Time: Present Day

Location: Paris, France

Margot related the tale of two star crossed lovers named Amelia and Peter, of how a mother almost killed her daughter with medication, the discovery of a pregnancy and subsequent tale of intrigue and denial, of deceit and concealment. A web of lies that had lasted a generation. How a family was sworn to secrecy even from itself.

How Peter was railroaded into becoming a priest by Tony.

"I've never liked Tony, now I know why . . . sorry Michy," Layla blurted out then blushed.

"For my part in all this, I am truly sorry especially how I lied to Amelia, all the time she was here, redirected any suspect mail to her mother. Didn't tell her Peter was desperately trying to contact her, but most of all for lying to her, or should I say maintaining the lie, that Peter had gotten another girl pregnant and was marrying her. When, in fact, he was locked up in a seminary in Melbourne essentially against his will, with the very real threat of prison if he didn't co-operate.

"I'm partly to blame for that," Michelle added, "I changed the only one of Peter's letters that we showed Amelia to make it look like he was living with a girl in Melbourne."

Margot said, "We all played a part in that lie, even Father Dan. He and Monique were thick as thieves back then. I was surprised that a priest would stoop so low, almost as surprised as I was that I had. That old saying again, oh what a wicked web we weave when first we practise to deceive."

Now the spinner was dead.

They were all dumbfounded, even Christoph didn't know that Amelia had been pregnant, that Carter was her son, that Peter had been railroaded. He was probably affected more than anyone in the room, like Carter, he too had been lied to all his life, by his own family. He simply said, "You people!" and stormed out slamming the door behind him.

Amanda called out, "I'm sorry Chris, so sorry. I better go after him."

"No, leave him alone Amanda. I'm being told to leave him be. He'll come around in time. He hates us all for doing this now. I don't blame him I hate myself sometimes," Margot said.

"Me too," Amanda sobbed.

"Now let me get this straight, Amelia was Amanda's twin sister, she fell in love with the boy next door, Peter, when she was 18...they had sex,?she got pregnant then fell ill with this mysterious disease, ended up in hospital, wasn't expected to live. Pete's dad, the doctor saves her. Tony forces Peter to go to Melbourne to become a priest, on some trumped up rape charge before he even finds out about the pregnancy. How am I going do far," Mal asked.

"Essentially correct, a few minor flaws and omissions but nothing serious, go on," Margot encouraged.

Mal was enjoying having centre stage. Layla was amazed at how much information he had retained.

"Monique sends Amelia to Paris to study music and to have the baby and she hopes to adopt it out, but Amelia keeps the baby, and names it Peter after the father. Amelia tragically dies as a result of a drug overdose. Amanda steps in adopts Peter, changes his name to Carter, marries Roger here, and they tell everyone including poor Christoph that Carter belongs to Roger from a previous relationship, where the girl died in a car accident or something. Anyway, upshot is Carter is Roger's child that Amanda had adopted as her own."

"You've got it just about right, but for my part, I'm not proud of what we did, but Monique insisted that if I wanted to marry Amanda I had to play along with her made up story and not tell a soul. Not even in confession, she was adamant as only Monique could be, you know her, I mean you knew her, better than anyone Amanda, darling."

"Yes, we aren't trying to justify what we did, Mum could be quite persuasive, and intimidating in her own way. I knew if I wanted to adopt Carter, and I did so much, and marry Roger, then I had to tow the line, that was made quite clear to me., and I guess I was still a kid really. As we got older, it got harder and harder to tell Carter the truth. He would have been devastated. He loved Roger, and me so much. I just couldn't throw a spanner in the works, so poor Peter would never know the truth and Carter would never know his real father. Biological father that is, my Roger, was the only father he knew, and they loved each other absolutely. It was a relationship too good to wreck. So if anyone had to suffer, it had to be Peter, after all he wasn't family was he? And as Dad says family is everything, right Dad?"

"That's it, I will protect my family and it's reputation with my life, all this shit they are putting on the internet about Monique. It's killing me, if I could find the bastards responsible . . . I . . . I'd have their guts for garters. Sometimes I'm sorry your mother was so successful at her job, and sorry she chose the media as her career, now the whole bloody family is in the media, in the spotlight, in an industry that thrives on destroying reputations. In a way I'm glad Monique isn't here to see what her so called friends are doing to her . . . I hate it!"

