A Body in the Lakes by Graham Smith (great books of all time .TXT) 📕
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- Author: Graham Smith
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She encountered a small wooden porch which had a couple of jackets on its ledges and a pair of wellies standing beside a sliding door.
Beth tried sliding the door open, but it wouldn’t budge, so she resumed her circuit of the farmhouse’s exterior.
The next corner she rounded brought her into an unkempt garden. She could see where flowerbeds had once bloomed before being neglected. A ranch fence had rotten timbers and peeling white paint.
As she walked along the front of the house, she could begin to hear a faint noise that got louder as she neared the far end of the building. It was music, but not the kind of music that she expected to hear at 10.00 a.m. on a Sunday morning.
It was possible that Cooper was having a Sunday morning roll-together with someone, but she knew that for a farmer, anything after 9.00 a.m. was considered to be the middle of the afternoon.
The music got louder as she approached a window where the curtains were drawn. Considering that the window overlooked nothing but fields, she thought it strange the curtains were closed, so she put her ear to the glass. She held the position for the count of ten, then wheeled away, grabbing at Kieran’s arm as she went.
As soon as she was ten paces from the window she broke into a run.
The begging she’d heard wasn’t part of any Sunday morning roll-together.
As she ran she explained to Kieran what she’d heard.
Beth saw his hand reach for his radio, but there was no way that she was going to wait for backup. If her suspicions were right, Cooper was in the throes of raping or murdering Willow and she had to save her.
A flick of her wrist brought her extendable baton to its full length.
The glass of the sliding door broke on the first strike. After a circular sweep of the baton to clear the glass, Beth snaked a hand in and slid the bolt free of the door.
Various outdoor clothing hung on a coatrack as she passed through a utility room that had cured meats hanging from hooks. She passed through the kitchen, hardly pausing to look at the Aga or the long table with timber benches at either side as she progressed towards the area of the house where the music was blaring out.
Beth slowed her pace as she neared the music’s source. The music reduced the need for stealth, but she still didn’t take silly risks.
She cast a look at Kieran: his face was pale, but his jaw was set in determination. He too had his baton extended.
Beth took her pepper spray from her pocket. She used the tip of the baton to indicate that Kieran should open the door. He took two swallows before he reached out his hand, but at least he was rising to the occasion.
Too much, in fact: he shouldered the door open as soon as he’d pressed the handle down and charged into the room.
Beth was at his heel as he tripped over something on the floor and went sprawling in a heap. She wasn’t watching him though; she was conscious of the two figures on the bed: a naked woman and a man wearing a grubby shirt and black socks.
The man sprang off the woman and lashed a foot backwards at Kieran as the young PC was clambering back upright.
There was a crunching slap as Cooper’s heel struck Kieran’s jaw and sent him back to the ground. From the way he slumped, Beth knew she wouldn’t get any help from him for a while.
Cooper raised himself to his full height. The top of his head may have been level with Beth’s shoulder, but he was no less intimidating because he was short.
His eyes were the thing that scared Beth the most. They were sinkholes, lying dormant, until they chose to swallow something up.
Cooper pointed at the woman tied to the bed as he stepped towards Beth, his arms at his sides like a gunfighter about to draw his pistols. ‘It looks like I’m getting me a two-for-one deal.’
Sixty-Seven
Beth held her baton like a sword, but Cooper paid it no heed as he lurched forward full of menace.
He continued forward, his left arm rising to deflect the blow Beth was aiming at him.
The baton thudded against his bicep causing him to yelp, but he didn’t slow down.
Beth stepped back, brought the baton into her body and tried a backhand slash.
It didn’t work as Cooper had closed the gap enough that she couldn’t get any real power into the blow.
She could smell his foul, kippery breath as he reached for her. The pepper spray in her left hand hissed as it shot into Cooper’s face.
He yowled in pain, but he’d built up a momentum that caused him to crash into Beth.
His arms wound around her waist as he fell to the floor. Beth found herself being dragged down by him. He was thrashing about, swearing at the pain as he rubbed his face against her shirt.
Somehow Beth found herself beneath Cooper as they writhed on the floor. Her trying to escape him, and Cooper trying to alleviate the agony in his eyes.
Cooper’s face was pressing against her stomach as he tried to use the material of her blouse as a cloth to wipe away the pepper spray. His head sawing back and forth moved up her body until his forehead was buffeting her breasts.
Beth jabbed the point of her baton into Cooper’s kidneys, but all it achieved was a grunted oof as he continued to writhe above her. With Cooper showing no signs of calming down, she adjusted her aim and caught the back of his head.
Cooper slumped a little, but continued to fight against her.
She hit him again, harder.
His movements stopped apart from slight twitches of his head.
Beth took hold of Cooper’s right arm and hauled him sideways. He moved six inches.
She had to repeat the action three times before she could
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