The Strange Case of the Jittery Jury
Angela looked down at the letter again. It just wasn't possible.
Another letter with the same header on sat on her desk, but she wasn't
so concerned about that letter at the moment. Though it truth she'd
probably rail against that one later. She read the crucial part again.
Miss Angela Clemence
* You have been selected for jury service
* Your name has been randomly selected from the electoral register
Anthony had not considered this problem when he decided to put Angela's
name on the electoral register to try and ensure that she was a real
person who could have a job, a bank account and pay taxes. Angela now
had not only a driving license, but a passport as well as a bank
account. She was a real citizen of the United Kingdom again now and as
a consequence the state was clawing back it's due from her.
Angela slammed the letter down and picked up the other one. She glared
at this one as though it didn't have a right to exist in this reality.
Mr Anthony Danfoth
* You have been selected for jury service
* Your name has been randomly selected from the electoral register
The dates on the two letters were the same. They were in the same batch
of letters to be sent out. There was no way that Anthony could attend
Jury service as both Angela and himself at the same time. There was a
?1,000 fine for failure to attend. Agitated Angela crossed her legs and
glared angrily at both letters. She considered a fiery death for both
pieces of paper. That would have achieved much, but she would've had
some satisfaction in getting revenge on the bits of paper that were
annoying her. Then she had another thought, one which didn't involve
setting fire to anything.
"Mark! Can you come into my office for a moment?" Angela said sweetly.
Phillip was out trying to find a lost cat for Mrs Peabody, honing his
newfound detective skills on a job neither of the senior partners
wanted to do. Mark came in studying a magazine. When he reached
Angela's desk he looked up.
"What's up Angela?" he asked keeping the pretence that his partner was
really a woman to ensure he didn't slip up when Phillip was around.
"Sort this out for me would you?" She smiled sweetly as she passed the
papers up to him. Mark took them one at a time and read them.
"Looks like you have a problem," he said as he handed the papers back
to Angela.
"No, WE have a problem." Angela emphasised the word 'we.' "If they
find out that I'm not a real person then you will be in trouble too. So
can you be a darling and sort it out for me." Angela batted her
eyelashes at him.
"I'm not falling for that Angela. You can bat your eyelashes all you
want." Angela pouted back at Mark in response to his comment.
"You'd be sooo much better at sorting it out than me," Angela purred
and gave him a doe eyed look. Mark burst out laughing.
"Why can't I stay mad at you?"
"Because I'm gorgeous and sexy that's why!"
***********************************************************************
Marco De Torini was upset, and when he was upset either things were
done to remove the cause of the upset or people got hurt. The head of
the Swansea Mafia sat behind his desk and glared at the two men on the
other side of it.
"They cannot be allowed to pin anything on my boy Gino," he said. It
was not a request or an order. It was something more than that.
"Boss. We have one of da top men coming down from London. If anyone can
sort dis out then he will be able to," Tony said.
"Yeah. Well find da witnesses and da jurors and we'll put da squeeze on
dem Boss," Vincenzo added pounding his fists together.
"Yeah, tanks for the support boys, but they ain't going to get away
with dis. Trying to pin someting on my boy jus' cos they can't get
nothing on me," Marco says. "Have you boys got da information on the
clerk of the court?"
"Ya boss." Tony flung down a file on the desk. "Some broad by the name
of Yvonne Rawlinson. All the details are in the file."
"Send the file to London Tony," Marco said urgently. "Ensure that it
gets there pronto. In fact ensure it gets there sooner than pronto. We
gotta have that info and the sooner we get it, the better."
**********************************************************************
Anthony had not managed to get to the pub on their regular Monday night
every week with Bernard since his daughter had been born, but this week
he had special permission from Anwyn to meet his friend at the local.
He'd not realised that he needed permission to go to the pub until
fairly recently, but the whole permission thing had kind of crept up on
him. Marriage seemed to involve a lot more unwritten rules that he was
still getting to grips with. It was funny, but once he was Angela he
was free of all those rules, free of any responsibility. Was that why
he spent most of the time in the office as Angela when he didn't need
to? He now spent almost more time as a woman during the week than he
did as a man, and he was now getting extremely used to wearing heels.
Anthony decided he didn't want to think about that as he sipped his
pint and waited for Bernard to arrive.
"Watcha mate!" Bernard slapped him on the back as he arrived. "I had a
bitta good news today. I got called up for jury duty. Three whole weeks
off work. That's bloody brilliant that is!"
That was the opposite reaction that Anthony had had. He decided not to
show his friend his true feelings about the news.
"Yeah I got called up too as did Angela," Anthony replied dryly.
"Even better. The three of us might be on a jury together. That Angela
is one hot woman Ant, I don't mind telling you. If I hadn't hooked up
with Claire I think I might have made a play for her," Bernard replied
enthusiastically.
"I'm not sure you're her type Bernard," Anthony said to try and mollify
his friend. It was one thing to be an attractive woman who was desired,
but it was another thing to be actively pursued, particularly by his
best friend.
"Oh well, her loss mate!" Bernard's chirpy enthusiasm was insatiable at
times to pull you along into his world where everything was great. It
was one of the things that Anthony admired about his friend; nothing
ever seemed to be a problem for him. It was probably why he got on so
well with Claire.
"So do you think we'll get a juicy murder trial or anything like that?"
Bernard asked.
"Oh I don't know. Those are quite rare I think," Anthony replied. "I
guess most of the trials are boring things like tax evasion or a
benefit cheat. Don't expect a major case," Bernard seemed a little
crestfallen at his friend's response. He took a sip of his pint and
then brightened up.
"Well at least there may be some fit birds in the court to distract me
from the tedium of the case then," Bernard replied. All in all, Anthony
thought, Bernard was not the kind of juror that the system was hoping
for.
***********************************************************************
Nico had studied the file that they had sent to him now that his
assignment as Chardonnay was over. The new suit that he was wearing was
older than Chardonnay but was sexy in its own way. Sitting in the back
of a transit van in the heat of the summer however was not in the least
bit fun and Nico was itching to get back out and into action.
They'd matched Yvonne's clothes as much as possible from when they
spied her entering the Magistrates Court building that morning, but it
had not been possible to get exactly the same clothes that she was
wearing. Nico checked the picture they'd taken of her again. The
pattern on the white cardigan was slightly different and the earrings
were not an exact match, but it was good enough to fool most people.
"She's leaving the building now Miss Harte," the driver of the van told
him. He'd come down to Swansea in the Yvonne Rawlinson suit but with
another mask attached to the suit with so as not to raise any questions
from the local heavies. They wouldn't dare touch him because of his
connections, but he didn't want to have to deal with all the 'fag'
comments all day.
