A/N A rather difficult chapter to write and therefore not one of my favourites, but please bear with me ...

"They're here."

"Right. Dad, let's go. Dad?"

"Hmm? Okay."

Richard had aged ten years in the twenty minutes or so since Max and Millie had broken the news. Millie helped him to his feet, shrugging off Max's effort to help her, making it clear that she didn't want him. Not that she needed to, he'd already got that message. He'd suggested going back to Epping with them, but Millie had frozen him with a glare that left him in no doubt he was a long way from forgiven. "Hadn't you better find my mother," she'd told him bitterly, "I wouldn't want to slow you down with my emotional reactions. I wouldn't want to get in the way of your big result." It had hurt, really hurt. It hurt so much that she couldn't see how all he had ever wanted to do was protect her and her family. Sure, bringing down an international crime ring and thereby banking a few brownie points for his next career move might have been a welcome bonus but that's all it would have been. A bonus, not the reason. Absolutely not. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand why Millie wasn't seeing that. But it wasn't the time to try to explain again. She wasn't going to listen and in a way she was right. He needed to find Sondra and Millie was better with her father, safely tucked away where she couldn't distract him with her pain. If he didn't see her then he could almost pretend that this was happening to another family, not the one he had come to consider his own. If he didn't see her then he could block out her bitterness.

During the drive back to Sun Hill, Max replayed their last moments together, over and over. Having seen her father into the back of the area car, Millie had turned back to Max holding the door ready to close it behind her. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears and for a moment he thought she was going to let them fall but instead she had pulled herself up a little straighter and raised her chin a little higher. Even so, her lower lip quivered. He edged forward to pull her to him but her rigid demeanour stopped him in his tracks and instead he let her turn away and get into the car. She didn't look back when he closed the door with a soft thud.

Max reached the station with a decision made. He could dwell on the personal or deal with the reality. Two women were missing, one had already been mutilated. He wasn't going to let it happen to the other. For the third time that day he walked in to the station, this time from the yard at the rear, just in case Jessa had decided to put in another appearance. He didn't need more of her overpowering perfume and predatory attitude. Making his way through the corridors and up to CID, he was aware of various uniformed officers watching him surreptitiously but he ignored them all.

"Tommy, get everyone together. I want to know what we've got. Ten minutes."

"Got it, Boss."

Max turned away and took a step towards his office, well aware of Grace's shoulders slumping in relief as he did. He stopped and slowly looked to the side at her taking a degree of pleasure in her tightening posture as she realised she had not quite escaped.

Grace was used to his derision, used to the appalling tone he often used when speaking to her. But there seemed to be an edge of malevolence in his manner this time that quite honestly chilled her to the bone. She waited anxiously, wondering what it was going to be this time, holding her breath as he stepped back and leant in towards her menacingly.

"I want to talk to you. Later. I hear that you've been telling tales."

Grace blinked, shrinking under the force of his stare which pinned her into her seat. "I-" she began, before realising the futility of any kind of defence. It would only serve to give him more satisfaction. Instead, she took the hit with as much dignity as she could muster.

The door swung open, distracting Max from his quarry and reminding him that he had more important matters to deal with.

"Max? I was sorry to hear about Millie's mother," said Neil compassionately.

"Er, yeah," he replied shortly, turning away from Grace to give his superior due attention.

"How is she? Tommy said that she and her father left Fleischmann's place."

Max ignored the question. He couldn't say exactly how Millie was because she wouldn't give him any clue about what was going on inside her head. All he knew was that right now he was the focus of her anger and he would do anything to put that right. "Richard wanted to go home. He blames Georgie, so does Millie for that matter."

"Hmm. Well, he may have a point there, as you know."

Max stiffened. The earlier collaboration in their mutual mission to bring down Georgie felt uncomfortable and he found he really didn't want to dwell on his part in it. "Look, I'll see you in the briefing room in a few minutes," and with a swift reminding glance back at Grace, disappeared into his office.

"Is he alright?" asked Neil, puzzled by Max's evasiveness. "Perhaps he's too close to all of this," he mused. Grace said nothing, earning herself a questioning look. "Are you okay? Grace?"

She closed her eyes, her lips tightening.

"She upset the DI's girlfriend," interjected Susie sharply and with a measure of glee that made Neil frown.

"Susie," he warned.

"Well, she did. Honestly, it's like working with children here," scowling at Mickey as he walked past and deflecting the small ball of rolled up paper he hurled at her as if to prove her point. "See what I mean. Children."

