Part 10 Mayhem at Christmas

“ I’ve had a thought about Christmas Hal . It may sound a bit cheeky, but can I invite some other guests to stay over as well as Trudy and Mick? I know that you and Harry are used to being served at dinner and then just retiring to the drawing room whilst cook and her staff clear everything up, and that sorting out the kitchen and clearing up afterwards will come as a culture shock to you. It is not fair to leave the mess for cook to clear up when she comes back after Boxing Day, how about if I ask some of the girls in my unofficial Odd Squad if they would like to join us on condition that they do most of the work as well as being guests with the rest of us. I’m sure that Josie and Tammy will jump at the chance of a stay at the Hall, but I think Sally will be going over to stay with her Mam and sister. You probably do not remember but they were working as waitresses at your garden party when I was after your blood, so they do know how to behave in your company”

“ Good idea, I’ve been brought up to be a bit lazy around the house, and if your girls are happy to help out, as I said before ‘the more , the merrier’, and a few more youngsters will liven the atmosphere.”

On Christmas Eve, we all rolled up at the Hall for our stay. I had picked up the girls and Mick and Trudy had driven separately. Trudy and I had been in the Hall before when we were investigating the car incident, but Mick, Josie and Tammy were completely overawed by the grandeur of the place and the girls were particularly excited, it was a world away from their normal lives in a small town terrace house. Hal showed us to our rooms and we prepared ourselves before going down to meet his son Harry and his girlfriend Rachel. We all had our own rooms, but I was sure that Trudy and Mick, and Harry and Rachel, would not be spending the night alone.

We had been told that it was all to be informal, but in Hal’s world informal was a lot different to ours. Rather than casual trousers and a loose top, I felt it necessary to be in full make-up , wearing a cocktail dress and heels, and had told the girls to do something similar. I was glad that when I first got to know Josie, after arresting her for shoplifting with her mother, that I had not confiscated the designer clothes that she had stolen, it meant that she and Tammy were very presentable, in fact probably better dressed than Trudy and I. They were both stunning, nobody ever would guess that they were still physically male, and they appeared as if they had been born to life as the daughters in this grand mansion.

We were all introduced to each other and Harry and Rachel were easy to get along with. At first the atmosphere was a bit strained, the gulf in status, culture and upbringing was wide, but taking the lead from Hal’s carefree and casual manner, we all soon became a lot more relaxed with each other.

Cook had prepared a buffet for us before she went to see her family, although she was returning in the morning to prepare the main Christmas dinner. As agreed, the girls, whilst socialising with us most of the time, were happy to act as waitresses, and with clearing up and dish-washing, in fact they were glad to hide away in the kitchen for a while and do their own thing. Rachel, who was not much older than them, joined them too and they left the rest of us to have grown-up talk in the drawing room while they gossiped and giggled about the size and grandeur of the Hall, and got to know each other better.

After a really enjoyable evening, in fact a lot more fun than I had expected, we all went off to our rooms to bed. I half expected a knock on the door from Hal to see if I wanted his company for the night, but he was a perfect gentleman and left me alone. I couldn’t decide whether I was disappointed, annoyed, or pleased. Since my transition I had had not been intimate at all with anyone and whilst I wanted to be seen and treated as any other hot-blooded woman, I was apprehensive as to how I would react and perform the first time. Although Hal had left me alone, he figured in my dreams, and I pictured myself in bed with him as the chatelaine of this grand mansion.

I was up early on Christmas day and went downstairs to find Josie and Tammy working away with the cook in the kitchen, being given strict instructions as to how and when to finish off the food for serving later. They were dressed casually in skirts and tops wearing aprons that cook had provided for them whilst they were in working mode, and would be going up to change for dinner later.

When the others came down we all, including cook and the girls, gathered in the drawing-room for the first toast of the day for a Merry Christmas with a Bucks Fizz which was a bit of a waste of what turned out to be a very expensive champagne. Cook and the girls had prepared a finger buffet of sandwiches, pies, sausage rolls, scotch eggs, cheeses, and pickles along with a fruit salad and a batch of bread rolls as a breakfast to keep us going until the main meal.

Cook left us to go to her family, and after a delicious lunch at which we had all eaten far too much, fed and refreshed we put on coats and went for a walk around the estate, through the gardens and woodland walk down to the lake, and back up through the deer park to the house. It was a cool fresh afternoon and we were soon glad to get back into the warmth of the Hall, where Hal continued the tour by showing us around the mansion. He had been right, there were more rooms than you could possibly need, he admitted that there were some rooms that he hadn’t been in for months. I now began to realise why he had been through money cash-flow problems, it must cost a huge amount of money just to keep the place clean warm and tidy, never mind structurally sound.

