Episode 4851

Extended Summary

Liam asks Belle to explain to his wife that they are not having an affair, but before Belle can answer, she finds out that Irene is in hospital. Liam later sees Aden in the Diner and attempts to apologise to him for taking up so much of Belle’s time, but it ends in argument and Liam storms off. Aden offers support for Belle over Irene, although he is clearly jealous of Liam. The next morning Aden is furious when he catches Alf, Kirsty, and Leah discussing a new article in the Coastal Times – a photo of Belle and Liam together headlined “Rehab Romance Heats Up”. Liam demands Belle talk to his wife about the article.

Irene and the policeman she shot are brought into hospital. Rachel is taken aback when the Ambo’s tell her that Irene is intoxicated. As she is transferred to the bed, she is rambling about Lou vanishing and how whoever got him wasn’t going to get her. Rachel asks Irene how much she had had to drink, but Irene is extremely distressed and incoherent. Belle, Geoff, Annie, and Kirsty are shocked to discover that Irene shot a policeman, and that Lou has been missing for days. Later that night, Rachel allows them to visit Irene, overruling Angelo, who wants to talk to her. Irene is still pretty out of it and feels bad about Lou – it has been too long and she fears he must be dead.

The next day Belle accompanies Alf to the police station, where he supports Irene in her interview with Angelo. Irene tells her story – she and Lou were happy on the yacht, but she received a letter from Belle explaining about her time in rehab and they decided to come home, taking the shortest possible route and sailing through the night. On her last night with Lou, Irene took some sleeping tablets, and went to bed watching a DVD with headphones. A noise briefly woke her in the middle of the night, but she quickly went back to sleep, assuming it was the movie. When she woke up the next day, Lou was nowhere to be seen and Irene freaked out.

Irene had no idea how to work the boat radio, let alone sail out of there. Frightened and drifting, she stayed on deck day and night on the lookout, in the hope that a boat would pass or Lou would come back. After a few days she couldn’t kid herself anymore, Lou and gone and she was alone. She started thinking about her final night with Lou, and became convinced that it must have been a gunshot that woke her, and that someone had hurt Lou. She grabbed Lou’s gun for protection. paranoid that whoever took Lou would come after her as well, and was so beside herself that she did what she’d vowed she’s never do again – started drinking. She shot the police officer by accident because she was terrified, she had just meant to scare them off, not actually hurt anyone.

Angelo cross-examines Irene for holes in her story – the fact that the radio had merely been disconnected, she hadn’t gone to investigate after this supposed gunshot woke her, and about her violent history with alcohol. He questions the fact that Irene was a violent drunk with her kids who were subsequently put into a foster home. Angelo puts it to Irene that she was having such a good time with Lou, that she decided to make it even better. She started drinking, and after an argument with Lou, shot him. She didn’t want to be found out, and so went down with guns blazing, shooting at the officers coming to rescue her. Irene is distraught that Angelo could even think that she hurt Lou. Charlie believes Angelo is completely over the top in doing this.

When Belle finds out that Angelo will be holding Irene in custody pending formal charges, and that Irene’s a person of interest in Lou’s disappearance, she slaps Angelo, and he throws her in the cell with Irene.