Disclaimer: I don't own Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes or any recognisable characters.
What was Lost.
Chapter Three – 1980 Part Two.
The vicar's lucky Gene left his gun in the car. If Annie hadn't been holding his hand in a white knuckle grip, Gene would've left the church to get it. The weedy little man; talking about duty and sacrifice, hadn't been Annie's first choice.
Sam hadn't been one for church, only going because Annie wanted them both to go. As a compromise, she'd let him decide which church they attended.
Gene never bothered to remember its name, knowing where Sam was talking about by the description. He'd had gone a few times; feeling the age of the place in his bones and seeing it in the worn smooth head stones in the adjoining cemetery. Gene had given it and the minister his approval. Something about the way the man spoke about fire and brimstone, as if he'd been there when the ash and flame first fell from the sky. When the minister's father died a few days before the funeral, Annie had panicked and picked the first person her parents had suggested. She wasn't the only person to be relieved when Gene stood to give his eulogy.
"Sam Tyler was a good man. And for all his strange ideas, he was a good copper. He was a loving husband and a loving father. Sam was, with the exception of his wife, better than all of us. And he made us better people, better coppers because he was better than us. I am saddened by his passing. But when I catch the dog turd-" Gene ignored the vicar's glare, "who is responsible, I know that Sammy would approve of my kicking the bastard so far up the arse, that when I order him to lick clean my boots, all he can reach is my knee."