A/N With 'thanks' To Feebee for a quite hideous image, incorporated (perhaps should say shoehorned) herein ...
"That's Dad's car," with surprise in her voice, Millie narrowed her eyes at the imposing Mercedes visible through the railings to the left of the house, next to her mother's smaller and much more fun version. "Mum didn't say he was going to be here."
"Not really all that much of a shock though, is it? Your Dad and Georgie being old friends." Max pressed the button to drawn down the electric window of the car.
"No, I guess not," agreed Millie slowly, "although Mum is always better in times of crisis. Dad would rather take Georgie out to play a round of golf. Not that I suppose Georgie is in a golfing mood," she finished quietly.
Before Max's extended fingers reached the keypad, the gates to Georgie's house opened as if their car had a magic pass. In reality, Sondra stood waiting for them on the doorstep with hands clasped, ready to usher in two of the people she treasured most in the world. Her smile, kind, reassuring, did the job for Millie. In her mind, everything was better when her mother was around. For Max, the older woman's smile raised that nagging sense of guilty doubt. He had been using her earlier words as his reason for going after Georgie, she wanted him out of their lives, but seeing her in the role of maternal carer to the near broken man had caused him to wonder if she would thank him after all. Perhaps at the time she had meant every word but now, when the chips were at their very lowest, she would never reject someone who needed her. As he got out of the car and followed Millie up the steps, Max smiled back tightly, quickly looking past her into the hallway beyond.
"Is Dad here?"
"Yes, darling. He felt he couldn't stay away and came in early to beat the traffic."
"Right," Millie took a deep breath. "How has Georgie been this morning?"
"Terrible. He's up and dressed, but that's about it. He won't talk. I thought Richard might be able to shake him out of it, but ... well, you'll see for yourself."
As they entered, Richard's distinctive form became apparent in the light of the kitchen. He sat with his coffee mug in front of him, the newspaper still folded on the table and looking out at his friend slumped in a chair on the patio beyond. While Max and Richard greeted each other with monosyllabic grunts, Millie and Sondra busied themselves with another round of coffee.
"So," began Max, but he didn't know where to take it from there. He could hardly launch straight in with 'what went on with you, Georgie and Nikolai Antonov thirty years ago, because I think somehow Carly's abduction is connected although I have no evidence for that link?' He was tempted, really tempted, but even if he was right, that approach wasn't likely to cement the fragile bond between them, yet if it had been anyone else he would have said it without the slightest regard for the potential fallout.
Fortunately however, Richard took up the conversation, saving Max from himself. "Had to come down here," he stated gruffly. "I'm no good at this sort of thing, but I couldn't not be here. Not after everything ..." he trailed off. Max willed him to continue but was disappointed. "Anyway, I don't like it when Sondra's not at home, she stayed here last night, did you know that?" Max nodded, noting a hint of displeasure. "It doesn't feel right, not having her next to me. Especially doesn't feel right when my other daughter's boyfriend," he almost spat out the last word, "wanders around in my house wearing what he refers to as budgie smugglers. I don't know where to look, in my own house. Can you believe it?"
"Budgie smugglers?" replied Max weakly, "I don't even want to think-"
"Think? If only that was all!" exclaimed Richard, "I've had to watch them ... in a manner of speaking, that is, for the last two days, in my house. I wish it would bloody rain properly, although it still probably wouldn't stop him. Seems to be allergic to proper clothes. Anyway, I left first thing, beat the morning rush. At least I can get a proper cup of coffee here. Sondra's the only one who knows how to use our machine. Instant never seems to hit the spot." Richard was rambling now Max realised, deliberately avoiding the reason they were all in this house. But he detected something else in the older man's tone. Jealousy perhaps, at his wife attending to another man, or maybe he was just plain possessive. Max found that he understood both.
Sondra set a cup down in front of Max with a smile and an affectionate pat lingering on his shoulder as she walked away again, Millie stood at the patio door, thoughtfully watching Georgie in his chair staring out at the garden brightly bathed in morning sunlight, at complete odds with the gloom in his demeanour. The sorrow in her gaze made Max's heart constrict. Lies, deceit, subterfuge, dressing the truth to suit his needs, however it might described, had always come so easily. Until now. He swallowed and brought himself back to the matter in hand, the 'softly softly' approach wasn't working and now he had the windfall of Richard's presence. He corralled his thoughts, it was time for some answers.
"Can you think of any reason why someone would want to abduct Carly, Richard?"
Richard looked at Max sharply, his eyes turning steely at the question. "What do you mean? Why would I know anything?"
