Contract Null & Void

Acknowledgments

I must acknowledge several people without whose unselfish and patient aid this book could not have been written.

My forever debt to my wife, Dori, goes far beyond mere “thank you” — she makes my novels as good as they can be with her love, insights, suggestions, understanding, restructuring, and editorial work that are themselves acts of primary creation..

David Fechheimer, who is a modern-day Sam Spade and the best private detective I know, spent one whole night performing an autopsy on the Tenderloin to help me re-create those dangerous and colorful underbelly streets of San Francisco in the novel.

Sherri Chiesa, international organizer for San Francisco’s Local 2, answered all my questions about how modern-day union pension and welfare funds are administered and safeguarded — and in the process made me rethink the basic plot line of the book.

John Pedersen, that self-styled bog-jumper from Jutland, runs Amazing Grace Music in San Anselmo and gave me invaluable (and hilarious) insights into the West Coast heavy metal scene.

Once again Bill Malloy, editor in chief of Mysterious, backed me at the eleventh hour against near-impossible odds. He is the editor all writers wish for, and so very few ever get.

Last, thanks to him whom I call The Eel Man, who emerged from the shadows for a few hours to share with me a plate of pasta and some tales of his life and times in the drug trade.

And of course, thanks to all the real guys and gals of DKA.