A HALLOWEEN MASKING EXPERIENCE STORY
AUTHOR’S NOTES: for those readers who are wishing for a masking
partner, this alleged short copyrighted Halloween story is about what happened
to a masking friend of mine. He says
that he was too timid to write it, so he told it to me for your edification.
“What do you want for your fortieth birthday, Sweetie?” asked my “Christie” persona.
“What would you say to your moving in with me and we get married?” asked Jake Halloway.
“I’ll give that some thought, Jake, but I was thinking more along what you were planning for Halloween as well. Besides, there is the matter of Mrs. Halloway.”
“We haven’t lived together or functioned as a married couple for the past four years,” Christie. “We are all but divorced. It should be final after the first of next year.”
I never really gave Jake’s proposals of marriage all that much thought anyway. He was more of a toy friend than a boy friend for me and Jake didn’t have a clue as to my real identity. I had even worked to make my “Christie” persona into what most men call a “high maintenance woman”. I made sure that he was lavishing me with expensive presents. I made sure that he took me to the best places and paid for the wardrobe to go with them. Of course I didn’t keep these “gifts” in “Christie’s” apartment. As far as I was concerned the former Mrs. Halloway could keep him tied up in court for years to come. Jake had access to big money and I intended to exploit that fact. Maybe that is what his former wife wanted to do as well. But that was no kin off of my perilly-white fake teeth. I was just waiting for an opportunity to do it and Jake’s obsession with Halloween looked like the perfect opening. “Great, Jake. So what are we doing for Halloween and your birthday.”
“I don’t know, Honey. The guys down at work are planning something. I think they have been planning it for five or six weeks.”
“What is the theme of this year’s Halloween party?” Actually I knew all about the theme for the party, because the guys at the bank had been consulting me on it. They assumed because Jake showed up at most bank social functions with me in tow that we were a going proposition. I guess they thought that I was living with Jake too. After all, he was separated from his wife.
“I don’t know either. I’m pretty sure that it will have a Catwoman or Alien versus Predator theme.”
Jake had hit it on the money, as it was the Catwoman/DC Comics theme. I had figured that Jake would want to be Wonder Woman, Batgirl, or Catwoman. “What makes you think that they will choose a theme like that, Jake?”
“The Sunshine Committee seems to go with the current Halloween/horror movie hit. One year it was Ghost Busters, then it was Nightmare on Elm Street, then it was Scream. Another time it was Dracula and so forth, but this year I have been left out of the loop.”
“Why is that, Jake?”
“I think that this year the party is also supposed to be a surprise birthday party for me, but since my birthday is on October thirty-first I am sure that it will have a Halloween flavor. I used to hate that when I was kid. That is why I always made an effort to keep my birthday a secret,” said Jake.
“Why is that?” probed Christie.
“There were always pumpkins and witches on my birthday cake,” Jake responded. “So why should my fortieth birthday be any different? I think that Ellen Cravats told them this was my fortieth birthday. I’ll bet we could make the motif wedding bells if the party was also our wedding reception.”
“Get serious, Jake. I don’t want to get married on this or any other Halloween. Let’s wait until after the holidays and the finalization of your divorce to start thinking about making wedding plans.”
“That is what makes you so different from the other woman I have dated and/or married, Christie. They were always pushing me to get divorced so they could marry me. I like your attitude. It is so refreshing,” said Jake Halloway.
“Thanks for those words of praise, Jake. I try to please. How did you get wind of the plans for your birthday party, Jake?” That would give me the time and space that I needed to turn Jake’s kink into a big payday for me.
“I checked with the Sunshine Committee that plans the company social activities to see if they were planning for a Halloween party this year. If they were going to have one, I wanted to make sure that they had a budget to do it right. After all, as a bank vice president, I have a discretionary fund designed to facilitate employee development and positive morale. When they told me that they weren’t having a Halloween party this year after the success of last year’s party, I knew that they were planning me a surprise Halloween/birthday party.”
“How can you be so sure? They probably don’t even know that you and I were at the last Halloween party unless you have told them.”
“You should know me better than that, Christie.”
“I guess that I do, because you had us disguised so well, I wasn’t sure that we were there either,” said my “Christie” persona. “Did you go to the bank Halloween parties before we were an item?”
“Yes, but last year was the first time I crossed dressed and went in a total disguise with a date. Don’t you remember? I enjoyed the event so much that I asked you to marry me on Christmas, Christie.”
