Never Apologise, Never Explain - James Craig [0]
For more information visit www.james-craig.co.uk, or follow him on Twitter: @byjamescraig.
Also by James Craig
London Calling
Constable & Robinson Ltd
55-56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2012
Copyright © James Craig 2012
The right of James Craig to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in
Publication data is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-84901-584-4 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-84901-782-4 (ebook)
Typeset by TW Typesetting, Plymouth, Devon
Printed and bound in the UK
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is the second Carlyle novel. After publishing the first (London Calling), I started paying more attention to Acknowledgements pages in other books. Having looked through more than a few now, I have to conclude that I am getting a lot more help than other writers. Either that or they are being rather parsimonious with their thanks.
For my part, I have to say a sincere ‘thank you’ to many people. They include: Polly James, Paul Ridley, Michael Doggart, Luke Speed, Andrea von Schilling, Celso F. Lopez and Peter Lavery. Thanks as well go to crime fiction guru Richard Jacques and everyone at Brunswick, and to Mary Dubberly and all the staff at Waterstone’s in Covent Garden.
Particular mention has to go to Chris McVeigh and Beth McFarland, digital media experts at 451 for all their help in promoting John Carlyle online. And, of course, nothing would have come of any of this without the efforts of Krystyna Green, Rob Nichols, Martin Palmer, Eryl Humphrey Jones, Emily Burns and all of the team at Constable.
Above all, however, I thank Catherine and Cate who continue to put up with all of this book stuff when I should have been doing other things. This book, and all the others, is for them.
CONTENTS
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
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
ONE
Finding himself once again locked out of the Parker House hostel, Walter Poonoosamy, the drunk known as ‘Dog’, walked round the corner, into Drury Lane and headed north. His destination was the warren of streets around the British Museum. A tourist magnet, the area boasted plenty of all-you-can-eat restaurants, so the pickings were usually good.
Big Ben could just be heard chiming one o’clock as Dog turned into Great Russell Street. At this time of night the street was empty, just the way he liked it. He eyed the black refuse sacks that had been left out on the pavement, waiting for collection by Camden’s heroic bin men. The morning’s first collection truck would be along at around 7 a.m.; by then, most of the sacks would have been opened, and the rubbish strewn up and down the street. Dog knew from bitter experience that it was the