Uncle Norman

Robert went off to make a cup of tea. I looked round the bizarre little bedroom at all the photos of Kim. I noticed that although there were a lot of posed shots which would support Roberts story about the photography club, there were more what you would call surveillance type shots, including several of her at her bedroom window in a state of undress. Sounds very BBC or official doesn’t it. I had a quick grope under the bed and my hand touched material. I knew what it was before I looked at it. A thong. I looked under the bed and there was loads of panties and underwear. I had a bad feeling about Robert (I am Fucking lightening at times I tell you).

He was just not going to stop was he?

He couldn’t and wouldn’t, no matter what I said or he promised.
He brought in two mugs of tea which he put on the computer desk next to his telephone.
“Now then Robert what are we going to do about this”

“What do mean?” He asked with a quizzical look on his face.

“What are we going to do about you and Kim?”

“Oh well, she understands everything. You see she has told me there is a chance for us”

“Has she?”

“Oh yes, I asked her if she would go out with me again for a drink or somhething and she said yes, the trouble is she has been busy so we have not been able to do it”

“Robert, when did she agree to this?”

“Oh a few weeks ago” He said nodding.

“How many weeks exactly?”

“I cant remember, maybe 6 at the most why, what’s it to you?” Said Robert smiling.

A classic error with stalking victims is to try to placate the individual by offering hope of some kind of interaction. Unfortunately, the Roberts of this world just cannot take a hint and just take these offers as proof that the victim is returning their attention.
I looked at my tea which was a perfect colour and looked at the cordless telephone.

He needed to be somewhere secure and he needed medical treatment. He was obviously not going to ask for help, because he just did not see there was a problem. Unless something happened immediately this sorry state of affairs was going to drag on and get worse.
“Robert, could I have some more milk and two sugars please”

He got up, picked up my mug and went to the kitchen. I picked up the telephone and dialled 999 but did not press the little green phone button to connect. I called out that I was going to the toilet and went from the bedroom to that cosy pink haven, taking the telephone with me. I needed to think my vague crap plan through. No time. I pressed the dial button.

“Emergency which service” said a bored female voice
“Police Please” I said in hushed tones
“Police what is the nature of the call” said a man
I didnt answer but hung up. I went back in the bedroom where Robert was sitting on the computer chair. There was no spoon in the mug.

“Did you stir that Robert”

“Oh no I didn’t I am sorry he said” and went to get up.

“No problem I’ll get a spoon where are they”

“In the top drawer to the left of the cooker”

I went into the kitchen and Pressed the dial button again and the telephone dialled 999.
It went through the which service bit and I whispered police and then I was through to the police. I didn’t speak but rummaged and clattered about in the drawer and found a spoon and a large kitchen knife which i picked up with a tea towel. I cut the phone call again.

Time was going to start running against me.

I went back into the bedroom. Fuck it no choice lets get this party started. I took a deep breath.
“She doesn’t love you Robert because she loves me” I said.

“What did you say” His head snapped up and he looked me in directly in the eyes. They blazed with hatred and real hot-tempered anger.
“She loves me, I have been fucking her for months, shite she is one hot horny babe, no wonder you fancy her. God she loves it”

I rang 999 again with the phone in my pocket. I hoped I had pressed the right bloody button because this was going to go tits up in a jiffy.
Robert stood up much quicker than I expected.

“She doesn’t love you” He rasped “You haven’t soiled her”

I took the phone from my pocket and held it by my side. Robert had not noticed he just looked at me with hatred. If he could he would kill me. Its a look people have. You just have to stay calm and hold steady not matter how shit scared you feel. I could just her someone asking what the problem was.

“Oh but I have twice a day every day for the last few months” I carried on
“No its not true. I would have seen you. I am her guardian angel I watch her all the time to keep her safe” He ranted “I have never seen you before”
Those flecks of white spit were forming on his lips again, his eyes were wide and his cheeks flushed.

A little voice in my head was saying watch it Norman, for fucks sake watch it. Actually it was quite a loud voice.
He was really ranting now and moved towards me. He didn’t know it but he was gauging distance between us so that he could attack me. I backed from the bedroom into the living room maintaining eye contact.

I really didn’t want to say anything else to him.

He really started shouting “What do mean what do you mean, speak to me you fucking bastard.” I hoped the police operator on the other end would think the abuse was directed at them.

“I am going to fucking kill you and her, she is mine do you hear, she wants me to fulfil her (I don’t know what that was all about but it stuck in my head) She wants me to take her to the pinnacle”

And then he lunged at me. He had lost the plot. I swept his outstretched arms away with the knife flashed through the air past his face as my fist arced. The flash of steel took his attention for a fleeting second by which time I had kicked his legs from under him and he crashed to the floor I kicked him in the solar plexus hard enough for the wind to leave him but not so hard as to totaly knock the shit out of him.

I wanted him to be able to get up in a few seconds. T counter a comment I made in a previous post, there are of course times when the unarmed combat malarky does work as seen on tv! I could hear the police operator saying something but I don’t know what it was. I wasn’t bothered
“You sad little wanker I bet you couldn’t get it up when you had her naked in front of you could you?” I whispered in his ear. I needed him to come at me again and to take the bait.
He breathed heavily and although in pain was starting to recover. I suspect his brain was burning woth hatred at images of his lovely idol being voilated by me. I suspect he would not regard it as a moving violation.

