The Truth Healer: A Riveting Spiritual Psychic Thriller Page 19

  ‘That’s right!….then there was the car number plate found in the lost property from when Anna Gerber was at the campsite.’ Brenda continued.

  ‘And this was linked to the Austrian family…but they did not recall the wallet.’

  ‘But this could then mean that the kidnappers knew the Austrian owner of the campervan and had arranged to use it for the abduction…..hence that is why they had the number plate written down so they could find it in the park.’ Brenda elaborated, scribbling away frantically.

  ‘So….. I think we need to wait and see if Marianne finds out anything more from the cctv. I’ll ring her when I get home to give her a chance to look at it.’ Lucy concluded.

  ‘Yes, she can see if there were any suspicious people coming in and out of the Beaux Arbres campsite around the times the girls went missing. And we mustn’t forget that we have discovered that there are black spots within the cctv footage at Bernie’s, and that Marton had access to the monitors, through Lindsey.’ Brenda added.

  ‘That’s right…and we now strongly believe the clown was involved as Andras Fejes, who was temping as the clown when Rosie was there, left Bernie’s around the time Rosie was abducted….and Rosie loved clowns so she may have approached him.’

  ‘Yes, it does look that way doesn’t it.’

  ‘Great, well at least we are making some progress. Come along let’s finish up here and get some fresh air.’ Lucy proposed, signing the bill, and shuffling out of the booth.

  The following day Lucy and Brenda headed home. The journey back was a long tiring one, as they were both exhausted physically and mentally from thinking about what had happened to Rosie. When they arrived back at Southampton airport, they both walked to the car park together.

  ‘Well drive carefully home Brenda, thank you ever so much again, I really couldn’t have done it without you…you really are my partner in crime, quite literally!’

  Brenda smiled. ‘That’s ok sweetheart, I just desperately want to find out what happened to Rosie now, for everyone’s sake. I do think you should go to the police soon though Lucy.’

  ‘I promise I will do. I just want to find out a few more details first, and most importantly, I need to tell Tom first.’

  ‘How do you think he will take it?’

  ‘Not good at first, but he should come round once I reveal the evidence we have found.’

  ‘Well, I will keep my fingers crossed for you…drive carefully too…text me when you are home.’

  ‘Yes will do…you too, and I will ring you as soon as I hear from Marianne.’

  Lucy couldn’t wait to get home and throw her arms around Tom and Sam. Just the sight of the living room light on as she drew up outside the house, made her feel safe and loved. As she put her key in the front door, she could hear Brandy bounding towards it, ready to greet her with a big lick.

  ‘Hello, I’m back.’ she called through, as Brandy jumped on her lap, nearly knocking her over.

  ‘Hello boy, yes I love you too.’ she said laughing, grabbing his ears. ‘Now where’s my gorgeous other two boys?’

  Tom wandered through from the kitchen. ‘Hello darling, how was the spa?’ he asked, pulling her towards him for a kiss.

  ‘Yes great, just what I needed, but it is lovely to be back with my family, I missed you all. Silly isn’t it…I was only away a few days.’

  ‘At least you are back now….I’ll put the kettle on.’ Tom offered, walking back into the kitchen.

  ‘Sam ……where are you?’

  ‘In here…sorry mum I’m just watching Dr Who…..did you have a good time?’ he asked, pausing it.

  ‘Yes, missed you though.’ she replied, sinking down next to him for a cuddle.

  ‘Ok mum, that’s enough slush.’ Sam joked, pulling away smiling.

  ‘Oi you….I need my cuddles from my favourite boy.’

  Sam pulled a face but leant over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

  Later that night Lucy lay hugging Tom in bed watching tv. She felt so safe with him. She knew she would have to tell him soon. She decided she would do it tomorrow, as soon as she had spoken to Marianne again.

  *****

  The next morning, Lucy waited until Tom and Sam had left for football before nervously dialling Marianne’s telephone number. It seemed to ring for ages before Marianne’s familiar voice answered.

  ‘Bonjour.’

  ‘Marianne, it’s Lucy.’

