Thanks to everyone who's been reading so far; it means a lot. I finished the series yesterday and I have to say I loved it. I wish they'd made more, but then agan fanfiction is how you fill in the blanks. Anyway, enjoy the next chapter. Oh, and the conversation at the end is based on what an ex-colleague of mine did when he was younger. You'll know what I mean when you read it :)
"Who's that girl there? I wonder what went wrong"
-Arctic Monkeys, When The Sun Goes Down
Sam drove Annie to the police station the next morning. She hadn't got any clothes other than what she stood up in, so Sam had let her wear a few of Maya's things that lived at his house. As such, she was dressed in jeans that were too long for her and a jumper that was too baggy, but at least she looked normal. Sam promised to take her shopping for new clothes when they finished their shift.
Sam leant on the desk as they entered the station. "Winston," he greeted the burly receptionist. "DC Cartwright here needs her ID badge."
"'Ite," Winston replied, opening a drawer. "Is your first day, babe?"
"Yeah," Annie told him. She copied Sam's casual stance, twisting one of her curls behind her ear.
"Sammy boy he look af'you. He top man. This you?" He slid over a badge with Annie's name on it.
Sam picked it up, checked it and handed it to Annie. "Cheers for that, Winston. How's the missus?"
"She nearly drop. On' two weeks now."
"Two weeks 'til baby Winston. Watch out, world." Sam laughed and turned to head upstairs. "Come on."
Annie followed him, fastening her badge onto the belt of her jeans as she walked. "Sam, I can't put my badge on while I'm walking, it's just not possible."
"You're a bird, you're meant to multitask."
Annie turned around at the strange voice behind her. "Who are you?"
"Gary Hunt. Soon to be DCI."
"In your dreams, Huntyboy." Sam stopped on the top step. "Annie, this is DI Hunt. Huntyboy, meet DC Cartwright."
"I see you've already met Tinkerbell." Annie stared at him, confused. "Oh, we've got a simple one here. He's Tinkerbell Tyler. Because he's a girl."
"Ignore him; he's got his insides muddled up. Crap always seems to come out of his mouth." Sam pushed open the door to the department. "Right, team. We've got a new DC joining us today. This is Annie Cartwright."
Annie smiled from where she stood behind Sam, not sure what to say. It was Hunt who broke the silence.
"Oh, get out the way. Some of us have jobs to do." He pushed past, striding across to his desk.
Kate spun round on her chair and stood up, tossing her dyed black hair out of her face with a nod of the head. "Kate Green. Welcome to the team." She held out her hand, which Annie shook.
Sam smiled. "Kate, can you fill Annie in on the Chatsworth case please? Oh, and if Tucker turns up, tell him to stay the hell out of my way if he wants to leave here with his teeth intact."
Kate raised an eyebrow, but agreed. She turned to Annie after Sam had walked off to his office. "He's taking it better than I thought he would."
"He threatened to punch Tucker's face out."
"As opposed to having already done it. Sam – DCI Tyler's got a bit of a temper."
"Yeah, I saw that y- on the stairs. He nearly had a go at DI Hunt." Annie corrected herself quickly. She didn't want to admit to living with Sam, at least not yet. It was only a temporary arrangement, anyway. She wanted to seem normal; to fit in as best as she could in this strange world.
"He and Hunt hate each other's guts. Any chance to snipe at one another they'll take it. You'll soon learn this."
"Why?" Annie sat down next to Kate and looked over her shoulder at the computer screen.
"Hunt wants the DCI job so badly. His old man was DCI, and he's desperate for it. He felt he was robbed when Sam got promoted."
"Who do you think should have got it?"
"Sam, no doubt. I don't like Hunt, he's a sexist pig."
"Just like his dad."
"What was that?" Kate tapped on the keyboard as she spoke.
"Oh, nothing. Just thinking aloud, that's all."
"Right, well, Sam wants me to fill you in on the Chatsworth case. This here's Billy Chatsworth, 53 and on the run. He's suspected of raping and murdering three young women. We all know he did it; the evidence is conclusive. We just need to find him."
Kate brought up the photograph of Chatsworth. Annie stared at it, momentarily. 33 years may have passed but he was still the same man that she had chased after back in 1973. She was more certain about that than the reason why she had travelled in time.
"Do you have any idea where he is?"
Kate laughed. "If we knew that, we wouldn't be sitting here now. If you were a mass murderer, where would you hide out?"
Annie paused to think for a minute. "The warehouse down on Dolby Lane."
