by Helen Phifer
He threw the covers back and strode naked into the ensuite, stopping for a moment to admire his tanned, toned body in the mirrored walls. He flexed his arm to make his bicep bulge, grinned and blew himself a kiss. He was vain, as his mother and grandmother liked to tell him on a regular basis, and so what if he was. He knew he was good-looking with his line of straight, white teeth and his thick hair brushed to one side like a member of a boy band. He worked hard to look this way, plus a little help from an orthodontist and a plastic surgeon. He’d been fortunate enough to be born to wealthy parents; why wouldn’t he make the most of the money at his disposal? He liked the gym, but he also liked to party.
Showering, shaving and dressing in a suit, he tried to ring Ethan back but it went straight to voicemail. Ethan didn’t normally ring so many times, not unless it was important, and James hoped that he hadn’t done something stupid like crash the boat. Going back into the bedroom, he stared at the naked woman now stretched diagonally, taking up the whole of the bed. She was attractive and if he didn’t have work he’d have screwed her one more time. He would probably see her again if she asked. For the life of him he didn’t know whether the sex had been any good; he’d been too drunk to remember. He picked up her clothes then bent over her, shaking her shoulder. She let out a moan and for a moment he felt himself go hard, then she began to cough, followed by a loud belch as she cupped her hand over her mouth and stumbled off the bed.
‘Christ, if you’re going to be sick at least go be sick in the toilet.’
She looked at him with dazed eyes, and he pushed her in the direction of his ensuite. Flicking on the light switch, he heard her retch and slammed the door shut. His own stomach contracted into a tight ball; he never was any good with vomit. He placed her clothes on the end of the bed and left her to it, while he went into the open-plan kitchen to make himself some breakfast. By the time he’d grilled a full packet of bacon and fried a couple of eggs she’d emerged from the bedroom looking a lot less glamorous than she had last night. He smiled at her and pointed to the food, but she shook her head, putting one hand up. Her eyeliner had smudged; her mascara left dark trails across her pale face.
‘I have to go, so sorry.’
‘Should I call you a taxi?’
She shook her head. ‘No, the walk will help.’
And with that she walked out of his door without giving him, or his penthouse apartment, a second glance. James crossed over to the large window that looked down onto the busy street and smiled. Her head was held high as she walked briskly away. He liked her more because she’d given him the brush-off. Now he would have to make it his business to see her again. It wasn’t very often he didn’t impress a woman, and his bruised ego needed to know if she was playing it cool or really didn’t care. Grabbing his jacket, he ran out of the apartment after her.
Catching up with her at the bottom of a steep hill, he noticed her answer her phone and he heard her begin an animated conversation in French. She turned off by the corner of The Angel Inn on Helm Road which, if he wasn’t mistaken, meant she was heading for the Hydro Hotel. Maybe he’d drag Ethan along tonight. They could accidently bump into her at the bar and try to find out more about her, although Ethan was a bit of a lightweight when it came to drinking two nights on the run. He suddenly remembered he’d better ring him back, so turned and walked down the hill to the estate agency his family owned.
Marshall Estates had been a successful business from the day his father had opened it; there were branches in almost every town in Cumbria. Even though he no longer needed to work, his father still turned up three days a week at the head office in Bowness to oversee everything, and he was adamant that James should do the same. James hated it, but had a grudging respect for his parents and did as he was told most of the time. It filled his days, but he disliked the mundane office work. He usually only dealt with the wealthiest clients, but if James had his way, they would leave it all in the very capable hands of the branch manager.
What he much preferred to do was to charter out his boat for private parties. It was far more fun sailing around the lake with groups of drunken, single women celebrating birthdays, hen nights or even divorces. How many times had he screwed the prettiest girl in the room? Smiling to himself, he realised he couldn’t even keep count. He was all about pleasure and he was pretty sure he could turn the private parties into a lucrative business of his own. He didn’t see the point in working for a living when you could make money having so much fun. It was unfortunate his dad didn’t agree with this line of business, but once he began to make a serious profit, he’d have to acknowledge that James was on to a winner.
