My name is Velda Bellinghausen. I'm a private investigator. I used to be a showgirl at Slotnik's Follies, but I got pretty sick and tired of shedding my clothes twice a day, four times on weekends for matinees. So I followed up on an ad I saw on a matchbook cover and sent in my twenty bucks for the Hawkshaw Course on Detection. It was the best twenty bucks I ever spent, too! In no time at all, I had my license and was in business for myself!

I was pretty damn proud of myself, too, since my dad was a cop---the best the city ever had. But he'd died a few years after my mom (who perished in a freak donut accident) and I had to fend for myself. He wouldn't have much liked what I had to do to get by, so I was glad to finally get out of the Follies and into a line my dad would've approved of, I think.

Now I’m called upon to investigate murders, burglaries, and all sorts of crimes occurring in the big city.