“It was fun to be asked by such a well crafted Santa Claus, Jake, but I didn’t know that our Halloween adventure is what sparked our romance,” lied my carefully crafted “Christie” image who had been told by her roommate that Jake was behind most of the company’s Halloween activities. He even played Santa Claus for the Bank’s Christmas parties and the Easter Bunny for the Bank’s Easter Egg Hunt, long before Christie came along.
“I had never been out with a real genetic female that was masked female before that Halloween party, Honey,” proclaimed Jake.
“Didn’t you tell me that you had never been out while cross-dressed and masked as a female before that night either?” probed Christie.
“Yes, and that is the truth. I had always wanted to cross-dress and mask with all the other women that I have known. None of them, including my ex-wife ever allowed me to do it. You finally made it happen for me, Christie. You have to know that made you the girl of my dreams.” That suited me just fine. I had to work to make sure that Jake stayed in his dream state by masking for him about once each month. I even had picture-taking sessions with him when we masked together on out of town trips.
I guess that I should also tell you that I am actually twenty years younger than Jake, but he thinks that it is more like five to seven years. I have been piling on the make up and I wear a salt and pepper wig to achieve that look. I also wear a fat suit and tasteful, but dowdy clothes. I even pretend to be a divorce. I had first seen and targeted Jake when he was a guest speaker in a business class that I was taking at the university. The minute that I heard and saw Jake, I knew that he was the step up to riches that I was looking for. I planned my “Christie” look to what I saw his secretary wearing. I spent some time researching and scheming on him for a couple of months before I had “Christie” make her move.
I planned a “chance” meeting in the parking structure of the bank and I made sure that when we went out for coffee I would make him feel like the king of romance. As we passed by a seasonal Halloween store on our way to the coffee shop I noticed that Jake stared hard at the masks in the window. I also noticed the bulge in his pants. So, I offered, “Did you want to go in here to see what they have? I wanted to try on a couple of masks myself.” At that point in time, nothing could have been further from the truth. I was just following a hunch that has really paid off. Actually I had no intention of trying on masks just then. I had to be careful not to mess up my “Christie” look.
“Sure, that might be fun before we get that coffee,” responded Jake. “Which ones did you want to try on?”
“I don’t know, I was kind of hoping that you could help me out,” said my “Christie” persona. “I guess I want to wear something that changes my identity without being ugly or horrifying.”
“They have some good female celebrity masks in this store,” said Jake with some authority. When I tried on a “Sable” mask for Jake, he almost broke the zipper in his pants. Then when I suggested that he go as “Madonna”, I thought that he would faint for the joy of the thought. He was easier to hook/snag than a hatchery trout and a six-hook jig loaded with fertilized salmon eggs. He bought our masks and readily confessed to me over coffee that he had a female masking fetish and had all the gear that he and I needed to complete our costumes. I guess he assumed that because I let him buy me that “Sable” masks that I was into female masking. Of course while I used disguises as part of my schemes, female masking really wasn’t a fetish of choice for me.
When I asked him why he was so open about his fetish, he replied, “I have learned over the years that if you like a woman at all, that you need to come clean right from the start. If you don’t or a few dates later, you have a real monkey on your back. In fact, this was one of the failed areas of my marriage with my ex-wife. She never wanted to part of even the most private parts of my masking activities. She didn’t even want to admit that I had female masks and a wardrobe for me in the back of her closet.”
I decided to set the hook in deep by saying, “I have been looking for a real man that was into kinky things. I can’t wait until we can get together to assemble our costumes.”
After that encounter I actively sought out a roommate that worked in Jake’s bank. The more research that I could do on him the better. I also joined as many Yahoo masking groups as I could find. I created a web identity that I called “Rita Vale”. I read masked fiction like it was going out of style. I even used my digital camera to make some semi-pornographic shots of me while wearing a cheap Vampira Halloween mask and body-blurring, long and black velvet cloak. As a real girl masker I was an instant hit in all of the groups and by the end of the month, I appeared to be a hard core mask fanatic with a real history.
Within the next week, I had found my roommate that I was looking for. Ellen Cravats was the perfect choice for “Christie’s” roommate. She was a real introverted nerd and computer geek. She worked part time in Jake’s bank to help pay her rent. Her parents had died and left her a trust that paid for most of her expenses. She was the old maid type that kept taking classes at the university because she thought that gave her a youthful image. Actually, Ellen was probably the old maid type when she was in high school. My “Christie” persona convinced her that she should promote herself from part time secretary, to Jake’s full time secretary. Ellen went for that idea in a big way. She was so happy that “Christie” wanted her for a roommate that she let me use her (Ellen’s) knowledge to hack into the bank’s security networks. I told Ellen that I was doing a research paper on the inner working of financial institutions. This wasn’t all that far from the truth so it was an easy sell.
