Author: Pescador del Valle
Title: Doppelganger
Part: Chapter 19 of 31
Summary: Justin was born with a little extra - a set of
         female sex organs - but that was just the
         beginning.
Keywords: mffff, oral, public
Language: English
Copyright: 2005

*********************************************
*                 WARNING!                  *
* This text file contains sexually explicit *
* material. If you do not wish to read this *
* type of literature, or you are under age, *
*      PLEASE DELETE THIS FILE NOW!!!!      *
*********************************************

Comments appreciated :
  see Pescador del Valle on www.asstr.org/authors.html
*********************************************************

INTRODUCTION

Justin Rogers was born with something special - a 
complete functional set of female sex organs.  Eventually 
he found they didn't really belong to him but to his twin 
sister Tina who spent much of her early life sharing his 
body.

Since she is able to emerge from and rejoin him, they 
share their memories, their experiences, and their sexual 
desires.

*********************************************************

PREVIOUSLY

Justin and Tina's friends Katie, Tyler and Leslie have 
found their "enemy" Ainslie was being abused by a friend 
of her father.  Rather than rejoicing in her troubles, 
they expressed their willingness to forget their 
differences in the face of her more serious danger.

Katie's cousin and his partner have less than willingly 
assisted the friends in their plans to neutralise the 
perpetrator.

*********************************************************

"So this is the fabled Justin?"

Justin looked at Katie wondering what tales she had been 
spreading.  He knew the gist of the conversation from 
three days earlier - even if Tina hadn't been with him 
right at that moment, they had merged several times 
during the interval and it only took once to bring each 
other up to date even if they didn't always realise it 
immediately.

"Er, Yes", he answered.

"And do you, like our darling little cousin apparently, 
swing both ways?"  Frank and Russ were enjoying the 
teenager's confusion.

"Not really" was the honest reply as Justin though of how 
he had not shirked his turn when the girls had been 
teasing, and indeed tormenting - in a most enjoyable way, 
Katie's younger brother David.

Though he had been wholly girl-orientated before Tina had 
come back into his life, their unique bond meant he had 
experienced her insights into pleasuring and being 
pleasured by a male as much as she found herself enjoying 
a Sapphic encounter.  Though none of the group had 
extended their anal encounters beyond a teasing fingertip 
Justin certainly knew, more than the two gay men before 
him could imagine since it involved the same organ, the 
intricacies of both giving a blow job and getting blown.

His attraction to other males had a narcissistic quality 
however; Tina had only fucked him - the fooling around 
with Katie's brother had been inconsequential - and it 
left him with impressions of most unusual masturbatory 
activity rather than with a lust for other men.

For Frank and Russ, who looked from Justin to each other 
and then back again, "Not really" implied "I did but I 
don't" or maybe "I don't but I might"; it might though 
just have been "No, but I don't want to appear critical 
of YOUR lifestyle".  Both men, happy with each other, 
could see why Kate liked the physical male; they wondered 
if the personal male was just as attractive and then 
decided he probably was if she was as besotted by him as 
she appeared.

The teenagers had brought a small parcel with them and 
opened it to show a range of electronic marvels.  Frank 
and Russ were amazed, especially when Katie proudly gave 
her younger brother the credit.  Frank was still musing 
over his young cousin's abilities when he realised that 
somewhere along the way he had agreed to drive the pair 
over to Ritchie's house.

Replaying the conversation he discovered he had made the 
promise BEFORE they finished providing the rest of the 
information about what they intended.  He could have 
objected but didn't even put up a token resistance this 
time, though Russ decided to stay behind.

His argument to Frank was that, at least that way there 
was someone available to bail them all out, or to fill 
out all the paperwork at the hospital.

Katie stayed up front with Frank when he dropped Justin 
off then drove slowly around a couple of blocks, avoiding 
the street where Justin was active.

Dressed in some of his older clothes, Justin went along 
from door to door with a photo of him holding a dog.  It 
had a prominent brown patch on an otherwise white face 
and he hoped people would remember the photo rather than 
his own appearance.  By visiting a selection of houses he 
would establish some credibility if Ritchie found him on 
his property.

The story was the same.  "I live two streets over and my 
dog got out last night.  He was seen heading in this 
direction and I was wondering if you might have seen 
him?"

The responses were of course "Nah" with a few "Piss off 
kid!".  Justin was wasting his time if no-one was home at 
568 but, if there was...

The insurance business pays off because people are 
willing to lose a little with the knowledge they won't 
lose big; Justin was no different.

There was no answer to his knock on the door and Justin 
carefully went down the side of the house.

"Hello?"

Still no-one.

He took a deep breath.  NOW was the real risky part.  He 
looked around as casually as possible - just seeing his 
dog hadn't strayed here, that was all - no, no-one was 
watching.  A glance through a window; the room was empty 
- that was about all they could depend on.  Oh well.

Justin leaned against the wall and Tina was inside.

Justin continued down the street looking for his little 
lost dog.  If he was being observed then he needed to be 
able to show them he wasn't hanging around long enough to 
be trouble and thereby perhaps avoid it.

---

Tina found the quiet house to be quite spooky.  Not full 
of ghosts and monsters, although the latter was always a 
possibility if Ritchie was around, but rather the 
uncertainty of what was around her.  At least in 
Ainslie's house she had Leslie's description of the 
layout.

She had arrived in a bedroom which didn't appear to 
currently be in use; it certainly didn't have a bed in 
it.  There also didn't seem to be much else of interest.

An old wardrobe had some clothes hanging in it that 
looked even older and there were miscellaneous papers in 
a drawer - old bills mainly, with quite a few marked 
"DUE" or "OVERDUE".

She moved on.

The kitchen wasn't unclean but the sink had more than one 
days dishes piled up on both the dirty side and in the 
drying rack.  It looked like Ritchie took from the clean 
side until it was empty and only washed when he ran out.  
Tina guessed that the plates and cutlery never made it 
away.

She had a quick look in the fridge but there was nothing 
unusual there.  On to the lounge...

This looked more interesting.  Quite a bit of expensive 
electrical equipment.  If Ritchie had come by it honestly 
there was certainly some question whether the money to 
pay for it had been earned that way.

Also interesting was the shelf of tapes and DVDs.  
Ritchie, it seemed, liked watching movies but wasn't 
interested in more than a very specific genre.  Tina half 
expected to see a box of tissues by the side of his 
chair.

She looked without touching wherever possible and wiped 
away any traces of her fingerprints as she went.  She 
would just have to hope no-one would be looking for 
footprints on the kitchen floor though they might have 
trouble actually getting one of her feet to compare it 
against.  Even if somehow taken into custody the police 
might find it harder to keep her there.

Another bedroom, also unused, but containing boxes this 
time.  "Hmm looks like Scuzbucket isn't above a little 
theft, or maybe receiving stolen goods."  They were light 
enough and Tina turned them over to open some of them at 
the bottom where it wouldn't be immediately noticeable.