"OK sweetie. Wish me luck," Nico said in character as Miss Harte, the
operative from London, as he stepped out of the van in his heels. The
tight black skirt meant he had to slide himself sideways out and then
steady himself on his 3" heels.
Nico as Miss Yvonne Rawlinson headed into the Magistrates Court smiling
sweetly at the security guards.
"Forgotten something Yvonne?" one of the guards said as he approached.
Nico had not had a voice sample in the hurry to get all this together
so had no reference to base her voice off.
"MMmmhhmm," he replied in a feminine voice as he passed through the
check point. Nico quickly made his way into the clerk's office and
headed for the filing cabinet. The room was empty as it was lunchtime,
but he knew he needed to act quickly.
Usually Nico liked having long nails as they made his hands look sexy,
but when sorting through the papers in the drawer looking for the right
one, they were a handicap. Finally, after longer than he would like,
Nico found the one he wanted; the list of potential jurors for the De
Torini trial. Taking it with him he headed for the photocopier, his
tight skirt forcing his hips to naturally sway as he went.
What a waste! Nico thought. No one here to appreciate my sexy wiggle.
Nico copied the page and quickly returned it to the filing cabinet
where he got it from. He'd like to really show off his new suit but
without the voice to go with it the whole thing would be inherently
risky. After the disaster last time in Swansea he didn't want to risk
it. He headed straight out of the building quickening his stride as
much as he could, given his tight skirt, to get past the overly
friendly guard as soon as possible and back to the van.
The driver helped him get up into the back putting his hands on Nico's
peachy arse not only to help give her the boost into the van but also
to cop a feel. Nico inwardly smiled at the touch, though he knew he
should be cross.
"You got the goods?" the thug asked.
"Yes," Nico replied shimmying his chest to let his boobs bounce up and
down. "And I got the bit of paper that we need to. Get us back to your
boss and we'll work out our next move."
**********************************************************************
Mark was dreading coming into work that morning. He'd been putting off
telling Anthony his news and the agreement that he'd made with Theresa.
Each day over the past four weeks he'd said to himself that he'd tell
Anthony the next day. Then it had never quite been the time when it
came around to actually do the deed. Later each night he'd cursed
himself for being a coward and that he'd definitely tell Anthony the
next day.
Now Theresa was sitting beside him on his drive into work and there was
nothing for it. He was going to have to tell Anthony as we would be
finding out soon anyway.
He pulled up into his reserved parking spot by the office.
"Er honey, can you let me go in first and give me a couple of minutes,"
Mark asked his wife.
"Whatever for?" Theresa replied. "You're not backing out on our
agreement now are you?" Theresa replied.
"No honey. There's just something I have to take care of. Please honey,
just a few minutes," Mark begged.
"All right. I'll listen to two songs on the radio then I'm coming in,"
Theresa replied sternly. She didn't want Mark to think he'd had the
upper hand in all this. After not telling her the truth of her memory
loss she was determined to ensure that she was on top in the
relationship now.
Mark jumped out the car and ran into the office, aware he only had a
brief window now to tell Anthony the truth. As he came through the door
he spotted Angela in her office with her feet up on the desk in a very
unladylike fashion. He could see past her heels to the pair of pale
yellow panties that she was wearing under her tights. Mark didn't want
to think about what was underneath those. He needed to stay focussed on
his task.
"Angela. I have some good news and some bad news for you," Mark
started. Anthony as Angela looked up from the paper he was studying.
"Oh good you've sorted the Jury service thing then?" She replied
sweetly.
"Sort of, but I'll come to that in a second," Mark replied. "You know
that the office organisation is a mess and our filing system is almost
nonexistent? Well I've got us some new to help out."
"Oh that's great news. Now that we're doing well I suppose we can
afford it, and Phillip is useless at paperwork. When do I get to meet
the new person? I love meeting new people."
"Er well, she's not exactly new. It's Theresa," Mark confessed.
"What!" Angela exclaimed slightly louder and more shrilly than
intended.
"Yeah it was that agreement that we came to whilst on holiday. She
wanted more say in the business now that it was our primary income and
I knew we needed the help in the office. She quit her job as office
manager and she's starting this morning."
"You could have told me sooner," Angela replied. "I'm just not ready
for this."
"Tough, you little pervert," The voice of Anthony's nemesis came from
behind her husband. "And I'm going to ensure that you don't get up to
any of your perverted tricks either."
Mark stepped to the side, revealing Theresa made up to the nines
wearing a dark grey business suit. Theresa in turn got a good view
Angela's unladylike behaviour.
"And you can take your feet off the desk and stop flashing your
knickers at my husband," Theresa continued. "You can play your
perverted games on your own time, not on company time."
Angela quickly took her feet off the desk and for once didn't have a
response to Theresa. Mark knew that having Theresa and Angela in the
office together was going to be like a ticking time bomb waiting to
explode. But he'd not had any choice in the matter. Either he'd agreed
to bring her into the business or they were going to head for a messy
divorce. At the end of the day though he loved Theresa despite her
faults and he would do anything to keep their relationship alive. So it
was that he'd caved in to save his marriage.
"Oh and about the Jury Service. I said I'd sort it out. I made a plea
to the Clerk of the Court, a Miss Rawlinson. I told them I couldn't
have two employees off work with jury service at the same time as we
are such a small company and they accepted that."
"Oh good. That means we can get on with work then," Angela replied,
satisfied that at least one thing was going her way.
"Well no actually. See she accepted that we couldn't have two off work
at the same time, but it meant that one of you still has to go do jury
service," Mark said knowing that he was about to make the hammer fall a
second time,
"Which one of us?" Angela demanded.
"Why, you of course Angela," Mark replied, now having got all his bad
news out took a tremendous weight off his mind.
**********************************************************************
Professor Munro sat in his temporary office in the Caswell Clinic
mental hospital and waited for the governor of the facility to grace
him with his presence. He didn't like being kept waiting but
technically he wanted a favour from the man, so he was willing to for
him his tardiness for the sake of getting what he wanted. All the
preliminary tests for his plans had now been completed and he was
confident he had everything he needed for phase two. Well, everything
except this little permission that is.
The door opened and Governor Ellison entered the room. He was an ex-
doctor and a capable administrator, but he was a man set in his ways.
Professor Munro knew he may have to work hard to get what he wanted out
of the man.
"Governor, so good of ya ta see me," Professor Munro began, rising to
shake the man's hand. Hypnosis was only good if they let you put them
under.
"I only have a few minutes. I have a meeting of the release board at
10," Governor Ellison barked back. He was clearly a man in a hurry.
"I would like ta tek a patient out on day release. I have some
treatments I'd like ta use on him tha' I'm hoping will help him,"
Professor Munro asked.
