A/N: Feebee: There are only three logical reasons why you would think that. 1. It's almost at the halfway point of this story and yet no one's been kidnapped, brutally murdered or blown up (which is very unlike me), 2. I'm getting predictable or 3. You're a genius. You may pick your favourite reason.

Chapter Sixteen;
Goodwin

"They had to let him go." It was the first thing Stuart and Will heard as they walked back into CID.

Stuart visibly deflated. "What?"

"The guy he beat up didn't want to press charges and there were miraculously no witnesses so…" Stevie shrugged as she re-pocketed her phone. "Kingmarsh still think it would be a good idea to get down there and shake him up a bit. They sent a warning though – he's a cocky son of a gun."

Will shook his head as he headed back to his desk and Stuart glanced across at Millie who was still on the phone. "Go pay him a visit anyway. Take some uniform, remind him we're not Kingmarsh and we don't have to be good to local citizens, we just want his head on a silver platter unless he coughs up info about Bolt." He looked back at Millie and gave a sharp whistle, causing her to look up. "Going to Kingmarsh with Stevie?"

Millie nodded and hung up the phone as Max and Hayleigh walked back through the door. As Max passed Millie's desk she pushed back her chair and collected him in the leg. He jumped back a little and frowned but didn't say anything as Millie muttered a small 'sorry', still not looking up. "It's fine." Max replied, glancing back up at Stevie and Stuart who were watching the entire exchange. "Uniform haven't got any leads on the flat."

"Right, well, Stevie and Millie are off to Kingmarsh if you want to join them, go rough up some ruffians." Stuart looked very proud of his wordplay but Max just shook his head.

"I have paperwork."

Stuart's smile wavered. "Max choosing paperwork over beating submission into arrogant teens? Who are you?" He raised a solitary eyebrow but Max didn't crack under the look, just returning to his desk, and he shrugged. "Okay, Max's gone weird, Will was always weird,"

"Thanks Stuart, I love you too." Will spoke up from nearby where he sat with a phone pressed to his ear.

"… and Bolt is still missing. Life sucks." He grinned at Millie and Stevie then pointed to the door. "Go get me a bratty teenager."

...

"TIU hit on Sam's phone." Will turned his computer to show an email he'd just received. "Last night from Manchester."

Max, who had been sitting unusually quiet since Stevie and Millie had left, just frowned. "Samuel Bolt? In Manchester?" He paused. "I thought Witness Protection had his phone?"

"He got a new one." Will flipped open a folder on his desk and withdrew a piece of paper with a photo paper-clipped to it. "Eleanor dropped by to visit Millie last night. She gave her this."

Max took the letter off Will and scanned it, remembering Millie's visit to his apartment, assuming this had been the reason behind it. "'Ellie,'" he read aloud. "'I have to go and sort something out, something important, and I know you want to tell Millie and the police all about this but I hope you will give me a little time first. I'm doing this for us Peewee. Look after yourself. Watch mum. If you need me you can contact me on the number below. Please stay safe. Sam.' Watch mum? Not 'watch out for mum'."

Will nodded. "Millie spotted the exact same thing. I guess her little tirade at Beth and Andrea wasn't unwarranted after all." There was something in Will's tone that bordered a jibe and Max instinctively defended himself against it.

"I never said it was." He passed back the letter but held on to the photo. "So Andrea and Craig were friendly then?"

"Looks that way." He frowned. "Eleanor found that photo herself, but it's likely Samuel found it too, and now he's in Manchester."

"Why weren't we watching the stations for him?" Max put the photo down, ignoring how guilty he felt about Millie turning up at his place with this important news and not being met by his help, and glanced up at Will. "Didn't anyone think he'd head back home?"

"We weren't watching for Sam, we were watching for Craig." Will printed out the report and stood up, gathering it from the printer. "No one expected he'd run off too."

...

"Bryce Goodwin?" Stevie stepped through the front doorway of the Kingmarsh pub like she owned the place. Two drunks in the corner looked at her blankly as the scruffy-looking man behind the counter just pointed to a small room just behind the bar. Stevie stalked towards it, motioning for Nate and Roger to have a look around everywhere else, and Millie followed her. They found Goodwin just inside the room, a phone pressed to his ear, and he took three steps back at the sight of them. "Give me the phone Goodwin."

"Understood." Bryce flicked it shut and looked up at them. "Yes officers?"

"Phone, hand it over." Stevie held out her hand and Goodwin placed the phone in it. She flipped it open and looked down at the call log. It was empty. "Who was on the phone?" Bryce shrugged. "You'd do better to tell me rather than have me send this to TIU, waste my time and make me angry, only to find out it was Bolt and you could've just told me in the first place."

"Let me guess – I'd do good to not make you angry, right?" Goodwin's tone was cocky and he didn't seem at all deterred by their unexpected presence. In fact Millie dare say he'd predicted it.

"You would."

"I don't know who was on it, he was calling about some catering, I told him he didn't have the right number."

"Really? So it wasn't Bolt telling you to keep your mouth shut?" He frowned and Stevie glanced at Millie. "Apparently I'm speaking another language." She spoke up, slowing down her words. "Who –was – on – the – phone?"

"Like I said, wrong number. Told me I was very unhelpful. Jerk." Millie gritted her teeth at another Goodwin smart-ass comment. He was getting on her nerves but she was better at hiding that fact than Stevie was. Stevie was rather obviously annoyed.

"Was the person on the phone Bolt?"

"Who?"

Stevie glared. "You're going to tell me you have no idea who Craig Bolt is?"

"Apparently I don't."

Millie frowned at his words as Stevie scoffed. "Apparently." Her tone was dark. "Or his kids, who you went to school with?" He simply shrugged. "Of course you don't." She glanced back at Nate and Roger as they re-entered the main room. They both shook their heads. "Okay, I guess that's it then?"

Millie sighed to herself and started towards the door as Roger began flicking through a folder behind the bar nearby and Nate eyed off a sullen drunk in the corner, obviously trying to decide whether he knew him or not. Stevie was still staring down Goodwin, determined to make him crack, but the boy was cocky and arrogant and Millie knew full well she wouldn't succeed.

The small street outside the bar, a no-through road ending at an industrial site, was cracked and rundown. The gutters were broken, the drain nearby had caved in, and the whole thing just seemed to mirror everything the Ainsley Arms stood for – the place where lawless was normal and no questions were asked about criminal records or dodgy items.

The kind of place people like Millie didn't ever feel comfortable around.

She guessed that was why she felt like she was being watched, why she turned her head three times before she frowned, questioning what was left of her sanity. The wind was picking up off a river nearby, there was a lonely dog close, these 'heebie-jeebies' were all her imagination. She crossed her arms and waited patiently outside the bar for the others, turning back to the door as she heard a noise, hoping Roger was stepping out holding aloft something he'd found.

Then she heard a footstep behind her and turned quickly.

The last thing Millie saw before the world turned dark was the grinning face of Craig Bolt.