Sep: The Night Out

For once, Tamsyn felt young and free, not burdened with the weight of her history: the girl whose mum left, the girl whose dad died, the girl who lived with her grandparents – and sometimes the girl who stank because she’d been helping her grandad who was a Cornish lobsterman.

Tonight, she was just Tamsyn, 20 years old, wearing a figure-hugging dress with spaghetti straps in a deep red that made her feel sexy and daring. And Doc Marten boots, because she loved her creaking old foot coffins and it wouldn’t matter if some asshole stepped on her feet.

Her best friend, Jess, grinned at her.

“You look hot in my dress, be-otch!” she yelled over the noise of the thumping bass.

“I love this dress!” Tamsyn shouted back. “Thanks for lending it to me.”

Jess shrugged.

“It looks better on you anyway. God, I hate your skinny skanky ass!”

Tamsyn grinned at her.

“I hate your bootylicious butt!”

They hip-checked each other and laughed.

Where Tamsyn was blonde, tall and slender; Jess had long chestnut-coloured hair, curvaceous hips, generous breasts and an hourglass figure that made men sit up and beg. They were fire and ice, ying and yang – a dangerous combination as they sashayed through the crowded dancefloor of Mangos, a Falmouth club that was popular with students as well as locals.

They headed up the narrow stairs to the dance floor, each paying their fiver for entry and headed to the bar. Mangos was famous for its shots and cocktails; oddly, none of them were mango-flavoured.

Tamsyn ordered a bottle of Rattler, a Cornish cloudy cider that was 5.5% proof, and drank straight from the bottle.

Jess pointed at her shot glass, silently asking if Tamsyn wanted one, but Tamsyn shook her head. She wanted to dance and have fun; she didn’t want to get falling-over-shitfaced. Not anymore. Not that much ever, but definitely not now. Mixing spirits and cider was a fast trip on the crazy train.

Jess downed two shots in quick succession and pulled a face that made Tamsyn laugh.

“I can’t believe you’re going to be a police officer,” Jess shouted in her ear. “That’s frickin’ insane! Just promise not to arrest me!”

“Can’t make any promises … and there’s that indecent exposure thing you’ve got going on after four vodka shots.”

“Ha ha, funny. And anyway, you were the one who lost her bikini top while she was surfing. You’re such a ho-bag!”

“So, it wasn’t you who mooned the bus with the Cornish Pirates rugby team on it?”

“No comment,” Jess laughed, raising her eyebrows. “Anyway, shut up, you hag! I got you something!”

Jess paid for the drinks and tucked her phone in her cleavage, then leaned across the bar where she definitely caught the attention of the young barman, and they had a short conversation. He nodded, winked, and passed her a large parcel, wrapped in shiny paper with a huge red bow. That earned him a kiss on the lips, and he gave Jess a hungry look that showed he was ready for his next meal.

Jess passed present to Tamsyn.

“What is it?” Tamsyn asked.

“Open it and find out, genius,” Jess teased.

Tamsyn pulled off the ribbon and tied it around her neck like a choker, then started ripping into the paper.

“When did you organise this?” she asked, grinning at her friend.

“This morning,” Jess said, pleased with herself. “I was showing a house to a couple in Penryn, a new listing, so it was kind of on the way.”

“Did you make a sale?”

“They’re thinking about it,” Jess shrugged. “They want to buy somewhere as an investment: Air BnB,” and her expression darkened.

“They’d be better off renting it out in Falmouth,” Tamsyn commented. “Lots of students looking for somewhere to live.”

“Lots of local people looking, too, but they can’t afford the prices,” Jess scowled. “Anyway, enough about that shit – open your present!”

Tamsyn tore open the final layer of tissue paper, and for a split second wondered if her friend had thought it was a good idea to buy her a dildo. But when she realised it was a toy policeman’s truncheon, she started to laugh.

“It squeaks!” Jess said proudly.

Tamsyn squeaked it several times and both of them collapsed in a fit of giggles.

“I love it!” Tamsyn grinned. “You’re insane, but I love you it, and I love you, too.”

And she pulled her friend into a tight hug.

“Thank you,” she said more quietly.

