A Case of Mistaken Identity           by: Anyport

 

Detective Dan McCormack stared at the television screen watching, for what must have been the hundredth time, the footage of the robbery. He gazed transfixed as the door opened and the stunning blonde walked into the hall way and along the corridor to the jewellers’ office. Even after all this time, he couldn’t believe anyone could turn the simple act of walking into such an erotic event. The film had actually been taken from three different cameras. One at each end of the corridor and a third in the office, McCormack had combined the three into one continuous film. He’d even had a copy made which he kept at home, though this was strictly against departmental policy. But then, if anyone ever found out about the real reason for his taking the tape or, god forbid, the fantasies he had about the mysterious thief, he imagined that possessing the tape would be the least of his problems.

Add to this the fact that he was now dating a woman who could very well turn out to be a material witness, if not in this crime, then almost certainly in either one involving charges of handling or possibly wife bashing. Though the latter was highly unlikely since the man’s wife seemed unwilling to press charges. All in all though, the whole case was one Dan would rather he’d never seen.

Once again he reviewed the evidence, there was the video of course, irrefutable proof that the blonde woman committed the robbery. Unfortunately she was nowhere to be found. Then there was the case against Eddie Church, he’d been identified as the man who pawned a ring from the stolen jewellery, and he even admitted doing so, though he claimed he’d taken it from his wife’s jewellery box. When he heard this, Dan McCormack had hopes that the mystery woman would turn out to be none other than Pamela Church. Sadly, she was only around five feet tall and considerably overweight. No matter what she did to herself, there was no way she could ever look like the thief, who stood at least six feet and even allowing for the not inconsiderable height of the thief's stiletto heels, Pamela Church was still far too short.

Not for the first time, Dan hit the pause on the video and inspected the thief in detail. The shot, one of his three favourites, was of the blonde as she walked away from the first of the corridor cameras. Dan marvelled at the way the tight fitting; strapless leather dress highlighted every curve in her superb body. His eyes ran down the back of the dress and over her beautifully rounded behind ending a third of the way down her thighs. Below the dress, were a pair of black stockings with seams, which ran, ramrod straight down the backs of her long shapely legs. Dan knew she was wearing stockings rather than tights because, in a later shot in the office, she bent over and exposed stocking tops. That was his second favourite, the other one being a simple front on shot which he could picture simply by closing his eyes, he’d looked at it so often. Her thick, shoulder length strawberry blonde hair framed her lovely face, what could be seen of it at least. She was wearing wrap around dark glasses to cover her eyes, and a translucent white organza yashmak to hide the rest of her face. Despite the covering, her luscious, brightly painted red lips were clearly visible, which in Dan McCormack's eyes, only added to the overall erotic appearance.

Around her neck she wore a one-inch wide black velvet choker with a small pearl at the centre. Not for the first time, he imagined his hands sliding across the soft skin of her bare white shoulders and down to her small round breasts. He pictured her gripping his wrists firmly and pulling his hands away. He could almost feel the soft leather of her elbow length gloves as she forced him to his knees.

Just then the door to his office opened, and Dan quickly hit the play button. He looked up to see Officer Samantha Ryan, Sam, as she preferred to be called, enter the office. Although he knew little about her, Dan found it difficult to like Sam Ryan; it was common knowledge that she was bisexual, though no one had ever seen her with a man. The rumour was that she was into domination in a big way, whips and all Dan had heard, and that the only men she ever dated were forced to wear women’s clothes and perform for her and her girlfriends. He knew the reason he disliked her had nothing to do with her sexual proclivities, but whenever she was around he felt decidedly uncomfortable, particularly when she stood behind him, as she was now, and looked over his shoulder. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and the strong smell of her musky perfume assailed his nostrils and gave him an odd feeling in his stomach.

And it definitely wasn’t her looks that bothered him, she was actually a very attractive lady, though she was some ten years his junior. In fact, he’d had several fantasies about her since she'd joined his station, which, he was embarrassed to admit, even to himself, revolved around his being feminised by her. "So," She said as she looked at the television screen. "This is the famous mystery jewel thief?" Dan nodded his head, unable to speak thanks to a peculiar lump in his throat. Sam studied the picture for a moment then asked, "You know of course that it’s a man?"

"WHAT?" Dan yelled, "Don’t be ridiculous." He added glaring at the screen.

Sam laughed, "Have it your own way then, but I can tell you from vast experience of such matters, your thief is definitely male. Oh there’s no question he hides it very well, in fact I’d say he’s been cross dressing for years, but…." She examined the screen for several seconds, "Yep, no doubt about it, that’s a man all right." She turned and walked out of his office glancing back and smiling mysteriously as she closed the door behind her.

