Following the shoot out at the First National Bank, Dwight Blake PI is in hospital, Officer Gunnarson is on traffic duty and Lila Malone is back in the office with her editor asking her what she’s done for him lately, newspaper editors having short memories and shorter tempers.
Special Agent Smithfield gets a call from the hospital, Special Agent Sands (the undercover agent injured in the bank job) wants to see her. She calls on him, he is a badly wounded man facing months of recovery time, he tells her that while with the Cody Powers gang he overheard information indicating that the Miller Trucking Company warehouse contains a secret still and bootlegging operation belonging to the Tolino mob. Sands can’t do anything with the info now, so Special Agent Smithfield vows to follow it up.
Meanwhile, Officer Gunnarson directs traffic, the chief wanting him to cool his heels for a bit and not indulge in more extra-curricular heroism. Gunnarson sees a car approaching down the road causing passers-by on the pavement to leap aside in terror from some unseen threat. Gunnarson halts the car, only to find it contains students and avant-garde poets who mistakenly left the starting rod in place on the side of the car and so were scything down passing pedestrians. Gunnarson books them for a traffic violation, ruining their day but making his.
Malone’s editor tells her he wants fresh stories, Blake checks himself out of hospital, Agent Poliakowski is informed by Special Agent Smithfield of her lead and goes to District Commissioner Antonelli where he suggests taking on the Tolino mob, Antonelli needs to go ask permission even for that.
Later that day, Poliakowski is summoned to Harrigan’s speakeasy to meet Mike Harrigan, corrupt wardboss. He goes, is greeted like an old friend and Harrigan gives him the ok to take on the Tolino mob, Blake is also there as he is most evenings, listening to strangers and keeping an eye on what’s what. Harrigan now sees Blake as a regular, a development which causes Blake to decide to attend less in order to attract less attention.
Poliakowski sets events in motion, he begins a surveillance of the Miller warehouse, hires an office above theirs and tries (unsuccessfully) to tap their phone. He then spends day after day watching who comes, who goes, times and callers and regular traffic, he notes truck licence numbers (none from out of State sadly) and regular shipments. He builds up a picture of the business and how it runs.
Meanwhile, Malone calls up contractor and criminal Donny Manson, taking him up on his offer of a date. She asks he brings along his dog and his brother, and suggests a picnic. Donny agrees, but only if Malone brings a friend for his brother. She cajoles Smithfield into the role, each practicing their false IDs, and arranges an afternoon picnic and tips Blake off that the Manson’s will not be at home that afternoon.
The picnic goes well, the dog is suspicious of the women, particularly Smithfield, but Donny Manson proves surprisingly charming and even Bobby Manson manages to present a thin veneer of sociability for part of the afternoon. Meanwhile, Blake turns up at their office, retrieves the hidden key he’s been tipped off about, and finding all the workmen out too spends a solid three hours reading files and taking photos, evidence for his client seeking info that will help him resist the Manson’s extortionate claims and evidence linking the Mansons to dodgy practices and favours from the city via silent partner Francis Caldwell and his brother in law, Councilman Lloyd Haines. Blake tidies up and heads out, Malone and Smithfield make their excuses and leave, Smithfield dodging Bobby’s attempt at a grapple while Donny proves a classier act and just hopes to see Lila again.
While the Miller brothers’ stakeout continues, Blake and Malone decide to follow up on the Priscilla Hamilton case, and head out to the Tomley Institute. They roll up in Foster’s car, lent once more to Blake with Foster being in a good mood from all the work that’s poured in the door since Blake got written up for his part in stopping the bank raid, and meet with a large and powerfully built orderly who keeps them waiting while he reads their letter of introduction from Dr Sheppard. Malone pretends to be Blake’s assistant, once again concealing her true identity.
The twosome are introduced to Dr Brinkmeyer, who’s none too pleased to see them but checks with a burly and forbidding nurse in her mid to late 40s that Priscilla is now ready to see them. From elsewhere in the facility, sounds of jazz records and laughter drift across. The pair are taken upstairs to the secure level on the second floor, taken through a barred doorway and the nurse and orderly take them to Priscilla’s room. Priscilla has plainly been there for days, she’s doped to the eyeballs and barely coherent, Blake tells her he’s with her legal defence, at which she grabs him hard by the ears and screams that she’s being held against her will and wants to be free. Nurse Jenkins tells the twosome to wait, and after some argument (Brinkmeyer threatening to dope them up or hold them for days against their will) leaves them in the corridor with the orderly while she goes to fetch Dr Brinkmeyer, having first administered further sedatives to Priscilla. Brinkmeyer arrives, an argument ensues and both Brinkmeyer and Blake end up pulling out pistols, Brinkmeyer wilts under Blake’s steely gaze though and surrenders, Blake and Malone imprison the three in Priscilla’s room and take her outside to their car, stopping off in Brinkmeyer’s office to rifle his files and to have a casual meeting with famed banker Henry Fitzpatrick who appears to be a more voluntary inmate. A short incident with a groundkeeper later, the two are off and out of the premises, with Priscilla unconscious but rescued. Priscilla is booked into a hotel room, where Blake and Foster take turns making sure she’s ok and recovering.
