Georgie had barely pulled the car into traffic when Joey started. "Georgie, about."
"Joey," she cuts her off. "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but if you're going to start on about Charlie, don't bother, because I really don't want to talk about her."
"Ok," Joey replies lightly. "So, other than the person we cannot talk about, how are you today Georgie?"
A smile tugs at her lips. "Nice try."
"What?" Joey says innocently.
"By asking me how I am, you're still trying to get me to talk about Charlie because you think how I am today will be related to my fallout with Charlie."
"I have no idea what you mean."
"Are you always like this?"
"Quite possibly," Joey quips. "You didn't actually answer my question."
"Well, despite the situation with the woman I don't want to talk about, I'm fine."
"Really?"
"Have you been talking to Martha?"
"No, why?"
"Because you're starting to sound like you have been with all this answering questions with questions and not letting up." Georgie exhales softly, her fingers tapping on the steering wheel. "Look, I know you, Ruby and Martha want the two of us to work things out, but right now, I'm still too angry and upset to think clearly about any thought of a reconciliation."
"And in the future?"
"In the future, I'm going to think twice before offering lifts."
"If you want silence, you could always dump me at the side of the road and make me walk," Joey jokes.
"That actually sounds very tempting."
"Oh please, you would never do that because you're such a softy."
"What!" Georgie exclaims loudly. "Why would you think that?"
"I've seen the way you go all ga-ga over your son and Martha."
"Last time I looked, you were neither of those, so dumping you at the side of the road is still an option."
"You're a good person Georgie, or you wouldn't have offered me a ride, especially considering I'm the girlfriend of she who won't be talked about."
"Wish others around here would see that," she mutters under her breath.
Charlie breathed a sigh of relief when Robertson finally stopped speaking. He hadn't wanted any interruptions while he spoke, which made it feel like he had been droning on forever when it was probably only ten minutes.
"Now." Charlie almost groans when he starts up again. "The information Aden's friend faxed through confirms what we already suspected, that CBJ Industries is nothing more than a dummy corporation and that Braxton is involved with it, only he's not the top dog as we first thought." Robertson turns to Aden who picks up from where he left off.
"Brax's position in CBJ is the rung below that of, well, let's just call him the president of the company and whoever this president is, has covered their tracks extremely well, so well in fact, that unless someone like Brax spills his guts, we may never find out who it is."
Charlie shuffles through the files. "Once your friend knew what to look for, the links back to Brax were traced rather easily."
"She suspects that was done deliberately, probably by our mysterious top dog. If anyone ever got suspicious and started to look into the company, they'd wade through numerous false trails before they'd eventually find the one to Brax. It was only by chance she found hints to there being someone above him."
"Maybe our guy's not as smart as he thought then," murmurs Charlie.
"She's going to keep trying to track things back to this person, but she's not all that hopeful she'll have much success."
"I wonder if Brax knows that he's basically been set up to take all the heat in this," Charlie wonders aloud.
"From all the files we've collected, it seems likely that he's aware of the set up of the company, which suggests he's either very loyal to whoever this other guy is or there's another reason why he's ok with being set up as the fall guy should the company ever come under suspicion."
"If that's the case, then he's unlikely to tell us who it is." Charlie puts the files aside. "Ok, we've now linked Brax to the company, but he has an alibi for two of the fires, so to prove he is behind the fires, we still need to link him to the arsonist," Charlie points out.
"Earlier, Graves and I spoke again to the owners of the businesses burnt down and explained that Braxton was already looking at jail time for the assault and other charges," Robertson replies, "And while Mr Ryan still isn't prepared to cooperate fully, the others have finally chosen to be a little more forthcoming. They've provided dates in which they were threatened by either Braxton or Upton and they coincide with the arsons. They've also given detailed statements to the nature of the threats, which they received just before the arsons and which became a little more threatening once their businesses had been burnt down."
"So now all we need to do, is get Brax to hand over the arsonist," Aden says.
"We found a second lot of account books in a hidden safe in the restaurant kitchen that shows Braxton's been laundering money through the restaurant and there are also suspicious payments made to a bank account in the city," Graves finally speaks up, almost surprising Charlie as the younger woman spoke so rarely. "As far as we can tell, the name on the account is an alias."
"Our arsonist?" Charlie guesses.
"It's a possibility," Robertson says, taking over again. "But it could be for other illegal activities we don't know about yet. As things stand right now though, we've got Braxton dead to rights on Ryan's assault and we have enough with these documents to get him on fraud and money laundering, so he's already looking at a lengthy stint in jail and with the arsons and Kim Hargrove's murder hanging over his head, then he either risks going down alone for the murder, or he does a deal by giving us the arsonist and gives himself a chance to see the light of freedom before he's 50." Robertson gets to his feet. "I think it's time to have another chat with Braxton."
"He posted bail hours ago so he'll probably be at the restaurant or a hotel since Leah's not his biggest fan right now," Charlie says.
"We'll try the restaurant first. When you're ready," he says, already striding out the door, followed by a silent Graves.
"I'm not sure what's more annoying, his attitude or the fact he's good at his job," Aden mutters.
"I vote for him just being plain annoying." Charlie slides her jacket on. "Let's go and arrest Brax again."