The Truth Healer: A Riveting Spiritual Psychic Thriller

by J Gabriel-Smith

  Marianne could feel her grip tighten around her coffee cup. Her eyes were now penetrating the screen as she saw the dark blue transit van reappear a couple of hours later with the same man from before beckoning the driver into the campsite. She looked to see where it had parked up, and as she scanned the wooded area of the campsite she could just make out the front bonnet of, what looked like, a dark blue van, pulled up alongside a beige campervan.

  Marianne sat shaking her head. Her fingers clawed through her neatly twisted up hair, knocking the clip onto the floor. ‘No, no, no you stupid stupid man!’ she shouted out in disbelief. She recognised the man scurrying to the dark blue van, all too well….Gerard.

  ‘How could he be involved in this? Why why why? This isn’t my husband.’ she screamed.

  He wasn’t a bad man. He wasn’t a paedophile. It always disgusted him when it came on television. There must be some sort of explanation for this.

  The life drained out of her, after seeing this. She desperately wanted to go to bed and hideaway, but she needed to check one last thing for Lucy. She wanted to see if the Austrian guest, who was potentially involved in Anna’s disappearance, was booked to stay at the camp when Rosie might have been there. He was registered as a ‘Laurenz Felbiger’.

  As she scrolled through the list of guest’s names, she was frustrated to find his name wasn’t on the list. ‘Damn!…now what?’ she grumbled. ‘Right, that’s it, no more, I need by bed now.’

  Just as she was about to turn her computer off, something made her think to check the number plates registered at the camp when Rosie went missing. As she ran her finger down the various letters and numbers, her eyes locked onto that familiar sequence. There it was in black and white…X710 T, the number plate now etched on her brain forever.

  It was registered to a Raphael Janosi this time, but the address given was the same as Laurenz Felbiger’s. They must have been friends or related somehow. They may not live there anymore, but it had to be Lucy’s next port of call surely.

  Satisfied that she had finally gone through enough for the night, Marianne collected up the cctv discs and placed them back in the cupboard. As she did, she noticed a second disc dated the same day that Anna Gerber went missing. That’s strange, she thought. She couldn’t wait until the morning…she had to look at it, so she walked back over to the computer with it.

  As she pressed play, the images looked familiar. It was the same sequence events she had just watched before.

  ‘Why have we got a duplicate?’ she mumbled to herself.

  As she flicked through the various hours of the day she realised there was one sequence missing. The recording of the campervan registered X720T leaving the campsite.

  So could this have been a copy of what the police were given, and therefore, this is why the police didn’t pick up on it? If so, someone had deleted it from their copy… and Marianne was disgusted by the fact she now had a good idea who.

  *****

  The following morning, Marianne was still reeling from what she had discovered. She would have to speak to Lucy about what she had found, but she couldn’t reveal that the man seen approaching the dark blue van was, in fact, her husband. Not yet anyway. She needed to find out the truth about him herself first. Her life had now been left in a state of shock and confusion, and her future with her husband potentially left in tatters.

  At 9am, Marianne braced herself before making a cheerful entrance into the office. She tried hard to hide the fact that she had only managed to get three hours sleep, and to smile through the fact that she had watched her husband liaise with the potential abductors of Anna and Rosie.

  Fortunately, Elena, her summer student, was in to help out at reception, which would free her up to do some more research. Gerard wasn’t due back until 3pm, so she had enough time to search the office from top to bottom, to try and find anything else linking her husband to these horrific people.

  ‘Morning Elena.’ Marianne announced, as she swung open the reception door.

  ‘Morning Marianne.’ Elena replied, looking over from pinning a newsletter up on the notice board.

  ‘How are you this morning?’

  ‘Yes ok….we’ve got the children’s talent contest tonight, so I’m just tallying up the numbers.’

  ‘Oh yes of course, sorry I’m a bit tired today, I didn’t get a lot of sleep.’ Marianne replied, yawning.

