A/N This was intended to be the second half of the previous chapter, but, like Max's ego, it grew and grew ...
-ooOoo-
"Where is he?" demanded Max, bursting in to the custody suite.
Jo blinked in surprise at the impatience in Max's voice before putting two and two together and realising who he was referring to. "I assume you mean David Austin?"
"Yes of course I mean David Austin!" he snapped back. "Where is he?"
"Cell three," answered Jo smoothly, returning to the half complete custody form. "But Guv, I suggest you don't go wading in," she called out dryly without looking up as Max took a step to march into the cells. He turned back to her with narrowed eyes. "Just saying, that's all. You wouldn't want to give him the defence of unreasonable pressure, would you?"
Max was set to fire back a retort along the lines of reminding her to whom she was talking when Neil and Grace came into sight through the double doors.
"Max! Good that you're here. Tommy said you'd been over to Epping. Do they know we've got Austin."
"Um, yeah," replied Max evasively, not wishing to reveal that he'd only managed to speak to Tara. Millie had refused to come to the phone. "Right, let's get on with this," he clapped his hands together. "Do you want to be in on the interview?"
"Actually, I wondered if Grace should lead?" suggested Neil blandly, causing Grace to straighten her stance defensively, ready for the inevitable onslaught.
"What?"
"Well, there's a good chance that Austin will be expecting a pretty heavy handed interview and be prepared for that. He might be more receptive to a more sympathetic approach and with respect Max, you have to agree that sympathy has never been one of your strengths."
Max inhaled deeply and fixed his hands on his hips, staring at Grace intently. "I'm not so sure," he didn't let her escape from his scrutiny. "We need to get him to talk. We've got nothing otherwise."
"If it makes you more comfortable, I'll sit in with Grace."
Grace shifted on her feet slightly, irritated at being talked about rather than to. "I can handle this, Guv," she interrupted the two men curtly to address Max directly. "I have done this before. I do understand the importance of the interview."
She'd had a pretty sleepless night, dwelling on the events of the previous day. Although Neil had attempted to assuage her worries that morning with coffee and a pecan Danish, she knew for the sake of her own sanity she had to front up to Max, to clear the air, no matter what he might throw at her. She was finished with being his favourite victim.
"Right," said Max at last, "well it seems the decision has been made. I'll be watching next door though and if I don't think it's going well, I'm going to come in on it," he warned.
Neil shrugged. "Fair enough. Give me five minutes Grace. Just need to make a call."
Max and Grace watched Neil walk back through the double doors, his phone held tightly to his ear to block out the sudden flurry of activity around him.
"Guv," in the midst of several officers all talking at once to Jo, Grace turned to Max. "Look, I think Millie may have overheard something I said to Jo yesterday. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said what I did." The heavy weight lifted from her shoulders, it felt good! No matter how he might snarl back, whatever derogatory remarks he might toss out her way, he couldn't undermine the freedom she had gained in taking back some measure of control by not submissively waiting for his attack.
Max eyed her coldly but instead of backing down she stood firm. He made her wait for several seconds, an eternity in the immediate stillness that surrounded them within the now hectic scrum of the custody suite. She watched him gear up to mount his attack but instead, and to her astonishment, he appeared to deflate. "It doesn't matter, Grace, it doesn't matter. But, if I ever hear that you've been maliciously discussing my relationship with my fi ... er ... partner ever again, I won't be so easy-going. Do you understand?"
Grace nodded, a flicker of elation at her triumph streaked through her but she was careful not to let it show, better that he thought her cowed by his threat. "I'd er, better get everything together for the interview."
"Er, yeah. Just out of interest, exactly what did you say about Jessa Bennett?"
Grace flushed. "Um, just that you seemed to be enjoying her attention at the salon."
"Really. That explains a lot." He rubbed at his forehead with one hand and let out a loud sigh. "You've caused more trouble than you know, Grace," he sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment before taking a step past her. "Don't let us down," he added quietly.
Max's resignation struck at Grace more keenly than his sarcasm ever could. Her head told her not to care that her imprudent outburst with Jo had had greater consequences that she could have imagined. Her words had only been meant to allow her to let off steam with a trusted friend. She might not like Max, she loathed him in fact, and she might not care all that much about Millie, but in her heart she couldn't help feeling a degree of shame in letting her emotions run away with her and result in unnecessary pain to others. Neil was right, she wasn't that petty, or vindictive. Max might not share her moral scruples, but that didn't mean that she had to descend to his level. Allowing him to pass without further comment, Grace came to a decision. Having already found the courage to confront him with her apology, she'd also find the courage to be herself again.
-oo-
"David, we know this is you," Grace pushed forward the photograph of him dismantling the security camera at the salon. "We know from your mother that she hasn't seen you since the time that Carly Fleischmann disappeared, and that your phone has been switched off so that she hasn't been able to call you." Austin sat silently, barely acknowledging Grace in any way. She frowned and shot a sideways glance at Neil. "David, we also know that you have been with Carly since she disappeared," she continued softly, hoping to creep in the chinks in his armour. It worked, he looked at her nervously. Grace took the opportunity to continue, pushing the photograph of Carly's severed fingers towards him. "David, what happened? Talk to me."
