To their relief, Angelo had come quietly, though they'd both felt his angry resentment toward them the entire trip to the station. Now that Angelo was stewing in the interview room, Georgie had taken Charlie aside. "Georgie, I want to get this over with, so make it quick."
"You up for this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, is your mind on the suspect and not the victim?" Referring to Charlie's reluctance to leave a hurt and confused Joey behind, despite Rachel's assurances that she would be ok.
"My mind is on the job, Georgie," she assures her. "But is it wrong to want him to be guilty?"
"Personally, I'm hoping the bastard is, if it means getting rid of him, but for Joey's sake, I hope he's not. No wife deserves to be beaten by her husband."
Charlie rests her hand on her cousin's shoulder. "You ok?"
"I just hate domestic abuse cases, they're a little too close to home."
For Charlie, having grown up in a loving household, it was another reminder of their very different upbringings. "If you want to sit this out, I can get Aden or another officer to sit in for you."
"No, I have never shied away from these cases and I don't intend to now. Besides, we don't know yet if this is domestic abuse."
"Ok then, let's do this."
"Why am I under arrest?" demands Angelo before the door had even closed behind them.
"You're not under arrest," Charlie reminds him.
"Yet," Georgie adds.
"This is totally outrageous, how could you possibly think I had anything to do with my wife's assault?"
"Angelo, you know the husband is often the main suspect," Charlie points out.
"I adore my wife, why the hell would I hurt her."
"You're in a new town with a relatively new wife, a new station and for the first time, you're in charge, the pressure gets to you and you lash out."
"For fucks sake, I love my wife and I would never hurt her."
"Wow, haven't we all heard that before from people who bash their loved ones," Georgie says with some bitterness. "Always with the sorry, I never meant to hurt you, then the I love you and the promise it will never happen again, yet it always happens again."
"It never happened even once with my wife and I resent the accusation."
"Too bad," Georgie says.
"Angelo, why did you leave the station in a hurry and go home?" Charlie asks.
Caught off guard by the question, Angelo hesitates before answering. "I took a late lunch."
"You usually eat at the station."
"I needed a change of scenery and I had a few things to do, that's why I was in a hurry."
"Why not go to the club for lunch, that's where your wife works, unless you were already aware she had left work early."
"I had no idea Joey wasn't at work and the hospital was the first time I'd seen Joey since this morning."
"If Joey wasn't with you, then who were you arguing with?"
"I was home alone."
"Your neighbour reported hearing an argument coming from your house," Georgie brings up. "It was quite heated, by all accounts."
"I was home alone," Angelo repeats, cursing his nosey neighbour. "If Mrs Henderson heard anything, it was a conversation I was having on the phone."
"How do you know it was her?" Charlie takes the lead again.
"Because the old biddy sits on her front porch listening in and sticking her nose into her neighbours business and not just mine."
"This phone call, who was it with?"
"My brother Paulie," Angelo supplies, knowing his brother would cover for him, just like they always covered for each other when they needed alibis for their childhood mischief.
"You always get into loud arguments over the phone with your brother?"
"Not usually no, but there are times when Paulie does stupid things and this was one of them."
Georgie leans over to Charlie, whispering to her. "Convenient. What's a bet his brother confirms this call, even if there wasn't one."
Charlie nods, turning her attention back to Angelo. "Care to explain that?" she points to his hand. "And the hole in the wall?"
"I was angry after the call and I lost my temper."
"Seems kinds of a drastic way to lose your temper, you could have seriously damaged your hand," Charlie says, surprised he'd admitted it so easily.
"Thanks for the concern for my well being, but it was a moment of stupidity, one I don't intend to repeat."
"How do we know you didn't slam that same fist into Joey's face in a fit of temper?" demands Georgie.
Angelo's eyes narrow at her, thinking she was the second woman that day he had felt like he wanted to hit. "I love my wife and I'm not some loser who gets off on beating women."
"Let's say we believe you," Charlie continues. "What did you do after you punched a hole in the wall?"
"I needed to clear my head, so I went to the beach for some fresh air."
"Can anyone corroborate that?"
"There were people there, but I wouldn't have a clue who they were."
"No, because you haven't made much of an effort to get to know the people you're charged with protecting," Charlie thinks to herself. "Do you have any idea who would hurt your wife?" she asks.
"No. Maybe it was a burglar."
"There's not much of a window of opportunity for you to leave, Joey to arrive home to her ending up unconscious."
