Get Cartwright

by Tom Graham

  Annie looked at him with wide, confused eyes, and then dropped her gaze and nodded.

  PC Cartwright. Annie’s father. Sam had seen him, met him, spoken to him – and then watched him die at the hands of Clive Gould, the villain who had all these coppers and detectives on his payroll. Sam had seen it all, though it had happened ten years ago. He had been there.

  Choosing his words carefully, Sam asked: ‘What can you tell me about Anthony Cartwright?’

  ‘I looked him up,’ said Annie. ‘He was a uniformed officer, quite young. Something happened to him, and he died. I think there may have been some sort of a cover-up.’

  ‘But the name, Annie. What does it mean to you?’

  ‘I … I don’t know what it means to me, Sam. When I saw it, I tried to think if I had any relatives with that name. Uncles, cousins. But … I couldn’t think of any, Sam. I mean, I couldn’t think of any, no names at all! I couldn’t remember nothing, Sam! Not me mum’s name, not me dad’s – nobody! I tried, but my mind was a blank. It was like I was going mad.’ Annie ran a hand over her forehead, and let out a shaky breath. ‘I got really scared. But then, looking at the name again – PC Anthony Cartwright – it played on my mind …’

  ‘Did memories start coming back?’

  ‘Not memories as such, just … impressions. Feelings. Echoes of things. God, I don’t know, I can’t explain it.’

  The same thing will happen to me if I stay here long enough, thought Sam. This place – this 1973 us dead coppers find ourselves in – it takes us over eventually, erodes our memories of the life we used to lead, makes us forget everything except the here and now. But those memories of what we used to be are still in there somewhere – buried deep – waiting to be unearthed.

  ‘I’m really confused, Sam,’ Annie muttered.

  ‘Believe it or not, I completely understand you,’ Sam replied.

  Annie looked at him intensely: ‘Yes. I think you do. You know things, don’t you.’

  ‘Yes. I know things.’

  ‘Something’s going on, isn’t it. Something weird.’

  ‘Pretty weird, Annie, yes.’

  ‘Then help me,’ Annie urged him. ‘Tell me why I can’t remember nothing. And tell who you are. And who I am! And where the hell we are!’

  Sam hesitated. It was a long story – long and mysterious, and full of things he didn’t understand and dark corners where real horror lurked. Where to begin?

  Slowly, he took a deep breath, preparing himself for an explanation he had no idea how he was going to phrase. But he only got as far as one word.

  ‘Well,’ he said. And then, without warning, he was on his feet, staring past Annie through the open door of Joe’s Caff. ‘Oh my God …’

  ‘Sam? What is it?’

  ‘A fella …’

  ‘A fella?’

  ‘With a gun. I've just seen a fella with a gun.’

  ‘What? Where?’

  ‘Right there! Walking into the church! I just seen a fella with a gun walking straight into that church!’ Sam ran for the door, shouting: ‘Joe! Dial 999! Now!’

  Joe stood and gawped, slow-witted as a Neanderthal, so Annie shoved past him and grabbed the phone as Sam raced out into the street. He heard Annie’s voice calling after him – Don’t go, Sam, stay here, wait for back up! – but he couldn’t stop himself. His instincts had kicked in.

  Is this the final showdown? Sam wondered as he sprinted across the street and through the little churchyard. Was that Gould I saw? Is he ready now? Is this how we’re going to finish this business between us – in an armed stand-off in a church? So be it, then. If that’s what he wants, let’s do it. Let’s do this thing! Let’s finish it once and for all – right now!

  He reached the arched entrance of the church and flung the doors open before he could talk himself out of it.

  CHAPTER TWO: IN EXTREMIS

  Sam dashed into the church and skittered to a halt. Dotted about in the pews were various elderly people, old ladies mostly, waiting for the service to begin. But Sam’s attention was fixed on the man who stood at the very back of the church, just inside the main doors, only feet away. He was in his sixties, dressed in a denim jacket, orange nylon shirt, and beige corduroy slacks. He had a hard face, square-jawed and deeply lined. His hair had receded to a collection of wiry, grey curls about his ears. Motionless and silent, he stood at the end of the aisle and glared fiercely ahead.

  He’s certainly not Clive Gould. So who the hell is he?

  Sam looked down, and saw the revolver gripped tightly in the man’s white-knuckled hand. His finger flexed repeatedly on the trigger.

