The “Alternate” 2009 Mystery Storyline

[TelephotoMarigold]

Chapter 11 and in no way was this influenced by the X Files

Angelo Risotto, supercop, walked into his apartment and dumped even more files on to his kitchen table. It groaned under the weight of the additional paperwork and wobbled alarmingly but stayed standing. He looked at it before walking to the other side of the kitchen he was forced to move a box of fishfingers to reach the kettle. Within minutes he had made himself a coffee and took a cautious sip of the hot brew.

Putting his handcuffs on the top he pulled out his large truncheon and added that before the FBI identity card he had in the name Badger Mouldy and his maglight torch. He added the Blow up sheep that he kept only because in the event of an emergency he could use it as a lift vest and the large brown eyes on it reminded him vaguely of Charlie. He added the map of Summer Bay to the pile of objects he took out of his pockets. He carried it around so that he didn’t get lost. It had a picture of a clown on the other side with a treasure map and a dot to dot puzzle. So far he hadn’t found the treasure and got stuck half way round the dot to dot puzzle. And the clown was kind of scary too. It was funny that the map was meant for kids, they handed them out at the diner, because it was really difficult to do. Finally he took off the trenchcoat and dropped the his mobile phone on to the top.

Turning around he sat at the table and looked through the first file he’d brought home. Looking at the box from the fishfingers he checked the details again of the sell by dates and knew he was missing something. Looking over at an empty packet he starred at the picture on the front. It was blue with a big C in the corner and a picture of someone who looked a bit like Alf. He shook his head before getting more coffee.

Pacing back and forth as he drank his next cup of coffee he finally walked over to the window he took a roll of tape and tore strips off and taping them to the corner pane of glass in a big F shape. Then plugging in his desk lamp he shone the light on it. Maybe his mysterious contact from the underworld would be able to help.

The mysterious “Fishing from the Pier” man walked slowly past Angelo’s apartment and saw the backwards F in the corner window. He uttered two words.

“Flaming Galah”

[TelephotoMarigold]

Yugo pulled on the black eyepatch that was part of his disguise and moved into the warehouse. He smiled grimly as he surveyed the scene in front of him.

“What are they doing?” he asked the Big C.

The big C turned towards him and growled out the answer.

“They are past their Sell by date. We have to get rid of them.”

“That is a tonne of fishfingers.” He pointed out.

“I am aware of that. “ he was told.

He looked at the truck the immigrants were loading up the fisfingers on and thought he recognised one of the women doing the loading. From behind it looked a little like Belle Taylor but then he shook his head as if to dispel the thought. Belle was dead she couldn’t possibly be amongst the illegal immigrants loading the fishfingers.

“So where do we take them?”

The big C walked over to a table and rolled out a map of Summer Bay. It had a picture of a clown in the corner and Yugo recognised it as one he’d seen given out free in the diner. A hint of recognition crawled across his face as he realised just who the Big C was and hid a grimace. If they knew they had been recognised it would be hazardous to his health.

He nodded as he looked at the map.

“The construction site at the edge of the bay.” He confirmed.

“Bury them deep.” The big C instructed.

Yugo looked at them and then over at the immigrants. For a second he wasn’t entirely sure that the Big C was still talking about the fishfingers and he shuddered before striding over to the lorry. He shut up the back before he climbed in the cab and set off. Glancing back into the warehouse he was once more struck by the woman that looked remarkably like Belle Taylor Jefferies. She seemed to be wearing an “I’m not Belle” T-shirt although he was reading it in the rear-view mirror.

He drove slowly through the silent town catching sight of Alf fishing on the pier. The other man lifted his line and unhooked the old boot he’d caught before casting the rod again into the water. Yugo sighed wondering why the man still fished there after thirty years of never catching anything, although he supposed maybe he had a pair of matching boots by now.

Yugo carried on driving unaware that the woman that looked like Belle had loosened the back of the truck and he was leaving a trail of fishfingers from the warehouse all the way to the construction site….

[TelephotoMarigold]

Angelo and Charlie sat in the Patrol car together when the lorry passed them. Charlie looked over at the face of the man sitting beside her and wondered just why she had fallen for him. She sighed once more before looking out the front of the car. It was then she noticed the fishfinger boxes falling of the back of the truck.

“We need to follow that truck.” She squealed out excitedly.