Across town, Poliakowski and Gunnarson decide it’s time to take down Heiny Franz. Keen to avoid him getting released due to the weak sentences breach of the Volstead act carries, they perform a sting operation, Poliakowski buying from Franz one day, Gunnarson busting him the next for the hooch he has to hand then. They file the charges separately, for selling to Poliakowski and for holding when arrested by Gunnarson, and Franz is sent to jail to await trial cursing the pair and claiming their tactics were unfair and unconstitutional.
The days roll by, Poliakowski maintains his surveillance and notes two gunsels hanging around watching the Miller property too. He tips off Burns and Beck about the upcoming raid, arranges for Smithfield to attend with a borrowed three man battering ram, gets Gunnarson to find some like-minded cops not worried about stretching regulations if it takes bad guys off the street. Come the day, he even brings in new Prohibition Agent Gino Manzini at the last moment, not giving him time to tip anyone off or otherwise spoil the play.
On the night of the raid, Poliakowski knows the warehouse has a back door leading into an office and that at around 1am the main doors will open to let out liquor delivery trucks. As the doors open, Gunnarson and his brother cops are at the office backdoor with the battering ram, Poliakowski and the rest are in the truck Poliakowski recently confiscated at the Canadian border which he has borrowed for the occasion, with Blake serving as driver. Blake drives into the alley the Miller warehouse doors lead into, blocking the full exit of the Miller’s first truck, Poliakowski throws open the tarpaulin over his truck and with his fellow agents train lights inside the warehouse calling on all present to freeze. The bad guys freeze, and as they do so two shots ring out from behind as Special Agent Manzini and one of the Millers’ men are both shot, throwing all into confusion. The crooks inside start grabbing weapons and shouting threats, Smithfield spins round and unloads a shotgun into a shadowy figure behind the truck as two men start to break from cover and run away, she pursues on foot. Gunnarson and crew swing the battering ram, just as the office door is opened, so instead bludgeoning a Spaniard believed to be connected to the Tolino mob as he seeks to exit. Shots are exchanged, but quick thinking Poliakowski starts to calm the situation throwing his shotgun into the warehouse and walking in unarmed. As he does so, Gunnarson is entering the back office, where a man with a raised pistol greets him, Gunnarson shoots the man with a non-regulation shotgun he has purchased, leaving the unarmed Poliakowski to talk down the criminals in the main warehouse and persuade them this is not a vigilante style bust before they fill him full of lead. Smithfield captures the injured mystery shooter, but not his hale companion, and takes him back to the truck for emergency first aid and questioning. The crooks in the warehouse decide to trust Poliakowski and lower their weapons, agreeing to be arrested, little realising that with manzini shot they may all be accessories to the shooting of a federal agent.
Malone takes photos and, realising that if she can get hold of her editor there’s still time to hold the front page, rings him at home waking him and getting him to stop the presses. As she makes the call, she notes other reporters starting to arrive, including a rival from her own paper. She demands a staff car to get her and the photos back to the office and it’s provided, she races back and as she does so Poliakowski lends a hand promising to give her rival a story, taking him into the warehouse and then leaving him sitting in a corner to wait for an interview. Gunnarson phones for backup and gets Sergeant Harrigan, who promises aid but when more cops show up they arrive with guns bristling, clearly with no idea as to what is going down. Slowly, the situation calms, arrests are made and it is discovered that the man Gunnarson shot was Joe Miller, one of the Miller brothers and co-owner of the warehouse.
The gunsel captured by Smithfield cracks while waiting for the ambulance, revealing that the O’Connor mob sent him and his buddy to provoke a confrontation between the law enforcement agents and the criminals in the warehouse by shooting one of each from the shadows. Harrigan is connected to the O’Connor mob, and this shows that the raid was in part taking down his enemies in the Tolino mob and in part possibly taking out the new law in the district. The hood can name names in the O’Connor organisation, and is ready to talk, Smithfield arranges him to be shipped out of State for his own protection, until they are ready to bring a case against the O’Connor mob and wish to call him to testify.
With that, the friends head back to their apartments to rest up, so as to be fresh and ready to face a new day. A warehouse and still operation taken out, a socialite rescued, another caseload of crimes solved and a few more bad guys off the streets…
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