Time: Present Day

Location: Paris France

Mal turned to Layla,"Are you all thinking what I'm thinking? I always suspected that there was more to Carter's death than meets the eye. Now I'm certain, Carter's death was by no means an accident. Thanks fot letting us see that copy of the CCTV footage on your computer and the photo of the paramedics' testimony. I agree with him, that was no priest, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I think he may have even been in on the whole thing. The evidence suggests he knew the bikie, or at least was paying him for something, did the police ever find out who he was texting, did they even bother to check?"

"Sorry again Aunty Michy, but I think Uncle Tony shut down the investigation for some reason," Amanda ventured.

"No, no You're wrong! Tony might be a lot of things but he's a good cop, that's too much. It was Carter, his nephew, he would have left no stone unturned, he, he . . . " Michelle wailed.

Layla cut her off, "Exactly the point. Tony is an excellent cop. Therefore the only logical explanation is that he ignored vital evidence and prematurely closed the case. I have to ask you this Michy, has Tony come into a large sum of money recently, would you know if he had?"

"Are you all suggesting my husband might be a crooked cop?" Michy looked dismayed.

"You mean as well as a paedophile? Or didn't you know about that either, Aunty Michy?" Amanda said with disgust. She no longer could contain her contempt for her Uncle Tony. It was time to end the charade.

Mal was uncomfortable, you could cut the air with a knife.

"Look, what's done is done. We need to decide what to do next. What about Carter's Mum and Monique? Funny we don't have any CCTV footage, of either of the other two events, am I the only one who thinks that that's strange. Same as Princess Di, there were lots of rumours at the time that she and Dodi were murdered, that all seventeen CCTV cameras in the area had been switched off. We have exactly the same situation with your Mum Amanda, don't we? Only this time, MI5 or MI6 hopefully isn't involved."

Chris looked up from his computer and blew them all away when he announced, "I've been waiting to get a word in, I've got Mum's phone opened on my computer, she had a draft message in her Message file. It's addressed to you Sis and Margot, I'll read it out loud . . . should I?" They all said yes in unison.

"As I said it was addressed to Amanda and Margot,n

and it reads, 'Hi girls, just wanted to let you know I arrived safe and sound and am back in Paris. Even though it's cold I'm glad to be back. Peter didn't take my news well, in fact he threw me out, or his guards did. He must be a big shot now at the Vatican, to have not one but two Swiss Guards guarding him. It seems really strange since I saw a sheet at security that listed him as Guardian. Why does a Guardian need guarding, anyway, he was very angry, quite frightening really, nothing like the Peter I was expecting to see. Maybe he'll listen to you Amanda, Here's his number. 0758 666 851 797 I got it off one of the security guards at the front desk who took pity on me. He blames me for everything, including what happened to Ameliaaaaaaaaathepriest122122#.....

After that she accessed the camera and took this picture, , , ." He spun the laptop around and showed the picture of a man in black getting into the black car. The time stamp is the time of the accident, she was writing this in the back of the cab but never finished it."

"What's all that at the end?" Mal asked.

"Can't be certain but it looks like she pressed and held down the "a" when the cab crashed, and the numbers at the end . . , "

"She was trying to dial emergency, it's 122 in France," Margot explained.

"And, look, Layla, Mum typed, the priest, look who is getting in the car, does he not look like a priest from the back? Shit, not a priest, the priest, that's what Mum's trying to tell us!"Amanda gasped.

Mal took over again, "Now, let's not get too carried away here. However in order to find the Y in each case, it might be necessary to make a few assumptions and maybe a wild guess or two wouldn't hurt. I'll go around the room, Amanda, what do you think?"

"I think, Amelia was killed by someone else, either by accident or on purpose. The nurse said she didn't believe that Amelia had self administered, it was too messy, she knew exactly where her veins were, although how could you accidentally give such a high dose of heroin, and in a public place."

"Okay, what about Carter, Layla, any thoughts . . . ?"

"I think Carter and the person he was meeting were murdered. We did some checking and the waitress that was shot was the one who served Carter, and, guess what. She was moonlighting, her day job was working in the mayor's office. She might have been the whistle blower about the land deal. After all that's what Carter told Carrie, that he was meeting someone with information about the land scandal. Added to that,three people, Carter, the guy leaving behind him, Ken his name was, and the waitress were all killed with a different gun to the other six killed and injured. Nobody was injured by bullets similar to those that killed Carter. Whoever shot those bullets was a marksman, an assassin, whereas the others were sprayed with sub machine guns and lower calibre hand guns. It was all in the ballistics report in the file. It was all ignored by the police, by Tony along with the paramedics statements, the money and the priest."

"Finally, Amanda, anything popping up about your Mum . . . ?"

"Yes, seeing what Chris has discovered. I think there was another car involved, a black BMW. It looks like, and look no number plates, and driven by a priest, the priest, don't you think that odd? That Mum should call him 'the priest', surely she couldn't mean Carter's priest or could she? What if he came close enough to the car for Mum to recognise him? What if he had the lighter, Mal what if what you demonstrated with the lighter experiment was the case, what if the priest not only caused the accident but then murdered my Mum and the taxi driver by setting the taxi alight with the cigarette lighter, this cigarette lighter, maybe we should get it checked for finger prints, for, DNA."

Mal raised his hands to stop the resultant chatter, "So, what you all have come up with is that there is something not right about each of these deaths. We can immediately see on the board. They are linked in several ways, if at this stage I can call collectively refer to them all as the victims.