I only had six weeks to prep for my first Halloween with Jake. I had Ellen make me a website to post some of my “Halloween” pictures. To my amazement, Ellen really got into the project when she found out that I was dating Jake. Ellen kept telling my “Christie” image that she wished that she were I. In my heart of hearts didn’t have the ability or desire to tell her that I wasn’t who she thought I was. I made Ellen Cravats swear to me that she wouldn’t tell Jake that she was my roommate. Ellen promised and even suggested a few things to help me out in my pursuit of Jake. I think that she was living out her fantasies with Jake by assisting me.
While living my double life over the next year I made it appear that the villainess in my plot was none other than Ellen Cravats. By using her computer I gave her “Rita Vale’s” masking history. This act alone made her perfect for the frame. I had her help me create my Halloween costume of “Mrs. Rita Carstairs”. We went to a lot of effort to make “Rita” look a lot like Dustin Hoffman in his role of “Tootsie”. We actually began to call the “Rita” character, “Tootsie”. I think that Ellen looked better as “Mrs. Rita Tootsie Carstairs” than I did. I even went so far as to enroll in a makeup class in Ellen’s name at a local theatrical club. Each calculated step I took was designed to make it look like Ellen Cravats planned and successfully involved Jake Halloway in a Halloween robbery of his bank. I even posted photos to “Rita’s” website of Jake and my masking adventures. I also “borrowed” liberally from Ellen’s clothes to create “Mrs. Rita Tootsie Carstair’s” image. It was this new image that I set up to rob the bank on Halloween. That year, Halloween was on a payday Friday and the bank records Ellen helped me to access indicated that Jake’s bank had two to three million dollars on hand for days like that.
Through the spring and summer months I planned and rehearsed the Halloween robbery over and over again. I made several dry runs in various disguises. I practiced becoming and doing the character of the fifty something “Mrs. Rita Tootsie Carstairs”. I used most of Ellen’s moves to create this new character. Ellen even showed me how to do some of the motions while modeling the mask for me. Of course I never told her about my plans to rob Jake’s bank. I used my garage size storage locker as a space to create the special features in the large suitcase that I planned to use for the robbery. I had learned long ago that the back of a closet or the attic is not all that safe a place to hide stuff. Of course I used a completely different identity when I rented or I was working in my storage locker. By August I even walked into Jake’s bank as Rita Carstairs and used bogus identification to open an account. On October twenty-fourth, I started most of my stuff out of “Christie’s furnished apartment into my place and the storage locker in case “Christie” had to make a quick getaway or disappearing act. Ellen never seemed to notice what I was doing.
“Mr. Halloway, there is a woman out here to see you and she says that she has a whole suitcase of money to deposit if our vaults meet her conditions,” said Georgia Brown.
“Are you wearing your head set, Miss Brown?”
“Yes I am, Mr. Halloway.” This meant that Jake wanted to tell Miss Brown something that he didn’t want to share with the customer.
“Send her to new accounts, Georgia.”
“She already has several accounts, Sir. She appears to have a considerable amount of money with her sir. William has even accompanied her from the bank’s main entrance to my desk.” This interested Jake a lot, because as one of the bank’s security guards, William only did that when his security scanners indicated that the customer was carrying a lot of cash.
“Could Ellen Cravats do it, Georgia?”
“She called in sick today, Mr. Halloway. The customer just told me that her name is Mrs. Rita Tootsie Carstairs,” declared Georgia. Of course I had made sure that Ellen was sick that day with stomach cramps. By early evening she would be right as rain and without any evidence of her illness.
“What a day for Ellen to be sick. This is a payday Friday and I have tons of stuff to do. Can you show Mrs. Carstairs the vaults, Georgia?”
“Mrs. Carstairs is very insistent that you do it, Sir, and William says that they is an unusually large of amount of cash out here.”
“Very well, escort her into my private office, Miss Brown.” With that, my “Christie” persona in her Mrs. Carstair’s disguise dragged her oversize and evidently heavy suitcase into Jake’s private office. Jake put away the tally sheets that were on his desk and got up to meet my graceful middle aged and pleasantly plump female image. As he walked forward and while extending his right hand in friendship, he said, “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Carstairs. My name is Jake Halloway. I am the senior officer of this bank. I understand that you have a large sum of cash with you and that you would like to see our vaults.”
