Hi, everyone. Sorry I haven't updated for a while. For those still reading this one, I just wanted to post a chapter before Christmas. I probably won't post another of this story until the New Year so I hope you enjoy it. I will post Dear Diary next. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Four Hundred and Eighty Nine

Roo sat in her room, a letter addressed to 'Mum' in her hand. She stared at the words and chewed her lip. She turned the envelope over and over in her hands.


"Sergeant Buckton," Charlie said, answering her phone.

"Hello, Sergeant Buckton," said an unfamiliar female voice. "This is Dana Fox from the Federal Police."

Charlie sat up a little straighter in her chair. That was quite an interesting name, although she resisted commenting. She was sure the woman heard it a lot.

"Hello…" she said a little uncertainly.

"We understand that there is a Ruth Stewart staying in Summer Bay at the moment?"

It took a moment to work out that that was Roo's real name.

"Yes, that's right," Charlie said, a little anxious.

"And she's the mother of Martha MacKenzie? A woman on the run with Hugo Austin? He was charged with human trafficking last year?"

"That's right," Charlie said.

"It's believed they went abroad?"

"Yes," Charlie said, knowing where this woman was going with this.

"I was phoning to ask if you would interview Ms Stewart to see if she knows anything about her daughter's whereabouts?" Dana asked. "I'm happy to come to your station and interview her myself but I've been informed that you'd be perfectly capable of acting on our behalf."

Charlie smiled to herself.

"I'd be very happy to do that," she assured her. "Thank you."

"I'll give you my direct number and email for you to report back to me anything you find out," Dana said. "No matter if it seems an insignificant detail."


"Why are you cooking all this extra stuff?" Angelo asked, boxing up food in the restaurant kitchen.

"I told you," Joey said. "It's for Leah and VJ."

"You realise she runs a Diner, right?" Angelo said doubtfully. "She can cook?"

Joey glared at him.

"She's going to have just stepped off a flight from Africa," she said. "And she's either going to be delirious from joy or from heartbreak. Either way, she's going to be delirious from the flight. And what do we need when we're tired? Food. We need food."

Angelo chuckled.

"Whatever you say."


"Why did they call you?" Robertson asked, sounding a little nastier than he had intended.

He was extremely annoyed that Charlie seemed to be getting this preferential treatment. First Nick Parrish had put her back on the Penn Graham case and now the Federal Police had called personally to interview Roo Stewart. Well, there was no way she was doing this on her own. He was definitely going to sit in on it.

"I don't know," Charlie said. "She just did."

"And you can stop smirking," Robertson snapped at Watson, who immediately looked down and got on with her work.

Charlie was pretty sure she was still smirking.

"Well, I'll sit in on it with you," Robertson decided.

"Well, I'd rather Watson…"

"No!" Robertson said. "I'm the Detective here. I'm in charge. Watson, call Roo Stewart."

Watson stopped smirking and glared at his back as he stormed upstairs. Charlie approached her at the reception desk.

"All of that was worth it just to piss him off," she said.

"And to know how highly you're being thought of right now," Watson pointed out.

Charlie couldn't help but grin.


"I'm really glad Leah is coming home actually," Ruby admitted. "I've missed her and VJ."

"Miles is beside himself," Nicole chuckled.

They, along with Claire were on the beach together, catching some sun before they were due to meet Miles, Irene, Colleen, Charlie and Joey at Leah's house to decorate it and fill the fridge in preparation for their return to Australia.

"I wonder how things went between her and Elijah," Ruby said.

"I wonder if he'll come back with her and the three of them will live happily ever after!" Nicole said.

"I hope so," Claire admitted. "She's so lovely. She deserves happiness."


Roo arrived at the police station, a little confused, somewhat anxious, bordering on irritated.

"Hi, Roo," Charlie said, greeting her at reception. "Thank you for coming in. We won't keep you long."

"What am I doing here?" Roo asked impatiently.

This was a far cry from the nice dinner they'd had. But Charlie had learnt to live with this. Sometime she had to be a friend to people and sometimes she had to be a cop.

"If you'll come into this room, we can just sit down and have a chat," she said, gesturing to their first interview room.

"Am I under arrest or something?" Roo asked, following her.

"No, no, of course not," Charlie assured her. "We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions.

She'd hoped that she could get it all done without Robertson realising Roo was there but alas, he appeared and barged his way into the room. He shook hands with Roo.

"Roo Stewart, I'm Detective Robertson," he said. "I'm leading the investigation into Penn Graham's disappearance."

Roo looked concerned.

"I don't know anything about that," she said quickly. "I was still in New York."

"This has nothing to do with that," Charlie said, annoyed that he even brought it up. "We've been just been asked to ask you if you've been in contact at all with Hugo and Martha."

Roo paused. Charlie knew in that second that she had. She just hoped Robertson couldn't read her as well.

