Farewell to the Dancing Man Ch. 21-24

"You have nothing after that?"

"No. Our file was closed as at the time he left the job for which we had trained him. We had no further interest in him."

"I don't suppose your file mentions which department store he worked at?"

"It was Mark Foys I think, yes it was."

"That's no good to me, all their records would have been lost in the fire. Thanks anyway for all your help." I left. I had now established that Paul Thomas was the kind of person that you wouldn't take home to mother, but unless I could positively establish that he didn't leave the country as planned and that he somehow met with foul play, I was rapidly reaching a dead end. The more that I found about out him, the more people I felt could have wanted to do him a mischief.

I checked and re-checked the evidence and, while being certain in my mind, I came to realise that the only way I was likely to get anywhere was to get a confession. I had to trap that smug bitch into revealing her knowledge and complicity in this. I would have to back her into a corner from which she was unable to escape unless I let her and then I could do a deal, her freedom in return for her body. I was getting excited just thinking about spending time in the bed of Cynthia Swain, so much so that I had to count slowly to a hundred before I could stand up and leave the room.

How to do it? I could tell her that I had irrefutable proof and if she confessed I would drop the enquiry in return for her favours. If she chose not to confess I would proceed with the prosecution. I even came up with a possible story that would explain the presence of the body in the tank without implicating her in any way.

I was still trying to get my body into a condition that would enable me to walk without embarrassment when the Chief Inspector called me into his office. "What is the current status of your investigations?"

"I have established conclusively the identity of the body, all I need now is the cause of death."

"You are a hundred percent sure of the identity?"

"His widow has identified the ring that was found with it."

"How close are you to the cause of death?"

"It will be difficult. Forensic have come up with a couple of ways that he wasn't killed."

"How much more do you think that you'll find out in the next twenty-four hours?"

"If it's answers you want then you can have them now. If it's proof you want then I'll just slip down the corridor to an empty storeroom and put on my superman suit."

"I want proof that will stand up in court. I don't want any half baked story unless it's sustainable."

"And if I can't come up with proof in twenty-four hours?"

"You will be re-assigned."

"But I have to see this through."

"Look, I've told you before that we have a backlog of cases as long as your arm that require urgent attention. I can't have one of my detectives stooging around in the forlorn hope of stumbling onto the answer of a twenty year old mystery that will probably never be able to be closed. The Coroner will probably bring down a verdict of 'Death by Misadventure' or at the very most, 'Murder by person or persons unknown'. I don't think there is any possibility of any other verdict and for that reason I am not prepared to waste any more of our valuable time on it."

"Would a confession help?"

"Do you have someone in mind?"

"I have strong suspicions."

"Suspicions will not be enough. And the last thing I want to hear is accusations that you beat a confession out of someone."

"You know me better than that. How much leave do I have up my sleeve?"

He rang Personnel and after a few minutes of 'yes I see's' and uhuh's he hung up. "You have three weeks left."

"Okay, as of now I'm officially on leave. I will find the proof in my own time."

"If that's the way you want it that's fine by me. I couldn't think of anything worse than spending my vacation time doing what I do at work, not my idea of a holiday at all. I think it only proper to warn you that you will have no more legal powers than the man on the street. If I hear of you overstepping those boundaries I will personally sign your arrest warrant. Do you understand?"

I understood only too well, he was pissed off at what he saw as my disloyalty to my job, and intended to make it hard for me. Alright, two can play that game.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Rebecca's Story

Timothy had arrived home before me and had enough time to demolish a glass of milk and several biscuits, while complaining all the time about the standard of afternoon snacks. I arrived and straight away Mummy could see that there was something upsetting me. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"There's something wrong, isn't there?"

"Well yes, but it's something that I'd rather not talk about just now." My eyes flicked towards Timothy who was rummaging in the refrigerator for something else to eat.

"Timothy, I want you to go and do your homework."

"Aw gee Mum, do I have to?"

"Yes. I want it all done before dinner."

"What time is dinner?"

"As soon as you father gets home."

"Oh." He shuffled off.

"Now. What's the matter?"

"Well, it's Samantha, or should I say it's her mother, no it's both of them."

"Calm down and take your time. What happened?"

I called into Sam's place as usual on my way home from school to help her with her homework. We had been there for several minutes when her mother came into the room. "You two hard at it?"

"Yes Mummy, we're just about finished."

"Good, would you like something to drink?"

"I'll have a coke thanks, what about you Bec?"

"That will be nice, thank you."

Sam's mother returned a few minutes later with drinks and biscuits. "Don't work too hard now, you should relax a little."

"Okay Mum."

Sam and I finished our Maths. "Hey, did you see Old Mother Wilson giving Belinda a hard time. Anyone would think that she doesn't love her anymore."

"What do you mean""

"Haven't you noticed how she used to ask her all the questions and get her to do all of those special little jobs?"

