The Princess and The Pearl

Burglars Association Report

Case File No. HI/526/DJ

They call me “The Electrician”, as my favoured manner of gaining entry (when it is necessary to perform some form of deception) is as an electrician employed by landlords or councils to carry out safety checks.  It constantly amazes me how, given a story of the horrors of electrocution, someone will let you into their homes often without asking for any form if identification, or even checking it carefully if they do ask.

I understand the reasons for asking of reports of our recent activities, although I can assure you that if I had any idea who the mole was, everyone would know in a very public fashion.

Anyway, this really started a week beforehand, when I was asked to meet a contact in a discrete location near the centre of the city.  He was a contact that I occasionally carried out work for, always for a specific purpose and always very well paid, so naturally I agreed and suggested a public bar that I particularly like.

Over a couple of pints, he laid out the broad details of the assignment.  Sir Thomas Spencer is one of the leading lights in the city, and he is best known for handling particularly sensitive business mergers.  According to my contact, he was currently engaged in a merger deal which was particularly sensitive for certain people.  Those people had asked my contact to obtain certain files from Sir Thomas, and wanted the copying to be handled discreetly.  As his workload was rather full at that time, he offered to pass it on to a trusted colleague of his – namely me.

These files were kept in a safe at Sir Thomas’ penthouse flat, so the job was simply to get into the flat, remove the files from the safe, photograph them and replace the files so that he didn’t know they had been examined.  In return, a very handsome sum of money was named, and anything else I may wish to avail myself off during the job would be a bonus with no questions asked.

We shook on the deal, and my contact handed me a set of blueprints and diagrams for the building the penthouse was in.  He also showed me pictures of both Sir Thomas and his daughter, Princess Spencer.  I asked why she was called Princess, and was told in return she was born in June 1981 – when Charles married Diana.  One of those silly, spur of the moment things.  My sympathies were with the girl on this one.

I spent some days examining the plans, and figuring out the best way of getting into the flat with little or no notice.  My examination of the security systems, however, told me that would be next to impossible without some inside help – and that was not going to be possible to cultivate in the time I had available.  It would therefore be necessary to engineer a reason for going on.  Well, I am The Electrician…

On the day in question, I managed to sneak into the back of the building and install in the basement circuit box a little switch that would, when I activated it, short out the main supply to the penthouse – at which point I would pick up the call from the concierge to come and fix the problem.  By timing my visit right, I should be able to avoid Sir Thomas, but there would still be his daughter to deal with.  I was prepared for that, at any rate.

Around 3, I flipped a switch and waited by the telephone.  Sure enough, ten minutes later I intercepted the call from the concierge, and said I would be there in ten minutes.  I have a van prepared with official livery for such purposes, so when I pulled up outside nobody paid much attention.  I took the elevator to the penthouse, and rang the front door bell.

From the pictures I had seen, I recognised Princess Spencer as she opened the door.  She was about five foot ten, with long brown hair and a great looking body.  She was obviously having what passed for a casual day, wearing a pair of blue denim pedal pushers and a denim cropped waistcoat-type top with dungaree straps at each side over her shoulders.

At any rate, she waved me in and pointed me in the direction of the fuse box for the penthouse.  Well, I knew there was nothing wrong, so I simply flipped a few switches and managed to restore the current in ten minutes.

She was grateful, and asked me if I wanted a drink.  Well, there was no time like then to get started, so I politely declined and instead told her to put her hands on her head and shut up.  She thought I was joking, until she saw the snub-nosed pistol that I was pointing at her.  She realised then that I meant business.

It was important that I kept the pretence that this was a robbery only, so I told her to come over to me.  Taking her by the arm, I marched her into her bedroom and told her to lie down on the bed.  The gun did most of the talking really – she was too scared to do anything about it.

There is another reason they call me The Electrician – if I have to tie someone up, I use black electrical tape to do so.  So you can imagine the look on her face when I told her to roll over and put her hands behind her back, waving a large roll of black tape in her face while doing so.  She was still terrified, so she rolled over and I taped her wrists together, hands palm to palm, making sure the tape was really tightly applied.  I then wrapped tape around her arms above her elbows, again tightly to ensure she could not move her arms easily.

