The Psychopath: A True Story(45)

After Belle got pregnant, Gee told her not to come to the house he was doing up for them any more. He delightedly told her that he was building an extra room onto the bedroom as a nursery and therefore had got more workmen in. There was dust everywhere which wouldn’t be good for her or the baby. Belle didn’t see that as a problem but mostly stayed away until one day when she just popped down to see how it was all going. When there, she noticed some children’s shoes and clothing as well as some women’s items in the house. She pulled Gee up about it and asked what was going on. He told her that he had been clearing out the cupboards and found trash left behind and was just throwing it all away. He even showed her around the back of the house where there were lots of trash bags and berated her for not trusting him.

Then in September 2012 Belle had a miscarriage. Gee said it was her fault and that he blamed her, saying he was heartbroken. He appeared to become depressed, and they only saw each other once or twice a week. When they did see each other, Gee wanted emotional support. He asked Belle to let him nurse and suckle from her breasts, making the milk come in. She allowed it because it made him happy and would simply watch her shows and have a snack whilst he laid beside her with his head in her chest. Afterwards, he would be turned on and they would have sex. Gee said he had issues due to his mother’s abuse and one of the things he found so attractive about Belle was her maternal instinct. This went on for months until finally Gee seemed to be in a better place and wanted them to try again for a baby.

For a few weeks Gee seemed to be in better spirits. He was much more upbeat and seemed more interested in Belle again. He seemed to have finally forgiven her for the miscarriage. In April 2013, Gee arranged to meet Belle for lunch but then phoned to say he couldn’t make it. Could they meet for dinner instead? At dinner she waited for him but he didn’t show up. She called and texted but got no reply. Days went by. Belle was frantically worried that he had been in an accident or become ill.

Belle had no number or address for Gee’s father. She had never met any of his friends so had no one she could contact to ask where he was. She knew he worked at St Christopher’s Children’s Hospital but didn’t know in which department or who she could ask about it. Finally Belle went to the apartment but the code for the main entrance didn’t work. She wondered if he had left her and was just ghosting her. She hung around and waited for someone to come into the building, and seeing the key in her hand they let her through the main door. She went up to the apartment and found that the key didn’t work. Belle decided that he must have moved back to England – something he had threatened to do when depressed – either that or he might have gone off and committed suicide.

That is how it was left for Belle. Two years went by and she had no word, no reassurance that he was even alive, and no closure, until one evening when she was offered an extra shift at work. Getting changed after her shower, she sat down on the bed, sitting on the remote control. The channel changed and there on TV was NBC Dateline. She let it run as she continued to get dressed. The interviewees were talking about a man called William Allen Jordan, a bigamist and con man as well as a convicted paedophile. ‘That guy sounds like a jerk!’ she said out loud.

Whilst she was looking in the mirror putting on her make-up she spotted a photograph on TV in the reflection. Stunned, she turned around and stared at the television. The man looked like Gee, but it couldn’t be him as this man had a different name. Belle picked up her phone and took a snapshot of the screen and texted it to her friend, asking, ‘Does he look familiar?’

Immediately she got a reply. ‘Is he trying to contact you again?’

‘Oh my God, that really is him!’ Belle replied and told her friend about the NBC Dateline programme.

Belle watched the broadcast and then looked Mischele up on Facebook and sent her a message. She didn’t expect to get a response at all. To her surprise, Mischele wrote back immediately and they started a conversation.

After talking to Mischele, Belle talked to me as well. Belle was shocked to hear everything that had happened to Will Jordan’s previous victims as well as the women whose experience with Gee had overlapped hers, including Mischele who had started seeing him in January 2013. She now knows of at least two other women who were in a relationship with Gee at the same time as she was. Belle had once woken up hearing a woman screaming on the phone. Even though Gee was in the living room and Belle was in the bedroom, she could hear the woman screeching. When she came through and asked who was on the phone, the woman screamed some more and then Gee hung up. He explained that it was his sister and she was unhappy about something to do with their parents. Belle had not fully believed him at the time but didn’t have enough evidence to disbelieve him either. There was also a woman she had seen at the house Gee was doing up. When she had arrived to check on progress, a woman and child were inside with Gee. Belle called him and Gee came out saying that because of the money issues he couldn’t afford for them to live there until later and meantime was planning to rent it out. The woman was a potential tenant and he said, ‘Please don’t ruin the deal for me.’ Looking back, Belle thinks that the woman was probably living at the house with him.

Hindsight offers clarity. It was only when Belle was relating the full story to me that she realised that Will Jordan had probably drugged her that first night and most likely raped her. He comes across as a gentle man with such good manners and a pleasant demeanour that you simply would not expect it of him. He even made her feel guilty for passing out and she apologised for causing him any inconvenience. You do not expect someone to drug and rape you, then continue to behave in such a gentle manner, even continuing with the relationship. He wasn’t exhibiting behaviour that would be perceived as threatening. What is more, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, she realised it was possible that he had planned the whole thing. He probably knew his ‘favourite restaurant’ would be closed and might even have booked the hotel room in advance.