Friendly Enterprise , a fast paced novel about the efforts of a Black, neophyte US Attorney in the RICO Division of the Department of Justice in Washington D. C. who has been assigned a case investigating and ultimately indicting some of Chicagos elite in a massive insurance scam involving the local transit district.
Never having been the first chair in any prosecution, he is selected because his superiors believe that the case is a powder keg and could explode, embarrassing all involved. Dispatched to Chicago, he quickly realizes that the cursory investigation that has taken place so far is woefully inadequate. In seeking help from the local US Attorney in Cook County, he runs into a stonewall because, unbeknownst to him, the US Attorney is close to the alleged principals of the multi-million dollar insurance scam.
His efforts are further hampered not only due to his complete inexperience, but he now has to cope with an Assistant US Attorney who has been assigned to him (really at the behest of her boss to spy and report back on any progress) in lieu of investigative help.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the criminal principals are concerned that Washington has taken an interest in their friendly enterprise. The US Attorney has briefed them on what Washington is doing and what they can expect from David Jason, the name of the newly arrived attorney, who coincidentally grew up in the Windy City. All are satisfied except the most nefarious of the group and he sets out to further hinder the investigation by hiring murderous thugs to silence the lone inside man at the transit agency, who could identify him.
Jason gains an unexpected ally in the Assistant US Attorney who is not only beautiful, but also very eager to cash in her ticket for professional upward mobility. Together they begin to piece together sketches of the principals, which only further antagonize the murderous member of the elite group. Again, enlisting the support of his murder-for-hire henchmen, he orders the assassination of David Jason during a staged street mugging. Unfortunately the killers mistakenly shoot the young Assistant, killing her instantly and leaving David Jason gravely wounded.
This high profiled mugging was reported throughout the news and caught the attention of David Schoolboy Benson, a young, up and coming member of Chicagos Mau-Maus street gang. Benson had been a friend of the inside contact at the transit agency and his killing infuriated the young gangster. In reading the article about the US Attorneys getting mugged and shot, he noted that David Jason was in town investigating an insurance fraud scam involving the municipal transit agency.
He attempts to make contact with Jason as he recuperates in the hospital. His clandestine overtures pique Jasons interest when he mentions that he was a friend of the murdered insider, which David suspected had some involvement in the insurance fraud.
Upon his release from the hospital, Jason and Schoolboy agree to meet at Davids hotel room, where he discovers it had been ransacked while he was hospitalized. During the meeting, Schoolboy reveals that the dead underling gave him a computer printout for safekeeping. This printout is a record of all the false claims that had been processed by the agency. Realizing its value and that it was no longer safe to stay at the hotel, David needed alternative living quarters to safely continue the investigation. Schoolboy volunteers his apartment building located deep on Chicagos Southside where no one could ever find the recovering lawyer.
After agreeing and traveling from Downtown to the Southside slums, David Jason is introduced to Miz Cheryl Benson, Schoolboys mother and the caretaker for the run down two-flat. To their mutual astonishment the two adults immediately recognize each other from days in high school where Cheryl Benson, nee Hicks, was Davids one-time almost love interest. Would a re-kindl