"So, what's wrong with that?"

"Come on, she's had a crush on Belinda for months."

"She couldn't have, it's not right."

"Oh, there's nothing wrong with it as far as it went, they haven't actually done anything, Belinda's too wet for that. Anyhow they're not as close as we are." Samantha moved closer to me. I took a sip of my coke, it tasted funny, but I gulped it down. Her hands reached out for me and I found myself drawn to her and allowed her to undo the buttons of my uniform. Soon her hands were holding my breasts, moving slowly, caressing them. I was feeling a little dizzy and I couldn't help myself. My hands reached for her and I undid her uniform and took her breasts in my hands. Sam leaned towards me and her lips brushed mine.

She signalled for me to stand up. I did. She slid my uniform over my head and dropped it on the floor. She shook herself out of hers and undid her bra and let that drop. Her panties followed and she stood before me, naked. I stood quietly while she removed my bra and panties.

"You're beautiful." Her voice came softly to me. "Sweet, sweet Rebecca, I love you."

I heard myself through the mists of my emotions. "I, I like you."

"Come sit down." We sat on the sofa and she kissed me again while her hands caressed me. "Do you ever masturbate?" Her hand was caressing my between my legs.

"Yes,"

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if someone else was to masturbate you?"

"But that's wrong." Wrong or not her had reached the top of me legs and was caressing there, a finger rubbing the inside of my vagina.

"Would you do it to me, I've wanted you to do it for so long." She opened her legs and, taking my hand she placed it between them pushing a finger inside her. "God, that feels so good."

I had to admit that the sensation of her finger inside me was getting me so excited and my hips were moving in time with her thrusts.

The door opened. "That was really good, if you can do that again we can make a fortune."

Reality came flooding back. "What do you mean. How did you know what we've been doing?"

"Look at this." Sam grabbed my hand and led me to the next room. On the either side of it there was what appeared to be a window. In the centre of the room and pointing into Sam's room was a movie camera.

"What is this?" I was horrified.

"Two way mirrors. From here you can see into my room or Mummy's room. I have a great time watching her and her friends going at it."

"You knew all about this, how could you?"

"What better way to learn about love?"

"That's not love. It's dirty." I ran back into her room and started to scramble into my clothes.

"Come on Bec, it won't hurt you."

"Get away from me! I though you really liked me. How do I know that you having just been using me?" I didn't stop to hear the answer, as soon as I was dressed I ran from the house and didn't stop running until I reached home.

"So that's what happened?"

"Yes."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"What can I do? Samantha has been my best friend for years. I don't want to stop being friends, but I feel so used and dirty."

"You're going to have to decide just how much you need a friendship with someone who can have so little regard for your emotions. I wonder what the police would say if they ever found out about what has happened?"

"No! Don't go to the police, please."

"Give me a good reason why I shouldn't."

"Because I'm involved in this."

"Yes you are, as you say, involved in this. You have been taken advantage of. You made the right decision in leaving before things got really out of control. What Samantha and her mother were about to do is against the law and they should be punished for it. If we do nothing the same thing might happen to someone else and the only way to stop it is to expose them."

"Was what Sam and I were doing against the law?"

"There is a law against homosexual acts and that's what you were doing. If her mother had filmed what you were doing that would be pornography, also against the law. But if we were to look at it a different way, what you were doing could be described as normal sexual experimentation. Samantha has taken advantage of your closeness and introduced a new element into it. What was the innocent experiment between two girls entering into adulthood and exploring each other's bodies was debased and turned into pornography by her mother watching it, something that she and Samantha see nothing wrong in. There is nothing wrong with you exploring your body and the emotions that go with that, there is nothing really wrong with doing it with another person, it's part of finding out who you are. I suppose that you touch yourself while you're in bed at night?"

"Yes." My head drooped in shame.

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with that. It is perfectly normal. What you and Samantha did is also normal, it might not be legal, but it's normal. If you were to have allowed a boy to do that sort of thing to you, while it's the same thing, it's accepted behaviour, the difference being that these actions between girl and girl is considered homosexuality while between boy and girl it's not. In my day it was called heavy petting."

"But what about what Sam's mother had in mind?"

"That's very much against the law and it seems as if she's been doing this sort of thing for some time. The sort of behaviour that you've been involved in , if you aren't caught actually doing it, is normal. If on the other hand it was photographed or filmed, then that's pornography and punishable by law. There's a market for that sort of thing and just being in posession of pornographic images can see you end up in gaol."

"But you condone what Sam and I were doing?"

"I don't actually condone it, but then I accept it as normal. I hope that you've learnt something from all of this?"

"How can I stay friends with Sam?"

"That's you decision to make. I suggest that you talk to her and let her know that you like her and for you to remain friends it is to be on your terms and that means not going to her place, Now how about giving me a hand with dinner?"