T.J. Hooker (1982) s03e06 Episode Script
Walk a Straight Line
1 (theme music) - [Junior.]
What does your gut tell you, Hooker? Are the jumpsuit bandits going to show? - Dietrich would be the one to ask.
It's his caper.
OP 1, are you holding up okay? - Roger 30, but I want you to know the pigeons were here before us, a lot.
- That's life in the outdoors, Stacy.
- Why do I always get this kind of stakeout? Dietrich and Fernandez get dancing girls, and I get a rooftop.
(energetic synth music) - I don't want to hear you lying to me Baby, don't you know I just want to be free? You went and fooled around Now it's all coming down on you Better go now 'cause I'm losing my cool And get it through your head I'm no one's tool You better walk away Better run, 'cause you're under the gun Keep it to yourself Keep away from me Keep it to yourself Baby, can't you see? I don't want to hear it I just won't take it no more - Dietrich, Fernandez, what's the whethers in there? - It actually is down to a crawl.
- Never can tell when they still get lucky.
- That's easy for you to say.
- Hang in there, Dietrich.
Keep it to yourself Keep away from me - It's two guys, one in the jumpsuit.
- [Stacy.]
But the MO has them both in jumpsuits.
- Yeah, I know.
No deal.
- Keep it to yourself Baby can't you see? I don't want to hear it I just won't take it no more (door opens) - We got two minutes.
- You better take it easy on that stuff, Sam.
Might fall out of the nest.
- Let's go.
Everybody on the floor! - Get down now! (screaming) You, get down, get down! (glass breaks) (gunshots) - Help, it's a trap! - Come on man, let's get out of here! - It's going down, shots have been fired.
(engine starting) (tires peeling out) - Nobody move! (gunshot) (screaming) - [Tony.]
(mumbling) - Tony, hold on.
(sirens) (tires peeling out) (exciting, fast-paced music) - Four-Adam-30, in pursuit of 211 suspects driving red and white four-door sedan, westbound in alley behind Ocean View Boulevard.
(tires squealing) (tires squealing) - All right cops, you want it? Come get it.
(gunshot) (gunshots) - Arnie, look out! (tires squealing) (horn honking) Arnie, you okay? Arnie, come on, Arnie, Arnie.
- Forget it, man, get over here! - You in the car, get down.
(explosions) (tires peeling out) (flames crackling) (police radio) - Sounded like cannons.
Had to be .
45's for sure.
- Hey, are you okay? - I've been better.
- Are you guys okay? - Yeah, we're fine.
The jumpsuits got away.
- What about the driver? - DOA at the hospital.
- What's the word on Fernandez? - He wasn't looking too good when we put him in the ambulance.
Can I talk to you a minute? I know you and Dietrich go back a ways, but for whatever it's worth, he's got booze on his breath.
- How bad? - Hard to say, but I thought you ought to know.
- I imagine he's pretty broken up about Fernandez.
Maybe he had a belt while waiting for the ambulance.
- All right, thanks a lot.
- I don't have to tell you how I feel.
- Oh, he's got to make it, he's just got to.
- Did we salvage anything positive out of this mess? - Well, we know a little bit more about the MO.
They're in the place a while before they hit it.
They go into the john; they put on the jumpsuits and masks, and then they come out.
- Then you saw them before they did it? - Well, not really.
I wasn't paying any attention until they came out.
- The bartender? - He wasn't concentrating on anyone at the bar.
He was watching the door.
That's where he expected the action to come from, like we all did.
I ended up with something.
Found this in the john.
- Green stripe, menthol and something else, PCP.
- Yeah, it's a sherm.
- What makes you think this connects up with the jumpsuits? - Bartender tidied up a few minutes before the shooting.
Wasn't there then.
- It's a start.
(slow, melancholy music) (elevator ding) - How's Jill? - She's dealing with it, like we're all supposed to do if our men get shot.
- It's nice of you to come down with her.
- Sam tracked me down at The Meadows.
We joined last year.
- [Loudspeaker.]
Doctor White, telephone.
- I got to hand it to you, Nora, country gloves, fur coats, you sure know how to stretch a cop's salary.
- It's called credit and fancy footwork when the bills come in.
- Doesn't that add extra pressure to Sam? - He's got big shoulders.
- Are they big enough? He was drinking on the job today.
- I don't want to hear about it.
- Don't shut me out.
Sam and I have been through too many wars together.
- Well then, leave it alone, Hooker.
- Sure, I'll go away, but Sam's problems won't.
- Doctor says in a couple of months, you'll be as good as new.
Then we'll be back at it, you and me.
- I shouldn't be here, Sam.
- Come on, Tony.
- You all but got me wasted, partner.
You and your damn booze.
- I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I swear.
(door opens) - Hi guys.
Saw Jill outside, she's taking it pretty well.
- That's my lady.
- How did it happen, Tony? It just doesn't figure.
You and Sam are too good.
- They spotted us before we could draw down.
- It just doesn't seem possible.
- Yeah, I know, but let me tell you, that's what happened.
- [Company.]
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
- Who's Dietrich leaning on? - The hype who gave him the tip about the robbery at Mac's 413 Club.
- I thought the hype only knew the driver.
- Yeah, and the driver's dead.
- [Hooker.]
Dietrich's still on him? - If you ask me, it's getting pretty hairy.
- Is that the way you talk to a police officer? - Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- You talk to me, man.
- Hey, hey, hey, let's take a walk.
- What are you doing? That's my snitch.
- You got everything he had to give you three days ago.
- I want the guy who shot my partner.
That's my only lead! - You're not thinking straight, Sam.
