The Strong Arm Of The Law
I'm used to getting my own way. I'm an only child. Mummy saw me as a carbon copy of herself and happily fed my ego. I was very pretty and she had every expectation that I'd grow up to be as beautiful as she'd been. Daddy adored me and has always spoilt me rotten. As a child I had a pony, attended ballet and piano lessons and enjoyed exotic holidays abroad. In my teens I was always at the head of the fashion game; I was given the money to buy expensive clothes and splash out on expensive parties. Needless to say, I was popular at school. Nothing much was required of me. I just had to be nice and pretty and give a little application to my schoolwork. Everything came easy.
I went to a good university and ended up as a financial consultant with a well known City firm and life continued its easy path. I had some decent boyfriends; none of them would set a room alight but they looked after me. At work I was promoted fairly quickly and so I developed from a spoilt young girl into a pampered business executive.
Stable, secure, nice and comfortable. Yes, nice. That's how I would have described my life. I had a nice life; there were no problems. If not for a silly little incident I may well have been condemned to an excitement free life.
I'm a bit of a shopaholic. I suppose that's my one real vice. I love buying clothes and make up. Anyway, I'd over shopped one lunch break and was running a little late. I'd been trying some sample lipsticks, decided on one and absentmindedly put it in my pocket. I paid for the other goods, left the store and hurried back to work. When I got home and unpacked the shopping I couldn't find the lipstick and irritatedly thought I'd left it in the store. It was only later that I found it in the pocket of my coat and the thought of taking it without having paid rather excited me. During the next few days the incident kept popping into my head.
During a lunch break later that week I found myself wandering around in the lingerie department of a well known store. I examined a selection of panties and made a show of holding several pairs to the light before putting them back on the rack. I did the same thing with another pair but instead of putting them back I crumpled them up into a tight ball in my fist and, after looking around, casually put my hand in my pocket where I secreted them. Eventually, I left the store, my heart thumping nineteen to the dozen. When I got outside I casually walked away and found a coffee shop where I sat down and examined the stolen goods. My heart was still thumping away, not out of fear but exhilaration. I'd never done anything illegal before and I found the experience thoroughly thrilling.
That was when my criminal career began. I enjoyed shoplifting, I got an immense thrill from stealing. It wasn't the acquisition that triggered the excitement but the possibility of being caught. I must have been shoplifting about twenty times before I really did get caught.
It's the sort of occasion, like your first kiss or the day you get married, that remains fresh in the memory. It was a lovely spring day, almost summer, and I was wearing a beautiful cotton print dress. I went into the shop feeling happy and excited and left with that by now familiar feeling of exhilaration. I'd just got outside the store when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
'Excuse me miss, would you mind coming back into the shop for a moment?'
I felt myself redden. 'Whatever for?'
'I think you know what for, Miss.'
The security man led me back into the shop, guiding me by the elbow. I let him lead me, my brain wasn't working fast enough to protest and refuse, my capture had dulled it. The excitement had left me, I felt numb. He led me to an office at the back of the store where another security man was sitting behind a desk. He asked me to empty out my bag, which I did. I stood looking at the contents; a neat pile of assorted stolen junk. I felt queasy.
Two police officers arrived. One was a sergeant, I spotted the chevrons, he was the older of the two. He gave me a cursory, disinterested glance as he came into the office.'Arrogant sod,' I thought.
He spoke to the store detectives. 'Hello gents, what have we got?' They took him aside and spoke privately for a few minutes and then the sergeant turned to me and said, 'Listen to what this man has to say.'
One of the security men spoke up. 'Our CCTV operator has seen this woman acting suspiciously on a number of occasions and we saw her take some make-up from one of the store counters and put it in her handbag. She left the shop without attempting to pay and we detained her outside the store. She's got various unpaid for make-up items in her bag.'
The sergeant spoke casually. 'Okay, I'm going to arrest you for theft...'
My mind began swirling, I didn't really hear what else he said, something about, 'You do not have to say anything,' it was like something from the movies. I was asked where I lived and as I tried to concentrate I heard him saying, '... The store security think you've been stealing from here on other occasions so I'm going to take you home as I need to search your house.'
