TITLE: Elle
AUTHOR: Alimoo1971
RATING:
SPOILERS:
CATEGORY:
PAIRINGS:
SUMMARY: Elle Cole works for Mount Thomas Police
ARCHIVE: Fanfiction
DISCLAIMER: Ok, don't own characters. Made this story up, didn't make any money out of it, yada, yada, you know the rest.
FEEDBACK: Yes Please
NOTES: I was thinking about this story, so I decided to write it.
SONGS:
Elle Cole was on the phone when Sergeant Tom Croydon walked out of his office and heard her yell... "you bloody well send them! ... where?…" Then with frustration, "That's just great! ... No, now I have to tell Sargent Croydon that some idiot pencil pusher from Melbourne Police Station screwed up the paperwork and that they sent the forms that were ordered for us to St David's. He's going to have to send one of the officers or go himself to collect them which will create even more paperwork. Well pay attention and don't let it happen again or I'll come down and personally chew your ear off Constable Wilson." Then she hung up and took a deep breath.
"Found the stationery then Elle?" he asked calmly. She turned around to face him and stood up.
"Yeah Boss, you heard."
"Yeah, I think the whole station heard. Look why don't you go and pick them up, take the CI car."
"PJ wouldn't like that."
"Tough for him," making Elle smile.
"Thanks, Boss, but I've got to pick the kids up in an hour and with the roadworks between here and St Davids, I won't make it back in time."
"Leave me your keys then and I'll go and pick the kids up for you."
"Thanks again, Boss. Can you drop them off at home? Jamie will be at the house at three-thirty to babysit them for tonight."
"Giving yourself the night off?"
"Yeah, I'm going to need it after the day we've had."
"I get that, now go on."
"Thanks." She went to the locker room, got her bag then walked back and passed the keys to Tom.
"I'll be back soon as I can."
"Be Careful."
"Always," as she walked towards the back door grabbing the CI keys along the way.
An hour later she was returning from St Davids with the car full of the police stationary, she pulled into the Mount Thomas police car park next to where Nick and PJ were standing and talking.
"Elle, what are you doing driving the CI car?" PJ asked her.
"Boss said to take it so that I could pick up this lot of stationery in the back seat. There was a major screw up at the Melbourne Police Station. They sent this whole lot of stationery to St Davids instead of us."
''Good that we have it now. Any ticket books among them?" Nick asked.
Elle reached over and picked up a book and passed it to Nick.
"Here you go Nick, I ordered three."
"Thanks, you're a lifesaver."
"You can buy me a drink tonight and we'll call it even."
"You're on."
"Great! I'll see you boys back at the station then."
"Hey, Elle, who's picking up the kids?"
Elle smiled, "Boss is , and we know what he's like around them."
Nick and PJ laugh.
"Knowing the Boss he might give them lollies."
"Well, he does treat them like his grandchildren."
"That he does," Nick said.
"I better go."
"You know the drill," PJ said. She breathed into the tube then PJ checked the result as they saw a car pulling up behind the car.
"All clear, drive carefully," PJ said.
"Always do." Then she to the back of the station.
When she arrived she backed the car down the driveway then got out and noticed the doors to the station were closed. Opening the station doors she started carrying everything inside. She was opening the front door just as the phone rang and she walked quickly over to answer it.
"Afternoon, Mount Thomas Police, how may I help you?" Elle answered while she picked up a pen, talked to the caller and began writing down everything the caller was saying. Tom walked into the station as Elle hung up. She passed Tom her notes.
"Burglary on Kent street, John Hughson house."
"Okay, thanks, did you get everything from St David's?"
"Yeah. I'll take care of this but first a cup of tea while you contact Wayne." She walked over to the kitchen to put the kettle on and made both her and Tom a drink while Tom got in touch with Wayne. After the drinks were made she took Tom's into his office.
"Here you go, Boss"
"I see you brought me a vanilla slice, thank you."
"Thank you for picking up the kids for me and I know you gave them a lolly each."
"Now would I do that?" he said grinning as he picked up his slice.
"Yes, you do it every time, enjoy." She left his office and started sorting out the boxes of stationery while having her drink and answering the phone.
Later that evening Elle walked into the pub.
"Hi, Elle, busy day?" Chris asked. "Your usual?"
"Yes, thanks. I heard that the new constable arrived."
"Yeah, there she is," Chris said looking over to where the constable is standing.
"A woman copper, great, what's her name?"
"Maggie Doyle."
"Thanks, Chris." Elle walks around to the dining room. She saw the back of a woman about her age with shoulder-length blonde hair.
"Here you go Elle," Chris put her drink on the bar.