The boxes contained a mixture of clothing; reasonable 
quality business shirts still in individually sealed 
packaging; a range of lingerie, mainly assorted knickers 
with a box of bras.  Relying on the labels which seemed 
correct there were another two of packaged pantyhose and 
some men's underwear.

The next room did have a bed, roughly made, and it 
appeared to be Ritchie's.  There were a couple of 
magazines just visible out one side of the bed and some 
discarded clothes in a corner - apparently the laundry 
was done on the same basis as the dishes.  A small cane 
bin held a pile of crumpled paper; Tina had found the 
tissues!

"Ugh!"

A check of his drawers found a small roll of notes; 
Ritchie must not carry all his cash at once.  Tina wasn't 
tempted to take them - Ritchie might notice the absence 
and realise his house had been entered plus there was 
only one place Tina would be able to carry them and she 
had no idea what nasties might be on the notes.  No, if 
they collected them later she would pass them to Justin 
or else she would bring a lube covered plastic bag.

Her last check was back in the kitchen where she had 
noticed a telephone index.  There was a notepad next to 
it and she tore out a couple of pages before jotting down 
the few numbers listed.  She didn't know which, if any, 
would be useful but it gave them a possibility to check 
out whether any of them had a criminal background which 
could also be useful.

Turning around she realised there was an extra door that 
she hadn't looked at earlier.  She had thought it was 
just a pantry but now realised the foodstuffs had been 
elsewhere.

Opening the door, Tina found a dark stairway but the 
light switch was easy to locate on the inside of the door 
frame.  She made her way down into a small workshop.  Two 
well secured doors opened through an angled area where 
roof met the opposite wall.  They allowed more generous 
access than the kitchen door provided but the cobwebs 
implied they hadn't been opened in a while as well as 
indicating the quality of the owner's housekeeping.

Unfortunately there were no signs of printing press with 
sheets of freshly printed counterfeit bills; no sign of 
an old chair with bloodstained ropes.  She couldn't tell 
WHAT Ritchie actually did there but it didn't appear to 
be particularly helpful to them.

She climbed the stairs again and switched off the light 
after putting the folded paper into her mouth.

---

Justin coughed and put his hand in front of his mouth.  
The woman standing before him failed to notice it came 
away with a small wad of paper in it.

"Sorry."

"Well as I was sayin', I ain't seen a dog like that round 
here.  Hope you find it though."

"Thanks anyway."

Justin put his hand into his pocket and decided he had 
done enough.  He walked around the corner and waited for 
Katie and Frank to drive by again.

Now they had to come up with a plan.

---------------------------------------------------------

As he realised the siren and flashing lights were 
directed at him Ritchie cursed his own procrastination in 
not getting his piston rings seen to.  His car was 
blowing more than a little blue and not just after the 
traffic lights went green.  Now he'd HAVE to get them 
seen to and would probably have less cash to do it with!

He was only mildly concerned about the jewellery in his 
pocket.  He HAD found it after all and should be able to 
argue he was only holding it to see if a reward had been 
offered if it was even detected.  It was certainly safer 
in his pocket than hidden in the car if the two officers 
behind him had any intentions of carrying out a thorough 
inspection while defecting his vehicle.

He turned off the engine and pulled out his papers ready 
to take his scolding.

"Please get out of the vehicle, keeping your hands where 
we can see them."

"Oh damn!" Ritchie muttered, "I had to get some fucking 
officious type who's so far up himself he pisses out his 
mouth!"  He slowly got out, following the officer's 
orders, and then turned towards the car, stretching his 
arms out over the roof as instructed.

An officer came up behind him and took one arm off the 
roof at a time to handcuff him while his partner covered 
Ritchie.  He then finished patting down his secured 
prisoner, checking him for secreted weapons.

"All this for a bit of smoke?"  Ritchie was otherwise 
speechless.

It took mere seconds for the officer to find the knife 
concealed in a nifty holster on Ritchie's forearm.  It 
wasn't big but it didn't look like he used it for peeling 
apples.  It took barely any longer to disclose the lump 
in Ritchie's pocket had nothing to do with him being 
happy to be patted down by the officer.

"You're under arrest for carrying a concealed weapon."

It would do for now, any additional charges could wait 
until after a formal interview; the diamond bracelet he 
had pulled out looked a little rich for this guy to be 
giving his girlfriend.  The officer made sure Ritchie was 
aware of his rights and sat him in the caged back of the 
patrol car.  Others had arrived and would give the 
vehicle a more careful examination while he dealt with 
the prisoner.

As the policeman settled Ritchie he found the situation 
funny - peculiar, not Ha Ha.  The Dispatcher had warned 
that the suspect had a prior for violent behaviour yet he 
had rolled belly up as soon as they had pulled him over.  
Maybe all the car chase shows with the corny scripts had 
made a difference after all and he knew he wouldn't get 
away.  Of course, the officer knew the networks wouldn't 
show the successful escapes.  At least until the other 
ratings plunged.  He wasn't about to complain that his 
job wasn't hard enough though.

---

The big discovery occurred while they were still waiting 
for Dispatch to let them know that the other team had 
located the mugging victim and the witness who had phoned 
in the report.  It was a nuisance that they had the 
criminal but no crime - yet that was preferable to the 
other way around.

The bag secreted under the passenger's seat wasn't hard 
to find - the teenagers hadn't intended that it should 
have been during an actual search, only that Ritchie 
shouldn't notice it beforehand.  Despite their own 
apparent youth, the officers checking the car were 
experienced and had no trouble.

The contents of the bag matched the description of a 
recent robbery and that made them look more closely at 
the similar item found on their captive's person.  A 
check over the radio confirmed it was part of the haul.  
Suddenly their mugger was of more interest and two 
detectives found their weekend interrupted; a willing 
interruption in view of the break in what had been an 
otherwise "impossible" case.

Ritchie, it seemed, was going down - and not in the 
manner he had required from Ainslie (unless he met 
someone who wasn't prepared to take "No!" for an answer).

**********

Adam Brandt had represented Ritchie Oldes before so he 
knew the sort of person arraigned on the charges set out 
in the documents spread over his desk.  Covered in 
burgundy-coloured leather it was a graduation present 
from his father and was probably the only ostentatious 
item in his respectable but not particularly prosperous 
practice.

He didn't particularly believe his client's protestations 
of wounded innocence and a supposed frame up by unknown 
third parties - that sort of argument had never proved 
particularly convincing in the past - but he WAS 
professional enough to do everything he could to 
strengthen the story his client wished to place before 
the court.

It wasn't as if the Police case didn't contain its own 
little mysteries, ones they couldn't explain any better 
than he could.  Perhaps one of those would provide the 
means of unravelling the case against Ritchie.  Anyway, 
it was still early and the more he could do to weaken the 
case the better his position when it came time to plea 
bargain.  Adam had no illusions about the strength of the 
stolen goods found on his client - who had stupidly 
commented on having the bracelet BEFORE Adam could arrive 
to direct Ritchie's responses; didn't he watch ANY 
television?

