Just metres from a power pole, Joey managed to regain her senses in spite of the pain in her shoulder, and only just narrowly avoided a head-on collision with the pole. Both women winced when the side of the car scraped the pole, sparks flying everywhere.

"Joey, pull over," Charlie said.

"We can't stop," Joey told her. "We need more distance between us."

"Fine, then I'll drive," she said.

"I can do it."

"Until the next pole you can't avoid," Charlie said. "You're losing blood Joey, now swap over before you pass out and kill us both," she ordered as she reached for one of Joey's bags from the back seat. Searching through it, she pulled out a t-shirt. "Here, get that onto your wound."

Joey didn't put up a fight. Charlie was right, she wasn't in any condition to be driving just now. They switched positions and Joey tried to ignore the pain as she applied pressure to the bullet hole. It had been a lucky shot, or from her point-of-view, fucking unlucky.

"They're coming, Charlie," she warned.

Charlie peered in the rear-vision mirror. Their pursuers were already in their car. Time was running out. She put the car into gear and lurching into action. She'd studied the maps of the town just in case they'd needed a quick getaway, and while she wished that wasn't the case, she was glad she'd done it, because she knew exactly where to go to lose them.

Casey stared at his phone. Kyle had remained at the Diner, awaiting the return of the others, and then hopefully, to get them out of town and away from Casey as quickly as possible. Even once they were gone, Casey knew he couldn't stay. They'd gotten too close because he'd stayed too long, and now it was time to leave. The phone in his hand felt heavy. He should just pack his stuff up, tell Alf he had to move on and go. Easy. Except something was holding him back. No, it was someone who was holding him back. His finger hovered over the screen on his phone. Ruby deserved a proper goodbye, but he feared seeing her one last time might lead him into doing something rash.

"Ok, thanks for the heads up, Const. Garner," Graves said, then hung up her phone. "Come on Dex, there's been shots fired on the edge of town."

"Casualties?"

"None reported," she told him.

"Is it linked to our missing women?" he asked as he followed after her.

"Unknown at this stage," she replied. "We need to check it out though."

"What about Robertson?"

"I'll call him on the way," Graves said. She really hoped this was a false alarm or related to some other incident, because if Braxton's goons were here, and they had taken aim at their missing women, then things were about to get a whole lot worse than they already were.

Twenty minutes, and many turns later, there was clear road behind them. They'd lost them. For the moment at least.

"Take the next left, it'll take us out of the town," Joey said. It was a different direction to which she'd originally planned to leave by, but it would still take them away from Yabbie Creek, and the cops.

"We're going out of town, but not that way," Charlie said. "I'm taking you to the hospital, then I'm calling the station at Yabbie Creek."

"No you're not," Joey told her. "No cops, no hospital."

"You've been shot Joey, you need medical attention, whether I call the cops or not."

"The hospital has to report gunshot wounds," Joey pointed out. "No cops, no hospital," she repeated.

"I can't let you bleed to death on me, Joey," she said, unable to hide the worry in her voice. For all her anger at Joey, she was now terrified of her dying and losing her forever.

"It's not that bad," said Joey. "It's a through and through," she said. "I just need to stop the bleeding."

"And how do you expect to do that, and to avoid possible infection, without the proper medical supplies."

"There," Joey said.

"Where?" Charlie said, surveilling each side of the road for whatever Joey was looking at.

"The Veterinary clinic," Joey told her. She'd much rather they put as much distance between them and this town as quickly as they could, but Joey knew she couldn't risk losing too much blood and passing out. It'd all be over for her if that happened.

"It looks like they're already closed for the night," Charlie pointed out as they neared the building.

"Perfect," said Joey.

Charlie shook her head at her. "No, this is stupid," she told her. "I'm taking you to the hospital."

"Don't make me do it, Charlie," Joey warned her.

"Do what?"

"Pull my gun on you."

Charlie knew it was pointless to say she wouldn't dare, when she knew damn well Joey would dare. She'd already pulled the gun on her before, what's one more time.

"Fine," Charlie muttered, then she cursed under her breath when she realised she'd left the bag behind. The bag that could bring down the entire Braxton empire was now likely in their hands, thanks to her. She'd not only fucked up, she'd fucked up big time.