"Maybe she can see it Jean," Margot said.

"Don't start with that after life bullshit, Margot, you know I don't believe it. There's nothing after this..we are an accident of nature that's all, an evolutionary accident, here for a blip in history then gone forever. The whole human race is like that, the planet will reclaim us before it explodes, if some idiot doesn't blow us all up first."

"Let's not get side tracked, you wanted to continue did you Mal? You were doing a great job before we scuttled you. It's a Cheval thing, we're exceptional at scuttling things," Amanda said.

"Margot, you don't have a blackboard or whiteboard by any chance do you?" Mal asked.

"Why, yes, in the study. I draw my dress design ideas on it, a whiteboard, then photoshop them," Margot said.

Chris said, "I'll get it for you Mal."

Amanda turned around,"How long have you been there Chris?"

"Long enough, I understand now. I forgive you Sis, you know I could never stay mad at you girls for long." He gave his sisters a hug and slapped his Dad on the back, "wanna give me a hand old boy?"

They wheeled in the whiteboard which had an evening gown design on it. "I'll take one of those when you start making them," Layla said to Margot.

"You sure its okay to wipe this?" Mal asked erazer in hand.

"Yes, go ahead I've already photo shopped it on my laptop," Margot replied.

Mal erazed the dress and drew three big bubbles across the whiteboard and then began, "Let's go over what we know and see if there is anything we can discover that we don't already know.

First we have your twin sister Amanda, Amelia wasn't she called?" They all nodded.

"Next there was Carter in the middle, then, recently Monique. Three tragic accidents in the same family over the space of twenty five or so years. Or were they, accidents I mean? I'm just playing the devil's advocate here. Let's do a sort of mind map on each bubble and see if any connections pop up." Mal started listing things under Amelia's bubble.

"Please feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm wrong about something or if you have something to add.

"First Amelia. What have you all told me about her. She was Monique's daughter, Amanda's twin sister, she fell in love with Peter, got pregnant, had a baby called Peter who became Carter, first connection.

"She got ill while pregnant was sent to Paris so no-one but her parents knew she was pregnant."

"Other people knew,"Jean said, "other than family, I mean. Don, her doctor and I guess the nurses did but I'm not sure. And of course, there was Father Dan, Monique got him involved. He talked Peter into leaving, going to Melbourne, becoming a priest instead of going to prison for rape, my little girl was a virgin at the time you see."

"So., Peter, the father, surely he knew too?" asked Layla.

"No., but his mother did, Vera, Don's wife, but they agreed to keep it from Peter, as far as I know they kept their word.. 'm not sure he even knows now," Jean said.

"Oh, I am. Monique was on her way back from telling him when she had the car accident," Margot said.

"Hang on a minute, you're going too fast for me," Mal complained. "So correct me if I'm wrong, but in Amelia's case, in a broad sense, the police were involved, twice, when she got sick and pregnant, and when she died. Her uncle Tony wanted to charge the boy,Peter with rape . . . is that right?"

They all nodded,

"The French police wanted to interview the last person, this Andre character, but couldn't find him, does that mean there was some doubt about how Amelia's death came about?"

Amanda then said, "Collette, Louisa and I were with her that night, we know what mood she was in, she didn't want to take the one XTC pill. She was looking forward to her life with little Peter, to going home to Australia. Louisa had to work on her for half an hour before she took it, then the police wanted us to believe, she met some random drug dealer, in an alley and gave herself an accidental overdose of heroin, at around midnight, while we were looking for her. No way, and besides, Collette swears she searched that alley at 3 am, and Amelia's body wasn't there then. She told the police as much, that's when they started asking questions about Andre, but they said they tried but they couldn't find any trace of him in Germany. So how could she have died at midnight unless someone killed her somewhere else and moved the body, but why would someone want to do that to my sister?"

There was a stony silence for a time.

