The SPECTRE Of The VATICAN ©

Chapter 44 - Le Balajo Revisited.

Time: Present Day
Location; Paris, France.

Monique passed on the kisses to Margot and Michelle but she refrained from telling Michy what Amanda had said.

"You all set for tomorrow night?" Monique asked Margot.

Margot was the organiser in the family, she had contacted Louise and set everything up for tomorrow night's little event at Le Balajo. "Yes. Everything is set. Louise arranged everything, poor girl, She's still a bit lost over her dad, it's hard when  an orphan, at any age," Margot said.

"Hasn't she got any family?" Monique asked in a voice laced with genuine concern.

"No. Her mum died in childbirth, she was brought up by her Dad and Gran but they're both dead now," Margot explained, "I think that's why she was a bit of a rebel as a teenager, you do remember it was Louise that gave Amelia the drugs, but she still swears she didn't have any heroin. She told me she wouldn't have touched that herself let alone give it to someone else, especially not Amelia."

"After all these years she still hasn't come to terms with Amelia's death. How an accident like that could happen to someone like Amelia. She hasn't said so, but I get the distinct feeling whenever I talk to her, that she doesn't know exactly what happened but she still doesn't believe the police take on it. You can ask her yourself tomorrow night, just be prepared, it's likely to bring up some unhealed wounds in all of us.”

They all met up the next night at Le Balajo in the VIP room. They got a bottle of champagne and drank a toast to Amelia. Monique was about to ask Louise about how she was coping without her Dad when they were interrupted by a photographer asking if they would like their photo taken. They had a few shots taken both individual and group.

"Wait," said Louise, "just one more please," as the photographer was preparing to move on. Louise posed draped around a lamp post and after her photo was taken came back to the table. "I had the same shot taken the night we were here twenty years ago, just wanted to see if I still had it."

Louise explained, "You mean there are photos of all of you on that night, Amelia too? Do you still have them? I'd love to see them," Monique said expectantly.

"No, I've never had them. They belong to the venue. They take photos of everyone in the VIP room in case they are, or in case they become, really famous in the future," Louise explained.

"They wouldn't still have them would they?"
Monique asked.

Louise said, "I saw them once, the police had them during one of my interviews after Amelia was found. They might still be on the file, or maybe they gave them back to the venue, don't know what the procedure would be. I know Le Balajo puts some up on their website but I don't know whether they keep all of them. You could ask the police if you could look at Amelia's file if they still have it."

Collette then chimed in with, "Louise is right, I remember them asking me to identify Amelia in one of the photos, it was one of me, Amelia and Andre. I told them Andre had left that night to go back to Germany. They said they would have to track him down and interview him."

Then Louise said," Yeah they asked me about Andre and I told them the truth, that we had only met him that night at the venue, and if they wanted to speak to him they would have to get his details from my father."

"Who was this Andre anyway? Amanda told me you met him here that night?" Monique inquired.

"That's right," said Louise, "he was the son of a friend of my father's, a business associate I gather. Although since I took over Dad’s business interests I've never come across either him or his dad again."