A Deal with the Devil

by Blake Ellis

  Mr. Ramos still doesn’t understand why Maria bought the land from him in the first place. She didn’t live in a house on the land she purchased or have any family there. He said the lawsuit continued to stretch on, but that he had not seen her in person since 1999.

  “I met her SEVERAL times in flesh, bone, and blood. She is a real human being,” he wrote. She was “a quite good-looking, charming woman. Blond (or dyed), blue nice eyes, pretty lips, 60" [around five feet].” He also wrote that she acted mysteriously about her powers, likening her to a “scaramouche,” a character in commedia dell’arte who is seen as a boastful coward who gets himself in tricky situations but somehow manages to escape.

  The Romanians

  MONTHS PASSED AND we heard nothing.

  It was August, and most of the days’ headlines focused on Donald Trump, who had secured the Republican nomination for president. We were deep in our newest investigation into PacNet, which needed our full attention after the firm hired a prominent US lawyer to threaten to sue us.

  But when an email popped up from someone in Romania, we couldn’t help but be intrigued.

  From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

  Sent: Sunday, August 7, 2016 6:31 AM

  To: Ellis, Blake

  Subject: Maria Dunal [sic] in Romania

  Hallo!

  My name is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. I’m a reporter in Romania.

  Maria Duval is here. Yes, it [sic] here. She works for a company. I have evidence of this. But . . .

  I need your help. I need copies of the documents collected: photographs, letters, testimonials customers Maria Duval etc. for a special TV report.

  For all this will give the address Maria Duval in Romania, including photos of the new look of Maria Duval. She looks different now. But the voice and face are unmistakable.

  The new name: Madame Duval.

  Type scam: letters and advertisements (talismans, books, amulets, crystals, etc.)

  Our first instinct was to help this reporter. We too had been helped by international journalists who had done their own research on Maria’s letters. Cautious about turning over our notebooks to a stranger, though, we first sent him a copy of the public US lawsuit, which had plenty of letters and other information. In return, he sent us a twenty-seven-page PDF full of photos of Maria, her talismans, and copies of letters we hadn’t seen before. One image was especially curious, since it seemed to be a photo of Maria that had run online as part of our story but that someone had doctored in order to make her appear to be holding a crystal ball. The picture made us wonder: Could scammers be using the details from our story to try to copycat the scheme in other countries?

  We quickly responded and asked where the reporter had gotten all of this information, and whether he could still share the address he said he had for Maria in Romania.

  Then he disappeared.

  We searched his name online and couldn’t find anything, which was especially odd since he claimed to be a journalist. We emailed him again asking where he worked and when his piece would be published, but still no response.

  Then, another email came in from Romania just two days later. But this one wasn’t from the reporter. Attached to the message was a photo we’d included in our story—a copy of the note we had written by hand and left for Maria in her mailbox while in France seven months earlier. Strangely, this email seemed to have been written directly in response to our note.

  From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

  Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2016 11:31 AM

  To: Ellis, Blake

  Subject: For Blake Ellis

  Reply to your message (image attached).

  For questions about Maria Duval please contact me.

  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX: Secretary “Office Express” ® 2016 in Romania—Maria Duval

  What? Our story had been up for months. Why were we suddenly getting multiple emails from Romania? And why would Maria have a secretary in Romania? We thought that maybe this woman and the reporter were somehow working together or were potentially the same person. We seriously questioned their motivations. If they were copycat scammers, were they trying to get more material from us to use in their letters? Or was this some sort of prank? We had our doubts, but we responded anyway, asking the woman if she worked directly for Maria or whether she was tasked with sending out letters on her behalf. We also asked what “Office Express” was and whether she would be willing to speak with us over the phone.

  From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

  Date: August 11, 2016 at 9:56:39 AM MDT

  To: “Ellis, Blake”

  Subject: Re: For Blake Ellis

  Warning!

  The requested information is confidential (I signed a contract with Maria Duval and Office® Express-Romania).

  Thank you !

  We wrote back multiple times, but just as with the Romanian journalist, we never heard from her again.

  The Childhood Friend

  WE WERE KNEE deep into a new investigation—this time an even more unrelated project exposing rampant sexual abuse in nursing homes—when we received another message, from a man named Patric, that had us wondering if someone was up to his old tricks.

  Hello

  You want now [sic] if Maria Duval exist?

  Yes

  I now [sic] her

  Unlike the people who’d emailed us from Romania, Patric was happy to get on the phone, sending us his number right away. When we spoke with him, he told us he was a childhood friend of Jean-Claude Reuille’s, that he had known him for forty years, and that he’d met Maria Duval multiple times. After telling us this in English, he said he would prefer to speak in French, so we enlisted the help of our colleague Julia, who was still as interested in this whole saga as we were, and who quickly spoke with Patric on the phone.

  We were in disbelief as we read through the rough notes of her conversation.

  PATRIC: So you want to know if she exists? She does. I can confirm she exists.

  JULIA: Do you know her in person?

  PATRIC: Yes, I know her very well.

  JULIA: Oh, really?