I began to feel panicky and started to protest.
He cut me short. 'Listen, we can either go back to the station and put you in a cell and I'll search your house anyway or you can cooperate and I'll take you home, the choice is yours.'
I didn't really have a choice.
He turned to his younger colleague, a constable, and said, 'You take the statements from these gents and I'll pick you up later.'
As we walked out to the car park, I began to focus more clearly and decided to turn on the charm. I assumed he wouldn't be used to dealing with a well educated, well spoken woman and I was well practiced at intimidating men. But halfway through a sentence he interrupted me.
'Look, this is hardly the crime of the century, you've got no previous convictions and as far as I'm concerned, if you co operate, you'll be suitable for a non crime resolution which will mean you won't get a criminal record.' Then he stopped me by the car. 'But don't patronise me, do you understand? As far as I'm concerned you're no different from any other shoplifter'
I was stung by his comments and silently got into the police car.
We said very little on the way to my house, although he did tell me his name; Sergeant Mace. He seemed bored, indifferent. Despite my shame I also felt angry. I wasn't used to being treated like this. I'd been apologetic and charming but he'd barely paid me any attention. He was almost curt. When I got home he followed me inside the house. 'Just to remind you Miss Cunningham, you're still under arrest, and as I suspect there is property outstanding from your thefts I have the power to search your premises.'
'Yes, thank you constable, you've already told me that.' The bloody cheek! I was furious. I'd never been treated so off handedly, so dismissively, before. Who the hell did he think he was? What pissed me off more than anything was that I was in no position to argue.
It was even more galling that the bastard was good looking. He was about thirty, over six foot, lean and fit. He had short, dark hair and a rather angular face. But his eyes were the thing. I hadn't worked out whether it was the shape of his brows or the way his eyes were set that made them so piercing. When he looked at me it was as though he was looking into me, not at me, the pretty surface, but right into me, and despite my outward confidence I found him rather unsettling. Men don't normally unsettle me, it's usually the other way round.
'Well,' I thought 'we'll soon see.' I'd had an idea. I wanted to unsettle him, unnerve him, perhaps even frighten him a little. I wanted to take that arrogant look off his face.
'I keep most of my cosmetics in the bedroom, I suppose that's the best place to start.' I said this sullenly as if acknowledging his control of the situation. I led him upstairs into my bedroom and left him standing by the door while I walked around to the other side of my bed. I opened a bedside drawer, casually took out a vibrator, tossed it on the bed and then continued rummaging through the drawer as though I was looking for something in particular. I was hoping he'd be shocked. I came across a stolen lipstick, removed it from the drawer, stood up and began to unscrew the top as I walked over to a large mirror which was on the wardrobe door right next to where he was standing. I posed in front of the mirror, pouted my lips and touched them up with the lipstick. And then I turned to Mr Arrogant Bastard. 'What do you think?' I asked and I reached up and kissed him on the lips. I intended to scare him, to get my own back, show him that he wasn't the only one with the power.
'My, my sergeant, what would they think down at the station if I accused you of sexually assaulting me? How could you possibly defend yourself? You saw a sex toy, it sent you wild, you made advances, I rejected them. What do you think would happen?'
'You'd do that?'
'I might sergeant, I don't like jumped up, ignorant men. I might well consider it. After all, who do you think they'd believe?'
I'd hoped to see some evidence of discomfort but his piercing eyes looked unconcerned. He reached up to his chest and pointed to a device, hanging next to his radio, that resembled a mobile phone. I gathered it was some kind of recorder. 'Do you really think I'd be stupid enough to come into your house, alone, without any sort of back up? Do you really think I haven't come across devious people like you before? I get all sorts of allegations thrown at me.' He grinned, disdainfully. 'Dear dear, miss, dear dear.'
I felt really stupid. 'I was only joking,' I said. 'I just wanted to frighten you a bit, you're so bloody rude and high and mighty.'