"Thanks, Chris." Elle paid for her drink then picked it up and approached Maggie.
"Excuse me, you're Constable Maggie Doyle? Hi, I'm Elle Cole."
"Hi, nice to meet you," Maggie said as they shook hands. "How did you know who I was?"
"Boss and Chris."
"Boss?"
Elle chuckled, "Sergeant Tom Croydon, we call him Boss. He told me that you showed up at the station this afternoon."
"So...You're a copper?" Maggie asked.
"No. I'm the cleaner, secretary, a volunteer with victim support, and businesswomen all rolled into one and plus a mother to twenty-six-month-old triplets."
"Wow, you must be superwoman!" making Elle laugh.
"Na, the coppers here... they've been great. Well, three out of four isn't bad, two call themselves honorary uncles, and the third's like a grandfather figure."
"Let me guess... Tom Croydon."
"You got it, even Nell, his wife, adores the three of them and steals them, well they both do when I'm not around."
"Triplets! That's rare."
"Yeah, I went to a fertility clinic in Melbourne when I found out that I had only a ten percent chance of getting pregnant. So after jabbing myself once a month, I was finally able to become pregnant." Elle then appeared to get sorrowful, turned away and went to sit down.
Maggie notices and then goes over and joins her. " So you're married?"
"Widow. I was eighteen and Timothy…. Tim was twenty-two. I was four years ahead in my class and we had known each other for five years. I worked for his family firm part-time while we were both at uni. We fell in love. His family snubbed me... I wasn't good for them, good enough for Tim. Tim hated the way they treated me so when I turned seventeen he asked me to marry him. He told me that he didn't care about anyone but me. I said yes and we were married two months after my eighteenth birthday with just a couple of witnesses who are our friends."
"What about your family?"
"My parents...Both into drugs and drinking. My brothers and I went into social services and foster homes. Because of my high marks, I received scholarships for private schools in Melbourne and I advanced grades. That's how I met Tim"
"Your brothers?"
"We were split up. And now I don't know where they are."
"That's sad, it would be hard on any family."
"That's all true," and she took a sip of her drink.
"What happened to Tim? You said that you're a widow."
"We were only married for a year when I found out about my fertility problem. At the same time that Tim's family found out that we were married. They were furious. His father and grandfather wanted the marriage annulled, they wanted him to marry a woman his age from a very wealthy family. Tim told them that none of that mattered to him and that he would give up everything to be with me He said that no amount of money in the world would break the love we have together"
"He sounds special, that's what I call love."
"He truly loved me with all his heart. His family has money themselves, they own a number of buildings plus a construction company in Melbourne."
"You're telling me you're in-law's own Coles Builders, the largest building business in Melbourne?"
"That's them."
" The last I heard was that they're worth over one billion dollars."
"Yeah, I know."
"What happened to Tim?"
"His own father blackmailed him. Either he annulled the marriage or I would lose my job and that he would spread the word that I'm a bad staff member with a drug habit. Or he would tip off the police saying I'm a drug dealer. When Tim told me this I couldn't believe it, I was shocked. Tim told his father to go to hell. Then one night when I returned to our apartment I noticed that someone had been in the apartment. I looked around and found a kilo of white powder in my draws. I knew it was drugs. When Tim arrived home ten minutes later, he was so angry and so he flushed it all down the sink. Then he washed the plastic bag and burned it for good measure and then flushed the ash all while I was getting dinner on. Over dinner, we talked about what his dad had done. Tim was very upset and angry that he would stoop so low. We had just finished dinner when the cops showed up with a warrant. Tims father had called in a 'tip'. They searched our apartment and found nothing. After the cops left we talked about it some more and we decided to fight fire with fire," and Elle took another mouth full of drink.
"What did you do, buy drugs?"
"No, No. Tim went to see his dad two days later with fake annulment papers. He knew someone who can make up fake papers, IDS, things like that. Unfortunately, to keep up the ruse, he had to move back into the family house and he had the apartment changed into my name."
"That must have been hard for you both."
"It was. Then he proposed to Claire Thomson daughter of a wealthy family friend, two weeks later. They got married three months later in an outdoor ceremony and went to Fiji for their honeymoon, and no they didn't sleep together."
"What? He could have been charged with bigamy." Maggie replied.
"No, he wouldn't...When they returned he went to see me in the office. We said hi and I went back to work. We met at different locations where we would talk and make-out. It was very hard. Then six months later Tim's family found out that Tim and I were having an affair, so they fired me. I took them to court and won my case for wrongful dismissal. But after that I couldn't get a job, they had made sure of it.
