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170 pages

English

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It has been just a year since the tragic death of eleven people, nine of whom were innocent of any wrong doing. Despite six bodies having never been found, life in the village of Lingtree had gradually begun returning to normal. But then Detective Chief Inspector Eversden is called in to investigate the suspicious death of a pipeline contractor called Harris. Unfortunately for the detective, he was unaware that prior to his death, Harris had handled a number of skulls exposed in the pipe trench. He dismissed these as just skeletal remains of prisoners brutally executed for breaking centuries' past Stannary Laws, the laws relating to tin mining.As his investigations proceed, events begin to challenge even the vast experience and abilities of Eversden and his colleague, Sergeant Jones. However, unbeknown to him, even the best detective in the force would face the gravest difficulty in dealing with future incidents which have their roots in the past.Two years later, the village has undergone a major change, a change which no one relays to two visiting students, Sally & Helen. Ignoring the weather forecast and a warning from their guesthouse landlady, they set off to explore 'The Path of the Dead', the route taken by coffin bearers in the 13th Century, to meet their obligation to bury their dead in the graveyard of Lingtree church. What follows, is a tale of horror beyond anything ever told by even the hardiest and bravest of traveller.

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	07 septembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781803133485
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2022 Arthur Walters

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Contains strong language, graphic violence and adult sexual narrative

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ISBN 9781803133485

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Dedicated to my niece, Terri Jane Lang (nee Cole), who passed away in 2021 at the very young age of just 49 years.

I have many loving memories of Terri, not least that she laughed at my jokes, but I will never forget the time we shared together when walking Dartmoor’s Lych Way, otherwise known as ‘The Way of the Dead’ or even ‘The Corpse Way’. It was June 2017 and the walk had been organised as part of the parish of Lydford’s celebration of the birth of St. Petroc, to whom its church is dedicated. In spite of ten of the twelve and a half miles from Bellever Woods to Lydford being spent in the chilling, misty rain which, regardless of season, Dartmoor typically has to offer, Terri’s enthusiasm for life and conversation never once waned.

It is this memory which provided the inspiration for ‘Revenge of the Bones’.

A big thank you to Sue Hooper, whom I met when we both worked at ‘The Castle Inn’ Lydford, the pub which gave me the idea for my first novel, ‘The Judge’s Parlour’ and to my partner Christine, who made the publication of this book possible.

Contents
Preface

BOOK ONE
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Room Eight
Room Nine

The Livery Yard
The Rectory
The Judge’s Parlour
The Rectory

Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
The churchyard
The Judge’s Parlour
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three

BOOK TWO
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five

Two Weeks Later

Thirty-Six

The Next Day
Two Years Later

Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five

Five Years Later

Forty-Six

Two Hours Later

Forty-Seven
Forty-Eight
Forty-Nine
Fifty
Fifty-One
Fifty-Two
Fifty-Three

Epilogue

Preface
The events of 2016
‘It is time for you to return. I may have a need for you to fulfil. You will be accomplished in the practice of medicine and use your skills to help others. You will not know when I have called upon you, but you will find yourself compromised. This will then be your destiny and cannot be changed.’

