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
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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
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.