So things are going to get interesting yeahhh?
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"Charlie this is awesome," Ruby admired each of the rooms in their house. The kitchen was quite large, painted yellow accompanied with a table and chairs. "Can I pick my room?" She led Charlie by the hand from the kitchen into the adjoining living room. "Wow I didn't think it'd be equipped with furniture and stuff?" she admired and large leather sofa's before flinging her body upon the largest.
"I have to admit I didn't think it was going to be this nice." Charlie surveyed the contents of the room; flat screen TV, wooden floor, a few nice pictures hanging on the walls. It was gorgeous.
"Ok I'm checking out the bedrooms." Ruby hopped up presuming Charlie would follow.
Charlie stayed in the living room for a few moments longer, a smile small spreading across her lips. This was a new start and so far so good.
"Charlie can I have the one with the en-suite?"
"What?" Charlie followed Ruby down the corridor to inspect the bedrooms.
She found Ruby inside the first room looking out the window, Charlie stood beside her. They could see the beach in the distance.
Ruby's excitement was aroused once again. "This is basically on the beach!"
"You can have this room then if you want, I don't mind using the main bathroom," Charlie went to the door "Come on lets do some unpacking we need to get groceries and I'm starving."
"Can we get something to eat after unpacking?"
"Sure." Charlie winked and went to get some boxes and suitcases from the car.
Two hours later with the majority of the unpacking done, they decided it was time for lunch. They hadn't got around to getting the groceries, and knowing it would do them good to see the town, they went in search of a café.
They walked together along the beach hoping they'd eventually come across somewhere to getlunch. "Isn't it great to be able to get some fresh air?" Ruby sighed and inhaled deeply.
"Yeah, it's lovely," Charlie kicked the sand aimlessly as they walked along. There was a sign post for a diner a few hundred metres ahead.
"And think of the amazing tan we're going to get spending so much time on the beach?" Ruby glanced down at her arms to see if the sun was having any effect on them yet.
When Charlie didn't reply, Ruby turned to face her.
Charlie was looking at her with one eyebrow raised.
Ruby got the message "Fine fine, we won't be spending any time on the beach except at weekends. Is that what you want to hear?"
Charlie chuckled as she gently shoved Ruby "Yeah that's more like it."
"Now come on I'm starving." Ruby dragged Charlie into the diner.
"You take a table and I'll get us something to eat. What would you like?" Charlie asked.
"Am…"
"Come on Rubes."
"Ahh.." Ruby was oblivious to Charlie's impatience.
"Right a chicken salad wrap now go take a seat." Charlie left her sister go find a table while she queued at the counter.
Charlie took a quick glance around at the customers in the diner, wondering which ones were locals, and wondering if her 'job' was there.
"You alright love?" A young dark haired waitress appeared behind the counter.
"Oh am," Charlie was startled by her kindness; this was obviously a tightly knit community "Can I have a chicken salad wrap, and a tuna salad wrap please and two freshly squeezed orange juices."
"No problem love, if you take a seat I'll bring it over when it's done." Leah smiled sweetly at the new face, thinking maybe she could be a new resident, if so the male population of Summer Bay would most likely be in heat once they spotted her.
"Thanks." Charlie went and sat opposite Ruby.
"This is a cute little place isn't it?" Ruby looked around as she waited for her lunch.
"Yeah, so far so good." Charlie followed her sister's line of view, and smiled discretely when her gaze settled upon a group of young sun kissed teenage boys.
"Here you go," Leah placed the plates in from of the two new customers.
"Thank you." The younger girl smiled.
"No problem, enjoy, let me know if you want dessert or anything." Leah smiled at both of them and returned to her kitchen duties.
Charlie and Ruby ate in silence; their hunger consuming them.
"That was yum but I think I have some room for some… I don't know maybe chocolate cake?"
"Where you hide all that food I never know."
Ruby went up to the counter to order her dessert.
"Hey," she showed off her white toothed smile "Can I please have a piece of chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream?"
"Of course you can, give me two minutes." Leah replied to the teenage girl.
"My sister will pay on the way out."
Charlie sat back while Ruby devoured her chocolate cake. She observed the people walking by and speculated if she would become friendly with any of them over the coming months.
As Ruby finished off her dessert Charlie went to pay.
"Hey, am here's the docket." Charlie handed it to the older lady, and felt a bit uneasy under her intense stare.
"Why thank you," Colleen accepted the piece of paper, but didn't progress into calculating the bill. After all her staring Colleen asked boldly. "Are you new around here?"
Charlie was caught off guard; she wasn't expecting to be interrogated so soon after their arrival.
"Ah yes, my sister and I just moved here." Charlie wasn't sure where to look.
"Well isn't that lovely." Colleen continued to stare at the unfamiliar face waiting for more information.
