Chapter Five Hundred and Forty One

John and Gina were at the police station when Charlie and her colleagues arrived back at the station empty handed and a little frustrated.

"Charlie!" Blake said, grateful that she had come back.

She approached and asked if she could help.

"I want to know what's going on with my daughter," John demanded.

"Right…" she said a little awkwardly.

She invited him and Gina into an interview room so she could explain.

It had been a ridiculously long few days. Charlie had tracked Shandi down, only to discover that she wasn't called Shandi at all. She was called Daria and had been impersonating her friend, Shandi who didn't want anything to do with her father, who was indeed, John Palmer. She'd then had to tactfully explain all of this to John himself.

She had also tried and failed to track Will Smith and his daughter, Lily down after Leah had handed her son's phone over to her. He had been in touch with Lily and knew where he was. They had tried to contact Lily themselves, posing as VJ but so far, they had had no response.

They had interviewed Shandi but they'd not got much of a response. She had been advised by her lawyer to say nothing and she had stuck to it. However, between the fraud charge from a very angry John, who had given her money in view of not being in her life for all the years he hadn't know she existed and for theft after discovering that the broken down van Angelo had rescued her from had actually been stolen, they could at least keep her in custody while they worked out her connection to the murder. And Charlie was absolutely convinced that there was one.


"Okay, I'm going home and I suggest you do too," she told Watson. "We've been here so long I'm starting to forget what home looks like."

"I think you might be right," Watson agreed, yawning. "Back first thing, fighting fit and ready to tackle whatever gets thrown at us!"

"Deal," Charlie said.

They walked out of the station together, heading to their separate cars. Charlie climbed into her car and called Joey before she started the engine. She picked up on the first ring.

"Charlie?"

"Hey," she said. "I'm on my way home. Or on my way to the restaurant, depending on where you are. You're my home."

Joey smiled in to the phone.

"I'm at the restaurant and I'm sending your favourite meal to the chef," she promised. "You sound exhausted."

"I am," Charlie admitted. "It's going to be a long few days, I think."


Charlie woke up the next morning, snuggled tightly in Joey's arms. For a moment, she lay there, having completely forgotten all about work and everything it entailed. She breathed in Joey's scent and watched her eyes begin to flicker open. She snuggled a little closer, not wanting to let her go as memories of Penn Graham, Will Smith and Daria Hennessey invaded her mind.

"Mmm… morning," Joey mumbled. "We had a later night than intended last night."

Charlie stretched and kissed her.

"We did," she agreed. "But it definitely distracted me…"

She trailed her lips down from Joey's mouth and onto her neck. Joey closed her eyes and lay flat on the bed. She felt Charlie's hand slip down beneath the covers. She moaned again, a smile playing on her lips.

"Don't you have to be out of the house early this morning?" she asked. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I've got a few minutes," Charlie decided.


Charlie kissed Joey goodbye and headed for work, a lot happier than she had expected to be. She left Joey getting ready for her work day and Ruby planning a day out at the beach with her friends as the summer holiday began to come to a close.

"Joey, do you remember anything I said the other day about being more polite when you two are… you know?"

She wrinkled her nose. Joey blushed and kept herself busy putting the clean dishes away in the cupboard.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she lied.

"Honestly, it's enough to give a girl a nervous breakdown, hearing her parents at it last thing at night and first thing in the morning," Ruby teased, aware that she was embarrassing Joey. "I'd have thought with how hard Charlie was working that you might not work her so hard at home!"

"Okay, stop!" Joey begged, holding her hands up in submission.

"Only if you please keep it down!" Ruby laughed.

"Honestly, Ruby, we'll try but it's just so hard in the moment!" Joey giggled.

Ruby rolled her eyes.

"I envy my friends who have old parents," she told her.


"You look a lot happier this morning than I was expecting you to look," Watson commented as she met Charlie in the car park outside the police station.

They walked into the building together.

"Today is a new day," Charlie said brightly. "We're going to interview Shandi or Daria or whatever her name is and we are going to get to the bottom of what she knows."

"Can we start with a coffee first?" Watson asked. "I overslept and I didn't even have time for breakfast!"


Ruby arrived down at the beach with Claire. Nicole was sat quietly while Indi and Romeo messed about, laughing and joking further ahead. Ruby took a breath at the sight of her crush, topless and a little windswept. She followed Claire onto the sand and they each sat on either side of Nicole.

"How are you feeling today?" Claire asked.

"A little bloated," Nicole replied.

Ruby and Claire both put their arms around her.

"Young love, hey?" Nicole remarked, watching Romeo chase Indi across the sand while she shrieked and protested.

Ruby wished that could be her. Really. She wished it could be her.

"Speaking of, is Hannah meeting us today?" Nicole asked.

"She's working," Claire said.

Ruby was relieved. The last thing she wanted today was to spend it with Romeo and Indi and Claire and Hannah. She had had enough of happy couples already today.

"Oh, that's a shame," she lied.

"So, how is everyone?" Nicole asked.

"A little disturbed," Ruby asked. "But otherwise fine."

"Disturbed?" Claire asked, concerned.

"Just… Charlie and Joey… they're on heat or something at the moment!"

She pulled a face, made worse by Nicole and Claire bursting out laughing.

"It's not funny!" Ruby protested. "I mean, I really embarrassed Joey this morning so that made it worth it a bit but it's still not funny. Do you get this sort of stress living with Kerri and Watson?"

"They have a kid," Claire said. "I think they've learned to be more discreet."

"Charlie and Joey have a kid!" Ruby pointed out. "Me!"

"You're a grown up kid," Nicole said. "You've had sex. I don't think they feel they need to be discreet around you."

