Chapter 1: The Night Of

Westchester County Court – The Trial – Day One

“All rise. Case number 322-678-775, Judge Allison Vogel presiding,” the bailiff called out to the packed courtroom.

“Please be seated. State your case counsellor,” Judge Vogel directed towards the Prosecutor’s table.

“Your Honor, members of the jury, my name is Gerald Thatcher, representing the prosecution in this case. Your Honor, the State alleges that the defendant, Stephen Nielsen committed murder in the first degree, shooting Jeremy Wallace five times and causing his death,” the Assistant District Attorney addressed the judge and took his seat.

“Your Honor, members of the jury, William Sanford for the defence. First of I would remind the judge that we agreed in chambers that the defendant would be addressed by her legal name and gender, using the name Stephanie Nielsen and using feminine pronouns. The defendant pleads not guilty by the way,” William sat down next to his client, silently fuming.

“Members of the jury, the prosecutor used the defendant’s legal name at the time that the indictment was first issued. Since the time of the alleged offence and her appearance today in court, the defendant has changed her name and gender legally. The prosecutor is forgiven for the slip but is directed to use the defendant’s legal name and gender from now on except when specifically required for context. The not guilty plea is entered into the court record and the trial will proceed,” Judge Vogel explained.

The first shots had been fired.

Twelve Months Before The Trial – The Nielsen Residence, New Rochelle, New York

Stephen Nielsen sat in front of the TV in his living room anxiously watching the clock. His wife Mary would be leaving for work soon and he was anxious. Mary came out of the bedroom carrying her heels and padded downstairs, a miasma of perfume preceding her. She was dressed for work: a professional looking dark skirt-suit, dark hosiery and adeptly applied makeup.

Stephen thought she looked great, although the hem of her skirt was a little askew and the eyeliner under her left eyelid had been applied inconsistently. He would never leave the house looking like that.

He muted the TV and accompanied his wife to the door adjoining their two-car garage to say goodbye. This weekend she was the duty administrator at the hospital where she worked. Mary was rostered on the overnight shift from eight in the evening until eight the next morning. The administration staff at the hospital rotated through the overnight shifts as part of their duties.

“See you tomorrow morning honey. Don’t forget we are going to your mother’s for dinner tomorrow night,” Mary leaned in and kissed Stephen quickly on the mouth and climbed into her Mercedes coupe.

Stephen waited until he heard the garage door open, her car back out and the roller door rattle back into place before he moved. He opened the connecting door and went into the garage, shimmied around his Lexus and stood before his fully-equipped workbench. He took a keyring out of his pocket and unlocked an underbench cupboard and dragged out the suitcase. He wheeled the suitcase into the house and lugged it to his study, picking it up where the tiles met carpet so as not to leave any impressions in the pile.

He locked the door to his study and put the suitcase behind his desk. He used another key on his keyring to open a small cupboard concealed in the kneehole of his desk. On a shelf inside the cupboard were a laptop computer, a cellular phone, a garage door remote and an electronic key fob. He switched the phone from mute to vibrate and checked the messages. He scrolled through the most recent of them until he found a text from ‘JW’ which read: Coast is clear, see you at 9:30 followed by three kiss emojis.

Stephen replied to the text, writing: can’t wait and smiled. He left the phone on his desk, opened the suitcase and took out a waterproof Ziploc bag and hurried upstairs to the master bedroom where he stripped. He took the bag into the ensuite bathroom, unzipped the bag, removed the douche and attached it to the showerhead. He douched and showered and while he was in the shower he shaved away any rogue hairs on his legs and body using Mary’s lady shaver. He had fully shaved his body only three days previously so there weren’t many.

He dried his body, cleaned and dried the douche and put it back in the Ziploc bag then he carefully shaved his face, put on a bathrobe, popped two Imodium and inserted four K-Y ‘Liquibeads’ in his anus and padded downstairs to his study. What he did next would have been more conveniently conducted in their bedroom but out of respect for his wife Stephen always did what he was about to do in his study. Besides it prevented him from leaving anything incriminating where Mary might find it.

