Top of the heap : a Cool and Lam mystery, book 13

SHE PLAYED THE ODDS – AND LOST! When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi – and fast. Enter Donald Lam of the Cool & Lam detective agency. Donald tracks down the two women with whom his client claims to have spent the night and the client declares the case closed. But it’s not. Something about his client’s story doesn’t add up, and Donald can’t resist the temptation to keep digging. Before he knows it, he’s dug up connections to a mining scam, an illegal casino, and a double homicide – plus an opportunity for an enterprising private eye to make a small fortune, if he can just stay alive long enough to cash in on it! **Cool & Lam Mystery #13** (1952) John Carver Billings II has a story with more holes in it than the surgeons had to sew up in the torso of recuperating LA Mob boss Gabby Garvanza. On the other hand, Billings has also promised Bertha Cool a $500 bonus on top of the usual agency fees. Donald Lam's concerns fall on ears deafened by the sound of Bertha's office cash drawer slamming shut on Billings' initial payment of $300 in cold, hard cash. Not that their client is in any way implicated in the botched Garvanza hit. Billings' style runs more to hitting on attractive women in cocktail lounges. Twice in short order, according to him. "Morrie" was the first pick-up. Billings swears he didn't know she was in fact Maurine Auburn, Gabby Garvanza's girlfriend and a witness to his unfortunate encounter with a lead double-tap. Didn't learn anything about that side of things until days later, when the newspapers reported her mysterious disappearance--after a cocktail lounge pick-up separated her from her companions. But she isn't the missing person Billings wants the agency to find. He claims she ditched him almost immediately, and he then moved on to a twosome, "Sylvia" and "Millie." That's where his tale really starts leaking like a sieve. He says flat-out that he's paying Cool & Lam to deliver Sylvia and Millie as an alibi. It's the gaps between his words that have Donald Lam hearing alarm bells. "When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi - and fast. Enter Donald Lam of the Cool & Lam detective agency. Donald tracks down the two women with whom his client claims to have spent the night and the client declares the case closed. But it's not. Something about his client's story doesn't add up, and Donald can't resist the temptation to keep digging. Before he knows it, he's dug up connections to a mining scam, an illegal casino, and a double homicide - plus an opportunity for an enterprising private eye to make a small fortune, if he can just stay alive long enough to cash in!" -- From back cover When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi and fast. Enter Donald Lam of the Cool & Lam detective agency who tracks down the two women with whom his client claims to have spent the night, and the client declares the case closed. But it's not. Something about his client's story doesn't add up, and before Donald knows it, he's dug up connections to a mining scam, an illegal casino, and a double homicide--plus an opportunity for an enterprising private eye to make a small fortune, if he can just stay alive long enough to cash in on it! SHE PLAYED THE ODDS - AND LOST! When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi - and fast. Enter Donald Lam of the Cool & Lam detective agency. But his client's story doesn't add up, and soon Lam's uncovered a mining scam, an illegal casino, and a double homicide... And a chance for an enterprising private eye to make a small fortune - if he can just stay alive long enough to cash in on it! The Return of the Legendary, Long-out-of-print Cool & Lam Mystery series Cover; High Praise for Top of the Heap; Reviews; Excerpt; Other Hard Case Crime Books; Title Page; Copyright; Table of Contents; Chapter One; Chapter Two; Chapter Three; Chapter Four; Chapter Five; Chapter Six; Chapter Seven; Chapter Eight; Chapter Nine; Chapter Ten; Chapter Eleven; Chapter Twelve; Chapter Thirteen; Chapter Fourteen; Chapter Fifteen; Chapter Sixteen; Chapter Seventeen; Chapter Eighteen; Chapter Nineteen; Chapter Twenty; Other Hard Case Crime Books "When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi-- and fast. Enter Donald Lam of the Cool & Lam detective agency. But his client's story doesn't add up, and soon Lam's uncovered a mining scam, an illegal casino, a double homicide... and a chance for an enterprising private eye to make a small fortune-- If he can just stay alive long enough to cash in!" -- From back cover