for him. However, if these things keep happening he might decide to leave the shows.”

“ That’s not you want surely, he seems to get on well with all the others, and will be a big draw for the audiences.”

“ I didn’t say that I wanted him to quit, but somebody obviously does, and if they get their way, i won’t be sorry to see him go. While his career has taken off he has stepped on a lot of toes on the way, and there are many people who would like to see him taken down a peg or two.”

”You sound like you are one of them, has he done something to annoy you personally?”

“ Ask me again another time Mick, let’s leave it there, I have probably said too much.”

Over the next few days, my sitting down for a coffee break with Kathy became a regular thing, but she didn’t open up any more about why she didn’t like Jack Cartwright.

“ Mick, can you do us a favour” Trudy called and asked, “Can you get us a coffee cup or some hair or something from Kathy so that we can do a DNA check? Her records are very hazy and we would like to see if we can trace her another way.”

I managed to get her coffee cup after one of our chats, and put it in a plastic bag, and that evening I met up with Trudy to pass it over.

“ What’s the problem with Kathy, Trudy?”

“ She just appeared about two years ago, we can’t find any record of her before that and suspect that she is not who she says she is, but we are still looking. If we can get some DNA off the cup we might be able to get a match from the database.”

“What about the club, did you manage to get anything off that?”

“ We got a good DNA sample, but there was no match on the database, but that just means they have no criminal record. The only thing we can get is that it is a male, which is not a lot of help.”

“ I have been talking with Kathy and she definitely has a big dislike for Jack Cartwright, and it seems more personal than just being about a ‘star’ getting the best roles. Is there any link between her and Jack?”

“ We’re still looking, but as I said, her background is a bit of a mystery.”

————————————————————————————
Trudy’s story

Two days later we had a breakthrough and we brought Kathy Starling in for questioning.

“ Thanks for coming in Kathy, at this stage you are not under arrest and do not have to answer questions, but it may be in your interest to help us.

“We have been looking into your background and before two years ago there are no records of your birth, school or college attendance, and no medical history, it is all a mystery to us, can you explain please?”

“ It is all very personal, and I would rather not. I changed my name at that time and the person who I was before no longer exists, I am legally Katherine Starling now, but normally go as Kathy.”

“ Ok, we’ll try another way, can you explain the fact that your DNA matches that which we found on the club that was used on the attack on Jack Cartwright.”

“ No comment !”

“ And the fact that the DNA sample indicates that you are in fact male.”

That was the trigger, Kathy broke down in tears.After she calmed down and had a coffee, she requested a lawyer before answering any more questions. An hour later after cautioning her of her rights, we resumed the interview with a duty lawyer present.”

“Firstly we need to establish you legal name and status, can you confirm the fact that you are genetically male?”

“ You don’t have to answer that, it is irrelevant to the investigation.” interrupted the solicitor

“ It’s ok, it is time I was honest. I am, or at least I was, a male, I am now physically female after surgery abroad, I did not go through the National Health Service process as I was in a rush.”

“ I take it that was 2 years ago when you suddenly appeared on the scene as Kathy Starling, what was your previous name, so we can do further checks on your background?”

“ I was Kevin Swift, but as well as changing my gender I had all new records made, claiming I was a distant cousin born in British Columbia in Canada with English grandparents and claimed citizenship as Katherine Starling that way. Somehow, any checks must have got confused between here and Vancouver and did not pick up on the truth and I was given a full set of documents in my new identity.”

Susan left to do a background check on Kevin Swift and came back in a few minutes with a nod to confirm that she had traced him. I let her continue .

“ Kevin Swift disappeared off the radar at the same time as you appeared, so that seems tie up. Kevin was an actor and it seems that he was in a few minor productions with Jack Cartwright before he got his big break, so you knew him before he came to the Theatre Royal.”

“ We went through drama school together, and appeared in a few low-key roles at provincial theatres. We both went for interview for the role in the soap and he won it. He became obnoxious and arrogant and was rubbing my face in it, I finally snapped and thumped him on stage one night during a performance. After that I got a reputation as a difficult person to work with and soon opportunities dried up. I was on the breadline, had no work and was running out of money and staying with a good friend, also an actor. She suggested that if nobody wanted to employ Kevin, that I might be able to get a role as a woman, we had both recently watched ‘Tootsie’ and it worked for Dustin Hoffman, and she felt that because of my slight build that it could work for me too.

She helped me adapt to life as female, helping me with clothes, makeup, and lessons on deportment ad mannerisms, and I found myself getting more and more work and was soon living and working full-time completely as a woman. I became more and more comfortable and natural as a woman and decided that was how I wanted to continue, had surgery and treatment, and was living happily in my new life. That was until Jack Cartwright suddenly turned up at the theatre and came back into my life and reminded me how I had got to this stage.”

“ Were you really threatening his life or were you just trying to scare him to make him leave?”

“ I just wanted him to get out of my life and thought that if I could frighten him off, that he would leave the shows and I could get back to how things were. I did hit him with the club, but it was just meant to hurt and frighten him, I did not intend to go much further.”

Before we went any further, I decided to talk it through with Julie, as although Kathy had threatened violence and carried out a minor assault, I could understand Kathy’s reasons, and felt that it was a one-off event and that she was not really likely to re-offend, and filled Julie in on what we had found out.

“ Julie, I would like to talk to Jack Cartwright to try to get him to drop charges, it will waste a lot of our time and court procedures to take this to trial and there will be no real benefits to society in general. What do you think?”

“ I’m probably not the best one to make that decision , I know how traumatic it is to be transgender and some of the problems it gives. Speak to Jack, explain it all, and see what he says. If however he does want to prosecute, we haven’t got any choice.”

Susan and I went to the theatre and found a room to have a private chat with Jack, and after asking him to treat what we said as confidential, we filled him on Kathy’s story.”

“ You’re joking, I remember Kevin and can’t believe what has happened to him. I know that I upset him, but didn’t think that it would have that big an impact. I understand that you would like me to drop any charges, but before I do, I would like to speak to him….her.”

“At the moment she is in custody down at the station, it may be more discreet if you came down there with us to discuss it with her, rather than bringing her to the theatre.”

As a matter of policy I sat in on the conversation in case anything came up that would change the options open to us.

“ Jack, I’m sorry that I got you worried and hope that I didn’t hurt you too much with the club. I was just so upset when you came back into my life.”

“Ok, I know that I got the job that you wanted, but there was no need to thump me on stage, it was so unprofessional, and I am sorry that it totally changed your life, although I do think that you make a better Kathy than you were as Kevin. Until you recently started being bit cold towards me I thought you were a pleasant, good-looking, hard-working ASM, and hoped that you would graduate to getting stage roles. Do you now think that you can get over this and work with me without any problems?”

“ I’ve got it out of my system now, I have been bottling up my hatred for what you did, and it all just bubbled over, but that’s it, I have come to terms with it, and in many ways it has changed my life for the better, I am very comfortable and happy as a woman, and for that I should be grateful.”

“ Sergeant Terry, can we drop charges and forget all about this. Kathy has suffered enough?”

“ If that’s what you want, it is fine with me. However Kathy it will go on record as a caution, and will be brought up again if there is any repeat of violent behaviour.’

Kathy and Jack went off to a bar to catch up on old times and seemed happy enough. They had decided that nobody at the theatre would be told anything further, other than that the case had been dropped and there would be no further problems.

I met up with Mick later and he told me that when Jack got back to the theatre he put on on a bit of a dramatic performance, of “ Oh, it was all so traumatic, but it is over now, and I don’t want to talk about it.” It turned out that the chat Jack and Kathy had really broke the ice between them and they were now happy to work together.

It was my first case where I was in charge, it worked out really well, and I even got a few congratulations from some of Julie’s detective team.

———————————————————————
Postscript

A fortnight later the show opened, and Mick covered for the first three performances as Oda Mae, until Carly Jackson was fully recovered. Julie and I went to the opening night and had a really enjoyable time, the show was amazing and Mick really went down well as Oda Mae, playing the part as an outrageous comedy role, similar to Whoopi Goldberg’s take on it, and he stayed as understudy to Carly for the rest of the season including as the stepmother in Cinderella.

To be continued

Chapter 6
New to the team

Having successfully cleared up the problem at the Theatre Royal with the threat to Jack Cartwright, and established Mick in the theatre rep company, we were looking forward to a relaxing weekend away from work.

As it was a fine weekend, Trudy and I decided to go and watch a civil war re-enactment battle performed by a local historical society, similar to the Sealed Knot events.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

During the English civil war of the mid 1640s and 1650s between the Royalists, forces loyal to King Charles 1, and the Parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell, who were against the autocratic rule of the monarch and demanded that power should be in the hands of the members of Parliament drawn from the aristocrats, landowners and important local representatives from around the country, there were continual skirmishes , battles and changes of control. Many of the conflicts were traditional battles in open countryside, or sieges of towns holding out against the opposition who were controlling the nearby countryside. Both sides were convinced of the justice of their case, many justified their allegiance on religious lines, differentiating between Catholic and Anglican on the Royalist side, and ‘Free Church’ hard-line protestants who generally supported the Parliamentarians.

York , as the seat of The Council of the North, effectively the King’s Northern capital, was not immune, and as the major administrative centre and seat of royal authority for the North was a Royalist stronghold for most of the conflict. Although York itself remained under the authority of the Royalists, control of the surrounding towns and country ebbed and flowed and on the 2 July 1644 at Marston Moor, 5 miles West of York, the Royalist army was heavily defeated by an army led by Lord Ferdinando Fairfax and his son Thomas Fairfax, and broke up and dispersed. Many maintain that this was the turning point of the civil war, leading to control by Parliament , the abolition of the monarchy, and the establishment of the Commonwealth. Some of the royalists retreated to York, which was put under siege and on the 16 July, York surrendered to the Parliamentarians, and remained under their control for the remainder of the conflict.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The enactment was to be held at the site of the battle of Marston Moor and drew a large crowd of spectators to watch the event, which itself had a large cast of participants, all dressed in costumes of the period. Some were the major leaders, riding on horseback, many were archers or pikemen, but the use of firearms was now common and many were dressed as musketeers with they long flintlock rifles and there were the usual camp flowers of wives, daughters, merchants and servants.

The Royalists, particular the commanders and senior figures, were dressed in finery, lace collars and cuffs, large feathered hats, , their women in long flowing gowns, many dressed as if they were out for an afternoon stroll rather that at the site of a battle.

The parliamentarian forces were in much plainer outfits, the men generally in black tunics and breeches, bareheaded or wearing leather skullcaps, the women in drab utilitarian peasant-style clothing and plain white bonnets.

All in all it was a colourful and exciting scene. As well as the main re-enactment, the centrepiece of the day, there were produce and memorabilia stalls, demonstrations of trades and skills of the time, displays of the weapons to be used, falconry displays and all the usual catering and marketing stalls of any outdoor event.

While wandering around viewing the various stalls we came across Joe Riley and Charles Madeley, our friends from the Rose-acre care home, who were out enjoying the blue skies and the light breeze of the fine autumn weather, and they were delighted to join us for the afternoon.

With a fanfare of trumpets and the beating of drums the battle participants entered the arena, led by Lord Ferdinando Fairfax for the Parliamentarians and Prince Rupert of the Rhine for the Royalists along with their colourfully dressed retinues, and they lined up for battle. The various camp followers toured the perimeter of the crowd encouraging the spectators to cheer for their side before going to the rear of the battle formations, and the two armies marched towards each other to start the conflict.

There was a general melee of bodies, lots of shouting and screaming, the clashing of the sword blades, the roar and discharge smoke of the muskets and the pounding of the horses hooves. Eventually the battle was over, the royalist forces were fleeing back towards York, and the Parliamentarians were celebrating, dancing around all the ‘dead’ bodies littering the ground.

It was all very spectacular and realistic and the spectators were clapping and cheering the actors, as those that’d been ‘killed in battle’ rose up and went to celebrate with their comrades. it was soon noticed that ‘Lord Fairfax’ was not leading the celebrations of his victorious troops, but was still prone on the ground in the centre of the arena, and a cry went up for the medics to come to attend to him as he had genuine been badly hurt during the battle.

The medics quickly called over the few police and their associated community support officers, and although we were off-duty Trudy and I went over to see what was the problem.

“He is badly injured, in the midst of the re-enactment someone has shot him with live ammunition instead of the duds that were supposed to be used.” one of the medics told us.

Taking charge I immediately arranged a PA announcement that all the actors and spectators were to remain. for quick interviews with the attending police officers, which was mainly taking contact details and asking if anyone had noticed anything suspicious. All firearms were collected for forensic checks and most people were allowed to leave, with only a few of the actors being asked to stay, mainly ‘Lord Fairfax’s” retinue that were near him during the conflict, his support knights, his ‘son, Thomas Fairfax’ and some attendants. However in the heat of the battle with all the noise and the general confusion, nobody had any useful information for us.

‘Lord Fairfax’ was rushed off to hospital for urgent attention as he had lost a lot of blood and was in a critical condition and It was obviously not possible to interview him to find out if he had seen who did this to him.

With all the people in and around the arena it would be a waste of time asking for a forensic search, and we were at a bit of a loss as to how to go forward with our investigation. As I now had the resources of the main detective team as well as Trudy and Susan, they were all sent out to further question the battle participants to find out any background information that would help us. The general response was that nobody had seen or heard anything unusual. We caught up with Joe and Charles, told them what all the fuss was about, and said that they should give us a call if anything unusual came to mind.

As murder case investigations were normally required to be led by a Detective Chief Inspector, a rank above me, I cleared it with CS Scargill for me to continue.

“Just keep going at it Julie, at the moment it is only assault and at worst attempted murder, I have confidence in you. To keep the books straight, keep me informed, but otherwise do what you think is best. Any trouble from your new team yet or is all sweetness and light with them?”

“ A few grumbles but nothing I can’t handle. Although Wainwright’s team were loyal to him and although they generally thought that he was doing a good job, he was not particularly well liked personally, but there are a few who resent me jumping into his shoes so quickly.”

Back at the station, reports were telling me that it appeared that ‘Lord Fairfax’, in real-life Joseph Howard a local landowner and businessman, who was the leader of the group, was not the most popular person around. As a wealthy and powerful businessman he treated many of the people in the group as the peasants they were in their roles in the battles and many felt he was arrogant and patronising.

There was also a common feeling, whilst nobody wished him to die from his wounds, that he deserved to be punished for the way he treated people. In particular there were rumours of a lot of ill-will between him and “Prince Rupert’, Colin Ayres, over who should lead the group as well as personal and business conflicts between them.

As we could still not speak to Mr Howard, who was still sedated in hospital, I decided to visit Mr Ayres with one of my sergeants, Barry Kidd.

“ Thanks for your time Mr Ayres, I realise that when you were interviewed at the battlefield you told the officers that you saw and heard nothing unusual. Has anything further come to mind?”

“ In truth, the way we play the scenes, we only come together at the end of the battle when Prince Rupert is escaping, we both have separate roles to play. With all the noise and turmoil I didn’t notice that he wasn’t prancing around looking important until he didn’t lead his troops in the victory celebrations at the end of the battle.”

“ ‘Prancing around looking important’, it sounds like you are not too keen on him.”

“ Let’s just say that he isn’t on my dinner party lists, we have had several run-ins over business deals and I think he is an arrogant so-and-so who upsets a lot of our society members with his bullying ways. To be honest I’m surprised that nobody has had a go at him in the battles before now, with all the hustle and bustle a lot could go on unnoticed.”

“ What about you, has the thought ever crossed your mind?”

