Mike Shayne leaps into danger after a fugitive collapses on his secretary's floor Before she met Mike Shayne, Lucy Hamilton was just another young woman living in New Orleans. She shared an apartment with her best friend, Arlene, a vivacious young thing with a thousand gentleman callers, but none were as debonair as Arlene's brother, Jack Bristow. Since she started working for Shayne, Lucy hasn't had any time for beaus, and she hasn't thought of Bristow in years—not until the day he shows up on her Miami doorstep begging for help. He collapses, blood seeping from a wound in his chest, and Lucy helps him to the bedroom, knowing that he's minutes from death. The police are chasing Bristow for a murder Lucy's sure he didn't commit, and by the time Shayne gets the cops off their backs, Bristow has escaped through a window. Shayne must track down the bleeding man in order to learn what really happened—for both the sake of an old friend and the sake of justice.