Disclaimer: I do not own The Bill. Nor do I own any of the rights to the characters, script etc. of this ITV series. I am a long-term fan, I write my fanfiction for fun with no infringement of copyright intended and I make no profit from this.
Summary: A suspected firearms smuggling business run by crime lord Daniel Martin causes a stir in Sun Hill. As two Special Investigation Unit officers (Insp Peter Dales and Sgt Claire Stanton) are brought to the station, the plot gets thinker as an old face is found to be connected to the case and when he decides some pay back is in order, the situation spirals out of control.
AN: I've tried to keep everything as it was in the series, however some of it was so long ago that I may have made some unintentional mistakes. Due to past plots there is some mention of GBH, murder, torture and rape (this is the only part I changed as it was important to my storyline, which should become clear later). Someone is also abducted; if this is not your thing (although if you're a Bill fan I'm sure you're used to it…) then please do not read! Reviews are very welcome, as are helpful criticisms, but please do not flame, I write for my own enjoyment as much as yours.
The Martin CaseChapter 1 - Jinxed
Sun Hill was set for a long day. Already this week CID had uncovered a container full of fire arms thought to be linked to European dealers, one of Britain's biggest lords had given them the slip and PC Reg Hollis had been held at gun point and had been lucky to leave the scene with only a bullet in his leg and it still was only Tuesday. The Superintendent had called a meeting for both uniform and CID and now stood at the front of the briefing room waiting for the last few stragglers to arrive and seat themselves. Gina Gold stood forward and called for attention.
"Alright, listen up everyone, the Superintendent has a few words to say in the light of recent circumstances."
"Thank you, Gina."
"You will all have been wandering why you are here and why some of the cases we're working on are so important, but before I start, I'm sure you've all heard that PC Hollis had a rather traumatic day yesterday, but I'd like to reassure you that while he took a bullet to the leg he's being well looked after at St. Hues and is doing just fine and I hope you'll all show you're support until he's back with us." There was a general murmur around the room before it died down. "You may also have heard that we have recently become aware of several high profile foreign arms dealers, who we believe to be dealing with Daniel Martin, one of Britain's most wanted criminals. Martin's been under surveillance for a long time, but has so far kept his hands clean, so obviously when he entered our patch we had him under tight surveillance."
"Yes, but unfortunately yesterday we were compromised" DCI Meadow's picked up, showing some slides, "and Martin gave us the slip, not before putting PC Hollis's life endanger. Martin is extremely dangerous, he may very well be armed and he has contacts everywhere. If you see him and are called upon to arrest him for any reason, do not approach him, call for armed back up and wait until it arrives. Is that understood?" There was a general murmuring of consensus before the superintendent stood back up.
"Alright then, keep your eyes open and keep on your toes and most importantly play it safe. We have some special officers coming in to work with CID and uniform will be kept informed on all goings on and other possible names to watch out for." The superintendent concluded.
"Alright then back to work you lot," Gina called, then learned across and asked, "So when are these officers arriving and who are we expecting, Smithy will show them up for you."
"They're two officers from the Met's Special Investigation unit. A Dales and Stanton, I think. I've been warned they may be a little unorthodox, but they're meant to be the best of the best, particularly the woman."
TMC
A blonde haired woman stood in front of Sun Hill police station a long black leather coat wrapped around her, guarding against the crisp morning air. Her hair was scrapped back into a clip and a thin but visible scar ran diagonally across her right check. She held a cigarette in one hand, the other pushed deep into her coat pocket. She looked upwards towards the sign that stood out from front of the station building "Welcome to Sun Hill" it read, "Since 1984". It was now a faded blue after so many years, but it was still meant to be welcoming, but somehow it didn't seen so welcoming against the grey winter sky.
"You coming, or are you going to stand out in the cold all day?" A man called, holding the station door open for her.
"Coming," She replied, taking a deep puff from the cigarette before tossing the end into a sand bin and following her partner.
"Dales and Stanton to see the Superintendent." The man announced at the desk as the woman stop behind him staring off into the distance, apparently in a world of her own.
"Sign here please, I'll just get someone to show you up." The officer on the front desk replied.
Moments later a uniform officer was greeting them as Sgt Smith, (call me Smithy) and talking animatedly to the man, (Insp Peter Dales) as the woman trailed behind them, seemingly ignoring her surroundings, a glazed look on her face.