Then I heard them. Time for me to go.

I turned and walked out of the maisonette at a brisk but fairly normal pace.

I opened the front door then wiped and threw the kitchen knife and telephone onto the hall floor. I kept the tea towel and wiped my hands and out it in my pocket. I pulled the door shut and headed in the direction of my hire car.

The police sirens were getting closer. I crossed the road and went about half a dozen cars away from Roberts house. I ducked down between two parked cars.

A few seconds later Robert managed to open his front door and he was carrying the knife which he had obviously found in the hall. He ran into the street and started shouting “Come back you cunt I will kill you if you ever go near her, come back” and so on and so forth.

He seemed to be ranting and raving for bloody ages before the first police car pulled up and I actually though they would get there too late. But the first car got their in time and two officers got out, long batons drawn and told Robert to put the knife down.

Of course he couldn’t put the knife down he was too far gone. They repeated the request. Robert backed towards his front door. One of the officers had obviously called for assistance and his colleague was advancing on Robert. Robert was shouting and looked a right state and faced the officer.

There were people were in the street.

More sirens.

“PUT THE KNIFE DOWN.”

Another police car sped up and this time it was an armed response vehicle. Robert saw the Body armnour and guns. He knew that these boys meant business.

The Police knew that some fucker was pointing a knife at their colleague and if he farted the wrong tune they would shoot him.

Robert threw the knife down and turned and ran back into his maisonette. The police were in after him like shit off a stick. There was the sounds of a violent struggle. More police arrived and piled into the maisonette to assist their mates. After some time Robert was brought from his flat kicking and struggling.

He was shouting about the bastard who was trying to steal his girl and stuff along those lines. It must be said that the police officers were not giving his representations their full attention. He was placed face down in the van with several officer restraining him and the van drove off at speed.

I watched the saga end from my watching place, and was just about to head for home, when an unmarked car pulled up and two blokes who were clearly police officers got out and went into the flat. A few minutes later one came out and was giving instructions for the place to be secured and a young uniform officer was detailed to guard the scene and some forensic people would be down.

The neighbours and onlookers drifted away and I bent down to tie my shoe laces by Roberts car and retrieved my little tracking device from his car. I didn’t want the old bill asking questions about that. Besides which they are expensive.

I walked off towards my hire car and rang Kim’s father and arranged to meet him the next day.

I started heading for home.

I had a sore throat. I wonder if I could get L to kiss it better for me?

Robert was very sullen and not what you would call chatty, which bearing in mind our little tussle was hardly a shock. Eventually though after a bout five minutes of title tattling at him in my most amiable way he started to relax. I think by now he had twigged that just maybe I was not there to sort out his radiators.

I found out he was an electrical engineer, had been married with a daughter, but his wife had left him about 5 years ago I think it was. I don’t know why but I got the impression she had left him for another woman. I can’t remember quite what he said that gave me that impression so I may well be wrong. Anyway, he took the divorce badly and the wife then moved to Canada. From what he said he didn’t miss the daughter that much but he lost his social set up and I think must have been quite depressed. There I go again Dr Norm shrink to the unfortunate. Joking apart I started to get an insight into what made him tick. Profiling as they call it these days. Robert had been very ambitious at work and that was obvious from the way he spoke about his work and himself. It would seem that he let things slip after the break up and he felt bitter about being passed over. He didn’t say he was bitter but every now and then he would make a cutting remark about a colleague who had clearly been promoted or given more responsibility.

I let him go on and on. I was there to listen. The more I listened the more I learnt. The more he talked the more he told me and he forgot that he was revealing himself to a bloke who he didn’t know, had conned his way into his flat and he had tried to strangle. I think it was the shame of being left rather than the break up of his family that got to him most. The more he talked the more it became about him and how he had been shunned by their friends. In short he was a chauvinistic, self-centred bombastic prick.

I got the subject round to Kim. He was so far up himself, that he never thought to ask how I knew her name or even why I was so interested in him and her. He had been a member of a photography class and then joined a studio for more adventurous/adult stuff. Reading between the lines they were given “Private Studio Time” with “Models”. The fees were about £150 per hour which is about the going rate for a call girl, or so I am told, and I suspect it was for more than just a quick manipulation of his focal length.

Anyway he met Kim in a pub one Friday evening and got talking to her and she was interested in becoming a model. He asked her if she would model for him as he was submitting for a competition and she said yes and in payment he would put together a portfolio.

To cut a long story short she did several sessions for him over a period of a few weeks. After the shoots they would go for a drink then this turned to going for a meal. Then he wanted to do dome work outside so one Saturday they had gone down to Sussex and ended at Brighton. It was nice day and somehow they ended up on the nude beach. She was reluctant at first to get her kit off but he said he would go naked to make her feel ore comfortable and in the end she agreed. I suppose he talked the pants off her. Robert was pleased with this achievement and was grinning like a Cheshire cat as he told me.

