"This is the place," Graves said as Dex turned into the driveway.

"Nice," said Dex. "I wouldn't mind coming down here for a holiday myself."

"Seriously?" replied Graves. "I've been here five minutes and can't wait to get out of here."

"Not a country person?"

"Too slow, too quiet and too many fucking flies," she muttered as she waved off more of the offending insects.

"They don't bother me," Dex said and Graves stared at him when she realised that the little buggers were avoiding him completely. Dex caught her look out of the corner of his eyes and grinned. "Check the glove compartment," he told her. She did.

"Aeroguard," she muttered. He must have sprayed some on while she was talking to Const. Garner at the Yabbie Creek cop shop. He could have at least offered it to her earlier, she thought with annoyance as she sprayed some on herself.

"So how we do we do this?" Dex asked.

"We talk to the owner to find out which cabin they're in," she replied. "Then we gather up our witness and Buckton, and wait for Robertson to arrive."

"Where are you going?" Pee Wee hissed at his mate before Brodie was completely out of the car.

"To grab her," replied Brodie.

"Are you fucking nuts," he said. "There are people around."

"Oh, right," mumbled Brodie and he closed the door.

"Let's just follow her," Pee Wee said. "Then the moment she's clear, we nab her."

"What about Casey?" Brodie said. "We're meant to be looking for him."

"I'm betting Brax would be happier to get the cop and that other bitch out of the picture a lot more right now," he said. He was almost giddy with excitement of his own at how their recent bad luck had suddenly turned and they'd struck gold. "Once that's done, then we can go back to looking for the brat."

Brodie nodded in agreement. "I'll call Brax, let him know," he said as Pee Wee set the car in motion.

"Shit, driving this slow looks too obvious," muttered Pee Wee, aware of curious glances in their direction. "Get that map out, and hold it up so it looks like we're going slow because we don't know where we are."

Brodie did as instructed, then he peered over at his mate. "Um Pee Wee, aren't we forgetting someone?"

"Fuck," he replied, looking back at the Diner in the rear vision mirror where they'd left Kyle. "Fuck it, this is more important."

"Are Charlie and Joey in any trouble?" Pippa asked after the two officers had introduced themselves and asked after her guests. "Does this have anything to do with that media report?"

"They're not in trouble with the law," Graves assured her. "And which media report are you referring to?"

"The one that was just on. It mentioned a dead cop, and a missing cop and witness," replied Pippa. "They didn't mention their names on the report, only that it was two women, which is why I was asking if it was them when you two turned up looking for them."

"Any other reason in particular why you might think it was about Charlie and Joey?" she said, using their Christian names to imply more familiarity with them than she actually had. "I mean, you must get a lot of people through here."

"We do, including those who don't sign in with their surnames, just like Charlie and Joey," replied Pippa. "As long as they pay upfront, we're not too big on formalities, because some people value their privacy," she explained. "Oh, another thing that had me wondering. Charlie also mentioned she was a cop, so I just put two and two together that maybe it was them in the report, especially when you turned up."

That was a surprise, thought Graves. Why would Charlie risk revealing that she was a cop when there were people looking for a cop and another woman?

"Now that I think about it though, I must wrong," said Pippa. "Charlie and Joey can't be that cop and witness, because they don't act like they're on the run or only together by necessity, in fact, they're the exact opposite," she said. "They're clearly a couple who want to be together, because they love each other."

"A couple?" Graves asked in surprise, then realised it was possible that Buckton had decided to pose as a couple as a cover. It could also explain her being honest about being a cop. Sometimes it was easier to maintain a cover by having minimal lies to tell.

"Very much in love," Pippa said knowingly.

Graves hoped it was just pure acting ability on display and not that Buckton had stepped over the professional line. The last thing they needed was for their case to be torpedoed because of improper practices from both officers on the detail; one a corrupt cop, the other sleeping with the witness. Damn, this was just getting worse and worse, and she wished they had more information as to what was going on, but Buckton's message through Const. Garner had been a brief, only saying that they were safe and where they were. Nothing more. Graves hated being in the dark. They still weren't even sure on exactly who their witness really was. She just had a bad feeling about all of this.

"You bastards," Kyle muttered when he exited the diner with their food, only to discover the car was gone and he was stranded.

"Kyle?"

Kyle turned at the voice and found himself face-to-face with his brother.

"What are you doing here, Kyle?" Casey asked.

Tegan's earlier merriment had turned sour after the last phone call from Brax. That lying prick in the boot had sent them in the wrong direction. Even after all the torture they'd inflicted upon him, the bastard had still had the temerity to lie. She slammed her hand against the steering wheel in anger.

"That bastard lied to us," fumed Tegan. "If I had the time, I'd stop this car and slice and dice him right now."

"Calm down baby," said Hayley. "We know where they are now."

"But those two fuck heads Brodie and Pee Wee got there before us."

"Yeah, but they haven't got those bitches yet," she reasoned. "And the only reason Brax called us with the info, is because he expects those two fuck heads to fuck it up."

"True," murmured Tegan.

"We can still win this baby," she said. "Just step on it a little quicker," she added. Tegan grinned.

"Anything you ask babe," Tegan said, the car surging ahead at great speed.

Charlie stopped suddenly as she realised that in her preoccupied state of mind, she'd been walking aimlessly and now found herself on the outskirts of town, and not even on the right side of town. Yabbie Creek was in the other direction. It was also getting darker.

"Damn it," she muttered, cursing herself for her stupidity. How could she have let herself remain oblivious to her surroundings like this. She looked around and saw that she was alone. Well, almost alone. There was a car heading in her direction. Her hackles rose. Something was wrong. It was the car. It was moving too slowly for her liking.

"Shit."

"Perhaps they're out to dinner or something," Dex suggested when their knocks on the cabin door went unanswered.

"Buckton knew we'd be on our way."

"But she didn't have any way to know we were already on the road when her message got through," he said. "She's probably expecting us to still be some time away from arriving."

Graves sighed in annoyance. It really hadn't taken them long to get here at all, since as Dex had pointed out, they'd already been on the road when the call had come in, but she was nonetheless frustrated by the no-show of Buckton. She glanced at her watch. Robertson had had to attend to Rosetta's death first, before handing the case over to Parish, which meant he had to still be well over an hour or two away, so she at least hoped their wayward charges would be back by then.

"We could go up to the house while we wait for them to get back," Dex said.

"Stop thinking with your stomach," she snapped, referring to the owner's invitation to join them for dinner. Dex just shrugged. He'd grown used to his colleague's short-tempered moments.

Graves just wanted this whole situation over and done, so she could return to her usual assignment and start to feel like herself again. God, she was really letting herself down these past few days, largely because she'd let herself be distracted by her feelings for her colleague. It was a ridiculous situation that she'd allowed to happen, and it was one where she was hardly showing herself to be the bright up and comer everyone expected great things from.

"You could always stay here, while I go up to the house," Dex said. Graves nearly snapped again, but bit her tongue. None of this was Dex's fault, she shouldn't be snapping at him.

"Fine," she ended up saying. "You go eat, but don't take too long and bring me back something when you return."

"Fuck, she's seen us," Pee Wee hissed and he gunned the car forward, aiming it straight at the startled police officer.