  This guy’s right on the edge. He’s all nerves. Is he deranged? Is he high on something?

  ‘Hey there,’ Sam said softly. He edged carefully forward. ‘You look strung out.’

  The man ignored him. His jaw muscles convulsed.

  ‘Maybe I can help you,’ Sam said. ‘It’s okay. I’m not going to try anything. My name’s Sam.’

  There was a flicker in the man’s eyes, and he turned his head suddenly to turn that furious gaze upon Sam.

  ‘Sam?’ the man grunted. ‘Sam Tyler? DI Sam Tyler?’

  Oh God, have I nicked him in the past? Sam thought, trying to place the man’s face. Has he got a grudge against me? Should I just grab that gun off him and pin him down before he makes a move?

  ‘Yes, I’m DI Tyler. Have we met?’

  ‘So … it’s you …’

  An old lady turned round in her pew and shushed angrily.

  Sam inched closer to the man: ‘Listen, why don’t you give me the gun and we’ll talk outside. There’s a café just across the road. I’ll get you breakfast.’

  ‘SHHH!’

  The vicar had appeared, a small, round-shouldered man with pebble glasses. He took his place at the lectern and perused his Bible short-sightedly, oblivious to the drama playing out at the back of his church.

  The man with the gun was shaking, his jaw muscles clenching, eyes glaring. Whatever he had come here to do, he was on the verge of doing it. Sam had to get him out of there right now. He’d give it one more go with the softly-softly approach but if that failed, he’d wrestle the gun from him by force and keep him pinned till back up arrived.

  ‘You don’t need that thing,’ Sam whispered, and he held his hand out for the gun.

  ‘It’s all because of you, DI Tyler …’ the man muttered.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean. Give me the gun and we can straighten everything out.’

  ‘It should be you not me …’ His voice was almost inaudible now. ‘You’re the one he wants … It should be you …’

  ‘The gun. Give me the gun. We can’t talk properly until you give me the –’

  At once, the man raised the gun – and thrust it against the side of he own head. His eyes were wide and round and bloodshot. A livid vein pulsed along his temple.

  ‘Don’t do it!’ Sam yelled.

  ‘SHHH!’ hissed half a dozen old ladies.

  The vicar peered up, mole-like.

  ‘My name is Detective Chief Inspector Michael Carroll,’ the man with gun declared, speaking loudly and clearly like he was giving a public address. ‘I worked for Manchester CID. I served this city for twenty-five years. I arrested villains. I made the streets safe. I am a good man!’

  ‘SHHH! SSSSSHHH!’

  Sam’s mind was reeling. DCI Carroll. That name was on Annie’s list of corrupt ex-coppers from the sixties.

  No coincidence, Sam thought, his mouth going dry. This is no bloody coincidence.

  ‘I am a good man!’ Carroll insisted, his voice growing louder. ‘I AM A GOOD MAN! I do not deserve this!’

  The barrel of the gun was pressing deep into the side of his head now, his finger hooked tightly around the trigger. If Sam rushed him, Carroll would blow his brains out before he could do a thing.

  ‘What’s happening back there?’ the vicar called out, squinting through his glasses.

  ‘Those boys a
re playing cop ‘n robbers with a water pistol,’ a phlegmy man growled, not looking up from his prayer book.

  ‘Well take it outside!’ an old lady barked, banging the back of the pew angrily with her arthritic hand.

  ‘I’m a police officer,’ Sam announced. ‘I’m a real police officer.’ And then, with more hope than conviction, he added: ‘A situation is in progress but I have got it fully under control.’

  ‘You know my name, Mr Carroll,’ Sam said, fixing his attention on the man’s eyes, willing contact between them. ‘And I know yours. We’re acquainted. So let’s talk.’

  ‘I am a good man, and I should be rewarded as a good man!’

  ‘Yes, you’re a good man, and that’s why you’re going to do the right thing. You’re going to put down that gun.’ Taking a gamble, Sam added: ‘Let’s go across the road, sit down over a coffee, and talk about Clive Gould.’

  The name had an instant and devastating effect on Carroll. His face contorted wildly as if he were suddenly in agony.

  ‘Clive Gould …!’ he snarled. ‘I told that bird I had nothing to say about Clive Gould!’

  ‘What bird?’

  ‘Cartwright’s daughter! She came asking!’

  Sam’s jaw fell open.

