Joey set the glasses on the counter and filled them with the apple cider. The bus load of tourists had come and gone, so now apart from a few regulars, the place was practically empty and so quiet you could actually hear yourself think. It was exactly how Joey wanted it for the moment, at least until the evening rush began, which thankfully, she wasn't on shift for.
She picked up her glass and waited for Aden to pick up his. She tried not to smile too much at how awkward he looked with his bandaged hands pressed firmly to either side of his glass.
"What?" said Aden when he saw her ghost of a smile.
"Just remembering how you used to hold your glass exactly like that whenever you'd had a few too many."
"You weren't much better."
"There was only that one time."
"And a very memorable one at that."
"Funny, I can't seem to remember it at all," drawled Joey. It was the one time she'd gotten so blind drunk, she really couldn't remember any of it, though her friend never shirked his responsibility in reminding her about it. When it best suited him to do so.
"You know Joey, I'm pretty sure there are a few photos floating around of it somewhere, that we could probably track down to help prod your memory of that night."
"Bullshit," she said.
"Yeah you're right, there aren't any photos or videos," he said. He was confident there weren't any, because they would have surfaced well before now, but he also knew, as he'd made damn sure to delete the ones he'd seen a so-called friend take. He'd just never told Joey about that particular little detail. "It's a pity about there being no photographic evidence though," said Aden, playing it up for his friend. "Because your Britney Spears impersonation was magnificent."
Joey cringed. "I didn't do Britney," she muttered.
"You didn't do her, do her," he said with a suggestive grin. "But you definitely impersonated her."
"I still don't believe that ever happened," she said. "I hate Britney and her music, so why in the hell would I ever impersonate her?"
"It's a well known fact that alcohol releases your inhibitions," Aden told her. "So you'll just have to take my word on the truth of your magnificent performance that night."
"Not likely," she said. "In fact, let's just forget about it completely."
"Well, since you already have, then I suppose I could also forget about it," he teasingly said.
Joey scowled at him, knowing full well he'd find a way to bring it up yet again in the future. "I should just feed you to the vultures now and be done with it," she muttered.
"Oh please no," Aden said in mock terror. "I'd be a carcass in seconds." He glanced toward the doors of the Club. "I'm a little surprised that they're still out there and not in here where you are."
"A couple tried earlier," Joey informed him. "Then they met Alf and had a change of heart."
"Ah, that explains it then," he said. "Pity there's no way to shoo them away from out there as well."
"Can't have it all our own way, I suppose," murmured Joey. "And as long as I can get some peace from them, then I'm ok." She raised her glass. "How about a toast to our media free zone," Joey said and clinked her glass to Aden's.
"Except for Belle of course," he said.
"Of course," said Joey. "Where is Belle by the way?"
"Making a few phone calls," he replied. "She'll be here shortly though."
"How is she coping with all of this," asked Joey. "It can't be easy for her, to be involved with the media during the biggest case to hit this town in a long time and also to be related to one of the key suspects."
"Tell me about it," he muttered. "She's pissed as hell right now, because aside from being worried sick about her sister being in the thick of it, her boss now expects her to use her position to get the exclusive on the investigation," he told her. "Even wants her to get the ball rolling by interviewing Georgie and reporting on all the juicy parts of her past."
"How in the hell could he ask that of her?"
"He played the whole 'it's the responsibility of a journo to be unbiased and to report the news without your personal opinion influencing it'."
"For fuck's sake, Georgie is her sister, not a stranger," a disgusted Joey said.
"That's what Belle told her boss, which was when he played the responsibility of the journo's card."
"Unbiased and not influenced by personal opinion isn't exactly how I'd describe a lot of those articles in that paper she writes for," Joey said.
"Yeah, well anyway, Belle's pissed and pretty disillusioned by it all," Aden said. "She loves her job and now she's being threatened with the sack if she doesn't come through on the story."
"That's just not right," murmured Joey.
"This position Belle is now in, is part of the reason why she wanted to try her luck working in the city," he said. "It was to avoid having to comment on people she'd known most of her life and to be put into situations like this, where she's expected to put career before family."
"He can't really sack her if she doesn't want to do this, can he?"
"He could argue she wasn't fulfilling the role she was hired for, but then Belle could go him for unfair dismissal if she really wanted to and I honestly can't see any tribunal upholding his decision to sack her, given Belle's extremely personal connection to the case," he explained.
"What does Belle plan to do?"
"Call his bluff for starters," replied Aden. "But if he doesn't back down and it comes to a choice between a job she loves and Georgie, then it's not even a contest," he said. "Georgie has always been there for Belle and she idolises her sister and there is absolutely no way Belle would ever be party to anything that would hurt her or make her look bad in any way."
"What a fucked up mess this is," muttered Joey.
"Damn right it is."
"Who was that?" Watson asked her cousin upon returning to the Station from her earlier call out.
"I'm not sure what her name is," replied Charlie. "But she is here to see Robertson, so I assume it's something to do with the investigation."
Both women watched as the redhead was met by Robertson and Graves, before the trio disappeared into one of the interview rooms.
"I've seen her around town a couple of times in the last few days."
