Sunday, and I’m late for my lunch with Vivian Davis. I haven’t seen her since that evening ten months ago in front of Pepper’s Swing Club. I was going in, she was coming out, I held the door for her. Beyond wishing her a good night, we didn’t talk. There was no need, we had an unspoken arrangement. I would stay out of her way and she would stay out of mine. Considering I’m a San Francisco PD homicide detective and she’s a professional assassin, our relationship belongs in a gray area that is better left fuzzy. I don’t know how many contract hits she carried out and I’m not going to investigate and find out. As long as she doesn’t step into one of my cases, I don’t care how she makes a living.

And no, my conscience doesn’t trouble me. Vivian saved my life. She took out the killer who was about to put a bullet in my head. By not meddling in her business, I’m repaying a small part of my debt.

Yesterday, I reached out to her. I left a message with her answering service. I kept it short. “Meet me tomorrow. Balboa Café. Noon.” This isn’t a date, our meeting is strictly business. I have a proposition for her. It’s a strange one and I hope she’ll be intrigued enough to accept. She might be amused … perhaps. She could be tempted by the adventure, the challenge of a risky job. Working side by side with me, as partners, is guaranteed to tickle her. Vivian has a sense of humor. She’s also a damn good-looking woman … I know how she feels about me. It will certainly complicate things but I don’t have a choice. I’m a cop and I follow orders.

So what is that job I’m going to offer Vivian?

Top level gangsters are meeting in Kansas City and one of the attendees is a local San Francisco heavy. The FBI believes there’s an opportunity to get close to him and extract information. Providing the right girl can be found. And there lies the problem. None of our police auxiliaries is up to the task and, as the designated handler (I tried to get out of the assignment and I couldn’t), I refuse to lead an unprepared woman to the slaughter. The feds are under the mistaken impression that any pretty thing can deliver the goods. A good figure and nice legs, what else is needed, right? Wrong. Top-level gangsters aren’t dumb shooting machines. They didn’t get where they are, and they aren’t keeping their leadership position, by being stupid. They’re cautious survivors. It will take more than a cute doll with bedroom eyes to fool them.

For that kind of undercover operation, Vivian is the perfect choice. She’s strong, smart, cool under pressure. Criminals don’t intimidate her and she can take care of herself. If I can convince her to work with me, we might make the hare-brained FBI plan work and get out alive.

That’s why I’m in front of the Balboa Café, on a nice spring Sunday.

I take a last puff of my cigarette and open the door. Let’s see what the beautiful and dangerous Vivian Davis, killer-for-hire, has to say about working for the police.

KANSAS CITY BREAKDOWN
Genre: Traditional, Crime, Hardboiled, Retro-Noir
Release: April 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

May 1952.

Mobsters, molls, and muscle are meeting in Kansas City to carve out territory, make deals, assert influence. They come from Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans, Detroit … By plane, by car, and, in the case of mid-level heavy Mike Abati, by train from San Francisco.

The FBI sees an opportunity. A chance to get close to the man, gather information, and have eyes and ears on the conference. A honey trap.

Tom Keegan, San Francisco PD homicide detective, knows the right woman for the job. She’s smart and cool. Seductive. Fearless. A rare and fiery combination of brass and sass. Would she agree to put her life on the line? If her cover is blown, she’s dead.

Besides, Vivian Davis, aka professional assassin Gunselle, doesn’t do favors for cops.

But Tom’s doing the asking and it makes Vivian’s heart beat a little faster.

The job isn’t all it appears to be. It comes with a side of betrayal. Because, after all, a girl has to look out for herself.

Kansas City Breakdown is the sizzling follow-up to Bop City Swing, and the new joint project of Russell Thayer, author of the Gunselle stories, and M.E. Proctor, author of the Declan Shaw PI series.

About the author
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch Me on a Blue Day. She’s the author of two short story collections, Family and Other Ailments and A Book to Live By. She co-wrote two retro-noirs with Russell Thayer: Bop City Swing and Kansas City Breakdown. Her fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. She’s a Shamus Award and Derringer Award short story nominee. Website: www.shawmystery.com. On Substack at meproctor.substack.com.