Eight
When Beth walked into the mortuary she was surprised to find Abe wasn’t there. She stared at the bank of fridges against the back wall. Her stomach churning, she wondered which one contained Robert. Telling herself it didn’t matter, and that it was none of her business, was all very well, but it didn’t stop her from striding across the room, her white rubber boots squeaking against the tiled ceramic floor as if announcing her intention to the entire hospital. Casting her eyes over the fridges, she looked for the one with his name written on the door plate but couldn’t see it. No time to waste, she began frantically sliding open each drawer to read the tag on the body bag inside. The door slammed behind her and she knew Abe was there, watching but too respectful to ask her if she’d gone crazy.
There were three separate sliding shelves for bodies within each compartment. Sliding out the first, she read ‘Alan Warner’ on the label and pushed him back inside. Next she pulled out the one beneath and hit the jackpot. The body bag looked so small, but it was long enough. Robert had been tall, but so thin now he must have been a shell of his former self by the time he died. She read his name on the yellow tag which sealed the zip on the bag.
‘Beth, I don’t think…’
She turned to face him. ‘I’m not. I wouldn’t. I just had to see for myself, to check it was the right name, to see it was his name.’
He crossed the room towards her, and she stepped away so he could push the drawer shut. ‘It’s over.’
She nodded. ‘I suppose it is. I need to see his post-mortem to really believe it though.’
‘No, you don’t. Why would you want to put yourself through that?’
‘Yes, I do. I don’t expect you to understand, it’s just something I need to do. When’s it scheduled?’
‘Later this week. They requested Doctor Wilson to do it.’
Beth had only been on shift to work this morning; she had booked the afternoon off weeks ago. Had some sixth sense kicked in or was it all a convenient coincidence?
The loud buzz of the doorbell on the back door where the bodies were brought in broke the silence. Abe went to open up and the spell was broken; Robert was pushed to the back of her mind as the young woman who had been pulled from the lake was brought in. She saw Abe glance at her, as if he was checking she was back in the room and had stopped freaking out. Smiling at him, she gave a gentle nod and mouthed, ‘I’m good.’
His shoulders dropped and she felt bad she’d caused him to worry. She would make it up to him; he was a blessing and she didn’t like that she’d made him uncomfortable. She directed the undertakers to the table where the body was transferred to, and the accompanying police officer spoke.
‘We’ve managed to get someone to ID her. Her supervisor from the hotel she is working at is on her way down here. The victim is possibly a Leah Burton from Devon. According to her supervisor, she has family still living there. They’re trying to get the contact details for her next of kin, though they won’t speak to them until it’s confirmed it’s her.’
‘That was fast.’
‘Yeah, sometimes these things are straightforward. Other times they’re a complete disaster.’
Beth couldn’t disagree, but at least that meant as soon as the identification had been completed, she could begin the post-mortem. She hoped for the sake of her family that the results w
ould show the death as accidental, but the fact that the girl was naked still bothered Beth. Who in their right mind would strip naked and jump in the lake at this time of year? It seemed crazy, but she’d seen a lot more crazy than this in her many years of experience.
Normally once a body was brought into the mortuary any jewellery, personal belongings and even the clothes they were wearing were bagged up by the accompanying officer and booked into the property store at the police station until it could be returned to grieving relatives. She had checked at the marina; the girl hadn’t been wearing any jewellery when she’d been pulled out of the lake. Everything had been left on the deck of the boat, which kind of suggested to Beth that if the girl had taken the time to remove her earrings and the chunky necklace before going into the water then she’d thought about it and hadn’t been that drunk. Then again, alcohol was a great aid for freeing up your inhibitions. She knew that from personal experience. Wasn’t that the reason she’d relied so heavily on a large glass of wine every night to help her sleep for the last seven years? A few gulps would relax her enough to keep her anxiety at bay. She drank quite a lot, but not once had she decided to get naked and run into the lake at the bottom of her garden. She shuddered at the thought; after being thrown in and almost drowning not that long ago she didn’t foresee herself ever setting foot into the icy depths of Lake Windermere ever again.