"Ah! Here they come now," the superintendent, announced coming out of his office the DCI following behind, all heads turned towards the door as Smithy entered a man and woman in tow. The man was walking astride of Smithy, he wore an expensive suit and a neatly kept crop of black hair and he had a charming smile about him as he looked around at the CID force. He quickly singled out the Superintendent and walking forward to greet him. The woman, in contrast, wore more casual clothing with a long black leather coat, her hands in her pockets, as she looked around her, not at the CID, but at the room itself a far off look on her face. She seemed oblivious to everything.
"Superintendent Heaton, good to meet you, Insp Peter Dales" He offered shaking hands then gestured to the woman behind him, "And this is my college, Sgt…"
"Clare!" The exclamation had come from DCI Meadows, who had stepped forward in greeting. The woman did not react to her name, so he gently reached forward and touched her forearm. This immediately got her attention as she whipped round at lightning speed, with-drawing her arm from his grasp. A second later the person in front of her seemed to register.
"Jack!" She smiled unsteady, then gestured to the room around her, "it's changed a bit hasn't it?"
"Yes it has, there was an explosion a couple of years back, it was in the news; did you not hear about it?" He asked surprised.
"No," She replied gently, "No I didn't, a lot of undercover work."
"Of course"
The superintendent cleared his throat, which made the two realise notice that the rest of the room was still waiting for an introduction.
"John, this is Claire Stanton, a former college, Claire this is our newest Superintendent John Heaton." Jack introduced them.
"It's good to meet you, I've heard you've both had a lot of experience in this area, hopefully we'll be able to work together to produce some good results." Heaton replied. "Jack will introduce you to the team in a bit, but would you first like to come through to my office?"
As the door to Heaton's office closed, the group of CID started a hushed conversation. "So, what do you think?"
"I wonder how the DCI knows the Sergeant? A past college… how did she get to high to quickly?"
"Seemed a bit out of it didn't she?"
"Insp Dales seemed sharp enough, I'm sure they'll be more a help than a hindrance".
"She used to be a DS here," Mickey interrupted; he had so far kept quite.
"Really? How did she end up in the special investigation unit?" Phil Hunter asked.
"Have any of you heard the name DS Boulton?" Mickey asked.
Sam nodded, "Sure, isn't there a memorial plate with his name on it."
Mickey nodded, "Yea, he used to be a DS here, they were dating."
"Shoot, no wonder she didn't look overjoyed. How did he die?" Kezia leaned over and dropped a folder on the desk.
Mickey took a depth breath, "Okay, this is a very touchy subject around here, so be careful what you repeat and to who. John Boulton was murdered, by a college, his best mate in fact, Don Beech."
"Him I've heard of, black sheep of the whole force." Phil replied, "He was sentenced to life wasn't he, he was charged for almost anything you can think of."
"Yea, but there was more to than it than that right, Stanton was undercover for internal investigations, they were onto Beech already, but she didn't nail him in time. Boulton found out and he and Beech had an argument and John wound up dead." Mickey whispered glancing at the office. "He disappeared for a while after that, went to Australia I think, rumour goes that Stanton chanced him all the way there and back again. This is the bit where you hear conflicting stories…but supposedly Stanton tracked him down and there was a big head to head and finally he was captured."
"Yea, but we all know what happened when he and Manson exchanged information don't we? He only managed to escape, I wonder just how angry Stanton was." Sam Murmured.
"How do you know all this anyway, Mickey?" Stuart asked.
"I arrived not long after the whole thing, the whole of CID was under investigation, if you were innocent you got out, if you weren't then you got arrested. They had to recruit a whole new CID. There were rumours flying all over the place, some of them I'm not even repeating." Mickey finished, picking up his keys.
"Come on you can't leave us hanging there, what rumours?" Nadir moaned.
"They were just rumours and it wouldn't be right for me to speculate, so I'm not going to okay? Besides, did it every occur to you to ask someone who was here at the time?" Mickey winked at them, before grabbing his coat and leaving the room.
TMC
"Alright then everyone, this is Insp Peter Dales and Sgt Claire Stanton from the Metropolitan Special Investigations Unit. This is DS Phil Hunter, DS Samantha Nixon, DS Stuart Turner, DC Terry Perkins, DC Zain Nadir and Trainee DC Kezia Walker." DCI Meadows introduced them, "DI Manson is on an undercover operation at the moment, but he may be around this afternoon."