"You go back a long way," replied Max blandly. "Maybe Georgie has told you something in the past, something that didn't seem important at the time." Richard remained mute. "Or maybe he's in trouble. Needs money?"
"Tell him, Richard. Tell him. If there's a chance, even the slightest that it has anything to do with Carly, he has to know." Sondra's clipped tone cut through the tension between the two men, her authority obvious.
"But-"
"Tell him."
Max waited, he didn't need to say anything, instead Millie turned back towards the room. "Tell Max what, Dad? I don't understand." Here it was, the point of no return, the possible unveiling of a past of which Millie had no knowledge.
"Georgie asked me for money, a few days ago."
"How much?" prompted Max, even though he knew the answer.
"Five hundred thousand."
"How much?" squawked Millie. "What does he need that for?"
"He's got debts. More specifically a big debt to the wrong people. He needs the money to buy his way out of the mess he's got himself into."
"What sort of mess?" she demanded.
"I don't know the details, but he's been playing a stupid game with a Russian, thought he could outwit him, but Georgie's the one who has been stung and now this guy wants five hundred thousand to back off. Something along the line of loss of potential earnings."
"Back off from what?" Max looked down at his hands, finding it hard to listen to the hurt confusion that had crept into Millie's voice and knowing he would surely see it in her face.
"I don't know and I don't want to know."
"Smuggling? Money laundering?" posed Max. He had to ask. No choice.
"I don't know," reiterated Richard firmly, his jaw clenched.
"Were you going to give it to him?" The pitch of her voice rose, slightly strangled.
"Yes."
"Dad! Mum, did you know about this?" Millie turned to her mother who nodded with the tiniest of movements. "I don't believe this," she muttered, clutching her coffee cup so tightly that Max wondered if it was possible she could crush it.
"But I can't get my hands on that sort of cash immediately. It takes time, a few days at least. Georgie understood that, but maybe ..."
"Maybe what?" asked Max.
"Maybe whoever he owes it to doesn't understand. Maybe Carly ..."
"Is this the first time? That Georgie has asked for money?" Richard shook his head in answer to his daughter's questions, eyes closed. "Have you always given it to him?" He nodded. "Why?"
"Because I owe him."
"What? What for?" Max felt so close, so close to getting an answer. It was in Richard's eyes, on the tip of his tongue. A strange sort of excitement thrilled through Max, he was going to get what he wanted, yet it might hurt the woman he loved most. But she needn't worry, he told himself, he'd be there for her, he'd make it all better.
"What's going on? Have you got any news?" rasped Georgie staggering through the patio doors and his cup clattering noisily on the granite counter top. He clearly hadn't slept, his silver hair was unkempt and his clothes mismatched as if he had grabbed random items from his wardrobe and fallen into them.
"No. But don't you think it's time you started telling me what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" he mumbled at Max.
"You need money to settle a debt."
Georgie looked at Richard with angry alarm. "Sorry," Richard shook his head sadly and looked at Sondra for strength before turning back to his friend, "I had to tell them. If there's any chance that Carly might-"
"There's not! I'm telling you, this is down to some ... some psycho who has been stalking my girl. There's no way-"
"You keep saying that, Georgie. But there's no history of threats against her, no reports made. Nothing."
"What about the guy with the tattoo?"
"What about him?"
"I fired him because he was disrespectful to Carly. He's a nutcase, not right in the head."
"You said you didn't know him."
"I ... I was confused, I didn't make the connection. But it's him, it must be him."
"But we can't find him. He has disappeared as well," Max spoke slowly as if talking to a child. "Now, we know that he works for Kiril Barsukov sometimes," Georgie's eyes widened nervously, "and we know that you spoke to Barsukov yesterday, about Carly."
Georgie spun round to Millie. "You, you're spying on me!" She stiffened but resolutely held his stare.
"Millie is doing her job."
"Yeah, of course. I shouldn't have expected anything else," he muttered contemptuously.
"That's not fair, Georgie," broke in Richard, shocked by the attitude of his oldest friend towards his daughter.
"Millie is doing her job because she wants to find your daughter. I don't think you appreciate how hard this is for her, especially when you appear to be concealing information which could help. Or perhaps," Max paused, "maintaining your business empire is more important."
"Max!" interjected Richard. Millie bit her lip, she knew where Max was going with this. She'd seen him in action plenty of times before to know that it wasn't going to be pretty. She had fought hard to prevent it, but then Georgie had let her down and she had to admit there was no other course of action left open. Still, she hated having to watch him do this, especially in front of her mother and father.
