***SPOILERS*** The bag-lady in a ransom swap Sandra Mantell, Rebecca Wells, ends up getting screwed out of her share of the money,five G's, that brings PI Mike Hammer, Darren McGavin, into the case. It was Hammer's job to deliver the money to Mantell for the release of businessman Amber Reed, Frank Albertson, who's loving wife Margaret, Peggy Converse, put up the ransom money. Feeling she was short changed Mantell goes to Hammer for help who in the light, not the dark and spooky graveyard where her handed her the cash, in seeing how attractive she is now's more then willing to comply.
It's just too bad for Hammer and ever worse for Mantell that she ended up strangled before they can get their heads together to solve this very sticky problem. Now on his own Hammer checks out the place where Mantell worked as a stripper, the Star Theater, to find out who her customers, while off the job, were to track down who may well have murdered her! It's fellow stripper Trina Gerco,Fay Spain, who tells Hammer that Mantell had a little black book of names & phone numbers which can help him find her killer.
***SPOILERS*** Things take a different turn when the kidnapped Abner Reed shows up beaten and bloodied at his wife's doorsteps. Abner who claimed he was kidnapped by some guy with a scare on his nose isn't all that willing to help, he desperately needs some rest he says, which make the case even more difficult by giving Mantell's killer that much more time to cover his tracks. ***MAJOR SPOILER*** It's when Hammer finally find's the late Sandra Mantell's little black book with the help of Trina Greco that things start to get very interesting. With Mantell's killer coming out into the open Hammer, with fists &.38 revolver, is more then ready for him. The one thing that Hammer wasn't ready for was who the killer was! And that for a brief moment left the hard as nails and take no BS private eye almost speechless!
It's just too bad for Hammer and ever worse for Mantell that she ended up strangled before they can get their heads together to solve this very sticky problem. Now on his own Hammer checks out the place where Mantell worked as a stripper, the Star Theater, to find out who her customers, while off the job, were to track down who may well have murdered her! It's fellow stripper Trina Gerco,Fay Spain, who tells Hammer that Mantell had a little black book of names & phone numbers which can help him find her killer.
***SPOILERS*** Things take a different turn when the kidnapped Abner Reed shows up beaten and bloodied at his wife's doorsteps. Abner who claimed he was kidnapped by some guy with a scare on his nose isn't all that willing to help, he desperately needs some rest he says, which make the case even more difficult by giving Mantell's killer that much more time to cover his tracks. ***MAJOR SPOILER*** It's when Hammer finally find's the late Sandra Mantell's little black book with the help of Trina Greco that things start to get very interesting. With Mantell's killer coming out into the open Hammer, with fists &.38 revolver, is more then ready for him. The one thing that Hammer wasn't ready for was who the killer was! And that for a brief moment left the hard as nails and take no BS private eye almost speechless!
