Page 235 of The Hallmarked Man
‘Just wondering whether alcohol’s a good idea when I’m about to be hopping around in the dark,’ said Strike.
‘Think they’d make an exception for your leg, unless you habitually use it as a weapon.’
‘Not often,’ said Strike, ‘but it’s been known.’
They took their pints to a table near the window.
‘So,’ said Hardacre, ‘what’re we looking for?’
‘Museum and Temple Seventeen,’ said Strike.
‘Museum won’t be a problem, but they don’t usually let the public into temples, other than the Grand Temple. Why’re we interested in number Seventeen?’
‘William Wright was interested in it, or so my informant says,’ said Strike.
‘Very specific, wanting to see just one temple.’
‘Said informant isn’t overly trustworthy. I’m checking it out on the off-chance. Don’t suppose you’ve got anything else on Niall Semple for me?’
‘A bit,’ said Hardacre, dropping his voice, ‘but you need to keep this on the down low, Oggy. I’ll be deep in the shit if they find out I’ve passed it to you.’
‘There’ll be no publicity,’ said Strike, considerably more sympathetic to this request than he’d been to the almost identical one made by Ryan Fucking Murphy.
‘Name Ben Liddell familiar to you?’
‘No,’ said Strike, ‘but I know Semple’s best mate was called Ben and I know he got killed in the same operation where Semple sustained his traumatic brain injury.’
‘That’s him. Well, Semple seems to have been very fucking angry about that, and from what I heard – I shouldn’t know any of this, Oggy – he showed extreme animosity to the Regiment once he was compos mentis again and even made noises about press exposure regarding the botched operation where Liddell died.’
‘That’d explain a lot,’ said Strike, thinking of Ralph Lawrence, the alleged MI5 operative, and his obvious preference for Strike giving up attempts to find Semple. ‘What d’you know about the operation?’
‘Nothing,’ said Hardacre, ‘and frankly, I don’t want to know.’
‘Has this Ben Liddell got any next of kin?’
‘No idea.’
‘OK… can I ask you a couple of masonic questions?’
‘Yeah, go on.’
‘Wouldn’t happen to know what gow-too is, would you?’
‘Gow-too?’ said Hardacre. ‘How’re you spelling it? G – A – O – T – U?’
‘Haven’t seen it written down,’ said Strike. ‘What would it mean if it’s that?’
‘Masonic acronym. Great Architect Of The Universe.’
‘God, in other words?’
‘Yeah. Why?’
‘We’ve got an anonymous caller who’s allegedly got GAOTU on their side. I thought Freemasonry wasn’t supposed to be a religion?’
‘It’s not,’ said Hardacre.
‘But you believe in God.’
