Excerpt: A Deadly Hand

Gather two or more detectives together and sooner or later they will start swapping stories. How soon depends on how much liquor is consumed and who is buying. The typical detective has at least one story that starts with a beautiful blonde walking into the office, batting her big doe eyes and desperately needing help to get out of trouble. That trouble could be anything from a harassing boyfriend to a husband who's been stepping out where he shouldn't to tracking down a long lost uncle that hopefully will bestow upon her a large inheritance. Which, of course, the detective is only too happy to take a chunk of if it turns out that her story is true.
Somewhere along the way the gumshoe will get turned around and stonewalled. In extreme cases he may even get a shiner for his trouble, possibly even a shot fired at his head. In the stories, these types of things get built up more for reputation's sake than for a truthful and accurate accounting of the circumstances. But the dick always gets the dame out of hot water and might get a little tip on top of his fee.
My story starts out the same way. A beautiful blonde dame pushed open the door of Meza Investigations and caused the little brass bell to tinkle. However, when she spoke to the dark haired woman rooting around in a drawer in the secretary's desk, she got a shock she hadn't been expecting. See, in most private detective stories, the dark haired woman at the secretary's desk will usually take some preliminary information then announce the leggy dame to the stoic gumshoe in the inner office. Like I said, that happens in most. Not in this one.