Time: Present Day

Location: Paris, France

Mal drew the line connecting Amelia's bubble to Carter's bubble. Then he drew another bubble with Monique inside. He connected that bubble to the other two making an equilateral triangle. Under each bubble he placed a big Capital W....then a big Capital H..then a big Capital Y and underlined the Y.

He then said, "Okay let's clean this board up a bit and see what we really have here. Let's see with Amelia's bubble we have a Who of Amelia, Her Family, Peter, Tony, Collette, Louisa, Louisa's dad Pierre, and the mysterious missing Andre. We have a Where of Sydney, Melbourne, Paris and a place called Le Balajo or something. The H we have an accidental "Drug Overdose" He wrote this under the H on Amelia's bubble. "The Y....is currently a bit of a mystery. See you get the picture.

"Now who can help me with Carter? Carter, are you here?" Jean raised his eyebrows and laughed, no one else did.

"No, no Carter so what about you Layla, after all you are the investigative journo here, oh, you too Amanda sorry. I forgot your history for a minute. Why don't you tag team it?"

When they had finished, Mal stood back and surveyed what was on the board. Under the Carter bubble he had all the people involved listed including those that died that night and the paramedic team and the mysterious priest with the unusual ring. Layla had most of their names in her notes on her laptop. Where - he placed as Sydney, La Trattoria restaurant in the city. The Y he wrote - Accidental shooting, Collateral damage from a bikie war? He then started joining lines between related people, places and events of the two bubbles, Amelia's and Carter's.

When he finished it looked a bit like a fishnet stocking. Layla piped in, " I think we should draw a line between Andre and the mysterious priest."

"Why do that?" Mal asked.

"No, she's right," said Amanda, "when I first saw the priest I immediately thought it was Andre, then I knew it couldn't be. He was too young, but then I saw the ring in the photo from that night at Le Balajo, that ring on Andre's finger, on Amelia's shoulder, the same ring on the same finger of the mysterious priest at the restaurant, and I don't know, just draw a line, will you Mal?

"Okay, I will. Now who thinks they can tackle Monique's accident?"

"Margot and I probably," said Michy. It was the first thing she had said since Amanda had dropped the bombshell about her husband, Tony. She thought she had become bombproof as far as Tony was concerned, she was shocker to find she hadn't.

By the time the sisters had finished Mal's hand ached. He spun the board around. There was a stunned silence.

Chapter 58 - Coincidences.

0 Comments