"That's highly unorthodox you know," Governor Ellison replied.
"We'll yes, but ya ken na fix tha mind without doing some deep
analysis. I ken assure you tha' I will tak every precaution. I hav ma
reputation ta consider," Professor Munro pressed.
"Very well, but you'll need to go through all the paperwork with my
secretary before you can do it," Governer Ellison replied looking at
his watch.
"Oh don't ya worry laddie. Weel dot all the i's and cross all tha t's
first before we do anything," Professor Munro replied beaming. Phase
two could now start in earnest.
**********************************************************************
The Council of War at the Torini estate had all Marco De Torini's
lieutenants gathered together with the mysterious Miss Harte from
London to discuss their approach to the upcoming trial.
"Intimidate the dumb fucks on the jury until they know what's best for
them," Harry Styles said.
"The list of potential jurors has fifty names on it. I doubt we could
find leverage on all of them and even then they may not be selected,"
Ken Stanton, the head of the drugs operations chipped in.
"Besides, the Serious Organised Crime dumb fucks are sniffing all over
this. If we intimidate the jurors and they find out we could be in
deeper shit than we are now," Jonjo 'Thumbs' Nesta added.
"What we need is a voice on the inside of the jury. Leading them to the
verdict that we want," Miss Harte suggested.
"Yeah, but as we just pointed out there is fifty potential jurors and
they only need twelve. We can't guarantee getting our man in there,"
Harry Styles rebutted.
"We could if we could replace one of them after the jury was chosen,"
Miss Harte suggested.
"Yeah but how are we going to do that? They'll be locked up so tight
that we'll never get at them and besides, how are we going to get to
look like them anyway," Harry Styles poured more water on the growing
embers of an idea.
"You'd be surprised at how far masking technology has come Mr Styles
and wherever they are keeping the jury overnight will not be a
fortress. It's usually a hotel. I admit that they will be guarding it,
but the hotel will still have staff to run it. Luckily I have the name
of the hotel they'll be using thanks to Miss Yvonne Rawlinson. We can
do research on their staff and their rotas to get disguises made up in
advance. The first day of a trial is just the selecting of the jury and
the reading of the charges. Once we know who has been selected, we can
make the switch that night."
"So great, you thought about it. But who's going to be our stalking
horse on the jury?" Jono asked.
"Why me of course!" Miss Harte replied. "The prosecution will want to
pick as many women as they can to be on the jury as they will feel that
they will be more likely to find Mr De Torini junior guilty due to his
supposed crimes against women. If we give our lawyer the best matches
for my figure I'm sure we can arrange for him to ensure they say yes to
the ones we want. A woman will have much more credibility in getting
the others to come around to a not guilty verdict."
"Alright. You makka it so Miss Harte. I don't want no screw ups, and I
don't expect failure else your boss will be getting a right earful,"
Marco De Torini told her firmly.
Nico looked down the list of potential jurors. He'd already selected
four or five he thought would be suitable candidates from their photos.
He'd need to send them off to London to get masks made ready for the
trial in a week and they'd need to do much more research. Perhaps the
clerk of the court, Miss Rawlinson could visit them all to check they
were happy to do jury service.
***********************************************************************
Phillip had put up posters for Mrs Peabody's cat but so far he'd had no
response. It wasn't quite the glamorous detecting job that he'd
imaging, but after getting chucked out of University he was just
grateful to be employed. Mrs Peabody lived in a ground floor flat in
Morriston a way out from the centre of town. It was a poorer area known
for its drug dealers and prostitutes and Phillip wasn't altogether
comfortable being there. Mrs Peabody was an old relic of a former age
still living there and not rich enough to move to a better area.
In theory Mrs Peabody wasn't really allowed to have a cat in her flat,
but she'd got away with it for years and felt she'd earned the fight as
her husband had fought in the war and all. Phillip had had to be
patient with the old woman who'd insisted on making him a cup of tea
when he'd gone round to report his lack of success in finding Spitfire,
the rather mangy looking ginger tom.
"I'm glad that them women on the third floor have moved out you know.
They had men folk turning up at all hours you know. I think one of them
was foreign even. I bet she was one of them illegal immigrants hiding
out, that's why the police have been all over that flat like a rash.
It's not right you know," Mrs Peabody told him as she put down her copy
of the Daily Mail. To Mrs Peabody foreigners and dole cheats were why
this country was going down the tubes. If Phillip had a pound for every
time she'd said that he'd have been a rich man. It was not that he
didn't have some sympathies with the conservative view; it was just
that the old folk always seemed to look at the past through rose tinted
spectacles.
"It's most likely that Spitfire has got trapped somewhere Mrs Peabody.
I'll head out again in a bit and have a look around the old cement
factory, see if he's got caught up in the machinery there." Phillip
wanted to get away before she offered him another cup of her dishwater
tea.
"No it's them horrible catnappers who've taken my sweet little
Spitfire. I'm expecting the ransom note anytime soon," Mrs Peabody
responded.
Most of the neighbours he'd spoken to about the cat did not think that
Spitfire was in the least bit sweet. Indeed the cat had a reputation
for fighting all the other cats in the neighbourhood and indeed even
had chased off some of the dogs. Phillip wondered if one of them had
got rid of the cat because of its nasty nature, but he didn't want to
say that aloud to Mrs Peabody.
"Well I really must be getting on Mrs Peabody. Thank you again for the
tea," he said as he got up to leave.
**********************************************************************
When Angela got to the waiting room, Bernard was already sat there
chatting to a rather good looking brunette woman sat next to him. Most
of the other fifty were there with him already. Angela had been
relieved to discover that only twelve of their number would be selected
for the trial this morning. Another twelve would be selected for the
afternoon trial. Those that were not selected would be released.
Anthony worked out he would have a 50% chance of Angela not having to
do jury service at all.
Angela in her smart business suit walked over to a spare seat and sat
down next to a rather smart looking woman in her late twenties.
"Angela Clemence." She held out her finely manicured looking hand to
her neighbour. The woman took it.
"Liliana Templeton," the woman responded. "But please call me Lily. I
can't believe I'm getting time off work for this. What trial do you
think we'll get?"
"We might not get any if we don't get picked." Angela crossed her legs
to try and move the hidden member in her panties into a slightly more
comfortable position within its latex prison.
"Oh but then I'd have to go back to work," Lily moaned.
Miss Angela Clemence, please step through into room 2. An announcement
came over the tannoy.
"That's me. I might see you later," Angela said as she got up on her
heels and walked towards the room with the number 2 on it.
**********************************************************************
Mark had been phoned by his friend Sergeant Ed Jenkinson out of the
blue that morning. It seemed that the Chief Constable had requested
their agency by name and had left it to Ed to make the call. It was a
little worrying that the Chief Constable wanted to see him. Had he
found out about Angela's secret and wanted to expose them?
