Plot

An ex-con who places an ad in a newspaper gets a reply referring to making a killing for $1000. He turns the reply over to Friday and Gannon who investigate the possibility that the replier is soliciting murder.

Steven Deal, a reformed criminal who works for a potter, had put in an advertisement for work, saying he'll do anything for $1,000. He has gotten back a cryptic response that requires him to resubmit the ad to make a killing. Suspicious that the response involves murder for hire, Deal has contacted the police, wanting to go straight and stay there. Friday and Gannon, deciding Deal is legitimate, stake out his apartment with Friday posing as Deal. Friday thus gets a phone call that tells him to drive to a deserted street for a meet. Driving Deal's car, Friday meets with a mysterious man who wants him to get a locket from his wife - a locket she wears everyday and thus requires her to be killed. Friday agrees, but first the man has him wait for additional calls from him before the murder can be carried out.

The man makes calls to Deal/Friday and leaves phone book pages in the front seat of his car with certain addresses circled. Friday drives to all of them to prove his bona fides to the man. Gannon has him tailed and he is soon identified as Harvey Forrester, but they have nothing in the way of actual evidence. Finally, after many days of this runaround, Friday gets a phone book page with Forrester's address circled as well as a phone call telling him what to do and where payment will be found. Gannon and other police stake out Forrester's house and see Forrester hidden inside, intending to kill an intruder who has killed his wife.