Charlie continued to stare at the water, desperate for any sign of the woman she loved. There was none. She didn't care that she was standing in the same spot Joey had been, thereby making herself a target as well. All she cared about was Joey. She was in there somewhere, in desperate need of her help. Charlie lifted herself up on the rail, preparing to jump in after her when a voice cried out.

"Charlie!"

Charlie paused, looked around and she could see Robertson, along with Graves and four uniforms charging toward her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Robertson demanded to know.

"Joey's just been shot and she fell into the water."

"Well get down before they take a shot at you next."

"They would have taken it by now," Charlie said, still not really caring at that moment if she was shot at or not.

"Even so, keep low so as not to make it easier for the shooter if they happen to change their mind."

"But we need to get to Joey," she persisted. "She went over the railing, and I can't see her."

Robertson leant over and shone his torch across the surface of the water, while Graves called in for reinforcements and for search and rescue personnel.

"We have to go after her," Charlie said.

"Jumping in there with minimal lighting will only put more lives in danger," Robertson said.

"If we don't, Joey will drown," Charlie pointed out. "How is she meant to swim to shore with one arm?"

"Charlie, take a moment and listen to the surroundings."

In spite of her desperation, Charlie did just that. She closed her eyes and just listened. Her heart dropped at what she heard, or more, what she didn't hear.

"There's no noise coming from in the water," she murmured, disheartened.

"There's no noise or sign of movement in that water beyond the natural current," he said. "I think we both know that means Joey went under and hasn't come back up."

"Then it's even more important that we get in there."

"And how will you find her in the dark?"

"We can't do nothing!"

"Charlie, it may already be too late," said Robertson. "And if as you said she's been shot, she may have been dead before she even hit the water."

"No, she has to be alive."

"Did you see or hear anything immediately after she landed in the water, besides the initial splash?"

Charlie shook her head, knowing what he was leading up to.

"If she was conscious when she went in, then there'd have been bubbles, splashing, something to indicate she was struggling toward the surface, even with one arm," he said. "Charlie, the lack of activity in the water really doesn't look good for her chances of survival."

"So we just stand here and do nothing?"

"We can search the riverbanks while we wait for search and rescue to arrive," replied Robertson, and he indicated to the two uniformed officers who had met up with them at the last crime scene, just before Fitzy had lead them on the trail. The men rushed off in opposite directions to search both sides of the riverbanks. "But I won't allow you or anyone else to put their lives in danger by jumping in there without proper safety precautions."

This was a conversation Charlie had had before. Of people in the water and her watching from the sidelines, doing nothing because it was too dangerous. Only then, Joey had been the one talking sense, telling her that those men had been beyond their help, and so she'd reluctantly allowed Joey to drive away, leaving those men to drown. Joey had been right at the time, it would have been potential suicide on their part had they made any attempt to jump in after them, just as Robertson was right about this. The moonlight and a couple of torches would offer little assistance, meaning it was too dangerous to jump into a river neither of them were familiar with, and if Joey were here, she'd be telling her the same thing. Yet Charlie also knew Joey wouldn't have hesitated if it had been her in the water, not Joey. Charlie leant over the railing again, knowing it was now too late, because if she made any attempt to jump into the water, Robertson would stop her, even handcuff her if necessary. Charlie felt numb. Joey had literally slipped from her grasp and was now likely gone forever, all because she hadn't reacted quickly enough.

"Charlie, did you see where the shot come from?" Robertson asked, the question intruding on Charlie's numbness.

In reply, Charlie pointed. "I didn't see anything, but that's where the sound came from."

"The shooter had to have been near the edge of the bushes when they took the shot, then hightailed it out of here just before our arrival," he said as he looked to where Charlie had pointed.

"It definitely had to have been a rifle then," said Graves. "No way could you make that shot with a handgun."

"Avery, I want you to find out exactly where the shot came from, and follow any trail the shooter may have left behind," Robertson said to him.

"Yes sir."

"And be careful, we don't yet know which of our crooks it was."

"It could have been Watson," Charlie suggested. Maybe Joey had been right about why Watson had let her walk away, doing so only so she could follow her to Joey and then take them out. Except she'd only taken Joey out. It was only then that it hit her. Why was she still alive? She'd been standing here, just as Joey had been, a target under the same moonlight as Joey, and there had certainly been time enough before Robertson's arrival, to have taken another shot, yet here she was, unharmed, except for a broken heart. Joey may have been the main target, but the Braxtons had no way of knowing just how much Joey may have confided in her, and so killing her as well was a matter of great importance. So why then had that second shot not come?

"Watson, as in Georgina Watson?" asked Graves for clarification.

Charlie nodded. "I didn't see a rifle on her when she shot Pee Wee, but she may have had it stashed nearby."

"Whoa, wait a minute," said Robertson. "Are you saying that it was Watson who killed Wilson?" They'd suspected someone like Tegan Callahan may have turned on him, if neither Charlie nor Joey had done the deed, but this was the most unexpected turn of events.

