Yay for the right person winning Big Brother! Hooray! And for you, my lovely people, here is a celebratory extra chapter. I hope you enjoy it. All my love, IJKS xxx

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen

Charlie's head began to spin as she attempted to process the news that Angelo had delivered. She turned and peered over at the body and felt sick.

"So, suspect number one," the Detective said far too cheerfully. "Shall we go to the station and have a chat while your colleagues examine my crime scene?"

Charlie stared at him, barely registering what he was saying.

"I don't..."

"She didn't do anything," Angelo said protectively, stepping up beside her.

Robertson looked him up and down.

"Who are you?" he asked. "The boyfriend?"

Angelo couldn't help but smile, although he frowned when Charlie objected. Robertson noticed.

"But you want to be," he commented. "Interesting. I'll talk to you later. For now, away from my crime scene – just in case you become a suspect."

Charlie and Angelo merely stared at him as he approached Watson.

"You're not connected to this case in some kind of personal way, are you?" he asked.

She looked startled and shook her head.

"Good. You can be my honest cop. My right hand woman. You stay here and crack on and then come to the station when you're done. I'm taking Mr and Mrs Suspect back to the station."

He turned back to Charlie and Angelo.

"Can I trust you both to follow me in your cars?" he asked.


Neither Ruby nor Joey felt terribly able to sleep so they stayed up in the lounge with hot chocolate and chatted.

"Charlie's glad you've come home," Joey said.

"She sounded more excited when you got in tonight!" Ruby smirked.

Joey blushed and silently wondered how she knew what they'd been up to.

"I couldn't sleep so I was going to knock for some company but I heard lots of moaning so I left you to it!"

Joey's blush deepened and she cleared her throat several times.

"Don't worry," Ruby teased. "I do know you guys... you know."

Both women giggled.

"Joey, how many people have you been with?" Ruby asked.

"Uh..."

The questioned caught her off guard.

"Three," she finally said. "Why?"

"I was just wondering. I... well, you know I slept with Xavier."

Joey nodded. Charlie had been less than impressed and very vocal about it.

"Well... well, I thought I'd only ever be with him. I thought he'd be my first, my last, my everything, you know? But now..."

She sighed heavily.

"I feel really lucky to have him," she said. "But I kind of..."

"Don't want him anymore?" Joey suggested.

Ruby nodded.

"That's really terrible, isn't it?"

"Rubes, you can't help who you fall in and out of love with," Joey reasoned. "The terrible thing is if you drag it out and string him along. If you feel like you don't want to be with him anymore then you need to be honest. You need to tell him what's going on in your head."

Ruby nodded.

"Thanks," she said.

"What for?"

"Being so good to me after everything that's happened."

Joey smiled and squeezed her hand.

"You're my family, Ruby. I know we're not in the most conventional situation in the world but Charlie and I love you so much. I'll admit that I've been mad at you. I've watched Charlie breaking her heart over all this but you came good in the end. I really feel like there's a way forward now. For all of us. Together."


Charlie sat in the interview room, facing Detective Robertson.

"So, what have you been up to tonight, Senior Constable Buckton?" Robert asked.

"I worked. I grabbed some takeout from the Diner. And then I went home," Charlie said. "I stayed there until I got called to the scene."

"Got any witnesses?"

"Well, everyone at the Diner," Charlie said. "My colleagues at work."

"What about at around eleven?" Robertson enquired.

"I was alone," Charlie said unhappily.

"At home?"

She nodded.

"No hunky cop boyfriend to keep you warm on the long, lonely nights?" Robertson wanted to know.

Charlie pulled a face at the insinuation.

"Angelo and I are not together," she said firmly. "I have a beautiful partner. But she didn't get home until around midnight."

Robertson raised his eyebrows.

"She?"

Charlie nodded.

"How very twenty-first Century of you," he remarked. "No hope for Constable Rosetta then?"

Charlie grimaced.

"Definitely not," she said.

