Pan Up
Private eye ex-Copper of the Yard checks out No 142005 being bumped off by our friends in the North. With apologies to Raymond Chandler
To be read with the voice of Humphrey Bogart.
I get a tip that one of my own is going to be wearing the Chicago Overcoat today, Manchester way. I gotta be there, even though I’m on a red card for a back defect.
A buddy at the station spots the goofy gait; ‘it happened putting a pair of shorts in the washing machine’ I tell him. ‘Shouldn’t be wearing shorts at your age’ he says.
After that I tell people it was a close call with a .45 Magnum. I’m packing metal for car park change, then damn near miss the rattler downloading a new car park app. If that ain’t enough they bang on a 10p ‘convenience charge’. The rail guys aren’t the only ones on the make these days.
At Sheffield the prattler says ‘don’t struggle on the stairs today, lifts are available…’. But it’s shot up, so I struggle, slower than a ‘769’ up the Rhymney. The rattler to the smoke has a new get-up for EMR, a week ahead of time. Bet their new trains won’t be, and they won’t be leased by my old outfit Porterbrook either, who’ve hit the Rock again.
One TPE and a tram later I meet the newshound Tony Miles at…
