Friday and Smith investigate a missing person. Right after they settle a little dispute between themselves about a sporting event. Then it’s off to interview the woman who phoned in the missing person report on her husbandf. She tells Friday all she can about the last known whereabouts of her husband.

Joe and Frank do the common sense thing, and try to retrace the path of the man. The trail leads through a string of drunks, gamblers, and horse tracks, all filled with unwilling witnesses, but Friday turns on enough pressure to start getting answers.

Against hope that the husband would turn up, as just a drunken man, sleeping it off, Friday gets the report that the man’s body is discovered in his car. Friday has the suspect under his thumb, and gets the truth from him.