King of Swords

King of Swords by Nick stone

King of Swords By the same author

Mr Clarinet

for more information visit www.nickstone.co.uk

I

I King of Swords

NICK STONE

MICHAELJOSEPH an imprint of PENGUIN BOOKS MICHAEL JOSEPH

Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ori., England Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 2J0 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R orl, England www.penguin.coni

Published 2007

Copyright Š Nick Stone, 2007 The moral right of the author has been asserted All rights reserved Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book

Set in 13.515.5 pt Monotype Garamond Typeset by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

hardback isbn: 978-0—718-14922—2 For Dad Acknowledgements

With love to Hyacinth — who makes the world turn — and to my brothers, Seb and Rupert.

Very special thanks to: Beverley Cousins, Caroline Michel, Dorian Karchmar, Rowan Lawton, Tom Weldon, Jonathan Burnham, Rob Williams, Jason Craig, Ana-Maria Rivera, Henry Steadman and Graham Lowe for the info.

Muchas gracias a the Mighty Bromfields: Lucy and Cecil, Colin, Janice and Amy, David, Sonia, Isabella and Gabriella, Brian and Lynette, Dean, Bryony, Ashley and Cerilee, Gregory; Novlyn, Errol and Dwayne Thompson; Lyn Brown, Andrew and Donna Bent, Uncle Lenny, Sonia and Robert Phillips, Nadine Radford, Tim Heath, Suzanne Lovell, Tomas Carruthers, Sally and Dick Gallagher, Carol Reid, Maria Bivins-Smith, Ken Bruen and the Amazing Grace, the Count, Kim, Pasky, Laura and Mario at Don Pasquales, Cambridge {still the best), Ellen Kanner, Mitchell Kaplan, Angie Robinson, Tony Burns, Steve and Jeanette Markiewicz, Richard Townsley, Sally Riley, Ayo and Lizzie — the Mystery Girls, Chris Simmons, Nan Mousley, Chris Haslam, Joe Veltre, Jane Opoku, Tony Lacey, Rick Saba, Chris McWatters, Alex Walsh, Clare Oxborrow, Ryan, Gary, Chas Cooke, Thor, Seamus 'The (Ongoing, Original and Unsurpassed) Legend', Cal and Marcus De Grammont, Scottish John, Marcus, Pete Wild, Christine Stone, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Becke Parker, Andrew Holmes at 64 Clarke, Bill Pearson, Pauli and Tiina Toivola, Jim 'Six Fingers' Kelly, AK 47, Seflor Miguel, Emma and Tony, Stav Sherez, Dominic

VII Thompson, Big T, Nic Joss, Lloyd Strickland, Richard Reynolds, Fouad, Khoi, Abdul and Shahid, Steve Purdom, Frankie, Mark and Scott at CD Discounts, Battersea, Jan, Vi and Ayaz, Mister Allan George, Cookie, Richard Thomas, G-Force: Nick, Kate & Tess, Al & Pedro Diaz, Joaquim 'Akkes' Kaufmann, Harm Van Maanen - The Pride of Nijmegen, Gerald Laumanns, Michael und die Familie Schmidt, George und die Familie Bischof, Sascha Weber, Wrigleys, Whittards of Chelsea, Gaggia and, last but not least, to the great Don Winslow for his very mean Dog.

vm I have supped full with horrors. Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5 PART ONE

November 1980 It was the last thing he needed or wanted, a dead ape at the end of his shift, but there it was - a corpse with bad timing.

Larry Gibson, one of the night security guards at Primate Park, stood staring at the thing spotlighted in his torch beam — a long-stemmed cruciform of black fur lying less than twenty feet away, face up and palms open on the grassy verge in front of the wire. He didn't know which of the fifteen species of monkey advertised in the zoo's product literature this one was, and he didn't care; all he knew was that he had some decisions to make and fast.