| Director | Chris Casady, Richard A. Colla |
|---|
Over a period of several days, detectives in the Boston Police Department's 87th Precinct investigate a variety of cases.
Detective Steve Carella goes undercover as a homeless man to investigate a spate of attacks in which homeless men have been set on fire. In an alleyway two youths approach him, throw flammable liquid over him, and set him alight. Carella is hospitalized but recovers and returns to his job.
A mysterious caller threatens to kill a city official unless he is paid a $5,000 ransom. Detectives Kling and Brown stake out the drop and follow a man, Tony La Bresca, who takes the box containing the ransom. The police have placed paper in the box. Later, the city parks commissioner is shot dead. A further demand for $50,000 is issued. Another box is placed at an arranged spot and police lie in wait. A man collects the box and is captured but he proves to be an opportunist who thought the box contained marijuana. Later the deputy mayor is killed with a car bomb.
Detective Eileen McHenry is transferred to the precinct to help solve a series of rapes. Detective Meyer asks her to interview a witness, who turns out to be a mentally ill woman who claims to have been attacked by a cape-wearing man. Carella and Meyer laugh while McHenry realizes it is a set up. Later McHenry walks through a park late at night and is approached by a man who begins to attack her. She fights him off and arrests him, bringing the man's spree of attacks to an end.
The extortionist is a partially deaf man, working with his associates Buck and Ahmad. They devise the next part of their campaign, to extort $500,000 from businessman Henry Jefferson. In disguise, they infiltrate the police protection around his mansion and plant a bomb inside. The Deaf Man telephones Jefferson and makes his demand for the money.
The detectives continue to shadow Tony, believing that he is connected to the Deaf Man. Instead they discover he is a petty criminal planning to rob a liquor store with his associate Schroeder. Carella and Kling are placed inside a back room of the store, ready to catch the robbers in the act. The cases converge when, after having planted the bomb in Jefferson's mansion, the Deaf Man and his associates stop to buy champagne at the liquor store. The robbers enter through a rear door and burst in. On seeing Buck in his police disguise, they begin shooting. Buck is shot dead, and the Deaf Man flees but is wounded by Kling as he tries to escape. Ahmad crashes their getaway car. In the car, Kling finds evidence linking them to the mansion, and the bombing is averted.
The Deaf Man flees on foot to a nearby waterfront area, only to encounter the same two youths who earlier had attacked Carella. They set him on fire, and he jumps into the river to escape. No trace of him is found. The police celebrate the conclusion to the case. As they leave, however, a hand emerges from the water and retrieves a hearing aid.