Shandi shrugs at Joey's hurried exit just as Charlie walks into the kitchen. "Did I hear voices?"
"Some woman was looking for you, dark hair and gorgeous eyes, I think I saw her at the hospital last night."
Charlie glances at the empty doorway, wondering why Joey had come around.
"She said she'd catch up with you later."
"Right," Charlie murmurs, having a feeling there wouldn't be any catching up later.
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"She's my boss' wife and a friend."
Going by their reactions, Shandi sensed there was something going on, but it wasn't any of her business. "Well anyway, thanks so much for the clothes and a place to stay, I totally forgot that Gina had some teachers thing in the city and dad was going with her and with the airline losing my bags," she shrugs again. "I pretty much just had the clothes on my back, so thanks again."
"It's ok. When are John and Gina due back?"
"This arvo. I wasn't due to arrive until next week but I decided to come early. Serves myself right for not calling ahead."
"How is your hand?"
"Still a little sore. Can't believe I slammed it in the car door."
"At least it wasn't broken."
"And it did lead me to you at the hospital." Shandi brushes the hair from Charlie's face. "You're looking better this morning. Do you still have a headache?"
Charlie nods. "It's not so bad now though."
"You're not going to work, are you?"
"I'm fine."
"You always say that, even if you're not. Take the day off, I'm sure your boss wouldn't mind."
Charlie rubbed her head. Her headache really wasn't that bad but she still found herself picking up her phone and calling the station.
"Constable Watson, how can I help you?"
"God Georgie, have you been there all night?"
"If it's morning, then yes, I have."
"I hope you got some rest."
"Do I sound like I have?"
"You sound like a tired, cranky bitch, which is pretty much normal."
"Ha ha. I take it if you're calling, you're intending to play hooky?"
"Yeah, I'm not feeling that great."
"You sound better than I do but considering you had your brain scrambled last night, you deserve a day off. I'll let His Majesty know."
"Thanks Georgie. Have there been any developments?" she asks.
"I meant to get back to you last night, but you were gone by the time the ME finished. Dental records confirmed it was Kim Hargrove and that he died from blunt force trauma to the head."
"Damn."
"You were lucky Charlie, the same thing that killed him was most likely used to hit you."
"I know I was extremely lucky. What about the owner, anything there?"
"I've just been going over his financials. Bruce Wright had financial problems and a very healthy insurance policy on the building and the business. Aden and I are just about to go speak to him."
"I hope we finally get some answers."
"Same here. Right, well, I'll talk to you later. Bye Charlie."
"Bye."
"Was that Georgie?"
"Yeah. She's been up all night so you might want to avoid her for a day or two," Charlie says, well aware of how her cousin felt about Shandi.
"Avoiding people in the Bay never really works because more often than not, you end up running into them even more."
"True. So, how long are you here for anyway?"
"Not sure. I'm back for Gina's birthday, but after that, who knows."
"I thought you couldn't handle living here for longer than a few days."
"That was when I had itchy feet but I've done some growing up in the past few years and there is something in the Bay I'd like to finally sort out." Admiring the way Charlie's robe had fallen open enough to reveal her lacy bra, Shandi smirks. "This brings back memories." Her hands on the belt of the robe.
"Shandi," she whispers, her nerves tingling at having Shandi so close.
"How about a stroll down memory lane?" nuzzling her neck.
"I, uh," she groans when Shandi's teeth playfully tugged on her earlobe and her robe falls to the floor. "Shandi, this is a bad idea."
"Why, is there someone in your life?"
"Do you think Charlie could be in danger?" Georgie asks Aden as they walk towards Wright's house.
"We made sure in our statement to the press this morning that we had no description of the suspect and we've yet to find evidence at the scene, which is true, we haven't found anything yet. We also don't know if he came back just to get Charlie or because he left something behind. Hargrove was not supposed to be there, so our arsonist wouldn't have been expecting him and it would have been very easy for him to panic and leave something behind that he had to come back for."
"If he did leave something, he took it when he came back." Georgie pauses just before they reach the front door.
"What is it?"
"I'm not sure," she says, walking toward the sound. "Oh please no," she mutters, having a very bad feeling as the sound became clearer the closer she got to the garage. Opening the door, she coughs at the fumes pouring out. "Well this sucks," murmurs Georgie when she checked Wright's pulse and found none. "I should have spoken to him again last night."
"Georgie, other than a hunch, you had nothing more to go on until we'd checked into things this morning." Aden looks at the body. "You also had no way to know he'd kill himself."
An hour later, the ambulance with the body was driven away and Georgie and Aden were left to explain things to Angelo, who hadn't been impressed when he'd learnt they hadn't informed him about a potential suspect.
