One of our call girls is missing

It sounded like a joke, but the old dame was scared stiff when one of her girls didn't show up for work that night. And this one was her prettiest - and most profitable.

''Find her, shamus, '' she said. ''And fast!''

''My pleasure, '' I said.

My name is Joe Puma. I call myself a detective and I get a hundred bucks a day.

The girl's name was Jean Talsman. She called herself an entertainer and she got a hundred bucks a night.

The job had delightful possibilities - until some joker started making corpses out of the customers, and I found a few dealers in sudden death camped on my own doorstep.