"Pee Wee was planning to rape me when Watson came upon us," Charlie told them. "At first I thought she was going to let him go right ahead and do it, but then she shot him, three times."

"Then she let you go."

"Yeah, but maybe it was just so I could lead her to Joey."

"I'd have thought she'd have taken the opportunity to kill you both," he said.

"I was just thinking the same."

"Curious," Robertson murmured, as he mulled over this latest piece of news. "We'd not had a single sighting of Watson, even after her face was plastered all over the media, so we were starting to suspect she'd gone to ground," he said. "Obviously we were wrong. You say she didn't have a rifle on her when you encountered her?"

"That's right, but as I said, she may have had it stashed nearby."

"Or it was one of our other crooks. Both Mr Wilson and Upton are accounted for, but our two crazy women are still on the loose, and we know they had a rifle with them at the vets," he said.

"There could also be others out here that we don't yet know about," Graves pointed out.

"Well, Tegan Callahan is still in there somewhere," Charlie said, indicating the bush they'd all left behind. "Joey said she'd taken care of her, so I don't think it could have been her with the rifle."

"How exactly did she take care of her?" asked Graves.

"Joey didn't go into details," said Charlie. "And it's not like we had the time for a long discussion."

"I'll backtrack and see if I can find her," Fitzy said.

"Very good," replied Robertson.

Charlie's eyes caught something on the ground. It was the phone that had fallen from Joey's hand. There was blood on it. It struck Charlie in the heart like a knife as she bent to pick it up.

"Wait, don't touch it," Graves said. "Not without gloves."

"I know whose it is," Charlie said, though she made no further attempt to pick it up. "It's Tegan's. Joey took it from her so we could use the light app to see in the bush."

With her gloves now on, Graves picked up the device.

"There's a message still displayed on the screen," Graves noted.

"It went just before the shot came," Charlie said. "Joey looked at it, but I never had the chance to see it."

"It says, YOU'RE DEAD!" Graves told them. "Nice of whomever it was to send Joey a warning," she murmured.

"Is there a number listed on the message?" asked Robertson.

"A name," replied Graves. "Hails."

"Hayley O'Connor," said Robertson. "I guess now we have confirmation on the identity of our shooter."

"But how did Hayley know it was Joey who had Tegan's phone to send her that text?" Charlie asked.

"A tracking app," suggested Robertson. "She may have tried to catch up with her girlfriend, followed the tracking and when it led to you, realised one of you must have had the phone," he surmised. "Then when Joey glanced at the phone after she sent the text message, O'Connor knew it was her."

A tracking app made sense, thought Charlie, especially since Joey had mentioned her intention to dispose of the phone as soon as possible. Her heart pinched painfully. Would Joey still be alive now if she'd never picked up that phone? They'd likely be still lost in the bush without the light it had provided, but Joey might still be alive. She still could be alive, she tried to tell herself. Until they found a body, she had to believe Joey still lived.

Once again though, Charlie was left questioning why she hadn't been shot as well. If Hayley knew they had Tegan's phone, surely she knew that meant something had happened to her girlfriend, and so would be even more pissed off. Charlie shook her head. She wasn't thinking clearly at all. In all honesty, it was hard to think of anything beyond Joey's fate.

"According to the log, there was a call just before those first three gunshots," Graves said as she scrolled through the list.

"To or from that phone?"

"From," said Graves. "It wasn't to O'Connor and the number called doesn't show up, so we'll have to check with the phone service provider to see if we can get more detail."

"Check all of the calls and texts made to and from that phone," said Robertson. "And do the same with Uptons and Wilson's phone records. With any luck, we can piece together their movements and connect them to incidents still under investigation."

"If we can do that, then along with the evidence in that bag we picked up, the Braxtons are going to be in for a world of pain," Graves said.

"Bag?" said Charlie. "You found the bag of evidence?"

"You know about the bag?" Robertson asked. "How?"

Charlie didn't answer straight away, as it suddenly dawned on her how her answers from here on, could end her career. Just how much did she reveal about what went down with Joey and her, because the truth about who Joey was, was about to become public knowledge, and if their affair came out, it could be curtains for her career. A cop romantically involved with a criminal linked to the Braxtons would face fierce scrutiny and fair enough, given the corruption of other officers. She wasn't corrupt, but it'd still be a terrible look for her, and potentially, seriously damaging to the integrity of the investigation. Staying quiet about their affair would protect her, and the investigation, but could she carry on as if their being a couple was nothing more than a role playing exercise to hide from their pursuers? Was that fair to Joey? Erase what they had shared just to save her career? Could she even pull it off? It would be so easy to betray herself with a slip here or there that revealed the depths of her feelings for Joey. Charlie's thoughts were so conflicted right now, and Robertson was still waiting for her to answer his question.