Love Trap

“When I get hold of you I’m going to kill you!” the middle-aged woman screamed as she was on her knees thrashing about under the cupboard.

Normally this kind of threat worked, but this time it was having no effect.

“Swear at it, that usually works for me when things aren’t going my way.” The policeman said making Margot jump. “Sorry, didn’t mean to creep up on you.”

“No, it’s no problem.” Margot said, “I thought that it was just me and this damn mouse in here.” She smiled at the policeman, making him smile back, making his crows feet even more pronounced.

Margot ran her own company, it wasn’t what she planned to do with her life but she enjoyed being her own boss, and it paid the bills. Most women wouldn’t even entertain working for a pest control company, what with all the mice, rats and creepy crawlies they’d have to deal with, but this didn’t bother Margot at all.

“I’ll leave you to it then Miss.” The sergeant said to her, looking her up and down as he made his way to the door.


Margot hadn’t been called Miss for a long time, when you get past forty people assume that either you’re a Mrs or a Ms, but not a Miss. She quite liked it. In fact, when the officer had called her Miss it made her cheeks burn as if she was a silly schoolgirl.

“That’ll get ya!” Margot muttered under her breath as she lay the mousetraps along the skirting board under the cupboards.

“See you in a few days.” Margot said to the desk sergeant as she signed out.

Ready meal for one, one tin of cat food, a pint of semi-skimmed milk and one black cherry yoghurt, Margot couldn’t help thinking how sad her shopping looked on the long conveyed belt.

“Should have gone to the fifteen items or fewer till.” She thought to herself as she noticed the full belt before her.

She decided to stay where she was, by the time she had picked up all her items and moved over to the other till she could be through this one and packed. That is if the checkout operator was on this planet.

“Any saving stamps?” she murmured to Margot.

“No thank you.”


“Have you a car park ticket?”

“No.” Margot replied remembering that she had left her van in the car park at the police station.

“Would you like to top up your mobile?”

“No thanks.” She replied again as she pushed her bank card into the chip and pin machine.

“Any cash back?”

“No thank you .” Margot answered, wondering why people choose such public facing jobs as a checkout operator if they resent their customers.

As she was packing her canvas shopping bag Margot happened to look on the next till, looking back at her was the sergeant she had been surprised by earlier. Again she could feel her cheeks starting to get warmer.

“Fancy bumping into you again.” Sergeant Cooper said smiling warmly to Margot.


Margot began franticly packing her bag now, trying to hide the sad contents of her shopping.

“Just picking up some bits.” Margot replied getting more flustered with herself. “Big shop?” she asked noticing the policeman’s two full shopping bags.

“No, not really, I’ve just done my weekly shop.” He justified. “At least I didn’t startle you this time.” He smirked.

This comment made Margot smile.

“Not this time.” She answered. “I’ve got to get going, got an exciting night in front of the television planned, and if I’m not home for five my cat will make my life a misery. But I’m back in the station later this week to see if my traps have worked, I’ll catch up with you then Sergeant.”

“Please, call me Colin.” He smiled, making Margot blush even more. “I’ll look forward to seeing you then.”

“I’m Margot.” She grinned. “Nice to meet you.”

It had been a long time since someone had blushed at Colin Cooper. Usually when people did it was a sign that they had done some wrong, but this was different, this was a sweet and innocent blush. And the smile that Margot had
sent his way had really knocked him off his stride. Normally people saw the uniform and tried their best to avoid him and they certainly didn’t usually give him a smile.

He had noticed what she had bought too, and it was pretty much the same as his, only in a smaller quantity, and instead of cat food Colin had bought some dog food. The thought that they were so similar brought a small smile to his face.

“Ah ha!” Margot said as she lifted up the mousetrap, “Caught you!”

The mouse looked surprisingly stiff, its legs were stuck straight up in the air and the metal clasp was holding it tightly into place on the trap. In one action Margot separated the mouse from the trap and threw the body into a plastic bag.

“Looks like I won’t need to be coming back again Sergeant.” She said glumly to Colin. “I managed to catch the culprit and can now dispose of the body,”

Colin looked at her and began to blush.

“There is something that I would like to ask you.” He mumbled shyly. “Since we bumped into each other the other day. And seeing as you won’t be back again…” He continued.

Margot looked at him with a puzzled expression wondering where the conversation was leading.


“No pressure, I’ll understand if you say no..” he rambled on, “W-w-would you consider coming out for a drink sometime?”

As soon as the words were out Margot’s face broke into a beaming smile.

“I’d love to!” she gushed. “I would like to have a chance to get to know you better.”

The words brought a sparkle to Colin’s eye and the biggest, daftest grin to his face.