"There's no warehouse on Dolby Lane. They converted that into flats back in the 90s."
"Oh, yeah. They did." Annie had a feeling this was going to be a lot more difficult than she'd thought. Then she had a brainwave.
"Can we go down to the canal, where the Holvert Road bridge goes over it? I've had an idea."
Kate tapped at the keyboard and brought up an aerial map of Manchester. She zoomed in on the canal. "Holvert Road bridge. Talk me through the plan."
Annie leant in closer to the screen. "There." She tapped in the middle of a field. "There's an Anderson shelter in the field."
"No there's not."
"There is," Annie insisted. "Lizzie and I used to go and play in it as kids. Tommy Coleman found it. Nobody knows it's there except us. There used to be a farmhouse there and it was bombed in the war. The Anderson was right underground, and the entrance got blocked by dirt. Tommy only found it because his dog started digging. Chatsworth used to live near Tommy. He probably followed him there once." As she stopped speaking, Annie realised how involved in her past she was becoming. No, this wasn't good. She couldn't give too much away.
"I'll speak to Sam, see if we can take a car down there. I don't think he'll be happy though." Kate stood up and walked over to Sam's office. Annie watched as she knocked on the door, entered and then the two emerged moments later.
"What's this about you knowing where Chatsworth may be hiding?"
Annie quickly explained it to Sam, who nodded.
"Right, you two armour up. I'll get a car and we'll go down there."
Kate stared incredulously at Annie as the two women headed down to the armour room. "How did you get him to agree so easily? I usually have to twist his arm to get him to agree to things like that."
Annie shrugged. "Maybe he just wants to avoid Tucker, and by getting out of the department he's making it easier to do so."
"True. You're a right proper detective, you are. Where are you from again?"
"Other side of town." Annie elected to be vague. She couldn't remember her supposed back story, and 1973 wasn't going to be an acceptable answer. Taking a stab proof vest from the rack, she pulled it on between her jumper and red vest top. It felt uncomfortable and awkward, but she knew better than to argue.
"I see." Kate grabbed a third vest, supposedly for Sam, and began to walk in the opposite direction to which they came.
"Where are we going?"
"Car park." Kate jumped down the stairs two at a time. "God, I'm excited. If Chatsworth really is there, it's going to be two fingers up at Hunt on this one."
"You really hate him, don't you?"
Kate scoffed. "The first day I joined, Hunt thought I was a kid. Sure, I look like I should still be in school but I'm actually 23. He said something about playing hopscotch in the playground. He treats me like a kid; all of us girls actually. He tried to hit on Maya as well. That's why she hates him, and Sam hates him in part because of that, too. He and Maya were going out at the time."
"He sounds horrible."
"He is. You're either on Sam's side or Hunt's side in this department. If you've got any sense you'll stick with DCI Tyler." She pushed open the door to the car park and was hit with a sudden gust of wind. "Hell, it's cold out here."
Annie shivered as she walked over to a police van where Sam was already in the driver's seat.
"Took you long enough."
Kate stuck her tongue out at him as the two women climbed into the front. There were two passenger seats, which surprised Annie, but she kept quiet.
Sam turned on the radio as they drove across Manchester. Kate almost immediately feigned yawning.
"This music's sending me to sleep. Can we put my iPod on?"
"If you must." There was an underlying approval in Sam's sarcastic comment, though, and Kate smiled as she plugged it in. "What sort of stuff do you like, Annie?"
"Whatever." Annie didn't even know any modern music. Thankfully, when the opening chords of David Bowie's Changes broke out, she didn't have to worry. She was shocked he was still popular even now, but there was no way of asking about it in front of Kate.
"What's this?" Sam asked, braking at a set of traffic lights. "Kathryn Green, willingly listening to Bowie? It seems I've had more of an influence on your music taste than I thought."
Kate pulled a face. "I was chatting to Lee the other night and he said something about you two queueing to see Bowie when you were younger. I stole a few songs from his computer."
Sam laughed, recalling the memory fondly. "We couldn't get gig tickets so we waited outside for hours just to get a glimpse of him. We skipped school and everything, my mum went spare but I was too happy to care. I'd seen my hero, and that was all that mattered."
Annie looked out of the window, taking in the streets and sites of Manchester. Sam had seen his hero, but where was hers? Maybe the Chatsworth case was the key to her getting home. Maybe she didn't need a hero; maybe she was her own saviour. Either way, the finding in the field was going to make or break her day.