Stephen set up the mirror on its little stand on the desk and opened his makeup case. As soon as he started putting concealer on his face, his psyche switched from Stephen to Stephanie. It was a mental and also physical metamorphosis. In his mind he became Stephanie, a thirty-something sophisticated woman who had a predilection for nice clothes, sexy lingerie and handsome men. The physical manifestation was accompanied by the adoption of Stephanie’s persona, not just the makeup and clothes, she adopted feminine mannerisms including her gestures, the way she walked and the way she talked.

Stephanie completed the makeup job: foundation, finishing powder, rouge, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara and finally a coat of long-lasting lipstick. She popped the lipstick in her handbag along with her compact. She spent a few minutes sticking press-on nails onto her fingernails; they were pre-painted the same shade as her lipstick. Although Stephanie had collar-length blond hair courtesy of her Scandinavian heritage, she elected to wear a wig. She shook out a shoulder length brunette bob, and brushed it out and after putting a wigcap over her natural hair she put on the wig, adjusted it and styled it.

Stephanie looked in the mirror and saw an attractive woman looking back at her: green eyes, high cheekbones, small straight nose and shapely lips, which she also put down to her Swedish heritage. The blunt bangs hit just below her brows, emphasising her eyes and making her face look fuller. In her own honest opinion she was a very good looking woman.

Discarding the bathrobe she stepped into a pair of Wolford nearly nude, ten denier, sheer-to-the-waist pantyhose, smoothing them up her legs and adjusting the waistband. She used two fingers to tuck each of her testicles up into each corresponding inguinal canal then wrapped her penis in her empty scrotum and tucked it along her perineum and pulled the pantyhose up tight. She could remain tucked for around eight hours if required but tonight that wouldn’t be necessary.

She pulled a pair of black, lace-trimmed, full-cut satin panties up her legs. Stephanie liked to wear her panties over pantyhose for the aesthetic but also because the man she was meeting preferred it that way. She put on the matching brassiere and popped silicon ‘chicken fillet’ breastforms in the cups to fill them. She buttoned up a long-sleeved purple satin blouse, shimmied into a tight skirt, tucked the tails of the blouse into the waistband and closed the side zipper. She would carry her heels to her car, just like her wife had done. She accessorised with costume jewellery, put on the jacket that matched her skirt, gathered her things and went out to the garage.

As she sat in the Lexus’ driver’s seat her skirt rode up her thighs and she briefly admired her legs. She thought they were better than Mary’s; they were certainly longer. Stephanie started the car and activated the garage door with the remote and waited for the security light to extinguish before she nosed the car onto the street checking to see if any of neighbours were out and about.

Stephanie is free to pursue her secret life and she is excited...

With the coast clear she drives out onto Decatur Road and continues on until she comes to the I-95on-ramp. It will take her a little under half an hour to drive to Jeremy Wallace’s apartment block on Franklin Avenue in White Plains. Parking is always a bitch in that part of town but Jeremy has given her a garage door remote which she uses to enter the underground parking facility and she parks in the slot directly behind Jeremy’s Beamer. Stephanie would have no problem parking on the street (if she could ever find a spot) and walking to the apartment building, the streets here are safe and she is eminently passable, but they both insist on discretion and it is easier and more discreet for Stephanie to park in the underground lot and take the elevator to Jeremy’s apartment than to enter through the foyer.

She slips her high-heeled pumps on her feet and walks to the elevator where she takes out the fob that will activate the elevator car from her purse. She then takes out a small bottle of Dior Poison, which although some consider the scent old fashioned, is her and Jeremy’s favourite. While she waits for the elevator she sprays herself liberally with the fragrance. She would have liked to have put on the perfume before she left home or in her car but the scent is cloying and Mary might detect its lingering bouquet.

Stephanie steps into the elevator and gives herself a final onceover in the mirrored wall before she arrives at the third floor and strides purposefully to apartment 3F. The door is slightly ajar and she slips inside and she closes it behind her, ensuring that the lock engages. Before she can even put her purse on the counter Jeremy takes Stephanie in his arms and gives her a long lingering kiss.

“Hello darling,” Stephanie’s smile is wide, her lips inviting.

“Hello my love,” Jeremy flashes a brilliant white smile.

