Page 36 of The Girls in the Lake
‘Sod off. If you two idiots are going out in the dark following that party boat then I’m coming too. Why should you get to have all the fun?’
She walked towards the toilet and left them both.
Josh stepped closer to Cal and whispered, ‘Did you really speak to your supervisor?’
‘No, but don’t tell her. She’d go mental with me. I want to help you, Josh.’
Josh didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or pray to God to help them. He hoped that he wasn’t going to get all three of them into trouble. He was in enough of that already without adding to the problem.
Forty-One
Beth couldn’t settle; she was desperate to know if anything had come back from the paint samples that she’d fast-tracked. Leaving the café, she drove home, made herself a mug of tea then went into her office to do some more digging into drownings in the lake. She’d only looked at a couple of pages so far, so she typed ‘drownings Lake Windermere 2000 to 2019’ to see if any better results came up. Surely not only men had drowned in the lake? Scrolling through, she paused on a photograph of a group of laughing teenage boys. She looked at the date on the article: 5th July 2011.
School Boy Drowns on Field Trip
Tragedy struck a group of teenage boys from Lake Fell School on a field trip to Fell Foot Park yesterday. They were having fun before they went into the water, laughing and enjoying the warm weather, racing each other and playing games.
It wasn’t until the others reached the safety of the shore that they realised fifteen-year-old Tyler Johnson was missing. A frantic search was then undertaken by the lake wardens, police and boat users in the area. Tyler’s lifeless body was found an hour later. A spokesman for the school said they were devasted at the loss of Tyler’s life. ‘He was a wonderful, bright boy with a fabulous future in front of him,’ one teacher said. Tyler’s twin, Marcus, who was also on the school trip had been taken home to his family, who are being comforted by family liaison officers. Tyler’s parents have declined to comment.
A full investigation into the accident is being carried out, and the teacher supervising the trip, Miss Foster, has been suspended pending further enquiries.
Beth leant closer to the computer. Poor Miss Foster probably lost her job over that, and she doubted the woman would ever recover from the shock and the guilt. She studied the boys’ faces: young, grinning, handsome. One boy in particular had floppy hair and a brilliant white smile. He looked perfect. He looked popular. Could that be James Marshall? Sipping at her tea, she couldn’t say whether it was, but the more she stared the more she thought there was a slight chance that it could be. She sat back. It was probably nothing, her tired mind playing tricks on her, but it wouldn’t hurt to do some digging, would it? Sending the page to the printer so she had a hard copy for her records, she typed ‘Lake Fell School’ into the search bar which brought up the website for the prestigious private school, and then rang the number on the screen.
‘Good afternoon, Lake Fell School. Diane speaking.’ The voice that answered sounded like an older woman, which Beth hoped meant she’d worked at the school a long time.
‘Hello, my name is Doctor Beth Adams. I’m looking to speak to any member of staff who worked at the school in July 2011.’
There was a pause on the other end of the phone.
‘Oh dear, now you’re asking. I don’t think I can tell you off the top of my head; I’d have to make some enquiries. The staff are all off today, you just caught me. I popped in to pick something up. Can I ask what this is regarding, Doctor Adams?’
‘I’m a forensic pathologist and I’m investigating some recent drownings in the lake. I was wondering if you knew of anyone who may still work there who was at the school when Tyler Johnson drowned on a field trip.’
The woman inhaled sharply. ‘Terrible tragedy, he was such a nice boy.’
‘Did you work there then?’
The voice laughed. ‘I’ve worked here forever, but thankfully I’m retiring in ten weeks, three days and one hour, give or take a few minutes.’
Beth laughed. ‘You’re not counting down the minutes then?’
‘Now you’ve mentioned that terrible day my memory has been jogged. Mr Carruthers, the head, retired last year; Miss Foster, who is now Mrs Williams, is still here. Can I make you an appointment to come in for a chat? I think that would be the best thing to do.’
‘That would be fabulous. Thank you.’
‘Let me speak to Mrs Williams. Give me your phone number and I’ll ring you back.’
Beth reeled off her number. ‘Thank you, Diane. I really appreciate your help.’
She ended the call and sat back wondering if she should be doing this and decided that, yes, she should. The police were busy enough. If she came up with a tangible lead she could pass it on to Josh and his team. If it turned out to be nothing, well the only thing she’d wasted was an hour of her own time.
No wonder she couldn’t settle; so much in her life was uncertain: she didn’t know what was going on with Josh; there was a chance the drownings weren’t as innocent as they seemed, and she couldn’t stop thinking about Robert’s post-mortem, which Charles would have performed this morning. Was he still in her mortuary taking up precious room? Or had he been released to the funeral directors? Even though she wasn’t supposed to be in work she knew she’d go mad if she didn’t find out. She needed to see his body, and now the post-mortem had been completed, technically, she wouldn’t be doing anything wrong. If Robert’s body wasn’t there she could at least nip in to check her emails. At least going to work would give her something to take her mind off the situation with Josh and Jodie. A part of her wanted to go find Josh and demand an explanation, another wanted to shut herself off from the world entirely – and she knew how to do that better than anyone. Ignoring the voices in her head, she finally decided, and pushed herself to go to the hospital.
Getting out of the car, she kept her head bent low so she didn’t have to speak to anyone as she passed; she didn’t have a good reason to be here. She bumped into a woman who had her head bent as she was texting on her phone.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I wasn’t looking where I was going.’
Lifting her head, Beth was horrified to see a familiar face smiling at her. ‘That’s okay, I wasn’t looking either. My knee is giving me a bit of bother and keeps giving way on me. I might have fallen into you. Beth, how are you?’