“ Crossed my mind, yes, taken it any further, of course not ! Anyway, he will be out of action now for a while and it will give me an opportunity to reorganise things and get people a bit happier again.”

“ Thanks for your time and your frank comments, we may need to talk to you again, we’ll be in touch.”

Barry and I reviewed the interview when we got back in our car.

“What did you think of him Barry?”

“ He definitely doesn’t like Howard, and does not hide it, he either did the deed or he has a good poker face, I do not think it was him though.”

“ My thoughts too, let’s go and visit the Howard family.”

We arrived at Manor Farm and instead of finding a working farmyard, found ourselves in the grounds of a large country house with manicured lawns and carefully tended shrubbery and flower beds, obviously the working areas of the estate were well away from the main house.

A knock on the door was answered by a slight young person, it was hard to tell at first whether it was a girl or boy, as their clothing was very loose and unisex style and their hair was pulled back in a low ponytail.

“Good afternoon, DI Rowntree and DS Kidd from York police, we would like to speak to Toni Howard, if she is in, please.”

“ Come in, by the way it is Tony, Anthony, not Toni, and that is me, how can I help?”

“ My apologies, we were told that Toni was one of the camp follower women at the battlefield, our constable must have made a mistake.”

“ It was easy mistake to make, I was dressed in costume as the daughter of Lord Fairfax and with my hair hanging loose, one of my father’s little jokes. He has always picked on me for my slight build and decided a few years ago that I would never be big enough to play one of the troops, and the only role he would let me have would be as his daughter. Over time I have just got into character and join in with the other women at the re-enactments, and normally spend most of my time with them, and most of the men treat me and look on me as a woman on the day .”

“ Ok, we have no problems with that. Did you notice anything unusual happening during the fight and do you know of any reason why anyone would want to shoot your father?”

“ I was well away from all the action, with the other women encouraging the crowd, we keep off the main battlefield and we’re normally facing the spectators, so we see very little of what goes on, so I can’t really help you with that. My father is a successful businessman, and has upset a lot of people on the way, but I can’t think of anyone annoyed enough to shoot him.”

‘What about the people in the historical society, we understand that he was not very popular with a lot of them?”

“ He runs the society like he runs his business, there is only one boss, and that is him. I know that the other main characters, Prince Rupert and Thomas Fairfax, both think that he is arrogant and bullying, but again he sees it as strong leadership, but attempting to kill him is over-the-top for minor squabbles.”

“ Who is normally near him during the battles?”

“ His ‘Page’ played byJack Ashton and his ‘Escort knight’ Michael Carter are normally by his side, they might have seen something.”

“ Thanks for your help Tony, we’ll be in touch if we need to speak to you again.”

We called on Ashton and Carter and other than confirming that they had noticed nothing unusual, and that Joseph Howard was generally disliked as a pompous and arrogant bully, gave us nothing we did not already know.

Mike Atkins, aka ‘Thomas Fairfax’, was next on our list, as we had been told that he had had several recent public rows with Joseph Howard over the way the society was run.

“ I’m glad he was not killed but nobody deserves to be taken down a peg or two more than Howard. He treats everyone like his underlings and carries his role as Lord Fairfax into his real life. I have been trying to get him to pay a large business debt to my company for several weeks now but the guy is just dismissive and quite frankly if I had the chance to attack him during the battle scenes I would, but i never get anywhere near him except when we ride into the arena together.”

“ We get the general impression that he is not popular, but can you think of anyone who might have a serious grudge against him?”

“ Make a list of anyone who does business with him or works for him and there is a fair chance that they will be glad that he has ended up in hospital. ”

Barry and I returned to base to review the interviews and I asked Trudy to join us.

“From what you and Barry have told me anyone on the battlefield is likely to have had a motive and opportunity to have a shot at him, do you have any strong suspicions yet.?”

“Whilst everyone seems to dislike him, Ayres and Atkins seem to have stronger feelings than most,” said Barry.” But I wasn’t too comfortable with the son, Tony, he must resent being made to dress up and spend all the time with the women, what young man would want that?” Seeing the glances between myself and Trudy, he quickly added “No disrespect intended boss, and you too Trudy, but you must know what I mean.”

I grinned back at him to ease his tension “You’ve just spent all day with me and now you are in here with me and Trudy, do you feel resentful about being with women. Count yourself lucky that we wear trousers at work rather than skirts or we may have to ask you to wear a skirt too. You might have been clumsy in the way you said it, but I too thought that Tony was just a little dismissive and nonchalant about it. We will keep him on the list for the moment. See what you can find out about all three of them Barry. Leave it until tomorrow, and unless you are worried about being in the company of women, do you fancy a pint with Trudy and me on the way home?”

The next day we were no further forward, other than finding out that the debt that Howard owed was almost bankrupting Atkins’ company, and that Howard and Ayres had been at loggerheads over several controversial property deals where Ayres had lost a lot of money after losing development contracts to Howard’s companies.

Barry and I were just about to leave when Trudy and Susan came into our office. “We’ve just had a call from Joe Riley one of the Rose-acre people, he says he has some photographs of the battle scenes that might be useful and would like you to pop round to look at them. you might have a bigger team now, but the Odd Squad can still come in useful.”

We hurried round to Jane Stuart’s house in Copmanthorpe where the friends and fellow escapees from Rose-acre were still living.

‘What have you got for us Joe, Trudy said that you are quite excited that you may have snapped something useful to us, let’s have a look.”

“I was just taking lots of snaps of the event and was quite taken by an attractive young woman who was waving around in front of us encouraging us to shout and cheer. She was so lively that I followed her with the camera and noticed, that unlike the other woman, that she went out onto the battlefield, right into the middle of the action. When she came back she had a worried look on her face and was starting to cry. iIthink she may have seen when Lord Fairfax was shot.”

The photos clearly showed that the young woman was Tony, or more fittinglyToni, Howard, who had told us that they never went into the main area of action.

“ Thanks Joe, we know who that is, I think we better have another talk with them.”

We called the house and were told that Tony was at work and went round to Howard Developments to see if they could come to the station for an interview. The young receptionist looked familiar and it dawned on me that, despite being completely dressed as a woman, in a formal blouse and skirt, with hair curled and styled, and in full makeup, that it was Tony..

“ Tony, we need you to come with us to answer a few more questions, can you get someone to cover for you for the rest of the day?”

Sitting in the interview room, dressed as he was it was hard to look upon him as Tony, and in my mind I was talking to Toni and was treating her as such.

“ Toni, you told us that you were nowhere near your father when he was shot, but we have photos that show otherwise, can you please tell us the truth.”

I wanted to scare him to make him feel as afraid as I often am of him. I took a pistol that he keeps in his library desk with me, intending to fire it into the air close to his horse and spook it, hopefully throwing him off. Just as I was about to pull the trigger I was brushed by another horse and my aim was off and I shot him. It was an accident, I meant for him to get hurt and humiliated, but not to kill him.

“ We need the gun for forensic tests. Soon we will take you home to get it but before we do, why do you want to humiliate him.”

“ Isn’t it obvious, just look at me. It all started with me just wearing a dress at the battles, but then he insisted that I look the part more, and made me grow my hair longer so that some of the other women could style it, and with the help of a bit of makeup, I would look more feminine. It also meant wearing breast forms, stuck on so as not to get displaced during all the moving around and arm waving to the crowds. It soon ended up that I would get ready at home and spend the whole day, and for some events the whole weekend, either in the costume or in girls’ clothes and I just became another one of the woman and joined them in their social activities. It was so humiliating, it was not something that i wanted to do, but there was no point in arguing with him.

It all has come to a head recently. He wanted me to work with him at the company, but insisted that i should start at the bottom rather than jump straight into a position of responsibility, which meant doing all the more menial tasks as any other office junior would do. In his eyes those roles were for girls and he considered it would be more appropriate if I dressed as one. At first I was disgusted with it all, but I soon got used to skirts and makeup and styling my hair, the jokes and nasty comments from the others became yesterday’s news, and I now just go unnoticed as another of the girls in the office, and spend virtually all my time now as a girl.

A few weeks ago was the final straw, he wanted me to start taking hormones and to see a specialist about transitioning. He said that I would never live up to his expectations as his son and heir to the business, and that I would be better of as his daughter. I later found out that when I refused he started putting ground up hormone pills into my food and drinks . It is just too much, he is ruining my life and I felt that a big shock for him might change things back to where they were. I actually am quite comfortable living and working as a girl, but it should be my choice, not his.”

“ The way he has treated you is absolutely awful, but if you are comfortable and happy living as a girl, it is not unusual nowadays. We’ll deal with all that later, you can still have a useful and fulfilling life and career as a woman, but when the case comes to court, if you tell that story, I am sure that they will treat you leniently. Let’s go and get this gun.”

“ Are you’re this is the gun you used Toni?”

“ It must be , as far as I know it is the only one in the house and it is always kept in the same place, in his library desk drawer.”

“We’ll get the forensic team to check it out, but I am sure that it is not the right calibre to match the bullet that shot your father. I am certain that it was not you that put him in hospital, and for the moment you are released and can go back to work, but please do not leave the area without telling us. If you prefer we can continue to treat you and talk to you as a girl, Toni”

“ Thank you for not judging me because of the way I am dressed, everyone treats me as Toni and you should expect to see me like this if you come to talk to me again

Overnight forensic checks picked up Toni’s prints on the gun and also showed that it was not the attempted murder weapon, so the next morning we called her to let her know and to arrange another interview. We met her at her office, again working behind reception looking every inch the smart pretty happy young girl that she was turning into.

“ I’m so happy that it was not me that shot him, I only wanted to frighten him, despite the way he has always treated me, and the way he has bullied my mother to go along with all he has done to me, he is still my father. I understand that he is now conscious but still very weak, but the hospital have said no visitors today, and I suppose that includes you as well, they say he is not in a fit state to be interviewed.”

“ You said that when you were about to shoot the gun near him, that you’re brushed by a horse, do you know who it was?”

“ There are only four people on horses on the battlefield, him, his attendant Knight, Prince Rupert, and Thomas Fairfax. The knight’s horse is a very distinctive Grey, and I am sure that it wasn’t that, the other two are very similar and it could have been either.”

“ Have you ever heard either Colin Ayres or Mike Atkins make threats against your father?”

Both of them have had quite aggressive and noisy public rows with him, but I can’t say that either made any serious threats to his life.”

“ Thanks for your help Toni, I don’t think there will be any serious charges against you, the best we can do is unlawful possession of a weapon and that that be treated as a minor offence with a slap on the wrist, but we will avoid that if we can.”

We interviewed both men again and they both insisted that they were nowhere near Howard when he was shot, and with no evidence or witnesses there was not much we could do.

Barry went through Joe Riley’s photos again to see if anything could be spotted, one showed another rider near to Howard , but even when enhanced it was still not clear enough to identify who it was.

“ Toni, it’s Barry Kidd from the police, when you do the reconstructions do you have anyone taking official pictures for your publicity material.”

“ Yes we do in fact, one of the parliamentarian soldiers wanders all over the scenes and takes some wonderful action shots, I will dig out the name and get back to you.”

Barry contacted the photographer, got digital copies of the photos taken at the event and it did not take him long to discover that we had been lied to and who had carried out the shooting. Before we approached our main suspect we had been told that Joseph Howard was now awake and fit for a short interview, and after telling me what he had found we went down to the hospital to talk with him.

“ Mr Howard, we are glad that you are now recovering, can you remember what happened?”

It was towards the end of the show, I was rallying my troops for a final push, when I heard a gunshot nearby, closely followed by another and looked round to see that idiot Atkins riding away. That man has never liked me but I didn’t think that he would go to the extreme of shooting me.”

Are you sure that it was Atkins who shot you?”

“ Of course! Do you think that I would forget something like that, the man was desperate to get money from me and obviously felt that he would stand a better chance if I was out of the picture.”

“ Are you sure that you do not want to think again in case it was not him?”

“ Are you an idiot or are you not listening to me, it was Atkins who shot me, If you do not stop these stupid questions, I will have a chat with my friend and fellow Mason , your Assistant Chief Constable, to get you off the case and off my back.”

“ No need to get offensive and threatening Mr Howard, it is just that we have evidence that he was elsewhere throughout the battle, and that the rider you saw was in fact Colin Ayres. I ask again, are you sure that you saw Mike Atkins shoot you?”

At that point his heart rate monitor started going into alarm, doctors and nurses rushed in and we were quickly ushered out.

Colin Ayres was brought in for questioning and after seeing the photos of him riding up to Howard, one of which clearly showed him holding a pistol, he eventually broke down and confessed. It appeared that poor business deals, mainly due to interference and trickery by Howard, had left him bankrupt, having to sell his large country house and causing his fickle much-younger wife to leave him. It had all added up to drive him to the point of killing himself, but as a last action he decided to kill Howard too, to stop him destroying the lives of other people. He thought that in the heat of the battle that he could get to Howard, shoot him, and get back to his role without being noticed. We had enough to charge him with attempted murder and he was kept in custody until his trial.

Joseph Howard had suffered a stroke when we were interviewing him and would be out of action for some time, probably not being capable of returning to run his companies. Any actions against him for shady business practices and for his treatment and abuse of Toni would have to wait until he was recovered. This meant that his companies were now in the control of Toni and her Mother, but when we went in to see her, Toni was still at the reception desk, still appearing as a girl.

“ Most of the senior people are capable of running things for the moment. I will eventually move up the ladder to be in charge, but I am nowhere near ready and will leave them to it until I know a lot more. I have decided that although I was pushed into it by my father, I think I prefer to live as I am, and I am continuing with the hormones and eventually will fully transition. I want to prove to my father that a daughter can run his business as successfully as his disappointment of a son. I have also decided to pay most of the money owed to Mike Atkins, some of it is still in dispute, but most of it was justified and his business is now more secure.”

After work that evening I took Barry, Trudy and Susan for a celebratory drink, CS Scargill at headquarters was most impressed with the way we had performed on the case, and said that until he was otherwise instructed, he was happy for me to continue in the role of SIO ( Senior Investigating Officer ) on serious crimes that would normally require a Chief Inspector to be in charge.

“ Well Barry. you have now seen how we have been solving the various crimes with a lot of assistance from our team of helpers in the public, it was Joe’s photos that set us on the path to solving the case. What do you now think about spending most of your time with a load of women?”

“I like the way you work and I’m more than happy to be part of your team, so long as you let me keep wearing my trousers and not make me change into a skirt !” he replied causing us all to burst into a fit of giggles.

To be continued

Chapter 7
What have you got against T-Girls?

it was a warm balmy autumn Saturday afternoon when Trudy and I set out to the riverside at Rawcliffe for the annual regatta on the river Ouse through the centre of York.The afternoon was a very mixed format, starting with a series of serious competitive sculling races by the City and the University rowing clubs with a few other invited crews, followed by a fun charity event, a bathtub/raft race with totally untrained crews in a variety of home-made craft, a lot of which would never stay afloat all the way to the finish.

All events followed the same approximately downriver route from Rawcliffe Landing to the west of the city, the racing crews finishing at the Rowing Clubhouse on the banks of the Memorial Garden by Lendal Bridge, the raft race continuing foe all 3 miles through the city centre, finishing at Fulford to the South, near our Police station. This year, as part of our community relations programme, the station had entered two teams in the charity event, one from the uniformed officers, and one from the detective team comprising Trudy, Susan, Barry and me. None of us were particularly boating types and were treating it all as a bit of fun team-bonding.

