- Friday and Smith receive a bulletin about an armed four-man gang, two of whom are army deserters, who have committed a series of robberies and auto thefts in San Francisco and are on their way to Los Angeles.
- Friday and Smith are working the day watch out of Robbery Division and learn that four men - Julius Carver, Fred Malloch, Cliff Small, and George Schumm - involved in robberies, including a shooting in San Francisco, are headed to Los Angeles and they might already be here in a stolen car with cold license plates. Two Spanish speaking girls, named Dolores and Maria, already questioned by Sergeant Tony Chavez, are found to be mixed up with the guys by chance. No crime was committed by the girls and when they meet with Friday and Smith they identify the four men The girls say they offered them a ride and they made a stop at a hotel to drop off a puppy, then the car ran out of gas, so the girls left. Pico is the named recognized by the girls as the hotel, the Pico Hotel. So Friday and Smith check with the near-deaf Pico Hotel desk-clerk, who informs the officers the men left the hotel without paying, and they did have a collie puppy with them.
Friday and Smith with Tony Chavez and his partner Jack check area rooming houses and hotels for the four men. The near-deaf clerk was not much help afterward, with four registration cards containing aliases. Tony and Jack stake out a suspicious car, waiting for the drivers to return, while Friday and Smith continue to pound the pavement checking the hotels.
They stop in a hotel with the desk-clerk quite drunk, behind the counter. They ask him to look at pictures of suspects, and though he struggles to focus, he recalls the dog and knows they did leave their luggage; it is shown sitting next to the counter.
A search through police files is conducted for the four young hoodlums wanted for crimes committed elsewhere, known to be in town and armed. Any newspaper mention, however slight, is scrutinized through the file system.
Friday, Smith return to the hotel, having to again deal with the drunk attendant behind the desk. They order him to stay behind the hotel desk, magazine in hand, while they camp out in a lobby linen closet waiting for the hoods to return for their luggage. Then Carver and Malloch come for their bags, puppy in hand. Friday and Smith disarm the two hoods - three guns in total - then cuff each of them while Tony and Jack escort them out to an awaiting squad heading for downtown.
Small and Schumm show up for their bags and are quickly disarmed, cuffed, and taken downtown and processed, while the dog eats. Tony is taking the collie pup home with him. Smith has paperwork in hand proving the four were involved in several armed-robbery crimes, in multiple states.
Cliff Small, George Schumm are serving their armed robbery terms in the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, CA. Carver and Malloch were also convicted, sentenced and are serving their like terms in the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, CA.
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