Mark entered the station and told the desk Sergeant that the Chief
Constable wanted to see him and was led upstairs to his office.
"Mr Entwhistle-Houghton, thank you for coming in." The Chief Constable
got up to shake his hand.
"Thank you. I must admit I'm a bit perplexed as to what this is about,"
Mark replied.
"Don't worry it's nothing bad. We want to use your agency, that's all,"
the Chief Constable said.
"But, you're the police. Why'd you want to use a detective agency?"
Mark asked, curious now.
"Well two reasons actually Mr Entwhistle-Houghton. Firstly the police
do not have infinite manpower. Government cuts have meant that we
struggle to meet our arrest targets. Secondly we have used all the
legitimate channels and we have come to a dead end."
"If you don't have the resources, then how can you afford us?" Mark
asked.
"Because this will be a performance related contract. If you don't come
up with the answers you don't get paid," the Chief Constable told him.
"So I'd be taking a risk taking this work on then?" Mark stated.
"Indeed. Are you interested? I don't want to go any further until
you've signed up to this."
"Yes OK. Give me the papers and I'll sign up." Mark was intrigued now.
The Chief Constable passed Mark several pieces of paper for him to sign
including a confidentiality agreement which he signed.
"I take it that you've heard about the trial of the son of the local
Mafia boss Gino De Torini. We have considerable evidence to show that
he was running a brothel in Morriston including numerous witnesses who
paid to use the services of the two women. This is all good evidence
that has gone to build up the case. Unfortunately we can't find the two
women. Either the Mafia has killed them or moved them away from the
area. We have checked all the airports, ports and trains leaving
Britain to try and find where the girls went, but they have completely
vanished. If we can find them, then we have a water tight case against
him and we can hopefully persuade them to tell us about the Mafia's
human trafficking operation. Find either of those two women and you'll
get paid Mr Entwhistle-Houghton. Detective Norton will give you a copy
of the file to look at, but I must stress that you must keep the
contents of that file a secret."
**********************************************************************
"What are your views on women's rights Miss Clemence?" one of the
lawyers asked. It was not a subject that Anthony had really ever
thought about that deeply.
"Well, everyone has the same basic human rights Sir. I don't see how it
should be any different between men and women," Angela replied at last.
Was it a trick question? They'd been quizzing her on a number of things
for three minutes now.
One of the lawyers nodded. The other one eventually nodded also.
"Welcome to the jury Miss Clemence. The Court usher will instruct you
on where you will be staying and will take your formal oath," the Judge
said looking over at her through his spectacles.
Angela was led away from the witness box by a young man in his
twenties. She was too stunned to even put on her normal sexy walk for
him. Had she answered incorrectly? How had it gone so wrong? Now she
was stuck in Swansea's trail of the year away from Anwyn and their
daughter for up to two weeks. Anthony could hear Anwyn fuming at it
all when he told her.
"Miss Clemence I need you to raise your right hand," the young usher
said. Angela did as she was bid and repeated the oath, still partially
in shock.
"I swear that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true
verdict according to the evidence." She didn't even try and do it in a
sexy voice.
"Now you will be put up in the Grand Hotel near the station for the
next two weeks. I'm afraid that you are not allowed access to TV,
radio, the internet or any outside influences whilst you are in the
hotel and you will not be allowed to communicate with outsiders. Can
you give me the name of someone to contact who can bring your packed
suitcase to the hotel?"
Angela hadn't packed a suitcase. Anthony was sure that Angela wouldn't
need one despite it having mentioned it in the final instructions that
he'd been sent.
"Mark Entwhistle-Houghton," Angela replied. "He's my business partner."
**********************************************************************
Mark was still mulling over his latest case in his mind when he got
back to the office and was greeted by his wife. She'd been busy in his
absence and all the files were all over the floor being indexed. He
leaned over to kiss her. There were some perks to having your wife work
with you. Just then the phone rang.
"I see clothes for two weeks," Mark repeated back. "I'll get something
packed and come down to drop it off at the hotel."
That would mean they would need to do without Anthony / Angela for two
weeks. Mark had no idea what a woman would need in terms of clothes.
"Tre. Angela is going to need clothes for two weeks. Can you help me
choose stuff to pack for her from her wardrobe in her office?"
"Sure honey," Theresa said almost sweetly. It was so nice to see his
wife starting to think fondly of Angela.
**********************************************************************
The full jury was brought in that afternoon to witness the defendant's
plea. There were a total of eight women and four men on the jury
including Bernard, the woman Angela met called Lily and the brunette
that Bernard was talking to, whom Angela had since found out was called
Julia Barnes.
Angela watched as the defendant, Gino De Torini was brought into the
courtroom accompanied by a policeman on either side. The defendant
looked around eighteen years old with dark black hair and a sullen look
in his downcast eyes.
He looks like a right villain to me. Angela thought to herself.
"Mr Gino De Torini you have been accused of several counts of
Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation, causing, inciting and controlling
prostitution for gain, and keeping a brothel. How do you plead?"
"Not guilty," Gino De Torini replied. His answer was barely a whisper
and most of the court struggled to hear it.
"Please could you repeat that louder Mr De Torini," The Judge asked
sternly.
"Not Guilty!" Gino De Torini answered again, this time louder as he
looked down at his feet.
"Very well," the judge said. "The trial will begin with the opening
statements tomorrow morning. The jury will need to select a foreman
overnight."
***********************************************************************
Mark dropped off the suitcase and then headed to the address in
Morriston where the two prostitutes had lived. It was a block of flats
in a rundown neighbourhood and they had lived on the third floor. Mark
was not sure that coming here to look around would help much, as the
Police would have been over the place like a rash, but it would help
get the picture of the women. As he was approaching the building he
spotted Phillip who waved him over.
"Come to help me find Mrs Peabody's cat then?" Phillip asked with a
grin.
"To be honest I forgot you were up here on that case. No, I have
another case looking for some missing women, though I'm afraid I'm not
allowed to go into any details," Mark responded.
"Not those whores up on the third floor then? Mrs Peabody said they
always had men going up there," Phillip asked. Mark was slightly put
out that Phillip already seemed to know a little about his secret case.
"I cannot comment I'm afraid, but tell me what you know of these
women?" He answered at last.
"Oh only that Mrs Peabody said they were whores and that they always
had men coming and going. She didn't approve and the police have been
all over that apartment. Mr Wilson in number five used to keep a tally
of when the visitors came apparently so as to send a complaint to the
council," Phillip responds.
"Worth knowing, I might call in and talk to Mr Wilson then," Mark says.