- I'm thinking about Tony.
- What about the sherm? - So we know the guy who shot him uses PCP, so what? - Sam, hold on a second, I want to talk with you, hold on.
You got trouble.
I want to help you.
- Look, it's nothing I can't straighten out myself.
Do me a favor, will you? Back off, let me do my job.
- All right everybody, we've got a job to do.
We're going to track the sherm.
Find the dealer who sold it.
- What's Dietrich's problem? Is it the job, or is it something personal? - I think it's a lot of both.
Mostly, it's his wife.
- Does she play around? - Well, not with other guys.
With Sam's money; she likes to live big.
- Then she shouldn't have married a cop.
Yeah, I know it's not easy, him being your friend and all, but we've both been around long enough to know that booze and police work don't mix.
It's just a feeling.
I don't want to believe it.
But I'm telling you, Hooker, Dietrich is just an accident waiting to happen.
- You may be right, Jim.
Either way, it's a problem.
I just need time to handle it.
- I hear you.
Just don't take too long, huh? Somebody else might get shot, and this time, somebody might die.
(dramatic musical tones) - Hooker, you know, we can't roust every dealer in the city looking for a guy who sells sherms.
- Right, so we find someone who's already done the searching.
- The user! (exciting, jazzy music) - So what's this guy's name? - Milo Pie.
- You're kidding.
- No, but I think his mother was.
Hold it, Milo, stay right there.
Take the back! (fast-paced music) (crash) Nice to see you again, Milo.
- I'm clean, Hooker, clean.
- Just got a cold, like always.
- We want some information.
- Tell your friend, Hooker, I ain't no snitch.
- All right, I changed my mind, pat him down.
- What do you want to know? - We're looking for a sherm dealer.
Sells the kind with the green stripe around the tip.
- That'd be Pinwheel.
- All right, Milo, you bought yourself a freebie, but I'll be around.
- What's a pinwheel? - It's a little plastic thing on the end of a stick.
It spins in the wind.
(drumming) - Rush again, huh cowboy? - Four grams, Pinwheel, my man.
And ten sherms.
- Hey, what's happening out there? - Bar business is good.
- It's all easy pickens for you, cowboy.
- Could have been easier.
I lost my wheel man on this last one.
But it was worth it.
I got enough here to hold me for a few days.
- And then what? - Another bar, another dollar.
- (laughing) Sounds like the way you and me used to caper back in Albuquerque.
- Ain't that the truth, Pinwheel? Too bad you lost your nerve.
- Hey man, you want to hear my rendition of Ghost Riders in the Sky? (drumming) - I've heard it.
(police radio) - Take look at that car up ahead.
What do you think? - Drunk as a skunk.
(tires squealing) (siren) - Freeze! - Freeze? - Stacy, it's Dietrich! (door slams) - Damn, I dropped my gun.
Hey, it happens, you know? - Call Hooker.
- [Sam.]
I dropped my gun.
- Four-Adam-16 to dispatch.
- So Milo Pie gives you your sherm dealer, Pinwheel, but we're beating the concrete all around town trying to find this Pinwheel dude.
- Pinwheel doesn't stay in one spot very long.
- You can say that again.
He's like a shadow.
- We keep looking for him, Junior, until we find him.
We find him, he'll be our tie to the jumpsuit bandits.
- [Police Radio.]
Attention, Four-Adam-30, Four-Adam-16 requests you meet them at Gower and West Fourth.
- Four-Adam-30, that's a roger.
- You're not listening to me.
It's simple, just put me in a taxi, and I'll get out of your way.
- Tell it to your friend, Hooker.
- Hey, old partner.
Your people here are making a federal case over a couple of drinks.
Okay, okay, I know I shouldn't be driving.
Just get me home! That's all I'm asking! - Lock up his car.
- You know, it might do more good if you ran him in.
- It's a judgment call.
I'm taking him home, come on, come on.
- I'm sorry to hang you up like this, but you know I would do the same for you, okay? - That doesn't make it right.
- Hey, hey, Fernandez got dropped, so I had a couple too many.
- Now listen, Sam.
My gut tells me the booze got in your way in that shootout.
For your sake, I hope internal affairs doesn't get the same notion.
- Yeah, and who'd give 'em that idea, you? - Take it easy.
You step over the line one more time, and I will.
You can count on it.
Now get in the car.
(dark, tenuous musical tones) - How does a good cop like Sam Dietrich get to be like that? - Something snaps.
I've been there.
One day, one thing too many happens.
A dead child, a rape, a murder that could have been prevented if there'd been enough hours in the day.
Or a wife walks out.
And you think drinking will drown the pain.
It doesn't.
- So what's the answer? Getting so insulated you're no longer human? - The opposite.
You fight every day to get more human, to get closer to the people, to understand and deal with the pain without running from it.
- Maybe Dietrich's doing more than just running from the pain.
Maybe the pain's only an excuse.
- Are you asking me if I think Sam's an alcoholic? - (sighs) Well, if he is, he's got more than a problem.
He's got a disease.
(light, romantic music) - Hi.
Thanks for coming out.
- I was glad you were able to get a hold of me.
- Thank you.
I didn't open up to you at the hospital about Sam's drinking because, oh because it's just so depressing to talk about it.
- Must be depressing to live with.
- He used to have a couple with the boys, or with me.
Now he drinks alone.
For a while, I blamed it on the job, his heavy caseload.
Then I began to have doubts.
Even had visions of another woman.
God, I wish it were.
At least I could understand that.
- Have you ever thought that you might be part of the problem? You knew the department salary structure when you married him.
- He never once complained.
- That's not what cops do.
