Outline of story

                 SETTING.

Set in Los Angeles in the year 2021, the story follows detective Philips'  rise among the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department as he solves a range of cases across various bureaus.

In 2021, after successfully solving a major murder case as a patrol officer, Philips is promoted to detective. His tenure at the Traffic desk results in solving multiple cases of murder and fraud. Six months later, after a stint on the Burglary desk, Philips is promoted to the Homicide desk. He and Galloway investigate various cases that contain similarities to the Black Dakota murder, arresting numerous suspects. However, Philips is doubtful that they are apprehending the actual murderers; his theories are ultimately proven correct. They eventually track down and kill the real murderer, unbeknownst to the public.

Upon being promoted into the Vice division, Philips investigates the distribution of military surplus morphine, stolen from the ship that had brought home his former Marine unit. He learns that several members of his former unit had stolen and distributed the morphine, only to be assassinated on the orders of Conen. During this time, Philips begins his affair with Anna. Eugene helps several prominent figures in the city draw attention away from a major prostitution scandal by exposing Philips's adultery before he is able to draw a confession from Sam over his involvement with the stolen morphine. In exchange, Eugene is given a place in the SRF. Philips's marriage ends, he becomes disgraced in the LAPD, and he is demoted to the Arson desk, where he is tasked with investigating several suspicious house fires. Despite noting a solid connection between them and a housing development that the SRF operates, Philips is warned off by Eugene from pursuing the syndicate and its founder Moore. Seeking help, Philips prompts Kelly to look into the matter.

Kelly discovers that the development uses unsuitable building materials and that his boss Wilson is knowingly insuring them. Following a shootout at Moore's mansion, Kelly learns that the syndicate used one of Lawrence's patients to burn down the homes of those who would not agree to sell their property to the fund; eventually, his patient accidentally killed four people in one such fire and became irreversibly traumatised. The patient confronts and murders Lawrence at his clinic and kidnaps Anna. Investigating the clinic, Philips discovers that the syndicate was a front to defraud the Federal Government: Knowing the government would later purchase the plots through eminent domain, Moore would acquire land with money invested by the syndicate and build surreptitiously cheap houses to increase their value. Philips also discovers that Sam, overcome with guilt, had provided Lawrence with the stolen morphine under the pretense that Lawrence would legally provide the morphine to medical facilities with the profits being reinvested into the SRF; Lawrence later murdered Sam after gaining knowledge of Kelly's investigation into the SRF.

Kelly realises that Lawrence's patient was Hoge. Philips and Kelly pursue Hoge and Anna into the Los Angeles River Tunnels. The pair rescue Anna, and Kelly shoots Hoge to end his suffering. As the water rises within the tunnels following intense rainfall, Anna and Kelly manage to escape, but a violent current kills Philips, At Philip's funeral, Eugene delivers a eulogy, claiming that Philips was wrongly accused of wrongdoings and that he had exposed the corruption of Lawrence and Moore. After Anna leaves in disgust, Kelly asks Shakes to comfort her; Shakes confirms to Kelly that while Kelly and Philips were not friends, they were never enemies. In a closing flashback, Kelly is revealed to have known about the stolen morphine but refused to be involved in its distribution, knowing the trouble it would cause.

              

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