Adam could only go through the evidence trying to find an 
inconsistency or some procedural error that might make 
some of it inadmissible.  Did Ritchie WANT to go to jail?

He took it chronologically.

**********

Item 1 : The robberies.

     The jewellery had been taken from two private
     houses.  They had alarm systems which, in one case,
     included video surveillance.  In both cases the
     alarms had been turned off shortly after the owners
     had gone out.  The video tape had gone haywire for
     all the cameras at the second house a little while
     beforehand and had remained useless until just after
     the alarm was reset.  One house was unprotected for
     thirty seven minutes and fifteen seconds, the other
     for forty two, twenty.

     Ritchie insisted he had never, EVER, been near the
     area nor did he know anyone involved in the robbery.
     He certainly didn't seem the sort to have contacts
     on the inside and the Police reports effectively
     admitted their failure to link him to anyone likely
     to know the alarm codes either from the houses or
     from the single security company - one of the few
     other common factors but one offering no leads.

     Adam made notes to have the two households cross-
     checked himself, perhaps there WAS a common
     person involved, not necessarily the burglar but
     someone providing the information to make his job
     easier; Adam could only hope if he found one it
     didn't lead him closer to Ritchie.

     While it wasn't his job to help the Police find the
     real culprit, it WAS his job to show the jury that
     it was very possible someone other than his client
     did.  The charge stood at receiving stolen goods
     rather than burglary itself; the Police couldn't
     make that stick YET but they were still looking.
	
     Ritchie was lucky that he COULD prove that he had
     legitimately purchased some of the other items found
     in his house.  Buying and reselling stock from
     bankrupt businesses was a reasonable sideline even
     if it did look suspicious at first.

-----

Nighthawk certainly didn't know any alarm codes, other 
than his own.  He did however know a lot, an AWEFUL lot, 
about the security service used by the two home owners 
whose property had been stolen.

Security firms would have secure computer systems, right?  
No outside links so there would be no chance of them 
being hacked into.

Unless.

Suppose you make use of a wireless network.  That would 
be a weak point surely?  Ah, but a good sysadmin knows 
that and makes sure anyone linking up has the correct 
authorisation codes.  Score one against the hackers.

But wireless networks are primarily useful to busy sales 
reps who want to plonk their laptops down and start work 
without connecting a lot of fiddly cables.  The sort of 
person who spent a lot of time dropping in on potential 
customers; who might leave their laptop in their car 
while their dined, perhaps even overnight in their 
driveways; the sort of person who ignored all 
recommendations about passwords because THEY weren't 
interested in all that techno-crap.

The sort of person who undermined the very company they 
worked for without even knowing it.

Nighthawk had controlled the network, owned it 
essentially, for almost a year.  He had long since copied 
the customer details file and a little program recorded 
the changes so he simply had to connect occasionally to 
keep it all up to date.  The system administrator had no 
real reason to compare the salesman's access log against 
his physical presence in the office - the system reported 
few attempts to gain illicit access and was capably 
rejecting those.

Nighthawk had the details of which premises were 
protected and by what sort and number of detectors.  He 
even had descriptions of where they and the control 
panels were placed.

But not the pin numbers.

He personally had no intention of going physically to any 
of the locations listed.  If he had he could have simply 
bypassed the alarms by setting them to test mode on the 
computer network that WAS available externally, and to 
which he had found full details in a document on the 
"safe" network.  That would have left a trail which would 
have probably resulted in the loss of his most unofficial 
tenure with the company.  No-one had been willing to pay 
the amounts required for THAT level of service.

Instead Nighthawk sold information about specific sites - 
what the people (who, like him, remained anonymous) did 
with it was up to them.

-----

Justin had waited impatiently in the bushes - that hour 
long ordeal was probably THE most dangerous part of the 
whole exercise.

When the owner had finally driven up Justin had released 
his pent up breath in a sigh of relief - he was alone, 
that made it so much easier.  He backed up to the house 
and waited just a little longer; the sound of a key 
turning in the lock and Tina was inside, triggering the 
alarm's countdown simultaneously with the owner.  Justin 
quietly walked down the short driveway and quite 
naturally out onto the street; Tina was safer if he 
didn't hang around.

The man dropped his keys and some papers onto a side 
table and stood in front of the keypad mounted out of the 
reach of younger fingers.  He failed to notice the naked 
teenage girl making a mental note of each careful key 
press; she had rejoined her brother before the stranger 
even turned around.

-----

There were two exceptions to the otherwise repeated 
procedure at the second house.  The first involved Justin 
pointing what looked like a toy ray gun at the house 
before he walked up the drive.  He kept it steadily aimed 
near the eaves until he had another device, torch shaped 
with a similar parabolic reflector extending the natural 
reflector where the bulb had been replaced.

He switched the new device on and put the ray gun away.

Justin's girlfriend's brother David was rightly proud of 
his electronic skills and enjoyed the challenge of 
proving he was as good as he said he was.  He had been 
asked to research and construct an unusual device, one 
which wasn't something he could simply buy in kit form or 
even get the schematics for on the net.  No, this had 
tested him.

It had cost the five friends, both to find out the house 
had video protection and to get David to produce a 
solution.  This time it had fortuitously turned out that 
most of the money had only been a loan instead of 
permanently coming out of their pockets.

It was well worth it though, the disrupters worked 
perfectly.  David had demonstrated them at the Mall and 
the others had been amazed to see TV after TV going snowy 
in turn before resuming their normal image of passers by 
as his "Magic Wand" had been directed towards the home 
video cameras on display.

On the down side, the unit had to be reasonably close to 
the camera being affected.  The IR transmitter would 
disrupt the CCD in the camera from almost anywhere in 
front of the lens but if the cone spread too far the 
signal became more attenuated and the image became 
visible through the snow.

David would have preferred to use lasers but the power 
needs of the traditional kind were not conducive to a 
portable model, and the semiconductor kind just didn't 
have the oomph to do the job without a wave guide - and 
stringing optical fibres over someone's front yard MIGHT 
be a little suspicious.

-----

The third house almost made them change their minds about 
helping Ainslie.  Sensibly they had prepared some 
contingency plans before going onto any of the sites and 
that turned disaster into mere rout.

Justin had been waiting in the bushes, yet again, when he 
heard a car pull up in the driveway.  Unfortunately he 
stuck his head up to check just as the headlights swept 
past his hiding place.  The movement made the passenger 
look again and the sight of a ski masked intruder caused 
her to shout and point.

Justin had been watching the expression of horror spread 
across her face as his own grew.  His heart began to 
thump even as he sprinted across the lawn.  He had to get 
far enough away from any pursuit before he could head 
back to where he had stashed his bicycle.  It would be a 
trade off between running fast enough to build up some 
distance and walking slowly so he wouldn't attract 
attention once the hue and cry started.

The driver wasted little time getting out of the car; he 
hadn't properly seen what his wife was describing but 
there had been something shadowy momentarily in his rear 
mirror.  If she said someone was lurking, there was a 
lurker!

He was heading out the driveway when a sound made him 
turn.

