Beneath The Bodies

Copyright © 2023 by Jack Gatland / Tony Lee All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems without written permission from the author, unless for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, places of learning, events or locales is entirely coincidental. * * * Published by Hooded Man Media. First Edition: March 2023 PRAISE FOR JACK GATLAND ‘This is one of those books that will keep you up past your bedtime, as each chapter lures you into reading just one more.’ ‘This book was excellent! A great plot which kept you guessing until the end.’ ‘Couldn’t put it down, fast paced with twists and turns.’ ‘The story was captivating, good plot, twists you never saw and really likeable characters. Can't wait for the next one!’ ‘I got sucked into this book from the very first page, thoroughly enjoyed it, can't wait for the next one.’ ‘Totally addictive. Thoroughly recommend.’ ‘Moves at a fast pace and carries you along with it.’ ‘Just couldn't put this book down, from the first page to the last one it kept you wondering what would happen next.’ Before LETTER FROM THE DEAD… There was Learn the story of what really happened to DI Declan Walsh, while at Mile End! An EXCLUSIVE PREQUEL, completely free to anyone who joins the Declan Walsh Reader’s Club! Join Here! Also by Jack Gatland DI DECLAN WALSH BOOKS LETTER FROM THE DEAD MURDER OF ANGELS HUNTER HUNTED WHISPER FOR THE REAPER TO HUNT A MAGPIE A RITUAL FOR THE DYING KILLING THE MUSIC A DINNER TO DIE FOR BEHIND THE WIRE HEAVY IS THE CROWN STALKING THE RIPPER A QUIVER OF SORROWS MURDER BY MISTLETOE BENEATH THE BODIES KILL YOUR DARLINGS ELLIE RECKLESS BOOKS PAINT THE DEAD STEAL THE GOLD HUNT THE PREY TOM MARLOWE BOOKS SLEEPING SOLDIERS TARGET LOCKED COVERT ACTION DAMIAN LUCAS BOOKS THE LIONHEART CURSE STANDALONE BOOKS THE BOARDROOM AS TONY LEE The Playing Card War KNAVE OF SPADES Standalone DODGE & TWIST * * * For Mum, who inspired me to write. For Tracy, who inspires me to write. * * * CONTENTS Prologue 1. A Night At The Opera 2. Church Serviced 3. Night Calls 4. Missing Persons 5. Briefing 6. Sons of Fathers Passed 7. Election-Hearing 8. Hunt The Copper 9. We Are Detectives 10. Show and Tell 11. Holding Cells 12. Copper Dropper 13. Old Loves And Older Partners 14. Home Visits 15. Change The Flint 16. Old School Ties 17. Question Time 18. Zippo Circus 19. In Memoriam 20. Execution Dock 21. Up Town Park 22. Party Politics 23. Rooftop Party 24. Chekhov’s Hammer Epilogue Acknowledgements About the Author PROLOGUE If he was being brutally honest, it hadn’t been the best of days for Lance Mason. And that was before they found the body. Mason had been the Verger for Temple Church in the City of London for a few years now. It wasn’t the most taxing of jobs, and he found it strangely peaceful in the church, regardless of the constant thrum of tourists, all looking for the church used in “that Dan Brown movie.” Which in some respects was true – the Templar Church of Temple Inn had been used in the novel The Da Vinci Code as one location where clues to the whereabouts of the Holy Grail were, and every Friday for a good couple of years during the heyday of the novel (and then the film), the Master of the Temple Church had given a talk to up to two hundred tourists a time on the “Da Vinci trail”. But, at the same time, the story set inside the church was complete rubbish. Mason hadn’t been connected to the church when they’d filmed there, but he’d heard stories while walking around the dominant feature of the church – the ten statues of knights that now lay on their backs on the floor in the centre of the circular nave – stories about how they wanted the statues moved, or the windows replaced for better lighting while filming, surprised that the walls weren’t removable like real film sets. Of course, these were stories told to him by people who’d had the stories passed to them, so the whole thing was likely a massive game of Chinese Whispers, but it didn’t matter. Lance Mason wasn’t a fan of the book’s general idea, had never watched the film, and looked down on the people who came here looking for an imaginary conspiracy by an imaginary secret order, used in an imaginary story – whether it was in book form or film. And he was amused when, as they entered, they found glass cases surrounding many of the effigies. Mason was also tired of hearing these people knowledgeably explain to their friends, based on the information they’d received in that damned novel, that some of the Knights Templar effigies had their legs crossed at the ankles because they’d been to the Holy Land on a crusade. Mason had to actively restrain himself for pointing out this was complete bollocks, and that among academia, it was now accepted that such attribution was a “fanciful idea,” to be more polite. But he understood how this was too romantic an idea to give up, as even before the book came out, Wordsworth, Dickens and Tennyson all made allusions to this – even if it was a sixteenth century stylistic form. Standing in the middle of the circular Nave, the first part of the church built in 1185, and based on Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the Templar order began, Mason looked down at the effigies of knights surrounding him. Some of them still had sharp, defined