  ‘Un instant, s’il vous plait.’

  Lucy didn’t know if she was talking to her or somebody else ….‘Hello Marianne?’

  ‘Yes sorry Lucy.’ Marianne whispered …‘I can not talk right now as I have some guests with me, I will ring you back in fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Oh ok then, thank you.’

  Lucy put the phone down disappointed, and hoped that she would ring back. Maybe her husband was really there and she decided it was too bigger risk to make contact again.

  Lucy sat nervously, staring at the phone. It seemed like she had been waiting for ages. It had been eighteen minutes since she rang and there was no call back. Just as she was starting to doubt Marianne’s ongoing support, the phone suddenly started ringing, so she raced to pick it up.

  ‘Hello, hello Marianne?’

  ‘Yes sorry Lucy, I can speak now.’

  ‘Oh great, I was worried you were not going to ring back.’

  ‘Yes of course I would have. I have actually found out a few more crucial details.’

  ‘Yes?’ Lucy inquired, praying it was good.

  ‘I had a hunt for the cctv from six years ago. We usually only keep the last three years, but as it was under police investigation, we had to keep it from when Anna was here. On this disc, the Austrian’s campervan didn’t leave the campsite at all during their stay, until their departure day.

  On the day Anna went missing, she was last clocked at 3.53pm talking to a young boy outside the site toilets. When I then checked the date and time the Austrian family campervan left the site it was at 4.04pm on the day Anna went missing. It was the official day they were registered to leave, but it is coincidental that they left not long after Anna went missing. This would also mean that when the police arrived and did searches of all of the campervans on site, they would have left already.’

  ‘Surely the police would have checked them out anyway.’ Lucy queried.

  ‘They may well have done.’ Marianne agreed, but she now knew full well that the police would have been missing a vital sequence of events.

  ‘So how about when Rosie might have been there?’

  ‘Well, I looked to see if the same Austrian guest, who was a Laurenz Felbiger, was registered here around the days after Rosie went missing from the UK, and he wasn’t. However, when I checked the guests’s number plates that had been registered here over this period, that same number plate was booked here again! I couldn’t believe it Lucy. To think that there is the possibility that the same people have carried out an abduction twice at my campsite sickens me.’

  ‘Marianne!… this is major!’

  ‘And that isn’t all….when I checked the name of the guest that was registered to that number plate the second time, it was a Raphael Janosi, whose address just so happens to be the same as Laurenz Felbiger’s!’

  ‘Really!….well at least we have one key address to visit…do you have it?’ Lucy asked, looking around anxiously for a pen and something to scribble on.

  ‘Err…yes, hang on a minute….yes here it is. Text me your e-mail address and I’ll send it to you.’

  ‘Great thanks. Did anything else show up?’

  ‘Yes it did as it happens…..at 5.13pm on the day after Rosie went missing from the UK, a dark blue transit van pulled up outside the campsite. At 5.21pm a man scurried out from the campsite and walked towards the van. He leaned in and chatted to the driver for two minutes, and then walked back into the campsite. Then at 7.32pm the same man is seen back at the blue transit van, asking them to follow him inside the campsite. The blue trans
it van then disappears from the view of the camera. I scanned the other areas of the campsite after this time, and I couldn’t see the van, but when I looked more closely I could see, what looked like, the dark blue front bonnet of a van parked outside a beige campervan. When I checked the colour of the campervan with the number plate in question, it was beige. Unfortunately, I could not see the number plate of the dark blue transit van to be able to look it up.’

  Lucy tried to process all of the information Marianne had found. ‘This is amazing Marianne…. you have found out so much from the cctv….how did you to do it without your husband seeing?’

  ‘I actually stayed up all night after you phoned as I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it when he was here.’

  ‘I can’t thank you enough…this will really help build my case for the police now.’

  ‘I suppose that will mean they will be all over us again.’ Marianne responded fearfully.

  ‘Yes it might do Marianne, I am so sorry. I do not want this to affect your business again, but I have no other choice.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I understand it needs to be done, and I have been harbouring a lot of guilt from withholding this information anyway, so it will at least free me from this, whatever the consequences.’

