LAPD Sergeant Shane Scully, newly married and happy as a clam. He should have taken just one look at Nicky Marcella and rousted him again. But that's hindsight. Truth is, Scully has an almost collegial affection for the little crook-never really hard-core, mostly small-change scams and cons-and, besides, as Nicky's quick to inform him, he's "found Jesus" and been redeemed. In addition, he's found showbiz: a flourishing career as a Hollywood producer, he says, flashing the pertinent business card: "Cine-Roma, Nicholas Marcella, C.E.O." Scully is skeptical, of course, but, tickled as always by Nicky, agrees to do him a favor. A young actress named Carol White has become hard to locate, which is too bad, since Nicky has the perfect role for her in a new film he's casting. Could Scully just run her through the LAPD's computers? Such a small thing, the work of an hour maybe, Scully couldn't possibly know what complexities were to be born therefrom-that it would plunge him smack into the middle of a violent and bloody gang war, bring him into confrontation with a vicious and vengeful Mafia don, and partner him with Nicky in a multimillion-dollar deal so authentically hot that "half the [blanking] town wants a piece."