T.J. Hooker (1982) s05e07 Episode Script
Funny Money
(upbeat electronic rock music) - Get these bills boxed up and get them in the car, Reno.
Now.
- Sure, John.
- The informant tells me they'll be coming out of there with a car trunk full of funny money.
- Just what we need.
Another counterfeiting operation.
- Snitch came to me after he was invited in.
You know him, Jim, Toby Reno.
- Reno, I thought he married a bump and grind girl and retired into the straight life.
- Semi retired.
- Must have some good moves.
The only thing Reno ever liked more than a street hustle was playing undercover cop.
- Komack, Secret Service.
You know my team.
Sheridan, Corrigan.
- What do we got here? Toby Reno got off a quick call to me before he went in there.
He just met the guy running the operation, John Simone.
- Wow.
He's wanted for escape from McNeil Prison.
He heads a federal prison gang of enforcers called the Brotherhood.
He's also probably the best paper hanger in the business.
Who else is in there? - Guy who does the printing, who recruited Reno.
Clarence Trent.
Anda couple of hired guns.
Listen, Komack, Toby Reno is the one handing you this.
If things start to go down heavy, watch out for him, will you? - Like he was my brother.
I've got the warrant.
Should we go do this? Bobby, cover the back.
You have any ideas how to get in the front? - Yeah, I got one.
- Let's go, cars are moving.
- All right.
- Now! (guns firing) (tires squealing) (guns firing) (Trent groaning) - Reno.
He's dead.
(tires screeching) (siren blaring) - Adam 30, in pursuit of the counterfeit suspect driving a brown Gremlin.
Eastbound on Seventh, just past Julia.
(siren blaring) - Four Adam 30 to control.
Advise all units to the Becker Drawbridge area.
Suspect in brown Gremlin, last seen going west on Becker Avenue.
Unable to read plates for accurate ID.
- [Stacy.]
16 to 30, come in on Tac-2.
- 30.
- We've got four people down at the warehouse, one in custody, one DB.
Shooting team is rolling with a 20 minute ETA.
- I'm sorry, your man got caught in the crossfire.
And it looks like he was taken out with a shotgun.
- What happened? - Trent was opening up on me.
I fired back, Reno was behind him.
He took a hit.
- OK, these things happen.
- I took out the wrong man.
- From the way it looks, you didn't have any choice.
- I've been around long enough to know the tactical error is I didn't clear my background before I pulled the trigger.
Now a poor guy who liked to play cop is dead.
- Jim.
Combat shooting is almost always a matter of pure reflex.
Before you start jumping all over yourself, back off.
Let the shooting team do their thing, and if they second guess you wrong, OK.
Then you pay your dues.
- Is that what Reno did, pay his dues? For what? My mistake? - US attorney can't do me any good.
I escaped from McNeil with Simone.
Just going back to do my time.
- Plus time for this new counterfeiting charge.
But there is something that can be done if you're willing to deal.
If you turn government's witness.
- Why should I deal? All I did was age the bills, make them pass easier.
I wasn't the printer.
- Photograph these as evidence, and try you as the printer.
Judge compounds the sentence and adds a murder rap.
- I didn't shoot anybody.
- Come on, Trent.
You're a jailhouse lawyer, you know how the system works.
You didn't pull the trigger, but you pulled the crime.
That's murder one.
- You're trying to put a jacket on me, man.
- No, we'll let the judge and the jury do that.
You'll rot inside your cell an old man.
- I might want to cooperate.
The Brotherhood, you don't know what they're like.
They kill stoolies.
- Well, the government might be willing to put you under deep cover.
- Yeah? - Sometimes we trade off, sure.
- Look, you get the US attorney to promise no murder charge, I'll do what I can.
- Thanks for the help.
- I owe Toby Reno, so then John Simone owes me.
I'll take them any way I can get them.
- Jim, I've been looking for you.
- I'm meeting Vicky and I'm late.
- How'd it go with the shooting team? - They asked me a lot of very polite questions and let me sweat.
- It was an accident, Jim.
By the way, Hooker wants to talk to you.
- I don't want to talk him.
Know what I've been thinking? I've been thinking about of blood and dead bodies.
I've been thinking maybe I've had 13 years too many.
Know what I mean? - No, I don't.
Vicky's father has an opening in his company.
The spot's mine if I want it.
- And Vicky's pressing you.
- Let's say she thinks it might be a change for the better.
There's something else I've been thinking about.
That shootout could have gone either way.
Maybe the law of averages is catching up with me.
- Now, why don't you tell me about it? - About what? - You've been somewhere else all night.
Something has happened and you're ready to explode.
Tell me and maybe we can do something about it together.
- There was a shooting today.
I was involved.
A man was working undercover with us, and one of the suspects got a shot off at me, and I fired back.
Our man just happened to be behind him at the wrong moment.
