Oops! I appear to have created a pantomime villainess or two ...

-oo-

"Thanks, Mum," said Millie, unfastening her seatbelt as Sondra pulled the car to the front of the station.

"That's quite alright, darling. Keys?" Traffic had been appalling, a combination of road works and road closures because of a severe accident meant it had been impossible to get back to Millie's flat without a lengthy detour taking them past the station. Millie had decided that it was for the best to go straight there and let her mother get on and do whatever it was she wanted to do. "I'll pick up a few things for you to go with the lasagne. Some steamed vegetables you can quickly pop in the microwave perhaps. And some fruit, I doubt Max eats enough fruit. And," she leant in closer to whisper even though there was no one else listening, "maybe that chocolate mousse you like so much."

Millie laughed to herself as she reached into her pocket and handed over her set of keys to the flat. "Yeah, anything. Excuse the state of the kitchen though, I didn't get a chance to put everything away this morning. Max was rushing me out the door." Sondra squeezed her daughter's hand, they both wanted to tell the other that everything would be okay, but the latest delivery had blown that possibility right out of the water, at least for Georgie and by association that meant for the rest of them as well. Life was never going to be quite the same again. "I'll call you later and let you know how we're getting on."

Millie entered the station and made her way through the front office, nodding a hello to a PCSO she didn't recognise, but who clearly knew who she was by the widening of his eyes. She flashed her warrant card to be on the safe side and punched in the code for the door to take her into the hinterland of the station. Passing by familiar and not so familiar faces she headed for the coffee machine. Not a patch on the coffee dispensed at the Fleischmann home but somehow she thought she preferred it.

"Back so soon PC Brown?" a voice asked, the accent unmistakeable.

"Oh!" she jumped. "Er, hello Sarge," she turned to see Tommy accompanied by a murderous looking but immaculately dressed woman. Shaking coffee from her fingers she smiled at the woman, who managed only to twitch her lips in a weak effort at smiling back.

"Do you know DS Sim?

"No, are you with SOCA? Max, um I mean DI Carter mentioned that a team from SOCA was helping with the investigation into Carly's disappearance."

Suzie looked at her, slightly puzzled but decided not to make too much out of Millie's apparent ignorance. "Er, yes. I'm here with my boss."

"Oh right. Must admit, I was surprised that SOCA is interested. I mean, it's an abduction, rather than some sort of organised crime, or at least that's how it started. I guess it got a bit more complicated this morning."

"It was always complicated PC Brown and anything involving Georgie Fleischmann interests us."

"I think what DS Sim means, Millie," interrupted Tommy before Suzie could land his boss in it any further, "is that Fleischmann has been on the radar for SOCA for a while because some of his associates are well known to the agency. Isn't that right?" Suzie looked up at him, his glare telling her to agree and keep quiet.

"Hmm," but her acquiescence was unconvincing.

Millie frowned. "I suppose you mean Kiril Barsukov?"

"Amongst others," muttered Suzie, looking past Millie and along the corridor. It was a waste of her time talking to this woman, even if she was DI Carter's girlfriend.

Millie glanced up at Tommy. His expression of nervous concern was one she'd never seen on him before. Something was definitely not right. "So," persisted Millie with forced brightness, "I hope you're settled in and the rest of CID are looking after you. The first few days in a new station are always strange, I suppose, getting to know where everything is, not knowing anyone-"

"I know where everything is," butted in Suzie impatiently. Tommy squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced, there was no stopping the train wreck now. "I used to work here. And so did DCI Manson. I would have thought you knew that."

"DCI ... Manson? Oh, I didn't realise ... and you were here as well." Millie blinked and found herself looking up Tommy who was trying hard to dodge her gaze. "Nobody told me."

"Well, perhaps you didn't need to know," was Suzie's blunt response. "Tommy, I've got too much to do to stand here chatting. I'll see you back in CID."

Millie watched the woman stalk past her, shock playing over her smooth features. "Why didn't Max tell me that DCI Manson is here? I mean, why wouldn't he tell me?"

"Look, Millie, I don't know. It's been mad busy here, maybe he hasn't had time or it didn't seem important."

"Yes, maybe." She tried to smile. Tommy was clearly feeling awkward in the wake of Suzie's tactless revelation and Millie's obvious dismay at being kept out of the loop. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "It's okay, I expect Max just," she shrugged, "forgot, or something like that. It's not important."

"No, you're right," Tommy eagerly concurred. "Anyway, does Max know you were coming in here? It's just he's out at the moment, checking some leads with Mickey."

"No, I didn't tell him. I couldn't stand being at Georgie's house anymore not doing anything. I need to do something. I've known her all my life, even if ..." Her warm brown eyes were filled with sadness and right then Tommy knew exactly what it was that Max saw in her. The depth of human compassion he saw in those eyes was remarkable, capable of heating even the coldest of hearts.