"Well, clearly not," Ruby said. "I mean, seriously, the number of times I've seen a trail of clothes leading to their bedroom… And the noises! And it goes on for hours!"

Someone cleared their throat awkwardly behind them. All three girls looked round to find Dex blushing. He quickly apologised.

"Hi, Dex," Claire greeted him.

"Sorry," he said again. "I just… I was approaching and then I heard you talking and I didn't know whether to interrupt and then you carried on talking and now I just feel kind of awkward and… a little bit… well, I mean… I don't want to be inappropriate so I think I just won't say anything."

He sat down on the sand.

"The idea of Charlie and Joey together is pretty hot, right?" Nicole asked with a wink.

Ruby was horrified. Dex looked like he wanted the world to swallow him up.

"I get it," Nicole said. "I mean, if I liked girls…"

"Please don't make it any worse!" Dex begged.

Claire promised that the conversation would end. Dex and Ruby both thanked her. Nicole continued to giggle.


"I've already told you, I don't know anything!" Daria snapped.

She sat opposite Charlie and Robertson. He had demanded to be part of the interview.

"I did see Penn earlier in the evening, like I said, but he was alive when I left him," she continued. "I don't know anything about a murder. It was nothing to do with me."

"Well, that just seems odd, doesn't it?" Robertson said. "Because according to the timeline we've been able to put together, you're likely to be the last person to have seen him alive now."

"I didn't stab him!" Daria said desperately. "Where the hell would I get a fishing knife from anyway!"

She froze. She looked at her lawyer who looked utterly despairing. Charlie and Robertson were delighted.

"So… Daria…" Charlie said, taking the lead. "Tell me, if you weren't there, exactly how would you know what Penn was killed with?"

"Um… I um…"

She looked helplessly at her lawyer.

"No comment," she said quickly.

"It's just that that was classified information," Charlie said. "Never released to the public. Only someone who was present at the time of the murder – or at the very least, had been told about it in detail – would know how Penn Graham was killed."

"What Sergeant Buckton is saying is that unless you've got something else to tell us, you've just placed yourself as our number one suspect," Robertson informed her.


Dex was extremely embarrassed. His friends appeared to have decided that he fancied Ruby's parents, which quite possibly wasn't far off the truth and now he was being teased mercilessly. Only Claire had stood up for him. And only Ruby seemed eager to change the subject. Evidently, she had had her fill of imagining Charlie and Joey in an intimate situation and she didn't wish for the idea to continue.

"Well, I mean, you did have a crush on Marilyn at one point," Indi remembered, eager to rib her brother a little more. "So, is it a parental figure that you're looking for or…?"

Dex wanted to punch his sister right in her smug face. It was all well and good to talk from a position where she was in a happy relationship. It wasn't so easy when you had been and knew you would be single for the rest of your life.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say Charlie and Joey are your typical parental figures," Xavier said.

"Hey!" Ruby said protectively. "They're awesome parents!"

Claire smiled at her.

"Oh, I'm not saying they're not," Xavier assured her.

He had been late to the gathering, having been waiting on April who had eventually decided that she had more important things to do. Since she had come back to the Bay, things hadn't been right between them and Xavier was more than a little worried that she was going to finish with him for good. Of course, it hadn't helped that the moment she had arrived back at her sister's 'house' for want of a better word, he had had his tongue down another girl's throat. But kind April had forgiven him and said they could work through it. The only problem was that they weren't working through it. They weren't really even talking. She was absorbed with some project she had started while she was away and she didn't seem keen to share.

"Well, what are you saying?" Ruby asked uncertainly.

"I'm saying that my Mum is old," Xavier said. "And a Principal. And your Mum is thirty…"

"Twenty nine," Ruby said. "If she catches you saying she's thirty, she might actually kill you."

"Precisely," Xavier said. "She's twenty nine and a cop and seriously firey! I mean, she is hot! Then there's Joey…"

He looked around at Romeo and Dex who both nodded, Romeo seeking permission from Indi first.

"And you put them together… Well, you have a lot hotter combination that my Mum and John, put it that way!" Xavier laughed.

"Or my Dad and Marilyn," Indi added. "I mean, is that right, Dex or…?"

"Yes, that's right," Dex said glumly.

"So, does everyone have the hots for my parents?"

"Yeah, I mean, a little…" Nicole grinned.

Romeo burst out laughing, as did most of the others.

"No wonder I can't get a date," Ruby complained. "Everyone wants to crack onto my mothers!"


Charlie arrived home after another long day at work. She immediately fell into Joey's arms, kissing her and telling her she missed her.

"I missed you too," Joey said. "I made you dinner. I assumed you wouldn't have had the chance to eat properly today."

"You're an angel," Charlie said, calling out that she would just go and get changed.

She returned a few moments later to a set table and a glass of wine. Joey served herself up a plate also, having waited to eat with her.

"So, how was your day?" she dared to asked.

"Long," Charlie said. "But we did make some progress."

Making her promise to keep it under her hat, she quietly revealed that with a warrant, they had searched Daria's hotel room and found a sequined skirt that matched the sequin they had found at the murder scene. They finally had something tangible that linked her to their investigation.

"That's such good news!" Joey exclaimed.

"It is," Charlie said. "But you will keep it to yourself, won't you?"

"I promise," Joey said. "Oh, speaking of keeping quiet…"

"What?" Charlie said, sipping her wine.

"So… we've had some more complaints from our daughter that we have sex too loudly…"

Charlie choked on her drink.


Next time… Will makes his next move, Ruby's crush on Romeo continues and some chemicals go missing from the school…