"How are you feeling?" asked Leonie as she gave a mug of mushroom soup to Darren, who was resting on the couch. They had about an hour to go before the trial continues, and they recommended that Darren take some rest to clear his mind.
"Much better, thanks," said Darren as he cupped his hands around the mug and took a few sips. "I just hope I'll be okay throughout the trial..."
"Oh, you'll be all right," said Daniel. "Don't worry too much about it - you'll be free, I promise you."
"How can I NOT worry?" said Darren, almost spilling his soup. "I've been accused of MASS MURDER, for goodness' sake! If I'm found to be guilty, I'll be hung to death!"
"No you will not!" said Leonie. "I will see to it that you're proven innocent - mark my words!"
"Mark mine too!" said Daniel, making a small cross on his heart. Just then they saw a few letters drop down from the mail slot. Leonie went to pick up the mail.
"Hmm...catalogs...bills...the newspaper...hey, what's this?" asked Leonie as she examined a HJs wrapper folded neatly into quarters. On top on it was written "To Darren Hayes, Savage Garden" and a skull and crossbones.
"Hey Darren, this is for you," said Leonie as she gave Darren the HJs wrapper. Darren unfolded the wrapper and read out the contents.
"WE ARE THE MASS MURDERERS. WE KNOW YOU ARE INNOCENT. DO NOT TELL ANYBODY OR ELSE WE WILL KILL YOU. WE WILL ALSO KILL YOUR FRIENDS DANIEL JONES AND LEONIE MESSER SHOULD YOU NOT GRANT OUR DEMANDS. WE DEMAND 50% OF YOUR EARNINGS FROM EACH PERSON. WE ALSO DEMAND THAT WE BE CREDITED FOR EVERYTHING ON YOUR NEW ALBUM AFFIRMATION. WE WILL GIVE YOU 30 DAYS FROM NOW. DO NOT TELL THE POLICE. WE ARE WATCHING YOU. JEAN-LUC & THE WRAPPER." read out Darren. By the end of the letter, he was, for a moment, shell-shocked, unable to move.
"Great - first Darren's accused of murder, now he gets blackmailed," said Daniel angrily. "Won't this ever end?"
"I don't know for sure, but whoever 'Jean-Luc' & 'The Wrapper' are, they sound really serious!" commented Leonie. "Should we give in to their demands?"
"The first demand, we can live with - we've got sufficient income even if we're paid 50% less," said Darren. "But the second demand? Be credited for everything in Affirmation? We can't do that - Affirmation's out already!"
"Hey, they didn't leave a contact number or an address to send the money to," noticed Daniel. "We can't pay them if we don't know who or where to pay it to!"
"Good point, but they did say they were watching us..." trembled Leonie. "Oh God, I'm already scared..."
"You think you're scared NOW? Wait till you read the headlines," said Daniel, holding up the newspaper. "2 MORE KILLED - SUSPECT IN TRIAL..."
"Let me read that!" said Darren, pulling the newspaper away from Daniel. "Savage Garden lead singer Darren Hayes is held as a suspect in the mass murder trial, which has claimed 14 lives, plus 2 more which were murdered yesterday night. More trial news inside. Great - this will get me back to that old prison room under police custody again!"
"But it can't be YOU," said Leonie. "The 2 people were murdered yesterday - you were at the prison yesterday. How could you have escaped?"
"You're right!" said Darren. "I may have a chance after all!"
"But should we show the blackmail letter to Jeorge?" asked Daniel. "They DID say they would kill us if we told anyone!"
"We might as well take a chance," said Leonie. "Better to die in innocence with the killers convicted rather than live in guilt for not turning in the killers..."
"Leonie's right," said Darren. "Oh look - it's almost 2 o'clock. Time to get to court, guys. May this turn out to be okay."
