Dirty Pool — Steve Brewer

UNEASY MONEY

If Albuquerque P.I. Bubba Mabry has any competition -- and it's debatable that he even has a job--it would be William J. Pool, a slick Texas hotshot who loves playing Bubba for a chump. So when Pool asks Bubba if he wants some easy money, Bubba thinks about telling him to go to hell ... and then he thinks about his bank account.

It's a simple gig: drop off a large ransom payment to the kidnappers of Richie Johnson, the pampered son-turned-skinhead of multimillionaire Dick Johnson. Bubba follows instructions and the moneys picked up--by rebellious Richie himself who quickly disappears. Now Johnson Sr. has a new deal for Pool and Bubba: whoever finds his son first keeps the ransom money.

Of course, Bubba's long-lost father picks this time to come home, and the old man is nutty as a fruitcake, but nothing will come between Bubba Mabry and $200,000--except maybe, murder.