“Ok.” Angelo said and climbed out of the car. He started running after the truck in the road.

Charlie shook her head and debated whether to let him keep running or to start the car and go after him. She watched him for a moment before shaking her head once more and turning the key in the ignition starting the car. She drove along the road slowly until she caught up with the panting Angelo. She looked over at his floppy hair and red cheeks before lowering the passenger side window and heard him panting as he ran.

“I meant we follow it using the car.” She pointed out.

“O……….”gasp. “K….” Angelo said.

Charlie looked at him again and slowed the car to a stop and let him climb inside before setting off in silent pursuit.

“Where do you think it is going?” Angelo asked after a few minutes his breathing almost returned to normal although he was still a bit red faced.

“There is a map in the glove box.” Charlie murmured.

Angelo nodded and reached forward. He undid the small black container and saw a pair of hair straighteners fall out. He looked over at Charlie and hoped she hadn’t noticed. He saw that she was focused on the road ahead so he quickly switched them on and bent down to straighten his hair.

“Did you find it?” she asked.

“Just a minute.” He said his voice muffled. He finished straightening his hair and put them away before grabbing the map, burring only two of his fingers in the process on the cooling straighteners.

“Right.” He murmured unfolding the map.

He saw that it was the same map he had except that the dot to dot puzzle seemed to be finished and looked at the picture it made. “It’s a fishfinger.” He cried out recognising the shape.

Charlie looked puzzled for a brief minute before glancing at what he was looking at and nodded.

“I think this is a clue.” He said triumphantly.

She gave him an adoring look before focusing on the truck ahead of them. She continued the pursuit following it out of town and along the winding road.

“I think we are heading for the construction site.” Charlie told him.

Angelo sat up straighter in his seat and looked out of windscreen watching the truck move ahead of them.

“My god they are dumping the fishfingers there.” he gasped ten minutes later.

“Good one Constable Rosetta.” Yugo announced from the back of the patrol car where he had been for the last nine minutes since Charlie had dragged him from the back of the truck where he’d been throwing packets of the fishfingers into the hole in the middle of the construction site then wrestled him to the ground when he’d tried to escape and finally bent him over the front of the patrol car where she’d put the handcuffs on him.

Angelo turned in shock and looked at the other man.

“I think we have a lead.” Charlie murmured.

“Who is the Big C?” Angelo asked him.

“I can’t tell you.” Yugo cried. “They will kill me. And er have you done something with your hair?”

Angelo blushed.

“No nothing.” He said quickly.

“It’s looks longer somehow.” Yugo commented.

“I’ve been so busy investigating I haven’t had time to get it cut. Now answer the question, who is C?”

“Look you know I can’t tell you.” Yugo muttered.

“You can’t tell us?” Charlie asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because the plot of this story is that C remains anonymous until the last chapter and well if I tell you now it would spoil the storyline.”

“Seems a fair enough reason.” Angelo pointed out to Charlie.

“Yes but we can’t let him go.”

“Of course not. We should put him in witness protection or something.”

“Hello!” Yugo cried. “I’m right here didn’t your mother ever tell you that its rude to talk about someone as though they aren’t there?” he asked them.

“He’s right.” Charlie murmured. “My mum did tell me that.”

“Cool so did mine. Still are we taking him to the station or what?”

“Definitely the station.” Charlie said starting the car.

“Hello you’re doing it again…” Yugo said and swore briefly. “Of all the cops in all the towns I had to get arrested by your two.” He muttered feeling the need to bang his head until he lapsed into unconsciousness.

[TelephotoMarigold]

Voiceover Man:

Hello, some of you may remember me from such fan fictions as Prison Break, ok only Prison Break. Er... I'm available for work if anybody needs a story recap... anyway back to the plot!

Aden and Geoff had an online affair which was dramatically cut short when Aden's dead wife found out. Now Aden is bing given the silent treatment in two chatrooms...

Yugo and Marta adopted Maggie Simpson and Bam Bam Rubble without Marta realising that Yugo was behind the fishfinger racket. I mean how dumb can you be? she used to wash the eye patch he used as his clever disguise and everything. Didn't she ever work out that the mysterious shark attack was actually a paper cut from a box of fishfingers?

Fearing for her life Irene has fled the country, ending up on the same flight as Jai and Annie....

Nicole was still trying to get her record...

