A Gritty, Northern Crime Drama. The first section of the first chapter (mayhap I'll post other sections of other chapters, or the same chapter, a bit later in my life ie. when I write them) - It's called 'Barberous Quartet' (a pun on the common phrase 'barbershop quartet' - I'm sure it'll make sense once you read all of it.) Enjoy.
I’m absolutely fooked, thought Detective Clark, stumbling up the stairs, fag hanging out his mouth, lighter in hand. His metal hand clanked against the banister. It had been three years since he lost his hand in that Wool Mill in Huddersfield, but the pain never went away. He still had no hand.(Obviously).
He was fifty-odd, and no longer at the peak of his physical health. When was I ever at t’peak of my physical health, he reflected, in a manner uncannily echoing the narrator. He tried to clasp the handle (to the door of his office) but his steel claw simply bounced off it. It had been three years since he could clasp a door handle. He sat at the top of the stairs and sobbed, fag hanging out of his mouth (but still in his mouth ie. sticking to his lip, via saliva, for example), lighter now pocketed. He wasn’t going to smoke it just yet. Not yet.
Sitting in the damp receipts and cigarette butts at the top of the steps to his grotty, one bedroom flat in Brotton, Detective Clark thought to himself, Shit t’bed, I’m washed up. Fat. Old and getting older. I never even solved a big case. The biggest case I solved was that psychopathic homeopath in Grangetown. He also thought about his pension, and that it wasn’t very good and how he doesn’t have enough money. The smell of iron (which is symbolic of the smell of blood. Which is gritty.) drifted from the rusting banister into his nasal cavity. It was then that the biggest crime North Yorkshire had seen in years was to fall, almost literally (well, actually literally) into his lap.
Yeah, I left it hanging. You'll find out what happens in the next instalment of 'Barbarous Quartet'. You may also notice I left it open for a 'prequel' (ie. 'how did Detective Clark lose his hand?). But we'll get through this one first. Possibly.
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3 comments:
Before we progress any further, could you change his name from Clark?
In the next installment he may well change his name by deed poll (not to give anything away...)
No, the point is he should have already changed his name by deed poll. He definitely shouldn't have been called Clark, say, when he was twenty-four.
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