The four of us were to be on a raft that we had lashed together from six empty beer kegs and a few planks which we hoped would stay in one piece until the end of the course. We had settled on a team uniform of a caricature french style boating and naval uniform of a blue beret with a red pompom, red white and blue ribbons in our hair bunches, blue and white horizontal-striped boat-neck t-shirts, navy blue hockey skirts for us girls and matching shorts for Barry, and blue canvas plimsoles.

We met Susan and Barry at the riverside starting point and while we were making sure the raft was lashed together properly the serious rowing club crews held their series of races, They were well trained and fit, and after each race they rowed back upstream again to the start for the next of their races.

After few selfies and a line-up for a photographer from the local newspaper, soon it was time for us amateur fun-rowers and we all set of in a state of total confusion, heading downstream mainly due to the quite fast current on the river rather than by any expertise in paddling and controlling the raft. Somehow we managed to stay afloat and reasonably dry without bumping into anyone else and reached the halfway point at the city centre, where there was a large crowd of spectators on the riverside walks and on the bridges above us, all cheering us on and having a good laugh at our lack of ability and the state of some of the rafts.

We were having a great time, making our way out of the heart of the city approaching Tower Gardens and Skeldergate bridge when we noticed a lot of activity on the river bank with several police officers hauling what appeared to be a body out of the river. Even though we were off duty and having fun, we decided to pull over and see what was happening.

“ What’s the problem officer?’ I shouted to one of the constables on the shore.

“ Never mind Miss, please continue with your race, we have a serious incident here.”

“ Constable. I’m, DI Rowntree, I’ll ask again , what is the problem?” I said a bit more forcefully and with a tone of authority.

“ Sorry Ma’am , I didn’t recognise you in that outfit. We have just pulled the body of a young girl out of the river. We have called for back-up and are still waiting.”

“We’re coming ashore, give us a hand to get the raft tied up , and get somebody to clear the area of all the public as quickly as you can, this is now to be treated as a crime scene:”

After tethering the raft we scrambled ashore to have a closer look and I took charge of the scene. Luckily a SOCO ( Scene of Crime Officer ) arrived and gave us some forensic disposable coveralls, so at least we now looked vaguely professional rather than like refugees from a french hockey team.

“ Did anybody see what happened.”

“ No, the body just came floating down with the current, a member of the public noticed it and called us over. One of my colleagues waded in and grabbed her and brought her to the bank, he thought she might still be alive.”

“Trudy, as you can see she is just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, she might be a crew member from one of the rafts, see if you can contact the event organisers, None of the crews reaching the finish are to be allowed to leave until we have had the chance to question them to see if any of their people are missing.”

The forensic pathologist soon arrived to examine the body at the scene, before removing the body to the mortuary for an autopsy examination, and after a quick investigation she came over to give me her initial findings.

“ Ok Kathy, now you have had a look at her.what have you got for us, is it a simple drowning?”

“ Anything but, Julie, we obviously need to carry out a proper examination back at the morgue, but I expect to confirm that your victim was strangled and was dead before being put into the river. Secondly your body is not a young girl, well not in the truest sense, she is actually a pre-op transexual. She has quite soft features and the breasts seem to be natural tissue, not implants, so i assume she was at a late stage in transition. It is an easy mistake to make at first glance, she looks quite natural if you don’t look too closely.”

“ Do you think this is the crime scene, or is it just coincidence where she was found.”

“ She has not been dead long, probably about an hour or so, and in the water for most of that time, she could have drifted down river with the current from anywhere in the city centre really, but because, according to your guys first on the scene, none of the crews have reported seeing or snagging on anything, it is likely that she was put in the river not too far upstream. Let me get the body back to the morgue, i assume there will be a full inquest and that there needs to be a proper autopsy.”

“ Ok, do what you have do and let me have your report as soon as you can please.”

Trudy, and Barry had already gone off to talk to the various crews at the finish line, Susan had arranged for our raft to be taken out of the water and disposed of, so she and I got a lift from one of the patrol cars the short distance back to the station. We were still in our forensic coveralls, I thought it best not to go in wearing our french boating outfits. We were still the subject of the jokes about the Odd Squad, although they were now good-natured banter rather than nasty, but it was best not to give them any new material to play with, and stories of me in a short skirt and wet t-shirt would keep them going for days.

We all kept a spare set of clothes in our lockers at work, you never knew when they might be needed, so after changing into our normal slacks and jumpers, and collecting some stuff for Trudy and Barry we went down to join them to see if they had found out anything.

“ Well, Trudy, what have you found?”

“ Absolutely nothing, nobody noticed the body or any incident on the way down, at the moment we have no leads at all.”

“ Ok, take everybody’s details and let them go, we’ll go up to the rowing clubhouse to see if anyone there knows anything, although it is unlikely as they only race the first half of the course. See you back in the office later”

As expected, that it how it turned out, we had a body, no witnesses, no forensic clues yet, and no leads to follow up. When Trudy and Barry returned later we met to try to develop an action plan.

“ For a change we will work the two teams together. Barry, you run your team doing normal investigation procedures, talk to people again, check for missing persons, walk the riverside footpaths to see if you can finding signs of a struggle. Trudy, you follow up on the transgender side of it, See if any of our helpers Mike, Kathy or Josie are free to do a bit of poking about at the gay clubs and pubs in town, see if anyone recognises our victim. Get onto Professor Cameron at St James’ hospital in Leeds, he is the main gender reassignment specialist there and it is quite possible that as the victim was a long way down the transition path, that she was under his care. If he starts going on about patient confidentiality, remind him that his patient, if she was his patient, is dead, and if he is still unsure mention my name, he was the one who led the team on my operation and that may reassure him of our respect for discretion.

The next few days were humdrum police investigative work, interviewing peopleagain, waiting for the autopsy report, a reply from the hospital, or any reports of missing persons.

When the autopsy report finally came, it gave us our first lead. The victim’s DNA was on file and we at least had a name. James Harrison had previously been arrested for shoplifting, and after changing his name to Naomi Harrison, had been arrested for soliciting. That gave us a possible motive of a punter suddenly finding out that his call-girl was in fact a rent-boy, and Barry’s team started touring all the regular pick-up sites to interview the ‘working girls’ to see if anyone recognised or remembered Naomi. Professor Cameron confirmed that our victim was in fact Naomi and was able to provide next-of-kin details and a contact address, which was only about a half-mile upstream from where her body was found.

At Naomi’s home, which was part of a new apartment block facing onto the river on the opposite bank from the main city centre, Barry and I found the caretaker who took us up to let us into the flat. As it happened there as no need as the door was open.

We went in and found a young man packing a bag, who took one look at us and made a rush to get past us to escape. a well-placed boot to his ankle by Barry put him flat on his face and we sat him down for questioning.

“Ok, I’m DI Rowntree and this is DS Kidd, who are you, and why are you here?”

“I’m John Marshall, I have just come to get a few of my things that I left here last week. I was planning to move in with my new girlfriend, Naomi, when I found out that she was a tranny, really called James and was affording to live in this expensive flat by working as a prostitute for the punters who were into that kind of perversion. She disgusted me and I left, there was no way I wanted to be involved with someone like that.”

“ Well, you might like to know that her body was fished out of the river at the weekend, she has been murdered, and from your attitude towards her I think we need to talk further down at the station. Barry, take him down there and put him in an interview room, I want to have a look around in here, and I’ll not be too long.”

The flat was part a typical modern development, ground floor with views over the river, clean and tidy, bare and functional with not many personal touches, the only exceptional area was the bedroom which was decorated in vivid reds and purples with exotic pictures on the walls, obviously a working area to bring clients back to, and from the quality of the place, Naomi obviously played the upper end of her market. There were no obvious signs of a struggle, no overturned furniture, no bloodstains, nothing broken. I would get the forensic team down to have a look, but I wasn’t hoping for much from them.

Back at the station I called the team together for an update.

“Barry and I have Naomi’s ex boyfriend downstairs. He doesn’t like the fact that he was taken in by a cross-dresser, even if she was transitioning,’ disgusted and perversion’ were words that he used, and he had a key to her flat. He must be high up on our list of suspects. We will be interviewing him further when we are finished here. Her flat was modern and clean, facing the riverside, and would not be cheap. she must have been doing alright for herself. Anybody else found anything, Barry first?”

“ My team have been talking to the working girls at the usual pick-up sites. Naomi was not a regular, a lot of the girls had seen her around but it seems she worked the clubs and regular clients rather than the streets and was a bit more upmarket. Nobody could really give us anything useful.”

“ That sounds like it is over to you Trudy, did you find out anything in the clubs and bars?”

“ I went round a couple of the gay clubs and drag reviews with Mick and Kathy. Mick is known on the scene from doing his drag act and Kathy was comfortable going in with us, although she does prefer to be treated as just another woman, rather than a trans-girl. People were relaxed with them and were reasonably open in telling us what they knew, much more than they would have been if I had gone in waving my warrant card. It seems that Naomi was not interested in casual cheap pickups, she usually went for visiting businessmen, and seemed to be quite successful at it. Susan has been looking into her background.”

“ I’ve been into her bank records and she was building up a nice savings pot, regular substantial credits, usually in cash, but a few by bank transfers that we are still looking into. The forensic report is in, she was definitely strangled and was dead before going into the water. There were no major signs of a struggle, although she had a large bruise on the back of her head, so it looks like she knew her attacker. From the current flow rate on the river, it is possible that she was put in the water near her flat. I have asked the forensic team examining the flat to also have a look on the nearby riverbank for any signs. I have also asked for phone records on the off-chance that any of the regulars contacted her recently.”

‘Good work everybody, keep following it all up. Right Barry, let’s go and see what young Marshall has to say for himself.”

“ Right Mr Marshall, as of now , you are the main suspect for the murder of Naomi, so I suggest that you are open with us about your relationship with her and were you were last Saturday.”

“ I was out with the lads a couple of months ago, I had just broken up with my girlfriend, Tracey, and started chatting to Naomi at the bar. She was expecting somebody but was quite happy to chat for a while, and we arranged to meet up again. We got on well and she was a real looker , so I was quite happy to be with her, but her friend soon turned up and she went off with him. At first i thought it must be her father or something, he was definitely too old for her. We saw each other a few times after that, out for a drink, going the local multi-screen, all the normal dating things.

Last Thursday I went back to her flat with her and was amazed how well she lived and thought that I was onto a good thing with her. After a heavy kissing and petting session I was ready to go to bed with her, when she dropped the bombshell that she was still in transition, as she described it. I felt sick humiliated and disgusted and we ended up having a big row, shouting at each other. She told me that I was lucky to be there with her, she could easily be earning a good few hundred pounds instead with people that appreciated her special talents. That just made it worse, I couldn’t take any more, so I just stormed out and that was the last I saw of her.”

“ Sick, humiliated and disgusted ? Enough to want to kill her to get revenge or to stop her doing the same thing someone else. You also said she was perverted, are you transphobic Mr Marshall?”

“ I never really thought about it, it’s not something that really comes into my life. Like most blokes I make jokes about gays and drag acts, but have never really been in a situation personally before.”

“Where were you last Saturday?”

“ In the morning I met for a coffee with my sister Jane and my ex-girlfriend Tracey, who she knew from her schooldays. My sister was trying to get us back together. When I told them that I was off girls for a while, they asked why, and I told them all about Naomi/James. They were even more disgusted than I was, they had come across a transgender girl at school and there had been big rows there about access to changing rooms and toilet areas and such like and the poor girl was subject to all sorts of bullying. Tracy was particularly wound up about it, and said she thought that people like that should not be allowed to live among decent normal folk. After I left them , I met up with some mates and we went for a few drinks before going to watch the match at City’s ground.”

“ Right, we want the names, addresses and phone numbers for you, and, if you have them, of your sister, your ex, and your mates, and you are free to go for the moment. You have been formally cautioned and that stands, Please do not leave the city without telling us, and we would prefer if you did not meet or make contact with with any of the others.”

Back up in the office we told the rest of the team what we had got from John Marshall.

“Barry, you and/or team do the normal checks with the friends that he went drinking and to the football with, we need to confirm his alibi, and keep in touch with the forensics team to see if they have turned up any clues, fingerprints, DNA etc. Susan keep checking the bank and phone records, see if you can link any of them. Trudy, you and I are going to visit the sister and ex-girlfriend.

“ Right Jane. we are investigating the murder of your brother’s ex-girlfriend Naomi. We understand that you were with him on Saturday morning, correct.”

“Too true we were. I was with him and Tracey, and he told us all about that pervert leading him on, Naomi was a tranny hooker, who was probably trying to fleece him of his money, you just cannot trust a weird creature like that.”

“ So you don’t think much of transgender people then, what have you got against them, if they keep themselves to themselves and just get on with their lives, where is the harm in it.”

“ You must be joking, of course I don’t like them or trust them, people like that should not be allowed, fooling everybody into thinking they are something that they are not. No matter what drugs they take or what surgery they have, they will never be real women.”

Trudy noticed that I was getting angry and flushed at these comments and took over before I exploded with Jane, to give me a chance to get myself in control again.

“ Ok, you don’t like transgender people in general, what about Naomi in particular, had you ever met her.”

“ Just once, I saw John and him out in a bar in town, but it was only a quick chat and I didn’t get a chance to find out about the real him.”

“ So you didn’t realise at the time that Naomi was a t-girl and you just thought that John was happy enough with her.”

“ He was an idiot, what man could not tell that a girl he was with was really a boy. The pervert needed sorting out for John’s sake.“

“ When John left you were did you go?”

“Tracey and I went window shopping in town, but we didn’t buy anything, I was still upset about the way that John had been fooled and Tracey was quite worked up and annoyed, we weren’t really in the mood.”

“ That’s it for now, but we will probably want to talk with you again.We are off to see Tracey now, but if we find that you have called her before we get there, to try to agree a story, you may be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, so please do not call her.”

In the car on the way to Tracey’s I thanked Trudy for taking over the questioning from me.

“That’s ok , boss, I could see that her bigotry was winding you up, and if I had been you, I probably would have gone for her. Look on the bright side, somebody who is so transphobic and who thought her brother was an idiot for not being able to pick up on Naomi, wasn’t able to pick up on you either, it shows how much of a natural woman you have become. She was a nasty piece of work that one, let’s see if her friend is just as bad.”

Just in case Tracey, John Marshall’s ex-girlfriend, was as bigoted and nasty as his sister I let Trudy lead the interview.

“ Could you tell us where you were last Saturday, the day of the regatta.”

“ I was with my Friend Jane and her brother John in the morning and in the afternoon went shopping with Jane.”

“ When you were with John what did you talk about.”

“ Mainly about his latest girlfriend Naomi who had turned out to be a transgender prostitute. He was devastated disgusted and really angry with her.”

“ What did you think when you heard about his new girlfriend.”

“ Nothing to do with me really, but I felt sorry for him, fancy being led on like that, by a boy pretending to be a girl.”

“ Nothing to do with you? We understand that you and John were girlfriend and boyfriend for a long time, what did you think about getting passed over for ‘a boy pretending to be a girl’, surely that must have riled with you.”

“ None of my business if he was stupid and blind.”

“ Did you ever meet Naomi?”

“ No I wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him in the street, and I am not sure if I would ever want to meet a pervert like that.”

“We’’ll probably be back to see you again. you do realise that many people would be offended by some of the language you have used, don’t you?”

“ That’s their problem, if they want to tolerate weirdos , good luck to them.”

When we returned Susan came in with a big grin on her face.

“ You’ll never guess whose name has come up on the phone records, you are going to just love this.”

“ Just get on with it Susan, you are like the cat that has got the cream.”

