THE HAMMER FILES: The Setup - Jack Calls Jamie Diamond

THE HAMMER FILES: The Setup – Jack Calls Jamie Diamond

A grayscale, high-contrast pulp-noir graphic novel panel shows Jack Hammer, a burly man in a trench coat and fedora, standing at a payphone located in the back corner of a dimly lit, gritty bar. He holds the receiver with a serious, intense expression. The bar's bottles and shadowy figures are blurred in the background, adding to the mysterious atmosphere.

This entry is part 9 of 16 in the series Chapter 1: The Case of December's Debt.

The bell above the door of Joe's Place was missing, probably pried off by a drunk looking for spare change. The air inside was a thick soup of stale beer, cheap perfume, and desperation. A few lonely souls hunched over their drinks at the bar, their faces lit by the glow of a flickering neon sign that advertised a brand of whiskey nobody drank anymore. This was a dive, all right. My kind of place.

A Call in the Dark

I scanned the room, ignoring the stares, and found it in the back corner: a payphone, its chrome dull, its receiver smelling of a thousand whispered secrets. I dropped a dime in the slot, the clink echoing in the quiet gloom. My fingers punched Jamie Diamond’s number, a rhythm I knew by heart.

He picked up on the second ring, his voice sharp, alert. “Diamond here.”

“It’s Jack,” I said, my voice low. “I got a problem. The kind with high stakes.”

A pause. Jamie knew my code. He knew when I called, it wasn’t for a friendly chat. “Lay it on me, Hammer.”

I gave him the rundown, quick and dirty. Rocco Racini. The hit. The backroom poker game. The unnamed trigger man who’d be at the table. “Frank just dealt me a new hand,” I finished, “and I need someone to play it for me.”

The Diamond’s Edge

Another pause, longer this time. I could almost hear the gears turning in his head. Jamie was a gambler, but he wasn’t reckless. He weighed the odds, always.

“So, you want me to sit in for a marked man in a game where the house is looking to collect on a different kind of debt?” he finally said, a hint of amusement in his tone. “Sounds like my kind of high stakes.”

“It is,” I confirmed. “No one knows your face. You’re clean, Jamie. And you’re the best damn card shark I know.”

“You have to show Five grand cash just to get in the door” I said.i “And I’ll stake that”.

“And what’s my cut?” he asked, ever the businessman.

“Everything,” I said, without hesitation. “And your life, if this thing goes sideways.”

He chuckled, a dry, raspy sound. “Always the charmer, Jack. Alright. I’m in. But we’re going to need a setup.” He gave me a time and a place, a back alley meet that only he and I would know.

I hung up the phone, the receiver cold against my ear. Jamie was in. The first piece of the puzzle was in place. Now, for a setup.

Series Navigation<< THE HAMMER FILES: High Stakes and a DiamondTHE HAMMER FILES: A Deal with Diamond >>

Chapter 1: The Case of December's Debt.