The girls brought in a bowl of warm mulled wine that they had prepared earlier under cook’s guidance, which helped to warm us all up again and get us in a festive mood. While we were all together, there was an exchange of presents. The gifts from me, Trudy, Mick, and the girls, to each other and to Hal, Harry and Rachel were all really token gestures, personal and thoughtful rather than expensive, but Hal had been to his favourite jewellers for gifts for all the girls, matching diamond earrings and chokers for Rachel Trudy and me, earrings and a bracelet for Josie and Tammy.

After the last few years of a lonely solitary Christmas in my small apartments, it was a good feeling to be in a friendly family atmosphere again, with an amazing meal, super company, and delightful surroundings. The day seemed to pass in a blur, it was so enjoyable and I was so grateful to Hal for the invitation.

Again I went to bed, and to sleep, dreaming of a future life with Hal, as the Countess of Linton, and again was, disappointingly, left alone with my dreams.

The next morning, Boxing Day, after a breakfast buffet of sandwiches of the leftover turkey and freshly fried bacon, Trudy and Mick went into town to take in the magical Christmas scenes in the quaint historic old city, taking the girls back home, and Harry and Rachel went off to visit friends, leaving Hal and me alone. Again we went for a wander around the estate, hand-in-hand and chatting away, we were both really comfortable and happy in each other’s company. Sitting in the drawing room afterwards with our arms around each other I was again getting romantic ideas in my head, when we were rudely interrupted by the shrill call of my phone, much to my disappointment.

“ Hi Boss, it’s Trudy, I am down in the undercroft at the Minster, I think that you had better get here right away. I’ll meet you at the security office at the back of the Chapter House. I’ll explain when you get here.”

I was soon at the staff security office of the mediaeval cathedral, universally affectionately known as York Minster, where Trudy was waiting for me.

“Mick and I were doing the tourist trail down in the exhibition area in the undercroft when one of the visitors suddenly fell to the floor, got up screaming, broke into one of the display cabinets and grabbed a roman sword, and started slashing around. Several people were injured trying to restrain him and have been taken to hospital, before the Minster Police were able to subdue him. I have had the area taped off as a crime scene, all the basement areas have been closed to the public. The attacker is under lock and key in one of the undercroft service areas, screaming away in some strange language. He has been given something to try to calm him down”

“Did you see it happen yourself?”

“ No, just what went on afterwards, but the police have told me that it was all recorded on CCTV, which is what initially alerted them to what was happening.”

“ Let’s start with the CCTV and leave him until he has calmed down a bit.”

The CCTV images showed everything running smoothly as normal with people wandering through the new interactive exhibition areas detailing the history of York and the Minster from pre-history, to being the capital of the Roman empire, through the Saxon and Viking invasions, to its rise as a major mediaeval city, all the way up to modern times.

All of a sudden, as Trudy had described to me, one of the visitors suddenly jerked around, fell to the floor as if punched or pushed and then went berserk, there was no obvious trigger to it all, there was nobody next to him, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, and nobody else seemed to be involved in any way. The audio on the CCTV records was not particularly clear, but it was sufficient for me to pick out some words in Welsh that I recognised from my many holidays in Snowdonia, which at least sorted out what Trudy had described as ‘some strange language’ .

“Trudy, if he has calmed down, get him down to the station for questioning, get a doctor to check him for physical injuries and test him for drugs, get a behavioural psychologist to be present, and find someone to act as an interpreter if needed and to translate what he was shouting about in his frenzy.”

The interpreter, Dafydd Evans, confirmed that it was indeed Welsh on the video, and that he had been shouting a lot of garbled gibberish but the general gist was about invaders taking their land and needing to drive them back to where they came from.

It turned out that the attacker, when he had calmed down , although a native Welsh speaker, was perfectly fluent in English, so there was no need for Dafydd Evans to translate for us, but we asked him to stay in case there were any cultural references that needed further explanation. The psychologist confirmed that now that the attacker, Emrys Davies, had calmed down that he was coherent and seemingly rational, and was fit to be interviewed. As Trudy was a potential witness I couldn’t let her sit in with me on the interview, so I was joined by Barry who led the questioning

“Mr Davies, in your own words, please tell us what happened this morning.”

