Chapter Nine;
Eleanor

"Which one is it?" Max asked, getting of the car.

"36." Millie locked the car with a press of a button then pocketed the keys. She glanced up at the stairwell above her and saw number 31 on a door. "This way." She led the way as Max followed. "She probably isn't even here, she's probably at St Hughes with her father." She shot back at Max.

"Maybe."

"Hopefully." Millie seemed to be thinking aloud. "She clearly means a lot to him. I'm sure he'd be very upset if she wasn't with him after a car accident."

"I'm sure." He didn't hide his disinterest as he replied. They passed number 34.

"Well it's those people-skills that get victims to open up to you so well." Millie muttered under her breath.

Max pretended he hadn't heard, just motioning to a dark green door. "36." He stepped past her and to the door. It only took him one knock to get it open. The door had been kicked in. Max pushed it open slowly and stepped inside. "Miss Roxon?" Something banged upstairs and Max turned, pulling out his baton. He glanced back at Millie who'd also pulled out her self-defence weapon and was holding it out at her side. He motioned with one finger to himself, then her, then upstairs and she nodded. Moving towards the stairs he called out again. "Police. Who's up there?" Something crashed, sounding like it was falling down, then a thump like a window sliding down onto something. Max dashed up and Millie wasn't far behind him. The entire top floor was trashed and a mirror on a wall had fallen down and smashed onto the ground. They crunched over the broken glass slowly, Millie making for a room off to the side as Max kept on to the room they'd heard the trouble from. Pushing open the door slowly, Max frowned at the sight ahead of him.

"Millie!"

She joined him quickly, still holding her baton. She frowned too at the sports bag on the floor. "What the hell?" Max stepped into the room and to the bag as Millie went to the window. "There's someone running away down there." She grabbed her radio and read out a description of the figure as Max picked up a plastic bag that had been in the sports bag and analysed it, holding it with his coat.

"Cocaine."

Millie turned around. "You certain?" He nodded. She joined him, removing her jacket and using it to pick up a bag slowly, crouching in front of the sports bag. "There's…" she counted in her head. "There's eight bags here."

"At roughly a kilo each. Eight kilos of cocaine, cut, we're looking at a lot of money."

"You think that guy was after them?" She nodded to the window as she put down the bag slowly and carefully.

"Mhm, we must've disturbed him." He put down the bag and stood up, straightening his coat. "But the real question is, what are they doing here?"

Millie stepped past the bag and back out into the hall. "And if there's any more." She frowned at the name on the bedroom door. Eleanor. "I can't believe she's involved in drugs, she's a uni student, she's struggling to pay for her books."

"Drugs make a lot of money."

Millie glanced at a photo on the bookshelf. "She doesn't look like the type."

Max frowned back at her again. "Not this again…" he sighed. "Look, there isn't a type okay? Your local drug dealer could be anyone, even the sweet little girl with a university degree. Anyway, look at her family."

"Do you often build cases on assumptions of people?" Millie stared him down.

He didn't flinch. "I don't, do you?"

She frowned at him with distaste etched on her face before a voice downstairs broke the stare-off. Someone had entered the house. Millie turned and went downstairs and Max listened as someone spoke. "Who are you?" A shrill voice.

"Ma'am, I'm PC Brown from Sun Hill. Your house has been broken into."

"Well, yes, I can see that." The shrill voice said. "What've they taken?"

"Mum, what's happened?" A new voice.

Max went to the landing and looked down on the three women in the doorway. "Eleanor Roxon?"

The young, blonde girl in the doorway nodded. "Yes."

"Millie." He caught the PCs eye and she nodded.

"Eleanor Roxon, I'm arresting you on suspicion of supplying a Class A drug. You do no…"

"What's going on?" Mrs. Roxon asked.

Max stepped out of sight for a minute then returned holding the sports bag filled with drugs. Eleanor's eyes fell at the sight of it. "You better come with us down to the station Mrs. Roxon." She nodded slowly as Millie led Eleanor from the house.