- No, I guess they don't.
Hooker, tell me something.
Why won't you let us in? Why are all of you so damn macho? You push us out, create a distance.
The only way you relate is in terms of law and logic, not with honest emotions.
- At first, you tell yourself you're protecting your woman from everything you have to deal with, day in, day out.
The grim realities.
But what I learned, too late, was that I wasn't really protecting my woman or my kids.
By shutting them out, I didn't have to relive it all over again.
- I don't know.
I think I understand a little better, but I'm not sure.
- Well, I hope you do understand, and I hope you can help.
Because Sam's in over his head, and something has to be done.
(police radio) - How'd she take it? - She's going to do everything she can to help.
But the bottom line is it's going to be up to Dietrich to pull himself together.
- Hmm, where to now? - Find Pinwheel.
We've looked everywhere else but one place at the end of the old jetty.
- What makes you think you'd find him there? - Used to be one of his haunts, years ago.
He liked it because it was a safe place to deal.
Nobody could sneak up on him.
Maybe he's up to his old tricks.
(energetic, bass-heavy music) - Let's go.
Okay, everybody on the floor! (screaming) - Over there, over there! - Come on, hurry up.
- Give me your cash! Hurry it up! What'd you do? Did you hit the alarm? - [Police Radio.]
Attention four-Adam-30, and units in the vicinity, a 211 silent at The Arena Bar, 442 West Fountain, four-Adam-30, handle code three.
- Four-Adam-30, roger.
(siren) - I ought to kill you.
- Come on, man, let's get out of here, come on! - Stay down! (gunshot) (screaming) (tires squealing) (siren) (tires squealing) - The getaway vehicle was a late-model blue sedan, four-door.
We've got a partial on the license, 387.
(police radio) - Look what I found.
Looks like the same MO.
- Green stripe around the tip.
Talk to the witnesses.
See if any of them made a pair of cowboy boots underneath the jumpsuits.
Let's go, Junior.
I want to find a missing person.
- Pinwheel? - Pinwheel.
(exciting, jazzy music) (slow tentative music) (drumming) - [Junior.]
So that's a pinwheel.
- That's right, you can trust a spinning one.
Hey Pinwheel.
Ever thought about taking lessons? - What, cramp my style? - Word has it, you're pushing sherms these days.
- Sherms are hot; a whole lot of dudes are hustling 'em.
- Not with green rings around 'em.
Nice new drum, huh? - Oh, come on, Hooker.
Last time you plumbed my drum, it washed up in Tahiti.
- I bet the natives are still high.
- We're looking for one of your sherm heads.
Six-foot-two, male Caucasian, a hard case.
- Big dude, huh? In that category I got a merchant marine swabbie, a cowboy, and an ex-linebacker.
- Any of 'em been around lately? - The swabbie checked in yesterday, and the cowboy connected this morning.
- Next time one of them shows up, drop a dime on me.
- That's dangerous, Hooker! I got to go on livin'.
- You'll come up with an angle, or you'll be coming up with another new drum.
(dark musical tones) - When Detective Fernandez narrowed it down, they recalled seeing a pair of cowboy boots under the jumpsuit of the tall suspect.
Glad you could make it.
So the magic word for the day is cowboy.
If you see somebody who looks like he should be rounding up strays in the south 40, bring him in.
But if cowboy is our man, he's packing a .
45 auto, and he's already smoked three victims, including Detective Fernandez.
So don't let him make you the fourth.
All right, let's roll.
Which way did Dietrich go? - Looked like he was headed for the locker room.
- I'll catch you outside, Junior.
- You look like yesterday's leftovers.
I guess I don't have to ask why, do I? - Hey, don't start, Hooker.
I'm sick of being preached at.
- When are you going to be sick of being sick? - Here comes the sermon.
- No, no, no.
Just call it a bit of personal history.
I was doing my job pretty much the way I'm doing it now.
And then suddenly, one day, Fran says, "It's all over; I can't take it anymore.
" Couldn't understand why at the time.
Maybe I didn't try hard enough.
Anyway, there I was, wife, kids, gone.
I needed a friend, and I found one, 80 proof.
- It's still a friend.
Makes you feel good, and it doesn't talk back.
- No, Sam, it tears at your gut and dumps you out in the cold and rips you away from anything you have left.
Friends like that I didn't need! Back then, I had to handle it alone.
I got lucky.
I caught it in time.
Walked away before I drowned.
- Look, I will too, as soon as the pressure eases, you know? And I won't need it anymore.
Listen, I need it.
- Sam, Sam, has it ever occurred to you that the pressure may be an excuse? Maybe you're an alcoholic.
- What, are you crazy? - Sam, you should get help.
- Stay away from me.
- Get help from you own kind, cops who've been through it.
They want to help you! We need all the good cops we can get, Sam.
But you have to go to them.
You have to want to go! - I just told you, it's a temporary problem.
Besides, it's something that I do off-duty, not on the job, yeah.
- Off-duty, off-duty, what the hell's in here? - What are you doing? What are you doing? - All right, that's it, I'm pulling the plug.
- You'd do that to me? You would do that to me? - I have no choice.
(dark musical tones) - How do we know these jumpsuit bandits are still around, Hooker? Maybe they moved on.
- Don't think so.
Guys like that never know to quit when they're ahead.
- I was hoping you wouldn't say that.
Unfortunately, all we have to go on is the fact that one of them wears cowboy duds and packs a .
45.
- And he's big, don't forget that.
That narrows it down.
- If you say so.
But so far, aside from Pinwheel, our snitches haven't come up with much on the street.
- Let's swing over to the marina, take a tour.