I shot and killed him.
- I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
- That's the problem, so am I.
Only being sorry won't change anything.
- You can't blame yourself for an accident, Jim, and that's what it was.
But you can do something about it so that it never happens again.
You can do something else for a living.
You don't have to lay your conscience and your life on the line every day like this.
You've got that choice.
You want to talk about choices? - Jim, Vicky.
- Hooker.
I was just going to touch up my face.
Excuse me.
- Nice girl.
- Yeah.
How'd you find me? - I got it out Stacy.
Had to pull rank.
Two things.
The shooting team reported, you've been cleared.
- Thanks.
And two? - Komack called.
Clarence Trent had agreed to cooperate in putting a collar on John Simone.
He was being kept at the county jail.
Only about an hour ago, somebody put a wire necktie around Trent's neck, he's dead.
- Who got to him? - Komack said it was the Brotherhood.
Prison pipeline got word out that Trent was a stoolie.
- You're gonna need a lot of luck finding Simone now.
- We're just going to have to make our own luck, aren't we? - Don't count on the we part.
I might not be around.
- I can't accept that, not yet.
- Hey, Stacy, where's Hooker? - Said he was gonna see Reno's widow.
Ready for patrol? - As ready as I'll ever be.
- Are you still doing that guilt number on yourself? - Guilt is just a symptom.
- Jim, you have citations left and right.
Medal of valor, officer of the month, plus you have the A-number one partner on the force.
- I'll buy the last part.
The rest sounds like my obituary.
- Am I bringing you up, or are you bringing me down? - Depends on your point of view.
Come on, partner, we have duty.
(engine starts) (sleazy rock music) - You'll ruin our business, Hooker.
Our customers don't like cops.
- I came by to tell you how sorry I was about Reno.
- Yeah, well, what's another husband more or less, huh? He'd still be alive if he stayed away from you.
- Reno's dead because Simone decided to shoot it out.
I need your help.
I need your help to catch Simone.
- You're something else.
My husband is gone, so Sally steps in, right? Get the hell out of here, Hooker.
- Sally.
Reno and I were friends.
He told me something that a man doesn't tell another man unless they are friends.
He said the best thing that ever happened to him was meeting a certain lady.
She was the only thing that really mattered in his life.
He was talking about you.
I just want you to know that.
- Reno told me something that I think he'd want you to know now.
- What's that? - The first time that he met you, you caught him in a money switch deal he had going.
Instead of booking him, you marched him to a church and made him put every penny into the poor box.
He couldn't get over that.
- I remember when he called me the next day.
After the shock had worn off, he said he felt like a new man.
- He was.
That was the last crooked deal he ever tried.
I guess he thought a lot of you.
- Thank you for telling me, Sally.
- Hooker.
John Simone, he works with a guy named Paulie.
That's all I know, Paulie.
- Thank you.
- Komack is down at the Federal Reserve bank.
Simone's funny twenties started showing up on the receipts from shopping centers.
- His wife came up with a name.
Cross checking it with Simone's known associates, we came up with a match.
- Paulie Morris.
Did 306 for passing bogus money.
- Six years ago, Paulie was arrested with one Clarence Trent, now deceased, but John Simone's late printer.
- So we got a connection.
- It's a reach.
But I'll check Paulie's last known address.
He might take us to Simone.
- It's worth a shot.
Call us for surveillance if you need anything.
- Quality stuff here, John.
- It's been only the best, Paulie.
Why don't you want to score some more, huh? - I'm running a little light of ready cash.
Let me get rid of this package.
I'll be back this afternoon.
- That money might not be here when you get back, Paulie.
- You ain't the only supplier around town.
- But I'm the best.
(Paulie laughs) - I'll be back this afternoon.
- When he comes back, the price goes up.
A thousand on 30.
- I thought he was your friend.
- I don't have any friends, Marty.
- When are we gonna go away, Johnny, have a good time like you said? - Don't bug me on this, huh? You ain't that good, baby.
- But I'm good enough to sit around in motel rooms for the last six months right? - You got a loose mouth.
Shut it up, will ya? - What are you going to do, snuff me like you did your printer Clarence? - Where'd you get that? Who told you that? - One of your passers told me.
Everybody knows it.
- Oh yeah? Maybe it's good you know about it, baby.
That's what happens to people that got a big mouth.
Just remember that.
(sighs) - [Dispatcher.]
Four Adam 30.
See the woman, the bookstore, Fourth and Flower, possible counterfeiter there now.
- Four Adam 30, roger.
- [Stacy.]
Four Adam 16 to Four Adam 30 on Tac-2.
- [Hooker.]
16, you're clear for backup.
- Rolling backup.
- 30 to 16, I've made our man.
He's slim, 5'9, wearing a gray suit, black tie, and he's carrying a small package.
He's at the address, move in from the south.
