For Thane. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy Six

Charlie was up and out early the next morning, having not been able to sleep most of the night. Figuring there was no point just lying there and with her office never closed, she figured she may as well just go into work. There was no point running away from the things she had to do, she may as well face up to them.

Joey had still been half asleep when she'd kissed her goodbye, being that it was hardly even morning yet. But it felt nice to actually kiss her goodbye and feel close to her again. Their argument may have only lasted a day or two but falling out had been extremely painful and it was not something she ever wanted to repeat.

It was funny really. She had always been so independent. She had never been someone who wanted to be tied down. And now, just a couple of days not being hand in hand with her partner in everything had made her feel like she was dying.

Her heart sank when she arrived at the station and found Robertson already there, with his sharp suit and annoying demeanour. Didn't this guy ever sleep? It was five thirty in the morning.

"Good morning, Sergeant," he greeted cheerily.

Even his voice was irritating.

"Up with the lark, I see," he said.

"Couldn't sleep," she told him.

"Guilty conscious?" he enquired.

"Why would I have a guilty conscious?" she asked, a little taken aback.

"Well, we all do bad things once in a while," he said, following her to her office.

"Speak for yourself," she said, keeping walking in a bid to shrug him off.


Ruby hadn't slept very well. It was upsetting her that Charlie and Joey were arguing. She couldn't think of a time when her parents hadn't been completely in sync with each other. In fact, sometimes, they were a little too in sync. She knew for a fact that they had been in sync in pretty much every room of the house already. But she preferred that than how things were right now. They had been arguing and at best, not even speaking. It was horrible. This wasn't how things were supposed to be, especially when they had just bought their first home together.


Irene was not impressed to see Shandi departing the house early that morning. She was just so disappointed that after everything they had been through, things had broken down between Will and Gypsy and now he was seeing some girl who was clearly no good for him. She couldn't be more obviously bad news if she had a siren above her head telling him so. Why did he get himself into these messes? Not the least of which that he just upped and walked out for several days last week, leaving her to look after Lily. She didn't mind but it was irresponsible on his part.


Charlie was busy and had made it known that she did not want any interruptions. Ignoring this completely, Robertson barged into her office and shut the door behind him.

"So, tell me what you know about Alf," he said, leaning against her filing cabinet, arms folded.

"He's a very nice man, lived here all his life, widower, one daughter, works at our restaurant, runs a bait shop, good sense of humour, very kind… What else would you like to know?"

"His history with Penn Graham," Robertson said, unamused.

"I don't know anything about that," she replied.

"Yes, you do," she said. "You came into work troubled, Sergeant. You know more than you're saying and I understand that you want to protect a friend but when you're in that uniform, you're a police office. You have no friends. No partner, no kids, nothing. You're a cop and you're hunting down a murderer."

"We don't even have a body," Charlie pointed out, trying not to let him get under her skin.

"You know the likelihood of him showing up alive with that amount of blood loss is not even worth discussing," Robertson said. "Someone killed him in that hotel room and dumped the body and we need to work out who it was."

"Then maybe you need to stop being so tunnel visioned about Alf and widen your search area," Charlie said. "Plenty of people had motive."

"Draw me up a list," he said. "But Alf is at the top of mine and I want to know everything you know."

She looked him directly in the eye.

"You already do."

"You're lying."

"Prove it," she challenged.

"I will," he said. "And if I'm right, you won't have a career by the end of it, Sergeant."

Charlie clenched her jaw, trying to remain unaffected.

"Still nothing?" he asked, standing up straight. "Fine. As you wish."


"I'm not trying to hassle you, love," Irene said, having got into a slightly more tense discussion with Will than she had intended. "All I'm saying is, do you think that Shandi is a good and sensible person to be spending your time with right now? Especially when you and Lily have just been uprooted? Don't you think it might be a good idea to just focus on Lily at the moment? Settle her down and yourself and not keep getting distracted with Shandi? I just don't think she's very good for you."

He'd been stroppy about her suggestion to start with but now he sighed heavily.

"Maybe you're right," he said. "I just… I needed a distraction and she was there and now everything feels so complicated and I don't know what to do."


Having had no luck with Charlie, Robertson headed over to the caravan park and knocked on the front door of the house, hoping Alf would be home. He was, although he was not pleased to see him.

