Time: Present Day

Location: Sydney, Australia.

They finished their meal kissed Ed goodbye and got a taxi to Darlinghurst Police Station. Tony met them outside the evidence room. He led them in and turned on the TV and video equipment. This is the right day but you'll have to go through the whole DVD from the start. You can fast forward but you might miss something you may be looking for, whatever that is. I must warn you that the incident has been captured vividly. I can arrange for a nurse to be with you if you like?"

"No, thanks Tony, but I don't think we'll need a nurse maid. We know what to expect, working in the media we've seen things like this before, but thanks anyway," Monique jumped in.

"Okay then, but don't say I didn't warn you," Tony said as he opened the door to leave.

"Thank God he's gone!" said Layla, "Sorry, but I don't particularly like Tony for some reason, and it's not just since Carter died either, Carter and I had words about my opinion of his uncle."

Monique feinted surprise," What exactly is it about him that you don't like?"

"I'll tell you what I told Carter, I think Tony is either an arsehole or terribly misunderstood. And I don't think Tony is at all misunderstood. I don't know how Michelle puts up with him. I'm guessing, he is part of the reason she spends so much time in Paris, that's my take on it anyway." Layla said with a tinge of disappointment in her voice, she liked Michelle, a lot, and felt for her sometimes, especially when Tony was being Tony.

"At least he is co-operating now," Monique said in his defence.

"I don't think we should be arguing about Tony, let's just do what we came here to do, eh?" said Amanda picking up the remote control. "This is going to be hard enough without us bickering."

"Good point Amanda, let's see what we can see," agreed Layla.

Tony was right, it was pretty boring stuff going through all the taped CCTV footage.

A couple of times Amanda hit the fast forward button, until they got to the time stamp that was two hours or so before the time of the shootings. She had just pressed the fast forward again when Layla noticed something black flash on the screen.

"Stop, stop, go back I think I saw something!" she cried out grabbing Amanda's arm and sending the remote flying.

"Shit, you scared me, don't do that!" Amanda said as she bent over to pick up the remote off the floor.

She put the remote down on the table and pressed the rewind, when Layla said "there, stop, there's our priest!" she pressed the slow mo.

They watched as the handsome young figure of a priest entered the picture from the right of the screen. He had jet black hair and a lot of it. He didn't appear to be much over twenty or so. He was muscular too just as Greg had suggested, too muscular perhaps for a man of the cloth.

Layla looked at Amanda, then Monique, she could see they were thinking the same thing, something was odd about this. When she returned her eyes to the screen she was just in time to see the priest approach a man sitting on a stationary motorcycle, the motorcycle was parked on the footpath to the left of the entrance to the restaurant. "That must be the bikie that was the target of the gang attack," said Amanda. They were all gobsmacked when they saw the priest start talking to the bikie then hand him something.

"Can you zoom in on that," Monique asked. Amanda zoomed the computer screen in on the priest's right hand as he passed something to the bikie."

Layla gasped, as she realised it was a wad of fifty dollar notes. It must have been two or three thousand dollars at least. "Pause it there, please."

Look!" said Amanda, "at his hand, that's the ring Greg spoke about, remember, the skull ring, and it's flashing in the neon lights, it's got diamonds in the skull, just like he said." Amanda played the tape again several times, but there could be no doubt, the priest was handing over money to the bikie but what for?"

The next twenty minutes went by with the usual to and froing of a busy inner city restaurant. Nothing unusual except for the bikie parked at the door, who showed no interest in going in, nor did he appear to be waiting for someone that he knew. He seemed to be playing a game on his phone however he did lift his eyes briefly each time someone came into the restaurant, then he would go back to his game, or whatever he was watching on his phone. First Layla, then the others burst into tears when Carter appeared from nowhere in the restaurant entrance. Carter gave the bikie a cursory glance then headed inside. The girls were astounded when the bikie started texting furiously, this sudden change, was it just a coincidence, or was it, as it seemed to the girls watching, to be prompted by, their loved one, Carter's appearance at the door. It was only a few minutes later that the bikie started texting again, this time it seemed to be when an older man entered the restaurant.