“I am so frickin’ proud of you,” Jess said with tears in her eyes. “You’ve worked so hard, done all your training, and on Monday, you’re going to be Police Constable Tamsyn Poldhu – how crazy is that? Proud of you, Tam. You are one bleddy amazing woman.”

“Jess, I…” but Tamsyn didn’t have the words.

“Love you too, bitch face,” Jess said with a wink.

The Kings of Leon track Sex on Fire began playing, and Jess shrieked.

“Oh, my God, I love this song! Come on!”

And they plunged through the crowd to a tiny space where they got their groove on, feeling the buzz, the vibe, that scene where the sweat and rising heat and music and lyrics, and moving your body with the alcohol warming your blood, reaching that place where you lost yourself because you were young and full of limitless possibilities.

For once, let me be in the moment, let me just enjoy this time and this place, Tamsyn prayed.

Jess grabbed the truncheon and did lewd things with it until Tamsyn snatched it back, unable to keep the smile off her face.

The song ended and another rolled through. They danced until the sweat poured off them and whatever makeup they’d worn was smeared and smudged, and smoky eyes became slutty eyes.

“I’m going to get us some water,” Tamsyn yelled over the drum ‘n’ bass.

“And two shots and a bucket of ice for me!” Jess yelled after her.

The bar was five deep and the harried bar staff took forever getting Tamsyn’s bottles of water. She simply couldn’t carry shots as well, so she didn’t bother.

Slowly, Tamsyn elbowed her way back to the centre of the room, looking around for Jess. It was hard to see anything amongst the crowd of bobbing heads, the pulsing red and green lights, and the dry ice wafting toward the ceiling.

She drank her own water, dumped the plastic bottle, then made her way around the edge of the room, but still couldn’t see her friend.

“Hey, Tam! How are you? I haven’t seen you for ages.”

Tamsyn recognised a girl she knew from the previous summer when they’d been beach lifeguards together.

“Hey, Lucy! Good to see you. Do you remember my friend Jess? I came here with her but now I can’t find her.”

“God, I know! This place is a zoo! My boyfriend is around here somewhere.”

“Have you seen Jess?”

“Uh, what does she look like again?”

“She’s 5’ 2’’, long brown hair, wearing a blue tank and jean-shorts. I last saw her about 20 minutes ago.”

“Maybe? Did you check the bathroom – the queue is out the door.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll take a look.”

“Let’s catch up sometime, yeah?” and she mimed making a phone call.

“Sure,” Tamsyn said absently, already pushing through the throng of dancers.

She was yelled at by several women as she shoved her way past the queue for the toilets and knocked on all the doors of the stalls.

But Jess wasn’t there either. So, Tamsyn pulled out her phone and dialled her. She knew that no one could hear a phone ring in the club, but Jess would have put it on vibrate for that exact reason. Ten rings later, and it went straight to voicemail.

Tamsyn was hot and tired but beginning to worry.

Frustrated, she decided to check downstairs. Maybe Jess had thought that the bathroom queue would be shorter there.

“Hey,” she said to the guy on door security, “did you see a girl in a blue tank top and cut-off jeans come past here? Long brown hair, 5’ 2”, really pretty?”

He shrugged.

“That sounds like a dozen girls here tonight.”

Tamsyn pulled out her phone and showed him the screensaver of her and Jess at the beach.

He peered at it in the bad lighting, then finally nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, I think so. She was here a few minutes ago with her boyfriend. She was pretty wasted.”

Tamsyn’s skin prickled.

“No, she doesn’t have a boyfriend, and she’s only had two shots all evening. I can’t find her.”

He didn’t seem concerned.

“Maybe it wasn’t her then. Or maybe she got off with someone?”

“She wouldn’t leave without telling me. We have a code. We were dancing together and I went to get some water. I was gone maybe 20 minutes, and she didn’t have a drink with her then.”

“Okay, hold on.”

The bouncer radioed his colleagues, listened to whatever they said, then shook his head.

“They haven’t seen anyone matching your friend’s description. Look, check the bathroom downstairs and I’ll have someone check out the dance floor up here again. Come back here either way, yeah?”

Tamsyn nodded and headed downstairs as fast as she could. There was no way Jess would be wasted on two shots and 30 minutes of sweaty dancing. Something wasn’t right. Something felt off.