  ‘I’m not surprised…you were in here gone 1am last night weren’t you?’

  ‘Err..sorry…yes…how do you know that?’ Marianne stammered, caught off guard.

  ‘One of the guests brought in some money for the water they got from you last night….he said it was a godsend you were in the office.’

  ‘Oh…erm…yes…I was a bit behind on some paperwork, and must have fallen asleep. Could you do me a favour Elena?….don’t tell Gerard I stayed up. He would feel so guilty that I have had to stay up late catching up, while he has been on a golf trip. I don’t want him to worry.’

  ‘Of course, it will be our little secret.’ Elena grinned, tapping her nose.

  ‘Thank you.’ Marianne replied, relieved that she had Elena on side. ‘I’ve still got quite a lot to catch up on before Gerard gets back, so are you ok holding the fort out here this morning?’

  ‘Yes fine, let me know if you need me to help you with anything.’

  ‘Thank you sweetheart… will do.’

  Marianne walked into the office and closed the door behind her. Finally, she was on her own again. She threw her bag onto the chair and immediately went over to the filing drawers. She opened each of them up and starting ransacking them. She continued to search random boxes and all of the cupboards, but to her dismay she couldn’t find anything.

  She knew she should feel relieved, but her gut was telling her Gerard was involved in this operation somehow, so she couldn’t rest until she found out to what extent. Her mind kept going back to Jozsef Halasz. She had left a message for her husband to ring him, so Gerard must have rung him back. I know!…he would have phoned him on his mobile, she thought. She rushed back over to the filing cabinet and pulled out the file labelled ‘Personal Bills’.

  ‘It must be here somewhere.’ she said to herself, flicking through it. She had left the message about a month back, so she picked out the most recent bill. It mostly showed numbers of family and friends, but there were three unknown numbers that could have belonged to Jozsef Halasz. The only way she was going to find out was to ring them.

  She lifted one of the slats of the closed window blind to see where Elena was. To her relief she was busily making notes for what Marianne presumed was for the talent show, so she sat down at her desk and dialled the first number.

  ‘Hello Café Julianne, can I help you?’ the first voice answered.

  Marianne quickly put the phone down. This obviously wasn’t him. She dialled the next number:

  ‘Hello, Jean’s Mechanics.’ the second voice answered.

  She again put the phone down quickly as this again was not him. After dialling the third and final number, a brusque male voice suddenly answered

  ‘Yes?’

  She froze for a moment, before managing to inquire:

  ‘Monsieur Halasz?’

  ‘Yes?’

  She abruptly slammed the phone down. It was him!…..she had Jozsef Halasz’s telephone number. She felt sick that she had spoken to a man that was possibly instrumental in two of the biggest child trafficking cases over the last ten years, but what was gut wrenchingly worse, was that her husband had connections with this man.

  The problem was she didn’t know what to do with this information now. Should she confront her husband outright or find more evidence? What she couldn’t understand was why her husband was involved in this. She was certain he wasn’t interested in children in a sickening way…. but was he? He was on his laptop a lot at home, but he always said he was playing games on it. She had to get back home…now!

  As she ran over to their bungalow based on sit
e, she was praying he hadn’t taken his lap top with him. She didn’t have long as he would be back within the hour.

  As she flung open the front door and raced through to the dining room…. there it was. Pandora’s box, sitting on the dining room table waiting to be opened. She stared at it, scared of what she might find behind the password. Fortunately, she had access to it for shopping, so after a few clicks, she was in.

  She firstly headed for his photos, where their numerous holiday snaps popped up. Her joy at only seeing these was immense.

  She then, apprehensively, clicked on his internet history, and again to Gerard’s further reprieve, it was mainly shopping websites that she had been on. She sat back in the chair and breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe it was just a coincidence that Gerard had liaised with these men.