"Keep up the good work with Mrs Peabody's cat."
**********************************************************************
They'd elected Julia Barnes as their spokesperson over dinner. Angela
certainly hadn't wanted to be in charge and Bernard was quite happy to
put the hot looking women in the hot seat. Many of the others hadn't
really cared and Julia, who was a management consultant, felt much more
like a candidate for the Apprentice when she'd put herself forward to
the role.
With nothing much else to do Angela had headed up to her room in the
hotel after dinner. Her case was already placed on the bed and she went
over to it to find something to change into. Anthony loved wearing sexy
clothes but heels did make his feet sore after wearing for quite a
time. Angela opened the case and her jaw dropped as she saw what Mark
had packed. It was all the sexy gear from her closets with very little
that she could actually wear in the Courtroom. There was one semi smart
suit that would be ok, but otherwise it was short skirts and low cut
tops. If she wore that in the Courtroom she would look like a right
trolllop.
Angela sighed and stripped down to her underwear to get out of her hot
clothes. The matching lacy black underwear set was much cooler in the
hot evening weather. The weather had been bad enough for normal people,
but for Anthony wearing a hot latex suit it had been hell all day.
Anthony wished that he could strip out of Angela completely but he was
here in the public eye. Even though she was in her own room Angela
couldn't suddenly turn into Anthony in case someone knocked on the
door.
Anthony decided that a cold shower night help cool himself down so he
slipped out of Angela's underwear and padded across the room to the
bathroom.
The hotel was a four star hotel and the bathroom was tastefully set up.
The bathroom had the shower above the bath and Angela decided that if
she was going to get wet then she might as well go the whole hog and
have a cool bath. Once she'd run the bath Angela slipped into the cool
waters. The suit was not 100% waterproof and the gaps and the top of
the zip area allowed water to seep inside it. It was the first time
that he'd had a bath in his Angela suit and it was a weird experience
being wet both outside and inside the suit. When he'd finished soaping
himself up and was sufficiently cooled off Anthony got out of the bath
and lay on the tiled part at the side in an attempt to drain off the
suit. He didn't really want to strip out of it in case someone came to
Angela's room, but equally he needed to get fully dry. He didn't want
excess water still inside it making the whole experience really clammy
in the heat.
In the end Anthony concluded that the only way he'd get Angela
completely dry was to remove the suit. He locked the bathroom door and
ensured that the blinds were fully down before slowly unzipping himself
from the back of the suit. The extra water helped the suit come off
much more quickly than normal and slowly he peeled himself out of
Angela's sexy body leaving his own corseted body behind. The corset was
absolutely dripping wet and Anthony realised that he would need to get
another one from the case before he could redress as Angela. Carefully
Anthony, now completely naked, unlocked the bathroom door and padded
across the room to the case where he rifled through the assorted
underwear to find a new corset.
Just then there was a knock at the door.
"Angela, it's me Bernard. Mind if I come in? There's no telly or
anything to do and I'm bored." Anthony's heart raced as he stood by the
case.
"I'm not decent at the moment Bernard. Can you come back in 5 minutes?"
Anthony replied in Angela's voice.
"I suppose, though I quite like the thought of you not being decent,"
Bernard answered.
**********************************************************************
Nico was dressed as one of the hotel maids as he pushed the cart along
with one of the mafia thugs dressed as a porter. They had already got
the room number from the from desk and they now made their way along
the corridor past a large lumbering man knocking at the one of the
doors of the jurors. Their target was much further along the hallway in
room number 368.
"Miss Barnes - room service," Nico said in light feminine tones.
"Oh my sandwich. Come in," Nico heard the reply. They were in luck,
she'd even ordered something. Nico walked into the room a couple of
pillows in hand as Miss Julia Barnes came out of the bathroom with a
bathrobe on and a mudpack on her face.
"That's not my sandwich," she complained.
"I'm sorry Miss" Nico replied as the maid as he raised the pillow up to
her face and held her mouth against it. She started to struggle, but as
she breathed in more and more of the chloroform she gradually lost
consciousness.
"Bring the cart in Franco," Nico whispered loudly. The thug did as
instructed and helped the woman he thought of as Miss Harte who posing
as the maid. They lay Julia Barnes body on the bed, striping her out of
her dressing gown. Nico fetched the mask with its wig attached from the
cart and instructed the thug to remove Julia's jewellery.
"I'm just going to the bathroom to slip into this and out of these
clothes," Nico told the thug as he locked himself in the bathroom. He
then proceeded to reach behind his neck under the hairline and try and
feel for the seam to release the Miss Harte mask. Nico let out a little
sigh as the mask peeled from his face, leaving traces of the bonding
glue around the eyes and under the nose. He set the mask aside and
washed his face to get rid of the bonding glue.
His face looked odd on the body of a woman dressed as a maid but Nico
was too busy to be concerned about that. He took hold of the mask of
Julia Barnes and undid the seam at the back applying a little sealant
glue on a few key parts of the inside of the mask. He then slipped the
mask over his own face and started to move it in position over his own
features. As usual he needed to align the eyes carefully and began to
blend the seams around the eyes with some makeup. He then expertly made
up Julia's face with a best guess at her makeup routine. Then he took
out a bottle with a nozzle and squirted some of it into his fake
vagina.
Finally he stripped out of the maid's clothes and took a spare dressing
gown from the door hook before bringing the maid's clothes back to
Franco who had by now moved Julia Barnes body into the maid's cart.
"Here hide these in the cart as well. We don't want a stray maid's
uniform in the room to be found by tomorrow's room service," The
translation chip in the neck of Nico's mask ensured his voice matched
the sample of her voice they had taken when they had rung her phone two
days previously. Nico liked the pitch of his new voice and he was
itching for a romp, but he decided that the man in the hallway would
make a better and less risky target than the hired thug.
"Go on, get out of here quickly and dispose of the evidence down the
laundry chute," Nico ordered the thug. He quickly took several other
items from the cart and stowed them in the room.
Once the thug had gone, Nico waited a minute before heading out in the
hallway still dressed only in the dressing gown from the bathroom.
**********************************************************************
Bernard had been waiting outside Angela's room for some minutes when
Julia Barnes, the sexy brunette that he had been chatting to earlier in
the day came out of her room wearing just a hotel dressing gown with
her hair pulled back.
"It's a bit boring without any telly. Do you want to come in for a
drink?" She asked him in a sexy voice. Bernard couldn't believe his
luck and was even more pleased when the loosely tied belt on Julia's
gown came untied revealing a beautiful rounded boob. Julia quickly
covered herself up and tied the robe back, but Bernard had already had
an eyeful of the sexy Miss Barnes body. Bernard was not a complicated
man and his reaction to the sight of naked female flesh was instant and
gave him an instant bulge in his jeans.