"It was just a hunch I had," Georgie argues.
"I should have been informed about this last night or at least before you came to interview him."
"This is my investigation Angelo, I make the decisions and I don't need to explain them to you," Aden says with as much emphasis as possible.
"And this is my town and she is my officer." Angelo takes a calming breath when he notices a reporter hovering just behind them. "At least it looks like we got our arsonist."
Both Georgie and Aden stare at Angelo after his statement. "How do you figure that?" Georgie asks.
"He knew we were closing in, he felt guilty about taking a life, so he killed himself."
"He knew more than he was letting on but this isn't our serial arsonist," Georgie argues. "He doesn't even match the profile."
"Oh, and just when did you become such an expert?"
"Since I looked into this guy and found out he was in surgery when the second fire was being lit. I'd say being under the surgeon's knife is a hell of an alibi."
"If he's not our arsonist, why did he kill himself?" demands Angelo.
"Why don't you let us investigate and then we can get some answers instead of making assumptions," suggests Aden, not willing to share his theory with him.
"Just solve it before we have another body."
"What a jerk," Belle says from behind them. "Care to comment?"
"Nothing you'd be able to print. What are you doing here Belle?"
"Do you really need to ask Georgie?"
"Oh right. No comment."
"Georgie."
"Look Belle, we're in the middle of an investigation, we can't really tell you anything."
"At least tell me if this was suicide or staged as a suicide."
"That will be up to the ME to determine."
"Are you being extra stubborn because you don't want to be seen showing favouritism to your sister?"
"She told the same to the other reporters," Aden says in her defence. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have an investigation to conduct."
Belle watched them walk away, wondering if she'd ever get a break on her first big story.
"Honey, you look wasted," Martha says when Georgie and Aden walk into the club just after noon.
"I am," she says through a big yawn. "I hate working doubles."
Martha wraps her arms around her waist. "I hate you working doubles too, so does Jay, he misses his mama in the morning."
"I miss him too."
"Nice to see you out of your death bed Charlie," Aden teases Charlie who was seated at a table near the bar.
"News of my imminent death was greatly exaggerated," she fires back good naturedly. "My headaches pretty much gone so I was planning on going to work after lunch."
"Take the whole day Charlie."
"I want to get this guy Aden and I can't do that at home."
Aden nods. "We found out a few things, but we'll wait until we're back at the station to fill you in."
"Oh shit, what is she doing here?" Georgie asks when Shandi walks toward Charlie's table.
"Easy there," Martha murmurs in her ear, making sure she had a good grip on her girlfriend's waist. Martha always found it slightly amusing that Georgie held Gina in such high regard, even let her mother her at times, yet when it came to Gina's family, Martha felt it was a struggle for Georgie not to physically attack them. She never quite understood Georgie's animosity toward John, but with Shandi, she did understand; she was the school bully who liked to torment everyone and she was particularly cruel to Georgie, especially after the whole Angie Russell incident in class. And as for Hugo, he'd earned his place on both their shit list.
"Don't worry, I won't kill her," Georgie says, before adding, "At least not in this place." After the recent trouble with Angelo and her dyslexia, the torment she suffered at the hands of Shandi was fresh in her mind. "What the hell is Charlie doing with her though?"
"They did date for nearly a year and they're just catching up, at least that is what Charlie told me when they came in together."
"Where's Joey?" Aden asks.
"She went out for fresh air about 15 minutes ago."
"How long have Charlie and Shandi been here?" Georgie asks with a glance at the couple in question.
"About 16 minutes."
Aden sighs. He wasn't sure what had happened or where Shandi featured in all of this, but it looked like his friend might need him. "I'm going to go look for Joey."
Finding Joey sitting on the end of the pier with her feet dangling over, Aden sits down next to her, waiting for her to speak.
"I'm losing my way Aden," Joey says after a few minutes of silence. "I'm married but I can't stop thinking of another."
"Charlie's really gotten to you, hasn't she?"
Joey nods. "I should have listened to my heart the morning of the wedding instead of ignoring it and now I've pushed Charlie into the arms of another."
"So what do you intend to do?"
"I've made a commitment to Angelo and Charlie is moving on," she shrugs.
"Even if you can't be with Charlie, do you really want to stay in a marriage that you don't seem that keen to be in?"
"Earlier, I had all but convinced myself to end my marriage regardless of what happened with Charlie, but then I saw that woman and now I'm too confused to make any big decision."
Next Chapter: Charlie panics when she finds Joey unconscious and warns Aden not to trust Georgie when a name from her past is linked to the investigation.