“ I don’t know why I am here. I had a coffee and cake with some friends, went to the Minster, they went off together to tour the main ground floor nave, chapels and quire areas and I went down to the undercroft to the exhibition. The next thing I remember is being here.”

“Do you remember anything special about when you were in the exhibition area?”

“ Not really, I was reading about the roman occupation and the remaining foundations of their buildings underneath the basement floor, when I went dizzy and that is all I remember.”

“ Have you any special interest in the Romans in Britain?”

“ Yes I have actually, I and the friends I was with are studying classical history at University in Bangor in and we have researched a lot of the information relating to the Roman invasion and occupation of Wales.”

“ And what do you think about the Romans and what they did in your area?”

“They were violent murdering thugs, and although they tried to extend their influence in Wales, it was always an occupation, Wales was never really Romanised culturally like a lot of England, and there were continual skirmishes between them and my ancestors.”

“ So, is it fair to say that you do not like what the Romans did to your country?”

“ That is putting it mildly, between them, the Vikings and the English, invaders have always tried to kill our culture and language, and we have had to defend ourselves as best as we could.”

I saw Trudy through the window of the door to the interview room waving me over. “ Let us just pause the interview for a few minutes while I consult my colleague.”

“ What have you got for me Trudy, I hope that is something useful, we are not getting very far in there with Davies.”

“ Toxicology report back from the lab. He has a high level of traces of Ketamine. a common hallucinogenic drug, in his blood, it looks like he was on a ‘trip’ when all this happened.”

“Thanks Trudy, I’ll finish the interview and talk to you later.” I returned to the interview room and took over from Barry.

“ Mr Davies, we have found traces of illegal drugs in your system are you a habitual user?”

“ The occasional cannabis spliff, nothing heavy, but I haven’t had any for weeks.”

“ What about the friends you were with, are any of them regular users?”

“ You’ll have to ask them.”

“ Mr Davies, let us get one thing clear, you are facing serious charges for violent assault while under the influence of illegal drugs, which will probably end up with you in prison. Your best defence is that someone slipped drugs into your food or drink without you knowing and that you cannot be held responsible for the consequences. It looks likely that one of your so-called friends slipped you some ketamine, a hallucinatory drug, so why are you not cooperating in helping us get to the truth, Again, are any of your friends regular users?”

“ Sam, Samantha, Evans, one of the girls with us, is often a bit away with the fairies, and if anyone of them carries drugs it is likely to be her.”

“ Where can I find her, where are you staying in York?”

We found Sam at the hotel in the company of the rest of the group, and she seemed at bit excitable and hyperactive, probably due to being on a drug high, and one of the uniform team took her down to the station for me to interview her later, while I stayed to question the others.

‘ Before you all went into the Minster, you had coffee and cakes in a local cafe. Being blunt, did any of you see anything being put into Emrys’ drink?”

“ Not really, Sam served up the coffee from the cafetière and put the milk and sugar in for everybody, but other than that we all just helped ourselves to the cakes and things from the serving tray.”

“ What was Sam’s relationship with Emrys like, did she have any reason to want to harm him by giving him drugs?”

“ Far from it, she fancied the pants off him, but he didn’t seem that particularly interested in her.”

“ Was she sitting near him at the table?”

“ Right next to him, she usually managed to squeeze next to him wherever we went.”

“ Have any of you seen Emrys Davies under the influence of drugs?

“ Not really, like all of us he had the occasional spliff, but nothing serious and just making him a bit light-headed. Sam is a different matter, she often seemed to be on a high, although I can’t say that we ever saw her taking anything.

“ Ok that’s all for now, please stay in York until we tell you it is ok to leave, and write down your full names and contact details and I will come back to you later.”

Back at the station we left Emrys in the interview room with sandwiches and coffee, and we turned our attention to Sam Evans.

“Miss Evans, do you know why you are here?”

“ I suppose it’s to do with Emrys going doolally in the Minster and attacking those people.”

“Why do you think he did what he did?”

“ I don’t know, we were the other end of the Minster looking at the main East window when we heard the commotion, downstairs.”

“ What if i tell you that he was under the influence of drugs.”

“Doesn’t surprise me , he was a frequent user.”

“ That’s not what the others say, they reckon he was always pretty clean, whereas you, on the other hand have a reputation as a regular user.”

“ So what has him attacking people got to do with me?”

“ We have been told that you have been trying to form a relationship with him, not very successfully, and we have reason to believe that you slipped some Ketamine, well known as a date-rape drug into his drink in the hope of giving you an opportunity to take things further with him.”

