Kaufman, Tom

http://www.thomaskaufman.com/

Willis Gidney is a born liar and rip-off artist, an expert at the scam. Growing up without parents or a home, by age twelve Gidney is a successful young man, running his own small empire, until he meets Shadrack Davies.  That's Captain Shadrack Davies, of the DC Police.  Davies wants to reform Gidney and becomes his foster father.  Though he tries not to, Gidney learns a small amount of ethics from Shad - just enough to bother a kid from the streets for the rest of his life.
 
Now Gidney's a PI, walking those same streets.  So it's no surprise that when Gidney's closest friend, jazz saxophonist Steps Jackson, asks him to find Jackson's missing daughter, Gidney is compelled to say yes -- even though she's been missing for 25 years.   He finds a woman who may be the girls mother -- and within hours she is killed by persons unknown.   The police accuse Gidney of the murder and throw him in jail.
 
Maybe Gidney should quit while he's behind.  But when his investigation puts him up against a ruthless multi-national corporation, a two-faced congressman, and a young woman desperate to conceal her past, Gidney has no time left for second thoughts.  In fact, he may have no time left at all.