The lady nodded. ‘I understand. I will see you later.’
Lucy turned back to Brenda and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Finally, she had a feeling she’d been given a lifeline, and prayed it was a valuable one.
After going for lunch, Lucy and Brenda drove back to the campsite. The lady at reception was waiting for them and called them through to her office.
‘Thank you so much for taking the time to see us again.’ Lucy acknowledged gratefully
‘That’s ok, I could see how much pain you were in, so I wanted to help. My husband just wants to put the past behind us, which is why he didn’t want me to talk to you.’ the lady divulged, pulling out some chairs for them to sit down.
‘Yes, he didn’t look too pleased to see us.’ Brenda remarked.
‘So I wanted to ask a bit more about the case of Anna Gerber. As I explained earlier, my little girl Rosie also went missing two years ago from a holiday camp in the UK. I have reason to believe that she may have been abducted to France, initially anyway.’
‘Ok…why is that?’ the lady asked
‘The police have hunted high and low in the UK and abroad, but after extensive research on child trafficking, I still feel she could have been taken to Europe. The Isle of Wight, where she was taken from, is close to France, so I think she could have been taken by boat here initially.’
‘And when we found out how a young Swiss girl went missing from this campsite, we thought they may have used this campsite again. Sorry to make that presumption, but it was six years ago, and they never got caught, so they may have thought it was a safe bet again.’ Brenda added
The lady nodded, acknowledging her understanding of why they had come. ‘Yes, you are right. Anna Gerber, as you have probably read, was on holiday here with her parents. She had been at the camp for five days before she went missing. She was such a pretty young thing, with her curly blonde locks, and only seven years old…it still breaks my heart to think of it.’
‘Sorry, I know this must be hard for you, but I need to know what exactly happened.’ Lucy said, reaching out across the desk to her.
‘It’s ok, I just find it hard that one moment she was creating a happy childhood memory, here at our campsite, then in the blink of an eye, a cruel line was callously drawn under each and every one of them. Life can be so incredibly unjust sometimes.’
‘I agree, life can be so cruel.’ Brenda acknowledged, shaking her head.
‘The police interviewed the whole camp but no one saw anything. She was last seen when she ran to the campsite toilets. The toilets were only a few yards from where her family were sitting, so they assumed that she would be ok.’ the lady continued.
‘Yes, I know that assumption all too well.’ Lucy interjected.
‘The police launched a full investigation as to whether a child trafficking gang had taken Anna, but even after widespread international media coverage, nothing was found. The problem with these gangs is they are very underground.’
‘Was there no evidence, such as cctv from the campsite?’ Brenda asked.
‘Nothing untoward. We checked all of the vehicles entering and leaving the campsite, and all of the number plates married up to the guests.’
‘So if everyone was a registered guest, did the police thoroughly check all of their backgrounds?’ Lucy questioned.
‘Well supposedly.’
‘But how could they smuggle her out without a car?’ Brenda queried.
‘My thoughts exactly…. it is strange. However, I did find something two years after it all happened, but my husband forbid me from talking to the police about it, as he didn’t want the business affected again….and he said the girl was undoubtedly dead anyway.’
‘What was it?’ Lucy asked, now intently listening to her every word.
The lady went to get a box from one of the cupboards. ‘I was sorting out the lost property box for charity, when I found a wallet. It didn’t have any money in it, but there was a piece of paper in it with a number plate on it. I wondered why someone would write their own number plate down, and then I considered the fact that only someone trying to identify a vehicle would write it down to locate it.’ she said, walking back over with the box and rummaging through it.
‘So what are you thinking?’ Lucy asked, looking at the brown leather wallet the lady was pulling out of the box.
‘Well I thought maybe someone had arranged to meet a car here for some purpose.’ the lady answered.
‘And you think that maybe Anna’s kidnappers knew one of the guests here?’ Brenda asked.
