The Psychopath: A True Story(44)
In the bar, Belle had a couple of glasses of wine. There was no food so the wine made her feel a bit woozy. The next thing she was aware of was waking up in a hotel room naked beside Gee. She was disorientated and confused but he told her that she’d passed out, having got drunk in the bar, and so he had felt it was not prudent to take her home, but had instead got a hotel room for them both. She felt deeply embarrassed that she had got so drunk so quickly, but then she’d not had anything to eat so it was certainly understandable. The one thing that was clear was that Gee was still being a gentleman and showing concern for her well-being. Belle apologised for getting so inebriated.
He drove her home before morning so that she would be back before her children woke up.
Three days later they met up again. He brought her flowers and they went out for a nice meal together. They met again about two to three days every week after that. He seemed to have a lot of money and bought her presents, taking her out and looking after her. She met up with him at the children’s hospital where he worked, St Christopher’s. He met her in his scrubs with the hospital logo on them and seemed perfectly at ease in his workplace. Often she would see him with large amounts of cash, thousands of dollars in a book bag. She queried why he had so much cash and he told her that it was a hangover from living in England where people were less trusting of banks. He said he was changing bank accounts and so had taken his salary out in cash to put into another bank. Belle was pretty worldly-wise and told him that was nonsense, but he just said he was saving up and had a surprise for her but that she would have to wait to find out what.
On their third date, Gee said that he was exhausted so could they just get a pizza and go back to his apartment and watch a movie instead. That was the first time she saw where he lived – an apartment just off the Kings Highway in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. It was a pleasant enough one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom. There was space for a desk and Belle noticed the medical patient files on his desk – Gee said that he needed the office space when he worked at home. She also saw bills and credit cards in the name of Guillaume Jones-Jordan on his desk. After some time, Gee gave her a key to the apartment and the code to the main entrance and they stayed there together about four nights a week. Because of her previous experience with her husband, Belle decided not to introduce him to her children, at least not yet, and so she was always home before morning.
When their relationship turned intimate Belle saw the burn scars around his groin. They were visible and quite noticeable. Gee said that the scars put some women off and that he was embarrassed by them. She reassured him that she didn’t find them a problem.
One day Gee told her that he had a confession about the money. He had been saving up to buy a house and do it up for him and her and her children to be together. He wanted them to live in a decent area so the kids could go to a good school and would be picked up each morning by the school bus that went past.
He took her to see the house. It was beautiful. He had the key already and took her inside to view the unfinished ‘work in progress’. His tools were in the kitchen and he had clearly been working on doing the place up. He lit a fire and they made a makeshift bed and stayed there all night making plans for their future. Gee told her he wanted them to have a child together and when Belle commented that she needed to go out to get more birth control he begged her not to.
Then things started to change. Gee’s mother went into hospital and he fell on hard times trying to support his parents and her medical bills. Belle never met his father but spoke to him on the phone a few times and Gee referred to her as his father’s ‘future daughter-in-law’. Gee’s father called him one day and Belle could tell from the phone call that he was asking Gee for money again. His father didn’t have enough to pay for his mother’s medication and Gee said he had no more to give. Belle offered to help out financially – she told Gee to tell his father that they would sort it and proceeded to give Gee $50 to $100 at a time. After all, she was seeing this relationship as a long-term thing and so was contributing to the family that she was becoming part of. Plus Gee would soon be getting a much better salary once he had completed his 200 hours working in an American hospital and got his licence to practise surgery there.
Sometimes Gee had to go on trips, medical conferences and the like, usually only for a few days here and there. Once he went back to England and said that he wanted to take Belle with him but knew she would not be able to leave the kids for that long.
One time, Belle remembers they were stopped by the police. Belle was stunned at how smooth Gee was with them, very calm and professional. Gee explained that he was driving his father’s car and so didn’t have the papers. He made a show of looking for his driving licence but couldn’t find it. The policeman simply let him off with no warning or citation. Belle asked him how he knew the way to talk to the police so confidently and he explained that he had had some dealings with the police force in a professional capacity in England and knew what to say because of that.
In July 2012 Belle got sick one evening while having dinner at his apartment. Gee excitedly suggested that she might be pregnant. Belle didn’t think this was possible and replied, ‘Slim chance!’ He insisted that he run across the road for a pregnancy test. It was positive. Gee was very excited and Belle was stunned.
Gee phoned his father to tell him and then passed the phone to Belle. His father congratulated her and said, ‘Our first grandchild! This is going to help Gee’s mum so much; it’s going to give her something to look forward to and fight for.’ Gee and his father’s excitement started to rub off on Belle and she started to be excited as well. Gee wanted to finally meet her other children and Belle said she would consider it, but not yet. Her past relationship was holding her back from exposing her children to another man until everything was completely secure.