Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking

[luckyrabbit]

Wickedly awesome update Rabsey! I love Eve and Tracey's cold-heartedness and sarcasm about the whole situation. Lucas has been run down and all Special Agent Jacobsen cares about is the Sims!

Well, she spent a lot of time on those Sims!

At least they have some perspective on the case and are not completely obsessed like certain people *cough*Peter*cough*.

[Oxidizer]

lol Those are very good points! I can't wait for more!

[tasha7905]

Great chapter, Im really glad Henry is back. Cant wait for more.

[luckyrabbit]

I've been a busy little fic writing beaver (Beaver? Ew.) today, here's the next part, I hope you like it

PART 8

Tracey leaned back against the desk, watching Eve erase the whiteboard and draw up two separate columns. "What are you doing?"

"Writing up what was me and what was the real Stalker, for the morons around here that constantly need reminding." Eve explained, adding 'car bombing' under the Stalker column. There was an unspoken agreement to refer to the people, who were terrorizing the town, as the Stalker just for the sake of convenience.

"Do you still think that they're connected?" Tracey asked, as Eve put 'Hit and Run?' under the Stalker column.

Eve set the marker down and shrugged. "It could've been our mad bomber trying to make a quick getaway" She conceded. "But on the other hand, the kids statements make it sound like it was definitely a personal attack. It would be a mistake to rule it out, either way."

"But who would have something against a sixteen year old kid?"

"This is Summer Bay, everyone has an enemy." Eve reminded her. "We'll ask Jack about it tomorrow. Rice and Fitzgerald should be back from getting the owner's statement on the stolen car soon. What time is it anyway?"

"You know that there's a clock right there." Tracey said, but checked her watch anyway. "A little after seven."

Eve tilted her head. "Really? Feels like it should be later."

"Well, we've had a big day."

Eve raised an eyebrow and slinked casually up to where Tracey was standing. "Seems like we never get any time to ourselves anymore." She said slyly, putting her hands on the desk on either side of Tracey's hips.

"Mum! Mum!" Matilda cried, running up the driveway dragging a laughing Henry behind her by his wrist.

"Mattie, slow down." Henry laughed at his sister enthusiasm.

"Mum, look who's here." She yelled, bursting through the doorway to the Hunter home.

"Oh Mattie!" Beth cried in relief, abandoning her frantic conversation with Tony to scoop her youngest daughter up in a hug. "We've been so worried about you, don't you ever run off like that again."

Matilda shrugged out of her mother's embrace and pulled Henry forward. He'd been hanging back in the doorway, watching the mother daughter reunion with interest. "Henry's here."

Beth looked at her youngest son with wide eyes. "Henry, what...? You're so tall." She exclaimed, shocked that her little boy now towered over her. She held her arms out wide. "Give me a hug."

"Hey mum." He said, folding his now much smaller mother up in his arms.

"Henry, I didn't know you were coming back." Beth said, when Henry had pulled back from the hug and put a supportive arm back around his sister's narrow shoulders. "It's not the holidays is it?"

"Well for me it is, we get out earlier than regular schools."

Beth put a hand to her forehead. "Oh, that’s right! Sweetheart, I'm so sorry, there's just been so much happening…"

"I know, Mattie filled me in on the way home. There's never a dull minute around here." He looked past his mother and nodded at Tony. "I'm really sorry about Lucas."

Tony nodded at him. "Thanks mate."

Beth looked from Henry to Tony and then back again, realizing that they had never even met, let alone been introduced. "Oh Henry, this is Tony. Tony, this is my son Henry."

Both males shifted uncomfortably and muttered greetings to one another. It was an awkward situation all round.

"Oh Henry, I just realized, there's not really anywhere for you to sleep." Beth said, biting her lip. There was Lucas' room but it didn't feel right to offer it to Henry when his body wasn't even cold.

"That's okay, I can bunk in with Mattie. Just like old times." He said, smiling down at his sister. "If that's okay."

"It's fine, I don't want to be alone." Matilda replied, leaning more heavily against him and touching his chest.

