The Dreadful Steaming Brown Pile

Here is what AI came up with when I requested a meeting between Robert B Parker's detective Spenser and John D.  MacDonald's Travis McGee. You would recall I started a series about their meeting, and I am totally disappointed in what they came up with in Artificial Intelligence

The Steaming Brown Pile

Travis McGee leaned back in his beach chair, sipping on a gin and tonic and watching the waves roll in. It had been a good week for him – two cases wrapped up with a tidy profit, and enough sunshine and saltwater to soothe the soul.

As he looked out over the water, he saw a familiar figure walking down the beach towards him. It was Spenser, the Boston PI. They had crossed paths a few times over the years, and while they weren't exactly friends, there was a certain respect between them.

"Travis," Spenser said, nodding in greeting as he reached the beach chair. "Long time no see."

"Spenser," Travis replied, raising his glass in a toast. "What brings you down to Florida?"

"Got a case," Spenser said, taking a seat in the sand next to Travis. "Boston businessman, wife and daughter kidnapped, ransom demand for two million."

"Sounds like a good payday," Travis said. "What's the catch?"

"The catch," Spenser said, "is that the businessman has a past. Some shady dealings, connections to organized crime, that sort of thing. He's worried that if he goes to the cops, his past will catch up with him."

Travis snorted. "That's always the way, isn't it? I swear, half my cases involve people who should have gone straight a long time ago."

Spenser nodded in agreement. "So, you got anything going on down here? Might be good to have some backup."

Travis thought for a moment. "Actually, I do have something. Local developer, trying to muscle in on some beachfront property. He's got some hired goons making threats and causing trouble."

Spenser grinned. "Sounds like my kind of party. You mind if I tag along?"

Travis shook his head. "Not at all. The more the merrier."

They finished their drinks and headed off down the beach, two hard-boiled detectives with a job to do. Maybe they weren't exactly friends, but there was a certain camaraderie between them – a sense that, in a world full of shady characters and dirty deals, they were two of the few who could be counted on to do the right thing.