Easy As Falling Off A Bike.
By Angharad Sore-Back,
part ten dozen and one.

I drove like a demon back to my room, rushed up the stairs grabbed the other letters and dashed back to the car, then off to the cop shop. They were polite but how helpful I wouldn't like to say.

"So why do you think they are sending you these letters?"

"I don't know. I can only assume they don't like me changing my gender or something, because they all mention that."

The officer, a detective constable, flicked through them again. "Yeah they do. So have you upset anyone?"

"No, not to my knowledge."

"No boyfriends who found out you used to be....."

"I have one friend who knows, so does his sister. They appear not to have any problem with it. Besides he's in hospital, so it couldn't be him. He knows nothing about them anyway, if he did he'd be cross with me for not coming to you earlier."

"No one at your university jealous of you?"

"Can't think so, it's only in the last week or so that it's come out and the letters started before that."

"So it was someone who knew from the outset?"

"Yes I suppose so, but I can't think of anyone I told who would have reacted like that."

"People can be funny, they don't always show their feelings."

"I appreciate that, but I should be very surprised if it was any of the university people, most of them are too rooted in their own little ivory towers to worry what anyone else is doing, unless it affects their research."

"Right well thank you, Miss erm Watts, I'll get someone to have a look at these, seee if there's any traces we can identify, or fingerprints."

"Do you need to take mine?"

"Yeah, I suppose we better had."

He took me to a small room where he produced a piece of glass and a roller with a blob of ink stuff. He rolled the ink over the glass, then dabbed my fingers in one at a time and then did a print of each on a card, on which he wrote my name and address.

"What do I do if they seem to be heading for a confrontation?" I asked, because the most recent note had spoken of a 'day of reckoning'.

He passed me a business card, "Give me a ring. If it's more urgent dial 999. We take these things quite seriously."

I thanked him and went home, putting my anti intruder device against the door. I wondered if I should have gone to the cottage, but didn't want to involve Stella more than I had already. I wondered about personal protection, carrying a stick or some weapon, but decided that it could land me in trouble. Besides, what did the 'day of reckoning' mean? Could it just be a scene? Would they attack me? I didn't know.

I slept very badly that night, hearing every sound. I felt a wreck the next morning when I got up and showered. A small breakfast, I didn't feel too hungry. Then I went off to the department.

I checked the mailbox, and was relieved to find it empty. I also had a good look around the car and nothing seemed amiss. I drove in and was pleased to discover I had a parking pass. The day was feeling better, albeit by a tiny bit.

I went to see if I could get an appointment with my professor and was told he could see me at two. It was now ten. The police had apparently retrieved all the bits from the woods and the shattered image intensifier and my destroyed note book were anongst the items.

My results from the fateful night were unusable because they were incomplete and the previous ones were shredded by shotgun pellets. The book had saved Simon's life but it was now only fit for the bin. My Lowe rucksack was similar, full of holes as was the flask and most of the other stuff. My dread of guns was reinforced when I saw what could have happened, most of Simon's head and chest would have been destroyed. Realising this I began to shake and cry.

"Are you okay?" asked a female voice.

"Yeah, I'll be all right in a minute."

She saw the damaged items on my desk, "Christ, what happened to those?"

"They stopped a shotgun."

"Jesus! You weren't carrying them were you?"

"No, my boyfriend was." Referring to Simon as my boyfriend felt good, it was a new concept to me. Other people referred to us as a couple, but I hadn't.

"Oh shit, is he like, okay?"

I spotted a small amount of dried blood on the bag. "He's in hospital but yes he survived."

"Like wow!, Who would do such a thing?"

"Some poachers we think, thought they were shooting deer."

"I don't like guns," she said shaking her head.

"Nor me."

"Wanna go grab some coffee?" she asked.

As I couldn't think of a reason to say no, I agreed.

We walked over to the cafeteria, which is in the next building to the zoology department, usefully in the same building as microbiology, so if we get food poisoning, we can identify it very quickly! Very comforting when you're feeling like death!

"Sorry, I don't even know your name," I apologised to my companion.

"Suzy Burrows, I've been on a sabbatical, "only just come back to the department."

"You've been over at Yale haven't you?"

"Harvard," she corrected gently.

"Well it's all the same in a small place like America," I joked, "I mean how would they cope having space the size of Yorkshire?"

She laughed understanding my joke about the largest county in England, being lost in even the smallest state of the US. "Well their buses must be awful slow, is all I can say." We laughed some more.

"So what are you doing?"

"Dormice."

"Use plenty of garlic," she joked as we sipped our coffees.

"Ugh, these are all little friends to me, it would be like eating your pet dog or cat. I mean I have seen many of them grow up from babies, especially the colony we have in the department."

"I've been away longer than I thought, the Prof has allowed you to breed dormice?"

"Yeah, do you want to see them?"

"Oh yeah," she said, "then the old bugger can explain to me why he couldn't do the same with harvest mice."

"Of course, the 'Harvest Queen'," I said, "they did a spread on you in the local paper."

"Oh don't," she said, "that was so humiliating.They wanted me to pose in sexy clothes, I mean what's wrong with a Barbour and jeans?"

"Does this mean I can hand over some of the rodent stuff to you?"

"What do you mean?" she asked and I had to explain all about the survey.

"I'd like to be involved but I've got a teaching post lined up at Harvard, tell you what, I'll certainly correlate any results you get. But I'm going to be busy with Yankee bunnies."

"Eh?"

"I'm doing some work on hares and possibly prairie dogs."

"Oh, so you're not going to be around, then?" As I said this I thought to myself, Duh! she just told you she's not staying, so no you can't get her to front the poster campaign.

"So can I use your harvest mouse stuff as a baseline for the new figures."

"Sure, but check with Geoff Grantham in Surrey, he did quite a big study a couple of years ago."

"I saw his name on the data base, I'll send him an email."

"He's a nice guy, especially helpful to a pretty girl, so once he meets you, he'll do anything."

I wasn't quite sure how to take that. I appraised her again, very pretty woman, about twenty five, dark hair and eyes with a sensual mouth and upturned nose. I suspect she could get most men to do what she wanted, just by smiling at them. Was she implying I could have the same power? It was all so new to me.

"The problem is rats," said a youngish man, joining us.

"Hi Stan," said Suzy.

"Hi Suzy, how was the US?"

"Good, and your rats?"

"Yeah, still running rings around me."

"Do you know Cathy, our dormouse lady."

"Hi," he said before throwing some Red Bull down his throat."I thought, it was a bloke who did dormice."

"No, I think Cathy is a girl, Stan. You've been playing with your rats too long."

"Could be, anyway ladies, I have to get back or they'll take over the world."

"They already have Stan," said Suzy and giggled. I chuckled politely while thinking that my news hasn't been widely distributed. That was interesting in itself. So who would know and and why were they running this nastiness campaign against me, albeit on a personal level?

I sipped my coffee lost in thought, wondering if Stella could offer any advice, maybe it was someone Simon went out with who was jealous? I really didn't know, and they gave little hint as to what they were upset about, except my transition.

"I'd better get back, I have to clear out my office and see old Agnew, kiss him goodbye and all that.I expect he'll want me to go to dinner, dirty old man."

"Yeah, I 'spect so, but he's a nice dirty old man," I agreed and we wandered back to zoology.

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The postings could be a bit sporradic for a few days, depending upon how sore I feel. I'm not suppose to sit for too long, and just have!

Hugs,

Angharad.