Dan once again paused the video, and stared at the vision on the screen. Could it be? Surely not, how could anyone so beautiful possibly be a man? Surely Sam was mistaken, but then as she pointed out, she was something of an expert with cross dressers. Dan sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, once again picturing his hands being pulled away from those wonderful breasts. He knew that Sam was right of course, but that didn’t make the thief any less beautiful, and to his horror, Dan realised he was sporting an impressive erection thinking about a man dressed in women’s clothes. He opened his eyes quickly and hit the stop and rewind buttons on the video, how could he be excited by this man? He was straight; in fact he even had a girlfriend. As if to prove the point to himself, Dan picked up the phone and called Susan inviting her out to dinner the following night. As he hung up the phone he thought to himself, ‘There, would a queer invite a woman out to dinner, I don’t think so.’ He picked up some papers from his desk and began sorting through them, trying hard to get the picture of the blonde thief out of his mind.

The following morning, he once again visited the Church household. Pamela answered the door, and responding to his question, she confirmed what they both knew to be a lie, that she'd walked into yet another door. This time she'd broken her nose and two fingers, presumably stopping the door from hitting her again Dan thought sardonically. He found himself praying that Eddie Church was guilty, anything to get him away from this poor woman. It turned out that the man in question was out of town on business and would be back the following day, and no, she had no idea where he'd gone, he might try his office.

After asking Pamela to get her husband to call him first thing in the morning, Dan thanked her and left. Just in case, he drove round to Eddie’s office, but the receptionist was no more help than Pamela had been. There was nothing more he could do for now, so he headed back to the station.

The following morning Dan sat at his desk, his head buried in his hands as he nursed the mother of all hangovers. He groaned as he recalled some of what happened the night before. He'd taken Susan to a very pleasant Italian restaurant and they'd had a couple of drinks before dinner. Then they had two bottles of Chianti with dinner, Dan drinking most of it. A couple of port wines had followed with coffee and then finally, when they arrived at Susan's home, she'd invited him up for a nightcap, which turned out to be a rather large measure of Cognac. By which time Dan was well and truly over the limit.

Susan was such a good listener he soon found himself confiding in her. "Do you remember me telling you about the jewellery robbery Susan?"

"Of course I do silly, I work there remember?" She smiled.

"Of course you do, that's how we met."

He took her hand and kissed it, "Did I tell you we have the robbery on video?"

Susan smiled humouring him, "I think you might have mentioned it, a blonde woman did it if I remember correctly."

Dan shook his head, "That's just it, it's not a woman it's a man."

Susan looked stunned, "How do you.... I mean what makes you so sure?" He explained about Sam Ryan in some detail, he even mentioned the fact that he'd had fantasies about her. As he recalled this Dan groaned into his hands once again.

Susan had nodded her understanding, "I suppose she'd know if anyone would and as for you having fantasies about her, well she is a very attractive woman after all." She watched Dan for a few seconds before adding, "Is there something else you're not telling me?" Dan sat in an embarrassed silence for a while, then suddenly began blurting out the whole story. How he'd been fantasizing about the blonde for weeks and the copy of the tape he kept at home, everything.

Susan listened quietly and when he seemed to be slowing down she interrupted with, "That all seems fairly natural to me, by all accounts she, or should I say he is very attractive, and you had no way of knowing it wasn't a woman did you?"

"That's the problem," Dan continued, "I find the fact that he's a man even more exciting, I still have fantasies but now it's a man who forces me to do things."

Susan smiled, "Oh I see, I don't think I'd worry too much about it though, after all, they are only fantasies, we all have those don't we?"

Dan sat at his desk feeling decidedly stupid and embarrassed, obviously he'd never be able to see Susan again, he could only hope that she remained discreet, if any of this ever got out, he'd be ruined. He opened his drawer to see if he had any vitamin b when he was snapped out of his self-pity by the insistent ringing of the phone. He grabbed it quickly, anything to stop the pain it was causing in his head. "Yes, what is it?" He growled.

"Oh I'm sorry, is this a bad time?"

"Susan? No, no of course it isn't, sorry, I was just concentrating on something, how are you?" He asked.

"More to the point," She laughed, "How are you, I think you might have had just a little too much to drink last night."

"Believe me I'm paying for it now."

"Well anyway, I won't keep you, I just thought you might like to know something about Eddie Church."

Dan sat up straight in his seat, all thoughts of a hangover gone for the moment as he tried to focus on the much more important subject of Eddie Church. "I'd welcome any information on that particular gentleman Susan, what exactly is it you think I might like to know?"

"Well actually, it was something Pamela told me a few weeks ago, I'd forgotten all about it until you told me about your thief being a man. Did you know that Eddie like to dress up in women's clothes?"

Dan stifled a laugh, Eddie, you do mean Eddie Church don't you?"