Claire sneered at the name, how was it that that idiot managed to let Beech escape?
"Good to meet you," Peter greeted shaking hands all-round.
"Likewise," Phil smiled.
"Pleasure," Claire smirked at them. "Right, first off we'll give you a rundown of what we know already and what we intend to do, then if you have anything to add please do, any extra information will be of help."
"Daniel Martin, born 1962. His father's serving a life long sentence for murdering his stepmother. Martin's been married twice, to a Sara Kingsley and a Jordan James, he's currently unhitched, but has two girlfriends; the first Lindsay Richardson, served three years for arson and the second, Abigail Hensley, a club dancer. He has two brothers who run a European shipment business and a cousin who runs a casino. Martin's been thought to have been connected to three murders, including his cousin's ex-girlfriend. He was also taken to court for arms smuggling, but was acquitted as the evidence was compromised." Peter recalled.
"Now, he has laid low for the last couple of years, but recently we believe he's gone back to arms smuggling. We think he's using his brother's shipping business as a front, but we think he's gone a step further this time and has started smuggling explosives into the country," Claire explained. "So far we've got little to go on, just the container of arms that Sun Hill obtained, which for the moment we can't connect to Martin. We also have an informant Gavin Banes, an ex-messenger for Martin and we have surveillance on both the girlfriends. We also know Martin to be associating with Ronald Bailey, Abigail's cousin and a known drug lord and former arms dealer, we also had surveillance on him, until recently."
"Can't we just play the girlfriends? One against one, surely one of them would give him up?" Terry asked, leaning on a desk.
"Not a chance, we already tried it. Abigail's too scared of Martin and Lindsay's too clever, she has plans for him." Peter replied, shaking his head.
"We need to resume surveillance on Ronald Bailey and I need you to start contacting known informants, Martin may bee too high up to hit on, but Bailey may not be. We get to Bailey and we might have a shot at Martin." Claire informed them standing up, "Secondly, we need to see if we can get anymore information on the family members, particularly the brothers, ask around, we need names of known associates past and old. I also want phone records for all of them, the ex-wives' as well."
The DCI stood up as Claire moved back, "Alright, Zain, Kezia, I want you on phone records, everything you can find, get a PC to help. Terry I want you to talk to Inspector Gold about getting some surveillance set up on Ronald Bailey. Stuart, informants for Bailey please, take the cousin too. Sam, informants for the brothers, you might want to look into the younger one especially, he's does some interesting hobbies, might be able to meet a few people there. Phil you're with Insp Dales, Mickey you're with Sgt Stanton. I'll be in my office if anyone needs me."
There was a buzz of noise as CID leapt to life. "Come on then." Claire gestured for Mickey to follow her as Phil gave him the thumbs up, as they existed the room.
"So what's she like to work with?" Phil asked Peter as he collected up files from CID records.
"Difficult." Peter frowned, then laughed, "I've been with her the longest out of anyone, almost a year, she was transferred from one Inspector to another, because she doesn't always follow orders. There was one guy who tried to hit on her, thinking that'd be a good way to break the ice since nothing else seemed to work, two days later he had a broken nose and was taking a months leave. Before I took her the record was three months." Peter grinned.
"So what makes you so special?" Phil asked interested.
"I don't really know; we just seemed to hit it off. On our first day together I was held at knifepoint with no clue where she was, and then she turns up out of nowhere, shoot the guy in the knee and taking a shoot to the chest for me. I yelled at her for almost an hour in the hospital telling her how stupid she was storming in there guns blazing, she just started laughing her head off. To be fair if she'd arrived a second later I would have had my throat slit. She's good at what she does, very good, but she can be very unorthodox and very stubborn, I've taken a lot of wrap for her, but if she tells me I shouldn't do something I don't; she's unusually right. She might be difficult to work with but she's got a very sharp mind and really makes you think outside the box." Peter finished.
"Do you know about her history here?" Phil inquired.
"Some, I know about Boulton and Beech if that's what you mean." Peter replied carefully, unsure how much he should share with his CID partner, "She's told me about John, we stopped off at his grave on the way here, but when I asked about Beech…she nearly crashed the car. I know when to drop a subject."
Phil glanced over at the DCI who had entered the room and was surreptitiously listening in. "Come on, we've got a lot of surveillance footage to get through."
"Didn't think to give them the boring job then?" Phil moaned.