If this cowboy is hooked on sherms and buying them from Pinwheel, he'll stay in Pinwheel's back yard, won't stray far from his source.
(exciting music) - Up ahead, see the big guy? Does that look like a cowboy to you? - Western clothes and cowboy boots.
- Looks like it's possible.
- Let's check him out.
- Hey pal, I'd like to talk to you.
(energetic, dramatic music) (tires squealing) (splash) - I can't swim! Help, I can't swim! - Let me help you.
- Lester Sayles.
- I don't know nothing about nothing.
- Right, you just ran because we were chasing you, right? - You got it.
- No, you got it, Lester.
You got my attention.
What happened to the bag you were carrying? - Oh yeah, my bag, I lost it, on account of you.
I should sue the city.
- Seems Albuquerque PD put up with a lot of your nonsense.
- Hey read, it says I've been rehabilitated.
- He looks like a possible.
What do you think, Hooker? - I'd say he's a possible.
Free room and board for you tonight, Lester.
Compliments of the city.
- Hey, you can't hold me.
- Register our guest, Romano.
Hold over for ID confirmation.
- My pleasure.
- Tomorrow, we'll bring him Pinwheel, hope for a positive ID.
- [Junior.]
Step in, all the way.
Take off your hats, face front.
- Which one is cowboy? - [Junior.]
Number one, step forward, turn around.
- They're all cowboys, Hooker.
- Don't play games with me.
Which one is your sherm buyer? - [Junior.]
Number three, step forward, and turn around.
- I don't see him here.
He ain't one of them.
- You sure? - Next man.
- Sure I'm sure.
I wish I could help you, Hooker, honest.
- [Junior.]
Five, and the last one.
- Kick 'em loose.
- That'll be all.
Move out.
(dark musical tones) - Sam.
- Stay out of my way, Hooker.
- Sam, hold on a second.
- What? - I want to talk to you, that's what.
How'd it go with the Captain? - How do you think? I'm off the case as of now.
Come tomorrow morning, I sit down with internal affairs.
You know how it tracks from there.
They take my badge and my gun and flush 'em together with my pension.
Thanks, Buddy, you're a prince.
- And you're a fool.
If you get your act together, it doesn't have to be that way.
(tenuous, high-pitched musical tones) - That's sweet, Hooker, but if I wanted religion, I'd go to church.
(exciting music) (grunting) - Hooker.
- Call an ambulance.
What happened? Who did this to you? - Cowboy.
- You mean Lester Sayles.
- I lied, you had him.
- Where can I find him? - Tomorrow, hit, hit - Where, Pinwheel, where? - Ambulance is on the way.
- Won't do any good.
- [Company.]
One, two three, four, one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
- The bars they hit are all over the city.
He sure moves around.
- Yeah, but look at this.
Each one of them's near a sport facility.
Baseball stadium, sports center, boxing arena.
And each one of them features dancing girls.
- There is a pattern! - Now look at the times of the robberies.
They all went down when some sporting event was in progress.
- Fans mob the bars before the games, and the places empty out at game time for the most part.
- And the register is loaded.
- Too bad it took so long to figure out cowboy's MO.
- Yeah.
Pinwheel said that cowboy's going to hit again today.
- [Stacy.]
There's a basketball game this afternoon.
- At the sports center near Mac's club.
You think he'd hit the same place twice? - He might.
He might think that's the last place we'll be watching.
Let's give it a try.
Let's set up, get there before he does.
I'll clear the stakeout with the Lieutenant, that's it.
Where are you going? What do you think you're doing? - This is my case.
- You're off the case, Captain's orders.
- Forget about orders.
It's the guy who shot my partner.
I'm going to after him.
- Let me tell you something.
I did tell the Captain about your drinking problem.
That's where I left it.
I didn't tell him what I really believe, that your partner caught a bullet because of your drinking.
- What are you talking about? You weren't there.
- I didn't have to be.
Let me tell you something else.
This is my stakeout, and I'm not going to let you foul it up, so get out of here.
(dark, sad musical tones) - I've got a bird's eye view of the bar from here, Corrigan.
The place seems to be pretty well emptied out.
- Yeah, well, it's getting pretty full in here.
(dark, tense music) - I was looking for every woman To satisfy me But never got past the point of breaking ice It was lonely It was the same thing again and again - I think I've got one.
- I think everything in love is pretend - He's headed to the men's room.
- Dark corners everywhere inside my heart 'Til you showed up (tense music) - Hey, I think this is him moving in.
- You're a dead man.
- It's Dietrich, he blew it.
- [Corrigan.]
What the hell is Dietrich doing here? - He's got cowboy.
- Romano! - With you, at once I felt inside (exciting, fast-paced music) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (crash) (glass breaking) - (breathing heavily) Thanks.
Bought me an extra pass.
- You know what you almost bought me? A ticket to the graveyard.
You're dangerous, man.
You're lethal, to yourself and everybody around you.
- Sorry, I really am.
- Sorry doesn't cut it anymore! - What does? - I think you know.
(slow musical tones) - That last little escapade pretty well did it.
Internal affairs will probably throw the book at me.
Looks like I'll be holding down a desk job for a while.
- Not too bad.
- I hurt a lot of people along the way.
Laura, my partner, you.
- That's yesterday's news.
From now on, you deal with today.
- Okay boys and girls, it's showtime.
I'd like to call this meeting of the Peace Officer's Fellowship to order, and let's get the ball rolling by inviting our newest member to identify himself.
- Hooker, thanks.
- Stick close to him, Laura.
He's going to need you now more than ever.
- My name is Sam.
I'm a cop, and I'm an alcoholic.