Mal broke it, the stunned silence with, "Okay, I'm getting out of my league here, this is Layla's, and Amanda's area of expertise. I have only studied acting and screen writing, but I can act as scribe for you girls, if you like. What I did learn about screenplay writing though was if you wanted to write a crime thriller, you took a few seemingly unrelated random events and weaved a pattern through them and allowed the reader in the case of a book or the viewer in the case of a play, movie, or tv series to discover the common threads leading to resolution of the crime.

"I've come up with a neat way of doing that I think, l call it the WHY . . . W . . . H , . . Y. It's the same little question that little kids drive their parents mad with when they reach the terrible twos. In my case though the W stands for Who and Where, the H stands for How, and the Y, well, a little poetic license, the Y stands for WHY, if you don't get the Y, you go back to the W and the H and start again and again until you get the Y. That's the key. There must be a motive, a motive that makes sense. There always is, in the world of playwriting there are no real random acts of violence or crime. There's always a motive. Here endeth the lesson," Mal made a theatrical gesture with his arm and bowed regally.

They all laughed, Mal came up beaming,

"That's why I love him!" Layla said out loud. She was a little taken aback when nobody seemed really shocked. "There, I've said it, in public, are you happy now Mal?"

"Ecstatic, my dear, simply ecstatic." He did an even more exaggerated theatrical bow. They all laughed again. They were going to need to laugh with what they were about to uncover.

It was Jean who asked the question, they were all going over now in their minds. "You're not suggesting that the tragedies befalling our family weren't by accident, are you Mal?"

"I don't know, all I'm saying is that my training has enabled me to pick up a few tenuous threads that are appearing in each case. All I'm suggesting Jean, is that your family has the investigative expertise to tackle the full investigation of each case. An investigation that the police probably have neither the resources nor inclination to begin. From what you have told me so far today, you'd rather keep certain things in the family anyway. There is the makings of a great story, a strange fictional story, but in my estimation one worth exploring further to discover if there are more truths hidden in it. Truths that haven't come to light, questions that need and beg to be answered. They could be painful, as they say the truth often hurts, but I think we all see that something isn't right here. At the risk of offending you Jean, and I hope you know, we all loved and admired your grandson, I, for one, don't believe Carter was killed in some random drive by bikie war. Something's not right about his death. I often get the feeling that he is trying to tell me something from heaven or wherever he is. I've discussed it with Margot, she seems to understand where I'm coming from. Nothing I've heard today has convinced me otherwise, the opposite has happened in fact. I think there is more than meets the eye to all three deaths. After all, they also say sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction."

Amanda volunteered to start and joined Mal at the whiteboard.

"Okay, let's go over again what we do know about my sister's death. We all now know that she and Peter loved each other."

Mal drew another bubble next door to the one for Amanda, for Peter and joined them with a line between.

"They planned with my help to get together over the long weekend while other members of the family were away, Amelia had Glandular Fever so couldn't come away with us. Mum asks Peter to keep an eye on her. Mum gives her some aspirin to take, which eventually gives her Reyes Syndrome but not before she falls pregnant to Peter that weekend and later she nearly dies. Uncle Tony calls in on them and catches them in bed together. He calls us up at the ski lodge and Dad, you are furious but Tony tells you there's something wrong with Amelia. He thinks Peter has drugged her and raped her. He is very angry and seems to hate Peter much more than anyone else for some reason. I'm going to stop right here, and tell a secret that I have been holding onto for some time now. I was the one that talked Amelia into losing her virginity to Peter. I knew they cared for each other a lot, and besides I'd already lost mine to this man here," Amanda grabbed her husband Roger's arm. "Mum and Dad didn't know this of course,

"And I have to tell you something else I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Michy, but I think Tony was obsessed with us as teenagers. That's why I think he went after Peter so hard. That and the fact Uncle Tony is bigoted and a racist.

"I never told anyone this before not even Mum, because I was so embarassed but one day when we were fifteen I was home alone. Dad was at work, and Mum, Christoph and Amelia went to her music recital, I decided to take a shower in the middle of the day and, sorry Aunty Michy but I caught Uncle Tony spying on me in the shower, not only that, I'm ashamed to admit that he was masturbating while he watched me masturbating in the shower. He knows I saw him, and he didn't stop till he'd finished. He warned me not to tell anyone and he called Amelia and I little sluts. If you ask me, if there is a paedophile in the family, it's probably Uncle Tony. There I've gotten that off my chest, Anyway back to the story. Tony threatens to send Peter to gaol for statutory rape unless he vanishes to Melbourne and becomes a priest, ike Pete's Mum, Vera, wants him to be. Peter complies with pressure from his parents, but still maintains he is going to marry Amelia, even though he is as unaware as Chris and I are that she is pregnant.