"Help!"

The voice trembled; it was obviously feminine and 
distressed.  A head appeared out of the bushes and then 
sunk onto the lawn.  He turned back, calling to his wife 
at the same time.

It was a girl, her naked back showing through the bushes 
as she made another effort and lifted herself to stumble 
another step forwards before collapsing again, this time 
to turn over, her extended arm falling across her face.

As the man approached he couldn't help but look at her 
exposed body.  She was a little grubby from the garden 
bed but that only emphasised her overt sexuality.  Her 
breasts showed her incipient womanhood, her tufted growth 
made an arrowhead that drew his eyes legward.  He started 
as his wife arrived behind him, guilty at being caught 
staring instead of helping.

"You call the Police, *I* will help her.  Better get an 
ambulance just in case."  There was no sign of blood but 
a masked man and a naked girl was likely to mean one 
thing and a hospital was probably a good place for her to 
get the right kind of support even if she hadn't been 
physically harmed.

She knelt by Tina's head.  "Are you all right?  What 
happened?"

"M'okay.  Water.  Please.  C'n I have a drink?"  Without 
removing her obscuring arm, Tina used the other to make 
an indication that her throat was hurting.

"Sure honey.  Just a second."

The woman went to the front door.  "Harvey, bring out a 
drink with you and a blanket."

She turned back but the girl was gone.

Justin quietly retrieved his bike and they rode away.  He 
wished ONE of the group, any one, had their licence!  He 
was still quivering and it took a while for the shakes to 
settle.  It was the nearest they had been to real danger 
and they didn't look forward to a repetition.

That emotion lasted until they arrived at Katie's house, 
where they had supposedly been on each occasion they had 
been casing prospective houses.  Then, on retelling their 
story (Tina sitting in clothes borrowed from Katie), the 
fear changed to a spirit of adventure and a feeling that, 
just perhaps, they were invincible.

They never heard what the outcome was at house three.  It 
seemed unadvisable to try to find out.

-----

Katie joined them on the actual robberies.  She insisted, 
or rather, INSISTED!  The debacle of the third house, 
even if it hadn't resulted in their capture, made her 
worry about Justin, and Tina, if they didn't have her 
watchful eye to cover their backs.  If they could have 
involved Tyler and Leslie for added protection she would 
have suggested that but neither Justin nor Tina felt 
quite ready to explain to them just how they were 
managing to get into locked houses.  They had said they 
knew someone who could get hold of some stolen property 
to plant on Ritchie, insinuated that David's net contacts 
had linked them up - that had had to do.

Justin had leaned against the front door and Katie took 
the opportunity to throw her arms around his neck and 
plant a quick kiss on his lips before the door opened 
behind him.  A naked girl hurried them inside, looking 
past them to see if anyone was watching.

They had arrived just before dusk.  It meant they could 
look around without needing to turn on lights but, if 
they had to get out in a hurry and hide, it would soon be 
dark enough to aid in their escape.

The security company had listed special items subject to 
separate insurance cover and also the absence of any kind 
of safe.  In the first house the wife apparently had a 
couple of thousand dollars worth of jewellery that she 
felt was adequately covered by the security system.  
Since she and her husband paid for rent-a-cops to be sent 
to check on ANY alarm she probably wasn't unduly 
careless.  Normally.

To avoid leaving more clues than necessary, all three had 
surgical caps and gloves, ski masks being a little too 
obvious and Tina could always scrunch hers up and put it 
in her mouth.  Tina also had a pair of surgical overshoes 
for her feet.  In all other respects they were normally 
dressed teenagers; at least whenever a third of them are 
naked.

The jewellery wasn't too hard to find - the master 
bedroom being the obvious place - but they had a further 
look around to see what else might be worth including.  A 
burglar wouldn't leave something equally valuable behind 
would they?

Katie found a purse, one with a nice little wad of money.  
It encouraged her to check for others and, when she had 
finished, there was nearly seven hundred dollars in an 
untidy pile on the bedspread.  There was a little 
conscience searching but in the end they decided that, if 
she could afford to have it sitting around in her 
wardrobe, the owner could afford to fund their rescue 
plans.

She also found a couple of toys, one of which she didn't 
really understand but figured must have a similar nature 
to the more phallic shaped items it was with.  It 
reminded her of a butterfly but they didn't have time for 
her to work out how it should be used.  Reluctantly she 
put them back.  It would have been convenient to take 
them to try out (a little soap and water, or similar, 
taking care of any qualms about their second-hand nature) 
but their absence might be difficult to explain.  They 
needed to implicate Ritchie after all.

Then Katie had an idea.  The butterfly was distinct 
enough.  If it ended up with the loot Ritchie would be 
further connected with the burglary - he certainly wasn't 
likely to be trying to fence IT for some other burglar.  
The other's liked her plan.  And if that gave her time to 
study it further well... that was just fortunate wasn't 
it.

-----

The second house required Justin to turn the wand on 
remotely before they came into range of the camera.  In 
the darkness he could just see the dim red glow around 
the lens area which showed its image was being disrupted.  
They took no chances though and approached with ski masks 
donned.  It was why they had chosen night for this raid 
despite the need to light up the house.

The same entry technique worked with Justin this time 
pulling Katie in for a kiss through the openings in their 
masks, it was definitely kinky especially outside of a 
house they were about to burgle.

The jewellery was a bit harder to find, being kept in a 
lock box that felt right so they took it unopened while 
checking they hadn't missed it elsewhere.  There was less 
than forty dollars in loose change and small notes; more 
pizza money than anything else but they took that as 
well.  This time Katie found a couple of very explicit 
magazines in one of the smaller bedrooms; obviously a 
teenage boy.  She checked with Justin and Tina and they 
agreed one wouldn't go astray as a present for David.  It 
was a risk that connected them to the robbery but they 
figured if only one was missing the boy wouldn't be 
likely to connect it to the lost jewellery if he even 
noticed it was gone.  They only hoped it wasn't his 
favourite stoke mag.

Tina had to remind Justin to get the disrupter before 
they left.

**********

Item 2 : The mugging.

     Though no charges had been laid as a result of the
     original report, Adam did have the details as set
     out by the Police.  It was after all the reason they
     pulled him over in the first place; the supposed
     "Reasonable Cause" for putting him in handcuffs and
     searching both his person and then his car.

     Adam wasn't going to be able to maintain "Illegal
     Search", he had heard the tape of the phone call.
     His client HAD been identified explicitly enough
     that the arresting officer hadn't in any way
     exceeded his powers, no matter how unfortunately
     that turned out for Ritchie.

     The failure of the Police to find any trace of such
     a mugging, or of the witness who had failed to stay
     around as he had promised, was the one thing that
     DID support Ritchie's assertion he had been framed.
     Assuming of course that he didn't have a friend who
     might have taken care of the loose ends Ritchie had
     left behind.  Adam didn't think so; Ritchie was a
     thug but he didn't seem to have the balls (or
     stupidity as an alternative) to go that far.

