A Carrion Death & The 2nd Death of Goodluck Tinubu

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A Carrion Death & The 2nd Death of Goodluck Tinubu Page 1

by Michael Stanley




  Michael Stanley Bundle:

  A Carrion Death & The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu

  The Detective Kubu Mysteries

  with Exclusive Excerpt of Death of the Mantis

  Michael Stanley

  Contents

  Cover Page

  Title Page

  About the Author

  A Carrion Death

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Foreword

  Cast of Characters

  Map

  Part One - A Carrion Death

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Part Two - Nature’s Needs

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Part Three - Reading the Writing

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Part Four - Pricking Thumbs

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Part Five - False Thieves

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Part Six - Ugly Death

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Part Seven - Dumb Jewels

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Part Eight - Rank Offence

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Part Nine - Deceivers Ever

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Part Ten - A Villain’s Mind

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Epilogue - Painted Devil

  Glossary

  Acknowledgments

  Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Author Note

  Cast of Characters

  Maps

  Part One - Things Told

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Part Two

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Part Three

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Part Four

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Part Five

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Part Six

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Part Seven

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Part Eight

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  All Alike

  Glossary

  Acknowledgments

  An Excerpt from Death of the Mantis

  Cover

  Prologue

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  About the Author

  MICHAEL STANLEY is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The pair has had many adventures together, including tracking lions at night, fighting bush fires on the Savuti plains in northern Botswana, surviving a charging elephant, and losing their navigation maps while flying over the Kalahari. Sears lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. Trollip divides his time between South Africa and Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are currently at work on the second Detective Kubu thriller.

  www.detectivekubu.com

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  A Carrion Death

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A CARRION DEATH. Copyright © 2008 by Michael Sears and Stanley Raynes Trollip. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2008 ISBN: 9780061871610

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  A Carrion Death

  Intr
oducing Detective Kubu

  Michael Stanley

  FOREWORD

  Botswana is a country of breathtaking variety, from the semi-desert of the Kalahari to the lush waterways of the Okavango and the riverine forests of the Chobe. The peoples, too, are diverse. The Bushmen, or Barsawa or San, eke a living from the arid areas by skill and knowledge, and have been doing so for over twenty-thousand years. The Batswana people constitute more than half the population and speak Setswana, regarded as the national language, although English is the official language.

  The country was granted independence from Britain in 1966, and has enjoyed a stable and peaceful democracy for forty years, despite unrest in all its neighbors. This is not to say that tensions are absent between race groups and cultures, nor that twenty-first century technologies have overwhelmed ingrained superstitions, beliefs, and prejudices. In which country is that not true?

  The people are friendly, believe in courtesy, and in dignified traditional ways. In the early 1960s, the country had a subsistence economy, but after independence the economy grew as a result of beef exports and mineral discoveries. The stability and natural wonders attracted tourists from abroad, and the economy began to improve. But it was the development of fabulously rich diamond mines in the 1970s and early 1980s that propelled the country onto a rapid growth path, sometimes in conflict with traditional values and beliefs. These mines are run by Debswana, a joint venture between the Government and the international De Beers diamond giant. Diamond miners and traders have their own agendas throughout Africa, and Botswana is no exception.

  We have invented a conglomerate—the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company—privately owned and ubiquitous in the south of the country, and have used it as a pivot for the financial tensions of the story. Such companies and their impacts are common elsewhere in Africa, but, perhaps fortunately, not in Botswana.

  Botswana has a dedicated and efficient police force, and a judicial system that believes in punishment as well as rehabilitation. The Criminal Investigation Department is based in the capital, Gaborone. Its offices are in a newer area of the city to the west, between the reservoir and a small group of hills erupting from the plains. From one of these offices, Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu would look out at Kgale Hill.

  Glossary and Acknowledgments

  The peoples of southern Africa have integrated many words of their own languages into colloquial English. For authenticity and color, we have used these occasionally when appropriate. Most of the time the meanings are clear from the context, but for interest, we have included a glossary at the end of the book. You will find our many acknowledgments there, also.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Words in square brackets are approximate phonetic pronunciations.