Roman having escaped from Prison to declare his love for Marta only to find her with Yugo has headed to the airport to flee to France to enlist in their Foreign Legion...

Anyway er... Belle is currently in hiding, posing as an illegal immigrant but is still no closer to solving just who is the Big C, the ringleader of the plot... But she did manage to get dumping of the toxic fishfingers stopped leading to the arrest of Yugo....

Meanwhile back in Summer Bay the mysterious "fishing from the pier" man was helping Constable Risotto get to the bottom of the mystery... (and good luck to him...)

Will Nicole get her record? Will Geoff and Aden reconcile? Will Angelo get his man? What? Charlie is a woman? How did I miss that?? Well er... will they find out who is the big C?? All these questions and more will be answered in the next exciting installment of The Alternate 2009 Mystery....

[TelephotoMarigold]

Charlie looked at Angelo and sighed.

“I’ve had an idea.” Angelo said for the second time.

“I think you should listen to his idea.” Yugo murmured.

“And why should we listen to you?” Charlie muttered glancing at Yugo in the rear view mirror.

“Because it’s a good idea.” Angelo defended himself folding his arms across his chest and pouting.

Charlie looked at her part time on off boyfriend and partner before she sighed and saw the pitying look that Yugo gave her. She glared back at him before turning and looking at Angelo.

“Yes?” she asked him.

“We follow the fishfingers back to where they come from.” Angelo said excitedly jumping up and down in his seat.

“You mean from the construction sight?” Charlie asked grinning. “ Follow them back along the road see where they came from. That would work.”

“That would be a bad idea.” Yugo growled out.

“I think we should do it.” Angelo said.

“Later.” Charlie promised him fluttering her eyelashes at him. “First we should follow those fishfingers.”

Angelo blushed.

Belle looked around the warehouse before she pulled out her laptop and logged on. She read the exchange between Gayden Fan and Belles_ Babe and frowned. She didn’t recognise the screen names but what they were saying to one another made them seem familiar somehow. Feeling frustrated at being in a warehouse of smelly fishfingers with a bunch of people that didn’t even speak English made her cranky and she typed quickly telling Gayden Fan and Belles_Babe to get a room.

Across the Bay Gayden Fan was keying in the code for the apology smiley when he accidentally hit the wrong button and the one with it’s tongue hanging out hit the screen. He groaned and blushed.

Belles_Babe read the last few comments before the smell of fishfingers hit him and he groaned feeling sick.

Fisherman is no longer out for coffee.

Alf looked at his blackberry and muttered something under his breath before he began typing.

“Fishfingers ”

“FF?” Belle typed thinking of the way she had just led a trail of them from the warehouse she was sitting in to the construction site. She had stayed long enough to watch Yugo get put in the back of the police car before running back here.

“Anybody know where they are from?” Alf typed and hit send.

“I have some in my freezer if you want them?” Gayden Fan typed helpfully.

“I’m surprised Gayden Fan didn’t tell you they were from God.” Belles_Babe typed.

“Well they are.” Gayden Fan protested frowning at the screen.

“Er…the warehouse on the edge of town actually.” Belle typed under her name of Whistle Blower, although she wasn’t quite sure why she chose that screen name having never been able to blow any whistles.

“Give the lady a prize.” Alf said aloud. “Perhaps we should go there?” he typed instead.

“Sounds cool.” Belles_Babe typed.

“I’ll bring snacks.” Gayden Fan typed.

“Meet you there in 15?” Whistle Blower typed.

“Cool.” Gayden Fan typed.

Alf looked at the screen of his blackberry once more before placing it in his pocket and picking up his fishing line. Why did nobody ever ask him why he was fishing at 8pm at night or that he never caught anything? But then nobody remembered his career as an international spy. Nobody that was apart from the one they called the Big C.

Fisherman has left the conversation.

Charlie pulled up the car outside the warehouse frowning slightly unaware that it was making her look even cuter. She glanced over at the place seeing Nic and Ruby walking there together and shot out of the car.

“What is going on?” she muttered in what she hoped was a motherly tone.

“Relax.” Ruby called out. “Jeez you aren’t my mother.”

“Oh yes I am!” Charlie shouted out.

Ruby turned to Nic before looking back at Charlie.

“Er,” she muttered unable to say anything.

“We heard there was something going on here.” Nic interrupted them. “Someone posted that there was a party here.”

