Chasing Ghosts Madalyn Morgan (free e books to read txt) 📖

what the old doctor had told her, Claire was unable to speak. She needed to digest what he had said, understand the implications. If what he’d told her was true, and she had no reason to think the old man was lying, the Swiss professor Lucien Puel who had been her husband’s psychiatrist was a German Nazi called Heinrich Beckman. She caught her breath. If Mitch had recognised him from the Gestapo prison at Saint-Gaudens it would have been reason enough for Beckman to write to his commander and concoct the story about him being a traitor, in order to discredit him.

The old man had been heartbreakingly honest with her, now it was Claire’s turn to be honest with him. ‘Doctor Puel, forgive me, but I have not been truthful. My name is not Therese Belland. That is the name I am travelling under.’

The old gentleman smiled. ‘It was your nom de guerre, your Resistance name, no?’

‘No, sir.’ Surprised that he’d guessed that she had been in the Resistance, she said, ‘My Resistance name was Claire LeBlanc, my code name China Blue. If I may, I would like to explain.’ Claire told Doctor Puel and his grandson, Matthieu, the little she knew about the treatment Mitch had received in Canada. She told them that the doctor, who she now knew was Heinrich Beckman, demanded complete secrecy. ‘He said under no circumstances should I question my husband about his treatment, so I didn’t.’ She told them about Mitch’s nightmares, how in his sleep he would call out for a woman who Claire suspected her husband was having an affair with. ‘His eyes would open and he would talk to her as if he could see her. Afterwards, he had no recollection of the dream or of what he had said. On the few occasions that he had talked about the hypnotherapy sessions he’d had with the doctor, he didn’t remember anything about them either.

‘I knew something was wrong when, not long before his treatment ended, Mitch, Alain, was kept in hospital overnight. He was put in an empty psychiatric ward with restraints on the beds and bars at the windows. When he woke he was confused, he didn’t know what he was saying. He called me by my undercover code name, China. Fortunately, Beckman wasn’t there and the nurse thought he was talking about the country.’

‘And is your husband still being treated by this man in Canada?’ Doctor Puel asked.

‘No, sir. The treatment finished and Alain was told he had been cured of shell shock. But he is now missing. At the airport, while my little girl and I were waiting for my husband to join us to fly back to England, an official told me that he had been informed by Canadian military intelligence that my husband had gone AWOL. He said we were to leave without him. That information led me again to think that Alain was having an affair with the woman he talked about in his sleep and he had stayed in Canada to be with her. But,’ Claire said, looking at the old man and then his grandson, ‘whether he was having an affair or not, I knew something sinister was going on. And I was right.

‘When I got back to England, to our home, Alain’s grandmother showed me a letter and a copy of my husband’s medical report. The originals were sent to Alain’s commander at the aerodrome and signed, of course, Professor Lucien Puel.’

How did you see a copy of such a report? Surely it would have been classified?’

‘It was classified. It had classified stamped all over it. But I assure you it was the real thing, as was “the private and confidential” letter written by “Beckman.” I now believe my husband missed the plane home because he returned to the hospital. I think he somehow got hold of his medical records, the report and the letter, copied them and posted them to his grandmother for safe keeping. If this professor is the doctor from the prison and Alain had recognised him, Alain would know he couldn’t stay in Canada, and because of the damning letter Beckman had written to his commander, he wouldn’t be able to come back to England, either. At least not without being court marshalled and sent back to Canada for trial.’

‘What?’ Doctor Puel and Doctor D’Aramitz exclaimed at the same time.

‘The medical report, which included transcripts of one-to-one sessions between Alain and Doctor Lucien Puel-- I’m so sorry…’ Claire’s cheeks flushed scarlet. She had called Heinrich Beckman by the name of the old man’s beloved grandson, again. He shook his head and lifted his hand as if to say, it’s all right, carry on. Claire took a breath and began again. ‘The medical report said pretty much what I expected it to say - that my husband had been suffering from severe shell shock, which had been getting progressively worse over the years. And that the treatment he had received at the Louis Bertrand hospital under the specialist care of--’ Claire shook her head and closed her eyes. She was loathed to say his name, “the professor” had been successful and in the professor’s opinion Captain Alain Mitchell was completely well and needed no further treatment.

‘But it was the supposed eminent psychiatrist’s accompanying letter that did the damage. He said, after talking to Captain Mitchell for many hours while the captain was under hypnosis, he believed the captain had worked for the Germans while detained in the prison at Saint-Gaudens.’

‘And he said Captain Mitchell was recruited by a French woman,’ Thomas added, ‘also in the prison, who was a double agent.’

‘It’s all falling into place,’ Claire said ‘From what Beckman wrote in the letter that Alain copied and sent to his grandmother, and from what you have told us, I’m convinced that Alain did recognise Heinrich Beckman from the prison. It’s the only explanation; the