She suddenly burst into tears and slumped in her chair.

“ I didn’t know that he would react like he did, I thought it would relax him and make him feel tired and unwell, so I could take him back to the hotel and have some time with him on my own.”

“ So you planned to have sex with him, while he was only part-conscious, that is at least attempted sexual assault, maybe even attempted rape if there is a hard-line jury. if it was the other way round and Emrys had done that to you, the judge would throw the book at him, but the law in relation to females forcing unwilling sex acts on males is very ambiguous. We will have to talk to the prosecuting authorities to decide whether the case will go forward. I wish I could charge you with something in relation to Emrys going berserk in the exhibition area, but I can’t think of anything at the moment. It is unlikely that Emrys will be charged as a good defence lawyer will argue that he was not responsible for his actions, which means that the victims will not see anyone punished for their injuries.”

“ I never meant it to happen, I just wanted some time with Emrys. I am really sorry”

However we have found drugs in your luggage, over and above what could be considered as for personal use and you will be charged with dealing. The details of what you have done will be passed on to your local police in Bangor and I am sure that they will be keeping an eye out for you, so you better behave yourself in future. Think yourself lucky that nobody was killed or seriously injured. Barry, please fill out the charge sheets and then let her go, I am going to have a word with Emrys.”

“ Emrys, i don’t know if you have remembered anything yet, but what we have found out is that Samantha Evans slipped a date rape drug into your drink intending to make you unwell so that she could take you back to the hotel and, for want of a better word, rape you, but you reacted very strongly to the drug, which is also a hallucinogen , and you went on a weird trip in the exhibition area attacking and injuring people. We don’t know what triggered you off, so unless you can recall anything there is not much more we can do. Obviously you will not be charged as it is highly unlikely that a jury would convict you of anything. You are free to go and if I were you I would keep well away from Samantha Evans in future, she seems to have a bit of an obsession with you.”

“ Thanks for sorting it out, please pass on my apologies to anyone that was hurt. I have sort of remembered some things, it is a bit like waking up in the middle of a dream where everything is all jumbled and confused. I was in the area where you can look down through the glass floor to the Roman foundations, when I saw some people marching towards me wearing what looked like Roman soldier’s uniforms like the pictures on the displays, they drew their swords, pushed me to the ground, and were going to kill me. I had to defend myself, so I grabbed a sword and started fighting back and driving them away shouting and screaming ‘ewch allan o fy ngwlad, ewch yn ôl i'ch cartref’ ( get out of my country, go back to your home)’, but they were joined by others who restrained me and locked me up. I know that like a lot of people in north Wales that I am a strong nationalist, but I have never taken part in any violence. With the effect of drugs, my university research, the Roman ruins and reading about the troops stationed in York, my mind somehow put it all together and it became real to me.”

“ What you probably do not know, and with the Minster being a house of religion they do not publicise it, is that there are lots of reports of people claiming to have seen ghostly Roman legionaries marching through the very area where you attacked people, you are not the first, and will probably not be the last. Maybe some like you just got carried away by the atmosphere, maybe there is some truth in it all, nobody will ever know. “

I showed Emrys out of the building, wished him well and told him that he and his friends, including Samantha, if they could stand to be around her, could go back home to Wales, and if we needed them for anything further we would be in touch.

My planned peaceful Christmas break had only partly happened, but I decided to make the best of what was left and go back to the Hall and to Hal. When i told Trudy what I was doing, a big smile appeared.

“ That is good news, that means that Mick and I can spend some time on our own in the apartment for the first time. You enjoy yourself back at the Hall and I will see you in the office tomorrow. Enjoy yourself girl, don’t do anything I wouldn’t, which gives you a lot of scope.”

Back at the Hall, I changed out of my work outfit of trousers and blouse, showered, and re-did my hair and makeup and put on my sexiest silk and lace lingerie set and my royal blue mid-thigh shift dress and was ready to forget that I was a police officer, and just spend the rest of the night as an everyday woman.

The cook was still at her family’s house, so we just pulled together some of the scraps of the Christmas turkey added some mixed vegetables and a bottle of superb burgundy, chatted over dinner about the events of the day, and were soon settled down for the evening.

We were sat in front of a roaring log fire, my head in his lap, his arms around me, enjoying each others company, when he smiled, leant down to me and kissed my forehead. “Now where were we this morning before we were rudely interrupted by your phone call?”

To be continued.