- Roger, we're in position.
(exciting instrumental music) - No, no! - Stay back, or I'll kill her.
- No, don't, please don't hurt me.
- Paulie, it's only passing funny money so far.
Let the girl go, don't make it any worse.
- I've done all the hard time I'm gonna do.
Now back out of here.
Everybody! - [Hostage.]
No, don't hurt me.
Don't hurt me.
Don't hurt me.
- Paulie.
She dies, you die.
It's as simple as that.
- No, no.
- Don't hurt me.
No! (gun fires) (hostage sobbing) - It almost happened again, Stacy.
I almost hit that woman.
- You didn't, Jim.
You didn't.
- Will there be another inquiry by, what do you call it, the shooting team? - Sure, procedure.
Two down in two days, I'm getting a reputation to live up to.
- Do something about it, Jim.
- Like quit? - Don't misunderstand me.
Your being a police officer doesn't matter to me.
It's just that you have so much more potential.
- Potential to do what? - You don't have to work for my father.
You can be anything you want to be, except use a gun as a way of life.
Shooting, being shot at.
I love you, Jim, but I don't want to watch the man I love being destroyed by what he does for a living.
- Has it been that bad? - You know what you've gone through these past two days better than I do.
There's nothing wrong with coming home every night, enjoying beautiful things, leading a normal, quiet, uneventful life.
There's nothing wrong with that, is there? - There's nothing wrong with that.
- I've gotta run.
I promised my mother I'd take her shopping.
- Thanks for stopping by.
- I'll see you tonight.
And Jim, whatever you decide, it's OK.
I'll see you tonight.
(engine starts) - I got a question.
- I hope I have an answer.
- I got time on the books.
Figure I'd pull a special tomorrow.
- You need some extra time off, why don't you take it? - To tell it like I feel it right now, I'm not sure I want to come back.
- Cop's badge isn't easy to wear.
- I'm not sure I want to.
See those guys? I work with most of them every day.
Today they won't look me in the eye.
- Maybe you're not reading it right, Jim.
These guys haven't been where you've been.
They haven't had to pull the trigger.
So they get to wondering about it.
Thinking whether they could handle it or not.
Whether they'd come out alive.
- I gotta live with the fact that two men are dead and an innocent woman came within an inch of having a bullet in her head.
- You did what had to be done.
- By the book, I've had that chapter read to me.
- Because it's right.
- Maybe for you.
Maybe that's what I thought when I pulled the trigger.
But maybe I've been thinking wrong.
- I'm worried about Jim.
- Maybe some extra time off will help him get his head together.
- Not if he spends it with Vicky.
She wants him to start a new line of work.
After the last couple of days, her thinking is hard to fault.
- Maybe, but Jim's put in 13 years.
Every time you saw another hash mark, seems you end up asking yourself the whys and the what fors.
If it makes any difference, if it's all really worth it, the pain and sweat.
I keep thinking about it myself.
Coroner found this on Paulie's body.
It's phony, but it's top grade.
- [Stacy.]
Is this the only one he had on him? - Yeah.
Patrol unit found his car in a parking lot, this one.
- Would he risk that, leaving his own car full of funny money? - He'd hide it real good.
- Is this a private scavenger hunt, or can anybody join in? - Join the party.
Paulie's stash has got to be here somewhere.
- Sometimes they slit the seats through the backrest.
Anywhere they can get quick access.
- Back end's clean.
(box rattling) - Well look at what we have here.
Look what's playing in the top 20.
- This is quality merchandise.
The kind Simone sells.
- The return address.
- We got the passer.
Let's see if Simone is still dealing at the El Rancho.
- Stacy, book the money.
Bring O'Brien up to date.
- It's Charlie Burrell.
His street name is 10 Spot.
I've popped him before, he's a race track passer.
- You can pick up Simone is your target.
- Let's hit the door.
(knocking on door) - Police, open up.
(gun firing) - Komack, you all right? - Yeah, take it.
(car horn honking) - You've done a little time in the joint, Marty.
You know how tough it can be.
It's no place for a lady.
- Look, Marty, what we're saying is, if you cooperate and help us turn Simone, we got no big reason to hit you hard.
- Why waste your best years inside, while Simone is on the outside, living it up without you? - What do I have to do? - Find Simone.
We'll fill you in on what to say to him.
we'll give you one of our men to work with.
- No hard time.
OK, lay it out for me.
- You think Marty can pull this off, huh? - She's all we've got.
Simone isn't going to show unless we offer him a deal he can't turn down.
- [Komack.]
OK, but I got a problem.
- What's that? - I got nobody available to work with her.
I'll have to fly somebody in from DC.
- By the time you do that, Simone will have buried himself somewhere.
- Then you come up with someone.
- Yeah, I just might do that.
- You really mean it? You'll talk to my father tomorrow? - It seems like the thing to do.