Jeremy is a handsome man in his late thirties. He is wearing a bathrobe, his thick black mane wet from the shower. He is tanned, fit and muscular, think George Clooney at the same age, with an almost permanent five o’clock shadow, dark brown eyes, and a killer smile. When Stephanie first met him in person in a seedy New York hotel she could hardly believe her luck. He is intelligent, personable and kind, and infatuated with Stephanie.

Jeremy has never seen Stephen Nielsen, nor does he ever want to. It was agreed when they began to correspond that Stephanie would always present femme in his presence. They met in the now defunct ‘Personals’ section of a classified advertisement website and exchanged messages, photographs and after weeks of back and forth banter they agreed to meet on neutral ground to see if they were compatible. They entered into a torrid love affair almost immediately.

Jeremy holds Stephanie at arm’s length so he can fully appraise her but she can see the lust in his eyes and his penis is tenting the front of his bathrobe. They are both always highly concupiscent when they first meet and they both know that sex will take place almost immediately. It will be a brief lust-fuelled encounter to appease their carnal desires, sort of an appetiser before the entrée. Later she will take off the skirt-suit and slip into some sexy lingerie but they both like the fantasy they play out. Stephanie is the mature, sexy businesswoman arriving home after a busy day and her lover can’t wait for her to undress before he takes her.

Their kisses become more impassioned and Stephanie slips her hand inside the bathrobe and takes Jeremy’s thick corpulent rod in her fingers and gently caresses it. She loves that he gasps into her mouth as she does so. She gathers the lubricious beads of pre-ejaculate and massages the viscous secretions into the flesh of his manhood. Jeremy breaks the kiss momentarily so he can watch Stephanie’s long fingers, tipped with those fiery red nails, stroke his penis. He kisses her again and holds Stephanie close. She is careful to keep Jeremy’s secretions away from her skirt.

Stephen takes Stephanie’s suits, skirts and blouses to a dry cleaner across town under the pretext of dropping off and picking up his wife’s clothing but he suspects that the owner is suspicious because the clothing is sometimes stained with bodily fluids. Stephen ensures that he tips the drycleaner heavily and it is mutually understood that it buys the proprietor’s silence. The proprietor is unsure whether Stephen is dropping off his mistresses clothing or wearing the clothes himself and doesn’t really care. What he does know is that Mrs Nielsen has never come into the store in person to collect her clothes. Never once in three years.

Stephanie feels Jeremy’s cock pulse and quiver as she begins to masturbate him. She takes her hand away, not wanting him to climax just yet and certainly not in her hand. She kisses him passionately, driving her tongue deep into his mouth, tasting red wine; the expensive Australian Grange Hermitage they will drink after they make love the first time. Jeremy has already tasted it and she now tastes it on his breath.

Jeremy loves the feel of Stephanie’s body against him, the curve of her hips, the heft of her prim buttocks. He knows that her breasts are just silicone breastforms but they still feel nice pressed against him through her blouse and blazer. His hand drifts down to the hem of her skirt and it is Stephanie’s turn to gasp when Jeremy slips his fingers under and stokes her thighs. The feel of ten denier nylon on her flesh excites them both and Stephanie is becoming engorged.

Her testes have already descended and her cock sits uncomfortably tumescent between her buttocks inside her pantyhose and panties. Jeremy’s fingers find the lace trim on the leghole of her panties where they play with the frilly fringe briefly before they venture inside the silky garment and between Stephanie’s legs where they find her penis trapped along her perineum by her pantyhose.

Stephanie moans as Jeremy strokes her bloated organ through the diaphanous fabric and she reaches for him and returns the favour. Their lips lock together and their tongues entwine as they caress each other’s rigid cocks. Jeremy knows that it hurts Stephanie a little for her cock to be trapped like that when it is erect and he manipulates it so that it springs free and bags the front of her pantyhose. He wraps his fingers around her nylon-swathed protuberance and caresses it while Stephanie grips his erect phallus and strokes it back to full tumescence.

She drops to her knees and takes Jeremy’s cock in her mouth, looking up at him with emerald-green eyes full of lust as she suckles his manhood. Jeremy gently holds her head while Stephanie uses her mouth in a practised fashion on his prong, working her lips up and down the shaft and using her tongue to nurse his glans, flicking it across his fraenulum, making his whole body shudder.