-----

"Here he comes."  Justin's voice came through the 
earpieces warning both girls to be ready.  His own heads 
up had come through from the car park just over a minute 
before.

This was the second weekend they had spent waiting for 
Ritchie to head into this particular shopping precinct.  
It had to be one he occasionally frequented - which this 
was - and also be one that was populated by young women 
who had extra spending money (either from lucrative jobs 
of from parents who had the money to spoil them) - ditto.

Timing was all important for several reasons.  They would 
have to appear natural to Ritchie but would also have to 
avoid suspicious security guards who might notice they 
were hanging around.  Ideally there would be no-one else 
particularly close so they could complete the sting 
without interference.  They would have no chance to 
repeat this plan - it would simply look far too 
suspicious if they appeared in front of their quarry a 
second time.

Ritchie rounded a corner to see a young woman waving to 
her friend down the street.  They were both very well 
dressed and the one close to him had quite a few boutique 
shopping bags next to her on one of the many benches 
sprinkled around.

His eyes were drawn to her cleavage; it wasn't really the 
sort of top one often saw being worn shopping especially 
for one with her build - "Unfortunately", he thought.  He 
spent so much time looking at her chest he wouldn't have 
been able to describe her face even 30 seconds later.

"Cleavage Lady's" friend chided her for sitting there; 
Ritchie could imagine the woman's embarrassment without 
feeling the least sympathy for her.  "Daddy" had probably 
paid for all her little packages, and her outfit, without 
a second thought while HE always seemed to be struggling 
to get by.

"C'mon - You KNOW we've got to be there in twenty 
minutes!"  The woman making all the fuss turned and 
headed off, not offering to come and help her friend with 
the parcels.

Ritchie stopped to light a cigarette and to watch for 
opportunities.  He didn't normally stoop to snatch and 
run - it was too risky, some do-gooder was just as likely 
to grab HIM - but he had managed to pick the odd pocket 
or handbag in his youth.  He wasn't about to dip into 
anyone's pocket - he hadn't been practicing those skills 
for yonks; a purse tucked into the top of a bag though...  
If she was in a hurry to go somewhere she might not even 
notice it was missing until she'd arrived.

The woman had a nice sparkly bracelet.  It looked 
valuable though it would need a more-expert eye than his 
to be sure.  "Damned fakes are getting too fuckin' good!" 
he thought.  He had once risked his neck for something 
that turned out to be worth barely a hundred retail; at 
ten cents on the dollar (junk paid less than quality) he 
almost threw it away when he found out.

He missed seeing the woman release the clasp on the 
bracelet; the safety chain had been conveniently broken 
beforehand so there was nothing to stop the bauble 
falling to the ground unseen as the woman gathered all 
her bags together and set off to catch her friend.

Unseen except by the person who was meant to see it and 
by Justin who had been monitoring the whole operation.

Looking ever so casually around, Ritchie sauntered over 
to the bench where he sat with his feet either side of 
the diamond bracelet.  Checking again, he bent to retie 
his lace and, when he straightened, the jewellery had 
gone.

Twenty seconds later all traces of Ritchie had as well.  
Twenty seconds after THAT, Katie and Tina watched him get 
into his car and drive off.  Justin was on the phone.

"Police?  I'm at the shops in Nantesville on Baker 
Terrace and I want to report a mugging.  No.  No-one was 
hurt; he got scared off when I ran over.  The lady is a 
bit shaky from having a knife shoved in her face but he 
didn't take anything from her.  Anyway, what's important 
is we both got his number plate.  He drove right past us 
trying to get away.  Yes, ma'am."

Following the officer's questions, Justin carefully mis-
represented himself and then described the mythical 
getaway with the very real identification of Ritchie's 
car and the direction it was travelling.  He then 
volunteered an accurate description of the knife Ritchie 
habitually carried.

"I've got to help this lady for now.  I'll be here when 
you turn up.  Just catch the bastard; he looked like he 
was doped up and could harm someone else."  He rang off 
before the officer could ask any more questions or give 
any instructions.  The nattily dressed Leslie and the 
"wealthy slut" Tyler (would you call it the Paris Hilton 
look?) had changed before meeting him at the bus stop 
with Tina and Katie.  They caught the first bus that came 
along, copying Ritchie in getting out of the area ASAP.

**********

Item 2 : The mugging, continued.

     The police had obtained a court order to seize all
     the various surveillance tapes in the area that the
     mugging had supposedly occurred as well as the strip
     where Ritchie had allegedly been according to his
     own statement.

     There had been no sign of any disturbance, nor of
     anyone who could be said to even closely resemble
     Ritchie on the first set.

     The second set though; they were a real puzzle.  The
     time of Ritchie's arrest was clearly identified from
     the camera in the arresting officer's car.  The time
     taken to get to that point could similarly be
     calculated; in fact Adam had driven the route
     Ritchie said he had taken and had been pretty close
     to that calculation.

     Allowing a little leeway either side for traffic
     hold ups or for the possibly of Ritchie being a lead
     foot gave about a fifteen minute window around the
     time he had been reported leaving the stores.  It
     was a consistency that was hard to fault.

     But...

     The two camera's covering the seat he had identified
     had produced nothing but snow for a period of three
     hours beforehand BUT had miraculously "recovered"
     towards the end of that very fifteen minute window.

     The police didn't try to explain it, and Adam
     couldn't - yet.  If Ritchie had claimed aliens had
     landed in that walkway during the time in question
     Adam could have used the tape to convince any number
     of enthusiasts of a conspiracy to hide their visit.

     The other cameras gave distant blurred images of
     people who COULD be the ones Ritchie had described.
     Adam had seen more useful ones of a unicorn in the
     forest.  These certainly couldn't be enhanced to
     suddenly show an identifying birthmark like some TV
     shows suggested.

     Perhaps Ritchie WAS telling the truth about a frame
     up.  There were certainly enough discrepancies for
     Adam to give him the benefit of the doubt.

-----

While Justin had made his phone call accusing Ritchie and 
setting the Police on his trail, Tyler and Leslie had 
been busily changing in a nearby toilet.

Off came the glad rags to be exchanged for their more 
normal style of attire.  The boutique bags were placed 
inside those from a department store that had been folded 
with their regular clothes.  A quick rearrangement of the 
hair with a couple of scrunchies and they left 
separately, taking different routes to meet up with the 
others.

Justin watched them leave.  He had recovered the two 
disrupters he had placed at either end of the stretch of 
pavement.  Now he used his "ray gun" to obscure his own 
appearance as he recovered the third that had watched 
people in the vicinity of the toilets.  Ostensibly to 
keep an eye on perverts, it WOULD have shown two people 
going in and two different ones coming out and they 
couldn't have that.

The snowy reception disappeared shortly thereafter and 
Justin headed to the bus stop where the girls were 
waiting.

---

The bus took them about twelve kilometres to another 
transit hub in an outer suburb.  On one side was a small 
shopping centre and on the other was a train station 
which would allow them to circle the city and finally 
catch a bus back home from the opposite side.

