Episode list

The latest autopsy Dr. Betty Rogers performs is on a male killed by a gunshot wound to the abdomen in a robbery gone bad. The shooter confessed to the accidental killing. Betty fills both Sergeant Boyd Bloom and Detective Brian Lucas in on the findings, most specifically because the gun used has a connection to a ten year old cold case, namely the shooting death of Bloom's then rookie partner, Officer Steve Schoenfeld. In that incident ten years ago, Bloom also got shot in the hip. The results of that injury were a titanium hip replacement, and Bloom being forever confined to a desk job within the force. Thus the case moves from the current shooting to the ten year old cold case.

With both Detectives Angie Flynn and Oscar Vega unavailable, Sgt. Bloom assigns Detective Lucas to follow-up on the new findings in the ten year old cold case of the on-the-job shooting death of Bloom's then partner, Officer Steve Schoenfeld, that shooting which resulted in Bloom getting shot in the hip himself. As Eddie, the shooter in this latest killing, is only eighteen, he is ruled out as Schoenfeld's murderer. But they have to find out where he got the gun. He cops to it being stolen in a B&E at the home of an ex-security guard named Cliff Rosten who they learn has a thing against cops. Although there is a connection between Rosten and Schoenfeld, Rosten has an airtight alibi at the time of Schoenfeld's murder furnished by of all people Schoenfeld himself.

In the current investigation of the ten year old case of Officer Steve Schoenfeld's shooting death, Lucas and Bloom decide to start from the beginning. From an investigative standpoint, any information will be new to both as Bloom was never allowed access ten years ago due to his involvement in the actual incident. They start with who was then the only suspect, a junkie named Kevin Lang, who had some priors but nothing that would indicate that he would kill a cop. Without much information in the original case file beyond a high certainty that Lang was in fact not the killer, Lucas decides to track down Lang and interview him again. Who Lucas finds is a much changed man, who was considered unreliable as a witness then. Now, lucid and clean, Lang believes he may have pertinent information.

Lucas follows up on the latest lead, the AMC Pacer Kevin Lang saw in the alley and knows was driven by the killer. Lucas also speaks to Bloom about the morning of the shooting, which happened following his and Schoenfeld's breakfast at the Park Crest Diner, which in turn was after a long and tiring night shift. The actual shooting took place in the parking lot behind the diner. From Bloom's vantage point, he can only see a back alley dwelling lowlife like Lang having committed the murder. But something in Bloom's story twigs Lucas to the possibility that there was a personal motive to the killing, and it not being random as Bloom had always believed.

Lucas decides to delve into Schoenfeld's arrest and case history to see if there are any clues in there as to his murderer. What Lucas sees are several minor arrests - such as for jaywalking - to two individuals, Noah Arkin and Paul Transer. Bloom has no recollection of such tickets being issued, despite being Schoenfeld's partner at the time. These tickets seem like harassment in Lucas' eyes, which if be the case Bloom says would have been totally out of character for Schoenfeld. In the computer database, Lucas also finds Schoenfeld's drug possession arrest of Cliff Rosten, the owner of the murder weapon, that charge which cost Rosten his security guard job. Ten years later, Rosten still denies the drugs being his, and that he was framed. Lucas and Bloom believe the details of that arrest must have something to do with Schoenfeld's murder.

Among the original evidence in the shooting death of Officer Steve Schoenfeld is a pair of rubber gloves that were suspected to be worn by the murderer. Ten years ago, no DNA was recovered from them, and no gunshot residue was found on them. But Bloom notices in the case file that they were not tested for anything else. He decides to find out what they were used for before their purpose in the shooting. The lab results lead to Lucas believing he now knows what the murderer did as a day job. And as Flynn is rushing through the office, Lucas picks her brain about what he sees as a similar case on which she previously worked.

In talking more about the shooting death of Officer Steve Schoenfeld ten years earlier, Bloom realizes that he really didn't know much about his partner's personal life beyond the regular patrol chit-chat between the two. Among the items in the evidence box are Schoenfeld's watch, engraved from its giver, "D.S.", and Schoenfeld's wallet, which contains a photograph of him with a young woman who signed the back of the photograph with her name: Dana. Bloom remembers Schoenfeld talking about his fiancée, whose name he now remembers as being Dana, but who he never met. Lucas also finds in Rosten's case file that his wife's name coincidentally is also Dana. Lucas figures that it is worth another chat with Dana Rosten to see if there is any connection. Lucas finds that there are many connections after meeting with Dana Rosten.

Lucas has arrested Dana Rosten née Saller for the ten year old murder of Officer Steve Schoenfeld. But Bloom is concerned as all the evidence, although strong, is also all circumstantial. They need to get a confession from Dana, which Bloom leaves to Lucas alone in the interrogation room to obtain. There is one piece of evidence which Lucas has not shared with Bloom, which he believes is enough for Dana to confess and tell the complete story. But Bloom also needs to know certain aspects of the story so that he can have some closure on this death which has haunted him for ten years.