“ DI Wainwright has been a regular caller, maybe he is in the closet as liking people like Naomi. I have asked forensics if there is any trace of him being in Naomi’s flat and am waiting for an answer. The place had been thoroughly cleaned but there were still a few identifiable prints and DNA traces.”

“ Wow” gasped Trudy, ” Never mind about links to this case, maybe if he likes rent-boys it is why he gave you such a hard time Julie, a normal aggressive defensive attitude.”

“ Let’s get him in, but I am not sure if it would be fair of me to interview him, to get a balanced view I want you Trudy to deal with him with Barry, but tread carefully, he was in the job a long time and knows all the tricks.”

“ Susan, Trudy and I met the Sister and ex-girlfriend, and don’t trust either of them. The sister was very anti-transgender and the girlfriend was a lot more subdued about it at first, but I think she soon showed her true nature. Both of them were very annoyed about John being led on by Naomi. Check CCTV for the shopping areas for the afternoon of the murder for any sign of them, and see if there is any at the entrance to the apartment block too.”

Trudy and Barry were soon facing Charles Wainwright across the desk in an interview room.

“ Thanks for coming in Mr Wainwright.”

“ It’s DI Wainwright, please give me the respect that deserves.”

“ You are suspended so I think we will stick to Mister Wainwright today. This however is nothing to do with the disciplinary investigations, that is not our responsibility.

You will have heard about the body of a young girl found in the river last Saturday, What is not public yet is that the victim was a pre-op transexual , who was working as a prostitute, presumably to build up funds for her transition. She went by the name of Naomi Harrison”

“ What’s that got to do with me?”

“ It would appear that recently you have made several calls to her phone, can you please explain that.”

“ I can’t recall the name at all, if I contacted her it must have been to do with cases I was involved in.”

“ Come off it Charles,” interrupted Barry, “ I have done searches on all current cases in your old department and Naomi’s name does not come up, and anyway some of the calls are after you were suspended.”

“ As we said, Naomi was working as a prostitute, Have you ever used her services?”

“ Don’t be insulting, of course not, what sort of a person do you think I am?”

“ That’s what we are trying to find out. If you didn’t know her and never used her services, can you explain how traces of your DNA were found in her flat.”

“ I want a break, now. Please get me a solicitor before I say anything else.”

When the interview was resumed a couple of hours later after his discussions with his solicitor, Wainwright was in a much more cooperative frame of mind.

“ Alright, I did know Naomi, but it is not what you think. She is the child of a friend of mine, but I never met her before she started to transition, I will give you the family details and they can confirm everything. When she moved to York he asked me to keep an eye on her and I called regularly to make sure she was safe, she was working in a very risky situation. I visited her apartment a few times just to make sure.”

“ Where were you at the time of the murder last Saturday.?”

“I was up at the golf club all day, I spend most of my time there now that I am not working. There must be lots of people there who could vouch for me.”

“Just before came in, we have been told that you were recorded on CCTV entering the apartment block, the day following the murder, what have you got to say to that, why were you there?”

“ I heard on the grapevine about the murder, I still have some contacts that will speak to me. I went there to check that there was nothing that could link me to her.”

“You were in there about three hours, that doesn’t sound like just collecting a few bits and pieces. That place had been professionally cleaned by someone who knew what they were doing, was that you?”

“ Ok, I did go in and clean the flat, but I did not harm or murder Naomi, as I said, I was just keeping an eye on her for a friend. I panicked when I heard about the murder and only wanted to remove any links between us. You know what it is like, you thought that I was a client of Naomi’s, and everyone else would think the same, I didn’t want any more questions about my character and personal life influencing the disciplinary proceedings.”

We will obviously need to check your story with Naomi’s parents and with the golf club. At the moment you are being formally charged with obstructing the police in their enquiries. If it turns out that the apartment was the murder scene, it could get a lot more serious. Obviously we will have to report this to the disciplinary team, and they will review it alongside your other activities in determining your position in the Police Force.”

“ Can we keep this quiet for the moment until decisions are made about my future, and not feed the gossip mill around the station.”

“ I’ll have to discuss it with Inspector Rowntree. you gave her a really hard time when we first came here and I couldn’t blame her if she put notices all around the station. However I am sure that she is a lot more reasonable person than you have been. and will not be vindictive. You are free to go , but I remind you of the terms of your suspension that you are not to have contact with any of your former colleagues here, particularly the person who advised you of the murder inquiry.”

Trudy and Barry reported back to me on what Wainwright had said. despite how offensive he had been to me, I was inclined to believe him. However, cleaning up a potential crime scene, along with his other corruption charges meant that it was highly unlikely that he would be reinstated in the force. For once I felt sorry for him, a long career would come to an end in total disgrace.

“ Assuming Wainwright is telling the truth and not playing us, that leaves us in limbo again with no hard suspects. Susan, have you found anymore from the phone records or from the forensics team?”

“ Before that , I have been through the city centre TV and can’t find any trace of Jane and Tracey in the shopping areas on that Saturday afternoon, but that’s not conclusive as there are big gaps in coverage. However There was a female visitor to the apartment block early that afternoon, unfortunately the images are not good, the bright suns blinding the cameras at the time, but it could be Jane or Tracey. Just a bit earlier there was a short call to Naomi from a pay-as-you-go phone, up to now I have not been able to trace who it belongs to.”

“ I think we need to speak to those two again, Barry get them brought in , keep them separate, do not give them a chance to think up another story between them. Barry, you lead the interviews along with Susan, be a bit brusque and verbally aggressive with them, I’ll watch from the observation room through the one-way mirror.”

“ Jane, we want to go through your story again in relation to the afternoon Naomi was murdered. Can you tell us what shops you visited. “

“ We just wandered around the shopping streets, mainly Parliament Street and Coney Street, window shopping, we didn’t really go in to any of them.”

“ That’s strange because both those areas are heavily covered by CCTV and we cannot find any images of either of you, can you explain that?”

“ No, we must have just got lost in the crowds, there were a lot of people about.”

“ You have said that you and Tracey were together all afternoon, are you sure about that?” What would you say if I told you that we have CCTV images from Naomi’s apartment block showing what appears to be you going there at lunchtime by yourself.” Barry asked, chancing his luck as we had no proof it was her.

“ It couldn’t have been me, I have never been there.”

“Can we have a look at your phone please, we would just like to check what calls you have made recently.”

“ Go ahead, feel free, I have got nothing to hide.” she smirked as she fished the phone out from all the normal clutter in her handbag. As expected there were no records of calls between her and Tracey, she had obviously deleted the records, as it was unbelievable that the two had not been in contact

“Ok, we are now going to interview Tracey, let’s see if she sticks by the story too.”

Barry and Trudy got very much the same story from Tracey, in fact almost word for word, it was fairly obvious that they had agreed the story between them. However when she went to give us her phone a lot of the stuff in her bag fell out, amongst which was a second phone. That was the breakthrough for us, as when we checked it the number matched the one that had called Naomi just before the assumed murder time, and the record of the call was still in the log.

“Tracey, you made a call to Naomi, a few minutes later the CCTV showed someone resembling you at the door of the apartment block, and records show that the door lock was released from Naomi’s flat at the same time. That is a lot of coincidences, don’t you agree?

“ I told you, I have never met James or Naomi or whatever the weirdo is called and have never visited those apartments.”

“ In that case can you explain how traces of your DNA were found on the bathroom door handle in Naomi’s flat.” Again Barry was flying a kite to see what reaction he got.

At that Tracey’s face went ashen and she broke down, bursting into tears. “What do you expect, being dropped by your boyfriend is bad enough, but being dumped for a tranny rent-boy is humiliating. I went there to have a go at the perverted bitch. To get in I told him that I was a friend of John and had come to collect some of his things for him. When I first seen Naomi, I couldn’t believe how pretty a girl he looked, even just wearing casual shorts and t-shirt, and could see why John had been attracted. Feeling disgusted and ashamed at being bettered by someone that was not even a real girl, I lashed out, she fell and hit her head and in a rage I just put my hands around her neck and squeezed. I dropped her down the rubbish chute to the basement, and was able to get the body out and into the river without being seen. I thought that the body would just be seen as someone who had fallen from one of the boats”

At that point I entered the interview room and told Barry to charge her with murder. I was glad that I had kept my distance, if I had been doing the interview I don’t know how I would have reacted to her bigotry. We followed up by charging both Jane and Charles Wainwright with ‘Conspiracy to pervert the course of justice’. as well as wrapping up the murder case, it now looked like Wainwright was finally out of my hair.

There were two reasons for the team to be on cloud nine that night, we had successfully cracked our first major crime under my control, and now that Wainwright was sinking deeper into trouble my temporary position as an Inspector was confirmed as a permanent appointment. Susan and Trudy had linked well together as a team and Barry was happy and comfortable to become a permanent link between the two teams under my command, and he was glad to go out with us girls to celebrate, despite a few jokey comments from some of his colleagues.

To be continued.

Part 8 The Witness

I was surprised to get a call first thing on Monday morning from Chief Superintendent Scargill to meet him at headquarters in Northallerton as soon as possible. It was unusual for him to be in the office so early, and when he was it was normally for a meeting with the Chief Constable, so I left the teams to continue with their routine cases they had on the books and was in with him in just over an hour.

“Good morning Julie, glad to got here so quick, we have a bit of a flap on. I’ve just been in with the Chief, who was quite worked up about a meeting he was summoned to at 6 o’clock this morning with Lord Acklington. Apparently when his Lordship arrived home last night after a dinner meeting with the Lord Lieutenant of the county, he found that the pride and joy of his collection of cars had been stolen and we have been ‘requested’ , to put it mildly, to make every effort to get it back for him. Acklington Hall is on your patch and so it falls to you and your team to sort it out.”

“ I know that we are dealing with the county elite here Sir, but isn’t this reaction a bit over the top for a routine car theft?”

“ I would normally agree, but a £1.5 million pound Bugatti Veyron is not a normal car. According to Lord Acklington this is not the only recent theft of high-value cars, some of his business associates and friends in the neighbouring counties have lost Lamborghinis and Ferraris in the last few weeks. There is obviously a well organised professional gang operating here, this is not a case of petty casual thieves striking it lucky.”

“ Just so I know how to deal with this, are we doing this as a favour to the powers-that-be to keep them off the Chief’s back, or are we doing it because it is a serious crime wave that deserves our full attention.”

“ Don’t play the liberal upstart with me Julie, it doesn’t suit you. This is serious crime, and if Lord Acklington is to be believed we are talking over £15M worth of cars that he knows about. He is a good place to start, the sooner the better, and please treat him gently and with respect, none of your usual cynical sarcasm.”

“ Ok Sir, If I knew what a forelock was I would practice tugging it before we meet, or maybe learn how to curtsy.” I said with a big grin.

“ That’s enough, just get back to York and arrange to see him, as soon as he is available, and keep me informed of progress, because the Chief is on the case and that means he will be pestering me for a quick result.”

Back at the office, I made a call to arrange to see Lord Acklington , but was told by his PA that due to business commitments he would not be available until early evening and that I would be welcome to talk about it with him over dinner if that was ok with me. It actually gave me a bit of breathing space to get the team together to brief them with what I knew and to start getting some background information together.

“Barry, you and your team start checking reports of recent thefts of really high-end cars, particularly high-performance models, not just on our patch, cover all Yorkshire, Durham and Lincolnshire as well. Susan, look up the records for the Bugatti and check any CCTV or ANPR cameras (Automatic Numberplate Recognition Cameras} in the vicinity of Acklington Hall yesterday late afternoon and evening for the car or anything large enough to transport it. Trudy, you and I are going for dinner tonight with his lordship. I’ve been told that it is just totally informal but to treat him with respect and politeness, so give me a kick under the table if my normal dry Yorkshire humour starts to show.”

We arrived at Acklington Hall at just after 7 o’clock as agreed, called in on the intercom to get the gates opened, and drove up a half-mile drive to come to a very impressive Georgian mansion. Just as we pulled up we were approached by a casually dressed young man who we assumed to be one of the staff.

“ Good evening, I’m Henry, Lord Acklington, but my friends all call me Hal, pleased to meet you. Let’s go through to the library for a chat before dinner, talking business at the dinner table always gives me indigestion.”

He wasn’t in the least what we had expected, instead of a formal, crusty, paunchy, balding old ex-army officer type, he was quite a pleasant, good-looking, easy-going young man, and a bit of a charmer with his boyish grin. He led us through a grand entrance hall with a magnificent marble tread split staircase through into the Library, which had full light oak bookcases on all four walls, a writing desk at the far end, and three chesterfield sofas arced around a huge open fireplace, with a roaring log fire.

“ Just to complete the introductions I am Detective Inspector Rowntree, and this is DS Terry, Julie and Trudy if you prefer.”

“ Good, don’t be overawed by all this stately pile around you, we are quite informal here. They told me that they were sending over one of their best teams, but they didn’t say that it would be their most attractive team too.” He was definitely a charmer !

“ Thank you very much Lord Acklington, Hal, if you are sure that is ok. Tell us about the theft of your car please.”

“ To give you a bit of background, the family have lived here for 400 years, although the place was re-modelled in the late 1700s. I inherited it all when my father died two years ago, and have spent a fortune bringing it back to its former glory, he had money problems and the place was badly neglected. Luckily ten years ago I was involved in setting up a hedge fund in the city of London which provides the funds to let me live here again in a very comfortable lifestyle. It also lets me indulge my passion for high-performance cars, rich-boys’-toys if you like. You know about the Bugatti obviously, but there are also a couple of Lamborghini Aventadors and a Ferrari SF90 Stradale. Unfortunately the thieves had taste and picked the best and most expensive of the bunch.”

“Anyway, I had been out at a charity dinner at Goldsworth Hall near Knaresborough, you know the type of event, people with too much drink inside them and too much money, showing off by paying over the odds for something they don’t really need. I don’t really enjoy that type of thing too much, but it is expected that I turn up to give a bit of an air of respectability and supposed class to the evening.

I left about 11:00 and drove back. About a half-mile down the road my Lamborghini was almost forced off the road by a large truck racing in the opposite direction. When I arrived home, I found that the garage door had been forced and the Veyron was missing. I phoned your Chief Constable immediately but he couldn’t come out overnight as he had been drinking. Anyway you are here now, what more can I tell you.”

“ I don’t suppose you remember any details of the truck do you?”

‘“ Not really, I was blinded by its headlights, and was trying to keep the Lambo on the road. all I can say is that it was a flatbed with a container on the back"

“ It’s a pity that you didn’t call the police out right away , rather than waiting for the Chief, it wouldn’t surprise me if it is already in a container on a ship out of Hull or Liverpool bound for the Middle East or Far East.”

“ Mea Culpa, but you know what it is like, one prefers to deal with people one knows, but if I had known you two would be involved I might have called it in sooner.”

“ Let’s be serious Hal, keep your charming chat up lines for another time, or even for over dinner later, let’s stick to business for the moment.”

“ Yes Ma’am, that is me told off. Do you want the details of the car?”

“ We’ve already got them from central records, unless there are any special features that you have added, or any distinguishing marks.”

“ No, it is as it came from the showroom, and other than the occasional spin to show off to friends, and going in for its routine service, it rarely leaves the garage.”

“ You told the Chief Constable that you are aware of other thefts of high-value cars, can you give us some details of who else you know that has suffered the loss of their ‘rich boys’ toys’.”

