Carl McQuarrie

Playing With Fire

Payback

The Day Brentwood Stood Still

> Ambitious, sedulous and devious, Carl McQuarrie may not be an honest man, but he manages to do some good. However, he likes to fabricate the truth when writing articles and preys on the weak and vulnerable. Although he is mostly a nice and calm person, he has a nasty streak when he doesn't get what he wants and will bribe whoever until they accept.
>
>

Investigative journalist **Carl McQuarrie** is a fictional character from Locked In The Press. The character was created by Tony John Williams and made his first appearance in Battle With The Law, where he investigates the life of a notorious criminal, who he persuades to hand him into the police in Battle With The Law. He then reunites a woman with her family, after helping her escape from her pimp in The Perfect Escape and encourages the killer of a vicar to give himself up to the police in Playing With Fire. He then causes the imprisonment of a racist manager in Payback and ends up losing his career when publishing a story about his manager's illegitimate son in The Day Brentwood Stood Still. Despite all this, he enters a new relationship with his colleague Jasmine Cheng.

## Storylines

### Backstory

Carl McQuarrie, son of Roy and Margaret, was born in Edinburgh in 1979. He has one older sister called Charlotte and two younger maternal half-brothers called Tim and Alan, from his mothers second marriage. His father walked out on the family, when McQuarrie was five years old and never returned. He left home when he was fifteen to start a career in journalism and later on landed in London, where he met his wife Roberta, at the Riverside wine bar. He and Roberta went on to marry within one year and moved to Brentwood, where they both found employment. His marriage was a success, until Roberta had an affair with Jim Probert, who she met a works party. She discovered herself falling in love with him and out of love with McQuarrie, leading to her separating the marriage.

### Battle With The Press

After his wife leaves him and his life falls apart, McQuarrie investigates the life of a notorious criminal Ryan Reynolds, who he watched shattering the window of a pizza shop, before getting arrested. McQuarrie delves Reynolds's life and discovers the explanation why he vandalised Lorenzo's Pizza Shop. Reynolds reveals his battle with the shop's owner Vivaan Singh, who almost killed him over the relationship with his daughter. Reynolds is persuaded by McQuarrie to hand himself into the police and is eventually imprisonment.

### The Perfect Escape

When driving past Christopher Marlowe's Airport, McQuarrie notices a young woman, whose introduces herself as Sophie Macdonald, being thrown out of the building by a security guard. McQuarrie inspects the case and figures out the reason for the girl wanting to escape the country. However, she ran away on their first meeting, and he was left without knowing her name. He later encounters her being forced into a building by a man, who was later identified as Bill Callahan. McQuarrie reunites Sophie with her family, sends her home, reports Callahan to the police and later fabricates the truth when publishing the story. He then arrives home to find an email from his sister Charlotte, informing him that their father is staying in a care home near him.

### Playing With Fire

The announcement of a murdered vicar circulates through the town and McQuarrie examines the case and comes face to face with the killer Jermaine Carter, who claims he was forced to assassinate Reverend Nickson, as his life was threatened by Danny Browne. McQuarrie interviews several people, some of which never knew Carter was the killer until they discovered it, and encouraged Carter to give himself up to the police. McQuarrie also visited his father in his care home, after not seeing him in over thirty years. He is told by his father to divorce Roberta and to move on with his life. Upon seeing Roberta and Jim in a Quills supermarket, he informs her that he wants a divorce.

### Payback

While shopping at Quayle's Electrical store, McQuarrie witnesses an employee called Amy Khan being given the sack by her manager Steven Quayle. He takes her under his wing and discovers that she has been the victim of racist and sexual assault. McQuarrie assists her in proving Quayle is guilty and getting him sent down. He returns home to find Charlotte there with her family. She tells him that their mother has died.

### The Day Brentwood Stood Still

News spreads around Brentwood about a recent murder taking place during a bank robbery and McQuarrie decides to investigate the crime and meets Cody Simpson, whose one of the robbers. However, without realising he is the illegitimate son of his manager Malcolm Wicks, and despite being warned not to proceed and not getting permission from Wicks, McQuarrie publishes the story on the Brentwood Telegraph website and is fired by Wicks, whose furious about what is written. During the examination, a member of staff at the care home, calls McQuarrie to inform him of his father's death.

## Trivia

The character is based on an existing journalist, who published an article about the author.