They both know that Jeremy will not be able to endure her ministrations for long and when he feels his scrotal sac begin to roil Jeremy pulls his cock from her mouth and helps Stephanie to her feet.

Jeremy picks Stephanie up and carries her to the couch where he drops her, arms and legs akimbo. Her skirt has ridden up and he growls with lust as he ogles her black satin panties. He grabs her ankles and opens her legs, putting her calves on his chest then he eases aside the gusset of her panties and hooks a finger in the gossamer nylon of her pantyhose and tears a little hole, revealing her pretty pink puckered bud. He growls again as he positions his glans in the petite, tight pink sphincter and without hesitating he pushes every millimetre of his engorged flesh inside her.

Stephanie grunts and puffs air out of her mouth and momentarily Jeremy is concerned he has hurt her but she is smiling up at him as if to say ‘it’s ok’. She feels his cock filling her void. It is almost painful because he is so engorged and so deep inside her, the Liquibeads easing his passage. Lying on her back with her ass in the air with her ankles around Jeremy’s neck she is very vulnerable. Jeremy closes his eyes. He doesn’t move and Stephanie can feel his cock pulsing and quivering inside her. He opens his mouth and mimes the word ‘sorry’ and then he lowers his face to hers and kisses her as his cock begins to judder and she can feel his scalding seed filling her anus.

Stephanie doesn’t mind one little bit because there is a wet stain spreading in the front of her panties caused by a flood of semen. Her anus is undulating around Jeremy’s thick elongated weapon as he climaxes. Rings of pleasure are radiating from her sphincter and coalesce with the deep rhythmic pulses of delight diffusing from her prostate.

The lovers are climaxing together, their orgasms peaked as soon as Jeremy entered Stephanie’s tight, plush rectum. He lies still on top of her while his cock quivers deep inside her, their lips crushed together, their tongues lashing, Stephanie’s legs locked around Jeremy’s torso her fingers laced behind his neck. Their lust has peaked and for a while the overwhelming intensity of their orgasms is all-encompassing, then slowly, they descend as their climaxes begin to subside.

Jeremy cannot stop kissing Stephanie. He has been counting the hours, waiting for her to arrive and now that she is here he can’t stop touching her. Stephanie feels the same way. They sometimes fantasise what it would be like if Mary wasn’t in the picture. Both Jeremy and Stephanie are wealthy and Jeremy could easily support them both if Stephanie quit her job as an investment banker and transitioned and lived with him full-time. To Stephanie it is a fantasy but Jeremy believes it is a possibility. It is the only thing they argue about.

Jeremy is finally able to restrain his pursuit of pleasure and the practicalities of the situation need to be addressed. He is fully naked and Stephanie lies on the couch with her lower back arched at an acute angle, her legs pressed against Jeremy’s torso, her ankles either side of his neck. Jeremy’s still-erect penis is buried in her anus and she is still fully clothed.

This is not the first time that they have found themselves in this situation as soon as Stephanie arrives, although there are variations on the theme: Stephanie bent over the dining table, Stephanie propped on the kitchen counter, Stephanie lying under Jeremy on the floor, Stephanie pressed against the wall with her skirt hiked up.

Jeremy eases Stephanie up off the couch, lifting her with his cock still buried in her ass. She wraps her legs around his waist and grips his shoulders to assist while Jeremy carries her into the bedroom and lowers her onto the bed. She holds her skirt out of the way and giggles like a schoolgirl when Jeremy eases his penis out of her and his semen dribbles from her anus. She meekly keeps her cum-saturated panties away from her skirt as she slips into the ensuite bathroom and strips.

Jeremy brings her purse while she undresses. The semen-soaked panties and pantyhose are put aside while Jeremy takes her skirt, blouse and jacket and hangs them up. He brings her some lingerie from the little stash that Stephanie keeps at his apartment and Stephanie emerges from the bathroom a little while later with her makeup and hair fixed, wearing a burgundy satin and lace basque, matching satin panties, black fully-fashioned stockings and the same heels she arrived in.

Jeremy can hardly keep his hands off her but he manages to restrain himself while they head back to the little kitchen to drink the Grange Hermitage and catch up while their passions begin to smoulder. They will return to the bedroom and make love into the early hours until it is time for Stephanie to leave.

