While his wife is urging him to quit the force, a Los Angeles homicide detective hunts for the killer responsible for the murder of his ex-partner, who might have been on the take with local bookies.
Homicide detective Mike Conovan investigates the shooting of fellow detective Monigan, who apparently was moonlighting as a guard for a bookie. He finds that all the bookies in town are being robbed, upsetting the racket bosses who can't get normal police protection. Mike encounters blind alleys and double crosses and is distracted by his wife's growing disenchantment.—Rod Crawford <[email protected]>
Police Detective Mike Conovan, for personal and professional reasons, sets out to solve the murder of a fellow detective, in whose pockets is found a thousand dollars cash. He has only two slim clues, but those lead to a fixer and a bookmaker, and the striptease-dancer girlfriend of the bookmaker. The latter, along with Conovan's wife, who wants him off the case as she fears for his safety, cause Conovan some trials and tribulations while he is trying to find the killer.—Les Adams <[email protected]>
Lieutenant Mike Conovan (Van Johnson), a LAPD homicide detective, investigates when Ed Monigan, an older member of his precinct (and former partner), is murdered. The fact that he was carrying $1,000 in cash confirms it wasn't robbery, but instead raises the issue of whether he was on the take. Conovan's current partner and one-time mentor, Fred Piper (John McIntire), is getting on in years and his eyesight is failing, while under Conovan's wing rookie detective "C.C." (for "carbon copy") Gordon (Tom Drake) is learning the ropes.
Out to dispel a theory that Monigan was secretly in cahoots with bookmakers, Conovan begins to track down a pair of downstate guns for hire ("lobos", Spanish, for "wolves"). The trail leads to a cabaret singer, Lili (Gloria DeHaven), whose ex-boyfriend Turk Kingby (Richard Benedict) has apparently pulled off a series of robberies of gamblers with his partner Lafe Douque (William Haade). Conovan's primary informant, Sleeper (Norman Lloyd), is brutally murdered for snitching. Conovan tracks down Lafe and places him under arrest, but leaving Lafe's apartment, gunshots ring out, killing Lafe. Conovan's wife Gloria (Arlene Dahl) worries that police work is too dangerous for him. He agrees, but keeps on the job.
Lili calls headquarters with a tip for Conovan on where Turk can be found. Piper intercepts the message, investigates it himself and is gunned down. Conovan concludes that Lili has been double-crossing him, secretly helping Turk all along. Turk and his new partner attempt to flee, but Conovan sets up an ambush. He uses a truck to crash into Turk's armor-plated car, causing it to catch fire. Turk confesses to the murders and clears Monigan before he dies.