He told me they had become “close” and their session had involved “Intimate touching”. I suppose to be fair lots of men would be tempted to do some intimate touching with a very attractive woman half his age. They headed for home, and when they got back to London, Robert suggested going back to his place to continue the shoot. At this point he clamed up, so I don’t know whether they had sex or whether she chickened out at the last minute. To be honest for my purposes it didn’t matter.

Then suddenly she decided she didn’t like the idea of being a model. She didn’t want to be away from home that much, her mum and dad weren’t too happy. She didn’t have a boyfriend and she really liked working with Robert because he was such a good photographer and understood her. She was going to have a bit of time off. Robert didn’t have a problem with that and he and she were good friends who kept in touch.

“How often do you keep in touch”I asked

“Daily on the mobile, meet for lunch”

“Where do you work”

“In Croydon”

“And Kim?

“In Croydon”

“So why did you say she was in the Far East”

“I didn’t”

“Yes you did Robert and when I said I had seen Kim in Croydon you went ape shit”

“Well I umm didn’t know who, you could be a stalker or something”

“Could be you’re right….”

“you could be following her and seeing her at work and getting her into trouble.”

“Hadn’t thought of that Robert. What else might I be doing?”

“Some people are obsessed with her you know”

“Are they? What do they do?”

“Oh you’d be surprised”

“Go on Robert surprise me”

“Some people ring her all the time and text her every few minutes”. He was sitting on the bed with his hands between his knees as if in prayer. As he speak he nodded his head but his eyes never left the floor.

“Is that all Robert?”

“No they get her to leave her pants, her little pants which smell of her and they leave their love in them”

There was a bit of silence at this point whilst I tried to work out the best way to confirm we were talking about the same thing.

“Do you relieve yourself into her panties is that what your saying”

“oh its not relief its for her to see and smell my seed. She knows I am fertile and she is young we could have beautiful children. She would be a wonderful mother, its just that……”

“Its just what Robert?”

“She doesn’t know she loves me and wants to have my babies”

“If you don’t mind me saying this Robert that is a bit of an obstacle in the way of romance”

“I know it is but I know if I show her she will come round to my way of thinking”

I wasn’t so sure his plan was a winner.

“Robert”

“Yes”

“I know you are stalking her”

“NO, no I am not, I love her and she loves me”

I held my hand up and he stopped talking. We had got to a point where the only thing to do was to ask the billion dollar question.

“Robert. Don’t bullshit me any more. There is an easy way to do this or a hard way. The easy way is much nicer and a lot less pain full”

Robert nodded

“Now then Robert, shall we have a cup of tea and have a chat as to how we can sort all this out”

There were photos and posters all over the place. Black & white and colour, big, small, on the beach, at work, dancing, walking and naked.

I know that for an instant I must have just gawped but then started a conversation about whether he was on broadband. He prattled on about being with Talk Talk. £28 a month free phone call etc etc.

I bled the radiator and Christ there was some air in there. When I finished I decided to take the bull by the horns.

“She’s a bit of a looker”

“Yeah isn’t she” said Robert “She’s my girlfriend, she’s a model you know”

“Yeah I’d believe it” I said “What sort of stuff does she do?”

“Oh all sorts, in fact I am trying to get her into films, She has done some film work already, you know low budget stuff”

I didn’t know, but I had a suspicion as to what low budget meant.

“How long have you been together?” I asked

“Oh quite a while now going on 2 years, the trouble is that she has a busy schedule and is out of the country a lot”

He tried to nod and muttered a sort of yes.

“Oh really” I said “Where is she now then?”

“The Far East” He lied ” She has just done a photo shoot in Thailand and she is on her way back to me”

“You obviously love her very much”

“You can’t begin to understand what she means to me, she is wonderful, beautiful and so loving”

This geezer was more than just a little off the rails and I was not happy with the way this was going.

In an ideal world I would have gone to the police and passed all the info over to them. Unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world. They would want to do their own investigation and a lot of my evidence would be inadmissible. Consequently by the time anything concrete happened a lot of time would have passed. That is not a criticism of the boys in blue, but a statement of fact about the way the legal system works. They need evidence and the courts have to test it. In fact the problem was more basic than that because technically the police would not even have a victim, because Kim had not made any complaint as far as I knew. I was in a quandary for a whole host of very obvious reasons. I did not want this to run on and on, plus I was more than touch concerned about Roberts infatuation and fantasy world.

Decision time.

I looked Robert in the eyes.

“I tell you something I have seen a girl just like that in Croydon. In fact she works at…………Shop”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY” He hissed

“I said I’ve seen a girl like that in a shop in Croydon. It cant be the same one though because your girl’s in the Far East”

Robert stood and looked at me wide eyed and speechless. In the words of Magnus Magnussen “I have started so I’ll finish”

“I tell you something she is a bit of alright, I bet there’s a few blokes wouldn’t mind giving her one”

That did the trick. Actually maybe trick is not the right word but it did get a reaction. To be honest its hard describe accurately what happened next. But it sort of went something like this.

