The Steel Noose — Arnold Drake

THE STEEL NOOSEBoyd McGee is a popular NYC columnist, so it comes as no surprise when a lawyer gives him a tip that a nameless client is being sued for divorce. He files that one away, but later that evening his cabby contact gives him an even juicier tip-tobacco king K. L. Benson has been seen escorting the beautiful Karen Lamain out of an uptown apartment building. Lamain is the wife of Charlie Whipper, a blackmailer doing time for a failed bank robbery. Boyd doesn't make the connection, but when his column appears the next morning, he finds that he has stirred a hornet's nest. Benson is the lawyer's anonymous tip, and both the Feds and the hoods figure that his escort knows where Whipper's stashed half-a-million is. And they all want to know where she is. Naturally, they all figure that the only guy with this info is Boyd...Black Gat Book #57.