  ‘I will ring you soon to let you know what is happing.’

  ‘Ok, and good luck Lucy, I hope it works out.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  As Lucy put the phone down, she slowly sat down at the dining table with her head in the hands. It was all starting to get too much to handle alone. She had to tell Tom now.

  She decided to cook him his favourite meal and dessert, and asked her close friend Emma if she would have Sam for the evening. Sam was really good friends with her boy, so he would jump at the chance to spend the evening playing games. Emma could take him home straight from football.

  Lucy knew she needed to thoroughly prepare the evidence, as if she didn’t, she would blurt it out to Tom, and it would make no sense at all in her panic. She decided a flip chart maybe a bit over the top, so she carefully drew a chart on several pieces of A4 paper. She’d already rang Tom to tell him she was arranging a surprise for him and to be back by 5pm.

  Just as she was putting the homemade lasagna in the oven, she heard the door bang shut.

  ‘Hi darling, I’m home.’ he called out, throwing his coat on the banister.

  ‘Oh good, you are back, I’m in the kitchen.’ Lucy replied, checking in the oven.

  ‘Mmmm something smells nice.’ he remarked, putting his arms around her.

  ‘I’m making your favourite lasagna, followed by homemade apple crumble with cinnamon.’

  ‘Fabulous, and to what do I owe this pleasure.’

  ‘For being such a wonderful supportive husband.’

  Tom grinned ‘Well I’m not sure about that, but I try.’

  ‘Now come on sit down and have a glass of wine.’

  Lucy knocked back her first glass within five minutes, as she felt her anxiety levels starting to rise. She was practising over and over in her mind how she was going to start.

  ‘Are you ok?…you’re putting those away a bit sharpish tonight aren’t you?’ Tom asked, watching her pour herself a second glass.

  ‘Oh yes sorry…must be after all that healthy drinking at the spa!’

  She served up the main course, and decided she would wait and tell him just before the dessert, so the apple crumble could soften the blow. As she cleared the plates away, Tom made his way into the lounge.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Lucy asked, alarmed that she was losing her moment to tell him.

  ‘I thought we could relax a bit and watch a bit of telly. Let the main course go down first.’

  ‘Oh ok.’

  ‘Are you sure you are ok Luce, you seem a bit on edge?’

  ‘Yes I’m ok, don’t worry I’ll come and join you.’

  Lucy thought it might actually be better to let him know sitting down in comfort, so she followed him through with the paperwork under her arm.

  ‘What’s that you’ve got there?’ Tom inquired, peering at the colourful A4 sheets of paper clenched under her armpit.

  ‘Oh, just something I’ve been working on.’ she replied dismissively.

  ‘What’s that then?’

  ‘Well….it’s…..’ Lucy was finding it hard to even formulate her opening line.

  ‘Oh great Top Gear is on…I missed this one’ Tom said turning his attention away from Lucy.

  ‘Tom, I really need to tell you something.’

  ‘Can’t it wait?’ he asked, now engrossed in the latest Porsche trek across Albania.

  ‘Well no, that is kind of why I arranged for us to be on our own tonight….can’t you record this?’ Lucy asked, now exasperated by her ever growing task.

  ‘Oh ok, hang on, there that’s recorded, ok I’m all yours.’ he said, turning towards her, his eyes now penetrating her terrified eyes.

  ‘Well…..I don’t know where to start really.’ she declared, nervously grabbing a cushion to hold on her lap.

  ‘Luce just tell me.’ Tom responded impatiently.

  ‘Well, you remember at Cornwall I came over all weird at The Eden Project?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It started me thinking about Rosie again and what if she is still alive out there. The police seem to have given up, and I just can’t rest not knowing.’

  ‘I know it is hard Lucy, but we have all had to try and move on with our lives. I really don’t like thinking the worse but I have had to come to terms with the fact that Rosie might never return, and I know you hate me saying it, but that there is the probability that she is……….’

  ‘Don’t say it Tom!…….you know I can’t bear you saying that.’ Lucy snapped, getting increasingly upset.

