1983

Chapter 58

Darkness -

Pitch black fucking darkness:

Wednesday 8 June 1983.

Thunder, no lightning -

Never-fucking ending:

Cars across the night, the sirens and the blue lights.

Heart of a darkness, belly of a nightmare -

Fitz-fucking-william:

My darkness, my nightmare.

Two radios on -

Police and fucking local -

Stereo hell:

‘A man is believed to be holding a woman hostage in Fitzwilliam following an incident in which shots were fired at police officers responding to reports of a break-in at an address in Newstead View.

‘Armed officers have been deployed but Mr Ronald Angus, the Chief Constable, issued a statement insisting that the police were anxious to end this incident without injury to anyone. This comes after mounting criticism in recent weeks over revelations that armed police are now deployed on routine patrols in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.’

I cut that crap off with the heel of my fucking boot -

One, two, three -

Crack!

Ellis driving, eyes and foot down on wet streets: ‘Sir?’

Fourth, final kick -

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Plastic flying, radio dead.

Into the handheld, shouting: ‘Alderman? Prentice?’

Static: ‘No, sir.’

‘Where the fuck are they?’

‘Netherton.’

‘That was fucking hours ago.’

‘Sir -’

‘Fuck it,’ I screamed.

‘We have got a description -’

‘Give it!’

‘White male, mid to late twenties; shaved head with a deep indentation -’

‘Indentation?’

‘A hole, sir.’

‘Name?’

‘We’re working on it -’

‘Work fucking harder,’ I yelled, tearing the flex out -

The radio dead in my hand -

The rain and the night all over the windscreen -

Tears and blood all over my cheeks.

‘It’s him, isn’t it?’ whispered Ellis -

I raised my right leg. I put my boot through that fucking windscreen -

Smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!

The rain and the night all over us now -

The tears and the blood, the tears and the blood -

Everywhere.

Parked at the end of the road among the other blue lights -

We waited. We watched.

A sergeant came crouching up the street. He leant in the window. ‘Sir?’

‘What is it, Sergeant?’

‘He’s asking for you, sir,’ he panted. ‘The man inside the house.’

‘By name?’ asked Ellis.

‘Yes.’

‘What’s he say?’

‘Says he needs a friend, sir.’

I opened the door. I got out of the car, my wrists and ankles all bloody.

‘He’ll kill you,’ said Ellis -

I nodded. I walked up the road through the blue lights -

The white floodlights -

The red rain.

I came to the house -

Ellis running up the street. Ellis shouting: ‘Kill you -’

I nodded again. I opened the gate, thinking -

Murder me.

Chapter 59

They take off the handcuffs. They take off the blindfold. They open the back doors.

The van slows.

They throw you out on to the road. They drive away.

You lie in the road. You don’t know if it is dawn or dusk.

It is raining.

You get up off the ground. You stand up.

There is a green Viva parked outside the little white bungalow.

There are no lights on. The curtains aren’t drawn.

You go round the back. You climb over the stone wall into the field. You walk up the tractor path towards the row of sheds at the top of the hill.

It is pissing down now.

You are ankle deep in mud and animal shit.

You slip.

You fall.

You get up.