  PATRIC: Yes, but all I can say is that she is real. I can say she’s real. She’s fantastic, in fact. Incredible.

  JULIA: And how do you know her?

  PATRIC: Through Jean-Claude.

  JULIA: Because they worked together?

  PATRIC: Well, that’s what you want to know, isn’t it?

  JULIA: Yes.

  PATRIC: (Laughs) I don’t know . . .

  JULIA: Yes, of course you know . . . We know a lot about her already. Maybe not the same things you know. But we know she exists, that she lives in the South of France, that—

  PATRIC: Yes, I saw that you went to her house.

  JULIA: Yes, and we are currently in talks with her son, so we know she exists, that she is a psychic, and a great astrologist, but we want to know how she became famous, what happened to get her from a small-town radio guest and having a column in the newspaper to the person she became, giving talks around the world.

  PATRIC: You know how that happened. It was with Jean-Claude.

  The conversation went on for a while, during which time Patric offered Julia a number of other interesting tidbits. He said that Maria “wouldn’t have been in business without Jean-Claude” but that she too had made a lot of money, which she’d mismanaged and spent on “stupid things and young men.” He even explained the backstory of property records we’d found in Argentina, saying that Maria had fallen in love with a young man who’d convinced her to buy property there, making us wonder if he was referring to the field in Argentina that Maria had allegedly purchased from Mr. Ramos.

  With even more stories to tell, he suggested we meet in person.

  “I know his life very well. Listen, JC has had many business operations with Maria Duval, all over the world, so it’s a personal thing too.”

  This all seemed very suspicious. While some of what he said matched what we already knew, and he used the nickname “JC” t
hat Jean-Claude himself had used to sign many of the emails he sent us, we questioned why Patric was getting in touch now and what he had to gain from it.

  The same day, Julia heard from him again. “Patric just called me,” she emailed us. “He hadn’t spoken to Reuille in 3 years, but says now that Reuille wants to meet . . . in February or March location tbd.” When we asked for more information, Julia sent the following message:

  So for meeting Reuille, Patric said it would likely not be in the US—*IF* he can leave Thailand (which Patric says he might not be able to because of legal trouble), he would likely want to meet up somewhere in Europe.

  Again, we were confused. We had been in touch with Jean-Claude directly by email. He could just have let us know himself that he wanted to meet in person. And Patric was clearly suggesting that Jean-Claude was much more involved than he’d previously admitted. We needed to reach Jean-Claude ourselves to ask him about Patric.

  That’s when things got even stranger.

  Jean-Claude seemed confused by our message, asking us to tell him more about his “friend” Patric, claiming he didn’t know anyone by that name.

  “I do not know any Patric, but I know one Patrice and two Patrick. The 3 of them were involved in Mail Order business. However I did not talk to any of them for at least 2 years,” he wrote. “Anyway, if I want to meet you, I do not see why I would need anyone to help me. I would just call you or email you. But, I have absolutely nothing to add [to] the Maria Duval story.”

  He said this did not mean he didn’t want to meet us, however, saying he might call us and invite us out for a drink next time he was in town. He ended by wishing us both a Merry Christmas and “all the best.”

  Wait, so he didn’t actually want to meet with us abroad, like Patric had told us? Why on earth would this Patric guy try to convince us to go all the way to Thailand? And if Jean-Claude really didn’t know him, who was he? We too had heard of a man named Patrice; in fact, this was the same man our “Secret Friend” had called crazy and unpredictable. One of the Patricks whom Jean-Claude was referring to was likely the French psychic Patrick Guerin. We needed to email Jean-Claude again, this time to ask if he was positive he didn’t know this man, who claimed to be his childhood friend.

  “First, my childhood in Switzerland was 50 years ago and I do not remember any Patric ——. I can also say that as long as I can remember, I never talked to anyone named Patric ——,” he wrote back defiantly.

  Determined to figure out what was going on, we wrote back again, giving more details that Patric had provided to us, including that he claimed to have visited Jean-Claude in Thailand just a few years earlier. To this claim, Jean-Claude legitimately seemed to be just as bewildered as we were. “I have no idea who is this man,” he wrote, saying that if he had visited him in Thailand recently, then his name was “definitely NOT” the one he had given us.

  We weren’t sure what to make of this but were sure of one thing: we weren’t going to Thailand.

  • • •

  It started with the filmmaker, who was convinced that a satanic cult was at the root of the scheme, and that many of the businessmen were involved. Scary enough on its own, this claim also made us think of the frightening theories we’d read online about the secret societies Antoine was involved with. Then came the weird emails from Romania from the “journalist” and the “secretary,” reminding us of a game of Clue.

  A number of anonymous tipsters had also warned us that there were very wealthy and dangerous people involved in the scheme. “I’ve helped you enough by now. Need to keep my distances,” our “Secret Friend” told us. Then we’d heard from the man claiming his name was Patric, who for some reason was trying to lure us to Thailand to meet with Jean-Claude. But after Jean-Claude told us he had no reason to meet with us, we questioned whether “Patric” might have had other motives. Nothing was out of the question—including our being thrown into the ocean from the beaches of Thailand, never to be seen again. Our minds were racing as we tried to figure out how all of this might be connected, feeling trapped inside a psychological thriller that just wouldn’t end.

