Chapter Twenty-Four;
Never A Way Out

As soon as the door closed on them, Millie spoke. "I'm sorry Max, this is my fault. I dropped my guard."

"It's not your fault." He took a turn of the room three times and tested the door a good five or six times before giving up. It was well and truly locked. "You told me it was a trap, you did your best." He glanced back at her. She sat on a small camp bed, her elbows pressed into her knees, her chin in her hands. It was the only furniture in the small, dark room. "So now we wait."

"For what? The cavalry? No one knows we're here."

Max sat down next to her. "PC Copeland does. She's been helping me."

"She has?" Millie glanced up at him. "You accepted help?"

"You sound surprised."

"I am surprised. I had to save your life before you'd let me help." She gave half a smile. "You're getting soft in your old age Max."

"We'll just say I'm keeping bad company." He smiled back at her and put an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him.

"What are we going to do? They're clearly waiting for Jankowski but, then what?"

"Ideally they're waiting for Jankowski." Millie glanced up at him with a frown. "But I know Marek and this doesn't seem his style." He shook his head. "I know what you're going to say but really, this is all too novice, Jankowski's a professional at this stuff. He's not the goon and white van type. He's cunning."

"I think you're giving him too much credit."

"Never underestimate your enemy, rule number one, never assume they're lesser than you." He looked down at her and noticed her frown had stayed. "What?"

"You always underestimate me."

Max actually smiled at that. "Two reasons for that… one: you're not the enemy. And two, if you'd stop clearing that very high bar I set, you might be okay." She smiled back. "Now genius, surprise me again by helping me work out a way to get out of here."

…

"PC Copeland?" Her shoulder shook. "Jennifer?" Jennifer flicked her eyes open and blinked into the sunlight. Two figures stood over her and, her vision out of focus, she automatically panicked, but then one of them spoke. "Are you okay Constable?"

Jennifer blinked a few more times before the vision returned and she saw PC Valentine and Inspector Smith standing above her. Roger offered her a hand and she took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet. "Uh, I think so." She rubbed her eyes as the memory started to slowly return. "The white van, I remember the white van, it was…"

Roger glanced over at Smithy and he nodded. "Max is gone, his car is the next street over, and we found you in the bushes outside his house unconscious. It's not hard to guess you decided not to listen to me and opted to go after Millie yourselves?"

PC Copeland gave a weak smile. "DI Carter is very persuasive."

Smithy shook his head a bit. "It was going to happen eventually, at least now we have a lead to go on." Smithy gave the impression of taking the whole thing in his stride but it was all an act. His hand shook a little as he flipped open his notebook. "What happened?"

"Max sent me to distract the henchman posted over here at the back gate," she motioned to the gate nearby. It sat swinging open now, the house empty, cleared of whoever had taken Millie. "Wanted to face Jankowski himself."

"Typical Max." Smithy looked up at PC Copeland. "You know it was Jankowski?"

"Well, no, he just assumed it was. I mean, Jankowski took his son, it's highly likely he took Millie too, right?"

"It's a safe bet. So, what next?"

"I saw the white van stop outside the house. They weren't half obvious about it either so I thought 'they've underestimated us'. I was wrong. As I stood up to get a proper look at it I was hit from behind. The rest is black until just now." She shrugged. "Sorry guv."

"It's fine, I blame Max, and I'll kill him when he gets back from his hero mission for the day."

"No offence guv but this isn't just another 'hero' mission, this is his family, and I can't honestly say I wouldn't do the exact same thing."

Smithy glanced at the PC. "You'd get yourself kidnapped too, just to make a point?"

PC Copeland shook her head. "No, and if I did I'd at least write down the rego fi…" she trailed off then smiled. "I got it. I remember now. When he hit me I remember feeling the pen stab me in the arm." She pushed back her sleeve and there five numbers and letters were written in pen. The seven at the end finished with a spot of dried blood. "It's only partial but," she glanced at it. "Whiskey, Delta, Six, Zero… or that might be Oscar… Seven."

Roger took Smithy's note on the two options and wandered off, his radio to his lips, as PC Copeland rolled down her sleeve. Smithy crossed his arms and frowned at her. "I'm putting you back on desk duties until Max can stop persuading you to let him get away with murder."

She shrugged. "I've had my hero moment for the week guv. I promise I'll be good." She shoved her hands in her pockets. "Plus you know me, love that paperwork." She started off.

"PC Copeland?" She turned back to Inspector Smith with a half smile. "You did alright today."

"We can judge that if DI Carter gets back." Then, with another soft shrug, she walked away.

…

They sat there for almost 40 minutes, just talking about Jankowski, the whole ordeal and the best way out, before Millie yawned. Max rubbed her arm. "You better get some sleep."

"What about you?"

Max hid his yawn. "I'm fine." He made to stand up and give her the camp bed but she put an arm across his chest, motioning that he should stay.

"You need to rest Max, it's been a long day." So Max did as he was told and laid down, one arm under his head as a pillow, and Millie curled into his side. "This is going to sort itself out, it's going to be okay," she paused and her next question told Max she was fishing for words of comfort, no matter how empty. "Right?"

Max stroked her hair as she laid her head on his chest. "It's going to be okay." The words came out instinctively, little emotion to them, but as he felt a small shudder shake Millie's petite frame he could only sigh. He stared at the ceiling above him, hearing and feeling Millie's breathing slow, sleep start to overtake her. He would not sleep tonight though. He'd stay awake in case anything happened; keep her safe, the least he could do. He lowered his eyes, looking through slitted eyelids down at her, unable to see her face. "Whatever happens," his tone softened and his voice lowered. "Whatever happens, I love you Millie, we'll get through this."

He thought she was already asleep, that his little confession could remain unheard, but she replied softly. "I know Max." She reached for his hand and he let her take it, clenching it tightly in hers. "I know." As her last words softened, depression and sleep overwhelming her, Max went back to staring at the ceiling, just listening to his wife's soft breathing, hoping to God he was right. Everything had to be okay. It just had to be.

He didn't know what he'd do next if it weren't.