"He'll be devastated."

"You don't even know us!" Charlie said, exasperated.

Robertson leant back in his chair and smiled.

"You do realise he's in love with you though?" he asked. "I may only have been around a few minutes but I can tell the way a man looks at woman when he wants her."

Charlie just shrugged and said it wasn't for her to comment. Privately, she knew he was totally right. She wished he wasn't.

"Do you think he'd kill for you, Charlie?" Robertson asked.

Images of Jack's dead body flashed through her mind. It may have been an accident but Angelo had still killed him. He'd covered it up, cheated and lied. And she still didn't quite know how he had wangled his way back onto the force and out of jail.

"I hear he's got previous," Robertson said.

"That's for you to discuss with him."

"Agreed," Robertson said brightly, leaping to his feet and making Charlie jump.

She looked at him uncertainly.

"Does this mean I can go?" she asked.

"Sure," he said, opening the door for her. "But when you come into work tomorrow morning... well, later this morning... can you bring your girlfriend in with you? If she doesn't have an alibi then she's on my suspect list too."

"Joey would never..."

"Just bring her in," Robertson instructed.

Sighing, Charlie headed out of the station. Robertson headed into the second interview room to interrogate Angelo.


"Do you think Grant's gone for good?" Ruby asked.

"Well, that's what Charlie said tonight," Joey explained. "I'm not entirely sure what she's threatened him with but she said she's got rid of him so perhaps we can all start moving on now."

She smiled at the thought. Ruby smiled too.

"Joey?" the teenager asked.

Joey offered her full attention.

"Do you think... well, do you think that Charlie wants to be a Mum to me now? Or does she want to be my sister still? Or... what do you think she wants?"

"I think you need to ask her," Joey said gently. "But for the record, even if you've known about it or not, Charlie has always loved you as a daughter."

"How do you know?" Ruby asked.

"She's talked to me about it. She's always wanted to be your Mum. But she's never felt able. Maybe now... maybe now you two can find your own way forward. A mix of both. I don't know. But you need to talk to her about it, okay?"

Ruby nodded and smiled, thanking her.


"I didn't kill Grant," Angelo stated firmly. "I was working anyway. And why would I?"

"Because you're in love with Charlie?" Robertson suggested. "This is a man who raped her, after all. And made her pregnant. I hear it's all been kicking off here lately. Maybe you killed him to try and protect her."

Angelo shook his head.

"I've already got to live with the guilt of killing one man by accident," he said. "I'm not about to make it worse by killing someone else, am I? Even him."

"Not even for Charlie?"

"Charlie doesn't love me," Angelo said bitterly.

"But you love her," Robertson pointed out. "And it must be terribly frustrating to know you don't stand a chance, what with her preference for women and all."

"Charlie isn't gay," Angelo snapped.

Robertson raised his eyebrows and waited for him to continue.

"Joey's the only girl she's ever dated," Angelo explained. "She's always been with men before. She was with me."

"Oh, so you're an ex?" Robertson asked. "This tale gets more interesting by the second! How long were you together?"

"Only a few weeks but I think once this weird infatuation she has with Joey is over, she'll come back to me."

A smile played on the Detective's lips.

"So, you don't think this relationship is real then?"

Angelo shook his head.

"Does the girlfriend know that?"

Angelo just shrugged.

"Do you think she'd be capable of killing Mr Bledcoe?"

"I have no idea what Joey's capable of," Angelo said. "But she's pretty obsessed with Charlie. If there were any signs that she was going to lose her, I wouldn't be surprised at anything she'd do to keep her. She knows her time's running out and Charlie won't be sticking around for much longer. This is the longest relationship Charlie's ever been in. I'm absolutely certain it's going to fizzle out any day now."


Charlie was surprised and a little distressed to find that Joey and Ruby were up and chatting in the lounge. She'd hoped to crawl into bed and not have to deal with reality until the morning. Taking a deep breath, she braced herself to break the news to the two most important people in her world.