Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty Five

Watson dropped a silent Aden and Justin home. As soon as they were back through the door, their agitation revealed itself.

"What the hell happened out there?" Aden demanded.

"I remembered what happened," Justin said seriously, sinking into a chair.

Aden came to sit beside him, dreading what might come out of his brother's mouth.

"What happened?" he asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"I killed our Dad," Justin admitted.


Charlie had managed to escape on a coffee run at the Diner for a few minutes. The day's search of the woods hadn't gone well and she knew that Aden and Justin were both hiding something big. She'd also stopped off to visit Joey at the bait shop, needing a hug, a kiss and some encouragement. Joey had of course provided and now, walking back into the station with several drink requests, Charlie was feeling in a better mood.

She stopped abruptly when she heard arguing coming from her old office. Dumping her drinks on the desk in the almost empty reception, Charlie knocked on the door. Angelo and Alf promptly stopped shouting at each other and looked guilty.

"Is everything okay?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Fine," Angelo said stiffly.

Unconvinced, Charlie shifted her gaze to Alf.

"What's happened?" she asked worriedly.

"Nothing, love," Alf sighed. "Just..."

He glanced at Angelo who seemed to be silently trying to communicate.

"I'm just worried about Martha," Alf said. "And obviously Angelo was the one leading the Hugo investigation and... well, I just needed someone to blame."

He turned to Angelo and awkwardly shook his hand, apologising. Charlie followed Alf to the door.

"Alf, are you sure that's all?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm sure," he said gently, offering a small smile.

He patted her on the arm and then headed out towards the car park. Chewing her lip thoughtfully, Charlie grabbed hers and Angelo's coffees and went to speak to him. With the shouting now over, various officers were returning to their normal posts.


"I have to tell the cops the truth," Justin said fretfully.

"Are you stupid?" Aden snapped.

Justin looked half hurt and half bewildered.

"Aden, I killed Dad," he said.

"We already knew that," Aden pointed out. "We buried his body. Or have you forgotten?"

"I didn't know what had happened then!" Justin snapped. "I couldn't remember!"

Aden stood up and began pacing.

"We just have to ride it out," he said. "We have to be normal. In fact, Charlie was pissed at me earlier for ignoring Joey so I think we should invite them and Nicole round for dinner."

Justin leapt to his feet.

"Are you crazy?" he demanded. "You want me to sit across a table from a cop?"

"No, I want you to sit across a table from a friend," Aden said, pulling out his phone in order to send a text message around.


"It's none of your business," Angelo said, throwing himself into a chair and turning his computer on. "It's personal, not a police matter."

Charlie hovered over him, convinced that, like Aden, Angelo was keeping something quiet. She moved to sit in Watson's chair. She was just about to speak when her phone beeped.

"What's up?" Angelo asked, noting how puzzled she looked at the message.

"Sorry I haven't been a good friend lately," she read. "Would you like to come round for dinner tonight? Aden."

She looked blankly at Angelo who shrugged.

"Weird," he said. "I don't think I'd invite a cop round if they happened to be investigating me. In fact, I didn't."

He looked a little bitter. Charlie studied his face one more time before headed towards her own office. Today had been a very strange day.


Having called Charlie, Joey was just replying to Aden's message and accepting the dinner invitation when Alf appeared. He looked stressed.

"Is everything okay?" she asked by way of greeting.

"I'm just worried about Martha," he said. "She seems to be feeling worse instead of better and her chat with Gina hasn't helped at all. I don't really know what to do for the best."

Joey chewed her lip, pondering an answer.

"Maybe she just needs company," she said. "We could all take it turns to help her out. Just get her talking and stuff. Charlie and I would be willing. And I'm sure Rachel and Colleen would too."

Alf nodded.

"Do you think it would be too much to organise some kind of rota?" he wondered.

"As long as we didn't tell her that's what we were doing," Joey replied.

Nodding and already looking happier, Alf headed back up the beach. Mission Martha was set to begin.


Ruby was giggling to herself when Charlie and Joey arrived home from work.

"Are you talking to your imaginary friend again?" Charlie teased.

Ruby pouted. She'd actually had an imaginary friend when she was little so it was a sore point.

"Annie just texted me," she said. "She and Romeo have gone on their first official date and they've finally got their act together and kissed."

"What did she do?" Joey remarked. "Ask him to hold while she told you all about it?"

Charlie snorted with laughter and took off her hefty utility belt, placing it on the table.

"He's gone to the bathroom, I think," Ruby explained. "I hope!"