"Why don't you come upstairs. We've got something like eighty possible places where Carly could be being held to go through. Max wants them narrowed down into the most likely so that we can put them under surveillance or at least start to track down David Austin. There's plenty for you to get stuck into, I'm sure Grace will be grateful for the help to keep Max off her back," he finished with a gentle laugh. "In the meantime, I've got my hands full trying to keep that one," he gestured towards Suzie's retreating form as she disappeared around the corner, "on a leash. Not sure I'm doing a very good job at the moment," he finished with a wry grimace.

Millie accompanied Tommy into CID, listening intently to the instructions he gave her but she couldn't help noticing that Suzie looked up only for the briefest second before turning back to the screen of her laptop. Close by was Grace, similarly occupied but even less interested in the new arrival.

"Grace!" Tommy clapped his hands together to get her attention. "Millie has offered herself as another pair of hands on this. Give her a half dozen or so addresses from your list to go through, will you?"

"I don't-"

"Just do it Grace," ordered Tommy with a brightness that fooled no one. Suzie smiled into her screen while Grace's features set hard as she irritably shuffled papers on her desk and scribbled a few notes. "Millie, take Mickey's desk for now." Millie sat down and afraid of what she might find, gingerly picked her way through the debris in front of her, eventually finding the desk beneath. "Yeah, sorry about the state of it. Mickey, I'm afraid is a total slut when it comes to tidiness. It's beyond me how he can work like that." Tommy reached across and pulled open a filing drawer half full of random files, paper and chocolate wrappers. "Here, let' shove it all in there, he'll never notice any difference." Millie chewed her bottom lip nervously, wondering why Tommy was so keen to look after her but together they cleared away Mickey's detritus, slamming the drawer shut with a quiet conspiratorial laugh.

Grace had finished compiling her list as the two completed their task. Everything seemed to jar with her today. She felt like a complete outsider, only Neil appeared to show her any kind of kindness and even that was fleeting as he flitted between CID and the Superintendant's office with much time on his mobile in between. She hadn't imagined the arrival of Millie Brown could make her feel any worse. After all, Millie was nice enough, quiet and diligent. But from the way Tommy fussed around her, her status was clear. Tommy was definitely Carter's man and that meant that Millie took priority in the pecking order. She hated this, hated the resentment building within, hated the bitterness she was feeling. It was a world away from how she wanted to be and it was all his fault. "Sarge," she bit out, "the list." She brandished the paper, for a moment guiltily taken aback at Millie's startled expression.

"Thank you, Grace," Tommy's tone was grateful but his eyes were narrowed in warning, clearly telling her to button it.

Millie took the paper from his hand and scanned the addresses quickly before setting to work cross-checking and referencing each as Tommy had explained she should do. She had hoped it would help, taking her mind off the questions buzzing in her head. Why didn't he tell me? Was he deliberately keeping me away from Sun Hill so I wouldn't find out? If so, why? What possible reason could he have? Why was it so important to him? She tried desperately hard to stop thinking, but it was impossible. Unconsciously her thumb repeatedly clicked the pen she held, each click punctuating the thoughts battering the inside of her skull.

"Will you stop that? It's driving me mad!" Grace's exclamation smashed into the silence like a sledgehammer.

"Oh! I'm sorry Grace. I didn't realise what I was doing."

"It doesn't matter," muttered Grace, her words at odds with her obvious irritation. "I need to get some air anyway. I'll be back in ten minutes." Millie glanced across at Tommy who returned her hurt look with raised eyebrows.

"Hmm, it was annoying me too," piped up Suzie casually, intentionally making Millie feel even smaller as Grace stalked from the room. Deliberately, Millie set down the pen, frowning at her ignorance of workplace etiquette.

"It's not your fault, Millie. Grace isn't in a good place right now."

Millie tried to smile, but even she realised that it was more of a crooked grimace. "And I suppose I'm not really helping by being here."

Tommy shrugged. "We're all grown-ups. If she's got a problem with the DI, it's for her to work out, not to take it out on you, or the rest of us for that matter."

"She's got a serious problem," murmured the voice behind the adjacent laptop screen.

Welcoming the opportunity to break away from the uncomfortable topic of conversation, Tommy rounded on Suzie. "Well now, isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black, as my old Nana used to say."

"Is that back in the old country?" retorted Suzie matching his sarcasm with her own stinging derision.

Millie's eyes flitted between the two, and muttering something about also needing some air, she quietly left them to their argument.

As the door swung closed behind her, Tommy instantly turned serious as he hit redial on his phone and waited while for the voicemail to kick in. "Hey Guv, it's Tommy. Thought you'd better know that Millie arrived in the station about twenty minutes ago. She knows about Suzie and the DCI. Sorry, I've tried to keep her occupied but you might want to get back here as soon as you can. She doesn't look too happy."

-oo-

"I swear, Jo, I don't know how much more of this I can take. Every time he talks to me it's laced with some jibe or insult. The man is bullying me out of here."

"Alright, calm down." The station was quiet with most officers out on patrol, which meant that Grace's unusually strident tone echoed down the corridor. "Get yourself in here before someone wonders if you've lost it completely. Is it really that bad?"

