title: No Peace for the Wicked
author:  Adrian Magson 
description: The first old man died on the beach. Huddled in a blanket, he watched gulls screaming over a plastic bottle bobbing in the choppy water, while under a heavy sky a tanker plodded up the Channel. The beach was deserted. Too early for day-trippers and too cold for beachcombers with their wretched metal-detectors. He wasn't interested in seagulls or tankers. The birds were noisy and demanding, like people, and the tankers too remote. He had long ago given up interest in anything much, surrendering instead to deliberate and ill-tempered isolation. Now all he had was the creeping disease of old age, made bearable by the few bits of comfort a well-stocked bank account could buy. As long as the account received regular additions, that was all that concerned him. A car approached along the promenade and he instinctively sank deeper into his deckchair, pulling the blanket tighter around him. If he'd wanted strangers stopping by for chit-chat he'd have hung out a sign. Maybe it was Willis. His minder was due about now with a flask of coffee laced with something that would truly piss off his doctor, if only he knew... A door thumped shut and pebbles crunched as someone dropped down from the promenade. A man. Heavyweight, by the sounds of it. It wasn't Willis then; he'd recognise his footsteps anywhere. The hairs on his neck stirred as the footsteps approached, bringing faint memories of other times when danger had moved against him. Well, he'd faced that before and usually walked away laughing. The newcomer stopped just behind him, so close he must have been staring right down at the crown of his head. He fought a strong desire to turn and look. Damn him! He'd sit here and defy the intruder to come round and look him in the eye. Whoever it was didn't bother. Instead the old man heard a rustle of cloth and a familiar metallic click. It turned his blood to water. Then the seagulls and the wind, the impending rain and the tanker all ceased to matter.
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  _A Selection of Recent Titles by Adrian Magson_
  
  
  _The Riley Gavin and Frank Palmer Series_
  
  
  NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED
  
  
  NO HELP FOR THE DYING
  
  
  NO SLEEP FOR THE DEAD
  
  
  NO TEARS FOR THE LOST
  
  
  NO KISS FOR THE DEVIL
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  RED STATION
  
  
  Adrian Magson
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  This first world edition published 2010
  
  
  in Great Britain and in the USA by
  
  
  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of
  
  
  9–15 High Street, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM1 1DF.
  
  
  Copyright © 2010 by 