(dramatic musical tones) (theme music)
What does your gut tell you, Hooker? Are the jumpsuit bandits going to show? - Dietrich would be the one to ask.
It's his caper.
OP 1, are you holding up okay? - Roger 30, but I want you to know the pigeons were here before us, a lot.
- That's life in the outdoors, Stacy.
- Why do I always get this kind of stakeout? Dietrich and Fernandez get dancing girls, and I get a rooftop.
(energetic synth music) - I don't want to hear you lying to me Baby, don't you know I just want to be free? You went and fooled around Now it's all coming down on you Better go now 'cause I'm losing my cool And get it through your head I'm no one's tool You better walk away Better run, 'cause you're under the gun Keep it to yourself Keep away from me Keep it to yourself Baby, can't you see? I don't want to hear it I just won't take it no more - Dietrich, Fernandez, what's the whethers in there? - It actually is down to a crawl.
- Never can tell when they still get lucky.
- That's easy for you to say.
- Hang in there, Dietrich.
Keep it to yourself Keep away from me - It's two guys, one in the jumpsuit.
- [Stacy.]
But the MO has them both in jumpsuits.
- Yeah, I know.
No deal.
- Keep it to yourself Baby can't you see? I don't want to hear it I just won't take it no more (door opens) - We got two minutes.
- You better take it easy on that stuff, Sam.
Might fall out of the nest.
- Let's go.
Everybody on the floor! - Get down now! (screaming) You, get down, get down! (glass breaks) (gunshots) - Help, it's a trap! - Come on man, let's get out of here! - It's going down, shots have been fired.
(engine starting) (tires peeling out) - Nobody move! (gunshot) (screaming) - [Tony.]
(mumbling) - Tony, hold on.
(sirens) (tires peeling out) (exciting, fast-paced music) - Four-Adam-30, in pursuit of 211 suspects driving red and white four-door sedan, westbound in alley behind Ocean View Boulevard.
(tires squealing) (tires squealing) - All right cops, you want it? Come get it.
(gunshot) (gunshots) - Arnie, look out! (tires squealing) (horn honking) Arnie, you okay? Arnie, come on, Arnie, Arnie.
- Forget it, man, get over here! - You in the car, get down.
(explosions) (tires peeling out) (flames crackling) (police radio) - Sounded like cannons.
Had to be .
45's for sure.
- Hey, are you okay? - I've been better.
- Are you guys okay? - Yeah, we're fine.
The jumpsuits got away.
- What about the driver? - DOA at the hospital.
- What's the word on Fernandez? - He wasn't looking too good when we put him in the ambulance.
Can I talk to you a minute? I know you and Dietrich go back a ways, but for whatever it's worth, he's got booze on his breath.
- How bad? - Hard to say, but I thought you ought to know.
- I imagine he's pretty broken up about Fernandez.
Maybe he had a belt while waiting for the ambulance.
- All right, thanks a lot.
- I don't have to tell you how I feel.
- Oh, he's got to make it, he's just got to.
- Did we salvage anything positive out of this mess? - Well, we know a little bit more about the MO.
They're in the place a while before they hit it.
They go into the john; they put on the jumpsuits and masks, and then they come out.
- Then you saw them before they did it? - Well, not really.
I wasn't paying any attention until they came out.
- The bartender? - He wasn't concentrating on anyone at the bar.
He was watching the door.
That's where he expected the action to come from, like we all did.
I ended up with something.
Found this in the john.
- Green stripe, menthol and something else, PCP.
- Yeah, it's a sherm.
- What makes you think this connects up with the jumpsuits? - Bartender tidied up a few minutes before the shooting.
Wasn't there then.
- It's a start.
(slow, melancholy music) (elevator ding) - How's Jill? - She's dealing with it, like we're all supposed to do if our men get shot.
- It's nice of you to come down with her.
- Sam tracked me down at The Meadows.
We joined last year.
- [Loudspeaker.]
Doctor White, telephone.
- I got to hand it to you, Nora, country gloves, fur coats, you sure know how to stretch a cop's salary.
- It's called credit and fancy footwork when the bills come in.
- Doesn't that add extra pressure to Sam? - He's got big shoulders.
- Are they big enough? He was drinking on the job today.
- I don't want to hear about it.
- Don't shut me out.
Sam and I have been through too many wars together.
- Well then, leave it alone, Hooker.
- Sure, I'll go away, but Sam's problems won't.
- Doctor says in a couple of months, you'll be as good as new.
Then we'll be back at it, you and me.
- I shouldn't be here, Sam.
- Come on, Tony.
- You all but got me wasted, partner.
You and your damn booze.
- I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I swear.
(door opens) - Hi guys.
Saw Jill outside, she's taking it pretty well.
- That's my lady.
- How did it happen, Tony? It just doesn't figure.
You and Sam are too good.
- They spotted us before we could draw down.
- It just doesn't seem possible.
- Yeah, I know, but let me tell you, that's what happened.
- [Company.]
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
- Who's Dietrich leaning on? - The hype who gave him the tip about the robbery at Mac's 413 Club.
- I thought the hype only knew the driver.
- Yeah, and the driver's dead.
- [Hooker.]
Dietrich's still on him? - If you ask me, it's getting pretty hairy.
- Is that the way you talk to a police officer? - Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- You talk to me, man.
- Hey, hey, hey, let's take a walk.
- What are you doing? That's my snitch.
- You got everything he had to give you three days ago.
- I want the guy who shot my partner.
That's my only lead! - You're not thinking straight, Sam.
- I'm thinking about Tony.
