- Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of burglary division when a report comes in that a large quantity of high velocity gelatin dynamite has been stolen from a construction site. When the detectives interview the night watchman who says he tried to stop the crime in progress, they ascertain the license plate number of the car involved. Further investigation leads them to a bar patron nicknamed Ziggy. When they finally track him down and locate the stolen goods, they discover that four of the eight cases are empty and the dynamite that was removed is set to go off somewhere in the city.—tomtrekp / Hans Delbruck
- Friday and Gannon are summoned to a construction site where two men in a station wagon were caught stealing eight cases of high velocity gelatin dynamite and three boxes of blasting caps. The two men threw a hand grenade at the night watchman to escape, and when Ray Murray of SID examines the explosives taken, he is doubly concerned because the blasting caps are electric and can draw in an unwanted electrical surge from radio or TV transmissions or ordinary static electricty, and if stored atop the cases of dynamite (which the thieves are likely to do given that they almost certainly don't know exactly what they've taken) the caps could detonate it, setting off enough explosive to destroy two city blocks.
From the station wagon's license number Joe and Bill learn the car came from a Chinatown bartender, Al Amory, who loaned it to one of his restaurant's regulars, known only as Ziggy. As Ziggy appears at the restaurant every day, Joe and Bill stake the place out, waiting for several hours before Amory, arriving for his night shift, tells them of another regular, Nelson Grove, who borrowed some money from Ziggy.
From Grove, Friday and Gannon learn that Ziggy is Donald Chapman. Gannon calls Records & Identification and learns Chapman is already awaiting trial for a traffic incident where he shot a man, Leroy Wilson, in the arm over a harmless fender-bender. The fender-bender was not the motive for Chapman, as he'd stated his motive was the fact Leroy Wilson is black.
Finding Chapman's address on a suburban block, Friday and Gannon burst in and find an apartment swimming in memorabilia of Nazi Germany - and stored in the closet are the cases of dynamite and blasting caps. Murray is summoned to the site and has to bring along a lawyer, Phil Masturian, who explains the case against Chapman could be ruined if the explosives are removed from his apartment without a warrant, but with the danger of an explosion considered too great, Friday overrules such concerns.
The real problem, however, shows when Murray finds that some of the blasting caps are missing and only four of the eight cases still have dynamite. When a uniformed officer informs Friday that he's found Donald Chapman, the perp is interrogated by the two officers all night about the missing explosives. Chapman, however, refuses to divulge anything, but incessently asks for the time as he has no watch - a quirk that Friday is eventually able to use against him.
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