Page 48 of The Girls in the Lake
Aged between eighteen to twenty-four.
Found in Lake Windermere.
Two of them definitely came into contact with James Marshall.
Julia last seen on her way to the Marina to enquire about a job, possiblyThe Tequila.
Marcus Johnson was seen assaulting Tamara by Ethan Scales.
Marcus Johnson reportedly harassing Julia.
Ethan was also present when Leah was onThe Tequila Sunrise.
Trace evidence found under both Leah & Julia’s nails suspected match (not confirmed).
He wrote the number ‘1’ by Julia, a ‘2’ next to Leah and ‘3’ next to Tamara’s name, and Sam handed him a mug of coffee.
‘Thank you. You were right to be so concerned about Grace going on that boat. Someone pushed Tamara Smythson into the lake during the party. I’m more than convinced the same person was responsible for the deaths of the other two victims.’
‘You did everything you could; thank you for even going out on that boat. No one else would have done that, Josh. None of this was your fault, so don’t go trying to blame yourself for it.’
‘Thanks, but I should have made her get checked over.’
‘Trust me, the only way you’d have been able to do that, if she didn’t want to go, would have been to drag her to the hospital. She was eighteen; she didn’t feel unwell and refused medical attention. There was nothing else you could do.’
He smiled at Sam; he knew she was right. It didn’t matter though: he thought about the trickle of blood that had leaked from Tamara’s nose in the car, the coughing fit. He’d never heard of secondary drowning, didn’t know there was such a thing, but after he’d left Beth at the scene he’d done a quick Google search and discovered that Tamara had displayed all the symptoms. Had he known this he could have saved her life; a simple overnight stay in hospital on oxygen would have been enough. As it was, she was now in hospital, but not on a ward. No, she was in cold storage in the mortuary awaiting Beth to cut her open from her neck to her navel. He wanted to punch something he was so angry with himself. Instead he clenched the handle on the mug and walked out of the office. He needed some air and five minutes to get his head together before it exploded. He didn’t have time to be kicked off the investigation, not now. He needed to find out who pushed Tamara off the boat, because it was highly likely the same person was responsible for the deaths of Leah and Julia.
After standing outside the back door taking deep breaths of the chilled air, he felt as if his head was a little clearer. At some point he would be interviewed by PSD because he was the last person to be with Tamara before she died. The professional standards department were a hard bunch to please.
‘Morning, Josh.’
He turned to see the DCI strolling across the car park towards him.
‘Morning, boss.’
‘How are you? It’s been a while.’
‘To be honest, I’ve been better. This is a mess.’
‘It might be a mess, but thanks to you we know there is a killer out there who is responsible for three deaths. I also believe we have three possible suspects ready to be interviewed, so it’s not that big a mess. Well done, Josh.’
He followed Paul inside. If it hadn’t been for Beth, they wouldn’t have known any of this. He wanted to talk to her, to apologise, tell her everything that had happened and let her know that none of it was her fault. Because she was even better at blaming herself when things went wrong than he was. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text.
I’m sorry. Xxx
Then pushed it back into his pocket. He didn’t know if it would do any good; he didn’t have time to go and see her: there were three suspects to interview and a post-mortem to attend, but before any of that a briefing to give to his team.
Fifty-Four
Satisfied the body could be moved, Beth went downstairs and introduced herself to Tamara’s grief-stricken parents. They were an older couple, much older than she’d expected. ‘I’m so sorry for your loss.’ She held out her hand, shaking both of theirs. ‘I’m Doctor Adams, the pathologist. I’ll be looking after your daughter.’
The woman, her head bent, didn’t make eye contact. Her husband stared, his head moving up and down as he struggled to find a voice. He rasped, ‘Thank you. We don’t know what happened. She went to a friend’s party then messaged Angela to say she was home, around half past ten.’
Beth made a mental note of the time; it was likely that Tamara had died not long after that message.
‘Angela is always a bag of nerves until we know Tam is home safe, so when we got the message we relaxed and drank a lot more than usual. It was a friend’s sixtieth birthday, so the champagne was flowing. We didn’t get home until around three and the house was in darkness. We assumed she was asleep. She’s our only daughter, we waited so long, all those years for her to arrive and now she’s…’
His voice caught in the back of his throat and he took a moment to compose himself. ‘She’s eighteen you know and very independent; if we’d opened her door to check on her, she would have been furious with us. We stopped doing that a long time ago. If only we had.’