"Just a thought. I mean after all, what other reason could there be that you didn't tell us that you had asked Richard for half a million pounds? Or is there something else going on? Something you don't want the police to know about? That might put you behind bars, again?"
Millie watched helplessly as first fear and then fury spread across Georgie's features, turning as ugly as he had yesterday when she had challenged him. Of course she knew he had spent a brief spell at Her Majesty's Pleasure, but that was years ago, before she was born. It had given a roguish element to his character, but her Uncle Georgie was harmless and she couldn't imagine how he would have got involved in something that needed half a million pounds to get out of. She wanted to stop Max, to tell him that he was being ridiculous and insulting. But she didn't know who or what to believe anymore. What had started out as the disappearance of a childhood adversary was getting murkier by the minute. Disturbing her most was the undercurrent of mistrust and secrecy linking the three men in the room. Three men she thought she knew and understood. Millie lifted a hand to her forehead to ease the tension threatening to develop into a full blown migraine that would knock her out for the day if she wasn't careful.
"That's bang out of order, Max!" The cultivated smooth edge to his voice fell away with his anger, letting through the true cockney of the younger man. "Carly's gone missing and you're trying to dredge up dirt from the past." But if Richard had intended for his anger to deflect Max from his course, he found himself disappointed. Max simply lounged back in his chair, his attention still firmly fixed on Georgie. Millie desperately hoped that Georgie would give Max what he wanted, to bring an end to the distress. But the older man remained mute.
"But maybe the dirt from the past is relevant, Richard. I mean, a Russian back then and a Russian now? Bit of a co-incidence, don't you think? Just what is it with you and the Russians, Georgie?" Enraged colour flooded Georgie's face. Max thought he was fit to explode. "Like the colour of their money, do you? There's obviously plenty of it. I went to Mr Barsukov's boat yesterday-"
"Just you concentrate on finding the bastard that has taken my girl and stay out of the rest of my business," spat Georgie venomously, avoiding the stares of both Richard and Sondra who were watching him with growing concern. His breathing was ragged, his hands shaking. "I need some air." Stumbling backwards, he turned and fled from the kitchen back out into the garden.
"Well done, Max" declared Richard sarcastically. "Not sure what you intended to achieve with all that, but I hope you've got what you wanted."
"That man is hiding something. He's got a good idea why Carly has been abducted but he is too scared of losing all this, to come clean."
"You've got no proof of that, nothing to back it up." But Richard didn't sound so certain of himself now in the face of Max's conviction.
"Not at the moment," Max admitted, "but I've got colleagues working on Barsukov's trail and I'm confident that there is a link between him and Georgie's little spell inside." He couldn't be sure but Richard appeared to blanch a little at this.
"Sounds like finding Carly is a secondary concern to you."
Millie flinched at the accusatory tone in her father's voice. "No," she interjected. "That's not true, is it?"
"Of course not! But our chances of finding her are being severely hampered by her father's lack of co-operation. It seems clear who has taken her but I believe he has only done so on the instruction of someone else. Austin isn't bright enough to have planned this, there's someone else pulling his strings."
"This Russian, Barsukov?"
"Yes. Possibly because he is the one calling in the debt. But until Georgie tells us what is going on, I've got nothing to bring Barsukov in for. Nothing. It's up to Georgie. Either he wants us to find his daughter, or not."
Richard inhaled deeply and tipped his head back on the out breath, closing his eyes. "Let me try," quietly adding, "we've been here before."
As he rose to join Georgie in the garden, Millie furrowed her brows in confusion at her father's words, but was immediately distracted by her mother slumping against the kitchen counter, exhausted.
"Mum, are you okay?"
"Er ... yes, darling. All this," she waved a hand weakly, "has made me remember someone I haven't thought of in years. I wonder what did happen to him."
"Who?" But before Sondra could answer, the intercom from the gate buzzed, instantly getting the attention of the room. Millie peered into the small screen. "It's him," she whispered hoarsely before running from the kitchen to the front door. By the time she had reached the foot of the steps, Max had caught up with her and together they raced towards the gates.
"Come on!" Max pressed the zapper at the gate furiously, knowing even as he did so it would be too late. Time stood still while the gates clanked and began their juddering movement. With only a few inches to squeeze through, Max stumbled out on to the street beyond, just in time to see a motorbike turn left and out of view. "Fuck!" He clenched a fist to his head, cursing himself for not being quicker. "Nothing! Not even a partial plate," he raged in frustration.
"Not quite nothing," replied Millie. Max turned back to her, alerted to the concern in her voice to find her carefully puling another yellow package from the rails of the gates.