‘Yes…possibly, so I decided to look up the number plate on our record of visitors and it was registered to an Austrian family who had stayed here previously. We had their phone number, so I rang it to see if they had left a wallet. I spoke to a man but he couldn’t remember as it was so long ago, but he said he never used a wallet so it couldn’t have been his.’
‘So if it wasn’t his, then somebody else, other than the family, had a connection to that vehicle.’ Lucy concluded.
‘That is what I think, yes.’ the lady replied.
‘And the owner of that vehicle might have known the potential kidnappers.’ Brenda surmised.
‘Possibly.’ the lady agreed nodding.
‘This number plate could be fundamental.’ Lucy said, turning to Brenda.
‘It does look like it.’ Brenda agreed, worried as to where it was going to lead.
The lady looked at the number plate written on the piece of paper. ‘Yes I think it could be, and that is why it has been playing on my mind for the last few years, but my husband was so furious with me bringing it all up again, he refused to let me go to the police.’
Lucy glanced back over to the lost property box.
‘You certainly do get a lot left here don’t you?’
‘Yes we do…it is usually from around the pool area.’
As Lucy picked up various toys and jewellery, she spotted a small carrier bag from a shop she recognised.
‘What’s this?’ Lucy asked.
‘Oh that….I think it was someone’s shopping.’ the lady replied.
Lucy peered inside. ‘There is a new book inside…someone must have bought it for their holiday and left it behind. It’s strange it doesn’t look like it has been read at all. This shop is a chain based in the England. Do you have many visitors from the UK?’
‘Yes, we have a few but not many, they are mainly from France, Switzerland, Sweden and Austrian regions.’
Lucy reached into the bag further and pulled out a receipt. As she opened it up, she could feel the room close in on her.
‘What is it Lucy, are you ok?’ Brenda asked, concerned by the look on Lucy’s face.
Lucy couldn’t speak, she just stared at the receipt.
‘What is it Lucy, you’re scaring me?’ Brenda repeated.
Lucy summoned her strength to speak. ‘The…the date.’
‘Yes, what about it?’ Brenda questioned.
‘The date is 31st July 2013’ Lucy said slowly.
‘And…?’ Brenda queried.
‘….the day Rosie went missing.’
Brenda’s face dropped, as they both came to the realisation of what this meant.
‘My Rosie was here Brenda. Those evil, nasty, disgusting men were here with my Rosie. I just know it!’ Lucy cried, pushing her chair out from behind her in anger, before falling to the floor sobbing.
Both Brenda and the lady from reception put their arms around her and picked her up.
‘Sorry, we do not know your name.’ Brenda apologised to the lady, as they both helped Lucy back into her chair.
‘Sorry yes, I never introduced myself, it is Marianne.’
Brenda smiled. ‘Thank you for your help, this means so much to us.’
‘That is no problem, it is a weight off my mind to tell you this.’
Just as they were both comforting Lucy, the reception bell rang.
‘I am sorry, I just need to get that.’ M
arianne said, looking through the door to the front desk.
‘That’s ok…I think we need a few minutes before carrying on anyway…are we ok to sit here a while longer?’ Brenda asked.
‘Yes of course.’
Brenda could hear Marianne explaining about the evening entertainment to some guests, before returning to sit down with herself and Lucy.
‘Are you ok to carry on Lucy?’ Brenda asked.
Lucy nodded wearily. ‘Err…yes …that has just knocked me for a six a bit…seeing that date.’
Brenda picked up the receipt that had fallen onto the floor ‘The book was paid by a credit card…..we may be able to trace it?’
‘Yes… you are right, we will be able to.’ Marianne confirmed.
‘I think we really ought to go to the police with this now Lucy.’
Lucy shook her head. ‘No, we can’t yet Brenda…I will do, but I am frightened of them turning me away. In their eyes, all I have is two workers I suspect at Bernie’s, who happened to have written an odd note, who have friends in Arrineux, where Anna Gerber went missing from. Yes, we have found this receipt, but I still need to build a much bigger case than this first. Something that links them specifically to Rosie with hard evidence. It won’t sound much to the police at the moment, but I know in my gut that something isn’t right here.’