"Look, I don't know what happened to my wife, I wasn't there." His eyes narrow. "What were you doing at my place, Senior?" Angelo asks suddenly.
"Martha asked us to drop Joey's pay cheque off on our way back to the station," she replies, glad she did have a legitimate reason for being there, even though it wasn't the only reason.
Angelo sits back, crossing his arms. "I didn't do this to my wife, so either charge me or I'm walking out of here to go to the hospital to see my wife."
"I wouldn't advise that."
"Excuse me?"
"We won't be laying charges just yet, but you know the procedure Angelo, you're a suspect in her assault, you can't go anywhere near her."
"This is ridiculous. She is my wife!"
"She is also the victim."
"I should make a report against you for this."
"Go ahead," she dares. "Once Area Command review the evidence and information we had available to us, I'm positive we'll have their full support."
Angelo cursed, she was right.
"Until you're cleared as a suspect, you are to stay away from Joey," Charlie reinforces it with a threat to arrest him if he went near her.
"Just find the person who did this," Angelo says, storming from the room and crashing into Aden.
Aden steps in front of Angelo when he tries to get around him. "I hope you're not in a hurry to do anything stupid like going to see Joey."
"Back off…oof," his breath is knocked out of him as Aden slams him against the wall.
"If I find out you did this, you'll regret it." He lets Angelo go and straightens up his collar for him. "Just remember that."
Keeping a tight rein on his anger when he really wanted to lash out, Angelo walks away without a word. "So did he do it?" Aden asks the cousins.
They look at each other and shrug. "The evidence suggests he's a likely suspect," says Charlie.
"And he was definitely lying to us," adds Georgie.
"What's your gut telling you?"
"I don't think he did it," Charlie admits.
"Me neither," says Georgie.
"Then who?"
"If we believe Angelo that he left after punching the wall and Joey didn't get home until after he'd gone, it's not really leaving a lot of time for her assault to have happened," Charlie says.
"You thing he's lying though," Aden points out.
"Oh he was definitely lying. I don't believe for one second he was yelling at his brother over the phone."
"He's right about Mrs Henderson sitting on her front porch listening in," Georgie says. "But her eyesight is shit and she didn't see Angelo leaving, so if someone was there with him in the house, they could easily have left unnoticed."
"So we have a small window of opportunity for some random person to break in and assault Joey." Aden shakes his head. "It seems unlikely yet as much as I dislike the guy, I can't see him punching Joey and leaving her unconscious."
"There's still a chance that Angelo is guilty but if we're going to lay charges, we need more than what we have. He admitted to punching the wall so if he did hit her as well, there's no way to prove the bruises to his hand were from punching her and not all from the wall."
"Mrs Henderson wasn't clear if she heard a second voice or not but I bet we can prove he lied about the call to his brother if we check his mobile and landline phone records," Georgie says. "And that alibi of him going to the beach, he must know that's going to be hard to prove. We have no way of knowing who was there at the time and we can hardly interview everyone who's been there today, assuming they're all still in town."
Charlie sighs. "All we have is him lying which I'm sure given time, he'll come up with an even better lie to cover for that."
"We need Joey to remember," Georgie says. "Even if she can't remember the actual assault, if she can remember enough to place Angelo there at the time, it pretty much blows him out of the water."
"That's if he did do this." Charlie glances at her watch. "We can't do anything more tonight and Martha will kill me if I don't let you go home."
"Home, what is that?" Georgie says, not even bothering to stifle a yawn.
"Home is where you should be," her girlfriend says from the doorway.
"Martha, what are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you that. You were supposed to be off duty hours ago."
"I would have been if you hadn't sent Casanova there on an errand to Joey's, so really, this is."
"My fault," Martha finishes for her.
"I'm really tired right now, so I'm going to shut up before I put my foot in it."
Charlie sniggers at her cousin, only to wipe the smile from her face when Martha stares at her. "You're her senior officer Charlie and you know how long she's been on duty, you should have ordered her home and while we're at it, Rachel reminded me of your promise."
"What promise?"
"To take it easy."
"Oh, right."
"God, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall," she complains in exasperation. "Is it really so hard for either of you to take care of yourself."
"That's what we have you for Martha," Georgie says with a grin.
"If I didn't love you I could throttle you for the worry you put me through. You've been awake for two days Georgie and poor Jay is wondering what you look like after this absence."
"I'm sorry Martha, you're right, I should have sent Georgie home and gotten another officer to step in."
Martha nods, appeased by Charlie's apology. "I checked in on Joey and Rachel's given her the all clear after the scans."
