The Byline Murders

The Byline Murders
Prologue
Somewhere west of Chicago's Loop (about two a.m.)
The two thugs who yanked Sid Coffin from the Conover hotel lobby into
thirty minutes of mind-blowing terror had to know by now he had somehow
freed himself from the grisly horror in their bloody van.
It was Sid's luck the murderers felt they needed a drink before continuing
westward from the city to dump him and the already butchered half of their
cargo. Now, chilled and filthy, he cringed against the outside wall of the
clapboard two-story road house called Bud and Alma's. He was in complete
darkness, but he felt as visible and as easy to attack as a duck soaring in innocent
flight over a multi-gun blind.