Robert suddenly roared/ screeched at me

“YOU DON’T KNOW HER SHE IS MINE AND ONLY LOVES ME. I HAVE HER, SHE LOVES ME DO YOU HEAR”

“Keep you hair on my old son, I was just saying you know. This girl in Croydon if your girl is in the Far East why are you getting into such a tizz. I gotta tell you pal you are acting fucking weird”

That did it, he lunged at me and grabbed my throat and tried to strangle me. In films and on telly programmes the old self defence unarmed combat malarky is a piece of piss, but in reality it hardly ever works out as per the films. In a film I would of gone “HI YAH” and done some super smooth Aikido. But this is a little bedroom in a south London maisonette and my object was not to injure or kill this bloke. I staggered back under the onslaught of his attack. Robert was a man possessed and his blind rage was going to be his undoing. Hopefully that is. Well clearly it was his undoing or I would not be tapping the old keyboard would I.

Anyway, He was doing his best to strangle me but you know it takes a lot of force and time to actually choke someone. His eyes were bulging and he was spitting as he ranted and raved. I mentioned before in another post there is a big difference between hurting somebody and injuring them. Please don’t think I am mister nice guy or sweetness and light. The reason you hurt them is because they will do what you want, and the reason you don’t injure them is that you don’t want to end up explaining a lot of things to the police and courts of law.

There is a limit to how long he could tango like this before I retaliated and actually took some offensive action. I waited and chose my moment which is just at the point where he suddenly knows he is not going to be able to kill you and that he is getting a little tired. The rush of adrenalin starts to slow, he starts to have doubts and thinks what am I doing? This is the moment. I broke his grip on my throat by placing a grip on the back of his hand pressure on the knuckle of the index and middle fingers. Push up,twist and arc the wrist in a circle and with his arm straight and pressure applied to the hand forced him to the floor. Once on the floor I controlled his head by kneeling on him and bending his arm at the elbow and keeping pressure on the joint.

I weigh around 100kg so am not exactly a light weight. If you control the head you control the person. You dont have to use your knee, you can use the palm of your hand and just bear down on the person you want to restarin. It is not a pleasant sensation being restrained like this but it rarely injures the person.
Time to parlez

“Listen to me you sad fucker, I don’t know what the fuck is going on here and to be honest I don’t give a fuck, but I don’t like it one little bit do you understand me?”

I think he said he did.

“Now then Robert in a minute I am going to get off your head but if you try to fuck about with me again I will really hurt you. Do you understand”

“yeahth”

I pressed don on his cheek bone with my knee just to reinforce the point and got off him. He lay on the floor panting and rubbing his sore cheek bone. I sat on the ancient bed setee, which actually turned out to be quite comfortable.

“Why did you get so upset Robert?” I asked very calmly.

He mutterd something

“I am sorry Robert I didn’t get that. Look why don”t you sit up and talk to me”

“Why should I, you aren’t interested in me” He mumbled

“How do you know, maybe I am interested in you, and maybe I might be able to help you”

Robert Sat up on the floor and looked at me.

“And what if I don’t want to talk to you or let you help me, why should I? I don’t know you”

I lent forward and extended my open right hand. Robert thought I was going to hit him and recoiled slightly but not so far as to prevent me tapping him gently on the cheek.

“If you don’t play ball with me Robert life could become very uncomfortable round here”

Mr P really did not know what he wanted me to do but he knew that he did not want me to speak to Kim. I had asked to have access to her PC and her mobile but he regarded this as “A Right liberty and invasion of her privacy” in fact he didn’t want to speak to KIM about this at all. I have to say I was getting a little uneasy about how this father daughter thing was panning out . If she did not want to be helped how the hell could we help her.

There were loads of missing bits from the picture and this pussy footing about was not helping. The business side of me says “Well its his money if he wants to waste 2 or 3 days when these questions could probably be answered in 5 minutes, that’s his problem”. But the other side of me says “Well it is his daughter and he probably wants to paper over the whole thing and pretend his little girl hasn’t grown up”

He kept saying do what you think is best, but when I told him what I thought was best ie ask Kim what the hell is going on he blanked it. I even suggested an elaborate lie to get her to talk, but he wouldn’t have his daughter deceived.

In the end I decided to grasp the nettle and collar Robert. sort of that is.

The first thing was to drop off a little greeting card.

“We called but Could not get a reply.

We will call back

Or you can contact us on XXXXXXXXX

and we will arrange for an inspection of your appliances.”

I dropped this into Robert on the way home and was amazed when I got a phone call about 2 minutes later. Now I had his mobile telephone number as well, I might need this if I was to track him rather than just his car.

“Hello this is Mr H**** somebody dropped a card at my house, what’s this all about”

“Oh Hello thanks for ringing back. We have been asked to inspect domestic appliances as apart of a nation wide survey”

“Oh well I have a contract with the Gas people I would have thought that covered everything” Said Robert

“Oh it does I said this is a sort of quality assurance thing” said I

“OK when do you want to come round” Roberts asked.

“When is convenient with you”

“Well now would suite me best because I am work during the day”

“Well I don’t know, where are you again?”

He gave me the address.