Peter just smiled in return, "She's got a lot of contacts in this area, and I have none. However, I am very good at ordering people to make me cups of coffee while relaxing and watching a bit of TV."
TMC
That afternoon CID had returned to the briefing room for a debrief on the day's work, so far Claire's leads had turned up nothing, so had Phil's. Stuart had also turned up nothing on Bailey, but had an informant for the cousin. Sam had arranged a meeting at the young brother's local shooting range, but had yet to turn anything up solid on them. Terry had managed to arrange surveillance on Bailey, which would start tomorrow and the past surveillance tapes for all the contacts had so far shown nothing.
"Ok, I know its been a long day and we haven't managed to turn up much yet but hopefully we'll get some more results tomorrow; we still have the phone records to go and our surveillance might still turn something up." DCI Meadows informed them. "We still have some informants to go too, so don't be disheartened, hopefully tomorrow will give us a better result."
Despite the DCI's promise, the next day did not turn up any more information, nor did the next. Finally on the forth day of the combined operation Zain and Kezia called a meeting with some possible information.
Nadir stood up with a stack of papers in one hand. "We couldn't get Martin's phone records, but we did manage to get hold of Bailey's, and the brothers'. We've run through the lists and pulled a few numbers from them. Bailey's got a Ruth Thompson, a convicted con –artist in his list of numbers, she might be worth a visit. Ben Martin, the older brother has connections to Bailey and several Russian dealers who have also been under investigation, but most interestingly was a number that came up on all three phone records."
Kezia looked across at Claire nervously, before picking up where Zain had trailed off. Claire sat up and looked interestedly at Kezia, what was going on?
"We traced the number to a Brad Miller, but found no record of him, we put a trace on the phone and followed him to its last know location, which luckily for us was his apartment, we waited for him to arrive and took some photos, we managed to identity him afterwards, which was confirmed by one of our informants, as formally Don Beech. We called a team in top arrest him, but he must have known we were onto him because he was long gone by the time we arrived back." Kezia finished. The room fell silent, all eyes shifted to Claire, who stood next to the no smoking sign, sifting frantically through her coat for something. Her eyes glazed, hands shaking slightly, she withdrew a pack of cigarettes. Pulling one out, she fumbled with the lighter as she held it to her mouth.
"Claire…" Peter began quietly.
"Don't you Claire me…" She hissed back. The lighter clattered to the floor, and she stood there unmoving, looking lost.
Peter sighed and picked up the lighter, lighting the fag for her. She took a deep breath, and nodded gratefully. Peter ran a hand through his hair. "Those are going to kill you someday."
"I only smoke in times of extreme stress." Claire replied, sarcastically, although with far less tension than before.
Peter grinned wryly, "you're been smoking non-stop since we got here."
Claire smirked back; now that the nicotine had kicked in she'd relaxed slightly, "I've been stressed out since we got here."
Dales turned to her seriously, putting on his Inspector look, "Claire maybe you should think about…"
Claire silenced him with a fierce glare.
"Alright, but I expect to know where you are at all times, no running off without informing me first, I don't care how difficult the situation is, if you don't you're off the case, understood?" Peter asked firmly.
Claire looked at him sceptically for a moment; usually she didn't win an argument that easily, but then nodded.
"Okay, any ideas for a strategy plan?" DCI Meadows asked, "I'd say Beech's contact with Ben Martin, pretty much proves he's connected to Daniel Martin and probably the arms dealing as well."
"We need to report back to our unit, let them know what's going on, they may have something to say on the matter, if they give us the go ahead to continue, I'd suggest calling a station meeting, we're going to need uniform in the loop. In the meantime I'd suggest you brief your superintendent and uniform inspector." Peter replied.
TMC
The uniform briefing room was very crowded with both uniform and CID in the one room. The Superintendent, Inspector Gold, DCI Meadows and Inspector Dales stood at the front below the projector's screen. Claire stood off to one side, glowering at DI Manson who had been pulled from his undercover op to focus on the Martin Case. He seemed a little bewildered by her glare and kept a good distance between them.
"PC Hollis its good to see you back with us, tack it easy on those crutches won't you? " The Superintendent called.
"Yes thank you, sir." Reg replied from where he was seated next to Tony.