"Thank god," Charlie says.
"I wasn't sure what was happening with Angelo, so I invited Joey to spend the night, I hope you don't mind?" she says to her girlfriend.
"Nah, it's fine."
"Come on, you look like death warmed up, I'll put you to bed and then pick up Joey from the hospital."
"Martha, can you tell Joey that I'm thinking of her."
"Of course. You should get home yourself Charlie, Ruby will be wondering where you are."
"She's staying over at Nicole's tonight and I'll be out of here once I finish up a couple of things."
"Make sure she doesn't stay too long Aden."
"Will do."
Angelo paced like a caged animal. He'd arrived home half hoping Joey would be waiting for him, instead all he had was a message on the machine informing him she was staying overnight with her friends. He paused to look at the remnants of the answering machine, which had come off looking worse for wear after he'd thrown it against the wall. Everything was going wrong and he was cursing the day he'd come to this place. It should have been a time of great joy with a wife he adored and a new career opportunity, instead it was all falling apart. How anyone could think he'd hurt his wife was beyond him and he resented the accusation. He just hoped Joey didn't buy into it. "Fuck that bitch," he fumes. "It's all her fault," his mind going back to the phone call from Bianca demanding that he meet her at his home. He hadn't wanted the bitch anywhere near the home he shared with his wife but she hadn't given him much choice, threatening to talk to Joey if he didn't meet with her, so he'd rushed out of the station and things had only gotten worse when he arrived and she showed him the pictures of them together doing all sorts of sexual things and if that wasn't bad enough, there were ones of him snorting coke. It was enough to ruin his marriage and quite possibly his career and the bitch seemed quite willing to do just that unless he paid up. He really shouldn't have been surprised she'd stoop to setting him up and blackmailing him, he couldn't expect much more from a whore but he had little choice now but to pay up. She was just lucky she'd left when he punched the wall because it had really been her he wanted to hit.
He flopped onto the couch. He actually didn't think Joey would believe he'd hit her but the photos were another matter and considering the reason why she married him, he doubted she'd stay with him once she found out about the sex and drugs. "Unless my plan has worked," he says aloud. Not long after their marriage he'd sensed her doubts so he'd set in motion a plan to tie them together forever. He knew Joey didn't want children, yet he also knew the moment she held a little version of herself in her arms, she'd be as happy as him which was why he'd been tampering with her contraceptive pills since about two months into their marriage. Things may have been a little lax in the sex department lately but he was desperately hoping that with the amount of unprotected sex they'd been having before was enough to ensure she was already carrying his baby. "Please let her be pregnant," he begged. Family was important to both of them and with a baby in the picture, Joey would be his; she wouldn't leave him even if she knew about the affair and instead would work with him to save their marriage and as no contraceptive came with a 100% guarantee, he was confident he could convince her that the baby was a sign they were meant to be together. He grins, excited by the prospect of being a father and having Joey forever.
Standing on the other side of the door, Joey asks who was there.
"It's me, Charlie." She smiles a little shyly when Joey opens the door. "I was driving past on my way home, saw the light on and I wanted to check on you."
"Come in but we should be quiet, Georgie and Martha are asleep."
Charlie walks into the house, feeling unbelievably nervous for some reason. "Did they tell you about Angelo?"
"Martha told me what she could from what Georgie told her before she fell asleep but I know Angelo didn't hurt me."
"Do you remember anything, like arguing with him?"
"No and things are becoming clearer so I think I'd remember arguing with my husband."
"Maybe." She really was starting to think Angelo was innocent, at least of hurting his wife. "Any way, I really just wanted to check on you and you seem ok, so I'll head off home."
"Thanks for checking up on me and I am fine, aside from a sore head."
Charlie nods. "Righto, I'll be going then."
"Charlie," Joey's call making Charlie pause at the door. "Did you mean it?"
"Mean what?" she asks, turning to face Joey.
"Back at my place, you said you loved me."
Charlie blushes bright red. "You heard that?"
"I thought I did."
"You did," she admits, taking a deep breath. "I do love you Joey, more than I've ever loved," her words are cut off by Joey who'd quickly closed the distance and captured her lips.
"That's good," Joey murmurs between kisses, "Because I'm in love with you Charlie, I think I have been from the moment we met and I first lost myself in your eyes."
Charlie leans back with Joey in her arms, gazing in hope at her, hardly daring to believe her dream may be about to come true. "Does this mean?"
"I want us to be together, Charlie."