Learning of the death of his childhood friend, Gareth Pettit, Brendon Gallagher, an MI6 agent, returned to the village of Lingtree for the funeral. Surprised to hear Gareth had been found dead on the dungeon floor of the Norman castle, Brendon’s natural curiosity soon discovers that pub landlord Phil Clegg, together with Simon Enscale, Rev. David Soby, Caroline Pettit and her son, Nathan and daughter, Ellie had each made their lives financially comfortable by employing Swedish workers to illegally extract silver from a disused mine in the village. Much to these individuals’ dismay, Brendon’s subsequent probing and interference rapidly brings the mining to an end.
During his prolonged stay at Clegg’s pub, a supposedly haunted sixteenth-century coaching inn called The Judge’s Parlour, Brendon renews his acquaintance with Sue, a woman he’d known from his distant past. Having agreed to join forces, they brutally murder two other of Brendon’s childhood friends, Pete Grayson and Jim Evans, who had become poorly paid gophers for Phil Clegg and Co. willingly carrying out any task asked of them. Brendon had eventually lost his patience with their continual goading and attempts to obstruct his movements.
When growing up in the village, Brendon had always admired Caroline. Although losing out in the romantic stakes to Gareth, Caroline had asked him to be godfather to her daughter, Ellie.
At Gareth’s wake, Caroline made it clear to Brendon that she also had feelings for him and over the next couple of days, invites him to share her bed, with a view to them having a future together. Despite accepting her invitation, following the deaths of Grayson and Evans, Brendon and Sue immediately disappear, without saying goodbye.
Shortly after their disappearance, Rev. Soby looks for Jim and Pete in The Judge’s Parlour. Whilst waiting for Clegg to change a barrel, the vicar spots a headline in The Daily Telegraph detailing the death of Brendon Gallagher whilst on active duty in Aleppo, a number of weeks before he attended Gareth’s funeral. The initial shock causes Soby to drink a quantity of beer-pipeline cleaning fluid, having mistaken it for a bottle of Scotch. Although not killing him, it leaves its mark on his vocal cords.
Later, Brendon’s mobile phone is found under the bench in front of the pub, and it is not long before his unlocked car is discovered behind a campervan in the pub car park. Inside is his wallet and credit card.
Gathering to discuss the newspaper article, Clegg, Soby, Enscale and the Pettits conclude it must have been a delayed false press announcement by the government to cover up some failed MOD mission or other. Perhaps Brendon had been told to lay low, hence why he’d stayed on once Gareth’s funeral was over. As there seemed to be no other explanation for his hasty departure, they had to assume he’d been summoned to return to duty and needed a different identity, an explanation also accepted by the police. Clegg told them the wallet and credit card had been found in Gallagher’s room – no mention was made of the car, which was hurriedly driven away by Simon.
Although at one stage Caroline had agreed to the disposal of Brendon by the Swedish miners, a fact Brendon was aware of, she is convinced this was only because of the pressure put on her by Soby and had nothing to do with her greed for more silver. Consequently, she was sure Brendon would forgive her and would soon be in contact. However, a fortnight after his disappearance, even she begins to have doubts he will return, especially as she realises that he must have taken with him the exceptionally attractive, and much younger, Sue. They’d probably used her car, not that she could recall ever seeing her in one, but then, apart from Clegg, nobody else seemed to know much about her.
‘Turned up here out of the blue and asked for a job,’ he’d told them. ‘Got on well with Gallagher. Enjoyed a bit of flirtatious banter, but that’s it.’
Nevertheless, Caroline’s mind continues overruling her common sense. For a month, she preserves the belief that losing her husband, Gareth, had been preordained and, as a result, would lead to Brendon’s return to the village. With Gareth dead, the way would be open for her and Brendon to eventually become more than just casual lovers. Once they were married, her share of the silver proceeds would provide a comfortable life for them both in retirement.
It is this constant niggling belief which finally drives Caroline to succumb to a breakdown and subsequent admittance to the psychiatric ward at Truro Hospital.
During her stay, she never mentioned she knew it was Jim and Pete who’d murdered Gareth, nor did she admit to any doctors that she’d killed John Wakeham, the London estate agent who was in danger of interfering with their silver extraction business, and also Frank Hatcher, the private detective and part-time archaeologist, who, like Wakeham, was getting too close to their operation. Hatcher’s body was never found.
In addition to these deaths, two police detectives, DCI McKenna and DS Jenny Pearson, were also murdered, the former in a hit and run by Grayson and Evans and the latter by two of the Swedes, the same pair who were responsible for raping and murdering two waitresses, Melanie and Jan. Sadly, due to dysfunctional families, they were never missed, nor their bodies discovered.
The verdict on McKenna’s death was deemed an ‘open conclusion’ by the coroner, whilst Pearson’s car, having been found in the waters of Lingtree Gorge, suggested she had died following an accident. Her body was never found, the river current and depth of some of the cauldrons making them too dangerous to explore.
The accident verdict was justifiable, as her colleagues knew she hadn’t been well for a few days prior to the crash. Consequently, it was suggested a still weak and light-headed Pearson may h