Chapter Ten;
Roxon
"Take the lead on this one."
Millie turned, her hand on the door to the interview room. "Excuse me?"
"I said, take the lead on this one. You went with her in the car, you spoke to her right?" Millie nodded. "Okay, so take the lead. Hopefully she'll open up to you. You're about the same age."
"How old do you think I am?" Millie asked with a hint of humour in her voice. Max just gave a blank look so she turned the door handle and went in. Inside Eleanor Roxon and her mother Andrea were whispering, the mother glaring at the 19-year-old in a way that simply said 'tell them the truth or else young lady'.
Max flicked on the interview room's tape deck. "Interview with Eleanor Roxon. Present are DS Carter…"
"PC Brown." Millie spoke up, taking a seat and smiling at the girl.
"And Ms. Andrea Roxon." Max scraped back his own chair and sat down, glancing at Millie who took the hint and started.
"Eleanor, can I call you Ellie?" The girl nodded. "Ellie, first up, can you tell us what you told me in the car?"
"The drugs aren't mine." The girl blurted, giving her mother wide eyes. "I found them."
"Okay, so can you tell me where you found them?"
"On the estate, behind a bin. I thought, maybe, it wasn't what I thought it was."
"Ellie," Millie said soothingly. The teen was getting agitated quickly. "Now, you're a smart girl, you're at university right?" She nodded again. "So why would you pick up a bag of drugs if you suspected you knew what they were?" She shrugged. "Come on Ellie, DS Carter and I just want to find out who they belong you because I don't believe they belong to you."
Ellie looked at Max in disbelief and Max tried hard not to look sceptical. He assumed he pulled off the look as Ellie looked back at Millie, but it seemed she wasn't budging. "I don't know who owns them, I found them." She started breathing heavily. "Can we break now? I have asthma and I feel it coming on.
Max agreed reluctantly and stopped the tape. As a uniformed officer he didn't know joined the Roxons, he stepped outside with Millie. "She's putting it on, they must belong to her uncle."
Millie smiled. "I knew you didn't believe they were hers."
"That doesn't stop the fact she's clearly hiding them for someone. Someone that hasn't made a secret of where they are if people are breaking into her home to get them."
"Maybe you should have a go with her sarge, I think she's had enough of softly-softly."
Max shook his head. "No, I go bad-cop on her and she'll fake a full-blown asthma attack and we'll have to cart her down to St Hugh's. You keep on her but we'll change our approach. Ask about the calls to her uncle's phone. Find out why she's been talking to Craig Bolt when she told Will that she hasn't."
Millie nodded. "Got it."
"I'll get the phone records, you get back in there and try and calm her down." He headed back towards the custody sergeant as Millie pushed open the interview room door and found Ellie had calmed down and was now talking to her mother again.
Millie nodded to the uniformed officer, PC Archer, and he left. She then took a seat and smiled at the mother and daughter. Andrea glanced up then spoke. "Look, PC Brown, I've spoken to my daughter and she wants to tell you the truth."
"Okay, shoot."
"The drugs belong to a friend. I can't tell you his name."
Millie smiled. "Okay, that's a start. As soon as DS Carter gets back you can tell the tape that."
Ellie looked scared. "I can't. I won't."
Millie's smile dropped. "Really? Why not?"
"I just can't okay, he'll get into trouble."
Crossing her arms, Millie just frowned. "Eleanor, your uncle is already in trouble." The 19-year-old's eyes widened and Millie knew she'd hit the nail on the head. "And if he's telling you to take the fall for him, he should be ashamed. You have your whole life ahead of you Ellie. What are you doing at university? Nursing isn't it?" She nodded. "With a drugs charge on your head you'll never work in a hospital." Her tone got darker, more menacing, and it was this side of Millie that Max walked back in on. He stopped in the doorway, watching the fear Millie had sparked in Eleanor's face. The girl was entranced by the PCs words, and they worked. "So if you want life to be normal and you want a chance to be somebody more than your uncle, in and out of trouble and constantly being confronted by the police, than I suggest you tell us exactly why there were eight kilos of cocaine in your room." The girl nodded slowly, solemnly.
At this Max made himself known by stepping into the room and restarting the tape. He looked at Millie with a nod, then at Eleanor. "So, Miss Roxon, do you want to tell us who the bags belong to?" He took a seat as the teen began to talk and shot Millie a glance that simply said 'good work'. She just smiled.