Genovese was still sprawled on the carpet. Charm Wylie stood over him, looking fleshy in a green satin dinner dress cut low over her plump breasts. Brilliants glittered in her platinum hair as she raised her head and gazed dumbfounded at Thursday. "I had to come back." she murmured. "I forgot something."...a silvered .38 automatic hung in her hand.

Charm was a big time moll, charged with forming a vice syndicate in San Diego. Genovese was a crime fixer with Washington connections. And Max Thursday was the lug who had promised the San Diego police he would worm his way into the mob, posing as a New York syndicate man, to squelch the wave of corruption and crime the syndicate men were busily organizing. But whom could he trust, in this network of double-dealing crooks?