Carroll John Daly 
Blind Alleys [EPUB ebook] 
Race Williams #16 (Black Mask)

Five one-hundred-dollar bills call Race Williams to an appointment. When he starts he hasn’t the least idea what it’s all about, and the further he gets into it, the more confused it becomes except that every hand seems against him. It is not long before Race gets mad, which is all that is needed to make him tear loose and see it through. Story #16 in the Race Williams series.
Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was the creator of the first hard-boiled private eye story, predating Dashiell Hammett’s first Continental Op story by several months. Daly’s classic character, Race Williams, was one of the most popular fiction characters of the pulps, and the direct inspiration for Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.