Turning Princess over, I tore a strip of tape off the roll and smoothed it over her lips.  Three more strips followed, by which time a wide back strip was over her lower face and she was glaring up at me, unable to speak or move her arms.  Within five minutes, I had taped her ankles together, as well as her legs just below and just above her knees, and rolled her over onto her side.

I was about to start raiding her drawers, prior to the teal purpose of my visit, when I heard the door to the penthouse open and a female voice calling out for Princess.  Well, naturally she started to try and call out and buck around on the bed, but I held my hand over her mouth and told her to shut up or I would hurt her.  Picking up a new roll of tape, I left Princess lying on the bed and headed out to the flat.

Walking quietly down the hall, I saw another young woman standing in the main living area.  Five foot eight, long slightly waved red hair, wearing a red jumper and skirt and red shoes with tan stockings clearly visible.  She must have heard me, for she turned around and nearly screamed the place down.  I say nearly – I managed to get to her and force her down onto the floor before she could do much.  I quickly taped her hands together behind her back, and then turned her over and as I straddled her chest I taped over her mouth.

Taking her by the arm, I helped her up and took her quickly into a separate bedroom from the one I could hear Princess thrashing and trying to call out from.  I’d brought her bag with me, and placed that on a table while pushing her face down on the bed.  More black tape was used to tape her crossed ankles together, as well as her legs.

Taking her shoes off her and throwing them to one side, I looked in her handbag and found her driving licence.  I asked her if her name was Pearl Forrester, and she nodded.  I told her that she’d picked the wrong moment to visit Princess, and she’d just have to wait for a while.  Taking the roll of tape, I sat Pearl up so that her legs were drawn up against her chest, and wrapped layers of black tape around her upper legs, arms and chest, and around her calves and waist, so that she was taped up in a ball.  Pushing her over onto her side, I left her staring at me as I left the room, and returned to the safe to take copies of the required documents.

It didn’t take me long to open the safe, find the documents and take the required photographs.  After replacing the documents, I removed some jewellery cases and money from the safe, and scattered some other boxes around to make it look as if that was all I had been interested in.  I then returned to see how Princess was doing.

When I returned to her bedroom, Princes was sitting on the edge of her bed.  During her struggles, she had managed to break the strap on her left shoulder, and her top was starting to come away revealing a pair of very nice breasts.  From the way her hands and arms were tied, her chest was naturally thrust forward, so that she was almost naked above the waist.

She stared up at me, obviously embarrassed but still scared of what was happening, and wondering what I was going to do next.  In fact, the terrified look in her eyes told me that she thought I was going to do something far worse than leave her tied up and gagged.

You know, I have to admit I was very, very tempted, but she was not the only other person in the house, and I was on a timetable.

What I did surprised her somewhat – I got a nightshirt and pulled it over her head.  At first, I believe she believed I was doing it to cover her modesty.  She obviously had not seen Pearl, her skirt hiked up as she lay on the other bed.

What she did not anticipate was me taking another roll of black tape, and wrapping it tightly around the nightshirt so that her arms were immobilised against her body, and her wrists were under covers and therefore not capable of even operating a door handle, never mind a phone like the one she had been looking at when I came back into her room.

Helping her onto her feet, I frogmarched her into the other bedroom, and when she saw Pearl ball tied on the bed she let out a very audible scream.  Well, it would have been audible if the tape had not been in place.   It was quite a sight – a princess and her pearl lying next to each other, petrified and not knowing what to do.   I waved at both the women and closed the door behind them.

Gathering together the items I had collected, I filled my electrician’s bag and closed the door behind me as I left the flat.  I checked out with the concierge, went out to my van and drove off safe in the knowledge I had done my job.

The next day, I was reading of the tale told by Princess and Pearl in the paper when my contact met me and retrieved the camera with the photos of the papers he wanted.  We exchanged pleasantries, as well as wages, and parted as we usually do.  The remuneration for the camera was more than sufficient, and the other items I took have been fenced in my usual manner.

I hope this meets the requirements of the committee, but will of course be willing to submit to any further queries you may have.

Submitted this xxth day of Jxxx, 20xx.