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

Chapter 5 - The evidence

Next I dragged my pants and shirt back onto my body, struggling with the lesser strength of this new womans body. I then pulled the red slip back on over my head. I didn't want to have to go to the extent of making sure the body swap was permanent but I felt I had no choice. My plan ran smoothly from here. It was dark so I dragged my body out of the house and into my car and managed to get it in there without anyone seeing. I put the keys in the ignition and turned the internal exhaust valve that I had already made weeks previously in a moment of desperation. The valve in the cabin that hooked up to a pipe from the exhaust to interior of the car. I wiped my fingerprints and then started the car using my body's fingers so as not to leave fingerprints, then I use my backside to close the door and I walked away. I watched from the patio for five minutes to make sure she didn't escape. I was sure that would be long enough for the dead to be done.

I return to the house and it hit me that I had done it. There was a guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach even though I felt quite justified in killing a self confessed murderer. Then there was another feeling, the feeling that I was in a woman's body. I hadn't given this much thought before the body swap but now I felt the breasts pressed against my body by the slip and I felt the rest of the female anatomy that I wasn't used to feeling. I pushed aside these feelings and determined that I must set to work on setting myself up in this body before someone realises there is a dead man out the front of the house. My first priority was to get rid of the body and then I planned to call my ex-wife in the morning to make an offer she couldn't refuse to be her Nanny.

I took Cherry's iphone from the counter and breathed on it to see the fingerprint tracks which gave me the unlock code. It only took me one guess to get the numbers in the right order, the code was so very obviously her year of birth. I went through her bag and her kitchen cupboards and found her bills and a pen and paper at her writing desk. I sat down and wrote down her personal information to memorise it to myself. I opened her laptop and noticed that four of the number keys are shiny from repeated use, these are the same numbers as the pin on her phone. I commented to myself that this is just too easy.

After an hour of rummaging around her house I checked that my convertible was still outside and looked sufficiently smokey inside and I called the Police.

"Yes, hello there is a man out the front of my house who won't go away. We had dinner together and I told him to leave but he has sat there in his car for an hour."

"Okay we'll send a car out, what's your address please?"

"16 Starboard Way."

"Is this Cherry?"

"Yes."

"We'll be right there." I wasn't sure what to make of that but it didn't sound good. I worried that I had made a mistake in my plan.

I went through Cherry's phone call logs to see who she calls most often and took the plunge to call up her girlfriend whom I was assuming is the same one I saw her out at the nightclub with.

"Hello Regina?" It is very strange to hear a woman's voice when I speak so I sounded very hesitant on the phone.

"Cherry you don't sound right, is something wrong? Did that date go sour?"

"Yea, we fought and he wouldn't leave, so I've called the Police and now they're coming to tell him to drive away."

"Is he there with you now?" she said in a panicked tone.

"No he's in his car out the front."

"I'm coming over." she said and hung up the phone.

I went into the other rooms in the house and familiarised myself with the contents quickly. Soon I heard a knock at the door and then as I approached the door I heard a Police siren flash. I looked out the window and saw that Regina had arrived before the Police. I quickly opened the door to Regina.

"Hi girl."

"Girl, what happened to Reggie like you always call me?"

"Sorry Reggie I'm just a bit shaken up by this weirdo."

"I thought you said he was a loaded spunk?"

"Yeah it turned out he was a flunk" I could see over Reggie's shoulder that the Police were shining a bright torch into my car. As I stood in the doorway talking to Regina one of the Police officers smashed the car window to be hit in the face with a cloud of smoke and the other officer came striding up to my front door.

"What is it officer? Why did you break his window?" I said.

"Are you Miss Cherry Razor that gave us the call about Mr Hugo Grimm?"

"Yes I am, I think he's been stalking me for a while now." I said.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come down to the station."

"You can't do that unless you're charging her with something!" retorted Cherry's friend Regina and I nodded in agreeance.

"At this point we may be charging you with murder and while you refuse to cooperate it will only look worse for your case" said the officer. I panicked and felt chills to the bone, what had I done, my plan may not have been so good after all, this woman has already been accused of other murders and so what could be the chances she would get off again. I thought this could end up being poetic justice that I get punished for finishing her in my own body.

I agreed to go with the officer to Police station and Reggie said she would come along as a support. I locked up the house with Cherry's keys and walked to the back of the Police car with Reggie. I cried real tears into Reggies shoulder in the back of the Police car and said.

"Oh no, it's all happening again" Reggie looked at me shocked and I got the impression that she knew that Cherry did kill her ex-husbands. I settle down and tell Reggie in earshot of Police:

"I am thinking of volunteering at a charity to clear my name in the community's eyes by doing good"

"You're not yourself Cherry just take some time to settle down." Sooon we arrived and were ushered into the front waiting area of the Police station to a cold metal bench. We sat quietly in the waiting area of the Police station for hours and a lot of undesirable looking people came in and out, some of the disheveled looking men ogled myself and Reggie and I felt unsafe despite my proximity to officers of the law. Reggie broke the silence saying:

"I'm sure they're just keeping us here to try and get an admission of guilt out of you." Soon afterwards I was called in for questioning and they allowed me to bring Reggie as a support. The officer asked what happened and I described the meeting at the club and then the meeting on the beach and then the dinner that went wrong and my asking him to leave. I claimed he had revealed that he was bankrupt and I was upset that he had deceived me.

"How long had Regina been there when we arrived?"

"Cherry called me before she asked him to leave and I was there when he left" piped Regina.

"Miss Walters you were standing at the front door facing Cherry when we arrived." replied the officer.

"Yes, I was just getting my phone which I left in the car" said Regina. She then nudged me under the table and I was glad that I now had an alibi. The questioning went on for a long time but they finally relented and let us catch a taxi home from the station.