"Charlie, are you ok?" Graves asked in concern when the woman had remained silent for so long.
"I'm sorry, so much has happened lately, that I'm just having trouble focussing right now," Charlie said.
"Understandable," said Graves.
Charlie had reached a decision. Joey wouldn't want her to ruin her career for her, so she'd speak the truth, with one exception. As far as anyone else was concerned, her and Joey had posed as a couple for cover only. It went against everything she believed in to lie by omission, and if it still came out later, it could hurt the investigation, along with her career, but she saw no reason to be up front about this. The only crimes she'd been aware of Joey committing when they'd first made love, had been during the course of their flight, and they'd been all about keeping them both alive. She hadn't known who Joey really had been when they'd hooked up and no one else needed to know the doubts she'd had about Joey leading up to that point. In the overall scheme of things, their affair hadn't really change anything, since that evidence bag existed before they'd even met, and so all that could be achieved by being honest, was to provide ammunition to the Braxton lawyers to try to discredit it all. She wouldn't allow that. She'd done nothing wrong except get close to the woman who had been at her side during the most intense, dangerous and stressful period of her life. Charlie had a feeling she'd have to remind herself of that on more than one occasion, because it did go against her nature, but in her heart, she knew that this was what Joey would want, and that she'd understand her decision, because she'd done so much to protect Charlie already. And it wasn't really erasing what they'd shared, because her love for Joey would remain in her heart. Oh god, she was carrying on like she knew Joey was really dead.
"The bag, Charlie," Robertson prodded her again. "What do you know about it?"
Charlie took a quiet breath, then steeled herself for what she had to say.
"I know where it came from," she replied. "It came from Joey."
"Joey Collins had possession of this bag?"
"She was the one who gathered all the evidence inside. It was meant to be her way of leveraging the Braxtons into letting her walk away from the business, but she decided to give it to me instead, so that I could bring them down."
"So Joey Collins was one of them," murmured Graves. "The holes in her background make much more sense now," she said. "I'd figured there had to be more to her, and if this evidence is anything to go by, she was a trusted member of the Braxton's criminal activities."
"I'm not so sure she was that trusted, since the night this all started, was actually meant as a test of her loyalty."
"Harvey Ryan's murder?" said Robertson.
Charlie nodded.
"She murdered Ryan?" he asked.
"Joey denied it and I believe her," she said, realising she actually did. "But she was there."
"And she told you what happened?"
"Yes, she did," said Charlie, and she went on to explain in a slightly detached voice, everything Joey had said of her decision to gather that evidence in preparation of leaving the lifestyle behind, to how the Braxtons had become suspicious of her, then onto how Joey had failed the loyalty test they'd set, leading to this deadly chase, before finishing with Joey's reasons for handing the bag over to her. Or at least, some of the reasons. Once Charlie was done, both Robertson and Graves were looking at her with rapt attention.
"You'll have to make an official statement to all of that once we get to the Station, along with anything else Joey Collins told you during your time together," Robertson told her. He then glanced over the rail of the bridge again. A potential goldmine of information was in there somewhere, now perhaps lost to them. "I don't mean to be insensitive at this time, since we don't yet know the fate of Miss Collins, but if she is indeed deceased, then you're going to have to testify on her behalf as to what really happened to Harvey Ryan that night," Robertson said to her. "Heath Braxton's lawyers will no doubt try to blame her for the murder, and have this testimony thrown out as hearsay, along with using her previous statement that Penn Graham was the killer to further discredit her," he explained. "But her death, as distasteful as it is to be talking like this at this time, does add more weight to you speaking her words for her, and weakens their argument for hearsay, since she herself can no longer speak up," he said. "Are you going to be up for that?" asked Robertson. "Can you speak for her in court?"
"Absolutely," Charlie said without any hesitation. She now had extra incentive to bringing down the Braxtons. Revenge. It was an odd feeling, yet she also felt a strength from it. Maybe she would get through this after all. Then her heart pinched in a painful reminder. She looked across both sides of the river to where the lights from the torches were searching for any sign of Joey. Please find her alive, she silently begged.
"I have a question," said Graves. "If Joey handed you the bag, then how did it end up in Wilson's car?"
"I'd dropped it after they tried to run me over earlier this evening," replied Charlie. "It was in amongst the rubbish, but I guess one of them must have seen me drop it and picked it up."