"Well that's settled." Beth said, clapping her hands together. Happy that something was going right on what was a horrible day. "Are you hungry? We just had dinner. I can heat up some leftovers for you."

"Starving."

"The door's shut." Constable Tim Rice pointed out when they arrived back at the station. "Do you think that we should disturb her?"

"She'll want to hear this." Lara assured him, waving her clipboard in his general direction. She stopped outside the closed door to Pete- Eve's office. Even though he'd been gone for over two months, it still felt weird not to refer to the room as Peter's office.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Tim teased. "I'm not opening it." He said when Lara indicated that he should be the one to go in first. "She'll bite my head off."

"She's not that bad." Lara snorted, grabbing the knob and pushing the door in without knocking. Bad idea.

Tracey cleared her throat, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and moving away from Eve who was now sitting on the desk.

"Busted." Rice coughed into his hand.

"You know there is this thing called knocking." Eve commented laconically, seeming to not be terribly bothered that she just got caught making out with another woman in her office.

"What did you get from the car's owner?" Tracey asked, before either of the constables could reply to Eve's sarcastic remark.

"The owner says that the car went missing sometime after eight this morning. That was the last time they saw it." Rice informed them, checking the facts on his clipboard.

"Only two hours before the hit and run." Tracey thought out loud.

"But wait until you hear this." Lara interrupted. "On the way back, an old woman waved us down and told us that there was an abandoned car up near Stewart's Point."

"We checked it out, it's our missing vehicle." Rice finished. "So we thought we better shoot back here and tell you."

Eve's eyes widened and Tracey's groaned. "And you just left it sitting there? By itself?" Eve exclaimed.

"Well…yeah. We thought that we should let you know as soon as possible." Rice said cluelessly.

"Wha…I can't…ah." Eve was rendered speechless by the two young constables incompetence. She looked at Tracey pleadingly.

Tracey put a comforting hand on Eve's shoulder. "You left the crime scene unsecured?"

They both nodded reluctantly.

"Idiots!" Eve blurted out. "Tracey, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't not leaving a crime scene unattended, one of the first lessons you learn at the academy?"

"It is."

"So why did you two do it?"

"We thought that you'd want to know about it right away." Rice explained lamely.

"That's what you have radios for!" Eve cried, shaking off Tracey's hand and pacing around the small office with her hands in her hair. "Dammit, alright. Let's just stop wasting anymore time and get out there, shall we."

"Henry?" Matilda asked her brother, who was setting up a sleeping bag on the floor of her room.

"Yeah."

"Why are you back?"

"It's the holidays and I missed my family." He said simply. "Besides you need me."

"I needed you when Grandpa died. I needed you when the fire happened, I needed you when we thought that Robbie and Kit were dead in the bush." Matilda said angrily, tears stinging her eyes. "I needed you when I…when I was coughing up blood and still didn't think I had a problem."

Henry looked away. "I know." He said quietly, he moved to kneel before his sister. "And I regret that, Mattie, I should've been here, I know that and you'll never know how sorry I am that I wasn't. And I can't change that." He brushed a tear off Matilda's face with his thumb, cupping her cheek with his hand. "But I'm here now, okay? For as long as you need me, just say the word and I'll leave boarding school and stay here for good. With you." He promised sincerely.

"I can't ask you to do that." Matilda sniffled, looking at her twin through fresh eyes. He was no longer the short, bratty, sometimes whimpy boy that went off to dance at boarding school. He was a tall, mature, sensitive and, dare she say it, rather good-looking young man. "You've grown up so much." She whispered, touching his light blond hair, he reminded her so much of Lucas…Lucas. She let out a sob. She'd been so excited to see her brother that she'd almost forgotten about him.

"Hey, it's okay." He tried to placate Matilda who's quiet tears had developed into full body-racking sobs. Henry rubbed her back comfortingly, and let her cry on his shoulder. "I'm here now, I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"Well this is just brilliant." Eve commented as the police car pulled up at the location of the stolen car, only to find it engulfed in flames, smoke billowing up into the night sky.

"What? I don't understand." Lara exclaimed from the drivers seat. "We've only been gone a few minutes, it was fine when we left."

