Det. Lenny Briscoe and his new partner Det. Ray Curtis investigate the abduction and murder of12 year-old Jodie Gaines. She was dropped off by her school bus less than a block from her after school piano lesson. She never showed up. They get a lead from an ATM camera where they find a white van parked on the street where walked by. It leads to the arrest of Nick Capetti who is charged with murder. At his arraignment however the dead girl's mother, Karen Gaines, shoots him dead. She gets a sympathetic judge and a lenient sentence leading DA McCoy to have the case re-investigated. The new suspect in the case is Karen Gaines herself.
—garykmcd