"Joey, don't you dare!" Charlie yelled.
At the last second, Joey veered right and slammed the brakes on, causing the car to skid sideways at an alarming rate, before coming to a halt inches from the water's edge. Caught by surprise by Joey's manoeuvrer, Mick's reflexes weren't as quick and his car flew past them, where what was left of the bridge acted like a ramp and launched his car into the air. The car plummeted with a splash into the fast flowing water.
"Fuck me," Charlie murmured, her heart still racing, in spite of their now stationary position.
"You didn't really think I'd try it, did you?" Joey smugly said, more to hide her own shaking. That had been far too close and she hadn't even been sure she could pull it off, until it worked.
"I can't see them," Charlie said. "They must be trapped in their car."
"They hit the water pretty hard," Joey said. "Their airbags might have deployed in their faces and dazed them."
"Shit, they'll drown," Charlie said as the car began to sink.
"Good, then they won't be able to kill us."
"Shouldn't we at least try to help them?"
"Charlie, they just tried to kill us and I don't know about you, but I'm not fucking Aquawoman," she said. "That current is way too strong to swim out to reach them in and besides, they'd be too heavy for either of us to get out of there."
Charlie knew what Joey said made sense, but the cop in her didn't like it. Her job was to protect people, not watch and let them die, even if they were murderous pricks.
"Charlie, if the situation was reversed, they'd be doing a celebratory jig at our demise right now."
"It doesn't make this right."
"Who cares, we're alive and now have two less arseholes to worry about."
"You're rather callous, aren't you?"
"I'm not going to shed a tear over someone who wanted to kill us."
"They might have just wanted to get us to stop."
"Yeah, so they could fucking kill us," Joey said. "Or do you honestly believe any differently."
"No," Charlie admitted. She was just looking for excuses because she hated agreeing with Joey.
"Come on, we need to get out of here."
"We should report this in."
"Charlie, we just sped through the outskirts of the town, which someone probably noticed and has already called the cops," she said. "We can't be here when they turn up."
"So now we're not even trusting the locals?"
"Charlie, think for a moment," said Joey. "Our car has signs of being in an argument with another car and it wouldn't take a genius to work out which car that was with," she said. "Do you really want to then explain to them why we were being rammed and how that car ended up in the drink?" Joey said to her. "Then there's our identity. Unless you were willing to lie about who we are and what really happened here, then they'd be calling this in to your superiors to check out your story as to why they were after us." Joey stared at her. "You need to stop thinking and acting like a cop Charlie and start behaving like someone who is on their own in a fight for survival."
"Right, trust no one," she snidely said. "Not even you."
"Whatever," Joey dismissively said. "Now buckle up. The more time we waste here, the closer others like them could be."
"You think Mick called our location in?"
"No idea, but I'm not waiting around to see if we'll be swarmed by homicidal maniacs intent on making us dead," she said.
"How do you think they found us?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"You're the one with all the relevant experience," Charlie snapped.
"I don't know how they found us," Joey snapped right back. "Could have just been bad luck on our part." She glared at Charlie. "I thought you'd be the expert on the Braxtons, you're the cop after all."
Charlie held her tongue on what she was about to say. This wasn't the time. "You're right, I do know a fair bit about the Braxtons," she said. "And it's likely they have eyes and ears everywhere and we just drove right passed some of them by chance."
"From now on, we need to have our own eyes and ears open," Joey said. "We also need a new car. This one will draw too much attention."
"Oh great, we're back to stealing again," muttered Charlie.
"Not this time," Joey said, though she didn't expand upon it.
Charlie stayed silent. Still in the back of her mind, had been the skill in which Joey had handled the car during that very hectic and dangerous chase, and also the realisation that Joey had known who was chasing them. There was still too much unknown about her travelling companion and what Charlie did know about her, was a cause for concern. Who the hell was this woman?
"Fuck," Nick muttered as he set the handset down. Robertson was getting antsy about his witness and while Nick had put him off for the moment, he knew he and Angelo most likely only had a day or two left to work with before this all blew up. "Find them, Angelo and fast."
"Piss off," Charlie muttered as she swatted away yet another fly as they trotted back the way they'd just come. Three towns from the bridge incident, Joey had suddenly pulled the car into an offshoot road and parked it, ordered her to grab their gear and started walking back toward the last town they'd just driven through.
"What about the car?" Charlie asked as her hands waved away more flies.
"Either the cops or some enterprising thief will eventually find it," Joey said. "I'm hoping for a thief and they take it for a joyride far from us."
That was all Joey said and Charlie couldn't be bothered asking her anything more. She was hot and annoyed, but at least she wasn't cuffed. Charlie let her eyes slip sideways to where Joey was walking next to her. She could probably overpower Joey, except her doubts were holding her back. What if she underestimated Joey and ended up on her own arse, with a gun in her face? Nope, until she could properly gauge both Joey and the situation, she'd continue to play along.
"Fuck," she cussed when she stumbled over a pothole.
"Watch your step," said Joey.
"I'm too busy shooing flies," she grumbled.
"God, it's like babysitting a sooky five year old," Joey muttered under her breath.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see when we get there," Joey said. "I saw that," she added when she caught Charlie poking her tongue out at her from the corner of her eye, then she laughed when Charlie started coughing and spitting. "Serves yourself right."
"Oh, gross," Charlie said and continued to spit in the hopes of removing every last remnant of the fly that had stowed away on her tongue.
"Sorry, I must have missed the call," Casey said as Stu continued to fume after Heath had called him directly to demand what was going on.
"You realise now that we're even further behind."
"I said I was sorry."