"That's right." confirmed Tim.

"See kids, this is why we don't leave a crime scene unattended." Eve said condescendingly.

"I doubt crime scene's going to get much off it now." Tracey remarked.

"Are you mad?" Lara asked Eve tentatively, making Tim Rice roll his eyes and mutter "suck-up" under his breath.

"Why would I be mad? One of our biggest leads just got destroyed because two supposedly experienced police officers made a mistake that a first day probationary constable wouldn't even make. I'm freaking ecstatic!" She said sarcastically, before getting out of the car and going to talk with the newly arrived forensics officers.

"So she's not angry then?" Rice asked.

Tracey looked at him incredulously. "Are you an idiot? She's furious."

"Oh."

Next time on Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking: A filler chapter! YAY! Colleen, Zoe and Tracey, all in the same scene? Comedy gold!

[Traceve]

Wow! That was ****en Awesome!

Please update soon!!

[Oxidizer]

lol I loved that! The SB police team are incredibley dull - they deserved to recieve all of that stuff from Eve's wicked tongue. I can't wait for Colleen/Zoe/Tracey stuff!

[swfc]

finally!!!!!

a tracey and zoe fiction!!!!

i can't wait to read more!!!!!!

awesome job!

[luckyrabbit]

PART 9

"Do you really think that you're not dressed too casually for work?" Tracey asked Eve as they entered the police station the next day.

Eve looked down at her grey tanktop and black jeans. She couldn't see the problem. "Maybe so, but that's one of the perks of my job. Agents get to wear whatever we want." She grinned. "We don't have to wear pantsuits all the time, not that you don't look spectacular in them."

Tracey smiled sarcastically at her and winked.

"Uh, Zoe-" Rice spoke up from the front desk. Eve raised an eyebrow at him. "-I mean, Special Agent Jacobsen?"

"What?"

"The report from forensics, on the car, is waiting for you on your desk."

"Good." Eve nodded. "Is Holden in yet?"

"Yeah, I think he's outside washing the patrol cars."

"Get him and Fitzgerald and come to my office. ASAP."

Rice nodded, not wanting to do anything to get on her bad side anymore than he already was.

Eve entered the office and made a beeline for the desk, she took one look at the forensics report and made a disgusted sound, handing it off to Tracey who had a similar reaction.

There was a knock at the door and Eve waved the three constables into the office and Tracey shut the door behind them.

"Do you have any leads on the hit and run?" Jack asked, making Lara and Tim flinch as they were sure that Eve was going to reveal their screw up from the night before. The last thing they needed was for Jack to have another excuse for him to act superior.

"Jack, do you know of any enemies Lucas might have had? Anyone who had a grudge against him?" Eve asked seriously.

"No, I-" He stopped, a thought suddenly occurring to him.

"Constable Holden?" Tracey prompted.

"It's just a couple of months ago, there was a teacher at the high school, he got one of his students pregnant and..."

"We don't need the whole story, Holden." Eve cut him off. "I get that he has a motive but does this teacher have a name?"

"Steven Brayburn."

Eve nodded. "Okay, you go and run the usuals on him; background check, general inquires into his whereabouts yesterday, see if he's got an alibi. If anything comes up let me know." Jack blinked, surprised that Eve seemed to be letting him take over the investigation. "What are you waiting for? A cookie? Get going."

"Right. Yeah, I'll just go-" Jack jumped up and left the room.

"As for you two-" Eve started once Jack had left the room, making Rice and Fitzgerald bow their heads in shame. "- Forensics could get jack all off the car, it was too damaged by the fire. So, God help us, we're going to have to rely on your memories."

"What?" Lara asked, completely confused.

"Well I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the car wasn't on fire when you left it." Eve snarked, making the two constables shake their heads. "So you might have seen something that may have been a clue, so we're going to go over what you remember." She said, as if explaining to pre-schoolers.

"Well, we didn't get too close." Rice scratched his head, trying to remember the details.

"The drivers side door was left open." Lara recalled. "And the front left hand side window was all smashed in and the bumper was damaged. No blood that I remember seeing."

