THE HAMMER FILES: The Setup – Jack Calls Jamie Diamond

Jack Hammer03 mins mins
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.

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.

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