A young Hispanic gang member lies dead in a sea of blood on the sidewalk. It doesn't take long for Lieutenant Frank Decker of the Bellewood Police Department to decide that this is not just another gang related killing. While knife wounds were common, finding the victim's internal organ lined up neatly at his feet was not. Neither were the letters Z and O carved on the victim's forehead. Crime in the city of Bellewood seems to have taken on a bizarre twist When a second man is discovered in his sixth floor office mutilated in the same manner, the media begin calling it "The Return of the Ripper." Under pressure from the media, the public, and the Chief, Decker is forced to take on a partner, Detective Dee Dee Pruitt. Decker is a loner and hasn't worked with a partner since his black-and-white days. He has rather old fashioned ideas and Pruitt just doesn't fit his idea of what a woman should be, let alone a partner.