A Body in the Lakes by Graham Smith (great books of all time .TXT) 📕

Tor Browser cloaks its users’s searches, so it was the default browser people used to search the Dark Web, which is where the Internet is at its worst. Things like terrorism cells, hitmen for hire, and all the worst kinds of pornography can be found there among a multitude of other illegal and immoral things.

Beth couldn’t help but pull a face. ‘If the person who put that porn on the mayor’s computer used Tor to cloak his movements, it’ll be incredibly hard to trace them.’

O’Dowd pulled much the same distasteful grimace as Beth. ‘That’s pretty much the impression I got from Forensics.’

‘So what is it you want me to do, ma’am?’

‘Go see the mayor, find out the names of everyone he figures may hold a grudge against him. Then speak to his mayoral staff and one or two of his opponents, see who they point the finger at. Be discreet with them and hint that some unfounded and scurrilous allegations have been made without telling them the full truth.’ O’Dowd raised a hand again to forestall any objection Beth wanted to make. ‘It’s come down from on high that we’re to look into who put those images on the mayor’s computer, so whatever you’ve got to say about the subject is going to be a waste of breath.’

‘Ma’am.’ Beth could hear the resignation in her tone but she didn’t care. O’Dowd had given her this task as a punishment and if she didn’t complain a little then the DI may find a further way to make her life miserable.

‘When you’ve done that, I want you to go and see Dr Hewson to get his take on the post-mortems of the first three victims. He only performed one but I want his opinions on the other two as well.’

Beth grabbed the post-mortem files and tucked them under her arm. She might have got the stick from O’Dowd with regards to having to go and play nice with the mayor, but she’d also been given the carrot of speaking to the twinkle-eyed pathologist.

Dr Hewson was a ball of contradictions and his mind was sharper than any scalpel he’d ever lifted. She enjoyed the verbal jousts he initiated and she’d never left his company without learning something.

Beth had a suspicion that she needed to share. ‘I’ve been thinking, and you’re not going to like what I’ve come up with.’

‘I don’t like the sound of this.’ O’Dowd ran a hand though her unruly hair. ‘Is this your sideways-thinking brain again?’

‘If you want to call it that you can. I’ve been thinking about the timeline and how someone is obviously framing the mayor. That letter that came, it was sent before Felicia Evans was killed, then when she’s found there’s evidence left at the deposition site that points the finger of suspicion at the mayor. We know the letter sat on the chief constable’s desk for ten days before being opened. We also know that Felicia Evans was raped with a sex toy or some such thing rather than actually being penetrated by a man. What if, and this is something of a stretch, the person who sent the letter was the same person who planted the images on the mayor’s computer? Did Digital Forensics say when the images were planted?’

‘A fortnight past yesterday.’

Beth twiddled a pen between her fingers as she connected the timings. ‘That’s the day before the letter was posted. Now that we’ve established that timeline, let’s move forward a few days. The mayor’s accuser is waiting, watching the news and reading the papers. Because the letter hasn’t been opened, nothing happens. The mayor isn’t arrested. He doesn’t get done for the images on his computer. So he escalates. Somehow he steals the mayor’s credit card. This would be a minor inconvenience until it turns up near Felicia Evans’s body.’

‘Jesus, Beth. Are you about to suggest that Felicia Evans was killed just to frame the mayor?’

‘I am. Think about it. She wasn’t raped the same way as the other victims, and while someone in the police should have connected the three previous murders, there’s nothing to stop a member of the public hearing about the murders and rapes and using them as background to implicate the mayor. I’m also thinking about the choice of victim. Felicia Evans was dying of cancer. Perhaps the person who killed her and used her deposition site as a place to frame the mayor, chose her because they knew she was dying.’

‘What? You mean he was trying to lessen the impact of what he’d done?’

‘I think so, ma’am. I think that he may have convinced himself that he was euthanising her rather than killing her. I spoke to her doctor; she only had a few weeks left. In terms of what he did, she was the perfect victim.’

‘Dammit, Beth. Why does that brain of yours keep coming up with ideas like this? Why can’t you dream up a scenario where kittens and Easter bunnies look cute?’ O’Dowd used one hand to scrub hair from her eyes. ‘I think you’re wrong about that and Felicia was murdered to satisfy his killing lust, and the framing of the mayor is a sideline. Four women killed and sexually violated can’t be a coincidence, so it stands to reason that is the killer’s prime objective. However, as Felicia is the most recent victim, she’s our best lead. Before you see the mayor and Dr Hewson, I want you to find out everything you can about Felicia Evans. Who her friends and family were. Who knew she was ill and anything else you can think of.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’ Beth got out of her seat and made for the door.

As she opened the door of the office she was met with a man wearing the smartest inspector’s uniform she’d ever seen.

She knew who he was by reputation before he even spoke. Martin ‘Mannequin’ Moore was the face of the Professional Standards Department and the scourge of many a good copper.

Beth had no issue with