  ‘Ok, I’m sorry but it really isn’t good for you to be going around in circles.’

  ‘Well I am not now.’ she stated defiantly.

  ‘What do you mean you are not now?’

  ‘I’ve started to do more research of my own.’

  ‘What sort of research?’ Tom questioned.

  ‘Research that the police might have missed…..you see I kept getting continued strange signs that were propelling me look into Rosie’s kidnapping myself….so…I rang Brenda…you know, from Bernie’s?’

  Lucy watched as Tom’s laid back sofa sloth demeanour, changed into one of rigidity and astonishment, whilst his usual nurturing hazel eyes were slowly turning into thunderous pools of anger. She grasped her cushion tighter, nervously biting her lip before timidly continuing,

  ‘I just had to go back to Bernie’s Tom, to see if there were any clues that the police didn’t pick up on, so I made out to you I was going to see my friend, but instead I went to see Brenda. I am so sorry I lied but I knew you wouldn’t let me go if I told you.’ she exclaimed, cowering as she waited for his response.

  ‘I…I’m just lost for words. How could you have gone off on your own without telling me?! This is insane, don’t you think the police would have searched that campsite top to bottom?’

  ‘Yes, you would think so, but Brenda and I’s research say’s otherwise.’

  ‘What do you mean ‘Brenda and I’s’ research?’ he challenged, with contempt.

  ‘Well, she has sort of become my right hand woman. She has been amazing and has found out so much information for me.’ she responded, defending her.

  ‘Oh, so you and ‘Brenda’ have been off playing detectives behind my back, and she knows more about Rosie’s case than your bloody husband does she?!’ he yelled, getting up from the sofa and walking around the lounge shaking his head.

  ‘Please don’t shout Tom, this has been hell for me too, I just needed to know that every angle had been covered.’

  ‘So come on then, what did you find out on your so called ‘investigational trip’?’

  ‘Don’t ridicule me Tom……Two Hungarian men have become very significant actually.’ Lucy announced, desperate for hi
m to engage with her.

  ‘Oh that’s right…the two foreigners are the main suspects…that is really clever and original!’ he replied flippantly.

  ‘Tom don’t be like that, I have looked into it further… please give me some credit, I’m not completely stupid!’ Lucy retorted, now starting to get angry herself.

  ‘So tell me….why are they so significant?’

  ‘They both worked at Bernie’s when Rosie was there. Another worker had heard them talking suspiciously about how ‘it is easy to do here and you get good money.’

  ‘That could mean anything?’ Tom scoffed dismissively.

  ‘Yes, but also Brenda’s friend is their landlord, and she found a note setting up a meeting at Bernie’s gate at a certain time…which would have been around the time Rosie went missing.’

  Tom paused. ‘That could have been for ….drugs or something.’

  ‘Yes it could, but further research we have found, says not.’

  ‘So what else have you ‘found’ then?’

  ‘We found out they have friends in Arrineux, France, and I discovered an article where there was a possible case of child trafficking there. A little girl went missing there six years ago. I am telling you Tom, there is a definite link there.’

  ‘So is that it?’ Tom asked patronizingly, trying to put an end to it.

  Lucy looked down and fiddled with the beading on the cushion and muttered ‘Errm no…. I went to France with Brenda.’

  ‘You what!’ Tom blurted out, now leaning over the fireplace in despair. ‘You went to France to search for some potential child traffickers or murderers!’

  He turned to walk back over to Lucy waving his finger at her. ‘Right, that’s it, I’ve had enough of this. Didn’t you think of your poor son Sam, potentially causing him to lose his mother, as well as his sister, if something had happened to you. I can’t believe you would be so stupid. I want you to leave this now. We can go to the police, but I forbid you from looking into this further yourself, do you hear me!?’

  Lucy looked up at Tom in shock at his outburst. ‘No, I will not leave this!…I can’t believe you can so easily forget about looking for Rosie. I will never leave it until the day I die!’ Lucy shouted, grabbing her bag and running out of the house crying.