Former Detective Tom Newberry was finding retirement a difficult adjustment. His old NYPD partner Barry Noonan scoffed when Newberry told him he was getting closer to identifying the madman who had gunned down six unsuspecting women on the streets of Northern Queens. "Give it up," Noonan pleaded. "Our job is done. Let the new breed figure this one out. Our days of solving crimes are behind us, now. We're not the city's watchdogs anymore." Newberry soon clashed with Sergeant Ray Wheeler, the man Chief of Detectives Frank Armstrong appointed to spearhead the special task force he set up to catch the killer. Wheeler called Newberry a nuisance and threatened to arrest the former sleuth for interfering with an official police investigation. But, in time, Wheeler realized Newberry was onto something.