Frag Box

Herman Jackson did not expect his old life in Detroit, where he ran an illegal betting operation, to resurface, and certainly not through a Vietnam veteran named Charlie Victor who has been murdered. Jackson now writes bail bonds in St. Paul, a line of work he considers far less dangerous. Charlie was never his most valuable customer, but he paid his fees on time from a hidden cache he referred to as his frag box.

When Charlie is beaten to death on a busy city street in daylight, his will unexpectedly names Jackson as the only beneficiary. Jackson feels he owes Charlie justice, since the two had grown close. He is also struggling financially, and the box of money is hard to ignore. Charlie's killers are after it too, and Jackson is suddenly in a race to reach it first.

The chase takes him through the alleys of St. Paul's Railroad Island, across the snowy Minnesota Iron Range, and into an abandoned tunnel beneath the city. Each new stop exposes more hidden defenses and more falsehoods, some he has told others and some he has told himself.