"No," she said. "No, I haven't."

"Are you sure?" Charlie persisted. "Obviously, you're aware of the things that happened here in Summer Bay last year?"

"Yes, my father told me everything," Roo said.

"And you know they're on the run now?"

"Yes."

"But you haven't heard anything from either of them?"

"No. I don't know Hugo or his family and Martha… Well, we don't really have a relationship. You know I gave her up for adoption as a baby?"

"Yes, I'm aware of that."

"Well, put it this way, I'm not exactly the mother she'd run to in a time of crisis," Roo lied. "I'm sorry. I wish I could help you. I hate the idea of my daughter running round the globe with someone like that man. But I haven't heard from them and I don't know where they are."

She was good. She gave a very convincing argument. Charlie didn't believe her but she was happy to accept it. She loved Martha. She hated Hugo and everything he had done. It made her sick but she loved Martha. She didn't want to ruin her life, even if she was sickened by the choices she had made.

"Okay," she said. "Thank you for your time."

"Can I go?"

"Yes, that's all we wanted to ask," Charlie said.

"Oh, just one more thing," Robertson interrupted before Roo could stand up.

Charlie grimaced.

"What is it?" Roo asked, also annoyed.

"Have you ever heard of Tulip O'Hare?"

Charlie could have punched him. How dare he bring all of this up now?

"No. Who's Tulip O'Hare? Something to do with Hugo?"

"No, a friend of your father's," Robertson said.

"What's my father got to do with Hugo and Martha?"

"Nothing," Robertson said. "Just thinking about my own case."

"Which isn't what you're here to talk about," Charlie said, taking over. "So you're fully entitled to leave."

She gestured for Roo to stand and exit.

"Thank you so much for coming in," she said. "We really appreciate your help with our enquiries."

She saw Roo out of the station and then returned to Robertson.

"I swear, you are the most unprofessional police officer I have ever met in my life," she accused. "And I know you only mentioned Tulip so that she would go back to Alf and it would hopefully cause some kind of rift between them. You're such a spiteful bastard, you know that?"

She didn't even care that other colleagues were starting to look at them.

"And do you know what else? I'm going off shift now and we're going to make sure Leah's house all nice for when she gets home. And hopefully, she'll get back all loved up with her boyfriend. But even if she isn't, there is no way on earth she'll ever be interested in someone as manipulative and unkind as you."

She went to her office, grabbed her stuff and left.


Roo went home, her head a blur of confusion. Had Charlie and Robertson believed her about not being in contact with Martha and Hugo? And who was this Tulip O'Hare? How did she know her father? Was she significant to what had happened to Penn Graham? Did that mean that her Dad was connected to Penn and what had happened to him? None of this made sense. And the only way it possibly could was by speaking to her Dad. She just didn't know where to begin.


Charlie sat in the car park on the phone to Dana Fox, reporting back everything Roo had told her about Hugo and Martha.

"So, she absolutely knows nothing of their whereabouts?" Dana asked.

"She says not," Charlie reported, being clear not to lie herself. "She says that they don't have the kind of relationship that Martha would turn to her even in a crisis."

"And you accept what she said?"

"I do."

She hated lying. Her colleague seemed nice but sometimes the wrong thing was the right thing.

"Okay, thank you Sergeant Buckton," Dana said. "You've been most helpful."

"Thank you for your trust," Charlie replied.

She hung up the phone and headed over to the restaurant to collect Joey and what she was sure would be enough food to feed an army.


Alf took Roo for a walk along the beach. He had always known it would only be a matter of time before he had to tell Roo the truth about Tulip. He had stupidly been putting it off but he couldn't do it anymore. Now Robertson had mentioned her name, she had questioned him about her and he knew he had to tell her the truth.


"Aww, Leah and VJ are going to love all this," Nicole said enthusiastically, holding one end of a welcome home banner while Ruby stretched to stick the other end up in another corner of the room.

"Yeah, I hope so," her friend agreed.

"I think they'll be pleased with all the effort we've made," Claire said.

"Nothing like a nice welcome home, is there?" Nicole said.

"Nothing like people to make you feel special," Ruby said a little dreamily.

Nicole rolled her eyes. Ruby had been regaling them with Alex and his new return to singedom all morning.

"Ruby, we talked about this, remember?" she said.

"Yeah, yeah, take it slow," Ruby said dismissively.

"Ruby…" Claire said.

"I know!" Ruby said, jumping off the chair for her friend to catch her.

Nicole wondered how Ruby could be so oblivious to Claire's feelings for her.

"But he's so hot, you guys!" Ruby said.

They both looked disapproving.

"But I need to be careful and take it slow and blah, blah, boring blah!"


Alf and Roo sat side by side on the beach quietly.

"Well," Roo said eventually. "That explains a lot about my childhood that I never really understood until now."