- Jim.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to you.
- Come on, Stacy, give me a break.
- It's important.
- Here I go again.
- How did you find me? - Your landlady.
- Oh, great.
What is it? - Hooker trapped John Simone today, but he rabbited before the collar.
There's a way we can get to him.
- Come on, Stacy, can't this wait? - Since when did being a cop become nine to five? - I'm on days off, remember? - You know why I'm here instead of Hooker? Because we've shared a lot together.
Because I thought I knew you and what was important to you.
- I just think I want out, all the way out.
- OK, if you're pulling the pin because of the lady or more cash in the bank, great, I can understand that.
I'll even throw you a going away party.
But if you're quitting because things got tough, because you had to lay some of yourself on the line and it hurt, then I'm losing a partner for all the wrong reasons.
You turn everything you touch sour, and everyone, including yourself.
So before you break up a damn good team, think about it.
- It's decision time, isn't it? - Talking about my job or us? - Isn't it the same thing? - Yeah, I guess it does come down to that.
- Well, I only have one thing to say.
I love you.
- You argue a good case.
- I'm trying.
- Jim's had enough time to think about it.
I guess I blew it.
- Who else can we use? - It's your turn.
- Great.
Yeah, this is Komack.
Put me through to the assistant director, please.
- I thought you were on your days off.
- Stacy said you figured a way to get to Simone.
I want a piece of him too.
- Operator, cancel this call.
- Well, first we better get you into something more comfortable.
- This is 100,000 genuine.
It'll buy five times that in funny money and if you should lose it, I'll probably get fired, or maybe executed.
(phone rings) - Hooker.
It's Marty.
Yeah.
Yeah.
OK, we'll play it his way.
You did good, Marty.
Our man's name is Corrigan.
He'll be there waiting for you.
OK, the meeting with Simone is set.
Like we figured, he couldn't say no to $100,000 in real green.
One thing, you can't wear a wire.
Simone will be checking for it.
Fortunately, we anticipated that.
(device beeps) Homing device.
And your transmitter.
- Be careful how you hold the handle.
That's where the mic is.
- You Corrigan? - Yeah.
Marty, right? - A friend of Simone dropped me off.
- Yeah, one of them will check our clothes out for bugs.
So how'd you sell me to Simone? - I told him you did time with your ex-wife.
When I got out, we used to be a thing together.
- Was that smart? You're his girlfriend, right? - Something he'd believe.
I'm just merchandise to him, like his money.
- Well, you're about to change that.
- I just got paid 100 bucks by a gentleman to tell you both to be out front in five minutes.
- Was that before or after they searched our clothes? - After.
- Did he pay you in twenties? - Yes.
- Sweetheart, you'll be amazed at what that gentleman just did to you.
- 16, you there? - Standing by, 30.
- They just got into a brown Lincoln four-door sedan.
Be ready.
(device beeping) - Simone's playing it cute.
He's supposed to be in that car.
- 16, subject is northbound on 40th.
We're rolling.
- Right on target.
- Let's keep it that way.
- Where's the telephone? Mr.
Simone, please.
- Let me talk to Marty.
- Hey, I'm packing the money, pal.
You deal with me, or I'll take my business somewhere else.
- We talk, and you take orders.
Go to the phone on the fourth level by the fire stairs.
- Come on.
(device beeping) - [Jim.]
He's covering himself by running us until he's sure we're not dragging a tail.
- Yeah, he's real cute.
- Hooker, we're on the fourth level, but hang tight until I know for sure where it's going down.
(phone rings) Yeah? - You're lucky you came alone.
- You're lucky I came at all.
- Go to the phone on the terrace level by the south entrance.
- He's got us on the move again.
(phone rings) Hey, stop playing games, let's deal.
- Just turn around.
- Hooker, we're on the fourth level terrace.
This is it.
- Let's go.
- Rub his neck too, Marty? - Hey, Slick, I came here to score.
You got something for the lady, you two work that out until we conclude our transaction.
I have 100,000 genuine in this case.
You have what I want.
Do we trade or not? - First we look.
Careful in, careful out.
Stay put.
Nice doing business with you.
(exciting instrumental music) (tires squealing) (gun firing) - I forgot, I don't have any cuffs.
Also aren't packing a gun.
Better keep an eye on your partner, Stacy.
He's getting careless.
- My pleasure.
- Maybe it's better this way, Jim.
You belong here.
I don't and I never will, and my mistake was impressing you to change.
- I'd make a lousy executive anyway.
Probably a lousy husband.
- I won't buy that.
We had some great times.
I don't intend to just disappear through a trap door.
- Who said anything about that? - I'm gonna give it a couple of weeks and then I'll call you.
- If I don't call you first.
- So I lose a husband and I gain a friend.
- Think that little scene means I got my partner back? - A little bruised, maybe.