"Yes, at least that's what Pamela told me."

"Well, well, that really is very interesting, thank you Susan, I'm very grateful to you. I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave now, I'm sorry to cut you off short, but I think I'm going to be rather busy for the rest of the morning thanks to you."

"It was my pleasure Dan, I hope it was of some use to you, oh and before I go, thanks very much for last night, I really enjoyed myself and I hope we can do it again very soon."

"So do I, but next time I think I'll drink a lot less, I'll call you okay?"

"That'd be great, bye Dan." As soon as he hung up the phone, Dan raced around the station arranging a search warrant, they'd already tried once and found nothing, but this time they were looking for other things.

Eddie Church was still in bed when they called, since he hadn't arrived home until 3.00am. They duly served him with the warrant and began searching the house once again. This time they went straight to the bedroom. "Which is your wardrobe Mr. Church?" Dan asked.

"That one why?" He pointed to the smaller of the two wardrobes. Dan opened it without comment and smiled as he produced a very elegant looking blue cocktail dress, followed by a simple black dress. Unfortunately there was no leather dress, but then he really didn't expect to find one.

"Does this belong to you sir?" Dan asked, holding up the full-length cocktail dress.

"Of course not, it must be my wife's."

"Really?" Dan held the dress against his body, "You don't think it might be just a little long for her do you?" The dress was quite obviously made for a woman much taller than Pamela was, and both men could see that clearly.

"Well obviously it is," Eddie replied angrily, "I suppose she was going to get it shortened or something, and anyway, what business is it of yours. Now, unless you'd care to search through my sock drawer, I think it's time you left."

"You didn't mention anything about travelling when we spoke last Mr. Church."

"Well obviously I travel, I'm a sales rep' it's what we do."

"Where is the bag you used for this latest trip?"

"You mean my suitcase? It's still in the car why?"

Dan picked up a set of keys and asked, "Are these your car keys sir?" Church nodded.

He sent a constable to bring the suitcase up. When it arrived he placed it on the bed and opened it. "You're sure this is your suitcase Mr. Church?"

"Of course I am, what's the problem this time?" Church demanded as he walked over to the bed. Dan picked up a pair of lace panties and asked, are these yours sir? And these?" He added a pair of stockings to the panties.

Church stared in disbelief, "There must be some mistake," He tried to snatch the clothes away from Dan, but was restrained by the constable. As Dan continued to search, he found several more articles of women's clothing, together with a black wig. Then, at the side of the bag in a pocket, he found a black velvet bag containing what seemed to be most of, if not all the stolen jewels. "I think it might be an idea if you put on some clothes Mr. Church, and might I suggest you make it men's clothing, I suspect you may be away for quite a while." A further search of the car produced a tube of bright red lipstick and a pair of dark glasses exactly like the ones worn by the thief.

Within a week, Church had been tried and convicted, since, on the advice of his lawyer, he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three years and just to make sure he wasn't lonely while he was inside, Dan managed to get a copy of the video passed to a couple of the inmates via a friend of his who happened to be a warder at the prison. As he sat at his desk congratulating himself on an excellent result his phone rang, it was Susan. "Since you didn't call me, I decided I'd better call you."

"I'm sorry Susan, I've been a little busy lately, as you know I managed to get a conviction on Church, he won't be beating his or anyone else's wife for a while."

"I know, that's why I called, I thought you might like to come round for a celebration dinner."

Dan considered the invitation for a moment, 'What the hell,' he thought, 'If she can forget what I told her I sure as hell can.' "Sure Susan, I'd be delighted."

"Great, I'll see you at seven, oh and bring wine." She laughed as she hung up the phone.

Dan arrived a few minutes early and knocked on the door. He heard Susan calling out for him to let himself in. As he opened the door she called, "I'll be down in a minute, help your self to a drink." Dan poured himself a glass of coke, he decided to go easy on the alcohol tonight. He was about to take a drink when the door opened and Susan walked in. Staring in disbelief, he didn't notice the coke spilling down his chest. "You're spilling your drink." She smiled. He glanced down at the spreading stain on his shirt and quickly placed the glass on the table before returning his gaze to Susan.

She stood quite still as he took in the complete picture from her black high heeled shoes, up her stocking covered legs to the body hugging black leather dress, the black velvet choker, the long blonde hair and those wonderful bright red lips behind the white veil. The only difference was that this time he could see her lovely blue eyes. "Come here." She said quietly. Dan walked forward slowly, as he approached her he reached out and stoked her perfect soft skin and slid his hands down over her breasts. She reached up and gripped his wrists in her leather-clad hands, and forced him to his knees. As he gazed up at her he spoke for the first time. "But Sam was certain the thief was a man." Susan smiled down at him and said, "Sam was right."

 

THE END

 

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