"It does?" Alf asked, surprised.

Roo nodded.

"Yes."

"What do you mean?"

"Just…"

She sighed and gazed out to sea. She really had missed the sea and this beautiful beach.

"How weird you were when Mum died," she explained. "It was like… I couldn't reach you. I had all my pain and you had all yours and rather than pulling together, we just… grieved by ourselves. I think… I think that's kind of where you and I went wrong. Where we started going our separate ways."

Alf nodded quietly.

"You kept disappearing and I didn't know where you went," Roo continued. "And I guess I understand now. You were with her. Tulip."

"Are you angry with me?" Alf asked.

"Of course not," Roo said, nudging him and smiling.

He was relieved.

"You were grieving, Dad," she said. "So was I. There's no right or wrong way to do it, I don't think. We were both just trying to do our best."

"I'm sorry for going wrong with you," he said. "For not being there for you. For letting you down."

"And I'm sorry too," Roo said. "I was hardly a model daughter. I know if you could have had your pick, you wouldn't have picked me."

He put his arm around her.

"I would always pick you," he promised.


"Leah isn't going to have to cook again for about six weeks, you realise," Charlie teased Joey as they stocked their friend's fridge and freezer.

"You cooked enough to feed the five thousand!" Irene joked.

"Isn't the blasphemous?" Colleen asked.

Nobody answered her.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure she had proper time to settle when she gets back," Joey said.

"You're a good girl, Joey," Irene said.

"I bought bread and milk and everything," Colleen said, opening her shopping bag.

"Great," Charlie said. "They should have everything they need then."

"And we should get lots of friends points," Irene grinned.

"Has anyone heard much from them?" Miles asked anxiously.

"Not much," Charlie said. "Just the flight details so we can go and collect her tomorrow."

"So nobody knows how things went with the Reverend?" Colleen asked.

"Nope," Joey said.

"Well, hopefully they've worked it all out. They're such a lovely couple."

"Yeah," Miles sighed. "Hopefully."


Roo was nervous as Alf knocked on Gina's front door. Somehow, he had persuaded her to meet Hugo's mother and brother. He'd kept mentioning it and after their deep and meaningful on the beach, she had finally given in.

"Hello, Alf," Gina greeted. "Thank you for calling. Roo, I'm really pleased to meet you."

They shook hands. Roo noted to herself that she had seen her around the Bay a few times since she had arrived.

Gina invited them in and introduced them to a blonde teenage boy, sat on the sofa.

"This is my youngest son, Xavier."

"Pleased to meet you," Roo said.

"Hi," Xavier replied.


Everyone left Leah's house and went their separate ways. Ruby, Claire and Nicole were off shopping for the day. Colleen and Irene had to get back to the Diner – one of the reasons they were eager for Leah to get back from their holiday. Miles was going home to get some marking done. And Charlie and Joey had a day to themselves.

"What shall we do with ourselves?" Joey wondered.

"Can I challenge you to a run?" Charlie asked.

"Always!"

They jumped in the car to go home and get changed.


"You've really heard from Hugo and Martha?" Xavier asked urgently.

"Yes," Roo said. "It has to be a secret. The police hauled me in this morning to ask me if I'd heard from them and I had to lie. So if you get asked anything, you need to lie as well."

"Don't worry, we're used to lying to the police when it comes to my brother," Xavier told her rather bitterly.

"What did they say?" Gina asked.

She had been longing for news for so long.

"They're okay," Roo said. "It was just brief contact. A quick call. They're safe."

Gina breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Can I call them?"

"I don't have a number," Roo said. "It was withheld. But I thought you should know."

"Thank you," Gina said.

Xavier echoed her words.

"But please don't tell anyone that they've been in touch," Roo reiterated.

"We understand," Gina assured her. "The last thing we'd do is endanger them when they're finally safe."


Charlie and Joey raced along be beach other. Hearts pumping, they were neck and neck. Neither of them was prepared to let up. They could see the finish line and both of them, competitive as ever, were desperate to win. Charlie pushed one last time and threw herself at the finish line, crashing onto the sand. Joey arriving just behind, landing on top of her.

"I won!" Charlie gasped.

"Only just!" Joey protested.

She stole a breathless kiss, running her hands over Charlie's body in her figure hugging sports outfit.

"You're very tense today," Joey murmured.

"I had quite a morning," Charlie said.

"Mmm?" Joey said, drawing away. "Tell me about it?"

Charlie pulled her closer for a deeper kiss.

"Later," she said. "More of this now instead."


Later, Roo knocked on Gina's door again.

"This is for you," she said.

She put the envelope addressed to 'Mum' in her hand. It was from Hugo and she had brought it with her all the way from America.


Next time… Leah and VJ return home from Africa, Ruby makes a blunder and Robertson makes his feelings clear…