Grace took up the invitation into the Sergeants' office and slumped down into a chair opposite her friend. "You're not up in CID when he's at his worst. Honestly, what he said to me about passing on messages, it was as if he was saying I wasn't fit for anything else. He's even got me beginning to wonder-"

"Now hold it right there! I won't have you talking like that. You are one of the best of that lot, certainly the most efficient."

"Well, it doesn't count for much does it? Not with DI Carter anyway, and he's got Meadows in his pocket these days so that I've got no chance of rescue there either. And now, I've got his girlfriend sitting opposite me!"

"Millie? Is she here?"

"Yes. She's just come in unannounced with DS Leighton who has foisted her on to me, 'to help'."

"Millie's alright. God knows what she sees in him but there's no accounting for taste."

"She's a fool!"

Jo blinked at Grace's sudden vehemence towards a woman she barely knew. "Bit harsh."

Grace sighed loudly and ran a hand through her hair. "Well, she is if she thinks he's so devoted to her."

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday morning at Carly Fleischmann's salon, he was ... 'talking' to one of her staff. She was all over him and he wasn't just letting her, he was actually encouraging her and loving every minute from the look on his face. She was almost sitting on him and he didn't even try to back away. Perhaps he likes the cheap tart look or maybe he just isn't fussy. You know, if I hadn't walked back in ... ugh," Grace shuddered, "he makes me sick." Seeing how Jo appeared unconvinced by her description of her boss's lecherous behaviour, Grace went on. "And, on Barsukov's boat there was a girl, couldn't have been any more than nineteen or twenty ..."

"Grace, don't you think you're overreacting just a bit?"

"No! You haven't had to deal with this and now I'm expected to have to work alongside his girlfriend and not say anything?"

"But he hasn't done anything, not that you know of anyway. Grace, don't you think you're losing perspective? Sure, Max Carter is well, Max Carter. Unreasonable, unpleasant and insensitive. But unfaithful? I don't buy it. I've seen him when Millie is around, closest thing to Jekyll and Hyde if you ask me."

Grace felt herself deflating. Maybe she was developing tunnel vision where her boss was concerned. "But that's not all," she challenged for a last rally, "accordingly to DS Sim, Carter hadn't told Millie that she and Neil Manson were here. I don't know why he didn't but it was bloody clear when Millie came into CID. Oh she tried to put a brave face on it, but it was pretty obvious. And there something else, when we were on Barsukov's boat he mentioned another name. Nikolai Antonov. He wouldn't tell me anything but Neil-"

"Neil?" asked Jo with raised eyebrows.

"DCI Manson," Grace corrected herself awkwardly, "said this 'Antonov' was involved when Fleischmann was sent down thirty years ago."

"Any connection to Carly's abduction?"

"No one seems to know, or more likely, no one is letting on. Manson was really cagey about it."

"You know what I think?"

"Go on."

"I think you are beginning to sound just a little bit irrational-"

"You mean paranoid?" accused Grace.

"Maybe," agreed Jo kindly. "You've been talking recently about possibly moving on, perhaps it's time. Not that I want to see you go, but better that than get stuck in a role you're not happy in and completely lose faith in yourself. Trust me on that one," she added grimly pulling at her uniform. "At this rate, I might not be far behind you."

"That bad?" asked Grace, suddenly a little sheepish at her ignorance of her friend's woes.

"That bad. Anyway, enough of this, let's get some coffee flavoured water and cheer ourselves up. It could be worse, at least neither of us have to go home to Max Carter every evening!"

"Yeah," laughed Grace quietly, "even an empty flat is preferable to that."

"And," continued Jo, "I'm dying to hear all about what's going on with you and Neil Manson. Stevie-"

"Stevie the gossip-fiend?"

"The very same!" laughed Jo, "she told me you were looking pretty cosy with him yesterday, so I want to know exactly what is going on."

Hearing the scraping of chairs as the two women got to their feet, her part in their conversation over for now, Millie darted around the corner from the sergeant's office and out of sight.

-ooOoo-

Sondra scrunched the plastic Waitrose bags into her jute eco-carrier, ready for next use, their contents already neatly stacked into the orderly cupboards of Millie's kitchen. Remnants of washing up left out from the night before had been similarly dealt with and everything was in perfect order for the occupants to return to later that evening. There wasn't much else she could do to help Millie and Max, but she could do this. She looked around, searching her head, certain that she had forgotten something. The lasagne was still in the footwell of her car. Grabbing the door keys she stepped back out into the bright sunshine to retrieve it. A van was parked close to her car, its darkly tinted windows caught her attention, she was sure it hadn't been there before, but during the mornings the security gates weren't very secure because they allowed in anyone who knew to press the 'trades' button on the key pad. Dismissing any thoughts of suspicion, Sondra reached into collect the dish. As she stood and stepped back to close the door, she became aware of a shadow looming over her from behind but before she could turn an arm gripped her, pinning her tight. The dish fell to the ground with a crash. She opened her mouth to scream but another hand, filled with cold damp cloth covered her nose and mouth, she struggled, but with each movement her grip on consciousness weakened. She tried frantically, desperately to keep hold of the fading light but it was too hard and with one last jerk from her body her resistance was over.