“My husband died last week, young man, and I discovered a couple of large suitcases stuffed with cash in the back of his closet. He never believed in banks. He said that they would give all of his money away to the government. He never involved me in his financial matters and now I just don’t know what to do with all this money.”
“Thank you Georgia, that will be all for now,” said Jake.
“Very good, Mr. Halloway,” said Georgia as she wiggled her round fanny out of the office and closed the door behind her.
“You will have to forgive Georgia, Mrs. Carstairs. My regular girl is out ill today of all days.”
“I can see that you are a very busy man, but I don’t feel safe with all of that money in the house.”
“I understand your concern. How much money is in that suitcase of your, Mrs. Carstairs?” said Jake with obvious interest.
“I stopped counting when I got to two million dollars. Would you mind locking your office door, Mr. Halloway? I would feel so much more secure with your office door locked.”
“Of course,” said Jake as he stared at the large suitcase with his greedy little eyes while moving in the direction of his office door.
“I feel so feminine and silly with all this money. It scares me. I just don’t know what to do. I know that you are short on time, but I need a big strong man like you to help me,” If I hadn’t been talking with Jake Halloway, I would have thought that my helpless female routine would have been over the top. But, Jake was such a sexist, that this is exactly the number that I needed to get him all involved with my plot. Jake is such a sucker for the high maintenance, helpless female routine.
“I understand your needs completely and I will have a bank guard posted outside of my office door to make you feel even safer,” said Jake. He locked and bolted his private office door and then used his intercom to tell Georgia to have William come stand by his office door. I hadn’t counted on this move, but it made what I had planned work even better. “You take all the time you need, Mrs. Carstairs. Your money needs all the consideration that we can give to it.”
“Where do the other two doors of this office go, Mr. Halloway?”
“One is to my windowless private bathroom and the other leads straight into our vault reviewing area. I can assure you that both rooms are completely secured, Mrs. Carstairs.”
“I am so glad to hear that. There is another huge suitcase that is full of money too in the back of my husband’s clothes closet, but I didn’t have the strength to drag both of them down here to the bank at the same time. You never know what those taxi drivers will do.”
“I see. I think that you were very brave to bring along what you did. And, am I right in assuming that you would like one of our very large safety deposit box for these funds?” pressed Jake.
“Oh no, that would be foolish to do that with all of the money. I want to see your vaults to make sure that my money will be safe when I deposit it here.”
“So you are planning to…”
“Put some of the money in CD’s and other money in bonds. Then I want to get some of those money market things. I will put what is left over in safety deposit boxes along with a large stash of gold coins and jewelry,” announced my “Mrs. Carstairs” image.
“Would you like me to lift that suitcase onto the conference table so that we can inventory exactly how much is in it?” asked Jake.
“That would be nice.” Jake lifted the heavy bag onto the table and stepped back.
“That is really heavy suitcase, Mrs. Carstairs.”
“I guess that is why my former husband made sure that it had really good wheels on it. I think that it is the coins that make it so heavy, although the paper is heavy too.”
In my dowdy role of “Mrs. Rita Tootsie Carstairs”, I walked over to the large mahogany table and began to unzip the outer pocket of the bag. I had a metal box full of quarters to simulate the stash of coins. This large coin box was designed to make the metal detector at the bank’s entrance go haywire. I had done its job as I had hoped and neatly distracted the guards from looking for the automatic pistol that I had purchased for this caper while using Ellen’s identification. The gun was packed inside the rolls of quarters and didn’t show up on the scanner. “Trick or Treat, Mr. Halloway and happy birthday,” said my “Rita Tootsie Carstairs” persona I while pulled the small automatic out of its hiding place with my leather gloved left hand. I had practiced this move with the left hand because Ellen was left-handed.
Jake stepped back towards his desk in horror. “What do you mean to do with that gun?”
“I guess this is more of a trick that a treat for you after all, Jake.” I moved away from the oversize suitcase and told Jake to open it and remove the contents. As he unzipped the cover, he opened the case to what appeared to be stack upon stack of fifty-dollar and one hundred-dollar bills. “That is just a secondary lid in case the guard did a visual inspection. They are fooling you just like they fooled the entrance guard. Pull on the tab along the side.” Jake did as he was told and the apparent stacks of money lifted out of the case in little more than a quarter inch thickness. This revealed the black led-lined sacks with the real contents of the case. He took several of the large bags out of the suitcase. “We will need what is in those bags later on, Jake. I am sure that they will fit right in with your Halloween plans.”