Nine
Josh passed the statement over to Ethan to read and sign. He pointed to the different places on the form for signature and watched as Ethan scribbled his name next to them. Passing it back to Josh, Ethan looked up at him.
‘What now?’
‘Now, my friend, we get you home. Paton will drop you off; you need a hot bath and some sleep. You did a good thing, thank you.’
Ethan began to blink rapidly, and Josh could tell he was trying not to cry. ‘Yeah, thanks. It would have been even better if I’d managed to save her. I really liked her. She was fun.’
Josh leant across and shook his hand. ‘You did the next best thing, that takes some courage. None of this is your fault; like you said it’s not as if anyone even saw her jump in. The only person to blame is the victim and her poor judgement.’
Paton held the door open for Ethan, and Josh watched as they walked out. How would he feel if the roles were reversed, if he had found the girl? He knew he’d feel awful; humans were very good at blaming themselves when things went wrong, even when it was out of their control. Hopefully after a few hours’ sleep Ethan would realise he’d done what he could, but it had already been too late. Even an experienced swimmer in a wetsuit and no alcohol in their system would have struggled to stay alive. What chance did a naked slip of a girl like that have? He shuddered; it didn’t bear thinking about. He would be there for her family when they arrived from Devon, to try and answer the many questions they would have, and the post-mortem. He needed to go to the hospital and speak to Beth; he wondered how she was and if the arrival of Hartshorn’s body in the mortuary had sent her into a spin, or if she had taken it in her stride.
Walking back to the office, he retrieved his phone, which was charging on his desk, to find he had no missed calls from Beth, and decided it was more than likely a good thing. He did have a missed call from his ex, Jodie, though, which wasn’t. He sighed; could he face speaking to her now? He’d had very little contact with his wife since the day he’d caught her in bed with another man and had walked out of their home with his most treasured belongings in a cabin-sized suitcase. Deciding to ring her back later, he pushed the phone into his pocket; whatever Jodie wanted could wait a few more hours. Leah Burton was his main priority now, closely followed by Beth.
At a desk nearby, Detective Constable Sam Thomas was on the phone, her voice low but the look on her face told him she was mid-argument with a petulant teenager. He smiled at her as she jabbed her finger against the screen, ending the call.
‘Do you want to come out, get a bit of fresh air? Maybe grab a coffee?’
He smiled as her eyes narrowed, showing she was trying to decide if a coffee was worth the guaranteed work that went with it.
‘Does this fresh air involve a car ride with you to Barrow?’
He shrugged. ‘Possibly.’
‘Does it involve a visit to a certain doctor’s place of work?’
He laughed. ‘If you’re busy I’ll get Sykes to come with me. Where is she?’
Sam shrugged. ‘If she’s got any sense, she’s already gone out to buy her own coffee.’
Josh turned away, hiding the grin that had spread across his face. He liked Sam and her sense of humour. He liked all of his team, but after the last case he felt as if they’d made pretty good partners.
She grabbed her coat and they both strode towards the exit at the far end of the office that led to the back stairs and out into the car park. Pausing, Josh took a set of keys off the whiteboard and scribbled 1195, his collar number, next to the vehicle registration. Turning, he passed Sam the keys. ‘You drive and I’ll even run in to buy the coffee.’
She shook her head. ‘I need to learn to leave this office before you go looking for unsuspecting victims to drag into your weekly disasters. I’ll have a large latte, please, with an extra shot.’