  We returned to where it all started, with the filmmaker. This time he wouldn’t return any of our emails or phone calls. The number we reached him at the first time seemed to be registered to someone else entirely. With our minds already in a dark place, we asked ourselves if he could be linked to these other people as well. He had provided us with only his first name, but we thought we’d been able to deduce his last name from his email address. We searched public records to try to find any other contact information for him. The only person with that name was a disturbed young man who had been charged with killing his father but had recently been acquitted of murder by reason of insanity.

  What had we gotten ourselves into?

  The Return to Sanity

  WRAPPED UP IN our own paranoia, we tried to convince ourselves that we had nothing to fear. If even half of what we’d been told was true, it was Maria who had every reason to be just as scared as her son said she was.

  To date, we hadn’t seen a single shred of physical evidence that Maria was actually alive. The last physical trace of her was a signature on court documents from the US government settlement. But even this signature seemed suspicious.

  Located within hundreds of pages of court documents, the signature meant she was agreeing that letters using her name and image would never be sent in the United States again. On closer examination, we noticed that both of the forms she’d signed were missing key information. While the settlement agreement filled out by Patrick Guerin included the name and signature of the notary who’d verified that he signed the document, Maria’s agreement included nothing but a stamp—supposedly from a notary in Provence, France, but with no name or signature. Even stranger, the printed version of her name underneath the signature was spelled incorrectly—it was missing an “L,” so it read “Maria Duva.” On a second form, many of the required fields, like phone number and email address, had been left blank. And even if it were Maria who had signed the form, it would have been almost a year ago, so there was no way to know if she was still alive today.

  Aside from the signature, the most recent evidence of Maria had come from a year earlier, when she was seen picking up her pot of jelly. So we decided to try getting back in touch with the town hall in Callas to see if anyone had seen her.

  The year before, its employees had been willing to help, giving us Maria’s home address and telling us about the jelly she’d picked up. This time, the woman who answered the phone seemed hesitant to tell us anything, saying that she had a directory of everyone who came to pick up jelly this holiday season, but that she couldn’t tell us whether Maria was on this list.

  Once again, Maria’s son, Antoine, was our last shot.

  Since leaving Callas, we’d tried to reach Antoine numerous times with the hopes of finally speaking with Maria ourselves, even if it was just over the phone. He claimed she was alive and kept promising that at the least he would answer more of our questions and possibly even facilitate an interview. But then he would go dark for weeks.

  • • •

  For a while, we wondered if the “filmmaker,” the “Romanians,” and “Patric” were all the same deranged person, one who had lured us into his or her own twisted game. We started to come back to reality when we finally received a call from the filmmaker. He seemed unfazed by his months of silence, telling us he had a day job and had been very busy. He was also willing to give us his full name, as long as we didn’t print it. To our relief, a quick search showed us that the biography he gave us about himself checked out. He was definitely not the young man who killed his father.

  Whew.

  With his identity confirmed, we thought it far less likely that all the messages we’d recently received were part of some broader conspiracy. Still, we were no closer to figuring out who this so-called Patric character was and why he’d reached out to us.

  After Jean-Claude
’s confusion, Julia got back in touch with Patric. He became extremely defensive, saying snidely that if we were already in touch with Jean-Claude then we apparently didn’t need him anymore. For some reason, he continued to want to meet us in person.

  Jean-Claude, annoyed with all of our questions about Patric, stopped responding to our emails. However, as we looked through his past messages, we saw that perhaps unwittingly Jean-Claude included his cell phone number. With nothing to lose, we broke down and called him in Thailand.

  He answered right away in a very friendly voice and was surprisingly courteous even after we told him who we were. It was surreal to actually be talking with him after all the months of emailing back and forth with the man. We spoke for an hour. When we brought up Patric, he again said he didn’t know a man with the full name we had been given. He did have an idea of who it might be, though. He also described a childhood friend of forty years, who he said was the only person he knew with a name that came close to Patric’s. According to Jean-Claude, the friend’s most recent visit had been around a decade ago, not a mere three years as “Patric” had claimed to us.

  Despite Patric’s claim, Jean-Claude remained adamant that he was not the mastermind behind the Maria Duval letters. Instead, he told us he simply knew her through acquaintances in the mail-order industry such as Jacques Mailland. Jean-Claude also said that the former friend claiming to be Patric had met Maria only once, twenty years ago, maybe in the resort town of Cannes. “I had a drink with him and Maria,” Jean-Claude told us.

  Jean-Claude also had some theories as to why this man would be telling us false stories about him. He said that while they had been close for a long time, this man had become jealous of him and that something had happened during his most recent trip to Thailand that put an end to their friendship. “To be honest, the meeting [in Thailand] did not end up very nicely,” he said. “The relationship ended up badly. I don’t think he has a very positive opinion of me.”