Tina sat in her living room wringing her hands, looking at her watch for the fifth time in as many minutes. The importance of the visitor she was expecting had caused her heart to race, knowing that what transpired today could hold the key to her future. The second the doorbell rang she was up like a shot.

"Tina, hi" Claire smiled.

"Hi" Tina smiled nervously.

"Can I come in?"

"Oh God, yeah, sorry, I’m a little nervous" Tina stammered, stepping aside to let Claire into her house.

They moved through to the living room and sat on the sofa, and Claire immediately spread her papers on the table.

"It’s only natural to be nervous, you’ve put a lot into this and I’m sure you want to see justice done" she smiled understandingly at Tina.

"You have no idea"

"So I suppose you’d be interested in knowing what my investigations have turned up?" Claire asked.

"Please"

"Tina…I’m going to be honest with you…we’re unearthing a whole can of worms here. And I think a lot of this is going to be hard for Bette to hear"

Tina’s heart sank "Just tell me"

"Bette’s innocent, there can be no doubt about that"

"Tell me something I don’t know"

Claire smiled "The important thing is, I can prove it"

Tina’s eyes grew wide "Are you serious?!"

"You’re damn right I am. I’ve been doing some digging about this Franklin character that you told me about. Turns out the hunch about him having an offshore account was right. The numbers tie up. It was his offshore account that the money ended up in once it had gone through Bette’s account" Claire explained.

"Bette transferred the money to him?" Tina looked confused.

"Somebody did"

"Who?"

"The only other person who would have had access to Bette’s bank account"

"I don’t understand"

"Her partner"

"Jodie?" Tina asked incredulously.

"That’s right. Seems she agreed to make the transfer for a cut of the money"

Tina exhaled "And you think you can prove that?"

"I can’t. But Jodie can"

"Great" Tina sighed "So we’re back at square one. We both know Bette is innocent, but as far as the evidence is concerned she’s up to her neck in it"

"Not so fast. You see it seems Miss Lerner is rather keen on saving her own skin"