A dead source draws a newspaperman into a murder investigation
Mayforth Kendrick III is an unlikely name for a small-time drug dealer. As the grandson of a millionaire and the son of a Broadway mogul, Kendrick was minted for success from birth. But a fondness for controlled substances cut his education short, forcing him to make a living pushing drugs on the theater glitterati with whom he once mingled. New York Star reporter John Wells, who occasionally uses Kendrick as a source, may be his only friend. He is also one of the last to see him alive.
He visits Kendrick’s seedy Alphabet City apartment because the young man has pictures to sell showing a Senate candidate involved in unsavory extramarital activities. Never a muckraker, Wells passes on them. The next day Kendrick is murdered and the pictures are gone. Wells smells a scoop, if he can only find the killer.
