Chapter Eleven:
Little Boy Lost

DCI Neil Manson tapped the picture. "His name is Oscar Joseph Carter. His grandmother Elizabeth reported him missing from her home in Periwinkle Avenue on the Barton Street patch just a little after three this afternoon. Hence, the joint operation." He motioned to a handful of constables, two DCs and a DS from Barton Street who stood at the back of the room. "Our main suspect is this man," Neil turned on the picture of the man who had spent the last week tormenting Max's family. Standing by the door, Max glared at the picture, shooting death wishes at the man with his eyes. Millie, who had returned to her uniform for the operation, sat near the front of the room with a few other PCs she seemed to know but he didn't recognise, excluding PC Valentine who sat next to Millie with concern etched all over his face. She'd spent the entire briefing so far with a blank expression on her face, keeping brave, but Max had noticed the small things others hadn't seen. She was blinking more often than normal and she kept twisting her fingers in and out of knots. But she was handling it a lot better than many would have, even Max who'd spent the entire briefing with his jaw clamped shut, lest the tiniest movement cause him to show any weakness. "His name is Marek Jankowski." Neil continued. "Some of you may know him and his record. He's been in Longmarsh for the last five years serving a prison sentence for drugs and running a protection racket in Canley's Polish community. Oscar's parents were responsible for putting him away in 2009. We feel that may be the reason why Oscar has been targeted." He didn't motion to Max or Millie, most of the relief knew Oscar's parents anyway, and Max watched Roger squeeze Millie's hand as it began to shake. He caught the eye of two of his team, Jo and Will, and they gave him sad looks. He ignored them, looking back at his son's picture. The image had been cropped and enlarged for identification purposes, but Max's eyes were drawn to the hand on Oscar's shoulder. It was his hand. The image had come from one of only a few photos Max had with his son. He wasn't a photogenic person. Never had been. But Millie had managed, one afternoon, to have a photo taken. It had only been in the backyard, a photo for Oscar to take to preschool and talk about for Parents Day, but Oscar loved it. It sat in his room.

Forcing back any emotion, Max spoke up. "I shot his brother, during a CO19 operation. Marek sent Thomas out with his gun, used him as bait so he could get away. Maybe he didn't intend us to kill Thomas, maybe he did. Either way, he's used it ever since to grow support for his cause against the police. Used it as a sob story to get what he wants – cop shot my brother in cold blood." Max took a breath, catching Millie's look. She gave him a soft, sad smile and he continued. "This isn't just about the drugs, this is personal. He was using his nephew Pawel to get what he wanted done. I convinced Pawel's step-mother Julie Nowak to help us, but when she found out I was the one that shot her husband she was hesitant t…" Max trailed off, stuck on the memories of everything that had happened. Shooting Thomas. The look on Julie's face that day when she'd found out. Having a gun pointed at him by Pawel and having to talk himself out of a bad situation. Every mistake he'd made up until now was coming back to haunt him.

"Jankowski killed Ms. Nowak's uncle, shot him dead. Pawel blamed Max and took him hostage, but Max managed to talk him down. That was when Pawel sold out Marek, admitted what had happened. Pawel had been there when Marek had shot Julie's uncle." Max glanced up to find Millie had stood, continuing the story. "Jankowski was supposed to go away for murder, but during the court case the defence managed to tear apart Pawel, discredit him as a witness. The murder case fell apart, not through lack of evidence but simply because Pawel couldn't face court. He went away for drugs and for the accusations of running a protection racket, but without Julie's uncle as the witness for the protection racket accusation, he wasn't charged on that." Millie took a seat, her explanation done.

"Thank you PC Brown." Neil nodded at her and Millie gave a weak smile. "Now you know the story you can hopefully appreciate better the importance of locating Marek and Oscar as soon as possible. Jankowski is unstable and he bares a strong grudge against…" Neil paused and looked at Max. Max just gave a soft nod. "He bares a grudge against DS Carter." Max sighed and glanced up to find Millie watching him with her top teeth biting a shaking bottom lip. Too focused on her look, he didn't notice the group start to split apart, assigned different jobs, until Jo touched his arm.

"Guv?" Max glanced up at her. He gave a small nod. "We'll get him."

Max nodded again. "Yeah, yeah I know." Both Jo and Will gave him a smile as they left the room. He turned back to find Smithy talking to Millie. She was wiping at her cheeks with her knuckles. There didn't seem to be any tears on them, but she was wiping furiously anyway. It seemed she'd run out of tears, but the tear ducts hadn't told her brain yet. He sighed at the sight of her, wondering how she was managing to put on a brave face through the whole thing. She still had yet to stop surprising him. Even five years later he still wasn't sure what she'd do next. It made for interesting moments, wondering if he'd see the airheaded sop she often was or the tough-talking woman he'd fallen for. She now seemed on the verge of both, desperate to stay tough despite the completely normal reaction to cry. Well, it wasn't normal for him. His natural reaction now was to find Jankowski and kill him. He turned his attention to the picture on the whiteboard. All of this, it all just felt like karma had come to get him. He couldn't help feeling this all could've ended so much better if he'd just… he didn't know what he could've done but he didn't doubt this all had a lot to do with the fact he was impetuous, stubborn and thought himself always right. It was a collection of traits that had come back to bite him before and seemed likely to keep doing so for a while.

But he could deal with it biting him. Biting his son however… well that just wouldn't do.

"Tell me it'll be alright." A soft voice broke his thoughts and he looked away from the board to find Millie standing in front of him. She'd taken his hand but he'd been too far away in his thoughts to even notice. He frowned at her request.

"You heard the DCI, we'll find him."

She nodded. "That's what they're saying, but I don't care what they think, I care what you think." His frown softened as the tears glistened in her eyes. It seemed he'd been wrong – there were still tears there. "I just need to hear you say it Max."

He sighed and pulled her into him, stroking her hair. "It'll be alright." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "We'll find him and it'll be alright." The problem was, both of them knew he didn't really believe it.