"Dan."
Dan turned at the sound of the voice. He had known Gene would be there, in the shadows. Placing Shaz's body gently on the ground, he stood up to face his superior officer, his hands covered in the young woman's blood.
"Why Gene?"
"Never mind that Danny Boy…I think it's time I took you to The Pub."
Instinctively, Dan knew what Gene was referring to. Only one man would enter that pub, and no man would come out once he was inside.
Falling into step with Gene, Dan allowed himself to be led around the corner around which, he knew, The Railway Arms had not been before.
This was it.
Gene stopped several paces away from the strangely ethereal building before them, it's silvery light the only thing to illuminate the otherwise dingy alleyway. A single lamp post stood alight, almost
perpendicular to the door, it was under this which Gene and Dan had come to a halt, the almost eerie light forming a halo around the two men, as a spotlight upon their goodbye. Gene turned to his friend, and Dan noticed the change in his face, the hidden vulnerability behind those blue-grey eyes now more apparent than ever before.
"Here Dan."
"What?"
"You're here."
"Yeah."
"Go on then."
"What? In there?"
"Where else?"
"looks a bit shit to be honest."
"Do you know what this place is?"
"Don't take a genius, Guv." There was a pause for a moment as Dan studied the drawn, aged face of the man before him, looking, first at the sign reading 'The Railway Arms' -as it swung silently on its chain without a whisper of breeze-and then shifting his gaze to the heavy wooden door, the frosted windows betraying nothing but the occasional glimpse of a shadowy figure within. In contrast to the chills now creeping up Dan's spine, Gene, for the first time since Dan had known him, looked inspired, almost wistful. It was a while before Gene spoke again.
"Bet you've got some mates in there, Danny Boy."
"Nothing on you."
"Aye."
Silence fell again as the two men directed their gaze back to the pub. One of the figures moved towards the door, closer than any other had come before, the figure of a man became clearer and clearer as he drew nearer.
"Here we go," muttered Gene as the figure reached out a blurry hand and the door swung open, light flooding the dark pavement. He stepped out onto the concrete and stood beneath the swaying sign before smiling and raising his arms, palms flat in a gesture of welcome.
"Nelson." Acknowledged Gene, nodding as the ghost of a smile played around his lips.
"Mr Hunt, Mon Brave. I see you got another one for me?"
"Another?" Dan croaked, his mind racing. Of course he had worked out what this place was long ago, almost as soon as he had walked into the office and found his stapler missing. He whipped around to face Gene as the final piece of the puzzle dropped into place. "Alex Drake? She's in there, isn't she? That's what you do, you drop them off!"
"You'll make a detective yet, Danny boy." muttered Hunt, not shifting his gaze from the man standing outside the pub.
"I'll leave you two to talk it out then." smiled Nelson, "See you about." He retreated back into the building, snatches of sound, music and excited chatter leaking from within.
A companionable silence fell between the two friends, for a moment not DI and DCI, but as equals in the equating light shed from the almost 'other worldly' lamp post. As if on cue, both men turned to face one another.
"Dan. This may come as a shock…"
"I'm dead, I know." shrugged Dan, casually.
"You know-?"
"Oh come on Gene." grinned Dan, before continuing in a voice of mock confusion. "Who's side do I pick, Gene or Keats? Him with his Temptations of Christ! I'm not thick, you know! And I'd like to meet the man who can survive with an inch long bit of metal lodged in his cerebellum."
"Cere- what?"
"Bit of yer brain."
"Right…" Gene fell silent and continued to contemplate Dan who, with a small smile, jerked his head towards the glowing grey bricked building as he spoke.
"You going in then?"
"No. That's your job."
"What would they want me in there for?"
"You know now, you're ready to move on," grunted Gene, as if stating the obvious.
"Know now?" repeated Dan, "I've known for months Gene, years really. I'm not going anywhere."
"Don't be a dick. Get your arse in there now , and that's an order Hartley!"
"Oh come on. Guv, you know as well as I do that we're past the order stage now." At this, Gene let out a low guttural noise somewhere between a laugh and a growl. "Why me anyway? If you ask me, you look like you could do with retirement. You've said yourself you could drink me under the table and still stay sober enough to order a curry on the way home. 'S more your scene that." Dan tried to catch Gene's eye, who avoided Dan's, instead looking down at his own snakeskin boots, and it was these he addressed as he answered Dan, a note of sadness creeping into his words.
"You say you worked it all out. Yer not as clever as you reckon, Danny Boy. I stay here. That's the way it is. I'm different from what they were, and I'm different from you. I've got to carry on, see. Now stop being an awkward old sod and get in there. Get one in for me while you're at it."
