Prologue: The Mad King of Manhattan Francis Close Hall Institute for Psychiatric Medicine - New York. After twenty years as a homicide detective in the New York Police Department, Gabriel Devlin thought he had seen everything. In this case he was not so sure. The corridor outside the cell smelled faintly of disinfectant. “That’s him,” said the doctor. “The King himself.” Devlin looked through the peephole in the door and...

Chapter Two: Arrival This wasn’t a purchase. It was an inheritance of problems. jkr 2.1 No transition. Auction Room. New York Her husband wasn’t known for having a sense of humor. The thought landed heavily on Katrina Kane as she stood staring at the archway, from which moments before Victor Kane and his assistant Harris had vanished right in front of her eyes. She stepped back; her eyes fixed on it at the end of the corr...

Chapter 1: Victor Kane’s WorldKane Tower – 60th Floor Victor Kane did not read newspapers. This was not so much a principle, but a condition of his life. Anything of consequence was brought to him and reduced and rearranged into a condition that required no effort on his part. To him, reading meant uncertainty, and he had long ago removed uncertainty from his affairs. For this reason, when his assistant, Harris, laid a ne...