From the stairs, she scanned the crowd for Jess but couldn’t see her. She tried her phone again, but Jess didn’t answer.

Frustrated and worried, Tamsyn made her way to the back of the club. The bathroom queue was just as long and there was still no sign of Jess.

She’d just about decided to go back upstairs when she glimpsed a woman that could be Jess near the Fire Exit. She was with a guy.

The woman could hardly walk, and the man was half-carrying her.

Was it Jess?

The crowd surged and Tamsyn lost sight of them. Uncertain whether she’d seen her friend or not, she shoved her way past the people around her, ignoring the ones who yelled at her.

The man had the fire door open and was yanking the woman through it as she stumbled on rubbery legs.

“Jess?” Tamsyn shouted, her voice lost in the club’s pounding noise. “Jess! Jess!”

The man turned and stared at her, his lips twisting in a snarl as he tried to drag Jess through the open door.

Tamsyn gripped the slippery rubber handle of her toy police truncheon. It was all she had – a piece of plastic – but also rigid enough. It had to be. For the first time, all her police training flashed through her mind: where to strike, how to strike, how to stop someone dead in their tracks. The body was divided into green, yellow and red target areas: the red areas were a no go unless your life or the life of another was in immediate danger; yellow areas were the joints and should be avoided, if possible – but in a fluid situation, shit happened.

“Stop!” she shouted. “Police!”

The man, some years older than Tamsyn, beefy and solid-looking, dropped Jess to the floor and bunched his hands into fists.

Tamsyn took up a stance between Jess and the man, standing protectively over her friend. She rested the toy truncheon on her shoulder as if it was a real baton, and with her other hand stretched out, she created some space between them.

“Get back!” she said sternly. “Stay back!”

The man swore viciously and lunged towards her. Tamsyn didn’t have a real police baton that could shatter human bones; she had a toy truncheon that would probably snap, but she didn’t hesitate. Aiming for a ‘green’ area, the major muscle at the top of his right leg, where a full-blown baton strike was really effective, she hit as hard as she could, a single blow that snapped the toy truncheon in half but brought the man to the floor.

Tamsyn gazed around wildly, hoping someone was coming to help, but nobody had seen them. She didn’t have restraints, didn’t have a weapon, and didn’t know what the man was going to do next. She knew that Jess weighed more than her – there was no way she’d be able to drag her to safety: she needed to stand and fight! And she needed to improvise.

Then she noticed the fire extinguisher by the exit. If she could just get past Jess’s assailant, she could spray him in the face and…

The man staggered to his feet, and Tamsyn dropped into a defensive stance, still keeping herself between Jess and the meathead, still unable to reach the fire extinguisher.

When he made a grab at Jess, Tamsyn kneed him in the balls, and the man fell backwards through the fire exit.

“Oi!” yelled one of the bouncers, surging through the crowd towards them.

Jess’s attacker took one glazed look at the massive bouncer lurching towards him who had the size and gait of an ex-rugby prop, and he scuttled away into the darkness.

The bouncer took a few steps through the door but showed no inclination to chase the man.

“You alright, girls?” he asked, turning to kneel down next to Jess.

“I’m okay,” Tamsyn said, her body shaking as adrenaline rushed through her. “But Jess…”

“I think she’s been roofied,” said the bouncer, checking Jess’s pulse and lifting her eyelids one at a time. “There’s been a lot of that going on the last couple of months. Then he looked at Tamsyn. “You didn’t say you were a copper – good thing you were here though. Nice job.”

Tamsyn stared at the broken toy truncheon and felt a hysterical laugh bubble up inside her.

She knelt down next to Jess as the bouncer called for an ambulance.

“Yes,” Tamsyn said, quiet pride in her voice. “I’m a police officer.”

Read more about PC Tamsyn Poldhu in my new Cornish Crime Thriller series, starting with DEAD WATER, out on September 5^th

Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Water-Cornish-Thriller-Poldhu-ebook/dp/B0CW1KM7J6/

Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Water-Cornish-Thriller-Poldhu-ebook/dp/B0CW1KM7J6/

Amazon Universal https://geni.us/DeadWater

Apple https://books.apple.com/gb/book/dead-water/id6478785682

B&N https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-water-berrick-ford/1144996376

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/dead-water-29