“Look Mr H**** I am not far away but I dont have your details to hand could you just give them to me please”

He very obligingly went through the Q&A charade and told me he had two bedrooms a living room, kitchen. A gas fire, combi boiler, x number of radiators blah blah blah. I eventually said I would see him in about 30 minutes as I had to finish a job and ring ahead to my next appointment to say I would be late.

35 minutes later I am knocking on his door. wearing a pair of thick rimmed glasses. I look a right plonker in them, but that with the sober tie slightly to one side gave the appearance of a tired geezer at the end of a long day

Robert opened the door and let me in. I showed him a plastic covered card with my photo on and the CORGI Logo and some bit on the back about bogus officials. He took it from and looked at it and said that was fine.

I went into the living room and he offered me a cup of tea which I declined quoting the weak bladder and heavy traffic problem. The place was neat and tidy, no actually that does not do him justice it was very clean but really old fashioned in the way it was furnished. All sort of 80s G-Plan. Good quality but out of date.

I ran through the thing about doing a quality assurance inspection on behalf of OFFGAS and that it would not take long. How did he find the service, had he needed to use the call out, were they any good etc. Then I just needed to do a quick tour of the place and I would be done.

I had already clocked Kims photos in the hall, and on the teak sideboard in the living room. Roberts bedroom took me back a bit. A teak head board and green one of those sort of knitted throw things your granny might have had. It could have been an old persons flat. The bathroom was a bit of a shock too. Pink ceramic tiles with random roses, A light pink suite, cast iron bath but the piece de resistance was a light pink toilet seat with a rose on. I “tested” the thermostatic valves on the rads. Peered inside at the boiler. I then asked if he had a radiator key. Yes he had one and scuttled off to find it. I beld the radiator in the bathroom and generally acted as if I knew what I was doing.

Everything done except the second bedroom. I said I need to do that and for an instant there was this flash of concern. Maybe concern is too strong a way of putting it.

“Oh OK but I need to tidy up a few things, its a bit of a mess”

“Oh dont worry about that I have five kids, hey if you want tos ee mess come over to my place, bloody books and toys all over the place. Anyway we see all sorts of stuff, I only need to look at the valve and thing on the rad”

“I would rather just have few moments to tidy stuff away, I have sensitive stuff for work”

I bet you have sunshine.

“OK then as you like but honestly there is no need” I said in my best gas man way.

“OK” He called.

I walked into a smaller bedroom which had what looked like an old fashioned bed settee There was a modern cheap looking computer desk with a PC set up on it in the corner. That is where normal finished.

The rest of the place was best described as a bloody shrine to Kim.

Our suspect was no longer in the multi – storey car park. If he was the man, I had to hope that he would at least be in the vicinity of Kims work place or even better still present himself again.

I went back to my trusty Nissan for a change of attire. The basic rule for surveillance is you dress up to dress down. If you start the day in jeans and sweat shirt it is harder to look smart should you need to, where as if you are wearing trousers, jacket, tie and plain shirt you can take bits off to look more casual. and to get my super snazzy baseball cap. I hate baseball caps but this little chap has a hidden camera and I wanted get a snap of Mr Stalker.

He wasn’t outside the shop but would you adam and eve it he was in the cookery section watching our girl. To be fair it was still the same Jamie Oliver video running, so he had probably seen it thousands of time. If he saw or noticed me, he made no sign of it. He just stood there behind some prestige pans looking across at the girl. I got almost right next to him and got what I hoped would be a few mugs shots of him.

By now I was pretty convinced this was the geezer but was a little non to impressed that nobody in the store had picked up on him. I Knew Kim finished at about 5pm but there was acoupe fo things I needed to check.

I rang her dad just to confirm that she did not have a current boyfriend and to get the details of the last couple they knew of. Our man did not fit the description. I was in deep conversation when chummy walked past me and headed for the car park. Obviously I followed. I have to be honest but i expected him to go to the fourth floor, but he didn’t, he went to the second floor and to Kims car which he opened and got into.

He just sat there for a few minutes before looking around and then he took something from his pocket and held it to his face. I moved in closer and with my trust hat cam running. I realised it was a thong or a least a skimpy pair of ladies briefs and he was sniffing them and not to put too fine a point on was wanking himself off. I am no ace detective but any doubts I had about this geezer being our man evaporated.

After a few minutes he got out of the car, locked it and went to the fourth floor. He got into his own car. I legged it down to my car and headed to the exit. I stopped at one of the barriers and played for time. The suspect left the parking area. I followed at a discreet distance.

To cut a long story short I followed him to West Wickham which is another suburb of London not too far away and in fact it sort of borders the area where Kim lives. The GPS tracker worked well and I was able to stay in contact until our man parked up and left his car. I parked and watched as he went into what appeared to be a maisonette. So now I had his car details and his address. With this info it is not rocket science to get a name.

I needed to know at this point what my client wanted me to do. Did they want me to gather evidence to put to the police? Did they want me to try to find out what this bloke was doing this? Did they want me to try to get his nibs to stop? I have to be honest and say that the thing that sat uneasy with me, was what was Kim doing buying stuff at Anne Summers if she didn’t have a current boyfriend. I know it is no offence for a single woman to buy erotic undies and other things especially in light of my own personal experience.