  ‘Annie?’ he gasped. ‘You’ve been talking to Annie?’

  The colour drained from Carroll's lined cheeks. His eyes screwed up and filled with tears.

  ‘I told her it weren’t me, I was nothing to do with what happened!’ he cried, his voice tight and constricted. ‘What the hell else could I say? And then, after she went, he turned up ...’

  ‘Gould. Clive Gould. He came for you, didn’t he?’

  Baring his yellow-stained teeth like a wild animal, Carroll suddenly thrust the gun straight at Sam.

  Sam froze.

  ‘What is going on?’ whinged the vicar, peering myopically.

  Carroll glared along the barrel of the gun, grinding his teeth furiously.

  ‘I am good!’ he growled, his throat tight and constricted. ‘I’m not perfect, but I am GOOD! It should be YOU not me, Tyler! I do NOT deserve this!’

  ‘Deserve what, Mr Carroll?’ Sam said, in a voice that he fought to keep from wavering. He tried to look past the muzzle of the pistol that was pointing right between his eyes, and instead fixed his attention on the man’s face. ‘Tell me. I’ll help you. We’ll work together. What is it you don’t deserve?’

  ‘It’s you he wants, not me!’ Carroll snarled. ‘You and her! Oh, I’d blow your head off, Tyler, I’d blow your damned head right off and stop all this … but it’s too late … too late for Pat, too late for me …’

  ‘Please, Mr Carroll, put away the gun and talk to me. I understand more than you think. I can help you. Together, we can –’

  But the vicar was marching down the aisle towards them, peevishly demanding to know what in God’s name was going on.

  ‘Stay back!’ Sam ordered.

  ‘I will do no such thing!’ the vicar snapped. ‘Not until you boys tell me what you think you’re d –’

  In the next moment, Carroll had the vicar in a head lock, the pistol jammed against the poor man’s face hard enough to send his glasses skittering away across the stone floor.

  ‘I’m not going to end up like Pat!’ Carroll howled. His voice broke, making him sound like a desperate, wailing child. ‘I’m not going to end up that way! No, no, no, no ...!’

  From outside came the clanging of police sirens. Carroll stopped howling and gritted his teeth.

  ‘Keep them out, Tyler!’ He barked. ‘Nobody comes in here! Anyone comes through that door, anyone so much as sticks his face at a window, and I start killing hostages.’

  ‘Hostages?’ an old dear piped up. ‘Does that mean none of us can go?’

  ‘I think it does,’ put in a lady with a hat like a giant powder puff.

  ‘Oh. Oh dear.’

  The vicar struggled against the headlock and issued a series of muffled cries.

  ‘What is it you want, Mr Carroll?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Keep them out, Tyler!’

  ‘I’ll keep them out, Mr Carroll, but if you don’t tell me what your demands are I can’t help you.’

  ‘I just want to be safe!’ Carroll screamed, tightening his grip on the vicar. ‘I don’t want to be left alone, not with him after me! Now keep ’em out of here! Keep everybody away!’ And then, venomously, he cried: ‘God damn you, Sam Tyler, you bastard, it should be you not me! IT SHOULD BE YOU NOT ME!’

  Sam opened his mouth to say something, but Carroll shrieked insanely, and for a moment it seemed that he was going to shoot the vicar and then turn the gun on everyone else. So Sam held up his hands and stumbled backwards, saying: ‘Okay, it’s okay, just stay calm, I’ll see no one comes in, I’ll make sure everything’s cool …’

  He backed out into the churchyard, and at Carroll’s command pushed the door closed.

  He’s seen Gould … but something happened, something terrible. It’s freaked him out. But what was it? What did Gould do? What did Carroll witness that drove him to this?

  Would Annie know? She had evidently been to see him, following up leads she had unearthed in the police files. She was drawn to the story of PC Tony Cartwright, no doubt sensing that there was far more of a connection between her and them than the sharing of surname. Did she know yet that Tony was her father? She must surely be suspecting … and at the same time, she must be doubting her sense of reality, wondering just who she is and where she is.

  He turned – and at once ran into a huge wall of camel hair.

  ‘Morning, Tyler – somebody call Siege-breakers?’

  DCI Gene Hunt loomed over him, flinging open his coat to reveal his ridiculous leather body holster, one hand already resting on the grip of his trusty Magnum, ready to draw. Behind him, the road outside the church was filling up with patrol cars and uniformed officers. Men were bustling. Radios were crackling. Police tape was fluttering like bunting between the lamp posts, cordoning off the street.

