Chapter 1: Constable Toms Admission

Tom explained that he didn’t want to call it in and then find it was just a couple of lovers messing about.

So, he had driven past and pulled up. Then he and Danny had got the torches out of his boot and gone quietly into the wood. When they switched their torches on, they had seen the lady naked and tied to four trees. She had a hood over her head and was being raped.

‘I called out, ‘Police you’re under arrest,’ Tom said. ‘Then I jumped on him and handcuffed him. I read him his rights and took him out onto the pavement.’ ‘I untied the lady and helped her get dressed,’ Danny said, ‘Then took her out to sit in Tom’s car. I picked up the assailant’s shorts in passing and took them over to Tom so his prisoner could be made decent.’

‘As we went into the woods,’ Danny said, ‘I had set my phone to record so I have a video of what we saw. I can confirm that I also saw the man jump on the lady and agreed with Tom it looked suspicious.’

It was a different desk sergeant on duty. He said, ‘Well done you two,’ as they were leaving. As Tom took Danny home, he said, ‘It doesn’t seem right me getting the credit.’ ‘Credit won’t do me any good,’ Danny said. ‘My reward is knowing we’ve stopped him raping a lot more people. I couldn’t have caught him without you, so the credit is your reward.’

As they pulled up at Danny’s Tom said, ‘I didn’t shine very well tonight, did I. First, I doubted what you were doing, then I froze when we lit him up. Without your prompting I would have even forgotten to read him his rights. Also, I didn’t have my handcuffs ready.’

‘Tom don’t knock yourself,’ Danny told him. ‘It’s all new to you. You’ve only been a bobby for three weeks. No one is perfect straight off. Experience is the best learning there is. So don’t put yourself down, you did fine. We’ll have a chat soon, ok?’ ‘Thanks,’ Tom said as Danny got out.

The next day the attacker appeared in the magistrate’s court. He had been shown the video Danny had taken. His solicitor had read the statements. He advised him to plead guilty which he did. The magistrate sent him to crown court for sentence and remanded him in custody. Tom had had to attend court in case, but he wasn’t required to give any evidence. The Magistrate looked over at him and said to the court, ‘I would like to place on record my praise for the alertness and observation of the young constable who was responsible for arresting this predator.’

Tom felt chuffed, but even so it didn’t seem right to him that he was getting all the praise, for what he still considered to be Danny’s arrest.

That evening they met up for a chat as Danny had promised. Tom had texted him during the day to say his mum was out that evening and invited him over. Danny had cycled over after dinner. They sat at the kitchen table over a coffee.

When Tom told him about the praise in court, Danny said, ‘That’s great,’ and assured him it was no problem to him. ‘Without your support I wouldn’t have been able to do anything,’ he said. ‘So, your willingness to work with me has saved a lot of women being raped in the future.’

‘I’ve been thinking about our discussion in the car,’ Tom said. ‘I’m not sure that I could make the decisions you do, to let things carry on long enough to get evidence. But I can see the benefits to the community of doing it. So as long as you make the decisions, you can count on my support.’

‘Thank you, Tom,’ Danny said. ‘What has your Uncle Derek said?’ ‘He thinks it’s wonderful that you got me an arrest so soon.’ he said. ‘Plus, he’s delighted to have a rapist locked up.’

‘Now you’ve had chance to think about it,’ Danny said, ‘What do you think made you freeze.’ As Tom hesitated, Danny said, ‘Just remember nothing you ever tell me in confidence will ever be repeated to anyone else. But when you feel that you can talk to me openly, I will be more able to help you with any problem.’

‘They were the first naked couple I’d ever seen, and the first I’ve seen having sex.’ Tom told him. ‘She was also the first naked woman I’ve ever seen.’ ‘So, who was the first naked man?’ Danny asked picking up on his comment.

‘I don’t know his name,’ Tom said. ‘It was a corpse. We had to go to a post-mortem as part of our training.’ ‘How did you find it?’ Danny asked. ‘I felt a bit squeamish to start with,’ Tom said, ‘But the pathologist explained everything that he was doing and why.’

‘Before long I had got used to the smell and was finding it interesting.’ ‘You’ll no doubt see a lot more dead bodies during your career,’ Danny said, ‘So it’s just as well you can cope.’

‘How did the others on your course cope?’ ‘Mainly ok,’ Tom said, ‘Although there were a few had to rush out and be sick when the first incision was made. Oh, and when we went back to the training school, we had stew for dinner. I don’t suppose it was deliberate, but I did notice that a great many seemed to have lost their appetites.’

‘How did you feel, looking at the dead body before the autopsy started?’ Danny asked. Tom went very red and avoided Danny’s eyes. Danny acted as if he hadn’t noticed his embarrassment. ‘I suppose seeing your first naked male, you’d be looking to see how his body compared with yours,’ Danny said. ‘Now, you’re a fit looking young man of good proportions, how did he compare?’

‘He was much older, sixty plus, I think. He was shorter and much weaker looking than me.’ Tom said feeling on safe ground now. ‘So was every single bit of his body in reasonable proportion?’ Danny asked. Tom went red again. ‘Let me guess,’ Danny said, ‘His cock was far bigger than his body size would have suggested if you had met him in the street.’

‘Yes,’ Tom said, ‘How did you guess. It was enormous, I couldn’t take my eyes off it for ages. I only managed to stop looking at it when I realised someone would notice if I didn’t.’ ‘I presume that as it was a corpse, his cock was soft?’ Danny asked. ‘Yes, I could only imagine how big it must have been when it was erect.’ he said.

‘And did you?’ Danny asked. ‘Yes,’ Tom said looking miserable, ‘I couldn’t stop imagining it. I even dreamt about it that night. In my dream it grew and grew to ridiculous sizes.’

‘Being jealous of someone with a bigger cock than your own isn’t completely unusual you know,’ Danny said. ‘I must admit I’ve never come across anyone comparing themselves with a dead one before, but then that wasn’t your choice, you were thrust into the situation.’

‘When did you first start getting these feelings about comparing yourself with other people,’ Danny asked. ‘It started in my early teens,’ Tom told him. ‘Can you remember what triggered it off?’ Danny asked. ‘Yes,’ Tom said as he remembered the occasion. ‘Vividly.’

‘My best pal Phillip and I had been swimming.’ Tom explained. ‘We were both equally shy, so we always got dried keeping ourselves covered up. We put our towels round us before taking our trunks off and we usually did that bit facing away from each other.’

‘At one point I had taken my trunks off and put my towel around my waist. I can’t remember why I turned round, but just as I did so, Phillip turned round too. As we faced each other his towel must have come loose as it dropped to his ankles.’

‘He stood there briefly, completely naked. We had always been pretty much the same size, height, build and strength. Although I’d never really thought about it before then, I had automatically assumed that every bit of us would be the same.’

‘But he wasn’t,’ he said looking miserable.

‘His cock looked twice the length and twice as thick as mine.’ Tom said sounding really down. We both froze for a brief moment as we looked at each other. Then he turned his back as he picked his towel up.’

‘After fastening it around his waist securely, he turned back to face me. ‘I’m sorry.’ he said. ‘Clearly he felt as embarrassed about being seen as I did at seeing him.’

‘It’s ok, don’t worry about it.’ I told him. We never mentioned it again and it didn’t seem to affect our friendship. But from then on, I always felt unhappy about my body.’ ‘Have you ever told anyone else what you’ve just told me?’ Danny asked. ‘No,’ Tom said looking aghast at the idea, ‘I wouldn’t have dared.’