"Hey, Mickey!" exclaimed Tommy who was close behind him. "Leave DS Sim alone, it's my job to be the pain in her backside, and one that I am enjoying very much," he finished with a wink, sliding into his chair at the desk next to hers.

The banter continued and Neil realised that Susie was enjoying it, in her own particularly dismissive way which over the years he had come to recognise as flirtation. Grace however was still morosely silent. "What happened with Millie?" he asked quietly enough that the rowing children couldn't hear, dragging a chair over to sit beside her.

"I snapped at her. Just for a moment, it was nothing really."

"Then why so glum?"

"I might have said a few things afterwards, to Jo. In confidence, I wasn't gossiping," she pleaded, "but ..."

"But?"

"Millie must have overheard, or maybe someone else did and told her and now her mother is missing. Sometimes I feel like I'm losing control, coming apart," she rambled. "I'm so tired of it all. I needed to talk and Jo was there. I didn't realise anyone else was as well."

"You could have talked to me. Away from here."

Away from here. Her heart skipped a beat at his proposal but reality could never be far enough away for her to hope he might really mean it. Grace gave a little wry laugh and shook her head sadly. "No. No I couldn't. I might have done once, but then you ..." she furrowed her brow, thinking back to the last time she'd seen him before he'd walked back into her life. "I need to get some air before the briefing," she muttered, stranding abruptly and making her way past Neil towards the door.

"Again? We all need air, but most of us don't need to get up and go somewhere else to get it," commented Susie smoothly as Grace skirted round her and reminding all that it was impossible to have a private conversation in such a place.

"Susie! That's enough! You're not helping anyone," snapped Neil impatiently, torn between letting Grace go and haring after her. It was only Tommy who noticed the hurt that streaked across Susie's features at the rebuff.

-oo-

"So," began Neil with a swift glance at Max. They had agreed that in the circumstances it was probably best for him to lead on this briefing. "As most of you know, Sondra Brown was abducted this afternoon from the car park of Lansdowne House on Harleyford Avenue. Sondra is a family friend of Georgie Fleischman and is also PC Millie Brown's mother." He stopped for a moment, allowing time for the inevitable glances and murmurings in Max's direction. True to character, Max didn't flinch, as if completely unaware of any connection between him and the photograph of the elegant woman on the board. A photograph he had taken only a few days earlier on his phone having announced his engagement to her daughter. "Tommy, you've got the CCTV footage?"

"Yeah," he waved the remote control at the large flat screen, bringing it to life. "Two unidentified men get out of a white van while Sondra is leaning into her car. As she stands up one of them grabs her from behind and cover her face with a cloth, she struggles then appears to lose consciousness before they put her into the back of the van and drive out of the gates."

"How did they get into the car park? Isn't there a security gate at Lansdowne House?" asked Mickey.

"Anyone can get in during the morning, you only have to press the trades button," answered Max matter-of-factly. Neil had to admire how coolly detached he was, not a flicker of emotion.

"Not much of a security gate then," Mickey observed, receiving no more than a shrug from Max in return.

"We've checked local CCTV but the van turned into a side street and we lost it," continued Tommy.

"Any idea who these men are? The smaller one looks like it could be David Austin," asked Mickey, leaning forward to take a closer look.

"It's possible, yes," agreed Neil.

"But why? What links Sondra and Carly that someone would abduct both of them?"

Max took a deep breath, he hadn't been looking forward to making Richard's murky past association with criminals public knowledge. "I believe that although Kiril Barsukov is somehow behind their disappearance, he isn't the one pulling the strings. Back in the early eighties Fleischmann and Richard Brown were involved in a smuggling deal with a junior diplomat in the Soviet Embassy. Nikolai Antonov. Antonov fell for Sondra but she rejected him in favour of Richard and to take him completely out of the picture Georgie made sure in his confession that Antonov was sent back to Russia."

"I've been looking into the case for a while," said Suzie. "Antonov was sent to a prison camp in Siberia but as yet I haven't been able to find out whether he was released, escaped or died there. He seems to have vanished at some point in the mid nineties."

"Have you got any link between him and Barsukov?" asked Max.

"Only that they were born in the same town near St Petersburg a year apart."

"It's a good enough connection," agreed Neil.

"How do you know all this?" asked Mickey with surprise.

Suzie regarded him coolly. "I have contacts. It's not hard when you know the right people."

"But we still don't know where he is and we haven't anything solid enough to bring Barsukov in on," mused Max.

"We need Austin," said Neil firmly. "If he is this guy," he pointed at one of the figures on the screen, "then perhaps we can get something out of him. Eddie has sent off samples of skin from under Carly's nails for analysis," another quiet 'euw' rippled around the room, "and I'm willing to bet the DNA will belong to him. But the results won't be with us until tomorrow at the earliest."

