One fateful night

2

My name is Trevor Rees-Jones, former soldier, current bodyguard of Dodi Al-Fayed. My live consists of waiting in front of doors, looking out for possible dangers and not smiling. Pretty boring, huh. Well...no. At least not since Al-Fayed had fallen in love with the love of his life, or, to be honest, the love of everyone's life. Lady Diana. Because, honestly, who couldn't love her?

So here I was, standing at the bar of the Hôtel Ritz, keeping a watchful eye on Al-Fayed and Lady Di while they were eating their dinner. Earlier this evening they wanted to eat at another restaurant in the area but had been scared of by the sheer amount of paparazzi waiting in front, having somehow found out about their dinner plans. Lady Diana had never been particularly fond of the spotlight her former relationship with Prince Charles had put her in, partly because I knew how much she hated to be reminded of her ex-husband and his cheating on her. Now that she was with Al-Fayed she seemed a great deal happier but the paparazzi just wouldn't leave her in peace. Instead they never ceased to bad-mouth her over every detail and fault they could find. Oh, how I hated them. Often enough I had to deal with paparazzi that had gotten a little too close to Al-Fayed and Lady Diana.
At least here in the Hôtel Ritz, everything was quiet, thanks to the strong security due to the frequent visits from celebrities. Because of that, I just stood idly at the bar, in my hand a-of course non-alcoholic-drink and let my gaze wander from table to table. After this long day my back ached and I hoped the Hôtel would be their last stop for the evening. As I looked around, I saw Al-Fayed's chauffeur lingering in the door that lead towards the foyer of the restaurant. His name was Henri Paul. In my time as a bodyguard I've spent a fair amount of time with him, considering that-just like I did-he went everywhere with Al-Fayed, in case they ever needed a ride. Nevertheless, I knew close to nothing about Henri since he was a rather uncommunicative person and rarely talked to me. Additionally, he had always appeared to me as a little strange, though this has only really gotten to my attention in the last few weeks. Short answers, cutting of conversations, strange phone calls in a hush voice that he abruptly stopped whenever someone approached him in the slightest. Not that it was any of my business but as a bodyguard I noticed these things. I never told anyone about this odd behavior, brushing it off as an overreaction from my side, but nowadays I find myself wishing I had sad something. Maybe things would have turned out differently...