Brenda reluctantly nodded. ‘Ok. So we need to try and track the credit card?’
‘I know someone who may be able to help.’ Marianne jumped in. ‘A friend of mine is a lawyer. I am sure she can get access to these sort of details or knows someone who can. She may be able to check for me as a favour. I’ll make up an excuse…say I found an invoice that had been paid with it, but that I didn’t record who it was for. Wait here while I try and call her.’
Marianne took the receipt and returned to the office after ten minutes.
‘We are in luck…I have a name! It was registered to a Jozsef Halasz…at an address in Hungary.’
‘I knew it!’ Lucy claimed. ‘He has to be linked to the Hungarian men at Bernie’s. One of their names is Halasz….Sandor Halasz.’
‘You have some leads already?’ Marianne queried.
‘Yes, we suspect two Hungarian men who work at the holiday camp in the England, where my little girl was taken from. They have been behaving oddly, and our research has led us to believe that they could have transported Rosie to France and then maybe onto Hungary.’
‘Well we do get Hungarian tourists here, so it is a possibility they may have known someone here….but the number plate we found was registered to an Austrian family?’ Marianne reminded them.
‘Yes, but they could have links as it is just over the border?’ Lucy added.
‘So what shall we do now?’ Brenda asked.
Lucy paused, before noticing the tv monitors in the corner of the room. They were showing the outside reception area.
‘Marianne, do you think you could go through the cctv on the days around when both Anna and Rosie went missing, to see if there is any evidence of the same guest’s faces being around the campsite on both occasions?’ Lucy asked.
‘Yes ok, no problem.’
‘Thank you so much for your help. I think we should go back to the hotel now Brenda and think this all through. Is it ok to come back here tomorrow Marianne, to see how you got on with the cctv?’ Lucy asked.
‘It is best if you do not come back here again, in case my husband finds out I have helped you, but here is my mobile number. Contact me on here, and I will let you know what I find.’
‘Great thank you. Here is mine too, in case you think of anything else.’ Lucy said, handing her over a card.
As Marianne waved off a shaky Lucy and Brenda, she returned to the office. Her stomach was churning as the name Jozsef Halasz sounded familiar. Where had she heard it before?
She rummaged through the paperwork on the office desk where there were piles of notes that never got put in the rubbish.
‘There it is.’ she muttered. She knew she had seen that name before. It was on a pink post it she had written on a few months back. There in writing ‘Please call Jozsef Halasz’. A note she had left for her husband.
Chapter 18
Marianne sat painstakingly trawling through the hours of cctv footage requested, in the hope she would find something to help Lucy. She had waited until the rest of the staff had finished for the evening, before loading up the first cd. It was imperative she finished going through it before her husband came home, as she knew he’d be livid if he found out what was she was doing.
She first inserted the disc of the day Anna Gerber went missing and forwarded to the moment her parents had said she had gone missing. Anna’s bright blonde glossy locks could be seen as she merrily skipped off to the toilets. Marianne could see her giggling with a young boy, before they both disappeared out of sight of the cctv.
She searched the remaining footage from the other areas of the camp and couldn’t see Anna or anything out of the ordinary at all, but after flicking back through it, she noticed a guest’s campervan leaving the campsite in the afternoon. It was unusual as guests usually preferred to leave early on in the morning to make a start on their journey’s home. It was even more suspicious that they were leaving ten minutes after Anna Gerber had reportedly left to go to the toilets.
She tried to zoom in on the number plate, and although it was a little fuzzy, she could just make out the rough shapes. One letter looked like an X, then there was a 7 or it could have been a 1, then a 2, and then either the letter T or P. ‘Notepad, notepad.’ she muttered to herself, emptying out her desk drawer. ‘Urrghh where it is!’ She finally found it tucked in between two envelopes. She quickly turned to the page where she had written down the number plate that was in the wallet, and as she slowly compared each letter and number one by one, she felt a shiver run down her spine……it read X-7-2-0- T.
