Sun, Dec 1, 1985
Bobby Taylor, a "Cub" reporter comes to Tommy for help on an expose story he's written on corruption in the construction industry. Tommy feels that what he has is a good start, but Bobby needs to come up with more evidence than just one source and he needs to identify that person. Bobby upset with Tommy's constructive criticism, storms out of The Eagle and while crossing the street, he's killed when a car hits him. While visiting Bobby's widow to break the bad news, Kevin is going through the stolen vehicle reports to see if the car that hit Bobby will turn up. Tommy and Susan go to the funeral and when they return to her apartment, the place is ransacked. Tommy feels that the break in is not random, since Bobby's files on the story is missing. He lets Kevin and Frank in on Bobby's expose on Art Bruckner and his fraud and kickback schemes he's committed. When Kevin asks Tommy about the source's name, he says Bobby never gave him a name. Tommy receives a phone call from Michelle Parker, Bruckner's bookkeeper and Bobby's source. She wants to meet with Tommy at a diner. She gives him all the information she knows about Bruckner and insists that Tommy needs to keep her name out of it. Tommy goes to O'Brien and Giambone on what he's given. They meet in Elaine's office with Lieutenant Hogan. When they ask for the source's name, he refuses to give it to them citing journalist's rights. When Michelle Parker winds up dead, O'Brien takes Tommy to the crime scene and yells at him saying his journalist's rights did nothing to protect her. Tommy then storms out, so he has Colby and Stevie follow him. Tommy ends up at Nickie's. She pours him a glass of milk, but when he asks her for a Scotch on the rocks, she refuses to serve him, because of his drinking problem. Tommy goes back to the Eagle and opens the bottle of Scotch he has on his shelf to remind him not to take a drink. Later a very drunk Tommy runs into Colby and Stevie. They offer to take him home, he refuses, gets into a cab and says he's headed to Susan Taylor's apartment. When he arrives he gets into a scuffle with a police officer, who has guard duty and is arrested. Meanwhile, Frank and Kevin try to break into Bruckner's office trailer and are attacked by a couple of guard dogs. After being verbally reprimanded by Lieutenant Hogan, Tommy and Kevin go to Kevin's apartment, where Tommy will be staying there with someone until he "cleans" himself up. Nickie will be the first one there. Colby gets the next watch. When Tommy says he needs to go to the bathroom, he slips out of the apartment and decides to confront Bruckner.