Thanks folks for sticking with this. Now the denouement, hopefully in a more realistic format than as portrayed in TV dramas.
* * *
News-flash. Two persons were arrested yesterday by Police investigating the death of a house-guest following a sex-and-drugs fueled party last year. The suspects have been identified locally as millionaire music publisher Bernie Freeman (62) and his girlfriend, ex-Playmate Anastasia Gonzales (28). Officers have raided the property where the couple live and are conducting an extensive search with specially trained officers and forensic experts. Freeman is well known in the music industry as the founder of several record labels which have had numerous hit records over the last three decades...
* * *
"Do you remember the female journalist who was undercover at Bernie's party, the one that won the vote and had to strip with me?"
Andy had called a meeting with Michelle at Louise's house. "She printed a series of stories in her paper about the parties and the lifestyle of Bernie and Anastasia."
He finally had both their attention despite his tight jeans. "Bernie realised that she was getting information from somewhere and eventually figured out that the leak was Charlene."
There was a pause before Louise spoke. "How was Charlene involved in this? I thought it was Jade. She was arrested for it."
"Charlene Stone is a lover of Anastasia, not that that is any great distinction - half of the women in that town and most of the men have been there. It seems that Jade took the rap on behalf of Anastasia. It was Anastasia who killed Mike.
"Mike stumbled across Anastasia doing a drugs deal at the party. They had run short and sent out for more; couriers turned up with a delivery and Mike got in the way and was stabbed. Actually with one of the ornate daggers hanging on the wall, not a glass - which was a daft idea, all they could come up with at the time. Glass causes cuts and gashes not punctures even though they pretended it was with the long stem of a wine-glass.
"They tried to make it look like an accident by putting him in the pool but that didn't work, so they concocted the story with Jade.
"The idea was that Jade would plead guilty to something minor - she was a victim of a randy married man, she's never been in trouble. If she went to prison it wouldn't be for long and she'd get a nice pay-out at the end. She was of course also in a relationship with Anastasia.
"The problem was that Charlene was in debt to dealers and loan sharks all over town for the drugs that she was snorting, so she started selling stories to the press. Bernie takes his privacy very seriously - well you have to when you're in that business, and he worked out where the leak was.
"That's why she was tortured at the Renaissance period party. She was never into BDSM like Jade was, that show was for real. The display was a cover for what was really happening; hiding in plain sight as it were.
"She thought she was going to die with the water treatment and suffered serious internal injuries from those medieval devices. She was really pissed off so when she was in hospital she spilled the beans, made a statement, told us everything. Bernie has been importing drugs direct from South America in his yacht."
Michelle interrupted him, "Don't yachts get inspected by customs, isn't that risky? I mean not every time obviously 'cos they can dock in any little harbour. But sooner or later they get searched."
"Certainly. It's been inspected loads of times but nothing has ever been discovered. The reason for that was he had a good method of concealing it. The moral of the story is that bosses shouldn't upset the small people.
"The yacht would go into a boatyard and have its entire keel cut off. Then the drugs would be hidden in a hollow space inside the keel and it would then be welded back on, simple.