- What about the sherm? - So we know the guy who shot him uses PCP, so what? - Sam, hold on a second, I want to talk with you, hold on.
You got trouble.
I want to help you.
- Look, it's nothing I can't straighten out myself.
Do me a favor, will you? Back off, let me do my job.
- All right everybody, we've got a job to do.
We're going to track the sherm.
Find the dealer who sold it.
- What's Dietrich's problem? Is it the job, or is it something personal? - I think it's a lot of both.
Mostly, it's his wife.
- Does she play around? - Well, not with other guys.
With Sam's money; she likes to live big.
- Then she shouldn't have married a cop.
Yeah, I know it's not easy, him being your friend and all, but we've both been around long enough to know that booze and police work don't mix.
It's just a feeling.
I don't want to believe it.
But I'm telling you, Hooker, Dietrich is just an accident waiting to happen.
- You may be right, Jim.
Either way, it's a problem.
I just need time to handle it.
- I hear you.
Just don't take too long, huh? Somebody else might get shot, and this time, somebody might die.
(dramatic musical tones) - Hooker, you know, we can't roust every dealer in the city looking for a guy who sells sherms.
- Right, so we find someone who's already done the searching.
- The user! (exciting, jazzy music) - So what's this guy's name? - Milo Pie.
- You're kidding.
- No, but I think his mother was.
Hold it, Milo, stay right there.
Take the back! (fast-paced music) (crash) Nice to see you again, Milo.
- I'm clean, Hooker, clean.
- Just got a cold, like always.
- We want some information.
- Tell your friend, Hooker, I ain't no snitch.
- All right, I changed my mind, pat him down.
- What do you want to know? - We're looking for a sherm dealer.
Sells the kind with the green stripe around the tip.
- That'd be Pinwheel.
- All right, Milo, you bought yourself a freebie, but I'll be around.
- What's a pinwheel? - It's a little plastic thing on the end of a stick.
It spins in the wind.
(drumming) - Rush again, huh cowboy? - Four grams, Pinwheel, my man.
And ten sherms.
- Hey, what's happening out there? - Bar business is good.
- It's all easy pickens for you, cowboy.
- Could have been easier.
I lost my wheel man on this last one.
But it was worth it.
I got enough here to hold me for a few days.
- And then what? - Another bar, another dollar.
- (laughing) Sounds like the way you and me used to caper back in Albuquerque.
- Ain't that the truth, Pinwheel? Too bad you lost your nerve.
- Hey man, you want to hear my rendition of Ghost Riders in the Sky? (drumming) - I've heard it.
(police radio) - Take look at that car up ahead.
What do you think? - Drunk as a skunk.
(tires squealing) (siren) - Freeze! - Freeze? - Stacy, it's Dietrich! (door slams) - Damn, I dropped my gun.
Hey, it happens, you know? - Call Hooker.
- [Sam.]
I dropped my gun.
- Four-Adam-16 to dispatch.
- So Milo Pie gives you your sherm dealer, Pinwheel, but we're beating the concrete all around town trying to find this Pinwheel dude.
- Pinwheel doesn't stay in one spot very long.
- You can say that again.
He's like a shadow.
- We keep looking for him, Junior, until we find him.
We find him, he'll be our tie to the jumpsuit bandits.
- [Police Radio.]
Attention, Four-Adam-30, Four-Adam-16 requests you meet them at Gower and West Fourth.
- Four-Adam-30, that's a roger.
- You're not listening to me.
It's simple, just put me in a taxi, and I'll get out of your way.
- Tell it to your friend, Hooker.
- Hey, old partner.
Your people here are making a federal case over a couple of drinks.
Okay, okay, I know I shouldn't be driving.
Just get me home! That's all I'm asking! - Lock up his car.
- You know, it might do more good if you ran him in.
- It's a judgment call.
I'm taking him home, come on, come on.
- I'm sorry to hang you up like this, but you know I would do the same for you, okay? - That doesn't make it right.
- Hey, hey, Fernandez got dropped, so I had a couple too many.
- Now listen, Sam.
My gut tells me the booze got in your way in that shootout.
For your sake, I hope internal affairs doesn't get the same notion.
- Yeah, and who'd give 'em that idea, you? - Take it easy.
You step over the line one more time, and I will.
You can count on it.
Now get in the car.
(dark, tenuous musical tones) - How does a good cop like Sam Dietrich get to be like that? - Something snaps.
I've been there.
One day, one thing too many happens.
A dead child, a rape, a murder that could have been prevented if there'd been enough hours in the day.
Or a wife walks out.
And you think drinking will drown the pain.
It doesn't.
- So what's the answer? Getting so insulated you're no longer human? - The opposite.
You fight every day to get more human, to get closer to the people, to understand and deal with the pain without running from it.
- Maybe Dietrich's doing more than just running from the pain.
Maybe the pain's only an excuse.
- Are you asking me if I think Sam's an alcoholic? - (sighs) Well, if he is, he's got more than a problem.
He's got a disease.
(light, romantic music) - Hi.
Thanks for coming out.
- I was glad you were able to get a hold of me.
- Thank you.
I didn't open up to you at the hospital about Sam's drinking because, oh because it's just so depressing to talk about it.
- Must be depressing to live with.
- He used to have a couple with the boys, or with me.
Now he drinks alone.
For a while, I blamed it on the job, his heavy caseload.
Then I began to have doubts.
Even had visions of another woman.
God, I wish it were.
At least I could understand that.
- Have you ever thought that you might be part of the problem? You knew the department salary structure when you married him.
- He never once complained.
- That's not what cops do.
- No, I guess they don't.
Hooker, tell me something.
