Life On The Other Side: Carter
CID takes up a campaign to bring down local brothel-king Craig Bolt on rumours of supporting the trade of underage prostitutes. What they uncover is more than they imagined…
In Part 4: Carter, Max and the team work to find the missing PC Millie Brown. When Bolt resurfaces and offers Max an impossible opportunity, will he take it? And who will put their life on the line to keep Millie safe?
Rated M
PC Millie Brown/DS Max Carter/OC – DC Hayleigh Spark
Crime
Chapter One;
Carter
A tense silence hung in the Thursday afternoon air around Sun Hill CID as those inside worked quietly, pointedly ignoring the still camera footage pressed on the pin board behind them, the black-and-white images of Millie Brown walking towards what they all expected to be her kidnapping at the hands of Craig Bolt. The dark-coloured Mazda had been identified as a stolen car, reported stolen two days earlier off the High Street, the CCTV system was working overtime to find it, but it was without luck. Not a single hit had been registered since he was last seen after kidnapping Millie. It had been two hours since Max had extracted the images behind him and since then he'd been working non-stop, running through reports and statements regarding Craig Bolt, the familiar worry in the pit of his stomach getting the better of him, no matter how much he didn't want it to.
"Sarge?"
Max glanced up from his computer at DC Spark sitting on his desk. He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment then waved her away. She took the hint to some extent and stood up, but she didn't leave, just leaning against his desk. He ignored her for a moment. It wasn't easy as the message Millie had left for him seemed to echo in his head. He glanced up at her. "Can I ask you something?"
Hayleigh nodded with only a light frown. "Sure sarge."
"June 2003." The frown deepened quickly. "Constable?"
"You've spoken to Faison?" Max nodded. "Whatever he told you, it's not true, it's just…"
"So you know what he told me? Why he doesn't trust you?" She nodded back. "So give me a reason why I should."
"What happened, I had to, in order to stay undercover." Max glanced away. "My being there made it better. I stopped him hurting anyone."
"You know the rules for undercover – whatever it takes until laws are broken or personal limits are pushed." Max looked back at her. "I know you broke the first one. I like to hope you broke the second too – unless robbery is one of your past times." Hayleigh's head hung. "And Faison?"
"The first detective on scene. He got hold of some footage, recognised Bolt, realised I was the girl with him… then Wilkins shut him down." She shrugged. "The DI told him to stop chasing it but Faison's the kind of guy who does the opposite of what he's told… all the time."
"And now he thinks you're in with Bolt?" Hayleigh nodded. Max looked back at his computer. "I don't blame him."
"Sarge?"
Max didn't look up this time. "I'm going to make this clear Constable; after what I've heard, what PC Brown warned me of before she went AWOL at just the right time – I don't trust you."
"You think I'm responsible for Millie being missing?" The surprise was evident in Hayleigh's voice, as was the disappointment, but Max paid it no heed. "Sarge, I wouldn't."
"You can prove that when we find her DC Spark." He didn't even blink. "Now, if you don't have anything else to say to me, you can go." He glanced up after her as she walked away then, frowning, turned his eyes back to his computer.
…
"Really makes you consider crime doesn't it?" Nate Roberts stood on the deck of Bolt's cruiser 'The Sahara'. From just inside Stevie gave a light laugh. "Is it bad I'm imagining sailing this out to the middle of the Thames, champagne, sunset…"
"Some sort of bikini model you've charmed into coming out with you?" Stevie added with a call.
"You make me sound so creepy when you say it like that." He stuck his hands just inside his jacket. "Obviously she'll come willingly."
"Obviously." Stevie emerged on the deck holding up a jacket. It was a black hoodie. "All we have."
Flicking out an evidence bag, Nate held it open as Stevie put it in. "Where was it?"
"On the floor, half tucked behind a bag of life vests, doesn't look like it's been there long." Nate held it up and Stevie checked it over. "Men's, medium size, and there seems to be hair on it so."
"Positive thoughts worked then?"
Stevie chuckled. "Yes, you have magic powers Nate, magic positive thought powers." She tapped him on the head as she passed him back up off the boat. Nate followed as they started up the main walkway and out of the public docks. Stevie nodded to the gatekeeper, who looked like he didn't give a stuff who they were, and they went back to the car. "Assuming this isn't Bolt's, or Trent's jacket, we might have something." She motioned back to the gatekeeper. "Though, since he's not exactly Charon the ferryman, anyone could have walked in here I think without a worry in the world about getting in trouble for it." She tapped the back with her knuckles. "Get this straight to the labs and tell them to hurry it up." She pulled out her phone, which had been suffering a serious lack of coverage since they'd started onto the docks, as it gave a short buzz. A message came through and she stopped walking. "Bolt was at the hospital. The Guv thinks he's done something to Millie."
Nate frowned. "What?" The worry was written all over his face and he stopped walking too. Nate could recall the Mick and Si Jones fiasco as readily as others before him had and didn't feel he'd ever have to face it again. "How did this happen?"
Stevie shook her head. "I don't know." She started typing in the DI's number as they reached the car. "But he better not do anything to her or it will be the last thing he ever does."