"Well if that's alright, then I'd love to Julia," Bernard replied.
"Of course. Bernard isn't it?" Julia asked. Bernard hoped she'd
remember from that morning. He followed her into the room.
"I'm sorry I've just had a bath. There's nothing to do without any
television to watch," She pulled the towelling closer around herself as
she headed to the mini-bar.
"What can I get you? I'm afraid we are limited to what's in the mini
bar," Julia asked him.
"Oh, I'll 'ave whatever beer you have in there. I'll put my tongue
around anything even if it's warm and wet," Bernard replied. His mind
was not on beer however.
"Oh I bet you will. What do you think about the trial?" Julia asked him
handing him a can of Heineken.
"Oh I don't care really. I just hope it goes the distance so I can have
the whole time off work," Bernard replied casually. His mind really
wasn't interested in the trial. Bernard wasn't really thinking at all,
his lower extremities doing his thinking for him at this point.
"Well maybe I could give you a pointer of two to help you along as we
go," Julia said.
"That sounds swell," Bernard said aimlessly as he chugged on his beer.
"I'm feeling a little hot after the day's heat, mind if I slip out of
this," Julia asked him. Bernard couldn't believe his luck. There was a
hot sexy intelligent brunette inviting him to take her.
"Not at all luv," He replied. "You want a back rub?"
"Oh, that sounds like heaven Bernard," Julia replied as she removed her
robe and turned around to give him access to her back. Bernard got the
briefest view of her breasts before she turned. He started to massage
her back. It was strange, she had a very pronounced spine, but Bernard
put that from his thoughts, instead imagining massaging her breasts.
As he continued fantasising he felt her right hand reach around and
pull down his trouser zip. Then she reached her beautifully manicured
hand inside his boxers and found her erect penis that she began to
stroke softly. Bernard was already hard even before she'd started
stroking him, and now he was in ecstasy.
He finished massaging her back and rolled her over on the bed before
quickly getting out of his clothes. Now he could fully see her
beautiful breasts and as she spread her legs wide he could see the full
pussy lips below her brunette thatch. He couldn't resist any longer as
he entered into her and began pumping away. She moaned in pleasure as
he thrust and so he moved in with his hands to massage her breasts as
well as he pumped. Julia's moans of pleasure became shrieks of passion
and she called his name as he thrust into her wet pussy.
Bernard tried his best to make it last. Slowing his rhythm to try and
stop the rush that he knew was coming from happening, making it last
for Julia as long as he could until he reached that point when he could
not hold it in any longer and so he sped up once again and thrust as
hard as he could into her. He could hear her cumming as he exploded his
seed into her.
It was only as he rolled off Julia that Bernard realised what he had
done. He was coming down from the sexual ecstasy and as he fell from
the heights of pleasure he remembered Claire, and that he was now a
married man. Shame hit him hard, but he could not articulate it to the
woman he had just taken to sexual heaven. He could not speak of it to
her, just as he could never speak of this to anyone else. He rolled
away from her.
"I'd better finish up my drink and go. It's going to be an early start
tomorrow," Bernard said weakly.
"Must you go so soon?" Julia said rolling onto her back exposing her
glistening pussy.
"I think so luv. Gotta be up bright an early tomorrow." With that
Bernard quickly dressed and skulked back to his room, inwardly cursing
at himself that he'd been so weak.
***********************************************************************
The fake Julia Barnes rolled on her bed for a while after Bernard had
left. The high tec suit that Nico was wearing had transmitted the
sensations of Bernard's penis entering into his fake pussy and the man
touching his chest. The sensations had excited his hidden member like
he was having sex as a man and his hidden engorged cock had emptied it
seed just as Bernard had emptied his on into the person he thought was
Julia Barnes.
Nico loved sex. It didn't matter if he was doing it as a man or as a
woman, he knew that he was a sex addict. It was not until the Russian
mafia had brought these wonderful suits across to the UK that he'd been
able to fully appreciate the joys of sex as a woman. Now that he had
though, he wanted sex all the time. He'd have screwed Bernard all night
if he hadn't run off. He had so many positions and other things that he
wanted to try. Still there were another three men on the jury that
Julia needed to get onside to influence and Nico decided that he would
have the maximum fun finding out.
Nico got up and went to the bathroom where he fetched some toilet
tissue. His vagina now had both his and Bernard's seed in it as well as
the pussy juice he'd squirted into it earlier and it needed a good
cleaning out.
***********************************************************************
Anthony had got his corset on and had retreated to the bathroom to
finish drying out Angela and then putting her back on again. It was
still warm, but he needed to become her again to deal with Bernard. He
was getting much better these days at getting the suit on and fitting
it all into place but it was still at least five minutes by the time he
was fully in the suit and had put on one of the short skirts and skimpy
tops from the case.
Angela opened the door to her room to find no one outside her room.
Bernard had obviously given up and gone to bed. She should probably do
the same but with the heat she couldn't sleep. Anthony had not slept as
a woman in a long time and he decided that Angela should at least put
on some night clothes and get ready for bed even if she couldn't sleep.
Angela lay in bed for a while thinking about the trial. She had not
wanted to be here, but now that she was here she determined that she
was going to see this through. The defendant was a mafia kingpin's son
and that made him guilty. Even if they weren't allowed to bring his
family connections out in court Angela knew the family name and what
they did in Swansea. The Authorities wouldn't be bringing this trial
unless they thought he was guilty, and Angela decided to help them
prove it.
***********************************************************************
The first witness for the prosecution was brought in the next day after
the initial statements by the two lawyers. Angela watched for a while
as the man in a wheelchair was wheeled in to the witness box, then
turned her attention to the defendant. He just sat in the defendant's
box stoically with the two policemen either side of him. He didn't
react in any way at seeing the witness being brought in.
"You are Brian Jenkins?" the Prosecutor asked him after he took the
oath.
"Yes," Brian Jenkins replied.
"Did you know the defendant?" the Prosecutor continued.
"No Sir."
"But you did know the lady by the name of Svetlana Kavelenko of Flat 33
Dragon's Court, Morriston?"
"Yes I did meet her," Brian Jenkins said softly.
"How did you know her?" the Prosecutor continued.
"I ..." Mr Jenkins looked embarrassed, "I used to visit her for the
purposes of sex Sir. See since the accident I haven't exactly had much
opportunity with the ladies and I have certain needs."
"So you paid her for sex then? On numerous occasions?"
"Er yes, I guess," Brian Jenkins said.
"So in your opinion Ms Kavelenko was a prostitute?" the Prosecutor
pressed.
"Well if she wasn't then I want my money back," Brian Jenkins said,
relieved that his confession was finally out. Angela noticed a titter
around the court room at that.
