Joey hung the last of her clothes into the space Charlie had made for her in the closet. Things had gone smoothly at the hotel, which was a bit of a surprise, as after the run-in with Angelo, she'd expected an equally unpleasant encounter with her father when she went to pick up the rest of her things, but instead, she'd turned up to the hotel to find he'd checked out and left without even leaving a message. While she was happy he'd left without having another go at her for walking away from her marriage to Angelo, she felt somewhat sad that their relationship had come to this. They'd been so close once and now it came as a relief to her when she didn't see him. It didn't feel right, but she still had no intention of rushing after him or calling him. After what he'd done, it was up to him to try to make amends and she couldn't see that happening any time soon. Maybe one day though, he'll turn up on her doorstep and they could work things out, provided he accepted that her future was with Charlie.
On her doorstep. She smiled at that. This place was already feeling like home, in a way that her place with Angelo never really had or any place really, except for the home she grew up in. The other places had all been missing the most important element though - Charlie. She was everything she'd ever dreamed of and more. It was still a little hard to believe how that chance encounter all those months ago had completely changed her life; she was now living a new life, with a new love who made her feel incredibly loved and happy, she had a new job and had made new friends, even surprising ones. She and Shandi had hit it off as they gossed about Charlie over a cuppa tea when they'd gotten back here and any lingering jealousy she had once felt at the mere mention of her name, was well and truly gone and she now thought they could become quite good friends. That could make things interesting now though, with the revelation that she was Georgie's sister. Joey sighed. That entire family needed to sit down and sort everything out, Charlie included because everyone else was starting to get caught in the middle and it wasn't a comfortable place to be.
After calling her cousin, Charlie had grabbed her keys and rushed to the accident scene. Bringing her car to a stop next to Robertson's and two other squad cars that had arrived before her, she was shocked by what she saw. Martha's car had rolled down an embankment and settled onto its roof next to a large tree.
"How are they?" Charlie asked as she joined the two detectives by the overturned car. She could see Jay but there was no sign of Martha.
"Martha's still trapped in the car. She's unconscious and she's lost a lot of blood, but her pulse is steady," Robertson told her. "The boy appears to be fine."
Charlie knelt by the car and peered in. Martha was upside down, her seat belt still on, but that wasn't what held her in. The car had actually hit the tree with some impact, buckling the door and part of the dashboard, thereby trapping her legs. Even more worryingly, there was blood still pooling on the roof of the car under her.
"I've done what I can for her, but there's little more that can be done until the SES arrives to cut her out," Robertson said. "They shouldn't be too much longer in getting here."
"Martha," Charlie called out, but her friend remained silent. "Please be ok," she whispered.
"Aunty Chuck." At Jay's plaintive cry, Charlie stood, plucked the little boy from Graves' arms and hugged him tightly. "Mummy's hurt," he said tearfully.
"I know sweetie, but she's going to be fine," she assured him while running her eyes over him, amazed that he only appeared to have a scratch or two and some bruises.
"We found him half way up the embankment, still strapped into the child seat. It must have been ejected through one of the open rear windows as the car rolled," explained Graves. "He probably fell about a meter to the ground, then rolled a little till he came to a stop."
Charlie shuddered as she imagined how much worse it could have been. "Where's mama?"
"She's on her way, Jay," Charlie gently told him. She was desperately worried for her friend, but also about how this was going to affect her cousin. Martha was everything to Georgie and she was also her anchor. If the worst was to happen, no, she told herself. She wasn't going to think negative thoughts. When she saw more squad cars, the SES and an ambulance arriving, she started to walk toward the new arrivals, gently rocking Jay along the way. "Let's go see the nice paramedics," she murmured to the little boy, who despite his ordeal, was starting to nod off.
With Jay now in the care of the paramedics, Charlie rushed back down to the overturned car as the SES guys started to work on extracting Martha. She was thankful that Alf wasn't with them as he usually was. The last thing he needed was to see his granddaughter trapped like this.
"So what happened?" she asked Robertson when she rejoined him.
