Deborah Crombie
And Justice There Is None
The eighth book in the Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James series, 2002
For Nanny
MILLENNIUM
"The sun no longer shows
His face; and treason sows
His secret seeds that no man can detect;
Fathers by their children are undone;
The brother would the brother cheat;
And the cowled monk is a deceit…
Might is right, and justice there is none."
– Walther von der Vogelweide
c. 1170-1230
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks are due, as always, to the Every Other Tuesday Night Writer's Group: Steve Copling, Dale Denton, Jim Evans, Diane Sullivan Hale, John Hardie, Viqui Litman, Rickey Thornton, and Milan Vesely, with added appreciation to Diane Sullivan Hale, RN, BSN, for her advice on medical matters. Thanks as well to Carol Chase and Marcia Talley for their inspiration and input; to Connie Munro for her astute copy edit; to Glen Edelstein for the book design; to Jamie Warren Youll for the jacket design; to Kate Miciak, my editor at Bantam, for simply being the best; and to Nancy Yost, my agent, for her long-standing patience and support.
CHAPTER ONE
Admiral Sir Edward Vernon, with a small fleet of ships from the British Navy, captured the port [of Porto Bello] in 1739… Bonfires were lit in all the major cities to celebrate the victory… streets and districts were named after Vernon and Portobello.
– Whetlor and Bartlett,
from Portobello
He ran, as so many others ran, the black anorak protecting him from the mist, the reflective patches on his trainers gleaming as he passed under the street lamps.