  As she went to close the laptop with relieved satisfaction, she noticed one of the files was labelled ‘J.H.’ Suddenly she felt a cloud cast it’s dark shadow over her. She paused….not sure if she wanted to open it. She hovered the mouse over the shut down button, but she knew she would just be left being taunted by what lay beyond this file.

  She moved the curser back to the ‘J.H.’ file and clicked. As it opened, there were what looked like three invoices. As she looked closely, they appeared to be copies of bank transfers. Each for 30,000 euros. The payer was registered as a Jozsef Halasz, and the payee was a company named The Mercury Group. ‘Who are The Mercury Group?’ she mumbled to herself, confused.

  Her eyes locked onto the three dates that were written down. The first date was 6th July 2009 and the second date was 1st August 2013.

  She could feel her mouth go dry. The first date corresponded to when Anna was at the campsite, and the second date was the day after Rosie went missing from the UK. Then as she looked at the third date, her mouth fell open.

  It read 21st August 2015 30,000 euros….pending. It was now the 8th August, so did this mean that Gerard was planning for another child to be taken in the next two weeks?! Oh please no!…he couldn’t be….could he?!

  It couldn’t be right. Gerard had never received any money….. or had he?

  She had never seen it, or seen it appear on their bank statements, so had he stashed it away under this Mercury Group name?….and if so where?

  She couldn’t then understand why he was so distressed about the campsite business going downhill when he had all of this money…or was he stressed because he was involved in this sickening trafficking operation?

  Marianne ran into the bedroom and started to rifle through his bedside drawers, under his side of the bed, and in his wardrobe. She grabbed her dressing table stool to reach the very back corner of his wardrobe shelf, and as she felt around, she heard a rustling noise. As she stood on tiptoe she managed to grab a corner of the rustling object, and pull it out. There, in her hand, was a large brown envelope. She jumped off the stool and emptied the contents onto the bed.

  Inside were details of a separate bank account based in Switzerland. The account name…. ‘The Mercury Group’, whereby the 30,000 euros deposits were listed.

  What was he going to do with this money? Was he planning to run away with it, or was he saving it for both of them? He did keep saying he wanted to sell the campsite eventually, so perhaps this was his way out to a new life. It was a life though, that Marianne wanted no part in.

  Suddenly Marianne flinched as she heard the front door bang shut.

  ‘Marianne, I’m home, where are you?’

  ‘Oh God he’s home!’ she shrieked under her breath. She scrambled to put the statements back in the envelope and nearly fell off the stool trying to push them back under some folded jumpers at the top of the wardrobe. After jumping back down, she took a deep breath and walked back out of the bedroom to greet him.

  ‘Hello darling, how was your trip?’

  ‘Very good, how has it been here?’ he replied, throwing his keys onto the dining table.

  ‘Ok, the usual.’

  Marianne tried to act her normal self with him, but she had somehow forgotten how that was. She now felt like a complete stranger was standing in front of her. Luckily she didn’t have to be overly affectionate with him, as their relationship had waned in that area. In fact, the more she thought about it, they barely hugged or kissed each other at all anymore. Instead, he did his normal drop his bag, turn on the television and wait for her to make him a drink routine.

  As she stirred the milk into his coffee, she started to question whether he had really gone to play golf with a friend at all. He often went on ‘golf trips’, but she was now thinking he could have gone anywhere.

  She offered to put his bag in the bedroom, and after closing the door gently behind her, she quietly unzipped it. Her suspicions were right…the bag didn’t contain any golf clothes. There was an empty crisp packet, some tissues, the underwear he had changed out of and some toiletries. As she continued to hunt, she could feel there was something in his front zip pocket. As she put her hand in, she let out a gasp a she realised it was his phone!

  ‘Dammit!’ she cursed, trying to access it. He had a lock on his phone that she didn’t know. She could have traced who he had called or met while he was away. She felt further down in the pocket and there was a small white piece of paper. Written on it was the 21st August, 5pm…. reg X710 T.

