Killer's Wedge

Squadroom 87th Precinct. Four cops getting through a routine day. Complaints, interrogations, reports--holdups, beatings, rapes, murders.Then in walks a dame in black."Yes?" asks Detective Cotton Hawes.She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a cold, hard object."This is a .38," she says and points it at the four men. "Give me your guns.""Look, lady," says Hawes, "put up the piece. The joke's not funny."The dame's eyes narrow to slits. "Shut up, copper. I've come here to kill. One phony move and I keep shooting until every man in this place is dead."Simon and Schuster edition published January, 1959.Permabook edition published October, 1959.1st printing ...... August, 1959.