Playing With Fire

"**Playing With Fire**" would be the third episode of drama Locked In The Press. It would be the third episode of series 1, and was written by Tony John Williams. In the episode, Carl McQuarrie investigates the murder of Reverend Nickson and meets his killer Jermaine Carter.

## Synopsis

While inside St. Thomas' Church, Reverend Nickson is taken hostage when a group of friends barge in and starts attacking him with abusive language. One of the friends Danny Browne is known to him, as he once reported him to the police, after catching him stealing from a jewellery shop. Browne gives Jermaine Carter a dagger and orders him to stab the reverend, or else he would kill him. The other three friends Stuart Cookson, Eddie Solomon and Robbie Jackson encourage Carter to go through with the killing. Reverend Nickson tried to reason with Browne, and even offered him money, but he was hell-bent on revenge. Moments after the murder took place, Carter drops the dagger next to Reverend Nickson, before he joins his friends and runs out of the building. They are seen fleeing the scene on the CCTV. The crime became the gossip of the town and was heard by Carl McQuarrie, who investigates by requesting to view the footage from the police and finds out who the killer's identity. McQuarrie meets Carter one late night on a footbridge, where Carter states he was forced to do it by Browne. The rest of the gang are later interviewed by McQuarrie at Browne's apartment. When McQuarrie references Nickson's murder, Browne smirks and states it was an act of vengeance, to which Cookson, Solomon and Jackson agreed. McQuarrie explored Carter's life and came up with the conclusion that his circumstances were similar to Ryan Reynolds. His family have disowned him, his girlfriend Erin Harris's father Joel hates him and wants to sabotage their relationship and his colleagues loathes him, as he is always trying to start fights with them. His parents Jack and Kirsty are concerned about him and express this to McQuarrie when he interviewed them. McQuarrie eventually interviews Erin at her parents house, where she was supported by her two siblings Hannah and Connor, who expressed their hatred for Carter, before their father stated his desires for their relationship to be over. McQuarrie later visits his father Roy in a residential home, he has not seen him in over thirty years, since he walked out on the family. His father tells him to give his wife a divorce and to move on with his life. McQuarrie interviews Nickson's widow Alice and their children Sam, Sarah and Molly at their house. They never knew who killed Nickson, until their bulldog stole paperwork out of McQuarrie's satchel. A piece of paperwork revealed Jermaine Carter as the killer. Following the discovery, McQuarrie witnesses Sam Nickson assaulting Carter, which McQuarrie breaks up the fight. Carter, Browne and the other three gang members were sentenced at their trial, which McQuarrie attends. Carter was found guilty by the jury's foreman and was therefore sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. However, the remaining four received less than ten years. McQuarrie amalgamated the events in the newsroom and publishes them online. However, he twists the truth, when claiming that Reverend Nickson was in the middle of service, when Carter and his friends stormed into the church and fatally stabbed him. Subsequently, McQuarrie was forced to remove the article from the website by Kirsty Carter, who threatened to report him to the GDPR, if he refused to remove it. McQuarrie later meets Roberta and her partner Jim at a Quill supermarket, and informs her that he wants a divorce.

## Characters

**In sequential order**

Reverend Nickson

Jermain Carter

Danny Browne

Stuart Cookson

Eddie Solomon

Robbie Jackson

Carl McQuarrie

Florence Webb

Craig Gladwell

Jasmine Cheng

Jack Carter

Kirsty Carter

Erin Harris

Hannah Harris

Connor Harris

Joel Harris

Roy McQuarrie

Alice Nickson

Sam Nickson

Sarah Nickson

Molly Nickson

Roberta McQuarrie

Jim Probert

## Locations

St. Thomas' Church

Stokefield Crescent House

Danny Browne's flat

The Carter house

The Harris house

Residential care home

The Nickson house

Brentwood Crown Court

Quills supermarket