Beginnings

It is early October, 1928. This is the twenty-first Cyrus Skeen detective novel. It covers the time when Dilys Jones was his secretary, and before he formed close friendships with Mickey Kane, Lieutenant Raggio, and Lieutenant Donovan. In this episode, Skeen tackles the mystery of the murder of a China Basin warehouseman. The warehouse has been the target of several break-ins with large quantities of wholesale merchandise being stolen. The man was murdered while protecting his property. Skeen interviews the man's sister, Candice, and learns that the man worked assiduously to avoid bankruptcy and losing the warehouse. The warehousing broker assures Skeen that everything is fine and that the murdered man had repaid the debt he owed the broker. But Skeen senses that something else is behind the murder of the warehouseman and behind subsequent murders. In the meantime, Skeen is having a difficult time understanding his current girlfriend. He makes a decision that will in time affect the rest of his life.