Why won't you let us in? Why are all of you so damn macho? You push us out, create a distance.
The only way you relate is in terms of law and logic, not with honest emotions.
- At first, you tell yourself you're protecting your woman from everything you have to deal with, day in, day out.
The grim realities.
But what I learned, too late, was that I wasn't really protecting my woman or my kids.
By shutting them out, I didn't have to relive it all over again.
- I don't know.
I think I understand a little better, but I'm not sure.
- Well, I hope you do understand, and I hope you can help.
Because Sam's in over his head, and something has to be done.
(police radio) - How'd she take it? - She's going to do everything she can to help.
But the bottom line is it's going to be up to Dietrich to pull himself together.
- Hmm, where to now? - Find Pinwheel.
We've looked everywhere else but one place at the end of the old jetty.
- What makes you think you'd find him there? - Used to be one of his haunts, years ago.
He liked it because it was a safe place to deal.
Nobody could sneak up on him.
Maybe he's up to his old tricks.
(energetic, bass-heavy music) - Let's go.
Okay, everybody on the floor! (screaming) - Over there, over there! - Come on, hurry up.
- Give me your cash! Hurry it up! What'd you do? Did you hit the alarm? - [Police Radio.]
Attention four-Adam-30, and units in the vicinity, a 211 silent at The Arena Bar, 442 West Fountain, four-Adam-30, handle code three.
- Four-Adam-30, roger.
(siren) - I ought to kill you.
- Come on, man, let's get out of here, come on! - Stay down! (gunshot) (screaming) (tires squealing) (siren) (tires squealing) - The getaway vehicle was a late-model blue sedan, four-door.
We've got a partial on the license, 387.
(police radio) - Look what I found.
Looks like the same MO.
- Green stripe around the tip.
Talk to the witnesses.
See if any of them made a pair of cowboy boots underneath the jumpsuits.
Let's go, Junior.
I want to find a missing person.
- Pinwheel? - Pinwheel.
(exciting, jazzy music) (slow tentative music) (drumming) - [Junior.]
So that's a pinwheel.
- That's right, you can trust a spinning one.
Hey Pinwheel.
Ever thought about taking lessons? - What, cramp my style? - Word has it, you're pushing sherms these days.
- Sherms are hot; a whole lot of dudes are hustling 'em.
- Not with green rings around 'em.
Nice new drum, huh? - Oh, come on, Hooker.
Last time you plumbed my drum, it washed up in Tahiti.
- I bet the natives are still high.
- We're looking for one of your sherm heads.
Six-foot-two, male Caucasian, a hard case.
- Big dude, huh? In that category I got a merchant marine swabbie, a cowboy, and an ex-linebacker.
- Any of 'em been around lately? - The swabbie checked in yesterday, and the cowboy connected this morning.
- Next time one of them shows up, drop a dime on me.
- That's dangerous, Hooker! I got to go on livin'.
- You'll come up with an angle, or you'll be coming up with another new drum.
(dark musical tones) - When Detective Fernandez narrowed it down, they recalled seeing a pair of cowboy boots under the jumpsuit of the tall suspect.
Glad you could make it.
So the magic word for the day is cowboy.
If you see somebody who looks like he should be rounding up strays in the south 40, bring him in.
But if cowboy is our man, he's packing a .
45 auto, and he's already smoked three victims, including Detective Fernandez.
So don't let him make you the fourth.
All right, let's roll.
Which way did Dietrich go? - Looked like he was headed for the locker room.
- I'll catch you outside, Junior.
- You look like yesterday's leftovers.
I guess I don't have to ask why, do I? - Hey, don't start, Hooker.
I'm sick of being preached at.
- When are you going to be sick of being sick? - Here comes the sermon.
- No, no, no.
Just call it a bit of personal history.
I was doing my job pretty much the way I'm doing it now.
And then suddenly, one day, Fran says, "It's all over; I can't take it anymore.
" Couldn't understand why at the time.
Maybe I didn't try hard enough.
Anyway, there I was, wife, kids, gone.
I needed a friend, and I found one, 80 proof.
- It's still a friend.
Makes you feel good, and it doesn't talk back.
- No, Sam, it tears at your gut and dumps you out in the cold and rips you away from anything you have left.
Friends like that I didn't need! Back then, I had to handle it alone.
I got lucky.
I caught it in time.
Walked away before I drowned.
- Look, I will too, as soon as the pressure eases, you know? And I won't need it anymore.
Listen, I need it.
- Sam, Sam, has it ever occurred to you that the pressure may be an excuse? Maybe you're an alcoholic.
- What, are you crazy? - Sam, you should get help.
- Stay away from me.
- Get help from you own kind, cops who've been through it.
They want to help you! We need all the good cops we can get, Sam.
But you have to go to them.
You have to want to go! - I just told you, it's a temporary problem.
Besides, it's something that I do off-duty, not on the job, yeah.
- Off-duty, off-duty, what the hell's in here? - What are you doing? What are you doing? - All right, that's it, I'm pulling the plug.
- You'd do that to me? You would do that to me? - I have no choice.
(dark musical tones) - How do we know these jumpsuit bandits are still around, Hooker? Maybe they moved on.
- Don't think so.
Guys like that never know to quit when they're ahead.
- I was hoping you wouldn't say that.
Unfortunately, all we have to go on is the fact that one of them wears cowboy duds and packs a .
45.
- And he's big, don't forget that.
That narrows it down.
- If you say so.
But so far, aside from Pinwheel, our snitches haven't come up with much on the street.
- Let's swing over to the marina, take a tour.
If this cowboy is hooked on sherms and buying them from Pinwheel, he'll stay in Pinwheel's back yard, won't stray far from his source.