I moved in to the passenger seat of the little Micra and sat waited and watched. I managed to get hold of dad. Kim was at home and mentioned she had seen the bloke again near work. I asked him what she was doing that night and what did he want me to do. He thought Kim was staying in but would let me know if that changed and would think about what he wanted us to do.

After half an hour he said he would like me to try and find out a bit more about what was going on. Kim was staying in and was going to download some music onto her computer. I decided at this stage to call it a day.

The next day I started by following our suspect. By now I knew his name was Robert H**** and that he was 38 years old, which came as a shock because I would have said he was about 24 or 25. He left home at 8.15 and drove to Sutton. He parked in a public car park and walked to a low level office block nearby. For obvious reasons I cant say the name or what the company did. At 12.30 he came out and immediately got his mobile out and appeared to start sending text messages. He bought a sandwich from a shop then sat on a bench and just sent text after text after text.

Time for me to move closer. This is always a risky thing. Not from a personal security point of view but from burning your cover surveillance wise. I bought a can of Coke and a magazine and sat next to him on the bench and drank my can of coke. He was sending and receiving texts at a great rate of knots. I am a right spaz at texting. It takes me bloody ages. He paid not attention to me whatsoever. Then just as I thought he was going to just pack up and go he made a telephone call. I only got his sdie of the conversation
“Hi it’s Robert….Please don’t hang up I just want to talk”

“Please don’t do that you know I wont hurt you…”

“I wanted to see you but couldn’t….”

“Don’t say that you know I love you..”

“You don’t, ….I know that given time you will love me as well”

“Please Kim…we have a good thing..you are so beautiful”

“Please don’t go….”

“Why would you go to the Police I don’t want to hurt you I just want to be with you.”

“Did you get the present I left for you, you see how much love I have for you”

“I have kept all the things you have left for me”

He had turned his back on me and it was quite busy, so short of pressing my head next to his I lost some of the conversation at this point, but he was sort of whining away in similar tones to what had been said already. I had heard enough, no to be honest I had had enough and wanted to kick the little fuckers teeth in, but hat would have really blown my cover, so I finished my coke and walked off instead.

At 6.15 Robert returned to his car and drove off. I followed him and he headed straight back home. I then went to speak to Kims dad to tell him what I had found out and to get instructions as to what to do.

When I saw dad I spelt things out in general terms. I sort of skipped over the hand shandy bit because I didn’t want him getting more emotional that he already was.
On the face of it this would seem like a case on unrequited love and you didn’t need too much imagination to work out what Roberts token of his love was. What concerned me was that he had keys to her car and that she was apparently leaving underwear for him to aid him in his task of leaving said love token. I did voice my concern that Kim might have given the suspect a key to her car and was leaving little presents for him

We talked round the bloody houses as to why she would do things to encourage him.. I explained that victims often do this because they feel that if they placate the stalker a bit the stalker will back off. It is a common mistake but very understandable. However my major concern was that Kim had not reported this to the police.

“Oh she did she did” insisted dad

“How do you know”

“She told us, she tells us everything” he said emphaticaly.

“Mr P I don’t want to shatter your illusions about your daughter, but she doesn’t tell you everything” I said as sympathetically and as gently as possibly

“yes she does, you don’t know her like we do!”

“Who was the first boy she had sex with?”

“What do you mean?” He exploded “What a thing to say”

“OK is she a virgin”

“I dont like your tone” He almost shouted. I thought his eyes wre going to pop out of his head.

“I am very sorry to upset you M P but the point I am making is that we have things that aren’t secrets as such, but we just choose not to share with everyone. Your daughter is no different to any of us in that respect. I am sure you don’t discuss your sex life with all and sundry so why should she. Your daughter is a decent young woman but she is not a child and you don’t know everything about her”

He remaind somewhat red in the face and snorted a lot but started to calm down.

“What I want to know from you Mr P is what do you want me to do”

When I left Mr & Mrs Protective I thought about what I had to go on.

Victim – Female called Kim.

Habits – Works in a place with full public access and frequents pubs, bars and clubs so surveillance not a problem.

Stalker – Nothing known. Not too helpful that

M.O – Not much to go on here. Text message and mobile, probably internet access.

The more I thought about it, the more it struck me as a bit odd, that Kim did not want her parents to help. Having said that I had to remind myself that these stalking cases have a big impact on the victim and people don’t think straight.

I was a little surprised that the police had not been more pro active. It is my experience that the old bill, especially The Met, get over these cases like a rash. They seem to have been extra vigilant after an incident in London where some poor girl was murdered by a stalker at the shop she worked at in central London. So I found their lack of interest a bit bizarre.

Normally by the time a victim contacts me they know who the stalker is and can give you so much detail of events and stuff that your head hurts.

Consequently there was not much to do but follow Kim and watch what happened. I would build up a dossier and then consider what action to take and discuss the options with Mr & Mrs P as they were paying me.

This is a one man job and so Monday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed I was at Kims house. I had the details of her ford KA which was parked outside her house. The first thing I did was to check underneath for any sign of tracking devices. There weren’t any which was good news so I stuck my little baby in place. This thing allows me tot tack the car using GPS. It has a a 3 day battery life which should be OK for the initial part of the investigation. Following a car is a lot easier on films than it is in real life. There is the chance of loosing the car or being spotted. What I didn’t want in this case was for Kim to see me and to think I was another stalker.