First though was a little job that broke the girls' 
hearts.  Tyler had certainly looked different in an 
outfit that presented her ample assets in a strategic 
manner, if her strategy was to have all the men around 
her (and Leslie of course) drooling; she had had fun.  
Leslie on the other hand had been dressed as she would 
have loved to be dressed every day.  It was something 
from the daytime soaps (no-one else dressed like that 
every day).  Both outfits were wonderful in their own 
way, though Tyler would have kept hers for special dress 
up rather than apres-school; she would love to have 
played the tart for Leslie.

Both outfits were also brand new and expensive.  Both 
outfits also had to go in the charity bins.  Even Tina 
and Katie felt that a crime while knowing it had to be 
done.  It was better to be done quickly and, with only a 
last furtive check (during the bus ride) that there had 
been nothing left in or on them, Justin was given the 
duty of dropping them through the chute.

He then had the duty to cheer them up.

The train took twenty minutes to arrive and they gathered 
in the almost empty subway to wait.  The only benches 
looked as they had been subjected to the spillage of 
every known beverage and fast food item; they smelled 
like they had been subjected to the final digestive by-
products of both.  The group decided to stand.

They found a less grimy patch of wall and Justin put an 
arm around Tyler and they leaned back together.  Leslie 
then nestled under Tyler's other wing while Katie copied 
her on Justin's other side.  Tina then joined the circle 
in the middle.

No-one took much notice of them, there wasn't anyone 
really *TO* take any notice; people had generally already 
gone where they were going and weren't yet ready to come 
back.

Leslie was trading smoochies with Tyler and Justin was 
sharing his time between Katie and Tina.  Of course Tina 
and Katie were getting some serious lip lock themselves 
and Leslie teased Justin about missing out.  He 
retaliated by using his arm to seize an unresisting, in 
fact giggling, Tyler and monopolised her attention for 
long enough that Leslie was beginning to get jealous.  
Tyler pulled her closer but instead of kissing away the 
ill humour she pressed her into Justin so they could get 
as much lip time.

When they finished they found Katie and Tina still hadn't 
surfaced for air and indeed were resting their hands in 
naughty places.  The others decided the only thing they 
could possibly do was protect public morals and decency 
by hiding the sinners from view.

Justin and Tyler separated and Leslie took his arm 
instead.  They formed a semi-circle in front of the two 
girls who grinned past the edge of their kisses.

Justin looked around and then decided to help.  He lifted 
the back of Katie's top and undid the clasps holding her 
bra.  Reaching around under the top he lifted the cups 
out of the way and brushing his hands against his 
sister's as she reached for the bare breasts.

The garment left an unsightly crumpled bulge over Katie's 
chest and the others agreed it distracted from the 
otherwise excellent appearance of Katie's bare boobs 
under the thin top.  They helped Justin to remove it by 
slipping one strap down an arm and then pulling it out 
the other armhole.  The bra ended up in a shopping bag 
and Tina's soon followed.

It had been fun to watch Tina's fingers playing with 
Katie's mounds.  So much so that everyone else wanted to 
join in.  Justin stood behind Katie supporting her tits; 
she could feel him pressing into the crack between her 
ass cheeks.  Tina still ran her hands all over Katie's 
chest, fiddling with the little knobs on the centre of 
each breast.  Katie in turn kept a firm grip on each of 
Tina's nipples as both struggled to kiss while being 
assaulted by the other two.

Tyler had her hand down Tina's front; Leslie down 
Katie's.  Both found the area wet with exudate.  The 
recipients of the trio's attentions decided, without 
words to simply let the others pleasure them while they 
kissed.  Tina had lifted the front of Katie's top and, 
when she realised Tina had something else in mind, Katie 
copied her.  Bare breast rubbed against bare breast with 
only Justin's hands to interfere and contribute in equal 
measure.  Arms went around neck and back and their bodies 
rubbed closer.  The back of Tyler's hand was crushed 
against the back of her own lover's and both tried to 
outdo the other to ensure firstly, the girls arrived 
before the train, and also as a challenge to see which 
could be made to come first.

Tyler wished she had been positioned to invade Katie's 
pussy.  They had started out learning about love together 
and would always have a special place in their hearts for 
each other.  Tyler and Leslie were lovers, as were Katie 
and Justin and apparently Katie and Tina, but Tyler and 
Katie had been and had remained friends.  It didn't 
really matter though, Katie would have fun and Tyler 
could lick her juices from Leslie's hand; she wouldn't 
miss out.

The tannoy made a distorted announcement which could only 
mean the train was coming.  Were the two girls?  Katie 
was a little in the lead and Justin put his lips near her 
ear.  It wasn't exactly sweet nothings but rather a 
suggestion of what he'd like to do to her once on the 
train.  Katie didn't realise THAT was possible but the 
images she dreamed up had her dangling from his, Tina's 
and Leslie's arms.

Ignoring anyone who might now come along, Tyler changed 
her position so she was standing behind Tina.  She had to 
spin her hand around inside the tight confines of Tina's 
pants but that in some ways helped.  She was now able to 
slide her fingers deep into Tina's cunt; to lift her 
bodily, supported only by the fingers resting in the 
crevice between her lips; to frig her furiously with 
soaked fingers.  Tina released Katie and collapsed back 
against Tyler, her legs dangling above the ground jerking 
spastically as the orgasm struck her in Tyler's firm and 
encompassing embrace.

They barely had time to adjust their attire before the 
train pulled up.  They certainly didn't have time to 
recover and the other three supported the pair between 
them as they boarded.  Like the platform, their 
particular carriage was near empty.  An older couple sat 
down the other end, facing away.

"Well" said an exhausted Katie to Justin, "was that all 
just talk?"

"You've got to be joking; you haven't even had a chance 
to recover."

"If you are going to do what you said you would I don't 
need to recover; I'm good for it now!"

The others, including a happily stressed Tina, looked at 
Justin.

"Hang on!"  He got up and checked the following carriage.  
It too was near empty.

"Okay!"  He sounded a little unsure.  "If you ladies 
would gather around I will need one of you watching the 
door and another checking out the window as we pull into 
the stations.  The other will help be a sight screen.  We 
need to have as much notice as possible if anyone's 
coming."

"Except for me.  If I'm coming I want it to be a 
surprise, a big surprise."

The girls knew it had to be sexual but none could guess 
exactly what.

Justin took out his wallet and removed a little packet.  
They watched as he tore it open and then Katie pulled 
down his zip and released his penis from his pants.  Once 
again all eyes were on Justin as he rolled the rubber 
over his erection.

He couldn't just plonk Katie on his lap, the front of his 
pants would be soaking, yet he hadn't REALLY expected to 
be fucking her on the train.  It had been a fantasy for 
god's sake!  Only it looked like it wasn't any longer.

He lifted his bum and scooted his pants down to his 
knees.  His coated prick stuck rigidly out the front of 
his boxers.  He didn't mind if THEY got damp, it was 
certainly better that having his butt all sticky from the 
leather seats.