  ‘Back!’ Sam ordered.

  ‘Forward!’ Gene growled, and took a manly stride towards the doors of the church.

  ‘I said back!’

  ‘And I said ruddy forward, and I’m bigger than you!’

  Sam grabbed him by the lapels and thrust him back.

  ‘Don’t you shove me, Tyler!’

  ‘Back, Gene, back back back!’

  ‘The Gene Genie don’t have no reverse gear, you know that by now!’

  ‘You’re going to kick off a bloodbath mucking about like this! Now get BACK!’

  Sam barged Gene away. The Guv’s face fell into an expression that mixed shock, rage, and explosive indignation into one. His eyes blazed. His nostrils flared. He thrust the Magnum back into the holster and put his fists up.

  ‘You wanna duke it out, you and me, is that it, Tyler? Well come on then!’

  Raising his voice, Sam bellowed at the uniformed officers massing nearby: ‘Everybody get back! We have an armed man in there with hostages! Nobody is to approach the church, nobody is to look in the windows, nobody is to do anything! Back, back, back!’

  He waved his arms, shepherding the officers away. Gene watched him, open-mouthed.

  ‘Ordering plod about is my jurisdiction, Tyler!’

  ‘For God’s sake, Guv, just grow up!’

  ‘Oh, so you’re calling me a kid an’ all now, are you? You’re picking the wrong day to tangle my todger. This is Sunday. I shouldn’t even be here. I am royally miffed! I should be home with me tinnies and me feet up waiting for The Big Match. The Genie doth resteth on the seventh day, an’ all that. It was only coz I was hunting in the Cortina for me spare fags that I caught news of this shout on the radio, and being the conscientious DCI that I am, I decided to –’

  ‘Stop whinging and get back along with everyone else. That fella in there’s on the edge. He’s ready to start blowing the heads off a vicar and his flock at the drop of a hat. So if you don’t want blood on your
hands, Guv, get you and your off-white loafers right back!’

  Sam shoved and elbowed Gene back through the church yard and onto the pavement.

  Annie pushed her way through the bustle of uniforms to get to Sam.

  ‘You were mad running in there like that!’ she scolded him.

  ‘He were showin’ off,’ observed Gene, giving Annie a knowing nudge. ‘He’s got his sights set on the contents of your extra-large British Home Stores pants with the reinforced gusset. Different strokes, I suppose.’

  ‘I’m all in one piece,’ Sam said, ignoring Gene and focusing on Annie. ‘And I got a name. The gunman’s called Carroll – ex-DCI Michael Carroll.’

  Hearing the name, Annie’s eyes went wide as saucers.

  ‘Carroll!’ she gasped.

  Sam nodded. He desperately wanted to tell her that he knew she had spoken to Carroll – but in front of the Guv, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

  Frowning, Gene looked from Sam to Annie to Sam again, and said: ‘Um, do you want to include your Uncle Gene in this private chinwag? I mean, I know I’m only your boss and superior officer and professional role model and all that …’

  ‘DCI Carroll’s one of the names on Annie’s list,’ said Sam.

  ‘Oh aye?’ grunted Gene. ‘Annie’s list of what? Blokes round the department she’s ready to gobble for a quid?’

  Annie was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to even hear this. But Sam reacted sharply.

  ‘Jesus Christ, Guv, that’s bang out of order what you just said!’ he shouted. Then he glanced guiltily at the large cross standing boldly atop the church, backlit by the sun, and mouthed at it: Sorry. In a lower voice, he hissed at Gene: ‘Flippin’ heck, Guv, that’s bang out of order what you just said.’

  ‘Loosen up, Tyler. I understand the way it is. How else is Inspector Jugs going to get promotion if it ain’t on her knees?’

  Sam kept his temper in check, took a moment to gather his thoughts, then explained patiently: ‘Mickey Carroll is a retired DCI. He was on the force back in the sixties. Annie’s been digging into the old records and reckons him and a couple of others were on the payroll of a local villain.’

  ‘And what’s Annie doing spending her time on cold cases, eh?’ Gene asked, narrowing his eyes and peering at Annie suspiciously. ‘Ain’t we got enough villains on the prowl to keep her fully occupied?’