Stephanie leaves Jeremy sleeping, exhausted from their lovemaking; the Viagra Jeremy took made his virility particularly potent. She is bone tired too and her lips are puffy, her nipples tender and her anus feels wonderfully bruised. She is wearing the same suit that she arrived in, the panties she was wearing lying discarded on the bathroom floor, the Wolfords left behind as a present for Jeremy. She is wearing a pair of cheap Hanes pantyhose with full-cut panties over for the trip home.

The Nielsen Residence, New Rochelle, New York – The Morning After

Stephanie arrived home dog tired and made her way to the study. She used facial wipes to remove her makeup and took off her wig, brushed it and put it in a soft silk wig bag. The press-on nails were gently pried off and put in baggie to be reused. Off came the suit and with it her feminine alter ego and her existence returned to that of Stephen Nielson. The suit and blouse went into a small valise to be taken to the drycleaner and the phone was switched to silent and locked away in the compartment in the desk next to the laptop, along with the fob and garage remote. Everything else went back into the suitcase which Stephen returned to the garage and locked away. The valise went into the trunk of the Lexus.

Stephen took a very quick shower, mainly to remove the outward vestiges of makeup and the smell of perfume and he fell into bed and was instantly asleep.

Stephen and Mary were jarred awake just after ten o’clock by the sound of the doorbell. Mary had arrived home from work exhausted after her shift and kicked off her heels, shimmied out of her suit and leaving on her underwear and hosiery, she had slipped under the covers and snuggled up to her husband who was snoring softly.

“Who the fuck could that be?” Stephen got out of bed and snatched up his robe and put it on.

“I have no idea. You slept in again?” Mary looked at the digital clock on the bedside table.

“I watched a miniseries on Netflix and polished off a bottle of wine. With my wife at work there was no need to hurry to bed,” Stephen bent down and kissed Mary on the nose affectionately.

“Well come back to bed when whoever it is, is gone. I’m still wearing my pantyhose and I know you love that,” Mary flipped the covers back and then quickly pulled them closed, giving her husband a glimpse of her long legs clad in dark hosiery and her bottom clad in white nylon panties.

With her smudged makeup and tousled hair Mary looked sleepy-sexy and Stephen thought that he might get it up for her with the aid of the sildenafil still in his system despite having orgasmed numerous times with Jeremy.

When Stephen opened the door he was surprised to see two plain-clothed detectives accompanied by a small army of uniformed policemen. One of the detectives held up his badge.

“Stephen Nielsen, you are under arrest for the murder of Jeremy Wallace. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...” the rest of the Miranda warning was lost on Stephen Nielsen as the blood drained from his head and he thought he was going to faint.

Westchester County Court – The Trial – Day One

“Detective Bolton, please tell the court what happened when you arrived at the Jeremy Wallace’s residence on the morning of October seventeenth of last year,” ADA Gerald Thatcher had called his first witness and the trial had begun.

Both Gerald Thatcher and William Sanford had made their opening remarks to the jury. Gerald Thatcher surmised his case: Stephanie Nielsen and Jeremy Wallace had been conducting a torrid affair and on the evening of the crime they had sex, then they had gotten into an argument and Stephanie Nielsen had killed Jeremy Wallace with a handgun and had fled the scene and returned home.

William Sanford’s defence was that Stephanie Nielsen had not committed the crime and the prosecution’s case was based on circumstantial evidence.

Both lawyers had no intention of providing too much information to the jury just yet. The ADA would tell a sordid story of perversion, adultery, lust, deception, jealousy and rage resulting in a crime of passion. The Defence would try to counter every move the ADA made, discredit any evidence presented and all witnesses called by the prosecution.

There had been much speculation regarding the trial in the press. A transwoman who was once a highly respected, wealthy, married, businessman accused of murdering her lover who was also a highly respected and wealthy man was grist for the tabloid mill, especially because Stephanie remained married to Mary and Mary remained stoically convinced of her spouse’s innocence.

“A neighbour reported gunshots in the Franklin Manor cooperative and officers arrived at the scene and were let into Jeremy Wallace’s apartment by the super. They found Jeremy Wallace’s naked body shot dead. A snub-nosed .38 Smith and Wesson handgun was found next to the victim and the officers called it in. I responded with my partner and a forensics team and we began investigating,” Detective Lionel Bolton began his testimony.