"Were you aware that Mr Gino De Torino was the landlord of the flat
that Ms Kavelenko was living in?" the lawyer asked.
"No. I only dealt with Ms Kavelenko. I never even saw her flatmate when
I was there," Mr Jenkins replied.
"Thank you. No further questions," the Prosecution lawyer said, and the
defence lawyer took the floor to cross-examine.
"Where did you hear about Ms Kavelenko's services?" he asked.
"I found a photo with her number in a telephone box," Brian Jenkins
replied.
"So you never spoke or dealt with the defendant, Mr De Torino ever?"
the defence lawyer asked.
"No. I never met him and I never spoke to him. I didn't even know who
he was," Brian Jenkins replied.
"No further questions," the defence lawyer concluded.
Angela had to sit through several more prosecution witnesses who all
testified that they spoke and arranged the sexual encounters with
either Svetlana Kavelenko or with her housemate Nina Keane. None of
them ever met or spoke to Gino De Torino, though many of them had
disabilities. Angela watched Gino's reaction to all this and she noted
that he was implacable throughout. She wondered whether his silence was
a front to try and divert suspicion from him. Although she wasn't
really a woman, Angela had a distinct dislike for anyone using and
abusing women. Unless it was provable beyond doubt that he hadn't done
it, then Angela determined that this man would go down for these
crimes.
***********************************************************************
After getting permission from the police, Mark had gone back to the
Dragon's Court estate to begin looking at flat 33 where the two women
had lived. As he entered the flat he noted that the police had already
cleared it of most of the belongings of the young women. No doubt they
had been tagged and bagged for evidence long ago. He supposed that he'd
better call into the station again later to take a look at whatever
they had bagged as evidence.
The sparse apartment still had the furniture in it, but little else.
There were two bedrooms with double beds in them and an empty wardrobe.
The living room had a rather sad looking sofa in it, an Italian looking
coffee table and some now empty bookshelves.
The walls had parts where the paint had been taken off which indicated
that they had had posters stuck on them, but these were now long gone
and Mark could not get a fix on what they might have been.
The kitchen was a basic functional kitchen with a cooker, a fridge and
an old battered washing machine next to the boiler. It was a basic
functional two bedroom flat with not much else going for it. Mark
guessed that in this part of town the rent would have been quite low
for a place such as this, but there was nothing left here that would
give him any clue as to what had happened to the women.
He decided to go and talk with the neighbour across the hallway to see
if he could learn anything else from them. It took a minute before a
scruffy man in tracksuit bottoms and a stringy vest answered the door
with a copy of 'The Sun' newspaper in hand.
"I don't buy anything at the door so you can just bugger off," the man
said.
"I'm not selling anything. I'm enquiring about the young ladies who
used to live opposite you," Mark replied politely.
"You mean them tarts that lived there? You from the police?" the man
asked suspiciously.
"No, nothing like that. I am a private detective and I have been asked
to trace the young ladies," Mark continued politely.
"Young ladies my arse," the man started to rant. "They were common
whores. They had men coming and going at all hours. Used to wake me up
sometimes. Can't say I'm not glad to see the back of them. Mind you
they were easy on the eyes."
"Ah, that is one thing that I was going to ask. Could you describe
them?" Mark asked. The police had not supplied him with a picture of
either of the women.
"You sure you're not from the cops?" the man demanded suspiciously.
"No I assure you I am not. Here." Mark produced his private
investigator license for the man to look at. The man looked at it
suspiciously and grunted.
"I might be able to do better than that if you can see your way to
making my life a little more comfortable," the man said. Mark realised
that the man was asking for some money so he looked in his wallet and
produced forty pounds. This had better be worth it Mark thought to
himself.
"Just a minute," the man said as he shut the door on Mark. After a
minute or two, Mark began to wonder if his money had just been taken
and that he'd been taken for a ride, however just then the man re-
opened the door. He thrust two pieces of paper at Mark.
"Here," he started. "There's pictures of them," the pictures were taken
at weird angles through a part open door and printed out on a piece of
paper from a digital photo. One of the pictures showed a woman with
shortish hair that had been dyed a plum red colour. She was wearing a
short skirt, heels and a low cut top. The other one was a little out of
focus and showed a blonde haired woman arm in arm with a man. She was
wearing a business suit with a very tight skirt and a tight white
blouse showing her large breasts through the silky top. She was the
definition of sexy fantasy secretary.
"Thank you," Mark said as the door shut in his face. Sometimes being a
detective wasn't all excitement. Sometimes it was dealing with these
sorts of people.
**********************************************************************
Angela thought that perhaps the Prosecution lawyer had made his point
by the time they had got to the third witness, but they had dragged out
ten by the time the day had finished. All of the admitted they had paid
one of other of the women for sex and had gone to the apartment to do
the deed. In all the witness statements they all only mentioned having
met one of the two women so Angela wondered if they had some kind of
rota going on where they used the apartment for trade whilst the other
one went out.
The jury all had dinner together that evening and inevitably the topic
of the case came up. Angela noted that the Jury Foreman Julia Barnes
had been making eyes at one of the men of the jury, a builder's mate by
the name of Jim Roper. She also noted that Bernard was making a
conscious effort not to look at Miss Barnes and wondered what was going
on.
"I don't see anything linking the accused with these girls at all so
far, apart from the fact that he owned the flat," Julia Barnes stated
as desert was cleared away.
"But the judge stated clearly that for it to be considered a brothel
under English law that two women had to be using the house for
prostitution. So if they prove that De Torini knew about the girl's
activities or profited from them then he's as guilty as hell," Angela
snapped back. She was not going to have Miss Barnes lead the rest of
the jury her way.
"Which I think you will find that they haven't done yet," Julia
responded tartly.
"It's only the first day of the trial. You can't expect them to do it
all on one day. This trial is supposed to last at least a week," Angela
responded and then inwardly groaned that she was going to be stuck here
all week arguing with their self-appointed leader.
"We don't need to make our minds up yet then," a timid little woman
called Cathy said.
"No we don't, but we do need to consider whether these girls were
acting alone or not," Julia Barnes said in a soft, almost conciliatory
way. The other women and men around the table nodded sagely as though
they knew all about it, when it reality none of them knew much about
such offences.
Angela knew that she was going to have a tough time nailing this man
for his crimes against these women and hoped that the prosecution would
get its act together tomorrow.
**********************************************************************
Julia Barnes got up from the bed where she'd just enjoyed the pleasure
of Jim Roper's large cock in her anus. He'd been a cinch to pull and
unlike the man Bernard from the night before, had not run off in panic.