Max watched from behind the screen. They made a good team, Grace and Neil. But then, they always had done. Neil had made the right call in not piling the pressure on to Austin, who appeared traumatised. He wasn't saying much, too scared, thought Max, but Grace was getting there. Austin had started off cockily enough, but despite his age, he was little more than a boy playing at being a man. He had mentioned his relationship with Barsukov, clear that he idolised the man who gave him a status that no one else had ever done. For the first time he was somebody.
Not to Carly though, Neil had reminded him. She still regarded him as a 'nobody' and so he had jumped at the chance to humiliate her, to show her that he was important, to demand her respect.
Austin had begun to deny anything to do with her disappearance but then Grace produced the photographic evidence of Carly's severed fingers. "Your DNA, David, we found your DNA under her fingernails. She was with you before her fingers were severed."
"We, er, met up a couple of days ago", he started awkwardly, his eyes flitting between Grace and Neil, looking for any sign that they believed his story.
"No, David," said Grace patiently, "you didn't. Carly's nails are acrylic and were freshly applied only an hour or so before she was last seen. There's no way your DNA could be under them if you hadn't been with her after she was abducted."
Panic began to set in. Max watched keenly as Austin's left hand shook, a nervous reaction he thought. They were close.
"Who told you to do this?" she asked.
"I don't know. I, er, got a phone call with instructions."
"From Kiril Barsukov?" Grace suggested.
"No!"
"Who then?" persisted Neil.
"I don't know."
"Come on David, you get a random call from someone asking you to abduct your ex-boss' daughter and you just do it? You expect us to believe that?" scoffed Neil derisively.
Max raised a fist to hit out at the wall in frustration but stopped himself, instead holding it to his head. The urge to go in there and shake the truth out of the bastard was overwhelming.
Austin pressed his hands to his head, his face contorting angrily.
"Why did you do it? Money?" Grace changed tactic.
Austin frowned and nodded silently.
"How much?"
Austin shrugged.
"You don't know?"
"Two grand," he answered shortly, avoiding her eyes. Ashamed, she thought.
"Two thousand pounds? Not much for this," Grace pushed the photograph of the fingertips back towards him.
He shrank away at the macabre evidence, shaking his head. "Not that," he mumbled barely coherent. "I didn't know about that." Max watched from the other side of the glass as the object of his hate finally met Grace's eyes, pleading with her to believe him. "I didn't know they were going to do that. I thought we were just going to scare her."
"Start from the beginning," she coaxed him quietly.
Hesitantly, Austin began to mutter in to the middle distance. "I had her in that room. I could have done anything to her and she knew it. But she was mouthy, going on about how important she was, saying that her Dad would get me. I had to shut her up. I wasn't going to cut it all off, just enough to send to him but she wouldn't shut up. So I made her shut up. She was scared, really scared. I told her to pick it all up. It gave me a real buzz, made me feel really good. Her, on the floor like that, like she was nothing. All ugly and disgusting on the floor. Made her stuff her hair in an envelope and write his address on it." But then he stopped, as if remembering the horror that had unfolded afterwards.
"What happened next?" prompted Grace but Austin shook his head.
"David?"
"No comment," he murmured finally.
"David? David, where are they now?" asked Grace, this time with an edge of panic in her voice as she realised that she was losing him.
"No comment." His eyes were now firmly fixed on the table between them.
"David, the lives of two women are at stake here. This," she stabbed at the photograph again to try to get his attention, "has already happened to one. Who knows what else is going to happen?"
"No comment."
"You realise that as things stand, you are the only one in the frame for all of this?" interjected Neil. "You will go down for it all. Come on, David, is that what you want?"
"No comment."
This time Max didn't even try to hold in his frustration as he punched the wall, to the surprise of Tommy as he entered.
"Not going well?" he asked.
"He's fucking clammed up."
"So Grace's approach didn't work?"
Max shook his head. It was tempting to blame Grace but it was pretty obvious that Austin had indeed been unwittingly dragged into something much bigger than him and was either traumatised or very, very scared. "No, no it's not her fault."
Tommy handed over a steaming cup. "What about if I have a go? I've got to know his mother a bit, perhaps I can use that."
"Maybe," he turned back to the window to hear Austin's solicitor request a break and Neil and Grace subsequently rise in acquiescence. It was obvious they weren't going to get anything more out of him for now.
-oo0oo-
The quiet of the room was broken by the sound of the door of their prison as it flew open and a large muscular figure strode through. Without breaking rhythm he grabbed hold of Sondra and wrenched her from the bed with only one hand as if she was no more than a rag doll to him. He flung her to the floor and out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of another man, less well built but no less menacing despite being obscured by the darkening shadow of the first man as he leant down to pull her up by her hair. She noticed something glint across his knuckles. Sondra made to scream, except it wasn't her voice. It was less of a scream and more of a visceral cry coming from deep within, an almost inhuman sound. Confusion scrambled her thoughts, unable to comprehend the noise in her ears, the sudden movements in front of her and the sharp pain in her scalp followed by the dull thud as she was shoved back down to the ground, her head hitting the wall hard. The main swirled away almost balletically from her, his arm raised, his hand glinting again as he lowered it in slow motion. Another thud and then nothing. In the stillness, Sondra looked beyond his legs in front of her. Carly lay at his feet, motionless, soundless. This time Sondra did scream.