A Tad In Time

The grey-coated Inspector entered the room.

"I know you're in there, Mugsy!" he barked.

Two shots rang out. A bullet ricocheted off the wall. The Inspector slapped a hand to his shoulder. Blood began to seep through his fingers.

"You're not takin' me in!" The voice was husky. Menacing. It came from the shadows.

The Inspector crouched on the floor, wincing against the pain and shock of his unexpected injury. He raised his gun and fired into the blackness.

Mugsy fired back. His shot was luckier. The room filled with the smell of gun smoke.

The Inspector lay dead, on the floor. His gun lay several feet from his hand.

"Hey!" cried the watching boy, "That's not how it finishes!"

Tad stared at the credits as they rose slowly up the screen. Behind the words, clearly, lay the body of the Inspector. The music played out the theme and the program ended. There was nothing more. The tape finished a few minutes after that, then it switched to auto-rewind.

Tad waited a few seconds as the tape hummed, then he stopped it and pressed Play. There was a moment's pause as the machine changed position, then the heads kicked in and the story of the Inspector and Mugsy began to play out again.

"Thought you could escape me, did you?"

The Inspector made his way stealthily round the side of the warehouse. His face was hidden in black shadows cast by a bright full moon. The light white lunar light glinted dully on a short-barreled gun.

Mugsy, hiding inside the building, knocked against a hoist chain. It clanked with a metallic ring against the iron girders.

"I know you're in there, Mugsy!" barked the Inspector.

Two shots rang out. A bullet whistled past the Inspector's ear. He crouched down lower and moved silently through the open door of the warehouse.

Mugsy fired again. The barrel of his gun gave him away. A flame of fire opened its red petal like a rose in the darkness. The Inspector aimed just above the flower.