Page 63 of The Girls in the Lake
The control room operator acknowledged his request and began issuing orders.
No more girls were dying in that lake, Josh would make sure of that.
Seventy-Two
Beth scribbled down the address of the site where Ethan Scales worked. Courtesy of his Facebook page she knew he worked at the Freshwater Biological Marine Centre, that he lived on site there and was a keen fisherman. It couldn’t hurt to talk to him; he might be able to tell her a little more about what happened that day eight years ago when he went into the lake and lost a friend. She’d left the house lit up, afraid to come home to the dark.
As she exited her front door, the huge raindrops turned torrential before she’d opened the car door. Even with her windscreen wipers on the fastest setting it was still difficult to see clearly, until a flash so brilliantly white illuminated the lake for the briefest of seconds. Her heart skipped a beat. Then thunder cracked so loud she jumped, even though she knew it was coming. She thought about going back inside and leaving her questions for tomorrow, but something told her to push on. Not least because the sooner Josh had the killer behind bars, the sooner he’d be able to come home to her.
As she reached the entrance to the marine site she saw the gates were fastened shut, meaning she was going to have to climb over the gates and walk down on foot. The storm was raging, and the whole driveway was surrounded by trees. She knew the chances of being struck by lightning were very low but still she double-checked that her shoes had thick rubber soles before she got out of the car and ran to the gate. She scaled it easily, but lost her footing jumping down on the other side because the ground was so wet and slippery. Breaking into a jog, she kept to the middle of the driveway on the better ground and to avoid walking directly under the canopy of Scots pine trees that bordered either side of the narrow road.
As she rounded a steep bend, she thought she heard the faint sound of a woman’s laughter carried in her direction on the wind, and she froze. When she heard it again, she followed the sound towards a row of wooden cabins. Looking around, she spotted a couple in the distance. The girl was inside the boat and the guy was untying it from its mooring. Waiting for a break in the thunder, she cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted as loud as she could.
‘What are you doing out there? I need to speak to you.’
Her voice carried back towards her in the howling wind. So she had no choice but to push on closer to the water’s edge and hope she could get their attention.
Seventy-Three
Josh and Sam parked where they could see the ramp down to the lake, but the boat was out of view. Paton came running over to the car and leant through the window.
‘They’ve gone onto the boat and straight below deck.’
‘What’s the plan of action, Josh?’ said Sam.
Josh wasn’t sure. All he knew was they couldn’t afford to mess this up. That girl’s life depended upon it.
‘We’ll find somewhere to take cover down by the boats. There might be one we can get on close by. We can’t go barging in there and mess everything up or he’ll walk.’
They got out of the car and hurried down towards the water, the driving rain lashing against their faces. There was a light on below the deck ofThe Tequila, but no signs of movement above deck. Josh pointed to the pub balcony that jutted out, giving a little shelter from the weather, and whispered, ‘You two stand there; you can always pretend you’ve taken cover from the weather if they come out. Pretend to make out or something.’
Both Sam and Paton looked horrified but still rushed towards the small concrete balcony with a tiny dry patch underneath it.
Alone now, Josh walked onto the metal jetty which ran alongsideThe Tequila Sunrise, treading cautiously; it was slippery with the rain and he didn’t want to go into the churning, black waters of Windermere unless he had to. There was a speedboat a little further down, the gate to gain access to it swinging in the wind. Deciding to take shelter there, he was just reaching out his foot when a flash of fork lightning lit up the entire marina; this was followed by a crash of thunder. Through the noise of the thunder he thought he heard a woman scream. He stopped and turned back around to make sure it wasn’t Sam, but she and Paton were huddled together in the shelter of the pub. Another screech filled the air, and he lifted his radio, shouting ‘Go, go, go,’ as he turned and ran towardsThe Tequila Sunriseas fast as he could.
Sam and Paton were already close behind as he scrambled up the ladder to get on board. Sirens blared in the distance.If he doesn’t know we’re here, he will now, he thought to himself as his feet hit the deck, and he turned around to grab Sam’s hand and pull her up, Paton right behind her.
All three of them rushed down the narrow steps and into the kitchen area, only to find it was empty. Pointing, Josh slammed his shoulder into the bedroom door and burst into the room. His mouth fell open as the girl who was naked on the bed screeched so loudly he wanted to cover his ears. James Marshall, wearing only a pair of black Gucci boxer shorts, walked out of the small bathroom.
‘What the fuck are you doing?’
Confused, Josh looked at him, then the girl. ‘I thought…’
‘You thought what?’
His phone began to ring in his pocket and he snatched it out.
Seventy-Four
Ethan and Grace clambered into the boat, and Ethan began to row out towards the middle of the lake singing, ‘Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,’ into the crashing storm.
Grace giggled as the boat rocked from side to side. ‘I wouldn’t say this is the gentlest boat ride I’ve ever been on.’
He stared at her, wet hair slick to her face, eyes wild. She was perfect. Everything James Marshall liked in a woman, but Grace was interested inhim. Oh, how he’d coveted the things James could buy without so much as even thinking about it, the lifestyle he lived, the women he chose. Ethan had spent the last eight years living his life through James and his money. He wasn’t bitter that he’d been born into a poor family; he was furious. Everything was so easy for James, but that was all about to change.
The first time he had only meant to teach James a lesson – he hadn’t meant for Tyler to die, just scare him in to focusing his attention back on to him. Scared by what he’d done, he’d sworn he’d never do anything like it again. But then he’d found Julia sobbing in the car park of The Hounds Inn.
He’d taken her to James’s boat, moored only a short walk away from the pub. She began to tell him how much she hated working for Marcus and how she was going to go to the police about him. Ethan, who felt some misguided loyalty to Marcus, had begged her not to, and she’d slapped him, telling him he was as bad as the others. Angry, he’d pushed her away from him and she’d tripped and fallen overboard. He’d tried to grab her, he really had, but the rain had made everything slippery. Mortified, he’d watched as she slipped under, but the abject horror soon turned to excitement when he realised she couldn’t swim. He’d watched from the shadows of the boat enjoying every last struggle until she’d gone under for a final time. It hadn’t taken very long before the lake had taken her to her watery grave.
