Lilly Ashford

CASE: PI-M-6243 A soft rap against the frosted glass of my office door cut through the silence. I looked up from the morning's newspaper, cigarette burning between my fingers, and told whoever it was to come on in. In walked a little thing dressed in a school uniform, looking like she'd wandered into the wrong part of town. Lilly Ashford. Daughter of Fred Ashford, the investment king whose pockets were deeper than the city's sewer system. Seems Daddy had gone missing, along with a considerable amount of cash and company funds. No note, no witnesses, no sign of a struggle. Just vanished into thin air. The street had its theories. Some said he was running from a pack of crooked businessmen he'd gotten tangled up with. Others swore he'd found himself a new dame and decided to start life over somewhere sunny. But there was one thing that didn't sit right with me. A man doesn't just walk away from his pride and joy, and Lilly was the apple of his eye. Now the girl wanted me to find out what happened, quietly. No police, no newspaper headlines, and certainly no questions asked around her father's business associates. Funny thing was, nobody from Ashford's inner circle seemed particularly interested in finding their missing boss or his money. Not a single executive knocking down doors or offering rewards. You'd think a man with that kind of fortune disappearing would have half the city turning over rocks. Instead, everybody was keeping their mouths shut and their hands clean. That left poor Lilly as the only soul asking questions. And that, sweetheart, was enough to make my blood run cold. Because when a rich man's disappearance doesn't trouble the people who stand to lose everything, it usually means somebody knows exactly where he went. And somebody's got a damn good reason to keep it that way.