Images of Annie doing exactly what Joey had said invaded her brain and made her laugh.

"You're on your own this evening, Rubes," Charlie said, changing the subject.

She dug some cash out of her purse and handed it over.

"Order takeaway," she said. "I don't want to come home to a burning apartment."

"You're a way worse cook than me!" Ruby insisted grumpily.

"And that's one of the many reasons why we're so lucky to have Joey," Charlie replied.

Surprised, Joey grinned and settled into the arm chair. Her phone burst into life.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hi, Joey, it's Alf," her boss greeted her. "I just thought I'd let you know that Colleen has spent the afternoon with Martha and Angelo's going round tonight."

"How's she doing?"

"Colleen was pretty shocked by the state she was in," Alf admitted. "I'm visiting tomorrow during the day if you and Charlie would be up for seeing her in the evening?"

"Sure," Joey said. "We will."

"That sounded like a conversation that could have been texted," Ruby commented.

"Alf doesn't text," Joey informed her.


That evening, Charlie and Joey, armed with a bottle of wine, headed round to Aden's for dinner. Both of them were anxious about it. Joey's feelings had been hurt with the way her best friend had been ignoring her and Charlie was more than a little concerned about his involvement in something illegal. But they were both hopeful for a nice evening regardless.

"Glad you could make it," Aden said politely when he opened the door.

"Glad you invited us," Joey remarked, offering out the bottle of wine.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about how I've been acting," he said, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets.

"Is there a reason for it?" Charlie asked cautiously, not quite making it out of cop mode.

"Well, you know, we're just trying to figure out what happened to Dad and everything," Aden said anxiously. "It's been pretty stressful."

Charlie eyed him with more suspicion before Joey broke the tension and wondered what was on the menu.


As promised, Angelo knocked on Martha's door. He was armed with a bottle of wine and a takeaway pizza and just hoped that he could make things better for her. For a while there, with how quickly she appeared to have moved on with Liam, Angelo had hoped that the whole thing could be swept under the carpet. Unfortunately, things hadn't quite worked out like that. In fact, nothing since his return to the Bay had worked out how he wanted it to. The only good thing was that the human trafficking ring had been brought down but even then, he hadn't been quite as involved as he'd expected to be. Charlie had been the hero of that particular hour.

"Hi," Martha said, surprised to see him when she pulled open the door.

"Hey," he said. "I wondered if you'd like to join me for pizza and wine."

"Did Granddad add you to his care in the community list?" she remarked, stepping aside and inviting him inside.

"Well, he might have mentioned that he was worried about you," Angelo admitted. "But I do like to think that we're friends of a fashion now so I was concerned too."

He flashed his most charming smile.

"Of a fashion," Martha remarked wryly. "But fortunately for you, I could do with some company, I like wine and that pizza smells really good."


"You really think I should tell the rest of the class what happened with Britt?" Nicole asked.

She, Aden, Justin, Charlie and Joey were all sat around the table enjoying their dinner.

"I really think you should," Joey confirmed. "If Morag says that you won't get anywhere legally then at the very least, the rest of the people learning from her and hero worshipping her should know what kind of person she is."

Nicole nodded and gathered together another forkful of food.

"This is really good," she said.

"Well, I do work in a Diner," Aden smirked.

He looked far more comfortable than he felt. And Justin looked terrible. Perhaps inviting everyone round tonight hadn't been such a good idea. But really, Aden knew that they were up to their necks in chaos and neither of them could quite find the way out again.


"I just feel so lost, you know," Martha admitted.

The wine had gone quickly to her head but she felt more relaxed than she had in a long time. It still felt strange to be sociable with the man who had killed her husband but she liked to think that she had made peace with her tragedy. However badly Angelo had acted after the event, she knew that it had been an accident. And Angelo had now saved her life no less than twice. That had to count for something, didn't it?

"I know," Angelo said softly. "I mean, I haven't been through any like what you have but I'd had my dark times too. I know what it's like to feel lost and like you've got nowhere to turn."

"It's like I'm walking through the blackest night but I can't find a light anywhere."

Angelo nodded, studying her face and wondering why he hadn't noticed how beautiful she was until now. Probably because you've barely noticed anyone but Charlie for the last two years, he said silently.

"I feel like I need to do something crazy," Martha admitted, suddenly full of vigour. "Like, I just need to get out of my head for a while. Forget all the pain. Just..."

Angelo leant in and kissed her.


Next time... Xavier catches Angelo out and the news of his night with Martha quickly spreads around the Bay, Romeo and Annie confess their love and Hugo goes missing from Witness Protection...