"Graves and I had stopped to pick up some lunch for the drive home, which is probably a good thing, because if we'd headed straight out of town, we might not have been here to help her and it could have been too late before anyone else found the car. I called 000, then you and while I stayed with Martha, Graves took the boy and had a look around." He paused for a moment, before continuing. "Charlie, this wasn't a single vehicle accident."
"Fuck," muttered Charlie. It was bad enough Martha and Jay were involved but things were really going to hit the fan when her cousin learnt that it was a hit and run.
"There are deep scratches mixed with a different coloured paint along the side of Martha's car and on the road, is a broken headlight that had to have come from another car. Graves also found some blood just over there." He pointed to where one of her officers was taking photos of the ground. "So I'm guessing our mystery driver was also hurt and at some stage, got out of their car."
"He or she will be even more hurt once Georgie gets her hands on them," she muttered. She wouldn't mind a piece of them either.
"There are skid marks a bit further down the road which suggests the other car was swerving from one side of the road to the other and was on the wrong side of the road when Martha came around the bend from the opposite direction," he continued on. "Going by the other tyre marks, it looks like Martha attempted to avoid the oncoming car, but it was too late; it side swiped her and sent her over the embankment. Of course it will be up to the accident investigation team to determine the actual details of the incident, but both Graves and I have seen our share of accidents to be able to read the situation with some degree of accuracy."
"So our second car drove Martha off the road, stopped, the driver got out and had a look, before getting back into the car and driving off without even calling 000," concluded Charlie. "Why stop and then not help though?"
"I suppose it could depend on why the driver lost control in the first place or just panicked when he or she realised how bad it was and so they ran, but we'll be sure to ask that question when we catch up with the driver."
"Did you see any sign of the other car?"
"No and I don't think we could have missed it by much. Five or ten minutes at the most."
Charlie looked at the road. There were no side roads between here and town, so if Robertson and Graves didn't see the other car, it must have been heading away from town.
"We do know that we're going to be looking for a red car with a busted headlight and scratched paintwork," Robertson said before he paused and took a deep breath. "Charlie, if you don't mind, Graves and I will take charge of the investigation." He waited, unsure how she'd handle his request and was mildly surprised when she nodded assent so quickly.
Considering how close she was to those involved, Charlie wasn't sure she could be objective, especially if the worst happened to Martha and so she didn't think she'd be the best person for the job. Besides, she had enough worries on her mind. Her cousin had already worked herself into a state after the revelations in the diner and was left incredibly distressed when she'd called her about the accident and so Charlie felt it best to be there for her, where she was most needed. "This road is used mostly by locals, so I suggest you start with them," she said.
Robertson nodded. "Hopefully the blood we found can also help us catch up with this person." He put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Charlie, we'll find the driver and Martha is family, so Georgie can count on the full support of the Force," he said and Charlie knew what he meant. Martha was the partner of a cop and that made her part of the extended family, even if her cousin sometimes felt she wasn't a part of it and it also meant that they weren't going to rest until this case was solved.
"Martha!" Charlie turned at the sound of her cousin's voice. Georgie stumbled and nearly fell down the embankment as she raced toward them as quickly as she was able.
Not wanting her cousin to see Martha like that, Charlie ran to meet her and caught her before she got too close. She struggled to hold onto Georgie as she fought to get to her girlfriend's side and for a smallish woman, her cousin was surprisingly strong. "Let me go to her Charlie!"
"Georgie, you need to let them do their job and help Martha without you getting in their way," she said gently. Charlie could feel her cousin trembling in her arms. "And Jay needs you to be there for him right now."
"I can't lose her Charlie," she wept as she ceased her struggles. Everything had gone so horribly wrong today.
"You won't lose her, because there is no way Martha would ever leave you and Jay."
"I'm sure Jack always believed he'd be there for his wife and baby, yet that didn't stop him from dying."
"Hey, don't even think like that," she said, holding her cousin more closely.
"I can't help it. I don't want her last thoughts about me, to be that she couldn't trust me."
"Martha does trust you Georgie," Charlie assured her. "She trusts you with both her heart and your son."
"I never told her about John though." She shook her head sadly, her shoulders dropping in defeat. "This is all my fault."