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    Trouble Is My Client
    Trouble Is My Client
    Trouble Is My Client
    Ebook97 pages1 hour

    Trouble Is My Client

    By John Paul Wohlscheid

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    About this ebook

    Benny Cahill is back. After getting involved in a crooked horse race in Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth, the cynical and wise-cracking private detective returns in four never before published short mysteries (Where There’s a Will, Now Hear This, Reach for It, and To the Moon). These noir stories are inspired by the author's love of Old Time Radio shows. This collection includes a foreword by Theresa Linden, author of Chasing Liberty.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Paul Wohlscheid
    Release dateNov 30, 2014
    ISBN9781310183522
    Trouble Is My Client
    Author

    John Paul Wohlscheid

    John Paul was born and raised in West Michigan. He discovered detective stories at an early age through the magic of Old Time Radio. Since then he has devoured hundreds of hours of radio shows (such as Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Boston Blackie, Richard Diamond and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) and mystery stories. With all this knowledge, he decided to take a crack at recreating those hard-boiled stories of yesteryear. Someday he plans to expand into scifi and westerns.

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      Book preview

      Trouble Is My Client - John Paul Wohlscheid

      Trouble is My Client

      by John Paul Wohlscheid

      Copyright © 2020 John Paul Wohlscheid

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Also by John Paul Wohlscheid,

      Ebooks

      A Battle for the Faith (with Therese Linden)

      Church Triumphant: 25 Men and Women Who Gave Their :Lives to Christ

      Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

      Letters Home

      Paperback

      Benny Cahill, Troubleshooter

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Where There’s a Will

      Now Hear This

      Reach for It

      To the Moon

      About the Author

      Introduction

      Trouble is My Client by John Paul Wohlschied is a collection of hardboiled detective stories for a new generation. For those who are not familiar with the term hardboiled, it comes from the process of hardening an egg. A hardboiled character is a tough character. Often, the protagonist has confronted so much crime and violence that he has developed a cynical attitude. The 1920s saw the beginning of hardboiled crime fiction with Carroll John Daly's, The False Burton Combs. The height of this type of fiction came in the 1930s-1950s. These stories were often published in pulp magazines and later became the inspiration for many radio programs in Radio's Golden Age.

      Sometime in 2011, I met author John Paul Wohlschied. We were both seeking ways to improve our writing, so we began a critique partnership. Through our correspondence and as I read more and more of his stories, I learned much about him. Wohlschied loves history. His favorite periods include the times around the Civil War and World War II (1930s to 1950s). He also loves reading Sherlock Holmes and hardboiled detective stories. His introduction to these types of stories came in college, when he discovered old-time radio. He began listening to radio drama shows like Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; The Adventures of Sam Spade; The Fat Man; Richard Diamond, Private Detective; The Adventures of Philip Marlowe; Dragnet; Jeff Reagan, Investigator; Pat Novak for Hire; Boston Blackie; Nero Wolfe and many others.

      Hardboiled fiction became the inspiration for his writing. He found himself wanting to model his characters after many of the great characters he discovered in the old radio programs. The characters are flawed. Detectives often have checkered pasts. However, the bad guy stands out as the worst in the lot and the good guy wins. I enjoy detective fiction, John Paul writes, because it is the triumph of good over evil. This stands in contrast to many of today's works of fiction where the line between good and evil is blurred. It is not always clear whether the protagonist is the hero or the villain.

      Wohlschied's detective stories have always struck me as being unique, even though they are truly a throwback to earlier days. When I read his short stories, I can almost hear the voice of Jack Webb from the Dragnet radio broadcasts. Told in first person narrative, his stories give the reader a view into the detective's cynical and sometimes humorous thoughts. The self-talk of Wohlschied's Benny Cahill, brings to mind a tough private detective like Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon. With mystery, organized crime, and a hardboiled detective, Wohlschied brings to the next generation all that is great about the old-time radio, noir and hardboiled crime stories.

      Theresa Linden, author of Theresa Linden, author of the Chasing Liberty Dystopian Trilogy, Armor of God Children's Series, West Brothers Teen Fiction Series and more.

      www.theresalinden.com

      Where There’s a Will

      In my business, you get your share of nuts and screwballs. Some days it's easy to mistake my waiting room for a fruitcake factory. In fact, Saturday I had a guy in the office who wanted me to do something about the pink elephants that were following him. He didn't mind the pink elephants. It was the little green jockeys that bothered him.

      One Saturday late last July, I got what the Brits call a real nutta. At the time, I was busy pounding the keys on a beat-up typewriter that had somehow survived the Battle of Bull Run. A client had paid me for some shadowing work and for some reason he expected a full written report.

      The radio kept me company. Hank's Happy Hour blared with corny jokes and tired one-liners followed by canned laughter. It was a real riot.

      As I was working my way through the itemized expense sheet, a client walked in. He stood roughly five foot five with a full head of graying hair. He had the look of someone who had seen a lot of what the world had to offer, but it didn't excite him anymore. He sunk into the worn red leather client's chair and folded his hands over his slightly bulging middle like it was his daily ritual, like he came with the office furnishings. He wore a nice Brooks Brothers suit, but one that had seen plenty of wear since it had probably been purchased new ten years ago. He was either economical or cheap.

      I'm a one-track kind of guy, so I just kept banging away on the typewriter. The client leaned back in the chair with his legs crossed and his fingers steepled under his chin. He watched me with the same air of suspicion a teacher watches the class troublemaker.

      When I was done, I took the page out of the machine and sat back in my chair to take in the visitor. He looked like he was doing the same. Another barrage of fake laughter exploded from the radio behind me.

      Do you like those kinds of shows? said the visitor, his voice soft and raspy, as though he hadn't used it in a while.

      Not really, but it keeps both thieves and the landlord away. They hate these shows. I turned the set off.

      Landlords or the thieves?

      What is the difference?

      I would say that the first gives you something in exchange for what he takes, but the second does not.

      That makes you sound like a lawyer or some kind or at the very least a philosopher. Which is it?

      Oh, I'm a philosopher, but I have been around enough lawyers to learn a thing or two about the legal process.

      That's nice. Now, what can I do for you, besides gabbing. I sat up in my chair and folded my hands on the desk, ready to listen.

      He smiled slightly before answering. Mr. Cahill, I'm going to ask you to do something for me that might sound strange. Before I begin, here is an envelope with $500 for you. He dropped a starched white envelope with the letters GC embossed on the flap onto the desk. It was unsealed and there were five C-notes inside. I put the cabbage back inside and wedged the envelope under a broken stapler.

      Well, Mr. GC, you have my undivided attention, I said.

      He smiled once more and visibly relaxed. "That money is yours regardless of whether you take the

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