"Belle Famille," - by Arthur Dreyfus - Chapter 27

The Minster is proud of having got the Pope interested in the Macands. His Public Relations service will "leak," the information to magazines about the role he will have played in securing this interview.

The young journalist at France 2 is suspended and the case will be subject to a temporary injunction.

The Josserand's lawyer demands 230,000 Euros in damages and compensation and Laurence considers that they could thank her because, without doing anything, they are going to get lots of money, thanks to her.

Then the internet site of an investigative journal publishes an article accompanied by a secret recording:

"SCANDAL AT THE CSA

When the Macand parents pull the media's strings.

Then Laurence's voice is heard, indistinct because of static. Madec's mother whispers: "between you and me our friends the Josserands, who were interrogated in France, are behind my son's disappearance...He will be dead. The police know who killed my son."

In his office, the Minister is not at all happy:

"-Every time you try to be nice, it backfires on you.

- You made the right decision, Minister.

- Why did that idiot need to talk crap like that for the first camera to arrive?

- We don't know yet. We 're trying to contact her.

- What will Carolis (former president of France television), Interpol and the CSA think of me?

- It has nothing to do with you.

- I remind you that I informed the Pope: it's gone world-wide.

- It might be a fake, sir.

- You know it's not, he let out in exasperation. The services analysed it.

-Yes, but for the rest of the world, it's perhaps still a fake. Nobody authenticated it.

- You're certain about what you're saying? The politician asked after a preoccupied silence.

- I think we need to play that card, Minister."

Petrified, Laurence picked up her phone. It's the Interior Minister's Public Relations service again. She is told that it's known to be a fake, that the Minister will support her "in her fight for the truth." The voice repeats:

"A message, you've only got to give out a message, which is also ours, Madame Macand - that document is a fake."

Confronted for the first time since Madec's death, with the real world, Laurence locks herself in the toilet. Tony reproached her above all for screwing up their good image. Stéphane looked on her as an enemy.

She takes to musing that life is only a game, "the only game, where the objective is to understand the rules."

With thanks, once again, to Frencheuropean for the résumé in French.