After we had got all his contact details from him, his housekeeper soon called us in for dinner. Although it was a very grand dining room with quality porcelain crockery and silver utensils, the meal itself was not lavish, just an excellent shepherd’s pie with roasted vegetables and home-made crusty bread buns, followed by a steamed fruit pudding and custard, all very much to the taste of someone brought up on boarding school dining hall meals. The only sop to the high life was an extremely tasty bottle of vintage Nuits St Georges. Hal was an excellent host, no airs-and-graces and we were relaxed in his company.

“ i’ve enjoyed your company tonight, it has been a refreshing change from my normal guests, you must come again, but on a personal level rather than on police business.”

“ We’d love to !” Trudy jumped in right away, before I had a chance to keep business and pleasure separate.

“ I’m having a bit of a small garden party the weekend after next, why don’t you come. It will be mainly friends and business associates, but some of the villagers will be here too, so you won’t be surrounded by just ‘Hooray Henrys’.”

“Thanks Hal, if you don’t mind we’ll get a forensic team to have a go in the garage tomorrow to see if the thieves left any traces behind.”

In the car on the way home we discussed whether we had learned anything useful.

“ i enjoyed the evening with him Trudy, but other than keeping our bosses happy, it was a bit of a waste of time, he didn’t really give us anything to go on.”

“ Not totally wasted. He wasn’t what I expected at all, charming, good-looking and easy to talk too, I am looking forward to his garden party.”

“ Get real Trudy, he is out of your league, you have to be called Charlotte or Caroline or something equally up-market, and daddy has to have a huge country estate, to get anywhere with the likes of him, Trudy or Julie sharing a city centre flat doesn’t quite have the same appeal.”

The following morning I had a call from CS Scargill. “ You two made quite an impression with his Lordship last night, he phoned the Chief this morning to say he was very pleased with the way you handled the discussions and asked that the pair of you keep in touch directly with him.

“ Hal was no problem, once we got to know him he was easy to talk to.”

“ Hal ? Hal !. Keep his name to Lord Acklington in your reports please and keep me informed of any progress.”

“Let’s catch up team. Barry, what have you found about the car thefts?”

“ He’s right, there has been a bit of a run on thefts of expensive cars, all round the county and nearby areas, the ones in our area have been top-end Lamborghinis, this is the first Bugatti, but then there are not many of them around. I have been in touch with the port authorities at Hull to report any expensive cars being loaded onto the ferries or cargo ships.”

“ Susan, anything on the CCTV records?”

“ Not a lot really, local car traffic, no sign of the Bugatti, no heavy vehicles other than farm traffic.”

“ Lord Acklington was at Goldsworth Hall last night for a charity bash, check with their CCTV for what time he left, then look for heavy traffic near the Hall between an hour and a half-hour later.

I’m back off up to the Hall to see what the forensic team have found, Trudy, try to get more details of the car thefts and arrange to go and see the owners, we need to find if there is a common link between them”

I was just pulling up next to the stables at the Hall and caught a movement in the first floor hay loft loading door. Thinking it was probably one of the grooms, I went to ask them if they had noticed anything suspicious lately, sometimes at these places the staff know more about what is going on than the owners do. When I went in and called out, identifying myself as a police officer, there was no response so I went up the stairs to have a look and was almost knocked back down again by someone trying to rush past me. Luckily, they were a lot lighter than me and I was gripping the handrail tightly and they just bounced back off me onto the landing floor. It was a short slight person, with shoulder length hair, in the dim light I couldn’t make out whether it was male or female.

“Just hold on a minute, If you are not supposed to be here it is nothing to do with me, it is not why I am here. I would like to ask you a couple of questions though. I take it that you are sleeping rough and not supposed to be in the stables, but I don’t care about that. Who are you?”

“ Tim Walker. I came here a week ago looking for work with the gardener, but he said I was too small and scrawny to be much help with the heavy work and he sent me away. i had nowhere round here to go and not much money and the stables seemed a warm dry place to stay while I decided what to do.”

“ Where are you from Tim, and why are you sleeping rough.”

“I’m from just outside of Thirsk, but had to leave home after a big family row, my step-father and i have never really got on. I’ve been trying to find work and someplace to stay, but I have been hiding here lately.”

“ I take it that you were here Sunday night, did you see anything unusual?”

“What do you mean, what are you asking about?”

“ Any noises or unusual activity, were there any people about late in the evening?”

“ I was woken just after midnight, by a noisy car engine and a lot of shouting and swearing. There were a couple of men standing there looking at a big silver sports car and they weren’t very happy. One of them went round to the back of the house and the other drove the car away back down the drive.”

“ Can you give me a description of the two men?”

“ Not really, it was dark, but I think I would recognise them if I saw them again. One was tall and thin, and the other was much shorter and walked with a bit of a limp.”

“ You said that you met the gardener about getting a job, have you met anyone else that lives or works here that would recognise you.”

“ Just Chloe, the nice girl that works in the office that showed me to the room where I met the gardener, and the cook who brought me in some coffee and cake. They know I am still here and have been bringing me stuff, I also think that the groom who looks after the horses knows that there is someone up in the loft and is turning a blind eye.”

“ Tim, you might be useful to us as a witness so I would prefer it if you did not stay here, There was a very expensive car stolen that night and we think that an organised gang was involved. I think I can find you somewhere to stay where you will be a lot safer, is that ok.”

“As long as it is warm and dry, that sounds fine to me.”

‘Wait here Tim, I have some things to do, I will collect you when I am finished, just keep out of sight.”

I went off to talk to the forensic team who were supposed to be examining the garages for any clues, but instead found them chatting to someone who was introduced as Charles Maybury, the Estate Manager, giving the cars inside a lot more attention than the garage itself. It was understandable, the cars were magnificent: two gleaming Lamborghini Aventadors, one in midnight black and the other in Pearl White; and my favourite, a bright red Ferrari SF90. all were in pristine showroom condition and I was hoping that when all this was sorted that I could talk Hal into taking me for a spin in one or all of them. When I managed to drag them away from the cars, they told me that they hadn’t found anything unusual, the garage doors had not been forced, the other cars did not seem to have been touched, and there was very little to go on.

I collected Tim and made my way back to the station, trying to decide what to do with him, and after parking him in one of our interview rooms with coffee and sandwiches, I called the team together for an update.

“Trudy, anything come up on your interviews with the owners of the other recent thefts?”

They all seem to take place late at night from the owners’ property, no alarms set off, no private CCTV at their houses. One of them heard the car start, went to investigate and was violently attacked, having to spend several days in hospital with his injuries. There does not seem to any links between the people, they did not really know each other very well, just casual business acquaintances. The only possible connection is that they all got their cars serviced by the same garage, associated with the showroom where they were bought.”

“ Follow up on that, talk to the garage, rattle a few cages and see if anyone reacts. Anything more on the CCTV Susan.”

“ The Hall is out in the country, so coverage is not very extensive. There is no sign of heavy traffic at all that Sunday night. We did pick up a couple of cars on the main road about a half-mile away between midnight and one, one driving towards the Hall and the other driving away a few minutes later. The images are not very good, for both of them the cameras were blinded by the car headlights. we are trying to get the photos enhanced, but at the moment all we know is that they were travelling fast and looked like low-slung sports cars.”

“ Barry, Anything?”

“ Actually, yes, a bit of good news, there was a Lambo being loaded lat night onto a cargo ship bound for Dubai from Hull. There was not the normal full documentation with it and the harbour police were suspicious. It has been held back and I have arranged for the forensic team to have a go at it.”

“ Good work keep at it. I have a possible witness to the theft at the Hall, and I want to keep him under wraps for the moment, particularly since Trudy mentioned about the violent attack on one of the car owners,Tim is a very slight teenager and I am worried that if the carjack gang found out about him, he could easily suffer a lot of harm.”

“ I know that it sounds weird, but why not see if we can hide him in Rose-acre. Duncan Rose still owes us a big favour, and Jane Stuart is now on the supervisory board of the care home, so it should not be a problem.”

“ Good idea Trudy, come downstairs with me to meet him and see what you think.”

Tim went through his story again with Trudy and she agreed that it would be best to get him into hiding.

“Tim, we are dealing with a violent gang and are worried that you could be in danger. We have somewhere that could take you, but you would not really fit in, how would you feel if we disguised you and gave you something to do while you are in hiding.”

“ Like I said to you before, as long as it is warm and dry and there is something to eat, I’ll go along with it.”

We called in Josie to give us a hand and soon Tim now re-appeared as ‘Tammy’. After a long shower to get rid of days of sleeping rough, some work on his shoulder-length hair, removal of what little body and facial hair Tim had, and the loan of some clothes and makeup from Josie’s collection, Tammy now appeared as a very presentable and even attractive teenage girl wearing a mid-thigh denim skirt and a scoop-neck short sleeved stretch top.

Very embarrassed and sheepish,Tammy came into the room and we were amazed at what Josie had done. Luckily, living rough, Tim had lost a lot of weight and his hair had grown long and with his still boyish looks he really looked the part.When we first met Josie, she was just as embarrassed and awkward as Tammy, but had now developed into the confident young woman she hoped to become eventually.

“I feel and look stupid dressed like this, why do I have to wear a skirt and makeup and pretend to be a girl?”

’Tim, don’t be silly, looking like that and dressing as Tammy is the best disguise you could have, you really look the part. It is no good just locking you away somewhere, you will get bored, you must know that from hiding in the hayloft. As for wearing skirts and makeup, half the population do that and don’t feel or look stupid, they are only clothes and all the trimmings, just get used to them for a while until we get this sorted out. We think that the people who stole the car will be looking for you, and we need to keep you safe and being out in public living and working as Tammy, no one will suspect you. Hiding in plain sight is often the best way not to be noticed”

Josie had worked undercover for us part-time at Rose-acre when we were investigating dubious management practices there, and went in with Tammy to help her become more feminine in her actions and mannerisms and to settle into her temporary role as a live-in care assistant. That at least kept Tim out of sight and safe.

Over the next few days the team kept plugging away at the few leads we had, trying to fit the Bugatti into the same picture as the other stolen cars, but apart from the owners being known by Lord Acklington, there was nothing to make a link.

Barry and his team followed up on the Lamborghini found at Hull docks, the number-plates were false, its paperwork was mostly missing. as was any reference to it on the cargo manifest for the ship, but the engine Identification plate listed it as one of the stolen cars. We would have at least one owner happy to get his pride and joy car back undamaged. There was no sign of any of the others or of the Bugatti but we were making progress.

We eventually received the CCTV records from Goldsworth Hall, and Susan was able to pick out Lord Acklington leaving and walking, or rather winding his way, across the car park, obviously having had too much to drink.

“What colour was the Lamborghini he said he was in that night , boss?”

“ I don’t think he actually mentioned which one he was in, but he has two, one black and one white, why do you ask?”

“ The car he got into was silver and it didn’t look like an Aventador to me but I am no expert.”

“ That’s strange the only silver car he told me about is the Bugatti. I think I need to speak to him again, but he has friends in high places and I don’t want to make waves without being more certain. I have an idea though Susan, when you were at University did you have any part-time jobs to help pay your way.”

“ I did a bit of bar work, but I preferred silver service waitressing, at weddings and events, why do you ask?”

“ Lord Acklington is having a garden party next Saturday, see if you can find out who is doing the catering and get yourself and Tammy onto the waiting staff, just tell them it is police business and that we want to keep an eye on who is there. If they agree, spend some time this weekend with Tammy giving her a quick course in how to behave and act and polish off the rough edges of any boyish traits, she needs to be convincing as a girl.

Tim said that he thought he would recognise the people he saw that night if he saw them again, I want to know if one of them was Lord Acklington. If Tim is at the garden party as Tammy, nobody will recognise him, and nobody ever really remembers the waiting staff anyway at those events. Trudy and I will be there as guests, and will act as backup if anything goes wrong, but I just want to know if anyone is recognised, no follow up conversations with anyone picked out.”

On the Saturday afternoon Trudy and I got ourselves ready for the garden party. Trudy was not a girly-girl, mostly wearing jeans, tops and jackets, and I had not built up a decent wardrobe yet , so we dressed in the same outfits we had worn for the Ebor race meeting, me in my white cocktail dress, bolero, pill box hat, and a totally impractical pair of 4” stilettos, and Trudy looking stunning in her silk cornflower dress, pashmina and fascinator. We were unsure whether we would be over-dressed, Hal had not told us how formal it would all be, but we definitely knew we would not stand out as police officers.

When we arrived at the Hall, the ‘bit of a small garden party’, turned out to be a gathering of the County moneyed set, with Marquees on the lawn and over 200 guests. Hal was in his element, playing the expansive host, but when he saw us arrive he came rushing over.

“ My oh my, don’t you two scrub up well, you are both looking gorgeous, let me introduce you to a few of my friends. You will find that they are just as friendly and easy-going as I am, so don’t be too bothered about their expensive designer dresses and Saville Row suits, they are friendly people underneath all that.

While we were chatting to some of the other guests, Tammy came over with a tray of drinks for us to choose from. She really looked the part, her hair and make-up were immaculate and she moved through the crowd smiling and chatting as if she had been doing it all her life, she was a natural at it. Susan and Josie had done a good job turning Tim into a quite acceptable Tammy

Later, Susan gave a discreet wave as a signal that she wanted to talk.

“Tammy has spotted the people he is sure she saw outside the Hall on the night of the car theft. They are together over there at the moment.” she said pointing out Lord Acklington and his estate manager.

“ Exactly as I thought, don’t approach them, other than as waitresses, just get on with your duties and we’ll talk about this later. When you are finished go back with Tammy to Rose-acre and we will meet you there.”

Trudy and I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening until the party broke up and we drove over to meet Susan and Tammy.

“ Well done, the pair of you. Tammy, you were brilliant today, you really suited your role as a waitress, you just blended in and nobody could have realised who you really are.”

“ I really enjoyed it, I am getting used to dressing as a girl now and strangely I am quite settled working in the care home, the residents are a really nice bunch of people, I might stay on when all this is over.”

“ You picked out Lord Acklington and his estate manager as the people you saw on that Saturday night, are you definite about that.”

“ Certain! Although it was dark I could still make out the overall size and build of the tall one, and his voice is unmistakeable, he was the one that was shouting and raving at the other, before going into the Hall. The other man was the one that drove off with the car afterwards.”

“ Thanks, you have been a big help, keep doing what you have been doing, it shouldn’t be for much longer.”

Later, at the team meeting, we agreed that it looked likely that Lord Acklington’s story was totally false and that he was leading us up the garden path.

“ This could be sensitive, I don’t want to go accusing him of lying, he has too much influence. I need to talk to CS Scargill before we take any further actions. Has anybody got any further with the stolen Lamborghinis or the service garage?”

Barry had been over to the docks at Hull and found out that there were several reports of expensive sports cars being loaded onto ships, and had managed to get a CCTV image of the driver that had delivered them on several occasions.

“Trudy, you have been up to the garage, does the guy in the photo look familiar.”

“ It’s not too clear, but I think that it may be the service manager.”

“ Bring him in, we need to have a formal interview. Trudy and Barry, you can deal with him, put him under pressure and see if he cracks, I’m off to headquarters to see what we can do about our friend ‘Hal’.”

“ Let me get this straight Julie, you think that Lord Acklington is trying it all on and arranged for the disposal of the Bugatti, why would he want to do that?” CS Scargill looked stunned when I told him what we had found.

“ He seemed the worse for drink when he left the Hotel and when he got home he was in a foul temper, and he lied to us about which car he was driving. I think he may have damaged the car and is working an insurance scam, and has the car hidden away somewhere. I would like to get a warrant to search all the barns and outbuildings in the grounds of his estate.”

“ I’ll go along with it, but you better be right, if you find nothing, we will not be very popular. Be subtle, think up an excuse to have the search without directly accusing him of anything.”