I then forced Jake at gunpoint, to take me into the vault thru his private passageway. He toted the large empty suitcase as I instructed along with a couple of black vinyl garbage bags. We collected all of the payday cash that was in the vault and loaded it into the suitcase. The case now appeared as it did when Jake first opened it, only now the stacks of money were genuine. Then we went back to Jake’s private office while toting the cash laden suitcase. Once we were back inside of Jake’s private office, I forced Jake to go into his bathroom and transform into “Mrs. Tootsie Carstairs”, while I became “Mrs. Rita Tootsie Carstair’s” fat, hippie teenage daughter. Actually I had deflated the fat suit that I had used to be “Mrs. Carstairs” and stuffed it with the majority of the money from the garbage bags. I loaded the remainder of the cash into the specially prepared pocket lining of an oversize rabbit coat that had been packed in the original large suitcase. Between the suitcase, fat suit lining and the coat lining, I figured that I had well over three million dollars in old, non-sequential currency in a variety of denominations. I then put Jake’s male clothing in one of the black led-lined garbage bags.
Jake Halloway made a pretty good-looking “Tootsie Carstairs”. In fact “she” was a better-looking “Tootsie Carstairs” than I had been. In the money stuffed coat and fat suit, I was definitely some over weight progeny. I had “my mother” (Jake in his Carstairs format) make sure that Georgia had to go across the bank on an errand and that she took the bank guard with her before we ventured out of Jake’s private office with “Mrs. Carstairs” still toting the oversize suitcase full of cash. The elderly bank guards didn’t bat an eye as we bi-passed by the security devices. They didn’t screen anyone as they left the bank. I chose to use the parking structure entrance. I heard some commotion in the bank just after the heavy glass door swung shut behind us, but I didn’t look back. I was too busy making sure that “Tootsie” was going exactly where I wanted her to go.
I had “borrowed” Jake’s car keys from his pants and now that we were completely out of the bank and squared away I had “Tootsie Carstairs” escort the money and “her” very over weight daughter to large black 500 Sel Mercedes in the monthly parking area of the parking structure. I loaded the trunk of the vehicle with the suitcase and had the rubberized “Mrs. Carstairs” (Jake) drive me out of the parking structure at gunpoint. We were almost a block away from the bank when I heard the alarms go off. I figured that Georgia had returned from her errand to find Jake missing along with all of the payday cash from the vault. “Isn’t this a wonderful Halloween trick and treat, Jake? I am having so much fun. Happy fortieth birthday. You make a fabulous looking Tootsie Carstairs.”
“You won’t get away with this in the end, whoever you are,” asserted “Mrs. Carstairs” as she drove down the streets that I had selected as my get away route.
“Keep our pace slow and even, Mrs. Carstairs. This is a Halloween prank, not the Lotus Grand Prix. You just robbed a bank and this isn’t the time to be busted by a small traffic infraction,” I commanded as a squad of police vehicles passed us in the opposite direction with their sirens blowing. “I think that we are about to did get away with the whole enchilada.”
“What is with this ‘you’ and ‘we’ business? I had nothing to do with the robbery,” proclaimed Jake’s “Mrs. Carstairs” image.
“Oh but you did, Mrs. Carstairs. I think the get away car belongs to you.”
“I am your hostage,” proclaimed the image of “Tootsie Carstairs” while another squad of howling police cars blew by us.
“I don’t think that Georgia will tell that version to the police, Tootsie.”
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but why don’t we stop this Halloween prank before someone really gets hurt. You are already in a whole lot of trouble,” suggested my middle-aged chauffeur.
“Whatever you say, Mrs. Carstairs. Just pullover into that gas station on the next corner and tell the attendant that you need to use the restroom.”
“What are you up to now?”
“Just do what I tell you to do, or this trick will turn bloody.” Jake pulled into the gas station and did what I told him to do. He got the key to the women’s restroom and we went into it together. I had picked this station because during off-hours they used both the regular door lock and an external padlock to secure the external bathroom doors. “Okay, since you don’t want to be my lovely ‘Mrs. Carstairs’ and share in the loot which I consider to be the Halloween treat part of this caper, take off that mask and costume and put it in this black plastic bag.”
“Why should I do that?” asked Jake as if he wanted to stay in his “Mrs. Carstairs” disguise.
“Because I still have this little gun and you value your life.”
