An alphabet for an upcoming issue of the Black Scat Review, devoted to “Crime Wave.”

PARTNERS IN CRIME

When the Arsonist torched the house the Burglar was rifling, the Counterfeiter in the cellar fled with a sack of phonies, which was swiped by a Drifter desperate to pay off an Extortionist, whose last mark, a notoriously crooked Fixer, had hired a Gunsel to rub him out, but that little weasel had another Hitman on his trail, bankrolled by an unscrupulous Impersonator replacing a corrupt Judge held captive by an underworld Kingpin, whose son, a Lowlife in cahoots with the Murderer who had fingered a powerful Number-baron and a few associated Outlaws, was blackmailing a Pedophile caught diddling a much-reviled Quisling’s daughter, herself already an expert Rustler who had fleeced a Stoolie who had squealed on another small-time Tipster, himself in debt to a vicious Usurer, whose two feeble-minded kids, a Vagrant and a Whore, performed small demeaning tasks for the criminal mastermind known only as Mr. X, who had just sent a Yegg to ransack the safe of a stinking rich Zoophile whom he hoped to shake down for every penny he had.