Armed with a search warrant, supposedly to look for signs that the thieves had been waiting in one of the barns for the right opportunity, we had Charles Maybury take our team around all the major barns and outbuildings, but we found nothing at all. Trudy then spotted a boathouse down by the lake which Maybury had managed to steer us away from.

“ You’ve no need to go down there, it is just a shed, no heat or electricity, it’s a bit of a ruin really, and with the water in the small inside dock it would not be a pleasant place to stay.”

“ Ok, we’ll just leave that then. It looks like the thieves must have just come in, taken the car and left straight away. Thank you for your time, Mr Maybury, I hope we haven’t wasted too much of your day.”

We sent the search team back to the station, but Trudy and I drove off the estate, parked about a half-mile down the road and made our way back to the boathouse. Maybury had been determined that we did not need to look there, which made us all the more determined to see for ourselves. As we had suspected the Bugatti was in there in a pretty poor condition, the front, bonnet and nearside wing were all deformed and badly scraped, it had obviously been in an accident. We were having a close look when we heard voices of people approaching, and just had time to hide under a tarpaulin before Maybury and Lord Acklington came in.

“ I told you to get rid of it, hiding it on the estate was never going to work. I thought I had those two nosy bitches in the palm of my hand, but they are not the stupid bimbos that they look. you should have called me when they turned up with the search warrant. I might have been able to keep them under control with a bit of smooth talking.”

”Don’t have a go at me, it was you who was stupid enough to drive home when you had far too much to drink and lose control and drive your car off the road into a tree. It was you who came up with the idea of a false insurance claim for it being stolen, rather than paying out the massive excess you would have had to pay for repairs. It’s not my fault that your investments have bombed and that you have even worse debts than you inherited from your father. I’ll get rid of the car for you tomorrow off the estate onto one of the tenant farms before those two stupid bimbos come back again. it’s just as well I managed to keep them away from here.”

When they left we made our way back to the car and phoned to make arrangements for the search team to come back first thing in the morning to officially search the boathouse and find the car. we drove slowly away from the hall looking for signs of tyre tracks on the verges and damage to trees, and found the likely spot of the crash, and added that location to the morning’s search.

Because we were wary of the influence that Lord Acklington had, I arranged for CS Scargill to be with me when I turned up at the Hall, immediately after the search ‘discovered’ the Bugatti still in the boathouse.

“ Good news Lord Acklington, we found the Bugatti in the boathouse down by the lake, but it is badly damaged, obviously it has been in an accident.”

“Not only did they steal my car but they have messed it up too this is disgraceful behaviour.”

“ We have another theory as to what happened. You were seen leaving the hotel drunk, your Bugatti was seen on CCTV at Goldsworth Hall hotel, you were seen by a witness returning to Acklington Hall in a hot temper, and Charles Maybury was seen driving it away immediately afterwards. We think that, driving while drunk, you lost control, crashed and badly damaged the car, and had the idea of an insurance claim for theft to cover it all up,.”

“ What a preposterous and fanciful idea, and very insulting too, let’s see what my lawyers have to say about this.”

Before you do that, please have a listen to this.” When I played him a recording Trudy had made on her phone of his conversation with Charles Maybury in the boathouse, the colour drained from his face and his head dropped.

“ Do you want to start again,? I suggest that you tell us the truth this time, and that we do that in a formal interview back at the station. Will you come voluntarily or do I have to arrest you on suspicion of fraud and wasting police time? In case you think that the Chief Constable will interfere with the investigation, CS Scargill here has already spoken to him and he has told us to show you no special favours.”

The chief Superintendent left us, and back at the station I formally interviewed him with Susan under caution. He confirmed everything we had suggested to him was correct, and that he had been worried that the insurance would not cover the repair or replacement of the Bugatti as he has been driving after heavy drinking which could easily be confirmed.

We reviewed the case with the Crown Prosecution Service, but they felt that the case was weak and that it would not be worthwhile to take it to court, he hadn’t put in an insurance claim yet, so legally had not committed fraud. Although he had admitted driving after a few drinks there were no blood tests or breathalyser readings to medically confirm that he was incapable of driving. Nobody was injured so there could not be a charge of ‘Leaving the scene of an accident’. The only charge we could really make stick would be ‘Wasting police time by making a false report’ which would only be likely to result in a fine. So, like often with the upper classes, he didn’t suffer from his crimes. The only penalty he faced was extremely expensive repairs to the Bugatti, as the insurance would not cover the costs, as well as the loss of his reputation and public image.

“ You can go Lord Acklington, count yourself lucky that you are not facing a court appearance. If I could charge you for calling me a ‘nosy bitch’ and a ‘Stupid bimbo’ I would, but unfortunately the law does not cover that. You need to get your life sorted out, running a fleet of prestige cars and maintaining a Stately Home when you are in financial difficulties is not the best way to manage your affairs.”

I went upstairs to break the news to the rest of the team and was expecting to face a sea of disappointment, but was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of happy faces.

“ You may have let him slip through the net Boss,” explained Barry, “ but Acklington told us about the other thefts which led us to the service manager at the garage, and he broke down completely under questioning and has confessed to a dozen similaroffences. When the cars were in for a service, he had the security key fobs cloned and then had no problems later stealing the cars and shipping them off to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong. Just to make it even better, the cars were traded for heroin and other hard drugs which he supplied to most of the major dealers in Yorkshire. Luckily he is not the type to take the rap for everyone else and has given us a long list of names to follow up We’ve should be able to break up a major crime ring, so maybe you should even be thanking your friend ‘Hal’ for his assistance.”

This was a major success for our team, and I left Trudy and Barry to make arrangements for a celebration party down at the pub after the end of our shift, whilst I went to Rose-acre to see Tammy/Tim.

“ That’s it all over now, thank you very much for your help, there is no need for you to stay as Tammy any longer. Actually you were not in real danger as Lord Acklington was not part of the violent gang of car thieves, but better safe than sorry.”

“ I didn’t tell you the whole truth about why I left home. As I said to you, my stepfather and I never really got on, but the final straw was when I was caught wearing my stepsister’s clothes. It was something I did when I was in the house alone, but I was caught one time when they all came back early. He went mad, calling me all sorts of horrible names, and he threw me out and told me never to go back.

i pretended to you that I felt stupid and embarrassed when you dressed me as a girl ,but I was actually delighted, it has given me a chance to see whether it is who I want to be. I have decided that Tammy is here to stay, I have felt comfortable and happy working and living as a girl and that I have fitted in working here in Rose-acre, if they will let me stay on it is what I want to do. I have been talking to Josie and she has a spare room in her house so i will be moving in there. So, there is no need to thank me, it should be the other way round, you have given me the chance to change my life completely, and for the better. I owe you, so if you need help again you know where Josie and I are.”

Having been brightened up by Tammy’s decision, I left to join the team in the pub, wondering what tomorrow would bring onto our desks.

To be continued

Part 9 Street urchins

“ Well done Julie, and please pass on my congratulations to your teams, both the official team and the unofficial helpers to your Odd Squad. “ said Superintendent Scargill to me in his office at County headquarters at Northallerton. “Although Lord Acklington and his supposedly stolen Bugatti turned out to be a bit of an attempted insurance fraud and a waste of time, he did lead us to investigate other car thefts and their link to a major drug ring. The regional drug squad are now following up on that and are trying to get along the chain to the people actually controlling the trade in the region, your help has been invaluable, but leave that to them. However you should keep an eye open for the local low-level dealers working the streets in and around York.”

Back at the station I called the team together and passed on the Superintendents comments, and I noticed an air of disappointment that we were not being allowed to follow up on the case we had started.

“ Right, now it is back to the routine for all of us. Barry you follow up on the spate of burglaries that have been taking place out in the more desirable suburbs. Trudy, you and Susan, start sniffing around in the clubs and bars and all the usual haunts for signs of local drug activity, Despite what CS Scargill said I still want to keep us involved with the drug scene, sometimes the small guys at the bottom of the pile can help to lead us up the chain, the regional people are not particularly interested in what is happening on our patch, they concentrate on the guys at the top.”

“ Trudy, ask Mick and Josie and the rest of our unofficial helpers to keep their ears to the ground and let us know of anything they hear or see, sometimes things go on that we would not notice as out of the ordinary. In particular there is to be a big Cosplay/Comic-Con convention due up on the University campus in a couple of weeks, when most of the students will have gone home for the Christmas holiday break. Most of those attending are just out for a good time, playing dress-up and living out their fantasies, some of them a bit weird but harmless, but like all big social events there is always an undercurrent of drug abuse amongst the minority. It might be worthwhile for you and Susan, and maybe Mick, Josie and Tammy, to book in and have a bit of fun whilst working undercover.”

The following week, I had been out at a burglar investigation with Barry, as with most of the others cases, the victims were away for the evening and came home to find their place ransacked and lots of small but expensive items missing. On returning to the station there was a bit of a rumpus going on in the main reception area. A late-teenage girl dressed in scruffy torn jeans, a rumpled jacket and scuffed worn shoes with her hair hanging wild over her shoulders was shouting and screaming and generally giving the desk sergeant a really hard time.

“ You lot are all the same, you don’t care about people like me, just because we do not live your nice comfortable middle-class life in your cosy little houses, you think we just get what we deserve, but we have as much right to your help as anyone else.”

“ I’m sorry Miss, but you cannot just barge in here and demand to see someone senior, everyone is busy at the moment, so please take a seat over there and I will see if anyone can come to see you.” replied the extremely patient Sergeant Jack Miller

“ This is all just because I am living on the streets and can’t give you a contact address or a phone number, you will just not recognise that I have a problem.”

This row was disturbing the normal routine of the front desk so I thought that I had better step in, I was not particularly busy at the time, and was interested in finding out what the problem was.

“ It’s ok Jack, I will take over with this, put her in one of the interview rooms and bring in a couple of coffees, and the packet of chocolate digestives you keep under your desk. I will find out what is getting her all worked up.”

“ Ok Miss, calm down, tell me who you are and why you have come her. I am DI Rowntree, but you can call me Julie. if you are living on the streets you are probably hungry, so help yourself to the biscuits.”

“ Your bloody sergeant was getting all officious with me, my sister is missing and he just didn’t care, he was looking at me as if i was a bit of dog-dirt he had just stepped in.”

“ I’m sure that is not the case, Sergeant Miller is a good officer, he was just following procedures. As I said, calm down and just tell me how we can help.”

“ My name is Sally Lancaster, My sister Liz has been missing for three days. I know that we are living on the streets or in squats but we do usually keep together, it is not like her to not come back. I last saw her three days ago, when she went off to do a job for a friend and nobody I know has seen her since.

“ How long have you been homeless and how do you support yourselves.”

“ It has been 6 months or so since we left home in Leeds, we were sick of our alcoholic mother and her aggressive abusive boyfriend, it had got to the stage that we were really worried that he was going to assault and try to rape us. You probably don’t know much about it but there is a thriving underground community in the back streets of genteel York, and we all tend to look out for each other, sharing squats or passing on tips as to the best places for begging, and doing odd jobs for people, and we manage to keep our heads above the water.”

“ Out of interest , do any of these odd jobs involve a bit of thieving or drug-running or anything like that.”

“ Not me personally, you aren’t going to catch me out like that, but yes it does all go on. In fact when she disappeared I think that she was carrying some drugs for one of our friends, but I will deny it all if you ever try to use it against her. I never got involved with the drug scene myself, I may be out on the streets but I still have my standards, so I don’t really know who she was working for.”

“ Is she the only one of your regular contacts that is missing, quite often when you are dealing with drug gangs, one thing leads to another, somebody sees something they shouldn’t and it all snowballs.”

“ Now you mention it, our friend Ruth hasn’t been around for a few days either. I don’t know her second name, that’s the way it is on the streets the less people know about you the better it is.”

“ It seems to me that Liz and Ruth have got mixed up with the wrong people and have seen something they shouldn’t have seen and have been spirited away to keep them quiet. I think that you might be in danger too, if I am right they will probably think that Liz has told you what is going on and they will need to keep you quiet too. I would like to help you Sally, let me look into it. How can I find you when I want to get in touch.”

“ It’s difficult at the moment, we have just been kicked out of our squat and are living rough, begging in the tourist spots and sleeping in shop doorways and living on handouts, I don’t know where I will be staying, and from what you have just said I don’t think I will feel safe out there.”

“ Stay here for a few minutes, I want to make a couple of phone calls.”

“ Ok Sally, I have found you somewhere to stay, but I need you to promise me that you will not abuse their hospitality and cause them any problems, will you do that? If I find out that you have stolen or damaged anything or been involved in any of your shady activities whilst you are with them, I will find you and come down on you like a ton of bricks.”

“ You are nearly as bad as your sergeant, making a judgement on me, but I realise you are trying to help and mean well, so, yes, I promise to behave.”

“ There are a couple of girls about your age that we have helped in the past that are happy for you to stay with them for a while, Josie and Tammie. They are coming in to have a chat with you to make sure that you can all get along and if everything is ok you can go and stay with them while we sort this out.”

I sent out for a hamburger and fries for Sally while we waited for Josie and Tammy to arrive, it was obvious that she hadn’t eaten properly for a while and she gulped it all down ravenously, just finishing before the girls turned up. Josie and Tammy had really made an effort in turning themselves into looking like normal teenage girls and were really settled in their new lives. Like a lot of transgender girls they dressed and acted very femininely, there was no slopping around in jeans and t-shirts and no makeup for them.

I introduced them and left them for a while to chat while I explained to Sergeant Miller what I had arranged. so that he could log it into the system and I could officially start to investigate what had happened.

When I went back in, I found that Sally had been freshened up and given a clean set of clothes, and with her hair brushed out and a little bit of makeup looked quite attractive and presentable, in a heavy skirt and winter jacket and ankle boots, obviously from Josie’s days shoplifting with her mother, she looked totally different to the street waif that had first turned up at the front desk.

“ Just before you go, have you two told Sally about your backgrounds.”

“ Of course she had to know that she would be sharing with a couple of transgender girls, she would probably have not found out, but if we expect her to be honest and open with us we had to be the same with her.”

“ It’s good to be trusted for a change,” said Sally, “I would never have guessed if they had not told me, they are really amazing and ever so friendly, and I am totally comfortable with them, I think we will get along together with no problems. They have had their own difficult times too and can understand what I am going through. They told me how you have helped them with their difficulties and that you can be trusted. i think I am going to enjoy staying with them for a while until all this is sorted.”

The girls left to go home and get to know each other better, while I went up to the office to get progress updates from my teams.

“ Any news yet on the drugs grapevine Trudy?”

“ It is going on, but it is hard to pull anybody in. The street dealers do not keep the stuff on them. They seem to have youngsters hanging around nearby who actually fetch and carry the stuff and pass it to the dealers when they have a trade. Usually it is young girls who who carry for them and they tend to go unnoticed in the main shopping and tourist areas.”

“Actually we now have one of those young girls working with us. Sally is in hiding and is lodging with Josie and Tammy. If you are taking them to the convention it might be useful take Sally too, she might recognise some of the dealers. Sally’s sister and friend who both probably are involved with the street dealers, have gone missing and she is worried that something may have happened to them and that she is next on the list. Keep me informed Trudy”

“ How are you getting on with the burglaries Barry?”

“ It is all pretty low level stuff that is easily traded on, jewellery, mobile phones, laptops, wallets etc. In most cases the entry to the house is through small unlocked windows left unlocked and slightly ajar to let the places breath, no signs of forced entry.”

