I took a case and instantly found myself neck-deep in trouble. An old lady hired me and then she vanished like a smoke-ring in the wind, taking an ancient Mayan dagger with her. I chased her trail to a shamus banker fencing stolen artifacts, but the big shot didn't like a gumshoe poking his nose in his racket. He sent a couple of heavies to rock me off and rearrange my face. Before I knew it, I was in the clink, framed for a cold-blooded murder and tossed into the black maria. Inside the big house, I met a sharp-witted smuggler—a real pro with the kind of street smarts that could talk a parrot out of a cage. While I was doing time, the gal I loved disappeared. But by some stroke of dumb luck, my sentence got commuted and I was back on the mean streets. I chased shadows, drinking cheap hooch and dodging bullets for months, piecing together the fractured reality. In this city, justice is a scarce commodity, but I finally found it.