“That works for me,” said Jake as he pulled off the wig and mask and put them in the black plastic bag. Once he was totally naked I filled the bag with the “Carstairs” costume and acted like I was going out to the car to exchange it for Jake’s clothes in the trunk. Instead, I put my own padlock on the outside of the restroom door. Then I loaded Jake’s car with the bag containing the “Carstairs” mask and costume and headed to the location where I had parked my minivan before getting onto the bus that I had taken to the bank. It was hard driving Jake’s car in that money filled fat suit. Even without the money stuffed fir coat on, if I set the seat back far enough to get behind the steering wheel I had trouble reaching the peddles even though I had on four inch platform shoes. If I set the seat so I could reach the peddles, then the steering wheel pressed up against my money filled belly and was very difficult to turn. The compromise I struck made me drive to the location of my van like Granny Goose. Several enraged drivers yelled at my fat image and told me to “get a horse”, “get off the road”, or “go on a diet”!
At my minivan location I unpacked Jake’s car and loaded everything but the money into the back of the van. I took off my teenage hippie mask and costume along with the fat suit. It was a real relief to be me again. Of course I kept the salt and pepper wig and the oversize coat on in case there were some prying eyes when I arrived at the storage facility. So far I was still an anonymous figure and completely under everyone’s radar. I wanted it to stay that way. Since this coat and wig look was the image that had frequented the storage facility on previous occasions I figured that I could still move in and out of there completely unnoticed.
I packed most of the money from the fat suit, coat and the huge suitcase into storage boxes that had originally been boxes that contained Xerox copy paper. All that money boiled down to seven boxes of paper. I kept some of the money in the oversize rabbit coat for walking around funds and as money to plant on Ellen Cravats. I checked and rechecked my well-rehearsed plan to make sure that I hadn’t left any loose ends. Seeing none I drove to my storage locker and deposited the boxes of “Xerox Paper” along with some of the disguise items. Once again, I checked my list for loose ends. I cleaned the van just to make sure that a piece of currency hadn’t become lodged in some crevice.
I figured that by now, Jake Halloway was either in the clear by convincing the cops that he was a hostage, or that he was still naked and locked in the women’s restroom in the gas station where I had left him. I put the “Carstairs” mask, gun and costume into the suitcase and planted it with some of the money from the job in the back of Ellen’s clothes closet when I finally arrived at Ellen’s and my apartment. I made sure that the suitcase wasn’t to well hidden and was right next to Ellen’s Halloween stuff. I figured that when she went to dress for Jake’s party, she would discover it. As an after thought, I decided to leave all of Jake’s clothes in Ellen’s closet as well. I figured that if she became the focus of the police investigation, that she would have a real problem explaining how they got into her closet.
Ellen Cravats was still asleep on her bed. From the look of the bathroom she had had a rough day. The junk that I had slipped into her breakfast had really done its job. I took a long warm shower to relax my body from the tension and exhilaration of my daring plan. When I began to change into my “Catwoman” Halloween costume, I listened to the television news for information on my robbery. I enjoyed the feel of the storage locker key on a chain between my ample breasts under the black PVC cat suit of my costume. I had most of my Halloween costume on before the story appeared as “breaking news”.
The newscasters were talking about a daring well-executed daylight robbery that had taken a well-secured bank completely by surprise. I was being called the Halloween bandit by the media. Or at least I thought that they were talking about me. It was then that I realized that the commotion I had heard when we left by the parking structure doors was the beginning of a very traditional bank heist by a gang of heavily armed thugs. The alarms that I had heard when we were leaving the area in Jake’s car were also generated by the robbery attempt. The police that we passed were responding to the alarms.
The news reports went onto say that the gang’s quick and precise moves had allowed them to make a clean get away and that they must have taken Jake Halloway and a couple of his clients hostage. Georgia Brown was interviewed and said something to the effect that she thought that the female hostages were Mrs. Carstairs and her daughter. “Mrs. Carstairs is very rich and had a suitcase full of money.” The newscasters made no mention of how much money was taken in the robbery. As Ellen stirred in her bed, I left for Jake’s Halloween/birthday party. On the way to the party, I drove by the location where I had left Jake’s Mercedes. It was gone. I had left the keys in it, so either it had been stolen by a person or persons unknown or the police had found it and towed it away. Knowing the efficiency of the police in our fair city, I assumed that some other thieves were out joy riding in Jake’s car for some devilish Halloween mischief.
