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

‘Okay. Was there anyone with you to verify what you’re telling us?’

‘Nah. Just me.’

‘Perhaps you can tell us about the time you were beaten up. If my memory serves me right, the man who beat you up alleged that you were stalking his wife.’ Beth was trying to get the interview back on track, but the way it was going suggested that Lewis was digging in on Gracie’s side. ‘We also have to consider the occasions you were arrested for spying on ladies as they undressed and the warnings you received.’

‘I fail to see what relevance that bears to this investigation. Any previous offences my client may have committed should not be considered as they were dealt with at the times in question.’

Beth gave the solicitor a tight smile. ‘Nice try, Mr Lewis. We’re investigating four instances of a sexual crime that escalated to murder. Your client has a history of voyeurism. That’s one red flag. Your client was accused of stalking. That’s another red flag. The way he assaulted me when I arrested him is another red flag. Mr Gracie has shown a progression in his deviations, and because of this, any first-year psychology student would be worried about what he may do next. As a police officer, it’s my job to know about such things and, quite frankly, your client fits the profile of the person we’re looking for. Yes, he may pretend to use his binoculars to watch wagtails and terns, but I reckon it’s a different kind of bird altogether that he prefers to watch.’

‘You’re mistaken, but I can understand your thinking. I haven’t murdered anyone and I have never raped anyone. I’m innocent of those crimes and, as such, you’re wasting your time accusing me of them. I hope that you catch the person who’s really behind the rapes and murders, before he strikes again.’

O’Dowd leaned across the table and glared at Gracie. ‘Maybe we’ve already got him. Maybe I’m looking at him now.’

When O’Dowd reached for the switches that controlled the recording equipment, Beth stopped her before she could suspend the interview.

‘There’s something that’s puzzling me, Mr Gracie. Why did you run when you found out who we were? For all you knew, we could have been there to inform you of a family member’s death. Yet you ran away before you knew what we wanted to speak to you about. That speaks of guilt to me and now I’m wondering what you’ve done that made you run away. Would you care to tell us?’

‘No comment.’

Forty-Six

The terraced cottage where Gracie lived was even worse than Beth had anticipated it would be. Every room stunk of cigarette smoke and had a yellowed ceiling. While not massively untidy, there was a thick layer of dust on all of the unused surfaces and the kitchen sink was loaded with unwashed dishes. There were no books on the lounge’s bookshelf and most of the DVDs she found were X-rated. Unthank had braved the bathroom and bedroom, but had lasted only a few seconds in each before he ran through the cottage opening all the windows.

‘See anything, Paul?’

‘He’s got an industrial-quantity of wank mags by his bed, and when I leafed through one or two, I found that they were all proper hardcore images.’

‘Dirty old perv.’

‘You don’t know the half of it, Beth. There were a lot of images of anal sex.’

Beth couldn’t help but give a fist pump. The content of the magazines may well be nothing more than circumstantial, but it was still damning enough to help them build their case.

‘What do you call a man with a slow cooker?’

Beth knew the answer right away. ‘Stu.’

Unthank returned her smile. ‘What have you found?’

‘His basic household paperwork.’ Beth lifted a paper folder from a drawer. ‘His insurance documents, driving licence and bank statements.’ She flicked through a few more envelopes. ‘Oh, and his passport.’

‘Have you looked at this?’ Unthank pointed to a laptop that was on the coffee table.

‘Not yet. It’ll probably be password protected. I was gonna bag it and let Digital Forensics have it.’

‘I think I’ll take a look first. Maybe let some of the smell out of the bedroom before I give it a proper search.’

‘Suit yourself.’

Beth left Unthank to deal with the laptop while she worked her way through Gracie’s paperwork. It was all standard and seemed to be in order. The fact Gracie drove a van piqued her interests as well as her suspicions. She’d thought all along that the Lakeland Ripper may well use a van to transport his victims around unseen and here was their prime suspect, a van owner.

It seemed too good to be true. It was as she was leafing through Gracie’s passport, that she found out it was.

‘Get in. Got you, you sick fucking bastard.’

Unthank wasn’t one to swear and the vehemence in the way he’d hissed the profanities told Beth that he’d unearthed something of significance.

‘What have you found?’

‘Rape porn. The sick bastard has viewed hundreds of videos. I looked at a couple and some of the women don’t look anything like they’re eighteen. The cocky sod never even passworded his computer or bothered to delete his browsing history. It goes back a couple of years. We’ve got him, Beth, we can nail his arse to the wall with what’s on here. We’ve got the killer.’

‘No, we haven’t.’

‘What? What do you mean, we haven’t got him?’

Beth held up Gracie’s passport and gave Unthank a look at the page she’d bookmarked with her finger.

‘Fuck.’

‘Agreed.’

Tom Gracie may have been guilty of lots of sex offences, but he wasn’t the Lakeland Ripper. His passport showed him as having been in Thailand during the time when Joanne Armstrong had been abducted and then found dead in the woods near Buttermere.

That he’d chosen Thailand as a holiday destination spoke volumes to Beth. While many travelled there for a beach holiday or to see the sites, it was also well known that cities such