A little older and wiser.
But definitely back.
(upbeat electronic rock music)
Now.
- Sure, John.
- The informant tells me they'll be coming out of there with a car trunk full of funny money.
- Just what we need.
Another counterfeiting operation.
- Snitch came to me after he was invited in.
You know him, Jim, Toby Reno.
- Reno, I thought he married a bump and grind girl and retired into the straight life.
- Semi retired.
- Must have some good moves.
The only thing Reno ever liked more than a street hustle was playing undercover cop.
- Komack, Secret Service.
You know my team.
Sheridan, Corrigan.
- What do we got here? Toby Reno got off a quick call to me before he went in there.
He just met the guy running the operation, John Simone.
- Wow.
He's wanted for escape from McNeil Prison.
He heads a federal prison gang of enforcers called the Brotherhood.
He's also probably the best paper hanger in the business.
Who else is in there? - Guy who does the printing, who recruited Reno.
Clarence Trent.
Anda couple of hired guns.
Listen, Komack, Toby Reno is the one handing you this.
If things start to go down heavy, watch out for him, will you? - Like he was my brother.
I've got the warrant.
Should we go do this? Bobby, cover the back.
You have any ideas how to get in the front? - Yeah, I got one.
- Let's go, cars are moving.
- All right.
- Now! (guns firing) (tires squealing) (guns firing) (Trent groaning) - Reno.
He's dead.
(tires screeching) (siren blaring) - Adam 30, in pursuit of the counterfeit suspect driving a brown Gremlin.
Eastbound on Seventh, just past Julia.
(siren blaring) - Four Adam 30 to control.
Advise all units to the Becker Drawbridge area.
Suspect in brown Gremlin, last seen going west on Becker Avenue.
Unable to read plates for accurate ID.
- [Stacy.]
16 to 30, come in on Tac-2.
- 30.
- We've got four people down at the warehouse, one in custody, one DB.
Shooting team is rolling with a 20 minute ETA.
- I'm sorry, your man got caught in the crossfire.
And it looks like he was taken out with a shotgun.
- What happened? - Trent was opening up on me.
I fired back, Reno was behind him.
He took a hit.
- OK, these things happen.
- I took out the wrong man.
- From the way it looks, you didn't have any choice.
- I've been around long enough to know the tactical error is I didn't clear my background before I pulled the trigger.
Now a poor guy who liked to play cop is dead.
- Jim.
Combat shooting is almost always a matter of pure reflex.
Before you start jumping all over yourself, back off.
Let the shooting team do their thing, and if they second guess you wrong, OK.
Then you pay your dues.
- Is that what Reno did, pay his dues? For what? My mistake? - US attorney can't do me any good.
I escaped from McNeil with Simone.
Just going back to do my time.
- Plus time for this new counterfeiting charge.
But there is something that can be done if you're willing to deal.
If you turn government's witness.
- Why should I deal? All I did was age the bills, make them pass easier.
I wasn't the printer.
- Photograph these as evidence, and try you as the printer.
Judge compounds the sentence and adds a murder rap.
- I didn't shoot anybody.
- Come on, Trent.
You're a jailhouse lawyer, you know how the system works.
You didn't pull the trigger, but you pulled the crime.
That's murder one.
- You're trying to put a jacket on me, man.
- No, we'll let the judge and the jury do that.
You'll rot inside your cell an old man.
- I might want to cooperate.
The Brotherhood, you don't know what they're like.
They kill stoolies.
- Well, the government might be willing to put you under deep cover.
- Yeah? - Sometimes we trade off, sure.
- Look, you get the US attorney to promise no murder charge, I'll do what I can.
- Thanks for the help.
- I owe Toby Reno, so then John Simone owes me.
I'll take them any way I can get them.
- Jim, I've been looking for you.
- I'm meeting Vicky and I'm late.
- How'd it go with the shooting team? - They asked me a lot of very polite questions and let me sweat.
- It was an accident, Jim.
By the way, Hooker wants to talk to you.
- I don't want to talk him.
Know what I've been thinking? I've been thinking about of blood and dead bodies.
I've been thinking maybe I've had 13 years too many.
Know what I mean? - No, I don't.
Vicky's father has an opening in his company.
The spot's mine if I want it.
- And Vicky's pressing you.
- Let's say she thinks it might be a change for the better.
There's something else I've been thinking about.
That shootout could have gone either way.
Maybe the law of averages is catching up with me.
- Now, why don't you tell me about it? - About what? - You've been somewhere else all night.
Something has happened and you're ready to explode.
Tell me and maybe we can do something about it together.
- There was a shooting today.
I was involved.
A man was working undercover with us, and one of the suspects got a shot off at me, and I fired back.
Our man just happened to be behind him at the wrong moment.
I shot and killed him.
- I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
- That's the problem, so am I.