  Banda, Edison

  Detective sergeant in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department (CID) [Edison BUN-dah]

  Bengu, Amantle

  Kubu’s mother [Ah-MUN-tlé BEN-gu]

  Bengu, David “Kubu”

  Assistant superintendent in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department [David “KOO-boo” BEN-gu]

  Bengu, Joy

  Kubu’s wife [Joy BEN-gu]

  Bengu, Wilmon

  Kubu’s father [WILL-mon BEN-gu]

  Botha, Andries

  Assistant manager and ranger at Dale’s Camp [UN-drees BOH-tuh]

  Daniel

  Unidentified behind-the-scenes mastermind

  Dlamini, Zanele

  Forensic specialist in the Botswana police [ZAH-NÉ-lé Dlah-MEE-nee]

  Ferraz, Jason

  Manager of the Maboane diamond mine [Jason Ferr-AZZ]

  Frankental, Aron

  Geologist at the Maboane diamond mine [Aron FRANK-en-tall]

  Hofmeyr, Angus

  Son of Roland Hofmeyr, and Dianna [Angus HOFF-mayor]

  Hofmeyr’s twin brother; inherits control of the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company (BCMC) on his thirtieth birthday

  Hofmeyr, Cecil

  Brother of Roland Hofmeyr; has been running the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company and the Roland Hofmeyr Trust since Roland’s death

  Hofmeyr, Dianna

  Daughter of Roland Hofmeyr, and Angus Hofmeyr’s twin sister; inherits shares in the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company on her thirtieth birthday

  Hofmeyr, Pamela

  Wife of Roland Hofmeyr, and mother of Angus and Dianna

  Hofmeyr, Roland

  Founder of the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company, killed in an airplane crash

  Kobedi, Thembu

  Pimp and blackmailer [TEM-boo Ko-BÉ-dee]

  Mabaku, Jacob

  Director of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department [Jacob Mah-BAH-koo]

  MacGregor, Ian

  Pathologist for the Botswana police

  Molefe, Jonny

  Secretary to Cecil Hofmeyr [Jonny Mo-LÉ-fé]

  Nama, Robert

  Government-appointed board member of BCMC. Always with Peter Rabafana [Robert NAH-mah]

  Rabafana, Peter

  Government-appointed board member of BCMC. Always with Robert Nama [Peter Rah-bah-FAH-nah]

  Red Beard

  Nameless Angolan drug smuggler and hit man

  Serome, Pleasant

  Joy Bengu’s sister [Pleasant Sé-ROE-mé]

  Sibisi, Bongani

  Professor of ecology at the University of Botswana [Bon-GAH-nee See-BEE-see]

  Swanepoel, Johannes “Bakkies”

  Detective in the South African Police [Yo-HUN-nés “BUCKees” SWAN-é-pull]

  Tiro, Peter

  Detective sergeant in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department [Peter TEE-roe]

  Map

  Part One

  A CARRION DEATH

  A carrion Death, within whose empty eye There is a written scroll!

  —SHAKESPEARE, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, ACT 2, SCENE 7

  March

  Chapter 1

  The hyena moved off when the men shouted. It stood about fifty yards away, watching them with its head low between powerful shoulders, wary, not fearful, waiting for its chance to retake the field. The men stood in silence, staring at what the hyena had been eating.

  Yellowed bones pierced through areas of sinew and desiccated skin. The head, separated from the spine, lay about a yard away. Remnants of skin on the upper face stretched in a death mask over the skull and pulled at the scalp. The lower part of the face had been torn away, and the back of the skull was smashed by jaws hungry for the brains. The eye sockets were empty, save for dried blood; one of the vultures had already had a turn. Snapped ribs lay scattered, but the backbone and pelvis were intact. One leg remained attached; the other was gone. The lower half of one arm was missing; the other, freshly crunched by the hyena, lay a short distance away. There was a cloying smell of carrion, unpleasant but not unbearable. The scavengers had removed most of the flesh, and the desert sun had desiccated the rest. The flies, less cautious than the hyena, had startled to a buzzing swarm but now resettled, fat green jewels on the dirty bones.

 

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