Jim Todd tells Strike that he had spotted William Wright going into the Freemasons Hall and that Wright had told him that he wanted to see Temple Seventeen, but Todd didn’t know why. Todd tells Strike he thought Wright was lying about wanting to see Temple Seventeen and only wanted to go into the Freemasons Hall to check inside the museum to see what the masonic silver was worth. (Chapter 28)
Strike meets up with his old SIB colleague, Graham Hardacre, who has arranged for them to have a tour of the museum and Temple Seventeen at the Freemasons Hall. Once in the building, they visit the museum first and then move onto Temple Seventeen. The room is panelled in dark oak with enough chairs set around the chequerboard floor to sit eighty people. Behind a thronelike seat is a large chained swan carved onto the wall.
‘Symbol of Buckinghamshire’ says Hardacre, pointing at the swan. ‘This temple was funded by Freemasons from the county. It’s where three of the oldest – pre-1717 – lodges meet.’
‘And what’s all this?’ says Strike, turning to point at the strange assemblage of objects in the middle of the chequerboard floor.
‘Now, there, I’d have to kill you if I told you,’ said Hardacre. Ten banners are hanging from poles facing each other on the black and white carpet, and Strike’s eye is drawn immediately to the lion beneath the word ‘Judah’. On the floor lay tools including a spade and a pickaxe, an aged book that is embossed with the lodge’s name, and a group of three-dimensional geometric objects carved out of white stone.
‘This is set up for some rite, is it?’ he asks Hardacre. ‘This stuff wouldn’t usually be here?’
‘No,’ says Hardacre. Strike glances around the rest of the chamber. He notes the ‘rough’ and ‘perfect’ ashlars – cubes of stone representing the uninitiated and educated masons – sitting beside chairs that evidently belongs to masons having some elevated ceremonial role.
‘Can’t say its obvious what William Wright wanted to see in here,’ Strike says at last, after giving the place a comprehensive look. (Chapter 72)
In addition to Temple 17 and the public Grand Temple, there are a further 25 masonic temples (lodge meeting rooms) within the Freemasons’ Hall.
Temple Seventeen is not open to the public, but if you ask someone nicely you might be lucky enough to be shown inside.