“While the crime scene officers collected forensic evidence I had the building superintendent bring up the security video and we identified a black Lexus parked directly behind Mr Wallace’s BMW in the underground garage. My partner and I observed what appeared to be a female dressed in a dark suit and purple blouse leave the vehicle and take the elevator to apartment 3F at 2135. We observed her leaving the apartment at 0330 the following morning. Several traffic cameras on the I-95 and I-287 held digital imagery of the vehicle travelling those routes at times which correspond with the accused vehicle arriving and departing her residence and the apartment on Franklin Avenue,” Lionel Bolton explained.

“So the number plates of the Lexus caught on the cameras in the apartment block matched the same plates and vehicle type caught on traffic cameras along the route from New Rochelle and White Plains and the timing corresponds to the time of the murder,” Gerald Thatcher came close to leading the witness but William Sanford did not object.

His strategy was not to antagonise the judge and the jury by constantly interrupting. That methodology works well on TV but not in real life.

“What else did you find that led you to believe that Stephanie Neilson was a suspect?” the ADA asked.

“At that stage not much else. We found a pair of discarded pantyhose and a pair of satin panties heavily soiled with semen. The bedsheets were stained with makeup and semen and we found a small amount of lingerie in one of the drawers and speculated that it might belong to a lover. At this stage we thought that we were looking for a woman you understand,” Detective Bolton said confidently.

“When did you decide that Stephanie Nielsen, who then identified as Stephen Neilson, was a suspect?” the ADA asked.

“After we ran the plates we identified Stephen Nielsen as the registered owner of the Lexus and at first we suspected that his wife may have borrowed his car but we checked the hospital where Mary Nielsen worked overnight as the duty administrator and confirmed that she had been at work all evening and that she had used her own vehicle that evening,” Lionel Bolton settled back into the witness chair.

“While we were doing that one the CSIs ran a set of latent prints found on the handgun through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System and AFIS came back with a positive hit on Stephen Nielsen, now known as Stephanie Nielsen. The serial number of the thirty-eight was run through the handgun register and it came back registered to Stephen Nielsen,” Lionel Bolton looked smug.

“We carefully examined the video taken in the apartment complex and decided that the woman we were observing could possibly be a man wearing female attire. At this stage we did not realise that this was a crime of passion and assumed that Stephen Nielsen had dressed as a woman as a disguise,” Lionel Bolton glared across the courtroom at the defendant.

“Objection your honour, the witness’s claim that the murder was a crime of passion has not been established,” William Sanford got to his feet.

“Overruled, you will get to test the witnesses assumptions under cross, councillor,” Judge Vogel replied.

“What did you and your partner do then?” the ADA asked.

“Using the video footage, the fingerprints, the firearms registration and identification of the defendant’s vehicle as reasonable grounds, Judge McGregor issued an arrest warrant for Stephen Nielsen around eight in the morning and I put together an arrest team and proceeded to the defendant’s residence,” Detective Bolton replied straightforwardly.

“What was the rush detective?” ADA Thatcher was anticipating a challenge by the defence that the arrest of Stephanie Nielsen and the search of her domicile was pre-emptive.

Although the arrest and search had already been deemed legitimate by Judge Vogel in pre-trial deliberations, Gerald Thatcher was sure that William Sanford would raise the matter anyway to put it before the jury.

“Stephanie Nielsen is a rich woman, or at that time a rich man, and we considered her a flight risk. Also, we had concerns that she might destroy or hide evidence,” Lionel Bolton answered.

“What evidence did you find initially at the Nielsen residence?” the ADA asked.

“We found a suitcase hidden in the garage containing large quantities of female apparel including shoes, wigs and cosmetics. Also in the suitcase we found a douche, personal lubricant and a quantity of Viagra and an anti-viral drug known colloquially as PrEP. In the defendant’s study we found a concealed compartment in the desk inside of which was a laptop, a cellular phone, a remote control door opener and an electronic key fob,” Lionel Bolton smiled at the jury; they knew that the contents of the laptop and the phone would be juicy and that they could hardly wait to hear about it.