Herman Jackson

Herman Jackson has chosen St. Paul as his place of permanent exile from Detroit, where his former life as a bookie got too hot to hold. Now he leads a respectable life as a bail bondsman, while looking over his shoulder. When a young woman leaves him an antique violin as security for her brother's bail bond, it's really the beginning of an elaborate con game. The game is barely underway when the young woman is murdered and, for reasons that make no sense, the police say Herman is the prime suspect—that is, unless he gives them the violin “as evidence.” Jackson can't afford to be a suspect even for jaywalking, but neither is he going to give in to extortion. Soon he's on the run, trying to solve the murder while pursued by cops and a band of Gypsies. Suddenly, life back in Detroit doesn't look so bad after all.

Jackson doesn't admit he's from Detroit, much less that he used to run a bookie operation there. His bail-bond business in St. Paul is much safer, and if Charlie Victor wasn't his best client, he was at least a steady one, paying his bonding fee out of a secret stash he called his frag box. Then Charlie is beaten to death on a public street in broad daylight. His murder is bizarre and unexpected but no more so than the fact that he left a will naming Jackson as his sole heir. Jackson wants justice for Charlie, who had become something of a friend. But with plenty of money problems of his own, he also wants the box of cash. Unfortunately, Charlie's killers want it, too, and the race is on. But every step closer to Charlie's box peels away another layer of protection and another set of lies Jackson has told, including the ones he told himself.