Only being sorry won't change anything.
- You can't blame yourself for an accident, Jim, and that's what it was.
But you can do something about it so that it never happens again.
You can do something else for a living.
You don't have to lay your conscience and your life on the line every day like this.
You've got that choice.
You want to talk about choices? - Jim, Vicky.
- Hooker.
I was just going to touch up my face.
Excuse me.
- Nice girl.
- Yeah.
How'd you find me? - I got it out Stacy.
Had to pull rank.
Two things.
The shooting team reported, you've been cleared.
- Thanks.
And two? - Komack called.
Clarence Trent had agreed to cooperate in putting a collar on John Simone.
He was being kept at the county jail.
Only about an hour ago, somebody put a wire necktie around Trent's neck, he's dead.
- Who got to him? - Komack said it was the Brotherhood.
Prison pipeline got word out that Trent was a stoolie.
- You're gonna need a lot of luck finding Simone now.
- We're just going to have to make our own luck, aren't we? - Don't count on the we part.
I might not be around.
- I can't accept that, not yet.
- Hey, Stacy, where's Hooker? - Said he was gonna see Reno's widow.
Ready for patrol? - As ready as I'll ever be.
- Are you still doing that guilt number on yourself? - Guilt is just a symptom.
- Jim, you have citations left and right.
Medal of valor, officer of the month, plus you have the A-number one partner on the force.
- I'll buy the last part.
The rest sounds like my obituary.
- Am I bringing you up, or are you bringing me down? - Depends on your point of view.
Come on, partner, we have duty.
(engine starts) (sleazy rock music) - You'll ruin our business, Hooker.
Our customers don't like cops.
- I came by to tell you how sorry I was about Reno.
- Yeah, well, what's another husband more or less, huh? He'd still be alive if he stayed away from you.
- Reno's dead because Simone decided to shoot it out.
I need your help.
I need your help to catch Simone.
- You're something else.
My husband is gone, so Sally steps in, right? Get the hell out of here, Hooker.
- Sally.
Reno and I were friends.
He told me something that a man doesn't tell another man unless they are friends.
He said the best thing that ever happened to him was meeting a certain lady.
She was the only thing that really mattered in his life.
He was talking about you.
I just want you to know that.
- Reno told me something that I think he'd want you to know now.
- What's that? - The first time that he met you, you caught him in a money switch deal he had going.
Instead of booking him, you marched him to a church and made him put every penny into the poor box.
He couldn't get over that.
- I remember when he called me the next day.
After the shock had worn off, he said he felt like a new man.
- He was.
That was the last crooked deal he ever tried.
I guess he thought a lot of you.
- Thank you for telling me, Sally.
- Hooker.
John Simone, he works with a guy named Paulie.
That's all I know, Paulie.
- Thank you.
- Komack is down at the Federal Reserve bank.
Simone's funny twenties started showing up on the receipts from shopping centers.
- His wife came up with a name.
Cross checking it with Simone's known associates, we came up with a match.
- Paulie Morris.
Did 306 for passing bogus money.
- Six years ago, Paulie was arrested with one Clarence Trent, now deceased, but John Simone's late printer.
- So we got a connection.
- It's a reach.
But I'll check Paulie's last known address.
He might take us to Simone.
- It's worth a shot.
Call us for surveillance if you need anything.
- Quality stuff here, John.
- It's been only the best, Paulie.
Why don't you want to score some more, huh? - I'm running a little light of ready cash.
Let me get rid of this package.
I'll be back this afternoon.
- That money might not be here when you get back, Paulie.
- You ain't the only supplier around town.
- But I'm the best.
(Paulie laughs) - I'll be back this afternoon.
- When he comes back, the price goes up.
A thousand on 30.
- I thought he was your friend.
- I don't have any friends, Marty.
- When are we gonna go away, Johnny, have a good time like you said? - Don't bug me on this, huh? You ain't that good, baby.
- But I'm good enough to sit around in motel rooms for the last six months right? - You got a loose mouth.
Shut it up, will ya? - What are you going to do, snuff me like you did your printer Clarence? - Where'd you get that? Who told you that? - One of your passers told me.
Everybody knows it.
- Oh yeah? Maybe it's good you know about it, baby.
That's what happens to people that got a big mouth.
Just remember that.
(sighs) - [Dispatcher.]
Four Adam 30.
See the woman, the bookstore, Fourth and Flower, possible counterfeiter there now.
- Four Adam 30, roger.
- [Stacy.]
Four Adam 16 to Four Adam 30 on Tac-2.
- [Hooker.]
16, you're clear for backup.
- Rolling backup.
- 30 to 16, I've made our man.
He's slim, 5'9, wearing a gray suit, black tie, and he's carrying a small package.
He's at the address, move in from the south.
- Roger, we're in position.
(exciting instrumental music) - No, no! - Stay back, or I'll kill her.
