The murder of a private investigator, who was tracking down the whereabouts of a prominent high school basketball player, has the detectives searching the local courts to discover a link to gamblers and college recruiters until they learn that several other prominent players were transferred to the same school - one with a championship tradition.

Goren matches wits with a one-time chess prodigy who has become a fugitive when the body of a young woman is found tossed in the trash.

Logan and Barek investigate after secret service agent Paula Kendall is found dead in her home. Suspicion initially turns to the husband after detectives realize that it took him eleven minutes after a first failed attempt to get in touch with 911, and their investigation leads them to her husband's role in a proposed Indian casino. Logan and Barek are especially interested when it turns out that the 'witness' Paula was supposed to be meeting that night had ties to a local politician, Peter Bellingham, who also had ties to Kendall's husband.

Logan and Barek investigate a troubled young man named Kevin Colemar after his parents are found murdered in their suburban home. Kevin initially believes that drug dealers named Big Lennie and Ray-Ray may have done the murders, but Carson Laird, a Nassau cop, soon tricks Kevin, who cannot remember the night in question, into confessing to the murder. It all seems cut and dried, but Logan and Barek just can't shake the feeling that the kid is innocent. Deakins spends his last two weeks on the job preparing for his future.