First Degree

When prominent businessman Andrew Pyne is found shot in a New York alley, one of the NYPD’s best, Rick Mallory, suspects a Galeno Mob hit. When he and his partner, Amos Turzo try to question Pyne’s widow, Hadley, they are quickly ushered out by her mother-in-law Margeaux. Later when Rick comes back to search Pyne’s apartment, he finds material linking the dead man with Endtook, the Galeno’s company. The police raid Joe Galeno’s house and find the gun that killed Pyne. Joe Galeno is arrested and Rick returns to the Pyne apartment to tell Hadley. She is very distraught, and as Rick comforts her, they become engaged in an ardent affair. Joe Galeno’s cousin, Alonzo, is convinced Joe is innocent. He hires Rico Perrini, Rick’s former partner, now a private detective, to work on the case. Rico tracks down Pyne’s rumored killer, a low-life thug named Tony Fabian, who confesses that Hadley paid him to kill her husband. Rick is now under suspicion and transferred out of homicide. Rick knows Hadley is not guilty; he also knows that Joe Galeno is not the killer. To save the woman he loves, Rick must track down the real killer.