The SPECTRE Of The VATICAN ©

Chapter 68 - The Sound Of Seance.

Time: Present Day
Location: Paris, France

Mal was at the whiteboard again. Layla had been released after two days of observation at Orley hospital. Mal had called the Cheval family together at Margot's place to go over what had transpired in the last couple of weeks.

When Carter and Teacher arrived Mal was recapping Layla's experience with Peter and how they had been unceremoniously evicted from the Vatican by Peter's boss. Then, when they went to Syria they knew it would be dangerous but they weren't expecting to be the target of a sniper.

"Tell them Mal, or I will, tell them how you knew there was a sniper there," Layla insisted. 

"You knew Mal? But how could you? Don't get me wrong. I'm sure as hell glad you did, otherwise we'd have lost Layla too," Amanda ventured.

"I think I know, it was Carter, wasn't it Mal? Carter warned you!" Margot offered.

"Not this mumbo jumbo again Margot, surely not?" Jean moaned.

"I know you're right Margot, as strange as it seems Jean, it's possibly the only logical explanation. You see I was minding Layla's phone, it rang just before the sniper took his shot, her ring tone was a song, it was a song by Harry Chapin, a song called Sniper.   I said something about her liking Harry Chapin, and she said who's he?  It was then I noticed that the beauty spot on Layla's forehead had turned red, then she moved and the red dot didn't, it was a laser trace, that's when the penny dropped. I tackled her and you know what happened. The sniper had a few more goes at us but luckily Layla escaped with just a flesh wound to the forehead. It must have been Carter. He's the only one who knew I would know that song. We played his songs all the time as teenagers."

"Okay, maybe it was just a lucky coincidence, that Layla had that song as her ringtone," Jean argued.

"But, you see Jean, not only didn't Layla know the song. She didn't even have it on her phone, check it now if you like. It was Carter I bet my life on it. I probably am, we all are now I think."

"What do you mean?" Jean asked.

"I think Mal is right, Carter is somehow warning us. I've heard spirits can use their energy to influence electrical gadgets. There have been some extraordinary stories I've heard. This one is right up there though," Margot chimed in, in support.

"You must all see by now, Mal dramatically turned over the whiteboard, there is one common factor in all the deaths and near misses we've had, and that's the Vatican. Now, you know I'm a Catholic too, so I'm not just church bashing here. I didn't want to believe this myself, so I fully understand if you think I'm crazy. But let's look at the facts, Amelia died in mysterious circumstances, possibly murdered by a mystery man called Andre with a skull ring with four diamonds on his left hand.

"Twenty years later Amelia's biological son, Carter is also killed in mysterious circumstances, a priest or someone purporting to be a priest is somehow involved, also wearing an identical skull ring on his left hand. Then a few years later Amelia's mother, Monique is also killed in mysterious circumstances, despite all CCTV being switched off, thanks to Monique's quick thinking a priest is also recorded at the scene with yet again an identical ring on his left hand.

"She is killed on her way back from seeing someone at the Vatican, who happens to be Carter's biological father but supposedly didn't know it.

"Layla and I are lucky to escape death again directly after visiting Peter at the Vatican. Then we narrowly escape a bomb at the hospital, the wrong hospital as it turns out, and Amanda is also redirected to the same wrong hospital, the one with the bomb. I can only assume that, unfortunately you Amanda, and possibly everyone who was at the hospital, everyone except Michelle and Margot therefore are now targets. You can believe it or not, but the fact is that Europe is a dangerous place for the Chevals at the moment. For that reason alone I'm suggesting that we all head back to Australia, everyone including Margot and Michelle as well. We can continue our investigations from a safer base in Australia.