Prologue: A Night in Heaven
He sat, staring into his pint. He knew what was going to happen tonight. He only got broody every once in a while, and technically, he wasn't supposed to. This was heaven after all. He looked at the clientele. Lawyers, addicts, policemen, the lot. Tonight more police officers would be entering through those doors. He knew what their heaven would be. The Railway Arms. Gene Hunt's favourite pub in Manchester became the outside of heaven for all the coppers.
Everyone had a different entrance to heaven, but everyone entered into the same room. He knew the artists would head into a huge art gallery, the musicians into a music hall. And everyone who came in would have their own view of this heaven. For him, it was the flat he had moved into with his brother after their father died. That flat represented true freedom.
However, he could see flickers of the Railway Arms appearing through his vision of that flat. Tonight was a drop off, it was adjusting for the man that brought the souls. When a guardian brought people to the doors, it would flicker, just for a moment, to what the people outside the door were seeing. That's how he knew what everyone got to see, even though he had never gone through the doors himself. No, he had entered in quite a different way.
The man who stood near the door left, and he stared down into his pint even more morosely. He longed to go out, to tell Gene that his assumptions weren't true, but he couldn't. He had already passed over. He had to stay in heaven.
Just a few minutes later, the doorkeeper came back in, followed by three coppers. He frowned. Large load tonight. Usually Gene only brought one or two. He went back to staring at the pint. None of them would know of him. Gene kept him secret.
He looked over as the door opened one more time and frowned in surprise. Four? Gene never brought four people! It was too obvious! However, four new people there were, all finished with their time in the in-between world.
The last person in was a woman. She was incredibly beautiful, with short brunette hair pulled back in a quiff. Having died in the sixties, he found the clothes that the new people wore incredibly strange. The woman was wearing jeans that clung to her legs and red shoes with a bow on them. Her jumper was red and black striped, and when she took it off, he saw that it didn't even cover the tops of her shoulders. Instead she wore a black vest underneath to cover the straps of her bra.
The woman noticed him staring at her and made a beeline for him. There was a sadness in her eyes, but he knew that after a few hours, she would be content. The shock just needed to wear off. Very few of Gene's charges knew they were dead until hours before they were taken to the pub.
She sat down next to him heavily. "What're you drinking, love?" he asked.
The woman looked up at him, disconcerted. He smiled at her. Trust me, I've seen enough of Gene's charges come through here. You need a good stiff drink and someone to talk to."
The woman smiled. "Whiskey," she whispered softly, her voice posher than he could have imagined.
"Jesus! Where did he get you from?" he exclaimed.
She gave a small smile. "2008. Hostage negotiation gone wrong."
His mind was racing. "It's 2008 now?"
"In the real world. In Gene's world its 1983."
"2008," he whispered. "Do they have those flying cars?"
The woman laughed. "No. Nowhere close."
He sat back, slightly disappointed. "So what's your story?"
The woman looked surprised. "What?"
"Everyone here has a story. Everyone here at one point had a problem with how they died. What was your problem? Why did you go to Gene?"
She bit her lip. "I was shot."
"During a hostage negotiation?"
"I was the hostage," she whispered.
He was quiet, wondering if he had gone too far.
"I...I woke up in 1981 and spent two years in a coma. I think after Gene shot me I died in my time."
"Wait a second!" he said. "Gene shot you?"
The woman nodded. It was an accident. I went into a coma here, well, in 1982, and dreamed I was back in my time. But then he slapped me and I woke up from my coma, and went back to work."
He frowned. This didn't sound like the Gene Hunt he knew. Something was happening to him. His guardianship was going to end soon if he continued to stray.
"This man, this new man from D&C was there. His name was Keats. He manipulated me to uncover Gene's secret. He made me uncover who Gene really was. And after Gene remembered who he was, he sent me away."
So Gene had nearly lost his post then. He had never heard of Keats, but the tempters came in many different forms. If Gene hadn't saved those four tonight, if he hadn't remembered, he would have lost his guardianship. He would have had to move on.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't even ask your name."
She smiled. "Alex. Alex Drake."
He reached out his hand and shook hers. "Good to meet you, Alex Drake."
"So you know Gene?"
"Used to. Better than anyone."
"Did you work with him?"
He laughed. "God, no. I was too much of a screw up. Gene won't have told you about me. I'm his little brother. Stuart Hunt."
Her mouth dropped open. "Stu?"
"He did tell you about me?" Stu asked disbelievingly.
"No," she said apologetically. "But my colleague, who came here before me, Gene told him about you."
"How did you hear about me then?"
"My colleague was in a coma. When he came back, he made these tapes of all the memories he had. I listened to them, and one of them was about when heroin came to the streets of Manchester."
"Heroin?"
"It's a new drug."
Stu nodded and Alex continued. "He was telling me about a conversation that he had had with Gene. If I remember right... Wait." She turned, scanning the masses, until she found the person she wanted. He was sitting with the three new people. Alex walked over to that table and spoke with him a moment before they both returned, the man with a look of shock on his face. The new man reached out his hand.
"Sam Tyler. I worked with Gene from 73-80."
Stu nodded. "He mentioned me?"
"Just the once. We were working on a drugs case and the brother of one of the suspects was killed. He was completely callous and when I got after him, instead of ignoring me, he looked me right in the eye. I remember he said: 'I had a brother. Some bastard got him hooked on speed. I tried to knock sense into him, tried everything. Haven't seen him in ten years. No one has.' When I tried to tell him that we could try and find you he said: 'I already did, Sam. Just not in time.'"
Stu hung his head. "So he still doesn't believe it. He doesn't believe I ended up here. Same old stupid addict," he said in a perfect imitation of his brother. "You've gotta believe me. I died because of drugs in that world, but not because of an overdose. If I had screwed up there, I wouldn't be here."
Alex leaned forward. "So what really happened to you, Stu?"
Stu motioned for more drinks. It was going to be a long bloody story.
to be continued