  ‘Marianne?’ Gerard shouted.

  Marianne looked up startled. ‘Yes, coming.’ she called out, before shakily putting the piece of paper back into the bag and sauntering back into the lounge.

  After reluctantly preparing his dinner and making polite small talk, they both retired to bed. Marianne lay rigid beside him, while he snored away comfortably. She hated how well he was sleeping, considering what he been involved with. Who was this man that lay beside her? She didn’t know now, but she was going to make it her mission to find out.

  *****

  The next day in the office, Marianne nervously potted around Gerard, watching him more than she ever had before. He kept catching her eye, and asking if she was ok, but she kept saying she was fine.

  She was trying to think hard about how to question his involvement. She decided the subtle approach was best to start with.

  ‘Gerard, did you see this message…a Jozsef Halasz rang you…did you ever ring him back?’ Marianne asked, casually cleaning around his desk.

  She could see Gerard freeze as he tried to avoid looking her in the face.

  ‘Yes, I did see it, he’s nobody...just an acquaintance following up if we need any business.’ he answered.

  ‘What sort of business?’ she pressed.

  ‘Just some sort of group activity holidays.’ Gerard replied, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

  ‘That sounds good. We could do that, why don’t you contact him again?’

  Marianne could see his eyes jutting from side to side as he tried to think up an excuse. ‘No, no…he wanted a massive discount. Anyway enough about that, we’ve got enough business.’ he scoffed, trying to change the subject.

  Marianne could tell he didn’t want to talk about him, which in effect told her everything she needed to know. She wasn’t ready to tell Lucy about Gerard yet. She really wanted to confront him, but she was scared he would only fob her off with some fake explanation, and then sit watching her like a hawk, which would make her hunt for further evidence even harder.

  The 21st August was only two weeks away. She had to stop whatever was going to happen from happening. She would wait to hear how Lucy got on investigating the Austrian guest, Laurenz Felbiger, and whether she planned to travel to his house. What Marianne really needed to know though, was whether Lucy would be able to link Gerard’s name to anything in his house. All she could do was wait now, but deep down she had a sinking feeling Lucy would.

  Chapter 19

  Lucy and Brenda sat hidden away in a booth back at the hotel restaurant, both trying to come to terms with what Marianne had told them.

  ‘So we need to put all the findings together to start maki
ng our own case.’ Lucy directed, tucking into her boeuf bourguignon. Her appetite was thankfully now returning after they had triumphantly found a new link in the chain.

  Brenda reached into her bag for her pen and notepad. ‘Well,’ she started… ‘we have the two Hungarian men at Bernie’s.’

  ‘Yes, not only were they working at the fun fair when Rosie went missing, but their landlady said that they had friends in Arrineux.’ Lucy continued.

  ‘And Julie found that suspicious note addressed to them stating a time to meet at the fun fair by the gate.’ Brenda added.

  ‘That note was a bit strange as well, as these days’ most people would text…unless they did not want to be traced for some reason.’

  ‘And the note was signed by a ‘J’ ’ Brenda responded, writing everything down, whilst spooning in a mouthful of her risotto. As she wrote the letter J, she let her pen go back and forth over it a few times. ‘J…J…what could it stand for?’ she pondered.

  ‘I know!…..maybe it stands for Jozsef!’ Lucy exclaimed, nearly choking in her eagerness to get it out. ‘He has the same surname as Sandor Halasz so he could have been meeting him if he was related.’

  Brenda looked up, and paused. ‘Yes…yes you are right. Jozsef Halasz… it could very well stand for him couldn’t it? ….and we know he was in The Isle of Wight as the book we found with the receipt had his credit card details on. I’ll put him down beside it for now. Well done you!’

  Lucy topped up their wine as a reward.

  ‘I’ve just thought as well, if the note was from around two years, ago, the time stated to meet at the gate was 8pm. That was around the time Rosie went missing from Bernie’s.’ Lucy added.