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My name is Mason Armstrong and I'm a detective in the city of Lost Heaven who just returned from the war that had gripped the world in it's grasp. The year is 1943 and I'm coming home after spending two and a half years in the military fighting in the European theater, I was asked if I wanted to reenlist after I finished my required time of service with an extra six months. I'm coming back from the terminal today by bus back into the city and find my new apartment and office, as I will be met at a local café by an old friend and partner and my mentor who may have a line on some work in the detective industry and help get me set up with my own office, no longer just an apprentice but my own detective agency. While riding the bus into the downtown part of the city looking out the window as we crossed one of the bridges and the interior of the bus had a handful of advertisements for the city such as cigarettes and some premium bourbon. I still remember when I was younger and the isles were dry during the prohibition and gangsters pretty much ran the city from Irish to Italian all the way to the poor neighborhoods and Chinatown, all wanting a piece of the pie with bootlegging all the while killing each other and terrorizing the city while they did and paid the cops their blood money to look the other way.

The bus finally crossed the bridge into downtowns west loop district, a rather ritzy part of town with tall office buildings and some of the swankiest joints in the city, including a jazz club that I liked to go to back before the war, Late Nights. My office however was not in this neighborhood as it was taking me close to the market district and Little Italy and the Westside, which were poorer neighborhoods that we're still struggling after the depression and epidemic that had happened in the isles during the same time. After a while the bus pulled up to a stop just outside the café where I was supposed to meet my old mentor, a wolf guy named Ryan Burton. Ryan was a old detective who I use to do some work for and he took me under his wing so to speak and showed me the ropes of the business, he told me if I get back from the war that he could help me start my own agency. I stepped off the bus and went inside and found Ryan after scanning the place for a minute, he was sitting in the back drinking a coffee and eating a small breakfast plate.

I made my way back to him after putting my navy coat and hat on the rack by the door and sat down across from him with my two suitcases and greeted him. He looked up at me and gave a warm smile "it's been a while kid, glad to see you made it back in one piece" he said. I just smirked and said "it's good to see you too old timer, I came by to see about that thing with the agency you told me about before I shipped out". "Yeah that new apartment I told you about has a space for an office on the lower floors, grab a bite to eat and we'll head over". So I when the waitress came over I ordered a small breakfast plate: some synthetic bacon, eggs, a bowl of grits with butter on top and a glass of orange juice.

We chatted for a bit and got up to speed of what each other have been up to for the past couple years and we finished our breakfast. We each left a 50 cent tip for the waitress and Ryan paid for the food and we went his car and started heading to the Westside district. On the ride over I looked out the window to see the neighborhood, Westside was mob turf with the occasional street gang that got to operate as long as they paid the fee to the Westside mob. The Westside mob had started along time ago now by a Catholic Irish florist named Hugo O'Kearney who was a boxer/Pitbull mix. Hugo was a pretty greedy bastard from what I heard but still looked out for the people who worked for or did business with him but was known to break arrangements with the other crime syndicates if money was involved and was a known ruthless killer from time to time.

After a bit of driving we pulled up to an old brick building that didn't seem to worse for wear and only slightly rundown. I climbed the stairs into the lobby where Ryan and I met my landlord, a big elephant guy with a beard named Rufus who smelled a bit like booze. He gave me the keys to my apartment on the 7th floor and my office on the 3rd floor. I made my way up to the apartment to drop off my things and get settled in then down to the office to meet with Ryan so help me get started on getting setup. Me and Ryan entered the my office that seemed standard to a detective office, space for a small team of detectives and receptionist to take calls and meet clients.

I have an idea to some people who could help me with my new detective business, most importantly my best friend Nicholas Harrison a German Shephard, he lives in near north side district of the city and I hopefully still have his phone number. Ryan said he had one more gift for me to get started, it was an old ford model sedan in solid black with some dents and scrapes. I still had a 1911 .45 semi automatic pistol from my time in the war that I could use as my gun and Nicholas was a minor gun collector so I figure he'll have his own firearms but here's hoping we won't need them often. Next I called what I think is Nicholas' number and he picked up, I told him to meet me at my office for potential work if he was tired of janitorial work at the station and he said he'd be right over so I gave him the address. 20 minutes later he knocks on the door and Ryan lets him in and I talk to him about becoming my partner so Ryan could go back to his own business and we discussed the details, the conversation ended with him agreeing to quit his janitor job at the police station and come work for me instead.

Ryan would keep an ear out for any easy cases to send my way to help get me started and gave me a number to a woman he knew that would probably be interested for the receptionist position and I thanked him and took the paper with the number written down for me. After Ryan left I gave the number a call and had the operator put me through to a Sara Cooper. I got through and setup a interview later tonight to discuss her employment. She came by around 7:30 PM and had the interview, she was a pretty fox with small framed glasses, red head hair and hourglass like shaped body. I told her to be in tomorrow morning to get her and her desk situated as we should expect to possibly have our first case some time this week.

So here I was, a returning G.I. from the war and already running my own detective agency and hoping for my first case not only to get things going and bring in some money as I'm not exactly flush with cash at the moment. After the interview Nicholas went home for the night as well as Sara and I closed up the office for the night. I came into my apartment made a TV dinner and a beer and listened to a radio drama while I relaxed. I laid in bed trying to sleep as I could hear the sounds of the city outside my building down on the streets below and was in deep thought about things trying to just process everything, hopefully I get a case soon.

THE END