After spending a relaxing Sunday with her sister, Charlie was up early the next morning getting in a run before work. Pounding along the sand, her eyes catch sight of Joey coming from the water. Slowing to a stop, she takes a sip of her water as she stares unashamedly from behind her sunnies at Joey. Closer than she was the other day, Charlie's eyes followed the way the water beaded and rolled down her bare skin as Joey towelled herself off.
Feeling like she was being watched, Joey looks around, her eyes falling on Charlie. Despite the sunnies shielding Charlie's eyes from her, Joey could feel the intensity of her gaze. Trying not to return the favour at the sight of Charlie in her skimpy shorts and tank top or the way her chest was still heaving slightly from running, Joey ties the towel around her waist and walks toward her. "Is this lawful stalking?" Joey jokes, having seen Charlie watching her from her car the other day.
Grinning at her, Charlie shakes her head. "Purely coincidental. I've been a bit neglectful lately about running, but depending on my shift, I usually run every morning." Hoping her ogling hadn't been too obvious, she offers Joey her water bottle.
"Thanks." Joey takes a long sip under Charlie's watchful eye.
"You look good, ah, I mean, swimming."
Joey smiles, more than aware that Charlie was still checking her out from behind her sunnies. "You should try swimming instead of running."
"No way, it takes forever to dry my hair before work."
"Any excuse to get out of real exercise." They stand there grinning stupidly at each other before Joey realises and hands the water bottle back to break the spell that had fallen over them. Reaching for the bottle, Charlie's fingers touch Joey's, sending off a spark again. "Thanks for the water," Joey says, ignoring the spark.
"So um, do you swim every day?"
"If the weather is good."
"There's some great spots in the area for swimming, I could show you them some time."
"I may take you up on that, but for the moment, I'd like to familiarise myself with this spot."
"Right, well um, I should keep going or I'll be late for work so I'll see you later."
"Bye," Joey says, unable to take her eyes off Charlie's arse as she jogs away. "Oh god," she mumbles, dropping her towel and heading back into the water to cool off.
Aden looks over the desk at Georgie. "I want to interview the owners of the businesses that were burnt down."
"You think we missed something?" asks Georgie a little testily.
"The statements were very thorough, but as with the crime scenes, I like to get my own feel for the victims, witnesses and suspects."
Georgie relaxes when she realises he wasn't having a go at them. "Well, we have the victims you can talk to, but no witnesses and not a whiff of a suspect."
"This guy is very careful in his planning so I'm not surprised there are no witnesses and the problem with fires, is that the evidence is often destroyed by the fire."
Georgie glances over her shoulder when the door opens and Charlie enters. "Wow, cutting it a bit fine there Senior."
"I still have five minutes."
"For you, this is running late."
"Oh shut up."
Georgie leans in close to Charlie's face when she sits. "Are those bags under your eyes or did you not get all the soot off?"
Aden covers his grin as Charlie glares at Georgie. He had a feeling he'd get very familiar with that expression when these two were in the same room.
"Georgie, I'm sure I can find some nice files for you to be perusing," threatens Charlie.
"Fine, but you know what I'm like if I'm stuck indoors all day going over files, partner." She flashes Charlie a grin.
Shaking her head, Charlie smiles back. "God, you're going to drive me nuts."
"I'll certainly try my best."
"So what were you two discussing?"
"Aden wants to talk to the owners, you know, get his own feel for things."
"Sounds good."
"What's your take on them?" Charlie asks Aden after they'd spoken to the last owner and were driving back.
"That last one seemed evasive."
Charlie glances in the rear vision mirror at her cousin, who nodded in agreement. "When we interviewed Harvey the first time, he seemed shaken after the fire but very sure of his answers, today though, he seemed less sure."
"His business was the second fire, wasn't it?"
"That's right. Of the three, Harvey's was the only business in financial difficulty, but the insurance wouldn't have covered the losses caused by the fire."
"I'm not suspecting him of the actual arson, but this Harvey guy, there's something he's not telling us."
"Well good luck getting anything out of him," Georgie says. "Harvey Ryan is a slime ball councilman who bends and twists everything to his advantage and knows how to talk himself out of any trouble."
"Yet his business was in trouble," Aden points out.
"So are a lot of other businesses in the area. Things are kind of slow around here at the moment and Harvey's done better than most."
"Would I be right in thinking that Mr Ryan may have made enemies along the way?"
Charlie snorts. "Just about anyone who meets the guy. He was very nearly Georgie's father-in-law until Roo found out he was only dating her to try to get Alf's business."
"Alf?"
"Martha's grandfather," Georgie informs him. "He runs a charter boat business, as well as the bait shop. After one of Harvey's boats sank, he wanted Alf's boat along with the business, but Alf wouldn't sell, so slime ball made the moves on Alf's daughter to try to worm his way in that way."
"Actually, Joey mentioned Alf. I thought he worked at the Club though."
"He's part owner and does a few shifts to help out."
"So basically, anyone who has met this Harvey guy is a potential suspect?"
"Pretty much," agrees Charlie.
"What about the other two owners?"
"The Wilkins have been in the area forever and are very well respected."
"Except for Madge," pipes in Georgie. "She'd gossip her way into anyone's bad books."
"She's not that bad Georgie."
"Of course you'd say that," mutters Georgie. "She thinks the sun shines out of your arse, whereas I'm Satan's daughter."
"Any way, I don't think the Wilkins would have too many, if any enemies and the same goes for the Mitchell's."
"Maybe this arsonist doesn't need a reason to target someone other than he thinks their building might look better in flames," Georgie says.
"It's possible he has no grudge and it's something about the building itself that triggers his need to burn it down," concedes Aden. "We need to start compiling a list of potential suspects."
"Great, you can start at 'a' in the phone book, Charlie can take the middle and I'll start at 'w'."
"Don't you mean 'z'?" asks Aden.
"There aren't any surnames in the area starting with 'x', 'y' or 'z'," Charlie tells him.
"Oh right. Look, I know it seems like we don't have anything to go on and the list of potential suspects is going to be long, but we need to start somewhere and to start crossing people off the list." Both Charlie and Georgie agree. "How about we go and have lunch and then start on the list after?" Aden suggests.
"I am getting hungry," says Charlie. "Why don't we go to the club?"
Georgie's brow rises at Charlie's suggestion. She knew that Joey and Charlie were trying to just be friends, but Charlie sounded almost eager to go to the club. Georgie shakes her head, hoping she was reading too much into it and Charlie was just hungry for the food and not for one of the workers or she was just trying to prove that she could deal with being just friends. She hoped there wasn't anything more to it, because she didn't want to see her cousin get hurt again. "The club is fine with me," Georgie finally says.
"That's no surprise, any reason to see Martha," Charlie teases.
"You're forgetting the free food."
"Free for you, I just get a discount."
Georgie grins, "There has to be some advantage to sleeping with the owner."
"What are my chances of a discount?" asks Aden.
"Well, you're new here, so you may get a one off welcome discount but if you try to sleep with the owner for a freebie, I'll shoot you dead."
Aden turns in his seat, a little unnerved to see that Georgie seemed completely serious. "She's joking Aden," Charlie tells him. "Besides, if you made the moves on Martha, it would be Martha who made you regret it."
"I think I'll stick with the discount."
"Wise choice."
Aden glances at Watson again, smiling wryly at the amused look she gave him. Shaking his head, he settles back in his seat, his time in Summer Bay becoming more interesting by the day.