what's on the call sheet?
decorated?
i get the idea. you got a description?
to the solving of crimes that require absolute justice.
the youngest applicant by eight years.
i was thinking detective bureau.
you're wrong.
dudley, we've been over this.
i.  no.
no.
no.
no.
i know you mean well, dudley, but i don't need to do it the way you did. or my father.
all right, men. you've had your fun. time to break it up.
what's going on?
i have the report right here. they're home with bruises and muscle pulls -- oh shit.
stop, officer! that's an order!
you're going in my report! all of you!
let me out! that's an order!
the public demands justice, sir. this was a full-fledged riot of policemen. shift the guilt to men whose pensions are secured. force them to retire. but someone has to swing. indict, try and convict stensland and bud white. secure them jail time. feed them to the sharks, sir. protect yourself; protect the department.
white's a mindless thug.
i'll testify, sir. i'm not afraid to do what's right.
detective lieutenant.
i know that, sir. i also know that when he made lieutenant, it was as a detective.
jack vincennes. he's the technical advisor on 'badge of honor,' sir. he lives for it. that's the way to get him.
yes, dudley. i am.
that's right.
throwing me?
you're the payoff expert. i'm just doing my duty.
what about you?
you're just a thug, white. that's all you'll ever be.
his blood's always up.
don't get sick! not in here!
sir, i took the call. it's my case.
yes, i do, sir.
hold on.  we need to canvass. see if a purple mercury was seen around here tonight.
we got a call earlier on three negro youths. firing shotguns in griffith park from a late-model purple mercury coupe.
it's a surprise. you like surprises, don't you, white?
we need you to i.d. the body. there's no next of kin and you knew him best. so tell me.
is that dick stensland?
hell of a way to avoid a prison sentence.
someone held up a coffee shop, panicked and killed six people.
we know this is difficult. just take your time and look again.
when was the last time you saw her, mrs. lefferts?
he might as well have put a bounty on them.
watches everyone go. wishes he could be part of the action. he spots jack talking to his redneck partner for for the day.
i'll take those odds. take off. we got it from here.
think of us as back-up.
quiet. i'm ranking officer here. we go as a team. end of story.
damnit.
glasses.
shut up, carlisle!
casitas youth camp.  coates twenty-two, a boxer.  manager saw them burning clothes.
i'll break them, sir.
they call you sugar ray because of ray robinson? they say robinson can throw a four punch combination in one second. do you believe that?
you're twenty-two, aren't you, ray?
did one of the officers work you over a little?
you look like robinson after that last lamotta fight. 'course lamotta looked a lot worse. so you're twenty-two, right?
just getting my facts straight. twenty-two makes it a gas chamber bounce. you should have pulled this caper a couple of years ago. get life, do a little youth authority jolt, transfer to folsom a big man. orbit on some of that good prison brew, get yourself a sissy --
that fucking larry. i almost believed him.
nothing, ray. that larry, he's a pisser. you did the casitas youth camp with him, didn't you?
sugar, larry told me you went sissy up at casitas. you couldn't do the time so you found yourself a big white boy to look after you. he said they call you 'sugar' because you gave it out so sweet.
ray, you protected ty and larry up in casitas, didn't you?
i heard you like to shoot dogs.
oh? you feel that way about people, too?
ray, we got the shotguns.
why were you throwing clothes in the building incinerator?
you guys were arrested this morning, but none of you have last night's clothes. you were seen burning them. add to that the fact that you hid the car you were cruising around in last night and it doesn't look good.
were you on hop? you were passed out when you got arrested. were you hopped up, ray?
where do they get their stuff? come on. give me one to feed the d.a. just a little one.
i'm going to take a break.
you know, ray, i'm talking about the gas chamber and you haven't even asked me what this is all about. you got a big guilty sign around your neck.
fontaine next, but give jones the newspaper. i want him primed.
larry, ray coates ratted you off. he said the nite owl was your idea. you want to tell me about it?
i think it was ray's idea. talk and i think i can save your life.
larry, this is a gas chamber job. if you don't talk, you'll be dead in six months.
son, six people are dead and somebody has to pay. it can be you or it can be ray.
larry, he called you queer. he said at casitas you took it up the ass. he said --
why'd you burn the clothes?
hurt who? was she a hooker? hurt who?
she may still be alive, whoever she is.
where's the girl? did you kill her?
you wanted larry to lose his cherry, but things got out of hand. is that right?
kick loose, jones. i know you made her bleed, but that doesn't mean you killed her.
if that girl's alive, you've still got a chance on this one.
you think?
where is she now? did you leave her someplace? did you sell her out? give her to some of your buddies? tell me where the girl is!
officer white, put down that weapon and --
a naked guy with a gun? you expect anyone to believe that?
how's it going to look on your report?
you don't know what the word means, you dumb bastard.
