The Warm-Up

He was a referral from Archer and Spade.  It was a skirt case.

There were too many cases of molls that followed some GI and ended up needing some dough and getting caught up with the wrong types.  So they threw those peeper cases to me.

This time the chick found herself working some flophouse and then making a clean sneak after a late shift.  Of course I was in.  Of course I needed to know where to start.

He dropped a napkin on my desk for the Warm-Up: a hole-in-the-wall coffee joint known to cater to Chippys and Punks.  As soon as this Joe left my office I knew he was over his head.  There was always more to the story in this business.