Tim was furious with what they had done. He made sure that I had money to live on. I kept trying to find another job, but no one would hire me. Then the cleaning and secretary job at the police station came up and I applied for it.
I was given an interview. The inspector said that he had heard rumours about me. I set him straight and told him that I had worked for the Coles for six years and then they fired me because I was sleeping with Tim, Peter's son. I explained that I had taken them to court and that I won my case. Then I told him that Peter said that he would make sure that I wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere in Victoria. I asked the inspector if he would give me a month's trial to see if I met his standards. I got the job, moved up here and rented a house."
"That took guts to stand up to the inspector like that."
"I was nervous but determined. He did check out my story and decided to give me that month. I've been here ever since."
"That is great that it worked out for you, but what happened to Tim?"
"Tim would come on Sundays and spend the day with me. Boss would give me a half a day off knowing that we are married. It was a month later when he and three new mates, whom he didn't like or trust but he went anyway took him fishing up north. Four went out fishing but only three returned after a storm hit. They all said that a freak wave washed Tim overboard and that the waves hitting the boat caused it to capsize. They managed to get in the life raft before the boat sank. The next day the three were picked up by the Navy. Tim's body wasn't found but the same ship found a ripped life vest from the boat, they reckon it was sharks."
"That's awful, I'm so sorry."
"It's ok. I never believed their story."
"What do you mean? Why?"
"Tim and I, we had been out on the sea in his father's boat a number of times. Whenever he had to climb the mast or move ropes he always wore a life jacket and a harness because a sudden change in wind direction could knock a person overboard. The three men said he wasn't wearing one. That's how I know they were lying." Elle said sadly.
"Then I heard from Richard O'Neill, our friend and the best man from our wedding, we had a visit. I told Richard that I was sure that the three men who were with Tim were lying about what happened. Richard agreed with me. He had spoken to the captain of the Navy Ship that found them. He explained to him and his commanding officer that Tim was an experienced sailor and that he would always wear a life jacket and a harness, especially in a storm. After listening to what Richard said they contacted the feds about what could be a possible murder. There was an investigation and it was determined that it was an accident. Richard, Tim's mates, and I know that Tim was murdered but we can't prove it. The three men got away with murder. It was that same day that I learned I was pregnant."
"I don't know what to say... that's shocking."
"That's how I felt. At the reading of the will, I was there, the family didn't want me there but Richard made sure that I was."
"He was a lawyer."
"Yes, Tim's lawyer. What shocked everyone including me was that everything Tim owned, the money, life insurance, stock shares, the business that he brought and started, it all went to me. Clarie hit the roof, she started yelling, 'I'm his wife not this useless slut! Tim had the wedding annulled over a year ago! Everything should go to me not her!" Elle looked down at her now empty glass then looked back up to Maggie.
"The family took me to court of course and Richard offered to represent me. Tim's family was shocked when they saw that Richard presented the judge with all of the documentation that was needed. The will had been made a month before his death, with a signed statement from Tim telling everything that the family has done to try to break us up. Everything but the drugs was mentioned. The most shocking part of all was the wedding between him and Claire was fake... the annulment papers, marriage license to Claire, even the minister, all fake. The family was shocked. The judge awarded me everything from Tim's will."
"You must have been happy when that was all over."
"Happy and relieved. Sad too. Then they said that they would do anything to destroy me and Tim's business and they said it in front of the judge. Their threats went on record.
"What was Tim's business?"
"Building and restoring homes, replacing old two-story business buildings. He started in Bendigo. He hired forty workers as well as three artists from there. Renovating houses was my idea. Whenever we saw good, old fashioned homes that had been left to rot. He brought five of them and hired renovation specialists workers to work on them. Word spread around about the renovated houses. The five houses that were fixed up inside and out were put on the market and sold. One house that he bought for twenty thousand dollars, spent just over two hundred thousand fixing it up and sold it for over half a million dollars"
"Wow... so what happened to his business? Are you carrying on with what Tim started?"
"Yes, now I've got employees here in Mount Thomas, Melbourne and St Davids. I've got over three hundred and thirty people working for me. So, between that and working at the station as well as being a mother of triplets, it keeps me busy."
"How much did Tim leave you?"
"Over six hundred million dollars."
"Whew, that's a lot of money."
"It is. Have you found a place to rent?"
"No, I'll stay here."
"In the pub? You might be able to for a short while. Look, tomorrow I'll bring some photos of houses and you can choose one. What I'll do is buy it, get it fixed up, and rent it out to you."
"No, you really don't have to do that."
"I do, I did it for two of the other coppers, so how about it."
"Well, I guess I say thanks."