Human Collateral

By Harry Pinkus

Private Detective, Miles Darien, is hired by Cora Sims to find her missing daughter Olivia, who has been living alone in Chicago.

Miles enlists his best friend, investigative journalist, Ryan Duffy to assist in the search. Mrs. Sims has no idea where her daughter works or how she makes a living. First, they must uncover the clues which will lead them to her workplace, hoping to connect with someone who can take them to Olivia.

They eventually succeed in uncovering her workplace and who she is staying with. When they find Olivia, she’s barely alive as a result of an infection after having a kidney surgically removed. Turns out the kidney was payment for an illegal loan given by criminals who prey on people in dire financial trouble by forcing them to use their bodies as collateral.

Olivia can’t seek medical care or go to the police because the criminals have threatened to kill her if she does. Miles and Ryan must bring down the criminals to keep them from silencing Olivia.

They join forces with the FBI to look for the syndicate behind these loans. The syndicate is also hunting them down to erase any trail that would lead back to them. Who will erase who first?