Katie stood before him and indicated he should pull her 
pants down.  They fell to her knees once over her hips 
and the floral decorated knickers soon followed.

Justin had imagined her sitting on his lap, her back 
against his chest and her hands resting on his knees.  
Instead she pulled him forward (Justin gave thanks that 
he had kept his briefs on so that he slid rather than 
shuddered across the seat).  There was now room for her 
knees on the seat and Katie swung a leg over the saddle 
and proceeded to sit herself on the saddle horn.

Then she began to buck.  Justin pointed out later that it 
was the horse that bucked in a rodeo.  She mildly abused 
him as a pedant and asked whether he had enjoyed it.  
When he answered "Yes" she asked "So what are you 
complaining about."

"It wasn't a complaint, just an observation."

"Well look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't love to 
do it all over again."

"Not right now but it might be fun with Leslie."  He 
conceded he had earned the thump.

Justin had no hope of hanging onto his sanity let alone 
his semen.  Katie's cunt was itching to be filled from 
before and when he did the itching only got worse and she 
had to try to rub it.

Justin's prick certainly found every little crevice 
inside her before she joined him in an exhausted 
oblivion.  It had been so much fun.  The whole bloody 
trip had turned out a wonderful outing.  Katie hoped her 
lover, and herself, could recover before they got home.  
There should be SOMEWHERE at one of their four houses 
that they could get together.  If worst came to worst she 
would take Tina to bed and make Justin talk to David or 
her parents or something so she could get Tina straight 
back if they were interrupted.  No, that wasn't fair, 
Tina was not, by any stretch of the imagination, classed 
as "worst".

They left the train and headed for the penultimate bus 
stop.  Their clothes were filthy, prompting Tina to 
comment about 'Lust in the Dust'.  No-one could top it, 
few of them had the strength to try.

*****

Item 3 : The arrest.

     The knife was almost nothing.  Now the mugging
     didn't feature on the charge sheet it wasn't
     "Assault with a Deadly Weapon" but merely "Carrying
     a Concealed Weapon".  They weren't showing intent,
     simply the fact the knife had been hidden.  If he
     had worn a sheath from his belt and kept it where it
     could be seen no-one would have complained -
     provided he didn't actually use it.

     Adam felt he could minimise the damage from that
     charge.

     If only he had been called by Ritchie before he had
	 said the fateful words;

     "I don't know anything about THAT stuff.  I found
     the bracelet down at the shops on Baker.  I was
     going to see if anyone had reported it lost; it
     looked valuable; there might have been a reward."

     If there had been the bracelet alone, Ritchie's
     story would have been weak but plausible.  With the
     other items in his car Ritchie's only hope would
     have been to suggest they had ALL been planted.
     THAT would have been a large pill to swallow but
     crims HAD set up their rivals on occasion and if
     Adam could have found a likely person to blame he
     might just have been able to convince a jury that
     Ritchie was innocent.

     On the further downside was the additional evidence
     found in Ritchie's house.  There had been the
     additional proceeds from the second robbery,
     including the damaged lock box that had been found
     in his basement.  Matching paint chips had been
     found on his workbench and on his chisel.

     None of it looked easy to argue away; none of it
     strengthened his case or weakened the prosecutor's.

     And then there had been the clothes and that damned
     vibrator!  The owners of the first house hadn't
     mentioned either at first but when an officer called
     (with some sensitivity a policewoman had been sent)
     and asked whether such items had been stolen, the
     woman checked and was able to adequately describe
     the lingerie and (red-faced) the butterfly to make
     it a positive identification.  It didn't do Ritchie
     any good to claim he had never seen them - there
     were traces of his semen on them!

     Ritchie was tied in to the burglaries and it was
     only that his alibi for the two times in question
     had held up with independent video evidence that
     WASN'T stuffed up for a change that he didn't face
     the more serious charges.

-----

Knowing WHEN to break into Ritchie's was the easiest 
part.  Braving the not unsubstantial dangers to do so 
definitely wasn't.

Entry was essentially the same as the burgled houses but 
Ritchie had no alarm system.  Instead he relied on bars 
over the "easy" windows and good solid doors front and 
back.  Like the home owners, he hadn't for some reason 
replaced the older locks with dead locks and Tina could 
simply turn the latch to open the door.

Justin joined her, a risky move, but they had been 
insistent that Katie NOT come this time; backed up by 
cousin Frank and his partner Russ she had been forced to 
wait listening to the noises of the bug as she did so and 
trying not to imagine each creak to be someone creeping 
up on them.

Normally Justin would have left Tina to do whatever she 
had to while he headed for a safe spot.  It wasn't 
cowardice, but an excellent strategy.  At the first sign 
of trouble she would join him, sharing his body; and Tina 
still had the reflexes to outrace anyone - she would be 
gone before they had a chance to blink at the naked girl 
before them.

In Ritchie's house she would need assistance and Justin 
couldn't let Katie be there while he walked away.  That 
would have been cowardice.

They had a mental checklist of what they had to do and 
Tina, who had a single short visit to explore the house 
was in charge of what was going to happen when and where.

First was a trip to the basement.  A previous owner had 
set up a small workshop and, though the tools had been 
removed the benches and vices were still there.  Ritchie 
had put his own tools, a meagre set in relation to what 
had been there before but nevertheless useful.

They had recovered a lock box from the second house that 
they had robbed.  It felt like it contained the jewellery 
but they had held off finding out for sure.  Now the box, 
wiped clean of any possibility of fingerprints, was 
placed in a vice where it was squeezed until the top 
bulged away from the side.  Justin took a screwdriver and 
twisted it in the opening.  He undid the vice and rested 
the box on end.  A couple of blows from a hammer sprung 
the back and displayed some quite beautiful jewellery.

"Perhaps we can continue the burglary caper and you can 
outfit Katie and me in expensive furs and diamonds."

"That's quite a lovely picture.  Two naked beauties 
wearing only high heel shoes, a fur stole and diamond 
choker and bracelets.  I can't think of a better reason 
for starting a life of crime."

"We've already started, I'm talking about continuing."

"Well we are really more like Robin Hood - robbing from 
the rich and giving to the poor."

"We're poor enough aren't we?"

"Ah.  But if we stole all those items we'd be rich and 
we'd have to rob ourselves."

Tina drew his attention to the job in hand.

Upstairs again Tina grabbed a spare set of car keys from 
off a hook in the kitchen.  If anyone broke in and stole 
Ritchie's car he would probably consider it a favour.  In 
a little while its intrinsic value would probably treble 
or quadruple.  A bag of jewellery from the first robbery 
was going to be stuffed up inside the passenger seat.

Then came the "kinky" items.  A nice teddy, more suited 
to a cat house than a kindergarten, and a butterfly 
shaped item that Katie had found intriguing.  During 
their often boring reviews of Ritchie's doings they heard 
him watching videos with, to be generous, very little in 
the way of plot development.  What they lacked in that 
department they made up for in artistic merit, they were 
sure.  Ritchie seemed to like them.

