A Man in a Woman's Body: The Story of a Habentem #Wattys2016 #JustWriteIt

Chapter 3 - To be sure

I returned to park outside Cherry's house early on Saturday morning, just in time to see Cherry get picked up in an SUV by another female. Cherry looked twice at my car and I thanked myself for having had the windows tinted as dark as possible. I followed the car to the nearest gym and figured that now that I knew what she was doing I could safely go back to her outside her house to see what happened next. All I needed was a few regular events on her schedule so that I could make our eventually meeting seem like it was meant to be. Cherry didn't get back until the afternoon when the SUV stopped near to my car and I could hear Cherry through the soft-top of my car say:

"See you tonight Reggie"

"Okay around seven for pre-drinks" said the other woman who I could only assume was Regina Walters.

As Cherry walked up to her house I saw her look back at my car and thought it was time I arranged to meet her before she notices my car and thinks I am stalking her when the plan might become ruined. I drove home and changed into my best going out clothes, making sure to wear a short sleeve shirt even though it was cold weather because I wanted to show off my rolex. I thought that if she was the killer then greed would probably motivate her. When I returned I parked my car around the corner so she wouldn't see it and I hid in a bush so that I could see Regina come and then hopefully follow them to where they were going out for drinks. I was lucky it was dark and overcast so my position was well camouflaged. Regina arrived as she said she would and then I heard the music turned up as the two began drinking. It was a cold and uncomfortable wait for two hours until I saw a taxi arrive and toot it's horn. I ran back to my car and drove up to the corner where I could see the two ladies closing the door of the car. I followed the taxi downtown to a classy nightclub where the ladies alighted and I drove off to find a car park.

As I lined up for the nightclub I saw the bouncer eye me suspiciously, I'm guessing because I was the only person there alone. I had the feeling he wasn't going to let me in but when it came my turn he looked down at my rolex and said "In you go, no trouble alright". I set myself up on the end of the bar with a soft drink and watched as Regina and Cherry sat at a table in the middle of the room and glanced around at guys whose attention they hoped to get. I watched as Cherry got guys to buy her drinks and dirty danced with them but then wouldn't let them kiss her. To end her little act she would walk away when they tried to get too close. At one point I noticed Cherry steal a guy's wallet while she was on the dance floor. She took it back to her table where Regina was waiting and she rifled through it inside her handbag, soon she was back out on the dance floor and I noticed her discreetly drop the wallet onto the floor, which I assumed was now empty. These behaviours lent more weight to my theory that she was guilty of murder and a woman of calculated evil. I decided that there was no better time then that moment as the night was wearing on so I went over to Cherry, taking her a new drink as I went.

"Hi, I see you're drinking rum and coke" I said.

"Yes, have you been watching me?" said Cherry and Regina stared at me with a little shock in her eyes.

"It's hard not to watch the most beautiful woman in the room."

"Flattery will get you a long way, do you dance?"

I danced with Cherry for a couple of songs and noticed she looked down at my watch to take in the details. Soon she was leading me back to the table where Regina was waiting and began to ask me what I did with myself for work. I explained to her that I was independently wealthy and managed my own real estate portfolio. I noticed a twinkle in her eye and she immediately looked more interested in me than I had seen her with the other guys she had been dancing with. We danced a few more times and exchanged pleasantries over drinks then she gives me her number before saying she had to go home. It was all over sooner than I expected but I wasn't worried as I didn't think she'd given her number to anybody else. I took a long walk home to the next suburb where I lived as I'd had a couple of drinks with Cherry and couldn't drive. It was cold and I resented that I would have to walk this distance back again in the morning to get my car.

On Sunday morning I went to get my car and then headed out to the beach near Cherry's house hoping that she would be taking the dog for a walk again. I sat around on a sand dune waiting and just when I thought about texting her I saw her coming around the corner with the white whippet jogging up the beach. I ran up to meet her.

"Fancy meeting you here." I said.

"What are you stalking me?" she said suspiciously.

"Why would I need to do that when you gave me your number?"

"Your lucky I did then."

"It's luck that I see you again so soon. What's your dog's name?"

"It's my neighbour's dog and her name is Legs" she said with a smile. Cherry's body is a sight to behold as her breasts bounce in each leg of her jog like they're filled with helium. She noticed me checking her out and it made her smile wide enough that her teeth could nearly have fallen out if they weren't stuck in.

"That's nice of you to take the neighbor's dog out."

"It's the only way to shut it up from barking all day" and then I felt we were back to her evil outlook on life.

"Why does it bother you? Are you home all day?" I said.

"Well I try to get out a bit but I'm also independently wealthy so I don't need to do anything."

"Well aren't we just made for each other then?"

"Don't go getting ahead of yourself" she said, but I could see she looked delighted by the comment.

We ran to the far end of the beach and back again exchanging small talk and then she invited me to her house for dinner in the evening. I felt that was my chance to make the plan come to fruition, providing I could satisfy myself that she was guilty of the murders..

#BM

I spent the afternoon making my plans and back ups plans in case I should be able to do the body swap. I needed plans to be able to control the situation if it went wrong. I also had to go to the op-shop to find something else suitable to wear, since I'd already worn my two best outfits at our last meetings. The most important part of my plan was to put the grimoire somewhere I could retrieve it later and not where Cherry might retrieve it if she was in my body.

I went to a secretarial and office rental business called Sun Business Solutions and arranged to leave my book wrapped in brown paper to be picked up by anyone who could describe its appearance and give the password 'alakazam'. The secretary was a young pug-faced brunette woman and she looked at me with curiosity for my strange request.

"So you want me to store this book for an undetermined amount of time and if someone can describe it in its brown paper and string package, and if they can give me the password, then I should give it to them?" she said in a questioning voice with a hint of mockery.

"Yes, that's right. How much will it cost for you to do that?" I said.

"Well we won't be able to hold onto it forever. Normally our mail forwarding service is five dollars per article, however you're probably asking me to hold onto this for a long time and it must be important to you. So I'd say five dollars a day."

"Well hopefully you won't have it for long so that sounds fine."

"You will have to pay up front though."

"I'll pay for a month now and come back if I need to pay for more."

"Okay." The secretary gave me a lot more strange looks as I handed over the money and watched me with strange fascination as I left the office. She wrote out a receipt for me and tucked the money into a cash tin. I began to suspect that I had trusted the wrong person in leaving the book with her but I saw no other choice, I had lost all my other confidants in the marriage separation, and for all she knew it was just a book.