Chapter Three Hundred and Forty Six

Eaves had remained at the hospital under police guard but the night was far from over. Charlie had permitted Gina, Xavier, Rachel and Tony to come to the station first thing in the morning instead of pressuring them to make statements tonight. But Joey had said she wanted to get it all over with as soon as possible so she and Charlie had left a colleague keeping an eye on Eaves and come to the police station where they had expected Angelo to already be interviewing Hugo or Martha.

"There you are!" Charlie said when she spotted her colleague enter the building.

She paused mid-step, having been on her way to taking coffee to the interview room where Joey and Watson were waiting for her.

"Where are Hugo and Martha?" Charlie asked cautiously when she realised Angelo was alone. "And what happened to your face?"

He had a huge bruise on his cheek and his nose was still bleeding. He looked terrible.

"Hugo happened to me," he said.

"Please don't tell me they escaped," Charlie said, struggling to keep hold of her coffee cups.

"Okay," he said quietly.

"Angelo!" Charlie screeched.

Several other officers looked up. Watson appeared from the interview room, looking confused and concerned.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Hugo overpowered me," Angelo said. "He and Martha escaped."

"Angelo!" Watson said in a slightly quieter fashion than Charlie had. "How could you…?"

"I couldn't help it, okay?" Angelo snapped. "He made an excuse about needing to pee. They were driving me mad. I let him out of the cuffs but kept an eye on him. The next thing I knew, I'd been knocked out. When I woke up, Hugo and Martha were gone."

Charlie put the drinks down and leant against the reception desk. She was tired and angry and just wanted the night to end.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you take them," she muttered. "We should have waited for backup and done things by the book. I can't believe this!"

She thumped her fist angrily on the desktop, making Angelo jump and then wince. He touched his face. Hugo had certainly done a good, believable number on him.

"On the plus side, we don't need Hugo for the investigation anymore," he ventured. "Eaves can be the key player now."

"If he cooperates," Watson muttered.

Charlie looked up and studied Angelo carefully. No, she thought dismissively. There's no way he'd have let them go.

"Look," she said out loud. "Watson and I are just going to finish up with Joey. You go home and put some ice on that bruise. You're going to swell up like nobody's business. We'll all be here, bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing in the morning. Go and get some sleep."

Angelo nodded, grateful for the excuse to leave. He turned and left without another word.


Tony and Rachel collected Harry from Leah at the Diner, apologising profusely for dumping him on her when she was so busy.

"Oh, it's fine," Leah assured them, as she continued packing up the Diner, ready to close. "Ruby did most of the babysitting anyway. She was really worried about Charlie and Joey and needed something else to focus on. But don't worry, I kept an eye on them at all times. I didn't just palm him off on someone or anything."

"It's fine," Rachel said. "We're just grateful."

"Rach, what happened?" Leah asked, deciding to be upfront about her curiosity.

The Diner had been abuzz with gossip all evening. Rachel and Tony exchanged worried glances.

"They're all going to find out anyway," Tony conceded.

Nodding, Rachel told Leah all about the chaos at the farm.


Charlie clicked the tape recorder off at the end of the interview. She sat back in her seat and looked worriedly at Joey.

"Joey, you know you didn't do anything wrong, don't you?" she checked.

"I know," Joey said quietly. "I just… aside from giving Angelo the odd slap, I've never been violent before. And even with Angelo, believe it or not, I've felt guilty. But I could have killed that guy."

"He could have killed all of us," Charlie reminded her. "You saved Angelo's life, not to mention mine. You did the right thing. You did what you had to."

"What if he dies or something?" Joey asked. "That would be my fault."

"No, it would be his own fault for being there to try and kill us in the first place," Charlie corrected. "None of this is going to rebound on you."

She reached out and squeezed Joey's hand.

"I'm proud of you," she said. "Not to mention grateful."

Joey finally managed a genuine smile and thanked her.

"I can't believe Angelo let Hugo and Martha escape," Watson sighed, sinking back in her chair.

"I think your statement might be truer than he's leading us to believe," Charlie replied.

Both Watson and Joey looked confused.


Angelo arrived home and locked the front door behind him. He paced his apartment anxiously before ending up in the bathroom to peer at his face in the mirror.

"You fucker," he complained.

He knew he'd asked Hugo to make it believable but this was ridiculous. He'd be lucky if he didn't have a fractured cheek. Momentarily, he wondered if he should go to the hospital.

"No," he decided, cleaning himself up. "You need a beer. And you need sleep."

When he'd cleaned up the blood, he left the bathroom, ready to do just that.


"What do you mean, Charlie?" Watson asked.

Charlie chewed her lip, wondering how to phrase her theory.

"I just have this suspicion that he deliberately let them escape," she ventured. "I don't know why."

"What made you think of that?" Joey wondered.

Charlie sighed and leant forward again, double checking that the conversation was no longer being recorded.

"One of the first things he said was that Eaves could replace Hugo in the case," she said. "The whole reason he was so desperate to catch the guy wasn't because he wanted him in jail. He wanted him to close the case. Now that we've got Eaves, Hugo is expendable. And you know how much guilt Angelo carries when it comes to Martha. What if he wanted to try and make things right by letting her and Hugo go?"

"He wouldn't be that stupid, surely?" Watson said. "And didn't you see the state of his face?"

"He's not stupid," Charlie said, prompting Joey to snort.

Charlie smirked at her before continuing to speak.

"He would have known to make it look realistic," she said. "And the whole 'Hugo needed to pee' was a bit random, don't you think? I mean, what is he? A two year old?"

Watson sighed.

"If you're right, Charlie, what are we meant to do about it?"

Charlie sighed.

"I honestly don't know," she said. "But keep it under your hats for now, okay?"

Watson and Joey both agreed.


Neither Xavier nor Gina could sleep. Both sat anxiously on the sofa, fretting about Hugo and Martha. Were they being interviewed tonight? Would they spend the night in a cell? What would happen to them after that? Would they be okay? Sighing heavily, Gina leant back and rubbed her temples.

"How on earth did we get into this mess?" she wondered.


"Thank goodness you're home!" Ruby squeaked as soon as Charlie and Joey walked through the door. "What the hell happened?"

She looked pale with anxiety and was trembling slightly.

"I don't even know where to start," Charlie admitted tiredly, flopping down on the sofa.

Joey moved to sit quietly beside her. Ruby joined them quickly.

"We caught Hugo and one of his associates," Charlie explained.

"Seriously?" Ruby said, her eyes wide.

"But Hugo escaped with Martha," Charlie told her gravely.

Ruby looked horrified.

"What happens now?" she asked.

"Now, we pass out in sheer exhaustion and tomorrow we deal with all the shit."


Arriving at the quiet seafront, Hugo had never been more relieved to see his boat tied up to the dock. It had been impounded by the police for a while but released when they had taken all the evidence from it that they could. With Hugo 'dead', Martha hadn't quite known what to do with it. So she'd just left it there. Now, it was their salvation. They just hoped they could get far enough away that nobody, and especially not the law, could catch up with them.


Next time… Leah meets Elijah's parents, Joey comforts Alf and Ruby and Nicole complain about their love lives…