Chapter 14 Operation Round Up
The hour of ten arrived and apart from the duty sergeant and five other constables all was quiet in the police station. Before long the first dregs of the female sex offenders were herded from the duty sergeant’s desk to the second floor where policewoman Joan Matthews who had done Eric’s make-up earlier slotted them into the first cell. Eric’s composure was sorely tried and by the looks of things, if nothing else it was going to be a humdinger of a night with half dressed women of all shapes and sizes to ogle at. Later another batch came along. They seemed more refined and then the grandest of all girls came in and they were placed in with Eric who was beginning to suspect that this bunch of women were in fact half the ladies from the police station and gradually Eric began to twig what was going on, or he thought he had.
Everyone’s name had been taken including Eric’s which had turned into Erica Springs. After a couple of hours when all the paperwork had been completed, all those first to arrive at the police station were released with a caution. The noise from the ladies of the night was quite horrendous – eventually this abated as the cells emptied. Erica, as he was known, and the eleven other ladies in his cell were taken to the rear of the building and were instructed to climb aboard the special vehicle and were to drive to some address that Eric didn’t know. There was a delay before the van departed because five of the eleven were changing back into their uniforms, leaving the vehicle and going back into the station. Eric was being guarded by six ladies of the night /policewomen. It was a very bumpy ride and at twelve midnight they arrived at the ‘safe house’ where Eric was to spend the night before moving on. All this cloak and dagger stuff was necessary because of the attempt on his life at the police station. Next morning Eric had to change into another set of clothing, ladies police uniform whilst a policewoman was changing into Eric’s garb. A new make-up to look like the rest of the police force and off they went to another unknown address. They all shared a meal which was enjoyable and the time seemed to whizz by. Eric retired to bed at 9pm. He was woken up at one in the morning and told to get dressed in his own clothes. This house had a service road at the rear and four figures crept out of the house down a concrete path and through a garden door into a waiting car, and drove to Eric’s address. Eric donned a policeman’s helmet and a overcoat and with three policewomen moved towards his house. A policeman on duty outside his house let him and the others into the house and he stayed outside to make sure that nobody had followed them. Everything seemed quiet and he joined them inside the premises. Eric said ‘Home at last!’ He looked at his watch and found that journey had taken them two hours. He had a cup of tea with milk brought along by one of the Policewomen. They had instructions to stay with Eric until morning when Inspector Rothchild and Sergeant Cole would arrive to take over about 9am. Eric went to bed and everybody else made themselves comfortable as best as they could!
Eric woke up to a very bright morning, there was a cup of hot tea waiting to be drunk on his bedside cabinet. He turned and Barbara was not there and then he remembered that she was still in hospital in a coma. He drank the tea slowly feeling deflated by the whole concept and couldn’t understand why these things were happening, because he knew in his heart that he and Barbara were not responsible or had done anything to provoke whoever it was who was taking this course of action against them. The hate from the voice had been vehement and for what reason! Eric’s own argument with himself regarding the voice of hate might be true. He had, without knowing taken away Jenny from him, but Jenny didn’t even know who this person was, she had not mentioned him by name. She mentioned a stalker, someone who might have been infatuated with her on one appearance and hadn’t had the courage to approach her and declare his love for her. Analytically this was not making much sense and why should he bother to make any sense out of it anyway? Whoever he was had killed the woman he loved and also killed Eric’s happiness along with it. On reflection it had been a chance meeting and Eric remembered with a smile on his face their first encounter – it was in a park.