Chapter Twenty Nine

"So… what are we meant to do now that we're here?" Joey wondered, when Charlie pulled up outside the shipping containers at Port Heron.

The police officer killed the engine but kept the headlights on and sighed.

"I don't actually know," she admitted. "I just sort of acted on instinct by coming out here. I'm not sure what I'm expecting to find."

Joey unstrapped her seatbelt.

"Well, let's investigate then," she said brightly. "We'll catch the bad guys, Hugo can go to jail, Angelo can go off and do whatever he wants to do and you, me and Ruby can focus on having a happy future together."

Charlie smiled.

"Angelo's not that bad," she mused.

"No," Joey agreed. "But the less people making moon eye at you, the better. That's my job."

She leant over and kissed her before climbing out of the car. Charlie climbed out too but hesitated.

"Joey, this could be dangerous," she pointed out. "Maybe you should…"

"Be around to back you up instead of waiting out here and being useless?" Joey finished.

Charlie grinned and kissed her again. They headed inside the building together.


"Can I at least call my brother and let him know where I am?" Hugo asked the police officers that had come to his home to bring him in for questioning.

He was stalling for time and they all knew it. He put his hand in his pocket and hurriedly sent a pre-set text to his contact, a code that had been set in place long before he had ever settled in the Bay, should things go wrong.

"We'll call him when we get to the station," Angelo informed him. "But right now, we need to get you there and find out what the hell you've been up to all these months."

"Look, I don't know what your problem is but I haven't done anything wrong," Hugo denied.

"We'll see," Angelo replied.

He nodded to Watson, who handcuffed him.

"Hugo Austin, I'm arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Lou DeBono," he said. "And this time, there's fuck all you can do to get out of it."

They dragged him out of the house and towards their patrol car.


With a torch each and Charlie's hand free to grab her gun if necessary, she and Joey entered the warehouse, carefully exploring it, anxious of what could be lurking behind each corner.

"What was the number of the container?" Joey asked.

Charlie stopped walking and dug the piece of paper out of her pocket and showed it to her girlfriend. Joey lifted the torch, flashing the beam onto the numbers around them.

"Then it should be down there, I think," she said.

Charlie nodded and they walked onwards.


Hugo sat in the now too familiar interview room, opposite Angelo and Watson.

"No Charlie today?" he asked with a smirk.

Ever since she had ruined his blossoming relationship with Martha, he had hated her. And it made it worse that somehow, while he felt he had lost everything, she was wandering round town, smug and self-satisfied with the woman she loved and the daughter she had lied to for years.

"She's busy," Angelo said. "Hopefully bringing in more evidence against you. Not that we don't already have enough to hold you with now."

Hugo leant forward and glared at him.

"And what the hell do you think you've got to hold me with, Angelo?"

"It's Constable Rosetta to you," Angelo snapped back.

"You don't even deserve a name," Hugo said. "You murdered my cousin. You left him to die and you lied to his whole family. You're scum. You should be rotting in jail, having the shit kicked out of you and worse by every criminal in there."

"Well, when you get there yourself, you can send them all my regards, can't you?" Angelo replied.

He swallowed but otherwise refused to show he was rattled. This was not how he had hoped things would turn out. He knew returning to Summer Bay would be difficult. He knew people hated him. But he had hoped things would settle down quicker, that the residents might eventually learn to forgive and forget. And he had hoped that Charlie would fall in love with him. But she didn't notice anyone but Joey these days. She'd moved on.

"Why on earth would I end up in prison?" Hugo demanded. "I'm not a murderer like you are."

"But you are," Angelo countered. "You murdered Lou DeBono, didn't you?"

"Of course I didn't kill him!" Hugo snapped. "I barely even knew the guy!"

"Then why don't you talk me through what happened?" Angelo suggested, sitting back in his seat and feeling rather pleased with watching him squirm.

This was why he had braced himself to come back to the Bay, after all.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hugo denied.

Angelo sat forward again. Hugo winced and hoped his text message to his colleague had had the desired effect. If Charlie was out collecting evidence against him, he could be in a lot of trouble right now. He felt sick.

"Tell me," Angelo said. "Have you ever been in Lou DeBono's boat?"

"No," Hugo said. "I told you. I barely knew the guy."

"Then why did we find your blood on the deck?" Angelo asked.

Hugo's mouth hung open in shock.


Charlie and Joey had found the right shipping container but it was padlocked shut and they couldn't get in, no matter how hard they tried.

"This is ridiculous," Joey complained, leaning against the box they were trying to get into.

"We need to get a team down here," Charlie agreed.

They were interrupted by a phone call.

"Avery?" the Senior Constable said by way of greeting.

"We've decoded the rest of the message," her colleague said, getting right to the point. "It's a phone number."

"Text it to me?" Charlie requested.

She hung up and then asked Joey to go back to the car to get anything she could find that might get the container open. She didn't want this to be a wasted journey.

"I'll be quick," Joey promised, leaving. "Don't wander off."

Charlie assured her she would stay put. Her phoned beeped. She dialled the number that came through. Her phone had it stored as Hugo's.


"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," Hugo denied, trying not to show the panic in his voice.

They were interrupted by Avery knocking on the door.

"Constable Rosetta, there's been a development," the officer said.

Angelo nodded and left Hugo alone with Watson.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Charlie phoned the number they deciphered in the kid's toy," Avery explained. "We had it in custody. It was Hugo's."


Charlie continued to try and battle with the lock on the shipping container. Hearing a noise behind her, she turned around, hoping it was Joey. It wasn't. For the briefest moment, she saw a man approaching, his arms raised. Then everything went black.


Next time… Joey saves the day, Geoff helps Ruby and the police make a grim discovery…