"Colleen will you stop grilling the customers?" Leah appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.
"I'm sorry love, please excuse Colleen subtlety has never been her strong point," Leah stared down at the small woman.
"Its ok, don't worry about it." Charlie appreciated the dark haired girls rescue.
"It's nice to meet you?" Colleen went to shake Charlie's hand obviously using this as a means to find out her name.
"Charlie. My name is Charlie." She shook her hand.
"Welcome to Summer Bay Charlie." Leah said genuinely.
"I'm Colleen and this is Leah."
"Nice to meet you both and this," Charlie jumped feeling someone pinch her sides, knowing it could only be one person "Is Ruby."
"Hey." Ruby waved lightly at the two ladies in aprons.
"Well we better go for now, thank you for the food it was gorgeous. I guess I'll see you around."
"Bye." Ruby chimed and left the diner with her sister.
"Well aren't you sociable one, making little friends already." Ruby cooed at Charlie.
"Shut up Rubes." Charlie shook her head and wrapped an arm around her sister as they walked back home to finish off the unpacking.
Later that evening after most of the boxes had been emptied, the decorating of their bedrooms was almost complete and their house was beginning to look like a home, Ruby reclined on the sofa for the evening.
"I dunno about you Charls but I'm wrecked." Ruby kicked off her flip flops and stretched her body the length of the leather sofa and used the remote control to flick through the television channels."
Charlie leant against the door frame, arms crossed. "Will you be ok here for a little while, I need to meet up with the detective, he's after coming down to meet me. And we need to chat about my job as well Rubes, once I find out some more ok?"
"Yeah that's cool, I could be in bed when you get back so I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Ok," Charlie checked the time on her mobile "I better go, see you soon Rubes." Charlie blew her a kiss and grabbed her keys.
After some time driving around Charlie found 'The Surf Club', she made her way inside and scanned the crowd until she recognised the detective sitting at small table. She ordered a bottle of beer and sat across from him.
"Charlotte, you made it here safely." He smiled broadly at her, and took a swig from his bottle.
"Yeah, we did. Seems like a nice place and please, call me Charlie."
"Charlie it is. I brought some files for you to look over in your own time. I'm aware your sister moved here with you?"
"Yeah she did, the department said it wouldn't be a problem?" Charlie hesitated slightly, it was too late now.
"No, no, shouldn't be a problem. You'll need to keep her informed of course and make sure she knows what you're doing, but most importantly you have to make sure she's trustworthy Charlie. We can't have anyone jeopardising this operation."
"I understand completely. You have nothing to worry about, Ruby knows she'll be back with Dad in no time if she doesn't behave herself, she'll keep a low profile."
"Good. Well start with the questions then."
"Ok, so am I going to have a day job?"
"We've decided for the moment no. You can say you're searching for one but at the moment you're taking time off to help your sister settle in. Initially we were going to have you work at the station but that would raise too many questions."
"Yeah people would definitely get suspicious and if I'm trying to get people to confide in me, well… It might be hard to get them to do just that while I'm wearing a police uniform." Charlie agreed with the detective, he seemed to be quite an intelligent man.
"Exactly, plus this will give you the time to work on your own agenda and do what you think is best."
"Good… I have so many questions," Charlie laughed nervously. "Why don't you give me a briefing and then I'll ask questions, it'd be a lot quicker?"
"Ok, well he's a thirty two year old male. You'll need to be patient with him because he isn't the most kind and loving man there is. I advise that for the beginning you just make yourself present where he's most likely to be without being too obvious. You'll most likely find him here in the evenings. It would work to your advantage if you try and make some friends that way you won't look out of place sitting in a pub. The people here are generally kind so that shouldn't be a problem. You…" he paused trying to find the right words "are aware things might reach an… intimate level with this man aren't you?"
Charlie smiled at his concern "Yes, it's all part of the job I understand that."
"Great. We'll meet for regular talks about how things are progressing and inform you of any extra information we might have. I think the best thing to do for the moment is to take each day as it comes and don't come on too heavy."
"Play it cool, I've got it." Charlie listened appreciatively, taking in any tips he had to offer.
"For the first couple of weeks just concentrate on trying to make a good impression- although I'm sure that won't a problem once he sees you."
Charlie blushed.
"And when do you want me to start getting information from him?"
"Well we'll wait and see how things go, but not for a while anyway. This is our last chance. From now on we'll communicate by telephone and email, and then meet up somewhere discrete when needs be ok? "
"That's fine with me. Is there a picture in here so I can see him?" Charlie pointed to the files on the desk.
They were distracted by loud shouting and jeering, the detective smiled to himself as he spotted a group of drunken men enter the Surf Club.
Using his bottle he indicted to one of the men standing a few metres behind Charlie. "Charlie Buckton, meet Brett Collins."