L.A. Heat

After witnessing Nicole Stockman's murder on the order of Bobby Cole, Chase becomes a loose cannon. August pleads with his partner to follow legal avenues to catch Cole, and Captain Jensen suspends Chase after he destroys important financial papers belonging to Cole. Shoenrock claims that Stockman was suspected of working with Cole. Chase is furious, knowing this could never be true. Cole meets with Shoenrock, who is revealed to be undercover, acting as an accomplice, and tells him of his plans to execute the Colombian drug minister at the drug summit. Meanwhile, Chase goes renegade and visits a weapons dealer, purchasing some heavy duty weapons for his own personal use against Cole. After a huge battle in the streets of Los Angeles involving semi-trucks, helicopters, and rocket launchers, Chase ends up on a pier with Cole, weapons drawn in a stand-off, each prepared to take the other down . . . for good.

A Western memorabilia collector is found murdered, and among the victim's belongings is a laptop containing August's name. August figures out that his name was listed among the descendants of Buffalo Soldiers, a special troop of black soldiers that fought during the Civil War. This brings up a part of August's past that he is ashamed to discuss: his great-great-great-grandfather, Augustus Brooks, was given a dishonorable discharge from the Army when he allegedly deserted his troop with three other soldiers, claiming to have been given a map leading to a gold mine that was never proven to exist. August's Aunt Maisie is attacked in her home by a thug, hired to steal a portion of the old map. The pieces have been handed down to each generation, and now someone is attempting to put the pieces together and lay claim to the gold.

A motorcycle cop is shot and killed during a routine traffic stop. The killer's car is traced back to James Burquette, an attorney who had reported the car stolen earlier that day and is shocked to find that it was used in a cop slaying. When another officer is killed, August goes undercover as a motorcycle cop, hoping to lure the killer into striking again.

Chase and August must assist the Army in catching Major Lauren Wiley, a C.I.D. officer accused of selling arms to the underground. Lauren is an old girlfriend of Chase's from college, but Chase insists that he works the case. Captain Randy Geddis leads the Army investigation and demands that Lauren be brought back to him immediately. At one point, Chase and August think they have Lauren cornered, but before she escapes, she tells a different story. She claims that Geddis is the crooked one, selling weapons on the black market to Bobby Cole. Chase and August don't know who to believe.

A judge, a housewife, and an attorney are all killed by toy-like devices. While searching for the victims' possible connection, Chase and August discover that all three were involved in a court case years earlier in which a woman, working in a college laboratory, was killed in an explosion set off by a radical activist. At the conclusion of the trial, the killer was set free. Afterwards, the woman's husband, Karl Shipman, set out for his own revenge. After killing the man who killed his wife, Shipman was arrested and sent to prison for life. But Shipman wasn't finished with avenging his wife's death yet, and gave the orders for murders from prison.

August goes undercover as Jake Rheams, a notorious East Coast drug lord, who arrives in Los Angeles to make a deal with the Carletti crime family. August meets with Gina Carletti, the beautiful and seductive daughter. Alex Zota, the boss' right-hand man, suspects August from the start, never really believing that he is the real Jake Rheams. Meanwhile, Chase must back up his partner the best he can, including an interrogation with the real Rheams, who is being held at the station. August is tested by Zota, and only Rheams has the information that can help Chase save his partner's life.

Michael Mills, a convicted killer, escapes from prison and seeks revenge on the three cops who put him there. He kills two of them and goes on the hunt for the third, August Brooks, who has gone camping with Kendra for two weeks. Chase is still in Los Angeles, investigating the murders of the two officers. After putting the pieces together, he realizes that August is in danger and tries to find him at the remote campsite where he is vacationing before Mills does.

The bodyguard of a famous actress, known for her seductive, deadly roles in low-budget B-movies, is murdered, and Chase and August are on the case. As the investigation progresses, the actress, considered a suspect, shows an interest in Chase, who has been ordered to protect her. But the real suspect could be closer than they think, and the least likely of them all.

Chase and August investigate a string of gang-related robberies in Little Saigon, the Vietnamese area of downtown Los Angeles. One of the gang members turns out to be the son of August's Vietnam buddy, who died saving August's life. August is further shocked to discover that the boy's mother is the same woman he tried to help get out of Vietnam when he was coming back. They had gotten separated just seconds before their helicopter arrived, and August thought for sure she had died in the years that followed. She wants him to pull her son out of the dangers of gang life, but he knows too much for the gang to let him go.

Sam Como, owner of the Naked Venus strip club, has been murdered. His money and jewelry are in place, so robbery was clearly not the motive. Forensics reveals that Como was stabbed and beaten over time, so that he would die a slow, agonizing death. Chase and August question the dancers at the club and learn that a rival club owner, Johnny Roman, got into a fight with Como the night he was killed. The plot thickens when Roman denies the murder, telling the detectives that everyone hated Como, from his dancers to his wife, with whom Roman was having an affair.

Having just finished lunch in Chinatown, Chase and August are preparing to head back to the station when they see a drug deal going down. A chase ensues, and the detectives split up. When August finds Chase, he is lying in an alley, unconscious, with one of the men lying next to him dead. An eyewitness says she saw Chase kill the unarmed man, but Chase can't remember what happened before he was knocked out. August feels certain his partner is innocent and sets out to uncover the truth while Chase is suspended.