"That's all great but did you look inside the car? See anything that could give us a clue to the drivers identity?" Tracey asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"They were tall, the driver seat was pushed way back from the steering wheel, but like Tim said we didn't get close enough to take a good look." Lara admitted.

Eve mulled it over for a second. "Okay, you can go." She dismissed them. Tim and Lara looked at one another uncertainly. "Out! Now!" Eve barked impatiently and the two constables made a hasty retreat.

"Great, so we're back to our only lead, Stuart Wilkins, and we don't even have an address for him." Tracey sighed, getting frustrated with the complications that kept popping up in the case. She looked at Eve, who, to anyone else, would seem to be daydreaming, staring blankly off into space. But Tracey knew her better. "What are you thinking?"

Eve snapped out of her daze. "I'm thinking that I've heard that name somewhere before." She smirked self-assuredly. "I think I know how to find him."

"Do you know what this is?" Irene asked angrily, clunking a plate down in front of Colleen.

Colleen stared at the food. "A salad sandwich?"

"Exactly, you delivered a salad sandwich to table five. They ordered coffee and two slices of carrot cake!" Irene exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "This is the fifth order you've gotten wrong today, woman! It's like you're on a another flipping planet!"

"Well, I'm sorry!" Colleen cried, getting flustered and throwing down her tea towel. "But I haven't been sleeping! Ever since we found out that the Stalker's still out there, I've been living in fear!"

"For Heaven's sake Colleen, do you really think that the Stalker is going to come after you of all people?"

"Colleen?" Eve asked, rapping on the side of the door and sticking her head into the kitchen, in a case of the best timing ever. "Could we have a word?"

Colleen let out a shocked squeak and tried to hide behind Irene.

"Colleen, they're the good guys, remember?" Irene rolled her eyes at the pensioners childish behaviour. "Lordy woman. Just go talk to them, I've got lunches to make." She said bossily, pushing Colleen towards Eve and Tracey.

"You don't have to push!" Colleen squawked.

"Why don't we talk in here?" Tracey asked gently, steering Colleen towards the storeroom. "If that's alright with you Miss Roberts." She said politely.

Irene looked at Tracey curiously. "Go for your life, darl."

"Relax Colleen." Tracey advised the jittery old woman as Eve shut the door to the storeroom to give them some privacy. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Yeah, there are far too many witnesses." Eve joked. Tracey glared at her when Colleen cowered in fear. "What? It was a joke!" She shook it off and leaned against the metal shelves. "Colleen, you're friends with Madge Wilkins, right?"

Colleen blinked. "Young Lucas has been mowed down in the prime of his life and you're asking about Madge Wilkins?" She asked, getting her moral outrage on now that she'd ascertained that she wasn't in any danger.

"Constable Holden is handling the case at the moment." Tracey said calmly.

"Colleen, does Madge have a son?" Eve asked impatiently.

"She did but he died years ago." Colleen said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Dreadful business, he killed himself and left Madge all alone to bring up bring up his boy but I suppose it was all for the best, he was a bit of a druggie, you know. And little Stewie takes care of her now, he's such a lovely boy..."

"Stewie? As in Stuart?" Tracey cut her off.

"Yes." Colleen snapped, obviously offended that Tracey had interrupted her story. "What's this all about? My taxes pay your wages and I don't pay you to stand around and gossip!"

"That's all you do and you still get paid." Eve muttered under her breath.

"You're absolutely right Mrs. Smart." Tracey said loudly over Eve's bitchy comment. "We should be getting back to work. Thank you for your co-operation."

"I'm guessing that that was your first encounter with Colleen Smart?" Eve asked Tracey on their way back to the car.

"You guess right." Tracey confirmed. "Is she always so..."

"Yep."

"So what are we going to do now?"

"Now we're going to pay little Stewie a visit."

Next time on Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking: Another murder but who is the victim? And what does devious plan does Belle have in store for Ric and Cassie?

[Traceve]

****en Awesome!

Update, Update, Update, Update!!!..Please

[Oxidizer]

YAY! I love this fic! It's so awesome! Can't wait for more Rabsey