“Just following on from what Trudy just said, check whether there are any sightings of youngsters hanging around in the area at the time of the burglaries, using kids to wriggle in through small windows is pretty standard practice.”

The day of the convention, I was amazed at what Trudy and the team had come up with. Her and Susan were dressed as sexy versions of Morticia Adams, with long black wigs, low-cut, black slinky minidresses and heavy Goth makeup, under all that they were totally unrecognisable. Mick was the male equivalent, a cross between Dracula and Frankenstein. Josie Sally and Tammy were all comic super heroines, Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonderwoman. In many ways I was disappointed that I hadn’t decided to join them, since my transition I had led a fairly mundane everyday female existence and the opportunities to dress up and glam up were few and far between. A day out in exotic clothes would have been a nice tonic for me, and a change from my practical jeans. jumper and trainers work outfits.

They all arrived at the convention, followed a few minutes later by an unmarked car with uniformed officers who waited outside in case any arrests were needed. It was a spectacular event, although there were all the usual stalls selling costumes, memorabilia or food, it was mainly an occasion for people-watching, looking at the spectacular costumes, and talking to like-minded or similarly-dressed folk. It was generally a surreal social gathering with everyone enjoying the mood of the event.

However, there are always some people up to no good, pickpocketing, petty theft, minor scuffles and assaults, and unfortunately a bit of low-level drug dealing. Sally was particularly useful in identifying several of the dealers that she knew, and in particular one that Liz occasionally worked for. Like many others, Mick and Susan were taking photos of many of the outrageously dressed characters, using it as a cover for recording drugs being passed over, and at the end of the day they had emailed the photos to the uniformed officers waiting at the exit to make searches and arrests. Most were streetwise kids just out to make a bit of money to fund their own habit, but there were a couple that Sally recognised as being a bit further up the chain, along with a teenage girl who she knew often worked with Liz. The others were allowed to leave after giving their details, but those three were taken down to the station for interview. Trudy joined me for the interviews after disappointingly changing out of her Morticia costume, apart from looking for dealers she had enjoyed her day out. We started the first interview with the young girl that Sally had identified as working with Liz.

Having been caught with a large quantity of drugs that she was carrying for the dealers, after a bit of a belligerent start, we were soon easily able to put the frighteners on her and she quickly confessed to regularly working with the two men, and definitely wasn’t going to take all the blame for them. that helped us to prepare our questioning of the first of the dealers

“ Before we start the formal recorded interview, let me say that I am not particularly worried about a few ecstasy or speed tablets for personal use, but your young runner seemed to have quite a stock with her when searched which she has confessed to holding on your behalf, and you had a stock on yourself too at a level where you can expect a lengthy prison sentence. However I am more interested in other matters, and if you can help me with those we may be able to be lenient. I hope you can be cooperative. Name address and personal details please.”

“Do you know a Liz Lancaster? She has disappeared and not been seen for several days. We have been informed that she often worked as a runner for you. Here is a photo of her. Have you seen her recently?”

“ I know her just as Liz, whether her name is Lancaster I don’t know. I am not saying whether she ever did any odd jobs for me and I am not admitting to anything other than what you caught me with today.”

“ We have reason to believe that she has been locked away somewhere or even killed along with a friend and associate of hers, known only as Ruth, and if we find you are involved it will not be good for you, it will not be just a slap on the wrist and a couple of months in a nice warm soft prison. I’ll ask again, have you seen her recently?”

“ Word on the street is that Ruth tried to swindle one of the big dealers and had been dealt with, and that Liz saw what happened as has gone to ground. That’s all that I know.”

“ You probably won’t tell me but I will ask anyway, who is the big dealer that Liz was involved with.”

“ If I tell you am I off the hook with this charge?”

“ If it leads to an arrest and the finding of Ruth and Liz, we may be able to work things out, but please don’t mess us about by fingering someone you have a score to settle with.”

“ Try Jimmy Page, I’m sure your drug squad will know how to find him.”

The second dealer, after a bit of pressure admitted that the drugs belonged to him and his friend and that the girl was just holding the drugs for them in case they were searched. Along with a couple of other names he too mentioned Jimmy Page as a likely suspect for us

Jimmy Page was obviously a long way up the ladder, none of the squalid back street drugs haunts for him, he had a large house in its own grounds in a gated community down by the river at Bishopthorpe, South of the city. He was a typical master criminal refusing to allow Barry and I into the house without a search warrant and to talk to us without his lawyer. Frustrated at his attitude we were just turning to leave when we heard a faint cry for help from the basement. I gave a nod to Barry and he barged past Page, raced into the house and soon found the way down to the cellar. To his surprise and shock he found not just Ruth, but three other teenage girls all looking filthy, hungry, and scared. He left them there and quickly came back up grabbed Page, arrested and handcuffed him and called for backup and a forensic team.

Down at the station he was charged by Barry with kidnapping and false imprisonment and put in a cell until I got back to hold a formal interview, while I went in an ambulance with the girls to have them medically checked out before taking them in to give their statements.

Over the next few days in a series of difficult interviews, the story gradually unfolded. Page had used young girls as couriers to carry drugs to the street dealers, one of them sold some of the stuff herself and pocketed the money and tried to run away, but was caught by him and given such a bad beating that she died of her injuries and her body was buried in the local woods. Ruth and the other girls had seen the beatings and were locked away while he decided what to do with them. A search of the cellar of a shed in his garden had uncovered a large cache of Heroin, cocaine and all the various class 2 drugs, more than enough to send him down for a really long stretch, not even taking account of the kidnappings and murder. They also had found a big Aladdin’s cave of stolen Jewellery, computer and camera equipment, wallets and purses

I met up with the Regional drug squad at county headquarters and passed Page over to them for questioning about his involvement with drugs, but kept responsibility for investigating the kidnaps
and murder. Whilst they appreciated that I had handed them a major dealer their noses were a bit out of joint that I had unearthed someone they had missed and had intruded into their area of operation. CS Scargill however was delighted with what my team had done and came down to the station at Fulford to personally congratulate them all.

Ruth and the other girls gave us full details of what they had seen, what had happened to them, and how Page had blackmailed them into working for him by luring them into drug use, and they also identified some close associates of Page that they had come across. The others were allowed to go after agreeing to go into a rehab centre where we could be sure of getting in touch with them again, but we kept Ruth back to see if she could give us any idea as to what had happened to Liz.

“ Ruth, although you were involved in criminal activities, I trust you have learned your lesson that you are a lot better off getting away from the streets and the drug scene and try to make a decent life for yourself, and I am prepared to let you all go without charge, but don’t ever let me see you in here again. However the one bit of this case that is still unresolved is what has happened to Liz. Do you know where she is or how to get in touch?”

“ You are better off asking her sister Sally, they have a place where they leave each other messages when they get out of touch, sort of like a dropbox, we all move about a bit and may not see each other for days on end. Other than that I know that she has been in touch with her mother recently, maybe she might have an idea.”

Before letting her go, I passed her over to Barry to be interviewed about Page’s involvement with the stolen goods. It appeared that we were right, Page and his associates used the slim supple young girls to wriggle through small windows to get into houses, open the door to the burglars and leave them to ransack the place. Page them passed most of the stuff on to fences, but kept some of the speciality stuff for himself which was easily traced back to the burgled homes.

After a quick phone call to Josie, her and Sally soon arrived at the station, and I took them both into the interview room.

“Two things Sally, have you had any messages from Liz at your dropbox, and did you know that Liz contacted your mother just before she disappeared, make that three items, have you contacted your mother yourself? I have been very lenient with you and arranged for you to stay with Josie, so I deserve honest answers from you. If Liz has hidden herself because of fear of Jimmy Page, she need have no further worries, he and his close associates are all now in custody,”

“ Actually I was coming in to see you anyway. I got a message from Liz that she is back in Leeds at our mother’s place, the boyfriend is well off the scene now and Mam has started to get her life back on track again, having stopped drinking completely and going to AA. It was all the boyfriend’s fault that she got into the state she did, but he hit her once too often and she had to go to A&E, they reported it to the police, who found out a few other things he was up to and he is now in custody waiting to be sent down.”

“ That all sounds like good news, are you going back home now?”

“ I’m playing it by ear, I am obviously going to go and see them, but for the moment I am going to stay in York at Josie’s with her and Tammy, they have become good friends to me, and I have starting working with them at the Rose-acre care home. If everything works out ok I might go back to live with Mam and Liz, but I prefer it here in York.”

All in all it was a satisfactory couple of weeks, we had taken down a major drug dealer, solved a lot of burglary cases, got a few young girls to leave their lives on the streets and return to some sort of normality, and reunited Sally with her sister and mother. I was just seeing the girls out of the station when Sergeant Miller called me over.

“Just a minute Inspector, there is someone waiting to see you, I have put him in interview room 2.”

“What is this about Jack?”

“ Just go in and see him, you will find out soon enough.” he replied with a big grin.

I was surprised when I entered the room to see Lord Acklington sitting there looking very pleased with himself.

“ Good evening Lord Acklington, what can I do for you?”

“Inspector Rowntree, can we go back to being just Hal and Julie please, this is a sort of social call, all the formal business is over now, I hope.”

“ Ok we’ll start again, how are you doing Hal?”

“ I feel very bad about how I treated you and called you some names. But it wasn’t all just turning on the charm earlier to try to smooth your investigation into the Bugatti, I actually really enjoyed your company, you were a bit of fresh air compared to the country set I normally associate with. The last thing you told me was that I needed to sort my life out, and I have been doing that. Do you fancy going out to dinner and I will tell you all about it, and I can assure you that it is all, or nearly all, good news that I am sure you would like to hear.”

My first reaction , after having heard him call me a ‘nosy bitch’ and a ‘stupid bimbo” when we were investigating the theft of his car a few weeks earlier, was to tell him to get lost, but after a couple of weeks being in the company of drug dealers and street urchins, a few hours with a sophisticated, well-mannered member of the local aristocracy seemed like a bit of light relief.

“ I am just going off duty and if you come back to the apartment with me, and amuse yourself while I clean up and get changed, that sounds like an excellent offer.”

Having seen the girls dressed up and glammed up for the convention a couple of weeks ago I made a special effort getting myself ready and feeling feminine. A long shower with scented oils, my hair set up in rollers while I dressed in a set of lacy underwear under a “little black dress”and a pair of heels, my hair brushed out and sprayed and I was soon (well an hour and a half later) ready.

We drove in the Bugatti out to an ‘olde world’ country hotel about 10 miles out of the city where he had reserved a table for us while I was getting ready.

“ How did you manage to get a table here, they are normally booked up weeks in advance.”

“It wasn’t Hal that made the call, it was Lord Henry Acklington, the Earl of Linton, it usually manages to work a bit of queue jumping, are you impressed or disappointed that I could get away with it?”

“ The Earl of Linton ?”

“ Yes, the 10th Earl actually, did I never mention it, the title goes back to the early 1700s for services rendered by one of my ancestors alongside the Duke of Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim during the Wars of the Spanish Succession. Unfortunately it does not allow me to sit-in the House of Lords in Parliament anymore, that was stopped a while ago, but it still has its privileges, like booking a restaurant table or a top seat in the theatre.

Over an excellent dinner in a private room in the historic hotel Hal updated me on the changes in his lifestyle.

“I took your words to heart about sorting my life out, and decided that I was not a playboy youth anymore and that I needed to be more responsible. I have sold the Lamborghinis, which paid for the repairs to the Bugatti and left a nice bit of capital to work with, started playing the stock market again which topped that up considerably and I am now back on fairly solid ground again. The Hall costs an enormous amount of money for its upkeep, and if I am going to maintain to so that I can hand it over eventually to my son, I need to be a bit more circumspect with my finances.”

“ Your son? That’s another thing you failed to mention, any more big secrets, like a wife?”

“ Unfortunately, No, that was over a long time ago, she has since remarried and lives down in Sussex, but I have never bothered, my life and interests in recent years have been shared between the house and estate, fast cars, and making money with the hedge fund, there has not been too much time for romance. The good thing is that I have always had access to and good contact with my son and heir, Harry, who is now at university.”

Hal was an excellent and entertaining dinner companion, we chatted incessantly and time passed quickly, far too soon we were having an after-dinner coffee before setting off home.

“Christmas in coming up, have you any plans?” he asked.

“ Trudy and I were intending to just have a quiet day at home, and her boyfriend Mick is going to join us for the day, what about you?”

“ Like you, it will just be a quiet one, Harry and his girlfriend Rachel will be coming up, Cook will be preparing dinner before going off to her own family celebrations, and we will just be looking after ourselves after that. Why don’t you come and join us, there will be more than enough prepared? I really enjoy your company and the more the merrier, obviously Trudy and Mick will be welcome too and it will save me from playing gooseberry with the youngsters. You won’t have to worry about drinking and driving home either, there are more than enough bedrooms at the Hall than I care to think about.”

“ It’s very kind of you, and I appreciate it. I hope that I am not misreading the situation, but if you are making the first moves to a relationship, there is something you need to know.”

“ If you are going to tell me that you are transgender, I already know, word gets around. As far as I am concerned you are a charming attractive intelligent woman and you are a pleasure to be with. I am inviting you as a friend, that is all, please say yes.”

“ I’ll have a talk with Trudy to see what she and Mick want to do, and if they are ok with it, it sounds delightful and I will look forward to it. That’s a wonderful way to end this really enjoyable evening, thank you ever so much, now let’s get me back home, I have a full workload waiting for me in the morning.”

Later, lying in bed, I mulled over the last year or so. I had gone from recovering from my painful transition operations, restarting work as Julie, suffering abuse and prejudice at work, to be where I am now, successful in my career, happy and comfortable with my new life, changing the lives of people I had worked with and helped, and being out in the company of an actual Earl. Life was definitely on the way up.

To be continued.

Part 10 Mayhem at Christmas

“ I’ve had a thought about Christmas Hal . It may sound a bit cheeky, but can I invite some other guests to stay over as well as Trudy and Mick? I know that you and Harry are used to being served at dinner and then just retiring to the drawing room whilst cook and her staff clear everything up, and that sorting out the kitchen and clearing up afterwards will come as a culture shock to you. It is not fair to leave the mess for cook to clear up when she comes back after Boxing Day, how about if I ask some of the girls in my unofficial Odd Squad if they would like to join us on condition that they do most of the work as well as being guests with the rest of us. I’m sure that Josie and Tammy will jump at the chance of a stay at the Hall, but I think Sally will be going over to stay with her Mam and sister. You probably do not remember but they were working as waitresses at your garden party when I was after your blood, so they do know how to behave in your company”

“ Good idea, I’ve been brought up to be a bit lazy around the house, and if your girls are happy to help out, as I said before ‘the more , the merrier’, and a few more youngsters will liven the atmosphere.”

On Christmas Eve, we all rolled up at the Hall for our stay. I had picked up the girls and Mick and Trudy had driven separately. Trudy and I had been in the Hall before when we were investigating the car incident, but Mick, Josie and Tammy were completely overawed by the grandeur of the place and the girls were particularly excited, it was a world away from their normal lives in a small town terrace house. Hal showed us to our rooms and we prepared ourselves before going down to meet his son Harry and his girlfriend Rachel. We all had our own rooms, but I was sure that Trudy and Mick, and Harry and Rachel, would not be spending the night alone.

We had been told that it was all to be informal, but in Hal’s world informal was a lot different to ours. Rather than casual trousers and a loose top, I felt it necessary to be in full make-up , wearing a cocktail dress and heels, and had told the girls to do something similar. I was glad that when I first got to know Josie, after arresting her for shoplifting with her mother, that I had not confiscated the designer clothes that she had stolen, it meant that she and Tammy were very presentable, in fact probably better dressed than Trudy and I. They were both stunning, nobody ever would guess that they were still physically male, and they appeared as if they had been born to life as the daughters in this grand mansion.