Graves chuckled suddenly, and Robertson glanced at her with a raised brow.
"They picked up the evidence that is going to lead to their own demise," Graves said with a big grin. "I can't wait to see the look on Upton's face when we tell him we now have it. He and the rest, they're not going to know what hit them."
"All the cards do appear to be falling into place for us to finally be able to smash those arrogant bastards," Robertson said.
"And we also have our mystery man," said Graves.
"We don't yet know if he has anything to offer to our investigation or not," he said.
"What mystery man?" asked Charlie.
"A badly injured man was found barely alive in the bushes just outside of town," replied Robertson. "He has no identity as of yet, but his injuries show quite a level of torture, and are consistent with what we know of Miss Callahan's signature."
"We just can't be absolutely certain he is connected until after he wakes up, and tells us what happened," added Graves.
"He is connected," Charlie said, filling them in on what they'd overheard Tegan and Hayley arguing about at the vet's surgery.
"Did Joey know who they were talking about?" Graves asked afterward.
Charlie shook her head. "I get the impression he was linked to Joey from what they'd said, but she had no idea who they were talking about."
"Now I'm even more curious to know who this man is," said Robertson. Next, he looked Charlie over from head to toe and the intensity of his gaze made Charlie uncomfortable.
"What?" she couldn't stop from asking.
"I can't see any injury on you, so I can only assume that it was Miss Collins who left the blood behind in the car, and in the vet's surgery."
"She came to my aid earlier, when Brodie and Pee Wee nearly ran me over, then tried to kill me again," she explained. "They fired at the car as we were getting away and one of the bullets hit her."
"Bullets do seem to be attracted to her," he said, and smiled wryly at her outraged look. "Twice she's been shot is all I meant."
"We've both been through a lot these past days," she said somewhat defensively. "I may not have known who Joey was when this all started, but I know who she was when she went over that bridge," Charlie said. "She's the woman who risked her life to save me, and on more than one occasion."
"Do you feel that you now owe her something in return?" Robertson asked.
"Maybe I do," she said. "I wouldn't be standing here now in front of you if not for her, so it's hard not to feel as if I owe her for that."
"I quite understand," he said. "Just don't let it cloud your judgement," Robertson warned her. "The lawyers will be looking for any weakness to attack, and with Joey Collins' involvement with the Braxtons soon to be headline news, we know that facts don't always matter to the media or defence lawyers when there is a juicy angle to be had at," he said. "Two women, both lesbians, all alone during that amount of time."
"Nothing like that happened," Charlie said, surprised by the confidence in her lie, yet now a little more wary as to why he was bringing that angle up at this stage. "We worked together to stay alive, that's all."
"Pippa Fletcher-Roberts was under the impression you were a couple," Graves told her, and now it made sense to Charlie. "A very loving couple."
"Everyone was looking for two women, not a couple, so we figured it would be safer to hide out as a couple, is all," Charlie replied, which was actually the truth this time.
"A very convincing act by all accounts," said Graves.
"When people are trying to kill you and you're stuck in a car together for days on end, it's hard not to form a bond," explained Charlie. "Not a sexual one, just a strong bond of trust and belief in each other, which others must have mistook for love, especially as we were posing as a couple." Another lie. Wow, this lying was coming more easily than she'd expected. Then again, she had been on the run with a master liar, so it must have rubbed off on her.
"So there was no sexual or romantic intimacy in your relationship with Joey Collins?" Robertson flat out asked her.
"None what so ever," Charlie said, staring him right in the eye as she answered. He seemed satisfied by her response, as he gave a slight nod to her.
"Very well," he said. "We'll talk more of your adventures at a more appropriate time, but for now, perhaps you'd prefer to head back to the cars once the others start to arrive."
Charlie shook her head. "No, I want to be here for the search," she said. "I owe Joey that much at least."
He nodded in acknowledgement, then went to meet up with one of the officers on the riverbank. Graves remained behind for a moment longer. Charlie never changed her expression as Graves gave her another once over. She suspected the younger Detective wasn't entirely satisfied with her answers, but Robertson appeared to be, so all she needed to do was to hold her nerve. Graves gave a little humph, before heading to the opposite riverbank to Robertson.
Charlie let out a huge sigh of relief the moment she was alone. Between the lying and her concern for Joey, this was going to be a long, hard night.