She realised that Bernard had suddenly remembered he was married as
soon as his dick was no longer in control of him. She'd seen the type
before and it wasn't an issue as she could use that to blackmail him if
she needed to. The ring on his finger had been a dead giveaway.
Bernard, herself and now Jim would give her the three that she needed
to ensure that a majority verdict couldn't be given. However if she
could get the remainder on her side then she could hopefully earn
herself a big fat bonus.
Julia, or in reality the man Nico, had enjoyed sucking the man off
before letting him have sex with her. She'd even managed to get him to
think it was his own idea to take Julia anally. Nico didn't get anal
sex very often and it was a nice change for him. The suit gave him
realistic feelings of having sex as a woman, but sometimes there was
something a little extra special about feeling it within yourself.
Jim was a healthy young man with a strong constitution and Nico hoped
that he could ride the young man all night, but before they continued
'Julia' needed to sort herself out a bit. She padded softly over to the
bathroom, slipping on a negligee as she went. When she got there she
locked herself in and sat down to relieve herself first, the three
glasses of wine from dinner now urgently needing to be expelled. Nico's
hidden cock had already exploded its semen three times already that
night and her fake vagina needed a refresh before the next round.
The suits were incredible in giving the wearer the feeling that they
were actually having sex as a woman, but the only things that they
couldn't do was get rid of any semen created by the wearer and simulate
the wetness of a real woman. That had to be added manually by the
wearer else the 'gentlemen' would notice her being very dry.
Nico finished peeing and wiped his genitals. He then got a circular
brush out that normally was used for doing dishes and after wetting it
inserted it up his fake vagina to begin scrubbing it out. The touch of
the brush inserting itself in and out of his fake parts rubbed up
against his fake G-Spot within his pussy and as he was cleaning himself
out Nico began getting turned on all over again. He continued cleaning
as long as he could without releasing his seed and then washed the
brush out in the sink.
"Are you coming back to bed Julia? I'm missing you already!" Jim said
from the bedroom.
"I'll be back with you shortly honey," Julia purred from the bathroom
as she hurriedly looked for her bottle of lubricant. Finding it she
squirted a generous dose into her hole and then checked her reflection
in the mirror.
Time for round Four Nico thought to himself.
Julia padded back across the floor to the bed and was instantly wrapped
in Jim's arms as he kissed her hard. That was not the only thing that
was hard Julia noticed and she reached down with her beautifully
manicured fingers and wrapped it around 'little Jim'. As she did so she
felt Jim's hands go straight to her breasts and start to massage them.
When they got to the nipples the suit started to send little electric
impulses down to a sensor pad that aligned with Nico's own nipples.
Nico loved the feeling of being able to feel being felt up by a man and
his cock expanded in its hidden pouch once more.
Just then Jim stopped and got off the bed.
"Let's try the mermaid position," he said. Nico had no idea what that
was, but he was always willing to try something new. It sounded like
Jim had been doing some extra credit in the Karma Sutra.
"Sure honey," She replied as Jim manoeuvred her awkwardly towards the
edge of the bed with a pillow under her arse and raised her legs
together in the air. Then standing in front of her he thrust into her
and began pumping. His penis felt bigger and she felt tighter as he
thrust into her. Nico decided to try and open his legs slightly before
closing them again and felt the keen thrusts of his man touch the
secret G-Spot inside his suit which caused the pouch that held his
hidden penis to massage his dick in the most wonderful way. Nico cooed
in Julia's voice and began to encourage Jim to work harder.
"That's it baby do me harder," she said between moans. Jim continued
hammering her at a pace, well past the point that she had cum deep
within herself. After a while Jim began to grunt as he approached the
climax point himself and he planted his seed within her.
After sex they lay back on the bed for a while just holding each other.
"That was fantastic baby. By the way you were right earlier," Jim said
at last.
"Oh yes?" Julia asked intrigued where this was going.
"Looks like those women were doing it all by themselves," he said at
last.
**********************************************************************
Next morning Mark decided that he needed to go and look at the two
ladies possessions in the police compound. As an ex-policeman, Mark
knew all about the procedures and in fact he even found he knew the
Sergeant in charge of the lock up.
"Vince, how's it going?" he asked.
"Oh you know the usual," Vince replied. "Terrible shift pattern, and
lousy pay to go with it."
"That's why I left," Mark replied. "Can I see the items from the De
Torini case?"
"Have you got the release form? Sorry but even though I know you I
still have to go through procedure for a civilian to see the items,"
Vincent said apologetically. Mark showed him the form that the Chief
Constable had signed.
Vince led Mark through the security barrier into the evidence storage
facility and headed towards the more recently acquired section. There
was evidence in here that went way back to the 1970's Mark knew, but
they couldn't throw it away in case the case became live again.
"I'll have to stay I'm afraid. It's procedure," Vince apologised. Mark
understood exactly why, since if the evidence was tampered with Vince
would be placed under suspension pending an inquiry.
Mark started opening the boxes and looking inside them. The first of
the boxes had skirts, blouses, dresses, underwear, stockings and
makeup. Mark looked on the box lid. It was labelled Svetlana Box 1 (De
Torini case). He looked at the next case. It was labelled Nina Box 1
(De Torini case). This one also had a variety of women's clothing and
makeup in it.
There was perhaps a slightly greater variety than in Svetlana's box. He
went through the other boxes. There were some perfumes, bath salts,
basic cooking foodstuffs and the missing posters. All in all there
wasn't a terrific amount of stuff. Could the women have taken a bunch
of their stuff with them when they left? If so then that would
exonerate Mr De Torini of their murder at least, though that wouldn't
please the Chief Constable who Mark suspected wanted the bodies to pin
a murder charge on the mafia boss' son.
There was something was wrong here, but Mark couldn't quite put his
finger on it yet.
"Who were the detectives investigating this case?" Mark asked his old
pal suspecting he knew the answer.
"Jones and Rezlaw. Two of Sleaze Division's finest," Vince answered
with a grin. Mark knew Matt Jones and Ian Rezlaw by reputation. Hard
drinking, no holds barred cops who liked to think they were the scourge
of criminals everywhere. In reality they were very direct men and Mark
suspected they'd seen what they wanted to see here. He wanted to get
back and talk with his wife. He couldn't talk with Angela as she was
out of communication whilst she was doing jury service.
"Thanks Vince. At least it's quiet here. I think I've seen enough,"
Mark told his old colleague and turned to head out of the facility.
**********************************************************************
Angela had now used up both her skirt suits, and had had to send them
down to be cleaned by the hotel laundry service. That meant that she
now had to resort to the less than suitable clothes that Mark had
packed. The skirt was far too short, the heels far too high and the
blouse far too low cut for a day in court. At least, Angela thought,
they will be a bit cool