"Firstly, they were members of the same family. They were intimately known to each other. They each died a strange and somewhat violent death. In each case lies and deceit were involved, secrets were being kept. In each case the police were somehow involved. In each case priests were involved. In at least two of the cases, more than one priest if you include Father Dan's role in Australia,

"In all cases CCTV footage was either non existent, despite cameras, or ignored by the police. In two perhaps, and I'm thinking, if your Mum saw something to recognise the priest by, perhaps the ring, all three involved a mystery man. In two cases posing as a priest, possibly with a ring identical to the one worn by the mystery man in the first case over twenty years earlier. In all three cases we now know the What, the Where, the Who, the only thing missing is the Y.

"So, back we go to the . . , let's see,, nothing much linking the Whats, nor the Wheres

so let's go back to the Whos. Perhaps if we concentrate on the Whos we might eventually uncover the Ys."

Layla chirped in, "If Mal's right, it can only mean one of three things. My training and experience tells me this is all bull and three incidents were random accidents, or, they were all murders perpetrated by someone known to the victims. Perhaps even, dare I say a friend of the family or family member, or some person, group or thing outside the family but known to the family." Layla and Amanda were now bouncing ideas off each other so fast Mal was having trouble kerping up on the whiteboard and it was in danger of filling to overflowing.

"You all know I too have a lot of experience covering murders and cover ups. In my experience, murders happen for three essential reasons, when you are talking about why they happened in the first place, they nearly all fall into three distinct categories. First the person or persons were murdered because of something they knew, because of something they did, or thirdly because of something they were threatening to do or the perpetrator didn't want them to be able to do," Amanda offered,

"Thanks Amanda, can I slow things down a little by saying, let's assume for a minute that all three were murdered. That they are linked in more ways than meets the eye and that the same person, group, or thing is responsible. We may not get to the Y of each case immediately but we might get some good leads by brainstorming along those lines, so could we start with the What Ifs in Amelia's case. So just off the top of your head start your sentence or idea with "What If", and I'll endeavour to do the rest. Amanda, can you start us off please . . , "

"What If Amelia was murdered by Andre?"

"What if she did something to upset him?"

"What if she rejected his advances, told him she had a baby, told him she was leaving."

"What if Andre was sent by someone to kill her."

"What if someone was angry with her for something she did in the past, something that hurt them in some way."

Amanda looked at the board for some more ideas.

"What if someone didn't want her returning to Australia."

"What if someone didn't want her to tell someone something she knew, some secret." Carter appeared and whispered in her ear, "I was just about to say That's it. I'm done, when it felt like someone was whispering 'That's it' in my ear before I said it, as though they knew what I was going to say, isn't that weird?"

"No!" Margot exclaimed, "Carter's here. I can feel it. He did it, it's no party trick. I don't think he was reading your mind. I think he's trying to communicate with us. I think he means THAT'S IT. - the last one is the reason Amelia was killed."

Jean said, "Not this again Margot, please."

"Let's all keep an open mind. I'll keep writing on the board no matter what but if Carter is really here maybe we should do him now, who knows how long he'll be around, Carter if you're here please help us out with this.

"Layla, can you take over please, thanks." Layla joined Mal up the front again, gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Okay then, Carter help me. What if Carter was meeting the waitress."

She waited . . . nothing.

"What if he met with Ken, ouch, something pricked me!" She looked down and a red rose from a vase on the dining table had attached itself to her skirt, a thorn had gone through it into her leg.

"I think Carter is still in love with you Sis, he's given you a rose . . . a red rose," Chris suggested.

"No, no. . . " Layla countered, a bit too fast for Carter's liking,m"No, he was meeting Ken." She reached down to remove the rose caught up in her dress.

"Wait, can you leave it darling. I think that's one way we might be able to communicate with Carter, if you can stand the pain, Layla," Margot said, "No harm in trying anyway."

"No pain, no gain, don't they say. I'll give it a go."

"What if the man in the priest outfit shot people too. . . , ouch, shot Ken . . . ouch, shot Carter too . . . ouch. Shit Carter I thought you loved me . . . ouch. We have to find a better way."

"Ask him the question, Layla" Mal told her.

"I did, I think he said he still loves me . . .ouch!"

"Not that, if it was the same priest."

"Ouchhhh!"

"Shit. They're the same person, the priest at the restaurant, the one who shot Carter is the same man that killed your mother in Paris, Amanda!"

"Ouchhhhh" Layla flinched violently and the rose dropped to the ground.

"Pick up the rose Layla, just hold it on your hand, please," Mal pleaded.

"No, Mal, I can't, it's too much, too spooky. I'm scared Mal, what if it's not Carter doing this, what if it's evil, like what cam happen with a ouiji board," she sobbed.

"Please for me, if you love me, you'll do this for me, just a couple more questions and we'll leave it for now, please."

She gingerly stopped down and picked up the rose. She held it cradled on her hand.

Mal asked, "Carter, is your death somehow related to your mother Amelia's death."

Layla flinched, and nodded her head.

"Is Andre the priest?" Nothing happened. "Did Andre kill Amelia?"

Layla nodded.

"Were all three deaths organised by the same people?"

Layla nodded.

"Are these people priests?"

Layla nodded.

"Is Peter one of them?"

Layla dropped the rose and screamed, so too did Amanda.

Margot said, "He's gone."

Chapter 59 - Do As The Romans Do . . . Lie.

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