'give me one to feed the d.a.  roland navarette. lives on bunker hill. runs a hole-up for parole absconders.'
anyone seen jack vincennes?
nobody move!
i need the girl to give me a chronology of events. no details. just times.
but --
no. that won't be necessary.
there are loose ends out there, dudley. i --
something's wrong. i feel it inside. doesn't that sound crazy?
clean?
until he gunned down six people.
then who phoned in the report?
the nite owl. anything bothering you about the case?
what are you talking about?
mrs. lefferts, i just want to ask a few questions.
officer white?
under the house.
i don't doubt it -- oh, god.
i need an i.d. asap. you talk only to me on this one.
i need to speak to you.
i want you to follow bud white.
it's not a request. i need to know what white knows. follow him or i'll have you pulled off 'badge of honor.' permanently.
yesterday yes, today no. what happened last night?
you make a mistake?
listen, i think i made a mistake, too.
do you make the three negroes for the nite owl killings?
it's a simple question.
rollo tomasi.
rollo was a purse snatcher. my father ran into him off duty. he shot my father six times and got away clean. no one even knew who he was. i made the name up to give him some personality.
rollo's the reason i became a cop. i wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. it was supposed to be about truth and justice and rollo. but somewhere along the way i forgot all that.  how about you, jack? why'd you become a cop?
i've given up angles for awhile. i just want to solve this thing.
i want to do it right.
a third. i don't think we can make a case without bud white.
what's that for?
rita hayworth at the morgue and now veronica lake with white. what the hell's going on?
what's fleur-de-lis?
yeah. but first i want to brace stompanato.
check the bar. i got the restaurant.
since when do two-bit hoods and hookers give out autographs?
l.a.p.d. sit down.
take a walk, honey, before i haul your ass downtown.
shut up. being cut to look like lana turner doesn't mean you are lana turner.
what?
how was i supposed to know?
bud white's been here?
is the veronica lake look-alike one of your whores?
what's her name?
why's she seeing bud white?
anything else you want to add before i talk to her?
not good enough.
this is exley.
tell him sergeant vincennes is coming in to talk to him.
i'm going to lynn bracken's. i'll meet you at the dining car.
miss bracken, i'm lieutenant exley.
really? what did white say?
let's concentrate on my smarts. pierce patchett made you, didn't he? he taught you how to dress and talk and think and i am very impressed with the results. but i need some answers and if i don't get them, i'm going to take you and patchett down.
scotch.
why?
don't underestimate me, miss bracken.
how was i?
you sound like you mean it.
how about white?
i want to know why you see him. is it a patchett payoff?
i'll take your word for it.
i don't hate white. i really don't. it's just, in my business, it's the wild cars you have to watch out for.
you cut to the heart of things, don't you? what about lynn bracken? she going to be a hooker all her life?
some reality.
why not?
you're the first person to ever call me tough.
you, me and white, huh?
no.  where'd the tip come from?
i want to know what you and jack vincennes talked about last night. anything and everything. start with the i.d. on the corpse.
we got a dead ex-cop and a girl who looks like rita hayworth at the nite owl. another dead ex-cop under the house of rita's mother. it's not a good week for ex-cops.
anything?
so on active duty, meeks didn't make an arrest from 1938 to '43.
where are the police academy files?
just show me where they are!
why?
she told you?
who told you? did dudley have anything to do with you finding out?
listen to me. dudley killed jack. it has something to do with buzz meeks.
look. dudley and meeks go way back. stensland, too.
think, goddamn you. think.
stensland and meeks. what were they up to?
stensland and buzz meeks. two-man triggers knocking off mickey cohen lieutenants. when they killed deuce perkins, they got heroin as a bonus.
the nite owl! stensland was going there to sell the heroin.
it wasn't the negroes. the griffith park report was a phony. and, who says the purple merc was spotted outside the nite owl?
the first guys to the car when jack and i got there were bruening and carlisle.
they didn't find the shotguns. they planted them.
it's dudley for the nite owl.
pierce patchett figures in, too. that's the angle jack was working. dudley must work for patchett.
what?
stay smart, bud. we build a case. we play by the rules.
with a wrecking ball. you want to help me swing it?
let's go see pierce patchett. run a good-cop-bad-cop.
you expecting problems?
what?
i don't think his ex-cop did him much good.
it's a suicide note. says he killed jack because jack had figured out a pornography scam patchett was running.
we had one thing figured wrong. i don't think dudley workd for patchett.
patchett's dead. he sent you after me. i'd say dudley's tying up his loose ends.
i got a guy who owes me in the sheriff's department. west hollywood station. he can be at her house in two minutes.
is she inside?
hold her as joan smith. no one sees her unless i okay it.
ellis loew.
jack thought he was up to his neck in all this.
ask for captain dudley smith. we'll have a party. hot dogs and sauerkraut.
i want d.a. bureau men to tail dudley smith twenty-four hours a day; i want you to get a judge to authorize a wire tap on his home phone; i want authorization to check his bank records and i want it all in an hour.
none. call it a hunch.
without what, his smearing yours first? what's he got on you, loew? pictures of you and an out of work actor with your pants down?
the proof had his throat slit. so far you're not denying it.
i don't know how.
bud.
what's dudley's scheme?
not everybody. you tip-off dudley and officer white visits you alone next time.
we should check the records, and, we should talk to lynn.
you want to talk to her?
forget everything else for a second, lynn. is there anything you can give me on dudley smith?
a police captain. i think he's behind all of this.
okay. look, if it helps, bud hates himself for what he did.
i don't know if it's pathetic or romantic, but when this is all over i'd like to see you again.
me? you called it. i got a message that.
shit.  come on.
you figured this was a set-up? and you showed up anyway?
you know, all i ever wanted was to measure up to my father.
we got him!
i'm thinking we might walk away from this.
tell that to jack vincennes. to stensland.
why?
and now you'll provide them.
no.
something like that.
yes. i do.
that's it. that's the whole story.
i tried to throw it all away and they give it back in spades.
where will you go?
when?
where is he?
thanks for the push.
you just did what you did. no rank, no glory.
from me to you. it'll mean something if it's yours.
do you think i ever could've been in the running?