In a city run by a powerful mobster, nobody wants to play the hero. Private investigator Charlie Madison just wants to pay the rent. When a little girl goes missing and no ransom demand is made, Madison takes the case. Time isn't on his side. After 48 hours, it's unlikely an abducted child will be found in one piece. But Madison's a champion of lost causes, and he'll be damned before he gives up on her—even if it means putting his life on the line. As the mystery unfolds, Madison learns a bizarre secret that seems too impossible to believe. But it could explain why the girl was kidnapped—and why she might still be alive. Novelette - 12,500 words - Crime Noir / Science Fiction Prequel to Immaterial Evidence Originally published by St. Martin's Press in the Girl Trouble anthology

The vault door never opened. The bank went into lockdown in less than a minute. Yet the security footage was a hundred silver bars had simply vanished. Ever since the city’s most dangerous crime boss put a price on his head, private investigator Charlie Madison has lived as an exile in Little Tokyo. But now an old friend and police sergeant has lured Madison back into the city to hunt down an invisible criminal—if he can. As Madison makes his clandestine return, high-profile people start disappearing. And when federal agents swoop onto the scene to take matters into their own hands, they offer Madison a deal he can't refuse—as long as he agrees to work with them. With Japanese freedom fighters and refurbished killing machines threatening to take the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust, the United World government needs all the help it can get. Embroiled in an unimaginable mystery, one private eye must rely on his wits to solve a case where the evidence is immaterial, and the odds are stacked high against him at every turn.

A detective with no way out. A telepath with something to prove... World-weary detective Charlie Madison has seen more than his share of war. When he stops by the 37th precinct late one night to check on his old friend Sergeant Douglass, the place is as quiet as a morgue. The last thing he expects to find: half a dozen Russian gunmen with a score to settle. What starts out as a vicious Alamo-style battle soon evolves into something more sinister as Madison's past comes into play. Will his ties to a branch of the Japanese mafia be a help or a hindrance? And who is the strange man in holding? Why are the Russians determined to break him out? Struggling to survive the night, one private eye must rely on his wits to solve a mystery where he's outnumbered, outgunned, and trapped inside a police station with a soulless killing machine.

A woman stalked by her double. A detective in over his head. In a city where the cops are on a mobster’s payroll, private investigator Charlie Madison stands in the gap. When a wealthy young socialite asks him to help her catch a threatening stalker, he takes the case. But things aren’t what they seem, and Madison has to act fast before he’s framed for murder. Novelette - Crime Noir / Science Fiction Precursor to Up in Smoke, Death Duel, and The Suprahuman Secret