- No, don't, please don't hurt me.
- Paulie, it's only passing funny money so far.
Let the girl go, don't make it any worse.
- I've done all the hard time I'm gonna do.
Now back out of here.
Everybody! - [Hostage.]
No, don't hurt me.
Don't hurt me.
Don't hurt me.
- Paulie.
She dies, you die.
It's as simple as that.
- No, no.
- Don't hurt me.
No! (gun fires) (hostage sobbing) - It almost happened again, Stacy.
I almost hit that woman.
- You didn't, Jim.
You didn't.
- Will there be another inquiry by, what do you call it, the shooting team? - Sure, procedure.
Two down in two days, I'm getting a reputation to live up to.
- Do something about it, Jim.
- Like quit? - Don't misunderstand me.
Your being a police officer doesn't matter to me.
It's just that you have so much more potential.
- Potential to do what? - You don't have to work for my father.
You can be anything you want to be, except use a gun as a way of life.
Shooting, being shot at.
I love you, Jim, but I don't want to watch the man I love being destroyed by what he does for a living.
- Has it been that bad? - You know what you've gone through these past two days better than I do.
There's nothing wrong with coming home every night, enjoying beautiful things, leading a normal, quiet, uneventful life.
There's nothing wrong with that, is there? - There's nothing wrong with that.
- I've gotta run.
I promised my mother I'd take her shopping.
- Thanks for stopping by.
- I'll see you tonight.
And Jim, whatever you decide, it's OK.
I'll see you tonight.
(engine starts) - I got a question.
- I hope I have an answer.
- I got time on the books.
Figure I'd pull a special tomorrow.
- You need some extra time off, why don't you take it? - To tell it like I feel it right now, I'm not sure I want to come back.
- Cop's badge isn't easy to wear.
- I'm not sure I want to.
See those guys? I work with most of them every day.
Today they won't look me in the eye.
- Maybe you're not reading it right, Jim.
These guys haven't been where you've been.
They haven't had to pull the trigger.
So they get to wondering about it.
Thinking whether they could handle it or not.
Whether they'd come out alive.
- I gotta live with the fact that two men are dead and an innocent woman came within an inch of having a bullet in her head.
- You did what had to be done.
- By the book, I've had that chapter read to me.
- Because it's right.
- Maybe for you.
Maybe that's what I thought when I pulled the trigger.
But maybe I've been thinking wrong.
- I'm worried about Jim.
- Maybe some extra time off will help him get his head together.
- Not if he spends it with Vicky.
She wants him to start a new line of work.
After the last couple of days, her thinking is hard to fault.
- Maybe, but Jim's put in 13 years.
Every time you saw another hash mark, seems you end up asking yourself the whys and the what fors.
If it makes any difference, if it's all really worth it, the pain and sweat.
I keep thinking about it myself.
Coroner found this on Paulie's body.
It's phony, but it's top grade.
- [Stacy.]
Is this the only one he had on him? - Yeah.
Patrol unit found his car in a parking lot, this one.
- Would he risk that, leaving his own car full of funny money? - He'd hide it real good.
- Is this a private scavenger hunt, or can anybody join in? - Join the party.
Paulie's stash has got to be here somewhere.
- Sometimes they slit the seats through the backrest.
Anywhere they can get quick access.
- Back end's clean.
(box rattling) - Well look at what we have here.
Look what's playing in the top 20.
- This is quality merchandise.
The kind Simone sells.
- The return address.
- We got the passer.
Let's see if Simone is still dealing at the El Rancho.
- Stacy, book the money.
Bring O'Brien up to date.
- It's Charlie Burrell.
His street name is 10 Spot.
I've popped him before, he's a race track passer.
- You can pick up Simone is your target.
- Let's hit the door.
(knocking on door) - Police, open up.
(gun firing) - Komack, you all right? - Yeah, take it.
(car horn honking) - You've done a little time in the joint, Marty.
You know how tough it can be.
It's no place for a lady.
- Look, Marty, what we're saying is, if you cooperate and help us turn Simone, we got no big reason to hit you hard.
- Why waste your best years inside, while Simone is on the outside, living it up without you? - What do I have to do? - Find Simone.
We'll fill you in on what to say to him.
we'll give you one of our men to work with.
- No hard time.
OK, lay it out for me.
- You think Marty can pull this off, huh? - She's all we've got.
Simone isn't going to show unless we offer him a deal he can't turn down.
- [Komack.]
OK, but I got a problem.
- What's that? - I got nobody available to work with her.
I'll have to fly somebody in from DC.
- By the time you do that, Simone will have buried himself somewhere.
- Then you come up with someone.
- Yeah, I just might do that.
- You really mean it? You'll talk to my father tomorrow? - It seems like the thing to do.
- Jim.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to you.
- Come on, Stacy, give me a break.