"Same here," said Charlie. Putting her curiosity about the other woman aside for the moment, Charlie asked her cousin how the call out went.
"No break in," Watson said. "Turns out it was a technical fault in the alarm system that set it off."
"Well that's good."
"Yeah, the owners were definitely relieved that it was nothing more than a technical glitch and on the plus side for me, it means I have less paperwork to deal with," replied Watson. "I just wish the fault had been found before we had started to process the scene and interview the neighbours. It would have saved us a heap of time."
"At least it kept you away from that mob out there," Charlie said with a point of a finger in the direction of the gathering parked on their front step.
"That certainly was a bonus."
"Um Georgie, can we have a quick talk in my office?"
"That sounds ominous," murmured Watson as she followed her cousin into the office and closed the door behind her.
"We didn't get a chance to speak earlier about your interview with Robertson," said Charlie. "How did it go in there, because I got the impression that he really is gunning for you."
"It went about as expected," she replied. "I'm right at the top of the suspect list and my mouth nearly got the better of me once or twice, so no real surprises there," Watson said with a wry smile. "He even brought up the fact that this isn't the first time I've been a murder suspect."
"He did what!" barked Charlie in anger.
"I figured he'd probably try to slip that one in there, but Morag shut him down just as quickly."
"He had no right to even bring it up in the first place," Charlie said. "Not when Robertson knew all along that it was your stepfather who was responsible for lying about you and for your mother's murder."
"Come on Charlie, we've both been on the other side where we've used whatever information was available to us as a way to try to throw a suspect off their game," Watson said. "And as angry as I was at Robertson for bringing it up, I have to accept that it was just one bit of my past that is going to be fodder for Robertson and others to use against me."
As much as Charlie wanted to disagree, she couldn't. It was how things were usually done, with the only difference being now, that the two of them were on the other side of it. "Georgie, how are you doing right now?" asked Charlie.
"Honestly, right now, I'm not sure," she admitted. "Half the time I feel like I'm running on nothing but fumes and the other times, I'm just so angry and frustrated that all this shit just keeps piling on top of me."
"I'm here with a shovel, if you need any help to get rid of the shit," Charlie offered with a small smile.
"Thanks Chuck."
"On second thoughts," murmured Charlie. "I think that shovel might be lost."
"No fair Chuck."
"I hate that name."
"I know that Chuck," Watson said with a beaming grin.
Charlie just rolled her eyes. She really did hate that name, but if these brief light hearted diversions helped her cousin to get her mind off things for even a short time, then she was willing to put up with it.
"So Chucky, what's for dinner tonight?"
"Oh god," muttered Charlie. She just knew she was going to be very Chuck'd out by the time this was all over, especially since Jay also loved to use that name so much.
"John, would you please stop pacing the office," Gina said. "It's very distracting."
"I'm just worried about my daughter." He'd already heard some of the things being said about her and he'd been quizzed by journalists, both about his confrontations with Angelo and his relationship with his daughter. He wanted to tell them all where to go, but that would just make it worse, so he was having to bite his tongue around them to keep quiet. "They're after her Gina," he said.
"Georgie will be fine," she said in a soothing tone. "She wasn't responsible for this."
"We both know that, but she's such an easy target for the media and the police."
"Morag is on the case now and Georgie has plenty of people who care about her and will ensure she's looked after."
"I just feel like I've continually failed her by not being there for her," he murmured softly.
"You haven't failed her at all," Gina assured him. "You were kept from her and then when you learnt the truth, you've done everything possible to be there for her, even after all of Georgie's repeated rejections and under the circumstances, you've managed to support her as best you can."
"I don't think I can ever forgive her mother for what she did," he muttered. "I should have been a part of my daughter's life from the beginning."
"No fucking comment!"
Both John and Gina turned to see Shandi striding into his office at the Surf Club.
"My god, those people are utterly shameless," Shandi said to them. "One prick actually had the nerve to ask me if I killed Angelo as a way to get into my sister's good books." She shook her head in disgust and John smiled. It was times like this when he was able to see the similarities between his two daughters. Georgie may not appreciate the comparison, but he did. "Unbelievable. I mean, how did those shameless shits even find out about us all so quickly?"
"It's Summer Bay dear," Gina said. "The media will have little trouble getting the information they want from the usual town sources."
"Totally shit information," she said.
"Then we'll just have to correct them when we can."
"How can you be so calm?" Shandi asked of her stepmother.
"Palmer blood has a tendency to boil quite strongly, so as someone who married into the family, it's up to me to be the sane one," she calmly replied.
Shandi stared at her for a moment, then chuckled. She and her father could be pretty hot tempered at times. Her sister included. "So, who do you think bumped off that awful bastard Angelo?"
"A man with that sort of personality and who behaved as Angelo did, would no doubt have pissed off a lot of people over time and any one of them could have killed him," said Gina.
"That's just great," Shandi said. "All those people and the cops only seem to be focussing on Georgie and Charlie."
"It's early days yet," pointed out Gina. "And as much as we may not like it, Georgie and Charlie are the obvious place to start this investigation at."
"Yeah, I suppose," muttered Shandi. "But you're right, I don't like it."
"Neither do I," said John.