"We're here to inform you that there's been a breakthrough in the Martin Case. Don Beech, former DS here and fugitive from prison, has been linked to the Martin family. He was spotted yesterday…" DCI Meadows gestured to the projected picture of Beech entering a house, "…by CID, but unfortunately escaped arrest. He has since moved premises and we have no further leads. I have to warn you that Beech is dangerous and if Martin and Beech are working together things could get very nasty. Now that Beech knows we're on to him he could be difficult to find, alternatively, since he undoubtedly suspects Sun Hill, he may plan a little pay back. Those of you who have worked with Don need to keep a special eye out, just in case he tries anything. Since we have had such a high turn over rate recently, that only leaves Reg, Tony, June, Smithy and myself. Do not underestimate him, he knows the force inside out; anything you know, he'll know better."
The Superintendent stepped forward again. "I'd like to introduce you to Inspector Peter Dales and Sergeant Claire Stanton from the Special Investigation Unit, they will be running the op."
"Thank you," Peter nodded to Heaton, "As of yet, we do not have a complete plan, but we do have several surveillance points and we want to double the uniform officers out on the beat. We're also waiting on more information from contacts that might give us a possible lead to Beech. As of now, Beech is our main target; as soon as we have evidence on Martin we'll issue a warrant for arrest. For those of you who haven't worked with Beech, Sgt Stanton will give you the run down, since she's have several dealings with him in the past." He nodded to Claire, who pulled away from the wall.
"Don Beech spent 30 years in the job, he was a DS here for five years. In 1998, CIB became aware of his corrupt activities when he lied in court in exchange for £20,000 paid by a gangland boss and CIB placed me undercover at Sun Hill CID. During that time Beech got in trouble with a wanted criminal; Fallon, and shortly after murdered DS Boulton. We almost had him under lock and key when he escaped to Australia with the help of his girlfriend Maggie. He took part in bank and pub raids and tried to set up deals with local crime syndicates in Sydney. However, I followed him there causing him to botch a job and consequently have to fake his own death. Beech then came back to England and masterminded a robbery that would have set him up for life. However, I stumbled across him during a case tracked him down bringing him to justice. Don was sent to prison for life but managed to escape in May 2004, offering to exchange information on a diamond robbery for a cushier jail." Claire took a deep breath then continued, "He's wanted for murder, conspiracy, preventing the course of justice, assuming a false identity, robbery, abduction, torture, rape and GBH. To name just a few."
Lewis whistled, "not much then…"
Inspector Gold nodded, "Now hopefully you understand how dangerous he is to the public, so you all need to be on your toes and watching your backs, anything suspicious going on, check it out. I also want all reports of abduction followed up straight away, no matter how unlikely they seem."
"What about the abduction, torture and rapes victims; are they going to need special protection, ma'am?" PC Harman asked.
Inspector Gold opened her mouth to order that the victims were looked up and sorted, when Claire spoke up from where she had been standing at the side, her voice slightly hoarser than normal, "I'll be watching my back."
All heads turned in her direction as the implications of her sentence sunk in, but she refused to meet anyone's eyes, staring resolutely at an interesting speak of non-existence dust on the far wall.
"Alright, I want you all paired up and doing rounds, you'll all be given copies of the photographs to show the public and important information, such as names of previous known associates etc. PC Hollis, front desk." Insp Gold ordered.
"Tony you're with PC Noble, Roger, you're with PC Keane, PC Casper, PC Kapoor, you take the van. Will, Yvonne…the docklands area please. Lewis, you're with me, Honey you're with Sgt Ackland." Smithy paired them up the more experienced with the newer officers, handing out photos and information as they left.
Tony lent over to Reg on the way out, "Not taking any chances are they?"
A few minutes later the room had cleared and Insp Dales had pulled Stanton aside. "Is this going to be a problem? We can still get transferred from the case, I didn't realise things had gotten quite so bad." He said, looking down at her, although she refused to look at him.
Taking a deep breath Claire forced herself to meet her boss's eye, "No, it won't be a problem."
"Alright, but I'm watching your back, don't do anything stupid." Dales replied in a hushed voice. When she nodded her consent he gestured over to where CID were gathered around a table. "Shall we?"
"We still need a plan, there's no guarantee that our informants or door to doors will turn up anything." DCI Meadows began. "If he knows we're on to him he'll have gone into hiding, somehow we need to draw him out- make it personal. Any suggestions?"
"What happened to the girlfriend, Maggie?" Kezia asked.