Max pushed himself away from the wall which he had been leaning against. "Tommy? Suzie? You both spoke to Austin's mother, didn't you? Get back there and put pressure on her. She needs to contact her son. Get her to leave a message about something urgent so that he calls back. We can trace him from there. I don't care how you do it just get her to make him call. Better still get her to arrange to meet him."

Tommy nodded, glancing across at Suzie for just long enough to bring a little colour to her cheeks. "I think we should be able to manage that."

"Mickey? What did Lesley say?" Max turned his attention to the scruffy DC.

"She agreed to do what she can but it's difficult, Barsukov's men are all over the place. She thinks it's only a matter of time before they takeover completely. Apparently one of them let slip that Fleischmann will be signing over the bar to Barsukov in the next few days."

"To raise money to pay the ransom perhaps?" suggested Neil.

"Or instead of paying it. I don't believe that Fleischmann has assets worth three million these days," Max stated bullishly.

"Do you think the kidnappers aren't expecting the ransom to be paid?"

"I think that if it is Antonov behind all this, he's after more than money. He wants Fleischmann to pay with everything he has. Money, family and friendships and if that hurts Richard Brown as well, so much the better."

"Revenge?"

"Maybe."

"Couldn't it be a simple case of extortion? Is this Antonov really involved? It's a pretty tenuous link," commented Grace, surprising herself with her interruption into what had become a two way conversation between Max and Neil, but feeling it needed to be said.

Max shrugged, surprising Grace even more that he didn't launch an attack on her for being naive. "It's a possibility," he sighed looking back at Sondra's picture. But if that is the case, why would he take her, outside my flat? No, there's more to it."

Mickey was the last of the procession to file out of the door and was nearly though it when he paused and took a step back to face Max. "I told Lesley about Sondra. I think that was what really convinced her to help us. She said she'd met Sondra a couple of times, said how kind she always was."

"Is, Mickey," snapped Max. "Is. She's still alive as far as we know, and I'm going to make sure she stays that way."

-oo0oo-

Gradually her eyes focussed on the pattern of the bed linen beneath her. She sniffed, a damp musty smell filling her nostrils. Sondra blinked, the only movement her body seemed able to make. Cautiously she stretched out her fingers, swallowing with relief that they responded and giving her the confidence to move her arms and roll from her side on to her back and stare up at the ceiling. It was a depressing view of grimy aertex plasterwork with black mould collecting in the corners. Panic bubbled within, an unfamiliar feeling but it was definitely panic. She swallowed again, conscious of the tight dryness in her throat. Water. She needed water, she'd feel better after a drink. Having a purpose, a goal, sharpened her mind and fought back the panic. As the kneejerk fear subsided, her awareness of the room increased and a small noise alerted her attention to the fact that she was not alone in the room. Stiffly she pulled herself up and looked around. Her hand flew to her mouth at the sight of the shaking bloodied bundle on the floor, cowering in the corner of the room. The creature was feral-like, frightened even by Sondra's slow movement. It took a second or two, but slowly Sondra realised who she was.

"Carly? Carly, is that you?" The woman blinked frantically into the middle distance between them, clutching a bandaged hand to her chest, her knees drawn up to her chin. "Oh my poor child!" exclaimed Sondra, instantly forgetting her own aches and clambering from the bed to crouch next to Carly. She flinched but only for a moment before her wide terrified eyes made contact with Sondra and allowed the older woman to envelope her. Sondra held her for what felt like several minutes, stroking Carly's back soothingly, determined not to let Carly see her distress. This creature couldn't be further away from the Carly she knew. Her hair shorn, cut roughly, leaving tufts and near bald patches. That alone would have degraded Carly more than almost anything else, taken away her identity, her self-worth. But it hadn't been enough for whoever had captured the pair of them. Carly's bloody bandaged hand was proof of that. Holding her tighter, Sondra resisted the fear rising again. Determined that they would both survive this.

Eventually, after many murmured words of comfort and reassurance, Sondra eased Carly out of the corner and on to the relative comfort of the bed. Still unable to speak, Carly lay her head into Sondra's lap and curled up in a foetal position next to her. With a sigh, Sondra closed her eyes and rested back against the headboard, stroking the remains of Carly's hair, her lower lip trembling as her fingers came into contact with the coarse stubble in amongst the longer tufts. She shivered at the sadism of whoever had done this. She knew evil existed, or rather that some people were capable of committing evil deeds, but she had never imagined for one moment that it could happen in her world.