"Don't try that one with me. Bet that's what you said to the rest of 'em isn't it? They'd never have left you if they thought you weren't following. And me and you Gene…different? My arse we're different!" He let out a derisive snort before adding: "Tell me, how did you die?"
Gene looked up, and for a moment he was, once again, the young man, skin smooth and unlined. The vision was fleeting however, and once again stood the older man, although, in his eyes, the child remained.
"I died being a dick. Thought I was the big man. Went waltzing into trouble. Kicked a door down, thought I'd stop a burglary, be the big 'ero. Then, bang, bullet to the face."
"That sounds familiar."
"Oh yeah?"
"Went against orders, followed my gut, always led me right. Shame I became the latest in a long line of murders. We were both reckless, but we both got what we wished for. We're the Big Men, untouchable, feared and revered. It was good for a while, wasn't it? Then you met the girl… Feels shit now, doesn't it? More like a curse than a wish? That's how I know you're ready to go."
Gene opened his mouth as if to respond, but was silenced by the look in Dan's eyes as he continued:
"I know more than the rest of 'em. Like what you did to Woodall, when he died. That was more than just holding him, wasn't it, putting your hands on his face like that? You sent him here, didn't you?"
Gene nodded, shocked. "You can go now. It's all yours. God knows you've worked hard enough for it."
"But I've got to stay." replied Gene, simply, his voice braking.
"Cheer up, you poof." Said Dan, raising a reluctant smile to Gene's face. "What's the difference between you here or me here? Nothing. We're the same, you and me, now that we've both changed, coming into line with one another. I had everything you needed, and you had everything I needed. I can do it. I really can."
A part of Gene's old self came back to him as he gave the snappy retort:
"Don't talk bollocks Danny Boy. I've always been the very figure of perfection."
"Even so, I'm bored of you now. Bugger off, go and get bladdered."
"No, I can't just dump it on you. It's no walk in the park, you know. It hurts you know, when-"
"Shut up Gene"
"…Are you sure?""More than sure."
Gene fell silent, studying his boots once more. He returned his gaze to Dan as he spoke, a new strength within him, inspired by the glimmer of hope, the life-ring Dan had thrown.
"I'm sure that your long owed a promotion. Call me a bit forward but I've put a good word in for you with my superiors, that you were more than qualified for my job should I suddenly disappear. So as of now you can consider yourself a DCI I'd bet."
For a minute or so neither spoke. The silence fell like a dense fog around them. Wordlessly Dan stepped from the ring of light, allowing it to fall fully upon Gene, illuminating his features, softening them, genuinely, this time, reawakening a spark of youth. Gene seemed to glow as he stood, alone in the light, with nothing but serenely drifting flecks of dust for company. Dan sensed something change in the man to whom he had become so close in the last couple of years, a new sense seeming to appear there.
As Gene turned his face to Dan once more, the shadows once again engulfed him.
"Look after it for me…" Gene paused for a moment before adding: "…Guv"
"What else would I do?" smiled Dan.
And with that, Gene stepped one tentative foot from the light. Gaining confidence, he crossed to the doorway, almost braking into a run as he did so. The street lamp flickered, guttered and died. Gene paused for a moment, one hand upon the door handle before turning, once again to face Dan, whose face was hard to distinguish from shadows as Gene squinted in the dazzling light emanating from the frosted windows.
"Thank you."
Gene opened the door as Dan watched him cross the threshold, no sound issued into the night from the open door, but as the tails of Hunt's coat followed him through the entrance, the heavy door slammed, echoing unrealistically, the sound almost tinny, reverberating off the terraced houses, before fading away with a sound like static. Dan watched through the frosted windows as the heavy set figure slouched into the room behind the door. He watched as a crowd of shadows surged forwards, welcoming him. Dan watched as the imprint of a woman detached itself from the throng and pulled the figure of Gene into a tight embrace. Dan's spirit soared as the scene faded away.
"The things that began to happen to them were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."
-The Last Battle, CS Lewis
Dan had not noticed the sun begin to rise as he stood alone on the potholed concrete, although felt its warmth on the back of his head and neck. He turned to the dawn as it bathed the alleyway in it's milky glow. Dan closed his eyes and luxuriated in its embrace, feeling his hair flutter as the breeze began. The night had seemed oddly airless, almost stiflingly so, but in contrast to that stillness, the London alley now seemed to burst with light, and energy, and life, and movement.
He chanced a glance back towards the place where one journey ended and another began, but found that it had vanished. Only the lamp post remained. Dan smiled and turned away again.
The sun had set upon Gene's time and had risen upon his. He breathed in the sweet smell of sunrise and felt himself, almost mechanically moving to greet it. It was his now, all of it. His to keep clean, his to protect. He was to guide them all, guide them here. He was the Big Man now. He was unbreakable.