Believe it or not, Jake was already at his “surprise party” when I finally arrived. He was dressed as a rather large “Batgirl”. At his request, I had helped him to make this costume, but this was the first time that I had seen him in it. He should have gone as the Joker or Poison Ivy. I gathered from the other people at the party that the story that Jake had given to the police about the robbery made my cover even stronger. He had confirmed Georgia’s claim that he had been taken hostage along with Mrs. Carstairs and her daughter. He also claimed that the crooks had stolen his car and driven off with Mrs. Carstairs and her daughter when they stripped him and locked him into the gas station restroom. The television that was on at the party had the gas station attendant swearing that he saw the big black Mercedes leave the station with a really fat female behind the wheel.
I made my “Catwoman” image act like it believed every word of Batgirl/Jake’s story. After all, it made my get away and cover story even stronger. Everything was going great until another “Mrs. Carstairs” showed up at Jake’s “surprise Halloween/birthday party”. I assumed that it was Ellen and she had chosen to wear the “Mrs. Rita Tootsie Carstairs” disguise instead of the “Wonder Woman” get up that we had created for her. Actually, Ellen made a great looking “Tootsie Carstairs”. She had the physical shape and mental attitude for the character down pat. She had also practiced in the “Carstairs” mask and costume as much as I had. The partygoers recognized her instantly from the surveillance photos posted on the news stations. Jake’s “Batgirl” image seemed to go faint when “she” first sighted the “Carstairs” figure at the party.
Jake must have realized by this point in the party that his high maintenance “Christie” was playing this evening as “Catwoman”. He asked me to dance and pulled my “Catwoman” image in close to his “Batgirl” costume before saying, “Boy, this has been some really wild birthday. It has been more about tricks and treats than any of my other Halloween Birthdays.”
“I am glad to hear that and I am really happy for you, Batgirl.”
“What am I going to do with that Carstairs woman, Christie?”
“What are you talking about, Batgirl?”
“She is the one who really walked out of the bank with all of the loot.”
“Of course she is. The surveillance photos already have shown that. That was really smart of the gang to use you and her that way.” Of course I knew that Jake was “Mrs. Carstairs” in those surveillance photos.
“Those photos don’t show how it really happened,” said Jake’s “Batgirl” persona.
“But you said that Mrs. Carstairs, her daughter and you were held hostage by the Halloween bandits.”
“That isn’t entirely true.”
“Why are you telling me this, Batgirl?”
“I have to tell someone, Christie. Mrs. Carstairs held me hostage and locked me in the gas station restroom. I think that she planned the other half of the bank robbery as a wild diversion. The heavily armed Halloween bandits found the vault pretty empty and only got the stuff from the teller’s drawers. They probably did all right but the Carstairs woman go the big payoff.”
“Do you think that Mrs. Carstairs is someone that you know, Batgirl?”
“She knew it was my birthday and she is here at the party.”
“Maybe you told her that when she was with you at the bank.” I just loved this. I was able to throw in real distracters because I knew the real answers.
“I don’t remember doing that, Christie. I haven’t told the police this, but Tootsie Carstair’s plan was perfect. She knew everything about my routine, the bank and my fantasies. When noting the precision of the heavily armed gang, the police asked me if I thought it was an inside job, but I didn’t think so at the time, so I said no. Now I am not so sure.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The police suggested that after the party is over, that I should go back to the bank and check through the personnel records for former employees who might have a grudge against me or the bank.”
“That is a great idea.”
“Could you help me do that? I don’t want to be alone on my fortieth birthday.”
“Of, course I could do that, Batgirl.” In fact I had no intention of helping Jake go thru musty personnel records in the spooky old bank after hours. He would probably just turn the situation into some masked and kinky sex opportunity. “So what do you want me to do now?”
“How could you help me now, Honey. You are probably good at the clerical stuff, but you don’t have a head for figuring out the criminal mind,” said the sexist image of Jake’s Batgirl. I just wanted to kick him for underestimating me; but then again, this sexist opinion of my “Catwoman” abilities was working in my favor for the moment.
“That maybe true,” in a pig’s eye, “but maybe I could find out who Mrs. Carstairs really is.”
“Do you really think that she is in a disguise, Christie.”
“We won’t know that until I check it out, Jake.”
“Could you do that, Christie? Knowing who she really is would be a big weight off of my mind. I think that she is wearing my pants and shirt as part of her costume.”
