Murder Mistress, by Robert Colby (epub/Kindle/pdf)

En route to Miami, Scott Daniels comes to the aid of a stranded woman whose date stranded her at a road house. He offers to giver her a lift, and she accepts. a lift, but come across the wrecked car of the man who abandonned her.

Valerie begged Scott to save her good name by salvaging her suitcase from the wreck before the cops could find it. But no sooner had he done so, then he learned that instead of being filled with pink unmentionables, it was loaded with green negotiables - hundreds of thousands of them.

Curiosity being stronger than caution, Scott kept his eye on Valerie after dropping her off in Miami. And thus found himself the only element remaining between a gang of ruthless criminals and the perfect crime.A Wildside Crime Classic by the author of The Star Trap and The Captain Must Die!

"Bob Colby was more than just a 'one-hit wonder.' He wrote several other respected novels in the 1950s and '60s, including The Deadly Desire and The Secret of the Second Door (both Gold Medal, 1959) and dozens of short stories for Alfred Hitchcock and Mike Shayne... Do me a favor: hunt down one of his novels and give it a try." -- Peter Enfantino

"He had a journalist's eye for his times. This was especially true in the novels he set in Hollywood. [The Captain Must Die] is his masterpiece. You will not be disappointed." -- Ed Gorman