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

The picture on the wall gave the outward appearance of them all being one happy family, but she knew that any one of them could be putting up a façade of togetherness while plotting to bring Forster down.

The one thing she was sure of, was that the four people in the room were all more than capable of hacking into the mayor’s computer and leaving the incriminating pictures that Digital Forensics had found.

Beth gave a gentle smile to the woman with the soft voice and watched as her eyes locked onto the scar. Women tended to react in a different way to men. They’d see the scar and horror would fill their eyes as they imagined what it must be like to carry such a wound; they’d think of their own looks and how they’d hate to lose them in the way Beth had.

Men, on the other hand, would often see it and try to act as if they hadn’t. Their eye contact would be too forced or they’d revert to type and avoid looking at her face at all.

‘I’m Inga and they’re George, Pete and that’s Claire in the far corner.’ Inga’s hand pointed out each of the others as she spoke.

George and Pete looked round and nodded a hello, but Claire remained focussed on her screens.

‘Thanks.’ Beth looked around the room. There were two doors in one wall and she hoped that one of them would be a second office where she could talk to each of the four in turn. ‘Is there somewhere we can talk in private?’

Inga’s face creased in apology. ‘Sorry, those doors you were looking at lead to the bathroom and the kitchen. We could use the kitchen I suppose.’

‘The kitchen will be fine.’

Beth would have used a broom cupboard if necessary. The last thing she wanted to do was conduct interviews in a place where the next people she would speak to could overhear everything that was said. She didn’t want to give any of them too much time to prepare their answers, and she wanted them all to feel they could speak privately without the others knowing what they were saying.

The kitchen was big enough for them both to fit in and leave a two-foot gap between them if they pressed their backs against the worktops. Like most office kitchens it had a microwave, fridge, kettle and toaster. A collection of blue mugs sat upside down on the small draining board.

Inga gave Beth another of her soft smiles. ‘Before you start asking me your questions, I’d just like to say that I have no idea who’d want to harm Derek in any way. He’s a good man who does a lot for charity and he’s the only politician I’ve ever known who actually does what he says he will.’

‘I’ve met him. He seems like a lovely man to me. So genuine.’ The lie nearly choked Beth, but she wasn’t averse to white lies if they uncovered black truths. ‘You say that you have no idea who’d try and ruin his reputation. I take it that you’ve discussed this as a group?’

Beth listened to the answers Inga gave to her questions and rephrased them to see if she could catch the older woman from a different angle. Nothing she tried got a different perspective, let alone story, from Inga. Despite the woman having obvious intelligence, Inga seemed too nice, twee almost, to Beth to have an understanding of the darker side of people’s nature. Inga’s intellect and class shielded her in a way that bred naivety.

When she’d finished with Inga she talked with both the men. Neither gave her any great clues as to who might be behind the defamation, but something Pete said about Claire pricked her attention. It wasn’t an accusation of any kind, but there was enough in his scoffed comment to suggest that the SimpleBooker family wasn’t as happy as outward appearances suggested.

Pete’s overall demeanour intrigued her. While he was open with his answers, he came across as something of a cold person. Maybe he was the kind of man who didn’t suffer fools or had a superiority complex, or perhaps he was just having a bad day. His hair was short and while his shirt was tight on his body, he was in good shape for a man in his fifties. And for all he came across as cold, nothing else about him jangled a warning bell for Beth. She recalled that his police record was non-existent.

George was a different character. He was meek, polite and apologised with every answer that stuttered from his lips. Unlike Pete, his shirt hung loose on an obese body. His every mannerism belied his discomfort at being questioned and while it was obvious he wanted to help, he didn’t know anything.

Claire’s attitude was different to that of the others. Where they’d been respectful of her status as a detective, Claire seemed to be indifferent. If the SimpleBooker employees were a family, Claire was the sullen teenager.

‘So, you don’t know of anyone with a grudge against Derek Forster? Can’t think of someone who’d like to bring him down a peg or two?’ Beth hardened her questions in response to the challenge of Claire’s attitude. ‘Are you going to be like the others and tell me that he’s basically a saint that someone is trying to martyr?’

‘I’m going to tell you the truth. I don’t know of anyone who’s got it in for him. He was very generous when he sold the business and easy to get on with when he was my boss. There’s nothing more to tell.’

Beth was convinced that Claire had a lot of story to tell. The way she’d dressed was novel in itself. Her skirt was mid-thigh and the blouse she wore showed a generous amount of cleavage. A thin necklace hung down her chest with an engagement ring hanging