They walked out to the car park, the sky a blanket of thick, black clouds; any moment it was going to throw it down. Hurrying to get into the car as the first splotches of water began to fall against the windscreen, no sooner had they shut the doors and Sam turned the key in the ignition, than the heavens opened and the sound of the rain hammering against the car was almost deafening.
Sam smiled at Josh. ‘Shame you volunteered to go in for the coffee, you’re going to get wet. That, Sarge, is karma.’
Ten
Beth had told Abe to notify her when the person who was going to do the ID on Leah Burton arrived. Realising she was staring into space, she moved her focus to the now-cold liquid inside her chipped mug and wished it was a large glass of wine. Although she’d never dream of drinking while at work, some days the thought of it made it all seem better. She would definitely be pouring herself a generous measure or two when she finally made it home tonight.
‘Beth, Leah’s supervisor is in the viewing room along with a police officer. Should I do the ID?’
She looked up and he smiled at her, and for the first time she acknowledged just what a good-looking man he was. She’d never really looked at him in that way before and knew she would never look at him in that way again. It was as if her mind was waking up from hibernation: things she’d taken for granted in the past were taking on new meanings. Standing up, she tipped the mug back, swallowing the cold coffee with a grimace.
‘Is the body ready for viewing?’
He nodded.
‘I’ll go and speak to them. I want to get an idea of what she was like.’
Walking out of her office, she pushed the double doors open which led to the small corridor where the viewing room was situated. She stepped inside to see the police officer who’d brought the body to get booked in. Beth nodded at her and then at the woman standing next to her in a steel grey suit with a white shirt embroidered with the logo of a hotel. They shook hands.
‘I’m Doctor Adams. Thank you for coming here at such short notice. The quicker we can establish her identity, the sooner I can begin her post-mortem and we can learn more of what happened. I’m so sorry for your loss.’
The words hung in the air of the small room for a moment before the woman nodded, then let out a loud sob which startled both Beth and the officer who had brought her in. Together, they guided her to one of the small, two-seater beige leather sofas. Beth looked around; grabbing the box of tissues off the coffee table, she passed them to the woman, who was having a hard time pulling herself together. She took a seat opposite her. ‘I’m sorry, were you close to Leah?’
The woman blew her nose, then shook her head. Beth frowned, she looked over at the officer, who shrugged. Composing herself, the woman looked at Beth.
‘Sorry, I’m Suzanne Morgan. I’m one of the duty managers at the hotel. I’m no good with anything like this. I get upset over commercials on the television. Especially if they have dogs in them. I told them I shouldn’t come, that I wouldn’t be much use nor ornament to anyone.’
Beth was confused now. ‘Told who?’
‘Hotel management, but they wouldn’t listen. They said I’d know better than they would, which technically I suppose I should. I mean, I interviewed her and gave her the job.’
‘Did you know her very well?’
‘Not really, she’s only been here a couple of months.’
‘I have to ask, what was her mood like? Did she seem happy? Was she upset to have left her family? Is there any chance she may have been feeling suicidal?’
Suzanne shook her head.
‘I don’t think so. She was always smiling and chattering, but her friend Chloe Dubois would be better placed to tell you what she was really like. They seemed very close; they started working at the same time together.’
‘Where is Chloe?’
‘I don’t know. We couldn’t find her when the police turned up to ask for someone to come here. She wasn’t in the room they share. Oh God, what if she drowned as well? How did it happen?’
Beth felt fingers of fear run down the full length of her spine. Could there be another body in the lake? It was a possibility. She wished Josh was here.
‘Were they together last night?’
There was a knock on the door and the officer opened it. As if in answer to her prayer, standing on the other side was Josh and his colleague Sam. Beth felt a wave of relief wash over her. He would know the right things to say and do.
‘Suzanne, this is Detective Sergeant Josh Walker and Detective Constable Sam Thomas. Josh, Suzanne is a duty manager at the hotel where the victim, who we think is a Leah Burton, worked. She’s a bit concerned because Leah’s friend is also missing.’
