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

One of the four had once been arrested for drink driving but they’d only been a fraction over the limit and, as the laws were more lenient in the eighties, had only lost their licence for six months.

None of the others had so much as a parking ticket against their name, but that wasn’t unexpected. A high proportion of criminal offences were committed by a small portion of the community. Therefore, beyond the odd driving offence, the majority of people had no police record.

Their names suggested that rather than pimply youths, Forster’s team had been made up of responsible adults. What surprised Beth as much as anything was that there were two women on the team of four, plus Donna Waddington who’d left to found EdenData.

She knew it was wrong of her to assume that the programmers would all be male. There was no reason whatsoever why there shouldn’t be females working in that industry. It was just that any time she’d encountered anyone who knew a lot about computers, especially in the Cumbria police force, they’d been male.

When Beth took a look at EdenData’s website she found a slick and professional-looking business which offered reservations systems, EPOS software, front-office management software and a whole host of other services that meant little to her.

An online demo that she watched showed what she assumed to be their reservation system. It linked to the EPOS – electronic point of sale – software which ran bar and restaurant tills. Event management software could be added, as could a channel manager to integrate with online travel agents. The demo even showed a series of reports before concluding with a sales slogan.

Beth’s next move was to check out EdenData through Companies House. The business was showing year-on-year growth of 40 per cent most recently, and it had been between 30 and 50 per cent for the last six years.

To Beth this showed a steady hand on the business’s tiller. Donna Waddington’s company had grown at a more or less steady rate for years. That spoke of diligence and good management. People who had these qualities rarely laid traps for people out of spite. This felt like a woman who had enough brains to know which battles to choose and how to conduct them. She would go and speak to Donna Waddington at some point, but Beth knew before she made a note of the business address that it would almost certainly be a waste of time unless Donna Waddington was somehow in cahoots with the Lakeland Ripper.

With as much information as she could gather on the people the mayor had employed at SimpleBooker, Beth turned her attention to the mysterious ‘Lorraine’. She began her investigation by calling Forster and asking if there was a guest list for the party where he and Lorraine had met and the details of the person who’d thrown the party.

By the time the call had ended, she had the name of the photographer who’d been hired to take a few publicity shots and the mayor’s reassurance that he’d visit the photographer and get a reprint of any pictures which Lorraine featured in.

It might take a bit of exhaustive legwork, but the challenge of something like tracking down Lorraine was one of the things Beth loved most about police work. As much as the desire to deliver justice drove her on, Beth loved nothing more than a good puzzle she could test her brain with. Not so much Sudoku or crosswords; she liked logic problems and riddles. The less sense a puzzle initially made to her, the more she was compelled to try and solve it.

She had one more call to make before she left to visit the offices of Forster’s old company.

It was clear the officer she spoke to remembered the case well, as Beth could hear her struggle to manage her emotions as she answered Beth’s questions.

When Beth thanked the officer and put down the phone, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the desk until she was sure that no tears would escape.

The rape victim had been walking her dog through a wood on the outskirts of Keswick when she was grabbed from behind. A hood had been placed over her head and she’d felt a knifepoint press against her ribs.

She’d done as her abductor had instructed and had walked deeper into the woods. A hand had been placed at the side of her head and her head thrust into what she guessed was a tree.

The woman had been dazed and had drifted between unconsciousness and agonised moments of semi-lucidity until she came fully to. She’d been left where the man had raped her. Her clothes ripped and cut off, blood leaking from her vagina. The final insult was her little terrier lying by her feet, the lead tethering it to a tree not quite long enough to allow the dog to give her comfort as she lay there.

In a lot of ways, Beth wanted this to be the Lakeland Ripper’s work, but the examination carried out by the police doctor had found severe internal tearing that went far deeper than they believed the Lakeland Ripper was capable of.

The Lakeland Ripper not being responsible for this rape was a bad thing for two reasons. Because it meant there was another rapist out there. And because there was still no evidence the Lakeland Ripper was letting any of his victims get away alive.

With this idea now disproven, Beth grabbed her jacket and made for the door. The warm sun that was streaming down would mean the jacket would get cast aside soon, but its pockets held her keys, handcuffs and myriad other bits and pieces that she would normally keep in a handbag.

It was important to her that she presented the right image when dealing with the public. She knew that many members of the public she met thought that she was too young to be a