Chapter 34

Simon couldn't believe his eyes as he saw Alex running into the grounds of Fenchurch East. He drew up beside her and rolled down the window.

"What the hell are you doing?" he cried.

Alex glanced around.

"I've tried to call Gene but he's not answering," she explained breathlessly, "I thought I could get here before you!" she paused, "and I did."

"By three seconds," Simon commented but his attention was caught by the sight of a frantic Lindsay racing towards Keats, "Oh shit –"

"What –" Alex began but she caught sight of them too. "Oh no…"

Simon didn't hang around; he started the car again and sped towards them. He wasn't going to let Lindsay down, not if he could help it.

~xXx~

"Please," the sound of Lindsay's anxious voice made Keats gloat inside, "you have to tell me. What did you mean by all that stuff?"

Keats looked at her, that smirk upon his face.

"What stuff would that be?" he asked.

"You know what stuff," Lindsay's heart was racing, "the stars… what the hell did they mean? And why can't I remember my past… or how I got here… or what I did before I joined the station?" She waited for him to reply but all he did was smile. "Oh come on!" she cried, "DCI Hunt isn't going to tell me – you're the only one who will."

Keats breathed in deeply to absorb the moment of glory. Oh, those words were music to his ears.

"I'll tell you everything, Lindsay," he said, "but I'll warn you – it's not pretty."

Before he had a chance the sound of squealing tyres came to a half beside them and to his absolute shock and horror the door of the red car opened and Simon stepped out with a look of absolute fury across his face.

"Leave her alone," he cried.

Keats looked a little nervous but pulled himself together and straightened himself up, edging backwards as Simon approached.

"I was just informing her," he began, "of one or two little truths about –" his sentence was cut off by Simon's fist as it flew towards his face and knocked him sideways. He stumbled backwards, almost fell to the ground but managed to stay upright just in time. He reached up to his jaw, the pain making him wonder for a moment if Simon had managed to dislocate it and his shocked eyes looked at Simon in horror.

"Have you taken leave of your –" he began but a second punch flew at him and this one knocked him to the ground.

"A breadknife, Keats" he cried, never feeling such anger and venom towards another person in his life, "A fucking breadknife?" he grasped Keats by the collar and tried to pull him back to his feet, "what the fuck did Robin ever do to you? What the fuck did he do to deserve that? Just because he wouldn't play your stupid little games when he was here? Because he didn't take the bait?"

"Simon!" Gene's voice cried across the car park but Simon was on a roll.

"You could have killed him!" he screamed, dragging Keats towards him by the neck of his shirt and watching his face full will fear.

"Sounds like someone's taken a little trip into the basement," Keats hissed, "and he killed me, Simon, you remember that!" A sneer tok over his face, "besides, isn't that what you want? A dead Robin, arriving over here like a special delivery package?"

"Slashing him to pieces in a bloody hospital room?" Simon cried, pulling back his fist to punch him again but someone grabbed him from behind and he felt Gene's firm grip around his arms.

"Stop it, son, he's not worth the lawsuits," Gene told him.

"And he tried to attack Alex's body with a fucking pair of scissors in her hospital bed," Simon cried, "wanted to give her a one-way ticket straight to Fenchurch West."

Gene seemed to freeze.

"He did?" Simon felt gene's grip loosen and finally let go. "Sorry, Simon. Didn't mean to cut you off in yer prime. Go ahead."

"What the hell is going on?" Alex's voice was the last one Gene expected to hear.

"Bolly, what the hell are you doing here?" he cried crossly, "I told you to stay well away!"

"I came to warn you Keats was back on the premises," Alex protested. She clutched her side and grimaced.

"What's wrong?" Gene asked anxiously.

"Got stitch," Alex hissed as Simon aimed a third punch at Keats, this time missing by millimetres.

"Oh, good shot, Simon," Keats mocked, giving him a round of slow applause, "not third time lucky for you, was it?" but he started to regret the mocking when he found Simon's hand around his collar again

"You're hilarious, Keats, fucking hilarious," he cried, "as hilarious as kidnapping a kid and tying her up on a boat, or handcuffing people to hospital lamps, or trying to kill comatose patients in their beds!"

Keats tried to punch his way out of Simon's grasp but found Gene holding his arm back.

"Might be time to send you on another little holiday," he said, "what do you think, Jimbo? Let's wait for a nice big car to come speeding in and see how you fair under the wheels."

"How was he in my hospital room?" Alex felt shaken by those words.

"Somehow hitched a ride to two thousand and something," Simon said furiously, "decided to spend the trip looking up old acquaintances, didn't you, Keats?" he stared at him, his eyes flashing with fury. Never before had he felt such intense hatred towards one person. Never in his life. "And what the fuck did you do to Kim?"

"Not as much as I wanted to," Keats's lips were flapping and running away with him by now. His fear had taken any kind of a filter off of hi words and he was only serving to make the baying crowd angrier but before either Simon or Gene could deal with him any further Lindsay's voice cried,

"For fuck's sake, is anyone going to tell me about those bloody stars?"

Alex glanced at her in a panic, then up at Gene. His face was grim. Alex had seen that expression before. It was the expression of someone about to lose everything. Her stomach churned and her heart raced. She didn't know what had happened before she arrived, only that she knew they'd have to turn it around.

"Lindsay, this man is insane –" she began but Lindsay shook her head.

"Forget that idiot," she said, "he's just a prat who uses his flapping lips to make up for his lack of genitalia."

Gene raised an eyebrow at Keats.

"She's got the measure of you there, Jimbo," he said.

"I saw the bloody stars myself! You can't deny that. Am I going crazy? Or is there something I should know?"

Alex, Gene and Simon looked to each other, all hoping that someone could provide a usable excuse but words were not forthcoming. The silence seemed to go on forever, aside from a few 'um's and 'errs' but no one could offer anything more solid than that, until suddenly the tension was broken by one deafening sound; a single gunshot that rang out through the car park. All five of them dropped to the ground and to Gene's horror he found Keats landing squarely in his lap.

"My my, Hunt, I never knew you cared," he smiled, receiving a hard shove from Gene.

"Get off before you stain me trousers with slime," Gene barked crossly as a voice cried out,

"Stay where you are… all of you, stay right where you are… hands up, please… I don't want to hurt you but I'll do anything necessary, so put your hands up."

Gene and the others very slowly raised their hands and watched as a middle-aged man brandished what appeared to be some kind of rifle. His face was fraught and his eyes full of fear. His hold on the scene was complete as every officer, detective and member of the public froze where they were. Stars were forgotten as the situation became all too human.

Suddenly it was more than starlight threatening their safety. The threat of bullets waiting to pierce flesh lurked alongside it.