- It's important.
- Here I go again.
- How did you find me? - Your landlady.
- Oh, great.
What is it? - Hooker trapped John Simone today, but he rabbited before the collar.
There's a way we can get to him.
- Come on, Stacy, can't this wait? - Since when did being a cop become nine to five? - I'm on days off, remember? - You know why I'm here instead of Hooker? Because we've shared a lot together.
Because I thought I knew you and what was important to you.
- I just think I want out, all the way out.
- OK, if you're pulling the pin because of the lady or more cash in the bank, great, I can understand that.
I'll even throw you a going away party.
But if you're quitting because things got tough, because you had to lay some of yourself on the line and it hurt, then I'm losing a partner for all the wrong reasons.
You turn everything you touch sour, and everyone, including yourself.
So before you break up a damn good team, think about it.
- It's decision time, isn't it? - Talking about my job or us? - Isn't it the same thing? - Yeah, I guess it does come down to that.
- Well, I only have one thing to say.
I love you.
- You argue a good case.
- I'm trying.
- Jim's had enough time to think about it.
I guess I blew it.
- Who else can we use? - It's your turn.
- Great.
Yeah, this is Komack.
Put me through to the assistant director, please.
- I thought you were on your days off.
- Stacy said you figured a way to get to Simone.
I want a piece of him too.
- Operator, cancel this call.
- Well, first we better get you into something more comfortable.
- This is 100,000 genuine.
It'll buy five times that in funny money and if you should lose it, I'll probably get fired, or maybe executed.
(phone rings) - Hooker.
It's Marty.
Yeah.
Yeah.
OK, we'll play it his way.
You did good, Marty.
Our man's name is Corrigan.
He'll be there waiting for you.
OK, the meeting with Simone is set.
Like we figured, he couldn't say no to $100,000 in real green.
One thing, you can't wear a wire.
Simone will be checking for it.
Fortunately, we anticipated that.
(device beeps) Homing device.
And your transmitter.
- Be careful how you hold the handle.
That's where the mic is.
- You Corrigan? - Yeah.
Marty, right? - A friend of Simone dropped me off.
- Yeah, one of them will check our clothes out for bugs.
So how'd you sell me to Simone? - I told him you did time with your ex-wife.
When I got out, we used to be a thing together.
- Was that smart? You're his girlfriend, right? - Something he'd believe.
I'm just merchandise to him, like his money.
- Well, you're about to change that.
- I just got paid 100 bucks by a gentleman to tell you both to be out front in five minutes.
- Was that before or after they searched our clothes? - After.
- Did he pay you in twenties? - Yes.
- Sweetheart, you'll be amazed at what that gentleman just did to you.
- 16, you there? - Standing by, 30.
- They just got into a brown Lincoln four-door sedan.
Be ready.
(device beeping) - Simone's playing it cute.
He's supposed to be in that car.
- 16, subject is northbound on 40th.
We're rolling.
- Right on target.
- Let's keep it that way.
- Where's the telephone? Mr.
Simone, please.
- Let me talk to Marty.
- Hey, I'm packing the money, pal.
You deal with me, or I'll take my business somewhere else.
- We talk, and you take orders.
Go to the phone on the fourth level by the fire stairs.
- Come on.
(device beeping) - [Jim.]
He's covering himself by running us until he's sure we're not dragging a tail.
- Yeah, he's real cute.
- Hooker, we're on the fourth level, but hang tight until I know for sure where it's going down.
(phone rings) Yeah? - You're lucky you came alone.
- You're lucky I came at all.
- Go to the phone on the terrace level by the south entrance.
- He's got us on the move again.
(phone rings) Hey, stop playing games, let's deal.
- Just turn around.
- Hooker, we're on the fourth level terrace.
This is it.
- Let's go.
- Rub his neck too, Marty? - Hey, Slick, I came here to score.
You got something for the lady, you two work that out until we conclude our transaction.
I have 100,000 genuine in this case.
You have what I want.
Do we trade or not? - First we look.
Careful in, careful out.
Stay put.
Nice doing business with you.
(exciting instrumental music) (tires squealing) (gun firing) - I forgot, I don't have any cuffs.
Also aren't packing a gun.
Better keep an eye on your partner, Stacy.
He's getting careless.
- My pleasure.
- Maybe it's better this way, Jim.
You belong here.
I don't and I never will, and my mistake was impressing you to change.
- I'd make a lousy executive anyway.
Probably a lousy husband.
- I won't buy that.
We had some great times.
I don't intend to just disappear through a trap door.
- Who said anything about that? - I'm gonna give it a couple of weeks and then I'll call you.
- If I don't call you first.
- So I lose a husband and I gain a friend.
- Think that little scene means I got my partner back? - A little bruised, maybe.
A little older and wiser.
But definitely back.
(upbeat electronic rock music)