Or perhaps he wasn't simply short of breath in amazement 
at the convincing portrayals of sincere love and devotion 
- to the pool boy who had been hired only minutes before.

They found evidence of the amount of time he spent before 
the screen.  He also didn't empty the trash very often.

Even with a pair of disposable gloves Justin didn't 
relish his next task - extraction of a little DNA from 
the tissue refuse to apply to the lingerie and the 
vibrator.  They wanted Ritchie linked to items taken from 
the crime that would NOT represent substantial wealth.

Justin found those wads that seemed most heavily gummed 
together.  He needed something to soak them in and 
decided Ritchie's coffee cup was probably as good as any.

He rinsed it carefully to reduce the amount of coffee 
remaining before filling it with tissues and then warm 
water.  The tissues drifted apart giving up their vital 
contents; Justin was careful to avoid breaking up the 
paper to keep the fibres to a minimum.

When it was ready he bunched up the teddy as though it 
had been wrapped around Ritchie's prick;  The contents of 
the coffee cup were sieved through the material at the 
end, concentrating the evidence in one location, another 
tissue covering the sexy item to filter off all the 
fibres that they could.  A little of the liquid had been 
spared for the butterfly and, once dampened, Justin had 
vigorously wiped it dry; deliberately leaving fibres in a 
provocative way.

The sink was rinsed; the coffee cup, tipped upside down 
to drain, was not.  Hopefully Ritchie would enjoy his 
next cup of coffee.

Tina had continued to look around.  Ritchie's tape 
collection was one area that required considerable 
attention.

He had so many, and they were just shoved here and there 
with no particular order.  It was obvious that he would 
not miss a few, and with luck wouldn't be in any position 
to do more than dream about the contents for a number of 
years.  Tina made her selections and slipped them into 
the bag the jewellery box and other items had come from.  
She also took the opportunity to recover the banknotes 
that she had seen on her first exploratory visit.

Tina had hidden some of her things in the bottom of 
Justin's wardrobe when she had first emerged as a teenage 
girl.  Now it was her turn to find places in Ritchie's 
where he wouldn't find their little surprises ahead of 
time.  It wasn't hard, that too was full of clutter.

Justin left first, dropping their swag into some parched 
bushes while he secreted the jewels in the car.  He gave 
the key back to Tina and, with a quick look up, down, and 
across the street, retrieved the bag and headed for the 
bridge that would allow him to cross back over the train 
line and drain to Katie where she wait at Frank's house.

Tina would wait until he was clear, once again ready to 
provide a naked distraction should the need arise.  She 
felt it strange, she HAD to remain clothed in public when 
she was one with Justin but, because she could simply 
disappear when necessary, streaking was a liberating 
experience without real danger.

Today there had been danger.  If Ritchie had returned 
from work for some reason Tina would have had nowhere 
safe to go.  Their only strategy was for Justin to hide 
until Ritchie was distracted and then hightail it out 
while Tina joined him when she could, hopefully not 
needing to disappear before his eyes.  They had been more 
than lucky and were grateful that the plot was nearing an 
end.

**********

Adam put his papers away. It was late and Ritchie had a 
bail hearing in the morning.  He didn't foresee any 
reason for the state to oppose bail; Ritchie didn't 
really have the resources to just hightail it.  His only 
real asset was his house and that would be a bit hard to 
sell while on the run.

No.  Adam decided he would interview Ritchie again in his 
office after court and they would go over everything with 
a fine tooth comb.  Maybe then Ritchie could come up with 
some names and reasons for people to frame him.  There 
was something fishy about the set up, not fishy enough to 
have the charges dismissed, but perhaps he could sew 
enough doubt to negotiate a satisfactory plea bargain.  
He wished that he could prove the conspiracy; it would be 
satisfying to see he had been right.  And he might even 
have kept his client out of jail.

-----

Ainslie couldn't believe they had done it!  She still 
couldn't understand why they had even tried.

The concepts of levels of guilt and of a self-respect 
based on the fact the five friends hadn't ignored someone 
else's very real need when they could do something seemed 
out of tune with society around them.  They would, indeed 
did, help Ainslie without necessarily liking her any more 
or expecting her to change her feelings towards them.

It freaked her out more in some ways than being 
threatened by the now bailed Ritchie.  He hadn't come 
near her house, being aware of the need to avoid adding 
to his current woes, and, despite her nervous concern, 
didn't connect her in any way with his arrest.

Ritchie WAS seething though.  SOMEONE had framed him, set 
him up if the woman who had dropped the bracelet was 
involved, but the makeup job had been superb and both 
Tyler and Leslie had "aged" sufficiently to avoid any 
suggestion that the sophisticates were actually 
schoolgirls from a quite average suburb; Ainslie never 
entered his mind and, as his case proceeded, she 
eventually became merely one of the more pleasant and 
very temporary interludes from a distant past.

---

"Thank you."  The sentiment WAS genuine, its expression 
unforced and accepted generously.  "Is there anything I 
can do to repay you?"

The five of them had discussed it privately and decided 
that they shouldn't even ask for her to lay off Leslie 
and Tyler.  Ainslie was just as likely to do so and 
making it an obligation would be counter-productive.

Katie had made a suggestion and the others agreed the 
minor request was fitting.  She responded to Ainslie's 
thanks.

"We don't need repaying though we do appreciate the 
offer; we couldn't let that bastard continue.  There is 
one thing you COULD do if you want but it's not a 
demand."  She paused.

"My brother is a wiz at making electronic doodads and 
helped us get the info on Ritchie, though he doesn't know 
anything about him particularly or why we needed it; and 
especially not that it had anything to do with you."

Ainslie wondered where this was going.

"We planned on rewarding him for a job well done but, if 
you wish, you could do that instead.  The Freshman End of 
Year Dance is coming up; I know that's not something you 
or we would normally be involved with.  David is going 
and I know he likes you.  He hasn't got a date yet and I 
wondered if you would consider going with him?"

(He likes me?  I think I know who he is but when has he 
even noticed me?)

"He's not unattractive and he's not a jerk", Leslie 
added.  "I would go but he's not likely to ask me or 
Tyler."

Katie added, "Tina has said she will if you don't want to 
but I think he would rather it was you.  I know it's not 
just the cred he might get by bringing an older date.  He 
does think you're attractive.  Sorry, now it sounds like 
we're pressuring you."

Ainslie was silent for a while.  "I'll think about it.  
Get him to ask me himself and I'll see."  She looked at 
Leslie and Tyler.  "Sorry"

They understood.  It was only a little but it was enough 
and it was never too late.  Things would never be 
comfortable between them again - they couldn't be sure 
Ainslie wouldn't revert and Ainslie couldn't accept their 
behaviour - it was more they agreed to simply disagree 
which really was all Leslie and Tyler had wanted from the 
start.

*********************************************************
The story of David's date with Ainslie begins a new 
series : Doppelganger - David's New Life

It can be read after this series or you may wish to read
Chapters 1-3 of that series now.
                                   PdV
*********************************************************