This campervan must have been instrumental in the abduction of Anna. It was seen leaving the campervan ten minutes after Anna Gerber went missing. That together with the unusual fact that the number plate was written down in a wallet. What Marianne didn’t understand though, is why hadn’t the police picked up on this…or had they, and it didn’t lead to anything.
She decided to scan through earlier on that week, in case she picked up on anyone looking at Anna or acting oddly.
She paused to smile briefly as she saw her husband, Gerard, helping the rowing boat attendants. It made a change seeing him look so happy and friendly, as he never seemed to show that side to Marianne anymore, or to anyone else for that matter. She didn’t know if it was his age that had changed him, or the stress he had encountered through the business suffering after Anna went missing. She watched as Gerard was approached by a man who appeared to be with a young boy. As Marianne looked more closely, she was sure it was the same boy that had been giggling with Anna outside of the toilets.
Gerard gave the impression that he wanted to end the conversation quickly, as he was half turned to walk away whilst talking, which was unlike him to be rude to a guest. It didn’t sit comfortably with her somehow. Maybe he knew this man from somewhere.
Her mind wandered back to the post it she had put on Gerard’s desk, and to why he had a message to call Jozsef Halasz. How did he know him? The thought of her husband being associated with this man made her shudder.
How and why would her husband need to talk to him? It could all be totally innocent…..but what if it wasn’t? She couldn’t just ignore it.
She was getting tired and upset thinking of how Gerard met this man. She desperately wanted to help Lucy, but by seeking the truth to help heal Lucy’s life, she was inadvertently opening up new wounds in hers that she never knew were there.
Yes, she realised her life with Gerard wasn’t perfect…he had changed, but didn’t all couples? She had loved this man for twenty-two years, but despairingly she was now starting to wonder if she even knew him at all.
Suddenly she heard someone banging on the fr
ont door which made her jump. Who was knocking at this time?…it was 1.35am. They must have seen the light on in the office, she thought.
Cagily she peered around the door to see who it was. She could only make out a dark silhouette.
‘Yes…who is it?’ she called out.
‘Sorry to disturb you. I saw your light on and wondered if you have any bottled water. We’ve run out and everywhere is shut now.’ a man’s voice replied.
Marianne walked out of the office, closing the door behind her, ‘Hang on, I’m coming.’
She opened the reception door and let the man in. ‘Yes I have some in the fridge over there. Take a couple of bottles.’
‘Oh thank you so much…my wife’s got a terrible headache, so she needs it to take her pills with.’
‘That’s ok…is that everything?’ Marianne asked, keen to get on with looking through the cctv footage.
‘Yes that’s all, thanks again….can I pay you tomorrow?’
‘Don’t worry, you can have them.’ Marianne smiled, guiding the man back through the door.
Relieved to be on her own again, she shut the office door behind her this time, ensuring no passers by saw the light on. She checked the time and was alarmed to see how late it was. She still had the footage to go through from when Rosie could have been there, so she quickly inserted the relevant disc and again started to forward through it, to the day after Rosie went missing from the UK.
She took a sip of her strong black coffee, fighting to stay awake after her six hour vigil. Her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, but she had to finish it before Gerard got back.
She stared at the screen and at 5.13pm on the day after Rosie went missing, she saw a dark blue transit van pull up outside the campsite.
A few minutes later, a hooded man came scurrying up to it. He looked around nervously, before chatting to the driver for a few seconds and walking back into the campsite quickly. Marianne rewound the footage to zoom in on the driver. He looked familiar. She racked her brains until it finally came to her. It was the same man that Gerard was talking to at the boating lake….the man that had been with the boy that was giggling with Anna Gerber.
The Truth Healer: A Riveting Spiritual Psychic Thriller Page 17
