Malloy and Reed bring an elderly man into Central Receiving for treatment. While there Malloy confirms his date with nurse Sally Fisher to join him and Reed plus Jim's pregnant wife the next morning on a visit to a remote ghost town. After arriving they hear "thunder" which Malloy recognizes as motorcycles. A gang of several men and women search Reed's car. They learn the men are police officers with women and decide to have fun. The officers and women hold up in an old saloon. They capture the leader of the gang while he is searching for them and shoot another in the leg then capture two more. The rest are scared off and Jim rides a captured cycle for help as they destroyed his car.

Malloy and Reed hear through the grapevine that their snitch Tee Jay, for who Malloy got a job as a dishwasher at Duke's, has been using drugs again. This belief is strengthened when they attend to a call at an inner city church, where Tee Jay was seen by the priest just as the priest was beaten and the church funds stolen. Malloy and Reed manage quickly to locate Tee Jay, who seemingly is on the run from them, and who has the church's money on his person. But Tee Jay tells a different story of another unknown man who he saw beat up the priest and who he caught but who managed to get away, the reason he was on the run as he was chasing that man. The evidence, however circumstantial, starts to mount against Tee Jay, including getting caught in a few lies. But when all the players start to level with Malloy and Reed, the identity of the thief and the truth if Tee Jay is indeed using again come to light.