Having done my little bit of preparation I went back to my little hire car to listen to Radio 4. I cant stand radio 2 although I do listen to it from time to time and it was too early for radio 1. On the subject of cars I’ve got a Nissan Micra this week. Not bad actually, a bit girly maybe but a pretty reasonable car to drive in traffic.

Kim came out of her house at about 8.30am and drove straight to work. She parked on the second floor of a multi-storey car park in the shopping centre. she left her car and walked straight to work. Nothing too strange so far then.
The shop opened. Monday mornings are dead quiet so I didn’t want to go bowling into the shop first thing because I would have stood out like a set of bulldogs bollocks. I bimbled in about 10ish and found Kims department. Fortunatley she worked in the bedding section which was sort of next door to the cookware section.

Being a bit of chef du Gare on the side, I spent a resonable hour or so with one eye on Kim and the other on the Jamie Oliver demonstration video. I already have a load of Jamie Oliver pans and can highly recommend them, but was interested in the silicon baking cases.

I noticed that when ever Kim dealt with anyone she would greet them with a quick but automated and insincere smile. She looked very pretty and you could see customers and colleagues being disarmed by this automated charm, but there was something missing from how she acted.
At about 11.50 a bloke walked up to Kim and engaged her in conversation. There was something about him that suggested he was not looking for fitted sheets. There was a hurried conversation between the two. The body language was mixed. He seemed to be trying to negotiate or plead with her and on several times he extended his arms with his palms open facing upwards. She was brisk. Not aggressive but stoney. and I was 99% sure that this was our man.

I decided to follow him, I m ean I had fuck all else to go and there is a limit to have often you can watch Jamie bake some muffins in one morning. He left the shop and went out into the public area. He looked in a few shop windows but seemed to be a killing time.

Before I started taking his photo I wanted to see who this geezer was and whether he had anymore contact with our girl.

12.45 he walked back to the front of the shop, but didn’t go in.

13.00 Kim came out of the shop and he followed her. She went to the bakers and bought a roll. He kept his distance. From a professional point of view he was not great at surveillance but by the same token, not bad either, because I really dont think Kim saw him.

She finished her roll and then walked around before going into Anne Summers (For those of you not in the UK this is a chain of High street sex shops aimed at women and couples). He did not follow but pretended to look at the window display. After 5 minutes he moved away quickly which told me that Kim was coming out. He ducked into HMV next door. She walked away and eventually she walked back to work with shag nasty following her. She went into the shop and he ambled off.
At this point my strategy had changed. Instead of watching Kim I would watch him. It is a risk because I could be barking up the wrong tree. But I had no other information so I had to take it slowly. I wanted to find out more about this joker and about what he was to Kim.
He went and had a roll and I got a Cornish pasty. It filled a gap. it was OK but not great.

I hate eating in the street but sometimes don’t have much choice. You know it is interesting, that in the rest of Europe you very rarely see people walking along the street eating. In Britain it is so common place. Funny that we seem to be Europes bloaters, I wonder if these two things are linked?

At about 14.30 he got his mobile out and seemed to start send and receiving texts. After about 15 minutes he suddenly got up and walked very briskly and with real purpose towards the multi-storey car park. I followed. He went to the 4th floor and got into a Ford Ka the exact same colour as Kims. He stayed in the car about 10 to 15 minutes or so. This part of the job is risky. Not because of the suspect because of Britains obsession with CCTV and wankey security guards. Sooner or later some under educated mucle bound toss pot was going to come up and say to me “OI you, what you doin mate?” A short Fuck off often offends in these circumstances.

I had the registration number of his car, so I went moved away and went to a different stair well to the one our man had used to enter the car park. About 2 minutes later I heard the sound of a car door shutting and the sounds of someone walking away.

I broke cover and went towards the car. As I had feared, here was toss pot security guard coming towards me. I carry two mobiles, one in each pocket. One is personal and the other for work. As I got close to the suspects car I pressed the call button on my work phone which rang my personal phone. I pulled the phone from my pocket right by the suspects car and as I did so I dropped a load of small change on the floor.

“Oh bollocks” I said loudly as the change scattered across the hard floor. I held the phone to my ear and had a conversation with my other phone

“Hi Brian yeah, nahh not up to much, yeah, look Brian can I ring you back I’ve just dropped a load of money in the car park, Yeah I’ll be with you in two minutes, yeak ok see ya later mate.”

I then went to pick up my change and stuck a second GPS tracker under the suspects car.

The security guard came over.

“I hate it when that happens dont you?” he said and then very kindly bent down to pick up some change.

“Thanks but don’t worry its only coppers really” I said
“Look after the pennies and pounds look after themselves my mum used to say” He replies

“Yeah I suppose she was right, she knew a thing two did your mum” I said in my best cheery matey way.
“Yeah I suppose” He said “She was an accountant”

Last week I sat in a small suburban terraced house with Mr & Mrs Protective talking small talk.