"Married, two children, they haven't been in touch since he left the country as far as we know." DI Manson replied.
"He had a girlfriend, Frankie, she was shot dead just before he was captured. The shooter was arrested, he's due to be released in six months." Claire put in.
"Too long any, I doubt he'll kick up enough of a fuss about that." Insp Dales shook his head.
"Well, he's been set up a lot in the past, he'll probably be on edge about it. If we could convince one of his associates to set him up, or a least make Don think he's being double-crossed then he might react." Claire replied.
"Alright, that sounds like the beast plan for now, we'll make a list of Don's old associates and contacts and try and arrange some undercover meetings. Find out if they've got anything. If we can find anyone who's got a deal going with Don then we'll see if we can gently suggest a way they might be able to do him over that will be more profitable to them." DI Manson finished.
"Mickey, we're taking a ride." Claire called the DC, throwing his coat across to him and grabbing her keys.
Climbing into her car Mickey glanced over at Claire, "So, where we going?"
She started up the engine and smirked at him, "I know Don and he has two big weaknesses; Gambling and Woman."
TMC
An Hour and a half later they seemed to have hit a lead, in the forth betting shop they visited, a man behind the counter had managed to ID the photograph they had shown him as a Brad Miller; Don's alias.
"Sure I recognise him, he's been in to see the owner a few times." The man dropped him voice to a whisper, "He runs a delivery service as well. You know…things that you wouldn't want to get lost in the post." The man told them.
"When was Miller last here?" Mickey asked.
"This morning, he said something about having to get someone else to make his deliveries from now on. He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry."
"Thanks, we'll need to talk to the owner." Claire informed him.
The man looked a little nervous, obviously he wasn't too keen on loosing his job. "Alright, he'll be out the back," he gestured reluctantly to some rooms behind the betting bar, he buzzed them through the door and let the go on in.
"Mr. O'Donnell?" Mickey called, "DC Webb, Sun Hill CID." They rounded a corner to see a man in his late fifties sitting at a desk smoking a cigarette, he stood up when he saw them and for a moment he looked like he was about to make a run for it, but the returned to his seat and gestured for them to sit down.
"I'm far too old to be running from the police," He explained, coughing a bit. Mickey showed him his warrant card and Claire showed him hers. "Special Investigations Unit, I am honoured, what have I done to deserve this?"
"How do you know this isn't about the business?" Mickey asked, surprised.
"Oh, come now, we both know that if you had any solid evidence that my business was illegitimate in someway, I wouldn't still be sitting here." The man smiled easily.
"Alright, this is how it goes, you answer our questions truthfully and do what we suggest and we'll turn a blind eye to you're little business arrangement here, okay?" Claire asked.
Mr. O'Donnell raised an eyebrow, "What's in it for me?"
Mickey stared at him, "Other than not going to prison?"
"I'd get a minimum sentence, a year or two at the most." He replied easily, "But I could find myself dead if I give you too many answers.
"If you're associating with who we think, you're life's already in danger just by talking to us information, or no information, you're better off spilling and going into witness protection." Claire informed him.
"Well you'll need to be a bit more specific, you could be referring to more than half of my associates." O'Donnell sneered.
"I'm referring to Brad Miller," Claire lit a cigarette of her own.
O'Donnell seemed surprised, "Really? Why him?"
"Obviously you're not aware that Brad Miller is an alias," Mickey put in.
"All my associates have alias', that's the terms of the contract; no real information, just one means of contact and a guarantee of my messenger's safety, that's it." He replied.
"Brad Miller is Don Beech, former CID officer, wanted for murder etc." Mickey supplied.
O'Donnell turned white, obviously he had heard of Beech and while he was used to dealing with criminals, he wasn't used to dealing with criminals who were fugitives from the law. "Oh dear."
"Oh dear, indeed," Claire agreed letting out puff of smoke.
To be Continued...
AN: I hope you've enjoyed this so far, i've read some really good fanfiction in other areas, but not so much for The Bill. So I thought, you know, I've got an idea, why don't I just write it and see how it goes. Stanton and Beech are my two most favourite characters and I thought, wouldn't it be good it they could have a come back! Incase you're interested... No, John Boulton won't be making a return from the grave, I've seen too many of those and for me, I just don't find it plausable, he was killed off for a reason, as lovely as he was. However, I do intend have some real plot twisters in here to keep you on your toes:-)