(exciting music) - Up ahead, see the big guy? Does that look like a cowboy to you? - Western clothes and cowboy boots.
- Looks like it's possible.
- Let's check him out.
- Hey pal, I'd like to talk to you.
(energetic, dramatic music) (tires squealing) (splash) - I can't swim! Help, I can't swim! - Let me help you.
- Lester Sayles.
- I don't know nothing about nothing.
- Right, you just ran because we were chasing you, right? - You got it.
- No, you got it, Lester.
You got my attention.
What happened to the bag you were carrying? - Oh yeah, my bag, I lost it, on account of you.
I should sue the city.
- Seems Albuquerque PD put up with a lot of your nonsense.
- Hey read, it says I've been rehabilitated.
- He looks like a possible.
What do you think, Hooker? - I'd say he's a possible.
Free room and board for you tonight, Lester.
Compliments of the city.
- Hey, you can't hold me.
- Register our guest, Romano.
Hold over for ID confirmation.
- My pleasure.
- Tomorrow, we'll bring him Pinwheel, hope for a positive ID.
- [Junior.]
Step in, all the way.
Take off your hats, face front.
- Which one is cowboy? - [Junior.]
Number one, step forward, turn around.
- They're all cowboys, Hooker.
- Don't play games with me.
Which one is your sherm buyer? - [Junior.]
Number three, step forward, and turn around.
- I don't see him here.
He ain't one of them.
- You sure? - Next man.
- Sure I'm sure.
I wish I could help you, Hooker, honest.
- [Junior.]
Five, and the last one.
- Kick 'em loose.
- That'll be all.
Move out.
(dark musical tones) - Sam.
- Stay out of my way, Hooker.
- Sam, hold on a second.
- What? - I want to talk to you, that's what.
How'd it go with the Captain? - How do you think? I'm off the case as of now.
Come tomorrow morning, I sit down with internal affairs.
You know how it tracks from there.
They take my badge and my gun and flush 'em together with my pension.
Thanks, Buddy, you're a prince.
- And you're a fool.
If you get your act together, it doesn't have to be that way.
(tenuous, high-pitched musical tones) - That's sweet, Hooker, but if I wanted religion, I'd go to church.
(exciting music) (grunting) - Hooker.
- Call an ambulance.
What happened? Who did this to you? - Cowboy.
- You mean Lester Sayles.
- I lied, you had him.
- Where can I find him? - Tomorrow, hit, hit - Where, Pinwheel, where? - Ambulance is on the way.
- Won't do any good.
- [Company.]
One, two three, four, one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
- The bars they hit are all over the city.
He sure moves around.
- Yeah, but look at this.
Each one of them's near a sport facility.
Baseball stadium, sports center, boxing arena.
And each one of them features dancing girls.
- There is a pattern! - Now look at the times of the robberies.
They all went down when some sporting event was in progress.
- Fans mob the bars before the games, and the places empty out at game time for the most part.
- And the register is loaded.
- Too bad it took so long to figure out cowboy's MO.
- Yeah.
Pinwheel said that cowboy's going to hit again today.
- [Stacy.]
There's a basketball game this afternoon.
- At the sports center near Mac's club.
You think he'd hit the same place twice? - He might.
He might think that's the last place we'll be watching.
Let's give it a try.
Let's set up, get there before he does.
I'll clear the stakeout with the Lieutenant, that's it.
Where are you going? What do you think you're doing? - This is my case.
- You're off the case, Captain's orders.
- Forget about orders.
It's the guy who shot my partner.
I'm going to after him.
- Let me tell you something.
I did tell the Captain about your drinking problem.
That's where I left it.
I didn't tell him what I really believe, that your partner caught a bullet because of your drinking.
- What are you talking about? You weren't there.
- I didn't have to be.
Let me tell you something else.
This is my stakeout, and I'm not going to let you foul it up, so get out of here.
(dark, sad musical tones) - I've got a bird's eye view of the bar from here, Corrigan.
The place seems to be pretty well emptied out.
- Yeah, well, it's getting pretty full in here.
(dark, tense music) - I was looking for every woman To satisfy me But never got past the point of breaking ice It was lonely It was the same thing again and again - I think I've got one.
- I think everything in love is pretend - He's headed to the men's room.
- Dark corners everywhere inside my heart 'Til you showed up (tense music) - Hey, I think this is him moving in.
- You're a dead man.
- It's Dietrich, he blew it.
- [Corrigan.]
What the hell is Dietrich doing here? - He's got cowboy.
- Romano! - With you, at once I felt inside (exciting, fast-paced music) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (tires squealing) (crash) (glass breaking) - (breathing heavily) Thanks.
Bought me an extra pass.
- You know what you almost bought me? A ticket to the graveyard.
You're dangerous, man.
You're lethal, to yourself and everybody around you.
- Sorry, I really am.
- Sorry doesn't cut it anymore! - What does? - I think you know.
(slow musical tones) - That last little escapade pretty well did it.
Internal affairs will probably throw the book at me.
Looks like I'll be holding down a desk job for a while.
- Not too bad.
- I hurt a lot of people along the way.
Laura, my partner, you.
- That's yesterday's news.
From now on, you deal with today.
- Okay boys and girls, it's showtime.
I'd like to call this meeting of the Peace Officer's Fellowship to order, and let's get the ball rolling by inviting our newest member to identify himself.
- Hooker, thanks.
- Stick close to him, Laura.
He's going to need you now more than ever.
- My name is Sam.
I'm a cop, and I'm an alcoholic.
(dramatic musical tones) (theme music)