They were nervous and the conversation faltered at which point I decided it was time to get down to business. Their daughter Kim who is almost 21, has apparently been stalked by some bloke for just over a year. The daughter has apparently reported the matter to the police but they have not done anything. That is the bare bones of the case as I knew it before this meeting.

My job was to draw as much info out of mum and dad as possible so that I can build up a profile. I was talking to them first because it was them who had contacted me and they were paying the bill. Also, rightly or wrongly I felt they were more likely to give me a better picture initial overall picture for me to work on in this case than the the victim . There is whole host of reason for that but I wont go into that here.

The long and the short of it is that Kim works in a department store and that is where it all started apparently.

She lives at home with mum and dad and has a group of friends she has known since the year dot.
She has a few boyfriends on and off like any young woman of her age.
She goes to pubs, goes on holiday with her mates and goes clubbing and to bars at the weekend and that is about it.
In other words she is like thousands of girls throughout the UK of the same age. I am not sure it is a lifestyle I would fancy, but then I aint a 20 year old pretty blonde girl am I?
A few months ago Kim seemed to change. She became surly, aggressive and moody. She started putting on weight and going out more and more. Often she would stay out all night at friends houses. This is what caused the rows. Kim had several big bust ups with her mum and a few with dad. After one big row she said she wasn’t a kid any more and that Mrs P had no right keeping her locked up like a pet and try to control her life. Now she has lost weight and seems withdrawn and edgey.
“We thought it was drugs” said Mr P “I read about it all the time in the Daily Mail, how kids like our Kim are preyed on by Eastern European Polish immigrant’s selling drugs so they can get our jobs”

“Yeah” nodded Mrs P ” Polish immigrants taking our kids jobs. Blacks and Muslims too”

I sipped my tea by way of response. No point in getting into a race row with the client at this early stage. I was under the impression she was being stalked and couldn’t quite see what immigrants had to do with the price of fish.

“Tell me about the stalking”

“Well…..” Said MrsP slightly hesitantly

” I noticed she kept getting a lot of texts all the time”

“Yeah and phone calls…on her mobile like” said dad.

“And?”

“Well she kept being all secretive like and would not always answer the phone She stopped eating but was putting on weight” said mum.
“So what made you think she was being stalked?”

“She told us” said mum.
There you go, she told them! I hadn’t expected that, I was expecting them to have seen some shaddowy ner do well lurking in the bushes or following her on the bus. I said something about the bus and going to work, but she drives to work.

She has a Ford KA. Bought it herself.

“So tell me about this bloke then” I said

Mum and dad exchanged glances and there was a silence.

“Well the thing is we haven’t actually seen him”

“No thats right” Said Mum. “He goes in to he shop and watches her, and then follows her in the car. Sometime she doesn’t come home till late because she is trying to shake him off. When she gets in, she’s in a real state sometimes. Then the phone calls start.”

“Sometimes she stays at a friend house to hide” said dad “That’s why she wasn’t coming home”

The conversation went on like this for a while. They showed me several photos of kim. A Pretty blonde girl but sort of unremarkable. Hard to describe her really. I suppose she looked a bit bland. You could pass her in the street and not notice her but there again she was very pretty. I looked at the photo and wondered what it was that stuck me as being odd. Eventually it dawned on me it was the eyes. They were lifeless. I know its hard to tell with a photo but….I don’t know definitely the eyes.

The conversation ambled on. Mum and dad had been worried and eventually Kim agreed to report the matter to the police. They didn’t do anything. They had never rung up or tied to do anything. Kim had reported it to her manager at work and the security people and all that sort of stuff, but apparently they said there wasn’t much they could do and hence why the parents were paying me.
I asked to have a look at Kim’s bedroom and they reluctantly agreed. It was a typical young womans bedroom. There were some soft toys left over from child hood. Posters that and bits and bobs. Make up on the sort of dressing table, a few clothes scattered about. On the face of it nothing earth shattering. I would have liked to have a good search through it, but I got the distinct impression that Mr & Mrs P would not be too happy with that so I left it.We went down stairs again.

“Have you told Kim you had contacted me?” I asked

“No we thought it best if we didn’t” said dad “We didn’t want her to think we were interfering and that she was not capable of living her own life”
“So what do you want me to do” I asked

“Stop him” said mum

“Sort the bastard out” Said dad. “I want it to stop”
I explained that I would like to speak to Kim but they were dead against this and asked me not to. I explained that I probably could not resolve this thing over night and that stalking cases could be tricky things to sort out. Mr Protective got the wrong Idea and thought I was suggesting they couldn’t afford to pay me. I reassured him that was not the case but did not want him thinking it would be done and dusted in 24 hours. By the same token I also wanted to make it very clear that I would not run him up a big bill just because I might be able to. Does that all make sense?
That little misunderstanding sorted, I proposed that I would start by tracking Kim for the next few days. They gave me a rough timetable to work from and some other bits and bobs just to give me an idea of her routine and habits etc.

After about 3 hours it was time to leave.

As I got to the door the telephone rang and Mrs P said goodbye and went to answer it leaving me with dad.

“Your a dad” He said ” you will understand, I just want my little girl back”

“yeah I know you do, I would too”