Charlie frowned before she looked around and saw Geoff and Aden walking together.

“There is no party.” Charlie said.

“Hey Geoff.” Nic greeted the other boy fluttering her eyelashes at him not noticing the jealous look on Aden’s face.

Angelo climbed out of the car and walked over to the group.

“Are they coming too?” he asked Charlie.

“Coming where?” Nic asked eyeing up Angelo.

“To arrest the mastermind.” Angelo blurted.

Charlie looked at him with an exasperated tone in her eyes before looking around the group.

“I suppose you won’t be going home now?” she asked.

“No.” Nic said.

“I brought sandwiches and everything.” Geoff said quickly.

“I brought wine.” Ruby added before she could stop herself. “It was a gift for you.” She said quickly looking at Charlie and smiling quickly. “A birth-Christ- Easter-day present.” She explained.

Charlie nodded.

“That is so nice of you.” She said with a smile.

“phew” Ruby muttered under her breath. She caught Nic looking at her and grinned.

“Let’s go in?” Aden said.

“Ok it’s against my better judgement but…” Charlie protested. “Stick together ok.”

Aden looked down at his hand and frowned.

“Er Geoff let go.” He said softly.

Geoff looked at their joined hands.

“It could be scary.” He pointed out.

“Fine you can hold me hand.” Aden said making out that he wasn’t afraid.

The six people began to make their way into the warehouse.

The Big C looked down from their office seeing the flurry of activity in the fishfinger packing area. They decided to take a trip across the factory floor and instil some fear amongst the workers.

Charlie tiptoed through the crates at the edge of the warehouse. She glanced behind her and saw a column of people walking on tiptoes.

“Oh for ….” She muttered under her breath.

Looking at the packing cases she reached into one and found a flattened out box that the fishfingers went in and placed it in a plastic bag marked evidence and put that in her pocket before carrying on.

“What was that?” Geoff asked from the back of the line.

“Think it was something important.” Aden hissed back.

“Ok.” Geoff murmured.

“Be quiet.” Charlie muttered.

“Hey we need a dog.” Nic cried out suddenly.

“Why?” Ruby asked puzzled.

“Well we are like totally like the Mystery Gang. You know Scooby Doo.” Nic pointed out.

“That’s great. Does that make me Velma or Daphne?” Ruby asked.

“Isn’t Daphne the blonde one?” Aden asked overhearing them. “I want to be Fred.”

“I think that makes Geoff Shaggy.” Ruby muttered to Nic and the two girls giggled.

“Will you be quiet?” Charlie groaned.

“Ouh!” Nic said softly.

Ruby giggled.

They continued walking deeper into the warehouse before coming to a halt once more.

“What are they doing here?” Charlie asked looking over at the person walking amongst the immigrants.

“That’s interesting.” Angelo said looking down at his shoelaces and missing everything.

“Wow.” Ruby and Nic gasped at the same time.

“Bloody Hell.” Aden gasped “Sorry Bible Boy.”

“That’s ok.” Geoff said giving him a flirtatious smile.

“See I tried to tell you.” Belle said jumping up and down behind them and pointing.

“Belle.” Charlie gasped.

“Yeah, I’m all alive and everything. Been working here undercover and over there is The Big C.”

“Hey, Colleen isn’t that big.” Geoff protested.

“The mastermind behind the whole thing.” Belle continued not even bothering to scowl at Geoff for interrupting her. “The Big er.. C is none other that Colleen Smarter-than-you!”

“Colleen stay were you are.” Charlie called out moving quickly over to the other woman. “I’m arresting you for illegal fish imports.”

Colleen glared at her and struggled.

“You, and your pesky kids.” Colleen gasped. “I would got away with it if it wasn’t for your meddling.”

The End....

Well apart from Colleen was arrested and charged with smuggling. Roman thought the French Foreign Legion was too tough and joined the Boy scouts. Miles created the Curtsy rescue fund for underprivaliged Pumkins. Irene flew back to the Bay to escape Annie and Jai. Nic got her record. Ruby and Charlie traced their family tree and discovered that Ruby was adopted and they are in fact no relation to each other. Aden and Geoff are flatsharing in a one bedroom place. Belle has become a chat show host. And finally with the end of illegal fishfinger making in Summer Bay Alf finally caught a fish.

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