September 4, 2025

THE HAMMER FILES: High Stakes and a Diamond

Jack Hammer05 mins
Noir cartoon of Jack Hammer, looking thoughtful, thumbing through a pocket-sized contacts book, with a ghostly face floating above him, set against the rundown streets of Old Town." Noir cartoon of Jack Hammer, looking thoughtful, thumbing through a pocket-sized contacts book, with a ghostly face floating above him, set against the rundown streets of Old Town."
This entry is part 8 of 16 in the series Chapter 1: The Case of December's Debt.

The door to Frank’s brownstone shut behind me with a tired sigh, and I stepped back onto the cracked pavement of Old Town. The street was a grim tunnel, the kind where the shadows stretched long and the only thing blowing was yesterday’s trash. Frank had dealt me a new hand, all right, but it was a hand full of trouble, and the target on my back felt heavier than ever.

The Weight of the Game

Rocco’s game. A high stakes affair. A backroom poker game where a hitman would be playing. Frank wouldn’t give up the name, but he guaranteed the trigger man would be at the table. That left me with a problem: how to get in without getting myself killed. No one was wearing name tags, and a marked man walking into a den of wolves was just asking for a bullet.

I pulled out my little black contacts book, its leather cover worn smooth from years of use. Pages filled with names, numbers, and the ghosts of old favors. I thumbed through them, each face a flicker of a memory, each name a possibility, then a dead end. Too hot. Too cold. Too much of a rat. Too much of a saint. The kind of high stakes play I was walking into needed a very specific kind of player.

A Diamond in the Rough

Then I saw it. A name that always made me crack a cynical smile: Jamie Diamond. The irony wasn’t lost on me; a name so corny, so perfectly noir, for a guy who actually made his fortune gambling. Cards, dice, roulette—didn’t matter. Jamie had a talent. He could beat them all.

Jamie started off like me. Poor. Scrappy. But he promised himself if he ever made it big, he’d spread it around, thick. And he did. He gambles, sure, but he’s not a cheat. He’s one of the most honest people I know. And we’re tight. Real tight. I helped him out once, back when the mob wanted to cut off his talented hands for catching their cheat in a game they’d rigged. Jamie spun it around, walked away with a twenty grand pot, and the mob walked away with a bloody nose and a new respect for the little guy.

Diamond was it. He was the only one I could trust with this kind of high stakes gamble.

My feet carried me without thought, past the boarded-up storefronts and the flickering streetlights, until I found myself in front of a grimy sign that simply read: Joe’s Place. A dive, but the kind of place that had a payphone in the back. I pushed through the swinging door. Time to make a call.

Series Navigation<< THE HAMMER FILES: A New HandTHE HAMMER FILES: The Setup – Jack Calls Jamie Diamond >>

Chapter 1: The Case of December's Debt.

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