"Well, it looks like someone brought a knife to a gunfight," Graves murmured as she peered down at the weapon. There was blood on the blade and drops of blood on the ground around it. She feared whose blood would be identified on it. "Who called it in?" she asked the Constable who was about the same age as her.

"John Palmer, he lives just up the road from here," Teri Garner replied.

"Did he see anything?"

"Two cars speeding out of here," she said. "The colour from one matches the paint left on the wheelie bin," Teri told her. "John heard the car hit the bin and a screech of tyres, but just assumed it was the neighbour's kid hooning again," she explained. "Minutes later, he heard a long car horn, then the gunshots. He called it in, then came outside to have a look."

"He heard gunshots and didn't stay indoors?" said Graves. "Does he have a death wish or something?"

"No, John said it was instinctive, and that he'd wanted to make sure no one was hurt, but if he had to do it over again, he'd definitely being staying indoors til the cops arrived," she said.

"What about other witnesses?"

"It's a pretty quiet neighbourhood along here people wise," Teri replied. "Only about half the houses are currently occupied, and John was the only resident home at the time of the incident."

"Damn," muttered Graves. "Could he tell if any of the occupants in either car were female?"

"Two males in the car that was last to leave, and he was able to give a partial description of one of the men," she said. "The other car, John couldn't say, since it was already in the distance by the time he came outside," Teri said. "All he could tell us about it was that it was small, and red, possibly a Corolla or similar. We did find scratches and fresh red paint on one of the power poles up the road, along with some fragments of glass that suggests it clipped the pole as it sped off."

"Could it have been struck by bullets, and that caused it to hit the pole?"

"Possibly," replied Teri. She looked at Graves, her expression serious and concerned. "What is going on here? Is this somehow connected to that message Charlie had me send?" she asked.

"Perhaps."

"Charlie never said much, other than to pass on a message that she was safe and in Summer Bay, then you arrive at the Station, but don't tell me much, and now we have a bloodied knife and reports of gunfire," said Teri. "Don't you think it's time you let us locals in on what the hell is going on before someone turns up dead?"

Graves didn't immediately answer. She'd discussed the situation with Robertson on the way to the scene, and in light of current events, he'd left it up to her to decide on how much to tell the locals once she'd accessed the scene. Well, she'd accessed it and she didn't like what she'd seen or heard. Graves looked Teri in the eyes.

"Have you heard of Daryl Braxton?" Graves said.

Even with her mobility impaired by the injury to her shoulder, Joey still had little trouble breaking into the Vet's surgery. She really was far too skilful at doing the wrong things, thought Charlie as she grudgingly followed her inside. Charlie kept her eyes alert for the nearest phone. She feigned innocence when Joey caught her scanning the room.

"Don't even think about making any calls," Joey warned her.

"You really should be in a hospital or at least going to see a doctor," Charlie told her yet again.

Joey just shook her head. "The cops probably have reports of gunfire by now, so the hospital is out of the question, because it will be one of the first places they check out for potential gunshot victims," she said. "I just need to patch up my shoulder, then I'm gone," she told her. "You can do whatever you want after that."

"You're being stupid."

"Stupid was getting shot in the first place," she muttered.

"Why did you come after me?" Charlie asked.

"I didn't," Joey replied. "I was leaving town and just happened to be going in that direction when I saw what was going on."

"You could have just driven right past us without stopping," Charlie said. "Yet you didn't. You saved me, and got shot in the process," she said. "I just can't figure you out."

"Don't bother trying," Joey told her.

"You're a criminal, possibly a murderer or at the very least, you're an accessory to multiple murders, yet you stopped to help a cop, a cop who was quite prepared to arrest you earlier this evening," Charlie pointed out. "And this isn't like the last time you saved my life, where we were working together for our mutual benefit, this time you had the car, you had your chance of freedom, and the perfect motivation for abandoning me, but you didn't. Instead, you drove toward armed men, and by doing so, you willingly risked your life for me, and I want to know why."

Joey said nothing as she levered the lock on the medicine cabinet. There had to be some sedative or painkiller safe to use on humans here.

"Joey, after everything you've done and said, why would you risk everything for me?" she asked, but the other woman continued to ignore her. Charlie strode over to her, grabbed her shoulders and turned her. Joey yelped in pain as she faced Charlie. "Why Joey, why would a criminal like you risk everything for a cop?"

"Because I love you!" she blurted out.