It was an hour later on the time stamp when the bikie started texting furiously again. The girls watched as Carter and the older man left the restaurant together, they walked past the bikie and out of sight on the left hand side of the screen. Then, just as the priest appeared again briefly at the edge of the screen, all hell broke loose, it looked like the bikie was being shot several times; the force of the bullets impact was so strong that he was thrown over his motorcycle, seemed to balance on it on his back for a time, then he, and the bike went crashing to the ground. Layla screamed silently as she realised they had been spared the sight of Carter being shot. Not so, though inside the restaurant where several people sitting at the front in the outdoor section were hit. A young waitress had just walked into the centre of the screen when she let out a silent scream as bullets hit her down the front of her body, she dropped like a sack of potatoes and a man standing behind her was hit in the head and spun out of the picture while the woman he was escorting out had her face destroyed by bullets.

Then there was a lull where nothing happened. After a few minutes people started to emerge from the restaurant obviously in shock, they wandered around and started to try and help the injured.

A few more minutes and flashing lights heralded the arrival of the ambulance.

Greg appeared on the right hand side of the screen and rushed across with his bag and out of sight. Another paramedic entered the restaurant and started seeing to the wounded inside.

Following the second paramedic, came the priest, but instead of following the paramedic into the restaurant he walked across the front entrance, seemed to bob down as he passed the bikie, then stood up, turned his back to the camera, and disappeared off to the left of the small screen.

"I think we've seen enough don't you?" asked Monique.

"Yes, I think we can turn it off for now. We need to talk through a few things," ventured Amanda.

"Let's look at the witness statements then. See if there is anything the police may have missed," Layla suggested.

Carter was uncomfortable, he was experiencing a whole gamut of different emotions from sadness to rage, his silver cord was a kaleidoscope of colour. He was experiencing his death again even though it wasn't being shown on the screen in front of the girls. He felt a touch on his arm, it was his Mum, Amelia was back.

She had that concerned look on her face that mothers have when their child is suffering. She looked just like he remembered his Mum looking when he had a bad toothache as a child or when he had had his appendix out and it had hurt him to laugh, for she knew how he so loved laughing, he'd had a wonderfully happy childhood in the main.

"I'm so sorry," Amelia seemed to say, "Sorry I put you through all this, because I was weak. I see that now, I should have stood up to my parents more, should have told Peter, should have married Peter, things would have been so different. You didn't need to die like this, so violently, so young, your whole life ahead of you, robbed of your chance to be a Dad yourself. You would, will, make a great Dad. I see all of that so clearly now. I am so sorry my dear Peter, so very sorry." She squeezed his arm and was gone.

"Mum," Carter said concerned.

Teacher's voice echoed through him,"Learn Carter Cheval, learn the extent of the damage you can unknowingly do to others by the choices you make. The damage you ultimately do to yourself and your advancement, for you are them and they are you. Watch now and learn."

Carter watched as they poured over several folders of witness statements, he was fascinated by the way Layla had thrown herself into the hunt for his killers.

"I suspected as much," Layla said eventually. "It's all here in Greg's statement, he mentions the priest, even the ring, and how he thought something wasn't right."

"What did the police report say about that?" asked Layla.

Amanda read out the part of the report on Greg's interview it surmised that the priest was either a priest, or possibly someone in fancy dress.

"What about the fact this so called priest handed the bikie money, it's quite clear on the TV footage?"

"It doesn't mention the handing over of the cash but does say the bikie had several thousand dollars in cash and a gun on him, neither of which is unusual for a drug dealer. If this missing person was involved somehow he was probably a drug addict buying drugs which would explain his sudden disappearance and why there is no statement from a priest at the scene."

"Who wrote the report?" asked Layla.

"Er . . . Tony . . . it was Tony," Amanda said, "Why?"

"Something's not right, there's no mention of the cash transaction, or the ring?" Layla asked. "What about the bikie's mobile phone, there must be something in there about his phone and who, and what he was texting, surely that's how they put this onto the bikie gangs. How else did they conclude that it was a bikie war?"

"Are you saying Tony fucked up the investigation?" Monique asked incredulously.

Both Amanda and Layla were shocked. They had seldom heard Monique swear, even when she was angry with them or Jean.

"I don't know what I'm saying, just that no matter what I think of Tony personally, I do know one thing, he's a great cop, he wouldn't have missed any of this."

They sat there for a while in stunned silence.

Chapter 35 - Private Eyes.

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