“What are friends for, Batgirl,” responded my “Catwoman” image. When our dance ended and the band took a break, I ambled in the direction of “Mrs. Carstairs”. From her style of movement I was positive that “Mrs. Carstairs” was Ellen Cravats in disguise. Her responses to my small talk confirmed my suspicions. She was in fact wearing Jake’s pants and shirt as part of her “Mrs. Carstairs” costume. I had always had a feeling that Ellen wanted to get into Jake’s pants. I asked her if she knew that the police were looking for her? She said that she didn’t know that. “Well, haven’t you at least told them that you escaped from the clutches of the ‘Halloween Bandits’?” Ellen seemed to be enjoying that I thought her disguise was real. I guessed that she didn’t figure out who I was under my “Catwoman” disguise. On the other hand, there was a whole variety of “Catwomen” at the party and I guess that Ellen Cravats figured that “Christie” could have been anyone of them.
She went along with the gag when she said, “Do you think that I should tell the police all about my ordeal? Mr. Halloway was absolutely no help to me.”
“Your talking with the police would probably clear up some things for Mr. Halloway. He thinks that the robbery had an inside connection.”
“That is just like him to say that,” responded the fraudulent “Mrs. Carstairs”. “What justification is that big pelican using to support that position?”
“He says that he is innocent and that the thieves stole his car.”
“The part about the car maybe true, but I’ll wager that he has all of the stolen money and is trying to frame me for the deed.”
“That is all the more reason to go to the police and tell your side of the story, Mrs. Carstairs.”
“Maybe I will do just that. There is no reason why Jake should continually get all of the treats and I get stuck with the tricks.”
“Jake is planning to check out all of the personnel files to look for a fall guy.”
“That sounds like him. At the bank he is known affectionately as Mr. Teflon. Nothing bad ever sticks to him. I have waited years for his divorce to be final so that I could make my move.” Now this was a new angle that I hadn’t anticipated, but I liked the idea of Ellen Cravats trying to frame Jake Halloway while she thought that he was trying to frame her.
“Are you really sure that Jake Halloway is trying to frame you?”
“Haven’t you been watching the television reports?”
“I am not so sure of the frame as you seem to be. What about that gang of Halloween thugs?”
“That was just a diversion. I have helped Jake engineer things like that in the past.”
“Are you sure about what you are telling me?”
“Absolutely and positively and I don’t care who knows it. I am as sure of Jake Halloway’s crooked moves as I am about being Ellen Cravats under this “Mrs. Carstairs” mask and costume. I also know that Jake Halloway has used me like a doormat for years. I think that I fill his pants better than he does.”
“You do look pretty good in those pants, Ellen.”
“Jake only has eyes for my gorgeous roommate, when I am the one who really loves him. My image of Mrs. Carstairs will fix his wagon even if it means taking Ellen down with him. I even helped that bitch develop this ‘Rita Carstairs’ image, but like all of Jake’s simple-minded flings, that bitch has vanished into thin air. From the way Georgia is acting, I’ll bet that she is Jake’s new screw.”
“You are so clever and creative, Mrs. Carstairs.”
“That is really true. I am a lot more of most things than people give me credit for being.” I couldn’t believe how Ellen had bought into the frame or how much she seemed to be hung-up on Jake. It was like Ellen totally identified with the “Carstairs” character that we had created. Maybe that was because the “Carstairs” image was all of the things that Ellen wished that she were.
However, now her identification with the “Carstairs” persona had Ellen actually becoming “Rita Tootsie Carstairs”. This was happening to the degree that Ellen was assuming the responsibility for the deeds and actions that my “Christie” persona had done as “Rita Tootsie Carstairs”. I figured that I had better cover all of my tracks or Ellen would include my “Christie” persona in on the calamity that her “Mrs. Carstairs” was planning. She was already scheming on Georgia. That would probably work to my advantage as well.
Thus, instead of going back over to Jake to tell him what I had found out from “Catwoman’s” little talk with “Mrs. Carstairs”, I decided to have my “Catwoman” use the cover of Halloween to blow town with the money that was still hidden in the lining of the oversized rabbit coat. There was enough money in the coat to set up shop in another location and wait for the heat to dissipate before retrieving the money in the Xerox boxes at the storage facility. I had seen to it that there was no connection between my “Christie” persona and the storage locker.
Ellen and Jake would be hard pressed to prove that “Christie” had ever existed. The stuff that I was leaving behind in the furnished apartment was of no real consequence. As long as I paid the rent on the storage locker, the money would remain hidden. Besides, there was that gang of Halloween bandits that were probably looking for the money they didn’t get during their end of the heist and I didn’t want any part of them either.
This day had really turned into one fine trick or treat birthday for me. I had planned for it for a long time, but now I had enough money to be born as a whole new person.