Clare Brody
Detective Clare Brody (2005)
Katrina Campbell
Episodes: 3936–3960, 4017–4018
Marital Status: Peter Baker (2005, engaged)
Occupation: Police detective
Clare was a senior detective sent from the city to take charge of the investigation into the Summer Bay Stalker. Her presence was an irritant to Peter, who had both personal and professional history with her: They had once dated but had disagreed over a case. She joined him in investigating the source of a fertiliser used in the Stalker’s explosives only to find the plant owner, Tom Lever, had been attacked and hospitalised. Investigating a storage facility which fertiliser had been delivered to, they learned from the landlord, Mr Browning, that he had never seen the person who was renting it. They found the Stalker’s lair inside the lock-up but failed to catch or see the Stalker when they heard them fleeing the scene.
Clare tried to send Peter home only to stumble across him being attacked outside, scaring off the Stalker. She went for a drink at Noah’s with him and met his brother Dan. Peter worked out that the alias used by the Stalker to rent the facility, Wal Harisse, was an anagram of Sarah Lewis and suspected Sarah was somehow still alive, a theory that Clare rejected. After the Stalker sent a message implying they would be at the Miss Groper pageant, Clare refused to call it off or let people know, instead placing undercover officers there. A suspicious bag was found near the stage but Peter opened it without precautions, revealing it just contained a taunting note.
Clare continued to abide by the official profile that the Stalker was motivated by power, dismissing Peter’s idea of someone being out for revenge. She refused him permission to have Sarah’s body exhumed and was annoyed when he tried to go over her head. After they met Dan, Leah, Sally and Flynn at Noah’s, Clare was driving Peter back to the station when they discovered the car’s brakes had been tampered with. They crashed and Clare suffered a minor head injury, having to stay overnight in hospital. When Peter failed to pick her up, she learned he had followed a message from the Stalker to an abattoir without telling anyone: Peter was attacked again but found mostly unharmed, with Clare frustrated at his behaviour.
Having now encountered the Stalker twice, Peter was convinced that the description given by Zoe McCallister was wrong and wanted to have her hypnotised to get a more accurate statement, but she disappeared before he could, with evidence suggesting she had been kidnapped and/or killed. Sally, who had also encountered the Stalker, offered herself as a replacement but also disappeared. By now, Clare was beginning to accept the Stalker could be connected to Sarah or even Sarah herself, after Peter found Sarah’s old ring in Zoe’s caravan. They discovered Sarah’s nurse, Eve Jacobsen, had disappeared after resigning months earlier and Peter suspected she was the unidentified body found after the bushfire at the start of the year.
However, when Peter and Clare received a photo of Eve, they learned the truth: She was the person they had known as Zoe, with the body being the real Zoe, who she had murdered and replaced. A phone call from Sally, who was being held captive by Eve, confirmed she was the Stalker. Clare tried to draw her out by calling a family meeting, with the townsfolk actually being taken to safety out of sight. Peter recognised the sound of a crop duster on the telephone call and managed to rescue Sally, with Eve apparently perishing in an explosion. Peter’s latest brush with death prompted Clare to admit her feelings for him and kiss him. She was offered a promotion in the city but considered taking a leave of absence. Peter told her to take the promotion, saying he would join her in the city as soon as possible.
A few months later, Clare was contacted by Dan while looking for Peter and inadvertently gave away the fact she and Peter had not been in Queensland together as he’d claimed. This resulted in Dan accidentally blowing an undercover operation and Peter being injured by drug dealers. Clare visited him in hospital and told him his transfer to the city had been approved. She asked him to marry her but he insisted on doing it properly, getting down on one knee and proposing in turn, which she accepted. The locals threw them a farewell party where the couple announced their engagement. However, when Peter returned to town at the beginning of the following year, he announced they had split.