Time: Present Day

Location: Paris, France.

On Monday morning after picking up Amanda and having breakfast at the airport the girls visited the Prefecture de Police in the Place Louis de Lepine. Margot had arranged an appointment with Michel De Vrise, the police commander and federal commissioner of police for Paris. He had agreed to the meeting at short notice once he was made aware of the subject matter and the personal interest of well known media personnel from Australia.

In fact Monique had met with Michel several times during investigations into the death of Princess Di, some years earlier. Michel had greeted them warmly and said he remembered Monique of course and that the years had treated her well. After all Monique was still a very attractive woman, a trait she had passed on to her children, and he was French. He was as charming as she remembered, but she hoped he would be a little more co-operative than he was then. She did understand though, the enormous pressure he was under from the media during that investigation.

"This must be Amanda, as lovely as ever," he said, as he took and kissed each of the girls' right hands in turn.

"I am surprised you remember me," Amanda said.

"I remember all you girls, such a sad business, to lose your twin sister in such tragic circumstances. But you, Monique, you did not tell me you were Amelia's mother, when we met during the Princess Di business, never mind, I prattle on too much, how may I help you lovely ladies?"

Monique answered, "I didn't know that it was you that investigated my daughter's death, otherwise I would have, but it was a crazy time, when Diana died. I think I'll let my daughter ask the questions, after all she is the true investigative journalist in the family.

Amanda got straight to the point, "Commander De Vrise, my mother would like to know if you have any photos of Amelia, in your posssession or if you sent them back to the Le Balajo."

"Please, call me Michel, we are all friends here Amanda, in answer to your question. I took the opportunity to go over Amelia's case file after Margot rang, and yes, there is a photo of her taken at Le Balajo that night."

"Could we take a look at it, actually my Mum would love it if you could give it to her," Amanda said flashing him her devastatingly pleading smile.

"Of course you can look at the file. I have another meeting in a few minutes, I'm afraid but I can put you in the hands of one of my detectives. He's my son Claude, he has a special interest in cold cases. I'm sure you will find him helpful. As for your other request, normally I would be happy to give you the photo and I'm sure Le Balajo wouldn't mind, would they Mademoiselle Louise, but you see there is someone else in the photo who remains a person of interest, and therefore the photo must remain in police possession for the time being."

"A person of interest, does that mean you finally think, after all this time, that there may have been something suspicious about my sister's death?"

"I'll let my son answer that, after all, it was one of the old cases he reopened for investigation when he joined our team a few years ago. Forgive me but I must go, meeting with the Mayor, the terrorist activity in Paris, you know. I hope you understand, ah here he is with the file now, girls, my son, detective Claude De Vrise. I'll leave you in his capable hands, I bid you bonjour, I must take my leave." And he did.

The girls introduced themselves. Claude was as charming as his old man, taking each of the girl's offered right hand, shaking it gently and bending over and turning their hand to gently brush the back of it with his lips.

Louise almost swooned. Collette gave her a wink. "Stop it!" she whispered in her ear as they watched Claude kiss Amanda's hand.

"You must be Amanda, the twin sister. I recognise you from the photo," They all took seats around a round lay off table in the centre of Michel's office.

Amanda started to say, "But I didn't have my photo taken," when Claude opened the file took out a sheet and said, "this photo."

They all looked on with an air of sadness.. It was a photo of Collette, Andre and Amelia. Collette with her green dress she had on that night and her tell tale peroxide blonde pony tail. She was smiling broadly. There was Amelia, on the right, she was in her favourite red dress, the one she was buried in. There was something out of place though, she looked beautiful with her long straight blonde hair reaching down both sides to her shoulders, but she wasn't smiling like Collette. Amanda could see that her sister wasn't at all comfortable, in fact she looked like she could be in pain. She commented on this to the others, then Monique asked, "Who is the boy in the middle?"

Louise jumped in with, "That's Andre, I'm sure we told you all about Andre."

"Not all, .it seems, he's not smiling either, in fact I think there's something sinister about him. It's his eyes I think. And look how he's holding Amelia's should . . . shit . . . Amanda, look at the ring, the ring . . . on his middle finger of his left hand. Does he remind you of anyone? The priest, maybe, it can't be, this isn't the twilight zone . . , or is it?"

Amanda grabbed up the photo and peered into it. "Gees, you're right Mum, it's the same ring the priest was wearing, looks like white gold, skeleton skull, with one, two, three, four, diamonds in the forehead. Now that's spooky beyond belief."

"What's all this about a priest?" Claude enquired.

Amanda explained what happened to Carter, and how they suspected that someone dressed like a priest was captured on CCTV footage at the scene acting quite strangely, then disappeared, and that he had a ring identical to the one worn by Andre in the photo."

"It's a very unique looking ring. Are you sure it's not the same person?" Claude asked. "Not unless he hasn't aged in twenty years, it's not. Anyway you guys interviewed Andre in Germany at the time didn't you?" Amanda replied

"No, apparently we didn't, couldn't find him. According to the file he wasn't booked on the Berlin flight in question. We eventually traced his father to an address in Frankfurt, but when the local police called he was away indefinitely on business in Tunisia so the trail went cold. Then, when the coroner's finding came down, and you took the body back to Australia there seemed little point in pursuing the matter further and putting your family through more stress.

The file was left open for five years in case more information about him turned up. Then it was closed. I reopened it about five years ago as part of my training exercise for new recruits. As this Andre fellow was, and still is, probably the only one who knows what exactly happened to Amelia, or at least where she was in those missing hours. Louise, you might remember me interviewing your father several times to try and locate Andre, but unfortunately just when I thought we might be getting somewhere your dad died suddenly, from a heart attack I believe. I had no alternative then but to close the file again, Dad doesn't like wasting resources, and has been severely under the pump with all this terrorist activity you must understand."

"Yes, I've been covering the troubles over here for my newspaper so I understand perfectly." Almost on que there was a knock on the door and a flushed faced young gendarme stood in the doorway and addressed Claude with, "Pardon me sir but the terrorist suspect is here now in interview room B."

"Thanks Remy, I must go ladies I'm afraid. We must end now."

"I know we can't keep this photo, but since it's the very last one of my sister do you think it would be alright if Mum could take a picture of the photo sheet with her mobile phone, please," Amanda said drawing out the please and flashing him her smile.

"It's quite irregular, but under the circumstances, and since you know dad I will allow it, so long as it doesn't appear in the media. I don't think the management at Le Balajo want any more negative media exposure than they have already received over this incident, do you agree Louise?"

"Yes, I'm sure you're right Claude but they wouldn't do that to me would you girls?" They all shook their heads and stared down Claude. "Alright then, be quick then, we can't keep these terrorists waiting you know they're very explosive, er, I mean suspected terrorists." He laughed at his own joke, the girls joined in, out of courtesy, but didn't think it a topic to be joking about. Monique fired off three quick shots of the photo page.

Chapter 45 - Police Files.

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