"Just get your head in the game Case," he said. "This is fucking serious business that could ruin us all if it goes to shit."
Casey just shrugged. Honestly, he didn't care.
Charlie stopped and stared at the sign. "Ok, so we're not stealing another car," she said as she followed Joey onto the used car lot.
"I saw this on our way through town before," Joey explained. "I figure buying a car will attract less attention than leaving a trail of stolen cars in our wake."
"Good idea," Charlie said. "How exactly do you intend on paying for it though?" Charlie knew Joey's cards had been confiscated when she'd been brought in and her accounts frozen, since they couldn't risk allowing her access to them and sending out a red flag to their position. It was just an added safety precaution they did with all their protectees, regardless of whether their identity was known to others or not. They'd also taken the cash she'd had on her at the time, which was why Charlie was curious as to how Joey intended to pay for a used car. They certainly couldn't use her cards, because she'd purposely left them behind when she took this job and she only had a small amount of cash on her. Then to her amazement, Joey whipped out a credit card.
"With this," Joey said with a smug grin.
"Hang on, how do you have that?" Charlie demanded to know. "Did you steal it?"
"Of course not."
"Then why is there a different name on it?"
"Oh look, the salesman has noticed us," Joey said, thereby avoiding Charlie's question. "Just stand there and look hot."
Charlie fumed at the suggestion while Joey greeted the salesman.
"This is such a stroke of good fortune," Joey said. "Our car packed it in and I suddenly remembered passing your lot only a short time ago," she said and Charlie rolled her eyes at how saccharine her tone was.
"So you're after a trade in?"
"Not really. My car has seen better days and I'd probably get more selling it for parts, but I don't really have time to do that just yet," Joey expertly lied. "You see, my girlfriend and I are running late and if we lose any more time in getting to the city, we'll miss our cruise ship and also lose our deposit."
"Oh, girlfriends," he smirked while Charlie glared at her.
"Well, more life partners who would marry if the PM wasn't such a dinosaur," Joey said, enjoying the daggers Charlie was sending her way. As for the salesman. Well, she'd pegged him the moment she'd seen him and knew all he'd remember from this encounter, was the image now playing in his mind of two hot chicks getting it on during a cruise. "So, can you help us out? I can pay straight away."
Beaming, the man put his hand on Joey's elbow. "Come with me and I'll fulfil your requirements."
Charlie nearly gagged at how sleazy he was, but Joey just kept smiling at him, acting all oblivious to it.
Twenty-five minutes later, they were heading out of town in their newly purchased used car, with Charlie still wondering where the credit card had come from. Had Joey stolen it? It would be risky, because the moment it was reported stolen, it became useless, except as a guide to anyone who might be looking into stolen items as a way to find them. Since Joey had chosen not to steal another car just to avoid signposting their path, then Charlie was inclined to believe that the card wasn't one she'd stolen. After all, buying a car with a stolen credit card would be no different to stealing the car, as the end result would be the same. The car details, including rego number, would eventually become known to anyone looking into it. If not stolen, then it meant Joey had smuggled that card in with her. Not only that, it had a fake name and obvious funds in the account. Just who the fuck was this woman, Charlie found herself wondering yet again.
As far as Watson was aware, she was the first of the pursuers on the scene. Checking her uniform was in order, she got out to talk to the local officers.
"What happened here?" she asked the closest one to her.
He was about to tell her to go away, until he saw her uniform and gave her a nod in way of a greeting.
"Car ended up in the river, two dead," he said. "They were still in their seats when we towed the car from the water."
"How did they end up in the river?" Watson said, relieved when she recognised Mick's sedan. No great loss to society there and it meant she still had a chance to redeem herself.
"They must have missed the sign about the bridge."
"What sign?"
"That it's out."
Watson's brow went up. It was unlike Mick to be so stupid.
"We reckon another car was involved," he explained. "There's tyre tracks to a second car that appears to have braked and swerved to miss the bridge and the front of the sedan is pretty smashed in. There's red paint flecks, so looks like this idiot tangled with the other car and going by the pattern of the dings, it was more than just once," he said. "I reckon he was nudging at the car in front of him."
"As in trying to run it off the road?"
"That'd be my bet," he said. "It all tracks with the reports we received earlier of two cars moving at high speed heading out of the town." The constable peered at her more intently. "Any reason why you're so curious about this?" he suddenly asked.
"I've been trailing a couple of people and lost track of them," she said. "I heard about this over the radio and came to see if it was my guys."
"Is this them?" He said, showing her pictures of the bodies.
"Nah, never seen these two before," she said. "Was any id found?"
"We recovered the driver's wallet. His name was Mick Jameson," he replied. "The tow truck driver reckons he was a former rally driver or something."
"Sorry, doesn't ring a bell at all."
"Well, whatever he used to be, he obviously had a career change," he said. "He was a drug dealer and a major one at that."
"Seriously?"
"Take a look at what we found in the boot of his car."
Shit, thought Watson. Brax was going to be pissed when he found out he was going to be out a few 100 grand in coke. It was no wonder there were so many smiles on the faces of her fellow officers. A drug bust like this was big news and could be career defining for the ambitious. Unfortunately, in light of this development, it was even more important now for her to silence the witnesses, because Brax would be looking to take his anger out on the next person who pissed him off.
"Looks like these two got what they deserved then," said Watson. "Well, thanks for the update, but I should be continuing after my own guys."
"Good luck."
"Thanks." She might need it. Going by the time of the accident, Charlie and Joey were still a good few hours ahead of her. The only bright side? There weren't that many roads from here that they could have taken.