'Dad wants her to have an abortion, but Mum asks Father Dan his opinion and then convinces Amelia to have the baby and adopt it out in Paris.

"Amelia studies for two years at the Music Academy in Paris, has the baby. She tells me she is going to bring little Peter back to Australia and confront Peter, the father and find out why he is ignoring her, and seemingly won't contact her, nor talk to her on the phone. She doesn't realise that Mum has convinced Peter's parents and you, Aunty Margot and Aunty Michy to assist her in intercepting all the letters between the two of them and to keep them apart at all costs. Amelia has saved the money to go back to Australia by working as a tutor after school. She asks me to help her deceive, Aunty Margot and Mum and help her get back to Australia with the baby. This doesn't sound like a girl who would risk everything for a first time encounter with hard drugs does it? Now that I've seen the photo that night. There is something foreboding about Andre, Amelia is found dead from an overdose of heroin, Andre disappears, the case is closed accidental death by drug overdose. The case is reopened some years later and a search for Andre is re-established by Claude. He interviews Louisa's father, as the only person who knew anything about Andre, being the one who introduced him to the girls albeit remotely. As the police are starting to make some progress in tracking down Andre, the only person likely to assist them, Pierre, Louisa's dad dies suddenly of a massive heart attack at 42. How convenient. The case is closed once again."

Thanks Amanda, for being so forthright." Mal turned the whiteboard he had been furiously writing on while she spoke. They all gasped in unison when they saw what he had written.

He had drawn a sort of mind map with the major characters names in bubbles and connected with lines showing their various relationships.

Then he had drawn underneath a big capital W opposite this were a number of names, firstly Amelia, then Peter/Carter, then Monique, then Andre, then Father Dan, then places, Sydney, Melbourne, Paris.

Under that was a Capital H and opposite that, drug overdose in Paris.

Then a huge Capital W, with nothing but a question mark.

Mal turned to Layla and said, "You want to tackle Carter, if he's here I'm sure he'd like you to?" But Carter wasn't there, little did they know Carter and Teacher were about to pay a visit to his father. Mal looked expectantly to Margot who shook her head and simply said, "I don't know, don't feel anything one way or the other. I don't think he's here, maybe it's too soon to tell."

Layla took up the cudgel from Amanda and joined her lover centre stage.

She began, "Before I start Mal, haven't you forgotten a couple of things?"

"No. But I'm sure you will enlighten me, light me up darling!"

"Well, there's the ring for one thing, Andre's skull ring with the four diamonds, then the nurse, the one who looked at Amelia's arm in the coffin, and said she didn't think, or more to the point, it didn't look like Amelia had injected the drug herself, and, she had animal identification dye on her left arm."

"I knew I brought you along for something." They all laughed at Mal's cheekiness. Layla continued once Mal had finished adding on these items to the Amelia bubble.

"What do we know about Carter's death. Let's see,We know it took place at a restaurant, Italian restaurant in Sydney. So let's start with the Where. Mal drew the Carter bubble and placed it in Sydney at a restaurant. We also know according to his co-host, Carrie, that Carter was meeting someone at the restaurant, believed to be someone who had information about the dodgy land deal involving the mayor. We know that Carter paid for two meals and a full bottle of wine with his work credit card, so he did meet someone and it was business. I know how honest he was when it came to using his expense account. From the CCTV footage we know that he left at the same time as a man named Ken who was also killed. We are not sure who he met with and in all the confusion afterwards the waiters are not sure either, the only one who might have known was a young waitress who served them and who unfortunately was also shot and killed.

"Then there is the bikie, the one the police believe was the only intended target of the attack, also shot multiple times and killed. Then there's the mysterious priest, who appears on the CCTV footage but vanishes, the police couldn't locate or identify him afterwards. Then there's the ring.

Chapter 56 - Show and Tell.

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