We were all introduced to each other and Harry and Rachel were easy to get along with. At first the atmosphere was a bit strained, the gulf in status, culture and upbringing was wide, but taking the lead from Hal’s carefree and casual manner, we all soon became a lot more relaxed with each other.

Cook had prepared a buffet for us before she went to see her family, although she was returning in the morning to prepare the main Christmas dinner. As agreed, the girls, whilst socialising with us most of the time, were happy to act as waitresses, and with clearing up and dish-washing, in fact they were glad to hide away in the kitchen for a while and do their own thing. Rachel, who was not much older than them, joined them too and they left the rest of us to have grown-up talk in the drawing room while they gossiped and giggled about the size and grandeur of the Hall, and got to know each other better.

After a really enjoyable evening, in fact a lot more fun than I had expected, we all went off to our rooms to bed. I half expected a knock on the door from Hal to see if I wanted his company for the night, but he was a perfect gentleman and left me alone. I couldn’t decide whether I was disappointed, annoyed, or pleased. Since my transition I had had not been intimate at all with anyone and whilst I wanted to be seen and treated as any other hot-blooded woman, I was apprehensive as to how I would react and perform the first time. Although Hal had left me alone, he figured in my dreams, and I pictured myself in bed with him as the chatelaine of this grand mansion.

I was up early on Christmas day and went downstairs to find Josie and Tammy working away with the cook in the kitchen, being given strict instructions as to how and when to finish off the food for serving later. They were dressed casually in skirts and tops wearing aprons that cook had provided for them whilst they were in working mode, and would be going up to change for dinner later.

When the others came down we all, including cook and the girls, gathered in the drawing-room for the first toast of the day for a Merry Christmas with a Bucks Fizz which was a bit of a waste of what turned out to be a very expensive champagne. Cook and the girls had prepared a finger buffet of sandwiches, pies, sausage rolls, scotch eggs, cheeses, and pickles along with a fruit salad and a batch of bread rolls as a breakfast to keep us going until the main meal.

Cook left us to go to her family, and after a delicious lunch at which we had all eaten far too much, fed and refreshed we put on coats and went for a walk around the estate, through the gardens and woodland walk down to the lake, and back up through the deer park to the house. It was a cool fresh afternoon and we were soon glad to get back into the warmth of the Hall, where Hal continued the tour by showing us around the mansion. He had been right, there were more rooms than you could possibly need, he admitted that there were some rooms that he hadn’t been in for months. I now began to realise why he had been through money cash-flow problems, it must cost a huge amount of money just to keep the place clean warm and tidy, never mind structurally sound.

The girls brought in a bowl of warm mulled wine that they had prepared earlier under cook’s guidance, which helped to warm us all up again and get us in a festive mood. While we were all together, there was an exchange of presents. The gifts from me, Trudy, Mick, and the girls, to each other and to Hal, Harry and Rachel were all really token gestures, personal and thoughtful rather than expensive, but Hal had been to his favourite jewellers for gifts for all the girls, matching diamond earrings and chokers for Rachel Trudy and me, earrings and a bracelet for Josie and Tammy.

After the last few years of a lonely solitary Christmas in my small apartments, it was a good feeling to be in a friendly family atmosphere again, with an amazing meal, super company, and delightful surroundings. The day seemed to pass in a blur, it was so enjoyable and I was so grateful to Hal for the invitation.

Again I went to bed, and to sleep, dreaming of a future life with Hal, as the Countess of Linton, and again was, disappointingly, left alone with my dreams.

The next morning, Boxing Day, after a breakfast buffet of sandwiches of the leftover turkey and freshly fried bacon, Trudy and Mick went into town to take in the magical Christmas scenes in the quaint historic old city, taking the girls back home, and Harry and Rachel went off to visit friends, leaving Hal and me alone. Again we went for a wander around the estate, hand-in-hand and chatting away, we were both really comfortable and happy in each other’s company. Sitting in the drawing room afterwards with our arms around each other I was again getting romantic ideas in my head, when we were rudely interrupted by the shrill call of my phone, much to my disappointment.

“ Hi Boss, it’s Trudy, I am down in the undercroft at the Minster, I think that you had better get here right away. I’ll meet you at the security office at the back of the Chapter House. I’ll explain when you get here.”

I was soon at the staff security office of the mediaeval cathedral, universally affectionately known as York Minster, where Trudy was waiting for me.

“Mick and I were doing the tourist trail down in the exhibition area in the undercroft when one of the visitors suddenly fell to the floor, got up screaming, broke into one of the display cabinets and grabbed a roman sword, and started slashing around. Several people were injured trying to restrain him and have been taken to hospital, before the Minster Police were able to subdue him. I have had the area taped off as a crime scene, all the basement areas have been closed to the public. The attacker is under lock and key in one of the undercroft service areas, screaming away in some strange language. He has been given something to try to calm him down”

“Did you see it happen yourself?”

“ No, just what went on afterwards, but the police have told me that it was all recorded on CCTV, which is what initially alerted them to what was happening.”

“ Let’s start with the CCTV and leave him until he has calmed down a bit.”

The CCTV images showed everything running smoothly as normal with people wandering through the new interactive exhibition areas detailing the history of York and the Minster from pre-history, to being the capital of the Roman empire, through the Saxon and Viking invasions, to its rise as a major mediaeval city, all the way up to modern times.

All of a sudden, as Trudy had described to me, one of the visitors suddenly jerked around, fell to the floor as if punched or pushed and then went berserk, there was no obvious trigger to it all, there was nobody next to him, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, and nobody else seemed to be involved in any way. The audio on the CCTV records was not particularly clear, but it was sufficient for me to pick out some words in Welsh that I recognised from my many holidays in Snowdonia, which at least sorted out what Trudy had described as ‘some strange language’ .

“Trudy, if he has calmed down, get him down to the station for questioning, get a doctor to check him for physical injuries and test him for drugs, get a behavioural psychologist to be present, and find someone to act as an interpreter if needed and to translate what he was shouting about in his frenzy.”

The interpreter, Dafydd Evans, confirmed that it was indeed Welsh on the video, and that he had been shouting a lot of garbled gibberish but the general gist was about invaders taking their land and needing to drive them back to where they came from.

It turned out that the attacker, when he had calmed down , although a native Welsh speaker, was perfectly fluent in English, so there was no need for Dafydd Evans to translate for us, but we asked him to stay in case there were any cultural references that needed further explanation. The psychologist confirmed that now that the attacker, Emrys Davies, had calmed down that he was coherent and seemingly rational, and was fit to be interviewed. As Trudy was a potential witness I couldn’t let her sit in with me on the interview, so I was joined by Barry who led the questioning

“Mr Davies, in your own words, please tell us what happened this morning.”

“ I don’t know why I am here. I had a coffee and cake with some friends, went to the Minster, they went off together to tour the main ground floor nave, chapels and quire areas and I went down to the undercroft to the exhibition. The next thing I remember is being here.”

“Do you remember anything special about when you were in the exhibition area?”

“ Not really, I was reading about the roman occupation and the remaining foundations of their buildings underneath the basement floor, when I went dizzy and that is all I remember.”

“ Have you any special interest in the Romans in Britain?”

“ Yes I have actually, I and the friends I was with are studying classical history at University in Bangor in and we have researched a lot of the information relating to the Roman invasion and occupation of Wales.”

“ And what do you think about the Romans and what they did in your area?”

“They were violent murdering thugs, and although they tried to extend their influence in Wales, it was always an occupation, Wales was never really Romanised culturally like a lot of England, and there were continual skirmishes between them and my ancestors.”

“ So, is it fair to say that you do not like what the Romans did to your country?”

“ That is putting it mildly, between them, the Vikings and the English, invaders have always tried to kill our culture and language, and we have had to defend ourselves as best as we could.”

I saw Trudy through the window of the door to the interview room waving me over. “ Let us just pause the interview for a few minutes while I consult my colleague.”

“ What have you got for me Trudy, I hope that is something useful, we are not getting very far in there with Davies.”

“ Toxicology report back from the lab. He has a high level of traces of Ketamine. a common hallucinogenic drug, in his blood, it looks like he was on a ‘trip’ when all this happened.”

“Thanks Trudy, I’ll finish the interview and talk to you later.” I returned to the interview room and took over from Barry.

“ Mr Davies, we have found traces of illegal drugs in your system are you a habitual user?”

“ The occasional cannabis spliff, nothing heavy, but I haven’t had any for weeks.”

“ What about the friends you were with, are any of them regular users?”

“ You’ll have to ask them.”

“ Mr Davies, let us get one thing clear, you are facing serious charges for violent assault while under the influence of illegal drugs, which will probably end up with you in prison. Your best defence is that someone slipped drugs into your food or drink without you knowing and that you cannot be held responsible for the consequences. It looks likely that one of your so-called friends slipped you some ketamine, a hallucinatory drug, so why are you not cooperating in helping us get to the truth, Again, are any of your friends regular users?”

“ Sam, Samantha, Evans, one of the girls with us, is often a bit away with the fairies, and if anyone of them carries drugs it is likely to be her.”

“ Where can I find her, where are you staying in York?”

We found Sam at the hotel in the company of the rest of the group, and she seemed at bit excitable and hyperactive, probably due to being on a drug high, and one of the uniform team took her down to the station for me to interview her later, while I stayed to question the others.

‘ Before you all went into the Minster, you had coffee and cakes in a local cafe. Being blunt, did any of you see anything being put into Emrys’ drink?”

“ Not really, Sam served up the coffee from the cafetière and put the milk and sugar in for everybody, but other than that we all just helped ourselves to the cakes and things from the serving tray.”

“ What was Sam’s relationship with Emrys like, did she have any reason to want to harm him by giving him drugs?”

“ Far from it, she fancied the pants off him, but he didn’t seem that particularly interested in her.”

“ Was she sitting near him at the table?”

“ Right next to him, she usually managed to squeeze next to him wherever we went.”

“ Have any of you seen Emrys Davies under the influence of drugs?

“ Not really, like all of us he had the occasional spliff, but nothing serious and just making him a bit light-headed. Sam is a different matter, she often seemed to be on a high, although I can’t say that we ever saw her taking anything.

“ Ok that’s all for now, please stay in York until we tell you it is ok to leave, and write down your full names and contact details and I will come back to you later.”

Back at the station we left Emrys in the interview room with sandwiches and coffee, and we turned our attention to Sam Evans.

“Miss Evans, do you know why you are here?”

“ I suppose it’s to do with Emrys going doolally in the Minster and attacking those people.”

“Why do you think he did what he did?”

“ I don’t know, we were the other end of the Minster looking at the main East window when we heard the commotion, downstairs.”

“ What if i tell you that he was under the influence of drugs.”

“Doesn’t surprise me , he was a frequent user.”

“ That’s not what the others say, they reckon he was always pretty clean, whereas you, on the other hand have a reputation as a regular user.”

“ So what has him attacking people got to do with me?”

“ We have been told that you have been trying to form a relationship with him, not very successfully, and we have reason to believe that you slipped some Ketamine, well known as a date-rape drug into his drink in the hope of giving you an opportunity to take things further with him.”

She suddenly burst into tears and slumped in her chair.

“ I didn’t know that he would react like he did, I thought it would relax him and make him feel tired and unwell, so I could take him back to the hotel and have some time with him on my own.”

“ So you planned to have sex with him, while he was only part-conscious, that is at least attempted sexual assault, maybe even attempted rape if there is a hard-line jury. if it was the other way round and Emrys had done that to you, the judge would throw the book at him, but the law in relation to females forcing unwilling sex acts on males is very ambiguous. We will have to talk to the prosecuting authorities to decide whether the case will go forward. I wish I could charge you with something in relation to Emrys going berserk in the exhibition area, but I can’t think of anything at the moment. It is unlikely that Emrys will be charged as a good defence lawyer will argue that he was not responsible for his actions, which means that the victims will not see anyone punished for their injuries.”

“ I never meant it to happen, I just wanted some time with Emrys. I am really sorry”

However we have found drugs in your luggage, over and above what could be considered as for personal use and you will be charged with dealing. The details of what you have done will be passed on to your local police in Bangor and I am sure that they will be keeping an eye out for you, so you better behave yourself in future. Think yourself lucky that nobody was killed or seriously injured. Barry, please fill out the charge sheets and then let her go, I am going to have a word with Emrys.”

“ Emrys, i don’t know if you have remembered anything yet, but what we have found out is that Samantha Evans slipped a date rape drug into your drink intending to make you unwell so that she could take you back to the hotel and, for want of a better word, rape you, but you reacted very strongly to the drug, which is also a hallucinogen , and you went on a weird trip in the exhibition area attacking and injuring people. We don’t know what triggered you off, so unless you can recall anything there is not much more we can do. Obviously you will not be charged as it is highly unlikely that a jury would convict you of anything. You are free to go and if I were you I would keep well away from Samantha Evans in future, she seems to have a bit of an obsession with you.”

“ Thanks for sorting it out, please pass on my apologies to anyone that was hurt. I have sort of remembered some things, it is a bit like waking up in the middle of a dream where everything is all jumbled and confused. I was in the area where you can look down through the glass floor to the Roman foundations, when I saw some people marching towards me wearing what looked like Roman soldier’s uniforms like the pictures on the displays, they drew their swords, pushed me to the ground, and were going to kill me. I had to defend myself, so I grabbed a sword and started fighting back and driving them away shouting and screaming ‘ewch allan o fy ngwlad, ewch yn ôl i'ch cartref’ ( get out of my country, go back to your home)’, but they were joined by others who restrained me and locked me up. I know that like a lot of people in north Wales that I am a strong nationalist, but I have never taken part in any violence. With the effect of drugs, my university research, the Roman ruins and reading about the troops stationed in York, my mind somehow put it all together and it became real to me.”

“ What you probably do not know, and with the Minster being a house of religion they do not publicise it, is that there are lots of reports of people claiming to have seen ghostly Roman legionaries marching through the very area where you attacked people, you are not the first, and will probably not be the last. Maybe some like you just got carried away by the atmosphere, maybe there is some truth in it all, nobody will ever know. “

I showed Emrys out of the building, wished him well and told him that he and his friends, including Samantha, if they could stand to be around her, could go back home to Wales, and if we needed them for anything further we would be in touch.

My planned peaceful Christmas break had only partly happened, but I decided to make the best of what was left and go back to the Hall and to Hal. When i told Trudy what I was doing, a big smile appeared.

“ That is good news, that means that Mick and I can spend some time on our own in the apartment for the first time. You enjoy yourself back at the Hall and I will see you in the office tomorrow. Enjoy yourself girl, don’t do anything I wouldn’t, which gives you a lot of scope.”

Back at the Hall, I changed out of my work outfit of trousers and blouse, showered, and re-did my hair and makeup and put on my sexiest silk and lace lingerie set and my royal blue mid-thigh shift dress and was ready to forget that I was a police officer, and just spend the rest of the night as an everyday woman.

The cook was still at her family’s house, so we just pulled together some of the scraps of the Christmas turkey added some mixed vegetables and a bottle of superb burgundy, chatted over dinner about the events of the day, and were soon settled down for the evening.

We were sat in front of a roaring log fire, my head in his lap, his arms around me, enjoying each others company, when he smiled, leant down to me and kissed my forehead. “Now where were we this morning before we were rudely interrupted by your phone call?”

To be continued.