"What do you want now?" he snapped. "Can't we just get everything over and done with once? Why do you have to come and hassle me every single day? I could make a complaint."

"I'm just trying to do my job, Mr Stewart," Robertson insisted, striding into the house uninvited.

"Well, I don't think you do it very professionally," Alf replied.

"Professionally like my colleague who you tried to make conceal things from a police investigation?"

Alf's whole body became rigid. Panic surged within him and he cursed himself silently for trusting Charlie with his secrets. And he cursed her too for not being trustworthy.

"What did she tell you?" he demanded.

"What do you think she told me, Alf?" Robertson said. "She's a police officer and a damn good one. How could you have put her in a position where you were compromising her job just to keep your sordid little secret? Don't you think that's unfair on her?"

"My relationship with Tulip was a long time ago!" Alf snapped. "It has nothing to do with now!"

Robertson smiled like he'd just scored a goal. Alf was furious as everything suddenly fell into place. Charlie hadn't broken his confidence. She would never have done that. Robertson had played him into not only letting slip his own secrets but also into dropping her in it, letting him know that she'd had information and not provided it. He was furious with himself and felt awful for not trusting his friend.


Will met up with Shandi on a deserted part of the beach, away from prying eyes.

"So, how are you?" Shandi asked brightly, leaning in for a kiss.

He wondered if she was ever in a bad mood or affected by any stress. He wished he could be more like her.

"I'm okay," he said. "But I think… I think we should call it a day."

She looked genuinely disappointed.

"You don't want to hang out anymore?"

She'd had three flings since she'd arrived in Summer Bay. In fact, one of them was on her way in. And Will was very much her favourite.

"I just… I need to be a Dad. Not a boyfriend."

"Hey, I never said you were my boyfriend," Shandi teased.

He chuckled.

"I need to focus on my family," he said resolutely.

"Okay…" she said sadly, leaning in and kissing him passionately.

He didn't want to let her go.


Robertson stopped at the Surf Club before going back to work. He liked their smoothies.

"John Palmer, isn't it?" he greeted, aware that nobody was ever particularly pleased to see him.

Apart from Leah. He missed Leah. This murder had been really badly timed.

"Yes, what can I get you?" John asked, having been roped in to work a shift over lunch time.

Robertson placed his order.

"So… you're very involved in Summer Bay," he mused thoughtfully. "Did you know Penn Graham very well?"

"He saved my life not so long ago," John said, making his drink.

"Oh really?"

It was the first nice thing he'd heard about him.

"He found me having a heart attack and rushed me to hospital," John said. "Other than that, he was a bit of a bastard."

"John," said an adolescent voice.

They turned and Xavier was disappointed and a little uncomfortable to find his former step-father in discussion with the police officer.

"Hello, young Xavier," Robertson greeted, not fazed by the lack of warmth.

"Hey," Xavier replied.

John and Robertson exchanged a drink and some cash.

"How's your big brother?"

Xavier glared at him.

"Hugo, isn't it?" Robertson continued. "The human trafficker?"

"I have no idea," Xavier replied, turning his back on him and resuming the conversation he had originally been planning to have to John.

Robertson left him to it.


It had been a long, long day. Charlie was stressed and exhausted. Arriving home, she was relieved to see Joey already home and busy cooking dinner.

"Wine?" Joey asked, handing her a glass.

"Yes, please," Charlie said, accepting it gratefully.

"I heard you might have had a bit of a rough day," Joey said.

Charlie looked surprised.

"Alf called. Said Robertson tricked him into thinking you'd told him what you knew. And now he's panicked that he's got you in trouble."

"Not yet," Charlie sighed, flopping onto the sofa. "But tomorrow at 9am, I'm being hauled into the big boss's office. Pretty confident I'm in trouble for withholding evidence."

Joey sighed and came to sit next to her.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"It's not your fault."

"It kind of is. I know I put pressure on you."

"I would have made the same decision regardless," Charlie assured her. "I'll probably be taken off the case. At the bare minimum. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing."

Joey wrapped her arms around her.

"Whatever happens, I'm with you one hundred per cent."

They kissed. Ruby let herself into the house. She was flooded with relief that at least normality had resumed.


Next time… Charlie faces the consequences, Alf feels guilty and Nicole comes under suspicion…