A newly released convict starts terrorizing the woman who witnessed against him. She goes to McCabe for help, who was prosecutor who put him in jail.

Ed Delaney, an ex-cop and an old friend of McCabe, is killed when he comes close to solving ""The Lady in Red"" Murder - a 20-year-old unsolved murder case that got him fired from the police.

Jake and Stg. Danoho (a LAPD cop) are transporting a prisoner to Los Angeles, when the prisoner escapes and Danoho is killed. Danoho's partner, Sgt. Walker, goes to Hawaii to assist in the investigation and it turns out there's bad blood between her and Jake.

A young lady is acquitted for killing her mother, and wants to hire Jake privately to find the killer. Jake turns it down because he's on his way to a vacation, but then McCabe refuses to let him take any days off. So Jake quits his job and takes the assignment.

A cat burglar robs a hotel while McCabe is hosting a district attorney convention there. The immediate suspect is Harry McGuinn, a recently released cat burglar. He insists that he is innocent, and tries to help Jake solve the robbery.

Derek gets his first case - a drunk driver who assaulted a police officer. But the driver is a powerful man, and suddenly Derek's main witness lies and the judge dismisses the case.

Jake and the FBI go after Victor Potemkin, a suspected drug smuggler. But when they raid his house they find no drugs, but Jake finds someone he knows - a woman who disappeared overnight just as he was about to propose to her.

An unknown girl washes up on a beach murdered, and a friend of McCabe, the newspaper columnist Leilani Simons, takes an unusual interest in the case.